Bruce: 40

Dick: 22

Lillian: 18

Jason: 15

Losing Jason Part Two

"Any news Miss Lillian?" The Butler inquired as I plopped down into my favorite barstool.

"Something about Easter Eggs I think."

"Beg your pardon?" Alfred looked suddenly alarmed. "Did you say Easter Eggs?"

"Yeah apparently its digital content hidden within other digital content. It all sounds very complicated but Dick and Bruce have apparently gotten it all figured out."

"Perhaps coffee will help them think?" Alfred suggested as he plugged in the coffee pot.

"Hmmm mayybee, but I think they'd rather have some of your famous homemade chocolate chip cookies."

"I suspected that might be the case." Alfred smiled before he began gathering ingredients.

Two hours later Alfred and I had produced a warm batch of cookies and a freshly brewed round of coffee.

"I'll carry these!" I said eagerly picking up the cooling cookie tray.

"Very well." Alfred agreed before picking up a tray with two mugs of coffee, a sugar bowl, a creamer, a mug of tea and one mug of hot chocolate.

"We come bearing gifts boys!" I called down the stairs as I followed after Alfred to the cave.

"Sweet!" Dick exclaimed racing over to attack the cookie tray in my hands.

"Easy there Dick." I commented as he pulled three cookies into his hand. He then perched himself on the counter next to the Bat-computer's keyboard. Bruce reached for one of the coffee mugs Alfred offered him before drinking the coffee black. He nibbled at a cookie and continued to organize photo files. Reaching for the second cup of coffee Dick poured four spoons worth of sugar into his cup. Eagerly watching Bruce's work, Dick started to dip a cookie in his coffee. Alfred set down the coffee tray and picked up the small cup of tea he'd made for himself. I stood back, observing everyone, sipping steaming gulps of cocoa.

"That's it, I think we've got them all now." Bruce exclaimed when another hour had passed. He turned the computer over to Dick who began rapidly typing and clicking at the screen. He banished the remnants of the commercials leaving only the image files that he and Bruce had spent hours retrieving. Moving even faster now Dick strung them across the giant stream like a timeline. My eyes struggled to focus on any single image for too long as Dick maneuvered them around the screen.

"I think it's a video. All the pictures put together make a video, but not as fluid as a recorded video…Like a flip book." Dick explained. The speed of his clicking and typing seemed to increase slightly as he worked on getting the image files to play like a flip book. "That should do it." He said at last. The video began to play very slowly, like stop frame animation.

"Is that The Joker?" I asked as a familiar white and Red face appeared on the screen.

"Yeah, looks like he's in some sort of warehouse." Dick agreed.

"Shhhh!" Bruce barked at us even though there was no sound coming from the video. We watched as the video panned across the room to boy clad in Red and Green.

"Jason!" I heard myself squeak. The Joker had Jason tied up, he was huddled in a weakened mass on the floor. Large fat tears streamed down my face as Alfred, Bruce, Dick and I helplessly watched The Joker mercilessly beat Jason with a crowbar. I turned away from the monitor unable to watch anymore. Alfred excused himself from the room saying something about more coffee. When the video clip had finished the three of us were silent for a minute before Bruce launched into full Batman mode.

"Jason is still alive. We just have to find out where The Joker is holding him." He grumbled playing the video again. I closed my eyes unwilling to relive the horrible scene again. I took several slow deep breaths. I opened my eyes when I heard soft footsteps approach.

"Lilly are you ok?" Concern was knit throughout Dick's brow as he looked down studying me.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I just can't watch that again Dick. Tell Bruce I'll be upstairs when you figure out where Jason is."

"Uh, yeah alright." He agreed before returning to the monitor. Once upstairs I decided to check on Alfred. He seemed to be just as shaken by the video as I was.

"Hey Al?" I called as I entered the kitchen. I stopped short when I saw my favorite butler weeping over a cold tea cup. "Alfred?" I asked again.

"Oh Miss Stephanie I'm so sorry I didn't see you there." Alfred began violently dabbing at his eyes with a cloth napkin.

"Alfred are you alright?" By now I had rushed to his side.

"Yes Miss Lillian I am quite well." He gathered himself up and began washing his teacup. "I fear I had brewed this batch of tea rather strongly." Strong tea doesn't make a stoic British man weep tears.

"We'll find him Alfred." I promised. "We'll find him and we'll bring him home."

"I'm certain you will Miss." He answered before leaving me alone in the kitchen. I brewed a batch of coffee and stared at a full cup of straight black grinds. I sniffed distastefully at the cup before tossing the full thing in the sink. I poured Dick and Bruce each a steaming cup, adding plenty of sugar to Dick's.

"Who's ready for round two?" I called grimly into the cave.

"Ooh Coffee!" Dick shouted reminding me of his twelve year old self. At some point he had changed into his nightwing costume, his blue eyes shining through the mask.

"Bruce?" I questioned to my black clad father. "No time for coffee Batgirl, suit up."

"Did you find Jason?" I asked setting down the black cup of coffee next to his Batcowl.

"Change and I'll explain." I followed his instructions returning with my own Batcowl in hand. " I've pinpointed Jason's location down to three possible warehouses." Bruce explained pulling up a map.

"They're in three different parts of the country." Dick cried. "We'll never make it to all three in time."

"Not together." I explained. "But if we split up maybe. This one here," I pointed to the first flashing red dot. "It's on Bludhaven only about an hour away and this second one is pretty far up northern Maine but the last one is right here in Gotham. If Dick and I each take Bludhaven or Gotham, you can ride up to Maine and whoever gets to Jason first can call the others. If one of the sites is a bust, we just team up with whoever is closest." Bruce and Dick listened intently trying to find holes in my plan.

"Alright." Bruce said finally. "Leave your personal cell phones here, and I don't think the comlinks inside of our masks will work at such a great range." Bruce pulled on his Batcowl. "I'm assuming you still have your Nightwing phone?" Bruce asked Dick who nodded immediately.

"Yeah and I programmed the Batphone numbers in it awhile back." Dick assured him. Bruce crossed the cave to a small lockbox at the base of the steps inside there were three cell phones, he pulled out two of them before locking the lock again.

"You're batphone." He uttered before tossing the phone at me. I caught it with ease looking down at the yellow and purple jeweled version of Bruce's Batphone. I tucked the phone into my utility belt as Bruce did the same with his. "Call if you find anything, call if you don't find anything, call if anything goes wrong or seems off." Dick and I nodded at our instructions waiting for Bruce to continue on. "Batgirl you can take the Batcycle and stay here in Gothem, Nightwing you take the Batmobile to Bludhaven and I'll take the Birdbike Maine. If you don't find ditch the Batcycle, team up in the Batmobile and meet me there. Any questions?"

"No." I answered.

"Negative." Dick confirmed.

"Then let's get moving." Bruce commanded, racing off to Robin's Birdbike. I mounted the Batcycle and followed him out of the cave. Tracking the coordinates from the Batcomputer on the Batcycle's GPS unit I wound through the busy streets of Gotham easily. I made it to the warehouse of the other side of Gotham in less than twenty minutes. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew right away that wasn't where Jason was. The joker wouldn't make it that easy. It wouldn't be any fun for him if we found Robin the first twenty minutes we went out looking for him. But I had to search the place anyway. I was able to do a full detail of the building in under an hour. I checked the time on my Batphone. Dick would only be arriving at the Bludhaven location then. I did a second search keeping an eye out for any signs of a struggle or anything that had been recently disturbed. The place was clean and the warehouse hadn't been touched in years. I whipped out my Batphone again, dialing Nightwing.

"Batgirl?" He soft voice spoke.

"Yeah. Checked out the Gotham Warehouse this place is clean."

"Almost finished here, I don't think it's the place though. Why don't you head back to the cave, I'll be there to pick you up in about an hour. You can call Batman while you wait." I agreed to do just that. I waited until the Batcycle was parked inside the cave to call Bruce.

"Batgirl?" His gruff voice barked into my ear.

"Yes." I confirmed. "I didn't find anything here in Gotham and Nightwing is finishing up in Bludhaven, If he doesn't find anything there we're meeting up at the cave, then we're coming up there after you."

"Keep me informed." He said before clicking the phone off. I waited impatiently for the next hour. I paced up and down the cave, a few cartwheels. When those activities stopped feeling stimulating I just stared at the mouth of the cave expectantly. When Nightwing finally arrived with the deep black car, I hopped in immediately.

"Let's go." I Insisted. Nightwing just nodded. We sped down the highway three hours behind Bruce. Four hours later we found the warehouse with no trouble. Nightwing parked the Batmobile several feet away next to the birdbike. Nightwing reached for his cell and dialed the Batphone.

"Batman…Well we're here now we'll help you look. We'll find him." Dick hung up his phone and together we stepped out of the car. "The isn't just one warehouse." He explained. "It's a whole block's worth of warehouses, Robin could be in any one of these buildings."

"Where's Batman?" I asked.

"Hopefully he's that dark looming figure walking towards us." Luckily the "dark looming figure" Dick spoke about was Bruce.

"I've checked these five buildings to the left. Which just leaves us about twenty buildings." Batman clarified.

"Where should we…" But Dick's question was cut off when a giant explosion erupted from a building in the center of the warehouse complex.

"Now it's down to one." Dick said rushing forward.

"NO!" Batman ordered as he tossed Nightwing back. He's reaction was explained when within minutes the entire complex had caught fire. "The two of you need to go home now."

"NO!" I bellowed. "No, we can't go home without Robin. We came all this way…I promised Alfred, No he has to be ok. Robin! ROBIN!" I began shouting into the night and running towards the flames.

"Batgirl NO!" Batman raced forward trying to grab hold of me, but I ran even further into the flames only stopping when I saw a small flick of yellow out of the corner of my eye.

"Jace!" I cried so happy that I'd finally found him. But something was wrong with him, he wasn't moving. He was covered in burns, but that was nothing Alfred could fix. He'd been tossed pretty far in the explosion but that didn't mean that he was…no he couldn't be. Not Jason. I sat right next to him holding his hand and sobbing.