"The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children" - Philip Carr-Gomm

•••

"This looks promising." Alfred exclaimed as he stepped out of the drivers seat of the car and paused to look at the rickety old cabin before he shut the car door.

"I said you could stay home." Bird reminded him.

"Right then." He nearly laughed, "And let the two of you handle this all on your own, eh?"

"Yes, Alfred." Bruce chimed in as he followed his sister and butler up the walkway to the door of the house.

Now that their father's computer had been repaired, Bruce and Bird had spent all of the prior night trying to figure out the pass codes needed to access the information stored on the drive.

They hadn't uncovered everything yet, but they'd managed to get into the calendar and uncover the name and address of someone their father had met with not too long before he'd died.

Lucius offered to run the name through systems in Wayne Enterprises to see if anything popped up, but with the siblings already having an address in front of them -they weren't about to wait a second longer.

Which is why they were now out in the middle of the woods approaching a desolate house that could serve as a fitting location for any run of the mill horror movie.

Stepping in front of Bird, Alfred put his arm out to stop them, insisting that he be the one to knock on the door.

"Nope. No joy. Never mind. Still kind of nice to get out of the manor, have a little drive in the country-" Alfred was fast to give up on their earlier morning adventure, but Bruce was prepared with a lock-pick kit he'd picked up during his time on the streets with Selina.

"Ah, that's terrific, isn't it?" He muttered under his breath as he watched Bruce choose right the tools for job, "Street smarts? Street smarts, my eye"

"Shush, Alfred. These are merely technical skills." Bruce defended as he dropped to his knees and began to pick the lock, "Morally neutral."

"Morally neutral?" Bird repeated back with raised brows, "Sure, little brother. Think of it that way if it eases your conscience."

Blowing out a heavy breath that turned to white steam in the cold air, Bruce tried to block out the conversation behind him and focus on breaking into the house.

They were always on him to focus. Saying that being distracted would be the death of him, but they sure didn't make the process of trying to focus any easier on him.

"If you can't get it..." Bird sighed, "Move over and let me do it."

"Starling." Bruce complained, "I've almost got it."

"Clearly this wasn't meant to happen today. So lets get back in the car and head home." Alfred tried yet again to dissuade them.

The fact of the matter was that not a single one of them knew what they could be walking into.

"Ha!" Bruce exclaimed as the mechanism inside of the lock finally clicked and granted access to the house.

His excitement and pride over a job well done was soon dashed when he started to open the door -only to be pulled backwards by the hood of his coat by his sister while Alfred grabbed onto the door knob to keep it closed.

Slowly, Alfred opened the door just a crack to check for any kind of traps that might be waiting for them on the other side.

When he didn't see anything dangerous, he drew his gun and proceeded to enter house, with Bird right on his heels and Bruce bringing up the last of the group.

The inside of the house was in much better condition than the outsides would lead one to believe.

Just as they passed through another doorway into a small, but cozy living room, Bruce's attention was pulled to to three deep scratches in the wood archway.

"It looks like an animal did this." He whispered under his breath.

Stepping beside him, Bird shook her head back and forth as she raised her own arm aligning her fingers with the deep indentations left in the wood.

"What the-" Alfred started to say when he came to a table with a deck of cards laid out for a game of solitaire with another set of deep scratches across the wooden surface.

His question was cut off when someone jumped out of where they'd been hiding and slashed across his arm, with what he suspected was a knife, causing him to lose his grip and his gun to fall to the floor.

Bird and Bruce both darted for the fallen weapon but it was he who reached it first.

"Careful, Master Bruce." Alfred warned, his voice strained from pain, "She's got some kind of weird hunting knife."

"Give me the gun." Bird instructed, keeping her eyes locked on the woman who was now across the room trying to shield herself in the shadows.

Bruce looked down to the gun in his hands and then glanced at his sister. It wasn't until he followed her line of sight that he was able to see where the woman was hiding across the room.

She was scared. He could tell it from where he was standing and he was confident enough that she didn't want to hurt them, but had lashed out from feeling threatened.

After all, she could have seriously injured Alfred, or worse, but instead she'd only hurt him enough to make him drop the gun.

"It's okay." Bruce's voice shook, "We're not here to hurt you."

With that he he lowered the gun and started to kneel down and place it on the floor.

"What-what are you doing?" Alfred stammered, "Raise the gun."

"My name is Bruce Wayne." He introduced himself while ignoring Alfred, "I just want to talk to you."

"Bruce Wayne?"

Quickly, Bird threw her arm out in front of her brother as he tried to walk closer to where she woman was still hiding in the shadows.

"You're Bruce Wayne?" The woman they all figured must be Karen Jennings said, finally walking into the center of the room where the sunlight coming in through the faded curtains illuminated her face.

Using his good arm, Alfred scrambled to pick up the gun and warned her, "That's far enough! Drop the knife."

"Alfred." Bird cleared her throat, "She doesn't have a knife."

"Well, she's got something, hasn't she?" He remarked, "Just drop it, right now."

"I can't!" She quickly said, before slowly raising her left arm and showing that instead of a human hand she had a reptilian like attachment with large, razor sharp claws.

Finally seeing what Bird had clearly noticed before them, Alfred slowly lowered his gun and Karen avoided the shocked and horrified expressions on their faces.

"Listen to me-" Karen started to say as she stepped closer, but didn't get to say much else as Alfred yelled, "That is far enough!"

"Alfred!" Bruce hissed.

He didn't see Karen as a threat and either way, they were there to get information from her and being rude wasn't going to get them anywhere.

"Well, look around you, Master Bruce. Listen, I've no idea what you are, but whatever that thing is... it's bloody dangerous." He hastily explained his reasoning for being so on guard.

Not only did he still have blood rolling off of his hand and onto the floor, but there were deep scratch marks all over the room and shredded furniture.

One quick move from Karen and she could gut any of them within a matter of seconds.

"Karen Jennings?" Bird guessed, as she began to step closer.

"Careful, Lady Wayne." Alfred cautioned.

With a sigh of annoyance, Bird ignored him, and said, "I'm Bird. My brother and I just have things we'd like to ask you."

"How did you find me?" Karen questioned the trio.

"Our father, Thomas Wayne, came here a week before he died. He had your address in his calendar." Bruce answered.

"His calendar?" She repeated back with a hopeless laugh as her eyes drifted up to the ceiling, "Great!"

"Were you followed?" Karen demanded to know, walking up to just in front of Bird.

"No." Bruce was the first to answer, "I-I don't know... by who?"

"No, no we weren't followed." Alfred said.

Seeing the lack of confidence on Karen's face, Bird assured her, "No one followed us. Believe me, I'd know if they did."

"Good." Karen replied with an arched brow, "Then you can leave."

With that she knelt down and opened the door on her wood stove to add some more wood to the fire that was keeping the house warm.

"Yeah, I don't think so." Bird asserted, "We've come all this way to speak to you. Now, I'm on fully on board with having an adult conversation minus the guns and claws, but I'm not above using violence to get what I want, so we can either do this the hard way or the easy way. Up to you."

With a chuckle under her breath, Karen used her claws to move the wood around in the flames and thought to herself how Bird was every bit as stubborn and strong willed as Thomas had described her.

"What's Pinewood Farms?" Bird started her line of questioning.

"We know our father came to talk to you about it. We're not leaving until we have our answers." Bruce agreed with his sister -though he wasn't going to threaten her the way that Bird had.

"Do you not understand?" Karen asked standing to her feet and speaking with sincerity in her eyes, "These people will kill you."

"Don't you think I've been trying to tell him that?" Alfred muttered.

"I'm not afraid to die." Bruce spoke for himself, "Not if it means doing the right thing."

"Yeah?" Karen scoffed, "How'd that work out for your dad."

Anger flashed through Bird's eyes and Karen diverted her gaze away from the pain on Bruce's face.

The last thing she wanted to do was upset them after everything they'd already gone through, but Thomas had been good to her and she didn't want to see his children meet the same fate as their parents.

"You have to go." She repeated, "It's not safe for you here."

"I can take care of myself." Bird argued with her.

"You think that." Karen half-smiled, "But you don't know what you're dealing with."

"We understand the dangers." Bruce promised, his words sounding wise beyond his years, "But whatever my father was investigating got him and my mom killed. You're the first lead we have. The first person I've found who might know why."

"Please." He pleaded, "You have to tell me what he was doing."

Karen could see how serious Bird and Bruce were, they were wearing nearly identical expressions of determination, while Alfred looked like this was the last place on earth he'd choose to be.

Letting out a small sigh, she nodded for them to follow her as she led them through the cabin to an enclosed porch area where she showed them to a picnic table before disappearing back into the house for a few moments to return with a first aide kit.

When she offered it up, Bird was the first to make a move, taking it from her without hesitation.

Alfred was clearly horrified by the sight of her hand and made no qualms about hiding it.

Bruce, try as he might to be polite and kind, couldn't stop his eyes from continually going back to the sight of her claws.

The only one who wasn't actively looking at her like she was a monster was Bird.

She couldn't remember the last time someone had barely given a glance to her deformed hand and then was able to carry on without constant staring.

In fact, the only other person she could remember reacting like that was Thomas Wayne.

"Sorry about your hand." She apologized, leaning against one of the wooden support beams on the porch and watching as Alfred pushed Bird's hands away and insisted on bandaging himself up, "I don't get many visitors. You spooked me."

"Well, uh... we, we -spooked you?" Alfred couldn't bite his tongue at her comment.

This woman had lunged at him from the shadows and sliced him open with claws for god-sake and yet she was claiming to have been spooked.

"How long have you lived here?" Bruce questioned, closing his eyes when he was unable to stop himself from staring at the scaly skin and claws of her left hand.

"Ten years. Ever since Pinewood." She openly answered.

"Is that where you got... that?" He asked, motioning towards her.

"Pinewood Farms was a bio-engineering program at Wayne Enterprises. The kind that was kept off the books. I was one of their first volunteers."

"What, you volunteered for that, did you?" Alfred asked. Still wrapping up his injured hand.

"Alfred, enough!" Bird spoke in the tone of a parent scolding a child, which heavily caught him off guard.

"I was at Blackgate. I didn't exactly have many options at the time-" Karen tried to finish what she was saying, but again Alfred had to comment on it.

"Blackgate? Nice. Take it you weren't a guard then?"

"I was born with a crippled arm." Karen's voice raised, "Growing up, my father liked two things: booze and beating his deformed daughter. One night, I fought back. He fell down the stairs and broke his neck. I went to prison for murder."

"But that's self-defense." Bruce argued.

"People are scared of different." She shrugged, doing her best to pretend that her past didn't still have a noose around her neck slowly cutting off her air every time she let herself think back, "Jury sent me away and then one day these men show up. Tell me they're gonna fix my arm -not just fix it, but make it better."

"Instead they turned you into some kind of science experiment?" Bird's eyebrows lowered.

"They turned me into the monster everybody thought I already was." Karen reiterated.

"Did my father know what was going on at Pinewood Farms?" Bruce's voice was a little unsteady.

Asking a question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to.

Karen vehemently denied it.

Swore that the second Thomas knew was going on he'd shut the program down and had even paid for everyone to go into hiding.

"How many people were there?" Bird questioned, eyeing her closely as she spoke.

"I don't know." Karen's eyes locked with hers, "But I know most didn't survive the experiments."

Bird could only think of one reason that her father would have met with Karen again not long before her was killed. It had to have something to do with the experiments that happened all those years ago.

Her suspicions were voiced out loud by Bruce when he asked, "It started up again, didn't it? That's why my father came to see you after all those years."

"He wasn't sure, but... he had his suspicions. He came to warn me." Karen explained.

"Whoever was running Pinewood, whoever started it up again, I know that's who killed my parents-" Bruce started on, but Bird interrupted and asked, "Do you know who it was? Can you remember any names?

"None of them ever used their names around us." Karen spoke in an apologetic tone, "But the man who was in charge... I can still see his face. Every time I close my eyes."

"Then you need to take us there. You need to take us to Pinewood Farms." Bruce stood to his feet from where he'd been sitting at the picnic table.

Karen dryly laughed in response.

Bruce had asked her to take them back to the scene of the crime as if it were a perfectly reasonable request.

"My father risked his life to save you. I'm asking you to repay that favor." Bruce stepped closer as he spoke. He could see the fear in her eyes and he knew she was scared, "I promise... nothing will happen to you."

Bird looked over at her brother with disappointment in her eyes, knowing that you can't ever really make a promise like that and if something happened to her it would burn away at him like acid.

With a small sigh, she walked over to one of the large windows and looked out to the thick woods behind the house.

She believed most of what Karen was telling them, but something still didn't feel right.

Like she was trying to read a book with pages torn out.

"You remind me of him, you know?"

Turning around, Bird faced Karen and then glanced over to where her brother and Alfred were still sitting at the table while he tried to help their butler secure the bandages over his hand.

"Of my father?" Bird smiled and shook her head, "No. Bruce is the one who takes after him. Not me."

Karen managed a smile as she looked at the younger woman.

Bird might not have seen the likeness she shared with Thomas Wayne, but as someone who'd gotten to know him very well over the years, Karen could see it.

Bruce might have had his manners and charm and the determination to do right -no matter the personal cost, but Bird had inherited his understanding.

She saw things very differently than most people did.

She could see it very clearly on Bruce's face when he'd promised that nothing would happen to her, it was clear to see he whole-heartedly believed it.

There was such an innocence in how he viewed the world. Even for all of the pain he'd endured, it still seemed to shock him at the amount of cruelness that existed.

"Do you have somewhere else to go?" Bird asked, "We weren't followed here, but there is a chance that someone could be keeping eyes on Pinewood. I'm not sure it's going to be safe for you to come back here afterwards."

There it was.

Concern in her eyes much the same way she had seen in Thomas' eyes before.

Karen's gaze fell to the floor and she blinked back the tears stinging at her own eyes now.

This might have been her first time meeting Bird, but in many way she felt like she already knew her.

•••

"This doesn't exactly scream 'top secret bio-engineering lab' does it?" Alfred remarked as he pulled the car to a stop a looked in the rear-view mirror where Karen was seated next to Bird in the backseat of the car.

"This is it." Karen breathed with a chill crawling down her spine as she looked at the run down building.

"I don't like it." Bird commented.

It looked like it could have been an old mental health treatment center or even a nursing home at some point.

"Right, well, you lot stay here. Sit tight and I'll..." Alfred's voice trailed off as Karen, Bird and Bruce and all exited the car as if they hadn't heard him.

Shutting the car engine off, he readied his gun and started after them, wondering why he eve puts in the effort of trying to talk Bruce out of something when he was clearly going to do what he wants.

"I'd wager nothings been touched in here for a decade." Alfred said as they stepped up onto the fourth floor landing after climbing several flights of stairs.

The hallways were littered with old wheelchairs laying on their sides and random sheets of papers strewn all over the place.

A few of the rooms had dentist chairs in them with spider webs stretched up to the swiveling lights from above and nearly ever surface was coated with a few inches of dust.

Alfred leaned down and looked at one of the wheelchairs sitting upright that had a pair of rusted handcuffs hooked to one chair arm and the other cuff had been snapped open leaving jagged metal ends behind.

Hearing ragged breathing, Bird looked over to where Karen was standing and staring off down the hallway as she held her reptilian clawed hand to her stomach.

"Karen?" Bird questioned at the same time Bruce asked, "Are you okay?"

"Just..." She sniffled as she turned back to face them, "Just seeing all of this. Feels like yesterday that I was here and..." With a shrug she tried to focus on the faces of the people with her and not the haunting remnants of the facility she'd been held in and experimented on.

"I'm sorry, looks like your father was wrong. Maybe it's for the best. Now you can move on." Her voice shook and she nervously kept wiping at her nose with the back of her good hand.

"You knew this place was shut down, didn't you?" Bruce accused, "Is that why you brought us here? Hoping I'd give up?"

"Steady now, Master Bruce." Alfred spoke up.

"No, she's hiding something. I can see it in her eyes." He was quick to argue.

"Of course she's hiding something." Bird agreed, "She's been holding something back this whole time, but I think we should go somewhere else to talk about it."

Crossing her arms over her chest she looked around. The building had her feeling on edge.

It was as if the pain that had been endured in Pinewood Farms was still there.

Screams echoing off the walls and cries for help etched into lines the ceiling.

"I don't understand. What won't you tell me?" Bruce pushed.

"Hey, private property. I'm going to call the cops!" A security guard yelled as he shined the beam from his flashlight in their direction.

"Karen Jennings?"

Another voice boomed from down a separate hallway.

"The girl comes with us and no one gets hurt!"

Bird's eyes darted between the security guard who was now on his phone and the two armed men who'd just stepped off the stairs.

"Go!" She yelled, motioning to the doorway behind where Alfred was standing.

In a scrambled run, the group of four took off running.

They needed to get away from the men there looking for Karen and also get out of sight before the police showed up.

Alfred made sure everyone else was in front of him before he stopped to throw a couple of chairs into the hallway path to slow the men pursuing them and then ran as fast as he could after Bruce as he yelled at them, "Run!"

By the time they'd made it down a back flight of stairs, Bruce was in front with Alfred right behind him and Bird just steps behind him while Karen was bringing up the rear of the group.

Exactly how she wanted it.

She waited until the trio in front of her was nearing the exit of the building before she slowed to a stop and turned around to wait on the men who'd been chasing them.

The running steps echoing off the walls grew closer and she tugged the sleeve of her coat up, just as the first one rounded the corner into the room she swiped her hand through the air -effortlessly ripping his throat open in one quick movement.

Her eyes traveled from the blood spattered on the wall and then down to the now lifeless corpse, before she looked over her shoulder to see Bird was still there.

With a gasp, Karen's eyes widened as Bruce ran back into the room and nearly tripped over his own feet as he came to a stop and stared at the dead body.

When he slowly raised his gaze to look at Karen, her face twisted up and she breathed, "I..."

"We have to get out of here." Bird interrupted, grabbing onto Karen's arm and pulled her away from the man she'd killed.

Pushing the woman towards her brother, she ordered, "Get her out of here."

"Lady Wayne!" Alfred yelled when he ran back into the room just in time to see an armed man down the hallway with his gun pointed in their direction.

Bird wasted no time dropping to the floor and picking up the gun that the other man had dropped when he'd been killed, within a matter of seconds Bird and Alfred both had fired several shots down the hallway and killed the man before he had a chance to fire at them.

"Alright, there?" Alfred questioned, finally able to pull in a breath as he offered a hand to where Bird was still sitting on the floor.

With a silent look, she grabbed onto his hand and let him help her to her feet before they rushed for the exit.

But just as they'd joined Karen and Bruce outside, the parking lot had filled with police cars.

"Drop the gun, now!" One of the officers shouted as he took shelter behind the open car door and pointed his weapon at the group.

"Hands up!"

Another voice echoed from further back.

Bird and Alfred both laid the guns they'd just fired on the cement by their feet and the whole group of four did as they were told and raised their hands up in the air.

"What the..." The officer who'd yelled at them to drop their weapons said under his breath when he saw Karen's deformed and clawed hand.

"It's okay." Bird quietly said as she glanced over at her brother.

Bruce looked back at her with an unsure expression as the police officers moved in to surround them.

His eyes dropped to where one of the officers kicked Bird's gun away from her and started to place her under arrest.

"Starling..." His voice trembled when another officer started to pull his arms down and behind his back to handcuff him.

"It's okay." Bird repeated, looking over her shoulder to him as they started to take her towards one of the patrol cars, "Whoever gets a phone call first needs to call Jim, okay?"

All Bruce could manage was a small nod to let her know he'd heard and understood what she was telling him.

•••

Jim was winded by the time he'd reached the police station.

Minutes ago he'd received a near frantic call from Bruce saying that he, Bird and Alfred had all been arrested.

He'd told the fast talking teen to slow down and repeat that.

He was sure he'd heard him wrong, but after a few deep breathes, Bruce was able to further explain that they were following up on a lead they got on his parent's murders and that it was a long story, but currently they were all three under arrest -along with a woman named Karen.

Coming to a stop just inside of the doors to the precinct, Jim leaned forward some and pulled in a deep breath as he visually scanned the station for them or even for Bullock so he could find out what the hell was going on.

It was then that he caught sight of Bullock unlocking one of the holding cells and started over towards him.

"Bout bloody time, mate." Alfred grumbled as the cell was unlocked.

"Not my call. Why don't the two of you stop getting arrested so much." Bullock argued pointing the cell keys back at him.

"Bird!" Jim called out as he saw her step out from behind Alfred, out of the cell.

"Jim, hey." She said as he walked over to them.

"Are you okay?" He questioned, looking her over.

Instead of an answer, all he got from her was an unreadable expression as saw a dark bruise on the side of forehead around some skin that had been split open.

A wound she knew he didn't have the day before.

"Are you okay?" She repeated back to him.

"I'm fine." Alfred cut in, "Thanks for asking."

With a small sigh and not wanting to get into how he'd come by his own injury that day, Jim questioned, "Where's Bruce?"

"In with Barnes." Bullock answered.

Right on cue, Barnes' voice rang out about the chatter in the station, "Bullock!"

Coming down the stairs from the captains office with Bruce right behind him, Bullock instructed, "Prep Jennings for transport. I want her at Blackgate today; no contact."

Slowing to a stop he pointed at Alfred and Bird, "You. You're both free to go, I suggest you do so before I change my mind."

"What did you tell him?" Bird whisper-yelled at her brother as he came to join them.

"The truth." Bruce admitted, "He didn't seem to like it."

"Alright..." Jim breathed, "How about you tell me."

"Somewhere else, then?" Alfred questioned but it sounded more like an instruction, "Without all these ears around."

"Sounds good." Jim agreed, glancing over at Bird as her gaze lingered on the stairs where Barnes' had been moments before.

He wasn't sure what was happening, but he could see there was something on her mind and from the sounds of it, she and Alfred were lucky the captain was willing to let them walk.

"Come on." Jim spoke up to her get attention, before placing a hand on her lower back and leading her towards the door.

Bruce and Alfred didn't miss the placement of his hand or her willingness to go with him.

•••

They decided on a small diner a few streets over to get out of the cold and discuss everything that had happened that day.

Once the waitress had taken their order and walked away, Bruce and Alfred both stared at Jim and Bird sitting beside each other in the booth bench across the table from them.

"What?" Bird questioned as her eyes drifted up to them,

"Nothing at all." Alfred blew out a breath and managed a smile.

With a small shrug, Bruce looked down to the menu though he couldn't help but wonder what exactly was going on between his sister and the detective.

Especially since Bird had just ordered for herself and Jim.

Apparently they'd been spending so much time together that she knew what food he was going to order.

While they waited on their food to be prepared and brought to their table, Bruce took the lead in explaining the events of that day to Jim.

Starting with finding Karen's name and address in his dad's calender and explaining all the way up to the point the group had been arrested.

Easily following along with the story, Jim took a drink of his coffee and asked, "So your father found out about this program, where Karen Jennings was a subject, and shut it down?"

"Yeah." Bird nodded.

"When it was restarted, he tried to stop it... and they had him killed." Bruce continued.

"And you think Karen can identify the men involved?" Jim asked the table.

"Doesn't know their names. Says she can remember their faces, though." Alfred seized the opportunity to chime in.

Jim slowly nodded his head for a while before he turned his head and looked to Bird, "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I didn't know about Karen until last night." She defended before her eyes flashed darker and she questioned, "Why didn't you tell me that the reason you didn't return to the GCPD is because you're investigating what happened to my parents?"

Alfred's eyebrows raised and he watched them over the brim of his coffee cup while he took a drink.

With a sigh, Jim held back on trying to explain how he'd been meaning to tell her but the time never seemed right and instead asked, "How long have you known?"

"A while." She stated, her tone a little sharp, "Probably about as long as you've been roughing people up on the streets asking questions."

With her head cocked to one side she asked, "You really thought I wouldn't find out?"

Bruce glanced over at Alfred, before he picked up his glass of orange juice and took a sip while feeling more uncomfortable by the second.

"I wasn't trying to hide it from you." Jim's eyes narrowed, "If you've known all this time, why didn't you say anything?"

"I was waiting for you to tell me-"

"So..." Alfred cleared his throat, "Have you uncovered anything helpful in your investigation you've been conducting, then?"

"The man who contracted Matches Malone called himself; The Philosopher. And I'd be willing to bet that this is the same man who's behind Pinewood." Jim admitted to them.

"How long have you known about this?" Bird asked, her face twisting up as she scooted away from him, closer to the wall and turned some in the booth.

"I only found out today." He was quick to say, trying to minimize the pain she now seemed to be in.

Not wanting to tell her the entire reason he didn't return to the GCPD was one thing, but actually finding out information that huge and keeping it from her was something else entirely.

It stung.

"Were you-were you even going to tell me?" Bird stammered, her side and back colliding again with the wall when she tried to move further away but didn't have anywhere to go.

"Hey..." Jim breathed, his hand finding hers as she pushed on the cushion between them in her attempt to put distance between them, "Of course I was."

Looking down to where he held her hand in his, Bird's breathing slowed a little but she was still eyeing him skeptically.

"I tracked down this woman known as The Lady, she used to run an illegal casino and ran an organization of assassins -a fixer for hired murders. She was at this club called Artemis today, that's when I got the information." Jim hoped his words would ease her mind and that she'd stop looking at him as if he'd just pulled a knife and stabbed her, "Literally minutes before Bruce called me."

But it seemed his efforts were futile, what he'd hoped would calm her down seem to have the adverse effect.

"Artemis?" Bird repeated back the club name.

"Yeah." Jim nodded.

Pulling her hand from his grip, Bird turned back in her seat and took a drink of her coffee before clearing her throat.

"Well." She breathed, "Your story checked out until then. You can't into the Artemis. You've got the wrong parts, Jim. It's a woman's only private club."

Bruce nearly choked on the drink he was trying to swallow and Alfred's eyes went a little wide.

"Forget it." She dismissed.

Leaving Jim feeling like he was now sharing a booth bench with a block of ice instead of a person.

"What are we doing now?" She directed her question and her gaze to the rest of the table.

"Have Lucius Fox put together the files of all the scientists who have worked for Wayne Enterprises over the past fifteen years. If Karen can pick this man out, if he is The Philosopher, we can tie him to your parents' murder." Jim answered even though he was all too aware she wasn't asking him.

"Assuming, of course, that Karen Jennings is still alive. I mean, it's obvious these guys mean business. She's gonna be dead the minute she hits Blackgate Prison." Alfred practically stole the words from Bird's mouth.

"That's why we're gonna break her out." Jim reasoned.

"No." Bird cut in, "That's why we have to stop her from getting to Blackgate in the first place."

Nodding, Jim's eyes lit up as he formed a plan.

"How much money can you put together quickly?" He asked, looking between Bird and Bruce.

Bird gave him a questioning look, but Bruce was at the ready as he asked, "How much do you need?"

•••

Bird peeked around from the side of the car that she and Jim were staying out of sight from the road by.

"Where are they?" Bird whisper-yelled as another gust of wind blew threw the street and carried a few hand fulls of cash along with it, "If they come through any later there isn't going to be any money left in the bag."

Jim's idea had been to leave a bag of money in the middle of the road.

There wasn't much that would make the driver of a prisoner transport vehicle stop, but he was sure that a fortune sitting in the middle of the road would be reason enough.

Then once the driver was out of the car, they'd all make their move.

Knock the officer in the back of the truck out and offer the driver a choice of taking the money or ending up like their partner.

"I'm going to check on Bruce." Bird started to say as she readjusted the black ski mask she currently had pushed up on her forehead waiting until the prisoner transport truck came through, then she'd pull it the rest of the way over her face to shield her identity.

"Wait." Jim said as he stopped her. "You're right. I didn't tell you the entire truth about today."

Bird bit down on the side of her tongue to keep from saying some of the remarks that immediately popped into her head.

She didn't want to fight with him and most of all she just wanted the truth.

"I did track The Lady to Artemis, but I couldn't get inside." With a half smile he repeated her earlier comment, "Turns out I've got the wrong parts."

Bird did her best to keep from smiling, but her dimples gave her expression away.

His own expression turned from lighthearted to one of uncertainty, he wasn't sure how well she was going to react to the next thing he had to say.

"Barbara was there." Jim admitted, "She's the one who got the information about The Philosopher."

"I see." Bird said.

Leaving Jim unsure of how she was now feeling.

"Why didn't you just tell me that?" She pushed.

"Because she's taken enough from me already." It took him a little while to answer, but when he did she knew it was the whole truth.

"I understand." Bird agreed, not needing or forcing him to go into further detail.

She knew Barbara was obsessed with him and willing to kill to keep him to herself.

Truth be told, she knew Barbara was the 'if I can't have them then no one can' type long before Jim knew it himself.

It wasn't as if she'd entered into their relationship baggage free either and Barbara Kean didn't scare her.

Even though her words would lead him to believe everything was fine, the expression on her face said otherwise.

She was staring forward with her face scrunched up and lips puckered out some like she had something to say, but wasn't forming the right words.

"Bird-"

He started to ask.

"You have to be honest with me." She finally said, "You know I don't trust easily, but I do trust you and in order for me to keep doing so... we can't have secrets, Jim."

"I know-"

"It's all or nothing." Bird shrugged as if she wouldn't be affected by the answer.

"It's all, okay?" Jim's voice lowered, his face moved in closer to hers, "I'm all in."

"Me too." She managed to say back just before his lips collided with hers.

His hand that wasn't holding the shotgun, moved down her side and around to her back as he held her close against him.

With the rough feeling of the stubble from his unshaven face under her fingertips, she smiled against his mouth before she broke the kiss long enough to pull the ski mask on his head down over his face when she heard sound of the approaching prisoner transport vehicle.

Pressing another quick kiss to his lips through the mouth cutout of the mask, she smiled, "Showtime."

Reaching up she pulled her own mask down and waited as the truck slowed a stop so they could make their move.

Once the driver was out of the truck and on her way towards the bag of money in the street, Jim slipped out of their hiding spot and ran for the back of the truck.

Pulling in a breath of the icy evening air, Bird shook her head at herself, still not entirely sure why'd she'd gotten so upset with him that day.

Or maybe she did know and just didn't want to admit it.

Most of her distrust in people stemmed from all of her own secrets. She knew the volume of things one could hide and she knew it made her hypocrite to be demanding a hundred percent honesty from someone when she wasn't able to give it back.

She'd spent so long trying to hide the worst parts of herself from her family and then tried to hide them from Harvey Dent as well.

At the end of the day, the truth came out. It always does.

Now here she was, hiding the truth of what had really happened to Lilith Wayne from everyone.

Holding in the secret of being responsible for her own natural mother's death.

It was enough to make her hate Lily all over again.

Here she was in a relationship with someone who really knew her. Someone she didn't have to hide her worst sides from because he'd already seen them.

Bird should have been feeling like gravity didn't exist and she was walking on the moon, but instead she felt like she had one foot six underground buried alongside her mother.

Staying out of sight from the officer who'd jumped out to pick up the bag of money, Jim counted the knocks in his head of the signal officers would use and knocked on the back doors of the transport truck.

Hearing the locks click, Jim looked over to see Bird was still where they'd been standing and not with him like she was supposed to be.

Ducking around the side of the truck, he closed his eyes and focused on the sounds of the officer stepping down out of the truck. He was just about to peek around the side and see which was the man was facing, but he heard a thud on the ground and looked to see Bird standing next to the now unconscious body of the officer.

With his head cocked to the side he gave her a questioning look.

"I told you I've got your back." She said as if she hadn't just shown up at the lost possible second.

"Yo, Marty, you're never gonna believe it!" The female officer yelled as she ran towards the back of the truck with the duffel bag full of cash in hand.

She came to a stop when she saw her partner laid out on the ground.

"Marty?" She called out, her voice cracking with emotion.

"He's fine." Bird said as she and Jim had made it around the truck to sneak up behind the officer, "Just napping."

She started to turn around until she heard the sound of a shotgun being cocked.

"You have a decision to make." Jim yelled with the gun pointed at her head, "You can keep the money, toss your gun and tell your supervisor you were disarmed. Or you can be a hero and wake up like your friend here with nothing to show for it aside from a massive headache."

Alfred and Bruce came running from the other side of the street, both of their faces covered in ski masks as well with the butler in front now holding a gun in the officers face.

"I'd say it's a bit of a no-brainer, wouldn't you, sweetheart?" Alfred asked, "Now give me your gun."

When she handed the weapon over and stepped away, Alfred ran for the front of the truck to drive them away and Bruce got the handcuff keys off the downed officer's belt before climbing up in the back of the truck followed by Bird and then Jim, still holding the shotgun as he called out, "Enjoy your cash." Just before pulled the doors closed to the truck.

Hearing the back doors slam shut, Alfred quickly sped away from the scene.

Karen moved away from the three masked figures who'd just entered the back of the transport truck with her, though being chained down she didn't have much room to work with.

She'd known her time was running out, but she'd expected someone to jump her at Blackgate, not hijack the car on the way there.

"It's alright." Bird said as she pulled her mask off.

Letting out a heaving sigh of relief, Karen dropped back against the side of the truck and felt the rest of her body go limp from the tension she'd been holding.

"What is going on?" She asked as she saw Bruce remove his mask, followed by a man she didn't recognize, "Who is this?"

"He's a friend." Bruce explained.

"Nice to meet you." Jim commented as he sat down next to Bird on the built in seating across from Karen as Bruce unlocked her chains.

"He's gonna help us get you out of town. We have a car, cash and a new identity waiting for you back at Wayne Manor." Bruce excitedly explained to her.

"I can't believe you would do this for me." Karen smiled.

She hadn't known much kindness in her life. The most she'd witnessed had been from Thomas Wayne and now his children were being just as good to her as he'd been.

"I made a promise nothing would happen to you. I intend to keep it." Bruce smiled, feeling like everything was going to be okay. Like things were all going to work out.

"Karen?" Jim asked, "Do you know a man who goes by the nickname The Philosopher?"

"That's, uh, the man who ran the program. That's what the others called him. Something about some game they played." She explained.

"And if you saw a picture of him, you'd be able to identify him?" Bird asked.

"Yeah."

"Good." Bruce's smile grew, "We have someone tracking down the files of all the scientists who have worked for Wayne Enterprises over the years. After that, you, you can disappear. No one will ever hurt you again."

"You both remind me of Thomas so much. You sound just like him." Karen wiped away the tear that was making it's way down her cheek, "I have been hiding something from you. Your father did more than just rescue me from Pinewood."

"What, what do you, what do you mean?" Bruce questioned.

"After what happened, I was so angry; but he never gave up on me. He kept visiting. Gave me books to read. A music box for my birthday. He kept reminding me that I wasn't alone. That I wasn't a monster. I never knew what a real father should be until Thomas Wayne. That's why I didn't want you to pursue this. I didn't want you to see him differently. Your father started Pinewood, Bruce. His intentions were good. But the man in charge took advantage of him. He didn't realize the truth until it was too late. Pinewood was his burden. But it doesn't have to be yours."

"It's not a burden. It's who I am." Bruce finally answered, his voice confident and strong.

Karen looked over to Bird who was staring down to the floor. Blinking back more tears, Karen reached out with her good hand and took hold of Bird's as she said, "Your father talked so much about you."

"About me?" Bird started to dismissively shake her head, but Karen continued, "I know I've only just met you today, but I feel like I've known you for years."

Looking to Bruce and then back to Bird, she couldn't stop the tears spilling from her eyes as she spoke, "I'm so sorry that he's not here. He should have been. Your father was a great man. But I'm glad I got to meet you both."

•••