"Double R will take the three locations Batman isolated upstate." Raya's tone was crisp, clear, concise. Like a general organizing her troops, Gil mused as he leaned back in his seat. She learned how to arrange her players from observing her uncle, Gotham Police Commissioner James Gordon. How to issue commands, however, came from her cowled mentor. Along with a great many other skills.
Her simple words also held familiar echoes of authority and undertones of compulsion. Gil heard them and recognized from who they came: Jessica.
He wasn't overly surprised by it. Raya came from the same posh world as Jessica. She spoke upper crust as fluently as she did Mandarin, Arabic, and American Sign Language. Navigating a ballroom in an evening gown came as easily to Raya Kean as wading into a group of armed thugs in kevlar and nomex. She's more comfortable in her body armor than an evening gown.
He learned that before Raya removed her mask and revealed her identity to the world. Jessica became a figure in her life after she, as well as her other half entered Malcolm's life. Gil rarely allowed himself to think about what might have happened if Raya and Dick hadn't befriended the kid and brought him into their world. He'd never have gone to Harvard, met Sorcha or joined the bureau.
Bright would simply not be there, period.
"What about the rest of the locations?" Dick draped an arm around his wife's shoulders. "Who's going to investigate them?"
"Batman said he will take those in Gotham."
"Gee, imagine that."
Raya shot him an amused look.
"He said you can handle the two in Jersey."
"Generous of him."
Her eyes twinkled with mischief and amusement.
"I told him you wouldn't mind."
"You're right, I don't." Dick pressed a kiss to her temple. "Keeps me close in case a Talon comes here."
"Yeah, that's what he said."
Dick's lips split into a grin.
"Great minds think alike."
Raya snorted at that and turned to look at Gil.
"Can you and your team go to the location we've located here in Brooklyn?"
"Happy, too."
"Tt," came from the boy seated by his cousin and the white superdog, Krypto on the floor. "Kai and I will go to the location here in Brooklyn."
"You, Kai, and I will remain here to keep an eye out for Talons or John Watkins."
The boy shot Raya a mutinous look. "Why?"
"Because those are your orders."
"I am not a child and refuse to be treated as such."
"You will do as told, Damian."
A tense stare-off ensued between the two. If the boy thought Raya would be intimidated by his dark scowl, he was sorely mistaken. Gil had been witness to quite a few of the patented Bat-glares over the years. Damian Wayne had a long way to go before he'd reach Batman's scowl level.
"Fine," the boy relented with a small sniff. "I shall remain here as requested."
Kid sure has an attitude, Gil mused as Krypto flopped over onto his back in an attempt to defuse the situation. It worked to mollify the seething boy.
For now.
"What about the cabin my father took Eve's sister, Sophie?" Bright asked once calm was restored. "Is anyone going to investigate it?"
Gil's blood curdled at the mere mention of the cabin Martin Whitly and John Watkins took their victims.
Twenty-three of whom had been identified and linked to the Surgeon.
Watkins had been closing in on that number before killing Owen Shannon and kidnapping Bright.
How many more bodies each man might have attributed to him was a mystery.
Ian Turner and Ian Corbin also believed there were more bodies. People who hadn't been identified, were thought missing, mourned by family and friends all these years. How many bodies are buried in the woods surrounding that cabin?
Gil wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
Bright, however, needed to know. It was the only way he'd finally lay the past to rest. The only problem was letting the kid go out there alone.
JT and Dani visited that murder cabin after Watkins took Bright from his grandmothers house. It had been the only place they could come up with that seemed logical for him to take the kid.
Instead, Watkins brought Bright back here to Jessica's house.
Chained him up in the murder playroom he and Bright's father brought their victims.
There he taunted him with the information that Bright desperately wanted; needed to put together his fractured memories.
Plunged a knife into Bright's chest in retaliation of the kid having stabbed him in that cabin during that camping trip.
Left the kid bleeding on that playroom floor to go after Jessica and Ainsley with an axe.
Watkins, a messianic killer who was free from the asylum he had been placed in.
Who'd likely go after Bright and the members of his family in the name of his calling.
Not if Gil had anything to say about it.
"Don't worry." Raya looked at Bright over the silver rim of her glasses. "That cabin will be investigated."
Gil knew what the kid was going to say to that and cut him off at the pass with a clear, firm, "Absolutely not."
Not that such a tone worked on Bright.
No more than Damian's scowl worked on Raya.
"Gil…" Bright started but Gil shut him down before the kid could launch into any of the reasons he had come up with to justify his going to explore that cabin.
"Bright, the answer is no."
That didn't stop the kid, either.
Not that Gil expected it would. Bright was one thing: consistent.
When it came to his father and solving murders, anyway.
"Everyone needs to help." The kid gazed at him imploringly. Begging him to understand. As if Gil didn't. "I need to help, Gil."
Bright did need something more than sitting here and going through the files Ian Corbin and Ian Turner put together on Nicholas Endicott and Martin Whitly. Gil admitted that. He freely acknowledged the kid needed something to channel that restless, anxious energy of his.
If he was being honest with himself, really honest, he'd admit he wanted to give in. Allow Bright to help with the case. Send him off to find the rest of Martin Whitly's victims.
He just… couldn't.
Not this time.
They couldn't jeopardize things by doing something stupid. Not when Bright was the one who'd lose.
"You need to stay here, kid."
Where Watkins, Talons, and anyone else Endicott had in his employ couldn't get their hands on him.
Not that Bright cared about that.
The kid never took his own health and well-being into consideration. A fact they routinely lamented over.
"The only way this ends is if we find the rest of my father's victims and connect them to Endicott."
Logic was the kid's favorite weapon. He learned how to wield it from the woman seated next to him. And she learned how to use it from her grim mentor.
Logic, however, didn't trump truth.
Watkins was out there.
Talons were out there.
Endicott had assassins out there.
All after Bright.
Before he could remind the kid of that, Sorcha shifted on the couch to face him.
"Go," she told him quietly.
Gil's head pivoted so fast he feared he gave himself whiplash. Out of everyone gathered in Jessica's living room, he expected she'd be the one in most agreement with him about Bright remaining there. I shouldn't be surprised she told him to go, though, he realized as Bright stared at her, mouth slightly agape, eyes wide as saucers. She understands him in ways I don't. Knows what he needs to keep himself grounded.
Sorcha, like the woman seated on Bright's other side, believed in him, trusted him despite the kid repeatedly telling her she shouldn't. She encouraged and supported him. Defended and protected him when others doubted him. She's here despite the hurt he caused her.
She always would be.
"Go?" Bright licked his lips. A sign his nerves, always frayed at the edges despite the medications the kid took, were unravelling and fast. "You said go?"
"I said go."
"But…" the kid's brow furrowed. "I thought you'd side with Gil about me not going out to investigate that hunting cabin?"
"I am against you investigating that cabin. Especially with Watkins, Talons and who knows what all else on the loose." Sorcha reached up to brush Bright's hair from his face. "However, I know you need to do this. And," she added with a sigh, "we need to let you."
"Why?"
Curiosity more than suspicion.
Classic Bright.
"Because you're right that this won't end without finding your father's other bodies." She waved a hand towards the hall. "So, get my keys from upstairs and go before I change my mind and have Dick tie you to your bed."
The kid was gone before she even got halfway through that threat. Gil itched to call him back but didn't. Much as he hated to admit it, Sorcha was right. Bright needed to go and investigate that hunting cabin. And we need to let him.
"Yanno," Raya teased, lips curved with amusement. "He could have at least kissed you goodbye before racing off."
Sorcha snorted a laugh.
"Yeah, my dope tends to forget things like that when he's fixated on something related to murder or his father."
"He forgets things like that when he's not fixated on something related to murder or his father."
"I see you know my dope and how his mind tends to operate."
"Your dope is like my dope there."
"Hey!" Dick's face was a mixture of insult and humor. "Your dope knows to kiss you before he leaves the house."
"That's because you're a smart dope upon occasion."
"Speaking of leaving the house..." Dick pressed a kiss to Raya's crown before pushing to his feet. "I'm going to take Krypto for a walk before going to check those locations in Jersey."
The superdog jumped up with an excited, "Woof!" at hearing those magic words.
Christopher, silent until now, flashed a lopsided grin at them before joking, "Think he really needs a walk."
A chuff came from the white superdog as he padded from the room. Clearly agreeing, Gil thought, suppressing a smile.
"I'll be back in a bit," Dick said, before following Krypto out of the room.
"How would you two like a piece of the pie I baked for dessert?" Sorcha asked as she got to her feet. "Should be at just the right temperature to melt the ice cream into the crust."
"Can we, Mom?" Christopher eyed his mother with wide, hopeful eyes. "Please?"
"I think you two deserve a bit of a reward." Raya ignored the snort from Damian. "You did end a tense situation without anybody getting seriously injured or any property damaged."
The affection in Raya's voice was unmistakeable. She doesn't just love them two, Gil realized as Christopher whooped and hollered before sprinting from the room, Damian following at a more sedate pace. She enjoys them.
Even if one of them was a bit harder to love.
"Do you want a piece of pie, Gil?"
It was on the tip of his tongue to tell Sorcha no. However, what came out was, "How could you let Bright go?" He lifted his eyes to hers. "Especially alone?"
A hint of mischief filled those dark depths.
"Who says I'm letting my dope go out to that cabin alone?"
"You aren't?"
Sorcha shook her head. "Nope."
Gil's brow creased. "Who is going out there with him?"
"The man Raya text after I told the dope to go."
"The man who…" Gil glanced over at Raya, one brow arched. "Who did you text?"
"The only man besides you, Dick, and Batman I'd trust to go out to that cabin with Malcolm."
Who she meant slammed into Gil with the same force as a runaway delivery van: Jason Todd.
A man as dangerous as John Watkins, as deadly as a Talon, and who had no problems playing by the same cutthroat rules as Nicholas Endicott.
There was only one problem in her plan: Jason Todd was a man at odds with the world, his family, and especially his former mentor.
"Will he agree to help?"
"Yes." There was no underlying smugness in her tone. Just a quiet confidence in the brother she loved despite the problems between them. "He will."
"You're sure?"
Another, "Yes."
"Why?"
"Jason promised Malcolm a long time ago he'd help him put away the monster in the dark."
That monster being Bright's father.
"This will require him to work with Batman."
"Yes, it does," Raya agreed with a slight nod. "He'll do it, though. Not happily…" Her lips twitched when her phone buzzed. "But he'll do it."
"How can you be so sure? Your brother has made it quite clear he doesn't want any part of Gotham."
"That may be," Raya agreed with a slight nod. "However, he won't let harm come to any of us." She glanced at her phone when it buzzed again. "Especially Malcolm."
That was enough for Gil.
Let Watkins, Talons or assassins go after Bright, he mused as Sorcha exited the room. They'll have one helluva fight on their hands.
A/N: Hello, all! Hope this finds you well!