"Hey dad!" Barbara called out as Jim Gordon walked in the door. It wasn't often he got off work before the sun had set, and it made those rare days he did that much better. He smiled, seeing his daughter sprawled out on the living room couch, placing a book she'd been reading on the table.

"Hey honey," He smiled, stooping to kiss her on the forehead as he passed. She grinned and followed him as he went to the kitchen, dropping his bag and fetching himself a glass of water. "How was your day? You didn't have gymnastics practice, right?" He prompted.

"No, those are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays." She confirmed.

"Right, right," He nodded along.

"I went over to Dick's house for homework though—he's really good at French dad, like scarily good. I think I'm gonna be fluent against my will at the rate he goes." She grinned, hopping up to sit on the counter and kicking her legs back and forth as he started to pull things out to make some dinner for the two of them.

"He sounds like a bright boy," Jim said, smiling slightly at how eager she was at this new friend of hers. He still wasn't thrilled that it was a boy, but she didn't have many friends so he didn't voice it.

"He is," She said with wide eyes to convey her seriousness, "He knows like a hundred languages… he said he wants to teach me Russian and German too because they're some of his favorites and he thinks I'd like it. He thinks I'm ridiculously logical or something, which is apparently a very German trait." She babbled happily. "And Romanian, because apparently that's his first language," She tacked on as an afterthought.

It was an understatement to say Jim was interested. "He sounds like a walking Rosetta stone." He said in surprise. "Where does he live again?" He asked, forgetting if she'd mentioned it.

"Up at Wayne Manor dad," She said eagerly, "And let me tell you—that place is big. Even Dick thinks it's too big." She said wisely, but Jim barely heard the second part of that statement, still frozen in surprise.

"Wait… Dick…? You don't mean Richard Grayson do you?!" He said in a shock, and Barbara blinked warily at him.

"Uh… yeah?" She confirmed although it came out as a slightly nervous question. "Why? Is something wrong?" She frowned deeply.

Jim shook it off quickly. "Oh, no, it's just that I hadn't realized that's who you were talking about." He soothed, still a little shocked. "I mean… first of all he's a bit younger than you and last I heard he was being homeschooled." He pointed out.

Barbara brightened up now that she knew there wasn't a problem. "He was, this is his first year in a 'real school' he says. Apparently Mr. Wayne thought he needed to be more social with people his age and wanted him to have a normal childhood or something, so he enrolled him. But he's smart dad, like smarter than all the teachers combined kind of smart. He's only in my English class because English isn't his first language and he doesn't like it, but other than that he's in all these advanced AP classes…" She explained, babbling a bit. She always did like to talk a lot when she finally got a moment to have her father to herself.

"Wow," Jim said, forgetting dinner and looking at her, impressed with this information. He hadn't realized someone who'd grown up with traveling gypsies would secretly be a child prodigy. And speaking of his past… "Hey, do you know if he still does those circus things? You two could share that gymnastics bug you've got," He nodded, and she beamed.

"He says he does, but I haven't seen him do anything yet." She relayed excitedly. "He came with me to my gymnastics team try out, but he doesn't know how to do it competitively, only for show and to entertain people," She explained. "But he still does that trapeze thing; he said he'd show me some time."

Jim's internal alarms went off. "Promise me you won't actually attempt it though, right?" He said quickly, and she looked taken off guard.

"What? I don't know, we didn't talk about that…" She trailed off, watching her father's expression. "Why?" She demanded.

"You do know why he lives with Bruce Wayne now, right?" Jim frowned, but she shook her head.

"I know he's an orphan now, but… I never asked what happened to his parents." She admitted, and Jim internally scolded himself. Of course she wouldn't ask such a personal question after only knowing the boy a couple weeks. I'm sure Dick simply assumed everyone already knew, seeing as it was quite the publicized event back then. Not to mention he probably didn't just talk about it very easily.

He sighed and leaned against the counter opposite her, crossing his arms over his chest uncomfortably. "Well… I don't want to overstep my bounds, but I also don't want you up on a trapeze. And… it's not exactly a secret so…"

"Dad?" Barbara frowned, her one word question prompting him to get to the point already.

He sighed again. "Well… five years ago the circus was in town, and apparently some mob members got involved and tried to extort money out of the ringleader, but they circus wasn't having any of it. Instead, a mobster tampered with the trapeze ropes and during the act the older two Graysons fell. It was sort of their thing that they performed without a net, so…"

Barbara's eyes bugged out. "What about Dick!?" She squeaked.

Jim ran a hand over his face wearily. "It was pure luck he hadn't jumped out on the wires just yet." He relayed, and the red headed girl made a small little squeak. "Now, I don't say this to scare you, but I just… I mean, unless you're using a net and you know without a doubt what you're doing…"

"I promise dad," She said quietly.

He gave a small smile at her. "I know you're capable Babs, trust me I know. It's just… it was wasn't a pretty case, so it stuck with me I guess." He confessed, and she nodded wordlessly.

"Poor Dick…" She sighed, and Jim grimaced a little.

"Yeah, the kid got a rough deal of it." He admitted. "But, the death of Bruce Wayne's parents was my first case as a rookie cop, so out of everyone I'm glad those two ended up together. It's a happy ending of sorts," He considered, and Barbara sat up a little, considering that.

"I haven't met Mr. Wayne yet, but Dick says he's a really normal guy." She offered, and Jim smiled.

"We're all just normal people Babs." He pointed out with a laugh, and she titled her head to the side, considering the truth of that statement.

"I suppose so." She decided.