Title- Deceptive Contempt

Summary- An AU what if story, set losely in Lisaverse (the universe Lisa (from Bludhaven)has created where Roy and Lian have made Gotham their home, and of course Cass is a bit older than she appears to be in canon. Dinah and Bruce are together, and so are Dick and Babs)

Rating- M for later chapters.

DC owns all characters.

Part 1

Roy Harper walked along the dimly lit street, the conversation he'd hadwith Cass an hour before still playing on his mind. He had found himself drawn to the vibrant young woman more and more over the last few weeks... he had stayed well clear of any form of romantic involvement with the dark haired beauty. Not that he hadn't considered it, in fact she was the first thing on his mind when he woke each morning and the last thing he thought of at night before going to sleep..he chuckled softly to himself...it didn't even stop there, she was the main focus of his dreams each night, not that he'd be telling anyone else that, Dick would kick his ass, and Bruce...well he didn't even want to think about what Bruce would do.

He pulled his coat tighter around himself, a combination of his thoughts and the cold night air causing him to shiver. They were predicting snow over the next week..Lian was excited at the prospect and Roy smiled to himself at the thought of her happy little face. Lian loved Cass, and Roy knew that Cass was fond of his little girl as well, since he'd moved to Gotham she had visited him regularly to see his daughter...and as a result Roy had felt a growing attraction that he had worked hard to keep hidden, she had showed little sign of sharing his feelings...until tonight.

Tonight he had offered to take Cass out for dinner to thank her for looking after Lian for two days last week when he had to go out of town on a case he had been working on..Dinah was away and the nanny he usually relied on...who was watching Lian tonight, had been called away to deal with a family matter. Cass had been quick to offer her help, Gotham could do without Batgirl for a night or two she had said. That statement had surprised him, he knew how dedicated she was to her work and that made the offer even more significant. Tonight he had found out why she was willing to make such and offer..tonight he had realized his feelings were returned and she felt exactly as he did. He hadn't told her that he felt the same attraction...he couldn't allow her to feel there was a hope of anything eventuating between them, that couldn't happen, it would make things too complicated.

If Cass had been a stranger things would have been different, but Cass was too close to home...Roy had been friends with Dick Grayson for too long to be willing to allow anything to come between their friendship. And becoming romantically involved with Cassandra Cain would certainly be one thing that had the potential to do that, Dick thought of Cass as his little sister...She had been found and taken in by Dicks adoptive father Bruce Wayne and Roy respected both Dick and Bruce to much to...

The sound of a child crying pulled his mind away from his thoughts. It came from an alley nearby...it seemed odd that a small child should be outside in the cold at night and the father in him was drawn instantly to the sound. The alley was only a short distance from his apartment building and he'd passed by it almost everyday..He stepped into the alleyway. Tall buildings lined either side and the rear was blocked by a brick wall. Huddled against the wall Roy could see a bundle. He walked quickly towards the huddled ball, breifly noting that the back half of the alley was clean...there were none of the garbage cans, cardboard boxes or junk that he had seen normally laying in it when he walked past...that would have normally made him suspicious..but the sound of thecrying child drew him forward.

He was almost to the sobbing form, when he froze...scuffling behind him alerting him to the fact that he wasn't alone. Glancing again at the bundle in front of him, his body tensed, it was obvious to him now that it wasn't a child, merely a pile of blankets, no doubt the sobbing was some sort of recording designed to draw him here. He cursed softly to himself and turned to face whoever was behind him. Cursing again when he realized there was in fact ten of them.

There was no way out of this predicament he realized, all he had on him was a pocket knife, the rear of the alley was blocked and he now knew why the alley appeared to be so clean...they knew him, they'd planned this, they'd left him nothing he could pick up and use as a weapon against them. He braced himself as all ten men launched themselves at him, the pocket knife flew through the air and embedded itself in one thugs shoulder and Roy ran forward and slammed his head into the face of another with a sickening bone shattering crunch.

But that was all he could do..the other eight men had him on the ground before he could do any further damage. Held face down by all eight of them, his arms pulled cruelly behind his back, his legs screaming in agony as the full weight of the men who knelt on them crushed them into the hard ground beneath..Roy couldn't even struggle. Even his head wasn't able to be moved as it was held to the ground and a blanket thrown over it.

"Yah got it ready?" a gruff voice said.

"Yeah, let me find a vein and we'll wind this job up." another voice replied.

One arm was pulled away from his back and straightened out, still gripped by strong hands, Roy felt his heart racing, thudding adrenaline charged beats against his chest..his breath came in short stressed gasps as he struggled to gain control of his panic stricken thoughts. Then he felt it...a sharp prick to his arm...a familiar feeling of warmth coursing through his veins..his heart rate increased even more than it's already racing beat, his entire body burned with fire and his skin tingled as the drug tore into his brain.

"That'll teach ya to mess with Mr Buxton." one of the thugs mumbled as they cautiously released their captive.

Roy didn't move, he was vaguely aware of his attackers leaving, but he could do nothing to stop them. He lay still for a moment, before slowly crawling to his knees and making his way shakily to the nearby brick wall, leaning against it and closing his eye's, retreating to the far away place the drug had sent him, the fire in his body making him feel warm and safe, even as the first flakes of snow began to fall around him.

end part 1