Hard to Focus
Who: Tim Drake NPCs: N/A Where: The Batcave. Gotham City. When: August 15th, 2012 What: With the news of the murder of Bruce heads down into the Batcave to try to figure everything out, instead of taking off into the city. His initial efforts are hampered by his grief. Rating: PG
Tim stood in his Red Robin costume with the cowl hanging behind his head before the main computer in the Batcave, with his hands flattened on either side of the keyboard, his body partially leaned forward. Which was roughly the space he had occupied for the past several hours with what felt like the weight of the entire world upon his shoulders, coupled with the heart wrenching loss of a man who had been more than a father to him. At first he had not wanted to believe it, which put him in the first stage of grief: Denial. It simply did not seem possible that a man with Bruce's skill set could be gunned down so easily. Even without the Batman, Bruce remained a formidable individual. Which led Tim to think that it was something else, and that if it did happen, there had to be another explanation. For a while he had tried to consider the possibility that it was all a grand ruse, and that Bruce would return somehow, better than ever.
But as the hours ticked by, reality set in more and more, so that the hope became nothing more than the dream of a grief stricken fool.
Media footage covering the murder played on aa screen off to his left, but he paid it no mind. There would not be any new telling dtails to be found there. For that evidence, he would have to focus and set himself upon the task of discovering the identity of the man who had killed Bruce. Which was a task that he was normally quite good at, though he felt he was floundering now, unable to focus as he had to continually blink back tears.
"Dammit, Bruce", Tim said outloud. "How could you let this happen?"
And there it was, out of nowhere. A flash of sudden insight powerful enough to temporarily draw him upright, as his eyes focused on the computer.
"Of course... that has to be it. You did let this happen." There was no other explanation in that moment that held as much weight for Tim. It was the only thing in all of this madness that made any sense. The simple fact that Bruce must have known the killer, must have hesitated in some way, if even for a moment. Whether the reason was an initial trust that stayed Bruce, or the horror of betrayel Tim would likely never know, but he felt confident that he was on to something. That it happened in Crime Alley, on the anniversary of his parents death could not be a coincidence either. This was personal. As personal as it could ever get.
"Computer, I need a cross reference of every scrape of information we have on the murder of Bruce Wayne that occured today, against everything on the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Specificially any correlation of names, the layout and position of the bodies where they fell, the identities of every officer in the Gotham City Police Department on each murder scene, and all the information we have on Joe Chill." As the huge monitor before him began to rapidly run through various files, Tim finally turned away from the computer. It would take some time for the analysis to be complete, especially because details on the murder of Bruce were still coming in by the minute. As Tim walked toward his motorcycle, he ran through a mental list of everything that needed to be done. First and foremost, he needed to find Cassie. If she had seen anything, even the smallest detail, she would make for an invaulable asset. And at the same time he needed to find her for fear of what she might do if she did somehow happen upon the killer.
"You had better get here soon, Dick", Tim said as he climbed onto his motorcycle. "I can't do this alone."
Tim revved the engine more than he had to, as a means of exercising his frustration and thinly veiled anger at the world, before speeding off on his way toward Gotham.