Title: Carry a Bow and a Victor's Crown
Summary:
In which horses and stables become a metaphor of sorts of the bat-family. Or, Batman with horses and Dick and Jason too.
Rating:
T
Pairing:
Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Notes:
At this rate, I might as well be teaching the damned class. Does anyone know if people really use all 12 tenses of English? Does English have 12 tenses? Now I'm getting paranoid. Thank you anonymous and Chaseha-Wing for the reviews.
Disclaimer:
Please refer to the last chapter.
Warnings:
Same as before.

.

Bruce was not pleased.

He had taken a rare break from his work, needled by Alfred and the clamor outside when a trailer pulled up beside the barn with Dick and Damien inside. The horses purchased from Joseph Kerr's racing stables all looked promising, the Cluemaster filly and the other two-year-old. Onyx was a surprise but she was a good addition to the breeding stock even if her talents did not pan out on the field. The fourth and the last to be unloaded was a young stallion, his coiling shape at the back of the trailer so familiar that it nearly took his breath away.

The bay fidgeted at the end of his lead rope, head held high and ears flickering back and forth like the pendulums on a grandfather clock. He eyed them all warily from his vantage point atop of the ramp, whirling around and feinting a kick at his groom when the girl slapped his flanks in an effort to get him moving. Stepping sideways to avoid the next blow, the stallion surged forward to rejoin his companions.

Barbara took a sharp breath and all hands nearby surreptitiously dropped what they were doing to stare at the big bay. The stallion's coat was dirty, a cloud of dust trailing his each step, rope burns all around his head and neck with his nose looking like someone had taken a two-by-four to it. Bruce regarded the mud-crusted hocks in quiet dismay, his distress visible to all who knew him and those that didn't as Barbara leaned away from him, an inch to the right.

Dick Grayson beamed.

"Isn't he great?"

Bruce rubbed his mouth. "Dick, what in the world..."

"It's Red Hood father. Batman-Haywood by Joker." Damien answered smoothly, running up to his side.

"I didn't think Kerr would keep him. Not after he lost the race thirty times in a row." Barbara admitted though her eyes roved lovingly over the stallion's arched neck and strong legs.

"Twenty-nine" Tim corrected her. "He didn't get to start in the last one."

"He's dangerous." Bruce said finally, his mouth drawn into a straight line. "Dick, are you sure…"

"He kind of reminds me of Batman." Dick replied, draping himself over the back of Barbara's wheelchair.

There were agreeing murmurs as she flicked him on the forehead.

Bruce scowled.

"Batman knew what was expected of him."

"So does the Hood, he's behaving now isn't he?"

"For how long?"

"Come on B, they're practically giving him away!"

"There is a reason for that. The Joker is bad news."

"But half of him is still Batman." Dick pointed out ruthlessly and grinned. "It'll be fine."

.

After the vet checked him over, they placed the horses in quarantine, acclimatizing them to their new surroundings. Red Hood however, they took around back. 'Jay' hadn't given them much time once the deal had been sealed and finalized, not even to hose him off. He had almost been frenetic in his movements, a man distracted, a man looking for things that were not there. The groom had put Dick in mind of an estranged friend who had turned to drugs when his daughter died of a hit-and-run. In the end, he hadn't been able to save Roy but he'd wanted to do something for Jay.

There was a loud argument from behind him between Damien and Tim, not an uncommon occurrence since their first introduction but Dick had thought they had enough sense not to argue next to an untested stallion.

"Dick" Tim demanded, "Is it true that you were coerced into buying Red Hood?"

"I heard he stripped for him at the auction." Barbara chirped.

"He did not!" Dick squawked indignantly. Or at least, he hoped he didn't. Hell of a thing to miss or to forget. "I just pointed out that he was wearing his shirt backwards."

She nodded understandingly. "He was a redhead."

"Ah"

Having nothing to say to that Dick grumbled, "No one gives me any respect around here."

"It's the redheads." Tim nodded unhelpfully.

"Me, Lori, Kori..."

"Melissa, Pam, Roy..."

"...and Alex, wait, never mind. He dyed his hair."

"Is there something you wanted?" Dick asked with dignity.

Taking pity on her ex-boyfriend, Babs changed the subject.

"Has Bruce decided on a name for the Queen's colt?"

"No," He stared at Red Hood who stared back, eyeing his fingers and the sponge clenched between them like a tasty carrot, or whatever close equivalent to be had at Ha-Hacienda stables. Fortunately, he didn't seem to overly mind Damien's tight grip on his lead rope. Dick was surprised considering the scarring across his face and neck. "I think he was hoping that one of us would say something so that he wouldn't have to name him."

"How about Lautner?"

"No way!"

"Owlman?" Tim suggested.

"Let's not." Dick said hastily, reminded of Batman's famous half-brother who broke down on the track and never got back up again.

"Caius"

"No"

"Twilight"

"Now you're just making fun of me."

Barbara gave him an impish smile. "Don't worry Dick." She cooed sweetly. "We won't tell your ginger-crush that you read Twilight. Just be sure to name the colt something with my name in it. "

"Not a chance." Damien said brutally, stroking Red Hood once down his face.

"Robin III maybe?"

"The hell Drake? I will not name the foal after a second-rate..."

"Second-rate?" Tim interjected furiously.

The boy spat out several sentences in Arabic that would have no doubt scoured their ears clean had they been able to understand it. But Barbara noticed that even through the shouts of boys clearly too stupid to live and Damien clenching and unclenching his fists as though he would like to punch Tim in the face, Red Hood stood by placidly as though it were an everyday occurrence. He even took the time to drain a bucket clean.

Dick caught her eye and winked.

.

"It's better than Lautner." Bruce conceded, looking at the list of names his gaggle of adoptive children had come up with.

"It never fails to amuse me that you recognize all the actors in Twilight."

Bruce gave him a pointed look.

Dick coughed.

"Right then, let us never speak about this again."

"Agreed."

.

"I have a thing for redheads." He informed the bay ruefully. The horse eyed him with wariness, then asserting that he was not a threat, whinnied to his three stablemates to make sure that they were all there. He stood quietly in his box and huffed, ears pointed in directions, waiting for the footsteps that wouldn't come.

.

Weeks later, Dick was ready to admit that he might have been overhasty in the purchase of a thousand-pound Joker stallion. Only Bruce's smug and dry expression prevented him from saying out loud but the truth was that Red Hood had become a right terror.

The problem was that Red Hood was smart—too smart. Jay the groom had only been a part of why he bought a horse that had come dead last in all twenty-nine starts of his career. In his maiden, he had balked at the gate, only breezing a furlong before abandoning the chase for the siren call of the green oval in the middle of the track. It had gradually progressed to starting at all and running backwards just to avoid the crop. And it was during those suicidal hurdles down the opposite end of the track that his true colors showed.

Red Hood was very much like Batman, more than Nightwing with his coal-black coloring or Red Robin and his dogged persistence. The stallion somehow knew how far, how long he could run without colliding with another racehorse, he knew how to run through a pack without ever brushing up against another rider. The Red Hood didn't run because he was afraid. He ran because he could and somehow Dick had to convince the stubborn beast that running forward was an attractive prospect.

.

"He's a bully." Babs said frankly, even as he picked the carrot tops out of her hand. The carrots themselves he ignored. He did not like men ("Maybe he knows you're gay.", "Just what I need, a horse with a gaydar.") but children were fine, he had taken a chunk out of Tim's shoulder and nibbled at Damien's hair all in the same hour. He was a hit-and-miss with strangers but loved the mares and foals like they were a part of his band earning him unfriendly bites that added to his collection of scars. When he got loose in the paddocks the other day, he had nearly killed Red Robin, only Stephanie's timely intervention stopping him from slaughtering the bay colt.

Bruce had been furious, the resulting confrontation unpleasant.

"Maybe he doesn't like the racing scene." She shrugged. "Some horses are like that you know."

"Maybe" Dick answered, lost in thought. Barbara put a comforting hand on his knee.

"Hey, at least we know he's not crazy. Who knows, maybe he'll make pretty babies for us."

That would be the ideal, financially wise choice. Red Hood was of an age when most high-profile racehorses retired and were put to stud anyway. Even with his horrific performance on the track, his lineage would attract anyone who was willing to brave the Joker's blood. But there was a reason why nobody trusted him around redheads anymore and between Red Hood's bright bay coat and Barbara's plaited red hair, he figured he had an excuse.

"Babs, I need a favor."

.

"You're seriously abusing my position as the commissioner's daughter." Barbara griped as she shifted the books and the stacks of paper off her desk. She dismissed his offer at organization and hacked into the records of the staff of Ha-Hacienda stables. After scrolling up and down multiple times, she frowned, her lips drawn in a straight line. "Looks like he was never formally hired by Kerr." She asked, "Are you sure you don't have anything more?"

"He has red hair and he's hot?" He answered helplessly and Barbara raised an eyebrow in an expressive 'oh I see where you're going with this' before turning around to face the screen. "How many redheads could there possibly be in Gotham?"

"Too bad the search engine doesn't provide 'has not slept with Dick Grayson' box." She replied, her tone dry. Leaning back against her chair, she waved him away. "Go on Boy Blunder, this will take a while."

.

Barbara missed being able to walk, to run, to be able to stand up and Oracle. But most of all, she missed having the height from which to throw her file down from. Tossing the stack of papers across the table while sitting down wasn't quite as impressive. "There were only five thousand redheads in the system but I narrowed it down." She announced, pouring herself a glass of orange juice.

"Really?" He said in mild wonder, liberating the last bits of waffle from the twines of his fork. "I could have sworn I'd slept with everyone in Gotham. Got to step up my game I guess."

Barbara rolled her eyes. "I should have checked the police reports of Kerr's operation first. He was right there."

Dick felt the pancake in his mouth turn to ash.

Choking down water he asked, "Did he..."

"No and wipe your mouth." She handed him a Kleenex. "Jason Peter Todd reported animal abuse at Ha-Hacienda stables with written testimony and a roll of film. He also testified at court against Kerr."

"Wait, he's the one who blew the whistle?"

Barbara nodded. "If the rumors are true, Kerr's been looking for him."

Dick uncurled a hand from her lap and squeezed hard. Barbara had been one of the top three jockeys in the nation before an accident cost her the life of her mount and her legs. She had never forgiven Kerr, though there was no proof that he had staged the accident. The other rider involved was in the hospital, paraphyletic and unable to speak. An autopsy of his horse revealed that it had already been lame, prior to the race, and had been running on nothing but bute and the sheer will to live before crashing into Oracle's hindquarters and going down.

The news reporters had labeled it as another tragedy of a failing industry.

"Be careful Dick," she said, her eyes flashing. "Kerr is not sane."

.

End notes: So I lied. There are more horses in this chapter. And no Jason. I shall endeavor to fix that. Somehow. Hope everyone's enjoying it so far :D