Hello, everyone! This is a Batman AU story with a girl who is basically the Dick Grayson "Robin" character. Like, a very, very, very AU female Dick Grayson. Enjoy, and thanks for reading! Disclaimer: I own nothing Batman or D.C.
...
"You heard me. Do I need to repeat it?"
Alfred Pennyworth stared down the hallway at the girl who had just uttered a terrible racial slur, directed towards a petite girl crouched against the wall. Alfred stood up, half intending to go and break up the situation when a third girl swung around the corner and slid to a stop by the bigger girl. An oversized sweatshirt, joggers, and hightops gave off a tomboyish vibe, but despite her casual clothing choice, she was a beautiful girl with dark waves and bright eyes.
"Hey, Lia, I'd love for you to repeat it," she said. She was shorter than the bully, but that didn't stop her from drawing up to her full height and looking her dead in the eye.
The big girl, Lia, replied with a sloppy grin and chuckled, "Ah, you think you can protect this little freak? She's a…" Lia leaned in and whispered something in the girl's ear. She chuckled and stepped backward.
"Ah, Lia," she sighed. "It is too bad you said it twice. Now I'm going to hit you."
"If you hit me, they'll send you to the office," said Lia.
"I'll go there myself," said the girl. "Believe me. It's worth it." And instantly, her fist connected with Lia's jaw, dropping the big girl to the ground. "Holly, run and find your group monitor," urged the protector to the small child. The little girl scrambled to her feet and ran away while Lia groaned on the floor.
The third girl, shaking her hand out, sighed, and started down the hall toward Alfred.
"I'm telling Mrs. Franklin!" shrieked Lia, crawling to her feet.
"I'll already be in the office," said the girl, without even turning around. She came to a stop and dropped onto the opposite end of the bench from Alfred.
Lia stomped by and flung the office door open. Muffled yelling filtered out from the closed door, which eventually swung open as a middle-aged woman stepped out. Lia followed her, stomping off with a toss of her head at Ella, and the woman sighed, massaging her temples. "Ella, do not move a muscle," she said. "Mr. Pennyworth, thank you for waiting. Mrs. Franklin will see you now."
Alfred sighed approvingly and stood, following the woman into the office. He took a right and stepped through a doorway to find himself in a small office with papers piled in many places and a little, fierce-looking woman seated behind a cluttered desk.
"Have a seat, Mr. Pennyworth," she invited, barely looking up from scrawling across a notepad.
"Ah, thank you," nodded Alfred, lowering himself gently onto a rather precarious-looking folding chair.
"Now then," said Mrs. Franklin, looking up, "thank you so much for coming. It seems there was a mistake in last month's funding, and, as I'm sure you can tell, we need all the income we can get to care for the girls."
Alfred smiled, "We are very sorry if there has been a problem, but I have personally gone over all the files myself, and I can't seem to find the mistake in the numbers. Are you sure you didn't receive last month's funding?"
"Quite positive, Mr. Pennyworth," nodded Mrs. Franklin, reaching up to adjust her glasses to the bridge of her nose.
"I see," nodded Alfred, and he did indeed. From the short time he had spent in the home for girls, it was plain to him that most of the Wayne Foundation's money was not used for the bettering of the housing as it was supposed to do. He wondered how much the woman sitting before him had squandered for herself. Perhaps even all of last month's check? "I am so glad I was able to come down and have this meeting. Normally one of the direct employees of the Wayne Foundation would have addressed it, but Mr. Wayne wanted me to handle this since he is otherwise occupied." In truth, Bruce Wayne had suspected the home was misusing the money, and since Mrs. Franklin was a tough woman to meet with, it had somehow worked out at a time he was not available and he had pleaded with Alfred to make the meeting. Alfred had insisted it was not his area to meddle in the Wayne Foundation's affairs, but Bruce had explained the situation and Alfred reluctantly agreed to meet with Mrs. Franklin. He was happy he had and not one of the well-meaning, but simpler minded, accountants working through the foundation.
"I hope Mr. Wayne is well," said Mrs. Franklin, flashing an incredibly fake smile.
"Oh, very well, yes, thank you," nodded Alfred. "Um, one last question, Mrs. Franklin. A sweet young girl was waiting outside to meet with you. There was an altercation in the hall, and she hit another girl…"
"Oh, Ella" interrupted Mrs. Franklin. "She is always getting herself into trouble. I suppose one of the bigger girls was using language Ella didn't approve of, and she decided it was her place to intervene. It is a regular occurrence."
"What will happen to her?" asked Alfred.
"Oh, we'll place her," shrugged Mrs. Franklin, nonchalantly shuffling through some papers on her desk.
"Place her? You mean in a foster home?" asked Alfred.
"Yes," replied Mrs. Franklin, finding the paper she was looking for and studying it intently. "Here are the statistics for last month's funding, Mr. Pennyworth."
"Yes, thank you," nodded Alfred, taking the paper, which he barely glanced over. "Has she been placed before, then?"
"Ella?" asked Mrs. Franklin, "oh, for heaven's sake, yes. Constantly. We can't keep her anywhere. She always makes up some incredible story of the couple beating her or something, and we end up with her back here, causing trouble. She is going to be one of our endless cycles until she is of age. I'm sure of it. We place her in a home as punishment because she seems to hate it so much. Maybe one day we will get through to her that it is not her place to inflict judgment on the other girls."
"But what of the child that was bullying?" asked Alfred.
"Mr. Pennyworth, I cannot monitor every word that is said here," smiled Mrs. Franklin, taking her glasses off and tapping them on the desk. "The girls need to learn to live in the real world."
"But you can punish a child for physically assaulting another?" asked Alfred.
"Of course," scoffed Mrs. Franklin. "We can't have the girls pummeling each other, now can we? Is there anything else I can do for you, Mr. Pennyworth?"
Alfred lifted an eyebrow and shifted in his uncomfortable chair, "Perhaps there is, Mrs. Franklin."
...
"How did you pack so fast?" asked the red-headed girl perched on the edge of Ella's bunk.
"I'm used to packing," shrugged Ella. "I'm moved around just about every three or four months."
"Where is ya going?"
"No idea," said Ella, throwing her backpack over her shoulder. "See you around, Grace. Unless you get into a home before I get back."
Ella left the dormitory and made her way downstairs and out the front door, where a car would be waiting as Mrs. Franklin had said. Mrs. Allen, Ella's group monitor, was waiting on the front steps.
"Alright, Ella," she said. "Please try to be good this time around. This isn't one you want to mess up."
"Yeah, whatever," said Ella, glancing at the car. It looked very nice, but Ella didn't exactly know much about vehicles to be sure. "I'll probably get beat up after the dad spends the night in a bar then get shipped back here because I'm too annoying, just like every other time."
"Ella…just try to be good," sighed Mrs. Allen. "I'm serious. You don't want to mess this one up."
Ella sighed and plodded down the steps to the car. An older man stepped forward and opened the back door for her.
"And there we are, miss," he smiled. "May I take your backpack?"
Ella was somewhat caught off guard by the situation and froze, "I…um. Oh, that's okay. I can handle it." People didn't generally offer to do things for her.
"As you wish, miss," smiled the man.
Ella crawled into the backseat and knew immediately that this was indeed a very nice car. Incredibly nice. Possibly the nicest car in Gotham.
The older man slid into the driver's seat and pulled the car away from Gotham's Home for Girls, to which Ella barely gave a second glance.
"My name is Alfred Pennyworth," said the man. "You may call me Alfred. I am Mr. Bruce Wayne's butler."
"Bruce Wayne!" cried Ella. "The billionaire?" She leaned forward, her arms over the seat.
"Yes," said Alfred. "It is an honor for Mr. Wayne to have you join him at Wayne Manor, and we hope you will be very comfortable there."
"Wayne…Manor," said Ella, her voice becoming rather quiet. "I…I didn't know Bruce Wayne was involved in foster care."
"Master Wayne is very passionate about helping the city's youth," said Alfred. "He will be very pleased to meet you this evening when he returns home from work." Under his breath, Alfred added, "And after I tell him you exist."
Ella's heart was pounding in her chest, and her mind was swirling with questions. Bruce Wayne was to be her foster parent. Was this a charity case for the press? What was Wayne Manor like? What was Bruce Wayne like, for that matter?
"And, my dear, in this car, we sit with our bottoms on the seat," said Alfred, carefully steering the car onto the main road.
Ella flushed and leaned backward, "Oh, yes, sir."
The car ride proved uneventful for the twenty-five minutes it took to get to Wayne Manor, though uneventful in Ella's mind was much different from Alfred's. What the girl did not realize through Alfred's endless questions and patience was that he was finding out little details about her, such as what she liked to eat and what she enjoyed doing. If a foster parent had asked Ella such questions, she would have been shocked indeed since they rarely seemed to take any interest in her. It didn't faze her that Mr. Wayne's butler did, as she assumed he was making small talk, but mainly because she found herself slightly distracted thinking about the billionaire himself. She had seen paparazzi pictures of him once or twice on newspapers, but couldn't remember how he looked. She also couldn't remember if he was considered pleasant or not. She supposed he had to be somewhat decent if he donated so much money to the girls' home, but then again, they never saw the effects of that money. Most of it was used up by the directors for cars and fancy offices.
"And here we are, Miss Ferrera," said Alfred, pulling into a long drive. "Wayne Manor."
It was beyond anything Ella could have possibly imagined it to be. The first thing she saw was the three high towers on the front of the mansion, but she quickly noticed there were three more on the back. She could make out a garden area and what seemed to be a swimming pool to the left at the base of a hill, which could be reached by a magnificent staircase built into the ground. The drive took them directly to the front door and around a beautiful fountain surrounding by well-kept shrubs.
Alfred brought the car to a stop and got out, opening the door for Ella. She thanked him as she crawled out and looked up at the enormous structure before her, completely blown away by its size.
"Welcome home, Miss Ferrera," said Alfred, bowing slightly and holding out his hand towards the front door.
"How do you…how does he…how do you run such a huge place?" asked Ella, wondering how Alfred managed to Windex the massive windows above her.
Alfred chuckled, "A well-trained staff keeps the building in tip-top shape, but they are only here twice a week. The gardeners live in homes at the right of the grounds and cooking isn't exactly hard when it is only for two people."
"Oh," was all that Ella could think of to say. She rubbed her arm and shifted so her backpack wouldn't slip off her shoulder.
"Shall we go in, miss?" asked Alfred.
"Um, yes, sir," nodded Ella, following the man towards the front door.
Alfred glanced back at her, and his eyebrow raised slightly. She was incredibly polite, and he had noticed not even a glimmer of defiance in her throughout the whole trip. Problem child, indeed. This girl was nothing of the sort. She was a child who needed to be loved.
...
I go through various phases of being obsessed with Batman and I guess this is one of them. Thanks for sticking with me through chapter one! Chapter two should be finished soon.