By the time he'd calmed down enough to set his thoughts in line, he'd decided that he didn't want to dig himself in with the League any deeper than he already was.

An operation that big? Cops either knew or they were too incompetent to do there fucking jobs, because an old indoor parking lot – condemned or no – in a crowded city like Gotham wasn't exactly a convent in the Himalayas. People had to have wondered across it same as him, and not all of those people could have been non-entities.

That meant people had gone missing and reports had been filed, yet the whole thing had been leftq to sit for two months at the least by his reckoning.

No way in hell was he leaving those people to rot while he pulled together his scattered recourses to go after them himself.

Three potential options, but from the start, one of them wasn't even an option.

'Hey Blondie, got something here you're gonna wanna take a look at.'

He was expecting bright smiles and inane chatter, a drop of sunlight in a bleak situation, a drop that he'd been almost dreading snuffing out when she saw the carnage in that bloody room.

When she showed up with a grim frown, and dark shine in her eyes, in that Batgirl costume he hadn't seen since…

It took a little weight off his of his shoulders to know he'd only be adding to the shadows instead of making them for once. It wasn't important she'd said before he'd lead her to the room. She'd tried getting him to focus on the piece of paper she'd pressed into his hands instead.

He knew what it looked like, a room full of some of the worst scum Gotham had to offer, and him waiting in the dark playing with a knife.

He unfolded the page while she went inside, mildly curios about what was had gotten those reptiles so complacent they'd mop up someone else's operation and turn their back long enough to get pumped full of so much lead a mortician was going to be identifying them by their teeth.

The list of chemical components on the page was too familiar even in the dim light, against the files of his own clandestine 'treatment' at Arkham there were disturbingly few differences, and those few he could identify himself fairly easily.

He read it again, a point of white-hot rage slipping in through the less welcome things that were beginning to fill up his chest.

There were a dozen stories he could have spun about how things had likely played out, and most of them would have even been true. A guy in Gotham dipping his fingers into the drug trade was nothing new. Killing off the competition, nothing new.

Fucked up as it was, it was nothing new.

An Arkham guard that had played a part in trapping Jason beneath that hellhole dishing out the same drugs that had very nearly killed him? She had every reason to believe he was more than tangentially involved.

Jason Todd wreaking his revenge on revenge on the poor 'helpless' bastards? Well that wasn't anything new either.

And fuck, those bastards were OD'ing kids on that poison too? If Jason ever got his hands on the reptiles responsible he wouldn't stop at emptying a few clips into them. He'd string em up, dose them until all they could think about were their own screams echoing off those filthy, damp walls. Really give the bats a reason to lock him away and weld the door shut.

"Jay." He didn't know how long he'd been sitting there, reading the paper over and over as though it would change its lettering before her boots appeared in his line of sight. "Hey, are you okay."

She rested a hand on his shoulder and flinched back as soon as he turned his eyes towards her, holding her arm to her chest as though he'd burned her.

Who knew, maybe he had.

"Peachy." He shifted his full weight to his feet and rolled his shoulders as he stuffed his hands into his pockets wrapping the fingers of his left around the blade of his knife.

"Aside from," she swallowed, shooting another glance at the now closed door. "Aside from Schools, and the uh, them, do ya know who else was…" She shook her head suddenly and gripped his arm, dragging him towards the exits. "Can we talk about this outside?"

"So I can walk into the rest of your Batty Bunch, no way." He pulled out of her grip and took a few steps away just to be sure she couldn't reach him again.

"They're not…" He wasn't sure what she saw when she looked up at him again, but it somehow made her posture both softer and more tense at the same time. "You think I think you did this?" She gaped at him.

"I think you'd be pretty fucking stupid not to." He shot back.

"And calling it in then waiting around for me to finish was some genius move on your part?" She asked her gloves creaking with the strain her tightly balled fists were putting in them.

No, waiting around had been stupid but chances were Scholz or his boss would send someone to clean up the mess and after the way that freak had looked at her he didn't want to risk her being caught unawares.

"Well come morning I'll be outta you're pretty blonde hair and you don't gotta worry bout any moves I make." He tried to brush past her but she planted herself in his path again.

"You're leaving? For where?"

"Kinda defeats the point if I tell ya, now doesn't it?"

"Damnit Jason, I wouldn't do that!" She looked about two seconds from stomping her foot like a five year old. "You can't just leave me to deal with this alone, you're the only one who had any idea what's going on here, and don't pretend you don't cause I swear…"

"After this," he fluttered that stupid paper in front of her face. "I know shit nothing."

"Then find out." She slapped something against his chest and he knew without even looking what it was.

"Don't…"God he hoped he didn't sound as desperate as he thought he did.

"Find out." She reiterated, trapping his eyes with hers, fierce and determined. "I want you to help me find out what's going on here and you can't leave until you do."

"You don't want my kinda help." He moved a hand to where hers was still pressing the card against his chest. "Why not just call in…"

"Cause they're all too busy thinking they killed you to focus!"

It was his turn to pull back, tiny flakes of golden glitter sparking as they fluttered down from the card he pulled with him. It wasn't his fault they couldn't get over themselves. None of them cared when he'd wanted them to, when he'd practically begged them too, and he didn't owe them anything for doing it when he'd finally stopped.

"I never asked you to keep me your dirty little secret." He turned his head so he wouldn't have to look at the liquid welling up in her blue eyes.

"You didn't have to." She reached out for him, but thought better of it and wrapped her arms around herself instead. "I won't tell them okay, and they won't find you, and you won't leave. I can say a kid wondered in on…" she waved her hand around their current location, "this. You don't have to leave."

He took another look at the card, a mess of gold and blue glitter he'd crafted out of nothing more than boredom while he'd waited for Leslie to leave her office. Such a little thing that had her putting so much faith in him.

"You know when and where." He said. "I'll see what I can dig up."

x

x

x

It should have been the sick sense of dejavu that got to her the most.

The underground parking lot, the scent of iron and rot hanging in the stale air.

The small cornered off room filled with the remains of what should have been people. It was like something out of a nightmare.

All wrapped up neatly in that her attention had been called to both by someone who really shouldn't have been there.

'…he was like a nightmare...'

She kind of wished those were the same things that had freaked Jason out too.

Bringing in the former Arkham guard had been the easy part.

After they'd found out that Schools might have been involved in The Red Hood's kidnapping – man did it feel weird pinning a word like that on a person like Jason – not a lot of time passed before Bruce went to 'talk' to the man.

Steph wasn't sure exactly how much talking had actually taken place, but there was enough evidence laying around his place for them to bring his bruised, bloody self in.

Tim was at the crime scene within minutes of Steph calling it in, despite it being around the time he caught the reclusive beast known as sleep. She had been happy to leave the rest of processing the whole messy thing to him while she went home and took a as long a shower as her limited hot water would allow.

Too bad the night had other plans for her.

They had Schools in, and enough evidence to put him away for a very, very long time, even if they couldn't tie either the human trafficking or murders to him. Still he refused to talk, whether from fear to he was just being an asshole Steph couldn't tell – with him both options were equally likely.

He'd strike a deal with Batgirl he'd said, and no one else.

If she'd disliked him when she'd thought he was just being a perv, she actively loathed now that she had an idea of the other things he'd been up to and she doubted anything he said was going to make her think any more kindly of him.

The door to the isolated, sound proofed room slid shut behind her with an echoing clang and she was left alone with a guy she would have liked nothing more than to beat into the ground.

Would have, if not for the ugly purple splotches peeking in from under his prison clothes, around his neck, the deep split on the edge of his lip.

It wasn't enough, but it brought a her mood up a few notches, enough for her to plant a smile on her face as she pulled out her seat.

"Hiya Schools." She said, leaning forward with her head cradled in her hands. "Rough night? I'm guessing yes."

A returning smile crept into his face, the very sight of it tangling up some very uncomfortable knots in her gut.

"Better now I get to see you again. Thought I'd never get a chance to again after your brother was out of the picture. Almost told them to leave him in that cell just so you'd keep coming around."

"How sweet." She self-consciously let her cape fall over her chest, but still his eyes lingered. "Woulda been nice of you to tell me where he was when I came asking, just saying."

"Maybe I would of, if 'you'd' been a little nicer." Having his eyes turned higher up wasn't any more pleasant than when he's been ogling her. "Might have even warned you against taking that form from Arkham if you hadn't been such a stuck up little bitch."

"Oh, how could I have turned such a ball of charm down." Steph shot a glance at the one way mirror where Damian was watching and really hoped the freak didn't say anything Dick would have to explain to the ten-year-old later.

"If you setting that freak on me for trying to be friendly didn't do it, taking Arkham's little 'consent' form's what convinced him." Creep actually made air quotes.

"That I was worried you'd aggravate his nut allergy?" Steph turned up her palms helplessly. "Look can we…"

"That you really were his sister, or at least knew someone who knew enough about him to fill it in." He cut in, pressing his hands against the table while he leaned forward, his smile morphing into something she was sure would be giving her nightmares when she actually got to sleep.

She resisted the urge to look back at the mirror, pushing down the feeling that he was about to say something horrible. He seemed to be watching her for a reaction and she refused to give him one. Still she couldn't keep her fingers from digging into the reinforced fabric at her thighs.

Oh god, she really wished he wasn't going where she thought he was going with all of that. Just a criminal trying to swing the interrogation in his favor like they all did. She could deal with him same as any other.

"If you knew him, then chances were he knew you, you and all the other caped idiots running around this city at night, messing things up for the rest of us. Do you have any idea the kind of money that sort of information would get us? We were sitting on a literal gold mine and we didn't even know it until you showed up."

'Doctor Arkham was asking him a lot of dangerous questions and we need to know how many of them Hood answered.'

'God, you're so lucky you didn't see what they did to him in those tapes.'

Bastards. Under the table, her hands were shaking, and she struggled to control her breathing. There hadn't been any attacks on their civilian identities, nothing that even suggested that Jason had told them anything.

"That's real interesting Schools but…"

"It's Scholz!" He interrupted, leaping to his feet, chains rattling loudly as he tried to reach her across the table.

Stephanie didn't so much as flinch, setting her jaw and staring him down throughout the display despite the prickling that threatened at her eyes.

"Sit down 'Schools'" She emphasized the name and he growled, his eyes flashing dangerously, he didn't take a second before obeying. "I've sat across the dinner table with the Red Hood, if you think you can intimidate me you've got another thing coming."

"Big deal." His voice trembled with his rage but he still managed to keep it level. "That dumbass wasn't worth half the fuss. I might even be willing to hand him over if you do me a…" He leered at her again, "…special favor."

She wouldn't hit him, she told herself, grateful beyond belief that she couldn't reach him across the table."I'd rather scratch my eyes out with my toothbrush." She tried to sound chipper when she said it, but wasn't sure that was how it came across.

Her comm beeped softly in her ear.

"It's a small thing to ask to get your precious big brother back isn't it? After everything your stupidity put him through." He laughed, an ugly, cruel sound that made her feel like something dark and slimy was seeping into her bones.

"Actually, I take it back, he was one-hundred percent worth the fuss." He threw his head back, folding his hands behind it. "Big Bag Red Hood." He snorted. "Wasn't so bad by the time we were done with him I'll tell you that. Not so big either. Little needle, some masks and we had him screaming like a little bitch. Don't think I ever had that much fun in my…"

The table wasn't enough if a barrier to keep her fist from breaking his nose three places before the door had even opened.

She stormed past, unwilling to look at the people waiting for her on the other side. She knew she knew if she did she'd give something away, so she just didn't.

x

x

x

Two o'clock on a Monday morning. A guy passed out drunk at one of the booths, a couple making out on the pool table.

It was about as empty as the dive got.

She sat at the bar, shot glass filled with a rich dark liquid held loosely in one hand.

Jason sighed and pulled a hand through his hair, holding back a twitch when he caught sight of the white streaked trough the front. He'd have to dye that again if he was going to be throwing himself into a sensitive investigation.

"Fire, blackmail, poison." He accepted the drink the bartender places in front of him, cradling the little glass in his hands, he looked at the bitter liquid instead of her curios expression. "What you want me to do with the guy who pissed you off this time? I could swoop down with a helicopter and dump him in the middle of the Pacific, make it look like an accident."

"How would you make that look like an accident?"She cocked her head to the side, bringing the glass to her lips.

"I'll figure it out." He put his hand over her glass and pressing until it was set next to his next to his.

She chuckled softly and rubbed a hand over her crusty eyes. "How'd ya even know I was here?"

"My evil supervillian friends told me." He's spinning the glass on the countertop, wants to ask just how much she's had when she starts talking again.

"'M so sorry Jay, should have listened when you said to leave you alone." She buried her face in her hands, a feint tremble going through her shoulders. "I messed everything up and I'm too weak and stupid and selfish to fix it."

"I didn't get up at asscrack o'clock to listen to this bullshit."

"Huh?" She blinked up at him.

"Fix it." He scoffed. "You sound like a five year old. You can't fix everything and half of what you can you're better off staying out of. A couple doctors wanted a new test subject whose brains weren't scrambled and wouldn't be missed. They'd a taken me eventually and knowing some stuff they wanted was just icing on the cake. S'not the first time it's happened, won't be the last and doesn't come close to being the worst." He knocked back the shot, wincing as it burned it's way down his throat. "If it's anyone's fault it's mine for getting caught and not breaking out when I had the chance, so just…"

Vanilla undercuts the stronger alcoholic odor clinging to her as she wraps her arms around him, almost pulling him off the barstool as presses his head against her shoulder.

"S'not your fault Jay." She squeezed him a little tighter, and he was too shocked by the action to pull out right away.

"You're drunk." He said eventually, disentangling from her embrace to reinstate his balance on the flimsy piece of furniture.

"Didn't drink that much." A light smile crossed her face, then she got that look in her eye that told him she was going to suggest something he was already too sleep deprived for. "Y'know, we never celebrated you getting out. We should celebrate."

"No thank you. The last time you wanted to celebrate I almost choked to death."

"The cake wasn't that bad." She swiped at him playfully, but he ducked out of the way easily enough.

"It looked like it was made out of fear gas and Clayface's ass."

"And you were a sweetheart for trying it anyway."

Jason hurriedly angled away and ordered another shot he did not intend to actually drink. For some reason that prompted a real laugh from her, and she leaned over in her seat, trying to draw his face towards her.

"Come on, I got invited to this cool party. It'll be fun."

"Then go on your own, I'm not getting within a four blocks of a drunken teenage party."

"So what, you wanna go home and read? God you're like an old man. So boring."

Jason very carefully didn't look at her, keeping his gaze on the brown liquid in front of him. He deserved it he supposed, for not leaving her to mope in piece.

"Fuck it." He knocked back the shot and wrapped his hand around her forearm, pulling her up off the stool. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" She asked, only slightly off balance from the alcohol she'd consumed.

"Not a frat party."

"Jason?"

"Boring." He scoffed. "I'll show you boring."

x

x

x

Gotham was never quiet, not unless you were wondering around Bristol or the very outskirts of the nicer suburbs, and even there it was very, very rare to actually hear crickets in that rare quiet.

That night however, as she stood worrying her lip, the uplifting buzz of the brandy having melted away in the freezing air, she cursed the chirping of the little bugs that she was sure had just shown themselves to laugh at her predicament.

"When you said we were going to do something fun, I was thinking more along the lines of…" She caught the crowbar that was tossed her way, "No actually, this should have been exactly what I expected."

Jason unwrapped the chains from the metal doors, slowly and carefully so he didn't make a noise.

"Quiet Blondie, neither of us can afford to be caught here, remember."

He pushed the doors open just enough for them to slip through, and Steph followed, mumbling some choice curses under her breath.

Of course Jason's idea of having fun was stealing a car from the chop shop he'd sold parts to as a kid. 'They're assholes and it's not stealing if it wasn't there's to begin with' didn't even begin to make her feel more at ease about it.

He was so much more fun to tease when he couldn't actually do anything about it.

If she weren't so used to it, having worked personally with the hulking mass that was the Batman himself, she would have been disconcerted at how silently a guy as tall as Jason moved through the open space of the garage.

They crept past boxes of parts, leaving a trail of oily footprints that she was sure he was leading them through for the sole purpose of ruining her shoes. There were some bright floodlights set up in one corner, where rows of cars that were expensive enough to be worth the risk of keeping them whole.

There were other cars that they just hadn't started with yet, but no, those weren't good enough for their purposes, wouldn't piss off they guys running the shop enough. They took out the lights first, waited a few seconds listening for any signs they'd been caught out.

Steph almost wished they would be before they'd actually do anything. Jason was sure no one would come after them past a certain point, the shop wasn't big enough, didn't have enough influence to get the things they'd need to retaliate.

The sleek blue sports car they slid into after he'd disarmed the alarm was really nice though. He got a pair of lock picks out of his combat boot and set to work starting the car.

A door swung open and voices, along with the new light source trickled into the room.

"There are people here." She whispered.

"I can fucking hear them." He sang.

"You said we wouldn't get caught." She watched anxiously as more people entered the garage, shining flashlights at the cars while others went to check on the lights she and Jason had disabled.

"We won't." His eyes shot to the rearview mirror for a less than a second, Steph followed his eyes anyway and groaned when she caught sight of the neatly stacked white packets in the back seat.

"Jason, they're coming." She sagged down in her seat, trying to be as unnoticeable as possible, hide from gangsters first, yell at the guy who'd gotten her into it later.

"I know."

"They have guns."

"So do we." Of course he did, and being caught in a shootout really wasn't the way she wanted to go out.

"Ooooh, we're gonna die." She peeked out of the window at the nearing beams of light.

"Death'll only slow us down." A bold smirk lit up his face, electricity dancing in his eyes like lightning striking the surface of the ocean. She only got a second to take notice of it though, then the thrummed to life and she was a little distracted by the shouting of the dozen or so men pointing guns at them.

"Hold on!" Jason laughed, revving the engine loudly. The car took off with the screech of something out of hell and Steph screamed along with it. The car tore through the garage, men leaping out of the way, most of them dropping their weapons in shock.

Sometime between them splintering the walls of the garage and speeding careening around the corners of the empty streets, Steph's screams turned to laughter as well.

Some cars went after them, a lot of cars went after them, but that only added to the giddy feeling of adrenaline flooding her system.

In the end, the pretty blue sports car flew over a cliff, a flaming wreck pockmarked with bullet holes. It exploded just before it hit the water, splattering the liquid all the way up to where Steph and Jason were sprawled out on a glassy ledge.

"If it makes you feel better, I didn't know about the smack." He said breathlessly, laughter still lingering in his tone.

"Yes you did." She chuckled, not sure herself what she found funny about the situation. "And I knew something like this would happen."

"You were a sweetheart for coming along anyway." He said in a mockingly high-pitched voice that sounded nothing like her.

She groaned loudly and kicked his thigh with her outstretched leg. "Hate you so much."

The only response she got was a contagious snicker that started up her chuckles anew.