Two days after Christmas, the storm subsided and the roads were plowed. People were being ferried across the bay since the bridge was out of commission but it seemed like the city was recovering from one of the worst storms of the century and the high criminal activity.
Despite Virginia pleading with Casey to stay, she packed up what little belongings she had and made plans with Rodney to go back to Gotham.
"Please, one more day," Virginia begged Casey as she put her coat on.
"Mom, I need to get back to work," Casey said. "I'll call you when I get home, okay?"
She gave her mother a tight hug and told her she loved her before heading out with Rodney.
"Thanks for giving me a ride, Rodney," Casey said as she buckled herself in
"No problem," he said cheerfully. "I wanted to see the bridge myself."
"It's a wreck," Casey admitted. "Don't tell your mother or my mother but I was actually on the bridge while it was exploding."
Rodney's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "You were on the bridge?" He yelped. "What was it like?"
"Well, I wasn't really in danger but it was on fire and parts of it were falling into the water."
"Cool," Rodney said, impressed. "And I heard from my mom that you were in Blackgate during the riot?"
A chill swept through Casey despite the heater spewing hot air at her. "I was," she said slowly. "But that wasn't as great as you might think it would be."
Images of the Joker leaning down towards her flashed through her mind and she dug her nails into the seat. "I saw a lot of dead people in there."
"Oh." He seemed ashamed of his earlier words and mumbled an apology.
Casey changed the subject, "How was your movie?"
"Good. Not as good as part three but definitely better than part four."
Casey laughed. "Were you watching it late into the night? I woke up around two and I could have sworn I heard clown laughter..." She looked at him, hoping that it was his movie she heard and not a nightmare.
But he shook his head. "Nope. I finished it around midnight and went to bed.
Casey slumped into her seat. "Okay," she sighed.
They rode in silence until the bridge loomed above them. In the daytime the damage looked so much worse. Entire sections of the bridge were missing and Casey could see parts of it still dangling from the wreckage.
"Whoa," Rodney whistled. "I can't believe one person did that."
"He had a lot of explosives," Casey remarked. "If he had detonated the second bomb the damage would have been a lot worse."
"The explosion actually woke us up," Rodney said. "We could see the fire and smoke all the way from our house."
"No kidding," Casey said softly.
She pointed at a parking lot where, just beyond, was a ferry taking people across. "This should be good."
Rodney pulled over and Casey thanked him for the ride. "No problem," he said. "Just make sure to visit your mom more, she's been pretty frazzled lately."
"I'll try." Casey smiled and grabbed her stuff and slid out of the door.
She joined the line of people waiting to get on the ferry.
"What's your business in Old Gotham?" An official asked her, looking bored.
"My apartment's over there," Casey replied.
"I'm gonna need to see some I.d."
She pulled her wallet out and showed him her driver's license. He waved her through and she sat down on a hard, white, plastic seat.
While she waited, she pulled her phone out and turned it on. She had some missed calls from Gordon but that was it. She'd get to him later, she decided.
She hastily typed out a text to Barbara: Hey Barb, I know you managed to contact the Bat on Xmas Eve. I need that channel from you. Thx.
Within minutes she got a reply: Yeah, I got it. Why do you need it? Are you in trouble? Does this have to do with your suspension? Attached to the message was the number Casey needed. And trust Barbara to already know about the ongoing investigation.
Casey replied to Barbara: I just need it. Wipe these messages from your phone. I've got it under control.
After she sent that, she deleted the messages but saved the number. She glanced around cautiously but people streamed into the ferry and she put her phone away. She'd call him on her way to her apartment.
The ferry ride only took about fifteen minutes and then five minutes to disembark. She debated trying to find a cab but decided against it. Her apartment wasn't too far, she could walk. I should probably see about trying to find my car by the courthouse. Probably got buried by snow and smacked by the snow plow.
Once she was a few blocks away and closer to her place she pulled her phone out and called the number Barbara gave her. There was a click and some static on the other end. She tightened her grip on her phone. Who knew if he was even listening?
"Hey, Batman?" She started softly. "It's Casey Wilson. I, uh, need your help. If you could meet me on the roof of Autumn Glade Apartments like between eleven and midnight that'd be great. Or whenever you get done beating criminals up. Just, yeah. Thanks." She hung up.
"So smooth," she muttered to herself.
-x-
She had never been more thankful to see her apartment door before in her life. Casey nearly let out a sob of joy when she crossed the threshold of her door. Despite being chilly, it looked undisturbed. She had a fear that Internal Affairs would have searched her apartment while she was gone but she had a sneaking suspicion that she needed to be present when it happened because her computer was still there.
Casey shed her coat and hat and changed into a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved, blue shirt. And then she got to work. She turned her computer on and opened the files she hadn't downloaded yet. She opened her drawer and took out a purple flashdrive and inserted it into the port. Immediately the program she wanted booted and she clicked 'start.'
The files started downloading onto the drive before deleting themselves. After that she took it one step further and instead of wiping the memory, she replaced the file names with Playboy files. Playboy wasn't illegal so she couldn't be arrested for having it on her computer. But she was sure she might get a lecture for 'deleting' it instead of letting IA discover it but she didn't care.
Next she swiped the flashdrive and walked into her room. She knelt by her bed and pulled out her box. It was filled with various discs and flashdrives. All of them had information and files she collected over the year. How many of these files were obsolete with Loeb's death though?
All of them were obsolete considering she acquired them illegally. But Casey would digress. She put the box on her bed and retrieved a plastic grocery bag from her kitchen. She hastily shoved all the discs and flashdrives into the bag and tied it shut. Next, she put the empty box in her closet and tossed a couple pairs of sandals inside. That couldn't draw suspicion at all.
Once she was satisfied she hid all evidence that could get her arrested she set about cleaning her apartment as a fine layer of dust had settled all over her things.
-x-
At quarter to eleven, Casey put her coat and hat back on. She hesitated when she saw one of her scarves hanging off her closet door and picked it up.
She stared at it and took a deep breath. Why was considering putting a scarf on so hard? Casey slowly wound the scarf around her neck. Immediately her breath caught and she wheezed. Her bruises throbbed and she ripped the scarf off.
Better to just brave the cold, she decided.
She picked up her bag and headed for the roof.
The roof was empty when she got there. Not surprising. She didn't even know if he got her message. But if he didn't show, she was going to throw the bag into the bay and be done with it.
She walked over to the edge of the roof and peered out into Gotham. It was so strange to think that just a few nights ago all hell had broken loose in the city.
Only a few days ago I was just a regular employee in the Cyber Crime Division. Now I'm suspended and under investigation because my boss went darkside, Casey thought gloomily.
She unconsciously rubbed at her bruises. They were fading, albeit slowly. But it hadn't meant she forgotten the Joker or being so close to death. The past two nights she had woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of his high-pitched laughter or she dreamed his hands were wrapped around her throat and she'd wake in a coughing fit, her limbs flailing for purchase on the bed.
It was becoming harder and harder to sleep now.
Casey sighed and checked her phone. It was nearing midnight. He probably wasn't going to show. He must've had more important things to do than meet her. A part of her was disappointed; she wanted to see him again.
She turned around and jumped.
Standing there, staring at her impassively, was none other than Batman. His armor was no longer scratched but buffed back to its sleek blackness. There weren't any holes in his cape either.
"You could have said something!" Casey exclaimed as she held her hand over her heart. "I thought you weren't going to show."
"I got your message," he said.
"Oh, right." She held the bag out to him. "It's full of discs and drives of all files I managed to pull for the past year."
He didn't take it, leaving Casey lamely holding the bag out. She slowly lowered it. "Okay, maybe I need to explain myself a bit. But for the past year, I've been carefully extracting files that would never make it to the GCPD's database because of it accidentally being misplaced or deleted. I've got a bunch of stuff on Sionis and Loeb, some stuff on Cobblepot, and even a few things on Branden. All of that is in this bag. And… And I can't hang onto it anymore and I thought to myself, "hey, you know who could make use of this stuff to take down criminal organizations? Batman." And if Loeb was still alive, this would be enough to put him away and possibly link everything to Sionis. Branden would be caught in the tide and there are evidence of weapons deals with Cobblepot to bring him in too."
"You've been thorough," Batman finally said.
Casey frowned. "I had to. Evidence like this would disappear the next day. So I took pretty much everything. And if… they find it, my ass is roast."
"Who?"
"Ah, no one criminally inclined if that's what you mean." She held out the bag again. "Just please take it. If you don't want it, then I'm chucking it into the river."
But he still wouldn't take it. Instead he asked her, "who don't you want to find this?"
She sighed. Looks like she had to tell him. But what good would it do? He couldn't do anything about it. "My boss was working for Sionis," she muttered. "So there's an investigation."
"And if they find this then they link you to your boss and Sionis?"
Casey drew back, startled. "Oh god no! At least, I hope not. Look, if this is gone then my record's clean. That's all I ask." She stared at him hopefully and tried to smile.
To her delight, he took the bag. "Thank you," she said and smiled largely at him.
He didn't glance at the bag but he nodded at her. "I'll see what I can make out of this."
She shrugged. "That's fine with me. And thanks, again."
There was a bang below them on the street and a car alarm went off. Casey glanced to look down but she couldn't see anything. "Looks like duty calls," she said and turned back but Batman was no longer there.
-x-
After a night of more crime fighting and rounding up Blackgate prisoners, Batman entered the Batcave and carefully set the Batwing down. Bane's attack made everything unstable but there was nowhere else to put his equipment without anyone seeing them.
He glanced at the white bag Casey had given him earlier. She was paler than the last time he saw her. And there were bags under her eyes and she hadn't worn a scarf, allowing him to get a look at the bruises the Joker left on her. They had been deep purple but now they were turning a green color. That was good, it meant they were healing.
"What is that, sir?" Alfred asked, nodding at the small bag he carried.
Batman set the bag down next to the Batcomputer and took the cowl off, allowing himself to be Bruce Wayne. "Casey Wilson gave it to me."
Alfred smiled. "Tokens of her affection?"
"Not likely. When I revealed to Gordon that Nashton was working for Sionis, it seemed to have put her into jeopardy." He opened a file and started to hack into the Gotham Police Department's database. Within minutes he found what he was looking for.
"See here, she and the entire Cyber Crimes Department are suspended without pay and are under investigation by their Internal Affairs." Guilt chipped at him. He was the one who revealed Edward Nashton's treachery and subsequently made Casey's life unstable. Again.
She was supposed to be okay after he saved her from the Joker.
"So she gave you that because of it?"
Bruce nodded. "Yes. She told me she had been making copies of files that would disappear the next day. She said she had enough to put a lot of the major players away. But when things were like they were… If anyone caught wind of it, I'm sure she would have winded up in the river."
He opened the bag and took a disc out and inserted it into the computer. He opened the first file. "Loeb's financial records," he said. "How did she get that without hacking his accounts?" He found his answer. "Ah, there's an irregularity in his accounts. Probably was submitted to evidence before being wiped away."
Alfred leaned closer to the screen. "Hm, it seems he was taking a large amount of money from Sionis. If that had gotten out, his job as police commissioner would be over." He chuckled. "I daresay, sir, but if the police department fires Miss Wilson, then we should hire her."
"Not likely," Bruce said as he pulled another disc out. This one had a trail on various weapons deals the Penguin had made over the past six months. "But she is good."
Bruce stood up. "But I can't act with this information yet. If it surfaces during this investigation, it could hurt Casey more than helping. Especially if some of this coincides with the information I pulled off Enigma."
"Then what do you intend to do?"
"I think it's time for Bruce Wayne to get a closer look at the situation inside the Gotham City Police Department."
-x-
Looks like there might be a meeting between Casey and Bruce in the future. That's going to be fun.
I've been watching a Let's Play of Arkham Knight since I can't get my hands on the PC version until, at least, the fall. But please try to keep your comments spoiler free for me and other readers who haven't played/seen it.
Reviews, favorites, and follows are love! See ya in chapter eleven!