Summary: Living in that old house by yourself is lonely they said. Get a roommate they said. It would be fun they said. Yes well fortunately for herself the clowns, sirens, doctors, lawyers, armed assassins, birds, and even bats have decided to make her big "scary house" Gothams #1 crashing pad, how lucky. She should've just opened that damn coffee shop instead

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Batman/DC comics/enterprises

It had been a day since Stephanie had rescued? Kidnapped? whichever it was, she had taken the strange man home with her. Thankfully it wasn't a day the maids nor the gardener worked, though at the same time meant she had to drag the man to the front porch, up the flight of stairs and into a spare room all by herself.

After ensuring she hadn't been followed and that all entrances and exits were sealed as well as all the newly installed security systems were on, Stephanie grabbed her medical supplies and rushed to the man's bedside. While he appeared mostly bloody, the majority externally seemed to have come from someone else (a thought she rather not think about). However, when she felt for any wounds on his midsection, she found a very large but not too deep cut.

She might not be a licensed medical person, Stephanie had taken a few medical and nursing classes while in high school. And while she had been one of the unofficial people to seek out if you had gotten into a fight in school for medical treatment, the majority of what she used to deal with were small and or shallow knife cuts and bruises, no stitches nor setting bones which ultimately wasn't the most helpful. Not an expert but not an idiot, Stephanie did what she could for the man's side wound that would keep it uninfected and cleaned. Bandaging and cleaning the small cuts and wounds he had, Stephanie stayed there with him, waiting until he awoke.

She knew she would be in deep shit no matter what happened. In the back of her mind, she had prayed it was some superhero or at the very least a vigilante who had cut the line with killing innocent and stupid people who save unconscious men in the street. On the other hand, this person could be the fucking Joker under that hood mask thing whatever it was. Stephanie did contemplate with removing it to make sure it wasn't Arkham's most wanted and calling the cops before he regained consciousness. But ultimately voted against such a thing as if it was a hero she might discover their secret identity and not only jeopardize them but put her at risk too.

Through all the thinking and worrying she hadn't noticed the man had regained consciousness (in all fairness he did have a mask shielding his eyes and face). It was only when a large hand reached and grabbed hold of her wrist did she realize, yelping out in surprise and fear.

"Where am I?"

Surprised by the sound of his low but nice sounding voice, though breathy as she could tell he was in pain, she answered as calmly as she could, "You're in the Claue Manor."

Of course, this answer wasn't good enough as he proceeded to yank her down right in front of his mask. Even injured he had enough strength to break her small wrist so she did her best not to retaliate in case her pulling away could cause the man to accidentally (or maybe not accidentally) snap it.

"Why the fuck am I in the Claue Manor and who are you?" He hissed out angrily and painfully, Stephanie was 85% sure he reopened the wound in his side.

"My name is Stephanie Claue," she stated as she felt his fingers twitch when she said her last name, possibly out of recognition? "You passed out in the middle of the street in front of my car, you're injured, and being the idiotic moron that I am, I brought you back to my house."

The room remained silent for a few moments as the man remained quiet, letting the information sink in before letting out a sigh, "You are an idiot." He almost would have laughed if he wasn't in so much pain, he definitely could feel it bleeding, shit.

"You should've just left me there you know," he told her clenching his teeth as she redressed his wound.

She rolled her eyes, "Would you have preferred me leaving you bleeding out in the streets then?" Her question was met with silence.

"How do you know I won't kill you? I could easily do it right now," he told her tightening the hold on her arm once more in a show of strength.

"Because if you were going to kill me, you would've done so already." She paused placing her free hand onto the man's hand which held her other, "And don't misunderstand, I know you can kill me now, even if you are injured, but you and I both know what the repercussions would be if I died. Not to mention you're DNA is all over, tying you down to the murder."

He knew she was right about it all. If she died the spotlight would always be wrapped around her murder and finding the murderer. And knowing the affluence of her parents and the Claue business and image, Gotham would always be on the lookout. Hell, he was sure that even the Justice League would notice and he really really didn't need that right now.

"You need your rest right now. You can leave in the morning if your wound has clotted properly and never see me again if you wish." He moved to protest but was surprisingly stopped by her cold expression, "Don't you dare move right now and risk spilling any more blood in my house, understand?"

Receiving a simple nod, Stephanie added, "If you get hungry, just call me and I can get you something." And with that, she left the man on own.

Stephanie didn't understand why the hell she offered him food or in fact why she didn't just let him leave the moment he wanted to maybe it was out of fear that he would die and it would be her fault. Perhaps she really did crave human interaction and she was subconsciously wanting him to stay with her. Either way, one thing was certain, this man would change everything.

One week. It had been one week since she'd seen the red-masked man. One week and a day since she stupidly took the man home with her. And it had been one week of worrying the mafia or some Gotham gang would coming barging in her place in search of the man.

Thankfully, neither had happened as of yet, though it didn't mean she wasn't still concerned for her safety. She wasn't paranoid she just knew something bad would happen to her now that she did a little good deed. Being good, being nice, being social in Gotham is what gets you killed, and truth be told she didn't particularly want to die.

When she had woken up and found that her 'guest' had upped and left leaving little to no evidence he had even been there, only a note with the word 'Thanks' scared the hell out of her. The realization that he knew where she lived, her name, and the fact he had plenty of time to scope her house, figure out how to break in later hell even the fact he had time to kill her convinced her to never leave her house again.

And for one whole uninterrupted week, she didn't step one foot outside her house. Of course, she wouldn't have to step outside to find trouble.

One night Stephanie had heard a loud 'thud' coming from the manor's basement. There were only 3 options, go down there and get murdered by some sewer monster, ignore it and get murdered by said monster when she goes to bed, or call the police so they all get murdered by the monster.

Resigning to her fate, she grabbed her desert eagle from the desk and made her way to the basement. Checking she had enough ammo and pocketing some extra she loaded the gun.

It wouldn't do much against someone with reinforced armor or skin, nor someone with magical powers, or have a type of superhero skill like speed, invisibility, flight, or stopping time. But hey, it could harm anyone else a small symbol of hope.

Sneaking down the staircase, she mentally cursed herself for not calling up commissioner Gordon or hell even Barbara would be a good choice too (though she recalled the girl was still recovering after being in a wheelchair for a few years so…). It was really too late to turn back, she was already down there and would be too scared to come back down.

"CLANG"

A noise startled her as she whipped around towards the noise. Her eyes widened in recognition of her late-night intruder, the only thought that ran through her head was 'fuck'.

Jason Todd didn't understand Stephanie Claue, she was strange to him. He'd never officially met the Claue heiress but he did know of her and her parents. He was a good five years older, at least, judging by her appearance it could've been more, then again she might just look young.

He recalled the numerous articles on her parent's death and the major press coverage over the young woman. Jason hadn't given it much thought though, the Claue's were just another bunch of rich aristocratic Gothamites, why would they matter to him? He had other issues to deal with. Truth be told, he didn't even know that the Claue's had a daughter much fewer children before the news went on and on about the mysterious woman.

What Jason did know of the Claue's had mostly come from his time as Robin all those years ago. They were one of the few manors near the Wayne residence and primary kept to themselves, spending and investing their money into things that, while suspicious and questionable, wasn't anything to be concerned about. They weren't part of the mafia nor affiliated with any gangs or villains, they were just some rich snobby people who attended galas and parties never truly caring for the poor of Gotham.

He never thought he'd come face to face with the last member of the Claue family. He didn't quite remember how he got to the infamous manor nor wasn't he completely all there when the realization of who the woman was and the situation he was in. When she had left him laying in the bed, he had become absorbed with the thoughts of getting out of there.

Jason had things to do, people to kill, and a man to find. He couldn't get distracted by some rich girl who was stupid enough to help a stranger, someone who kills for a living basically. No, he couldn't get distracted by some pretty face, she was in fact, nothing more than another face.

But if that was true, why did he return to her home? And more importantly, why the hell was he breaking into her basement like a common cat burglar. He'd shoot himself for his stupidity later he was sure of it.

He hadn't even realized what he was doing when he had found himself climbing into a broken basement window that night. It wasn't until he heard the fast and hesitant footsteps that Jason snapped out of his state.

Jason knew one thing, he had to get out of there. He'd never live it down if Bruce, hell if that brat Damian found out he broke into a strangers house with no cause. Shuffling backward towards the busted window he proceeded to grab hold to what he thought was the ledge unfortunately for him he did not, in fact, grab the ledge of the window, instead he had grabbed an old toaster oven?

His luck proceeded to fail him as the oven fell hitting the floor with a loud clang. Well, shit fucks he thought as the lights flashed on. Turning to dance the one and only Stephanie Claue he said the only thing he could think of, "You have a shit security system"