Rites of Passage | Damian x OC

4. Truth vs Trust

He'd been in his bedroom when Alfred knocked, saying Bruce was looking for him. It took a few minutes, but eventually Damian made it down to the Batcave after wondering what his father could possibly want to see him for. Perhaps he wanted to discuss the case, yet the teen couldn't help worrying a little that he was going to ask to talk about their current disagreements.

Except Bruce wasn't very good about being the first to bring up a serious discussion... not that Damian was any better. His father could be surprisingly ignorant to things going on around him in spite of his skills as a detective. At least it made Damian's weighty secret a little easier to carry.

Ever since Dick had come and gone earlier today, Damian had wasted no time getting back into whatever would take his mind off the conversation: more "training," listening to whatever music would drown his thoughts, and a quick run with Titus. Deep down, he knew there was some truth to his older brother's wisdom, but nothing about his advice was going to make him march right up to Bruce and announce his feelings and intentions. Not yet anyway.

The clanging sounds of his footsteps on the metal walkway echoed as he approached the main area of the cave. Bruce was standing in front of his cluster of computer monitors, standing with his arms crossed as he scrutinized a spread of information before him. He must've come from the office; he was wearing a dark grey suit, and his hair was neatly combed compared to Damian's disheveled locks.

Before the younger Wayne could announce himself, a voice came from the computer, loud and clear as if the speaker was in the room with them.

"I don't know, Bruce. She didn't seem fazed when I showed up. Honestly, I don't even think she was really all that worried."

He recognized Barry Allen's voice and vaguely wondered why his father was speaking to him. Silently, Damian moved to stand beside him in front of the computer and skimmed the files on the monitors.

Bruce had pulled up all the information he had on Jessica Fairchild. There was a digital copy of her birth certificate as well as hospital and school records. In the corner of the screen, Damian could see a photo of her from a yearbook photoshoot during her sophomore year of high school. Her dark hair fell in unkempt waves on both sides of her face, but the slight smile she wore didn't seem to reach her wide although tired, grey-blue eyes. On another monitor were a few Central City police reports, including a missing child case. Ah, well, now it made sense why he was talking to the man who was CCPD's forensic investigator.

"What did she say?" Bruce asked, glancing over at Damian briefly before looking back at the monitors. "Anything helpful?"

"I mean, she talked plenty, but I wouldn't say any of it was really 'helpful,'" Barry responded. "It sounds like she doesn't have much of a relationship with Jessica. Before her brother and his wife died in the crash, the last time she'd seen them was when Jessica was six."

"So Lora and Ian weren't close."

"Seems like it. She said Jessica was a troublesome kid, but I'm not sure how she gathered that when she barely knew her."

As they spoke, Damian took it upon himself to catch up and read everything on the computer. The woman they were referring to, Lora Fairchild, was Jessica's aunt on her father's side of the family. She was her only living relative and had been sent to live with her after the car accident took her parents' lives. According to the police reports, Jessica had run away a month later and then a few more times over the next several months. Only one of those incidents noted she had come back on her own; the other times, she returned home because the police had found her.

When Jessica ran off once more after not even a year of living with Lora, she was gone for a whole week. That week had turned into two months, then Lora had asked CCPD to close the missing child case. Something about that piece of information made Damian's eyes narrow as he absorbed it all, trying to understand the context of Bruce and Barry's phone call.