San Fransico, California
Ashley was startled awake and she looked around in confusion. She looked down before she looked over at Dick who was on the phone. "Is everything all right?" She heard her father ask.
"I got kind of a weird situation. Found this young woman, and she's in trouble. Someone's trying to kill her, but she's special Bruce. The three of us kind of special. I think she can heal herself" Dick told her father. Ashley shook her head and flipped herself back over to attempt to put herself back to sleep in spite of her creeping paranoia.
"Where is she now?" Bruce asked him.
"Here, in the Tower, she doesn't wanna stay" Dick sighed. "Ashley doesn't want her to stay either."
"You didn't wanna stay either, not at first" Bruce said. "As for Ashley, I can't help with her. Once her mind is made up she's rarely changing it."
"How long did it take?" Dick sighed
"A long time" Bruce told him.
"I don't have a long time" Dick sighed. "Do you know why I stayed?"
"I think so. It's hard to be angry in a vacuum" Bruce explained to him. "I provided a target and a focus for your rage. I became a tangible enemy and provided a much-needed friend in a hard time" Bruce said honestly. Ashley rolled her eyes and grabbed another pillow and put it over her head in an attempt to drown them out.
"I was mad at fate and death, but those are just concepts. You're a person" Dick paused. "More or less."
"She's a tougher case than me" He told Bruce. "She's scared. Really scared-" Dick said before being cut off by her father.
"Do you know who she is?" Bruce asked him.
"She doesn't want me to know" Dick said.
"Well, there are ways to find out" Bruce said.
"Yeah, I know" Dick said, his voice laced with sarcasm. "And I haven't put nine trackers in her, either. I know that's your thing, but it's not mine" Dick said, his agitation obvious in his voice
"It's not about 'my thing' or 'your thing'" Bruce told him. "You can't make an informed decision without information nor can you can't keep my daughter safe without said information."
"That's the point" Dick said. "I'm not sure it is my decision. You adopted me when I was a kid, she's an adult."
"Still, you said she's scared and in trouble. That's no frame of mind for anyone to make life or death choices" Bruce said to Dick and Ashley heard something slam down. "You keep her there till she can make them, and then make sure they're the right ones" Bruce told him. Ashley sneered at her father's words, hesitant to keep the girl within a one hundred mile radius.
"Okay, here's what I have to know. Would you do it again?" Dick asked him. "Take me in... devote all that time and trouble for someone that just wants to leave?" Dick asked.
"I would do everything exactly the same for you" Bruce said to him. Ashley closed her eyes and held back everything she wanted to say in that moment. Ashley waited for them to hang up before she let Dick know she was awake.
"You should talk to her" Ashley sighed, getting up and putting her hands on his shoulder. "If she'll willingly give up the information and she's deemed not dangerous, I'll put in my vote for her to be allowed to stay, otherwise I don't want her anywhere close to us" Ashley told him. "That's also not going to stop me from finding out who she is whether you like it or not." Dick sighed and nodded before turning to face Ashley and pulling her into his lap. Dick kissed her, almost as if it was the only thing that could give him any direction. "The kids will catch us in here" Ashley said as he moved her to straddle him before he moved onto her neck.
"I can lock the door" Dick said, pressing the button that would effectively seal the tech room off from the Tower with no interruptions.
"You know, this is why everyone hated living with us" Ashley said as she held tightly onto Dick.
"That's because they're no fun" Dick smiled at her and nipped her favorite spot.
"You're talking too much, Dick."
♠️♠️♠️
Ashley sat in the tech room with Jason and Gar beside her as she ran her DNA recognition with no distractions when facial recognition proved useless. Gar sat beside her, learning every keystroke while Jason stood behind her, observing everything that came up on the screen. "Come on" Jason said quietly as he paced behind them as he waited on the results.
"Match identified" The AI said.
"Rose Wilson" Ashley and Gar said at the same time, though the dread Ashley felt seeped into her voice.
"Wilson" She whispered and the teen boys looked at her peculiarly. "It better not be who I think it is" She said, running her name through every database in the computer.
"Her dad's name is Slade Wilson" Gar asked, sounding confused. Ashley closed her eyes for a moment to get her emotions back in check before opening them again and pinched her nose.
"No fucking way" Jason said slowly, leaning forward.
"What?" Gar asked, still confused.
"Slade Wilson is Deathstroke" Ashley told him ominously.
♠️♠️♠️
Ashley was still panicking even after Dick had been home for ten minutes. He had called to tell her what had happened and even still, Ashley was looking to see if he had any injuries he wouldn't tell her about. "That's Rose's father?" Rachel asked. Ashley moved Dick's jacket to the side as she continued to check for injuries on her longtime partner.
"Yep" Jason confirmed. "The one and only Deathstroke."
"Is that somebody you guys know?" Rachel asked the former Titan's curiously.
"Kind of" Dick said. "Old Titans business" He explained to them, giving the sign to Ashley to not reveal more than needed at the moment.
"Check it" Gar said before being interrupted by Ashley.
"He's former DELTA force commander, a member of HIVE, One of a select group of soldiers who underwent a series of experimental bio-enhancements" Ashley said. "He was the only one out of thirty-five soldiers to survive" Ashley said, attempting to keep her cool as her mind kept racing. The teens looked at her in confusion. "I've been working his case for about four years now with ARGUS, don't give me that look."
"INTERPOL says he retired years ago after the death of his son, Jericho" Gar said and Ashley had to keep from darkening at the memory. "I'll try having the computer find" Gar began before Dick interrupted him.
"I'll take it from here" Dick told him. "You did a good job working with Ash" Dick praised him after a moment.
"Security alert" The system sounded. "Main entrance" The system said again. "Access denied" It said before Ashley looked at the feed and saw who it was.
"So I guess you changed the code?" Donna asked, obviously in a bad mood.
"Was it too obvious?" Ashley laughed and allowed them entrance. After she did so, she practically ran to the foyer leaving everyone in the tech room behind her. "You guys are home!" Ashley said happily and looked at them with relief as they stepped off the elevator. Hank and Dawn went up to her and hugged her tightly before putting their stuff on the table.
"You guys have no idea how much this place misses you" Rachel said as she walked into the room with Gar beside her and Jason behind her.
"Mostly me, though" Rachel said before Ashley rolled her eyes at the teen. "I mean, I guess Ashley does too, because she still tells Titans stories if you point somewhere and ask what happened" Rachel smiled at Ashley and hugged Dawn.
"And me too" Gar said, hugging Dawn and standing next to Ashley.
"Where's Kory?" Rachel asked when she saw that their friend was missing from the group.
"She sort of vanished" Donna said to the teen.
"What do you mean by vanished?" Rachel asked Donna hesitantly.
"Um, she not answering her phone" Donna said. "But you know, she mentioned she wanted to see Florida, so I figured she made an Irish exit."
"I'll try her later" Ashley promised Rachel, who hugged her in thanks.
"Were you followed?" Dick asked as he walked into the room.
"We shell-gamed before we knocked" Hank answered, hostility still evident in his voice.
"Calm down, big guy" Ashley said and patted Hank's arm.
"We covered our tracks" He confirmed.
"Can you guys give us a minute please?" Dick asked the teens.
"You too, Jason" Ashley said to him when he didn't step out of the room with the others.
"But Ash-" Jason pleaded with the brunette.
"Please?" She asked him. He sighed and nodded when he noticed she wasn't in a playful mood any longer and left the room with a huff when Ashley ruffled the hair on his head. Dick moved closer to the group and Ashley moved to stand beside him. Dick wrapped his arm around her shoulders and his mood seemed to lift slightly as he did so.
"I wish the circumstances were better" Dick said. "But, welcome home" He said to them.
"You okay?" Dawn asked them.
"Better now that you're all here" Dick said, looking down Ashley who had narrowed her eyes and wiped away a spot he had missed when he came home after the explosion. "Ash, really?" He asked, exasperated.
"Shut up, asshole" Ashley huffed. "You could've died, which would have made me very sad. Oddly enough, I don't like being sad."
"Two attacks in two days" Hank said, stating the obvious. "Did you find out anything?" He asked them.
"Nothing you guys don't already know, and thanks to Ash I've seen the disturbing details" Dick said. "Doctor Light's out of prison, someone broke him out, there's been a trail of bodies ever since."
"We know" Dawn said. "He killed a friend."
"I'm sorry" Dick said to her.
"Thanks to Robin two point whatever, that little tv announcement put a target on our backs" Hank said angrily.
"Whatever the reason, Arthur Lights is on a payback mission and he's trying to pick us off one by one" Dick acknowledged. "So chances are he's after us all now" He told them. "But we're together now, and we're strong" Dick said.
"You're starting to sound like Clark after a mission gone wrong babe" Ashley said, patting his torso.
"Am I?" He asked, shaking his head in disappointment.
"Save the rah-rah speech for the JV squad" Hank said. "We'll take care of Dr. Light and then we're out." Ashley nodded her acknowledgment of his stance. She couldn't blame him after everything that happened in this place, even though she missed having everyone together in the same space.
"Hank and I need to get back home, Dick" Dawn told him softly.
"Me too" Donna said, antsy to get away from the Bay Area in general. "I can't stay here" She said impatiently.
"All right, great talk" Hank said, putting his backpack on again. "Same rooms?" He asked Ashley.
"Same rooms" She confirmed. "Oh and guys?" Ashley asked. "One more thing, follow me please" Ashley said and lead them to the tech room. "Dick picked her up the day before yesterday" Ashley said, showing them a picture of Rose. "She was on the run, the evasive technique was impressive" Ashley said. "We knew she had talent and training, even though I didn't want to admit but I had seen it somewhere" Ashley said, pulling up the video feed. "Then we saw this after I did some digging" Ashley said, running the video of Rose being pushed down a flight of stairs. After a few seconds, Slade came into clear view in his Deathstroke uniform and Ashley paused it.
"Fuck me" Hank said angrily as he looked at the screen.
"I thought he was dead?" Donna asked, looking back at Dick.
"We all did" Dick said quickly. Ashley bit her lip from saying anything that would let them know that she, Roy, and Dick knew he was alive and that she and Roy were currently hunting him. "He's alive and well in San Francisco" Dick said.
"So who is she?" Donna asked in confusion.
"Her name is Rose Wilson" Ashley sighed. "She's Slade's daughter" Ashley said her anger subtle to her tone of voice.
"You have Deathstroke's daughter in the other room?" Dawn asked the two angrily.
"You're fucking with us right?" Hank yelled at Dick. "And you're letting her stay?" Hank demanded of her angrily.
"I didn't know who she was when I picked her up" Dick said, attempting to deescalate the situation. "And Ashley didn't really get a choice in this."
"Now you do and she's still here" Donna said to him angrily.
"Yeah, obviously it's a concern" Dick said snidely.
"A concern?" Dawn said to Dick angrily."This is pathological" Dawn said, disbelief entering her voice beside the anger. "Dick I know you have a soft spot for strays, but she can't stay here" Dawn tried to reason with him.
"I've tried to reason with him, Dawn" Ashley sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as the arguments started. "He's not budging."
"Deathstroke is the reason we shuttered this place" Donna said, reminding Dick what had happened. "We limped away, I didn't come for round two" Donna said angrily.
"I didn't forget" Dick bit out sadly. "But I can't kick her out. Slade's tried to kill her once, he'll do it again" Dick defended his actions.
"You don't think we're past that?" Hank asked angrily. "You don't think the same camera that saw you pick her up saw you bring her here?" Hank asked Dick.
"He doesn't know she's here.
I covered my tracks" Dick insisted. "And I'm not kicking her out."
"Okay, look, we're here for Dr. Light, let's take care of Dr. Light" Dick said. "The girl is my problem" Dick said walking off.
"Do you not have a problem with this?" Hank exploded on Ashley. Ashley's upper lip curled in anger before she responded with her own anger.
"You think I don't have a problem with this?" Ashley asked him, almost yelling. "That I didn't want him to leave her where he found her because bad shit always happens to people like us?" Ashley asked, beginning to yell. "I know you guys are pissed, and I am too" Ashley's voice wavered as her emotions caught up. "And even though it's been almost four years since Garth died" Tears fell down Ashley's face now. "He took my best friend from me, he took your drinking buddy" She said pointing at Hank. "He took your friend" She said to Dawn. "And he took the man you loved, but Garth helped save me from myself and he stuck around for every single one of us through thick and thin, no matter what bullshit was going on and stupid shit we got into" Ashley said. "Fucked up shit happened all those years ago, but you don't ever get to accuse me of wanting anything to do with Slade in my home ever again" She said, facing Hank again. "If you got a fucking problem with it, you can try to talk to him. News flash, smart ass" Ashley yelled at him. "Dicks just as stubborn as I am" Ashley said and shook her head and left, wiping her face as she made her way to the room she shared with Dick. She sighed and grabbed herself clean clothes and made her way into the en suite bathroom and turned on the shower before undressing. Ashley sighed and locked the door, deciding she didn't want to chance Dick walking in before getting in the shower and sitting down under the rainfall showerhead and laid her head down on her knees as she broke down into sobs. She didn't know how to live with these ghosts that were slowly emerging from the corners of her mind and the skeletons that were fighting to come out of her closet.
A/N I started writing a criminal minds/bones crossover fanfic, very proud. Don't fret though, the Treacherous series is still my main focus I just don't wanna get burnt out and I'm weeks ahead so I'm not too worried. It is really fun though 😜. Also filming for s4 has started 🥳🥳 I have a feeling Joseph is gonna be my favorite villain of the entire series because I'll be like 🥺 and then be 🤬 just like with Klaus.
QOTD: who's your favorite new cast member? Mines Joseph Morgan lmao