THERE WAS A coffee shop across the street from the headquarters of Swinton Industries, and time and time again Callie would find herself sitting there, laptop on her desk, a cup of iced Americano beside it. She wasn't stupid enough to write the blog while out and about (public wifi? She didn't have a death wish), but nothing was strange about reading articles in newspapers.

Or going through Gotham online chatrooms. They were, surprisingly, a treasure trove of information. Things minute enough they wouldn't be reported on the news, but still very much worth knowing. Likely spots for criminals to hit. Whereabouts of some criminals. Gaffs about the city's rich and famous.

Sometimes it was more wholesome. The best restaurant, cafe, pizzeria, Chinese place... That was enjoyable too.

But she was here today to meet a client.

He was late.

Which was a bit annoying. But at the same time, she actually liked this cafe, so she wasn't going to complain. But he better show up soon.

And finally, a man who walked in like he was looking for something. Someone. Dark-skinned, nearly shaved head, relatively small stature. She raised her gaze to meet his.

He walked over.

"You're Lee?"

Lee was the name she ran her little investigative business under. People tended not to question it. Perhaps of her ethnicity.

Callie raised a brow. "That's me. You're late."

"Traffic." He sat down.

He'd contacted her over her website. Not Themis. Her other website. Lee's Detective Agency. She charged a hefty price, because she was good. Her powers made sure of that.

"What are you looking for?" she asked, turning her laptop to a new document to take notes. "And how urgently do you need it?"

"A family heirloom." Quick and straight to the point. Perhaps he felt apologetic for the amount of time he'd made her waste today. "Lost three years ago. Or, well, my elderly mother was coerced into giving it to her nurse. I've tried every means of contacting her. Nothing. She's changed her number, contact details, moved away from where she used to live. But I have some basic details about her. And a picture."

"What's the heirloom?" she asked, raising a brow.

"A ruby necklace. It's old. Two centuries old, if my family's correct. They might be exaggerating, I'm not completely sure, but it's definitely antique. I'll pay the agreed price up front. Another half after you find it."

He was rich. His clothes weren't flashy, but Callie recognised the brands. The kind of stuff Oliver would wear sometimes. Quiet luxury. Money wasn't a problem for this man, which was why he was willing to give over so much before she'd even found it. Usually, they tried to give only a little initially. Or at least try to bargain the price a bit more upon meeting.

"Send me the information," Callie said, tilting her head. "You want me to find the actual thing and hand it to you? Or just the general location? I'm not a thief, mind you, and I don't want to do anything illegal."

"Preferably the former, but I realise the latter's more likely. Just find where the fuck it is, I'll deal with the rest." He leaned back with a sigh. "It's very important to my family."

"Took you three years to come searching for it?"

"Took a year to realise it was missing," he said with a raised brow. "We've spent the past two years trying a lot of methods. You're not the first detective we've tried."

She might not seem like the most credible one out there, but she had results to show for it. She usually finished her side of the deal for clients. And from the sound of it, this man was desperate.

"I'll take the deal. I send you my bank details, you send me the information you have at hand. Once I get that, I'll tell you how long I think it'll take."

The man thought that over. And then gave a nod.

"Oh, one last thing." Callie raised her chin. "Your name?"

"Sylas. Sylas Thorne."

Callie paused. "Thorne?"

"Thorne." He was studying her expression closely.

"I'd have thought the Thornes of Gotham City had far better detectives at their disposal than someone like me."

"Which is why we didn't try you earlier," he said slowly. "One of my friends had good things to say about you. Said you helped her find where her estranged brother had been buried."

"Florence Russ."

"Florence. Yes."

But there was something else interesting about the Thornes that she was interested in. Callie tilted her head. "I'll cut the price of my service in half. But I want something else in return."

Now he watched her warily. "What?"

"I'm a nosy bitch. Besides, I don't think you care too much about them anyways." Callie nudged her chin at the Swinton building opposite them. "How much dirt do you have on the Swintons?"

—

THE RIVALRY BETWEEN the Thornes and Swintons had existed for a few generations now. Recently it had dialed down, especially with the Thornes' business on a slow but steady downward spiral. Something that they had the Swintons to blame, considering the way they were being pushed out of industry after industry.

Callie was quite certain Sylas Thorne would have been willing to give over that information even if she hadn't offered that fifty percent discount. Not like the money mattered that much to him anyways. Business bustling or on a downwards slope, the Thornes were still filthy rich.

But offering some secrets to a girl who seemed equally vengeful against the Swintons? Oh, Sylas was more than happy to spill some information. Albeit, nothing that would be enough to offer a substantial hit against the Swintons.

But embarrassing news nonetheless. Things that she could sprinkle out in her blog over the next few months. But she'd have to wait first, in case Sylas read Themis and recognised his own words in them.

The identity of the writer had to remain a secret. For her own safety. Because if people came knocking, people who she'd exposed or indirectly helped to do so... She wouldn't be able to keep them at bay.

She stayed at the cafe after Sylas left. But less than ten minutes after he'd left, another man slid into the chair opposite her.

Callie's gaze sharpened. "Are you following me?"

"Surprisingly, no." Jason sounded amused. "I was just passing by."

"Why?"

"Wanted to do some scouting." He eyed the Swinton building. "Imagine my surprise when I see you here."

"I like this coffee shop."

"Definitely doesn't have to do with the view it gives of their lobby."

"They serve excellent coffee. Some of their pastries are quite nice as well. Would you like to try one?"

"I'm not here to eat. Were you meeting someone here?"

Yes. "No." She set bored eyes on him. "I like it here. Genuinely. And sometimes working at home gets suffocating."

"Well, you should be meeting here. You shouldn't be alone all the time."

"You're here now, aren't you?" she asked, keeping her voice purposefully coy. "I'm not precisely alone."

"That's different." He arched his brow. "We," he motioned to the two of them, "are on a mission."

"I have some things about the Swintons. Nothing strong, though. Did you know that Freud Swinton has been having an affair with his sister-in-law?"

"And his daughter-in-law. The second son's."

"Wait, what?"

Jason shrugged. "I'm in that circle, Callie. Well, technically, Bruce is in that circle. We hear things. We just don't talk about it much because it doesn't particularly interest us."

"It's interesting to me."

"It's not going to get him in jail."

"But it damages their reputation."

Jason studied her for a moment, and then murmured, "You're not just after Rudolph Swinton, are you?"

"That entire family deserves to rot." She slapped her laptop shut. "Not like they've done much for Gotham City, have they?"

"Where did you hear your latest little gossip? Tips on your blog?"

"Something like that." Callie raised a brow. "Don't you have something better to do?"

"Eh," Jason gave a one-shoulder shrug. "I've been busy all day and night. I don't think sitting down at a cafe and taking a small break is a poor choice."

"You went out last night?"

"Do you not keep up with the news?"

Callie shut her eyes. "Right. I did. Firefly."

Jason smirked.

Callie squinted. "Wait, how much sleep have you gotten...?"

"Enough for me, not enough for most people." Jason tilted his head. "I'm used to it. How much sleep did you get?"

"I took a shower and fell on my bed immediately after I returned." Which was half a lie. She did fall onto her bed. But she'd also laid there for an hour before giving up, grabbing her laptop, and then shifting to the window.

"Bag under your eyes says otherwise."

Callie glared. "I have concealer on."

"I can still see the bags," Jason said, sounding amused. "You look fine with them, don't worry. God, you should see ours on a bad night. I've been trained to look past cosmetics, spot them, note them, that kind of stuff. Disguises, you know."

Callie let her eyes flutter shut, sucking in a deep breath. After a long moment, she let her eyelids open again, drawling, "I was hoping you'd disappear by the time I opened my eyes."

Mockingly, he replied, "So sorry to disappoint. I'm not a magician."

"You don't need magic to disappear, you can just walk. Away."

"I think I'm going to get a cup of coffee. Don't miss me too much while I'm gone."

Callie glared as he stood up, shot her a wink and headed towards the counter. She pinched her nose, picking up her cup of iced Americano and taking a long sip from the straw.

And then she opened her laptop again. If she was stuck with his presence for now, she might as well make it productive. Albeit she wasn't sure how much business they could actually discuss, sitting right here.

And she'll need to start looking into the Thorne's family heirloom. Finding the nurse shouldn't be too difficult. And then she'd have to track her down (pray that the nurse had remained in Gotham, or somewhere nearby), and wrangle out the location or the necklace itself.

For a moment, she wondered if she should ask Jason for help. Surely, with his resources, it would be trivially easy. But she didn't want to let him in all parts of her life. Him being here already felt like too much of an intrusion. She didn't want to push it any further.

Callie let out a quiet sigh.

She'd agreed to this deal out of necessity. She hadn't counted on how alluring the prospect of having a companion on this lonely path was. She'd taught herself how to be alone, how to satisfy herself emotionally. She'd had friends at university, but most of them were in the UK, and what had been nightly raves in the hottest bar in town or friendly gatherings over meals had trickled down into a few texts every couple weeks.

But it was... nice having someone she could talk to. About everything, really, and he did understand. No matter what grievances she held against him, what she blamed him for, he understood. And for all his quippy remarks and attempts at being annoying, she could tell he didn't actually dislike her.

But she didn't need a distraction.

She didn't want to make any unnecessary ties to this world of heroes and villainy. She just wanted to get this over with, and then she'd move on with her life.

Move on where?

She lacked job experience. She could package up writing Themis as freelancing journalism, but heaven knew that wouldn't be very useful in job-searching. And she didn't want to actually reveal herself as the writer. She had a good university degree, but then what?

She could continue her job as a private investigator, but that wasn't what she envisioned the rest of her life to be.

Maybe she should move back to China, seek out her relatives. She spoke fine Chinese. Her writing... could use some work. But she knew enough of the language that she ought to be fine there. Or maybe she should go somewhere like Hong Kong rather than mainland China, where English would be as useful as Chinese. Or maybe Singapore? Malaysia?

Or perhaps just... another city in America. New York sounded nice.

He sat down opposite her again.

"Let's discuss business."

"Let's not discuss business," he cut in, raising one finger as he placed down his cup of coffee. Latte, probably. "I have no interest in discussing business right now. We're also in the wrong place for that."

"Then we have nothing to talk about."

"Oh, we have plenty to talk about, really. How was England?"

Callie's fingers hovered above her keyboard as she glanced at him. "What?"

"How was England?" he paused. "Has anyone even asked that question to you? In person?"

"No." There was no one waiting here to welcome her home. And she didn't like talking to her neighbours. Or about her past.

His voice was gentler now. "So how was it?"

"Fine. I was in London. And I... I did quite like it for the most part."

"Sociology, right? Why that?"

"Because I wanted to understand society." She tilted her head. "I wanted to understand people. But I didn't want to do something like Psychology. My grades had been good, but they'd started dropping after... Cyrene died. Otherwise I might have gone for Law. Or maybe PPE." That had been her dream when she was younger. But by the time she'd actually started doing university applications, she knew she didn't have a single chance.

"Damn. Ambitious."

A sad smile danced on her lips. "I'd been an ambitious child."

"Unfortunately, life doesn't always bring us where we want to go. What did you want to do as a career?"

"Journalism, maybe. I'm kind of already doing that now. Or like... maybe I'd have opted to become a civil servant. That's stable. Reliable." It gave her a headache, thinking about the life she could have had. Maybe the one she should have had. "What about you?"

"I never let myself think that far." Jason's voice was quiet. "Never had that time, I think."

She didn't know much about Jason's past, she realised. But she'd be an idiot to assume it was sunshine and rainbows. He must have lost his parents at some point. And training under Batman to become the new Robin wouldn't have allowed him much of a chance to think about much else.

"What if you think about it now? What would you want to be?"

Jason thought about it for a long moment, and then grinned. "Doctor. You know I had really good grades when I went to school? Near perfect GPA."

Callie blinked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. I probably would have made it too." Jason shook his head with a laugh. "Or maybe... I don't know, a mechanic or something."

"I thought you said you'd have wanted to be an English major."

"That too." Jason looked thoughtful. "Maybe I'd have become an English professor. I don't know. Like I said, I've never let myself think about it."

"Have you never thought about... quitting?"

"I was never given the choice to do that." He let out a quiet exhale, fixing her with a strong gaze. "I never had that option. When I was a kid, I had no money. My biggest worry was whether or not I'd have enough food the next day, a roof over my head the next week. After Bruce, it was all about the fight. And then it was all about vengeance. And then... by then it seemed a little late and a little too odd to quit that entire name, to leave it all behind. I'm stuck here. I am in blood. Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er."

"That's Macbeth."

"Don't say that out loud now."

"We're not in a theatre," Callie replied, raising one brow. "And you're the one who quoted it first."

"Eh, I suppose you're right." He sounded amused. "Not like bad luck scares us anyways."

"I think we've already had far too much of that in our lives." Callie let out a sigh. "Do you really just have nothing else to do today?"

"I'm thinking. Are you busy?"

Callie glanced at the empty page on her laptop before her. "Not particularly."

"Remember the friend I mentioned? The techy one?"

"I told you, I don't—"

"Meet her anyways. I think she's free right now." He squinted. "Actually, I'll give her a call. Even if you don't want to do anything with your site, I think she'll be good company for you."

"Jason, I really don't—"

"And she knows a lot about this city. I think she'll satiate a lot of your curiosity."

"Do I know her?" Callie asked suspiciously.

"I doubt it. Cyrene didn't know her either, she came a bit... after. Her name's Cecily Lange."

No bells rung.

"Exactly what I thought." He downed his coffee, placing the cup back on the saucer. "Get your stuff. She doesn't live too far from here. I think you'll like her."

sorry this took so long!!!! i'm kinda stuck with how to proceed w/ this story so it's taking me a bit of time. and also since i'm back at school i'm quite busy :( so!