A/N: and we finally reach chapter one! You'll notice that this chapter has a much fluffier appearance... Yeah, have you even read A Death in the Family's? I sorta wanted to make fun of the stupid points here. I'm sorry if anyone was OOC or my characters were Mary Sue-ish. Thank you for reading!
RRING! RRING!
Someone was calling her at six in the morning. Why was someone calling her at six in the morning. Ree was no awake enough to deal with this.
Until she saw the caller ID.
It was her… Friend? Boyfriend? Technically brother as Desert? Well, whatever he was, they were close, and Jason clearly needed to talk. Making her choice, she picked up the phone.
"What is it Jay? You do realize it's six in the morning here in Gaion City, Right?"
there was a sigh over the phone
"Yeah, I know, I just needed someone to talk to. You know how it is."
Ree did know, actually. Right now they were the only two people in their generation. they always had to work with adults or people in their late teens.
"Okay then, what's going on?"
"Bruce suspended me from Robin."
This was shocking news to Ree.
"What! Why!"
"I jumped the gun last night. He yelled at me, I ran off, an then, when I came back to the manor, I found him talking to Alfred about suspending me from Robin until I could get my emotions in control. I confronted him about it, and he said that I was in no shape emotionally to be on the streets. He then went on asking to help me. Wanted me to talk about my parents."
Ree sucked in a breath. His parents were a very touchy subject to Jason, but, considering who they were, it wasn't actually much of a surprise.
"Let me guess, you yelled at him and stormed off?"
"Yeah, something like that. I'm over in my part of town. Any chance you can 'port over and take a walk with me until I can calm down?"
Ree rolled her eyes.
"Just let me get out of my pajamas first."
"Oh! I'm sorry I woke you up."
"It's fine, Jay. I needed to get up anyway. See ya"
"Bye."
)\/ V(
Ree and Jason had been walking for a while now, and, for some reason, they had ended up in front of the place his parents used to live. Jason's look when they ended up there was one of pure sorrow. Ree just wished she knew how to fix it. Jason's Voice shook her out of her reverie.
"You know, they did love me. Mom took care of me and I like to think that the old man turned to crime to give me a better life. Probably stopped around the time he started hitting me and mom started doin' drugs... Guess it didn't matter in the end. they both died anyway."
Ree reached out to hug him, and then thought better of it and just place a hand on his shoulder. Normally she would say that at least he didn't kill his family, but today she was silent. Everyone reminisced occasionally, and, if she was honest, his life may have been even harder than hers.
"You! You're young Jason Todd, aren't you!"
Ree and Jason turned around, calling out to Jason was a plump old woman wearing a pink dress.
"Yes," Jason replied.
"Then come on up here! I've got something for you. bring your friend."
Ree and Jason Stared at each other, debating their options in bat.
"I don't trust her. the timing is just too convenient."
"But this could be about my parents! I recognize her from somewhere!"
"Fine… but I still don't like it"
Having agreed, they went upstairs, and, although Jason had wanted to come, he paused at the door. Ree decided to give him a shove. she looked him right in the eye
"Come on Jay, you were the one who wanted to come here!"
Regaining his courage, he opened the door.
"Hello?"
"Come in! Come in!" the woman called as she dug through a closet. as she came out of the closet holding a a box, it finally clicked where he had seen her.
"You were a friend of my mother's. Mrs. Walker, wasn't it?"
the woman turned towards him, smiling warmly, "That's right. How you been doing?"
"Getting by."
The conversation continued. Ree wasn't really paying attention, or she wasn't…. until Jason raised his voice.
"This is terrific! How can I ever thank you…"
"Ain't nothing. Now I got to shoo you kids out of here. Got some shopping I gotta do."
Ree walked over to Jason, and picked up the box.
"Okay Mrs. Walker. see you later, maybe."
And with that, they were off to Wayne Manor to look at the contents of the box.
)\/ V(
Ree watched as Jason looked at the photo of a child him and smiling parents. This must have been before everything fell apart, she thought, back when his life was simple…
She continued watching as he started going through the personal papers, or she would have… except she saw Jason's face when he was looking at his birth certificate.
"What is it Jay?" she asked desperate to know. He turned and faced her.
"See for yourself." he answered passing the certificate over. Ree looked it over. Nothing seemed out of place. Sure the mothers name was smudged so you could only see the S of her first name, but other than that it was fine…
except Catherine started with a C!
"Oh god…. Jason…."
Ree paused.
"Catherine isn't your mother…."
Ree paused again.
"But… if she isn't your mother…. Who is?"
Jason looked thoughtful. then he smirked. walking back to the box, he grabbed a small book.
"The old man was old fashioned. He kept an address book in this thing. Hm... there it is! Only three names under S! My mother is bound to be one of the! But this is probably out of date..."
Now it was Ree's turn to smirk.
"Uh, Jason? You do realize that we're standing on top of a supercomputer, right? We can just go down there and find out."
Jason smirked back.
"Well then let's go!"
)\/V(
It took all night, but they found all three women. Robin sat in the chair, in costume but mask off. Desert sat behind him, similarly dressed in her costume but with her cowl down.
"So, we've got Sharmin Rosen, a woman who is currently working for the Israeli Secret Services, Shiva Woosan, a lady and suspected mercenary currently operating out of Lebanon, and Dr. Sheila Haywood, working on Famine relief efforts in Ethiopia. Now what to do with this..."
"We aren't taking this to Bruce."
This was a shock to Desert. Why would he not tell this to Bruce?
"Why?"
"If I ask Bruce for help he'll push me off the case. 'Your in no shape to be running this type of investigation.' Besides, Bruce wouldn't care about finding my real mother. All he gets off on is catching crooks. He probably couldn't even understand why I'd want to Locate this woman."
Desert rolled her eyes. Did Robin even know Batman's origin? But this was Robin's investigation, so she would go with his decisions.
"Well then, how are we gonna get there? Jason Todd can't 'port."
Robin walked over to a wallet citing on a counter. He picked it up and pulled the credit cards out.
"Bruce'll buy us our way."
Desert sighed.
"Just don't blame me when this blows up in our faces. We should change first, or at least put on some civvies over our costumes. How about I pack us both some small bags and you book the flight. Sound good?"
Robin nodded.
"I feel kinda bad running off like this, but I need to, you know?"
Desert smiled wistfully at him.
"I get it, Jason."
Then her face fell.
"Many people would give their life for a chance like this."
)\/V(
They had made it onto the plane (there were exactly two seats left in first class and they were, conveniently, right next to each other), and were now on their way to to Israel. A woman passed by, giving out drinks.
"How about a rum and coke?"
"Jason!"
The lady looked at Jason, not buying it.
"First class section or not, champ, you don't look ripe enough for rum. How about a straight coke instead?"
"Okay..."
The lady got him his drink and then turned to Ree.
"Water, please. Don't mind Jason, please. He just found out some big news and needs to get to his mom."
The lady handed them their drinks and Jason went back to looking out the window. Ree also went back to what she was doing. She was reading Pride and Prejudice. She had actually been the one who got Jason into reading, and this was a favorite of both of them. Next flight she got the window and he got the book.
)\/V(
Ree sighed, staring boredly at the ceiling. Why had she agreed to stay behind again? Oh, that's right, Jason was better at sneaking into places than she is, but it was still a bad idea!
)\/V(
"Jason! This is a horrible idea!"
Ree tried to get Robin to let her go with him, but Robin wasn't having it.
"We have gotten nowhere doing things the legal way, and you're no good at sneaking into places, Ree. I need to head over there and get us connected while you try to hack it from here."
"I still don't think this is a good idea... but I'll do it."
"Thank you."
"Just... take this, okay? It'll make my job quicker and it's wired through my personal server... virtually untraceable."
"Okay, see yah."
"Bye."
)\/V(
Oh! Well what do you know... Looks like she was in. Better call it in.
"LW this is VD I got the info. She's undercover in Beiruit. I got the hotel she's staying at and I'm booking the flights now. It's gonna be some plane hopping p, but if all goes smoothly then we should be there by noon, so can you hurry back now?"
It took a minute, but Ree got a response.
"VD this is LW I'm on my way back, eta twenty minutes."
"Got it. I'll have us packed before you arrive."
It actually only took fifteen minutes to get there, but Ree was still ready to go by that point. The extra five minutes were used to pack Robin's outfit into his bag and put on some civvies. They made it to the plane just in time although they had to sit in coach this time.
Now, Beiruit was not a good place to be an American in, as torn apart as it was by war. Everyone there was either armed, injured, or dead. Jason and Ree made it to the hotel, and stood outside. Jason was hesitant.
"Should I go in?"
"That is what we came here for."
"Alright. Well, let's g-"
"What are you doing here?"
It was Bruce and Willow!
"Bruce!"
"Willow! Bruce I under stand but you?"
Bruce just glared at them.
"I asked you a question."
"I'm looking for my mom."
Bruce got a confused look on his face, or, he would have, if he wasn't the Batman. Willow's confusion was just plain obvious.
"Jason, your mother's dead."
Ree rolled here eyes.
"Turns out that Catherine Todd was his stepmom, and this is one of the possible locations of one of his possible birth moms."
"Talk."
Ree and Jason explained how Mrs. Walker had given them the box, and how they found his smeared birth certificate with the mysterious S. They explained that Sharmin Rosin was in the hotel across the street, and how they found out. (Ree thoroughly enjoyed the chewing out that Jason got when she mentioned how they got the info on Sharmin Rosin. "You shouldn't have gone there without backup.")
"-Besides, with you coming to help me, we'll crack the mystery of who my mother is in no time."
Bruce's face fell.
"Jason... That's not exactly why I'm here."
Bruce explained about the Joker. As it turned out, Willow and Bruce didn't come together. Alfred had contacted Willow on if Jason had contacted Ree. Willow said that Ree had gone to hang out with Jason that morning, and she joined Alfred in the search. When Ree's personal line had gone off, Willow had listened in and teleported over, where she met up with Bruce. Deciding that the psycho with a nuke was slightly more important, she decided to help him out.
"The nuclear threat had to be dealt with first. You understand, don't you?" Bruce asked, turning to Jason. Jason looked down at his feet.
"Sure, Bruce... Nothing glamorous about hunting down a runway."
Ree, noticing the appearance of the woman they were searching for, decided to end the argument there.
"Jason, that's unfa-"
"Uh, boys? I think your targets are getting away."
"Peter Brando!"
"Sharmin Rosin!"
Ree tried to resist the urge to face palm...
"Looks like we're working on the same case after all."
...And failed miseably.
"They're getting into a car!"
"This way! I've got a Land Rover!"