Bruce had never been a fan of aliens. They were an unknown. An unpredictable threat. He saw his friendship with the Kryptonian Kal-El as an exception to these rules, and the only one that he was willing to accept. So, when an alien vessel crashes in...
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James Gordon remembered the day that his daughter was born. His wife had labored for almost ten hours, and for most of it Gordon was taking down a smuggling ring in outer Gotham. He'd missed five calls from the hospital, and when he finally arrived, his baby girl was handed to him. She was dressed in light pink and wrapped in a white blanket. She had no hair, as with most newborns, but James Gordon was convinced from the moment he first saw her that his daughter was the most beautiful child to ever exist.
Now he stood, twenty-one years later, in the same hospital that she was born in...only this time she lay, unmoving, in a hospital bed. There were no words to express the grief that flooded his senses. He had witnessed every manner of crime imaginable, and seen many parents mourn their children, but he never imagined that he would experience it himself. Not his daughter. His smart, funny, beautiful daughter...surely the universe had a greater plan for her.
"Commissioner?" Doctor Lora said in a gentle voice. The one she reserved specifically for the distressed family members of her patients. "What should we do with this?"
She had taken him into an empty room, after prying him away from Barbara's side, and held out something that he had never expected to see up close. Batgirl's costume. It was folded neatly in the doctor's hands but even that couldn't mask the blood staining the yellow bat symbol.
At first, Gordon had thought this was some kind of sick joke. Then he reasoned that, perhaps, it was only a costume. People dressed up like their favourite superheroes all the time...but not Barbara. He knew his daughter like he knew his own face. She wasn't the type to play dress-up, even less to parade around the streets pretending to be some crime fighter. No. This was real. All those nights that she had snuck out...all those days she came home bloodied and bruised from 'sparring' at her kickboxing class...it all made sense now.
"How..." Gordon paused, swallowing a whimper that desperately wanted to be released. He reached out, running a finger along the cowl. He had never seen Batgirl in person. She always disappeared whenever he was nearby. Still, he should have known. How could he be so blind? "How many people saw her in this?"
"Five or six, including me. The paramedics covered her up as they brought her in, and the person that found her insists that he didn't touch her mask."
Gordon breathed for what felt like the first time in hours. "You've got good people here. Thank them for me...then tell everyone that saw her that this is classified information and if any of them leak it, I'll toss them into a cell with no toilet."
Doctor Lora nodded, albeit a little uncomfortably. "I'll tell them."
Gordon took the costume from her and stuffed it into his duffle bag. He had only packed a few things when he was called to the hospital, like Barbara's phone and the dreamcatcher that she couldn't sleep without. A bag full of his daughter's life, now plagued by a secret that she had kept from him for too many years.
