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Damian is awoken suddenly by an alarm.
His back protests as he immediately sits upright. He avoids falling asleep at his desk for this very reason.
The information on the computer screen swims in his vision as he attempts to rub the sleep from his eyes. There isn't time for exhaustion. Every second mattered.
The files he'd been working on getting from CPS were finally available.
It had taken an embarrassing amount of time to find what he'd been looking for. But he had it now.
He read through the available information. Limited as it would be.
Name: Richard J. Grayson. Age: 9. Birthday: 12/01. Ethnicity: Romanie. Birthplace: Barcelona Spain. Mother: Mary Grayson (deceased). Father: John Grayson (deceased). No other known relatives.
That was it. There was nothing else available on the file. Just baseline information. Nothing about where he was now. All that work, wasted.
Damian cried out in frustration. It'd been days and he had no idea where they'd taken him. He knew Grayson would not have been removed from the county. He was the only witness to a capital murder case. They needed easy access to him.
But because he was a minor, had no status in the country, and there is a desire to keep him hidden from Maronie left Damian with very few leads to follow up on.
It had come out, right before the circus left town, it had been Maronie's top lieutenant who had done this. He'd gotten ambitious.
Now the hunt was on for Anthony Zucco and the Grayson boy. Damian knew he wanted to get to Zucco before Maronie did but Grayson took the priority.
It had been several weeks since the incident and it still made him sick to his stomach whenever he looked back on it. A public spectacle was never Maronie's thing. He can't imagine what will happen to Zucco if Maronie gets to him before Damian. Not that Damian will be much nicer.
"What are you still doing down here?" He hears his father ask upon his entrance to the cave.
"My lead finally came through." Damian tells him, standing up to hear his spine crack and pop with the stretch. "I thought you left already."
"I'll be leaving shortly. Did the lead not pan out?"
"No."
His father studies him. He clearly wanted to help but had been attempting to allow Damian his own cases. The idea being for Damian to be more independent. He was freshly eighteen. It was time for bigger things.
No doubt his father saw the parallels between himself and this boy. But it was Damian's case. So he stood by, just in case Damian did ask for his help
"Maybe you should talk to Gordon." He advises.
"Why?"
"Because Gordon is in charge of this case. If anyone is going to know where that kid is…" Father trailed off but Damian got the idea.
"Maybe. She hates talking to me though."
"Try anyways."
Damian bites back the scoff. Barbara Gordon was completely uncooperative with him. Claimed he was too young and unprofessional. She barely tolerated Batman, but Sparrow? Forget it.
She was newer to the force but she'd more than proved herself. Easily one of the best detectives he'd ever seen. Didn't make the shoes she was filling any less daunting. She had aspirations to become commissioner, like her late father before her. There was a lot of corruption to work through before she could even consider becoming commissioner. Damian didn't doubt her resolve, but she was too honest for the work.
Her father had gotten in just before everything turned ugly. He'd been the only one truly keeping everything at bay. With him gone, it took less than a month before it all turned sour.
Working with police was dangerous. He couldn't trust Gordon. He couldn't trust any of them.
"Damian." His father knocks him out of his thoughts. "Sometimes you're gonna need help. Be it tracking a lead, getting information, or just general allies. I know you don't want my advice, but when I said you should do more on your own I didn't mean in isolation."
"Why because you already do that?" Damian asked him.
"Because I know how hard living like that is. I don't want that for you."
Damian wasn't sure what to say. Instead turning on his heels to suit up and hit the pavement. He needed a lead and currently Lieutenant Barbara Gordon was his only option.
He did feel better knowing she was the one on the case. At the very least, assuming Grayson was still safe, she wouldn't hand him over to Maronie. Not easily. She was too honest for her own good.
Damian listened for the police scanner to track her down. She refused to be a desk jockey. She wanted in on the action.
It made it easy to find her chasing some guy on foot cornering him in a nameless alley.
"Nowhere to run Dennis." She told him as she approached. "Let's not make this worse. Lie down on your stomach and put your hands behind your back."
Damian watched the exchange from a hidden fire escape. 'Dennis' reached into his jacket for a weapon.
He didn't have the chance to grab it before Damian dropped down and disarmed him.
"I had that." Gordon sounded ticked. Fair. Damian would be too.
"I need to talk to you." He tells her. "Urgently."
"You know I don't work with vigilantes Sparrow." She tells him as she zip-ties the perp. "Now get out of here before I arrest you."
"This is mutually beneficial for both of us."
"No such thing." She turned, herding her assailant to the waiting patrol car.
She leaves without another word. But Damian isn't done. They need to talk.
He follows the car all the way back to GCPD headquarters and slips through the window into her office, the same office as her father, and waits in a dark corner.
She steps inside bracing herself against the door behind her, sighing loudly. She looks beat.
She waits a few more seconds. "So I take it you want me to arrest you tonight." She moves to sit at her desk and face Damian. "Good, I'd love to know the name of the Sparrow. Maybe I can get Batman too if I'm lucky. Then my Father can finally rest."
Damian steps forward slightly. "You know that night haunts me every day. It wasn't supposed to end like that."
"That doesn't change what is." She leans back. "What? What is so urgent?"
"You took the Grayson case."
"Yeah, and?"
"Do you know where he is?"
She scrutinizes him for a moment. "Why do you care?"
"Because I want to help. I need to help."
"You need to?" She catches those words.
"Yes. Maronie will kill him if I don't find him first. Where is he? I just want to make sure he's safe."
He really shouldn't be shocked that she caught on. She knew why.
Gordon narrowed her eyes, before leaning forward and resting her elbows on the desktop. "You were there that night weren't you. You saw what happened to him?"
Damian doesn't answer. Her tone may make it seem like it was a question, but he knew better.
She looks away, almost ashamed of herself. "We brought him back here for questioning before CPS stepped in and took him to St. Agnes."
"Odd place to send him. That's where you send delinquents."
"Well it wasn't up to me." Her words caught in her throat. "He's not there anymore. No one knows where he is."
"What?"
She looked like she wanted to cry. "I don't know. He was there for a couple of weeks and now he's gone."
"How do you lose a child?" Damian can't help but get emotional. This is the absolute worst case scenario.
"Believe you me, I am raining hell on everyone involved. I am trying to find him. I don't think Maronie's guys have gotten to him yet or we would've found his body by now." She took a shaky breath attempting to calm herself.
She's stretched too thin and had too many people around her that she couldn't trust. a
"Give me everything you have." Damian instructs. "I am going to find him."
She shoots him an almost murderous look. Damian thinks that she'd rather have her fingernails ripped off than have him assist on any of her cases. "I think Batman is the correct option in this situation. With his successful track record and all."
"Well I'm here and I'm the one looking. Please don't make this difficult. He's a kid and he's alone. I know what that's like."
She absorbs his words. She wants to argue. She even opens her mouth to argue before remembering how desperate she is.
Grayson is a small child lost in a huge, dangerous, unfamiliar city with the mob after him.
"You bring him directly to me the second you find him." Her tone is firm, there's an unsaid warning in those words.
"I will." Damian agrees easily.
Gordon fishes out a flash drive and copies the available intel.
"I mean it. The second you find him. I don't care about what time of day." She repeats before handing over the drive.
"And I mean it. I will."
Alright, Prologue and the first chapter (although AO3 can really tell the difference) up and ready for consumption. I have read AUs before and absolutely loved them but I've never actually written one. I usually stay within the boundaries of established continuity but... this got stuck in my head and I couldn't help myself. I hope you all enjoy.