OC meets Batfam

Things That Don't Add Up

Bruce's P.O.V. 

I sat down at the breakfast table and yawned. I'd stayed up a bit too late last night doing my research and ended up only getting a couple hours of sleep. I hadn't expected looking into Alissa's records would be so difficult. There were only a few mentioned sightings of her in the last four years and then nothing for a further seven years back. Beyond that period of time when she was completely off the grid, there was a three month long string of sightings starting in a small town in Tennessee and ending in Manhattan, New York, and then nothing beyond that. Eye witnesses who saw her during that first three month segment said that she appeared to traveling with an older boy. When I searched the Tennessee town's resident database, there was a family with the surname Brooks, but they didn't have any daughters. In fact, they didn't have any kids at all. Why would she have the same last name if they aren't her actual parents? I had asked myself. I looked a bit more into the family's history and discovered that they housed a homeless child who went by the name Aly for a few months before an older boy claiming to be her cousin came and took her away. I double checked the sighting of Alissa and the boy she was traveling with's appearance in the town and it took place just a day after Aly left with her 'cousin'. I had sat back in my chair to mull over this new information. Aly is probably an alias Alissa came up with to avoid the Brooks looking into her records. But why? What was she trying to hide? And why did she take their last name as her own when she left with her 'cousin'?  Was she running from something? If so, what? I was going to look into the few ideas I had, but saw the time and figured it would be better to do it the next day. I take a sip of my coffee and say hello to Tim as he walks in and takes a seat at the table. Dick and Damian were already digging into their cereal. Jason walked in a few minutes later and poured himself a glass of orange juice. 

"Is Alissa not coming down to breakfast today?" Dick asks. I shake my head.

"I don't think so. She ran into a bit of trouble with one of the local gangs while out searching yesterday and came back with a bunch of scrapes and bruises. She's probably still resting."

"Looks like that bad feeling of yours wasn't wrong after all," Tim remarked.

"Sorry to correct you Master Bruce, but Miss Alissa is not resting. She left early again to keep looking for her friend," Alfred says as he walks back into the room with a package of new coffee filters. The boys and I portrayed varying levels of surprise.

"That girl's pretty determined to find her friend if she's going out there with a bunch of injuries," Jason remarked, mildly impressed. Dick scowled.

"More like reckless. I understand her wanting to find her friend, but going out there in that kind of condition won't help her find them faster."

"She certainly seems to think so," Damian commented, shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"Do you know what time she left Alfred?" I ask. He shakes his head. "I'm afraid not sir. She was gone before I woke up."

"That means she had to've left before five in the morning," Dick observes. I frown. 

"She got back to the manor at one and immediately went to bed after we dressed her wounds for a half-hour. Taking account for the time it would take to get ready, she must have only slept for about three hours." 

"Jeez, I mean, I know we don't get much sleep with our night-time activities, but at least we get around five hours on most nights." (this may not be accurate, but for my story, this will be their average sleep time)Tim shakes his head in disbelief. 

I run a hand over my face and drain the last of my coffee. "I'm going down to the Batcave to see if I can find her on the city CCTVs" I say, standing up.