Malcolm had enjoyed an eventful few days in the United Kingdom.
He managed to acquire a new biotech company, deal with managerial problems in the London brunch and had flown to Scotland to try some haggis and listen to some bagpipes as well as buy ten barrels of whiskey to be shipped back home.
He settled in his seat and pulled up the dossier on one Felicity Meghan Smoak, his son's new 'best friend'.
There were a few discrepancies in the file, a child of a cocktail waitress who managed to put herself through MIT and graduate summa cum laude by sheer force of will and academic brilliance wouldn't settle for the relatively low paying job as IT support.
It was a step back in many ways, Ms Smoak was hugely over-qualified for her current position. Malcolm couldn't help but wonder why someone, as driven as Ms Smoak, agreed to settle for less.
Her qualifications spoke for themselves, Malcolm was debating whether he should have his team head-hunt the woman or leave it alone.
It wouldn't do to aggravate Moira by stealing an employee after kidnapping her husband.
Malcolm spent a few more minutes scrolling through the files on his laptop and reading his team's recommendation of classifying Ms Smoak as 'non-hostile and non-threatening.
There was also a few paragraphs about the woman in general, mostly how her DVR was full of sci-fi shows and nature documentaries.
There was also a line about Ms Smoak mother calling her and leaving a voicemail while the men were in the apartment and another about how Felicity's fridge didn't contain any ingredients to make food.
The woman was a fan of take-out.
All this information would be inane to anyone else, but Malcolm found it to be necessary, the type of tv shows and movies she watched and whether or not she like take-out or eating in all painted a picture of her personality and temperament.
It all offered more information about her point of weakness, anyone else would read the line about the take out and dismiss it as irrelevant.
Malcolm read it and saw another opportunity to potentially target the woman, take-out just meant an easier almost untraceable way to kill the woman, a quick intercept of a delivery, touch of poison in her food and voila, obstacle removed.
Malcolm didn't use to think like this, but League and life had taught him to view everyone as a potential enemy.
Just as his plane took off to return back to Starling, Malcolm clicked on the attachment to see a shiny ten by twelve pictures of what Ms Smoak looked like.
He had to admit to being surprised, he flipped back to the first page and re-read the part about no sign of a sexual relationship existing between Tommy and Ms Smoak.
His son either valued his friendship with Ms Smoak or his relationship with ADA Lance, or he was maturing, it had to happen sometime.
Unfortunately, the other email his team sent did not contain any more good news, Walter had tried escaping, and his men had had to inject him with a sleeping drug.
x.x.x.x
Felicity's first day back was slightly anti-climatic, seeing as the others didn't turn up, even Tommy hadn't been upstairs when Felicity popped her head round; she really should have hacked the cameras instead to have a look.
Although her night hadn't come up to much, Felicity did manage to catch some criminals with some assist from SCPD. She'd been randomly viewing some of the CCTV installed around the city when Felicity had spotted a burglary in process, after noticing that the alarm had been disable Felicity helpfully re-enabled it for the jewellery store sending an alert to the local police station.
She'd also taken the opportunity to turn several red lights green to ensure the ambulance got to the scene faster. Something she remembers was useless after the fact, emergency services could just blow through traffic lights, but at least the mistake wouldn't be repeated in the future.
Okay so the police and ambulance services did most of the work, but Felicity helped them know there was a crime and she saved a mom and pop store from being hit even if the insurance company would have probably covered the cost.
Okay so Felicity first night back had been a total wash, but the idea of being able to do some vigilante herself was there. She couldn't go down the route of hacktivism again, not after Cooper but there must be something she could do by herself.
Felicity spent the rest of the night drinking several cups of camomile tea on her balcony as she brainstormed ideas and way to be more useful on her own.
x.x.x.x
"Perfect timing as always Master Wayne." Alfred acknowledged stepping up to help him take off his tuxedo. "Ms Gordan has managed to track down the new port of entry for Mr Penguin's shipment."
"The new nickname is The Oracle, especially when I'm hacking and doing Bat-work." Barbra corrected wheeling herself into the foyer, "But he's right. I finally managed to track down the port of entry." She said handing over the files for Bruce to read, "The good news is that Bruce Wayne was already set to make an appearance in Starling City, just pack the suit and Batman can join in on the fun."
Bruce scowled down at the pages in front of him, "Batman isn't going anywhere. If he keeps popping up everywhere I go, people are going to start connecting the dots."
"May I suggest we retire this conversation until we reach somewhere more private and soundproof." Alfred gently scolded, leading the way to the study.
"You wouldn't have even mentioned the Penguin if Bruce brought someone home."
"I was thinking of young master Grayson and his thirst to-"
"You can't leave Gotham unprotected just to track down Penguin's shipment of weapons," Dick interjected making Alfred's point for him. "You have to let me patrol the streets until you get back."
"No."
"It is a school night, you should already be in bed Master Grayson." Alfred chided, before frog-marching Dick away from the study. Alfred would just have to be informed on Bruce's decision once he got back.
Dick allowed himself to be escorted back to his room without much of a fight. It would help his chances if he could show that he listened to orders, "Come on, Alfred, you know I am right. Gotham can't be left unprotected."
"I am not on your side in this matter Master Grayson, as well you know. You promised not to let your grades drop below an A-minus in exchange for Master Wayne teaching you how to fighting and allowing you to go out on the street."
"It's a B plus that practically an A-minus, it's just one subject."
"A promise is a promise, Master Grayson," Alfred said unmoved by the argument, swiftly pushing Dick into his room and standing guard to prevent future escapes. "If you are as close to achieving your goal of an A-minus as you keep proclaiming, then your end of semester exams should be a breeze, and the streets of Gotham will not have long to wait until Robin is once more out there metering out justice."
"Alfred-"
"But if it is like I suspect, this B plus might simply be the first signs indicating that you are struggling with balancing your school work and your duties as Robin-"
"I'm not." Dick hastily denied. "I can do them both."
"There is no point in doing two different tasks if you are going to do a sub-par job." Alfred raised his hand pre-emptively stopping any argument Dick wanted to unleash. "Master Bruce and I raised you to the best of our abilities, I would like to believe that we also raised you to confront your issues head-on and to know when you need help, and when to ask for help."
"I don't need help, Alfred," Dick sighed, moving to seat on the bed.
Alfred didn't want to push it any further, he learnt through previous experience just how stubborn Richard John Grayson could be. "Okay then Master Grayson, enjoy the rest of your evening, I believe Ms Gordon will require a lift to 'Gotham U' in the morning, do remember to wait for her this time."
They both knew Dick wouldn't, his guilt and inability to adjust to Barbra's new situation would keep him away.
x. Downstairs;
Barbra sighed, watching Alfred move Dick away, six months later and he still couldn't look her in the eyes. "He's right, you know," she said taking up for him despite everything that was going on between them. "Gotham can't be unprotected for even two days let alone two weeks, we need him out there while you're in Starling."
"I said no," Bruce repeated yet again. Thankfully Alfred felt the same way as he did about the situation. Robin was compromised, and until he dealt with his feelings regarding Oracle, he couldn't go out patrolling the streets. "I have alerted the Police Commissioner that I would be out of town for a month."
"But you're only going to be in Starling for two-"
"Again, Batman can not appear and disappear within the same two weeks that Bruce Wayne is out of town."
"This is ridiculous we can't leave the city-"
"I've asked Catwoman to keep an eye out and patrol the streets more. Your dad has called the SWAT team, Bruce Wayne also has private security company coming to protect businesses at night. The city just won't have Robin because Dick can't stop blaming himself for what Joker did." Bruce scowled eyes glued to the wheelchair, hands involuntarily clenching into a fist. The truth of the matter was Bruce was more at fault than anyone for what happened.
Ever since the Joker paralysed Barbra, there's been a dark cloud hanging over the group, and it was time to address it.
"We all somehow manage to blame ourselves for what happened. Dick blames himself because he was doing a perimeter check, I blame myself for not waiting and rushing in without back up, Alfred blames himself because he allowed us to go out without you. And you blame yourself because Gotham needed Bruce Wayne at a charity auction that night. It sucks that I'm in a wheelchair and that this is the new normal and I'm not going to let that stop me from living my life." Barbra declared her voice revealing a different type of strength and fortitude Bruce hadn't known she possed.
It has been a rough few months for the former Batgirl, but thanks mainly in part to her dad's daily pep-talk, visits to the local Vet centre and Mr Fox gifting Barbra with a state of the art wheelchair Barbra had managed to move on quicker than anyone else.
Things could have been a lot worse for her, she was alive and had all her limbs intact. There were days when she still hated the fact that she was stuck in a chair, and it was frustrating that not all buildings in town were wheelchair accessible, but Barbra was coping, she was moving forward.
Barbra pushed all that aside and showed Bruce everything she'd managed to figure out. "I know it's coming out of Starling City Port, but I can't narrow it down anymore. Penguin could have ten containers ready to go here or none. I can't get behind the new firewall they have up."
"What about your mentor, can't she help you out."
"She isn't my mentor," Barbra blushed, Curios mind just helped her out and guided her through some of the early days of learning what to do and how to do it.
The Dark web got a bad name, but it was full of regular people doing regular things... as well as some criminals doing criminal things.
"She can talk you through what you need to do."
"Not without asking a boat-load of questions first. Are you sure you want to do this? She could end up figuring that I am working for you. or figuring out that Batman was involved in every question Oracle had asked about," if she hadn't already.
"Ask her. We're already close to figuring out who she is anyways."
Barbra had managed to narrow down where 'Curious mind' might potentially be through little things that she let slip like how she was craving Big Belly burgers, the weather in her city and a high-profile trial of a rich playboy.
By cross-referencing these things, Barbra assumed that 'Curious mind' was on the East coast mainly because that's where the majority of Big Belly Burger joints were.
She could be one of ten other cities along the East Coast like New York, Boston, Maine. Barbra really wanted to find out who Curious Mind was, but she also didn't.
Bruce didn't go after civilians, but if Curios Mind started figuring things out, then she was a loose end, and Batman couldn't have someone out there knowing his identity.