Author's Note: Well, here we are, the final chapter of Trapped. I almost can't believe it's finally finished. I want to thank all those that read, reviewed, followed and favorited. Without your interest and support, I don't think I would have started writing again. I especially want to thank Kanny. She's been there for me since the beginning and has been a great fuel for my muse :)

Thank you, all.

Trapped

Chapter 14

As Batman entered the Bowery he began to visually scan the tightly squeezed apartment buildings and narrow alleyways. Constructed of brick and wood and built around the turn of the century, these were among some of the oldest original, still-standing structures in the city.

Most of the tenements in the lower-east side of the Bowery were in multi-use neighborhoods and were closely located to factories, slaughterhouses and the docks, which long ago, provided employment to most of the families in the area. While these homes were far from elegant, back in their day, the hard-working families that resided within kept their homes as clean as soap and elbow grease could get them.*

Today, however, instead of being decorated with elaborate tin moldings and terracotta inserts, crumbling facades and gang graffiti marked their exteriors. Where once there were open windows that allowed hand-stitched curtains to blow freely in the breeze, many of those windows were now broken and boarded up. The streets where the laughter of children could be heard as they played hopscotch, jump rope and stick ball, now gathered litter and abandoned cars.

As Batman slowly made his way through the streets, the unmistakable, low rumble of the Batmobile bounced off of the buildings, filling the atmosphere and he could begin to see movement in a few of the lit windows; blinds and drapes were parted as residents peeked out in anticipation of what his presence in their neighborhood would mean for them. For some, it's a bad omen in regards to their unlawful arrangements and methods.

To others, it's a sense of relief and safety. The police department rarely patrolled this area of Gotham anymore, feeling it a waste of time as much of it was too corrupt and didn't want to spare the officers of an already too-sparse department. If you lived in a residence or owned a business in this neighborhood and called 911, there was a real good chance that the police would never come. For the innocents here in the Bowery, Batman and his partners were the only sense of law and order available to them.

Batman drove down a few blocks, revving his large engine now and then to let more of the criminal population know he was there because he knew that his presence alone would play on the cowardly and superstitious and would be enough to stop some of the wickedness before it started.

Parking next to a broken fire hydrant, Batman exited his vehicle and engaged the Batmobile's shields. He readied his grapnel gun as he walked to up to the building he'd chosen as the rendezvous point with Nightwing and Robin. Wasting no time, he aimed and fired as he walked, paused to give the line a firm tug to test that he had a good anchor, and then retracted the line, ascending quickly toward the roof.

It took no more than a few seconds to scale the six-story building. As he reached the top, he placed a hand on the ledge and vaulted over the firewall, landing silently into a crouch. He was about to scan the roof for his partners when a commotion about ten yards away caught his attention. He moved closer to inspect and almost couldn't believe what he saw.

"Stay still."

"You're going t-to… drop me!"

"Not if you -gah!- stay still, I won't."

All Batman could do was close his eyes and exhale deeply. There before him were his two fearless, most trusted, crime-fighting partners performing some sort of God-knows-what stunt. For reasons that would never occur to him, Nightwing was in a full handstand with Robin sitting on the bottoms of his boots as he was trying to walk with his hands around the roof.

Having seen enough, Batman loudly cleared his throat and gained his boys' attention.

Robin whipped around at the sound, which threw off Nightwing's balance and both boys tumbled to the floor of the roof in a tangled heap of arms and legs.

Closing his eyes as he shook his head he walked over and stood over the two. "Finished?"

Nightwing was the first to get untangled and onto his feet. He gave this mentor a sheepish grin while giving his brother a hand up, "You were late..., and we got bored."

Batman simply stood and glared.

Nightwing shrugged, "Hey, we could have done something useful, but you're the one that said not to do anything or engage with anyone until you got here."

Batman looked at Robin as he brushed himself off, "Keeping a look out for trouble. . ," he looked back to Nightwing, "would have been useful."

Nightwing looked at Robin, who was rubbing the back of his neck, and then back to his mentor for a second before shrugging his shoulders, "He bet me I couldn't do it."

Robin frowned and quickly slugged his brother in the arm.

"Ow!" Nightwing chuckled, rubbing the sore spot.

Batman looked toward the horizon where the bat signal had just appeared. "We'll discuss this later; we're needed."

Nightwing waited until Batman had leapt off the building, "Why'd you punch me?"

Robin shot off his jump line and turned to look at his brother, "Nark," and then jumped off the roof.

"Well, you were just gonna hang me out to dry!" He yelled after the teen while taking the leap himself.

Commissioner Gordon pulled up the collar of his trench coat and hunched his shoulders against the cold. The steam from his coffee rose around his face, warming the tip of his nose as he took another sip. It was only the beginning of October and already the forecasters were calling for a frigid winter with plenty of snow.

Jim Gordon hated the snow. "...always makes things in this miserable city even more difficult." He thought out loud and took another drink, wincing at how quickly his coffee was cooling.

"Commissioner."

Jim turned at the greeting and was a little surprised to see Robin land on the roof alongside Batman and Nightwing. "Well," he smiled, "looks like the gang's all here tonight. Robin," Gordon spoke to the teen, "I gotta say, it's been a while, son. I was beginning to question if you were actually as busy with the Titans as Batman had said."

The teen shifted nervously, not wanting to speak, fearing he'd choke over his words and opted to answer with a curt nod of his head, "Sir." He acknowledged respectfully.

Batman knew the commissioner had been on to them after the first couple months of Robin's absence, but was grateful when the older man had respectfully let the issue drop, opting instead to ask about the his absent partner every so often.

"Well," Jim cleared his throat as he got down to business and pulled out an evidence bag from inside his coat. "A couple of my boys came across this while checking out a hit and run downtown the other night. Look familiar?"

Batman accepted the evidence bag and looked at the contents closely. "You said a hit and run?"

Gordon nodded while coaxing a cigarette from its pack, "Yup. Trace came back just an hour ago," He looked up after lighting the tip, "They're Angel Eyes."

"Headlights?"

Batman's attention shot to his protegé who had walked forward to get a closer look at the broken shards of glass. "You've heard of them?" He asked hesitantly, not wanting his hopes to rise too far.

Robin looked anxiously at the Commissioner for a second before answering his mentor, "Those hit-and-run cases a few years ago, where someone was mowing down vagrants? Angel Eyes was the type of aftermarket headlights we found at one of the scenes."

Batman fought extremely hard to keep the proud smile he was beaming with on the inside from showing. Robin just accurately recapped a cold case from five years ago. "That's right, Robin."

Nightwing felt sorry for the Commissioner, and brought him back into the loop, "He had his tonsils out recently; hurts to talk too much. Robin said, he thinks the shards tie into the hit-and-run case that went cold a few years back."

Jim took a long pull on his cigarette as he studied the young vigilante for a moment, knowing Nightwing's explanation of why the boy was choosing to sign instead of speak was a load of bull, however, long ago he'd stopped trying to figure out why the Bats did some of what they do.

"Sure." he nodded exhaling a long breath of smoke. "Anyway, Batman, I'd appreciate it if you would give them a look and see if you can come up with anything new. The boys down in Trace didn't get much, except for a match to the ones we pulled off the last scene, back in '09, but then again, they don't have access to the high-tech doodads that you have."

Batman tucked the evidence bag into a pouch in his belt, "I'll get back to you tomorrow and let you know what I find."

"Much appreciated." As the Batclan was turning to leave, Jim picked up the cup of cold coffee he'd set down earlier, "Be careful out there tonight, boys."

"Will do, Commish." Nightwing answered with a grin.

"Oh, and Batman." Gordon called after his friend and waited until the vigilante turned to face him, "Give that boy some ice cream for his throat." he said and then gave an exaggerated wink.

Batman replied with a smirk and then disappeared into the night.

A few hours after their rooftop meeting with Gotham City's Police Commissioner, Batman, Nightwing and Robin took a sweeping patrol of their side of the city as they made their way back to their vehicles. Batman was internally grateful that the night had been moderately quiet. The crimes they had stopped had been minor, giving him the opportunity to stand back for the most part and evaluate Robin's participation and tactics in each situation. Sure, there had been a few things that the teen would need to improve upon, but that was to be expected seeing as this was only his first night back. Besides, Batman reminded himself, no matter how long you've been doing the job, there's always room for one's improvement.

Back at his vehicle, Batman disengaged the shields on the Batmobile and jumped into the cockpit. He was putting the evidence from earlier in a compartment to keep it safe for the rest of the night as Nightwing rolled up beside him on his motorcycle, "Hey. It's just after 2:00am. How long did you want to patrol tonight?"

Batman looked up at Nightwing and then to Robin when the teen pulled up beside his brother. Even though the boy looked alert and humming with excitement, he wondered if he was beginning to wear down. "Doing alright, Robin?"

Nightwing looked over to his brother and grinned when the boy nodded enthusiastically. "Him? He'll be going like the Energizer Bunny all night. I was wondering because, I'm hungry. If we're staying out as long as normal, I need munchies."

Batman smiled to himself. "Alfred sent his usual pack of snacks. They're in the trunk."

Nightwing looked at Robin and they both smiled. "Nah. We need serious, bad-for-you eats. Let's swing by Quick Trip."

Batman frowned as he considered making an unplanned stop at the well-known gas station.

"Come on…" Nightwing coaxed, "I need some sugar and Alfred's healthy, all-natural protein bars just aren't going to cut it. We'll be quick, I promise."

Batman sighed, he didn't like to divert from their planned areas of patrol. Between their visit with the commissioner and stumbling upon the woman who had locked her keys in her car, they were already thirty-plus minutes behind schedule for the areas they were supposed to have covered by this time of night. Then again, he reminded himself, that tonight was supposed to be relatively laid back and taking a few minutes for an unplanned side mission for Nightwing's munchies wouldn't be that big of a deal.

He started the vehicle and looked at his oldest, "Well go to the one on Admiral and Lewis; it's on the way."

"Roger that." Nightwing flashed his mentor a bright smile and pushed down the visor on his helmet, he revved the engine on his bike a few times before following behind as the Batmobile took off down the road.

Not wanting to draw unwanted attention to himself, Batman pulled around to the back of the convenience store and parked. As Nightwing and Robin parked next to him, dismounted their bikes and started walking around to enter the store, Batman began making some updates to the on-board battle grid he'd programmed earlier.

The boys were almost to the door when Nightwing heard a chirp in his ear. Robin stopped walking and looked at his brother when he paused to answer the comm.

"Yeah?" Nightwing asked and then gave his brother a puzzled look when no one spoke over the line. He began to wonder if Batman had initiated the communication on accident, "Helloooo...?"

"... grab me a Snickers and a Slim Jim."

Nightwing chuckled at the moody request while pulling the door open, "You got it, boss."

Grateful that there weren't any patrons in the convenience store that late at night, the vigilantes set about quickly gathering their needed supplies. Robin was down one of the back aisles, looking at the drinks while Nightwing walked up to the counter and got ready to check out. He had stopped in at this particular location more than a few times over the past year and now chatted casually with the cashier while he waited for Robin, "Been a good night?"

The cashier, a laid back guy in his thirties named Brody, shrugged a shoulder. "Yeah; been pretty quiet actually. You?"

Nightwing looked at his brother's reflection in a mirror mounted at the back corner of the store and grinned, "Yeah."

Brody followed Nightwing's line of vision to the mirror, "Robin; right?"

"Yep," Nightwing smiled and turned to face Brody as he began ringing up their items.

"I read in the papers, 'bout three months ago, how he hadn't been seen in Gotham anymore."

"He was... busy sorting some things out, but he's back now." Nightwing had been leaning against the counter as he chatted with Brody, but as he watched a new customer enter the store, instinct had him standing up to his full height. There was something about this new man that put him on alert.

Batman sighed and looked at the time on his digital readout. The boys had been inside five minutes already and his patience was beginning to thin. He was pulling up the cold case file on the computer in his car when he heard something that made him turn up the police scanner in disbelief .

"You heard me! Open the safe!"

Nightwing kept his hands raised, as he was ordered, and tried to keep the gunman calm, "He can't," he said and motioned toward the entryway, "Didn't you see the sign on the door before you came in? Cashier does not have access to safe." Using his peripheral vision, Nightwing was keeping a visual on Robin who was creeping along one of the aisles, silently making his way to the front. That's when his comm chirped.

Nightwing was glad that his hands were already raised, making it that much easier to subtly bring his left hand back toward his ear. Now all had to do was wait until the robber looked away for him to touch the comm and open up the line.

Almost as if on cue, Brody addressed the robber, "Dude... are you new in town or are you on something?" The robber looked at the cashier as he spoke and Nightwing opened the line just as Brody gestured back toward him, "Don't you know who that is?!"

Nightwing spoke over the line, "Uh huh?"

"Do you need backup?"

Nightwing figured Brody had tripped the silent alarm when Batman came on the line. He half-listened to the perp tell Brody to shut up and carried on about how everyone knew the signs were fake and were just there to throw people off.

"That's a negative," he answer his mentor.

"Who are you talking to?!" Demanded the robber as he turned his gun on Nightwing, taking a step closer.

"Myself." The vigilante answered with a disturbing smile. "I forgot to take my meds today."

As the robber stared at Nightwing, trying to decide what to do about him, Robin came up from behind and threw his soda bottle, hitting the perp hard, square in the back of his head.

Nightwing moved a split-second later and thrust the robber's gun hand up toward the ceiling. A shot rang out and drywall dust and fragments rained down on them as the bullet tore a hole in the ceiling. Robin was already rushing from behind and kicked the back of the perp's knee, easily forcing him to the ground.

Brody leaned over the counter and watched as Nightwing dropped on top of the criminal, pressing a knee into his back back and then grabbed a fist of hair, slamming the side of his face against the tile floor when he began to struggle as Robin worked to restrain him.

"Thanks, man. We'll see ya later." Nightwing told Brody as he was exiting the store and winked at the hog-tied robber as he passed him by.

"No, guys; thank you!"

Lights and sirens pierced the night as Gotham's finest arrived on the scene while Nightwing was passing Batman his items through the car window. "I take it you and Robin have everything wrapped up in there?"

Robin nodded as he chewed on his Twix bar, "Dude was an am… an am... ama..."

Nightwing grinned and gave the teen's back a playful smack, as you would a skipping record player.

Robin gave up on "amateur" and instead went with: "Dude was a nube."

On the ride home, sometime after five o'clock in the morning, Batman thought about the events that night and was extremely pleased with how everything had turned out. Robin was in prime form and had gone through the trials of the night with flying colors. They'd come up against a wide variety of situations and through them all he was confident, bold and methodical. He thought before he acted and his movements were smooth and purposeful.

Robin was back and Batman couldn't have been happier about it.

* Information taken directly from www . maggie blanck new york / life . html