"You've been gone a while," Barbara said as Dick swung into the flat via the lounge window, "Busy night?"

"Not at all," Dick replied as he gave her a quick peck on the cheek and headed through to the bedroom to change into his day uniform, "Nothing happened last night."

"So what took you so long?" Babs asked as she began to serve up breakfast, "Fall asleep?"

"There was a girl," Dick explained as he threw on his shirt and walked out, buttoning it up, "She was down the back alley near Perend Street, she just sat there. I think she was crying."

"Did you go to help her?" Babs moved through to the dining room where Dick was sat and put down the plates as they dug in.

"No," Dick admitted, "It was odd Babs. I wanted to go down and talk to her, but she just seemed so... so... It was as if she wanted to be alone. I don't know why it felt like that, but she was having a personal moment, I felt like going down would have just scared her off."

"So you just left her to fend for herself on the Blüdhaven streets? You're a truly amazing person."

"I'm going to put a search into our database today," Dick said, "See if I can get up anything about anyone matching her description. I just don't want to scare her off before I can find out what's going on with her. That's all."

"Fine, that's fine," Babs said as she smiled at him around her bacon, "If you do find her and she doesn't have a place to stay though. Give me a call, I'll set up the spare bedroom for her."

"You rock," Dick said as he stood up to leave, "Have I told you that before?"

"Not enough loverboy," She joked, "See you after work."

----------

Dick pulled into work and jumped straight out of the car and into the station.

"Any pressing cases today?" Dick asked as he walked up to the reception where Graheme was on shift.

"Not yet. But you'll be the first to know when something comes up," He said with a smirk and handed Dick his coffee, black with two sugars, just as he liked it.

Dick shook his head as he headed over to his desk and sat at his computer. The old thing took a while to start up as he logged in. In fact, the entire station was old. Blüdhaven police department wasn't taken seriously at all, the amount of crime in the city it was a surprise the station still stood. But not so surprising when you heard the number of dirty cops. The criminals couldn't be caught if they were in power.

And, unfortunately, that's how Blüdhaven works. The only way to escape the corruption of the city, die. Dick took another mouthful of his coffee as the computer screen came up and he searched in the description of the girl. Another couple of minutes later, once the computer had finished searching the files, it came up with nothing. The girl didn't seem to exist.

"What you looking into now?"

Dick turned his head to look at his partner, Detective Grifyn, as he sat down at his desk and started up his computer. He was lucky to have been partnered with Grifyn, one of the few good cops left in the city, and a decent person considering what had happened to him. Dick couldn't help but think of the story every time he saw the burn scars running up his left hand and arm. Firefly had come to town and left his mark, but he was behind bars again for now.

"I thought I saw a young homeless girl this morning on my way to work," Dick explained, "I was wondering if we had any files on her. Nothing."

"What? Were you planning on taking her in?" Grifyn asked and was genuinely surprised when he saw the seriousness on Dick's face, "You were, weren't you? Jesus. I know you and Barbara want a kid, but picking them from the street. Not the best way to go about it."

"She looked like a teenager," Dick sighed, "I can't leave her out on the streets by herself. You know what happens."

"Whatever did I do to be paired with a goody-two-shoes like you?" Grifyn chuckled but turned back to his screen as it finally loaded up.

----------

The day had passed easily, no cases had been reported. And this put Dick on edge. Nothing last night, nothing today. It didn't add up. He said his farewells to Grifyn and headed out to his car, grabbing a coffee before he left.

As he drove he kept half an eye out on the streets, hoping to spot a flash of purple hair to tell him the girl was alive. That he had made the right choice by waiting to search her up. But the drive home was as uneventful as usual. He let out a sigh as he turned off the engine, downed the last of his coffee and headed up to his flat.

The lights were all off when he opened the door, which meant Barbara was still at work at the Gotham P.D. The difference between Gotham and Blüdhaven, the crimes there got reported in.

Dick changed out of his uniform into a navy sweater and jeans before leaving a note for Babs in case she wondered where he was and headed back out onto the streets. He knew his way around the paved city well, that was a given since he patrolled it every night though, and found himself standing just outside Perend street a half-hour later. He looked down the dark alley, at this time of the day the sun could no longer clear the buildings to it so it was as if someone had just turned off the lights to that area. Dick could feel the temperature drop as he moved out of the sun and into the darkness, his eyes adjusting quickly as he scanned the area for any sign of life. The girl was so still his eyes had jumped over her at first, but as he moved closer he saw her shift ever so slightly. She hadn't moved all day. He slowly moved closer to her, and just as he was about to crouch next to her she jolted awake and away from him.

For a moment, Dick was sure he'd been drugged. Her skin had turned red as if she's been out in the sun for too long and she looked at him with four yellow eyes. But just as quickly as he saw it, it was gone and she was a normal girl. Her skin pale and her two eyes a rich, sea blue.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you," He said as he lowered himself to be level with her shaking form, "I just want to help you," She had definitely been crying, her eyes were still red and puffy, tracks still ran down her face and her nose was running ever so slightly. "My name's Richard Grayson but all my friends, call me Dick. What's yours?" She didn't respond, just looked at him with scared eyes and he began to wonder if she could even understand him.

"Raven," She said, at last, her voice hoarse from a mixture of the sobs and dehydration, "My name's Raven."

"Raven, like the bird," Dick smiled, "That's a pretty name. What are you doing out here by yourself, Raven?"

"I have nowhere else to go," Her voice cracked and Dick felt his heart go out to her.

She was broken, and by the sound of it, her parents were dead or had kicked her out. He was caught by surprise when she threw herself at him and sobbed into his shoulder, clinging onto him as if for dear life.

"Hey, hey," Dick soothed her as best he could, "I'll tell you what Raven. I have a spare room back at my flat, I think it would be perfect for you. What do you say you come back to my place?" She just gripped onto him tighter, "I'll take that as a yes then," He managed to maneuver himself so that one arm was free and called up Barbara, "Hey Babs, would you mind coming to pick me up? And setting up the spare room?"

"You found her?" Babs asked in response and Dick could imagine her shaking her head in disbelief, "Don't answer that. I'll be about an hour."

"Thank you," Dick said, "We'll be at Leon's," And he hung up, "Hey, Raven, want to go grab a bite to eat quick?" She nodded her head, "Come on then, it's not far."

----------

Dick watched as Raven slowly drank her water and ate a waffle, trying to imagine what had happened to her. She couldn't have been homeless long, she still seemed in good physical shape, which would explain why she's still so emotional about whatever happened. And that thing on her head, Dick was sure he'd read about forehead stones and meditation once upon a time, maybe she was into the zen stuff like that. He also noticed that she had a wary gaze as if she expected someone to come for her at any moment, maybe an angry family member. She could have run away, but in all honesty, Dick didn't have a clue what had happened.

"You're staring at me," He jolted back to life at the sound of her voice, much smoother now that she'd had something to drink.

"Sorry," Dick said as he looked down at his empty mug.

"You want to know what happened, don't you?" She asked and he looked back up at her.

She was nothing like the girl he had seen earlier, this Raven was calm and composed. As if this was a completely normal thing for her.

"I'm not going to pressure you-" He started but she cut him off, "It's fine. I guess if you're going to give me somewhere to stay for the night you have a right to know," She took in a deep breath before she continued, "I was at home, it was a perfectly ordinary day. My mother had gone to see her friends down at the gardens, so I went up to the mountain and spent the day relaxing. The next thing I know my father's arrived. There were screams. Then nothing. He destroyed everything, my home. My friends. My mom." Her voice caught again and Dick could tell she was holding back more tears, "It's all gone."

Dick didn't know what to say, her father had wiped out a whole city by the sounds of it. Everything but her. At that moment the bell on the door sounded and Dick turned around to see his favourite red-head walk in.

"Hey Dickie," She said as she came over, "This must be our new intake. I'm Barbara, Dick's girlfriend," She held out her hand for a handshake and Raven slowly took it.

"I'm Raven," She said as she looked between the couple, "And thank you for taking me in. I'll be out of your hair as soon as possible."

"Don't worry about it," Babs smiled down at her, "You're allowed to stay as long as you want to."

Raven smiled at the both of them and they all headed back to the flat.