Euvicodin

You stepped out of your car with your partner, Andrea, the cold hitting you the second you opened the door. You pulled your coat a little tighter around yourself and sighed softly, your breath visible in the chilly air. It would snow soon, you could tell. Gothamites could always tell when the first snow of the year would arrive. They could feel it in the sudden rise in humidity as the snow-carrying clouds approached, hear it in the eerie calmness of the air, and see it in the clouds—darker and gloomier than usual, looming with the promise of snowfall.

“Any idea who it is?” Andrea asked as she closed the car door, tying up her thick, jet black hair into a ponytail, like she always did before entering a crime scene. 

“Maybe it’s a Wayne,” she joked.

She was, of course, talking about the victim. You didn’t know much about the scene yet, but you knew from the call on the radio that it was a high profile case. Someone famous or important.

You raised an eyebrow as the pair of you walked towards the yellow tape, pushing past the small crowd.

“Guess we’re about to find out,” you responded.

You reached for the badge on your belt to show the uniformed officer standing at the yellow tape. “We’re the homicide detectives assigned to this case,” you told her. 

The officer—whose name tag, you noticed, read “Jordan”—nodded, allowing the two of you to pass. 

“Witnesses say they saw her be pushed,” she told you. “It checks out. With where she landed, and where she fell from, just jumping wouldn’t have been strong enough to create that distance. In fact, it’s more likely that she was… Well, thrown.”

Andrea nodded along as you neared the body. You winced slightly at the sight.

See, that’s something you always hated about cop shows. Hardened cops on TV always seemed to have this certain imperviousness to crime scenes, even the most gruesome ones. In reality, it never got easier. Each new homicide weighed just as much on the heart as the last one. The weight would linger, never really getting lighter until the killer was brought to justice, but even then, it hung around just loosely enough to be impossible to forget. In a lot of ways, that weight was what drove you to be a great detective, to give your all to every case, but you often found yourself wondering whether the persistent impression of the crime scene was worth it.

The woman appeared young. Too young to have died so soon. She was dressed in expensive clothing, and the jewellery that adorned her wrist, fingers and neck spoke to her high status.

“Lacey Holland,” Officer Jordan said, putting a name to the victim. “She was 19 years old, an up and coming pop star born and raised right here in Gotham. Her parents are socialites and philanthropists that live up on the West End. We’re attempting to contact them as we speak.”

“Shit,” you murmured to yourself.

Your mind immediately occupied itself with finding details in the crime scene. Things people often missed at first glance. One of her heels was unbuckled, you supposed that could have happened during a struggle. As could the large tear on the back of her dress, but what it revealed was more curious—a dainty tattoo of the initials, T.M.

A partner, maybe? You considered. As you knelt down to observe the body at a different angle, you could hear Andrea gathering more initial information from the responding officers, the two of you falling naturally into your discovered roles in the partnership. You weren’t as good with people as Andrea was. It was good to have her around to run point on things like this.

You reached for the pen in your pocket to carefully lift the bracelet around Lacey’s wrist to examine it more carefully. A charm bracelet. Most people put personally relevant charms on their charm bracelets. You took a mental note of the charms—a gold microphone, a crystal daisy, a silver soccer ball, and a gold book. Most of the bracelet was bare, a testament to the amount of life Lacey should have had left to live.

As you worked, your mind pulled you back to over half a decade ago, to memories of another case, another partner, another time entirely. Against your will, you recalled what had been taught to you by the first and only father figure you’d ever had, and how it had all been cut short so brutally.

No. Not now, you told yourself, shaking off the memories. You needed to focus on the case.

You sighed and stood, dusting off your clothes and catching up with Andrea. “Well, it’s not a Wayne,” you said.

Andrea gave you a small yet heavy smile, the kind she always gave you when you were around crime scenes. “Did you find anything?” she asked.

“Not much,” you answered. “Just that she liked daisies, soccer and reading. I’d have someone look into the people in her life and try and find someone with the initials T.M., though. You?”

Andrea nodded as you responded. “I didn’t find much either. But—...” Her voice drifted off as her eyes focused on something in the near distance behind you. “Your best friend is here again.” One side of her lips quirked up in an amused smirk.

“My best—?” you began to ask, your eyebrows furrowed in confusion before you turned around and your face fell. “Fucking hell.”

Red mask. Dressed from head to toe in tactical gear. And an invisible smirk you’d bet money was hiding under that damn helmet. Red Hood.

You grumbled angrily under your breath as you made your way over to where he stood, leaning against your car, just a few feet away from the crowd at the yellow tape. You ducked beneath it, pushing back past the group of people to get to him.

“What are you doing here, Red?” you said, glaring at the Red Hood as you came to a stop before him, crossing your arms impatiently.

He shrugged in a way you wer sure was designed specifically to piss you off. “Heard on my police scanner that you got a homicide on your hands here.”

You raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Is that so?”

“Mhm,” he hummed, the sound slightly distorted through the filter on his helmet. “Thought you might need my help.”

You scoffed in response, rolling your eyes. “And why would I need your help?”

“Because I knew the girl,” Red Hood responded. “Well, I knew of her. And I think I have a pretty good guess at who killed her.”

“Let me guess, it was you?” you responded sardonically.

“Detective, please,” he responded with a scoff of his own. “I kill criminals, not 19-year-old wannabe Britney Spearses.”

“Jesus Christ,” you muttered exasperatedly under your breath as you rubbed your temples. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t cuff you and shove you in the back of a squad car right now.”

The Red Hood only laughed in response. “Well, for one, you wouldn’t be able to, but you’re cute for thinking you could.” Your blood boiled, but he went on. “And secondly, if you did that, I wouldn’t be able to tell you who killed little Miss American Idol there.” He nodded towards the crime scene.

You gritted your teeth as you glared up at him, tapping your foot to try and stay calm. As… unpleasant as your feelings towards him were, Red Hood had given you reliable information in the past, and it helped that Commissioner Gordon was all about maintaining a good relationship with the Bats. In fact, he wouldn’t shut up to the GCPD benefactors about how yes, indeed, the Red Hood is one of his top detectives’ confidential informants. Of course, the act of bragging about a CI sort of negated the “confidential” part of that agreement, but you supposed Red Hood was a special case.

Nevertheless, he wasn’t one of your CIs. You had tried on numerous occasions to make that very clear, to no avail. He wasn’t a CI. Just a really annoying vigilante who kept showing up at your crime scenes.

But besides that, your brain once again involuntarily brought you back to your first partner and mentor, and as you closed your eyes to try to calm yourself, his warm, approachable face materialised on the back of your eyelids.

You knew what Healy would’ve said. People can be difficult, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t helpful.

“Fine,” you relented, though your glare didn’t let up. “What information do you have for me?”

You could practically hear the satisfaction rushing through his veins like a cheap high. It made you want to gag, and you never were too good at keeping disgust off your face. You were sure the look on your face was only feeding into Red Hood’s sick amusement.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“Well, this is the place,” Jason told you.

Him and you were standing in front of the one place in Gotham that didn’t look like somewhere drugs would be exchanged.

He looked over at you with a proud grin, only to be greeted with that death glare of yours that he both loved and feared.

“I’m arresting you for wasting the time of an officer of the law,” you told him.

“What?” Jason responded with a scoff. “I’m telling you, this is the place Lacey got her drugs!”

“This is an old age home, Red!” you yelled back. “Unless she was buying Viagra from someone’s senile old grandfather, I highly doubt this is where she was getting drugs! In fact, I shouldn’t have been stupid enough to believe you about the drugs at all. Everyone in her life said she was straight as an arrow.”

You groaned softly, and checked your watch, rubbing your temples with frustration as you turned to leave. Jason felt something within him fall out of place as you attempted to leave. 

“Stop!” he called, his gloved hand instinctively reaching to clutch your wrist and keep you from leaving. “Detective.”

You turned your head to look back at him with that same adorable exasperated look on your face you seemed to always have when he was around. Jason couldn’t help but smile under his mask, grateful you couldn’t see it. He always felt this giddy around you. He wasn’t sure why it was, but something about you was addicting. It was why he went out of his way to look out for your name and callsign on his police scanner. Why he scrounged around in the lowest of the low places in Gotham to find something, anything that might help you with one of your cases. Sure, his methods were questionable, but his heart was in the right place.

“Just trust me,” Jason said, his voice falling a few decibels, betraying his sarcastic, cool persona. He was desperate to keep you around, and if you looked closely enough, it was painfully obvious. “Please. If we don’t find anything here, I promise you I’ll let you kick me in the balls.”

You let out a rare, restrained huff of laughter. “What?”

“I’m serious!” he responded. “I just need you to trust me on this one, okay?”

He watched as you raised an eyebrow at him, as if deciding whether or not to trust him. Your eyes darted over his figure, no doubt looking for signs of dishonesty, although he let himself revel in the fantasy that you might have been checking him out. Your eyebrow fell as you let out a relenting sigh.

“Fine,” you murmured. “But I expect you to do good on that deal when it turns out that you were wrong about this place.”

Jason restrained himself from letting out a sigh of relief, though his shoulders visibly deflated from tension. “I’m not wrong about this place,” he said, reluctantly letting go of your wrist as he walked towards the entrance.

He didn’t look back at you, but he could practically hear you rolling your eyes at him.

“This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, huh?” Jason said playfully as the two of you walked. “A cop and a vigilante walk into a retirement home…”

He didn’t receive a response, yet Jason was certain he heard the quietest, amused exhale escape your nose.

The receptionist, a middle aged man with hair that grayed at the roots, dressed in purple scrubs, glanced up from his magazine, half expecting one of the usual visitors, Jason guessed. He had to do a double take, as if he couldn’t quite believe the sight before him. After all, Jason didn’t think vigilantes were particularly regular visitors to the retirement home.

You reached for your badge and sighed as you showed it to the receptionist. “GCPD,” you said. “We’re here investigating the murder of a Lacey Holland? Did you ever see her come through here?”

The receptionist, still visibly dumbstruck, stumbled over his words. “Well, I can’t say I recall the name, but I don’t normally work the reception…” he murmured, reaching into a drawer to grab a thick record book. “But you are welcome to look through the records.”

“Oh,” you responded, clearly surprised. Probably about the fact that the receptionist hadn’t asked for a warrant. Still, you shrugged and thanked the man.

Jason followed your gaze as you flipped through the book. Each visitor from the beginning of the year to now had signed in. He smirked in triumph as he noticed Lacey’s name repeating over and over again. Almost every week. 

“Fuck,” you muttered before looking up at Jason, before narrowing your eyes. “This doesn’t prove anything, alright? Maybe she has a family member here.”

“The girl’s family were millionaires, Detective,” Jason said, rolling his eyes and leaning against the reception counter. “I don’t think they’d stick their elderly in a cheap nursing home.” He glanced at the receptionist. “No offense,” Jason told him.

“A friend, then?” you said, unimpressed, turning your attention back to the record book. “Looks like she came every Thursday to meet a Molly Reefer.”

Jason burst out laughing, earning a few stern looks from the attendants and residents around him, and an even sterner look from you.

“Molly Reefer?” he laughed. “Are you serious? Come on, that’s obviously a cover name for someone she buys drugs from. They haven’t even tried to make it less obvious.”

You closed your eyes for a few seconds and took a few deep breaths, presumably to keep yourself from strangling him. Jason’s amused grin grew at the sight.

Eyes still closed, you asked the receptionist, “What’s the room number for Molly Reefer?”

Jason turned to look at the receptionist, who quickly looked through the records on his computer and answered, “806.”

“Alright then, Detective,” Jason said, already turning towards the elevators. “Off we go to prove I was right about this whole thing.”

You glared at him for what felt like the hundredth time that day, and Jason felt his insides stir again for what felt like the hundredth time that day. It wasn’t long before the pair of you stood before room 806. You knocked on the door.

“Ms. Reefer?” you called, and Jason stifled laughter again, earning a swift elbow to the midsection from you. “GCPD! We need to talk to you about Lacey Holland!”

When there was the response, Jason shrugged, feigning cluelessness. “Maybe Molly Reefer had a little fall.”

“I really hate you,” you muttered as you flagged down an attendant to ask for a key.

“Oh, the door shouldn’t be locked,” the attendant responded, swinging the door open for you. “This room has been unoccupied for months.”

“Has it?” Jason said, his voice laced with victorious amusement.

The attendant, also obviously surprised at the presence of the Red Hood next to a GCPD officer at her place of work, nodded. Her eyes betrayed an air of confusion.

“Thank you, miss,” Jason told her as he walked into the unoccupied room with you.

You looked around, taking in the sterility of the room. The sheets were perfectly made, the desk empty and free of any memorabilia or personal items one would expect in an occupied room. It was a complete blank slate.

“Now will you admit I was right?” Jason asked, raising an eyebrow as he sat on the bed, bouncing on it listlessly.

You didn’t respond, but Jason watched as you grit your teeth unhappily, a sign of defeat he loved to see more than almost anything else in the world. You carried out a methodical search of the room, and beneath the mattress, you found what you were looking for.

“Well, fuck,” you muttered.

“Language, detective,” Jason responded teasingly, just to get you riled up. He turned his head to look over at you on the opposite side of the bed. “What is it? What did you find?”

You let the mattress down and put on a pair of gloves from your pocket before lifting it again and pulling out the item in question. A little zip-lock baggie filled with white powder. You held it up and sighed in defeat.

Jason grinned wickedly beneath his helmet. “Say it. I want to hear you say it.”

You grit your teeth again. Your lips hung open for a second before you spoke, as if it was physically painful for you to say the words you said next. “You were right.”

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Over the next 2 hours or so, the nursing home had become swarming with police. Each worker was interviewed. Well, each worker except for one, a Thomas Melrose, who had apparently clocked into work at the start of his shift, but was suddenly missing.

Red Hood had been particularly smug about the whole thing, using every possible opportunity he got to gloat to you, and it was making you want to tear all your hair out. He was also certain that Thomas Melrose had been Lacey’s killer. You finally had a few moments of peace when he took his leave to ask his contacts if they knew any drug runners with the name.

“Thanks for that, old man,” you murmured to yourself in the silence of the station’s elevator as you rode up to your office. It was silly, but sometimes you liked to pretend that Healy could hear you from wherever he was now.

It had been almost three years since he’d died, but Healy’s advice and wisdom still guided you through the job.

You sighed softly when you got back to your desk at your station and sank into your admittedly quite uncomfortable office chair. Andrea looked over her computer screen at you from her own desk opposite to yours.

She gave you a knowing smile. “Heard the Red Hood gave you a good assist.”

You groaned, burying your face in your hands. “I hate you.”

Andrea laughed. “That bad, huh?” she asked.

“No,” you responded stubbornly. “No, I can admit when I’m wrong, you know? It’s just… He’s such an asshole, Andy.” You sighed, rubbing your temples.

“I don’t know,” Andrea replied. “Maybe you’re too tough on him.”

“Whose side are you on?” you said, defensively.

She just rolled her eyes in response. “Anyway,” she said. “I looked into Tom Melrose like you asked me to. He’s a GothamU student. His parents are pretty wealthy bigshots in the business world. He works at the nursing home for a social service credit. The only connection between him and Lacey is that she also went to GothamU before dropping out. But the tattoo is too big of a coincidence to rule out.”

You nodded along, propping up your elbows on your desk and resting your chin on your fist as your mind reeled with the facts of the case.

Andrea sighed before she added. “There’s more. The autopsy came back,” she said. “Lacey was pregnant when she died. And there were injuries that showed signs of abuse.”

“Oh,” you said quietly. “Shit. That changes things.”

Your heart broke for that poor girl. You wished you could say a situation like this was uncommon, but the truth was in a city like Gotham, almost every other 911 call was a domestic disturbance, and most of them were ugly situations. Times when the abuser nearly killed or did kill their victim. Every cop in the city knew the feeling of being assigned to a domestic disturbance and the silence in the squad car as they drove over, both them and their partner silently praying they wouldn’t be calling in a homicide unit that day.

Andrea nodded solemnly. “If we can get one of Melrose’s parents to agree to a DNA test, or get a court order for it, we’ll be able to tell if he was the father or not.”

“So, a frat boy decides to rebel against his rich parents by selling drugs. Definitely not unheard of,” you hypothesised. “He meets a girl at college and gets her into drugs and starts abusing her. She finds out she’s pregnant and gets clean. She tells him about it and threatens to go to the press about it or tell his parents, or something else that would effectively ruin his life or get him cut off by his parents. He panics and kills her. Then he realises the cops are onto him and makes a run for it.”

“Makes sense,” Andrea affirmed. “But where would he run?”

You sighed and leaned back in your chair. “That’s the question, isn’t it?” you murmured. “Where is he now?”

“Have you heard back from your red friend yet?” Andrea asked.

“No,” you answered. “I’m hoping I won’t either.” You rolled your eyes.

“He wouldn’t be of any help, trust me,” you added. “He’s an arrogant dickhead who thinks he’s god’s gift, like he’s saving the world. I mean, buddy, you run around town in a silly costume shooting people. You’re not Batman or Superman, you know. I don’t even know how the other Bats put up with him.”

She smiled and chuckled softly to herself, turning her attention back to her computer screen, no doubt hitting refresh on Melrose’s bank records to see if a new expense had popped up.

You narrowed your eyes at her. “What’s that laugh about?”

Andrea shook her head. “Nothing,” she answered with a cool shrug. “Just that you seem awfully wound up about him.”

“No,” you said with a sarcastic laugh. “Oh no. I know what you’re implying and that’s not it.”

She only laughed again. “No? You seem awfully obsessed with him, though,” Andrea teased.

You scoffed. “Me?” you said. “Obsessed with him? Come on, you and I both know that’s crazy. He’s the one that’s constantly showing up and undermining our crime scenes. No, if anyone is obsessed with anyone, it's him that’s obsessed with me.”

“So defensive…” Andrea murmured playfully.

You glared. “Again, whose side are you even on?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m an adult, babe, I don’t play sides.”

You rolled your eyes right back at her. “I’m going to find out who this asshole is,” you declared.

“Is that so?” Andrea responded sarcastically.

“Jesus, Andy, you could at least pretend to be supportive,” you responded, crossing your arms defensively.

“I don’t like it when you get this obsessive,” she answered frankly. “You get a little cuckoo.”

“I am not obsessive!” you huffed. “And I do not get ‘a little cuckoo’.”

Andrea only shook her head again in response, deciding that this was a battle she’d never win. “I’m emailing you Melrose’s bank records,” she said. “Make yourself useful and help me go through them, will you?”

A few weeks passed. Melrose had been missing for long enough to be considered an official missing person, and after obtaining a court order for his father’s DNA, the GCPD had been able to conclusively state that Thomas Melrose was the most likely father of Lacey Holland’s baby. The press coverage around the murder had been relentless, and despite Melrose already having lost in the court of public opinion, the unsolved case ate away at your mind slowly but surely, like all your unsolved cases did. When it came to unsolved cases, you learned fairly quickly that you’d be better off taking a few days off to get your head back on right, otherwise you failed to give your all on other cases.

Still, staying home was its own special kind of torture. You tended to spend so much time at the station and in the field that home was really just a place to sleep. You never really took enough time to make it your own. It was like living inside an interior design magazine cover. Beautiful, spotless and tidy, but unwelcoming, and soulless. It wasn’t cozy the way Andrea and her wife’s house was cozy, or homey in the way that your parents’ house was homey. 

It didn’t help that the last time you’d stayed at home for so long at a stretch had been right after Healy’s funeral. The death of your mentor had been so emotionally and physically taxing that for a week, you struggled to leave the house, surrounded by the pristine, almost sterile, environment of your house that now only served as a reminder of your immobilised state at the time.

You sighed faintly as you trudged out of your bed one morning to get a start on breakfast, but as you reached your door, you noticed a shadow moving around through the crack between the door and the floor. 

What kind of an idiot breaks into a cop’s house at 7 in the morning? You thought to yourself, instinctively reaching for the place on your hip where your radio would have been before realising you weren’t on duty.

You let out a quiet, undignified curse in frustration and reached for your phone to call 911 for backup before arming yourself with your gun and preparing to confront the intruder. Whoever it was, you knew, was about to be a very sorry boy.

“GCPD!” you yelled, bursting through the door and pointing your gun at the intruder. “Get down, put your hands behind your head!”

“Jesus, Detective,” the intruder said with an all too familiar laugh. “Didn’t realise you were kinky like that.”

Red Hood. Again. You sighed and put down your gun at the sight of his quintessential red helmet. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” you yelled.

“Well, I had to see you, and I couldn’t find you at the station,” Red Hood responded with a shrug, as if breaking into your house was an obvious next step that anyone would have taken.

“So you broke into my house?!” you rebutted. “Are you actually nuts?”

Red Hood didn’t respond, only watching as you called 911 again and let the dispatcher know your previous breaking and entering call was a false alarm.

“You called the cops on me?” he asked.

“What did you expect me to do, Red?” you shot back. “Again, you broke into my house!”

“This is hardly a house, you know,” he said, looking around, running his fingers over various pristine surfaces and looking up at the art you had hanging from the walls. “Well, I guess it is a house. But it’s definitely not a home. For a while there, I was worried I had the wrong address. Thought this one was staged for an open house or something.”

“Are you just here to insult my interior design choices, or what?” you scoffed, though you had to admit, his snide remark had hit a bit too close to home.

“Of course not,” Red Hood responded, turning to look at you with what you could only assume was the biggest smirk mankind had ever seen. “I also wanted to compliment your PJs.”

You looked down at your faded sleep shirt—an old Star Wars graphic t-shirt—and pajama shorts, before looking back up at Red Hood and angrily throwing a beige couch pillow at him. 

“Get out of my apartment!” you yelled.

He flinched at the pillow attack and relented. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry,” Red Hood said, even though he was laughing as he spoke. “I need your help. I’m serious this time.”

“Take it down to the station, Red, I’m not working today,” you said.

“Come on, you know I don’t trust cops,” he responded.

“News flash, Red,” you retorted sarcastically. “I’m a cop. Yeah, a real, live cop. Believe it or not.”

“Yeah, but you’re different,” he responded, a hint of something that sounded awfully close to sincerity in his voice. 

You exhaled exasperatedly, finally relenting. “What do you need?”

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“This is insane,” you murmured as you drove to Blüdhaven. “If you already have a cop friend in Blüdhaven to help you with this so-called trafficking case, why do you even need me?”

Jason leaned back in the passenger side carseat, getting comfortable for the long drive to Gotham’s sister city. “I told you,” he said. “Because you arrested three of their goons a year ago. You know more about this case than my other guy.”

You sighed gingerly, but didn’t respond. Jason looked over at you to try and read your expression. Your eyes were fixed straight on the road ahead, and your shoulders, which had been tense since this morning, were slowly relaxing. So slowly, in fact, that he wondered if you were even aware of it. 

Of course, Jason was bending the truth, just a little. He probably would’ve been fine without you. Maybe you could have shot a quick email to Dick at BPD with the arrest records and information from your previous arrests, but Dick was a perfectly capable cop. He would’ve been fine with or without you.

Jason just wanted you around. For some inexplicable reason, he wanted to do this with you. Maybe if you saw him do this, take down this trafficking ring—preferably without killing anyone, since you seemed to have a bit of an issue with that, as did Dick and Bruce—maybe you’d see him in a different light. Maybe you’d see him as more than just some annoying vigilante that always followed you around like some sort of pathetic puppy.

God, he really did feel pathetic. But he couldn’t help it.

The need to be around you grew greater with every second he spent around you, his heart never quite satisfied with however much of you he was getting already. He wanted all of you, in a way that he’d never wanted anyone else. He knew now how Dick felt about Kory and it sucked that Jason couldn’t tease him about it anymore. It was a silly feeling, really. The silliest.

Jason just couldn’t get enough of you.

Of course, it helped that he didn’t really know what adult feelings were supposed to feel like. The last time he’d liked a girl was before he died. He was fifteen and hormonal and incredibly stupid. Everything felt like it was so much bigger than it was. He supposed it was possible that a little bit of that fifteen-year-old boy was still inside him and he was just making whatever he felt for you out to be much bigger than it actually was.

Surprisingly, it was you who broke the silence, interrupting him from his thoughts. You cleared your throat somewhat awkwardly.

“I hate driving in silence,” you confessed. “Do you mind if I turn on the radio?”

Jason shook his head. “No,” he answered. “No, of course not.”

You gave him an amusing expression, with your lips slightly quirked upwards, like you were trying to smile but weren’t quite there yet. Despite himself, Jason found it adorable. Baby steps, he told himself. You were getting more comfortable with him. He wouldn’t take that for granted. Jason smiled beneath the helmet as you reached for the centre console to turn on the radio.

It wasn’t long before you were parking in Dick’s building’s parking lot. Jason led you down the familiar path to the elevator, and up to his brother’s apartment.

“Dickie bird!” Jason announced as he burst through the door with a key that Dick had given him for safekeeping.

“Jason?” he called back from somewhere within the apartment. Jason froze at the sound of his name—his real name—being called. Beside him, you raised an eyebrow and looked at him curiously.

“Jason, huh?” you murmured with a playful lilt. “Wouldn’t have pegged you for a Jason.”

“Jesus Christ, Dick, I’m with company!” Jason yelled frustratedly back into the apartment. He’d never been more grateful for the helmet than now, knowing you couldn’t see the bright red flush that had most likely taken over his face.

Dick walked out of the bedroom, and narrowed his eyes at Jason. “Well, maybe if you’d fucking knocked instead of barging into the house, I’d have known that,” he shot back, hitting Jason over the back of the head. “I gave you that key for emergencies, not free reign over my apartment.”

“Ow!” Jason complained. It hadn’t hurt, not really, thanks to the helmet, but it was more about the bruise to his ego than anything. Jason continued to glare at Dick as he introduced you to him. You smiled politely. The same smile you had in all your police and government photos—the one that never quite reached your eyes. Dick shook your hand.

“So this is the famous detective,” he said with that stupid, shit-eating grin on his face.

“You know of me?” you asked curiously, raising an eyebrow. “Does Red—or, uh, Jason—talk about me?”

Dick’s grin grew wicked as he glanced at Jason.

God, please no. Jason thought to himself.

“He’s… talked about you before,” Dick said. “Quite a bit, actually.”

Jason resisted the urge to tackle Dick and shove his face into the stupid green carpet in his living room.

“Huh,” you responded, looking over at Jason. “Interesting.”

Jason cleared his throat, desperate to talk about something, anything, else. “Can we please talk about why we’re actually here?”

“You’re no fun, Jaybird,” Dick teased. “Besides, we should get to know each other a bit more before we begin, wouldn’t you say? After all, you never told me you’d be bringing someone along when you told me about the trafficking ring.”

You raised an eyebrow at the nickname. Jason’s face burned even brighter. What was he thinking, bringing you right to the lion’s den? Dick loved embarrassing him. He should’ve known better.

“No!” Jason insisted, bringing Dick over to sit down at the couch, shooting him a glare from behind the helmet that he prayed his brother had somehow telepathically sensed. “We need to get to work. Start explaining the plan, Dicko.”

“Bummer,” you said with a small smile—a real one this time. “I was hoping to learn a little more about how you got that nickname, Jaybird.”

“You should come over when he isn’t around,” Dick said playfully. “Boy, I have the best stories. Like this one time—”

Jason cut Dick off. “She doesn’t need to hear any stories, Dick,” he insisted, hoping he didn’t sound as desperate as he felt. 

You rolled your eyes and snickered tacitly before playfully mouthing the words “next time” to Dick.

For a moment, Jason seriously contemplated throwing you over his shoulder and dragging you back to Gotham, but he decided you’d probably tase him. Or bite him. Or kick him in the balls. Or all three.

To his relief, Dick began to actually explain the background of the trafficking ring, talking about how it seemed to have migrated from Gotham to Blüdhaven. Together, the three of you were able to pinpoint the place their headquarters, where they kept all their victims, would most likely be. A warehouse at the docks, down by The Narrows, where one would easily be able to load a bunch of beaten and bloodied girls into a ship bound to Europe or South America in the cover of night, without anyone ever batting an eye.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“So, uh… You and Dick know each other pretty well?” you asked carefully, not wanting to step on any toes, as you and Red Hood—or, as you’d recently learned, Jason—sat on the rooftop of another warehouse near the one the three of you were scoping out. Dick was waiting on the ground, in case he needed to jump into action.

Jason sighed, as if he was expecting this question, but didn’t quite know how to answer it. “You could, uh… Well, you could say we’re like brothers,” he responded. His tone indicated there was more to the story than he was telling you, but you knew better than to push.

Still, the cop in you wouldn’t let up.

“Right.” You nodded. “It’s just that you have a key to his house and everything.”

Jason groaned this time. You let out a soft laugh. “How’d you meet him?” you asked.

He was quiet for a few moments, as if debating how much to tell you. “Through family,” he responded curtly.

“So he knew you as Jason before he knew you as Red Hood?” you questioned curiously.

“He did, yeah,” Jason answered.

You took a quick peak through the binoculars and stiffened up. “Heads up, there’s an armed man walking into the warehouse…” 

You absent-mindedly passed the pair to Jason so he could look too, letting out a light laugh when you realised he was wearing a helmet that covered his entire face, and therefore couldn’t use the binoculars.

“My bad,” you said through soft snickers, reaching for the radio to alert Dick. “One entering the building. He is armed, repeat, he is armed.”

“Copy that,” came Dick’s response through the warm crackle of the handheld device. “I see him.”

“Should we call for backup?” you asked.

“Negative,” Dick answered. “We’ll wait until we see some concrete signs that they’re holding the victims here.”

“Copy that…” you responded, sighing and placing the radio back down.

There were a few more minutes of waiting before you could hear a gruff voice yelling commands in the distance, getting closer. As the man’s voice got louder, you could hear it accompanied by soft, crying whimpers.

“Shit,” you cursed under your breath. “I really hope that’s not what I think it is.”

Jason reached for the radio to alert Dick as you chewed your lip nervously. Indeed, soon enough, a line of girls who couldn’t have been older than twenty came into view, their hands bound with zip ties and mouths covered with duct tape, wearing clothes that were dirty and ripped from struggle. They were led by a large, burly man with an automatic. Your eyebrows furrowed together, the looks on the girls’ faces were haunting. The fear for their life, the desperation for a miracle to come save them. You tugged at Jason’s arm before even realising your hand was moving.

“Let’s go,” you said softly.

“We have to wait for backup,” he whispered back. “We’re seriously outgunned and outnumbered.”

“If we wait, those girls could be gone already!” you retorted. You didn’t sound strong, or frustrated, or stubborn in the same way you normally did. You were desperate to save these girls. Jason could hear it in your voice.

“It’s too risky,” he said, reluctantly, like the words hurt him to say as much as they hurt you to hear. “I can’t lose you, alright? We’re gonna stay here, where it’s safe.”

You’d already failed Lacey Holland. You couldn’t fail these girls too. This was why you got into the force. To be the protector that these women needed. If you didn’t do everything you could to save them, then you’d be failing not just them, but yourself.

“Jason,” you said hushedly. “Please.”

The sound of his real name must have softened him, because Jason sighed under his breath, shaking his head and looking out towards the girls being shoved into the warehouse. “We wait until he brings them back out,” he conceded. “If we go into that closed space with guns ablazing, it’s almost certain death.”

You nodded, grateful that Jason had trusted you with this. “Okay.”

A short pause, and then you added, “Thank you.”

Sure enough, before too long, the man returned, accompanied by a few compatriots, although he seemed to be the boss amongst them. He stood at the front of the line, with two other men, followed by the girls, moving in a single file line, hands and mouths still bound. You counted 6 of them, with two more men at their tail end.

“I’ve only got a nine millimetre," you murmured. “It’s a cop gun. Can’t shoot that far.”

“Yeah, I don’t exactly carry around sniper rifles either,” Jason muttered back, grabbing the radio with one hand and your hand with the other. “Come on, let’s go in.”

“Dick, we’re moving in,” Jason told Dick over the radio.

“Copy that,” came Dick’s response. “Backup is 3 minutes out.”

3 minutes.

A lot could happen in 3 minutes.

The pair of you rushed down the stairs to the ground, and Jason led you swiftly, yet soundlessly to duck behind the wall of the warehouse, only a few short metres away from where the girls were being led onto the docks. He peaked out to scope out the fire power the men were carrying.

“All five have automatics,” he murmured. “We might stand a chance, but only if we can even the playing field and take at least two of them out.”

You knelt down to shoot from a lower angle. “Andy and I used this move once during a tactical training session. You shoot together on three, it takes down multiple suspects and only alerts them once. Never actually done it out on the field.”

Jason looked down at you and chuckled breathily. “Will it work?”

“Depends,” you answered, taking aim at one of the men. “How good of a shot are you?” 

Jason shook his head, as if the question was redundant. “Detective, please,” he murmured, his tone that of the familiar cockiness you’d grown to expect, taking aim.

You smiled. “Three,” you began the countdown. “Two… One..”

Two gunshots, so precisely timed that one might have mistaken them for a single gunshot. But the pair of immobilised bodies on the floor would beg to differ. Their ringleader and the two at the front of the line immediately turned at the sound as the girls began to whimper and huddle together in fear, each one still too terrified to seize the opportunity and make a run for it.

You stood back up as quickly as you could, pressing your body against the wall as the burly man sent the other two to investigate. You took a deep breath, and your nostrils filled with the all too familiar scent that thickened the air whenever a gun had recently been fired nearby. The bitter, metallic smell of gunpowder paired with the rush of adrenaline through your veins. 

Jason grabbed the barrel of their gun as the braver of the two, the one in front, turned the corner. Jason pushed it away from the pair of you as the man began firing reflexively, as did his friend. You ducked, instinctively covering your head at the sound of the bullets as Jason managed to wrestle the gun out of the lackey’s hands and aimed it back at them, firing back at them. His quick, clean and precise shots were a stark contrast to the incessant firing of the other two.

“Grab the other one!” Jason instructed as Dick managed to shoot the remaining ringleader in the leg, giving him an opportunity to disarm him as well. 

By now, the sound of bullets had alerted the rest of the goons inside the warehouse to join the ensuing fight, but the sound of sirens in the distance assured you that your own backup was close.

“I don’t know how to shoot an automatic!” you yelled back over the sound of gunshots.

“Then use your handgun!” Jason responded, firing at a group of maybe five that emerged from the warehouse. “Stay down!”

You nodded, your grip on your gun tightening as you shot at the group, who were still yet to pinpoint the location of the gunshots. You took advantage of their cluelessness and fired thrice. Only one of them hit, but you effectively took down one of the men.

“Stay here, I’m going to run around the warehouse and get them from behind,” you told Jason.

Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Dick engaged in hand to hand struggle with the ringleader. He’d managed to disarm him and kick away his weapon. You didn’t see much, but you’d definitely seen enough to tell he didn’t fight like a cop. A curious observation, but one you didn’t have time for at present.

You could hear your heart pounding in your ears with adrenaline as you made the long run around the back of the warehouse. The sound of sirens in the distance getting closer and closer was interspersed with the sound of gunfire behind you. The smell of gunpowder still lingered in your nose as you took deep breaths, like you were trained to do. In and out through both your nose and your mouth, to stay cool and run faster. 

You were out on the other side of the warehouse within seconds—a new record you might have celebrated if not for the circumstances. You shot the man in front of you in the leg and tackled him from behind when he buckled down, kicking away his weapon and grunting with effort as he struggled beneath you. The impact of the tackle had definitely hurt your knees, an ache you’d feel the next day, but you supposed you could’ve been shot, like the man beneath you, and that would definitely have been worse.

You managed to get handcuffs on his wrist and looked back up to shoot a few more similar shots at the legs of the two men Jason was fighting. A quick glance back at Dick would tell you that the two men had eerily similar styles of fighting, except for the fact that Dick was perhaps a bit more flexible.

What was his last name again? Grayson? It was a peculiarly familiar name. You wondered if you’d met before.

You didn’t have much time at the moment to ponder the question though. You aimed your gun at the chest of the ringleader and Jason raced to help in the fight, waiting for a clean shot that wouldn’t hit either of the other two.

Bingo.

You squeezed the trigger just as the police cars arrived.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

You’d left not long after the ordeal at the docks. You’d offered Jason a ride back home, but he’d declined, preferring to find his own way. Well, that, and the fact that he’d been wearing the helmet for nearly 12 hours straight now, and wouldn’t you know it was getting dreadfully stuffy in there.

Back at Dick’s apartment, Jason breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled the helmet off, rubbing the back of his neck and feeling how the sweat had caused his hair to stick to his skin.

“God, that thing is suffocating,” he murmured.

Dick laughed, shaking his head lightly as he walked into his kitchen to fetch two ice cold bottles of water, tossing one to his brother. “You should have Tim install some A/C in there,” he joked.

Jason rolled his eyes affectionately, catching the bottle and twisting the top open. He brought the bottle to his lips and thirstily guzzled sip after sip, almost finishing the entire bottle in one go.

Dick stretched his back out and yawned, coming to sit next to Jason on the couch. “So that’s her, huh?”

Jason shot his brother a sideways glare. “You could’ve been a bit more subtle about the whole thing, you know,” he grumbled unhappily.

Dick only laughed harder this time, placing his bottle on the coffee table before turning to face Jason on the couch. “I had to give you a hard time, come on,” he said playfully. “That’s what big brothers do.”

“You’re evil,” Jason replied. “That was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever had to sit through.”

Dick waved a hand dismissively. “Come on, you’re exaggerating.”

“I’m not!” Jason insisted, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at Dick.

He only rolled his eyes in response, instead changing the subject. “She’s pretty, you know,” Dick said. “I guess I just didn’t expect you to go for a cop. Seeing as you seem to have plenty of reservations about people in my line of work.”

“She’s one of the good ones,” Jason responded, his expression and his voice softening as he talked about you. He let out a quiet sigh. “You know, despite everything, I actually trust her. She makes me feel lighter, like I’m… normal.”

He watched as Dick’s brows knitted together and his pursed lips parted to say something, but Jason interrupted him.

“I know what you’re going to say,” he said. “That I am normal. But I’m not, Dick. Nothing about my life or what happened to me is normal. I’m not even supposed to be alive right now.”

“I know,” Dick conceded with a soft, concerned exhale. “I’m just worried about you, you know? I’m glad you feel a sense of normalcy around this woman, but I don’t want you reliant on someone else for that.”

Jason smiled, one that actually reached his eyes. “Thanks,” he murmured, not quite sure how to express his gratitude. “It’s… It’s nice to know someone cares.”

Dick smiled back, his bright charming smile that Jason knew lit up every room he walked into. “Don’t get all sappy on me now, little bird,” he teased, patting his brother on the back.

Jason rolled his eyes again, chuckled softly to himself as he shook his head and playfully pushed Dick away.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Back in Gotham and out of your rut, you’d found yourself inexplicably drawn down another rabbit hole, and in true you fashion, it had consumed you. You couldn’t sleep at night, your thoughts racing about this new mystery to be solved, and of course, you had to drag your partner into it, like you always did.

It was a habit you’d inherited from Healy. He was the kind of detective to become obsessive over his cases, especially when they were of personal relevance or interest. You’d been around him so much during your formative years as a detective that you’d adopted the quirk yourself, something that Andrea, who had a much healthier work-life balance, was forever cursing.

“Andy, there’s something very fishy going on here,” you said, greeting her at the elevator when the doors opened and welcomed her to your floor. It couldn’t have been past 8 a.m. “With the Red Hood and his cop friend, I mean.”

Andrea groaned and yawned tiredly. “Good morning to you too,” she murmured sarcastically.

You rolled your eyes, not letting her tiredness deter you. You’d been bouncing off the walls with caffeine since three in the morning, and you were just itching to present your findings to someone, much like a child wanting to show off her newly designed dance routine to her mother.

“So this guy, Dick Grayson, I knew the name sounded familiar, right?” you said. “Well, I looked it up, and of course, this guy is Bruce Wayne’s first kid!”

Andrea raised an eyebrow, unimpressed as you scampered after her into the bullpen, watching as she fixed herself a cup of coffee in the kitchenette. “Bruce Wayne has plenty of kids, doesn’t he?” she responded. “He’s like Brad and Angelina. Collecting those damn children like they’re Pokémon or something.”

“Well yes,” you continued. “It wouldn’t be significant, if it wasn’t for the fact that Jason, or well, Red Hood, said that they met through family.”

“Is this going anywhere?” Andrea asked with a tired sigh, grabbing her cup from the coffee maker and going to sit down at her desk, with you once again scrambling after her at her heels.

“Come on, Andy, think about it,” you said. “They met through family, and Dick Grayson’s only living family is Bruce Wayne and his menagerie of adopted children.”

“Maybe Dick knew Red Hood before his parents died,” she responded with a shrug. “Did you consider that?”

You rolled your eyes as you walked around her desk to sit at yours. “Of course I thought of that,” you said. “It’s an entirely plausible possibility, I suppose, if it wasn’t for the fact that Jason told me they were like brothers.”

Andrea raised an eyebrow at you again. “When was the last time you slept, sweetheart?”

“I’m onto something, Andy!” you insisted defensively. “I’m not crazy, will you just listen?”

She sighed, putting two hands up in concession. “Fine,” she said cynically. “I’m listening.”

“Thank you!” you said, taking a sip of the coffee on your desk, brewed almost an hour ago and gone cold already. You’d been at the station longer than you’d have liked to admit, caught up in the need to investigate. “So, Dick Grayson and Jason, a.k.a Red Hood, are like brothers.”

“This is relevant, of course, in the fact that Dick Grayson is the ward of Bruce Wayne, a man known for his habit of adopting children,” you continued. “So, I’m thinking… This Jason is somehow related to Bruce Wayne. Specifically, I think he’s his adopted son.”

“Great theory,” Andrea responded sarcastically. “Except for the fact that I think if Bruce Wayne had a son called Jason, we’d know about it. I think all of Gotham would know about it, actually. The Waynes are practically royalty in this city.”

“Aha!” you said, pointing at her. “And that’s the question, isn’t it? Why hasn’t anyone heard of a Wayne called Jason?”

“Probably because he doesn’t exist?” she guessed, sounding as unimpressed as ever.

“Except…!” you said with a victorious grin tilting your computer screen towards her, the wires connecting your monitor to the rest of its components twisting around its base. On it was an article, titled “Young life taken by the Joker.”

“This article talks about the death of a boy, Jason Todd, almost 15 years ago,” you said. “He was 15 when he died, and there’s a picture of the funeral. Right here, see.”

You zoomed into the picture, at a shadowy figure in attendance. “Doesn’t that look an awful lot like Bruce Wayne?”

Andrea blinked at the photo, and then at you. “You know, I think you should really get some sleep—”

You interrupted her. “How many random children’s funerals do you think Bruce Wayne goes to?” you said. “Come on, Andrea, are you telling me you don’t see where this is all leading?”

“I’m telling you that that photo could be of literally anyone!” she responded. “And besides, even if Jason is Bruce Wayne’s kid, according to your theory, he should be dead, which, clearly, he’s not.”

“Exactly,” you said. “Jason Todd should be dead. Unless Bruce Wayne faked his death and paid the media good money to keep word from getting out about it, for whatever reason.”

“And why would he do that?” Andrea asked with another sigh. “Also, what exactly do you want to do about it? Storm up to Wayne Manor and confront the man?”

“Well, I don’t know why he’d want to do that,” you said. “But I do know what I want to do about it. I’m going to prove my hypothesis.” You smiled proudly.

“I don’t like that expression,” Andrea muttered. “What are you thinking?”

“I need your help, Andy,” you said.

She narrowed her eyes at you. “I don’t like where this is going either.”

“I want to dig up Jason Todd’s grave.”

Andrea took a deep breath, closing her eyes and attempting to steady herself. “Are you nuts?” she asked, clearly restraining herself from an outburst.

“Think about it!” you urged. “We’ll just hit up the cemetery tonight, and then we’ll have concrete proof about this whole conspiracy! You don’t even have to do anything, just be a look out for me.”

“I’ve put up with a lot of your crazy ideas, but this is actually a goddamn crime,” Andrea responded, whisper-screaming at you, looking around the room to make sure no one was listening. “You want to dig up a dead kid’s grave so you can, what? Satisfy the tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorist weirdo inside you? And worse, you want to make me an accessory to that crime? I mean, fucking hell, we could lose our jobs over this!”

“Well then, let’s hope we don’t get caught, yeah?” you said.

Andrea rubbed her temples. “You’ve gone insane,” she said to no one in particular. “You’ve actually lost your marbles. There’s no way in hell a sane person would come up with this plan.”

“You owe me a favor, remember?” you coaxed. “Please, Andy.”

She glared at you in response. “You are way too much like the old man, you know that?”

You only grinned triumphantly in response, knowing you’d worn her down. Besides, it wasn’t like being compared to Healy was an insult—at least, not to you.

And so that’s how you ended up at Gotham City Central Cemetery in the dead of night with a shovel, standing before the tombstone that read Jason Todd’s name.

Andrea stood just a few feet away from you, perched on a slightly higher hill that gave her a better vantage point as a lookout. 

“How much longer are you gonna take?” she whispered impatiently.

Her arms were crossed and her foot tapped nervously as she looked around, making sure no one was nearby.

“I think I just hit the coffin!” you whispered back. “I’ll need your help prying it open!”

“I’m missing Disney night with my toddler for this…” Andrea murmured unhappily.

“Camille and Dana will be fine without you for one night, Andy, Jesus,” you shot back, rolling your eyes. “Besides, Dana is one and a half. She won’t remember a thing. This is important work we’re doing. We’re uncovering the truth. We’re carrying out justice, Andrea. Don’t you want your daughter to know her mother carries out justice?”

Andrea rolled her eyes right back at you as you shoveled away at the dirt around the coffin. Beads of sweat pooled at your brow and dripped down your face as you worked, your arms burning with effort as you looked back at the large mound of dirt forming behind you. You’d been digging for at least 45 minutes now, and its effects were starting to wear down your body.

“God, my back is killing me,” you muttered.

Andrea glared at you. “You’re graverobbing a child’s grave right now. I think you deserve a bit of a backache.”

“We’re not graverobbing!” you retorted. “It’s not like we’re stealing his body. We’re just… checking to see if it’s there. Now come on, help me pry this thing open.”

She groaned softly as she walked over, carefully climbing down into the pit you’d just dug.

“Alright, grab this shovel, and we push together on three, okay?” you instructed.

Andrea sighed. “Okay.”

“One… two… three…”

The two of you grunted with effort as you used the shovel to pry open the coffin. The lid fell out of place and you bent down to grab it and lift it open fully to reveal…

“It’s empty,” Andrea murmured, her voice dazed and disbelieving.

You smiled with the adrenaline of victory and knowing you were right charging through your veins. “It’s empty.”

You looked over at your partner, her hands covering her mouth in shock. “I think you owe me an apology, Andrea,” you told her.