Chapter Text
9 and 10
Katie’s good at finding things.
That’s what her daddy says, anyway. ‘Eye of an eagle, you’ve got there Katie’ he’d said when she found his glasses. He said she could make a career of being a master puzzler with how she finds the right pieces.
She’s also good at seeing things. Well, kind of, sometimes she sees things that no one else does and she knows they aren’t real. But besides that, she’s good at seeing people. And the boy standing to the side with blank eyes, she can see, is very very sad.
She tugs on daddy’s sleeve and asks in a whisper, because she had gotten a talking to when she’d asked something like this out loud, “Who’s that?”
Daddy glances and his mouth turns down, “That's Bruce, he’s your cousin.”
“Oh,” Katie says, because she’s good at finding things like glasses and puzzle pieces and people, “He’s Aunt Marthas isn’t he?”
Daddy pauses, sighs, “Yes, he was.”
Katie frowns at the wording. She’s still her momas kid, even though she barely remembers her. That doesn’t change now that she’s gone. She looks around at the way people seem to stay away from him except one old man and makes a decision.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” she whispers.
Daddy nods and points behind them and she hops off her chair and slips through the circular church building – there isn’t a synagogue in Gotham – and back into the room where all of the black dressed people are, through a doorway that puts her close to Bruce.
“Hello,” she says pleasantly, but Bruce still jumps.
“Oh. Hi.” he looks back at the wall across from him, eyes skipping right over her.
It’s okay. She knows the feeling.
“I’m Katie,” she introduces herself, “I’m your cousin.”
Bruce glances at her like he doesn’t know what to do, then answers, “I’m Bruce.”
Katie nods, “I know. I’m here for you.”
An incredulous pause like Bruce can’t believe she just said that. But he doesn’t look mad. “You’re here for my parents.” He says slowly.
She shrugs, “They might be. But I’m not.”
Another pause, this one longer.
“Do you like Grey Ghost?”
Her nose scrunches, “The detective?”
He nods quickly and she knows she’s made a good decision. He’s still very sad, but not very very sad.
“I haven’t seen much, I don’t get to watch TV. What’s he do?”
12 and 13
Bruce bursts out the Manor doors toward the car parking just at the bottom steps. The passenger door opens and Katie’s shoes slam onto the concrete.
“B!”
“Katie!”
They meet half-way and grab hands, Bruce immediately spins on his heel and drags her past Alfred and into the house, “You have to see what I found!” He shouts, voice out of control.
Katie laughs, stumbling after him, then rushing past because she’s mean and had gone and grown half a foot taller than him. For now.
“You don’t even know where we’re going!”
“The Library!” She laughs, “You’re heads full of books, figures you’d want to be around your own kind.”
She races up the north stairs and Bruce skids to a stop, turning and whipping open the painting to his left. He climbs the ladder inside to the left and scrambles the few feet to the bookshelf door.
He heaves it open just as the library doors whip open. It’s Kate's turn to stop dead, staring.
“Holy shit!”
There’s a muffled, “Young lady!” From Alfred and she hollers back.
“Sorry!” Then, quieter, “Holy shit.”
Bruce grins, “Right? There are dozens! Probably more! They’re all over the house!”
Kate bounces on her toes, “Oh this is so rad.” she presses into the hallway past him, looking back and forth through the tunnel. She pops back out and her hand flutters over Bruce's arm before he grabs it, “Show me!?” it’s a question and a command all in one.
Bruce grins, “Of course!”
Like he’d keep it from his sister.