On the long drive back to Gotham, Edward thinks. About everything.
He had been on his way to the clinic that Lee had set up at the orphanage when he spied a tiny girl in the hallway, waiting outside its door. The cuts and bruises on her body had caught his attention. They looked fresh - and they didn't look accidental.
He walks over to her and crouches down to her level. "Hey there, I'm a friend of Doc Thompkins. Can you tell me what happened to you?"
"Mean people."
He goes cold to the bone as his own history rushes back to him. "Can you tell me about these mean people?"
She shakes her head from side to side.
"Edwardine?" Lee's head pops out into the hallway, calling in her next patient. The little girl leaves his side to join her.
Edwardine?
He watches as Lee greets her, bends over, and places a comforting hand on her back. He notices that their hair looks exactly the same. Lee could practically be her mother. The little girl looks back at him and pushes her glasses up her nose and sniffles a little before following her in.
"Who was that little girl?" Edward asks Lee once the workday is over, hoping she hadn't switched to The Doc just yet as she was prone to do at the end of the day - those two had an arrangement - but the way the conversation ends up going, he can't tell which one he's talking to.
"Which girl?"
"Edwardine."
She laughs and shakes her head. "I can't believe someone actually named their child that."
"Hey!"
"Sorry. What did you want to know about her?"
"Who beat her up today?"
"She refuses to say, but the teachers tell me she's picked on pretty severely by her peers. I suspect it was one of them."
"Then it would be someone she has to live with day in and day out. She has no escape . . ."
"Such is life at the orphanage," she answers nonchalantly.
His hackles go up.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"That's a terrible attitude."
"Edward, it's beyond my expertise to fix," she says firmly. "I'm a doctor and I'm doing what I can for these kids, here at the clinic. If I can get them to tell me who's been hurting them, I always let the headmaster know. But it's an uphill battle."
"Well, it's not enough," he grumbles.
"What?" She hadn't heard him.
He stands up and walks out.
Later, Edward finds Edwardine's dormitory and makes some pretense with the house mother about Lee needing to see her back at the clinic even though it is late.
Better make good on what he'd said. He walks her all the way back to the clinic and sits her down in on a bench in the empty hallway outside of Lee's office, taking a seat beside her.
Lee had probably made the switch to The Doc already, as she's nowhere to be found. Frankly, The Doc isn't much of a doctor. At heart, she's always been more of a politician – or a freedom fighter. But she does cares about the health and well-being of these children - she just lets Lee handle it most of the time.
"Edwardine, sweetheart, the clinic is deserted right now so no one's going to overhear us. You're safe here." Edward wishes someone had cared enough about his well-being when he was younger to actually ask him about it. "I know someone's hurting you and I want to help. Can you tell me what's going on?"
The girl bows her head and her ears poke up through her black hair as she does so. Then she starts crying. "It's everyone."
"Everyone?"
"I can't tell you who's hurting me because everyone is!" Her chin quivers as tears continue to run down her cheeks. "Because I've got glasses, Dumbo ears, and a stupid name!"
"Hey, now!" he protests. "Those people are morons. You don't deserve to be picked on for such silly things. You know that, right?"
She looks doubtful.
"Look, I've got glasses." He reaches up to the frame of the pair he's wearing and taps them with his index finger.
Edwardine just stares at him
"And my ears are kinda big too."
Somehow he manages to make them wiggle.
"And you know what?" Edward continues. "I resent what you just said about your name."
She looks really confused and stops crying for a moment. "What?"
"I've got the same name."
"Edwardine?"
"The boy equivalent. Edward. And you know what?"
"What?"
"If I had a daughter, I would proudly name her Edwardine."
Or Kristen.
But I already did that. And I lost her . . .
"Really?"
"Yes. It's a beautiful name and you should take pride in it!"
"But, Mr. Edward . . ." She hiccups, holding back another sob before whining, ". . . it sounds like a boy name! That's why they make fun of me."
He thinks for a bit before he says, "Then change it."
"I can do that?"
"Yes. I have gone by Ed, Edward, Eddie . . . among other things." No need to tell her he's gone by The Riddler, too. The entire orphanage knows that already. "Just pick something."
A smile breaks out on her face. It is delightful to see. "Well . . . I do like the last part of my name."
"Dine?"
She nods. "I've always wanted people to call me Dini."
"Then Dini it is!" he says enthusiastically, punctuating it with an okay sign.
Edward thinks back to how he had made that little girl so happy in that very moment, but he knows that it won't last. Her torment will continue at the hands of her peers, as it did for him.
Edward makes a vow to find out which kids have been hurting her and to stop them once he returns from Gotham.