Barbara enjoyed her job, even though some might see it as boring or tedious, but for someone like her who loved organization and upgrading systems, it was easy and satisfying for her.

She had been offered the job originally when she was in college when she decided her extra curriculum grades should be spent doing something productive for the community, so she used her computer skills to help organize the local Library.

The main Librarian, Jane, was a sweet woman in her forties who had taken over the heavy duties from her mother who had opened the facilities in hopes of giving the community something to thrive in. It took a long time to build up respect for the little building, recovering from robberies and vandalism, but eventually, it gained public funding, becoming one of Gotham's best and most esteemed libraries.

Barbara couldn't believe a library that housed most of the books that helped the majority of students at GU didn't have any electoral system in terms of returns and notifying someone when they have a book overdue. Now, before someone could take out a book they would have to sign up for an account and leave contact information, which Jane and her mother had never thought of doing before.

It was a small job for someone like Barbara but made such a difference to Jane and how effective she could work. She was so impressed by the job the young student had done, she offered her a job before she even graduated.

To Barbara it was perfect.

Not only could she read as much as she wanted, connect with the community, and flex her computer skills while going through her paperwork, but also it acted as a brilliant disguise.

A tame old librarian like herself couldn't be Batgirl? It was almost as crazy as Bruce Wayne being Batman. The perfect disguise to blend into the real world so that she could do her real job at night not worry about anyone at work wondering why she wasn't progressing through the ranks.

If she had gotten into something more on the nose, like coding or cybersecurity, as she had trained for, the chances of someone putting two and two together, even though still unlikely would be higher and that, unfortunately, was a risk she couldn't take.

She couldn't lie and pretend that sometimes being the unknown hero, watching others get the credit for her accomplishments didn't hurt occasionally, but she had grown to accept it. When she was younger, she used to be envious of Batman and Robin when they would get the headlines about how they stopped another villain and she was nowhere to be seen, when in reality she was the secret device that had brought the whole plan together. However, as her name had gradually become more and more prolific, she had learned to value the privacy that the mask had given her.

She had also learned to value the regular things in her life that gave her stability, just as Jane and the library did.

Today was a bright day, unusual for autumn in Gotham, and she and Jane were busy sorting through a bunch of returned books that hadn't been done over the weekend while they were off. They chatted about their weekend shenanigans and Jane told her about how she volunteered at the shelter for the fifth week straight.

She was one of Gotham's finest. She was the type of person that drove home the theory that if the city was to become the flourishing success she hoped it could be in the long term, it would be because of people like Jane, not people dressed up in costumes. This was ironically another point that Bruce Wayne tried to drive home to anyone who would listen.

Another thing she didn't fully understand until she had grown up and seen the world for what it was.

She couldn't exactly tell her friend that she had spent her weekend in an ice bath and watching a dot bounce around her computer screen which was following a criminal that had beat her into submission, not three nights before. So instead, she told her she spent the weekend with her father, which was partially true, and spent the rest of it curled up in bed watched a series.

Jane seemed to buy it and what was better hadn't said anything about the makeup she was wearing ether, meaning Babs had successfully covered up the horror story that was her face yet again.

"Officer Bard came in yesterday looking for you Babs" Jane called casually, well at least as casually as she could muster. "Handsom guy."

Barbara could almost feel the excitement radiate off her. She knew her friend only wanted what was best for her, after all, Barbara hadn't even been on a date since she had started working here, and for a twenty-something, attractive young woman that was strange. She hoped she wouldn't have to go on a date to distract from the strangeness of it, or god forbid have a short-term relationship, but as time went on and more people tried to push her into a blind date or a setup, she felt she would eventually have to rectify the situation.

"He is" Barbara replied. "Just not my type."

Jane couldn't help but laugh loudly before she caught herself. After all, they were librarians, and they would be damned if they didn't hold up the stereotypes of a cranky old woman who shushed you every five minutes but never actually threw you out of the book haven.

"What is your type, Barbara? None of the attractive, young, and available men who show interest in you take your fancy."

"Says you Jane, the most attractive Librarian of all time and you won't even let Marlon buy you a coffee!"

Barbara was now a pro at distracting people by changing the conversation. However, it was true. Jane was in her forties but didn't look older than thirty with silky blonde hair down to her shoulders and a slender figure that caused people's eyes to wander, even Babs couldn't help but stare at her beauty.

Jane pushed her glasses up into her hair and threw them over her shoulder in an act of indifference as if to say, 'I don't believe you.'

"How about we make a deal," she said turning to face the redhead. "I will go out with Marlon if you let that officer come in and take you for lunch."

"No deal!" Barbara almost choked.

"Is it the cop thing? Is that's what's stopping you?" Jane said as a joke, but it hit a chord with her.

Oh, you have no idea, Babs thought to herself.

Instead of replying, she forced a smile and acted as if she was amused. She pushed the now full book cart towards the Geography section deciding that she couldn't continue this conversation and hoping that by the time she returned from putting books such as 'The Wonders of Iceland' and 'Gotham's underground', Jane would have dropped this topic.

Just as she was about to turn the corner, another Jason strolled through the door.

He was wearing his school uniform, which had been hers and no matter how familiar she was with it, it was always a blast from the past when she saw someone else wear it. His black trousers were perfectly pressed, and his blazer was crisp despite having spent a full day in school. His bag was casually thrown over his shoulder, as any young boy would do, and Barbara was taken back at just how tall he looked when he was out in the regular world.

In an average setting, his jet-black hair and bright green eyes stood out and as he walked through the library towards her, she could see other people stop and stare at him, especially the young schoolgirls who were studying in groups dotted around the library.

"Hey, Babsie!" Jason called as he locked eyes with her across the room.

Barbara's eyebrows pulled together as she looked at him and she automatically put her finger to her lips to shush him and directed her head towards the young women studying beside him who jumped in shock at the volume of his voice.

"Oops, sorry ladies," he said to them in a hushed tone, which followed by a string of giggles from the girls.

Barbara almost smiled at the normality of it. Of course, Jason was a catch with the ladies, he was a young, attractive boy who should have been in the prime of his life, sneaking out to parties and trying to impress his friends through sports and video games. Instead, he had more responsibility on his shoulders than any of the people in his class probably ever would.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as he strolled up beside her, taking out one of the books on her trolly, pretending to be interested in Russian literature.

"Oh, you know, was just in the neighborhood, thought I would stop by and see my favorite little librarian."

"Cute," she said as she took the book off him and put it back in the right place. "But unfortunately, the little librarian is working."

"Oh yeah because you look swamped" Jason mocked, looking around the almost empty library with that sneaky smile.

Barbara couldn't help but laugh at that. She was always surprised by how funny he could be when they spoke to each other. She had to admit that she had kept him at an arm's length since he had joined the bat-fam. She had never really thought about it too deeply, but she had always presumed it was because of what had happened with Dick. She couldn't help but feel the guilt about how she could prevent him from going through the same pain she had gone through if she just paid a bit more attention.

"Ok point taken, but I do need to put these away," she said pointing at the books.

"I have two hands and some free time," he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Instead of turning him away like she usually would, she couldn't help but feel happy to see him and she accepted his offer, leading him through the aisles. As they packed the shelves, they chatted casually about school and how he had decided to play football, which had helped him gain popularity in his new surroundings.

She was happy to see him starting to settle in, but eventually, she couldn't hold out on the ultimate question anymore. After all, it wasn't as if he regularly checked in on her in her day job.

"So why are you here?"

"I thought maybe I could help you with your other job, later on," he said in hushed tones.

Barbara didn't answer straight away. She almost flinched when he said it.

Yet again she was getting carried away with whimsical chats when in reality this was just a way for the bat to keep an eye on her.

Little did Bruce know this was also a way for Barbara to keep an eye on Jason. Maybe only in a small way, but also may be a way she could protect him from the harshness she had no protection from. She had no one to block her from the crushing disappointment that came with this life and looking at Jason now with wide-eyed enthusiasm and optimism, she couldn't help but feel like a big sister to him, someone who would step Infront of a train for him if it meant she could keep him whimsical and hopeful.

She had surprised herself about how quickly it had taken her to stop looking at his enthusiasm as a thing of weakness and begin looking at it as a ray of hope again. Maybe she was losing her edge, or maybe she was just getting InTouch with her human side again as a regular person should have.

Either way, that was why when he looked at her for confirmation, she smiled and nodded instead of telling him no like she wanted.

After that, she gave him the keys to her apartment and told him to go wait for her while she finished up work. She hoped he would finish off homework while he waited, but she had a feeling he would opt for snooping through her stuff instead.

She picked up a few things for dinner for them both as she headed home and when she opened the door to her apartment, she was met with the sound of heavy music she didn't recognize playing loudly over her speakers in the kitchen, where she saw the young boy sitting at the table playing on his laptop.

His blazer had been thrown over one of the chairs along with his bag and his shoes casually left right at the front door. The sink was filled with plates, the ingredients he had used to make a sandwich were not put away and Barbara wondered how one person could do so much damage in so little time.

"Made yourself comfortable I see," she said as she looked around the room. "I have never seen such a mess in such a short amount of time Jason."

"What, you didn't have siblings growing up?" Jason asked as he shook his shoulders in amusement. When he looked up at her she could see that he had loosened his tie and flung open the first three buttons on his shirt. Gone was the crispness of earlier and in its place came a scruffiness that she recognized as distinctly characterized by young boys.

"No actually," she said. "Well, I mean technically I had a brother, but he lived in Chicago for my entire life, so I didn't have to deal with messy boy stuff until I joined the Wayne brigade."

Jason let out a curt laugh at that. Considering the state of the kitchen right now, she could only imagine what his room at the manor looked like, and she didn't even want to think about the torture he was putting Alfred through daily.

"Do you?"

Babs realized she didn't know if Jason had siblings she knew very little about his family at all. She couldn't imagine him being the type of person to have siblings that he didn't at least keep tabs on.

"Nope, just me. My parents were messed up enough to make that mistake once, I don't think they were willing to pretend to care for another kid!" He said jokingly.

Barbara couldn't help but cringe at the thought of Jason's life before Bruce took him in and hated the thought of a young boy being neglected by parents who were too young, naïve, and flat out unable to care for a child.

She knew drugs were involved in both of his absentee parent's lives but she didn't know to what extent it had scared Jason. Clearly, his defense mechanism was to joke about it like he just had, but she couldn't tell how deep it ran in him. Was it something that played on his mind from time to time, or was it more serious than that?

Did it prevent him from doing everyday things?

Was it why he took to vigilantism so fast?

Was it the reason for his aggressive fighting style?

These were all questions Barbara was sure, or at least she hoped, Bruce had considered and was continuing to monitor.

"You know," he said while leaning back on his chair and looking around. "I think this is the first time I have ever been inside your apartment. I've seen it from the outside after patrol, but never the inside of a Gordon home."

"Well, you have an entire wing of a mansion at your disposal so let's not make it a habit, eh?" she quipped as she put the dished in the dishwasher overdramatically to stress her point.

She got to work on making dinner for them, which were burgers with salad, and he continued to play on his game. She wondered if he ever had time to do his homework considering they would have to start getting ready to go out after dinner and he spent the next hour chatting to her and playing on whatever game he had been entertaining himself with, so she struggled to see how he managed to squeeze it in.

Maybe he was super organized and had gotten It done before he came to the library, for all she knew he was more together than she had been at his age, but something about the state of her apartment told her it wasn't likely. Or maybe he was as smart academically as he was cheeky, for all she knew he could be the next Einstein and he didn't need to do homework to advance in school, but she didn't know. Another thing she didn't know.

Finally, she put down the two plates and watched him as he packed away his stuff then attacked the plate as if hadn't eaten in months, which she knew wasn't the case.

She again wondered was that another byproduct of living on the street and fending for himself.

How many times had he gone long periods without a proper meal? Would he ever forget the feeling? Would he ever not attack a plate-like he just had?

Barbara wasn't sure she even wanted to know the answers to some of those questions.

It was strange to do regular, almost domestic things with another person again. She hadn't had someone for dinner in her apartment in well over a year, she couldn't remember the last time she had even sat at this table to eat herself. So, to have someone over, eating with her and asking her about her day, was almost alien to the young woman.

Had she really gone that far into isolation?

"So, have you met any nice girls at the academy?" she asked, finally attempting to dive a little bit deeper into Jason and his life.

"Yeah, there are some nice ones there, but don't worry Barbara, you are the only serious woman in my life."

"On your life boy wonder," she cracked, rolling her eyes. "Come on, suit up, it's almost time to go."

As they jumped from high-rise building to high-rise building, Babs was once again reminded of how the adrenaline that came with this job was a drug that she would never be able to get away from.

When you jumped from one building to another, the short jump where there was no ground beneath you, and you had let go of the grapple was the closest she would ever get to flying. She had done it so often that she didn't need to think about her timing or how she jumped, it came completely natural to her, but it didn't stop her from feeling the rush.

As she hung to the side of a fire escape of a five-story building, she saw Jason in the corner of her eye. He was on the roof of a bar two buildings down from her, landing, jumping, and bouncing from roof to roof, just as she was.

Tonight, he wasn't the scruffy boy she had been eating burgers with and listening to his tales of school woes, now he was Robin, a trained and lethal weapon that was one of the most dangerous people in the United States. He could knock you out in less than ten seconds without so much as breaking a sweat and if he wanted to, he could kill you in less time than that.

Of course, he was under the guise of the bat so killing was off the table, but he had been trained by one of the world's most prolific fighters and he didn't need to kill someone, but he couldn't defiantly make them wish they were dead.

Looking at him below, Barbara was taken back at how professional he looked. He was firm, poised, and ready for action. He had the look of determination in his eyes that showed that even though he was young, just a boy really, he knew when it was time for business.

The Robin suit was new, different from the first boy wonder's but similar enough to be recognizable. The cape was dark green on the outside with a yellow on the inside, similar to her own. The yellow allowed them to give off the illusion that they were moving faster than they were. When you are twisting and spinning, bright colors can confuse criminals trying to stab you.

The torso was blood-red with a sharp yellow R right above the heart, which was protecting one of his most vital organs. The arms of the suit were black with detachable spices over the forearms that could lodge into walls to help you scale a building and also scrape the flesh to help you escape the grope of an attacker. He too had a utility belt, but it was much more compact and matched the dark green of his army boots.

On the whole, it was a lot darker than Dick's which Barbara thought was ironic.

They both continued to fly across the city, passing apartments where people lay sleeping, a lot safer now that the two of them were out here fighting the crime that plagued their city. They raced towards downtown Gotham until they finally landed on a building and Barbara put her hand up in a fist, indicating that they had arrived.

Barbara had been tracking the man who had spoken to Griffin at the docks all weekend and this was the one place he had frequented more than anywhere else over the three days and before they had left her apartment that evening, she had checked one more time, just to be sure.

The building looked like it hadn't been lived in some time, with a few smashed windows and boarded-up doors around it. However, as the dynamic duo walked slowly over to the skylight, they were surprised to see the lights on inside and relatively decent innards.

As they crouched down to look closer, Babs could see the man who had beaten her to one inch of her life only days before with a large scar down the side of his cheek which had been stitched back up in a hurry. She couldn't help but smile at that, even though she shouldn't of, but she had to take the small wins, and the pain she caused the guy trying to bring some sort of dangerous product into Gotham was a win in her books.

There were a dozen other guys in the room, some holding guns, some holding other weapons like baseball bats, but almost all looked like they had spent time in some sort of army boot camp and were all at least double her size. She wasn't exactly relishing at the thought of having to fight her way through these men, especially after the beating she had taken earlier in the week, so she was aiming to gather as much information as she could tonight and get out of here unscathed.

The men were spread out evenly around the room, mainly beside the exits, clearly trying to protect the two men in the middle. The man who she had seen in the docks was talking to another man, shorter than him and more clean cut. He had a stature that radiated importance.

Barbara had seen it before in half a dozen mob bosses. The fake aura of power that overtook someone when they had people following their orders, caused people to become drunk with authority to the point that they thought they were untouchable.

Unfortunately, she saw a similar look in Batman's eyes sometimes.

"I guess that's the boss" Jason whispered beside her, clearly thinking the same thing.

"I think you are right" she agreed as she took out her hearing device from her belt, putting one earbud to the skylight and one to her ear. The Wayne tech made it so that she could hear the conversation between the two men as if she was standing in the room with them.

"Oh, by the way," Jason said before she drowned in on the conversation. He reached down to his belt and pulled out three matte black Batarangs with glowing red buttons on both sides of the tip of the 'wings'. "From Alfred, he said they are updated."

She hadn't received any new tech from Wayne in nearly nine months and to say her Batarang supply was running low was an understatement. She had taken to recovering them from pools of blood and washing them off before using them again, which she usually wouldn't be forced to do.

She couldn't tell if it was Alfred who had instructed Jason to give her the new updated weapons, or if it was secretly Bruce working behind the scenes to make sure she was equipped with what she needed. Even though he was Stoney and pretend he didn't care most of the time, he never wanted to see any of them hurt and he would do whatever he needed to make sure they were safe.

Back in the early days, before he had taken her in to train her officially, he had used Dick to give her lifesaving gadgets like her bike, batagrangs, and grapple hooks that meant she was able to stay alive for longer than one encounter with a goon.

"Was kind of upset I got nothing" Jason said, showing he was well able to keep his humor going during their adventures into Gotham's underbelly.

"Robin doesn't use Batarangs," she said as if it was an obvious statement, and to her it was.

"I know," he said, his voice altered through the microphone that autotuned their voices, designed to hide their true identities hidden and keep them safe. "But why not?"

She had never really thought about that before. Robin used certain tech that she didn't use and Batgirl used certain tech that he didn't use, it had always been that way and for as long as she was there that was how it would continue. Dick had never used a Batarang, preferring sticks, whereas she could never really get used to fighting with two at the same time, and thus a tradition was born.

She guessed the tradition had passed on to the second robin and unfortunately for Jason he would have to play along with it.

"They just don't, it's not very on-brand."

"Oh yeah, because our image is what matters" he tutted.

"Actually" Barbara replied while slipping the shiny new batagrangs into her belt. "Our image is the most important thing. Our image is what keeps us and the rest of Gotham safe."

She didn't wait to hear his answer before she put the earpiece in and started listening in on the crooked men's conversation. He had a lot more to learn by the sounds of it, and Barbara couldn't quite believe it was her telling Jason this, considering Bruce said it to her every second sentence, but maybe Jason was stubborn and didn't let it sink in like he needed to.

"I need to speak to the supplier directly. Clearly, they are incompetent at bringing me what I need." The man who spoke was tall and lean, well put together, and even more out of place than the man who spoke to Griffin. His hair was slicked back with gel and he was wearing a crisp blue suit.

The way everyone was crowded around him signaled that this man was the Boss.

"I told them as much" The other man replied. "I did exactly what you said. Tell them we need to meet the boss and backed away from their shitty demands. That's when I was attacked by the Bat-bitch" he said pointing at his scar.

"Haha" she heard Jason whisper. "Nice one Babsie."

She ignored his praise as she concentrated on the face of the leader. He looked as if he was less than impressed at the man's scar as she was and didn't exactly look like that response was adequate, which wasn't surprising. Drug lords didn't usually tolerate excuses, especially bat-related ones and it didn't look like the new guy in town was any different.

"I don't want to hear anything about the bats, they won't stop us in our from getting what we need, Turner."

Turner, finally a name for the man who very nearly knocked every tooth out of her mouth.

He didn't have a comeback for that, and she could see the boss wasn't interested in his stunned face. As he got up to leave, he almost spat in Turner's face while he spoke, and Babs could see the man was in no mood to chat any longer.

"I need to meet that supplier, or else I don't want to see you again."

"Ok, we should fall back for tonight," Barbara said as she clicked the hearing device out from the wall and put it back into its holder, which looked like an air pod holder, and put it back in her utility belt.

"What?" Robin replied, looking at her pack up in shock. "But we have them all here! We can take them out right now!"

It was something she would have said herself not too many years ago, but now she was wiser and more experienced. This was a waiting game with tiny spurts of action that came across every couple of nights, not a Burrage of combat fighting like it appeared on the outside.

She understood Jason's frustration, they had trekked all the way here, just to listen to a five-minute conversation that proved their involvement in a crime against the people of Gotham, and now they were just going to leave and let them continue their criminal activity, hurting innocent people.

"We need to keep tracking them for now. We don't even know for sure what the product is. We'll keep the tracker on Turner and hope he leads us to more concrete evidence."

"We are just going to let them get away!" Jason shouted, loudly. Too loudly.

So loud in fact that it alerted every man in the room below to them and Barbara looked at them as if it were in slow motion. Every person in the room shot their heads up to the skylight where the two vigilantes were playing spy above them.

They were now deer in headlights, which was what she always wanted to avoid, if she had to attack, she wanted to be the one who surprised them, not giving them the advantage to prepare. Staying in the shadows until she had the

In all honesty, she didn't want to attack the men tonight, not with that much armory, so little defense and so soon after her last severe beating.

Now she had no choice.

She pushed Jason down onto the ground beside her to push him away from the oncoming gunfire, which had now shattered the window and caused the glass to fly around them like a tornado and the heat from the bullets flying past them caused her to jump into action.

After she threw the younger man down on the ground, she jumped up just as fast, running to the side of the building and shooting her grapple gun forward towards the fire escape of the building across the alley and swung herself off. There she used the force of her body to flip herself and went feet first into the window, smashing it as she went.

Trying to get any advantage she could, she took the men by surprise by going in a different direction, she used the strength in her legs to kick one in the back with both feet, and then immediately flipped back to use her thighs to twist another into submission.

They dropped to the floor just as Jason landed in the middle of the room, using his strength to push one of the man's guns up into the air and point it towards the roof, away from him. He then punched the goon in the face, causing him to lose his grip on the weapon, which was when Robin grabbed the gun and used the bottom on it to knock him out once and for all.

As he fell to the ground, Barbara ran towards another opponent who was swinging a baseball bat in her direction. She somersaulted over him and twisted in the air so that she landed facing him and then used her legs to trip him up and as he was falling towards the ground, she grabbed the bat from his hands and cursed as she felt a nail go through her glove and into her hand.

She should have been more careful and looked to see if the Bat was rigged, which it was, but there was no time for regrets right now. She pulled the nail out of her hand and used the end of the bat to knock the man out, similar to what Jason had just done moments ago and as she was thinking about if she had knocked teeth out of the man's head, she pulled her tear gas canister from her hip and pulled the plug, letting the gas fill the room.

She heard the coughs of everyone in the room and she clicked on the side of her mask, activating the emergency shields which blocked her nose, mouth, and eyes, letting her see and breathe through the mist. She could see Jason flipping and turn on the other side of the room, now helped by the distraction of the gas, but still being given a run for his money by the sheer volume of men.

Emerging from the gas, Barbara saw that she was suddenly surrounded by three of the men at a rapid pace. She had taken too long to re-establish her position and had let herself be surrounded.

Each of the men was well over six foot and even though they didn't have weapons, they had bloody fists and Barbara cringed at the thought of being at the end of them. She believed she could get through them, but it would take a large effort and a lot of pain she wasn't exactly thrilled about receiving. Yet, she had no choice but to punch her way out of this one, so she stood back and let herself get into a stance with both fists up and her knees bent, ready to fight.

Just as she was about to lunge at the man on the end, suddenly Robin revealed himself from the mist and lunged at one of the men from behind. He wrapped his arm around the much taller man and put him in a headlock, slowly forcing the air out of his lungs and trying to get him to pass out before he did any real damage.

Barbara flung herself at the other man who hadn't tried to get Jason off the goon and flipped her leg up into his face. He was knocked back but still managed to pull her leg with him, causing her to fall on top of him. Worried he could have a knife, or a weapon concealed, Babs quickly used one arm to hold her body up and do a handstand over him until her legs flipped around and landed beside the man.

Quickly she punched him, but it didn't do much and he again tried to drag her down to him. However, yet again Robin was there, backing her and he kicked the man's arm, almost snapping it in half, which caused him to let her go.

As Babs stood up straight, she saw the man he had had in the headlock now on the ground, passed out and the other man struggling to get up and face them again.

Jason and herself locked eyes and then turned back-to-back, ready to fight the two men who were definitely on their way back for more.

She hadn't fought with someone in so long. Someone who knew exactly what you were going to do, maybe even before you did, as if by instinct and could plan their movements with yours. When she kicked, he ducked and when he held his hand down for her, she stepped in it and was flung into the air to smash directly into the criminal and leave him in a heap on the floor.

She left Jason to finish off the last of the men and looked out into the room, through the advanced eyeholes in her mask, she could see Turner and the man he had been talking to trying to scurry out of the room. Turner was holding what could only have been an AK-47 and looking around aimlessly trying to shoot an enemy who he couldn't see, but he knew could see him.

She took out a Batarang from her belt and pelted it towards the man, it latched onto his gun and with three short beeps, blew it up, throwing both Turner and the boss to the ground. Being the one closest to the gun that was now in pieces, Turner was on the ground, possibly knocked out, but definitely in too much pain to be a threat to her now.

The boss scrambled, in better shape than his associate but still clearly disheveled. As he ran again towards the double doors that were now swinging open in a wind that wasn't there, she rapidly threw two non-explosive batagrans that landed perfectly through his top to pin him on both shoulders to the wall behind him, face-first against the concrete.

"Time's up big man" Babs quipped as she walked towards him, looking around the room while she went to make sure she wasn't missing anyone. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

She grabbed the Batarang out of his shirt and let the blade cut his shoulder as she went.

He let out a scream of pain as it went and she picked up a baton that was lying aimlessly on the ground, clearly from one of the attackers that Jason had taken down on this side of the room, and she used it to whack the man's leg until she heard a pop.

A dislocated knee meant that he couldn't run away while she unpinned the second Batarang and as he fell to the ground in pain, she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck so that their faces were so close she could see the beads of sweat rolling down.

"Tell me who you are working for," Barbara asked him, with enough gruff tone in her voice to show she was serious. "When is the product coming in?"

At that moment the man, who was clearly still in pain, began to laugh a laugh straight from his gut. This only spurred on Batgirl's anger and she wasn't in the mood to be mocked today by some waste of space drug lord who thought he could get one over on them.

"Tell me!" she screamed as he continued to laugh and finally she used the heel of her hand to forcefully hit him in the nose.

"We are everywhere!" he replied, still trying to contain his laugh. "Your end is near Batgirl; your end is near."

She had been threatened before. Every second sentence said to her on the field was an "I will kill you Batgirl" or "You better stop, or I'll be visiting your grave." Yet, there was something about the way he said it as if there was no malice in his voice, but he was simply telling her something absolutely true.

At that very moment, he used his tongue to physically remove what she thought was a tooth, but when she looked closer, she realized was a capsule that he swiftly bit down on it, until his mouth foamed up and his eyes rolled back into his head.

"No!" Barbara screamed as she watched the man die right in front of her eyes and took with him all the hard intel, she had worked for months to retrieve.

She tried to put her hand in his mouth to fish out the capsule, but it was already too late, the cyanide was rotting his entire body from the core, and no matter how much she tried the man was already dead.

She dropped to her knees in defeat as she came to the acceptance that the man was dead, and she took a minute to gather herself with that realization. Death was never the answer, she knew that well before she ever met Bruce Wayne, but it was only reinforced again when she started training under his guidance. The bats did not kill, severely injure when necessary, but the dead bodies of men with families were not going to be on their hands.

Jason approached her and put his hand on her shoulder. The weight felt uncomfortable on her, she almost shrugged it off and when he spoke, she could barely stop herself from hitting him for being so stupidly dumb.

"Well done, Batgirl" he quipped and when she turned to look at him, she saw that sly smile he wore so often gracing his face yet again. "Another one bites the dust."

"This isn't a success Robin" she snapped. "He is dead!"

As she spoke, she stood up, letting the man fall to the ground fully, and got right into Robin's face, unable to control her anger.

"We had to do something!" he said back, as harsh as she was. "These scumbags are going to ruin people's lives and they attacked us, we had to fight back!"

"Yeah, and now, we have a room full of goons who won't co-operate with us and a dead mob boss, who knew information that we could have extracted through tracking him!"

With that Jason's face fell and she knew he had heard her this time. The realization was hitting him at just how bad a job they had done tonight and in reality, his actions had put this mission behind and now at a disadvantage.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly while stepping back out of her personal space.

Barbara huffed at him, turning away from his puppy dog eyes that threatened to break down her composure. She decided to bend down and inspect the man's body.

Inside his pockets, she found a handgun, a small bag of cocaine, and a group of tissues. She took the gun and the cocaine then pulled out a syringe and decided to take a sample of blood so that she could try and track the man back, desperately trying to grab onto any lead she could.

"Hey, I am sorry," Jason said from behind her, and to be fair to him, he sounded sincere. "But you have to admit, you and I are the best together. We make a great team."

Babs looked up at him and took his hand that reached out to her, letting him help her stand. She didn't reply to that, but she couldn't help her eyebrows pin together in a frown, inadvertently letting Robin know that she didn't know exactly what he meant.

"Because you and I are different to them."

By 'them' he meant Bruce and Dick, she didn't need to ask that. She hadn't asked for any more context, but now he had sparked her interest and she was needed to know what exactly he meant by this.

"Different how?" she asked tentatively.

"They don't know what it's like to have Gotham running through their veins as we do."

"I wouldn't exactly say I've been through as much as you have Robin" she cringed, worried about where he was going with this.

"Maybe not" he admitted, but his composure didn't falter. "But you and I know what it's like to be left. For someone to choose to abandon you, it's a different kind of pain and I know you have it too."

Barbara was taken aback by that and she didn't know how to respond. She knew that her face was portraying the same shock she was feeling inside, mainly because she wasn't sure how Jason knew about her mother.

She guessed Bruce had told him, or maybe Alfred, but her mother was someone she rarely if ever spoke about. There wasn't a whole lot to say, her mother had had serious post-natal depression after she had given birth to her daughter, so bad that she couldn't stay in Gotham. She had left Barbara with her father when she was six months old and gone to Chicago with her brother, James.

Barbara hadn't seen her mother more than six times since then, but it hadn't held her back in any way. She hadn't felt like she was missing out on anything, her dad was one of the best people she had ever known, but she did suffer from guilt.

Guilt that her dad was the one who was losing out because of her.

If it wasn't for her, he would still be married to the woman of his dreams, he would have a proper relationship with his only son and he wouldn't have to work himself half to death to provide for her. Like a lot of things in her life, it was something she didn't like to think about too often.

So, to hear Jason of all people bring it up to her now was a shock, to say the least.

Just as she opened her mouth to respond, she heard a thump from behind her, and without even turning around, she knew what it was.

"Hey Batman, just in time" Jason quipped to his mentor. "Look at what we got up to while you were dossing."

Barbara wasn't surprised that Batman didn't answer Robin and when she turned around, she saw the usual stoic look on his face, evaluating the state of the room. He was never one for small talk especially when they were on a mission, but it was the defining characteristic of Robin and was necessary to put people off while they made their way through Gotham's underbelly.

"Robin" he snapped after looking around. "The batmobile is around the corner in the ally beside us, take the blood off Batgirl and start to analyze them, the sooner we figure out who was running this the better."

"Sure thing," he said, turning around and winking at the redhead one last time. "See you soon red."

With that, he flicked his grapple gun and went back up the same broken skylight he had broken through originally. Barbara watched him go, having a feeling of unease about their previous conversation, knowing that she would have to return to it sooner rather than later.

"It's true you know" Batman grumbled behind her, causing her to turn back around and look him in the eyes. When he realized she didn't know what he was talking about, he continued. "In combat, I've never seen you work with anyone better."

For some reason, that annoyed her.

Maybe it was the sound of his voice, the almost amused tone that ran through it made it seem like he wasn't taking this seriously. Maybe it was as if he was that it seemed he was trying to pass her off onto yet another Robin like he was erasing Dick from existence. Maybe it was because he had been watching this fight go down, and instead of helping them sat back and watched as they potentially got into serious trouble. Or maybe it was purely that he annoyed her more than he didn't nowadays, and she couldn't differentiate between a normal conversation and a fight anymore.

"He is aggressive Batman," she said pointing her hands around the room at all the men lying with broken collarbones and concussions. Not that she and Bruce didn't do that when it was needed, but Jason was doing it recklessly and needlessly. One day, he would bite off more than he could chew, and he wouldn't have anyone there to help him. "He needs more training. How can you not see it?"

"I trust him."

"It's not about trust! It's about being smart."

This new Batman, the one who didn't plan every single detail to a tee and was willing to take risks when it came to organization, was one she had never seen before and as much of a jerk as the old one was, she could always rely on his rationality. He would be the one who would step in when something wasn't perfect enough to guarantee success, especially when it came to one of his trainees, but now with him being so willing to put Jason on the front lines when he wasn't trained to the standard Dick, or even Barbara was, she had to admit she was nervous.

"Jason has been through more than you or I ever have, we need to take that into account," Barbara said in a softer tone, sympathetic to the younger man's troubles.

"We don't need to do anything" Bruce replied, suddenly all light-heartednesses gone from the conversation. "I make the decisions and I say he is fine."

She couldn't help but roll her eyes at that statement and as usual she back down from the argument, Barbara was never going to win against him, and she didn't have the effort or desire to bark the night away when all she wanted to do was get home and try and understand what had gone wrong tonight.

"What the hell do you think this was?" she asked, trying to move on. "I didn't know gangsters were willing to kill themselves with cyanide they held in their teeth just to cover up a drug deal."

"Hmm" Bruce grumbled, looking around the room himself, evaluating the situation. "This is bigger than just a regular deal. Do you have any idea who could be behind it?"

"No," Batgirl said as she blew out a breath in frustration. "I don't even know what the product is."

So much for great intel, she thought to herself. She didn't even want to think about the harsh comeback Bruce was about to throw in her face.

You were unprepared.

You should have worked harder.

You should have held Jason back; he was your responsibility for the night.

Yet, she was surprised when she wasn't met with an insulting and harsh comment, but instead, an almost relieved Batman who looked as if it might be one of the extremely rare times when he wasn't in a mood that resembled utter depression.

"I guess we will all have to work together" Bruce murmured. "Again."