After everything else...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

There is something that has been bothering Bette and she needs someone to talk to about it.

She can't talk to Nightwing about it. They're getting better but this is one of those potentially weird topic areas and she's rather not go into another one of those quite so quickly. And Jesse and Wally ... Right now, that is something else again. She needs to talk to Vic before she talks to them again. She needs someone a little closer and yet further away from it all.

If that makes sense. Bette has no idea if it makes sense to anyone outside of her head.

And that might be part of the problem.

So, Bette has been sitting in Kory's garden, hoping that the lovely alien woman will come visiting as well.

Comments

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

Before too long, Koriand'r flies from the Tower to her garden, a basket of hand tools dangling from one hand. "Bette?" she asks as she lands. "I seldom see you here."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

Bette chuckles softly, mostly at herself.

"It took me awhile to stop being intimidated."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

Kory looks around, cocking her head curiously. "You are xenophobic when it comes to alien plants?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

A shake of her head, "No. At least not that I know of. I was afraid of you and this is your place."

A small pause, "But I'm not anymore."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"I'm glad to hear it," Kory says gravely, kneeling near a flower bed and sorting through the hand tools in her basket. "You are free to visit this place whenever you wish. Please do not bring along that dog."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

There is a shake of her head a bit, "Wasn't my plan at all."

Bette pauses before pushing forward, "I am here because I said we'd talk later... at the bachelorette party?"

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

She looks up. "Yes? About Donna?" She pulls on her gardening gloves. "So much has happened ... I had forgotten."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"Yeah."

Bette pauses again, apparently, trying to sort her words, "We keep bumping heads and I don't understand why."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"Say on," prompts Kory, picking up a cultivation fork and beginning to work the soil.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"This is hard to explain because I'm not sure I explain it all myself." Bette shifts a bit on the ground. "You know how I've been trying to be a member of the Titans for years, right? How I've been in Titans West in every version and all of that?"

Bette presses her lips together. "Well, when we were out shopping once I got angry about it and was upset that you'd been out here at on the West Coast and not even Gar had called..."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

That draws Kory's attention. "When was this?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

".... which part?"

Bette had just started to get a feel for what she was talking about, pulling herself away from it emotionally.

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"When we were here and didn't call?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"This Tower... You came out here and made this Tower and no one called." Bette frowns a bit. Did she go insane at some point and just didn't notice? Maybe they did and she's... just... crazy like Duela.

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"Oh." She pauses as she remembers. "We were ... we were still grieving for Donna, and we were trying to bring in the members of Young Justice." She shrugs apologetically.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

Oh good. She isn't totally crazy.

"There are a lot of things that happened and some of it I understand. I wasn't ready and all but Donna said that the phone works both ways. And it does. I just thought that if you wanted me, you'd let me know." Shaking her head, Bette smiles a bit.

"For some reason when ever the subject comes up with Donna, she seems to indicate to me that all I would have had to do was ... show up. This whole time. Like I never did. Like I didn't try that...."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"You weren't ready," Kory agrees, "but I think there was more to it than that." She continues to work the soil. "Nightwing had not approved of you for so long. I think that influenced us, even unsaid."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"And /that/ I can get too. It makes sense to me."

"I just ... whenever it comes up with Donna she ... She attributes motivations to my desire to be a part of the Titans that just aren't there. I wanted to be a Titan first because Nightwing was hot and then, later, because I wanted to be a part of the unity, of the family." Bette shrugs a bit, "And now because I can do good here that I can't do else where."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I can see those." Kory begins mulching the flower bed. "What does Donna think?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"She seems to think that I wanted to be a part of all of you because you were some cool kids group that I was excluded from. And sometimes I get the feelings she's trying to say I wasn't every excluded. That I could have up and joined as I wanted.... if I wanted..."

Bette's frowning at this point, as if she's trying to explain it.

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

Beat.

"Explain this 'cool kids group' to me?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"A group of kids who have all of the popularity and the fame and all of that." Bette shrugs a bit, "Generally the group of people I hung out with in school. The group everyone is supposed to aspire to and envy."

Wrinkling up her nose, Bette makes a face, "They're mostly all stuck in their own self-importance."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

Kory continues to look puzzled. "How does that apply to the Titans?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"I mean, I can see where it is that some one would think that the Titans /were/ those people. The pretty popular people but... that was never why I wanted to be here." Bette frowns a bit.

"I grew up with those people. I wanted to get away from them."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps I am not the best person to ask," Kory says thoughtfully. "As a nonhuman, I don't see things the same way your people do."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

Bette sighs softly, "I just thought that maybe since you knew Donna well...."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

Her shoulders rise, then fall. "I do, but I do not know why she would say that. I can only say, you should speak with her and tell her what you feel. Otherwise, this will only grow between you, and that is not good."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"Every time I try, I feel as though she isn't hearing me. Maybe... I don't know. If has to be me, right? I mean, she's all truthy."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"There is truth and truth ... when the Citadel came marching into our system, we called it death and pain and suffering. They called it honor and conquest and joy."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"Hrmmm. That is... Hrmmm."

Bette nods a little bit. "I can see that."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"If you'd like," she offers, "I could speak to her, or stand by you as you speak to her."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"I think I might need an interpreter. That would be good."

Bette smiles at Kory and crawls over to her, to give her a hug.

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"Of course." She hugs the smaller girl back. "I would be happy to help." Releasing her, Kory asks, "Would you like to learn how to weed?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bird_of_flame_/]

"Sure..."

Bette chuckles softly, "Don't hold it against me if I'm not good at this."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"I won't. Here--" She points. "That is a weed. That is a bryni flower. Don't confuse them."