#if you listen closely you can hear the circus music all the way from den haag

[professionalfobtrash]

[dontfeedthebabytigers]

You’ve Got So Much Heart: Chapter 7

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Thursday was a quiet day. The halls in Wayne manor held a fragile calm that had been unseen by the scratched hardwood since before Damian’s arrival many years ago. The only commotion came from the den as Bruce and Dick raced to see who could discover the Scooby Doo culprit first. Dick won every time, even if only because Bruce let him. Dick’s prize was sneaking desert in before dinner--- a risky move in a house where Alfred seemed to lurk behind every corner. They made ice cream sundaes with chocolate sauce, bananas, and rainbow sprinkles. If Alfred had found them out from the depleted ice cream supply, he didn’t say anything. Just this once.

Bruce posited the idea of Cass coming over the next day and possibly bringing along Barbara. Dick beamed at the idea and Bruce almost had to resort to bribing to get the boy asleep. Barbara was Dick’s only friend both his age and outside of the family. Out of everyone in the family, Dick had always been the people person, and Bruce knew that being stuck inside with only three other people had been starting to get to the boy. He almost broke Bruce’s ribs when he told Dick that he was ready for a friend. Did the fact that she also had a cape make Bruce feel more secure about introducing Dick to a social life, without a doubt. He also knew how suffocating the family could be--- himself especially. Having a fresh face that Dick could relax around had been a necessity.

They arrived at noon, right on schedule. Dick hated it when people arrived earlier than expected, got anxious when they were late.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Cain, Ms. Gordon.” Alfred couldn’t contain his glee at seeing Cass and Barbara. “Lunch will be ready within the hour. Master Wayne is waiting for you in the study, Ms. Cain. He looks forward to hearing about your latest trip abroad.”

Cass nodded her thanks and left to find her father.

“Do you know where Dick is, Alfie?” Barbara asked looking around the large lobby. He usually met her when she arrived, usually couldn’t wait to see her.

Alfred smiled down at young Barbara, only a few years older than Dick and with all the intelligence that Jim Gordon bragged about every time he passed by. “I believe Master Dick is in the room with us, Ms. Gordon, or maybe above us.” They both looked up to the beams that cross the high ceiling.

Alfred gave a merry laugh. “Good luck on this round, Ms. Gordon. Do try not to break anything from the fifteen century or earlier this time.”

“No fair,” Barbara said, arms crossed with a wicked grin on her face. “Those are all the most breakable antiques.”

“How will you ever survive,” Alfred said as he made his way back to the kitchen to finish their meal. He seldom got the opportunity to prepare a meal for so many people these days, the food had to be perfect.

Barbara surveyed the room for any sign of her friend, but, of course, Dick left no clues.

“You heard Alfred, Boy Wonder, no breaking the really old stuff. Now, we know that is going to happen if I have to start chasing after you.”

A soft footfall announced Dick as he dropped behind her. First thing Barbara noticed when she turned around was his comfy clothing--- a baggy sweatshirt over a leotard. He must have been working out, Barbara thought. Then she noticed that Dick smiled at her, but not a happy Dick Grayson smile. Just as Dick had many names--- Richard, Dick, Robin, Talon, the Gray Son--- he had many smiles that he put on like a show. Right now, Dick’s smile seemed stretched, taut with an inner turmoil.

“I knew where you were.” She joked, trying to see where his level of humor fell today.

“No, you didn’t” A subdued glint in his eyes, usually he enjoyed sneaking up on people. He made a game out of it, and he always loved surprising people. Right now, he didn’t look like he had won another game. Dick looked like he had already lost but didn’t want anyone to know.

“Try and prove that I didn’t.” Barbara gave him an easy smile to help him unwind. She could read Dick Grayson like computer code. His mind was a puzzle, and Barbara loved puzzles. “I’ve missed you. How have you been?”

Dick looked torn; he glanced down the empty halls for any prying family members. “Not good.”

“What happened?” Barbara asked.

Dick looked at her. His hands tapped out nervous energy in the only way his training knew how. “Let’s go upstairs.”

“Come in,” Bruce called when a firm, yet polite, know resonated through the study. That was Cass’s knock. When Dick did actually knock it was hesitant and soft, afraid to ask. Jason was firm, confident, and a little too loud. Damian didn’t knock.

Cass entered with a smile and a wave, and Bruce’s heart soared to see his daughter again.

“Cass, it’s been too long.” Bruce used his most Brucie voice and crossed the room to give his daughter a hug. “How was Bruges?”

“Educational.” Was her response. She pulled a vinyl a bag she carried on her shoulder and handed it to her father. “For you.”

“Brahms,” Bruce remarked. “A good choice. Why don’t we give this a listen?” Bruce went over to the turntable and set up the record. Once the music began playing, Bruce’s façade faded with the lost silence. “What did you find out?”

Cass handed him a USB drive which he plugged into the computer. There were notes and documents, including blurred pictures of Talons dating back decades. Even more, evidence that the Court had influence spreading further than the borders of Gotham could contain.

“Your writing keeps getting better.” He noted as he read the notes that she had written to connect pieces of evidence. “

“I had a great teacher.” She smiled at him before pointing at a single file marked HC. “You need to see this.”

Bruce clicked the file open and was met with an old photograph taken in Bruges almost a century ago. In the photo, there was a man in his twenties shaking hands with a well-dressed older man with a boy standing at his side. A striped circus tent was in the background. The twenty-year-old looked familiar, so Bruce pulled open a file that contained a sketch of William Cobb that Damian had made with Dick’s help. There was an irrefutable resemblance.

“You found him.” A few years of searching and they finally found evidence that William Cobb existed before the Court. His indoctrination couldn’t have been long after the photo had been taken. However, Bruce’s joy at their first lead was sucked away when he remembered the backdrop of the photo.

“He’s at the circus.” Bruce didn’t believe in coincidence, but he wished that he did.

Cass nodded, grief in her heart. She took the mouse and zoomed in on the young boy standing next to the ringmaster. “He is Mr. Haly.”

Bruce had to pace around his study to avoid throwing the computer against the wall. When Dick had first moved in, all he could talk about was the circus and Mr. Haly. Dick saw that man as a grandfather like he saw Alfred. Dick loved that circus, and if they were working with the Court this whole time, well, Bruce didn’t know what that would do to Dick. Even now, the circus was his life.

“You know what this means,” Cass asked, but it wasn’t really a question.

“It means that the Court didn’t pick him at random. They were grooming him, probably from birth.” Bruce had planned to take Dick to the circus when it came back to town later that week. Would they take him back to the Court if they saw him? “What I want to know is why they chose Dick.”

Cass nodded, she had her next mission.

Bruce ejected the USB after making an encrypted copy for his own records. “I assume that I don’t need to tell you that not a word of this leaves the room until we have indisputable proof that Haly’s Circus was working for the Court.”

Cass agreed. She knew Dick, saw herself in him. This news would only bring him pain, and even if there were no collusion he would never feel safe around the circus again. She turned away to leave but stopped when her father spoke again.

“Can I expect you at the Gala next week. I know Dick would love you there.” He could never just ask someone to stay.

She knew this, and she nodded before she left him standing alone with the music.

“Have you talked to Bruce about this?”

Did shook his head. “Bruce doesn’t like talking about Tim.”

Barbara didn’t blame Bruce for that one, at least not completely. She had been there when they found Tim, saw the crazed look in his eyes and heard the sickening laugh play like her dreams original soundtrack. Then with everything that happened after, Tim had always been one of those untouchable subjects within the manor walls. Barbara didn’t even think Bruce had referred to Tim as anything other than Red Hood in years.

“You miss him, don’t you?” Barbara asked the question that everyone knew the answer to because they all had the same one.

“When I came back,” Dick paused to gather his thoughts as he often did when he spoke in longer phrases. “When I came back, Tim was gone. No one would tell me why. Until you. I never got to say sorry, or goodbye.”

She never got to say goodbye either, none of them did. Tim was a dead man that still walked around a Gotham as broken as himself all because she couldn’t get the intel fast enough. Bruce said he didn’t blame her, that the Joker was a madman and a genius, but Barbara couldn’t see how that was supposed to matter. Not when Tim could have been saved from that.

“Hey Dick, can I ask you something?” She waited until he nodded, and her throat almost closed up. “Did he look okay? Healthy?”

Dick observed her like he always did when he couldn’t understand the message behind someone’s words. His gaze passed over her fists and her down-turned eyes. “He looked good.”

Barbara let out a breath and smiled. “Good,” She said. “That’s good.”