Chapter 8:

Cell Block N:

"He promised," Robin said softly through tears. "Every day. He promised every day."

Batman hadn't come at all. The teenager had been in here for two days, according to the guard in the cafeteria, and the Caped Crusader hadn't come to check on him.

"He'll come tomorrow. No, he won't. You killed a man! Who wants to visit a murderer? But he promised. He'll come…sometime…maybe…."

Using the dim overhead lights and Batman's strong, bright, Bat-flashlight, the three men carefully searched every cell in blocks A and B. There was no small teenager anywhere. No answer to the calling of his name and no little ball curled in any shadows.

"The infirmary?" Lt. Muschamp offered.

"Nothing to lose," Lt. Copple agreed.

"Let's go," Batman said again, wearily. Hopefully his young partner wasn't too injured.

But when they got there, the only person in the infirmary was the nurse. She hadn't seen any prisoners for several days.

"Even though there were two riots in two days and a scuffle at lunch today!" she exclaimed. "You would think those villains would learn…"

"Solitary confinement," both lieutenants interrupted quietly.

Turning around, they sprinted away again, Batman hot on their heels. But, just like it was when Batman had been here before, there was no light on and no guard.

"Dang it!" Lt. Copple yelled.

"Lt. Copple?"

The quiet question was full of surprise and came from cell number 4.

"Robin?" Batman called, even though he recognized his partner's voice, and the distress and despair and pain.

"Bat…man?"

This time he heard relief in the tone as Lt. Muschamp flipped the switch that turned on the single lightbulb in the darkest part of the State Pen.

"Open it up!" Batman commanded.

Lt. Copple was already at the computer, typing in commands and frowning.

"It's not responding," he stated, frustration woven through the words.

"What do you mean 'not responding'?" Batman shouted.

"Somebody did this manually. We can't open the doors until whoever it was puts in the password he or she created."

"WHAT?!" Batman exploded.

"It's okay, Batman," Robin stated. "You don't have to worry about me. I'm fine. You're here, you checked on me, everything's fine. I'll see you in two days when that guy lets me out."

"TWO DAYS?!" Batman exploded again.

"I, um, punched Joker in the face."

There was a slight smirk in the tone but Batman ignored it.

"I heard there were two riots, Robin. What happened? Full report, remember?"

"Uh, yeah, there was some scuffling but everything turned out okay. I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine, kiddo."

"Well, um, it's just a little dark in here. And kind of hot. But it's fine, I'm fine. Two days is nothing in the grand scheme of things, right?"

Robin attempted to chuckle at the end of the sentence but it fell flat.

Alfred's words echoed in Batman's head:

"Sir, he's Robin. That's his nature. If he sees how distressed you are, you know he will immediately search for a way to make everything better for you."

And here they were, Robin behind a solid steel door with the tiniest of windows and trying to make light of everything. And the boy was right about the temperature. It was warm in the hallway and it had to be worse in the small cell.

"Status report, Robin," Batman commanded.

"A little headache," the teenager replied. "That bell is so loud."

"What else?" the Caped Crusader demanded. "Full report, Robin, you told me you would give me a full report."

"And you promised to check on me every day," the Boy Wonder retorted quietly.

Batman almost missed the nearly inaudible accusation. He didn't want to talk about that, though, so he pretended that he hadn't heard and continued his interrogation.

"Injuries, Robin, full status report."

There was complete silence and all three men glanced at each other in concern.

"We'll go find out who did this," Lt. Copple pointed at the computer, "so we can get him out of here."

He and Lt. Muschamp left, hoping that Robin would be more willing to talk about any injuries he might have sustained if Batman was the only one in the room.

"Robin," Batman warned.

"I already told you I have a headache," Robin stated.

"And…"

"My wrists are a little sore from the handcuffs. After I punched Joker, the guy slapped them on me pretty hard."

"And…" Batman persisted, knowing that Robin was probably the cause of the two riots.

"Somebody got a lucky punch in when we were walking to breakfast. My chest hurts just a little bit, nothing major. No broken ribs or anything."

That wasn't really a lie, Robin justified to himself. Somebody had been lucky in the darkness of the first riot, even if they hadn't been walking to breakfast during that particular hit.

Batman sighed; this was like pulling out a very stubborn tooth.

"AND?!"

"Um, this guy Ned was my cellmate for a day. His muscles had muscles, Batman! At first I thought I was a goner but it turns out that I saved his son a while back. Do you remember the little boy on the subway tracks?"

"Yes," Batman said slowly. Where had he heard the name 'Ned'?

"But I haven't seen him since last night when the interim warden called him to Warden Crichton's office. Why is there an interim warden, anyway?"

Batman had been pacing the hall during the conversation. He stopped in front of Robin's cell door and sat down.

"Warden Crichton has pneumonia," the man stated.

Ned was the name that Lucinda was saying when he had been waiting for her. She had said something about 'murder' and 'a mistake'.

"He told me it was a mistake that he was here. Ned, I mean. GCPD found him by a body and a weapon. They think he murdered a guy."

"Interesting," Batman murmured, almost to himself. "Okay, Robin, what else?" he said louder. "I want to know every detail from the time you were processed until right now. Don't skip anything, do you understand?"

Yeah, right. That's all you need, more stress in your life.

Robin wasn't going to let that happen. Batman was stressed enough, he could hear it in the man's voice. He didn't need to know everything that Robin had been through in here.

"Robin."

The word was used as a warning again but the Boy Wonder ignored the tone. He was going to leave out a…few…details.

"When I got here it was late so Lt. Copple put me in an overnight cell. There was nobody else in there so I got a good night of sleep."

Which is good because you probably knew it would be the last time you would have that for a while.

That was Batman's immediate thought when he had heard the words 'nobody else' and 'good night'.

"Okay, go on."

"Lt. Jameson, where is he by the way?"

"Vacation," Batman grunted, ending that part of the conversation.

"Oh, well, he took me to a regular cell in the morning."

"In the block with the villains," Batman growled.

That's not my fault, you don't have to growl at me!

Robin scowled at the man's tone but continued.

"Yeah, but I was by myself so it was no big deal."

They only threatened to kill me when they found out I was there but it was no big deal.

"You just told me you had a cellmate."

"Oh, yeah, that was after breakfast. I was by myself in the early morning. I had a good workout though – pushups and sit ups and I was about to do pullups when everyone…"

Crap, I went too far.

"By yourself in the early morning and about to do pullups when everyone what, Robin?"

"Anyway, after breakfast…"

"Robin, I told you not to leave out any details!" the Caped Crusader snapped.

There was a long pause and Batman thought of something.

"You didn't go to breakfast, did you?"

Robin didn't answer and Batman knew he was right.

"That wasn't smart, Robin, you're a growing boy!"

"Anyway," Robin ignored the comment, "after breakfast my cellmate came in and we had nothing to do for soooooo long! It was so boring, Batman! Warden Crichton should find something for the prisoners to do!"

"Thank you for the commentary," Batman stated with a drop of humor in his voice. "Continue."

"Then it was time for lunch. After lunch Ned told me his whole story."

Crap, I should have said he told me that in the morning.

Batman, of course, had picked up on the small discrepancy.

"Why didn't he tell you that in the morning, while you were soooo bored?"

Complete silence again and Batman felt like yelling at his partner. He took a deep breath, trying to stay calm for Robin's sake.

"Robin, answer the question," the man commanded.

"We didn't feel like talking?" Robin mumbled.

The teenager's voice was timid and the answer was more like a question. Robin was lying to him, and Batman was furious about it.

"Do not lie to me, young man!" the older hero nearly roared.

Silence again and the absence of any sound was very frustrating for Batman. How was he supposed to get answers out of the boy when Robin was refusing to tell his older partner the small details? Not to mention the fact that the Boy Wonder was outright lying to him!

"Robin!" Batman shouted. "Do. Not. Lie. To. Me. You're stressed enough, I can hear it in your voice. Don't make it worse by trying to feed me lies!"

I'm stressed? You're the one yelling and roaring at me! You don't need small details but I'll throw you a bone.

"Fine, I may have been a tiny bit worried and I may have stayed out of sight."

"FOR FOUR HOURS?" Batman exploded again.

No, for one minute while I sized the guy up.

Robin rolled his eyes and shut his mouth.

"How does one stay out of sight for four hours in a tiny prison cell?"

Just leave it alone, Batman. I was freaking terrified, so I hid under the bed.

"I was just a little worried, like I said. There are two bunks in a bunk bed."

That's all you're getting, under the bed sounds much weaker than on the top bunk.

"So anyway, after lunch he, Ned, told me what had happened."

"If Ned was already in the cell with you, how did he not see you come out for lunch, kiddo?" Batman asked in a much calmer voice. It was almost deadly, the one he used when he was furious with some kind of criminal.

Batman was extremely intelligent, Robin knew that. He also knew that he was accidentally giving away the small details that the Caped Crusader was so desperately searching for. At least, he sounded somewhat desperate. Well, right now he sounded like he was full of rage but Robin hoped he was wrong. That's exactly what he needed right now – a strong man full of rage directed at him. Didn't he already have that in this horrible prison? More like twenty or thirty of those types of men?

"You didn't go to lunch, either."

It was a comment, Batman was absolutely positive that it was the correct answer. Standing up, the older crime-fighter began pacing again. So, no breakfast and now no lunch. Did the inmates get water while in their cells?

He pictured a dehydrated Robin, lying on the ground dying for lack of food and water. That was a disturbing image so he tossed it out of his mind. Robin was very much alive.

"Continue," the man commanded again.

"Then we sat in the cell bored again for a long time, went to dinner, came back and went to bed. That's when the warden – interim warden or whatever – called Ned up to her office. The end."

"Robin," Batman sighed as he sat down again, "that was one day. You've been in here two days. Keep. Going."

"I'm tired, Batman. Isn't it kind of late? It's been a long, very boring two days. Can I just go to sleep now?"

Batman growled internally. Robin was stalling. It was late, though, and the boy was probably exhausted.

"Sure, kiddo, go to sleep. But we are going to continue talking about this in the morning. I'm not going anywhere."

"You're going to sleep out there on the floor?" Robin exclaimed.

"You really think I'm going to leave you here alone when it took me so long to find you?" Batman retorted.

"Took you so long?"

"We'll talk about it in the morning, chum. Go to sleep."

Silence reigned so Batman assumed that his Boy Wonder was obeying at least this one order.

"You promised, Batman."

Robin's quiet voice floated through the door. It was full of distress and betrayal.

Batman had known that Robin would feel that way. But the tone hit him full force and he felt the unfamiliar tears slide into his eyes.

"Why didn't you come?" the boy almost whimpered. "You promised."

Two tears did fall and Batman choked when he tried to answer. He silently counted to five, using the seconds to compose himself before answering.

"You don't know the story yet, Robin, so please don't think about it for now. We'll talk about it in the morning, okay? Go to sleep," he said gently.

"But you…you promised!"

This time there were tears in the boy's voice and Batman almost broke down. Robin was crying and the Caped Crusader wanted to gather the teenager in his strong arms and hold him forever. But that was impossible, for now, and Batman had to answer.

"I'm so sorry, Robin. I tried, so hard. I searched, I stayed all day…"

"I stayed all day, too, Batman," Robin remarked softly, "and into the night. I'm going to sleep now."

Robin's words were broken by sniffles but then everything went quiet.

"Robin," Batman began but was immediately interrupted.

"Good night."

The teen's voice had a strong note of finality. Batman shut his mouth, leaned against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. He had promised, and he had failed.