#this would probably eventually include ellie but it doesn't have to revolve around her

[liketolaugh-writes]

Danny shifted, clearly uncomfortable under Bruce's unwavering attention. "He's… dangerous, and immoral," he admitted, crossing his arms uncomfortably. "He's the one that discovered that I'm a clone, and that my DNA is unstable. I… didn't grow up knowing." He clenched his jaw.

"You grew up," Bruce said without meaning to. Danny shrugged tensely.

"My… creators knew that my DNA was unstable, and they hoped letting me grow naturally would help," Danny said. He smiled sardonically. "It did, technically. I'm destabilizing slowly instead of all at once."

Bruce nodded, a pit growing in his stomach. "The man you're trusting to help you."

"I don't have a lot of options," Danny said flatly. "Fewer than most clones would. It's fine. He's obsessed with me; he discovered the problems with my DNA in the process of trying to clone me. Like I said, he won't let me die, and he's not interested in you. He's interested in… traits I acquired during experimentation." Evasive again.

"What does he want in exchange."

That earned him a confused glance. "Nothing from you," Danny said. Bruce held his gaze, waiting. "…He hasn't said. I don't have any power to negotiate, so I decided it was a problem for later. Probably, he'll demand to adopt me. I expect he'll have rules. I don't really know. We haven't exactly gotten that far."

"Why."

Danny sighed, leaning back on the table where he was still seated. "He's lonely," he said, with unexpected and open pity. "He wanted to marry my mom-" Twitch. "…The woman, of the couple that made me." An open wound, Bruce noted. "But he couldn't. He has no one."

Bruce's mouth curled down. "Has he assaulted you?"

Danny looked at him again, clearly unsettled by his concern. "Sexually? No. And he hasn't indicated that he wants to. Physically?" He huffed. "Well… maybe he'll stop once he has what he wants." There was no fear there, only bitterness.

Bruce pulled the picture together in his mind. According to his words, Danny had grown up believing he was a normal child, despite experimentation that left lingering effects (unless 'experimentation' was a euphemism for something else?) and had only recently discovered otherwise because another man was attempting to clone him. To acquire him. That man had, apparently, told Danny, and they had composed a plan to attempt to save his life, possibly without Danny ever returning to his creators after the revelation.

"And you intend to stay with him."

Danny clenched his jaw, glaring at the floor. "I told you, I don't have a lot of options," he gritted out. "We'll see, okay? Maybe he'll calm down once I'm actually living with him and not beating him off me with a stick. I'm sorry I can't MacGuyver my way out of this like you can." Tight and insecure.

Either Danny was a very good actor, or he actually expected that Bruce would knowingly send him away to live with a 'dangerous and immoral' man that he described as 'obsessed' with him. Given Bruce's extensive experience with damaged teenagers, he suspected it was the latter.

Tim was acquainted with the cloning process, due to his close friendship with Kon. And Oracle would most likely be able to recover CADMUS' research on stabilizing cloned DNA. An idea started to form in Bruce's mind.

At that moment, Tim returned from the lab, far too soon to have finished the DNA extraction process, let alone analyzed it.

"I don't know how you get this from DNA," Tim announced, holding up a tube of buffer fluid that for some reason glowed faintly green, "but I have never seen a sample break down so fast."

Danny dropped his head into his hands.

Gut Feeling

DPXDC

Commissioner Jim Gordon meets an odd kid in the precinct.

--

“Come on, you really don’t have a way to directly contact Batman?”

Jim smiled. Kids came to the station and asked that all the time. Usually, it was just curiosity and showing them the signal was enough to get them to sign up for the Junior Police program. This one looked a little older than most, teenagers were often “too old” to believe in Batman, but again, give them a little faith now and they’ll never loose it.

“Lookin’ for the Bat, kid?” Jim asked, knowing he was about to make this kid’s –

Jim froze. The kid turned to face him and it was Bruce Wayne. Not playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne, but freshly a teenager Bruce Wayne. The Bruce Wayne who Jim had checked in on time and again from age eight until he ran off on a globetrotting trip to find himself. The little Bruce Wayne with too pale skin and dark bags under his eyes, and not enough love to make up for all the grief weighing him down. And he didn’t look like Damian either, where Bruce was obviously his father but there were distinct traits from his mother. This was a carbon copy of a boy Jim remembered vividly.

“I am.” He even sounded like teenage Bruce. All business, like he was on a mission.

“I might be able to help you, but it’ll take a while.” Jim said and the officer the kid had been talking too gave him an odd look. He waved her off and told the kid to follow him to the commissioner’s office. Normally, he’d be more dramatic, put on more of a show for the kid, but his gut told him this was different, this was important. He offered the kid a styrofoam cup of water then closed the door behind him. “So, what do you need to talk to Batman for?”

“It’s personal. I need to talk to him in person.”

Jim took a sip of coffee from his cup. “He doesn’t appreciate me calling for no reason in the middle of the day.”

“So you do have a direct line?” The kid nearly jumped out of his seat. “If he’s upset, it’ll be my fault, just call him, please.”

“Who should I say wants to talk to him?”

The kid hesitated. “He doesn’t know me, but I have to talk to him.”

Jim frowned. “What’s your name, kid?”

He swallowed and looked like he wasn’t going to answer for a moment. “Danny.”

“Danny…?” Jim wanted a last name but Danny kept quiet. Jim sighed, “He’s likely not going to show up until sundown.”

“I can wait, as long as you guarantee he’ll show.”

“And you’re not going to tell me why you need Batman?” Jim just got a glare in response. “What about one of the other heroes?”

“Only Batman, no one else can help.”

“You sure about that? Not even Superman?”

“Not unless Superman can get me in the same room as Batman.”

“Why’s it so important that you meet him in person?”

“It’s personal.”

Jim liked this less and less by the minute. “Do your parents know you’re here?”

Danny looked away but right when it looked like he wouldn’t say anything he mumbled. “They wouldn’t care anyway.”

After another moment to give the kid time to reconsider, Jim pulled out the Bat-phone. It was a normal Wayne-Tech cell phone, but Jim had been given very specific instructions on how and when to use it. The phone listed all the Gotham Vigilantes without visible numbers so they couldn’t be copied and handed out. He pressed the one for Batman.

“Stand outside, would you?” The kid gave him a look, but followed the request. Jim could see his shadow in the door’s window, not so subtle eavesdropping.

It rang a few times, and Jim sat there awkwardly with a teenager listening to his every move. Finally, a familiar voice picked up the other end of the line. “Commissioner Gordon.”

“Sorry to call you out of the blue Batman, but I’ve got a kid here who needs your help.”

“Who?”

“Says his name is Danny, that you’ve never met him but you’re the only one who can help him.”

“Why?”

“Refuses to tell me.”

“What’s your best guess, Commissioner?”

Jim looked at Danny’s shadow, it looked like he was straining his ears to try and hear what he was saying. Danny had given him almost nothing to work with. Just his name, that he’s never met Batman but needs to talk with him in person. But Jim was here because he listened to his gut. A feeling like when you see a random rock on your neighbor’s doorstep but you’d never go in without an invitation. A feeling like you know what’s in the present and are preparing your surprised face. A feeling like when you cheated on your wife and you know she knows.

“He looks like Bruce Wayne.”

A beat of silence. “What?”

“Danny looks exactly like Bruce when he was a teenager. Exactly the same.” Jim hoped Batman would get it, feel in his gut what Jim felt.

“And he wont say why he’s there?”

“No, and he demands to see you in person.”

“I’ll be there in an hour.”

“10-4.” The line cut off before Jim had finished saying it. He called Danny in again. “He’s on his way.”

Danny glared at him. “If he’s not, if you called some social worker or something, you’ll regret it.”

“I’m sure.” Jim sighed and downed the rest of his now cold coffee.

The sun hadn’t set, but only just barely. Jim ended up taking Danny up to the roof in the end after all, if only to save his window from being broken into. The kid had a red hoodie on, but he was still shivering in the autumn chill and it was just going to get colder by the minute as the sun made its way behind the horizon.

Jim checked his watch and, at exactly an hour from when he called, he acted surprised when Batman and Robin appeared out of nowhere. “Bats.”

“Commissioner.” Batman greeted but his eyes went straight for Danny. “Danny, I assume.”

“Yeah, I…” Danny hesitated, looking at Jim and Robin.

All it took was four words from Batman. “What do you need?”

The kid held out his hand with a flash drive in it. “I’m your clone. My par- The people who made me wanted to make a stronger version of you, but they got ahead of themselves. My DNA is degrading and I’ll die if I don’t get your DNA to stabilize me.”

Holy cow.

“You don’t expect us to believe that, do you?” Robin sneered at him.

“The flash drive has all the info on it. All the data about the cloning process and the, uh, relevant experiments after that.” Batman gave the kid a look. “I didn’t want to waste time on unnecessary data.”

“If what you’re saying is true, why are you here, alone? Are they working on a different solution?”

Danny’s shoulders hiked up. “I’ve been a failure for a while now, I’m not worth the resources and they’d learn more from an autopsy.”

Oof, kid. Jim looked at Batman who seemed to feel the same… if Jim was reading him right.

“So, you wont object to a DNA test?” Robin asked with a cocky head tilt, at least he was relatively easy to read.

“You can try.” Danny said, and then realized what that sounded like. “I mean I wont stop you, but my DNA degrades faster outside my body. You’ll have to take me to whatever lab you plan on using.”

“Then we will.” Batman said and jerked his head towards where they’d probably parked that ridiculous car of his. But then he looked at Jim with a nod. “Commissioner.”

“Batman.” Jim returned the nod. “You’ll tell me how things turn out, yeah?”

“I’ll give you a report.” Batman joked – Jim could tell, it was gut feeling.