Second Chances: Batwoman - Rough Draft

Chapter 12

Jacob Kane was currently working his agents around the clock, doing whatever he had to in order to find his missing daughter Mary. He'd already made the mistake of giving up searching for both of his other daughters; he wasn't going to make it again. Especially since it looked like this was Mary paying for his inactions.

However, he was not happy that Mary's girlfriend Ryan had chosen to turn on the Bat signal before calling him, but he understood why she wasn't exactly thrilled with the Crows, since he knew that it had his agents that had accused her of being the one who owned those drugs and were responsible to her spending 18 months of her life in Blackgate Penitentiary for a crime she hadn't committed and while he'd tried to make up for that after he'd found that she and Mary were dating by pulling some strings to get her released from parole early and expunging her criminal record, she still didn't trust the organization and while he understood that, this wasn't about her not calling the crows, this was about her not calling him as Mary's father, since he had a right to know that his daughter was in trouble.

Anyways, while Ryan hadn't known who kidnapped Mary, Jacob suspected that Alice had something to do with it, since if she was the telling the truth and somehow was his daughter Beth, Jacob suspected this would likely be because she wanted Mary to know how both she and Kate had felt when he gave up looking for her.

But that wouldn't happen. He'd made a lot of mistakes, but he wasn't going to make this one again. He knew that Mary was still somewhere in the city, which meant that she could be found and she would be. No matter what it took.

But he was pulled from his thoughts when he saw Sophie enter his office.

"Moore. Anything to report?" Jacob asked

"Nothing yet sir. I'm really just here because Kate asked me to keep an eye on you. Also, she's mad she had to find out about this from watching Dana Dewitt announce it on the news earlier today instead of from you." Sophie said and Jacob rolled his eyes.

"I will worry about that once Mary is home." Jacob said.

"Any luck on that?" Sophie asked.

"None yet. Honestly, I'm trying to keep myself from falling back into the same habits that turned Beth into Alice in the first place, but it's not easy." Jacob said.

"You really that she's the one who did this?" Sophie asked.

"I mean, she's the only one who fits the bill. Of all the crazies in this city, she's the only one who has the nerve to make an enemy of the Crows like this and it's not like she doesn't have valid reasons for doing this. She likely thinks I replaced her with Mary and then it didn't help when I made the same mistake with Kate that I did with her. My guess is that she wants Mary to know how she felt when she realized I stopped looking for her. Something I'm not going to do until I see an actual body. Not just some damn skull fragments. This time I'm not taking any chances." Jacob said.

"Still sir, we don't have any leads that would link her to the crime and if Ryan knows anything else, she's not talking. At least not to us." Sophie said.

"What do you mean?" Jacob asked.

"I mean she's clearly the one who turned on the Bat signal last night. Maybe she told Batman something she didn't tell you." Sophie asked.

"No, Ryan may hate the Crows, I looked her in the eye and she told us everything, since no matter what she thinks of us, she knows that I want to save Mary just as much she does." Jacob said and Sophie nodded, since that was fair.

Meanwhile, Ryan was currently standing in an alleyway in the slums of Gotham, a case in her hands.

"Well, well, this is a surprise. I thought that little miss reformation was too good for slumming it here now." her contact, Blair Williams, said as he approached her.

"More like I haven't had a need to until now." Ryan said.

"What do you want?" Blair asked.

"Your expertise. If my memory serves me correctly, when something shady's going on in Gotham's underworld, you're the man to go to for all the details about it." Ryan said.

"I don't know what you're talking about?" Blair said.

"Really, would this help jog your memory?" Ryan asked as she held up the case.

"What's in the case?" Blair asked.

"You find out when you tell me what I want to know." Ryan said.

"You know that's not how this works, Wilder. I need to make sure that what you're offering is worth what I'm giving." Blair said.

"Fair enough." Ryan said as she opened the case to reveal a ton of cash.

"How much is that?" Blair asked.

"50,000." Ryan said.

"How can you afford that?" Blair asked.

"My job at Wayne pays double this in one month. Besides, considering what I want, this is nothing." Ryan said as she snapped the case closed before Blair could even touch the cash.

"Okay, now we're talking. What do you want to know?" Blair asked.

"I want to know who kidnapped my girlfriend Mary Hamilton." Ryan said.

"Hmm, interesting. How about we make a deal." Blair said.

"Go on." Ryan said.

"If you're really as rich as you say, then how about we call this money a downpayment. I not only tell you who took your girl, but where they are and then you pay me double after that." Blair said.

"How about you tell me where she is and then worry about if you get paid anymore after I confirm that it's good." Ryan said, her tone making it clear that she was not in the mood for his games. Not today.

"Deal. To answer your first question, your girl is being held by none other than Gotham's newest psychopath, Alice." Blair said and now Ryan understood why he was trying to gauge her.

"You want the extra money so you can run." Ryan realized.

"She's going to kill me if she finds out I'm the one who sold her out, so i want to get out of town with as much money as I can to make sure that she can't find me." Blair said as Ryan placed her hand on her contact's shoulder.

"Tell me where she is and I promise I will do everything I can to not only make sure you're safe, but also make sure that bitch can't hurt anyone again." Ryan said, since if she didn't want to kill Alice before, she did now, since Alice had not only kidnapped the love of her life, but she'd also been responsible for the death of her adoptive mother.

"Okay, but you better deliver on that. For both of our sakes. She's hiding out in a sugar factory." Blair said as he gave her the exact location.

"Thank you Blair." Ryan said as she walked away and as soon as Blair was sure she was gone, he pulled out his phone.

"Hey, tell Alice she's got company headed her way." Blair said to the person on the other end of the call before hanging up.