Treacherous | Dick Grayson

13

Chicago, Illinois

Ashley didn't know if the tears had frozen to her face or simply dried. Long after her Aunt had hung up, she simply curled up on the cold balcony and overlooked the city through dead eyes. She had seen the sunset and now that dark was approaching she had the overwhelming urge to disappear without a trace. 'Maybe' The brunette thought 'If I disappeared the pain would go.' She knew, of course, that it wouldn't. She had experienced it enough throughout her life and was now old enough to know that the pain of her past would always be in her life, but in her dark mind, she simply wanted to make it all end by any means necessary. 

Ashley sighed and got up to make her way inside. She started sifting through the drawers, looking for something to wear to bed, and set it to the side. She made her way downstairs and saw Kory, Gar, and Rachel in the living room. "Ashley!" Rachel happily exclaimed. 

"Hey Teenager" Ashley said as a small smile graced her features. "Have you guys ate yet?" Ashley asked them as though she was a fretting mother. 

"Yeah" Rachel said before truly taking in Ashley's features. "Are you okay?" Rachel asked her softly. 

"Don't worry about me" Ashley told her. "Where's Dick?" Ashley asked. 

"He left, said he had something to take care of but that he'd be back soon" Kory butted in, looking at the woman worriedly too. Ashley's eyes flicked to Gar's and saw he was giving her a similar look. 

Ashley sighed and said "I'm fine, this is just a side effect of a lifelong career I didn't choose for myself. Now please, stop giving me pity looks."

"We can't help it if we're worried. Now, do you want in or not?" Rachel asked and the other three in the room gave each other smirks as Ashley sat down. Just as Ashley was about to join them, she heard her phone begin to ring and let out a sigh. She looked at the caller ID and saw Dick's name and answered it. 

"Hello?" Ashley asked. 

"Ash, I need you to get to the batcomputer. Quickly" Dick told her. 

"What's going on?" She asked as she got up and walked away from the group, searching the rooms for the batcomputer. 

"Log in and track the last call from (414)-555-0111" Dick told her. 

"Okay" Ashley said, sitting down and hacking into the system. She opened the triangulator and typed in the number. As she waited for it to load she asked Dick "So, do I get to know what's going on or will I be blindly helping?" Ashley asked. 

"What if I explained it all when I'm done?" Dick asked. 

"That's no fun" Ashley said. The computer beeped and Ashley looked at the screen and bit her lip. "ACE Chemicals on 87th. Be careful, Richard" Ashley told him. 

"Always am" Dick told her.

Ashley snorted and said "Bullshit."

"I'll be back soon" Dick promised. 

"You better...and you better be in one piece. You also better call the second you are done so I can get some much-deserved sleep" Ashley told him. 

"Like you don't sleep enough" Dick joked. 

"Never get to the deep sleep part" Ashley admitted. 

"We'll talk about your sleeping habits later, and I'll explain everything when I'm back" Dick promised. 

"Okay. Bye Dick" Ashley said and the phone hung up.  Ashley stared at the screen for a moment before closing the open app on the computer and started digging into her father's files. She entered the official files for the bats and typed in 'Batgirl.' She scrolled the files but only saw herself and Barbara in the families and let out a sigh of relief. "Doesn't mean he doesn't have candidates" Ashley whispered to herself and opened a new search to look through. She started looking through the prospective uninformed applicants and narrowed her eyes. She shook her head and as her last petty move, deleted the files from the databank. She rolled her eyes, and began to pace the room anxiously, waiting for Dick to call.