Raye Vance
"Hey! I'm back!" I called out into the apartment. I'd gone on a quick assignment in South America, leaving Red to his own devices for a couple days and probably to go follow up some possible leads on his past.
There was no response, which worried me but there was nothing triggering my skin shift right now but I still started shifting my skin. I found a note on the counter.
'On Park Row - Red'
"Well that can't be good," I muttered to myself. I unpacked my stuff, tucked my favourite firearm into the back of my jeans and headed out to go find him before he caused some sort of shit.
I found him on a bench with his journal clenched tight in his hands, across from the infamous school for boys. "This place shut down before I moved to Gotham," I said and sat down next to him. "Reopened a couple years back, run by the Wayne Foundation charitable trust," I added and I wasn't sure if they just let people walk in off the street.
"Please tell me you haven't just been sitting outside a home for boys like a total creep all week?" I asked him.
"Give me some credit, I am a highly trained ninja," he said and I didn't want to assume he'd been on a roof top. "How was South America?" He asked me, eyes still on the building.
"Good, gave me a chance to brush up on my Spanish," I told him, "so why here?" I asked him.
"I kept getting these flashes of being in a boys home, so I went to everyone I could find in East End," he told me, "made a list of all the ones that were around when I was a kid and started looking," he said and I had heard stories about this place.
"The Bat shut it down, I think," I recalled, "like a year or two before I moved to Gotham," I said and leaned my head on his shoulder as I brought one of my knees up to my chest.
"The walk down this street felt so familiar but then nothing," he told me and put his head on mine. "I'm drawing total blanks to if I was ever here.
"So we go in together, you were a former resident and you're back in town with your fiancée, showing her the city you grew up in," I suggested to him, moving my grandmother's ring from my right middle finger to my left ring finger.
"Think it'll work?" He asked me.
"Won't know if we don't try and I'm currently not wearing fingerprints," I told him, "this is a way to try and get you some answers," I said and I wanted him to get some answers.
"Okay, let's go look," he agreed and stood up, "find out who I was," he said and offered me his hand.
"I know you think this could be the Rosetta Stone but I also think you need to manage your expectations Red," I warned him as we crossed the street.
"I know but they might have class photos or something that might have my name on them or at least my face, show us we're on the right track," he said and I was glad he was being realistic but I was also hoping this was a Rosetta Stone moment.
"Can I help you?" A bright smiley woman asked who was clearly suspicious of the man who'd been sat out front for a while.
"Sorry, I was waiting for my fiancée, I spent some time here back when Gunn was running the place and I wanted to show her all the places I grew up in Gotham," Red told her, "I don't exactly have great memories of this place," he said and I really wanted to laugh at that but it was entirely inappropriate, "but the time I spent here did shape me into the man she's going to marry," he told her and I leaned against him a little more.
"It seems so different from the stories," I commented.
"Park Row Home for Boys has changed a lot since it was reopened with the Wayne Foundation funding but we still have all the old class photos in the day room, most of the boys are out anyway so I'm sure they won't mind one of their own being in the house," she told us and led us into the house. It really did look really nice and like a good place to grow up as far as group homes could go.
