The Secret

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

"My name is Edward Emmiel, I am the owner of the Gotham Gazette," the man introduced himself, "And I am dying."

"My condolences," replied Kat, "I assume there is a cure, and you would like me to find it for you."

"There is no cure, and even if there were one, I would not bother with it," replied Edward, "I have lived long enough. I have just one last mission. Someone I would like to expose. One last story I would like to pen for my paper. A gift to myself and perhaps others."

"Okay, so what do you need from me?" asked Kat.

"I need your help exposing Bruce Wayne," replied Edward.

"Expose him for what?" wondered Kat.

"Paedophilia," came the dramatic reply.

"Huh?"

Edward tossed two old Christmas cards to Kat. One was from some time ago and showed Bruce Wayne with two boys who Kat knew to be Dick Grayson, who must have been about eighteen at the time of the photo, and the other was Jason Todd. He looked about twelve in the photo, it would have been shortly after the time Bruce Wayne adopted the boy. The newer photo was from this year. Dick Grayson was still present, now a young adult. Jason was gone but in his place were two more boys, Tim Drake Wayne, now eighteen and Damian Wayne. Bruce Wayne's thirteen-year-old biological son, or so they said. Kat initially got the impression that Damian was another adoptee, but the boy looked too much like Bruce Wayne to not be related. There would be a scandal if Bruce Wayne was married or had a larger family to answer too. But the man was an orphan with no close living relative and no steady relationship. As long as he wasn't doing anything illegal, his private life was no one's concern. Not that it stopped the gossip.

"Mr Wayne has some very handsome boys," Kat replied.

"Boys he is abusing!" declared Edward.

"Since you are here, I guess you have no proof," Kat said calmly.

"No, all I have is a hunch," replied Edward.

"Mr Emmiel," began Kat, "I like reading the Gotham gossip. It's mostly a hobby, but it does help my work from time to time. A bachelor with a promiscuous lifestyle adopting a boy was bound to raise eyebrows and fuel speculations. Especially now when sexual predators seem to be everywhere. But it's been what, almost fifteen years since Bruce Wayne first adopted Dick Grayson. Grayson is an independent adult. If he were abused, surely he would have spoken up by now."

"Not everybody does," replied Edward quietly, "I never did."

Kat didn't know what to say. So she stayed silent and let Edward continue, "I was an orphan too. I don't even remember my parents. I was in and out of the foster homes until I was adopted by a kind rich stranger. He was rich, and we didn't remain strangers for long, but he was not kind," he explained, "They used to have these parties. Pet parties they called them. To the uninitiated. It really was a party where the rich took their over-pampered dogs and cats. There was a guy who even brought his birds. It wouldn't be unusual for kids to tag along to these parties, which made it the perfect cover for what happened in the other rooms. The rooms were the average rich pet owner was not allowed."

"I didn't escape. I couldn't escape. But eventually, I got too old. So I was cast aside. Given a generous trust fund for my silence and that was it. I wasted a decade high on smack, self-medicating. But then I realised, I was letting them win. So I turned my life around, took the blood price they paid for my pain and suffering and spun it into a media empire. An empire I dedicated to uncovering the truth! An empire that would also hold the rich and powerful under a microscope. But one of them, one of them always alluded my microscope!"

"Bruce Wayne," said Kat.

"Gotham is a world onto itself, and Bruce Wayne is the Prince of Gotham. I know the prince has a secret and I always suspected it was the same as my adopted father," replied Edward, "But I could never prove it. When the news first broke that the twenty-five-year-old bachelor was taking in the ten-year-old Dick Grayson as a ward, a lot of eyebrows were raised. I wasn't the only one who saw something less than innocent in the gesture, but no one could find anything."

"Maybe because there was nothing to find," replied Kat, "I am sorry Mr Emmiel, but it sounds to me like you are projecting. I mean, we as a society have gotten to the point that fathers cannot kiss their own children in public without someone freaking out. Just the other day, I heard of a man who tried to return a lost child, but instead of a thank you got a punch in the face instead. Bruce Wayne was an orphan. Is it really that much of a stretch to think that he might wish to give other orphans a home?"

"That's what I told myself after we couldn't find anything," Edward replied, "Dick Grayson wouldn't speak with my people, my sources in his school couldn't give me anything. Eventually, I had to accept that I was barking up a barren tree. A little longer and I accepted that perhaps I was projecting. So I gave up. Hoped for the best and moved on."

"So what changed?" wondered Kat.

"Jason Todd," he said, "He was adopted just as Dick Grayson was getting a bit too old. But then, just as he was getting a bit too old, he disappeared. Died overseas. Buried without fanfare. Bruce Wayne entered a period of mourning, and it was all forgotten. A few more years, Wayne quietly took Tim Drake in. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, comes Damian Wayne. Some say Damian is his biological son born to an old fling who kept it secret. Others say he's just another adoptee. It's all very confusing and all very strange."

"I am truly not seeing the strange part with Tim Drake-Wayne or Damian Wayne. I mean, what happened to the Drakes was horrible. If Bruce Wayne saw himself in a boy from the circus and a boy from the streets, he would certainly see himself in an orphaned rich kid," Kat pointed out, "As for Damian. He's half middle-eastern or something. Culture alone might account for why his mother might not have been forthcoming about the child. Based on his pattern, Mr Wayne does tend to go for women who don't need his money. Damian's mother is probably from a wealthy family. Maybe their relationship didn't work out, maybe they had a one night stand that resulted in the child, and for better or worse, she kept Damian secret. Maybe eventually the boy wanted his father, and so, she brought him to his father."

"All very reasonable and acceptable," replied Edward, "Except for Jason Todd. He's the key," emphasised Edward, "Look, I am not stubborn or crazy. I am ready to accept that I am projecting. Seeing a predator where there is only a good man, a man who understands the pain of losing his only family, so he wants to be there for other orphans. But I have to be certain."

"All the digging I did when Wayne adopted Dick Grayson and again after Jason Todd's death convinced me that the man has secrets. Lots of secrets and if one of his secrets is that he's a vile child molester, then I will use what time I have left on Earth to drag him from the shadows into the light!" Edward emphasised his words by leaning forward and getting up just enough to tower over Kat.

"So you want me to look into Jason Todd's death?" guessed Kat.

"Yes," replied Edward, settling back down, "There is no point in pursuing the molestation angle. No one is talking, and despite my best efforts, that road has only ever been paved with rumours. But Jason Todd's death, that's unexplored territory. Go down that road and maybe, just maybe, we can find a way into Bruce Wayne's secrets."

"And if his secrets have nothing to do with him being a pervert?" wondered Kat.

"Then I die knowing that there is some good still left in the world," replied Edward, "That I was unlucky. But that there are four boys in the world who have a great father. The kind of father I wish I could have had."

"Very well," replied Kat, "I'll accept, but I won't come cheap."

"Money is not an object," replied the man, suddenly looking old and worn, "Name your price," so Kat did.

Author's note: So this is just something that I thought of as I have been stuck in Bat hell. I am not following any specific continuity. Although Wayne family, in this case, consists only of Dick Grayson, Jason Todd who is legally dead, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne.