The Rogues

Chapter 10: Hartley

After dinner was over and the young heroes had all been returned to their respective cities Batman and Robin arrived back at Wayne Manor. Alfred stood in the Bat Cave, his arms crossed disapprovingly as he glowered at them.

"There you are," he said in his 'you are in big trouble' voice. "I was beginning to think that something had happened. I trust you are hungry?"

Bruce winced. He had completely forgotten to call Alfred and tell him that they weren't coming home for dinner. Robin had already retreated, hollering something about needing to check in with Roy leaving Bruce to face the elderly butler on his own. "I'm sorry, Alfred," he decided to go with the truth. "But Ollie suggested that we take the team out for dinner and…"

Alfred just looked at him then shook his head. "And you didn't think to call? You should consider yourself lucky that Ms. Dinah did otherwise we would have had charred roast."

Thank you, Dinah, Bruce thought fervently. "I promise to call you the next time, Alfred, all right?"

"Very well, sir, will you be coming up tonight?" Alfred inquired.

Bruce considered. "Later," he compromised. "I need to check on some things."

"Very well," Alfred nodded then went upstairs.

Once he was gone Bruce sat down at his computer and began searching for any and all information on Hartley Rathaway. A few minutes later he pulled up the death certificate and frowned at it. According to this there was no way young Rathaway was still alive but he was.

"Sir, I brought you some coffee," Alfred said as he sat down the silver platter. He raised an eyebrow when he saw what Bruce was looking at. "Is that the Rathaway case? But I thought that matter closed some time ago, sir."

"So did I," Bruce pulled up a picture of seven-year-old Hartley and placed next to one of thirteen-year-old Piper. "Until I went to dinner tonight with Piper and realized he was reading everyone's lips."

"He's still alive?" Alfred was shocked. "But isn't he dead? I thought his father murdered him."

"His body was never found," Bruce said, already searching for the police report. "But they found so much blood at the scene of the crime that there was no way he could have survived that much blood loss. Plus his father admitted to beating the child on a regular basis so everyone just assumed that he went too far one night and dumped the body. But the interesting thing is that his father was found frozen in a block of ice on Hartley's bed completely naked."

"Naked? He was…sexually abusing his son?" Alfred looked ill at the mere thought as he glanced at the ceiling as if thankful that Dick was safely in his bedroom.

"There was evidence to support that claim," Bruce said reluctantly. "The crime scene technician was Barry Allen so I never questioned any of his findings. But the block of ice does make sense now that I think about it in conjecture with the Rogues. It's entirely possible that they discovered what was going on and reacted accordingly. But Piper certainly isn't dead and no matter what his father has done he shouldn't be punished for something that he didn't do."

"Just out of curiosity, sir, what was his punishment?" Alfred asked as he poured the coffee into a cup before offering it to Bruce.

Bruce scowled as he accepted the cup. "Six months in a private sanitarium, he pleaded insanity and the judge sent him there."

"I don't think his punishment was harsh enough," Alfred declared. "But what are you going to do about it?"

"The first thing that I'm going to do is talk to Barry," Bruce was already taking off his utility belt and boots.

"And then?" Alfred prompted.

"Then I'll probably have to talk to Piper," Bruce really wasn't looking forward to that conversation.

"Good luck, sir," Alfred told him. "Now if you'll excuse me I believe that I am going to go and check on young Master Richard."

Bruce arrived in Central City three hours later, parking his flashy sports car in the Allen's driveway. The door was open before he even knocked and Barry looked at him in surprise.

"What's up, Bruce?" he asked, stepping aside to let his friend in.

"We need to talk about Hartley Rathaway," Bruce didn't bother beating around the bush; he simply jumped right in, guns blazing.

"Oh no," Barry groaned as he closed the door behind them. "Why, Bruce? Why did you have to do this? I warned you not to get involved."

"You falsified evidence," Bruce stated. "You convicted a man for a crime he didn't commit."

"I didn't falsify anything," Barry hissed. "The evidence was already there when I arrived. I simply gave them my expert opinion as did several other technicians. We're talking about the richest family in Central City and Keystone, Bruce. They had everybody testifying, not just me."

"He's not dead," Bruce stated.

"Yes he is," Barry sat down on the couch, head in his hands. "I caught Mirror Master stealing a rape kit from the hospital that night. I convinced him to take me with him…" his voice trailed off and he shuddered. "God, Bruce, I've never seen anything that awful in my entire life. If you could've seen what his father had done to him…that man deserved to die. Besides, we all knew that he would just buy himself off anyways. At least this way Piper got to be free of his family once and for all."

"What about his mother?" Bruce asked.

Barry snorted. "What about her? She knew what was going on and she chose to do nothing about it. Cold offered to let Piper go stay with her if he wanted but he said no. His parents didn't love him; you didn't have to be a genius to see that but the Rogues did."

"I really should report this," Bruce's voice was serious.

"Please, I'm begging you, Bruce. Don't do this to him, to any of them. The Rogues have taken far better care of him than anyone else ever could. They learned sign language even though he could hear by then, they did everything that they could for that child and he turned out all right. What if it had been Dick in that situation? Or Wally?"

Bruce hesitated. He mentally compared the pictures of Hartley and Piper in his mind then heaved a heavy sigh. "In another four months it will be approximately seven years since Hartley's disappearance. I suppose I could keep quiet about it but I do plan on talking to Hartley about it," he warned.

Barry heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank you," he said sincerely.

Bruce just shot him a look then left.

Piper was cuddling his favorite rat, one that he'd named Jerrie, when suddenly his computer pinged. Startled, he turned and looked at it, his green eyes narrowing as he caught sight of the flashing message on his computer. "So, Bruce, you've finally decided to check. Not a good idea," he began entering random sequences of letters then smirked. "Goodbye, Bat Cave computer."

"Sir?" Alfred sounded hesitant.

"What is it, Alfred?" Bruce asked as he pressed down on the gas.

"I'm afraid that your computer has crashed. As in, it completely died. It came back on but all of the information on young Mr. Rathaway was gone."

Bruce cursed under his breath. In retrospect he really shouldn't have been surprised, Piper was a genius after all and it was never a good idea to cross one. "I'll be home in a few hours," he said then hung up the phone.

Once he was certain that Bruce was gone and very much out of hearing distance Barry grabbed his cell phone and dialed. He paced up and down impatiently for all of thirty seconds before a very grumpy, "What?" answered.

"Len!" Barry was thrilled that the Rogue had heard him. "We need to talk."

"It's midnight and some of us have to get up in the morning and pull heists," Len grumbled.

"Batman knows about Hartley."

"How?" Len demanded, suddenly sounding more alert.

"I don't know," Barry said honestly. "But he knows and he is not happy about it."

"What does he intend to do about it, that's what I want to know."

"He wants to talk to Hartley but he has promised to keep quiet about it until after the seven years are up."

"Small comfort," Len sighed then fell silent for several seconds before speaking again. "I know he's your friend, Barry, but if he hurts Piper in any way whatsoever I will kill him. Is that understood?"

"Yes," Barry replied. "I understand."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye." Barry hung up the phone and sighed heavily. There were days when he really, really hated his life.

"What was that about Piper?" Sam asked.

Len turned to see the other Rogues staring at him, angry expressions on their faces. "Batman did a little digging into Hartley. He's promised to be quiet though."

"Should we call Piper?" Mark asked, his wand crackling.

"Great idea," Digger said.

"We don't want to scare the kid," Mick said reasonably. "Besides, he's probably already thinking of a great way to get back at Batman."

"That's true," Len agreed and sat down on his bed. "We'll call him in the morning."

A/N: Hope you liked! Please read and review!
A/N/N: Oh and Piper's sister doesn't exist in this universe. Well unless you count the rat that he named Jerrie.