JT lumbered into Gil's office, two venti-sized cups of coffee from the coffeeshop down the street clutched in his hands. Gil couldn't fault him for needing a caffeine boost. He had swallowed the last of the cup he poured some time ago and it barely touched his exhaustion. This case had them working around the clock. Proving Bright's innocence, though, kept them going.

The shooting outside the precinct opened an avenue they could finally pursue. Especially since it wasn't any of them the shooter aimed at. Who they were there to shoot, though, remained a mystery. JT and Powell worked through the night, sifting through traffic footage, running plates, checking hospital admissions, and searching databases for the person that sniper was aiming at.

To no avail.

They couldn't find anything that led them to whoever left that blood trail outside.

Whoever it was had seemingly dropped out of existence.

Almost as if they were a ghost.

Given how Endicott was involved, it was entirely likely they were. Gil gave up any hope of finding them when the sun started turning the sky from midnight blue to varying shades of crimson and gold. The colors of the phoenix, he mused as he looked up from the email he had been trying to read for the last half hour.

It seemed almost prophetic.

Or some twisted Arthurian legend.

Good triumphing over evil, hope being restored, and everyone living happily ever after.

Gil chuckled to himself as he sat back in his chair. He hadn't thought himself much of a believer in things like fate and prophecy. He lost much of his faith after Jackie died. Blamed her cancer on himself, the job, God. Completely normal, the department therapist assured him when he attended his mandatory sessions.

"Part of the grief process," he said.

Once he moved through the steps, clarity would allow him to see there was nobody to blame for her cancer, and accept it.

Gil told him that would never happen before walking out that office.

He leaned back in his chair and regarded JT.

"Went on a coffee run?"

"Dani did." JT passed one of the cups to Gil before perching on the edge of the chair in front of his desk. "Had no choice since the coffeemaker went on the fritz around ten minutes ago."

Gil was shocked the damn thing even worked given the workout it got the last few months.

"I'll put in a request for a new coffeemaker."

JT grunted as he took a hefty swallow of coffee. "Might get it in six months."

"If we're lucky."

Supplies was the part of his job Gil detested most. His weekly meetings about the erratic and dangerous behavior of his profiler weren't as stressful as dealing with the officer in charge of fulfilling supply requests. Thompkins had a grudge going back to their days walking a beat. As if it was his fault the guy couldn't cut it as a cop.

"Dani worked out a deal with that Cory chick Bright made friends with last year to have coffee delivered to the precinct."

The fact the kid's circle of friends was largely female amused Gil more than surprised him. Bright's issues with trust had all been caused by the man he had trusted most: his father.

Martin Whitly continued to compound those issues by repeatedly lying too and manipulating his son. Offering him fatherly advice while subtly criticizing him for choosing to become a profiler instead of a killer. Gil suspected a bubbling resentment lurked beneath that genial facade. One born the night his son turned his father in so he'd stop hurting people. The damage Martin Whitly could do, on Bright, his mother and sister, and the city if he escaped his cage left Gil chilled to the bone.

"Any word from Not Bright but is Bright?"

JT giving Raya a nickname wasn't something he'd have done before Bright joined the team. The kid's manic energy and propensity to run into danger annoyed the living hell out of him — and everyone else — but he thawed considerably from the Berkhead case.

"Agent Kean..." Gil paused; considered whether he should address Raya as Agent or Doctor. Knowing her, she won't insist on being addressed as either one. Raya Kean wasn't one for formalities or titles. "Raya emailed me earlier with the results of the blood found on Eddie Smith."

"Not Bright's."

Short, simple. The same stalwart faith and support he had shown when Agent Swanson accused Bright of working with Watkins instead of suspecting he was being held prisoner by him.

"It's synthetic blood. The kind used in movies, stage productions," he explained when JT arched a brow. "Also sold online and at any prop or party store."

"Making tracking down who might have bought it pretty much impossible." JT heaved a sigh. "As if shit with this case hasn't been difficult enough."

"That's why Sorcha decided to call in reinforcements."

The secret weapon as she put it yesterday. Gil hadn't asked her where she had been when she showed up at Bright's loft. He suspected now she had been in Gotham. After what happened between her and Bright, he couldn't fault her for getting out of the city for a while. Or going to someone who understands Bright for some advice.

"When is Not Bright but is Bright supposed to come in?"

"Not until sometime later this morning." Gil's email alert sounded. He ignored it. He had had enough of the higher ups for the moment. "Probably come in with Bright despite my order for him to remain home."

"Or," a familiar female voice drawled from the doorway, "she'll come in without Bright because she wants to introduce herself to his teammates and assure them she's not here to step on any toes or take his place."

Gil shifted in his chair to look at Raya. The woman standing there with an amused tilt to her lips and a multitude of secrets in her expressive eyes was no longer a teenager. Gone was that gangly girl with the smattering of freckles across her cheeks and the clear braces on her teeth. In her place stood a woman of polish and sophistication. One perfectly suited to walk in the posh social world of the Whitly's and Endicott's.

Raya rebuked the jet-set lifestyle many of those from her social class chose as their path. She pursued a career in the civil service field because charity balls and lavish social functions held no more interest for her than her grim mentor. She became a cop largely because of the influence of her uncle and Batman.

Each man dedicated their lives to serving their city and its people. Something he suspected played a large factor in why JT more willingly accepted Raya than he had Bright. He had made it quite clear he disliked the kid because he thought he lacked respect for the bridge. Raya, on the other hand wore the badge, and had worn it in Gil's opinion, long before she decided to disobey her uncle's order for her not to join the police academy. Her nocturnal career paved the way to the badge she now carried. Taught her skills it took other rookies years to acquire.

Not that Jim was pleased when he found out she went behind his back and joined the police academy in Blüdhaven with her partner-in-crime-turned-husband.

Jim had been doubly angry after he found out Gil not only pulled strings to get both kids transferred into the NYPD, but his unit, as well. His only regret was the temporary strain it placed on his and Jim's friendship. He'd make the decision again, though. Those kids helped a lot of people and closed cases that would otherwise have gone cold.

"Believe me, Powell and Tarmel are going to wish for Bright back after working with you."

"Are you implying I'm difficult to work with?"

"Implying? No." Gil's lips twitched. "I'm stating."

"You must have me confused with my husband." Her eyes shimmered with mirth. "I'm the professional one who follows the rules."

"There's only two times you're professional." Gil pushed back his chair and rose. "When you're up to something or have done something that's going to require lots of paperwork."

"Why, Lieutenant Arroyo..." Those green eyes blinked wide behind the lenses of the glasses she wore. Innocence personified. A look that worked on Bright. This woman? Not at all. "I know not what you mean."

"Mhm." Gil crossed his office to engulf her in a fierce hug. "Wasn't expecting you to come in this early."

Or without Bright right behind her. Tingles of dread and unease slithered through Gil. Something was up. Raya would have gone to Jessica's otherwise. Last thing they needed was any more surprises. They already had enough to contend with.

"Sleep issues, remember?" Her smile teased out her dimples. "All acquired before I met Bright."

All acquired after she watched her father murder her mother, Gil added silently.

"Did you get any sleep?" He ignored JT's snort. He was fully aware he was using his Bright-voice. He couldn't help it. This woman became part of his mismatched family the night she and her now husband saved Bright from the group of men her father sent to kidnap him. "Or did you work all night?"

"Now, Gil, you know my dope for a husband doesn't allow me to pull all nighters."

"You're a cop." And a crime fighter. "You pull all nighters all the time."

"Technically, I'm still on maternity leave so not allowed to pull all nighters." Her dimple winked. "Traded homicide for diapers and bottles."

"You got a newborn?" JT asked, keeping his tone nonchalant. "And you're a cop in a place that makes New York look like Mayberry?"

"I do, yes." Raya's gaze drifted to JT. Warm, friendly, mildly curious. "Detective Tarmel, isn't it?"

He nodded. "Hear you're Capable Bright."

"Oh... Gil's introducing me as Capable Bright..." Raya grinned. "Means Captain Dangerboy's gone and done something stupid or insane."

"Captain Dangerboy is a whole ass state of crazy."

"Oho," she said with a laugh. "Sounds like he's been a busy boy."

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Guessing he also hasn't shown off any of those bad ass martial art moves I taught him."

Surprise flickered across JT's face. "You taught Bright's skinny ass martial arts?"

"It seemed like a great idea at the time." She grinned. "Now, if the dope would actually use what I taught him..."

"I'd have even more paperwork to fill out than I do already." Gil perched on the edge of his desk. "So, why are you here and not with Bright?"

Raya made a face. "I wish I could say it was simply to hand off my results to your medical examiner."

"But?"

"But, I come with a case." Raya dug a folder out of her bag that she passed to Gil. "Male, mid-50s, murdered in his midtown apartment late last night."

"Cause of death?"

"You sure you want me to tell you that?"

Gil realized he had only been feeling moderately grim up to that moment. That was going to change once Raya revealed how the man died. He never shied away from the truth, no matter how bad it was or how hurtful it turned out. Nor had he ever shirked doing his duty. He spent his entire career making the decisions nobody else wanted to make, fighting the fight everyone else was too afraid of, and doing whatever he thought necessary to see killers brought to justice. Like working with a troop of costumed vigilantes from another city.

"You're about to use the words, Court, Talon, and Endicott aren't you?"

"You missed two." There was a hard glint to those catlike eyes that only came about whenever Raya talked about two men. "Martin Whitly and the sperm donor an earthquake thankfully got rid of."

Gil grimaced as he flipped open the file. "Horacio Caldera?"

"He called himself an eraser. Said he was called on by the Court years ago to conceal their involvement with Matthew Berkeley and Nicholas Endicott. He destroyed the books, got rid of the paperwork that proved they funded a secret network of killers here in New York and around the globe. He even hired the man who worked with the Surgeon to get rid of the bodies."

There was only one man Gil knew that worked with Martin Whitly in that capacity.

"Watkins."

Adding one more spider to the deadly web being weaved around them.

"Yes."

"Why did they need an eraser?" JT questioned as he took the file Gil handed him. "Seems like this Court has no need to fear the police or government."

"The devastation the earthquake that hit Gotham caused and the actions of the United States government in declaring Gotham as No Man's Land threatened the Court with exposure. They couldn't chance discovery. They operate in secret because that's how they prefer it."

"Why'd they kill him then?"

"Because Horacio Caldera chose to leave their service. Nobody leaves the Court's service," she explained when JT lifted a brow. "Not of their own volition, anyway."

"So, a Talon was dispatched to kill him." Gil heaved a sigh. "And is now loose in the city."

"This shit just keeps getting better and better," JT muttered. "Next, we'll find out Watkins has been freed from whatever hole he was being kept in."

"He has been." Raya's expression was as grim as her tone. "He disappeared from Arkham about an hour ago."

"And will be after Bright's skinny ass." JT shook his head. "All we needed."

"You go to Jessica's," Gil ordered Raya as he stood. "Watkins will likely try to go after them there."

"Krypto is keeping watch until I get there."

Gil didn't even question why she'd trust Bright's safety to a dog. Raya always had a reason behind her motives. Something she learned from her mentor.

"Don't let Bright out of your sight."

"I won't." Raya pulled another file from her bag that she handed Gil. "Before I go."

"What's this?"

"A lead," was all she said.

A/N: Hello, all! Hope this finds you well!