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Jason sighed with contentment, pulling the helmet over his head. For the first time in more than a week he was just going on patrol. No meeting up with any bats, no negotiations, no thinly veiled condescension or controlled aggression. Just him and Crime Alley, the way it was supposed to be. He glanced towards the window and his view of the setting sun.
Perfect.
He knew that the bats didn't start patrolling until full dark, but as Red Hood he'd always done things differently. In more than just the obvious. He was humming to himself as he set off towards the first stop on his patrol route.
The playground at Park Row Elementary.
There were thirty children waiting for him at the school, a busy night but not unusually so. And he knew all the kids here, so it wasn't a problem to plan the best route to get them all home. The children ran to him as they always did, cheering and calling out for his attention. The little voices calling 'Papa Hood, Papa Hood!' never failed to make him smile.
He spent a few minutes going over basic self defense with them, another few minutes making sure nobody had any injuries, and then they headed out.
Fourteen kids later they reached the Park Row branch of the Gotham City Public Library, and it started over, except most of the library kids were middle school age, and about half of them were the older siblings of the elementary school kids still with him. They were no less enthusiastic to see him than the younger children had been, and the rest of his first patrol was spent talking boyfriends, girlfriends, cheap recipes, the importance of salt, and -once a desperate looking thirteen year old asked- how to not get pregnant. Jason made a mental note to check into Deborah's situation, but didn't mention it in front of everyone. By the time he'd dropped the last kid off it was full dark.
Excellent timing.
He stopped at a nearby safehouse for a drink and started on his next patrol route of the night. This early in the night the biggest problems were drunks and guys harassing the working girls, so his route spiraled around where the booze was sold and the girls hung out. Luckily, these two sets of places had a lot of overlap. He checked in with all of the girls, -and guys, though nobody liked to talk about them for some reason- and got more than a dozen lipstick kisses pressed against his helmet -for luck, they said, but Jason thought they just liked to embarrass him- and more offers to go home with him than he ever thought he'd be comfortable with. From both the girls and the guys.
He made his escape when a baby toddled out of the mouth of a nearby alley. She shrieked loudly and ran as fast as her chubby little legs would carry her towards him. Jason sighed and scooped her up in his arms.
"Mashka, where's your mama?" he asked in resignation. She babbled happily back at him, but the only word he understood was 'hood'. "Alright, let's get you home." He ignored the snickering hookers to head back the way the child had come.
"Mashka!" he heard shouted as he rounded the corner. "Mashka Ivanovna!"
"Tanya!" he called out to the frantic blonde searching the street in front of yet another apartment building.
"Hood!" There was stark relief in her face as she ran over to him. "It's Mashka, she slipped away while I was bringing in groceries!"
"I've got her, Tanya." He held the child up like a baby lion, and watched the relief spread over her face. "Good thing she loves me, because she sure does know my patrol route. She came straight to me." Tanya laughed as she gathered the baby into her arms.
"I'm so sorry," she said with a smile. "But since you're here, could I interest you in staying long enough for dinner?" Jason grinned underneath the helmet. Tanya had been flirting with him from the first time he'd picked up her daughter without the child screaming bloody murder. It was nice, even if he had no intention of taking her up on it.
"I'd love to, Tanya, really. But I have to finish patrol."
"Oh, you and your patrol. Always patrolling!" She pushed him away with a small grin. "Go on then."
"Tell the boys I said hi." And he continued on.
His third route of the evening took him to the docks and warehouses. This late it was time for black market deals and illegal merchandise deliveries. There hadn't been a lot of chatter in the last few days, but he'd also been thoroughly distracted by the bats, so he ran through his most intricate route here, though he didn't find anything but some street kids camping out in one of the warehouses. He gave them some food that he always carried for situations like this -the inside of his jacket had freaking huge pockets, and he didn't have anything better to put there, really- and made a mental note to come back in the next few days with a care package for them. Jason yawned tiredly and turned back towards his main base. Halfway there he remembered he wanted to check in on Deborah. He detoured and got to her apartment building just as the sun was coming up.
She was already awake when he got to her window, curled up on her bed and crying. She looked up just before his fingers touched the glass. Good girl. She scrambled from the bed to open the window. Jason sat casually on the ledge, leaning back against the window frame, not wanting to invade her space.
Deborah didn't seem to be nearly as worried about it. She threw herself into his arms, still sobbing. Jason ended up kneeling on the floor of her room, hiding her in his jacket against his chest, arms around her comfortingly as she slowly calmed.
"Tell me what happened," he ordered gently. Well, as gently as the synthesizer would let him. He struggled to hold back his anger as she hesitantly explained. No wonder she'd been terrified. "He still here?" Deborah nodded against his shoulder. "You want for me to guard the door for your shower or to go somewhere else?"
"Somewhere else," she whispered. Jason just nodded.
"Alright. Get your shower and school things. I know somewhere you'll be safe." His heart just about broke when she looked up at him with relief and trust in her gaze.
"Thank you, Papa Hood."
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Jason slumped in through his window, completely exhausted. He was up far past his bedtime, but it had been worth it. He'd taken Deborah to his closest safehouse that had hot water and guarded the door for her to give her a chance to wash away the memories of the unwanted touch (and he was still thanking whatever was guarding her that it had only been touch, even if the only reason was that the sadistic bastard was drawing things out. No matter, he would never get the chance to continue his game) and get herself put together.
He'd then taken her out to breakfast and gently extracted all the information he needed to take care of her problem over pancakes, constantly reassuring her that nothing she could have done would have stopped him, and it wasn't her fault. The simple self defense he'd taught her and the other kids was mostly ways to create an opportunity to run, and she'd had nowhere to run to in her own home. Then he'd escorted her to school, where she would be safe for the day, before moving to take out the trash that had dared to call itself a father and yet do that to his daughter.
A soft sound from the living room caught his attention, and he groaned. He just wanted sleep. He didn't want to deal with whatever the bats wanted now. Sure enough, Batman and Nightwing were making free with his couch when he got there.
"What?" Jason growled impatiently.
"Hood." Jason paused at the unusual note of uncertainty in Batman's voice.
"We just-" Nightwing broke off and then started again. "We wanted to apologize."
"For what?"
"We… made some assumptions from your introduction about how your patrol would go. And… it seems we were wrong."
"You were following me?" If he was so out of it that he hadn't noticed a tail, he needed to stop patrolling. Nightwing chucked.
"You completely forgot, didn't you?" Jason just glared at him, crossing his arms.
"You agreed to a video feed from your helmet the same as we each have." It was the first Batman had said since his name, and Jason didn't know how to feel about it.
"So you've been watching me all night."
"I wanted to get a read on how you operate on your own before attempting any combined patrols." And yeah, that sounded just like Bruce. Jason turned away, lifting his hands to remove his helmet once his back was to them. He was going to go sleep now, damnit. "You're remarkably well integrated in the community for how long you've been operating." Suddenly furious, he spun and flung the first thing he had to hand at the bat, which just so happened to be the helmet he'd just removed.
"Fuck you, old man! Just because they still don't trust you doesn't mean it's suspicious that they trust me!" Batman and Nightwing were both staring at him, the red helmet dropped to the floor at Batman's feet. "What?!"
"Jaybird?" Nightwing whispered, and it was only then that his exhausted brain caught up to his mistake. He hadn't worn a mask last night, and he'd thrown his helmet at Batman. They could see his face.
Fuck.
"I'm never gonna get any sleep today, am I?"