Damian
Dick enjoyed working with Damian. The kid was always one hundred percent focused on the job and the both of them worked amazingly well together.
However, the only reason Damian went on patrol with Dick these days was when he was pissed at Bruce and wanted to get away for a while. His anger made him reckless – even more so than usual. Damian was swigging from building to building without showing any sign of stopping any time soon.
"What did B. do this time?" Dick asked when he finally managed to catch up with the boy.
"Nothing," Damian grunted as he tugged on his glove, avoiding Dick's eyes.
Dick winced. The situation was worse than he had thought. Damian was sulking.
"Come on, whatever it is, I'm sure B. didn't mean it. You know how he is," Dick told him.
"Father thinks I'm too young to attend Board Meetings," Damian finally said, looking straight ahead.
Dick sighed. Why would anybody subject themselves to that sort of meeting, Dick would never understand. However, Wayne Enterprises was a family owned business and Dick knew how important to Damian proving himself to Bruce actually was.
"Look, I'll-"
Dick got cut off by a blast in a nearby building.
"Finally, something interesting," Damian stated before jumping from the rooftop.
Dick rolled his eyes and followed Damian down and inside the burning warehouse.
"Make sure everybody gets out," Dick told the boy.
Damian grunted his assent. Dick looked around the warehouse, shielding his face from the heat of the fire. He caught sight of at least four dead bodies. The men had been heavily armed. Probably Black Mask's men, he guessed.
Dick was about to tell Damian to get out before one of them got hurt when he heard a faint cough.
Dick's blood ran cold. One of the walls had collapsed during the explosion and someone was trapped under the debris.
"Robin!" Dick called.
When Damian finally arrived, Dick had already cleared some of the debris, revealing the unconscious person's face.
"Poison Ivy," Damian groaned. "We're risking our lives for Poison Ivy?"
"Help me get her out," Dick simply said.
The woman opened her eyes and immediately winced in pain.
"Don't move," Dick told her at once. "You'll make it worse."
She had burn marks on her arms and legs, Dick noticed as they worked to get her out as fast as possible. The building was still burning around them although Dick could hear the sounds of sirens closing in.
"Robin," Dick exclaimed. "Get yourself out of here."
"Excuse me?" Damian screamed over the sound of the fire around them. "I'm not leaving."
"Look, if another explosion sets off, we're all toasted. So get out of here, now!"
"What about you?"
"I'm getting Ivy out," Dick told him firmly. "Now go!"
Dick tried to work as fast as possible to get the woman free. He finally put her arm around his neck and dragged her out of the building as the firefighter trucks came to a stop in front of the building.
Dick dragged Ivy as far away as possible from the commotion. He did not want the GCPD to get their hands on her just yet.
"What are you doing?" Damian hissed.
Dick lifted his hand to shush him. Then, he turned to Ivy. "What where you doing here?" he asked.
Poison Ivy glared at him. "That's none of your business, Batboy."
"Did you set off the explosion?" Dick asked.
"Of course not!" she exclaimed. "Black Mask has been pouring toxic waste into the harbor, I wanted to stop him, that's all."
"I don't believe you," Damian told her with a deathly glare.
"I just wanted to stop him, I swear," she said.
Dick sighed. "I believe you."
Damian turned his glare to Dick. "You do?" he asked in disbelief. "She's clearly lying."
"Robin, stand down," Dick ordered. "Are you okay?" he asked when he saw Ivy wince in pain.
"Nothing a good night's sleep won't fix," she said. "Why did you save me?" she finally asked. "Are you really that noble that you would put your life in danger to rescue a criminal?" she sneered.
"You're important to Harley," Dick told her. "And Harley is important to me." Ivy nodded slowly. "Now go… before I change my mind."
Ivy slowly got up and stepped into a dark alley just as three GCPD patrol cars stopped in front of the building.
"You let her go," Damian pointed out in disbelief.
"Come on," Dick said. "If Black Mask is planning something, we need to find out what."
Dick got his grappling gun out and climbed up the nearest build to escape Damian's inquisitive gaze.
"Are you having intercourse with Harley Quinn?" Damian asked once he had reached the rooftop. Dick almost lost his footing. "Your bad taste in women truly knows no bound."
Dick did not say anything as he stared down at the streets of Gotham.
"Does Father know about this?" Damian went on. "Of course he doesn't," he guessed when Dick did not answer. "You're not completely stupid then."
"Hey!" Dick exclaimed, turning around to face the boy.
Damian smirked. "I wonder how Father's going to react when he finds out."
"He's not going to find out," Dick told him firmly. "Look, I'll talk to him about letting you go to Board Meetings if you keep your mouth shut about all this, deal?" he said.
Damian nodded. "Deal."
Cass
Dick could not remember the last time he went patrolling in Gotham without ending up covered in his own blood, someone else's or a weird and probably highly toxic substance.
Since his encounter with Poison Ivy, Dick had been following Black Mask's whereabouts, trying to find out what the gangster was up to.
That night, Dick was out patrolling with Cass and they had followed a lead that had led them straight to Dr. Death's latest experiment: a shark/plant hybrid.
"What on Earth…" Dick said quietly.
He caught sight of Cassandra's disgusted look and had to admit she had a point.
"What does Black Mask want with this… thing?" he whispered.
Cass simply shrugged. She took a step forward, trying to take a closer look at the strange experiment laying on the table in from on them. Dick followed suit. He glanced at the hybrid and noticed it was hooked to all kinds of machines, monitoring its status.
An alarm suddenly went off, making Dick and Cass jump in surprise. Cass glared at him.
"I didn't touch anything!" he exclaimed reproachfully. "I think there's something wrong with that thing," he realized, looking at the readings.
Dick got closer to the hybrid, and watched as bumps started appearing all over its body.
"Look out," he exclaimed as he jumped on Cassandra, shielding her from the blast with his body as the creature suddenly exploded.
Dick hoped to god that that thing was not toxic.
"Holy cannoli," Dick exclaimed as he wiped the gooey substance from his eyes. "What the hell was that?"
Dick turned around and caught sight of Cassandra's judgmental look and had to admit she had a point. He needed to be more careful about what came out of his mouth.
"So… pizza?" he suggested.
Jason
Harley's hand had just made its way inside his pants when Dick heard the distinctive sound of someone opening up the window in the kitchen. A vase fell to the ground and both Harley and Dick suddenly turned around at the noise. Dick jumped from the couch, his hand immediately reaching for the Batarang inside the drawer of the side table as Harley reached for the knifes lying on the coffee table.
"Holy cannoli, is that the Red Hood?" Harley exclaimed as Jason stepped out of the kitchen in full Red Hood gear, helmet and all.
"What the hell?" Jason exclaimed.
The helmet was hiding his face of course, but Dick could very well picture the look of disbelief on the man's face.
"Not so perfect now, are you, Dickie?" Jason went on. "B. is going to freak! I'm so proud of you right now."
Dick groaned in annoyance and dropped his weapon.
"What do you want, Jay?"
Jason shook his head. "Alright, back to business then. I'm setting up a meeting with Black Mask, trying to find out what he's up to."
Dick's eyes widened in surprise. "Are you nuts?" he hissed. "We've got it under control, you don't need to get involved in this."
"Whatever you say. Look, I just wanted to let you know, I'm not asking for your permission."
Dick sighed. "Right. Okay, let me know if you find anything interesting."
"Sure will," Jason said. He turned to Harley, raising two fingers to his forehead in a salute and for a moment Dick could imagine the cocky grin on his face.
Dick followed Jason to the kitchen window.
"Look, Jay, B. doesn't exactly know about Harley so if you could refrain from telling him, I'd appreciate it."
"I'm not planning on actually talking to him so no worries on that front, Dickie," he said before jumping out the window.
Tim
Tim had been monitoring Black Mask's activities in Gotham without a moment's rest for days. He raised a hand to his face, covering his mouth as he yawned and shook his head as he tried to stay awake. He glanced at the coffee mug in front of him. Empty.
"Damn," he mumbled.
A sudden movement in an alley caught his attention. Pigtails. Low-rise shorts. A bat. What was Harley Quinn doing in Gotham?
Tim frowned and pressed a few keys as he tried to follow Harley through the streets of Gotham. As she walked past a dark alley, a shadow grabbed her arm, making Tim jump in surprise. He squinted at the screen, trying to make out the face of the man hiding in the shadows and froze.
Broad shoulders. Sticks on his back. A domino mask.
Tim's mouth fell open as he watched Nightwing press Harley Quinn against a wall before kissing her with passion.
"What the hell?" he whispered. He shook his head in disbelief. "Time to call it a night," he finally decided.
Tim sighed and pressed a few keys, deleting the incriminating footage.
There were just some things he did not need to know about his big brother.
Oracle
The problem with dating a reformed villain was that it was just a question of time before someone got hurt.
Despite Dick's best efforts to keep her away from Black Mask's plans, Harley had used her network to find the man before any of the Bats – single-handedly preventing him from raising an army of hybrids to take over Gotham, which Black Mask had rewarded by putting a bullet in her stomach.
Dick fell on his knees beside the woman, pressing both hands to the wound.
"Shit. Harley? Come on, baby, open your eyes."
Harley groaned in pain as she slowly blinked her eyes open.
"Did that shark thing just go splash?" she asked.
Dick chuckled. "It sure did."
"You okay there, sweetcheeks? You look like you could use a drink."
"I'm not the one with a gunshot wound," Dick pointed out. "We need to get you out of here."
Harley gave a weak nod and winced in pain as Dick scooped her up in his arms.
"Nice," she drawled. "I should get shot more often."
"Don't you dare."
Inside his ear, someone cleared their throat pointedly. Shit. Oracle.
"Shit, sorry about that, O.," Dick apologized at once.
Nothing.
"Oracle? You're still there?"
"I'm here," she answered finally.
"Good, good," he said. "Huh, I'm calling it a night, talk to you later."
"Dick?" Oracle called. Dick froze. "I'm happy for you, you know."
Dick cleared his throat. "Yeah, thanks O."
"I just hope you know what you're doing."
Dick rolled his eyes. "Do I ever?" he asked.
He heard Oracle laugh. "God, you're so fucked."
Dick smiled. "I know."
Bruce
With Harley slipping in and out of consciousness, Dick made the executive decision of bringing her back to the cave with him so that Alfred could see to her wounds, Bruce be damned.
Alfred did not say a word as he stitched Harley up and Dick had no idea what was going through the man's head. Alfred glanced at Dick's hand holding Harley's and still did not say anything. Actually, his silence was starting to make Dick nervous.
In the hours that followed, the bats all made their way back to the cave without a word, sending surprised glances at Dick sitting besides Harley's bed as she slept.
Dick did not even flinch when Bruce put his hand over his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" Bruce asked.
Dick's eyes stayed on Harley as he answered, "I'm not the one who got shot."
"She did a good job out there," Bruce said slowly.
"She shouldn't have been there in the first place," Dick grunted. "It's my fault."
Bruce squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "Don't underestimate her. She can make her own decisions. Look, Dick, I'm not going to pretend I understand what's going on with you right now but-"
"If you're going to tell me you don't approve, you can save it, Bruce."
"You don't need my approval," Bruce said. "You never did."
"I don't need it, doesn't mean I don't want it," Dick mumbled.
Bruce did not say anything, but again, he rarely did. He simply patted Dick's shoulder before walking away.
THE END