The Nowhere Girl

29. I Wanna Ruin Our Friendship

[Jason Todd]

They abandoned her! Gave up. Sure, there was other stuff that need to be done, but they didn't need a funeral just to get her out of the way. One of them could have kept looking.

Red Hood slams the man's face into the bar table, channelling his anger into something productive. There's the telltale crunch of a nose breaking and blood spurts. Red Hood smiles under his helmet. "Let's try this again. Tell me where he is."

"I tolb you! I don'b dnow!" he huffs and groans on the ground, his voice muffled since he can't breathe through his nose.

"Got to do better than that or I'm going to start getting angry." They won't like Red Hood when he's angry. He's at a dive bar where all the henchmen hang out. It's on the road between Gotham and Blüdhaven. One of the lowlife scumbags in here is going to tell him what he wants to know.

A hand lands on Red Hood's shoulder. "Hey, he said he didn't know anything. Why don't you leave him alone, huh, tough guy?" He feels the punch coming, but it's slow. Untrained.  It doesn't take any effort to dodge, and it takes even less effort to pull out his gun and put a bullet through the henchman's head.

He looks around the bar. There is quiet now. "Don't worry..." says Red Hood. "I'm going to get to every one of you in here. You just have to wait your turn." Someone comes at him from behind and he throws them into the ground. "Or not. Someone in here is going to tell me..." another goon, a bullet to the knee "Where the hell..." Two heads smashed together "Is the Joker?!"

Barely a word comes out of the henchman's mouth that is gushing with blood. Red Hood holds neck, lifting him clean off the ground, then pushes his Glock right under his chin. "Arkham!" the henchman gurgles. "He's in an abandoned wing of Arkham!"

He slams the butt of the gun into his face. He falls to the ground, unconscious. And just because he had bullets to waste, Red Hood plugs him in the shoulder.

He walks out and down the back alley to his bike when he hears someone not-so gracefully jump from the fire escape and land behind him.

"I don't need the lecture, Dildo." He swings around, expecting Dick and ready to lash out but stops-

It's her - her hood is up - but it's her-

Bluey.

"Didn't I tell you that I'm the last person in the world you have to explain yourself to." She takes his hands, lowering his fists and rubs the back of his palm, grazing the back of her fingernails over his skin in calming circles. If the blood splattered on his hands bothers her, she doesn't show it.

"This isn't real," he mutters. Jason's anger has drained away, leaving him hollow.

"It's real," she says, lifting his chin.

In an instant Jason slides his arms around her waist and pulls her into hug. She nuzzles into him, and he holds her tighter. He's forgotten good she smells, like the bush, even under the smell of sweat and the coppery smell of rust, but it matches her so well that it makes Jason feel warm on the inside.

Jason pulls away, but still keeps a tight grip on Bluey. He stares into her eyes, looking back and forth, almost as if he's trying to catch the lie or trick.  When he finally looks away from her eyes, he quickly checks the rest of her body, making sure she isn't hurt. What he finds worries him. She looks sort of sick, her tanned skin shaded a little grey and there's a fresh set of scars across her right cheek. She has the hollow eyes of someone who has been hunted for too long.

Jason takes the moment to sip off his hood and let it fall to the ground with a clatter. He pulls her back into his chest.

"I'm sorry," Bluey mutters into his shoulder.