Riddle Me A Queen

Chapter 2: Traumatized Victim

~Grayson~

You think Gotham would be use too bad publicity. From the old eras of mafia and violence to the new, more colorful, rouges and Batman it's never been a clean city. Now the whole world knew what creative characters our city held. In an effort to provide some damage control Babs, Bruce and I were in overtime, trying to pick up the pieces. The physical damage and chaos from the summit is starting to die down, but all three of us had one problem on our minds.

"He's been dead for days, I don't understand" I mutter, keeping my eyes out for anything suspicious. Besides the three orange jackets we had waiting for pickup, the night is pretty uneventful.

Over the last few days, the three of us patrolled the area heavily, suspecting some attack from Penguin, Dent or the Joker. It's not like our actions would stop them from any abrupt takeover. His weapons, henchmen and turf all fair game. Surely any day now someone will make a move.

"Well it won't be Dent-" Batgirl flips over beside me. She closes her batphone, placing it on her belt. "Bats is bringing him back to Arkham as we speak-he'll arrive at the same time as those other runaways we picked up."

Maybe it is Bruce's paranoia rubbing off on me, but something about this silence didn't add up. What criminal would wait this long on someone's passing to steal the land. The rouges didn't exactly abide by a code of ethics.

"Good. We should head back, it's almost morning...."

"Or..." Here we go, in the way Babs sways over it could only mean one thing. "we can talk about the invisible elephant in the room-"

"Not now."

I flip off the building, gliding down. With a sense of urgency I make my way back to Wayne Manor. Hopefully, I'll catch Kate before she goes into hiding for the evening, pretending to be asleep and avoiding us all. It is no secret that she blamed herself for the Riddler's death. The guilt is tearing her away from all of us, becoming more and more isolated by the burden of her pain.

By the time I make it back to Wayne Manor, I enter to see Barbara leaning against the steps of the den. "Nice try boy wonder, but you can't avoid a conversation if I know where you're headed-" She smirks, clearly only having enough time to throw a hoodie over her bat suit. "So, now you have time to talk about-"

"My answer hasn't changed." I quickly cut her off, keeping my voice low.

"Then neither has mine-" Of course her stubbornness only made her cuter, as she brushes her bangs to the side. I shake my head, clearly now is not the time for these antics.

"Babs. I told you, once she's stable I'll tell her...if she finds out now, there's no shot of her coming back. I'm all she's got right now."

"It's been a week." Babs sighs, not wanting to feel like the bad guy here. "She needs real help Dick, you can't save her by walking on eggshells. What she went through is terrible, but you're fooling yourself if you think she's going to handle anything well, any time soon."

"-Look, Alfred finally got her to eat the other day. That's a step in the right direction. Kate's strong, I know it. After the holidays, if she's not in a better place by then, I'll tell her."

"Fine, but for the record I don't agree wit-" Her voice trails off as Babs' gaze rests over my shoulder. Kate. Immediately, my heart drops in my chest. How unusual for her to even leave the room, of course now of all times- I cringe as slowly turning to look over my shoulder. No one, but that didn't mean Kate couldn't be standing there. I pause for a minute, then two, only staring at the spot where Bab did. .

"Gotcha boy wonder." Babs laughs, taking a bite of her muffin. I exhale, seeing what she meant. Point proven.

I shake my head, "not funny—-"I stand up, heading down the hallway towards Kate's room. The door rests ajar, no doubt left open from Alfred. His motto is fresh air is both good for the room and the mind.