Someone is always watching

Chapter 19

In the Batcave

"The truth Bruce, NOW."

"We should wait for Todd."

"He's two minutes out." 

They haven't found much to link Clarice Adington to anything, so her abducting her niece and trying to kill her sheds a new light on this case. Dick was really angry, he was ready to punch Bruce through the walls of the cave. He knew Jason was developing feelings towards the girl, they had a lot in common, raised on the streets of Gotham with pit-stops in orphanages, being taken in by rich people, dying and coming back, and apparently being screwed over by Batman. Tim was standing by the computer monitoring Jason's location, Damian was sitting down in front of his father, who was seated in the big chair of the bat-computer, giving him his best glare, Dick was pacing, Alfred was just there, and Cassandra was perched on one of the beams in the ceiling of the cave. A few seconds later Jason's bike enters the cave. He parks it, takes off his helmet and mask, and walks towards the rest of his family. No one can read his expression. Dick takes a deep breath and starts talking.

"Bruce, I know you think you have this duty of protecting us, I know you believe you should keep things to yourself, you have this whole 'need to know' policy that you use with everyone who works with you, down to the League. I've been putting up with that for years, but you can't keep doing that, not after last time! So, what is really going on here? Who is she? And why are you hiding things?" Bruce's expression was unreadable as always, he stayed silent glancing at Alfred who simply shot him with an Alfred glare that translates to 'I told you so'. 

"Is she your other blood daughter father?" Damian asked seeing as his father had no intention to answer Dick's questions. "Because if she is and you've been worried how I might accept her given that I am-"

"She's not my daughter." 

"Listen Bruce, we know she was in the crash, I found the original plane manifesto in the safe of your office at Wayne Enterprises, not a great place to hide stuff by the way. We know Falcone is her mom's godfather, and obviously the plane crash wasn't an accident."Tim laid it all down careful not to mention death and resurrection. 

Bruce looked at them, waiting for Jason to speak, but Jason remained silent with an expression that held no hints as to what he was thinking. Bruce looked at Alfred who gave him an encouraging look, he took a deep breath and started talking.

"She's not my daughter, I'm sure of that. It's very complicated, you just have to-"

"Un-complicate it then old man." Bruce looked at Jason who showed anger this time, Jason knew that the plane crash happened the year after he died, he knew there must be something there. 

"It was my fault, this whole mess, it was my fault." Dick recognized the guilt in Bruce's voice, it was the same guilt he had after Jason died. "I dragged them into this and I got them killed." after a silence Tim spoke.

"We're going to need more than that."

"I met William years ago, during my training, we stayed in touch. He was a very smart man, he figured out that Bruce Wayne and Batman shared body and mind almost as fast as you Tim. He married Carmen. At the time I was working on a human trafficking ring that moved from city to city, it had a base in Gotham. I asked for his help as a young and rich doctor to go undercover at one of the auctions, that's when they adopted Nerissa. See the orphanage was a front, kids over 3 are no longer 'worthy of adoption' so they are sold to the highest bidder. There was no evidence of anything, William's cover remained intact so he and Carmen started working with them as doctors to gather evidence. It took years. We found links to different mafias and personalities in and out of Gotham, one in particular was Brandon Adington." He was facing the computer screen and showing them the files.