Chapter Text
D is for Ghost
Danny sighed, staring down at the coffee machine in front of him. It was another slow day at Brewed Awakening, a supposedly hip new coffee shop in downtown Gotham that was more akin to morgue than a place to be. It was only 10am and he still had 5 more hours to go. He had already done a deep clean of the kitchen, put away the new stock, and served the 3 whole customers that made up the morning coffee rush.
The job sucked, and the pay wasn’t anything to write home about but it was a job and they hired him, which with no fixed address and some not so credible fake IDs was more than he could have otherwise hoped for.
Still staring at his warped reflection in the espresso machine’s metallic surface, he noticed how much his thick black hair had grown out in the past year that he had been living in Gotham, now reaching his shoulders and falling messily across his face. He quickly averted his eyes when he caught sight of the scar running through his left eyebrow to the inside corner of his eye. He hated it, he knew he was lucky to have escaped with just that scar, but still it was a reminder of things he never wanted to remember.
The cafe currently only had one lone customer in it. Spying an empty plate he walked over to the customer.
“How was everything?” He asked while grabbing the plate. “Anything else you need?”
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“A refill would be great” Replied the customer gesturing to his empty mug.
Danny grabbed the mug. “Coming right up.”
Returning to behind the counter Danny loaded the dishes into working on something. He had been here since opening and already onto his 5th refill. Not that Danny was one to judge, on bad days he had more than a few cups himself.
Taking the fresh mug over to the customer, he set it down next to him, being careful not to spill any. The customer glanced at the coffee and quickly went back to working on his laptop. “Thanks”
Danny walked back behind the counter, hoping that all these refills would result in a halfway from this guy, he needed it if he was going to eat tonight.
Danny was absentmindedly wiping the counter, trying not to make eye contact with the muffins calling his name in the display case next to him, when the door opened and a frigid blast of air rushed through the small cafe.
“Hi, eating in or to go?” He asked, barely managing a grimace at the man in the doorway
“Eating in” Came the reply from under a small mountain scarves and coats.
“Grab a seat, and I’ll be with you” Danny finished wiping down the counter as the customer made his way over to the man with the laptop.
Danny was the only one working today, it was a Wednesday and Tracey always bailed on Wednesdays. Any day ending with Y actually. Grabbing a menu and the specials print out Danny made his way over to the new customer.
“Thanks uhh…Emily?” replied the customer glancing at Danny’s apron.
“Oh, uh, no, it’s..it’s Danny, short for Daniel…” Danny glanced at his own name tag, seeing that he’d picked up the wrong one. “Oh I…I...um…this must be someone else. Sorry.”
Danny could feel himself turning red as he stumbled through the specials and rushed back to the safety of the counter. Looking back at the new customer as he studied the menu, Danny couldn’t help but notice that what he was wearing probably cost more than Danny made in a month, although that wasn’t saying much. He had loosened his tie, had removed his coat and jacket, and rolled up his sleeves which showed off his muscular forearms.
Danny couldn’t help but stare, noticing the customer’s dark blue eyes and sharp jaw. As he watched, the two men seemed to be arguing. He was too far away to hear what was happening but it was clear that the new guy was concerned about the laptop customer.
He was startled back to reality when the new customer gave a deep sigh and stood suddenly, making his way over to the register. Danny hurriedly pretended to look busy, almost tripping over himself trying to tidy the espresso area.
“Hey, can I pay up for table 4 and add 2 hot chocolates and a couple of those muffins.” He said pointing at the display case on the bench.
“You don’t have to do that, Dick!” the man with the laptop yelled across the room. He was just waved off by the older one.
Danny thought it was pretty rude to insult someone who was paying for your food. “That’ll be $37.95, cash or card?”
“Cash” The man in the suit replied, handing Danny a $100 bill. “Keep the change.”
Danny was so shocked he could barely mutter a small “Thank you” to the man as he prepared his order. He had to smack his cheeks to contain himself, this money would mean he could afford to replace his tattered, thin hoodie with a real winter jacket. He made sure to add extra chocolate to the drinks and draw his best chocolate sprinkle ghosts on the top as thanks.
“Here you go” he managed to utter while putting the drinks and food down in front of the two men. The younger had put away his laptop now and was giving the older man a strained look.
“Thanks” they both said at basically the same time, barely looking up from their hushed conversation.
“You’re welcome,” replied Danny, “Let me know if you need anything else….” He trailed off sensing that he wasn’t going to be needed further.
Danny hurried back to the counter, with a bounce in his step thinking about his new found riches and busied himself with whatever tasks he could find. He kept an eye on the customers in case they needed anything, and not for any other reason.
Dick watched the barista walking away before turning back to Tim and his drink, which had the cutest little ghost latte art, almost seemed a shame to drinkit. He quickly pulled out his phone and took a photo before Tim could notice. As he drank he thought it tasted a bit more chocolatey than the average, he would have to come back again, plus the barista was cute which was an added bonus.
“So what is this case that has you so engrossed you missed the board meeting today?”
Tim sighed while taking a sip of his own hot chocolate.
“I forgot that meeting was today, I take it you stood in for me?”
Nodding Dick replied, “Sure did, which you owe me for, you know I hate those things. You didn’t really miss anything important, just usual board whining that the newest Wayne phone isn’t ready for release yet.”
“Thanks Dick, as for the case there's a new cult that has been causing troubles and taking kids from the Narrows as sacrifices for whatever they are trying to summon.” Tim took a bite of his muffin, crumbd dropping onto his hoodie. “They’ve taken at least 12 kids from what I can tie to them, potentially more. The frustrating thing is there’s no pattern other than they are kids that no one will miss.”
“What demographics are we talking about here?” Dick asked leaning forward and peering at Tim’s laptop that he had reopened to show a graph.
“I say kids but the oldest taken was 22 and the youngest was 5 years old. They are all different ethnicities, and a mix of genders and ages.”
Dick took the laptop and switched to a tab showing a map with each kidnapping location marked, trying to find anything in common with the spots taken. “What about where they are taken from? Any consistency there?”
“The only similarity that I can find is that they are all taken near manholes or storm water drains.” Tim pressed a couple buttons and highlighted the manholes and storm water drains on the map, indeed everyone had been taken within 100 meters of those entrances.
“Then, they are probably using the sewers to take people, potentially even hiding down there.” Replied Dick
“That’s what I was thinking but whenever someone is kidnapped the security cameras go down for a 200 meter radius including in the sewers, I was planning on scouting the sewers tonight.” Tim continued to eat, more crumbs falling everywhere.
“Aren’t you benched?” Dick pointed out, having a sip of his drink. “You know, due to the massive concussion you got last week and the broken ribs, isn’t that why you are hiding in this coffee shop to begin with?”
Tim scowled at him. “Just because Alfred thinks I shouldn’t be having caffeine or looking at screens doesn’t stop these kids from being taken, Dick.”
“Let me check the sewers tonight, you can be on comms.”
Tim nodded in agreement, “Alright, that works but you have to wear the mask with visuals.”
Dick nodded, quickly finishing his drink and food. “I’ll meet you at the cave tonight.”
Dick stood up pulling out another bill and leaving it on the table as a tip for the ghost sprinkles. Giving both Tim and the barista a wave goodbye he walked out while pulling on his jacket to guard against the oncoming blast of frozen air.
Danny waved goodbye to the relieving manager as he walked out of work, he was finally finished and with significantly more money than the start of the day, he had been shocked when he had cleared Laptop Guy’s table and found another $100 bill left as a tip after they had already tipped him so much. He felt like he hadn’t done anything to earn the tips but he wasn’t in a position to be able to refuse such money.
Checking to make sure the money was secure, he headed to the station. He was going to a thrift store near the Heights that he liked. Being in the nicer part of town, it always had the best clothes for cheap. He hoped he would finally be able to get a waterproof jacket and maybe a new pair of boots, glancing down at his sneakers and feeling them fill with icy water through the fabric lining.
Danny pulled his hood over his hair and keeping his eyes down began the 10 minute walk to the store. Unbidden, his mind kept drifting back to the guy in the suit, who’s friend either hated him or his name was Richard, with how often he’d called him ‘Dick’. He couldn’t take his mind off how he’d looked, nothing like you’d expect from your average finance bro, he looked strong, and muscular, his clothes were the expensive stuff you’d expect but the frame they were covering had looked more like greek god from what Danny could see. His thighs had been bigger than Danny’s head and looked just as able to crush it between them - which he wouldn’t complain about - his chest and shoulders were like something out of a superhero movie.
Shaking his head, he put thoughts of Dick the handsome finance bro out of his head, not many people became repeat customers of the small hole in the wall cafe out on Park Row, especially not guys like that. Honestly Danny wasn’t sure how they were staying in business, the shop was probably a front for money laundering or something, which he was happy to ignore for now if it kept warm and mostly not-moldy food on his plate.
Entering the thrift shop Danny bee lined straight to the jackets, there he spotted a black jacket with green neon trimmings. Smirking to himself due to the resemblance it bore to his ghost form, he tried it on and was happy to see it fit. Checking the tag he grimaced at the price, even being at a thrift store it would eat up a big chunk of the outsized tip he earned today, on the other hand, it was perfect, warm and most importantly waterproof.
Decision made he grabbed the jacket and headed over towards the shoes. Unfortunately despite searching through all the racks he couldn't find a pair without holes, burns, or a weird clay substance. Resigning himself to wearing bin bags over his socks for now, he headed to the check out to pay for the jacket.
After paying for the jacket he left the store and headed back home, or at least what counted as home for now. It was actually just a condemned building in the heart of Park Row. Walking down the alleyway beside the building he checked that no one was around before going intangible and invisible and slipping inside. He used his limited flying ability to bypass some broken stairs to get up a couple of floors, the lack of stairs his only security against intruders.
Entering one of the apartments and closing the left half of the broken door behind him - as if that made a difference - Danny sighed and looked around at his meager belongings. Where the kitchen used to be he had used the engineering he had learnt from his parents he had rigged a dollar store solar pond pump and tub to act as his sink and drinking water, he had also scavenged an old broken one burner stove and got it working, minus the occasional fire in the gas canister.
Moving further into the apartment he had a small living room with a ratty couch and side table he had found in one of the other apartments, the hallway off the living room had one bedroom with a mattress on the floor and a bathroom across from that. He had been able to build something passing as a toilet and shower running off the same system as the kitchen sink. The water wasn’t warm but at least he could regularly shower and wash his clothes, a luxury he didn’t have when he first landed in Gotham.
Danny went into his bedroom and took his new jacket off, he added it to the makeshift wardrobe he had, bending some old TV aerial into a hanger for it. Looking out the window as he worked, he noticed it was dark already, he’d spent longer than he thought clothes shopping. Sighing he collapsed onto the mattress, a small cloud of suspicious dust billowing up around him. He could have sworn he saw it make the shape of a skull as it did, never a good sign. Trying not to think about it too much, he rolled onto his side facing the far wall, promising himself his next pay check he’d splurge on some industrial cleaner. Danny let himself drift to sleep while thoughts of exactly how he ended up here slowly tried to invade his dreams.
Dick winced as he landed with a thud in the sewer, casting frantic eyes around him he relaxed as he saw no movement in shadows surrounding him.
“Nightwing, do you copy?” Came Tims’ voice over the coms.
“Loud and clear Red Robin.”
“Good, if you head to the right you’ll be going towards the center of the disappearances.” Tim directed him.
Turning right he replied “Copy, going radio silence on my end just in case.” Dick kept the com active as he continued to head straight down the sewers.
Dick was extra wary, the sewers of Gotham were never safe, whether it was Killer Croc hiding down here, a secret cult, or other criminals using it as a base of operations; there was always something to find. So, sticking to the shadows he began to creep along the walls, doing his best to avoid making splashing sounds on the ground.
After about 10 minutes of walking there was still nothing, no creepy villain lair, no remains of Croc’s meals, not even an ornery rat looking for a fight.
“You should be right in the center of the disappearances, I can’t see anything over your video feed, try going on deeper.” Tim directed him over the com.
Nodded Silently, he slunk through the shadows deeper into the sewers.
Still, there was nothing out of the ordinary, continuing in deeper for what felt like forever, he suddenly heard voices, not close enough to make out what they were saying, but something.
“Hold position Nightwing, Oracle is enhancing the audio.”
Dick nodded, slinking back in the shadows waiting.
“They seem to be Scarecrow’s goons, hiding a few hundred barrels of fear toxin to release into the surface.”
‘Well shit’ Nightwing thought to himself.
“They don’t appear to have anything to do with the missing people,” Tim continued. “Still it’s better to take them out before they can release the gas.”
“Well duh” Dick thought to himself rolling his eyes, not like he was just going to leave so that the evil goons could carry out their evil mission.
Skirting around the pools of light from the torches, he approached the group of thugs. There were only four of them and they seemed so confident in their hideout that they didn’t even have a lookout.
Sneaking forward Dick pulled out a couple of Wing-dings - far superior and cooler than the old man’s if he did say so himself - and took aim, chucking them at the nearest torches.
“It’s the bats!” cried one of the goons.
“You wish” Dick chuckled quietly to himself, while switching his visor to night vision.
Using the shadows to his advantage, Dick snuck up on the two goons near the crates as the other two headed off to investigate the other direction. Dick silently slid out from the shadows, kneeing one in the gut before quickly moving to the second with a jab to the nose followed swiftly by more swift punches to the throat and jaw to incapacitate him. Turning back to the first man he found the man still bent over from the knee, so he took the opportunity to kick the man squarely in the head - he didn’t kill but that didn’t mean he had to be nice -. Moving on he slipped back into the shadows to sneak up on the third guard, timidly following behind his remaining colleague. A hard double fisted strike to the back of the head took him down. This left the last goon alone and with nowhere to turn. He didn’t stand a chance.
The goon was unconscious on the ground before he finished his next step. Dick stood over the unconscious goons for a moment, listening to make sure there was no one else. Satisfied that he was alone for now, Dick grabbed the bodies and dragged them to a pipe. Using zip ties he tied them all to the pipe.
“Batman and Demon Brat are inbound with police not far behind, they will secure the fear gas.” Tims’ voice advised over the comms. “There’s no other signs of life down here, seems to be a bust on the kidnapping case.”
“Copy that” Nightwing replied while checking out the crates of toxins. “Ahh, you may want to tell Batman to hurry, this stuff’s on a timer. It’s gonna release in three minutes.”
“I’ll be there in two minutes, begin trying to shut it down.” Came Batman’s voice over the line.
Turning to the contraption Dick pulled the faceplate off the timer. There were a mess of wires of different colors, but luckily it was a similar design to Scarecrow's previous bombs. “Good news, the ‘crow isn’t very creative, I’ll be able to disable it easily.”
“Be careful Nightwing, we can’t tell whether there are any secondary triggers.” Cautioned Batman.
“It doesn’t look like there are,” replied Dick. “Cutting the wire now.”
Dick held his breath and using the bomb disposal kit he carried on him he began to slowly disarm the bomb. He was thankful that this bomb's design was so standard, it meant that he was able to have it disarmed a full two minutes before it was due to go off.
“Threat neutralized” He reported over the comm line.
“Good job, we are arriving soon.”
Nightwing stood waiting over the goons ready to keep them in line when Batman and Robin arrived on scene. Dick gave them a friendly wave and smirk.
“Nice of you to arrive after all the excitement is done.” As expected he got twin looks of disapproval and a grunt.
“We can take it from here,” Bruce said dismissively, “We’ll debrief later.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Dick replied heading to the exit.
To Tim over coms he stated “I’m heading off so turning off the feed and com, buzz me if you need me.”
After hearing a noise of confirmation from Tim, Dick proceeded to head out of the sewer, towards the center of the kidnapping cases, even though the sewers had been a bust it didn’t hurt to check out the actual locations of the kidnappings.
Dick headed for where the most recent kid had been taken from as per Tim’s files. Dick traveled via grappling hook, landing on top of a roof adjacent to the alley where the most recent victim was suspected to be taken from. He had a good look around but there didn’t seem to be any new information to be gleaned.
After swinging around for a couple hours on patrol and stopping a few muggings while keeping an eye out for any suspicious cult-like activity he started to head for home via the roof tops.
He had been living back in Gotham for about seven months now, after his disastrous attempt at working for Bludhaven police department as a detective and trying to fight the corruption from the inside he just needed to get away and be closer to his support network. His mental health had certainly taken a hit, initially he had moved back into the manor but once he wasn’t actively suicidal anymore he got his own place and started looking for work again.
Bruce was being his usual stubborn self and didn’t think he was ready to be back out on the field despite going to therapy and proving that he was back up to scratch with training. Dick reached his apartment building and quietly slipped in from the roof via the fire escape. Disarming the trap on the window, he quietly entered his apartment.
Dick quickly stripped off his suit and headed for the shower, he turned the water as hot as it would go and let out a sigh of relief as the water relaxed his muscles. Finishing up his shower, he got dressed in a pair of pajama pants and singlet top, he pulled out his phone and scrolled on social media, his mind drifting to the cute barista he saw today. Maybe he would have to go back there soon. Locking his phone, he rolled over and let himself drift into another restless night’s sleep.