Bryce sat in the library of Wayne Manor while she waited for Bruce to return. He had invited her to have dinner with him. Unfortunately, shortly before they were to eat he received a call which had to be answered immediately. Bruce had told her she should check out his library, and that's just what she did.
Flipping through a history book on Gotham, Bryce yawned. She liked books well enough but it seemed that Bruce didn't keep many for entertainment. She got up and replaced the book back on the shelf then turned to find a section on fighting styles. Her interest piqued she pulled the book out and laid it on the table and sat down.
Not long into the first chapter the door to the library opened. As Bryce looked up she nearly gasped to see Dick standing there. When he saw her he turned around and left the room. Bryce jumped up and ran after him. Maybe he would want to chat just a little, she thought hopefully.
"Dick wait up!" she cried. Dick stopped and Bryce ran up to him, placing her hand on his arm.
"What is it, Bryce?" Dick replied, his back stiff.
"Well, I just thought we might talk. I was getting bored waiting for Mr. Wayne to come back."
"I'm kind of busy at the moment," he replied pulling his arm gently from her hand.
Bryce put her hands on her hips. "I doubt that," she accused. "If you were busy then why did you go into the library?"
Dick opened his mouth then closed it, at a loss for words. Then, suddenly, he turned to her. "I'm sorry Bryce but I can't sit around and chat. I left the library because I figured you'd want privacy. I will just go to the public library instead." He began to walk off but Bryce grabbed the back of his shirt.
When Dick turned, pulling his shirt from Bryce's grasp, his heart wrenched. Bryce stood there, her head down, locks of hair hanging around her face, concealing much of it.
"Am I that horrible to talk to? Is it so bad to have a daughter? I know I can't complain about how I grew up." She sniffed as tears came to her eyes. "I had a mother and plenty of adults to look up to but to me, that doesn't make a difference." She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling with tears. "I looked up your past. Please don't get angry! I wanted to know more about you. I know you grew up without your real parents, and I know how it must feel to have even a semblance of one parent but not the other. All I want is a father, Dick. Would you take that away from me, even with your past?"
Dick stared at her, unsure of what to say. Part of him wanted to get to know her because she was Melody's daughter, but the other part said she would be in danger of his enemies and it would be too hard to keep his secret from her.
In the end the second part of him won. He placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "I'm sorry, Bryce, I just don't have the time to have a daughter." Turning he walked away, part of him screaming at him for what he'd just said.
Suddenly Bryce ran past him, her hands to her face, sobs wafting back to him from the air current she dragged with her. She was so tiny and fast Dick wasn't sure it was her at first. He stopped in his tracks and watched as the front door opened and Bruce walked in. Bryce ran past him, still sobbing.
Bruce looked after Bryce for a moment and then turned to Dick, a glare on his aging features. "What did you do?"
"What?"
"I know you had something to do with this."
"I just told her what I've been telling her. I-"
"Can't have a daughter?" Bruce finished for him. "Dick you can be as thickheaded as me sometimes." With a sigh Bruce sat down a package he was carrying and went after Bryce.
Bruce had followed Bryce's motorcycle tracks to the banks of the river, just outside of the city. She was sitting on the banks, her knees drawn up, her head in her arms. As he neared, he could see her shoulders jumping and hear her sobs.
"Bryce?" Bruce said gently, not wanting to startle her.
"Go away Mr. Wayne. I want to be alone," she answered without lifting her head.
"I know but I worry about you, kid." He sat down next to her, some of his joints popping with the effort. "I'm definitely not as young as I used to be," he laughed.
"Why would you worry about me?" Bryce sniffed, her head still in her arms.
"Well," Bruce sighed, "I took care of Dick since he was a just a kid himself. I've also taken care of a boy named Tim Drake. All I've had are boys to look after, I've watched them grow up and become the men they are today and neither of them have gotten married or even been able to keep a steady relationship. I suppose that has to do with me, since I was like that myself." Hesitantly, Bruce threw and arm around Bryce and drew her close.
"Bryce, you're very much like a grandchild to me. I hate to see you so down."
"It's not like I want to be," Bryce retorted. She pulled her head from her arms to glare at Bruce. "Everyone else has had their fathers and I never did. Now that I've found him he doesn't want anything to do with me! How do you think that makes me feel? I've accomplished so much for my age and I still feel worthless when he refuses to talk to me."
"Dick has his own problems to deal with. I think, in time, he'll come around."
"What, like by the time I'm as old as you?"
"Well, no, hopefully, by then, all the fight will be out of him, like it's started to do with me."
Bryce snorted. "I have a hard time seeing you as Dick."
"It's true!" Bruce laughed. "In fact, Dick is actually a lot nicer than I ever was. It makes me proud to see the way he handles things- most of the time," he said as Bryce continued to glare at him. "Just give him time and he'll welcome you into his life. But I think, until then, a little nudge now and then will do some good."
Bryce jumped up suddenly. "I don't have time to wait for that. If he won't talk to me I'll just have to make him." She ran to her bike then ran back, bent down and planted a quick kiss on Bruce's cheek. "Thanks," she said and ran to her bike.
Bruce watched her take off back into the city as he stood. "So much for that talk. I get the feeling it didn't go as I had planned."
Bryce hadn't donned the Nightingale costume in weeks. She figured she had better lay low for a while, but tonight was different. It was the only way to talk to Dick. True, he had no idea it was her and he flirted worse than anyone she'd ever heard of, but it was better than the cold shoulder and clipped voice he gave her when she talked to him as Bryce.
On top of a building she looked at the shops that lay before her on the street below. Most were just closing for the night. Tonight she had her sights set on a music box in an expensive gift shop. She'd gone in there while she took a break from being Nightingale. The box was pure silver with gold etchings all over the sides and lid. Small diamonds were placed in the center of each of the gold swirls. Opening the box produced the most beautiful song Bryce had ever heard. When she looked at the price she nearly choked on the gum she'd been chewing. She had the money, but she was careful with how she spent it and if the box wasn't at least half the price the tag said it was, she wasn't going to bother wasting her money on it, as much as she wanted it.
Tonight she figured she'd do her first real bit of stealing, she didn't figure she'd give this trinket back. Music was probably her biggest weakness.
A quick scan of the rooftops told her that no one was patrolling, at least not in the well to semi lit areas and not this early. A semi was driving towards her building. When it was in the right place, Bryce leapt to the top of the truck then pushed off, launching herself at the pole that held a light in place on a billboard over a few shops.
As soon as she had herself on the building she made her way to the back and scrambled down the side, using a drain pipe, then landed on a garbage bin. The back door to the gift shop was left slightly ajar, allowing the woman inside to a small breeze going through the warm shop.
Bryce peeked inside and when she saw the woman was busy counting the money in the till, she slipped in and hid in the back behind a new shipment of goods.
It was nearly an hour by the time the woman walked through the store then turned the lights off as she left. This store kept its own fuse box inside the building right behind a stack of boxes in the back where Bryce hid.
The lock on the box was easy enough to pick and Bryce easily found the right switches for the alarms. She'd have the box and be out before anyone knew. Once the alarms were off Bryce walked at her leisure into the store and lifted the music box up into the light that shown from the street lamps outside.
She sighed lovingly as she turned the box this way and that. "You are the most beautiful music box I've ever laid eyes on," she breathed as she tucked the box into a bag she had brought with her.
Now that she had the box she went to the front door, then the back and placed a sound device at each, making sure that whoever opened the doors would hear the music and know something would be missing. She'd have an entire night's sleep under her and no one would be able to track her by the time the police got here.
Leaving through the back, she climbed onto the trash bin and then shimmied up the pipe onto the roof. Making her way across the buildings to the next alley over where her bike waited, she heard a muffled scream.
Bryce hurried to the alley and looked down. Below were two men who had grabbed a woman from the street. One was behind her, his hand over her mouth. The other looked through her purse, dumping its contents on the ground.
"Don't carry much cash on you do you?" the man with the purse said as he threw the purse behind him. "Well I guess we'll just take payment some other way." He advanced on the woman and her struggling grew. The man behind her wrapped and arm about her waist to hold her better.
Bryce's lips curled into a frown. She didn't like seeing women taken advantage of and what the men had in mind made Bryce livid with anger. Dropping down quietly behind the man, she came at him from the shadows.
"I always say, if you have time to hurt this poor woman then you have time to go find a job," Bryce said. The man turned and Bryce struck him in the stomach with a swift kick. When he bent over, holding his stomach she leaped onto his back and forced her weight on him, causing him to go to his knees.
"That's how you need to act around women, on your knees, worshipping the ground they walk on. If it wasn't for a woman you wouldn't have been born, she decided to keep you. She could have easily gotten rid of you before you began to make her sick."
Bryce kicked him under the chin and he went sprawling on his back. As she turned to the second man, he shoved the woman forward and Bryce caught her. "Are you alright?" she asked gently.
"I am, thank you!"
"Leave your things here and go stand under the street light so you can wait for the cops." The woman did as she was told and Bryce ran from the alley.
Glass shattered and then Bryce heard the call of a nightingale. "Shit!" she muttered. The man had chosen the store she'd robbed. The bag was still clutched in her hand. Nightwing would be down on her before she could deal with the man, she knew it, but she couldn't let him get away.
She ran into the store and out the back where the man had escaped. Following the alley to the next street over, she saw him running down the sidewalk. Oh, not tonight buddy, she thought angrily.
Legs carrying her fast over the pavement, Bryce caught up with the heavy-set man in no time. Jumping up she landed on his back, knocking him to the ground. She got off him and rolled him over. His nose bled and he had a scratch on his forehead.
"Normally I don't do this sort of thing, but when I see a woman getting messed with, it pisses me off."
The man crawled backward, trying to get away. Bryce walked forward, deliberately stepping on the hems of the man's pants so he couldn't get up. When he finally stopped Bryce smiled.
"Please don't hurt me!" he cried, holding his hands up as if in prayer.
"Oh you lost my mercy back there when you tried to rape that woman. How bout I teach you a lesson you'll remember for a while?"
The man covered his face and Bryce laughed outright. "I'm afraid you're wrong," she said and brought her foot back and kicked the man between the legs. She knew not to do it too hard, she didn't want him to have to get surgery, but she wanted the lesson to stick.
"A little harsh, don'tcha think?" Bryce whirled around to see Nightwing behind her.
"Harsh? Any man stupid enough to try and rape a woman deserves a good swift kick in the jewels."
"I would figure you one to prize jewels, especially when you steal them all the time."
Bryce covered her mouth as if she gagged. "Please, jewels like that I don't go after readily. No, they have to come in a much more enticing package."
"Speaking of packages, what's in the bag?"
"None of your business, Nightwing." Bryce turned to go but Nightwing grabbed her wrist and spun her around.
"I believe it is. One good deed isn't enough to wipe the slate clean." He was so close she could feel his breath on her face.
"It's a good thing your breath doesn't stink," she said, stalling so she could figure her way out of this one.
"I save plenty of women and they appreciate fresh breath."
"You should be in a toothpaste commercial then, I'm sure the company you choose would love the endorsement."
"Let go of the bag, Nightingale." He grabbed her hand with the bag in it but Bryce refused to let him pry her fingers open.
"Not a chance," she said, then stamped on his foot, hearing a crunch, and jumped away from him as he jumped around in pain. Running back through the alley, Bryce made her way into the store and back through the street entrance. She waved to the woman across the street and ran to her bike.
Just before she reached the alley, Nightwing dropped in front her, limping as he walked towards her. Her foot went up and she knocked Nightwing off balance as she kicked him in the arm. As he fell to the ground Bryce noticed the man she had knocked to the ground earlier run from the alley.
"Hey, just so you know the other potential rapist just ran off. I'd go deal with him first." She ran to her bike as she called back to Nightwing. Jumping on she started it and, with screeching tires, sped off down the road. "Good luck catching me!" she yelled back.