CHAPTER 6

That morning, Alfred was walking down the too-quiet halls of Wayne Manor, when he overheard Master Bruce on the telephone.

"….yes, I want you to get me certified as a foster parent for Robin, Batman's partner. Yes, it seems that CPS feels Batman's custody is too dangerous for the child. Because of overcrowding, it seems that the boy has been housed in the local juvenile hall….Well, I'd like to help…feel sorry for the kid. Uh huh…Oh, and could you recommend a good family law attorney for Batman? No..he's a crime-fighter, I don't think he associates with lawyers willingly much…Yes…All right, I'll be sure to let him know. Thanks, Rae…" Bruce set the phone in its cradle with a click and leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled.

"Success, sir?" asked Alfred.

"Well," said Bruce with a smile. "If it's possible, we're going to foster 'Robin' until this is settled."

"What about…er…'Master Dick'?" asked Alfred.

"For now, Dick is away at camp. If necessary, he's at boarding school or visiting distant relatives or even traveling with Haley's Circus," Bruce said. "I can't leave Robin in that juvenile prison."

"Understood, sir," Alfred said. "How was the lad bearing up when you saw him?"

A look of worry flashed across Bruce's face. "He's doing all right for now. You should see him, he's wearing clothing two sizes too big for him." He snapped his fingers. "That reminds me, Alfred, could you run an errand for me?"

The guard led Robin through several sets of locked doors to a wing of small offices and tapped at the door of one. Then he led the boy inside. Seated at a small desk was Ms. Barry with a folder in front of her.

"Hello, Robin," she said. "I hope you're doing well."

Robin didn't know what to say. He knew that it was rude to yell at adults and usually resulted in punishment any way. He decided to say nothing about his feelings on having been ripped away from his only home and friends to this strange and repellent place.

She must have caught something of what he was thinking, since Ms. Barry flushed and sat down again. "Well, Robin, here is where I gather some information about you for our records. I have some questions to ask you." She paused, waiting for an answer that didn't come, then went on. "Now Robin, what is your full name?"

"My name is Robin," said the boy firmly.

"You don't have a last name?" she asked. Robin shook his head.

"Well, what is your real name?" she asked.

"I can't tell you," said Robin. "Batman says that this protects my safety."

"I see," she said. "And you never disobey Batman?"

Robin's eyes narrowed and he replied, "Not anymore, ma'am."

"All right," she said, fighting to keep her cheery smile. "How about your address?"

"In care of Captain Gordon, Gotham P.D.," replied Robin. "Batman says.."

"Yes, I know," she said.

By the seventh question it was clear that the boy wouldn't answer. Teasing, yelling, persuasion, none of the usual methods were working. She began to wonder if the kid were enjoying this, then, looking at his strained young face she had to admit that it wasn't easy for him either. The secretive nature of this child's life she found very worrying.

"All right," she finally said. "In summary, your name is Robin, you will not disclose your real name, last name, parents' names or status, address, age, date of birth or educational level. Is that correct?"

"Yes ma'am," Robin said politely.

Barry wanted to put her head down on the desk but decided to pass the buck. She lifted the phone from its cradle and dialed a number. "Sue," she said. "I have Robin in my office. Why don't you stop by and pick him up?"

A few minutes later a younger blonde woman opened the office door. "You must be Robin," she stuck out her hand and shook Robin's. "I'm the nurse on duty today. We're going to give you a quick checkup."

Robin got up and glumly followed the chirpy nurse to her office down the hall. There, he submitted to a test of his blood pressure, heart rate, reflexes, pretty much the usual, he reflected. Then she got out the blood draw kit and he jumped out of the chair and backed away. "What do you want?" he demanded.

"It's protocol to get a blood sample. We check to see if you have any drugs in your system or have any communicable illnesses," she said, moving forward slowly. Robin went into a defensive stance and wondered what Batman would do. He would think, that's what he'd do. Blood test...they already had his DNA at the court. She wasn't injecting anything, just taking some...okay. Probably safe. He straightened up and held out his arm. "Okay," he said.

Nurse Sue, not knowing how close she'd come to having her head kicked in, gave him her best charming smile, sat him down and took her sample. Afterward, she began to ask medical questions. Like her colleague, she got non-answers to questions about family medical history, Robin's immunization history, health history and just about anything else. Fortunately, she'd read the medical files that had come over from the court and already knew much about this child.

"Now Robin," she said casually. "I understand you broke your arm last year. Would you like to tell me about what happened?"

Robin's eyes went wide, then he said. "No. I don't want to talk about it."

"I see," she said. "I've been asking all the questions so far. I thought you'd like a turn to talk. I understand that Dr. Leslie Thompkins is your doctor. Do you like her?"

Robin froze, not knowing what it was safe to say or not. He decided that a nod wouldn't hurt.

"I'm glad," said the nurse. "It's important to like and trust your doctors and nurses." She paused, waiting for Robin to say something. He said nothing, being used to Batman's long silences.'

"She took good care of you, didn't she?" Sue said. "When you got hurt?"

Robin just stared at her. "Robin, you told the court all about what happened to you," the nurse sighed. "Won't you talk about it now?"

Robin looked away, seeing Harvey Dent's face and hating it all the more because it had put him here.

"Are you afraid that Batman will punish you if you say anything?" she asked gently.

Outrage swamped the boy. "No! Batman would never do that. He loves me and.." Robin realized what he was doing and covered his mouth.

"Batman doesn't want you to talk about yourself, does he?" the nurse asked. "It sounds like he likes keeping secrets. Well, Robin, there don't have to be any secrets here. You can tell me anything you want and I'll listen to you," she said in a soft voice.

"It's dangerous," Robin finally said.

"Dangerous, how?" asked the nurse.

"If they know who we are, they can find us and hurt us," said Robin. "People like Joker and Two-Face."

"So, you and Batman live in hiding?" she asked.

Robin didn't know what to say to that, so he said nothing.

"Why don't you tell me about Batman," Sue asked coaxingly.

"There isn't a lot to tell," said Robin grudgingly.

"Okay, well, what is his favorite color?" she asked. "What's his favorite food?"

"He mostly eats healthy stuff, like vegetables. He doesn't like unhealthy stuff."

"So, you he doesn't let you have cookies or candy?" the nurse asked.

"Oh yeah, I do," Robin said. "As long as I eat healthy food, too."

"Where does Batman stay?" she asked.

Robin really didn't know how to answer that one. Batman stayed in the batcave. House rules were no costumes upstairs, so in the Manor he was Bruce Wayne, just like Robin was Dick Grayson. "Um...I guess Batman has a cave," he said.

"And Robin stays in a cave with Batman?" she asked. Robin nodded. Robin's place was in the batcave, while Dick's was at Wayne Manor.

"Are there other people in this...cave?" Robin paused again. He knew he couldn't talk about Alfred.

He replied, "I can't answer."

"Well, does someone else stay in the cave?" she asked, puzzled.

"Uh, I guess the bats do," said Robin, glad to give this woman some kind of answer.

"Okay," she said. "I understand you had some injuries last year. Do you still have any physical problems related to them?"

Robin shook his head 'no'. He wasn't going to mention the right arm twinges. He knew they'd blame Batman.

"And Batman was there when you got hurt?" she asked.

Robin gave her a long look, then nodded hesitantly. "But it wasn't his fault. I disobeyed orders. I wasn't supposed to be there that night."

"But you got hurt and Batman couldn't prevent it," she said. "And was this a typical evening for you two? Chasing criminals?"

"You're making it sound like Batman is putting me in danger," Robin said in frustration. "It's not like that. I can defend myself and I defend him too, sometimes."

"That doesn't sound very safe to me," she said.

Conscious that he'd just hurt his chances of returning home, Robin decided that it was time to clam up. "I don't want to talk about that anymore."

"Is Batman your father? Or a relative?" she asked.

"Not by blood," Robin said slowly. "But I don't really have any family. He's all I have."

"How long have you lived with him?" she asked.

Dangerous question, Robin knew. He shrugged.

"Why aren't you living with your parents? Do you know where they are?"

"Yeah, I know where they are," Robin said sadly. "They're dead."

"Did Batman tell you that?" she asked. For all she knew, this child had been kidnapped and had a family looking for him.

"I know," said Robin. "I saw it happen."

"How is that you came to live with Batman and not someone in your family?" she asked.

"There was no one to take me. Batman was the only one who wanted me," said Robin.

"There have been questions raised about Batman's relationship to you and how …appropriate…it is. Has he ever hurt you in any way? Touched you in your private areas?"

The boy looked her straight in the eye, dumbfounded. Hector was right. This was crazy. "No. He's the kindest, best man on this planet and I wish I were home with him right now!" Robin shouted. "I want to go back to my room now." The boy stood up, trembling with emotion. The nurse just wasn't sure whether the emotion was rage or fear. But the interview was over for now, anyway.

She called the reception desk and had the boy taken back to his room, then sat down to type up her notes. "Child cut short the interview violently when asked about possible sexual abuse by caretaker," she typed. "Child seems to live in cave where there are wild animals (bats-potential rabies vectors?) Homeless? Very secretive about home life and caretaker. Caretaker not related by blood; child is dependent on him, feels he is all he has. Very dominated by caretaker…" She'd heard about homeless people living in the Gotham woods, but this took the cake. What kind of a homelife did this child have?

Robin had never been so glad to see a dump of a room in his life. The guard, before locking him in, said, "I'll unlock your door at dinner, but you'll have to get yourself there now that you know where it is."

"Okay," Robin called back without moving from his bed. These people were crazy here. When was Batman going to get him out of here?

Robin heard the dinner buzzer and his door automatically unlocked. He joined the crowd of kids in the hallway, grabbed a tray and stood in line for food. Ahead of him in line he could see Hector standing by himself, patiently waiting is turn, when a big blond kid ran up behind him and shoved him over, brutally elbowing him in the side. "Hey, fatso! Get outta the food line! You already got enough lard on you!" the big kid yelled at Hector, who was down on his hands and knees on the floor.

Robin looked around and saw that none of the guards had noticed what had happened. The big kid was winding up to kick Hector in the gut and that made Robin see red. He tossed his tray aside and plowed forward through the crowd, tackling the big kid to the floor. "Now you see what it feels like to be bullied," Robin hissed at the big kid, then found himself levered upright by two pairs of strong hands. The big kid had friends, just as large. Robin's arms were pinned, so he used his feet to drive the two back, but not before the big kid had gotten a good punch at Robin's face. Then all three piled on top of him, punching and kicking. Robin gave as good as he got, then suddenly the kids were gone and the guards had arrived.

Nobody seemed to want to hear Robin's side of things as they dragged him away to a small office. Hector had disappeared.

"He was going to kick Hector! He'd already knocked him down," Robin explained. "I had to help him."

"Uh huh," said the social worker, toying with her pencil. "You're that Robin kid, aren't you? The one with Batman? Well, we don't tolerate vigilante behavior here." She sighed. "Okay, okay, we'll see what this Hector has to say. You say he's about your age? Okay, we'll find him."

A few minutes later, Hector was brought into the office and seated in the other chair.

"Okay, Hector, how about you tell us what happened in the food line?" the social worker asked.

Hector cast her a surprised look. "Nothin' happened. I just tripped and fell. My own stupid feet."

"Hector," Robin said urgently. "That kid pushed you down and was gonna kick you! TELL her!"

Hector looked Robin straight in the eyes and said, "Nope. I just tripped." He turned to the social worker. "Can I go now? I want to have dinner before they close down."

"Okay," said the Social worker. Robin was speechless, but the worker didn't seem surprised.

"Robin, none of the other kids we asked seem to remember what happened except that you started a fight. You'll be disciplined for fighting, potentially losing privileges as punishment. If this continues, we may have to consider a special placement for young people with anger issues. You can go now." She shut her folder and gestured toward the door. She added a note to Robin's file, "started a fight with three other boys. Has significant anger issues."

Robin left and went back to the cafeteria. Josh and Hector were sitting at the table and he saw that they'd filled a tray for him.

Robin stopped in front of the tray, looking first at it and then at Hector. "Hector," he asked finally. "Why did you lie?"

Josh patted the bench. "You gotta know some rules, Robin. The first one is 'don't snitch'. It'll bring more hell down on you than just sucking it up and taking it." He took a bite of his burger. "And besides, the guards and counselors, they don't really do anything to the bad ones, the Locos. You got to survive."

"But thanks for defending me," said Hector. "That kid has been after me since I got here. I'm sorry I couldn't say nothin', but if I did, he'd just go after me even worse, or his friends would."

"It's law of the jungle here, man," said Josh. "You got to understand."

Robin looked down at his tray. "Yeah. I think I understand.

Matches Malone was at the corner bar just off Crime Alley when he overheard an interesting tidbit of gossip. Two ex-cons of Batman's acquaintance were sharing stories over beer and pretzels when Matches caught the name "Joker".

"Yeah, who'd believe it," the first man laughed. "Old Bats has lost custody of the kid. The Welfare woman and a couple cops took him away last night. It's all over the street, kid's in Juvie with all the foster kids. Doesn't look good for Batman getting him back." He leaned in closer to his companion and said in a low voice. "I hear there's a price on the kid's head. Joker put up fifty thou' and I hear that Two-Face is willing to double that…"

"Really? What's he want?" asked the other man.

"Joker wants the kid dead, simple. But ol' Harvey will pay for him alive and kickin'. He's got some bee in his bonnet about that kid's the one that got away or somethin'. Word on the street is Dent's planning on an appeal an' if he gets a retrial he doesn't want the kid available to testify. Wants to make sure of it himself, if you get my drift…"

The first man nodded. "Y'know, as the word gets around this could turn into a reg'lar bidding war. Lots of people in this town want to get theirs back against the Bat."

"You're not kidding," the second man said. "Wouldn't want to be in that little kid's pixie boots for nothin'! Hey! Shut the door! You're letting the draft in!" he shouted as the doorway to the bar abruptly slammed shut.