Chapter Two: The Birthday Bird

(AN: Batman is not mine)

RJ Falcon woke with a yawn. She was in her bed; she suspected Pierre had put her there after she had fallen asleep at the computer last night. Last night. She groaned and covered her head with her pillow.

As thrilled as she was to be getting a load of new birds and a second aviary for her sixteenth birthday, that delivery would not only risk exposing her parents to the Bat clan, it could also put her secret in jeopardy, for you see RJ and Blue-Jay were one and the same.

It had been pure fluke that she had become the girl wonder. She had made her costume for the costume party Pierre had convinced her to go to, the one where Bane had attempted to take all of the guests hostage and for good reason. Many of the people attending the party had been among Gotham's elite, including herself, not that many people knew that she existed.

Bane and his men had mistaken her for one of the Bat clan and she had been forced to fight back. Being the expert martial artist that she was, RJ had had no real trouble taking out Bane's thugs, but the only real reason that she had been able to deal with Bane was because he had underestimated her.

The hostages and the police had seen her before she got away, using one of the grapples that Batman and his friends had left behind on one of their patrols. Things had proceeded to get very complicated from there.

Blue-Jay was probably one of the few heroes to receive her motivation to put on the mask after her first night out. That motivation was the discovery of her parents' real activities.

Germaine and Carmine Falcon were, to the public, globetrotters. But RJ knew better, their so called travels were nothing more than fronts to hide the fact that Germaine ran one of the worlds largest gunrunning rings and Carmine was at the head of one of the worlds most extensive drug smuggling operations, both of which had main ports right there in Gotham, all under the guise if a tech. company.

RJ had felt responsible, blaming herself for all the drugs and guns her parents had put on the streets, even though she knew full well that there was no way she could have done anything before then. Also, there was something more personal in it. Her parents had had her, and then had just gone back to work, leaving her at home.

In part, she was grateful for this, growing up away from their negative influence and dirty business. But she was also bitter that the first time she had met her parents was when she was six and a half years old.

She had always been alone, aside from Pierre and her birds, until she had become Blue-Jay. When she had gone out on the streets, she knew that the Bat clan would be, for the most part, on her side, even if they didn't like her very much. And she also had a real friend for the first time in her life: Tim Drake, aka Robin.

She had long since uncovered the identities of the Bat clan, though she never spoke of it, for their reassurance as they were aware of her knowledge. But they had yet to discover who she was, though she was tempted to tell Robin. She had the feeling that Batman had assumed that, as the first time RJ had made a public appearance was with her parents at a party several months ago, that RJ had spent most of her life globetrotting with them.

Yawning again, RJ got out of bed and went into her bathroom.

After taking a quick shower, she toweled off and dressed in her usual jeans and T-shirt. After pulling on an old pair of tennis shoes, RJ went out to her aviary, the one that had birds in it. Germaine had had a second one built not far from the first, but there were no birds in it yet. Though there would be.

Heading for one particular area in the back of the aviary, RJ selected one cage and took it outside. Setting id down beside a large metal box just outside the door, RJ opened the box and pulled out a long piece of twine, one end of which had a small loop and the other end having a larger one.

Fastening the big loop around her wrist, RJ then reached into the covered cage and carefully slipped the other loop around the foot of the bird inside before slowly taking it out.

Immediately the bird tried to fly away, only to be stopped by the 'leash' that RJ kept a tight hold on. The bird was a particularly large robin of unusual coloring. Instead of being brown with an orange breast, it was black with a bright red breast. RJ thought that he might have been an unlikely cross between a cardinal and a robin, but couldn't be sure, having never heard of that happening before, it could easily just be a genetic quirk.

She let the bird struggle against the leash for a few moments before getting him to land on her gloved hand. She stroked him gently until he calmed down, before standing and walking slowly out into the open.

Carefully letting out some more leash, she let the bird fly again. He flew in circles, each time with a little more leash, before she began to bring him back in again, letting out a whistle of three sharp notes as she did so.

She continued to do this until he would come to her hand when she whistled, not making her use the leash to pull him back. They practiced for several hours before she decided that was enough for today and put him back in his cage.

After returning him to his spot in the aviary, RJ fed and watered the tired bird, giving him a few treats before locking the cage and approaching a different one.

This cage was larger and she was much more careful with it as she brought it slowly to the door.

When she set the cage down, RJ put the small leash away and brought out one that was a little more heavy-duty, seeing as the occupant of this cage would cut through the smaller one with relatively little trouble.

Putting the leash on, RJ carefully put the leash onto the bird in the cage before bringing him out. The bird was a large, gorgeous raven. His feathers smooth and shiny as the sunlight gave them a purple and violet sheen. "Hello, handsome." She said, stroking him with gentle fingers. He turned his head and gave her a gentle nip on one fingertip as a gesture of recognition.

She knew he would not hurt her, but he still had a bit of training to do, and he was a bird to be respected. He only answered to her or Uno, for Uno was the king of the roost and he stood tall on RJ's shoulder, having perched there while RJ had been bringing out the cage, as if to remind the younger bird of that fact.

Uno was a magnificent bird. The largest of his kind RJ had ever come across, but that might have been due to the fact that he had been with her almost his entire life.

He had been a baby when she had found him on the grounds, only just learning to fly. He had flown into a window and had been unable to get up on his own. She had scooped him up and taken him home with her, where she had nursed him back to health, mostly on her own but with occasional help from Pierre.

She had intended to let him go once he was healthy again, but the collision with the window had caused him to go blind in one eye, meaning he was not likely to make it on his own. And there was also the fact that he refused to leave. Uno had never been 'trained' really, it had never been necessary; all she had taught him to do was respond to her whistle.

She flew the raven around for several hours before she called him to her arm and put him back into the cage.

It was then that she discovered her audience. Not only was Tim there, but Dick, and Barbara as well. "Hi guys." She said, smiling at them. Tim and Barbara smiled back as they approached, but Dick was still looking at the now caged bird with an odd expression on his face.

When they reached her, Dick knelt down by the cage as the other two wished RJ a happy birthday. The raven stared back at him and cocked his head at the human. "He likes you." RJ commented, pulling Dick's attention away from the bird. "What's his name?" he asked "He doesn't have one yet, I suspect his owner will give him one." "Owner?" "He's not for me, he's for a customer." "Oh." They could all tell that he was disappointed, but RJ was smiling inwardly, because she was training the bird for Nightwing.

"Come on, let's go up to the house once I put him back." RJ said and they followed her into the aviary. Dick and Barbara marveled at all the birds as RJ filled the raven's food and water dishes.

"Let's go, I'm betting more guests will be arriving soon and I doubt Pierre will let me wear this to my party." She indicated her dirty jeans and T-shirt as she spoke.

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