"Good patrol tonight, kid. Hopefully we can track down Joker more tomorrow night. I think we're getting close." Bruce said as we walked out of the Batcave. "Dick should be back from Blüdhaven already. We'll collect evidence tomorrow morning at breakfast. Head up to bed and get some rest, alright?"

"Alright. I'll see you in the morning, Bruce." I said before heading up the 2 staircases to my bedroom in Wayne Manor.

Third door on the left, in the coldest and darkest part of the Manor. Dick tells me it "matches my soul," however he doesn't realize that I really just enjoy the ambiance. Upon entering the room, I took in the usual surroundings. Dark, the balcony and windows covered by what looked to be a forest, when from the outside it was only two large trees. There was a TV on the black, wood dresser. The walls were a monochrome grayish blue and had a door leading to a closet and one or two random paintings of flowers in vases or whatever. Definitely not something I would put on my walls, but I didn't want to argue with Bruce… again. I'm a young adult, I should be allowed to have a swimsuit model… or two… or ten on my wall. I'd suggest one in my bed, but there was already someone there waiting.

Hailee Lewis. Wayne Manor's newest occupant. Her orphanage was burned down to the ground about 3 months ago at the hands of the Joker and he's been at large ever since. Everyone was killed but her, and Bruce still doesn't know how she managed to escape. She insists she jumped out the window, but jumping from the third story with no fire escape? I'm not even that good.

I kicked my shoes off my feet, took my shirt off over my head and snuck under the covers next to her, wrapping my arm around her waist.

"How was patrol?" She asked, clearly wide awake.

"Can't a guy surprise his favorite girl with a damn cuddle before he gets hounded with questions, I mean shit."

"Jason…" she said, turning her head towards me.

"Nothing. Bruce thinks we're getting close but Joker's better than that. Bruce will think he's going one way but I know he's not. We're trying." I said, sighing as I sat up. She sat up next to me and placed her forehead on my shoulder, pressing her lips to my skin.

"I know," she said, lifting her head. "You know why I ask every night. Everything I knew got taken from me. Any small thing that I had from my parents is dust. I'm 18 now, so I can't even go back. I don't know where I'll end up."

"You know Bruce won't let you go that easily." I reassured her. "He wouldn't put you out on the street. Maybe he'll make you Batgirl and you can come patrol with me instead of him. I'd prefer it. After we go and fight the big bad guys, we can have a little fun on a rooftop somewhere."

"Charming. You know how to create such a romantic setting."

"I figured we need something different from my room, what?!" She shook her head.

"Let's just get some sleep. It's 2 in the morning." She said before placing a kiss on my lips and laid back down to sleep.

I laid back down next to her, wrapping my arms around her and let the quiet surround us. Her hair smelled like strawberries and her skin was smooth and she was warm, despite how cold I would keep the room. Hailee would always be the only warmth around me.

"Lee?" I said. She stirred and I had clearly woken her up as she was dozing off. "Did we ever cover the reason that you sneak into my room every night? You hand picked your room, I'm just curious."

"It's totally for the foreplay and the sex we don't have, I thought I made that clear." Hailee said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Lee, really."

"I just feel safer around you. Not that Joker would pop into Wayne Manor and be like 'op, here's Batman and Robin!', but still. I just feel safe like this." She explained, her hands gripping on my forearm that was hanging over her stomach.

"I promise I'll keep you safe, okay? I won't let anything happen to you." I said before kissing her head and letting her fall back asleep.

I, however, had no intentions to sleep. The evidence that Bruce and I had collected was too strong for me to not look into, and I wasn't going to wait until the next night. Joker needed to be put away, for good this time. Imagine how proud Bruce would be if I did it by myself.

I waited about an hour before making sure Hailee was asleep. I put on my shirt and my shoes, gave her one more kiss and snuck out of my room and down to the cave. I suited up and after looking over the evidence one last time, I determined that Joker would be in the outer sections of Gotham in one of the old factories. I hopped on the bike and rode out, determined to find the Joker.

My eyes slowly opened as I took a glimpse at the clock on Jason's side table. 4:00 AM. I tightened my arms to my body, feeling as if something was missing and noticed that it was a pair of arms missing. I sat up, and Jason was gone. Getting out of the bed, I noticed his shoes were missing and his shirt. I opened the door and checked the bathroom but no one was there. Jason wouldn't roam the Manor at night. He wouldn't even roam the manor during the day.

I rushed downstairs and heard a faint emergency sound coming from the wine tasting room. Running inside, I saw the wine case to the cave was opened and the alarm was blaring. I ran out of the room and upstairs, knocking on Dick's door as I rushed towards Bruce's.

"BRUCE. BRUCE WAKE UP!" I banged on the door.

"What's going on?" A groggy Dick emerged from his room.

"DO YOU NOT HEAR WHAT I HEAR?" I screamed at Bruce opened his door, clearly annoyed that I had woken him.

"What's going on?" he asked, but immediately widened his eyes as he heard the alarm and ran down stairs.

Dick was on his heels and I ran after. Alfred had come out of his quarters and walked towards the wine tasting room.

"Miss Lewis, where is Master Todd?" Alfred asked me.

"He's gone! I don't know where he is. I looked everywhere and came down here when I heard the alarm!" I yelled as we entered the pathway to the cave.

Bruce walked up to the computer and turned the alarm off before punching in a number of buttons on the keyboard.

"The Bat Bike has been destroyed. It's last known location is the factories outside of town." He said. "Goddamnit, Jason!" Bruce yelled before going over to his case and suited up. Dick followed over to his. "No. You stay here incase he contacts the cave or tries to get back in. I'm going to go to the factories."

"Why would he go out? Patrol ended over 2 hours ago." Dick asked, looking over at the last check in, which was at 1:35 AM.

"He went after Joker." I mumbled in a state of shock, staring blankly at the monitors.

"What?" Bruce asked. "Hailee, what do you know? I need to know."

"He told me that you thought you were getting close to Joker but Jason said he knew better and that if you thought he'd be going one way, Joker would swerve and go another." I said, shaking. "You don't think he was right, do you? Do you think he got Joker?"

"Bruce, you better go. Al and I will stay on the monitors. Go find Jason. Now." Dick said, sitting down at the keyboard and put an ear piece in.

"Keep in contact." Bruce said before getting into the Batmobile and sped off.

Dick tracked his movements. He got to the factories in no time, but with so many to check, it would be a while before Jason was found. Time ticked by. Every minute felt like an hour. I began pacing and looking through Jason's things to see if I could find any type of clue as to where he was. He'd taken off his tracker so we couldn't find him that way. He'd left a lot of essential things behind that he normally wouldn't if he went with Bruce. Maybe he was in some sort of rush.

"Oh no." I heard Dick say behind me. My head turned quickly.

"What?"

"I just heard a bang on Bruce's end. And we lost contact."

"What kind of bang, Dick?" I asked as he rushed to his case and started getting dressed.

"Not the gunshot kind."

"What a little BirdBrain, coming here to live up to the BatBrain's standards! How cute. Looks like the little family of rodents has some daddy issues, don't they?" Joker said, pinching my cheek as he condescended me. I was tied to a chair and he had already done a pretty great number on me. I could feel a broken rib or two. A black eye, definitely.

"You're the only issue, you piece of shit." I said, spitting down at his feet. He got close to my face and grinned.

"Now I KNOW that 'ol Bats didn't teach you that language! Did you hack into the parental controls?" Joker laughed before slamming his fist to my face once again, but this time hard enough to knock the chair I was sitting in over.

As I lay on the ground, he continued his laugh before taking out an old crowbar and twirled it in his hand like a cane. Like he was in a show, putting on a performance.

"You know, kid. I gotta hand it to ya. You came all the way out here for silly little me. Are you jealous of mine and Batsy's relationship? Upset you'll never play a part?" He laughed before swinging the crowbar towards my stomach, once and then twice and again and again. "I mean… he isn't even here to see the GRAND FINALE, KID! HA-HA-HA!" Joker went on, beating my legs, my back and my head. He didn't stop. Every hit hurt because he was right. Where was Bruce?

"He'll come. He will." I said, trying to get to my feet before Joker kicked me back down and hit my head with the bar again.

"Look kid, hate to break it to ya, but Bats isn't coming. I'm sure he'll be here in the morning though! When this place is nothing but dust." Joker giggled as he fiddled with wires on a bomb and held it towards my face. It was ticking down from two minutes. "Too bad you won't be here to see that!" He said, kicking me in the stomach before putting the bomb on a barrel and left.

I shimmied over to one of the crates and tried to support myself to sit up and as I did, I saw the bomb in the distance. Ten seconds. Bruce left me here. I left the alarm ringing. He left me.

"Anything Dick?" I asked through the earpiece as I clicked on buttons to keep up with his movements. Alfred was listening to the police scanner on the other workbench.

"I see some smoke in the distance. The car is to the side but no sign of Bruce. Did you hear anything?" He asked. I checked the other earpiece and heard static but nothing more.

"Just static. Get close to that smoke, Dick. It's probably where he is. I'm not Barbara, but I'm going to try to hack into the factories security system." I said, clicking on buttons which showed a number of different characters and numbers and symbols.

"Miss Lewis, inform Master Dick that the authorities are in route to the factory. There was an explosion." Alfred said, his voice sounding shaky. He was clearly thinking what I was trying to deny - Jason was in there.

"Did you hear him Dick?" I asked.

"Yup."

"I did too. Dick, get back to the cave. Now." Bruce said. "I'm on my way back."

"What happened, Bruce?" Dick asked.

"Joker."

Time went by slowly. Dick came back and got out of his suit. Bruce kept telling us to wait in the cave until he got there. Barbara had made contact with us and informed us that the factories were a mess and her father had told her that Joker was the obvious culprit and that Batman was infuriated. Alfred went upstairs to get everyone some coffee although we told him it was okay and that he should wait for Bruce too, but he insisted. I knew he went upstairs to try to get his mind off everything.

Dick sat up and looked towards the waterfalls where the Batmobile usually enters. I turned my head as Bruce drove in and shut the car. The Bat Bike was usually parked right next to the Batmobile. As he stood outside of the car, he took a moment to look at the spot before walking up the platform to us.

"Please tell me he's okay, Bruce. Please." I called down to him as he walked slowly upstairs. Dick stood behind me and held onto my shoulders. "Bruce, where is he?" I said as he came into view, his gaze distant.

"Bruce?" Dick said, looking over at him.

Bruce took off his mask with one hand and threw it on the workbench. With the other, he took Jason's cape from his belt, which was charred and had holes in it.

"No." I said, shaking my head. "No. No. NO. NO." I screamed, sobbing in Dick's arms before sliding to the floor. "HE'S NOT DEAD. HE'S NOT. NO. BRUCE, PLEASE TELL ME HE'S NOT. HE'S NOT DEAD." I cried, hearing a slam in the background, which I could only assume was Alfred dropping his tray upon entering the cave to the news.

Dick picked me up and carried me out of the cave as I sobbed. He whispered in my ear to calm me down from my hysterics. He carried me up the stairs and walked into the direction of my room. I squirmed and fell from his arms and ran in the other direction to Jason's room.

"No, no. No. No. He can't be. He isn't. Jason. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? NO!" I screamed, slamming the door behind me and running to his bed, sobbing for the remainder of the night.