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He watched the new Robin carefully as she managed to subdue the gang members. She’d improved since the last time he’d baby sat but she was still no where near really ready to be out on the street. He privately thought Bruce had lost his mind to have her out this soon after taking her on as Robin.
“She’s good but she needs quiet a bit of work,” Catwoman said landing behind him. He knew from Bruce that she had been snooping around a bit more recently. “The last kid was better what happened to him?” She walked up slowly. “He isn’t dead like that poor boy who replaced you is he?”
“He wasn’t up to the job,” he said as that was the statement Bruce wanted them to make to anyone who asked. It left things vague enough that he they didn’t have to go into details about what happened. “Why do you care anyway?” He turned back to watching Robin. Of course normally he would watch Selina because despite how close she and Bruce were he knew better than to normally turn his back on her but Robin was his priority right now.
“I’m just concerned after the second one I thought the Bat was done with his little birds,” he’d privately felt the same but then Tim had shown up and made a good case for Batman needing a Robin. He winced as Robin took a blow that she should have dodged easily. “Aren’t you going to help?”
“Only if she needs it,” he said feeling proud as she recovered quickly and actually got the upper hand again. “Is there a reason your suddenly prying into things that aren’t your business Cat.” He figured this was just the latest game she was playing to try to get Bruce’s attention. She was never happy when he was ignoring her.
“I was just concerned sometimes I think it is wrong of him to take these kids out there and I was curious what he did to get fired,” she said dropping the playful tone. “That’s what happened isn’t it since you said he wasn’t up to the job.” She looked at the girl then, “the whole underworld is talking and not all the rumors are kind to him.”
“When has he ever cared about the rumors,” he said with a snort. “He’s been ignoring them since the day I showed up as his side kick.” He had a pretty good idea of the content of those rumors they’d been around as long as Robin.
“I get asked a lot and I wanted the right details so I could make sure my lies don’t accident spill the truth,” she said easily and it sounded like the truth which meant it probably wasn’t.
“You’ll have to ask Batman then.” He said not going to get drawn into whatever game she was playing. She frowned at him and then took off leaving him alone. He was pleased to see that Robin had finished as well and was securing the crooks with zip ties before joining him. “Time to head home.”
“I saw someone up here with you,” she said sounding nervous. “Was that Batman checking up on me?” She sounded so needy and he hoped she’d grow out of it. She would need to learn that no matter how hard you fought for it you would never get Batman’s full approval.
“Catwoman, she’s decided to use your predecessor to play games with Batman.” He guessed he should warn her. “When your finally let out on your own make sure that your ready in case she comes fishing for details?”
“It would be hard for me to give details when I still don’t know what the other Robin did,” she said and then caught herself. “All Batman will tell me is that he broke the rules and there were irreversible consequences whatever that means.”
He looked at her and sighed Bruce really should have told her and he knew there’d be consequences for stepping over the line but she needed to know. “He accidentally killed someone,” he saw her start. “He did what caused it to save Batman’s life but that doesn’t change the fact someone is dead and Batman can never forgive that so pay attention and do what he tells you to do.”
“How did it happen,” she asked after a moment. “And is he okay?” He was glad she asked the second question because he was still worried about Tim. He knew Alfred was monitoring the boy to make sure he was following Bruce’s rule about staying home but Alfred couldn’t watch him twenty four seven.
“It was an accident but it involved him using a gun so Batman can’t ever forgive him,” he said. “And he seems to be okay back to civilian life but it’ll probably take him time to get over it.” They began to leave and then he saw it stuck to a wall near by a cat shaped bug. “Shit, looks like the Cat got her details.” He picked up the bug, “don’t use these in your sick games with the Bat.”
“Relax, I just needed to know and now I do,” her voice came back through the bug as he crushed it. “I should have checked what she was up to while I was watching you.” He said looking at Robin who was staring at him. “Let this be a lesson no matter how good you get don’t let you guard down just because someone isn’t a direct threat to you.” She nodded and he wondered what the fall out from all of this was going to be. “We’ll let’s go tell Batman and get the lecture over with.” He supposed it might do her some good to see that even he didn’t live up to Batman’s standards a lot of the time.
The end.