BAE - Epilogue Part 2

Watching the attack on GCPD play out in the news is a difficult experience.

Watching Commissioner Gordon be dragged for it mercilessly is even harder.

Barbara wants to pivot into her Batgirl mentality and live there, but she can’t. Reality won’t let her. Lucius is protecting her for the moment, but it can’t last. Her presence at GCPD during the attack and her injury… they represent yet another huge opportunity for PR.

The company wants her to use it for profit. Lucius wants her to use it for politics. It’s overwhelming, and having finalized numbers for the dead and injured, along with their names is devastating. People died that night who Barbara knew. She knows how torn up her father is about what happened to her, and this doesn’t seem fair on top of that. There’s nothing he can do to give her the use of her legs back, and there’s nothing she can do to lessen the burden of being Commissioner… at least not from a hospital bed.

Barbara doesn’t feel responsible for what happened, but she knows that she could’ve done better. That’s not an easy pill to swallow.

She turns off the TV as Kate enters the hospital room, which is full of flowers. The most spectacular bouquet is from Summer, which fills Barbara with guilt. She hasn’t spoken to her yet.

Kate’s dressed in jeans and a jacket, and carries the little backpack that she uses as a purse. Oddly, she’s had her hair dyed a much more natural shade of red, and she’s wearing normal makeup instead of her usual heavy eye shadow.

Her body language is more than enough to tell Barbara that she’s in for bad news.

“Did you find my contacts?” Barbara asks hopefully.

“Nope. I think Alfred had already gotten in there, maybe.” Kate perches in the chair beside the bed and rummages in her bag. She comes up with Barbara’s glasses.

“Thanks.” Barbara scowls and puts them on. They immediately start to slide down her nose and she straightens them.

“Nerd.”

“How are you?”

“Better. Babs, I’m quitting.”

Barbara takes that in. It’s not what she expected. She nods.

“It’s Maggie. And everything. Everything at GCPD,” Kate adds, leaning over with a grumpy expression. She rests her chin on her hand. “I saw your cowl footage of Maggie and Renee. All I could think about was how badly I screwed things up with them. They are both so amazing, and I managed to blow it with both of them. Because that’s what I do. Nothing ever works. It’s me, Babs. It’s always me, and after I saw… what a mess I made that night…” she trails off. “I have to change. I can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over and hoping it’ll be different. I keep thinking that I can color outside the lines and that it’ll just magically work. I decided to dress up as a bat after I got out of the military. And then I wonder why I can’t have a healthy relationship.”

Barbara stays quiet and lets her vent.

“What will you do?” she asks finally.

Kate sucks in a deep breath. “I’m gonna fix things with Maggie and Renee.”

Barbara raises an eyebrow. “Both of them?”

“And I’m going to protect them. I saw them in danger in that footage and I didn’t like that. Maggie’s hurt bad.” Kate shakes her head. “Never again. I’m going to join GCPD.”

Barbara almost spits out her apple juice. “What?”

“You heard me. Hell, I could even go back to the Army now. So, I’m not really quitting. Just changing uniforms.”

“Kate, I know things seem raggedy here, and I’m sure they’ll be hiring after the other night, but this is Gotham. Getting into the academy is incredibly competitive because every thin blue line idiot in the lower 48 comes here to prove themselves. Kate Kane’s an alcoholic fuckup socialite. You think she’s getting accepted to the academy?”

“Yeah. Because she has a friend who knows the commissioner,” Kate says, gazing into Barbara’s eyes.

“Oh, Jesus.”

“Yeah. Let that sink in. That’s why I’m begging you now. Before he has to step down. Get me in, Babs.”

“This is pissing me off.”

“Why didn’t you join? Seriously.”

“The height requirement! They changed it like a year later!” Barbara rages, putting her hand over the top of her head. “Literally half an inch.”

“Yeah, but then there’d have been no Batgirl.”

Barbara snorts. “I’d probably be married to Jason Bard with five kids.” She sighs. “Which wouldn’t be so bad, honestly.”

“Can you do this for me?”

“Yes, I will do this,” Barbara says. “You’ll look good in a uniform.”

“Right?”

“How much of this is self-improvement, and how much do you just want an all-you-can-eat buffet of gay women who can do situps?” Barbara asks suspiciously.

“Oh, please. If that was what I wanted, I’d just go do a yoga class at Lexi’s gym. Look, it was one thing to be Batwoman when Batman was running around. It was like there was a safety net, you know? Now…”

That stings a little, but Barbara understands.

BAE

“I can’t be Batgirl anymore,” Stephanie says flatly. Some new flowers have joined the jungle in Barbara’s room. “What’s that?”

“A card from Ivy,” Barbara replies. “They won’t let her make flowers, and she doesn’t approve of picking or cutting like a delivery florist would do, so she just sent a card. Recycled paper. It’s actually very sweet.”

“That’s kind of amazing.”

“So, you’re bailing too?” Barbara puts the card aside. “I don’t blame you. That was a shitshow.”

“Bailing? No. I’m just having Alfred change my costume. I wouldn’t bail, Babs.” Stephanie sighs and brushes her hair back. “There’s just a lot of pressure when you wear that symbol, and I don’t know if I’m up to it.”

“You were Batgirl for a minute. After Cass left. You did okay. You were the only Batgirl; I was focused on school.”

“Oh, please. That was all small-time. I’m with you, Babs. Especially now,” Stephanie adds, gesturing toward Barbara’s legs. “But I’m not a headliner. I have no powers, and I’m not talented like you, Bruce, Dick, Tim. Cass. Literally everyone.”

“Kate’s a normal screwup,” Barbara points out.

“No. Kate has that insane military discipline that lets her train super hard. And she has rage problems that you don’t know about. Not as bad as Helena, but still. I don’t have that. I just have Daddy issues and a lot of insecurity.”

“So… what? You want to be a sidekick? Because Kate’s out and I’m… like this. It’s just you, sweetheart.”

“I don’t want to be a sidekick. I want to be myself.”

“You’ll confuse people,” Barbara warns.

“I can live with that.”

“Did you bring me what I asked for?”

“I did.” Stephanie reaches for her purse, her cheeks going pink.

“Stop it,” Barbara orders sharply.

“Stop what?”

“Stop blushing.”

“I can’t!”

BAE

“Nightwing. Such a pleasure,” Summer Gleeson says, and like most women, she is unable to keep the unbridled lust out of her eyes as she looks up at him. It’s obvious, even on TV. “Such a pleasure. Wow. Um,” she loses her train of thought. Nightwing waits patiently.

They’re outside the Gotham City Zoo, where Nightwing has just foiled an attempt to retrieve some loot buried on this property ages ago by Black Mask’s gang.

Barbara eats sorbet in her dark room as she watches from her hospital bay. Outside her window, GCPD blimps float majestically in the night sky.

“I’ll just ask what all of Gotham and Bludhaven are wondering. Are you moving to Gotham? This is the sixth night in a row that you’ve stopped a major crime here,” Summer says excitedly.

“Oh, no.” Nightwing modestly scratches his head. “I’m just filling in.”

“For the Batman?”

“Or Batgirl.” Nightwing shrugs. “I heard Huntress was out the other night. So even when there aren’t any bats around, the bad guys can’t get too comfortable.”

There’s a knock at Barbara’s door. She mutes the TV and wipes her face with a napkin. It’s insane that Dick will just talk to reporters like this. Maybe it’s why people in Bludhaven like him so much. People respected Bruce’s Batman, but love Dick’s Nightwing. There’s a definite difference.

“Come in,” she says.

It’s Maggie and Renee. Maggie’s arm is in a sling and Renee still looks a little battered.

Barbara’s been expecting this.

“Hi,” Barbara says, doing her best impression of being chipper.

Maggie and Renee are in plain clothes. They look down at her for a moment miserably.

“Guys?” Barbara asks uneasily.

“Can we sit?”

Oh boy. Barbara smiles and gestures invitingly.

Maggie and Renee sit, staring.

“I don’t know how we didn’t see it,” Renee says finally.

Maggie just shakes her head. “Jesus. Does he know, Barbara?”

“Dad? Yes. He pretended not to for a long time, but he figured it out pretty quick.”

After what Barbara did out of costume at GCPD, this was inevitable that at the very least, these two women of reasonable intelligence who were there in person would figure it out.

“Holy shit.” Renee puts her face in her hand.

Maggie sighs and leans back in her chair, slouching slightly. Barbara’s getting self-conscious.

“Are you here to yell at me?” she asks tentatively.

“I’m here to thank you,” Maggie says.

“Me too, I guess.” Renee has tilted her head back and is staring at the ceiling. “And he’s OK with this?”

“No. Of course he’s not OK with it. But I’m almost thirty. What’s he gonna do about it?”

“I don’t know. Arrest you?” Maggie suggests.

“You want to try?” Barbara asks.

“Can’t say that I never fantasized about putting Batgirl in cuffs,” Renee says, finally meeting Barbara’s gaze.

“Oh my gosh! Can you not?”

“Oh, you like that? Call me.” Renee puts her card on the table and Maggie gasps.

“You fucking with me right now?” Maggie demands.

“What are you, her mom?” Renee snaps.

“Don’t call her. Call me,” Maggie says, batting Renee’s hand aside to add her card to the table.