Cissie leaned against Bart, smiling. It wasn't like she minded talking about Tim. "Well," she said slowly, trying to figure out where to start. "I don't know if you knew, but--I've kind of had a crush on Tim for ages. Not, you know, that I even knew it until I was kind of in too deep, I guess. You remember when Tim quit being Robin? We talked a lot--because I knew what he was going through. Anyway. Somewhere between then and when Kon died, I kind of fell for him. But then he went off on that trip, and I just never told him, because the timing was so bad. And then he came back and things were still such a mess, and then you--" She broke off, stumbling over the words and choking a little. Unconsciously, she gripped Bart's arm a bit tighter and dropped her head to his shoulder. She took a shaking breath, trying to find her voice again. She never liked thinking about those dark weeks following Bart's death.

"I kind of owe you," she said quietly. "Like--a lot. I... did a lot of thinking, after... About you. And Tim, and me, and what I wanted. And mostly about you, and what you would have told me if I had been smart enough to talk to you and ask you what I should do about Tim. I kind of thought--I figured--you'd tell me to talk to him and tell him how I felt. Because... life's too short and unpredictable and we've lost so much..." While she talked, forcing the words out as quickly as possible before she could censor them or hold them in, she turned her head and pushed her face into Bart's shoulder. "Anyway, I thought--I thought you'd tell me to tell him. So I did, some time after your funeral."