Flashback July 11th
"I want to talk," Cassandra stood still in front of him, show me you changed.
"Deathstr- let's talk," Bruce nodded then clicked his com line, "someone check if it really is Deathstroke in Crime Alley. I have something else to do."
"If it is Deathstroke, we'll need all the help we can get Batman," Barbara said.
"I'm on my way to the location now, don't worry Oracle," Damian said her name with spite, "I'll call if I need back up but I can deal with Wilson."
"I have priorities," Bruce told Barbara, "Robin be careful, Batman out."
Cassandra stared at Bruce, not believing that he chose to delegate the threat of Deathstroke to Robin in favor of talking to her.
"I suggest we use the rooftop of the abandoned factory on 47th," Batman suggested and offered her a grapple.
"No coms," she took the grapple.
"No coms, Penny-one, I'm going offline."
"Very well Sir."
Cassandra nodded and shot her grapple. She felt Batman right behind her. They landed on the rooftop a few minutes later. Cassandra wasn't sure how to approach the situation. She needed to gain time for Talia, Slade and Damian to help Jason, she also had a LOT to say to Bruce. She hadn't planned on actually saying anything to Bruce, ever, but now things were different. He was different, he was afraid and she couldn't feel an ounce of sympathy towards him; that's how mad she still was. She had to talk to him, because Jason needed her to stall him, because Jason was alive and well and he had Harper. Then she remembered Harper's small sighs and smiles and she turned back to mush.
"I'm sorry-" Batman said.
"No, I want to talk," Cassandra faced him, "you listen... to understand not to ... reply."
Bruce nodded, not trusting his voice to say anything. Cassandra's opinion mattered just as much as his other children, but Cassandra was different from the others. She was raised to be an assassin, just like Damian had, but unlike Damian, she wasn't allowed to speak, she only learned to read bodies and not words, which makes her terrifying and impossible to lie to, not that Bruce wanted to lie to her. Bruce wanted her to see the man he was, when he promised her that she didn't have to live in David Cain's world anymore, that she would live with the weight of the life she took, but that it didn't have to define the path she'd take.
Cassandra Cain took back her father's name; it was Orphan in front of him, not Batgirl, not Black Bat, not even Cassandra. Both Bruce and Batman deserved that. He's waiting for her to talk, she's always struggled with words, and he hadn't given her any reason to actually want to talk to him. He was the enemy because he crossed the line that made him even worse that David Cain, because David Cain never denied who he was, because Batman doesn't kill, because Jason is his son and he stopped his heart.
David Cain sacrificed himself for Cassandra, he told his daughter he loved her and asked for her forgiveness before taking down Mother and jumping to their deaths. Bruce is waiting for her to hit him, to yell, to stare until he couldn't handle the silence. He wasn't expecting her to ask him this.
"How are you?"
"What?" Bruce looked surprised, well as surprised as Batman gets.
"How are you?" Cassandra repeated, somewhere between amused by his reaction, annoyed by his lack of understanding and sad that it had come to this.
"I-I'm glad to see you," Bruce managed to say.
"Doesn't answer the question," she tilted her head to the side, "how are you?"
YOU ARE READING
Harper Isabel Todd
Fanfiction"Isabel Todd," Leslie turned to Jason, "your daughter." ---------- It's been 3 months since Roy saved his ass yet again, 3 months since he's been banished from Gotham and disowned by his father, 3 months since his 'father' almost killed him. In a ma...
