"You know anything about this new guy coming on? He's some 
kind of boy genius."

Jess shook her head, thinking that every supposed "boy genius" 
she'd met in this business had turned out to be either an incoherent 
geek or a complete flake. Brains *and* stability would be a nice 
change, but probably too much to hope for. 

"Another one?" she said lightly.

"I hear this one's different," he said with a glance down the 
corridor. "He's got degrees in criminology and criminal psych, 
blew through Quantico in record time. And I heard..." his voice 
lowered and she leaned forward instinctively to catch his next 
words. 

"He used to be a mask."

***


automatically checked his hands for a ring and saw none, not even 
a tan line.


"I'm Tim Drake," he said, turning to her and extending his hand.

"Jess xx," she replied, "welcome to the X-Files."

***

The name was a joke, of course, drawn from inevitable 
comparisons with the old tv show about investigators who tried to 
find answers to unexplained case files. Except for the [], the 
answers weren't as much paranormal as metahuman...though the 
distinction blurred in the case of magic-based metas. They were 
profilers and investigators and federal officers when they had to 
be.




***


"I wanted to recruit you for the DEO, you know."

"I know, Ms. Chase. But all due respect, I think the DEO "

"Your decision, of course, Mr. Drake." She smirked. "Or do you 
prefer Ro--"

"I don't," he said quietly but firmly. "I left that life behind years 
ago."

"Have you?" Cameron flipped through the overstuffed file folder 
on her desk, almost entirely for show. She'd virtually memorized 
its contents. "You still have contacts with nearly every active hero 
group: the JLA, JSA, Titans, Outsiders, even Young Justice and 
the Young All-Stars. Your personal life is closely, even 
*intimately* associated with known masks. Your friends, your 
girlfriend...."

"You've been keeping tabs," Tim said mildly, seemingly without 
rancor. A far cry from the encounters she'd had with his former 
mentor. 

"It's my job," she replied.