"You're distracted," someone says and Gardner freezes. "Or sleep deprived. Maybe both."

It takes a few seconds to realize who had spoken to him and a few more to realize he had been staring into space for who knows how long. He swallows, shifting his eyes to the balcony door. The curtains flutter when a small breeze brushes by and he manages to smile.

"Hey, Jason," he says. "What are you doing here? And do you always have to come through the balcony? What if someone sees you and thinks you're a burglar or something?"

Jason Todd is standing in the room and he doesn't bother closing the balcony doors. Instead, he's watching Gardner with suspicious eyes. Trudging over, combat boots leaving faint dirt prints, he shakes his head.

"You're really out of it, aren't ya, G?" He laughs. "You texted me a few minutes ago. When's the last time you got sleep?"

Gardner blinks and then pulls out his phone. It's apparently a new model from Wayne Tech, according to Jason. The older male had gifted it to him a few weeks ago after Gardner somehow found himself acting as a replacement hostage in some kidnapping case.

"Wally West," Gardner finds himself spitting out in a mildly panicked voice. It's so unlike him to show this much panic and Jason has to do a double take on the two words.

Jason seems to recognize the name because he's frowning now. "What about him?"

The younger male hesitates as he makes a few gestures with his hands in attempt to calm himself. He eventually sighs and looks Jason in the eyes. "I—uh... West wants me to pretend to be Grayson."

"What?"

"I know Grayson was your younger brother—or whatever he was—and all and that he's disappeared but I could use a favor or two."

"No," Jason snaps. "No, I don't want any part in this."

Gardner flinches but immediately puts on a poker face. "He wants to save the circus," he explains. "I swear, it's like West is in love with Grayson, which would be a riot since the bottomless pit must be straighter than my priorities." He shakes his head, silently lamenting on how he's getting off topic. "Look, Jason, I know you hated Grayson for being your replacement and the Golden Boy of Gotham City but I've already agreed and I'm not backing out now."

Jason searches Gardner's mostly expressionless face. There are some betraying details such as the minute furrowing of the brows and the eyes that shift from strong emotions to nothing and back again in seconds. For a second, Jason sees Dick Grayson in Gardner LaRou's face and he looks away.

"I never hated him," Jason says. "I never hated Dick, okay? I hated myself because I was a stupid kid and jealous."

There's a flicker of surprise in Gardner's face before he smiles a very awkward smile that doesn't belong on such a Dick Grayson-like face because Dick Grayson has genuine smiles and not awkward ones (not that awkward smiles can't be genuine). "You didn't hate him?"

"How could I?" Jason asks, staring into those remarkable blue eyes. "Even if it weren't by blood or name, he was—is—still my little brother."

"So you'll help me, right? Do this for Grayson."

"What's the plan?"

There's another flicker in Gardner's face but Jason can't place the emotion. The younger male lets out a not-so-intelligent noise that rubs the back of his throat. He looks around before settling his eyes on the table.

"I go see that show that the Haly man is holding," he says. "I reveal myself as Grayson and it should stop the man from closing the circus."

"All right," Jason says. "Okay, we can work with"—he scratches the back of his head—"this. There's one little problem."

"Let me guess, Wayne and his sons will be in the audience," Gardner ventures, morphing his face into yet another impassive affect. He picks up one of the index cards. "Maybe even the Pennyworth man will be there."

Jason shifts. "You hit the nail right on the head, G," he says. "And why do you always refer to everyone but me with his or her last name? You sound so much like the demon spawn."

"Or their, Jason, you mustn't forget nonbinaries and everyone else who doesn't fall under the he/she category," Gardner admonishes, not answering the question. "And demon spawn? There"—he combs through the index cards—"doesn't seem to be a card for that."

After briefly sifting through the cards himself, Jason pulls one from the mess. He looks at Gardner. "Got a pen?"

Shaking his head, Gardner twists around and grabs Wally's bag before twisting back. "West must have one in here somewhere."

He digs into one of the pockets while Jason gets up and heads to the kitchen. He hears the sound of glass and a water bottle being opened. Then there's a shuffling sound along with a crinkle of plastic that he can't place coming from the kitchen area.

A yawn escapes its jail and he has to blink away the tears that collected in the corner of his eyes. No, he's not crying; it's just tears of tiredness and fatigue.

Perhaps he should actually go to sleep and skip all the reading.

Then, Gardner furrows his brows and pulls his hand out. In his fingers appear a... communicator? He purses his lips and observes it. He jumps a little when Jason sets a glass of water down on the table. Jason takes one look at the object before shaking his head.

"That's one of the communicators," Jason says. "It's a new design Bruce came up with after Goldie disappeared."

"Why?"

"Apparently Dick smashed his communicator," says the older male. "This design apparently can't be destroyed."

Gardner says nothing as he stares at the communicator. He returns it and pulls out a pen that he finds seconds later, handing it to Jason. The latter begins to write on some of the index cards, being careful and trying his best to forge Wally's handwriting just in case the speedster notices. Gardner takes the glass of water he never asked for and takes a long sip.

"Don't worry about a thing, G," Jason says. "I'll help where I can."

•••

"Hey, Jason? Before you"—Gardner stretches his arms, yawning loudly—"go, can you answer two questions?"

"Whatever. Sure."

"Did you drug the water?" Gardner asks with a small smirk that melts away into a frown. "And do I really resemble the original Grayson so much?"

"Yeah, I did," Jason says. "And yeah, you do."

•••

"—ner? Hey, Gardner, wake up?"

Gardner blinks, waiting a few seconds so his eyes can adjust to the false lighting emanating from the ceiling light. He sits up, realizing that he had been placed on the couch. He looks around, seeing nothing but Wally and his speedster self in the room.

There's a bandage peeking out from under the ginger's shirt but he pretends not to notice. It most likely has to do with the extra curriculars of the heroing sort. If he were to ask, he'd most likely get some farfetched excuse because, as a civilian, he's supposed to not have any knowledge on the heroes and his or her (or their) secret identity.

"Er, good"—he glances at the clock on the wall—"evening, West."

Wally looks at him. "Yeah, you too, LaRou." He snickers. "Hey, that rhymes."

"I find that so very amusing as well, West," Gardner drawls. He rubs his eyes and rolls his shoulders. "My apologies for falling asleep."

Quickly, Wally shakes his head and smiles as if everything is right with the world. "Nah, I think you needed it. So, did your eidetic memory do its magic or...?"

Gardner pauses, unsure of how to reply. He runs over a few facts and finds that he can remember them perfectly. So, he gives a curt nod and stands. There's just a tiny sense of vertigo but it doesn't bother him.

"It has," he says, tilting his head upwards a bit to look into Wally's bright green eyes. "I'll have no problem memorizing everything you've provided me with on the cards."

"Astrous."

"As...trous?" Gardner looks Wally up and down, trying to see if the older male is okay. "Did you just—?"

"Oh, did I forget to put his vocab on a card?" Wally picks up a number of cards and Gardner feels his heart race a little at the risk of Wally noticing any added bits of information. "I probably did. See, Dick had a habit of taking prefixes off of words and all. He shared his vocabulary with a select few though."

Gardner nods thoughtfully before snorting. "Sounds stupid," he remarks, flicking his bangs with his index and middle fingers pressed together and the thumb pointed out just slightly. "I'm assuming astrous must be the opposite of disastrous."

Wally looks at him and blinks out of surprise. He nods before returning his attention to the cards. He swallows and Gardner can see his Adam's apple bob out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah, it is."

The older teen narrows his eyes at the cards, flipping through them faster and discarding the ones he looked at to the floor. He drops to his knees in a heartbeat and looks through the other cards. Gardner resists the urge to step back and instead harrumphs.

"Amazed by your outstandingly horrendous penmanship?" he asks.

"No," Wally says. "I don't remember writing some of the stuff on some cards. Like with the Damian Wayne card. I don't remember added demon spawn to it. I mean, I agree with it but I didn't write that down."

Gardner's eyes narrow just the slightest bit but Wally is too busy rereading every card to notice. He sniffs indignantly. "Well, obviously you must have," he retorts. "I definitely couldn't have."

"Yeah, you couldn't have," Wally mutters. He sighs and picks up all the cards. "Anyway! I have a few questions."

"Shoot."

"How good are you with acrobatics? Oh, and family. If you were found by the press, would your family figure you out if they saw you on the news or something?"

Gardner hesitates. What should he say? Rather, what could he say? He fixes his expression and gives Wally a small glance as he turns his head to the side. "I like to think I'm decent," he says. "I... took a few lessons when I was a kid because my parents thought the skills would help me in other sports."

"And your parents? Would they recognize you if you ended up on some magazine?"

"How could they?" Gardner says in a steady voice. He says his next words in an even sturdier one. "How could they do so when they're six feet underground?"

He hears Wally breath hitch.

Hi! I'm sorry for the long wait and not-so-great chapter. I had so much trouble with my original idea so I scrapped it for this piece of scrap metal.

I hope this chapter has you asking questions. :) Please drop any in the review box if you feel up to it. ;)) I gave you allusions to some of your theories (i.e. Gardner is a clone, Gardner is Dick, etc.) but I'm neither confirming or denying anything and I even revealed to y'all that Jason and Gardner are acquainted.

To my friend, SmallGh0st, my firefly-waterfall question was just there for my entertainment to see if anyone would notice. :P And PsychedelicCat, I was really happy to learn that you actually reread one of my chapters thrice. :0 Apologies if Terry is OOC. I've only watched a few episodes with him so I haven't been able to grasp his (or anyone's, really) character completely. And Poksie, that's the first of that theory I've heard. Definitely a very interesting one. :o

Funny story, so, I was out at this area with a waterfall, right? I was chilling in the water on my phone (I write my stories on my phone if you didn't know) and I decided to come up with various ideas: like, should I make Dick's disappearance related to Deathstroke with the apprentice arc or Talon related or what? I'm saving those ideas for other stories so I don't overwhelm myself. :)

Edit: Whoops. The above little paragraph wasn't asking anything. Those were just questions I was asking (and answered) myself. I'm keeping the Court and the apprentice ideas in other stories because this plot itself is going to be a challenge to write. :P Basically, no I'm not turning this isn't an apprentice or Talon fic.