#batgir

They drifted into silence as they concentrated on the packed dirt path winding through the trees. Steph ended up being quite grateful for the walking sticks Alfred had insisted they bring with them. Still, she spent most of her focus on not tripping over the obstacle strewn path. Though someone had cleared a path, roots of nearby trees snaked across the way, sometimes creating natural trip wires above the ground. Uneven rocks jutted through the dirt, forming impromptu steps up hills. Leaves and other natural debris crunched under their feet.

Despite being lost in thought, Steph didn’t startle when Cass touched her arm to draw her attention. With that accomplished, Cass signed, ‘Need to think.’

Now that Step thought about it, it had been a couple days since she had last heard her friend speak. Sometimes vocalizing was just too much for Cass and she’d use sign language instead. Communicating through the movement of her hands and her expression was easier. It came more naturally to her. This often meant Cass had something on her mind she was attempting to puzzle through. Which concurred with what Cass had just said.

‘What do you see?’ Cass used a directional sign for ‘see’ to encompass the surrounding forest.

“Trees.” Steph shrugged. After a moment, she pointed at a random tree and declared, “The larch.”

Cass’ brow furrowed in confusion. She clearly wasn’t certain what to make of Steph’s joke.

“Sorry, Tim would have laughed. It’s a Monty Python reference. I don’t actually know if that tree was a larch or not. Do larches grow in North America? Honestly, I don’t know much about trees in general.” Steph tapped her chin. “Let’s see. Oak trees have acorns and maples turn pretty colors in the fall and have those helicopter seed pod things. And, um, evergreens are ever green….”

‘Stop. Stop.’ Cass checked Steph with her shoulder, pushing her off the path.

“Hey!” Steph exclaimed. She didn’t even attempt to push Cass back. That rarely worked. Instead she skipped ahead. Laughter had taken over the contemplative silence as the girls continued to tease each other and laugh while they walked. This whole hiking thing was turning out to be more fun than Steph had expected. Especially as they stopped focusing on their next step and took in the forest as a whole.

‘Look.’ Cass grabbed Steph’s arm, halting their progress. After a fumbling gesture for silence, Cass pointed to a small copse of trees to the left of the path. No, not at the trees, rather just beyond them.

A deer and her fawn paused to nibble on a patch of sparse grass shoots.

Steph held her breath and stood absolutely still. This was as close as she’d ever gotten to a deer and didn’t want to frighten them away into fleeing. There was something majestic about the seeing the deer in their natural habitat.

Eventually, the doe lifted her head and noticed the two humans observing her. She seemed to almost stare back at them for a half moment before she bound away with her fawn following in her wake.

“Wow,” Steph breathed. If they were to end their hike now, seeing the deer would make it all worthwhile, but suddenly Steph wasn’t done. She wanted to see what else they could find.

The progressed down the path in silence. Every so often they would stop each other when they observed a new natural wonder. A butterfly perched on a wildflower. Chattering chipmunks chasing each other round and round the trees. A robin, high above their heads, hopping from branch to branch. An abandoned spiderweb glistening in a sunbeam.

Steph lost track of how long they’d been hiking when the path let out into a clearing formed around a small pond. With the break in the trees, the sunlight fell unhindered on the lush grass. It was the kind of place Steph thought only existed in fantasy novels. The kind with vaguely historic settings and quests through ancient forests.

‘Let’s rest here.’ Wriggling the straps of her backpack off her shoulders, Cass allowed the bag to tumble to the ground. She tugged off her shoes and socks and abandoned them in the grass. Sitting along the edge of the pond, she dangled her toes in the clear water.

Before joining her friend, Steph retrieved the lunches Alfred prepared for them. Her stomach grumbled a reminder that hiking was hungry work and this appeared to be an ideal spot for a picnic lunch. Sharing the sandwiches and apples, the girls ravenously tucked into their food. Steph splashed her toes in the water while she ate. The cool water felt good on her aching feet.

“We should do this again.” An explosion of flavor burst in Steph's mouth as she took a bite of the apple. It was cool and crisp and the perfect combination of a little bit sweet and tart. “Did the hike help with whatever you needed to think about?”

Cass leaned on her elbows. Tilting her head back, she closed her eyes as dappled bits of sunlight shone on her face. With measured, deliberate words, Cass spoke her thoughts aloud. “Babs said I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Gotham has no forests, so I came here. Need to figure out what I missed.”

Struggling to hold back a burst of laughter, Steph bit her lip. When her face turned red from the effort of holding her breath, a gasping laugh finally escaped. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It’s not funny. Really.”

“What?” Cass rolled onto her side. Frowning at her friend, she tried to read Steph’s body language since her words were clearly not making any sense.

Steph closed her eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly until she could control her reaction. “Sorry, Cass. I wasn’t laughing at you. Babs didn’t mean that literally. She wasn’t talking about real trees or forests or anything like that.”

“Then what did she mean?”

“Well, let’s see. It’s an idiom—“

“I’m not an idiot.” Her frustration was twisting Cass’s expression into a tight, closing wall.

“Of course not. You’re really smart. You know better than most that language can be difficult. There’s so many ways of saying what you mean without saying it.” Steph rested a hand on Cass’ arm. She tried to speak as much with her body language as she did with her words.

Cass sat up and moved over to her friend’s side. Resting her head against Steph’s shoulder, Cass relaxed at the physical connection. “People should say what they mean.”

“You’re right. We should. You know, you can always ask me or Babs if you don’t understand what someone says, even if we’re the ones confusing you. It’s how we all learn.”

Cass nodded. Her head bobbed against Steph’s shoulder. “What does idi…idi…idiyum mean?”

“It’s a figure of speech.” Steph scrunched her nose. Yeah, that wasn’t helpful. “They’re phrases which mean something completely different than the individual words. I think pretty much every language has them. When you learn any language, the idiom’s are always tricky because you can’t just translate them. You need someone who understands them to explain what they mean. It's like when someone says 'it's raining cats and dogs.' It has nothing to do with actual dogs or cats, instead the use it to mean it's raining really hard. People who are familiar with the phrase, just know what it means.”

“So…what does the one about tress and forests mean?”

Taking a moment to contemplate the meaning, Steph paused before explaining. “It means that a person is so focused on the details that they miss the big picture.”

“Is the picture real?” Cass glanced around the glade as though she was in search of a picture.

“No. Sorry. Um, let me try that again. The forest means the whole situation.” Steph reflected on earlier in the week. Cass had taken out a gun runner who was attempting to set up shop in Gotham. Someone they all agreed needed to be taken down, but by attacking him before the shipment came in, alerted the rest of the ring that the Bats were onto them. By the time Nightwing and Robin, who had been working the case, caught up to them, the merchandise was dispersed and the supplier had gone to ground. “So, I think Babs was saying you’re good at focusing on the details or a single case, but don’t necessarily look at the whole situation. You know, like who else might be working a related case, or if you take down one bad guy, how that will affect the rest of the criminal organization.”

“Oh.” Cass perked up. “That makes more sense. Thank you.”

Steph plucked several blades of grass and began braiding them. “Glad I could help.”

“Still glad we came to the forest.” Cass grinned. “We should hike again.”

“Yes,” Steph agreed, then groaned as she realized the sun was starting to sink behind the top of the trees. “But first, we need to hike back to the car. Ugh.”

Rummaging through the bag, Cass retrieved two pairs of fresh socks. Alfred really had thought of everything. She tossed a pair at Steph. A mischievous glint sparked in Cass’ eyes. “I’ll beat you.”

“You’re on.” Steph scrambled to put her socks and shoes back on, then followed Cass back to the trail.