Gotham Untold #1 Dawn of an Age

Chapter 10: Truth Always Hurts

Daniel sat up in a tree in his backyard sketching on a sketch pad. He heard gun shots off in the distance. He looked out over the yard and saw some men dragging off a body and Oswald handing off a gun to one of his lackeys. Daniel could hear him talking clearly. "Make sure I get that one back from the cleaners." Said Oswald as he sighed. Edward came out and kissed Oswald's cheek.
"Another one?" Asked Edward as he wrapped his arms around Oswald's shoulders.
"It's so hard to find loyalty in Gotham these days." Said Oswald as Edward smiled.
"Well you'll always have mine and Daniel's." Said Edward as Daniel smirked knowing that was true.
"Ed, I've been thinking." Said Oswald as Edward looked at him curiously. "Do you think we should tell Daniel that he's adopted?" Asked Oswald as Daniel's eyes grew wide. He turned towards them and watched closely.
"I don't know if Daniel can handle that knowledge, maybe when he's a bit older." Said Edward as Oswald sighed.
"But if we keep it from him any longer he may just get more upset." Said Oswald as Edward shook his head then glanced up and made direct eye contact with Daniel and saw him.
"Oswald..." Said Edward as he pointed up at the spot in the tree where Daniel was. Oswald turned and saw him. Daniel climbed down and just looked at them.
"Daniel-" Said Oswald as Daniel clenched his fist around his sketch pad then just ran into the house.

They went after him but he slammed his door shut and locked it. Oswald tried to coax him out but it was no use he wasn't going to talk to them. After nothing but silence from Daniel Oswald left and found Ed. "He won't say a word... He's furious with us." Said Oswald as he stood behind Ed who was working with a small circuit board. "Ed did you even hear a word I said?!" Asked Oswald as he looked at Edward who was rigid and cold in stature. "Edward, I'm talking about our son!" Oswald barked as he gripped Ed's shoulder and turned him. Edward looked at him. "Do you even care how crushed he is by this?" Asked Oswald as Edward let out a deep sigh.
"Yes I care but I'm certain that Daniel is intelligent enough to know that despite not being related is by blood we care about him and treat him with respect. Give him some time to think about it and he'll come to his senses I'm certain." Said Edward as Oswald nervously patted shoulder.
"You're probably right." Said Oswald as he just tried to hope that Daniel was smart enough to understand that.

A few hours went by and they hadn't seen Daniel. Oswald was still hopeful that Ed was right that Daniel would come to them when he was ready but Edward was starting to doubt his assumption. He decided to go and check on the boy just to set his mind at ease. He softly knocked at the door and listened before he spoke, it was silent. "Daniel?" Asked Edward as he knocked again and still nothing. He paced in the hallway for a moment debating on what to do. On one hand he wanted to respect Daniel's privacy but on the other hand something could have happened and he could be hurt or worse. Edward finally let his anxiety consume him and he opened the door. He saw the room was empty and the window was open. Something in Edward's brain clicked back into place and he kicked into his forensic knowledge. He noticed there was no sign of a struggle but the door to Daniel's large walk-in closet was wide open when typically they were closed. He entered the closet and saw that some of the drawers had been dug through but one in particular had been dug through the most. It was his sock drawer, all the rolled up pairs of socks had been thrown on the floor and the drawer had been pulled all the way out but the most concerning piece of evidence was that the false bottom to this drawer had been torn out and set on the floor. Edward remembered why they had put this here.
After Daniel was kidnapped by Sofia Falcone they started to try and teach Daniel to be able to defend himself if he was ever put in that situation again. Since both Oswald and Edward weren't much for hand-to-hand combat they were teaching him how to shoot guns. They then had this false bottom installed and put a hand gun there. Daniel knew the gun was there so he must've taken it with him.

Edward left the room and went downstairs. "He's gone!" Said Edward as Oswald nearly choked on the glass of wine he was drinking.
"What?" Asked Oswald as he set the glass down.
"You were right to be worried Oswald! He left and he took the gun with him, so we need to go find him!" Said Edward as he was actually panicking. "This is all my fault! You were right we should've went in and talked with him! Maybe we could've convinced him to stay! What is he even going to do!-" Edward continued to panic and mumble as he paced but Oswald seemed surprisingly calm. Finally Oswald walked up to Ed and put his hands on the sides of Ed's face.
"Ed breathe." Oswald said as Edward took a breath.
"Our son ran away, how are you so calm?" Asked Edward as he put his hand on Oswald's.
"Because he's our son, Ed. We have prepared him for a war we pray he'll never have to fight so of course the moment he thinks we can't be trusted, he runs away to find someone who can be trusted." Said Oswald as Edward nodded.
"He's going to find his biological family." Said Edward as Oswald removed his hands from Edward's face.
"So we find them, we find him." Said Oswald as Edward sighed.
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Asked Edward as Oswald sighed.
"That I'm not too certain of, I know his father is an owner of an establishment that pays me but there are at least a hundred different businesses that pay me to stay in business so that could take a very long time." Said Oswald as Edward perked up like he remembered something.
"Daniel's original surname was Ryan." Said Edward as Oswald nodded.
"Then that's where we start." Said Oswald as he grabbed the phone off the receiver and started dialing a number.
"Who are you calling?" Asked Edward as Oswald sighed.
"Mr. Penn." Said Oswald as Edward looked at him.
"He's still alive?" Asked Edward as Oswald nodded.
"Surprisingly and he was recently released from Arkham completely same and he requested his old job back and I had been struggling to find someone to do my accounting so I said yes though he's not involved in any of my criminal activity he's strictly a business partner." Said Oswald trying to make everything sound better than it was but Edward remembered their last encounter with Mr. Penn so he was rightfully skeptical. "But he keeps track of all payments I receive from the businesses that pay me so I'm going to ask him to look through his work and find any payments from a man with the last name Ryan." Said Oswald as Edward sighed. He hated this plan but knew it was the only one they had to find him.