Chapter Text
When Barbara left Dick’s apartment she knew she had to talk to Jason. She wasn’t sure how to do that. She wasn’t sure where she stood with Jason, or how Jason would feel about Dick talking about that stuff with her. She contemplated what to do her whole way back home. When she got there she decided that she would just have to call him, he did tend to appreciate when people were up front with him. Though she was still gonna do this over the phone, if he got mad she didn’t necessarily want to be in his line of sight.
He picked up on the third ring, “What do you want?”
“We need to talk, if you’re out, or busy, it might not be the best time, but if you’re free…”
There was what sounded like something falling in the background, “I’m not busy, what’s up? Is this a Jason or Hood conversation?”
“Jason, definitely Jason. Dick talked to me about what you two talked about a few days ago. About the time leading up to your death? Before you get mad at him, just remember you did kinda dump a lot onto him, I was just helping him process it, figure out why what you said didn’t match Bruce’s version of events.”
“Oh, that? Yeah, that’s fine.” There was a sound, like he just flopped down in a chair, “Why would I care if he told you? It happened years ago, and I just kinda assumed you knew about it anyways. I mean, the commissioner is known to bring his work home with him. If you want to share it, do what you want, as I said, it was years ago. And Bruce has been telling everyone his version for years anyway, so I doubt they’d believe me. Only reason Dick probably did is he had you there to turn him straight.”
Well, Barbara wasn’t gonna tell him how close Dick had come to just writing off Jason’s version of events. Still though… “I still wanted to tell you. It didn’t feel right, talking to people about your death, without letting you know.”
“Yeah, well now I know. As I said, it’s not like you learned any new information. It’s not like I even told him about the time Bruce killed me. Not that it stuck that time either, but not fun getting blown up again.” There was a sound like Jason was sighing at the memory, “Ugh, forget I said that. I don’t even think Bruce knows about how that ended, and you can barely even see the scar anymore.”
Well, Barbara now had her own information to process, and also some camera feeds to try and find. Jason said it was years ago, and the information he gave would match up with his first big confrontation with Bruce, as Jason Todd. There might not have been any street cameras at the time, and those recordings might not have been on file anymore, but it was worth a shot. If she was being honest this was mostly for the sake of her own curiosity. Contrary to popular opinion, she and Bruce weren’t close, they were more like coworkers than anything else. She just had never actually heard the details of that confrontation, and it had never been relevant, so she hadn’t looked too closely at it, but now she wanted to see what had actually happened. But first she had to not seem suspicious to Jason, “Consider it forgotten.”
If only Jason wasn’t so damned perceptive. “Don’t lie to me, especially when this whole conversation started because you were clearing your conscience. Just promise me this story will stay between you and me. And don’t be too hard on Bruce about it, I was egging him on, this was right after Blüdhaven was blown up, he didn’t know if Dick was still alive, I was rubbing salt in that wound. Also I was pointing a gun at the Joker, I was purposefully pushing Bruce into a corner, I should have known it would have ended badly.”
“That I actually can promise. Consider my lips sealed.”
…
Well it took her a while, and the actual building that the confrontation happened in didn’t have any cameras, but Barbara was able to find a video of the aftermath of the explosion. From what she could see, Jason had taunted Bruce and had him chase him into a run down building, then a bit later Bruce came sprinting out holding the Joker in his arms, right before the building exploded behind him. A bit later, there was a figure that she couldn’t make out clearly, covered in a dark liquid that could have been blood, that crawled out of the wreckage. Later still, Bruce came back and dug through the wreckage, probably trying to find Jason, this time he came back empty handed.
Barbara didn’t know what to think, she didn’t want to say Jason was lying, but also, she didn’t want to believe him. The video she could find was old and grainy, and didn’t make anything clearer. Jason said he bounced back, but it couldn’t have been more than a few hours. Was Jason sure he hadn’t been just badly hurt by the explosion? Also, Jason said he blamed Bruce for this death, but from what Barbara could see it was an explosion, which Bruce wouldn’t have used. What was the scar that Jason mentioned? She felt like that was the key to cracking this whole thing open.
Eventually she found her answer. It had been a few days and it wasn’t where she expected. She was going over some recent family pictures with Dick, when she saw it. It was subtle, barely visible really, and with the necklines Jason usually preferred it would be covered. Even in this picture it could be credited to a trick of the light, but there was a faint line, right at the base of Jason’s neck above his collarbone. Barbara wasn’t sure, even in the photo it was hard to see, if that’s what Jason was talking about, he wasn’t kidding, the scar had faded really well.
Now Barbara was looking through, and she couldn’t find any photos besides that one where Jason’s neck was fully visible. It wasn’t obvious, you could easily just see it as him preferring higher necklines, but with what Jason shared it could be the missing piece. If that was a scar, what had caused it? It was frustrating, but that wasn’t a question Barbara was going to be able to find the answer to. It was so clear this was the last piece of the puzzle, but it just wouldn’t fit. If she could see the scar more clearly, or get a peak into the room the confrontation had taken place in, or anything, Barbara knew she’d be able to make everything fit together. Barbara had promised though. She told Jason she wouldn’t tell anyone about what Jason had told her, and she intended to keep that promise. Even if she was willing to ask Bruce, it was clear Jason was gone by the time he got back to the rubble. Even if he would be willing to, she doubted he would give her a clear answer as to what happened.
Why is she even thinking like it was an option?! Barbara said she wouldn’t share this and she meant it. She understood what Jason meant about the Garzones case being something she’d already known about. The facts of the case were the same as the one they had all been told, the differences were in the motivations, it was fairly easy to figure out at least some of the missing details given knowledge of what Jason was like as a kid. But this situation was different. This was something you’d need to be told to even look for, and what you would find would be so subtle that if you weren’t told ahead of time what you were looking at, you would glance right over.
Now Barbara wished she had gone to Jason’s apartment in person. She wished she could have seen his body language, his facial expressions. What’s really important isn't necessarily the details. What’s clear is this, Jason believes that Bruce killed him in that building, and he was revived a second time. Jason also believes that no one else, not even Bruce knows this fact. That means the situation must have been unclear, but it could possibly have been fatal. Given that, Barbara feels confident in what to do next, which is nothing. Her relationship with Bruce won’t change much, and neither will her relationship with Batman. She isn’t close with him anyway. He’s Dick’s father, and another vigilante in the same city as her. She will need to keep an eye out though, especially for Steph. Some of the things Bruce has said about both her and Jason raises some red flags. So she needs to be prepared to step in if things start to get dicey.