*Read this chapter on AO3 if you want the full version.

The Birds Who Smile, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl

Deleted sequence: General Foster Care - Part 10 (rough draft)

A/N: Warning for child abuse.

o.o.o

They were talking to him. [chirp-chirp] didn't even try to listen. But then slowly, slowly, he started looking around the new place, and he started to be afraid. The children here were so frightened and hurting. The children in the last place had said many things with their bodies and voices, "Curious derisive angry happy mischievous assertive shy," many things, but here, they all said the same things. They said things that [chirp-chirp]'s flock always sang in That Master's lair, "Misery, fear, despair."

They were pulling his head feathers, the big people. These weren't nice big people like in This Master's house or stupid, self-important big people like at the last place. They were more like That Master. Not confident like him, not as looming, not with evil eyes that looked straight into [chirp-chirp]'s soul and saw the ways to hurt him most. He was a demon; they were like hungry rats.

It still hurt, though, when they pulled his feathers, and pushed him, and said things to him that he didn't understand but he could tell were meant to wound.

He tried to leave. He tried to go away outside so he could listen to the small, free birds and maybe find a way out, find a way to his flockmates, but the big people pulled him. He fought, and they held him down; he screamed and screeched and tried to hurt them so they'd let go, but their claws only tightened. They mocked him and smeared something wet on his face; he tasted their blood in his mouth. "You tried to hurt us, but we are stronger than you," it meant. He didn't care. He would die trying to hurt them, they were just rats, he would submit to Master but he refused to submit to rats.

They dragged him into a dark cage and tied him, and slammed the door and left him in the dark.

He lay there for a long, long time, choking with terror. This Master had tied him with 'seatbelts,' he hated it so much but now he wished wished wished it was a seatbelt. He wanted a seatbelt and his flockmates and the numbers counting down and Master's gentle voice and 'ice cream.' He wanted it because it wasn't this, this tight tying of his whole body alone in the dark, he could hear the bats, Master had finally come back for him and tied him in the cave with the bats, [chirp-chirp] HATED IT SO MUCH but he was so afraid because when Master finally, finally came back for him, the pain would be even worse...

[chirp-chirp] realized he wasn't alone anymore. He'd Blinked again, not the good kind with Mama and Daddy or Zitka or [trill], the scary kind where he didn't know how he'd gotten from one place to another, and [warble] sometimes told him that it had been a long time and many things had happened, when [chirp-chirp] felt like it had only been a moment and nothing had happened.

He was still in the cage, dark, tied, but he wasn't alone. [. . .].

[chirp-chirp] stared. He couldn't move. He couldn't move at all to stop him, he tried but his arms and legs were still tied. He wasn't naked, but it didn't matter because his feathers had been pulled away enough that they couldn't protect him. "Stop," he begged. He remembered that big people didn't understand bird words. "Sssstto'pp!"

[. . .]

It wouldn't work this time, though. This man wasn't hurting [chirp-chirp] because he liked seeing birds cry; this man didn't even think [chirp-chirp] was alive. He thought [chirp-chirp] was just a dead thing to be used, and he didn't want to listen when [chirp-chirp] tried to tell him he was alive. He was too big and strong and [chirp-chirp] was tied, he couldn't stop it, so he had to escape instead. '[trill],' he thought, and looked for the Spot.

She hovered in the air over him. "Got caught again, dummy! Saving [warble]?"

'No,' he thought. She could understand just his thoughts, because she was dead. 'No, he caught me when I Blinked, I couldn't stop him.'

"Poor [chirp-chirp]. Need help?"

'Yes yes yes.'

She reached down to him, and he reached for her, not his real hands because they were tied, but he imagined hands reaching up to her, and she pulled and he drifted up out of his body, and he didn't feel anything anymore. He didn't have to look anymore. He didn't like for Mama or Daddy or Zitka to see him when things like this were happening to his body, but it was okay for [trill]. "We fly, [chirp-chirp], we find [caw] and [warble]."

"Yes yes yes!" So they flew.

o.o.o.o.o

He wasn't tied anymore. He was sitting in a big, dirty room with sunlight struggling through the dirty windows and scared children fighting. His body shook, and he looked for the big people. There was one talking on a 'phone,' but she was far away and her body was relaxed, so [chirp-chirp] slowly stopped shaking. He was so hungry.

He looked, and there was a boy sitting next to him, bigger than him, holding his arm. Carefully poking a sharp thing into his arm, making tiny dots of blood, dot dot dot dot dot dot in a pattern like a skull.

[chirp-chirp] watched, and after a long time, he realized that it hurt. This big boy was hurting him and making him bleed. "Ssstto'pp."

The boy looked at him. Eyes narrowed. Then he gripped [chirp-chirp]'s mouth closed and held him tight while he leaned forward and made dot dot dots of blood on his cheek.

[chirp-chirp] fought and bit him; he screamed and hit, [chirp-chirp] screamed back and clawed. Big people dragged him off the boy, and then he was terrified, they were going to tie him again, they were going to lock him in the dark and touch him and hurt him...!

He fought for his life. He screamed and went for their eyes, their joints, used every part of him that he had, not just his teeth and claws. The more blood, the better.

They couldn't get him onto the bed with the ties, so they dragged him into a different cage and four of them held him down while another one hit him over and over and over and over again with a strap.

He screamed, because it really hurt, but he was relieved too because they hadn't tied him alone in the dark and touched the secret parts of him. He kept screaming, and he cried, they were going to hit him until he died. He didn't mind dying, but he wished it didn't hurt so much.

Then they tried to take him to the cage with the ties again. He hurt so bad, but he made himself fight and bite anyway, because he hurt so bad now but it would hurt even more when they tied him and he couldn't move.

So they took him the other way, and it was outside in the sun, so he stopped fighting. They opened a new cage and dragged him inside, it was hot, they tied a collar around his neck. He didn't care; he'd been wondering for a very long time why This Master wouldn't put a collar on him, but now there was a collar and he didn't like it but it felt right on his neck. It didn't feel right when they pushed a stick hard in his mouth. He choked and tried to scream. He couldn't get up because the stick was so hard in his mouth and it hurt, it hurt when they pinched him so that it felt like they were burning off pieces of his skin, he clawed at the stick but he couldn't get it off. They were laughing at him, Laughing. He wasn't Laughing, though.

Finally they pulled the stick away from his mouth and kicked him. He didn't care about being kicked, he was so glad to have the stick out of his mouth. Tears were coming down his face, but he didn't know why because he was so angry, not sad. He couldn't move so well, couldn't stop them from putting a leash on him, but it was okay; they were leaving now, finally no one to hurt him anymore. [. . .]

He wiped all the tears and snot and blood off his face. He looked at the leash - it was tied to the wall, but it was made of something soft, not metal. They hadn't even tied him, except for the leash. Maybe they were stupid and thought a soft leash on his neck was enough to tie him.

His body hurt so bad, but he made it move, because he had to look for something sharp. He found it, a thing with metal teeth, and he made the teeth eat the leash. It took a long time, but he liked seeing the soft leash shred under the metal teeth, more and more and more, until it finally broke. He almost hurt himself with the metal teeth, but it hit the floor instead of his leg.

He stood up, the broken leash thumping gently against his body. He hurt, hurt so bad, he was so hungry, but he felt very awake and a little happy. He was going to get out of here.

He looked for all the places where the sunlight came in. There, between the wood pieces near the ground. He stuck his fingers into the light and pulled. It didn't want to move, so he went and found a metal stick and pushed it into the light, and pulled again. This time the wood had to move. He pulled and pulled, and pulled, stopping sometimes to shake out his hands when they hurt too bad. Then the wood finally came loose with a thunk, and he fell, but that was okay. It hurt the places where they'd hit him, but it was okay because he could get up now and crawl into the sunlight.

He looked, careful, careful. He could see people moving around in the house, but there was no one outside. He dove into the long grass by the fence and he crawled, it itched and it hurt but he kept crawling, until he was behind the next house. Then he could get up and run, careful, stay hidden, look for the shadows, the long growing things, don't let anyone see...!

o.o.o.o.o

He found a nest and ate the eggs in it, then he found a bush big enough to hide all of him, and he slept until it was night. Night was good, it was dark, he could walk now without anyone seeing him. He walked until the cars were fast and the buildings were high. He saw some children his size climbing on a smelly thing, they pulled food out of it. They chased him away when he reached for the food, but he found another smelly thing with no children, and he climbed to look inside.

There was a flat box, he knew there would be 'pizza' inside, and there was, so he ate it. Then he found a high building with metal stairs on the side of it, and he climbed and climbed until he reached the top. He was hurting so much by then, but he found a box to curl up under, a box that would hide him up here where he was close to the stars. He slept some more.

o.o.o.o.o

He slept a long, long time; sometimes it was light and sometimes it was dark. Grandpa still didn't come to his dreams for real, but sometimes he was in the dreams anyway, a dream-person instead of a real person. And [big chirp-chirp] and [caw] and [warble] and sometimes [trill]; sometimes This Master, and sometimes That Master.

He woke up and he was so scared, then he was so glad it was just a dream.

He didn't hurt much anymore, but he was so hungry. He hadn't been hungry for so long, but now he kept getting hungry all the time. He climbed down the metal stairs, and he looked in smelly things for food until his stomach was quiet again.

'When will Master come?' He would come for sure. [chirp-chirp] didn't know when, but it would happen, because Master always found him. He would not fight. Maybe if he was very, very good, Master would believe him that he hadn't run away; big people had taken him away when he didn't want to go. Maybe if he could make Master understand, Master wouldn't tie him and punish him.

'He will tie you and hurt you, anyway. He always does; if he doesn't hurt you for running, he will hurt you for something else.' It hurt too much to think about that, so [chirp-chirp] stopped.

He wanted his flockmates. He wanted to curl up with [caw] and [warble], and with [trill]; he wanted to nuzzle them and preen them and feel their warmth and hear their breathing, he wanted to touch them so he would know they were safe. But he couldn't, he was alone. [trill] was dead and he knew [caw] and [warble] were dead now, too. [warble] had said he would come, but he never came, he never came because Master had caught him and killed him before he could reach his flockmates.

[chirp-chirp] cried because all his precious little ones were dead, probably [big chirp-chirp] and all the nice big ones who'd loved him were dead, too; everyone was dead and he was alone, Master would catch him and he would be all alone again like in the beginning, and he wanted to die. There were no big people here to stop him now. He would die before Master could-

Someone hurting. Sounds of hitting, sounds of begging and crying. They were not the sounds of hurt little birds, but [chirp-chirp] didn't want any big people to hurt like that, too, so he went to look behind the wall and he saw them. One on the ground, begging and trying to protect himself; three kicking and laughing like it was fun to make someone hurt.

They were like Master, and [chirp-chirp] would never fight Master but other people should not be like Master. It was wrong, he was so angry, he ran to them and he BIT.

His teeth and claws were not sharp anymore, This Master had stolen them even though That Master had given them to him, but he still sank his teeth in and yanked like he remembered. There wasn't as much blood, but he could still taste it in his mouth.

The bad people were screaming, they were hitting him and trying to slash at him with a shiny claw of their own, but he dodged and whirled and kept biting and clawing. He grabbed a piece of sharp metal from the ground and that was an even better claw. Then all of a sudden they ran away, and while he stood there feeling the blood on him, he realized he was Laughing. Laughing and Laughing, he couldn't stop, but he wanted to Laugh this time.

The big person on the ground was scared, but he wasn't being hurt anymore. [chirp-chirp] looked at him, and he tried to scramble away. 'He's scared of me.' That was okay. He'd gotten the bad people to stop hitting, that was what he wanted, so it was good.

To be continued...

A/N: I keep FORGETTING about Carrie, argh! Finally remembered to include her in this chapter, at least.