As I mentioned in previous chapters, this FanFic intentionally crosses the paths of the preexisting canon (sort of like it's filling in the gaps). However, the canon is a bit inconsistent in some places- for example, the comics and the Gotham stories in the games suggest different ways that Barbara became Oracle- I sort of blended the two into one story. So, while a large chunk of this chapter is based on Batgirl and Harley Quinn (the comic), there are diversions.

Enjoy!

"They have wild animals… talented weirdos… not really something to be excited about, but clowns! Aaaand," I described to dad in the phone, distracted as my eyes hit a wad of cotton candy, "unhealthy, greasy, sugary food that somehow tastes so much better when it's delivered by the hands of a carny than if you had gotten it anywhere else."

The circus actually looked like a great time, and a great way to brighten my mood. And that cotton candy practically had my name on it.

"Dad? I'm gonna call you back later," I said, unable to help licking my lips at the sight of the cheap snack.

"See you back here soon, Barb," he said, laughing at me through the phone. I hung up and made a beeline for the concession stand.

Normally, I wasn't an advocate of cheat days. On cheat days, most people undo most of the good their healthy diets do on regular occasions. But I had had a very productive week, and kind of a shitty morning. So I treated myself a little.

One hotdog, all the dressings on it, and one giant stick of cotton candy. The wad of pink fluff was bigger than my head and I could tell just from looking at it that it was going to give me a sugar rush and headache. But I didn't care. I ate the hotdog quickly, then took my time moseying around the carnival as I ate my cotton candy with sticky fingers. There were sword swallowers, fire blowers, strong men (or rather, very tall men that could lift weights labeled as heavier than they were), and one bearded lady (which, in all frankness, wasn't that weird- transgender isn't a spectacle. Maybe the circus should be more progressive and take that out of it's act). The circus had been quickly crowded with pedestrians like myself, just curious enough to waste some time walking around. Families, church-goers returning from a morning at prayer, weekend warriors finishing their morning runs.

As I finished my cotton candy, I pitched the paper tube it came on in the trash bin. I looked down at my stomach, guilt creeping in. Why did I eat all that cotton candy… "Whoof," I mumbled to myself, "yeah, that'll look great in tights." A low growl behind me attracted my attention, and I saw a short, red-haired boy standing alone as he peered up at a caged wagon with a tiger in it. I smiled at the boy, who looked so steeped in wonder at the animal that he had forgotten the swirl of pink cotton candy in his hand. I walked up to him, watching the tiger eye the boy.

"I think he wants your food," I said to the boy. He turned to look at me with a smile.

"Trust me, he doesn't want this," the boy said, taking a step closer to the cage. "If he eats this, he won't be able to fit into his stripes, right? It's for his own good that's he's locked up…" As the boy spoke, he angled his cotton candy towards the cage for the tiger to sniff, and I noticed the padlock on the cage. My eyes widened as I saw it was covered in a blue, sticky substance, with two wires jabbed into the side.

C-4.

I grabbed the boy by his shoulders and pulled him away, screaming "GET DOWN!" as loud as I could. I managed to shield the boy with my own body before the explosion boomed out behind us. I pulled the boy close to me, one hand shielding his head as I folded around him. I could hear screams and panic surrounding us, but none of it could mask the shrieking voice I heard next.

"Hey, Gotham!" a shrill, high pitched, Jersey accented voice called out over the crowd. "Ya know whatcher problem is?" I turned and looked to the top of a train car to see a thin, pale, white woman wearing a black and red harlequin costume, an oversized mallet propped up on her shoulder. She smiled wickedly down at the crowd, proud of the chaos she had caused as the fire still raged behind her. "You've gotten fat and lazy without the Joker ta keep ya on yer toes! I'm gonna write ya a prescription. Take one dose of pissed-off kitty cat and call me in the mornin'!"

As she said it, the tiger leapt out of its train car, the bars no longer in it's way. The tiger landed not far from where I was with the red-haired boy. I pushed him forward in a hard sprint away from the cage, and he dropped his cotton candy in a panic. "Oh gosh. Angry wild animal in Gotham Square," I thought aloud. First thing was first: I needed to get this boy off my hands and to safety. I spotted one of the carnies with a handlebar mustache and outlandish face paint. "Take him!" I yelled as I herded the boy towards him and started running back towards the fray.

"Whatta you gonna do?" the carny asked in a nervous call.

"Somebody's gotta deal with the killer clown!" I shouted back. I heard him call something else from behind me- something about this not being one of their clowns? But I ignored it. I slid under one of the train cars with decorative embellishments hiding the true wheels- here, I could change into my Batgirl costume without anyone seeing. I changed as fast as I could, shoving my clothes back in my backpack and yanking the cowl over my head. I pulled the grapnel gun off of my tool belt and launched myself out of the fray with my backpack in hand. I tossed the backpack on a rooftop for pickup later on, and catapulted myself back down towards the woman in costume.

"Look at all the chaos I caused!" I heard her proudly exclaim to herself as she admired a cage of hyenas, yipping and laughing with her. "Who's the perfect sidekick now?" she flattered herself. My cape spread wide as I floated towards her, I thought I'd give an answer.

"I've seen him in action. Trust me, honey," I said, "it's Robin." I heard a man's voice yell, 'it's Batgirl,' but I didn't stop to see who'd yelled it. Either I was more popular than I realized, or someone working for Two Face was here in the crowd.

One problem at a time, Barbara.

The black and red villain was turning to see where I was coming from just as I was about to make contact. "I don't know who you are, Jokerette…"

"It's Harley Qui-WHOOF!" she tried to answer me, but my foot landed between her shoulder blades, sending her to the ground in a whining crash.

"And I don't care," I finished my thought, coming to a safe landing about five feet in front of the tiger, who had vengeful eyes only for me. "All I care about is earning this mask, this symbol…" An idea came to me, "and this cape," I said, snapping my cape tauntingly towards the tiger. It made a growling lunge at me, and I leapt out of the way just in time to glide under it. Some of the crowd had stopped to watch and take pictures. "Everybody move!" I commanded. "Angry tiger and ginger bait, coming through!" The crowd of pedestrians and fire-breathing carnies responded by scurrying away, remembering how much of a threat a tiger was. I led it past the giant engine, where I saw a triangular sign denoting the dangerous contents within. That would work. Hopefully.

"Excuse me, Mister Talented Weirdo! I need the contents of this car so I can totally go against everything I was taught by Ranger Rick and Woodsy Owl," I mumbled to myself as I shot my grapnel hook into the side of the oil tank and slid beneath it. "Oil slick away!" I heard a metallic TINK and a blast of stinking, black oil came down on the tiger just as it was about to reach me. The tiger's face went from hungry and menacing to confused and scared within a moment as it slid against the oil and into the side of the rig, then struggled to get back on its feet. "That, by the way, is the battle cry of no superhero ever," I noted to the panicked tiger, "but at least now that you're half blind and sliding all over, we're almost on the same level and I can make sure you keep those meat hooks to yourself." I leapt out of my hiding spot and onto the tiger's back. The tiger reared back, but I ground the fingers of my left hand into the scruff on his back and clenched my thighs tightly around the animal to stay firmly on it's back. I didn't want to hurt it, but I needed it to pass out now. If reading about rodeos taught me anything, it was that time was of the essence.

Luckily, the oil solved the problem for me. As the tiger landed back on it's front paws, they slid out from under the cat and the animal thumped to the ground in a thud that bounced it's head off the ground. It may need a visit to a vet, but the cat would be okay when it woke up. I dismounted the tiger, the wind tossing my hair and my cape, to see pedestrians peeking tentatively around the train car at me. I faced the crowd with a calming smile, inwardly thanking Gotham Public Library for stocking books on rodeo techniques.

"Batgirl, watch out!" I heard a young boy scream behind me. I turned and pivoted just in time for a heavy wooden mallet to come crashing down at my feet instead of on my head.

"No way sister!" the wannabe sidekick shrilly screamed. "Only one of us is impressing her boyfriend today!"

My annoyance was perhaps a bit much, but I was sick of this shit. As she dodged my punches and I dodged her kicks, I grunted out, "Batman. Is not. My boyfriend!" I stuck my foot out and tripped the woman with the sound of an 'oof' as she rolled onto her back. "And whoever the hell you think you are, the Joker is not yours."

The woman laughed from her spot on the ground, though bit her lip when she realized that laughing hurt. "You're just jealous, Red! You're obsessed with a man who only cares about beating up my man! But the Joker loves to rev up his Harley!" I scowled down at the woman as she put a hand to her head.

"The only things Joker loves are murder, madness, and manipulation. You're just a fangirl," I said. "A copycat." Here, she smiled briefly, then grimaced with effort as she launched into a flip, grabbing up her mallet, then leapt into the air in an attack.

"You don't understand what we have! HE GETS ME!" she screamed as she tried to bring the mallet down on my head again. I dodged her attacks, now more passionate, more enraged, more defiant- and she kept spitting her fiery arguments at me. "You haven't heard the sweet things he says to me! You don't know what he'd do if he was out of his cage!"

"Actually," I answered as I rolled into a low lunge, "I do." I leapt over her, my hands landing on her lower back and forcing her to the ground. "And unlike that tiger you let out, he wouldn't try to run for freedom." She scrambled to her knees and I planted a kick in the center of her chest that launched her backwards. "He'd go after Batman. Because Joker's more interested in who will put him back in the cage than he is in who will let him out."

The woman looked a bit dazed, her head having slammed against the side of a train car. "Owie," she grumbled to herself. "Stupid Batgirl. Wouldn't know love if it punched ya in the teeth… oh… hello." She had looked up into the face of another animal she had unintentionally freed- a giant hippopotamus. I held my breath for a moment, knowing that if it attacked her this instant there was nothing I could do to keep it from trampling her.

Hippos are incredibly aggressive and violent animals. Seriously. Look it up.

"Hm… well, you don't have the laugh, but that grin is pretty on point. So whatta ya say?" Harley sweetly asked the animal, and I shook my head incredulously at her arrogant stupidity. Predictably, the hippo roared in her face and she began to understand the severity of her situation. "Um… maybe somebody should call Batman?!" I sprinted forward, running through my options for how to stop a hippo. I was thinking rodeo might not be the best option…

"Unlike you, Quinn," I shouted, hoping I would attract both her's and the hippo's attention, "I learned the right things from my inspiration. And that means I save everybody- even you." I pulled a stun grenade out of my belt, whirring it at the two. It exploded in a FWASH of light and power; but when the light faded from my dazed eyes, there was only an overwhelmed hippo on the sidewalk. "Quinn?" I asked myself, trying to find a trace of her.

I could see the crowd clapping at me, ogling the panic, pointing at the escaped animals, but no Quinn. Damn. It'd lost her.

As sirens approached, I grappled up to the rooftop that had my backpack and got away from the scene. I changed back into my civilian clothes under a water tower on a dingey old roof, then made my way back to street level as a call from Bruce pinged on my phone.

"You've been busy, for a day off," he said by way of greeting when I answered the phone.

"Yeah… I think I've got some intel I might be able to share," I said. "Can you pick me up?"

"Where are you?"

"Bleake Island," I answered, "a few blocks north of Gotham square." I waited on the sidewalk at ground level for my ride, and it only took a few minutes for a call to surface on my screen again: Dad. "Hey," I answered, knowing he must have heard about the incident.

"Barbara, are you okay? Where are you?"

"I'm fine. I was there when it all happened, but I got of there. I'm okay, I was out of there as soon as I heard the explosion," I said, telling only a teeny white lie.

"Thank God," he uttered into his phone. "Did you see anything?"

"No, not really. There was a boy without his parents there, so I was more focused on making sure he got to safety," I clarified, watching as more cop cars and an ambulance barreled down the street towards the square.

"He's okay? You're okay?"

"I'm fine, Dad, really," I answered. A black town car was driving shockingly fast towards me, and I realized it must be my ride. "I gotta go though… I'll be home as soon as I can."

"I've gotta run in and deal with this… be careful on public transit, okay?" he stressed to me.

"Will do. Love you Dad," I said. He requited the response and I hung up as the car squealed to a stop beside me, the passenger window rolled down.

"If you please, Miss Gordon," Alfred called out of it. I opened the back door and climbed in the car to see Bruce in a debonair blue suit with shining black shoes and a well starched white shirt. As soon as I closed the door on myself, Alfred was off again and driving at speeds I'd never expect such an elderly man to be capable of.

"What happened?" Bruce calmly asked, ducking his head in insistence we make eye contact. I knew he was mostly just checking me for signs of a concussion and I appreciated the gesture.

"Premeditated attack, for sure. But I don't think it had anything to do with the circus… this was a new Gotham crazy," I said. Bruce nodded, turning down a dial on the backseat radio controls. I realized that the sounds of the police radio had been on, and he now turned down the volume.

"The girl… 'Harley Quinn,'" he started, recounting what he must have heard on the radio, "got away with two hyenas. But animal control is already on the scene taking care of the tiger and the hippo. There were no major injuries, no fatalities." He looked over at me sternly, but a smile surfaced on his lips. "Thank you." I felt a bit flabbergasted at the words. "I was at a brunch with some Gotham influentials when we heard the news. By the time I had excused myself and gotten to the car, Quinn could have done some major damage." I nodded understandingly.

"I didn't do it for you," I reminded him. "I do it because you can't be everywhere all the time. We do it for Gotham." He smiled back at me, pleased.

"You definitely deserve a day off…" he started.

"But this is too important a development," I continued. "The woman, Harley Quinn, said she was Joker's girlfriend," I said.

"An escaped inmate?" Bruce asked, tugging on the cuffs of his shirt.

"No, I don't think so… she kept making these bad puns, like medical puns," I explained. "I think she might be one of the doctors." Bruce tilted his head nervously at that.

"If that's the case… we need to find her and act fast, before she can do something drastic and release him," he said. Alfred got us back to the mansion in one piece and I began running a report on all Arkham doctors and consulting physicians. We were looking for a young to middle aged woman in good shape, a Jersey local, someone possibly with a weak psychological profile.

Alfred, in the meantime, monitored the police radio to see if the police managed to get on her trail. They didn't, but I would occasionally hear the grumble of my dad's frustrated, commanding voice on the airwaves. It was oddly comforting.

Now that the identity of Batgirl was known to the public, Bruce insisted I really lay low the next few days, if I could at all help it. Now there would be even more people knowing what and who to look for to collect Two Face's bounty. Batgirl was just introduced to the world, and she already had plenty of enemies. Instead, Batman went out to do some patrolling in daylight- not the best cover in his suit, but finding Harley Quinn was time sensitive. If we could find her before she got back to Joker, we could be saving lives.

My report wasn't turning up as many encouraging results as I'd hoped. Dr. Sarah Cassidy: a young and fit presence sure, but she'd been a stable presence at the asylum for a while with many positive notes from Batman in her file. She didn't seem like the candidate we were looking for, but I flagged her file just in case. Dr. Gretchen Whistler: definitely out of the age range we were considering, and her German accent was a far cry from the Jersey one that Harley Quinn had.

I was forgetting something. I could feel that I had the solution in my mind, I just couldn't put the pieces together. I groaned with exasperation as I looked at the computer screen.

"Why don't you take a break, Miss Gordon?" Alfred suggested. "Widen the search parameters, then go upstairs and get some tea. It will clear your mind." I wanted to argue, but I let out a deep breath and nodded. I followed Alfred's recommendation, widening the search parameters to include all female staff at Arkham Asylum, then walked away from the keyboard.

"Thanks Alfred. I've got my phone… text if you find anything," I said. I felt my stressors sliding off of me as I rode the elevator back up to the mansion. The computer would reveal something. We would find her. I'd already done a lot of good today. I deserved a snack and a break.

I walked down the hall towards the kitchen, though heard the sounds of a news report coming from a nearby room.

"… was able to record much of the attack on her phone and has shared the recording with Eye On Gotham News. Be advised, the nature of this video is violent and may be upsetting to some viewers," the familiar voice of Vicki Vale reported. I poked my head around the corner and into the room to see two heads of black hair watching the tv screen, where a shaky cell phone video caught video of Harley Quinn's attack on the square.

The recording must have started shortly after she detonated the explosion, while I was getting changed. "Okay, wild kingdom!" Harley Quinn had screamed into the crowd, "which one a' youse gets to enjoy the sweet taste of freedom with a side of Gothamite next?" she shouted. She excitedly approached a car with hyenas panting and yipping in it. "Oh, my babies! That laugh, those smiles! You remind me of my one'n'only! Look at all the chaos I caused! Who's the perfect sidekick now?"

"Here it comes, here it comes," Jason spoke over the TV excitedly, leaning forward on the couch. The camera suddenly jerked and a nearby man yelled "it's Batgirl!" But you could still make out part of my response.

"Trust me honey, it's Robin," my voice came through clear as a bell, and both men on the couch yelled "OHH!" in an exclamation of pride. But was it pride in themselves, pride for me? I realized that the other man on the couch was Dick and I decided I didn't want to be a part of this conversation right now. I tried to sneak past the room without either seeing me, which shouldn't have been too hard as their backs were to me.

"And then the tiger, the tiger!" Jason yelled as I took a darting step past the open door, then crept on quiet toes down the hall to the kitchen as I heard the sounds of a roaring tiger and panicked civilians from the TV.

Alfred's suggestion was a good one. I put the kettle on for tea, which I had to scramble a bit in the cabinets to find, and cut myself a piece of the banana bread on the counter. The snack was filling and relaxing, even though I could still hear bits of the newscast from the other room. I put my back to the door, trying to shun the noise, and opened one of the kitchen windows. The quiet noise of wind rustling through the shrubs and birds chirping distracted me enough to actually enjoy the snack.

That is, until I heard voices approaching. The two men were growing louder as their footsteps drew closer, and I hoped they weren't coming to the kitchen- though I knew that, of course, they were.

"Like, I think she beats you there," Jason's voice was audible first.

"No way, I've fought way more bad guys than her," Dick laughed back.

"Well did you ever ride a tiger? Cause I think she's got you…" Jason was laughing, but he stopped suddenly when they emerged in the kitchen behind me. I turned back over my shoulder, my eyebrows lifted and a light smile on my face.

"Oh, don't stop on my account," I smiled at them. Both men froze in the doorway a second but, at my invitation, Jason exuberantly jumped forward and hurried over to me with a giddy smile. I only let myself think for a moment how Dick lingered in the doorway, uncomfortably looking at the floor.

"That was AWESOME," Jason yelled as he bounced towards me, and I turned my chair to face him with a smile. "How did you know how to take down the tiger? That's definitely not programmed into the AR Chamber! Did you guys ID her yet? The news says she's still on the loose."

"She's still out there," I confirmed seriously, looking between Jason and Dick. "Bruce is out looking for her now. I'm running some reports based on what I learned in our fight… I think we can ID her based on some of her bad jokes."

"Must be some really bad jokes," Dick said, rubbing the back of his neck. I looked, unsmiling, back at him, but I could tell he was trying to lighten the tone between us. After the day I'd had, I appreciated the levity.

"You got that right," I confirmed. "We're close. I just needed a break… I'm going back down in a minute to finish it up."

"No, wait, so… how did you know it was gonna happen? How'd you get there so fast?" Jason kept asking me questions.

"I didn't know. I was just there, and I saw C-4 on the cage right before it blew… right place, right time," I said with a smile.

"Why were you at Gotham Square this morning? You seriously go just for the carnival?" Jason asked.

"No," I laughed, but I cast a wary glance up at Dick. "I was just out for a walk. Needed to clear my head." Dick lowered his gaze to the floor again. I realized, he was embarrassed. About this morning? About his behavior this whole past week?

"Clear your head about what?" Jason asked. I met his eyes again and raised my brows.

"Don't you have anything else you want to be doing right now?" I asked. "Batman's out and about. You've got all afternoon, maybe even all night, to be training."

"Yeah, but my best teacher has been out kicking butt all afternoon so what was I supposed to do?" Jason teased, and Dick took the bait.

"Heeey," Dick grumbled at him. "Get out of here. Go set the AR chamber up for knife fights. You're in trouble now." Jason laughed and gave me a friendly push on the shoulder as he rose.

"Kickass fight, Batgirl," he said as he headed towards the door. Dick ducked out of his way, standing behind the island counter. But Jason stopped in the doorway, turning back to me once more. "Oo, you know what my favorite part was?" he asked.

I inwardly cringed, anticipating a snarky comment about how I'd said 'Robin was the best sidekick.' Come on, Jason, leave it alone, I thought. It just slipped out. There isn't even a Robin right now. Don't feed Dick's ego by making a big deal out of it.

Jason stood in a horse stance and punched with each word, "Batman! Is! Not! My! Boyfriend!" He laughed and I smiled down at the floor, glad he'd picked a different moment to make fun of but wishing he'd also cut back with the teasing.

"Get out of here," Dick smirked at him, tossing a clementine at him. Jason caught it, pointed a finger gun at Dick, then ran down the hall.

Just the two of us. Again. I stood and went to the window, closing it again to keep springtime bugs out.

"Great work today, Barb," Dick said, arms crossed and leaning against the cabinetry behind him. I picked up my mug of tea and my empty plate, crossing to the sink.

"Thank you," I responded. I put my plate in the sink, rinsing it off.

"You know, Alfred would do that…"

"I can wash my own plates," I interrupted him. He shrugged, considering saying something else about my doing the dishes, but stopping himself. I finished washing it and put it on the counter beside the sink. There was no drying rack, so I grabbed a clean towel and wiped it dry, placing it back in the cabinet where it had come from.

"So you're heading back to work," he started, and I wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement.

"Yep. Bat Computer's not gonna catch the bad guys for us," I said with an awkward shrug of my shoulders as I threw away my tea bag.

"Not until the next update, right?" Dick joked, but I didn't laugh. My eyes darted around the room, thinking I could answer him seriously with a 'that's not how computers work' but that it might be kinder to just leave it alone. I grabbed my mug of tea and headed for the exit. "Hey," he said, sliding in front of me before I could leave. I waited patiently, and his eyes met mine. "I'm really, really sorry. Okay?" he said. I shrugged and pursed my lips.

"I don't know what you're apologizing for…"

"Stop, because," he said, raising his hands in front of his chest, "you do. And you deserve a genuine apology. Because I am sorry." I paused, not sure what to say. He took a step closer and lowered his gaze, but I kept myself frozen, unreceptive to his touch or too intimate a gaze. "Can we just… go back? Can we hit reset, because… I could have handled all of this so much better," he laughed to himself, his white smile as bright as his blue eyes. But I didn't want to fall for this again. I just had a huge win as Batgirl, and it was completely independent of Dick. I didn't want anything to mess that up.

"I just want to be friends, Dick," I said softly with my eyes lowered. I raised my eyes to meet his, and he looked genuinely hurt. He opened his mouth to say something, but clamped it shut again. He closed his eyes and looked away from me, then looked back up.

"Yeah," he said softly. "Yeah, that's fine." I nodded, biting my tongue. It wasn't fine. I could tell it wasn't for him, and I honestly didn't feel fine with it myself. But it was the right decision. Especially with everything going on. With Harley Quinn, Two Face, and possibly more villains putting me on their radar, I didn't need any distractions.

I put my free hand on Dick's bicep, trying to be comforting. But he didn't look back up at me. His lips were pinched shut in a forced smile. "Come on," I said, taking a step past him. "Jason's waiting for you downstairs." Dick nodded and walked beside me to the study. I felt horribly awkward, and genuinely guilty- but I kept reminding myself that this was the right choice.

Dick went into the AR Chamber without another word, and I continued to the Bat Computer. It had finished running its report, and there was a much longer list of about 200 orderlies, nurses, consultants, and interns to go through.

At that moment, my memory clicked: interns. Thank you Alfred, for suggesting a tea break.

I pinged Batman's comm as I went back to my original list of suspects from Arkham Asylum staff.

"Batgirl," Batman addressed me in the communication device.

"I've got an ID," I said. "A new psychiatrist intern who was in residence at Blackgate… during Joker's incarceration after the Christmas Eve incident," I clarified as her profile populated on my screen. "Her name is Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel."