Work Text:
Done
She was not looking forward to this but it had been nearly three months since Tim showed back up in Gotham and enough was enough it was time to put this matter to rest. Which meant it was time to tell Batman that she was dropping all avenues of investigation into the matter. She heard the subtle sound of his cape and turned her chair to face him. “Did the new video comparison model come up with conclusive results?”
“No just like the last ones didn’t,” she said letting her annoyance show. “And I won’t be running any more it’s pointless we don’t have enough high quality footage of Stray to even begin to compare him to video of Tim as Spoiler.” It also didn’t help that they had no footage of stray fighting which would be the easiest to compare. “You need to let this go Bruce.”
“Not until we know the truth,” Bruce said annoyed. “Have you made any more progress on tracking Stray’s funds?” So now he was back to that she’d followed the money trail as far as possible but there were financial systems even she couldn’t access and seeing her face must have shown him the answer. “Then we’ll recheck his alibis for some of the heist there has to be a way to know for sure?”
“No Bruce there isn’t,” she said doing her best to keep the snappish tone out of her voice. “Unless Stray shows back up for you to catch and unmask there is no way to eliminate all doubt and this obsession of yours is getting in the way of us doing our real work.” She had a stack of cases she hadn’t managed to crack yet because Bruce kept insisting she chase another wild lead. “Everyone else but you sees that even Dick who thinks your right about Tim being Stray has realized how pointless pursuing it is.”
She saw Batman frown she knew he was still mad that Dick hadn’t told him what he and Tim talked about a few weeks ago. All any of them knew was that it had left Dick convinced that Bruce was right and Tim was Stray. He’d then told them they’d never prove it and gone back to Bludhaven and had refused to reveal anything about that meeting to any of them. “Anyway Bruce I’m done there is nothing else any of us can do so why don’t you focus on things that need your attention like this new guy causing trouble in the Gotham underworld.” The reports so far implied the guy was wearing a costume, “The one witnesses say looks like a deranged biker?”
Batman gave her an unreadable look and she hoped he was actually listening to her. “Send everything you have to the cave if your giving up then I’ll take over the investigation.” She felt her hopes deflate he was going to continue with his obsession.
She considered refusing to send the information but that was only going to pick a fight. “Fine Bruce but eventually even you’ll have to accept that you won’t get a definitive answer on this.” She hoped he would realize it before some major crisis exploded on the scenes. “But frankly I think you should just be glad Tim’s alive and helping again, he’s done some good work the last few weeks.”
Bruce didn’t respond at first he turned and began to walk out before pausing and turning back, “I know Robin believes he’s not Stray and Dick Believes he is,” he paused briefly, “your the only other soldier that knew him what do you think?”
“I think it doesn’t matter Bruce,” she said honestly. “If he was Stray then the worst he did was leading us around like idiots and if he isn’t then your making a difficult situation worse Tim seems to be here to stay now so you have to learn to live with him.”
“If he was Stray then he’s a thief and he belongs in jail not pretending to be a hero,” Bruce said clearly irritated. “You can’t ignore his breaking the law because you like him.” She was amazed at her self for having the self control to not bring up Selina. She guessed Bruce had a pretty good idea what she was thinking because his face darkened. “I’m leaving why don’t you make yourself useful and see if the police have any leads on those two sex worker murders near the docks.”
She nodded and began to work reminded that they might have another serial killer showing up. It wasn’t unusual in Gotham. Unfortunately they seemed to have at least one or two new ones every year and way to often it took months to find them since the usual suspects from Arkham tended to keep everyone too busy to really look for them.
The end