Chapter 3

Since their meeting both teens have been on their best behaviors, well more like slightly better than their normal behaviors after all they didn't want to give their parental figures any reason to suspect them of doing something wrong. Damien passed his days in waiting for his next meeting with Tarry with school work and night-time patrols with his father, in which, they often defeat the Joker's plans, and each time Damien expected to see Tarry in her funny looking costume but each time she was missing. Tarry spent her days resting in her room healing as she was confined to her room as part of her punishment.

When the awaited day for the teens next meeting came along Damien saw himself face with two problems the fact that his father was planning on taking him on a long patrol that night and even if he did manage to wiggle his way out of patrol there was no he would be able to wear his Robin suit especially if his father was patrolling every inch of Gotham that night. First thing he had to deal with was his problem of getting out of patrolling with his father without alerting his father's suspicion. Damien knew he couldn't confront his father about his desire to miss patrol but he knew who could do it for him, he thought as he walked towards the Wayne Manor's butler Alfred Pennyworth.

"Good morning Master Damien, what seems to be the matter?" the old man inquired while putting down his duster in order to give the young teenager his full and undivided attention.

"Why do you assume there's something wrong?"

"Because you just spent the last twenty minutes seating on the stair case in deep thought, and I trust that I have made the right assumption that it has nothing to do with the calculus assignment I left on your table this morning?"

"Yes…Alfred can you help me with something?" Damien inquired tactfully as he prayed that his plan would be successful. When Alfred looked at him with curiosity to find out how he could possibly help a child he always thought was self-dependent to point that he rather chew off his own arm before asking for help.

"Can you convince father not to take me on patrol today because I have a big calculus test tomorrow?"

"Damien I don't remember assigning a huge calculus test for tomorrow, and I should most certainly know I'm the teacher," Alfred inquired with a raised eyebrow at the boy that told Damien that he wanted the real truth why he didn't want to go on patrol with his father. "This doesn't have anything to do with a fight does it?"

"No Alfred, it has something to do with a girl I met a couple of weeks ago during our recognizance mission. While I was waiting for father to finish integrating a couple of mob bosses after pretending we were normal civilians I met a girl and we talked. I promised that I would meet with her today," Damien confessed with fringed desperation in his face that shocked Alfred for not only did Damien confess that he was interested in a girl but also he confessed it to him so easily which was very not like Damien's character at all.

"Damien why don't you confess this to Master Bruce, I'm sure he'll-"

"Understand? Seriously Alfred, you know him if I told him that I was going to meet a girl rather than go patrolling with him he's going to spy on us, and ruin everything."

"I'm sure your father wouldn't get caught spying on you two-"

"Not the point," Damien broken in with annoyance that grudgingly persuaded the old butler into seeing things Damien's way. Alfred knew very well if Bruce knew about Damien having a crush on a girl he met on the streets nothing in the world could stop Bruce from sticking his noise into their affairs to find out everything about this mystery girl that has captured a thing that Alfred once thought was nonexistent; Damien's heart.

"Fine I will play along with your plan, if you answer whether this girl is safe or not?"

"You mean will she kill me? Yeah we already explored that possibility and she wouldn't harm anyone, cats maybe but not a person," Damien replied as he remembered coming across two dead cats where she had revealed herself from the shadows to attack him. Alfred just stared at him for a second and chose to let this piece of information slide, after all, he wanted Damien to be happy and if this girl had the power to do that Alfred didn't want to stand in their way. Plus this was Damien we were talking about anyone who could captivate his interest couldn't be normal, as long as he was sure that the girl would not bring him any harm Alfred was game for the plan.

Damien couldn't help but grin in satisfaction as he watched Alfred walking towards the bat cave to tell his father the news of his surprise test. Everything seemed to be going his way, Damien thought as he headed upstairs to finish up his calculus sheet and figure out what he was going to wear tonight.

On the other side of Gotham Tarry had less trouble in assuring that her parents wouldn't find out about her secret meeting with both Harley and Joker gearing up to make a huge bank heist.

"You know Puddin, it's been a month, don't you think that it's about time to unground Bonnie and let her help us with the bank heist?" Harley asked as she put on the finishing touches of her clown make up.

"No, she will remain in her room until I can trust that she won't freeze up before making a kill and that she doesn't have feelings for Bird Boy," Joker spat out as he got into the clown car fully ready to paint Gotham red that night. Harley with a pout hopped in after him as she yelled out to her daughter to not to expect them back home that night. Once Tarry could no longer hear the car engine she walked into her bathroom in front of her room. I guess that takes care of my parents, now all I have to do is make sure I'm ready for my meeting with Robin, she thought as she looked at the broken remains of the mirror in her bathroom to see that all her wounds she received from her father a month ago were nothing more than a faint memory now. What really caught her attention was her green hair. She knew she had to do something with it to ensure that she doesn't stick out like a sore thumb or worse have her parents recognize her if they bump into them by chance. Tarry paced the length of the bathroom flitting with her hair in hopes to figure out how to change it back to its original color. After about an hour she remembered her mother telling her father years ago when they dyed her hair green that it would wash out if she got her hair washed, which made sense to her as she realized that was the reason her mother never washed her hair. This caused the young girl to toss off her dirty night gown and hop into the bath tub where she scrubbed her hair for an hour until she could no longer see green hair dye being washed off her hair. She knew as she got out of the tub that she couldn't wear any of her clothes that were usually never cleaned by either of her parents, but she knew how to fix that problem. A huge smile appeared on her face when she snuck into her parents' room avoiding all the obvious booby traps that littered the floor. She ended up stealing a pair of jean shorts and a black hoody that she wore quickly as she noticed the night approaching fast meaning Robin would soon be perched in her room like she found him the first night he came to visit. When the girl had fixed herself up she looked at herself in the mirror with a satisfied smile as she saw a girl who had no connections to the Joker with her long black hair and normal clothes no one would know that she was the Joker's daughter.

"Ok, I guess I'm going in civilian clothes for this mission," Damien murmured to his dog as he took out a pair of black jeans, a black hoody that was a couple of sizes too big for him, and a pair of sunglasses to finish off his disguise as a normal boy who didn't have Batman as a father. Damien froze as he heard a knock on his door causing him to throw his clothes underneath his bed before his father could open the door to be greeted with the sight of his son studying for the math test that Alfred had told him about.

"Hello son, it has come to my attention that you have a math examination tomorrow, and since I wouldn't be a good parent if I didn't take your education primarily over your night job, so you will not be going on patrol tonight," Bruce said stepping into the boy's room just to have their dog come up to him for him to pet it.

"You know I could still go on patrol and ace Alfred's test," Damien grunted out with fake anger as he glared at his father who merely glared right back down at him.

"This isn't up for debate, you're staying here to study," Bruce ordered his son as he walked out his room before Damien could protest. Damien couldn't help but smile at the situation as he got changed and headed out into the night. He should've thought of sneaking out to spite his father years ago, he thought as he took out his baby from the garage that revealed a black MV-Augusta F4CC motorcycle. He loved the bike more than anything and only took it out on special occasions, and somehow going to meet the girl who was the only person to have ever come closer than his mother's assassins to killing him felt special.

As the seconds ticked away Tarry paced the length of her room with turmoil of nervousness, anticipation, and another emotion that she couldn't quite identify all she knew was that the emotion was linked to Robin. By this time the moon was high in the sky like the night that she first saw the boy in her room, which was the same night she had the dream that has always hunted her on the nights that she gets punished by her father. The blood, which came out of those sessions usually trigger a scene of blood dripping down her forehead while she stared up into the petrified lifeless eyes of a woman. There were only two voices she always hears her father's laughter and the deep voice of a man. There were times that Tarry really did wish it was a dream, but it felt so real each and every time it appeared in her head and it was always the same story with no deviations…

'Tap, tap," She was awoken from her reflections of the night that she met Robin, to see a boy who looked like Robin; however, he was lacking a certain red, black, and yellow suit that made him Robin to her.

"Sorry I don't think I know you," Tarry greeted as she took hold of the out stretched hand of the boy standing outside her house.

"The same could be said about you as well," Damien commented as he ran his hands through a few strands of her long black hair that was tied in a high ponytail. Damien made a mental note to pay extra attention to his facial expression he thought as he struggled back a blush after realizing just how pretty she looked without the clown makeup, the injuries that had once littered her entire body, and the ugly green hair.

"So what do I call now that you aren't in your Robin suit?"

"Still call me Robin, anyway we better get going if we want to make this time last," he suggested as he took hold of Tarry's hand to guide her towards the motorcycle he had parked a couple blocks away to ensure his baby didn't get stolen, by parking it in a sketchy neighborhood and because he rather have not brought the noise thing in front of the Joker's hideout in case he was still there.

Damien led the girl to where he parked his bike right in front of a police department. The very sight of it put a smile on Tarry's face as she could only imagine how fun it would be to be able to drive let alone drive a motorbike. "What do you need a cordial invitation to get on?" Damien questioned after waiting for a couple of minutes for her to break out of her trance and to grab the helmet he was holding out to her and hop on.

"Are you sure?" Tarry asked while taking the helmet from him.

"What are you scared?" Damien replied back with a wicked smile on his face that showed his amusement of the notion of her being more scared of his bike than her father.

"In your dreams," Tarry retorted as she sat behind him and grabbed his waist as he started up the vehicle. As the wind ripped through her hair and her clothes, Tarry felt herself hold on tighter to Damien's waist as fear of falling off the bike gripped her heart. But all that fluttered away when she place her head comfortably on Damien's back, the strength she felt in his built physic put her at ease with the notion that any danger they faced tonight whether it was her parents or his boss she knew that she found an ally who she could face the world with. However, Damien on the other hand wasn't feeling as calm as Tarry, actually this was the first time in his life he has ever felt so nervous. Not only was he feeling nervous it was increased with the fluttery feeling in his stomach that always occurs when Tarry was around, but as he drove towards their first destination he could barely feel anything but the girl strapped securely to his back and the burning blush scorching his face red.

Their first destination had the two teens parked in front of a restaurant that dazzled Tarry as she looked at the brightly lit up sign over the restaurant that read MacHappy in huge yellow letters on a red backboard.

"I hope you're hungry," Damien stated as he helped her off his motorbike.

"Starved literary," Tarry replied as she recalled that the last time her parents remembered to feed her was a week ago after they went to eat at Penguin's restaurant after a successful bank heist. Although the young girl was use to not eating regularly when both teens walked in Tarry couldn't help but feel the lurching hunger pains as her stomach backed her up on her starvation comment.

"You don't get fed daily do you?" Damien asked; however, it was more like a statement that Tarry answered with an uneasy smile as she held her stomach in vain to get it to stop embarrassing her with its loud protests of being denied food for so long.

As they moved closer to the cashier to order and pay for their food, Damien couldn't help but feel glad that he decided to bring her to eat first rather then at he end of the time they had together. Even though it was the Joker in question Damien couldn't fathom why Joker would starve his own daughter, after all, Harley never looked under fed, but the Boy Wonder soon put his thoughts away as he saw the person in front of them leave the cashier with his food.

"Hey may I take your order," the cahier asked boredly at least until she looked up to see the young fifteen year old boy, who caused her to flash a sensual look at him.

"Two MacHappy meals," Damien answered ignoring the girl's flirty looks towards him, but when he noticed Tarry's hand tighten in his he looked down to see the young girl who was probably two years younger than the cashier girl glaring at her with what Damien could only deduce as jealousy.

"Would you like anything else with that order," the girl behind the counter asked as she leaned slightly towards Damien fully ignoring the murderous glares coming from the little girl beside him.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure it's on the menu," Damien answered with a suggestive tone that made the girl behind the counter bright red like her red hair. This caused Tarry to pull the boy away from the counter as he placed enough money to pay for the meals and tip the girl working the counter very well. "Hey why the long face?" Damien teased as he tried to contain his laughter while Tarry dragged them towards a two person table next to the glass wall at the front of the restaurant.

"Did you have to flirt back?"

"Is that jealousy I hear?" Damien asked just to receive a painful kick to his knee as the girl looked away from him with a pout, thoroughly pissed off at his teasing this time. "I don't know why you're so mad the girl isn't even my type."

"Then why were you flirting back?"

"To successfully get under your skin," Damien replied nonchalantly just to have Tarry stick out her tongue at him as she turned around to show that she was no longer upset after all she has gotten use to Robin's sometimes charming and mostly difficult attitude.

"Well now that you've successfully gotten under my skin, what's next?"

"We eat," Damien replied as he saw the red haired girl bringing a tray over to their table with a flirty look about her that made both teens roll their eyes, Tarry visibly and Damien mentally.

"Here is your order, and here is something extra for when you want to get what you couldn't get off the menu," the red headed waitress said as she placed the tray full of food in front of the teens while winking at Damien as she passed him a slip of paper. Damien with boredom opened the paper to see that girl's name was Kathy and her phone number.

"Thank you for the meals, unfortunately I don't think this paper can get me what I wanted that wasn't on the menu," Damien replied with fringed politeness as he handed the girl back the slip of paper. Tarry couldn't help but smile as she saw the girl storm off in a huff of embarrassment and anger.

"What did you want extra with your meal then?" Tarry asked as she unwrapped the food in front of her.

"That's secret, anyway eat up," Damien answered as he flashed a mischievous smile at her as she pouted at his answer. When the young noirette saw what was contained in her wrapper Damien raised his eyebrow in curiosity to see her examining the hamburger that came with her meal as if it was something foreign. "You eat it like this," Damien directed as he unwrapped his burger and took a bite out of it. With hesitation the Joker's daughter followed his actions just to be thoroughly surprised at how good it tasted. As Tarry devoured the burger quickly she couldn't get over that she was actually eating a meal that didn't make her want to puke afterwards since her parents always brought home the food they didn't like at restaurants or bits and pieces of food they found on the carnival grounds that they lived on. Once the girl finished her burger she moved onto her French fries, which she finished just as quick, in the time it took Damien to get half through his burger which amazed him.

"Do you always eat like sugar high speedster?" Damien asked with a smirk that caused the young girl to blush bright red as she backed away from her finished meal sheepishly at the thought that she let her hunger get the better of her, but all that changed when Damien slide his box of French fries towards her causing her stomach to growl a little in want of more food.

"Sorry for eating most of your dinner as well, that was probably the best meal I ever had," Tarry stated as she finished off the last of Damien's fries.

"Well it can't be helped if you're a little pig when it comes to food," Damien teased to cause his favorite expression to appear on her face as her face turned red with both anger and embarrassment that he would even say such a thing when he knew that this was probably her first meal this week. This little comment caused the two teens to breakout into a fight with Tarry trying to deliver a blow to teach Damien a lesson and the Boy Wonder dodging each blow barely indicating to him that she was fully healed which pleased him, but he was going to miss being able to tease her without her being able to fight back.

"Hey I was just kidding," Damien snickered out as each blow he either blocked or dodged caused more amusement to appear on his face as he could tell that he was back under her skin.

"Don't think that excuse is going to get you off scot free," Tarry retorted with equal amusement as she tried harder to catch the skilled boy off guard.

"Excuse me can you two grow up, your disturbing the other…" the waitress named Kathy yelled over to them before stopping dead in her complaint to get the two teens at the front of the restaurant to shut up. This caused both kids to stop as they directed their attention to where the red-headed waitress was staring dumbly in, to have shock register on both their faces as Damien grabbed the young girl and threw both himself and her to the side out of the path of a speeding purple clown car as it came bursting through the window where they were just sitting at.

"Are you ok?" Damien demanded as glass rained upon them from the impact of what Damien was guessing was the Joker's car colliding with the front of the restaurant that consisted almost entirely of a glass window. When Tarry nodded Damien was up in seconds staring at the havoc of the people in the restaurant running around like chickens with their heads chopped off. They were blinded with terror that many were running around in circles in too much of a panic to find the nearest exist. "Good because here's your chance to go against your father and help me get these people out of here," Damien stated as he ran off to start to direct people out of the restaurant. For seconds all the young girl could do was stare at the terror happening around her until she saw her father and mother step out of the car in a daze. If she was going to make something out of this night she was going to have to act fast before she was recognized by her parents, she thought as she ran into the chaos and followed what Damien was doing to direct people out of the restaurant.

"Puddin are you alright?" Harley asked frantically as she attempted to give the Joker the kiss of life to snap him out of his daze. When Harley was seconds away from kissing him he snapped out of it and shoved her off him.

"I would be better if you got your head in the game," Joker yelled at her as he pointed at Batman and Red Robin walking into the restaurant.

"Nice parking job Joker," Red Robin teased as he made an amazed whistle while looking at the damage Joker's car made. The sight of the two mask figures caused both Joker and Harley to whip out their guns to start firing at them, but like last time the crime fighters effortlessly were able to dodge each bullet. Before either of the clown criminals knew what hit them they both had their guns knocked out of their hands one by a kick from Red Robin and the other one by a baterang thrown by Batman. While Harley and Red Robin went at each other hand to hand Joker caught a glimpse of a young girl at the exist a few meters away from him ushering out an old couple, which caused a derange smile to appear on his evil face as he sucker punched batman leaving him with enough of a distraction to scoop up the girl and the gun he had dropped.

The very sight caused everyone left in the restaurant to stop dead in their tracks especially Damien who stared wide eyed as he saw the girl who held a great deal of his interest with a gun cocked at her head by a crazed clown that wouldn't think twice before pulling that trigger. Knowing this caused uncontrollable rage to burn through Damien as he tried to figure out what to do with the possibility both his father and his foster brother may notice who he was.

"Now I suggest both you and bird-brains over there leave before this girl gets it," Joker cackled as he saw Batman take a step back as the girl squirmed around in her father's grasp knowing quit well that she could get out of his hold on a regular bases, but tonight she was just an average teenage girl who has never taken down an army of her father's cronies bare handed, because if she did use any moves on her father, she risked him recognizing one of them, which meant her life would literally be over.

"What's the matter Joker? Have you lowered yourself to picking on cute little girls because your too chicken to handle us on your own?" Red Robin mocked to distract the Joker, which caused him to turn his attention towards the red and black costumed older teenager and start to fire at him with rapidly in hopes of killing yet another bird. While the Joker focused on killing Red Robin, Batman snuck up behind the Joker and delivered a swift blow to his neck that caused the Joker to instantly blank out. Before Batman could catch the girl that the Joker took as a hostage Damien swooped in the nick of time and carried her out of the restaurant; however not before making eye contact with his father that left Bruce speechless as he wondered if the boy he had just saw was really his son. Although Bruce couldn't get a good look at the teen's eyes because of his sunglasses or his hair because the kid had his hood up, but some familiarity had clicked in his head…now that he thought about it the girl that the kid ran away with looked familiar as well; however the detective couldn't place a name on her or identify the place he had saw her from.

"Red Robin, we're done here," Batman ordered as Tim Drake finished tying and hand cupping both crazed clowns. The mask heroes disappeared from the crime scene just as the police arrived to slip away into the night in the bat mobile. All throughout the trip Bruce was dead silent as he turned the image of the boy and the girl over and over in his head.

"What's up Bruce, ever since you save that girl you've looked like you saw a ghost or something?"

"I don't know that boy that took away the girl seemed very familiar to me somehow."

"Really who were you thinking?"

"Damien," Bruce replied just to have his third foster child burst into laughter at the very thought that the boy with that cute girl that he was guessing was probably the kid's girlfriend could possibly be the heartless ruthless little demon.

"Really Bruce think about it, why would Damien skip patrol to let me take over while he sneaks out of the house to date a girl? I mean if this was Dick then maybe but this is the boy who barely even acknowledges anyone else other than you, Dick, and his mother."

"Maybe but stranger things have happened," Bruce answered as he tried to take his attention off the matter after all there was one more area of Gotham that had to be patrolled and when they were done Damien better be upstairs in his room Bruce thought as his sidekick for tonight grunted in disbelief that it was even physically possible for Damien to be interested in girls let alone date one.

"That was a close one," Tarry sighed as both her and Damien sat on the roof top of the restaurant watching the police guiding both of her parents into the back of a police van to take them to jail. Although she knew it was wrong but she couldn't help but smile a little at the sight of her parents being taken away with the fact that she had a little freedom until they breakout of Arkham.

"Yeah too close for my liking. Sorry it looks like we'll have to head back early today. I think Batman might have recognized me, which means if he heads back early and sees that I'm not there…"

"Game over I got it," Tarry finished as she jumped off the roof of the restaurant, landing with skillful grace. Damien soon followed her and before both teens knew it they were hoping off Damien's bike after he stopped in front of the abandoned circus grounds.

"I guess this is it," Tarry stated shyly as a strange feeling washed over her that made her feel sad that her time with her amusing bird was over so soon.

"For now, I think we can meet up at least once a week to avoid any suspicion," Damien reassured as he too was feeling a little regretful that there time was cut short, but that went away when he saw that the news that they would be meeting up regularly brightened up the young girl's face as if she won the lottery or something. After that it became silent as neither one of the teens knew what came next or who should leave first. As they gazed into each other's eyes a strong urge gripped both teens that caused Damien that was leaning coolly on his bike to lean closer to the girl standing in front of him. Although neither teen knew what this instinct would entail as the distance between them became smaller and smaller, they did knew that they couldn't fight or hide their feelings anymore. Their lips were inches apart before Damien's communicator started to buzz and light up, causing both teens to spring away from each other in surprise.

"Ah…well then…goodnight…Little Piggy," Damien bided farewell with a snicker to hide his embarrassment of what he almost did as he hopped on his bike to speed away before Tarry could get her hands on him and beat him to a bloody pulp for that comment. He couldn't help but laugh a little as he heard her cursing his name, at least until the image of what he almost did to her appeared in his head; this caused his cheeks to burn many shades of red as he wondered what came over him. He has seen Bruce do the same to many girls he had gone out with, even Dick a few times; to his understanding that action towards a female meant that the male had some romantic attraction towards the girl. Damien already acknowledged that he had some attraction to Joker's daughter or he wouldn't have taken her out, but he thought it was simply due to amusement. The almost kiss made him wonder whether his attraction was really just due to amusement or could it be something more, he thought as he sped off into the darkness of the night.

Once Damien came home he quickly entered his room and changed into his pajamas and fell fast asleep to the point he barely noticed his father come check to make sure he was asleep ten minutes after he arrived. Damien couldn't help but grin slightly when his father closed his door with the notion that he was just better at this cat and mouse game he was playing with his father. To confirm his earlier thoughts his father didn't bring up his suspicions, which pleased him even though he still had to write a calculus test the next day, but at that moment he welcomed it if it would stir his father off his case.