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Blackmail

"Batman, sorry to bring you out on a night like this but I thought that you should be aware of this; it arrived about half an hour ago." Gordon handed over the thick legal sized envelope. The name on the front simply said "SPECIAL DELIVERY. ROBIN, CARE OF GPD. PRIVATE!!!!!! SPECIAL DELIVERY."

Receiving mail at headquarters was common enough and standard procedure was to open it, see what was inside, forward the few personal letters to the addressee and deal with the rest. Most of the mail for the costumed segment came from strangers, many asked for money or were parents asking help with troubled kids, kids asking for help with troubled parents, invitations to children's birthday parties, home baked cookies and, once in a while, a lead on a real case.

Almost none of the letters and packages were ever seen by their intended recipient. They went to a commercial fan answering service for standard answers, pictures and the like or were destroyed. The threats were forwarded to the FBI.

This, however, needed to be checked out and stopped.

There were several, maybe five or six 8 by 10 color photos of a young lady, fifteen or sixteen years old from the look of her. She was a strawberry blond, petite and slender with average looks. The only thing striking about her was her obviously pregnant in profile belly, she looked like she was in about her fourth or fifth month, her smile was straight out at the camera. She looked happy, several of the shots had what Batman assumed were friends with their arms around her, all sharing in the good news such as it was.

There was a used over the counter pregnancy test, showing a positive reading in the envelope.

There was a (probably stolen) medical report from Thomas Wayne Free Clinic stating that Melanie Warfield (minor) was estimated to be in her seventeenth week of gestation with a single and viable male fetus, all signs normal and no apparent complications. There was a strong recommendation that the mother take prenatal vitamins and she was given a one month supply with orders to make a follow up appointment in a month.

The report, dated the day before, was signed Leslie Thompkins, MD.

There was a hand written noted, written on a sheet of notebook paper, unevenly torn from it's spiral binding; "Rob—what are we going to do? Melanie."

"May I ask if Robin knows this young lady?"

"Not that I'm aware of, no." Obviously if they really were or had been close, she would have a better way of getting in contact with him than what amounted to a general delivery mail drop. "I'll speak to him about this, but I suspect she's hoping that he'll be an easy solution to her situation." And he was gone.

Gordon, nodded. Yes, this was probably some kind of blackmail or extortion attempt and would be settled soon enough.

Unless the boy had a one night stand Batman didn't know about.

* * *

"Dick, have you ever seen this girl before?" Bruce put the photos on the boy's desk, covering the calculus text book.

"No, why?"

The hand written note, along with the medical report were placed on top of the pictures. "I just left Jim Gordon, these were received at Headquarters about two hours ago, special delivery and addressed to you. Explanation?"

Dick read the notes, looked at the color 8 by 10's again. "She wants money, that's my guess."

"You don't know her?"

"No."

"Never met her, even in passing?"

"Not that I remember." He leafed through the various papers again, pausing at Leslie's notes. "Why, do you think I may have slept with her and forgotten?"

"I think it's easy to accept an invitation and forget to protect yourself."

Dick gave him a look which spoke volumes. "Be serious. I'm not that stupid and I'm not that desperate."

Bruce decided not to address the implications that comment brought up. "Fine. We'll ignore her and maybe she'll go away."

"Y'know, it might be a better idea to ask Leslie about her. She may have some idea why I've been singled out by (he glanced at the name) Melanie. I know she won't want to talk about it because of patient/doctor confidentiality, but maybe she'll help if we promise to keep it quiet." Bruce nodded, he was going to do that anyway, but it would be a good idea to not waste any time. "I'll go over." Dick checked the clock, eight-thirty. "She's probably still there, I'll drive over now."

"Fine." Bruce nodded, there was no reason why Dick couldn't handle this himself.

"Okay, back later." Dick clicked off the lights, grabbed his jacket and was walking into the clinic twenty minutes later. "Hi, Dr. Leslie, do you maybe have a few minutes? I need to ask you about something."

"Of course, for you I do, always."

He noticed that she was giving him an odd look and he didn't like the feeling in the pit of his stomach. But..."Can you tell me anything about this?" He handed her the letter and pictures.

Taking her time, Leslie went through the photos and read the note. "Excuse me a moment." She returned in a minute or so with a patient file, sat down and looked though it. "You know the privacy laws prohibit me from talking about this with you, don't you?"

He nodded and waited for her to continue.

"Young, better dressed than my usual customer so I assume she's from a well off or comfortable family and is afraid to go to her family doctor. Unfortunately that's common enough. This test result is accurate and so is the information she gave you." She gave him a direct look. "Is there anything you want to tell me?"

"Just that I've never met her and had nothing to do with this."

"Is that the truth?"

"Yes."

Leslie regarded him for a moment then nodded once. "I believe you. So what are you going to do about this?"

"I guess I'll ignore it at least for now."

"That may not be the best idea; you've been in public long enough to know what the press will do if they get a hold of the story—and you know they will."

Yes, he knew. "So what are you saying, that I should call her or make a statement or hold a press conference or something?"

"The best defense is usually a good offense but you decide for yourself what to do. Talk to Bruce and Alfred. See what suggestions you get from the JLA members, you know some of those men have been threatened with this sort of thing over the years. Don't make any hasty decisions because you know that. At least initally, public opinion will be siding with the girl."

"But this is about more than just PR."

Leslie nodded, Dick was savvy enough to know what's what. "Of course, but it's a part of the equation, especially since perceptions will extend to the other Titans and the entire hero community, based on what you decide to do and how you handle this."

"Did she make another appointment with you?"

"I'm not sure, I did recommend that she did, but a lot of these girls, they just don't get the care they need."

"Let me know, okay?"

* * *

Four days later another special delivery letter appeared at GCPD, addressed to Robin, marked personal and delivered to Gordon. "Batman? I'll leave this for you in the usual place."

Robin was reading it by eight-thirty that evening, standing on the roof of police headquarters.

'I guess that maybe you didn't get my last note to you so I'm trying again. I'll give this right to Commissioner Gordon's secretary and ask her to be sure that you see it so don't go pretending that it's lost or something, okay?

Anyway, when I realized that I'm really late and couldn't pretend that I'd miscounted or something I took a home test (which was enclosed). It came up positive so I went to the Free Clinic and the doctor there told me that I'm like so pregnant (copies of the clinic tests were also enclosed, along with an ultrasound). She says that I'm like four and a half months gone and I'm starting to show. I know my mom is going to notice any day now, even though she doesn't believe that I'd ever get knocked up and is going to pitch a major jackass fit.

So I'm as sure that it's yours and I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't have told Katherine about it because she's going to tell everyone and then we're screwed and not in a good way. We need to meet and talk about what we're going to do.

I need to know what you're going to do—are you going to help or are you going to be an asshole?

That would really piss off my parents. And me.

CALL ME.

Mel.'

Robin handed the letter over to Batman without bothering to say anything. It was pretty self-explanatory, right?

"You're sure that you've never met this girl?"

Dick rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Oh, please."

Batman didn't say anything, just studied the note and it's enclosures.

"I'm open to suggestions here."

"First of all, I'd suggest that you meet the girl but don't go alone and tape the conversation. Get a read on her, see if you think she wants money or if she's delusional or both." He folded the note and secured it in his costume. "I'll see what I can learn from this."

"F'God'ssake. She's pregnant, Leslie confirmed that. I don't know if I can prove it, but I've never met her and I've sure as hell never... What else are you going to learn from that?"

"That's what I intend to find out."

TBC