"My mama always said, 'Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.'"
- Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump)
...
"Barbara?"
Dean nodded understandingly.
He didn't realize that besides working in the library during the day and fighting crime as Batgirl at night, Barbara also found time to be a language teacher for this mute girl.
At this point, the mute girl continued flipping through the book again and pointed to the name 'Cassandra,' then looked at Dean and pointed to herself.
''Cassandra, is that your name?''
Dean gestured strangely and asked.
He expected to hear a familiar name because Cassandra had a face that closely resembled someone Asian, but he didn't expect she had an American name.
"What about your last name?"
Suddenly, Cassandra's expression became complicated and showed regret, pain, resentment, shame, nostalgia, reminiscence...
It was hard to imagine that a teenage girl would have such heavy expressions.
Just as Dean thought he may have asked something unnecessary, Cassandra's face returned to normal, and she continued flipping through her book.
"Cain, that's my last name. Cassandra Cain is my full name."
Dean thought for a moment, took out a pen from his pocket, and then found a piece of paper. He wrote down "Dean Thurston" on it.
"This is my name."
Dean imitated Cassandra's gestures and pointed to himself, then pointed to the words on the paper.
"So, are we friends now?"
Cassandra eagerly signaled to Dean in sign language.
"Barbara said that exchanging names is the first step to becoming friends."
"Not yet, but maybe in the future. Making friends isn't that simple."
Dean shook his head slightly and responded.
"You need to get to know someone before you can become friends with them."
Cassandra nodded as if she kind of understood.
From then on, they began to communicate using sign language or by writing and drawing on paper.
However, since Cassandra hadn't received proper language education, her language skills were very poor, and she knew very few words.
Reading and writing were a challenge for her.
She often used drawings and doodling to express her thoughts that couldn't be easily communicated through gestures.
But it was hard for most people to understand those doodles.
Unfortunately for Cassandra, Dean was a magician.
As a magician, the ability to observe one's thoughts and understand others' intentions was important.
Solving or deciphering the doodles was a piece of cake for him.
That's right, being a magician is such a suitable excuse.
How should one respond to that?
Their conversation began with Barbara as the starting point, since they both knew her.
According to Cassandra's description... gestures? Gestures combined with doodles?
Who cares!
In short, according to Cassandra's story, because she couldn't speak, Barbara always took special care of her whenever she came to the library.
Sometimes, Barbara would even set aside her daily work to help Cassandra with her questions.
There were already a few people in the library, and those who understood sign language were even fewer.
Some people even naturally discriminate against disabled individuals.
And among the library staff, only Barbara understood sign language, so she was the only one who could help Cassandra, and she was willing to help.
Because of this, Cassandra was very grateful to Barbara and always relied on her because it was the first time in many years of wandering that she had encountered someone who was so kind to her.
Cassandra was an orphan and said to have been to many places, but she clearly didn't want to talk about the past, and Dean wasn't curious either, so he didn't ask too much about it.
In addition, Cassandra was a bit... socially anxious? Whenever she came to the library, she would find a place with fewer people.
This was why she had chosen to sit next to Dean.
Their choices for where to sit were a great match.
A large table and a circle of small chairs surround it in the library's seating arrangement.
When Cassandra sat across from Dean before, there was actually quite a distance between them.
As the conversation deepened, Dean had a faint feeling that Cassandra was basically a positive person and that her social anxiety wasn't because she couldn't speak and felt like she was inferior to others.
Instead, he believed it was because she didn't interact with many people and didn't know how to communicate.
In fact, Dean felt that Cassandra didn't really think that not being able to speak was a flaw but that it was just hard for her to communicate.
During their interaction, Dean even performed a few small magic tricks for Cassandra.
However, what troubled him was that the girl looked at him with innocent eyes from beginning to end, without a hint of surprise or astonishment.
Dean even started to doubt if his skills had declined...
'By the way, I haven't seen Barbara today.'
While chatting, Dean suddenly looked around the library as if he remembered something, then glanced at the sky outside.
'It's not dark yet, so it's not time for Batgirl to show up, and it's not closing time at the library either, and today is not a holiday.'
Dean stroked his chin, 'Could it be that Barbara has been sitting in her office with the air conditioning on all day? This doesn't seem like her style."
With Barbara's warm-hearted nature, if she had the time today when Cassandra visited, she would definitely have come to teach her how to read.
At that moment, there was a librarian pushing a cart filled with books.
Dean extended his hand to stop him and politely asked, "Excuse me, sir, can you tell us where Ms. Barbara Gordon is?"
The librarian appeared somewhat surprised upon hearing Dean's question.
"Do you know Director Gordon?"
"Yes, we're friends with Barbara."
Dean nodded.
"I'm sorry, but Director Gordon took sick leave today. I heard she fell down from upstairs when she came home last night. She's currently in the hospital. If you want to find her, you'll need to go to Gotham General Hospital."
The librarian sighed, "I really hope she's okay; it's hard to find the motivation to work when she's not around."
A glint appeared in Dean's eyes.
Similar to Dean's home, the house where Gordon lived was also a stand-alone home. The only difference was that it was bigger.
The Gordon house had only two floors.
Batgirl fell down the stairs at a two-story house, and she ended up in the hospital?
Dean didn't believe that nonsense.
'She's probably injured from a fight,'
Dean thought to himself.
"I'd like to visit Barbara at the hospital. Would you like to come with me?"
Suddenly, Cassandra walked up to Dean and made a few hand gestures with a hint of worry.
"Isn't Barbara your friend?"
Before Dean could react, Cassandra's expression turned apologetic as she continued to gesture.
"Oh, I'm sorry. If you have other things to do..."
Seeing this, Dean shook his head with a smile.
"I'll go with you. I'm also concerned about how serious Barbara's injuries might be."
Dean remembered that Batgirl often patrolled the Upper West Side, and the most famous urban legend there recently was the "Bat Monster."
Now that Barbara suddenly got injured and ended up in the hospital, could there be a connection between the two?
...
A/N: If we reach 800 power stones within this day, I will release an additional chapter tomorrow.
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