July 18th, 2008
The anniversary of a traumatic event is always hard. This is fucking harder. A year ago today Joker killed Jason, and even though he's rotting in a cell in Arkham- that's little consolation. I would always pry on Bruce to tell me about his parents' death, now I can see why he doesn't like to talk about it.
I want to talk to Bruce about it. I need to. But I know how hard that's gonna be. He bottles up everything inside. I know he feels like he lost Dick, who was like a son to him, and now he's had to deal with that loss all over again. Only this time, it's the most permeant type of loss a person can experience. I really want to comfort him... or maybe I'm the one who needs to be comforted.
***
"Come on, you couldn't at least make my night interesting?" I said as I handcuffed a petty thief that stole some alcohol from a liquor store. "Don't worry, the cops will be here soon."
I then ran off, grappled back up to the rooftops and made my way to the rendezvous point.
"You're early." Batman crept from behind a shadow.
I yawned. "Slow night."
"And because you left early someone somewhere could be getting robbed... or worse. Don't shirk your..."
"I want to talk about Jason."
"No."
"Why not?! What, you're just going to pretend like he never existed? Like what happened doesn't matter?"
"Listen kid, I've been doing this for eight years. I know loss. I can't abandon my duty just because I screwed up."
"I'm not a kid. I'm 18, you should be calling me batWOMAN!"
"You've still got much to learn. Don't think that just because you're an adult means you know what you're doing. When I was your age, I had no idea what I wanted."
Well I do. I thought to myself.
A long silence sank in as I sat down on the top of an AC unit and looked across the Hudson River at New York. Somewhere on the other side of Manhattan, Dick was off doing his own thing- fighting crime. Had he been right about Bruce? I guess even if he had it didn't matter- I'm not going anywhere.
"Remember Two-Face?" Bruce asked me.
"How could I not? He dangled me over a vat of boiling acid!"
"Well he used to be a friend of mine, Harvey Dent. My first year under the cowl, he helped me take down Carmine Falcone. Of course things change and a year later he was trying to kill me. I lost him. And then I lost Selina, then I lost Dick and Jason and damn it, I'm not going to lose you too!"