Bruce walked into the Gotham Plaza Hotel Restaraunt. He glanced around for a moment before clocking Harvey Dent sat at the corner table, along with a red haired man who had his back to the door. Harvey looked well considering the massive burns he had sustained during the incident at Arkham two years ago. The skin graft Doctor Thomas Elliot, a school friend of both Bruce and Harvey's, had performed, along with the medication supplied after to prevent rejection as well as scarring, had worked wonders; if you didn't know it, you wouldn't think that the entire left hand side of Harvey's face was a skin graft.
"There he is!" Harvey said, standing up as Bruce walked over, shaking Bruce by the hand as the red haired man stood up too "Look who stopped by for a visit."
"Tommy?" Bruce asked, shocked to see Thomas Elliot stood there, a broad grin on his face, as it had always been "What are you doing in Gotham? Last I heard, you were working in Star City."
"Decided to drop in, make some house calls. I actually spoke to Alfred this morning, told him I was planning to surprise you." Elliot replied, shaking Bruce's hand before the three men sat down "Besides, Bruce, I was hoping to see that Batman of yours in action."
"I imagine you'd have a better chance of that at night." Bruce laughed, slightly nervously "I've never seen him, if I'm honest."
"I'm not surprised." Elliot said, pausing just long enough to make Bruce wonder if he knew something before he added "Wayne Manor's outside of the city as I recall?"
"Yes, it is." Bruce said, smirking at Harvey "Of course, if you want to meet the Batman, maybe Mr. DA here is a good person to ask."
"Won't tell me a thing about the man." Elliot said "Hell, it took me an hour to get out of him that the drug I use to treat my patients to avoid rejection of skin grafts was being re-routed to GCPD."
"Which you weren't supposed to mention." Harvey sighed "Chlorazine is highly regulated as is, very few people know how to use it, which makes everyone who does a potential suspect."
"In what?" Bruce asked, pausing for a moment "Harvey, wasn't Chlorazine what-"
"What I put him on after his surgery, yes." Elliot said, grinning "It may require regular doses, but, so long as they're maintained, the instances of rejection and scarring from skin grafts and organ transplants are less than one percent. Hell, I'm surprised your guys didn't come up with it, Bruce."
"We try to find things that don't need regular doses years after treatment." Bruce quipped, standing up "Excuse me for a moment, I just remembered some business I need to take care of. Give me five minutes."
He quickly moved away from the table, waiting until he was outside before pulling out his phone, dialling in the number for Wayne Manor.
"Yes, sir?" Alfred's voice came through the phone "What can I do for you?"
"I need you to look into the side effects of coming off of Chlorazine." Bruce said, pausing "Harvey might be having a hard come down soon..."
"Oh my..." Alfred replied, pausing for a moment before adding "I will look into it immediately, master Bruce."
"Good, thank you, Alfred." Bruce said "Anyway, I should get inside. Harvey and Tommy will start getting suspicious."
"Tommy?" Alfred said "Doctor Elliot's in town?"
"Don't play dumb Alfred." Bruce said, almost laughing "Tommy told me he'd spoke to you this morning."
"This is the first I've heard of it sir." Alfred replied "I promise you that much."
"Why would Tommy lie about that?" Bruce wondered "I'll talk to you later, Alfred. Tell Dick I'll be sending him an address to investigate shortly. He should take Barbara, let her get a feel for things."
"Of course, sir." Alfred said "Good luck, master Bruce."
"Thank you, Alfred. I'll see you later." Bruce said, before hanging up and turning to walk back into the building.
As he entered, he bumped into a man. It took him a moment to stop himself from falling, before noticing it was Elliot he'd bumped into. Elliot smiled and laughed, accepting the hand Bruce offered to help him up.
"Thanks, Bruce. I was just coming to get you." Elliot said, dusting himself down "What was taking so long?"
"Just having Alfred take care of a couple of things." Bruce said, chuckling falsely as he added "Cancelling a few appointments."
"Of course." Elliot said as they began to walk inside "So, I hear you've got a roommate? An 18 year old boy? Something you want to tell me?"
"No." Bruce replied simply, before adding "Dick was orphaned at a circus I was visiting after his parents were gunned down. He had no family, and I had a lot of spare rooms, so I offered to help out."
"Bruce Wayne; billionaire playboy philanthropist." Elliot quipped "Shame there's no genius in there."
"I have my moments." Bruce commented as they reached the table, both men sitting down across from Harvey "So, Tommy, how long did you say you were in town?"
"A couple of weeks, at least." Elliot said, cocking an eyebrow "Why do you ask, Bruce?"
"No real reason." Bruce said, pulling out a pen and handing it to Elliot "Mind writing down the address you're staying at? I might try and pop by."
"Sure thing." Elliot said, taking the pen and writing an address on a piece of paper "Mind calling first, though? I'd hate to have to turn you away due to work."
"Of course." Bruce said, noting the address as he pulled out his phone, quickly texting it to the cave "Sorry, just had to email it to myself. Just in case I forgot where I need to go..."
...
Dick and Barbara landed on the roof of Elliot's house. Bruce had had a suit delivered for Barbara that morning, apparently produced overnight. It was, on a basic design level, similar to Bruce and Dick's own costumes. However, it was primarily black, with dull yellow boots that ended at bat shaped knee guards, the two blades on the wrists in the same colour, and a bat emblem, thinner and slightly more stylised than the one on Bruce's Batman suit, on the chest in the same yellow. On the back, was a scalloped black cape that ended just below her knees, a purple lining visible on the cape. Finally, she wore a cowl similar to Bruce's, only with a larger mouth hole and larger lenses over the eyes, as well as shorter ears on top.
"Remember, this is a quiet one." Dick said as he opened the skylight and jumped down into the study below, Barbara following close behind "Let's not disturb things too much."
"You're talking to me about not disturbing?" Barbara said, a smirk on her face "I seem to recall someone walking in on me in the shower when I was tutoring him last year!"
"And I don't seem to recall you objecting to that." Dick retorted "Or had you forgotten that, and the next part?"
"I thought we agreed not to discuss that?" Barbara hissed "It was a onetime thing and a mistake and-"
"You're trying too hard to put a negative spin on it. You're lying." Dick said simply as he picked up a file on the desk "Well, look what we have here."
He handed the file to Barbara. It was marked 'Dent'. Barbara began flipping through. There were numerous pictures of Dent, before his accident, after it, and then before and after the skin grafts. As she flipped through the file, Dick engaged the scanner mode on his mask, looking around the room, focusing on book shelves.
"What do we have here?" He said as he walked over to one of the book shelves in the corner "Babs, take a look at this."
"It's Barbara, not Babs." Barbara said, moving over to him and engaging the scanner in her cowl "There's a separation between the bookshelf and the wall. So what? They aren't all built into the walls, you know."
"Trust me, I've seen this kind of separation before." Dick said, moving over to the picture frames on the wall beside it "Funny how this photograph of Bruce and Elliot shows signs of being moved."
Dick nudged the picture slightly, causing it to rotate. As he did, there was a low, metallic clunk from inside the wall, before the bookshelf swung open, revealing a room behind it.
The pair walked into the room, looking around. It was metal lined and smelt of medical grade cleaner. There was a table and a number of tools dotted around the room. At the edge, was a picture of Bruce, lines drawn over the face, some areas blacked out.
"Well, that's not creepy at all." Dick said sarcastically, pressing two fingers to his ear, engaging the in-ear microphone – receiver combination unit "Alfred, record everything coming from my visual feed since we got into the building, until we leave."
"Of course, sir." Alfred's voice came through "Shall I record Miss Gordon's feed as well?"
"Yes, thank you Alfred." Barbara said before Dick could reply "Helps to have multiple sources, don't you think, Dick? After all, we can't all have eidetic memories."
"I don't." Dick said, pausing as he caught her meaning "Wait, you do?!"
"Yeah." Barbara said, moving over to a computer in the corner, beginning to press keys as she reached into her belt, removing a USB drive from it and plugging it into the computer "I'm downloading the hard drive. We can go through it later."
Before Dick could say anything, a sound came from inside the study. He hit a control by the door, closing it, before grabbing Barbara and pulling her into a storage cupboard in the corner. She went to say something, being interrupted by him putting his hand over her mouth.
"Be quiet." He whispered barely loud enough for her to hear, pausing in horror before saying "Did you get the drive?"
"It's still downloading." She whispered as he uncovered her mouth, looking out of the narrow gaps in the door "It's at 76%."
"Great." Dick said, looking through the gap and observing the room "We need a way out of here."
Barbara looked around the room, quickly taking it in. She paused, going over the image of it in her head. Finally, she spoke.
"There's an air vent in the ceiling." She said to him "It's small, but I could probably fit in there."
"Go for it." Dick said as they opened the door, Dick moving to a position just beside the book case entrance, pulling a small circular device from his belt and placing it on the door "I'm going to see what I can get in here."
Barbara didn't say anything, just nodding as she fired her grapple at the vent, pulling it open before firing the line again and rappelling up into the vent, closing it behind her. Dick pressed two fingers to his ears, listening to what was being said.
"Our friend has asked us to leave the information here." Came one voice, a high, almost song like male voice "Don't leave a mess!"
"I'm a hitman, not a butler." Came another male voice, this one gruff, with a Texan edge to it "Why does this guy want this anyway?"
"I don't ask, my friend." The first voice said "Come. I have more targets for you. Remember, you're not to miss, but you're not to kill them either!"
"I never miss." Said the second voice, the sounds of footsteps being audible before they stopped "Wait. Something's not right here."
"What is it?" The first voice said.
"I can hear something. Above us." The second voice said, before the sound of a gun cocking could be heard "Let's see what it is..."
Dick was ready to hit the button and tackle whoever was on the other side, but was stopped by what he heard next.
"Never mind. I can see it, just a rat." The second man said "I hate rats."
Dick waited until he heard the door close before grabbing the USB drive, shutting down the computer and hitting the control by the door, opening it once more. He stepped outside, straightening the picture to close the door and quickly picking up the note that had been left, which had an address down in the docks on it, as Barbara dropped down behind him.
"I thought he'd spotted me." She said, breathing hard as she grabbed him and hugged him "Dick... I was scared."
Dick didn't say a word. He wanted to come out with some quip, some comment about how he'd never been scared while doing any of it. He couldn't. He knew he'd be lying, and he knew it wouldn't do her any good. So he stood there for a moment, holding her, before she pulled away, straightening up.
"So, what now?" She said "What's next?"
"We've got copies of everything here that looks noteworthy." Dick said "We'll head back to the cave."
"Then what?" She asked "What if he hasn't done anything?"
"Then we've broken into an innocent man's home and never speak of it again." Dick said "It's if he is involved that things become interesting."
"Why?" She asked "What happens then?"
"It's simple." Dick responded, smirking "Thomas Elliot has a meeting with the Batman."
...
So, here's chapter three. I wanted to give Barbara some part in the plot, and sort of establish their relationship. I'm planning on playing with this a bit more, and, well, let's just say they'll be meeting those two voices soon. Three guesses as to who they were. R&R, please, no flames. B.