Dani's To-Do List

- get Dick to get some sleep

- convince Damian to make Halloween costumes with her

- explore the Wayne family exclusive graveyard

- get a new room

Dick knocks lightly on Dani's door, half-hoping she's asleep and he can do this tomorrow.

It was a long day. Coming back to Alfred letting him know that Dani and Damian had some kind of spat that ended with Dani storming out was hardly the welcome he hoped for. He just wants sleep, honestly. He was planning on talking to them both about it in the morning, but then Damian came back from patrol (which he shouldn't have been on by himself, but Dick's a bit too tired to scold him) to say he found Dani talking to an erratic Red Hood and that he'd lost her afterwards.

Dick would've laughed if he thought he could get away with it sans knives to the chest. Dani has some seriously skill at sneaking away.

But the Red Hood encounter worries him. Tim reported that Dani had come straight back to the Manor after the interaction and was currently in her room, but Red Hood hadn't reported anything. Well, Jason never reported anything, and although he knew there was a new resident at the Manor, he hadn't met Dani yet. He didn't even know what gender Dani was, let alone what she looked like. So even if he did want to check in, he wouldn't know to bring her up. And the video files from his helmet were completely useless – wracked with the same electrical interference that's become pretty typical of Dani… though this was the most extreme they'd seen it.

This new mystery is giving him a headache. Dick is exhausted. But Dani's more important than sleep.

He sends Damian to bed, thanks Tim and Barbara for their virtual help in tracking Dani down, and then goes upstairs to talk to her.

He hears a soft "come in" and pushes the door open to find Dani curled up in the window seat with her map blanket wrapped around her and pulled up over her head as a hood. She smiles at him when she sees him, but it seems tired too.

"Hey," Dick starts.

"Hey," Dani echoes.

Dick breaks his gaze and glances around the room, looking for another topic to focus on. "You don't sleep on the bed," he notes, though he already knew that. She usually slept on the couch at his place. She said she doesn't like beds that are too soft.

"I sleep here." Dani taps her foot on the cushion of the window seat. It's large, but definitely not wide enough for her to fully stretch out. Dick can't imagine the weird cricks she gets in her joints. "It's more comfy."

"Agree to disagree on that one," Dick jokes. He looks around more – the room still looks fairly untouched. Yeah, there are little pieces of Dani here and there: a sweatshirt thrown over the chair, shoes by the door, maps scattered across the table. But this isn't the right place for her. She doesn't feel at home here.

Otherwise, she wouldn't run away so often, right?

"It's nice to see you," Dani says softly.

And she just sounds so resigned. Dick surges forward, bundling her into his arms. She returns the surprise embrace with a few confused pats on his back.

"I'm sorry," Dick mumbles into her blanket-covered hair. "I know I haven't been around. I want to be here, I promise, I just…" He trails off.

"You don't have to say sorry," Dani replies. "I know you're busy. I can see it. I know you'd be around more if you could."

"Please don't leave," Dick begs. Maybe he wouldn't say something so pathetic and unwarranted on any other day, but he hasn't had a break since he got to Gotham. He needs sleep. Good, restful sleep.

"I'm not gonna," Dani promises, patting him some more.

But you did, Dick thinks, squeezing her tight. You keep leaving. "I'm sorry Damian upset you."

"It's okay, he was just being Damian," Dani says. "Can you let me go now?"

"Just give me a minute," Dick pleads. Just one more minute.

Dani sighs and relaxes into the hold. "You're exhausted."

"So exhausted," Dick agrees. "I think I'm dying. But I have something to show you." He tries to inject some energy into his voice to get her excited, but it falls flat.

"Hm. How about we first sit on the bed and talk."

"So I can fall asleep?"

She doesn't both denying it. "Yep. Your exhaustion looks physically painful."

It is. He's had a headache for days. The whole summoning thing graduated it into a migraine.

"If you can stay awake for fifteen minutes, you can show me whatever it is you want to show me. But if not, you'll sleep. Deal?"

"Sure." It's not like he's against getting some sleep. He's so tired. But there's still so much to do. He'll do his best to get a quick power nap but then he needs to start reviewing the footage from the King's summoning. The dialogue has been documented already, but he needs to comb through every camera feed on the Tower so they have as much detail about the unknown All-King as possible.

He overestimates his ability to stay awake. He lays down next to Dani, who pats him gently on the head, and he's out.

"Where is Richard?" Damian asks the next morning at breakfast. It's just the two of them, since Cass has been out for a week overseas someplace (for a recital? Something, Dani's not actually sure, but she's excited to see her in a couple of days) and Tim is working on something in the city.

"He's sleeping," Dani says, stirring a bit of sugar into her tea. Today they're having masala chai, one of Damian's childhood recipes. It's creamy and frothy with a hard cardamom taste. Dani likes it, gives it a 7 out of 10. "He's tired."

"Hm." Dani can sense a tendril of relief from the boy. Even the family — every member of which Dani's learned avoids sleep like the plague — was worried. And now, they don't have to be. Dani spun just a tiny bit of empathy magic to relax him, and he's not going to be waking up until he's well and fully rested.

Listen, she didn't know she could do it either. She just wanted him to relax, kept sending soothing vibes, and her aura just kinda… did it. She'd bring it up next time she talked to Danny.

Dani sips her tea. Damian sips his.

Eventually, he says, "I did not mean to so gravely offend you."

"Okay."

Damian's eye twitches.

They sip their tea a bit more.

"I can aid you in creating your own costume for Halloween, if you would be amenable to my assistance."

"Sure, if you want to," Dani replies. Damian's eye twitches again, and a muscle pops in his jaw. Dani drinks another mouthful of tea, content to let him squirm.

"…I suppose, if the attire is accurate, I can masquerade as a traditional samurai."

Dani breaks out into a wild grin. "Awesome! I'll do some research while you're at school!"

Damian lets out an exasperated sigh. Dani would believe he regretted it if he weren't so obviously pleased that they'd made up.

"Very well. I shall accompany you to a fabric store later this afternoon for supplies. Do you know what you will be making?"

Dani thinks about it for a second before deciding, "I want to be the ghost of Gotham City."

Damian blinks at her. "I was not aware there was a such ghost."

"Lady Gotham," Dani confirms, knowing he won't take much stock in her words. "I need a dark black and purple ball gown, a veiled hat, and a black parasol. Then I need to rip them all up and sew it back together so it looks spooky."

Damian looks at her for a long time, like he's trying to puzzle something out. Like he sees something more than Dani has shown. After a second, she shifts in discomfort, and Damian finally pulls his gaze away. "That is doable." He sets down his fork and stands. "It is time for school."

Dani nods and watches him leave with a full mouth of waffle. Maybe she shouldn't have brought up Gotham's city ghost. Damian seemed a little too interested in that; she'll have to be a bit more vague in the future.

But that's a future Dani problem. Breakfast is current Dani's problem. After a long yesterday wandering and brooding, Alfred's cooking is more of a godsend than usual. The waffles are delightfully crispy.

Since everyone has eaten, and there is no way Dick is waking up before noon, Dani polishes off the rest of the stack. She really can pack it away; if she felt like eating her fill, she might just clean them out of house and home. And yes, she knows full well they're billionaires when she says that. The only time she eats her fill is the Ghost Zone, since ectoplasm is quite literally infinite there.

After eating everything, Dani clears all the dishes off the table and washes them. She doesn't know where they go, but she sets them on a drying towel and wanders off to find something else to do. Everyone's either gone or sleeping, so it's time to get into some chaos.

Turns out Wayne Manor has a mausoleum.

Dani, accompanied by Titus – who was outside watching the litter of kittens as usual but decided to join her when she walked by – walks up to the tree that stretches over a small row of graves and a stone mausoleum. All the mausoleum plaques are Waynes– Alan Wayne, Charles Wayne, Laura Wayne. The graves mostly follow the same pattern with more recent deaths, with one huge exception of a black marble statue with the inscription Here Lies Jason Todd.

Except, where the word "lies" is etched, someone had taken red spray paint and rewrote it as "laid". Dani hadn't known Jason died. As far as she knows, he's alive and well, just avoiding the Manor and everyone in it like an angsty adult.

She kneels in the dirt, digs her hands in the grass growing over the grave. The faint traces of ectoplasm that frequents every grave tickles at her senses, as light as eyelashes brushing against her face. But there's something different here – there's a trace of something strong and dark. Dani draws the ectoplasm together as though she would scoop dandelion seeds out of water. There's not much she can pull up, since most of it is bound with the last vestiges of death clinging to the soil, but when she withdraws her hands, there's a faint coating of ectoplasm glistening on her skin.

Dani pools the thimbleful into one palm and examines it closely. It's normal. Well, as normal as all graveyard ectoplasm is: slightly stale and tainted with the emotions of all those that visited this grave. Dani can tell by its tinge of sorrow that Jason was greatly mourned.

Now this is a mystery. Is the Jason Dick wants to introduce her to the same one buried here? If so, how did he come back? That's not something that can just… happen. Not without a whole lot of ectoplasm and magic, and Dani may be inexperienced, but there's no evidence of that here. Is the Jason still alive a fake? Was the Jason buried here a fake? Are there two completely different Jasons?

With a bit more spiritual investigating, Dani notices that the ectoplasm is faded, more than that of the graves nearby. It has started to dissipate, meaning there's no more body for the ectoplasm to cling to. But, if there was never a body to begin with, there wouldn't be any ectoplasm in the first place, not even residual ectoplasm from the other graves a few meters away.

Dani likes sleeping in graveyards, so she happens to be pretty well-versed in their trends. For instance: the older the grave, the weaker the ectoplasm as the emotions begin to fade. However, graves of more well-known people – even if they're old – can still have a lot clinging on. Dani has always wondered if it has to do with the people that still feel emotion towards the person who died. Like the World War II Fort Breendonk prison camp Dani visited back in Belgium. The emotions there were palpable to every patron, not just Dani. She had to leave because the desperation and sorrow overwhelmed her. Many of those people had been dead for well over eighty years, but the ectoplasm was as fresh as a two-week old grave.

This grave is only a few years old, and its emotion is still about what Dani would consider normal range. The ectoplasm level is low, though. As if the body had only been here for a short while.

Hm. A mystery indeed. Dani has to meet this Jason.

Satisfied with her investigation of the grave, she returns to the ectoplasm itself. What she'd first sensed, the dark power. It's subtle, faint, overwritten by mourners and their loud grief. But Dani narrows her focus in on it, feeling the imprint of…

A ghost.

And not just any ghost – Lady Gotham.

Dani cackles a bit in glee. It's really getting interesting now.

Dani's reading up on the history of the Qing dynasty and fending off a devil cat with her socked feet when Dick finds her. It's just past two – over thirteen hours since he passed out.

"Hey," Dick greets. His hair is damp, and he seems to have shed the decades of stress that have accumulated in the past few weeks. "What are you doing?"

"Reading about the Qing dynasty. They really pushed for the printing of literature, you know."

"That sounds boring," Dick says bluntly, sitting down next to her and pulling the cat off her leg, where he'd wrapped himself around her calf like a koala and was hanging on for dear life. The cat hisses at Dani and curls into Dick's lap. Dani's not jealous.

"It is," Dani confirms, fiddling with the page. "I thought it would be interesting like the Japanese books, but I was wrong." Dani deliberates for a second, then closes the book and tosses it on the side table nearby. "Live 'n learn, I guess."

"What have you been doing all day?" Dick asks, scratching behind Alfred's ear. The cat purrs, glancing at Dani as if to mock her. Ugh, she hates that cat.

"Hm, I explored, tried drawing what I want my costume to look like, and when Alfred got back he taught me about different herbs, and then I got bored and decided to read."

"Why didn't you go back into the city?" Dick wonders. He sounds curious, not accusatory, so Dani considers her answer. She didn't think she would run into Red Hood, she wanted to be back in time to make costumes with Damian, and she didn't want to leave Dick alone in a big empty house.

"I didn't feel like it," Dani answers truthfully. "Did Damian tell you he's going to do Halloween costumes with me?"

"He is?" Dick looks up from the cat at her in surprise. "That's kinda out of character for him."

"I think it's his way of apologizing," Dani offers. "I think he felt bad he offended me."

"Damian? Feeling bad?" Dick scoffs. "Never thought I'd see the day."

Dani shrugs. If she didn't have a bit of an empathy sense, she'd think so too. But the emotions Damian feels are deep and profound; they are just pushed down and masked with impassiveness. He feels bad about a lot of things. Guilt, remorse, regret; all about something Dani thinks happened in the past but has left scars on his heart. Dani wonders if she'll ever know what happened in his past that caused so much pain.

"He wants to be a samurai," Dani redirects.

"A samurai," Dick repeats with amusement. "I would honestly be surprised if it was anything else. Historic, refined, and it has swords. How fitting." He laughs a little to himself, then turns his attention back on her. "What are you going to be?"

"Gotham City," Dani announces with pride. She's going to look so sick. She took out the ghost part though, since Damian got a little weird about it. After Red Hood mentioned ghosts — the first time Dani had heard of the Infinite Realms or their inhabitants outside of Amity — and since Damian reacted the way he did (with a sliver of interest and suspicion beneath a polite nod), Dani has made the executive decision to keep ghosts to herself. If Red Hood and Damian know about them, and Danny is all worried about the Anti-Ecto Acts, Dani should keep her mouth locked tight about them.

She can't lie, though. So hopefully they won't ask her any direct questions. But why would they, anyway? It's not like the Waynes have any particular interest in ghosts anyway.

"Oh cool," Dick says, though he's a little confused. "What would that look like?"

Dani grins. "A black gothic ballgown with purple silk, with random rips that I'll restitch with some thread and maybe splatter with a little blood, and there'll be black lace gloves, and a big hat with a veil, and a tattered parasol, maybe a fan…"

Dick listens to her ideas intently, offering insight here and there on adding embellishments. He suggests she buy the gown and rip it up herself to save time, since Halloween is only a week and a half away.

After a solid fifteen minutes, Dick switches the topic. "Now that I'm not half-asleep, can I show you something?"

Dani perks up. "Yes! I totally forgot about that."

Dick grins. He gently picks up Alfred and settles the grumpy cat on the couch so he can stand up. "Come on, it's upstairs."

"The attic?" Dani asks, dropping a throw pillow on the cat before trotting after the retreating acrobat. Alfred hisses at her again. Dani returns it before they leave the room.

Dick, who'd been waiting for Dani to finish her most recent spat with Alfred, slows his pace to hers and answers, "Yep! There's an old study up there I think you'll like."

Dani had seen it. Of course she had; she'd explored most of the Manor so her map and lego model would be accurate. It was full of old furniture covered in white sheets. But Dani decides to trust the process.

Dick leads her up the several flights of stairs to the attic, where he then instructs her to close her eyes. She acquiesces, letting him lead her to the door of the study. He puts his hand over her eyes for added effect.

"Ready?" Dick asks. He barely waits for her nod before he throws open the door and takes his hand away in a broad sweep around the room.

It's completely different. All of the furniture has been removed and replaced with regular bedroom furniture: an armoire, dresser, vanity and mirror, desk, bookshelf, bed and a comfy swinging chair. They're all made of dark brown wood with black hardware, obviously brand new and suspiciously similar to the pieces Dani liked when Cass dragged her into all those furniture stores.

The bed has Dani's map blanket on it, thrown over a comforter that's a soft tan color with brown map inscriptions: a compass rose, sailboats, small cursive, coordinates… those kinds of things. The bed is against the wall, with a side table on the other side. The desk has two sets of drawers on either side of a comfy looking leather chair, with a row of cubbies and hideaway spaces on the tabletop. The cubbies look map shaped. Dani could roll up her maps and store them in those little cubbies. Twinkle lights frame the desk and wind themselves around the rest of the room.

And the bookshelf has so many books on it – atlases and dictionaries and a set of encyclopedias. Dani opens on of the drawers of the cabinet between the desk and bookshelf and finds sheets of cardstock, dozens of different pens and pencils, glue, tape, scissors, anything she would need for map-making or scrapbooking. There are even some precision tools that Dani only has back at the Keep for her real projects!

There's even another desk with a whole gaming set-up that Dani is positive came from Tim. And a TV with four separate gaming consoles and rows of games in each of the different platforms. There are comfortable chairs. There's a snack drawer and mini fridge with a case of water bottles and Propel (Dani's current favorite drink she stole from Steph last game night and fell in love with).

The only problem is that there are no windows – and as Dani searches for one Dick presses a button on the wall the retracts panels on the ceiling to reveal an enormous skylight.

Dani stares up at it in complete awe. She can stargaze here. She can draw maps of those stars. She can lay in the sun and listen to music and pet the cat dog and listen to the Waynes go about their day.

"I noticed you weren't really a fan of your room," Dick comments off-handedly. Dani turns to him with an open mouth. "You're welcome."

"I don't need all this," Dani breathes out, turning again to look at all the intricate details. How did they do this without her notice?

"But we wanted to get it for you," Dick says, gentle, but quickly getting more excited. "Cass picked out all the furniture, and Steph helped decorate. Alfred suggested we get you this little snack station. Oh, and the gaming station? Tim fitted you all out with the latest stuff. I've never seen you play on a PC, but you like consoles, and Tim wasn't taking no for an answer so…" Dani's still speechless as she watches Dick go over to the desk. "And I helped pick out the desk and everything in it… though Damian had very strong opinions on what art supplies to get. I was just going to buy one of everything, but he ended up picking it all out. Oh, and this room was my idea too! It used to be a study-slash-storage area, since none of us cared for the skylight much, but I noticed how much you like the sky…"

Dani feels a warm line run down her cheek, and she hurries to wipe away the tear. Dick sees it, but he just smiles and opens his arms and bundles Dani inside a warm hug.

"Thank you," Dani whispers, clinging to her brother. To the closest thing to a father figure she's ever experienced. "Thank you all so much."

"I'm so glad you like it," Dick says back. "We all want you here. We all want you to have everything that makes you happy. I know you don't necessarily like expensive gifts, but…"

"No, I love it," Dani interrupts. She doesn't love gifts, it's true, since Vlad always had a quid pro quo mindset with them that only worsened with her experiences on the street. Something for something… always. Dani likes to give, but she knows to never expect the same in return. She's learned never to expect anything.

Maybe that's why this means so much.

After several long moments, Dick finally asks, "Would you like to play some Mario?"

"Yeah," Dani replies, grateful for the topic change. She releases Dick and goes over to the TV area, claiming a comfortable looking bean bag chair and grabbing a controller. Most are wireless, unfortunately; the more empty space between her and an electronic, the more disturbance. She has to dig around a bit, but she manages to find one with a wire. She plugs it into the Switch console and gets comfy.

Dick sets up the game and grabs a wireless, loading up the game. "You can make your own profile," Dick mentions as he logs into his account. "There's a credit card already linked to my account, so feel free to buy any game you want."

"Well, I am in danger of running out," Dani snarks, sending a pointed look to the rows of red Nintendo cases.

"Hey, it's just in case!"

"This is overkill," Dani reiterates as she chooses one of the mushrooms as her avatar. "I'm never going to be able to use this stuff."

"We're just stimulating the economy," Dick argues.

"Isn't this how inflation happens?"

"The opposite, actually." They pick a level and start moving through it, Dani using every opportunity to pick Dick up and throw him into enemies or off a ledge.

"I don't actually know what inflation is," Dani confesses with a grin. She just heard someone talking about it once. "Or how economies work."

"Fair," Dick agrees. He's annoyingly good at recovering from her murder attempts. "Speaking of, actually, I was thinking…"

"I'm shocked," Dani snipes, stealing Dick's Yoshi and picking him up in its mouth.

"Stop killing me," Dick grouses as Dani spits him out into the abyss. He bubbles his character in retaliation and avoids Dani's attempts to pop him. "But I was wondering if you want to be enrolled in school. You could go to Gotham Academy with Damian."

"That sounds awful," Dani replies. "I've heard only the worst about high school."

"Damian's technically in middle school, and well, it's not the most fun, but you can learn a lot there. And you need a diploma for college and jobs and stuff."

"I'm good." Dani finds a secret passage and collects a ton of coins while Dick watches from his bubble safe haven.

"Maybe we could do home or online school, then? Do you remember the last grade you've completed?"

"I've never been to school," Dani answers truthfully.

"Never?"

"Never."

Dick pauses the game and turns to look at her. "Never."

"Yep," Dani answers.

"Private tutor?"

"Nope."

"How did you learn how to read?"

"I've just always known," Dani answers. It's the truth, but she won't elaborate more than that. She was created with a language program. She knew English and a few other languages from the moment she opened her eyes. She has not once sat at a desk, or done a worksheet, or learned how multiplication works.

Dick blinks at her. "I'm so curious. I have so many questions."

Dani grins at him. "Well, steady on. It'll be a while yet." She turns back to the game, but apparently the conversation isn't over.

"Until you trust me?"

Dani turns back to him with a frown. "No, I trust you."

"Can I ask you something, then?"

She's instantly suspicious. "I guess. I can't promise I'll answer."

"What's your last name?"

Oh, that's an easy one. "I don't have one."

"Do you know who your parents are?"

Now that she doesn't know how to answer. Danny's parents aren't her parents. Danny isn't her parents. And Vlad… absolutely not. So does that mean she doesn't have any? "I don't know," she says instead.

"Who raised you?"

"I don't want to talk about that."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to think about that," she snaps.

Dick immediately backs off. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to push."

"Well you were. Why do you need to know so much? Are you worried I'm a criminal or something? Do you want to run a background check on me?"

Dick sets his hand on her arm, where she's fisting the fabric of the beanbag. Dani looks up at him, at his gentle, caring eyes. "No, Dani. I just want to know you, know more about you. Not because I don't trust you. Because I do. I want to know more about you because I love you."

There's that word again. Love. Dani didn't know how much she needed to hear that from Dick until he said it, but she refuses to cry. She says, "You've always known me. Even if you don't know everything about me." For the third time in twenty-four hours, Dick pulls her into a hug and Dani melts into it. "I just… I don't tell people things. I never have, and I don't know how. But I love you too, Dick. I love you so much."

Dick squeezes her tighter. "Thank you for coming here. You'll never know how much that meant to me."

They hold on for a moment longer, then Dani pulls away and grabs her controller to unpause the game. She doesn't want this heavy tension anymore. She doesn't like the weight.

"Come on, let me pop your bubble," she says, pretending her voice isn't heavy with unshed tears. "Take your fate like a man."

Dick laughs and the conversation moves on.

They don't talk about anything heavy again until Dick leaves for his work and Dani starts working on costumes with Damian, but they stay sitting in the same beanbag, Dani balanced on Dick's leg.

It's nice to spend some time with Dick.

Later that evening, after throwing Dani in Tim's direction to distract them both while he went into the city, Damian walks into the most credible mystic arts shop he was able to find. Despite his decently reliable sources, he is doubtful this place will be any more helpful than the public and League database searches he's done.

"Welcome to Witchful Thinking," chirps a woman dressed in swathes of silk, masquerading as some popular cultural rendition of an authentic fortune teller. "Oh, a new customer. I am Madame Mystique. How may I help you?"

Damian ignores the shelves of occult paraphernalia, walking straight up to the old oak counter and the woman behind it. "What do you know about ghosts?"

The woman blinks at his abrupt start, but Damian is used to the reaction. Luckily, she recovers faster than most civilians tend to and answers promptly, "Not much, I'm afraid. Ghosts aren't my expertise."

"Tell me what you do know."

She tilts her head, considering. "Well, they're imprints of dead souls, made manifest by unfinished business or strong emotion. They have very little effect on the physical realm beyond occasional electronic disturbances and moving light objects." Electronic disturbances would explain why Dani couldn't take a clear photo.

To confirm, Damian asks, "Can you take pictures of them?"

True to his suspicion, the woman answers, "You can, but they're really pixelated. Same with videos and audio recordings." Anticipating his next question, she adds, "I'm no paranormal scientist, so I couldn't tell you why though."

Damian files this information away and goes on to his next line of questioning. "Are there any ghosts that are not the remnants of someone who has passed?"

"Yes," the woman confirms. "Though they are not often part of this world. They exist beyond the veil."

"How are they made?"

"They're an accumulation of many people's thoughts and beliefs. Like haunted objects, or haunted houses."

Damian studies the woman. She seems fairly knowledgeable in the subject, and she does not appear to be lying or disagree with what she is saying. Eventually, he asks, "Is it possible for an entire city to be a single ghost?"

"Cities with deep history and culture can manifest spirits," the woman says, pondering. "I have often wondered if New Orleans is one, but I'm not sensitive enough to the spiritual arts to tell."

"What about Gotham?" Damian presses.

This comment gets her attention. "Oh, you are wondering about Lady Gotham."

That name – it was the same Dani used. "So she is real?"

"Real is relative," the woman says with a shrug. "She exists, sure, but not on this plane. I only know of her through some friends. No one's ever seen her, but her influence stretches throughout the city. One of the most powerful, I believe."

Dani had described what she looks like. Was it random guess? Did she know?

"How would one see her?"

"You die," she says with a shrug. "There aren't any other ways that I know of that would get you across the veil to the realm of the dead."

'You may have dipped your toes in the afterlife, but I jumped all in.' That's what Dani had said, talking with Todd. Had she passed the veil and met the city of Gotham? There's so much to consider with this one sliver of information.

Damian sets down a hundred-dollar bill and a card with the number of one of his civilian burner phones. "If you can find out any more information about this 'Lady Gotham', let me know, and there will be more of that."

The woman looks at the cash and then at him with raised eyebrows. "I guess I can call a few people up."

Damian nods in acknowledgment and then leaves the store as abruptly as he came.

This new information confirmed what Dani had told Todd: she had died and came back. Somehow, she had died more than Todd had; although, what that meant remains unknown, given Todd had been dead for several months. How much more dead could you get?

For now, he will keep this information to himself. Richard and Drake would no doubt become insufferable once they learned Dani had died. Damian can remain far more objective as he investigates.

He tucks his hands in his jacket pockets and pretends they aren't trembling.

Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter~~

Thank you for your support last week, I didn't expect y'all to care so much tbh. It was just one of those weeks, and once it was over, I felt better. Your kind words really helped, y'all are so sweet 3

Damian is getting some investigation done... He did overhear almost the entire conversation with Jason, for anyone wondering. The two liminals were way too occupied with each other to notice a little shadow joining the chat. He's now been pointed in the right direction, and honestly, he's probably going to find some stuff out. If he liked Tim the two of them probably would've figured Dani out by now lol. Anyway, I think the fandom sometimes forgets that Damian is a super-genius. He's arrogant, and that really sets him back, but he's also incredibly observant with an impeccable memory. Fear not, though. Damian is as smitten with Dani as the rest of the fam, promise he's not going to try to get her kicked out or smthn

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving (for everyone in America that celebrates it anyway)! See you all next week.

~Starr