Hey there. had this idea in my head a while. Also, please check out my Pitch for a Zelda game, which I posted on Tumblr!

I do not own The Batman or any of DC's properties.

Welcome Home

...

March 9th, 2023.

East Gotham Train Station wore the same coat of filth and shadows as the rest of the city. Few could be seen there on a regular basis save for the homeless, the business representatives and the criminals of the city.

Today, there was also Jim Gordon.

Dressed in a beige trenchcoat, he glanced around, tense as a cat as he waited,

and waited,

and waited.

Then came the inhuman screech of the 9:00 PM train from Chicago. It was sleek and silver and blue - in other words, it looked out of place in Gotham, where the only sleek and silver vehicles were those that belonged to the rich.

As the doors opened, off stepped a relatively short young lady of fourteen, with skin the colour of chocolate, coal-black hair in a ponytail and a pair of vintage circular glasses perched on her nose. On her face was an expression of loss, of grief - and Jim knew all too well why.

He pulled the girl into an awkward hug "Hey, Babs. You doing okay?"

"Sure." replied his daughter, pulling away "Let's go." she told him shortly.

Jim sighed. He felt no anger towards her - he deserved it after all.

...

To be blunt, it was a very uncomfortable drive home.

Father and daughter sat in silence, neither of them really looking at one another. Jim focused on the road, while Barbara gazed at the city.

The flood waters had mostly gone down, but half of Gotham was still underwater. As they went over a bridge, Barbara noticed an entire market of boats with hoards of people moving about like an entire colony of ants.

Noticing where she was looking, Gordon finally broke the silence "Things have changed a lot since you've been gone, Babs. A lot of the city's turned into Venice - I can take you to one of the safer markets, if you want."

Babs didn't look "Sure."

Jim sighed "Babs, I know you're angry-"

"It's fine." interrupted Barbara "You had an important case. You couldn't come to attend the funeral. It's fine."

Jim sighed "You don't have to pretend, you know. I get it if you're mad."

Barbara looked at him, an expression of guilt on her face "That's the problem. I don't wanna be mad, dad..."

Jim had no answer to this.

...

At 09:35 PM, they arrived at the Gordon residence, a two-person apartment in the South-East side of Gotham. It was as average as could be - Beige walls, TV in the living room, and an old wooden dining table. yes, truly average if you don't count the bloodied man on the kitchen floor.

Hang on...

Barbara gaped, staring at the sight. The man was short, thin, and reedy. His arm was twisted at an awkward angle and his face looked like it had been slammed into a brick wall. And standing over him was what could only be described as a demon knight - Tall, with bulky black armour that had little 'ears' coming off the top of the helmet. Around his shoulders sat a long black cape with poured down his back like a waterfall.

Upon Barbara and Gordon's entry, he looked up at them like a deer in headlights. He stood up, staring with surprise at Barbara.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"This your kid?" he said at last, his voice husky.

Jim Gordon nodded "Was this guy here to-"

"Yeah."

A storm drifted over the Detective's face "Babs? Go to the room on the first left of the corridor."

Hefting her suitcase, Babs did as she was told, throwing a glance at the Demon Knight before rushing into the room and shutting the door.

She dropped her suitcase and without thinking put her ear to the door, her every cell tingling with excitement and terror. Who were those guys?

She heard the Knights' voice seep through the door "You never told me you had a kid coming over here."

"Me and her mom divorced when she was ten, and she took her to Chicago. Then her mom died, and I haven't had time to tell you. Who's this guy working for?"

"Penguin."

"That little-"

"I'll pay him a visit tonight."

Babs's gut curled into a ball. Someone had wanted her dead? Why!?

"Thanks, Batman. Do me a favour, make it hurt."

There was a pause, before Batman spoke "Other people might come after her."

Her dad sighed "What am I gonna do?"

"I can have paid self-defence classes and escorts arranged."

"...thanks."

"No problem."

The sounds of heavy footsteps rang out, fading into the distance.

...

An hour later, Barbara was sitting on the coach, drinking a mug of hot chocolate. The intruder had already been arrested and dragged away to a nice safe Police station, leaving her and her dad alone in the apartment. Once they had gone, her dad had put on How to train your dragon for them both to watch.

But she couldn't focus on it.

Gotham had always been... Gotham, but to Barb it had always felt distant. Elsewhere. Almost fictional.

Now it was real.

And it scared her.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Who was that guy?"

Jim paused the film "You don't need to worry about that."

"I'm not worrying about it. I just wanna know."

Her dad sighed "Do you mind if we finish the movie tomorrow?"

"Sure." Babs got up and went to her knew room. She fished her laptop out of her suitcase and searched up the website for the Gotham Gazette'.

When Riddler's attacks had flooded the city, Barbara had only seen it on national news. It had made no mention of Batman.

In the Gotham Gazette, there was scaresly an article published without him, especially over the last few months. His first appearances had been a few years back - just a couple of minor articles of some unknown vigilante which had grown into weekly stories about the man who had turned criminals into a 'superstitious and cowardly lot' as the journalist had put it.

In the Riddler attack articles, Batman was mentioned practically every third sentence. He had stopped Riddler, he had saved trapped people, and he had been tirelessly working to save lives and help flood victims ever since.

In other words, he was a hero.

After accidentally misclicking on an Article about Bruce Wayne, she then read a very interesting debate about Batman between Harvey Dent and Roger Garcetti.

Then she looked into the crime rates. Being ten years old when she left, she had never had an interest in them, and was shocked when she saw. Crime rates had been some of the highest - if not the highest - the country - if not the world - had ever seen. But over the last two months, they had dropped significantly, and it was all because of Batman.

He had fought criminals with tooth and nail. He was helping people. Making this city a better place.

And inside Barbara, she had a desire... an urge... an inexplicable instinct to do something to help.

She stood up, exited, grabbed some paper from her dad's copier and began writing:

'HOW TO HELP BATMAN?'

MY SKILLS:

- COMPUTERS AND HACKING

-TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

MY WEAKNESSES:

-NO FIGHTING SKILL (BATMAN PAYING FOR SELF-DEFENCE CLASSES)

-LITTLE KNOWLEDGE OF GOTHAM (DESPITE LIVING HERE FOR TEN YEARS)

POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS:

-'PERSON IN THE CHAIR'

-ASKING TO BE BATMAN'S APPRENTICE (HE'LL LIKELY SAY NO).

Barbara drew a circle around the 'PERSON IN THE CHAIR' option.

But to do that, she'd have to gain his trust or his attention.

...

I hope you enjoyed this! I must say, I hope the Batfamily does get into the Reevesverse. It would be fascinating.

Favourite and review!