A/N: This started off as another Robin's Insane Parental Scandal Of Awesome and ended up this.
I think it's better this way.
Alex Simmons belongs to me. So does Silver Robin. That is all.
Review!
Forever
As a fairly experienced Gotham beat cop, DC Alexandria Simmons was used to seeing some fairly weird stuff – Batman, Joker, Harley Quinn, ad infinitum – and she knew the rules, as outlined in Commissioner Gordon's extensive guide to working in a town where Bats stalked the night and nutty clowns were the order of the day, for example; "If you see a speeding car that's jet black and looks like this for God's sake don't pull it over or you will experience fear and pain beyond your wildest imaginings" or "Don't touch weird-looking plants" or "If you see a clown, tase first and ask questions later" and, in her opinion, the best one: "Robin is not 'cute', 'adorable', 'weirdly hot' or 'totally gay with Flash Boy'. Do not mention any of these things in his earshot, which is everywhere."
She was not, however, prepared to walk out the rooftop fire escape of her apartment block and into a make-out session between Batman and the resident Catwoman, while Robin squatted on the edge of the building and mimed throwing up into his cape.
She backed awkwardly down the stairs while Robin laughed his head off, that eerie cackle echoing down the stairwell.
Naturally, not many of her girls at the station believed her.
Of those that did, some mildly fangirled, and some expressed their massive and crushing disappointment that Batman and Wonder Woman weren't a thing.
Barbara Gordon (unpaid intern, super friendly IT girl, and Commissioner Gordon's daughter) reminded her that this was Batman they were talking about.
Alex agreed with that, and had almost convinced herself she was imagining things.
Until some random thug turned himself into police custody, saying that Batman was going to hunt him down and murder him because he caught the Bat and the Cat kissing in some alley.
Alex laughed and reassured him that she was reasonably sure there was "no truth to the rumour that Batman drinks human blood" as she locked him in a cell for the night.
She began to doubt the validity of her "imagining things" explanation.
A few perps Vice had been after ended up in the slammer after they were found with numerous whip marks on them and the case of drugs Batcuffed to one of their wrists. The entire force started slightly believing in the Bat/Cat pair.
It was about two weeks after the Bat/Cat drugs bust that the press caught wind of the story.
"BAT/CAT RELATIONSHIP?" screamed the headline on every newspaper in the country.
About two days after that, Vicki Vale somehow managed to get a picture of the two together without having her mind wiped Men-in-Black-style by Batman and it flooded the internet.
The fanfiction sites, she noted, were having a field day.
The confirmation of the Bat/Cat thing (and the realisation that it had been going on for a very long time (after all, when had the police everactually captured Catwoman after Batman stopped her, and why was everything she stole mysteriously replaced the night after?))raised questions of whether or not Robin was the son of either of them. It was basically a given that Batman was his father, so was it not logical that Catwoman was his mother?
This raised further questions of what kind of mother would allow her son to go out and fight psychos like Joker on a daily basis.
Evidently, Alex thought, the same kind of mother that swung around the city in an insanely tight catsuit with a whip.
The spotting of a sparkly golden band on Catwoman's finger and a dull gold bit of armour plating on Batman's cemented the story once and for all.
A week later, Gotham's playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne's quiet marriage to Selina Kyle, a fairly wealthy philanthropist and animal rights activist, was ignored; completely overshadowed by the Bat/Cat marriage story (which Alex found quite ironic, as this was Bruce Wayne, best beloved of all tabloids).
The Bat-Family (as enthusiastically dubbed by the entire world)was added to by the sudden appearance of Batgirl.
This meant the Bat-Family was on par with the Flash Family (the Flash, the Flash, Kid Flash, and Impulse), and the Arrow Family (Green Arrow, Black Canary, Speedy) wasn't far behind.
A couple of years passed, with no real advancement in the vigilante families, other than the loss of Speedy and the gaining of Red Arrow and Artemis into the Arrow Family. Robin disappeared and Nightwing appeared (obviously the same person, although so much hotter in black than in red).
Friendly IT girl Barbara got married to some guy she met at college, who happened to be Bruce Wayne's son Dick.
The Huntress and her faceless blue-coated boyfriend Question appeared, helping stop a "revolution" by Anarchy and a series of robberies by Magpie, and were inducted into the Bat-Family, gaining that little bat-symbol insignia on their belts.
Then, another Robin showed up, disappeared, and another one appeared, this one apparently "Red Robin" instead of just a normal Robin.
A kid with guns and a staff joined up: Red Hood, as he was called in the papers – not someone Alex really wanted to meet on a dark night (not that she wanted to meet any of them on a dark night).
The Bat-Family – Batman, Catwoman, Nightwing, Batgirl, Huntress, Question, Red Robin, Red Hood – saved Gotham, and indeed the world, far more than just once.
Really, Alex thought, as she read the holo-paper detailing the acts of Batman and Catwoman Beyond, their partners Silver Robin and Black Bat, family friends Huntress and Question, and the denizen of the slums Red Hood, someone should have seen this coming. The Bat-Family were always there.
And they always would be.
