Tuesday evening
Robin stood in the shadows on the outskirts of the faculty parking lot of Hudson University. This was his first time out in the Robin suit for purposes other than to annoy the Batman, and he had to admit, it felt great! Of course, his first adventure solo was to try to track down and stop Two-Face from robbing the Metropolitan Museum, but even that fact couldn't totally banish his good mood. He was flying again!
Robin stood in the shadows, effectively on stakeout. It was early evening, barely an hour after sunset yet still dark enough to provide effective cover for the teenaged vigilante. He was waiting patiently, cape pulled in close around him so that only the black outside of it was showing, effectively concealing the red Robin suit and the yellow underside of the cape. In this fashion Robin blended into the shadows of the copse of trees that bordered the far end of the parking lot. Only professors that arrive late in the day are relegated this far out.
The owner of one silver Escalade was such a professor.
Analytically Robin knew that it was dangerous to try and contact someone so close to Dick Grayson, especially someone with Cabrini's history and skills. However, if his hunch was right, then his psychology professor was at least former if not current FBI, and Robin knew that if he were to have any chance at establishing himself in this city then he would need an ally, someone who knew how this particular city ticked. In Gotham there was Gordon, but this is a long way from Gotham. He didn't know anyone here, but it was a good chance that Cabrini did, or could at least point him in the right direction.
Speak of the devil…
Dr. Xavier Cabrini entered the parking lot, heading for his SUV. Robin watched as Cabrini disarmed the car alarm and unlocked the doors. When he opened the rear driver's side door to stow away his briefcase Robin made his presence known.
"Dr. Xavier Cabrini?"
The professor jumped slightly, startled. "Er…yes?" His voice was inquisitive as he scanned the parking lot for the speaker.
Robin stepped forward a pace and dropped the cape off of his shoulders, flashing the yellow underside as well as revealing the red of the suit, including the monogram 'R.' He was still in the shadows enough to not be as worried about Cabrini figuring out who exactly was talking to him, but he had also stepped forward enough for the purposes of conversation.
"I've been told that if one is looking for contacts within the city, that you'd be a good person to talk to."
"What type of contacts would a Gotham vigilante be looking for?" Cabrini asked candidly. While he's never actually met Robin, he has had the pleasure of enduring Batman's company during his profiling expeditions to Arkham.
"The unofficial official kind. This isn't Gotham, and I'm rather new in town. I have no allies here, if you know what I mean."
"You're looking for a local James Gordon."
Robin smirked. "Something like that. Are you willing to help me find such a contact, Xavier?"
"Surprise me again tomorrow night. I'll see what I can do."
A car alarm suddenly sounded in the distance. Cabrini reflexively looked over. When he looked back, Robin had vanished.
The professor sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. He really was getting too old for this. Since there was nothing else for it, he climbed into his SUV and started the engine, but before he even fastened his seatbelt, he pulled his cell phone off of his belt and flipped it open. He dialed a well-remembered number and—
"Hi, Jim? … Yeah… Listen, are you free around lunchtime tomorrow? … You and I need to have a chat about one of your associates…"
Wednesday, lunchtime
Gotham
Barbara Gordon was sitting in her room at the computer doing homework when the doorbell rang.
"Daddy? You want me to get that?"
"No thanks, Barbara. I got it." James Gordon greeted his longtime friend Xavier Cabrini at the door. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Professor X."
"Stuff it, Banshee," Cabrini muttered as Gordon held the door open for him.
"So what brings you to Gotham, Xavier? And will it require coffee, or something stronger?"
"Yes," Cabrini replied as he allowed Gordon to take his coat.
"Well head on into the kitchen and I'll see what I can do about that."
Cabrini led the way with Gordon following. He claimed a seat at the table while Gordon puttered around, turning on the coffee maker and grabbing two clean mugs from the dishwasher.
"You got a girlfriend, Jimmy?" Cabrini asked with mild amusement. "Your kitchen is far too clean for this to be a bachelor pad."
"I don't need a girlfriend," Gordon replied as he set about to making sandwiches. "I have a daughter who decided to save money and commute to college from home because she didn't want dear old dad living on his own without a keeper. Now turkey or roast beef?"
"Roast beef if you've got it."
"Wouldn't have offered if I didn't. Still two pats of mayo?"
"You remembered. I'm touched."
"How could I forget? You used to make a sandwich every day for lunch."
"And you always skipped lunch in favor of a big breakfast." Cabrini laughed then. "Boy, those were the days. Between your working security at Wrigley field and me bartending at that little dive across the street—"
"—We had barely enough money to pay rent on top of our tuition and keep us in enough beer to survive football season. I remember."
"Your hair was flaming red back then."
"Yeah, and yours wasn't thinning as much."
"You didn't need glasses."
"And you didn't have a gut." Then Gordon sighed. "When did we get old, X?"
"Oh some time after we both got married but before our careers panned out, I think."
Gordon then brought sandwiches and coffee over to the table, though before sitting down he walked to the edge of the kitchen and called out: "Barbara! I made coffee and sandwiches!"
A few seconds later and the vivacious redhead came bounding down the hallway.
"Thanks, daddy! Oh, hi Mr. Cabrini."
"Hello, Barbara," Cabrini greeted with a smile.
Barbara grabbed a sandwich and filled a mug with coffee, cream, and sugar. "What brings you to Gotham?" she asked. "Lunch?"
"Well, your father makes excellent sandwiches…"
"I'm sure," she droned with a sarcastic grin. "Well, I have more coding to finish. My fingers haven't completely worn down to the knuckle yet."
Cabrini winced. "Jimmy, how could you let your daughter go to college to learn how to be a slave to technology?"
"Very funny," Barbara dismissed sarcastically.
"Actually," Gordon interjected, "I think the point is the technology learns how to become a slave to her."
Barbara flashed a winning grin before planting a kiss atop her father's head and taking her sandwich and coffee back down the hallway to her room. "Have fun, boys. I have work to do."
"That little girl gets prettier every year," Cabrini observed as soon as Barbara was out of earshot.
"That she does," Gordon agreed wistfully. "Now, you drove all the way out here on a school day to talk to me during my lunch hour, Xavier. Would you be terribly offended if I was to cut to the chase and ask you what the hell for?"
"Not terribly offended," Cabrini conceded. Then he glanced back down the hallway. "But I wasn't expecting Barbara to be here."
"If this conversation needs to happen in private, we can take it out back to the patio."
"I think that would be best, Jimmy."
Gordon nodded. "Grab the coffee. I'll get our coats."
A few minutes later James Gordon and Xavier Cabrini were sipping coffee on the patio in the back yard. Gordon sat himself atop the picnic table and Cabrini was leaning against the side of the house.
"Okay, X. What's on your mind?"
Never one to beat terribly around the bush, Cabrini answered plainly. "One of your masked, pajama-wearing friends paid me a visit last night."
Gordon's eyes widened. "Batman was in Gotham last night. I spoke to him myself, when he brought in an escaped Blackgate prisoner."
"Not the Bat," Cabrini corrected. "The bird."
"Robin was in Long Island last night?"
Cabrini nodded. "In the university parking lot, looking specifically for me."
Gordon pursed his lips in thought. "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him around lately. I didn't think anything of it because it's not unheard of for Robin to keep a lower profile than Batman, especially in front of law enforcement."
"Well he definitely wasn't low-profile last night."
"The only thing I can think of is that Batman has him out on some sort of recon assignment. I know he's had members of the Justice League do such things for him on occasion when it's been mutually beneficial."
"If you say so."
"What did he want with you?"
"That's the funny thing, Jimmy. He wanted names."
Gordon blinked. "Names?"
"Contacts," Cabrini clarified. "He wanted the names of potential allies in my neck of the woods. I'm thinking he's looking out to the City, too."
"You mean members of law enforcement that won't turn him in on the grounds that he's a masked vigilante?"
"Something like that. But I figured that if you had sent him, you would've warned me ahead of time."
"Of course," Gordon readily agreed. "But I wouldn't put it past Batman to send him out and not tell me."
"Well Jimmy, you know these do-gooders best. Robin's going to be bugging me again tonight for a name. Should I help him or should I tell him to go screw?"
Jim sighed and made a show of cleaning his glasses. "Xavier, I'll tell you straight out. I've seen that kid take out entire street gangs on his own and before his voice dropped. Batman trusted him enough to make him a partner, and now it looks like he's letting the kid grow up a little and do a few things on his own. I've learned—and not always the easy way, that usually it's safer to trust the Batman's opinion on things. If you know people in your circles that are willing to play ball, I'd advise you to give the kid a shot. Odds are, you'll most likely be thankful in the long run."
A long, tense pause. Finally Cabrini sighed and ran a hand through his thinning hair.
"How did I know you were going to say that?"
Gordon just smiled tiredly.
"Well, thanks for the coffee, Jimmy. I should get out of here before rush hour."
"Any time, Xavier." The two shook hands. "I'll walk you to your car."
The two disappeared around the side of the house, heading for the driveway.
Barbara Gordon had her headphones on, sitting at her computer. As soon as she heard through the listening devices in the house and around the yard (installed per Batman's suggestion) that Cabrini's SUV had driven away she took the headphones off.
"Batman never mentioned anything about Robin being in Long Island," she mused to herself. "Actually, I could have sworn he said that Robin had decided to go to college." Barbara bit lightly on one stem of her reading glasses. "I wonder what the heck Short Pants is up to…"
Wednesday evening
Long Island
Robin stood in the shadows of the copse of trees at the far end of the faculty parking lot again. Dick Grayson knew that the good professor had an adjunct fill in for him in class today, and that he wasn't seen on campus until nearly five p.m. this evening. He wondered where the man had gone all day, and if it had anything to do with their encounter last night. However, Cabrini did tell him to give him time and to check back again tonight. The Escalade was parked in the back corner of the lot again, and hopefully Cabrini would be making an appearance on a similar timetable as last night.
Robin afforded himself an open smile when he saw Cabrini finally traversing the parking lot.
"Do you have something for me?" he asked as soon as the professor reached his SUV.
"You know, kid," said Cabrini, "it's no small thing what you asked. You asked me to ask one of my associates to put their ass on the line to help you, and by my doing so, that reflexively put my ass in jeopardy, too, for just talking with you."
"You didn't seem to mind when you conferred with Batman on those profiles of Arkham inmates," Robin retorted simply.
"You know, I should probably ask you to reimburse me for the gas money it took to get out to Gotham and back. I took your request to Gordon. He said I should give you a shot, so if I were you I'd get him something really nice at Christmas time, kid."
"Does this mean you have information for me?" Robin asked candidly, subduing his reflex to cringe when Cabrini had mentioned Gordon. If Gordon knew that Robin was in Long Island, then there was a good chance that he would mention it to Batman, and if Batman heard that Robin was in Long Island…
Harvey Dent was going to have a very, very bad day.
Meanwhile Cabrini had pulled out his wallet. He fished for a business card and handed it to Robin.
"Special Agent Mark Hernandez. We went through the Academy together. He'll be waiting up for you in his office until nine tonight. Don't make contact by then, the deal's off and he'll arrest you the next time he sees you. He still might arrest you tonight, if you give him reason enough, but I vouched for you, because Gordon vouched for you. I think you know what that type of trust means, Robin," Cabrini finished seriously.
"Thank you, Cabrini," Robin said sincerely.
"Don't make me regret this," Cabrini added as he shoved his wallet into his back pocket. When he looked up again, Robin had vanished.
Robin made his way to public restrooms in Washington Park where he stashed his trench coat. There was no one in the restrooms, so Dick threw on the trench and removed his eye mask and ta-da! No one could tell that he was Robin.
Dick Grayson then went back to the resident student parking lot and unlocked the Red Bird. He drove the car until there was no one near him on the road; then he shimmied out of the trench coat, replaced the eye mask, and hit the stealth switch on the dashboard. The license plates flipped over and displayed the name 'Red Bird,' and the car's body moved and transformed until it became almost an armored race car with tinted windows. Brand new dials emerged on the dashboard and down by the gearshift so that the controls looked more like those of a stealth fighter jet than a sports car.
It was a twenty-minute drive to the Long Island Federal building. That put him with nearly an hour to spare before Cabrini's deadline. Robin parked the car in a nearby alley and armed the alarms. According to the business card, Special Agent Hernandez's office was on the second floor. The only question was how on earth would he get there? A masked vigilante doesn't just stroll into the lobby of the federal building, especially when it involves walking through the metal/plastic detectors wearing Kevlar and steel plated armor. That would go over real well with the feds.
Robin looked at the business card again. He decided that the best course of action would be to call Hernandez from the payphone across the street. Fortunately he had a calling card in his utility belt.
Fortunately Hernandez answered his phone.
"Special agent Hernandez."
"I made it here on time. I still have an hour before nine."
There was a considerable pause.
"So you're Batman's junior partner, eh? Where are you?"
"At the payphone across the street. I can't exactly waltz into the building."
"No, I suppose not. We're five blocks from Kane's Pier. Wait for me there."
And the line went dead.
Robin couldn't help but smirk as he hung up the phone. Then, feeling rather confident that he wasn't going to be arrested on site because the feds didn't swarm in on him at the payphone, Robin decided to walk the five blocks to the pier.
The pier wasn't anything like the Gotham City Docks. There were no old tires, beer cans, or other detritus lining the shore and there were no bums or miscreants loitering nearby. The water didn't even smell of backed up sewage. Robin smiled. This nearly pristine waterscape beneath a refreshingly black sky… A vigilante could get used to this.
Robin hid in the shadows, but wasn't kept waiting long. Soon a tall figure in a dark trench coat came into view. As the figure got closer, Robin saw that he had thick, curly black hair, a bushy mustache, and glasses. He looked rather like a Hispanic James Gordon, only a bit younger and a tad more rotund. When he was close enough, Robin emerged from the shadows of the pier.
"Special Agent Hernandez," he greeted in the Robin voice with a slight head nod for acknowledgement.
"Don't try anything funny, kid. I'm a fast draw and a championship marksman."
Robin smirked. "Nice to meet you, too."
"Cabrini said that you were looking for an ally in law enforcement. Why?"
"I'm a vigilante, not a supercomputer. My information is only as reliable as the contact who gave it to me. I need reliable contacts if I'm going to have a shot at stopping crime."
"And you think the Bureau is reliable?" Was that incredulousness in his voice?
"I didn't ask specifically for FBI. Yours was just the lucky name printed on the business card Dr. Cabrini gave to me."
"Why go to Cabrini?"
"Because he's familiar with Gotham. His background made him the logical choice for me to approach with this dilemma, and since he leads a rather public life down here he was easy to find."
Hernandez nodded, considering this. "I suppose that the fact that the FBI keeps tabs on all local law enforcement agencies, and so is thus capable of providing information over a much larger network than say, the NYPD, never entered your mind."
Robin spared a smirk. "That must have been what Cabrini thought. Like I said, I didn't ask specifically for FBI."
"So you said."
A tense pause hung between them. Finally Hernandez seemed to come to a decision.
"Okay, kid. You're obviously in town for a reason. What is it?"
"I have reason to believe that Harvey Dent is going to try and rob the Metropolitan Museum on Saturday night. Specifically, the twin sarcophagi and the Gemini dais."
"Dent…?" Hernandez's eyes widened. "Two-Face?"
Robin nodded. Then Hernandez's eyes narrowed back down.
"What makes you so sure?"
"Dent's M.O always revolves around the number two. Saturday is the second anniversary of the last time he was captured. It's also the second day of the Egyptian exhibit where twin sarcophagi are the being displayed on a Gemini dais."
"But… Two-Face would have to be out of Arkham for that."
"He escaped over two weeks ago. Neither the GCPD nor Batman have been able to track him this time. He hasn't made any moves yet, and the Egyptian exhibit would certainly attract his attention."
"Yeah… Yeah I guess it would."
Robin's eyes narrowed in his mask. "Are you going to do something about it?"
"I can get on the horn to the NYPD and warn them. See if they can arrange for additional guards at the museum."
"Good. Keep me informed."
"And just how am I supposed to do that?"
"I'll contact you tomorrow."
"Fair enough."
Hernandez turned to go, but then it occurred to him that he didn't know how Robin would contact him. When he turned back around to ask, Robin had already vanished.
Wednesday, near midnight
Gotham
Batman stood on a rooftop, watching impassively as several gang members were loaded into the back of a GCPD prison van. He had heard on the police scanner a report of gunfire beneath the El-Train tracks on State Street and had sped over in the Bat-mobile. The gang bangers were shooting at the windows of passing trains, and Batman quickly and easily put a stop to it with the belated, freely offered, and generally unwanted help of Batgirl.
Now the two of them stood on a rooftop in silence, surveying the scene before them.
"You're welcome," Batgirl said passively as she watched the van pull away from the scene.
Once again Batman ignored the comment. It was becoming rather routine now, Batgirl showing up wherever Batman was and giving him the helping had that he was lacking without the presence of his regular partner. Batgirl, alias Barbara Gordon, has access to police scanners too after all, and more often than not she and Batman have been forced by circumstances to team up. Batman hasn't exactly been welcoming of her presence, but then, he hasn't outright dismissed her yet, either. He even used her talents freely in his recent adventures against such villains as Mad Hatter and Catwoman. In the thick of things, the Batman had even started treating her like her presence wasn't a hindrance, actually seeming to fight bad guys with her as opposed to alongside her in the same general space.
Batgirl had of course been thrilled with this trend. Before, when it had been Batman and Robin, she was flying mostly on her own taking out purse snatchers and petty thugs under the grudgingly accepting eye of the Batman, who always seemed to show up in the nick of time and save her tail whenever she got in over her head. Not that she minded, of course. No, it was only chaffing to her ego when Batman would send Robin in on those rescue missions.
Then again, fighting alongside the Boy Wonder could be a lot more fun than having Batman watch her back. Robin would at least talk to her, make her feel like her efforts actually meant something, when he wasn't making her feel like a grossly incompetent amateur with delusions of grandeur.
Now, according to Batgirl, Robin has been MIA for months—the better half of a year, actually. She had wondered where Short Pants had run off to and why Batman was fighting solo these days, but the only explanation offered was that Robin had decided to go to college outside of Gotham and was hopefully living a normal life, 'which some other college-aged vigilantes might try for a change.' Barbara had taken this in stride, of course. She was used to the never approved but not quite disapproved status she held in the Batman's opinion.
Barbara had been operating under the knowingly false assumption that they were partners now, though she filtered the delusion by adding the caveat that the position was only temporary, until Robin returned to Gotham. She figured that he couldn't stay out of it forever; he loved the game too much.
Then she heard her father talking about Robin being spotted on Long Island. That's a random, out-of-the-way place for the Boy Wonder to be. It doesn't even have a crime rate worthy of a vigilante's attention. Maybe if he'd been spotted in Blüdhaven or some place more sinister she would have believed it, but Long Island? What, have the little old ladies complained that someone's been making off with their bingo winnings? It didn't make sense.
It had occurred to her that perhaps Robin was in Long Island solely for Dr. Cabrini. She's known the professor all of her life and never really thought of 'Uncle Xavier' as a crime-fighting resource, but then he was the foremost FBI profiler and has done considerable work with the inmates at Arkham. Perhaps Robin was just looking for information? The conversation did mention something about the names of reliable contacts. Perhaps Robin is trying to set up a network down by the City? That would make much more sense to her.
Whatever the reason, it didn't change the fact that at least three tabloids had fuzzy, out of focus pictures of the Boy Wonder swinging through the streets of New York. Robin was doing more than just college work, it seems. The real question is, is he off on some long-distance or undercover assignment for Batman, or was he really supposed to be in college and is now for whatever reason flying solo?
Well, there's one good way to answer that.
"What's Robin doing in New York?"
Batman scowled. This was not a topic he wanted to discuss.
"Being stupid and getting himself photographed by the press."
Batgirl frowned. "That's not what I meant. I mean, why is Short Pants in New York? Is that where he's going to school?"
"Robin's education is none of your business, Batgirl," Batman said dismissively.
"What? You think that if you admitted that he was in New York that I'd magically be able to deduce his secret identity amongst the other ten million people? Though I'll choose to take your beliefs in my skills as a complement, Batman, I'm not some all-seeing Oracle or something. How the heck would I manage that?"
"This discussion ends here," Batman said in his most menacing voice. Then without further ado he shot off a grappling hook and swung off the rooftop into the night.
"Left in the lurch again," she groaned. She thought better of trying to follow him, though. It was getting late, and she had a test in the morning. "How the heck did Robin put up with him anyway? Maybe that's why he escaped to New York."
As Barbara Gordon made her way back to her father's house, she wondered exactly what the heck was up with the Dynamic Duo. While it gave her a nice, warm, glowly feeling to count herself as the Dark Knight's new squire, she had always wondered where Robin had truly disappeared to, and if his reasons were as simple as deciding to hang up the cape in favor of college and a normal life.
Somehow she doubted that it was ever really as simple as that. Now, as she looked back on her conversation with Batman… Barbara Gordon was far from stupid. It was fairly obvious that something had happened to instigate the change. Batman wouldn't have been nearly so frigid back on that rooftop if otherwise. The only question was what.
As Barbara stripped out of the Batgirl costume and stashed it in the bottom of the trunk in her closet, grateful that her father wasn't home yet and eager for a quick shower, she couldn't stop from dwelling on the puzzle at hand. Why was Robin talking to ex-FBI agents in Long Island? Why was he photographed in New York? Was he really in college now, or was something else going on? Did he have a falling out with Batman?
Well, if Batman refuses to answer these questions, there is another way. She could go to New York herself. If Robin's active in the city, he shouldn't be too hard to find for someone who knows what types of places the bird likes to roost in. She liked to think of Robin as a, well, friend wasn't quite the word, but they worked well together when it was just the two of them, and he had saved her hide on more than one occasion, so she felt like she owed it to him. If he was in some kind of trouble in New York—as evidenced by perhaps a mad escape from criminals that left him no choice but to remain open to the paparazzi… Batman obviously wasn't going to pursue the issue. Perhaps then Batgirl should.
The other plus side, she realized, was that she would get the chance to visit her friend Dick Grayson at Hudson University. She promised that she would drive out to see him sometime, but as of yet she hasn't found the time. They had been emailing each other whenever they got the chance, but the last one was a while ago. Dick was a good friend, Barbara felt bad that she hadn't kept in better contact with him, but he left last summer, at which time she found herself going out more and more as Batgirl to cover Robin's absence…
As Barbara tried to get to sleep that night, she remembered that Hudson University was also where Uncle Xavier taught psychology, on Long Island.
She didn't get much sleep that night.
AN-We have Robin getting a point of contact in the FBI. Aside from how amusing it will be when Batman discovers that the Titans got federal backing before the Justice League (which barely had UN approval), it nicely answers the question of why you so very rarely see a police presence when the Titans are taking out a baddie on the show. The cops won't show up if the feds tell them to back off.
AN2-Just to clarify, Batman and Robin know Batgirl's secret identity but she doesn't (yet) know theirs.
As the daughter of Commissioner Gordon (actually niece then later adopted daughter, but that's nitpicking) she had a severe case of hero-worship for the Batman and so donned the cape and cowl to fight crime in his name. Batman wasn't exactly thrilled, but rather than try and forbid her from being Batgirl (even though he tried at first), he grudgingly allowed her to play the part, training her some and generally keeping an eye on her. After all, her father would kill him if anything happened to his little girl.
Canon has Barbara anywhere between three and seven years older than Dick, and in this fic it's three. She had already established a life of her own before taking up the Dark Knight's crusade. She didn't fight crime every night, but rather when the need for the thrill arose and when her real life didn't interfere, or when she thought the Dynamic Duo really needed her help.
