April Yang and Dick Grayson share deep-rooted connections to Gotham, even if they prefer not to give them much thought and keep their emotions to themselves. When Dick turns up in Devon City, where April works towards becoming a surgeon, she inevita...
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Three years ago, when April was starting her internship year, Devon was the same as it was today. There was nothing about her that was special. Looking at her, you could say she was designed to blend in. With her hair dyed lazily, without having bleached her jet black hair beforehand, chipped nail polish and a lipstick barely smudged over her lips, she was easily overlooked. She was often paired with the only other female intern in her year—a girl named Sarah—and never had the opportunity to stand out. She was fine with that, at least to some degree, as the quiet and slow life she was not used to required some adjustments on her part.
Her apartment in Devon was really a never-used studio that had been once used for big photoshoots. April had tried her best to make it her own, but it never really worked. The furniture were not to her liking, although she had bought them, the plates uniquely bland and the products she used in everyday life seemingly random. It were the things she bought intuitively that she loved most—her clothes, her lipsticks, or fruit.
Everyday, April walked on foot to the hospital whilst listening to hardcore techno to keep herself from slowing down, and just as she entered her workplace, there was no music anymore. There was only regret and quiet crying sessions in the on-call room. Why was she there? she asked herself, but obviously no one could answer. It was, she thought, partly because she wanted to impress her mother, yet partly because she wanted to avoid being like her father at all costs. April felt most at ease when she stitched up Devon's people in the ER, or listened to their troubles or took their vitals after a surgery.
Sarah had been transferred to Seattle soon after pressing the Chief surgeon for more learning opportunities. It was April's worst nightmare and a dream to get transferred, as she took an almost moronic pride in the place she had found for herself for the first time ever. And for that, she had to admit, she was being petty.
Meeting Fiona was the most thrilling thing that could happen to her. It was after a long shift at the hospital, and her break was about to last less than eight hours, and so April decided to eat something on the way home and not waste any time. The hotdog stand was uninviting, to say the least, but nothing she could potentially prepare for herself later looked any better.
"Five dollars," the man had said, and then smiled. "Four if you watch my stand for a second or two. My daughter was in an accident, you see..."
April wouldn't say that she was gullible, but in a moment of sleep deprivation and extreme hunger, she just nodded to get this man out of her hair and eat at last. She didn't found strange how he started running for his life through the busy afternoon streets—she just focused on eating the hotdog.
