Working with the Bats wasn't like a job where you could clock in, do your bit and clock out again. From the start of the case to the end, you lived and breathed the mission.

Normally that was fine by Jason. He was probably second only to the Batman himself when it came to devoting oneself to justice - albeit a very different brand of it.

But when you worked with the Bat Clan, played by the Bat Rules, and lived on the Bat Radar, it was never-ending.

Jason wasn't just forbidden from killing for this particular job, but firing lethal shots on any of the jobs he was working would at best mean getting booted from his own case, and like hell he was going to let that happen. So for now he just had to live with being unable to even draw his gun without feeling keen eyes on him from a dark, unidentified somewhere.

Which brought him to the surveillance: he was being watched constantly. Complaining got him the same terse response that everyone on the team was working under the same conditions. He'd have called bullshit if he didn't know it was true. Batman had become exponentially more paranoid in the time Jason was away: everyone under his shadowy metaphorical wing was tracked, expected to check in routinely, and grilled for details if they ever missed a rendezvous or went offline.

Jason did what he could to cope. He avoided the cave like his life depended on it, communicating his findings and movements almost exclusively through Oracle. Having Barbara in his ear wasn't a bad time - she never mentioned anything from the past and didn't let resentment or disappointment seep into her calm and clinical tone. She took his quips, even the most vitriolic, with a hum or a scoff and shouldered on. He also had to admit that having a team in the background was efficient, with something to be said about divvying the work load among people who were competent.

None of this made the overall ordeal worth it, however.

Jason's brow ticked from where he lay on the cold rooftop, his sniper rifle assembled and ready before him.

"Can I help you?"

He felt rather than heard two feet landing behind him.

"I heard you're working with us on the super drug case. Thought I'd come 'round. Say hi."

He adjusted the focus of the rifle. "Hi."

The irritable click of a tongue. "I heard you were a miserable bastard, not a boring one."

"Come back later and I'll be sure to act extra crazy for your amusement."

The girl - blonde, teenaged, decked in black and purple - snorted.

"I bet that guilt tripping B.S. works on the boys like a dream."

"Usually gets them off my back for a hot minute, yeah. Not that they're ever looking for excuses."

Batgirl rolled onto her stomach to lie beside him. "So. Whatcha doing?"

"Watching." Jason nodded to the building across the street. "The traffic and security cams out here are ancient, Oracle can't get a clear picture."

Batgirl mouthed an 'oh' and unlatched a set of fancy binoculars from her belt. They had a bat logo etched into the top.

"Cute."

She stuck her tongue out. "And where do you get your toys, huh? Steal 'em?"

"Stealing? That doesn't sound like me."

Batgirl laughed as she scanned the area. "So this is one of those warehouses that Black Mask is prepping, huh? I thought it was a li'l weird, all those kids wandering around. Figured another orphanage scandal had happened or something."

"Decent guess," Jason said. "And what are you doing?"

Batgirl looked at him innocently, giving her binoculars a little shake.

"I'm watching."

"I've got this handled, blondie. Find your own roof."

She made a noise mock offense. "Rude. I finished my patrol early and go through the trouble of seeking you out, and what do I get? Surliness. I swear, you and the little man are two peas in a pod when it comes to manners."

Jason grimaced. The mere idea that he and Talia's demonic princeling had anything in common made him feel vaguely unclean.

"Oh, don't get your bat-panties in a bunch. You have to admit, the way you two sulk is uncanny."

"I take it you're the new bird's unpaid babysitter now?"

"If by that you mean am I saving him from Dick's coddling and Bruce's poor communication skills? Then yes."

"We should all be so lucky," Jason said wryly. "Seriously though. Why are you here."

"Me? I'm just trying to cotton on to the current situation. Any other day I'd be booting you in the head for what you did to Tim -"

"Someone's optimistic."

"But instead I'm told, quite unceremoniously I might add, that you're working with us. And not on anything especially dire that involves imminent risk to civilian life, or the end of the world, but like... drug tech? And it's weird. Doubly so because of how cagey everyone is being about it. Red Robin's so deep in his head he's barely talking, Nightwing seems outright pissed, even Oracle's being vague and do not get me started on the big guy. Suffice to say that the rest of us are very confused. You seem straightforward enough, so. What gives?"

"What gives is that Batman hijacked my case," Jason said, watching a caravan of trucks pull up to the warehouse.

"Yeah, he does that. And?"

"And in the process it came out that he never told anyone about how I used to turn tricks."

A pause. The math was pretty plain and unforgiving for anyone with even the basest knowledge of when Jason had been adopted.

"Ah," Batgirl said. "That'd do it."

Jason drew back from the rifle to cast her a slightly bemused glance.

"Hey, I might not have been a street kid but I'm familiar with the wrong side of the tracks." Batgirl shrugged. "Better than the others, anyway."

He turned back with a grunt. "You would think they'd never even been to Gotham."

"Well, come on. Knowing that it happens and knowing it happened to someone in your life is pretty different."

"I'm not in their lives."

Batgirl huffed a sigh. "You batmen are painful to watch."

"I'm not -"

"Bruh you are wearing a bat symbol on your tits right now, don't even."

"You should see them when I turn the zapper on," Jason said as crates began to get unloaded in the shadows of the warehouse below. "And it's ironic, okay. A statement."

"Oho, well look at you." Batgirl scoffed. "I totally remember when I wore my dad's old mask as a 'statement'. Sure showed him, I did."

"Shut up." Jason shifted to watch armed men cycle around the perimeter. "Just give it a week for the shock and pity to roll off and everything will be back to normal. Maybe Nightwing'll fuck off back to Bludhaven for a brood about being left out of the loop, but before you know it it'll all be under the rug again."

"You think so."

"Oh yeah." Jason stood up and rummaged through his pockets. "Since you're here, make yourself useful and help me bug the place. "You see where they've started rigging up the lab space?"

"And their surveillance room. I'm on it." Batgirl jumped to her feet before a moment's hesitation. "And just so I know... that stuff. It's not a secret then?"

The simple question made Jason pause. Up until now no one had bothered to ask, always assuming that of course it was, of course he wanted this dark and filthy thing buried and hidden.

He could only imagine the tense silence and disjointed communication people were living in back at the cave. They were meant to be working a goddamn job for fuck's sake, not awkwardly navigating around one another on account of what should have been ancient history.

"No." Jason clasped his helmet on. "It's no secret."

"Hm." Batgirl jostled the devices in her hand as if weighing them. "I don't trust you, you know. I can only go by what I've heard so I dunno if you're crazy or what. But this is your case and I believe you'll see it through, by our rules if you have to. But once it's done... if you try to hurt Tim or Damian, I'll make you regret it."

"Not so worried about the others?" Jason asked with a tilt of his head. "At least you're open about playing favorites."

"It's not that," Batgirl said, a smirk teasing the edge of her lips. "I just know Nightwing's beyond your weight class. And Black Bat is out of all of ours. Robin has other skills and Red Robin could rule the world if he wanted, but let's face it - in a straight fight you'd wreck them."

"This is the strangest threat I've ever received," Jason said. "more flattering than what I'm used to."

"Just making it clear where we stand is all."

Jason liked this one. He didn't doubt that Cain had been good at the job but also couldn't imagine she'd remind him this much of the original.

"Well fair enough, blondie." He withdrew his grapple. "And by the by, congrats on moving past the green tights. Batgirl's a way better gig."

"Oh trust me, I know."