Chapter Text
Stephanie recalled the first time she had seen “Batgirl” clearly.
She’d been working on a homicide case near the Narrows in late October a year ago.
Oracle sent her with clear instructions: look for evidence, and leave without causing any disturbance. She had been hesitant about sending Stephanie at all, but with all of the other Birds out on their own missions, and after learning the importance of investigating the case and getting someone incriminated, she had reluctantly agreed to it.
The victim was a 56 year-old man named Gilbert, who was apparently an old friend of Commissioner Gordon’s. He owned a convenience store, and two weeks ago it was broken into, robbed, and Gilbert was murdered.
The police report said he’d been shot in the head by a person dressed in all black. No other evidence than the low-quality security footage was found. Stephanie knew better than that.
She also knew exactly why Barbara had been so hesitant to let her investigate here.
This was Bat territory.
If a patrolling Bat discovered her here tonight, she’d probably be interrogated, threatened, and thrown all the way across town and into Oracle’s lap. Or worse.
She knew the Bats prided themselves on their holy morals of not murdering people, but she still felt a shiver run up her spine at the thought of one of them catching her.
She was almost there now.
She checked the GPS device from her utility belt one more time before she rounded the filthy alleyway corner and found herself standing in front of Gilbert’s closed-off store.
She darted her eyes back and forth quickly, surveying the area before slipping into her stealth setting and entering the store.
She didn’t make a noise as she walked through the ghostly-still aisles, the shelves still crammed with bags of food, and glass still frozen in place on the solid gray floor. She took note of every detail as she walked slowly down the aisle, everything from the bag of chips dated one day before the break-in, to her own involuntarily increasing heart rate.
She turned the corner to the right and saw the counter. The exact place where, two weeks ago, an innocent old man was killed.
Gilbert Carachure. Father of two. Planning a trip to his hometown in Italy with his wife next weekend. Gone.
Her heart twisted.
She shook away her thoughts quickly; they wouldn’t help her solve this case. She had to make sure Ms. Carachure knew justice would be served.
She circled the counter, which was eerily clean and tidy. The police had taken what they needed and cleaned up the rest, so it was up to her to find a microorganism of his DNA somewhere around here.
Needle in a haystack. No big deal, Steph.
She checked the surface of the counter first, and then the floor, then every object on the counter. Nothing.
But just when she was mentally preparing herself to break out the print dusting kit, she heard something.
It was almost imperceptible. Just the faintest little sound, like something dragging on a hard surface.
Steph’s head shot up and she immediately reached for the batons at her hips. She quickly and silently ducked under the counter just as she heard it again, this time closer than before.
Whatever it was, it was close. Way too close for comfort. Her heart skipped a beat when she heard it pause, because it was right behind her.
Barbara would criticize Stephanie for her needing to constantly “leap without looking.” Stephanie just called it thinking on her feet.
All in one motion, Stephanie jumped the counter and tried to tackle the perp…
…only to end up flat on her back a fraction of a second later, staring dumbfoundedly up at someone entirely cloaked in black.
The person stared at her with… what she assumed were eyes, hidden under dull white lenses on a black mask that covered their whole face.
Stephanie was in shock for a moment; her mind racing and coming to the conclusion that this must be Gilbert’s murderer, until she was able to collect her thoughts and notice the thin yellow line peeking out from under the person’s… cape?
The realization dawned on her and she jumped to her feet.
“I don’t… I’m not here to tamper with the case,” she warned, slipping into a defensive position as she began backing away, like this person was a rabid dog.
No, she, in fact, just might be worse. Because she was Batgirl.
Barbara had a file on her. A pathetically short one, but one that practically said in big bolded letters; “Fuck around and find out.”
Batgirl stood there, unthreatened by anything Steph was doing, just… watching her. Like she was an interesting little bird in the wrong cage.
“I… I can go away now, if you’ll let me,” she heard herself say. I’ll come back later.
Batgirl tipped her head to one side as if considering this proposition for a brief moment. And then she started walking up to her. It took every muscle in Stephanie’s body not to move, or flinch, as she came within an arm’s length of her. The woman was a little shorter than her, and from this distance, she could see now that her mask had two long points coming up from the sides which she guessed were supposed to be bat ears, and white stitching over the mouth of the mask.
The woman seemed to be studying her as well for a moment, before finally speaking in a soft, distorted voice.
“…Not one of us.”
“Yeah… no. I’m not one of you people,” Stephanie replied, a little sharper than she meant. Batgirl paused for another moment before speaking again.
“…you…have the same order. Mission.” She said,
“I will help.”
“That’s nice but-“ Stephanie started, but was quickly cut off when Batgirl grabbed her hand and closed a tiny black box in it. Stephanie didn’t have time to look at it before Batgirl silently turned and ran out the door.
“Hey, hold on!” She called, but the woman had already disappeared into the night sky.
————
“A hidden camera. Looks like our guy might’ve been a bit paranoid” Barbara remarked.
The recording on it had captured the murder perfectly in a high-quality video. Barbara was at her main desk deconstructing the little contraption, and Stephanie was on the couch behind her, still confused by everything that happened.
“I just don’t see why she would do that, Babs.” Stephanie half mumbled, lost in thought.
“I don’t see how she could work for him, and do something like that.”
“Maybe she’s still new at the job. The first sighting of her was reported less than a year ago,” Barbara stated absent-mindedly
“Yeah… maybe that’s it,” Steph replied, pulling up a blanket and laying down fully on the couch.
“I’m going to sleep on it. If you need me, yell.”
Babs hummed her acknowledgment, and with that Stephanie allowed herself to fall asleep into a dream cloaked in the dark, leathery wings of bats.