Gotham, Again

Dick whirled around in one of Tim's spare swivel chairs as the other parsed through his files on the Outlaws.

"You know, thank you for believing me about Jason's spirit, Tim. I know I don't necessarily deserve it." the man said sheepishly, rubbing his neck awkwardly.

Tim tensed in his chair, shoulders nearly reaching his ears. "You're right, you don't. But considering how many of us have come back from the 'dead' before, I'll believe you."

An awkward silence fell over the room. Tim's eyes were firmly glued to his laptop, going through every single report or newspaper article he could find about the Outlaws' appearances. Dick fiddled with his escrima sticks for a while, moving onto the next nearest object that Tim had left lying around.

Tim's new safehouse wasn't as elaborate as the Nest, but it was small and unassuming–-lying on the edge of the city, far away from the worst of the vigilante and rogue activity. Set in a well-loved mid-rise building, the community was filled with people like Mrs. Perez, the elderly next door neighbor who lived with two fluffy Persian cats named Twinkle and Symon, or Lisa Howard, a young college student who'd had vibrant and brassy rock music floating from her apartment since shortly after her run-in with Dick and Tim in the hallway. She'd even greeted Tim by name before disappearing in a whirl of long braids and wooden beads that clicked against each other as she moved. Dick had earned a shove from Tim when he'd waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Even now, the rich scent of spices and cooked food from the other households filtered into Tim's apartment, further adding to the homey feel.

The apartment itself was spacious, with cream-colored walls, honey-colored hardwood floors, and large but plush leather seats that had clearly seen better days. Tim's desk was squashed between one of the sofas and the wall, the one area of chaos in the whole apartment; between the two swivel chairs, stacks of manila file folders, and empty coffee mugs, Tim's living room was a bit of a disaster.

Dick whirled around on the swivel chair for the third time, legs narrowly missing the back of Tim's chair.

"So…this place is pretty cozy. Is this where you're staying now?" Dick pressed. "Like Lisa actually knew your name and everything." he cajoled.

"Dick, we're here to check my files so we can figure out where Jason might've gone, not to gossip about my neighbors." Tim never tore his gaze away from the monitor.

"But you're not letting me look at anything!" Dick complained.

"I don't know, you've been pretty busy spinning around in the chair, so I didn't want to burden you." Dick spluttered in his chair as Tim rifled through the stack of folders on his desk.

"Here. This is the file that I have from before Kori went back to Tamaran, there might be some details in there about what some of their known patterns were. I'll keep looking through the stuff I have from right before Jason went missing." Tim stuck the manila folder out behind him, and Dick grabbed it with relatively little mumbling.

The two sat in relative silence for a while, the thumping bass of Lisa's rock music and the chatter of other neighbors faded into the background. The gentle clicks and taps of the keyboard and mouse were complimented by the sound of Dick flipping through the paper file.

"There's some reports in here about the Outlaws being spotted flying around in some sort of spaceship," Dick started. "And then there was some chatter here about them stealing another ship."

"Oh yeah, I kind of remember that." Tim said idly. "I traced that warehouse that we stopped by, I think it's the same one that Roy and Jason used when they were in Gotham together, after Kori left. It was registered under one of his aliases."

"Do you think this is all connected to Kori and Roy? The warehouse, the spaceship…did you ever figure out where they were keeping their original ship? I don't think they could've stayed afloat at all times, even with a Tamaran ship—maybe he's going to places that he stayed at with them." Dick pointed out.

"Artemis and Bizzaro did the whole floating homebase thing too." Tim countered.

"That was after Jason disappeared, he might not have known about it. I definitely think we should try to check places with ties to Roy…at the very least it might be easier to find."

Tim stood up, leaving Dick to flip through more of the files. There's something that I'm missing, he thought. The ceramic of the mugs made a solid thud against the wooden coffee table, the slightly bitter aroma of coffee filling the air.

"Here," Tim said gruffly. "We've been looking through these for a couple of hours already."

Outside, the sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon, and only a few strains of weak golden light poured across the city. The sun sunk lower in the sky as the duo kept going through the files. Far below, traffic thinned out, and large clusters of night owls began to fill the sidewalks.

"Dick, I think I might have found something." Tim announced after an hour or two.

"What'd you see?"

"Some kid posted a picture of Kori near a beach a few years ago."

"You think it's a clue?"

"It's better than everything else we've found so far," Tim shrugged. "Having a hideout on an island or anywhere near the shore would make sense. It'd be easier to hide a ship there than in the middle of Metropolis, for example."

"But we did see that Jason had a ship in that warehouse, though."

"Ehh, that was a pretty small one. Tamaran ships are ten-times the size." Gentling his voice, Tim added. "We should at least try to rule it out, Dick, it's been a week."

Frowning, Dick checked his phone. "We can check it out…do you think one of the others could take our patrol? It's getting late."

A/N: Just one more chapter left...Tim and Dick are working hard to look for Jason.