Another Bat Abandoned

Workout

Bruce stood before the table upon which an eleven year old girl lay asleep, beginning a story he almost thought no one needed to hear.

Every year, when Haly's circus comes around, I go to see it. This year, they had a new act. He gestured to the girl lying still as death on the metal board. She's a tightrope walker, a trapeze artist, and an acrobat all in one. When her parents divorced and life got too hard to handle, she ran away to the circus, where she had an aunt that passed away  a few years later. The act had no net. As I was watching the show, her tightrope snapped, and she fell to the sawdust ring below. Seeing Dick's horrified look, he quickly continued. Fortunately, her training allowed her to duck and roll, but she sustained... some damage, he said, grossly underestimating the bruises and cuts marring her delicate frame. All three looked away from the mauled girl. Bruce went on. Before the press could get to her, I carried her to the car and brought her here. All three looked back at where the girl in question was supposed to be, but she was gone. Bruce cussed.

Dick smirked and said, "She'd make a good Bat."

Bruce, somehow already Batman again, growled, "Go find her."

Dick rolled his eyes and went in search of the girl.

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After three hours of searching the manor, Dick was getting worried. He hadn't found the girl, and he needed a break, so he headed to the gym, where a surprising sight awaited him. 

The girl had found a thing rope and an old trapeze set and had set them up, busily practicing her routine of flipping, walking on the rope, doing handstands, and walking on her hands on the rope. She was walking on her hands when one of her wrists shifted ever so slightly. She couldn't help but grunt with pain and frustration.

Dick watched her go over it. She was wearing only an athletic bra and underwear, revealing the long scars down her back, not recent enough to be from the fall. Had the circus... beat her?

Dick took his shirt off and began to practice his old Flying Graysons routine, though it terrified him beyond measure, he wanted to impress this girl. Not because he loved her, no... but because there was some strange connection he didn't recognize. 

She spoke, her voice tense with concentration but beautiful at the same time.

"Flying Graysons, right?"

Dick almost fell off the trapeze, terrified.

"What?"

She glanced at him sideways.

"You were a part of the Flying Graysons. That's where that routine is from."

Dick admitted this begrudgingly. 

She didn't speak to him again until...

"We can bandage your wrist up, if you want," he asked, trying to be helpful.

She glared.

"It's fine," she said, though he could tell by the way she didn't really grip the bar she was lying.

Neither of them noticed the Bat come in. 

They look so similar, he thought. Like they're twins. The gymnastic ability... Dick's right, she would make a good Bat.

Aloud he asked, "What's your name?"

She was so startled by the sudden question from the wrong direction that she put her injured hand the wrong way on the rope. All of them heard an audible crack just before her eyes widened, she screamed, and fell into the waiting arms of the Bat.

Looking up into the very frightening lenses over the Bat's eyes in the cowl, she screamed again and leapt out of his arms, pressing against a wall and panting heavily. Dick watched it all with concern from the rafters he had swung himself up upon hearing her scream.

"W-what did I do? I-I can," she swallowed. "I can- can- get out, if- if- if that's what you want."

The Batman frowned, realizing it would be necessary to reveal himself in order to gain her trust. He pulled back the cowl and said, "I would like... to adopt you."

The girl stared at him, shocked. The Batman... wanted to adopt... her?

Bruce held her gaze, slightly embarrassed. 

"I understand if you don't want to... considering the... circumstances."

The girl was speechless. Then slowly, she nodded and said in a breathless whisper, "Ok."

Batman waited.

"And- and my- my name is... it's Virgil Cain."

The Bat knew she wasn't lying. He nodded and swiftly turned to go back to the Batcave to research the new member of the family, tossing over his shoulder, "Dick, see to it that she's comfortable. And get Alfred to look over her wounds."

Dick dropped down from the rafters and extended a hand. 

"Dick Grayson. You may also know me as Robin."

He grabbed her uninjured arm and led her toward the medical bay where Alfred lay in wait.