"Do you have popcorn?" Roy asked as soon as Jason answered his phone.
"Uh, sure. Why?"
"Go make some. Now. Turn on your computer and make sure you have an internet connection," Roy ordered.
Jason quirked a brow but he'd learned the hard way that with some things, it was easier to just do what Roy said than to question it. "Okay, I'm going to my kitchen and making popcorn."
"Is it a nice kitchen?" Roy asked curiously.
"Fuck no."
"Are you going to make it a nice kitchen?"
"Well, I need to replace the sink. And probably the counter tops. And maybe the cabinets. Could do with new appliances," Jason said, surveying the kitchen area of his loft thoughtfully.
"Nesting!" Roy said, pretending to cough.
Jason just rolled his eyes and stuck the popcorn in microwave. "Shut up, Roy."
"So, how are things?" Roy asked cheerfully.
"Okay," Jason replied, then made a face. "Replacement nosed his way into the whole How am I alive investigation. So there's that."
"You're talking to the Bat kids?" Roy said, sounding stunned. "I did not see that coming."
Jason grumbled, "Yeah, neither did I. But he might actually be able to help, so I'm going to let it be for now. And he's the only Bat I've bumped into, so don't get ahead of yourself," he ordered, taking his popcorn out of the microwave. He then headed over to his dilapidated couch and opened his laptop. "Okay, why do I need an internet connection?" he asked, but his mouse was already moving without his consent. "What the hell?"
"Just wait," Roy said sounding gleeful.
A video popped up onto his computer and Jason leaned forward eagerly as Hawkgirl streaked across the screen followed by Green Lantern and Supergirl. They were fighting some sort of flying alien creatures over what looked like Chicago. An alien punched Lantern in the face, sending him straight into the side of a building.
"Oh, fuck yes!" Jason declared, settling into his couch and shoving a fistful of popcorn in his mouth.
Kori's voice cut in on the line, sounding pleased with herself. "Good afternoon, Jason. I got a direct feed from the Watchtower cameras."
"Kori, you're the best and I love you," Jason declared fervently, cackling again when Supergirl was thrown right into Green Lantern who'd just started to pry himself from the building wall.
"You're welcome," Kori said, still sounding pleased. Roy was choking on his amusement as Green Lantern and Supergirl tried to disentangle themselves while Hawkgirl was bashing aliens around with her mace and yelling at them to get their asses moving.
"Five bucks says he accidentally touches her boob," Jason declared, watching Lantern and Supergirl continue to fumble.
"Ten says he blushes like a school girl," Roy retorted gleefully.
"I have missed this," Kori declared decisively.
"Yeah, us too, Stargirl," Jason said fondly.
"Aw, guys," Roy cooed. "The feels."
Jason choked on a piece of his popcorn in his amusement, but then Green Lantern used his ring to create a shield around his body to force Supergirl off him and she used the momentum to punch straight through a flying alien, and then they were too focused on the fight to say anything more. Still, Jason thought, as he enjoyed the brawl, he had the greatest friends ever.
Over the next few days, the pile of wooden planks and insulation sat untouched in the middle of his loft. After extensive research, internal debate, unhelpful advice from Roy, and helpful advice from the owner of the hardware store down the street, Jason decided on a shiplap ceiling. For one, the ceiling was planked wood already, therefore only minimum preparation was required. Secondly, it was more interesting looking than just painted drywall. Jason would be lying though, if he said he didn't feel completely in over his head. Installing the installation would actually be the easy part. Installing the shiplap and replacing the light fixtures would be the hellish part, and Jason didn't know that much about electrical wiring. But, the owner of the hardware store assured him that if he installed new fixtures in the same location as the old fixtures, it wouldn't actually be that difficult. Jason had his doubts, and as such, he was possibly procrastinating the installation process just a bit. He found some neat modern light fixtures though—black monorail fixtures that stretched long ways down his loft. Jason liked them. Roy thought they were cool too. Kori didn't really think much of them, but she rarely got into Earth decor.
Jason's hesitance to start the project wasn't just about his doubts on whether or not he could pull it off though. In reality, most of his focus had been dedicated to the ever-increasing number of children spending the night in his warehouse. The amount of homeless children sleeping there had more than doubled in the last week alone. Word was getting around that there was a safe place to sleep for all the kids in Crime Alley, and Jason was seeing an increase of at least two kids a night. He'd bought some more sleeping bags and some more space heaters, and had collected all the information on community outreach centers from Dr. Thompkins. He was trying to figure out the best way make sure all these kids got enough food, but it wasn't easy. Jason bringing dinner for fourteen plus kids every night wasn't a sustainable solution, but he knew first hand all the difficulties involved in homeless kids getting charity. For one, kids weren't really supposed to be homeless. A lot of organizations felt pressured to alert the police when homeless children came to them so that they could get the kids off the street—that usually meant sending the kids straight back into whatever abusive situation they fled from in the first place, which was why homeless kids hardly ever took advantage of the help that was out there. Jason had been the same way after he'd run away from his foster home. The free food wasn't worth the risk of being shunted right back into the hell house he'd barely spent twenty-four hours in.
So Jason was left with the problem of discovering a sustainable solution for the hungry, homeless children.
His first step was to approach a woman he'd saved from being raped and murdered about a year ago. She owned a Chinese restaurant a block away from the warehouse, and she'd promised him free Chinese whenever he wanted. He hadn't taken her up on the offer, though it was one of his favorite places to get take out as a civilian and not as the Red Hood. There'd been a Chinese place back when he was a kid in Crime Alley, and the older Chinese woman used to dump the leftover food in fresh boxes each night instead of just tossing it straight into the dumpster. The homeless kids of the area were encouraged to come and take a box whenever they needed. Unfortunately, the restaurant had closed when the old woman died a few years back. Jason was hoping to encourage a similar deal with the woman he'd saved.
Jason knocked on the window of the apartment she lived in above her restaurant.
She startled and hurried to the window, opening it for him. "Red Hood! Come in," she said, moving aside.
It was rather chilly so Jason moved inside quickly. "Thanks."
"It's been a while. I thought you'd left Gotham," she spoke, no trace of any accent. She'd been born and raised in Gotham, as far as Jason knew.
"I'm back for a bit," Jason replied. "So, I never actually caught your name last time."
"Jamie," she replied quickly. "Jamie Li. I guess we didn't really introduce ourselves properly last time. You never took me up on my offer though. Do you not like Chinese food or something?"
Jason smirked under his hood. "Oh, I eat here all the time. I just pay for it."
Her eyes widened. "What? Really?"
Jason chuckled, "Yeah. Best egg rolls around."
Jamie smiled, pleased. "Good. Glad to hear it. So what can I do for you, Hood? This isn't just a social call, is it?"
"Yeah, not really. Sorry. I sort of have a problem," he admitted.
"It's not the police, is it?" Jamie asked, eyes narrowed. "I told those bastards that you saved my life and they still wanted to arrest you. Murderers walk around free every day and they want to arrest the only person doing something about it," she said, tone full of scorn. "It's ridiculous."
Jason whole-heartedly agreed. "No arguments there. But no, it's not the police. We're actually good right now. I'm not a wanted man anymore. No, my problem is that I've got a warehouse full of homeless children that are currently under my protection, and I'm trying to figure out a way to feed them."
"Huh," Jamie remarked, sitting down. "Yeah, I could see how that would be a problem. Because they can't exactly go to the charities, can they?"
Jason was pleased that she got the core issue so quickly. "Exactly. Unfortunately for a lot of these kids, the warehouse is a safer environment than the ones they ran away from."
"Especially if you're watching over them," she remarked easily, and Jason felt himself warming a little at the appreciation. When he was here before, once he'd stopped trying to take out the Replacement and focused himself on Crime Alley, Jason had done a lot of good here. Yet all he ever got for his efforts was condemnation. But he'd saved lives. He'd protected people. It was nice to have other people recognize that.
"Thanks," he replied, honestly grateful. "Anyway, back when I was a homeless kid around here, there was a Chinese restaurant owned by Madame S. I don't know what her real name was, but that's what she called herself. Instead of throwing away what other people didn't eat, she boxed up the leftovers in takeout boxes and left them in the alleyway for all of us homeless kids. I was wondering if that'd be something you'd be willing to do? If you keep a record of the amount of boxes you use, you can mark them as a donation on your taxes. I'll get you the receipt you need from a charity organization, and you'll get a full tax refund for the price of the boxes. What do you say?"
"Yeah," Jamie answered immediately. "Sure. That'd be incredibly easy to do, actually. We'll start tonight. I'll put out whatever we've got by ten-thirty?"
Jason smiled, pleased. "Great. Thanks, Jamie. Just keep track of the amount of boxes and I'll get you the tax receipt you need by January."
She smiled, very obviously happy to be helping. "Sounds good. Let me know if you need anything else and you are still absolutely welcome to come get free food whenever."
Jason chuckled and headed back to the window. "We'll see. I'll drop by next week and see how it's working out for you." With that, he slipped out and started making his way a few blocks south to one of the local food pantries that Dr. Thompkins was particularly familiar with. She'd called ahead, letting the owner know Jason would be dropping by, as Jason didn't want to scare the hell out of the woman.
He shouldn't have been worried. Tamara Wilkes seemed to be cut from the same cloth as Leslie Thompkins and didn't even flinch when Jason dropped down on the roof of her food pantry.
"Hood. Leslie told me you'd be dropping by," she spoke, voice hard. Jason instantly knew that Tamara, like Bruce and the Gotham PD, did not approve of his escapades as the Red Hood.
"I hope she also told you I'm no longer a crime boss and am not in the game anymore," Jason ventured, because the woman was glaring at him pretty harshly.
"She mentioned it, yet here you are, wearing the red hood," she said, stony.
"True, but I currently wear it in defense of homeless children across Crime Alley," Jason retorted easily. "Which is why I'm here now."
This piqued Wilkes' interest. "How so?"
"Surely you've noticed there's a disparity between the number of homeless children throughout the Alley and the number of homeless children that come by to get free food," Jason started. "And as an intelligent woman, I'm sure you're aware of why."
Wilkes frowned. "It's state law. Volunteers have to alert the authorities if they suspect a child is homeless. It's meant to protect the kids."
"But it doesn't really," Jason pointed out. "Ideally it would, but there are a lot of shitty people out there who take advantage of the foster care system to get easy money and then abuse the hell out of the kids. They don't feel safe enough to come to you for food out of fear of ending back up in abusive situations. And I know. I was one of them," he revealed. It was a calculated reveal, because the way she was looking at him made Jason think that she wouldn't help him out of spite alone. But if he could at least some understanding sympathy, they might get somewhere.
Wilkes pursed her lips before she conceded. "You're right. It's a real problem."
Jason nodded. "There's a large number of homeless kids who've taken refuge in a building I protect. It's just a safe place for them to sleep," he continued quickly, already knowing the direction the woman's thoughts had turned. "They don't owe me anything for it, I don't ask them anything as payment. But they need to sleep somewhere warm where they know no one's going to come for them in the middle of the night. The problem is, not all of them are getting enough food, and they can't come to you for it, as much as I know you'd like to help them."
"What are you suggesting?" Wilkes asked after a moment.
"That you drop boxes of food by the warehouse whenever you can," he replied. "If that's something you want to do, as the need is there. But, I protect those kids, and I protect them from being put back into abusive situations, too. I know it's not perfect and I know it's not feasible long term. These kids need more stability and need to get back in school, but I don't know how to do that in a way that doesn't put them in danger. I'm definitely open to suggestions if you got them, but for now, if you want to help them, then this is how you can do that."
Wilkes was silent for a moment and Jason honestly had no idea what she was going to say. "Okay," she finally spoke. "For now, you can have boxes of food. But we do need to come up with a long-term solution to get these kids off the streets and back in school, Hood."
"No arguments there," Jason replied honestly. "I'm brain storming, Dr. Thompkins is brain storming, we welcome you into the brain storming club. I'm sure there's something we can do, we just need to find the trust worthy social workers. We need proper background checks and inspections on the foster program volunteers, and honestly, we need a system that actually works. So if you figure it out, let me know."
"I want to meet the kids," she declared suddenly.
Jason frowned under his hood, considering it. "I'm not opposed to bringing you to the warehouse, but you'll have to assure the kids that you're not going to threaten the safety they've found there or they won't come back and then they'll have no one to help them."
Wilkes nodded.
"The warehouse is located across the bulk fabric place on 14th street. Bring food. I'll go on ahead and prep them. Knock on the front door."
Wilkes nodded again and Jason leapt from the building, hoping he hadn't just made a huge mistake. If the police came instead of Wilkes, he might never be able to help those kids, and Jason just couldn't accept that. If the police did come, Jason would fight them. But, he'd leave them all alive, so hopefully Commissioner Gordon wouldn't be too mad. Jason could only hope.