▶ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴇʙᴛᴏᴏɴ ʙᴀᴛᴍᴀɴ: ᴡᴀʏɴᴇ ꜰᴀᴍɪʟʏ ᴀᴅᴠᴇɴᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ ᴇᴘ.3: ᴇʏᴇꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴇᴀʀꜱ

Commissioner Gordan enters the cafe to encounter his daughter, Barbara, starting with: "So sorry I'm late, Babs." He continues, "I hope you weren't waiting long."

"No problem, Dad." Barbara happily tells him, "I already ordered our usual and got you some coffee."

A sigh of relief escaped his mustache, as he sat down to continue the conversation, "So, anything interesting happened at the Library yesterday?" 

"Not particularly." She says in boredomly speaking, making her dad raise an eyebrow at her response: "Ah, c'mon now. I'm sure you did something at work." 

He lifts his coffee by motioning to tell him about her 'day': "Well...I did help a kid with some reading..."

Yesterday's flashback~

"𝘉𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘙𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘯." Barbara deadpans, "𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴?"

Robin, aka Damian Wayne, crosses his arms while slouching in the front seat with his Robin suit on. "I saw the note," he says, grumbling through the Comlink. 

"And what did it say?"

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𝙳𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚊𝚗, 

Y𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚘𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚛𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙱𝚊𝚝𝚖𝚘𝚋𝚒𝚕𝚎.

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"It's ambiguous." He tells her, while Barbara, annoyed, massages her forehead and mutters about how stubborn children like Damian can be, " 𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘴." 

Robin pleads, "Pleaseee." 

"No," She tells him.

Yesterday's flashback ended part 1~

"That sounds very rewarding! What else happened?" Gordon (Barbara's dad) asked as he sipped his cup of coffee, his daughter stared at her cup of tea while saying, "I guess I help some people find their way around..."

Yesterday's flashback again~

"Argh! The thieves almost cracked the safe!" Barbara groaned in annoyance. You guys were supposed to be there by now!" "We're here, but the Bank's totally secured." 

Red Robin, alongside Spoiler, monitors the bank while communicating through the comlinks to Oracle. "Are you sure that your intel is good?"

Barbara, also known as the Oracle, took some time to verify the Bank's location, only to discover they were on the wrong side of the city, "My intel is fine." She deadpans with a scolding tone of voice: "YOU Are at the wrong bank!" 

"...Oops!"

End another flashback!

Commissioner Gordon felt slightly relieved, "I hope you had time to relax." 

"I did do a little workout." His daughter tells him, "How's work been for you?" While drinking her tea, he tells her: "Nothing too unusual." He tiredly continues to eat his food, "A couple of vigilantes stopped a bank robbery in the nick of time."  

Barbara mumbles, "Pff, yeah no thanks to them..."

"What was that?" 

"Nothing!" She quickly but happily replied, "Anyways, what else happened besides the bank robbery, Dad?" Barbara asked. 

Her dad paused, considering whether to tell her. "Well," he began hesitantly, "do you remember when I mentioned the disappearance of the Anonymous P.I. a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah, I remember. Why?" she asked, narrowing her concerned eyes at him. 

"She showed up in my room last night," her dad told her. 

Making her eyes widen in shock that she almost dropped her mug, but quickly recovered by asking, "What? How?"

Flashback from Commissioner Gordon's POV...

I collapsed onto my pillows, drifting to sleep when a soft knock at the door startled me awake. My heart raced as I groggily rolled over, half-expecting it to be a remnant of a wild dream.

"Ugh, who could that be?" I mumbled into my pillow, wishing the world would pause. The knock came again, more insistent this time. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and sat up, trying to shake off my tiredness—maybe it was just my imagination after working for the Bat.

I dragged myself to my feet, feeling exhaustion weigh down on me like a heavy blanket. "What a night..." I muttered, rubbing my temples as I made my way to the door to open it, only to reveal a man dressed in a beige trench coat, a large dark grey scarf around his neck, black combat boots, and a dark brown hat on his head.

"Yes, what is it?"  He suddenly takes off his hat and scarf, only to reveal that it is a woman. Who asked, "My name is Pearl Maximus." He-I mean, She continues, "As you know, I am the Anonymous P.I. of Gotham City and have come for official business with you."

I blinked in disbelief, still trying to process the sight of the woman who had been the talk of the precinct for weeks. 

"Pearl Maximus?" he repeated, his voice a mix of confusion and intrigue. "But... you were missing. Everyone thought—"

"I know what they thought," she interrupted, her tone firm yet laced with a hint of weariness. "But I'm here now, and we don't have much time."

I stepped aside, motioning for her to enter. "What do you mean, we don't have much time? Are you in danger?"

Pearl glanced around the room, her eyes darting to the shadows as if expecting someone to leap out at any moment. "I can't explain everything right now, but I need your help. Some people want to silence me for what I know."

I closed the door behind her, heart pounding. "What do you know?"

She took a deep breath, her expression serious. "I uncovered something big—something that connects several high-profile cases in Gotham. It's bigger than anything you've dealt with before."

"What do you mean? Is it organized crime? Corruption within the department?"

"Both," she replied, her voice low. "And more. I have evidence, but I need time in order to find out more about this."

I rubbed my beard, weighing my options. "You realize this could put you in even more danger.  I could give you protection—"

"No!" she cuts me off sharply. "The rest of her friends, who she's really close to, will definitely freak out if they see me talking to you right now. I might get into huge trouble before you even have a chance to say anything else." 

I raise my hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, you win. But why me?"

Pearl lifts her finger by shaking it, "When the time comes, I will let you know when I need you to be ready for it."

End the flashback---

"---That's when she decided to disappear into the night." 

Barbara's eyes widened in shock as she stared at her dad in disbelief. Her mug nearly slipped from her hands, and she quickly recovered by placing it back on the table, trying not to make a scene.

"Pearl... is the Anonymous P.I.? You're saying she just showed up at your place?" Barbara asked hesitantly, trying to process the sudden revelation, "And you didn't even call me?"

Commissioner Gordon nodded, taking a sip from his cup of coffee. "That's what I'm telling you, Babs. She just showed up out of the blue, warning me about something big."

"But why would she do that?" Barbara asked, trying to make sense of it all.

Her dad shrugged. "I don't know, but she seemed really serious about it. Apparently, she thinks someone might be after her." 

Barbara leaned in closer, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Who do you think it could be?" Commissioner Gordon leaned away from Barbara, his eyes scanning the room before focusing on her. 

"I don't know, kiddo..." His voice trails off a bit, "But from what it's worth, I'm going to recheck everything and make sure nothing's amiss. I don't want to take any chances."

With that, Commissioner Gordon stood up and headed toward the door. "I better get to work on this. You stay here and enjoy your tea, Babs."

As the door closed behind her dad, Barbara was left with her thoughts, pondering the mysterious reappearance of the Anonymous P.I. 

She couldn't help but wonder what Pearl had discovered, and why she was willing to put herself in harm's way by coming forward. Barbara sat in silence, her mind racing with possibilities of what Pearl had evidence.

'If I remember correctly, Dick did say that Pearl had recently reunited with Jason after she confessed that she never knew about him returning from the dead but, she did know about the Batfamily business under Wayne Manor with the help of her telepathic powers.' 

She stares down at her coffee in deep thought, 'I have a hard time imagining the two of them having any sort of civil conversation. Still, what if Pearl wasn't being entirely honest with my dad?  Was it possible she'd met with my dad for no reason that couldn't tell anyone about it? 

'I needed to talk to her, to press her for more information. But what if Pearl had changed her story? What if she'd said something to make him believe she was telling the truth, but in reality, it was all a ruse?'

Barbara pushed her doubts aside and focused on eating her lunch, but her mind constantly returned to Pearl' secretive meeting between her (Pearl) and her dad (Commissioner Gordon). 

And by wanting to uncover the truth behind the mystery, Barbara has to get to the bottom of it.

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Enjoy!