"Santa's Little Helper. Attention Santa's Little Helper. We have a situation at the North Pole. Non urgent assistance requested. Repeat,
NON URGENT assistance required."
It took Steph a beat to realize what she had just heard come over the police scanner.
That was very much Nick’s voice. Asking HER for help. Twice repeating that it wasn’t urgent.
Did that mean it was urgent? If it was, why didn’t he use the bat signal? Suppose there was no guarantee she would be the one to show up if he did that.
Calling for ‘Santa’s Little Helper’ – the poorly thought out name she gave herself after their first meeting, scrawled in lipstick on his cruiser's window – over the scanner (that meant he was on to her listening in on them that way, big yikes) would guarantee specifically her arrival.
But WHY?
These thoughts, and more ran through Steph’s head as she worked her way into the GCPD’s vents. Thoughts including but not limited to 'why, almost three years later did he remember that incredibly cringy thing, dear god she was the worst' and 'someone had better be dying or dead for all of the GCPD to now have that as ammunition against her, or she might just drop good ol’ Saint Nick out a window'.
Kicking the vent cover out and dropping down onto Nick's desk with little care for his paperwork – he deserved the mess right now, thank you very much – to glance around the precinct expecting trouble and seeing: nothing.
Everything was in order. Or, at least it was, until a Bat dropped into the room.
Frowning beneath her cowl, she spotted Nick making his way over to her, with a familiar, distressed face in tow.
Nell Little.
As her boots hit the floor, Nell darted across to her, throwing her arms around her. Reflexively wrapping her arms around the girl – teen, now, god, she was growing up so fast, she had to remind herself Nell was the same age as Damian – Steph suddenly understood Nick's call.
Offering the detective a small smile, Steph rested her hand on the back of Nell's head, letting her cape fall around the both of them like a blanket.
"I see you know when to call in the professionals, pretty boy. I think we can take this from here, right Nell?"
Feeling a nod against her hand she mouthed 'what happened' to Nick, who rubbed at the back of his neck and let out a long, silent breath breath, before flicking his notepad open, and holding his scribbled notes out for her to see, without moving from where he stood. Squinting at both his terrible handwriting, and the small text, Steph could make out 'ran away' and 'mother'.
Pulling back to look down at Nell, Steph offered her the corner of her cape to wipe her face and a smile.
"What do you say we grab some donuts, one of these rooms, and you tell me what's going on?"
As Nell took the cape and wiped at her eyes, she mumbled something that sounded like 'I haven't seen any donuts'. With a devious grin, Steph took the lead, a hand lightly on Nell's back to guide her around.
"Bullock always has donuts. Fact."
She didn't even have to be looking at Nick, who was trailing behind them to know he was shaking his head at them.
"He will shoot you one day, you know that right?"
Nudging open the drawers of Bullock's desk until she found what she was looking for, Steph just beamed at Detective Gage.
"He can try. Tell him to add these to what I already owe him. I'm sure he's definitely keeping track, because I'm definitely not."
Taking a chocolate glazed one from the box for herself she held it out to Nell, who looked from the box, to Steph, then Nick, who simply rolled his eyes and shook his head with a small smile. Taking the pink glazed one, earning a chipmunk cheeked smile from Steph, Nell smiled a small watery smile.
'Progress'
Leading the procession of absurdity to one of the observatories of a currently unused interrogation room, Stephanie opened the door and waved Nell inside. As Nick moved to enter as well, she put her hand on his chest to stop him.
"Let me handle it for now. Pretty sure I got this one. Go… do paperwork or something."
She didn't give him a chance to argue, slipping into the room, and closing the door behind her. Inside, Nell was fascinated with the two way glass, looking into the interrogation room. Taking a seat on the desk, sitting with her legs folded, Steph sat the box of donuts down next to her, and simply waited.
After a few moments of silence, Nell asks softly
"Will that detective really shoot you for taking his donuts?"
Letting out a light laugh, Steph shook her head.
"Harvey? No. He wouldn't shoot me on purpose. Maybe by accident. Which might be infinitely worse, now that I'm thinking about it."
Another silence fell, in which Steph had finished her donut with Nell nervously nibbling at hers, the glaze melting all over her fingers.
"I ran away from home tonight…"
Nell finally says softly. Steph says nothing, giving Nell the time she needs, simply digging through her belt pouches looking for the hand wipes she was sure she had.
"Mom found out I was dating and freaked out."
Finding the wipes finally, Steph frowned at the statement. Sure, Crystal freaked a little when she found out Steph was dating at Nell's age, but Dean was… older. Biting back her thoughts for now, she just leant forward and tapped Nell on the shoulder with the pack of wipes.
"What do you mean she freaked out, Nell?"
Exchanging the half eaten donut for the wipes, Nell scowled at her hands with puffy eyes, looking ready to start crying again.
"She saw that my wallpaper was me and my girlfriend kissing and she freaked. I just… ran out of the house. I didn't know what else to do."
With a soft sigh, Steph dropped the donut back in the box and got to her feet. Cracking the door open, fully prepared to have to yell across the bullpen for Nick she jumped when he was right there.
"Christ. Lurking isn't your thing. Gimme your phone."
Holding out her hand, with the accompanying grabby motion, Nick pulled it from his inner breast pocket, and set it into her palm without question. With a muttered thanks, the door snapped shut again, and Steph returned to Nell, unlocking the screen.
"You know your mom's number, right?"
Receiving a nod of acknowledgement, Steph held out the phone to her.
"Punch it in for me. I'll call her and tell her you're at least safe, ok? This isn't the kind of city to just run off in, you should know that by now."
After a brief stare down, in which Steph channeled her best Disappointed Alfred face from beneath the cowl, Nell caved, punching in the number. Hitting call, Steph considered for a second putting it on speaker, but decided against it, should it be the worst outcome.
She was hoping it was just a misunderstanding, and not... something else. She didn't know if she could convince the others of the benefits of her suddenly taking in a teenage girl should it be the worst outcome. Because there was no way in hell she was letting Nell go back to a home like that.
"Hello?!"
The voice that picked up was frantic. And it sounded like Ms Little. Y'know. As much as someone sounds like themselves over the phone. A decent start.
"Ms Little? It's uh –"
Was she really gonna introduce herself as Batgirl over the phone. God her life was weird.
"– it's Batgirl. I'm calling from Detective Gage's phone—"
Before she could continue the sentence she almost lost hearing in her left ear, with how loud Nell's mother got.
"DETECTIVE? Is my baby ok?! Oh my god I'll never forgive myself if anything happened–"
Holding the phone away from her head a little she shot a glance at Nell, who was watching the whole thing intensely.
"Ms Little, Nell is here with me. I'm looking at her right now. She's… shaken, but she's fine. We're going to have a talk, but when she's ready, I'm going to bring her home, ok?"
The question was more for Nell. Her mother was loud enough to not have needed to be on speaker phone. With a small nod to agree, Steph held a hand out to Nell, offering a smile in return.
"As long as she comes home. If she's with you, she'll be safe. You've proven that already."
'The Littles and their positive reinforcement for the hero thing. I still don't know what to do about that.'
After ending the call, Steph let out a sigh. Before she could crack a joke to try to ease her own discomfort about anything, Nell speaks softly
"You know, you didn't react to me saying 'girlfriend'..."
Raising a brow, Steph thought for a second.
"Huh. Guess I didn't. Do you want me to react to it?"
Slowly sinking down to sit against the wall below the two way glass, eyes on Nell, Nell frowned at Steph's question, sinking down to sit next to her.
"I… don't know. It always seems like people make a huge deal out of it. And you didn't even blink."
"Well, I mean, I like boys and girls, if that makes you feel better. So it felt like a natural comment to me."
Leaning her head on Steph's shoulder, Nell picked at the flap of one of the pouches on the thigh belt.
"Why do you think mom reacted like that?"
Resting her cheek on the top of Nell's curls, Steph let out a light chuckle.
"Probably the sudden realization that her little baby is getting all grown up, the passage of time is flying by, and she doesn't know where it went. The shock of knowing you're old enough to be dating, more than who you're dating. If I had to have a professional opinion."
With a small murmur of acknowledgement of the words, Nell amused herself by digging through the empty pouches on the thigh belt in relative silence for a moment before raising her head off Steph's shoulder to look at her.
"Does it get easier? Being yourself when people… know?
Steph sighed softly, trying to think of the right words. She wasn't exactly the best person to be asking here. It's not like she was officially out or anything. Maybe the family knew, her parents sure as hell didn't. And she lived her life as a costumed vigilante, perpetually keeping every secret from everyone ever, even the people close to her.
"It's easier to be yourself when you don't have to hide who you are from the people you love. And the people who love you, truly love you, will accept you no matter what."
Seeing Nell perk up at the words made her feel like she said the right thing, at least. Returning to resting against Steph, Nell muttered
"I wish I had my phone. I could show you her picture. I think you'd like her..."
Smiling softly, Steph gave Nell's arm a light squeeze.
"I'm sure I would. What's her name? Tell me about her."
After a good two hours of Nell chirping brightly about Alysia, and them finishing off the donuts, there was a light knocking at the door, before it cracked open, to have Nick find the girls in a fit of giggles on the floor.
"I just wanted to… y'know… check in… and get my phone back…"
Using it to glance at the time, Steph rose to her feet with a groan.
"I suppose I should get you home."
Helping Nell to her feet, Steph motioned her towards the door, which she moved towards in much better spirits than she entered it in. Passing Nick his phone, he kept grip of her hand, leaning in to speak softly.
"Hey thanks… Santa's Little Helper…"
With a grin, Steph shook her head.
"Do it again, St Nick, and you'll see the inside of a chimney first hand. We clear?"
With a laugh he tucked the phone away, shaking his head.
"Crystal."
While they moved towards the front entrance, Steph fiddled with a series of buttons of her LED display, Nell looking back towards the direction of Nick.
"So what's the story? There's a story there."
Snorting Steph shoved Nell lightly.
"No story. It's way past your bedtime."
Puffing her cheeks out in annoyance, a mirror expression of one Steph herself pulls, Nell latched onto Stephs arm and let herself become dead weight to be dragged to the front door.
"Spoiled sport."
Laughing, loudly, genuinely, Steph just waits a beat once outside.
"Oh, you have no idea, sweetie…"
Screeching to a halt in front of them, delivered remotely, came the Compact. Popping the passenger door open for Nell and waving her in, Steph hopped in herself, immediately turning down the radio that was blaring loudly to itself from the last time she was in the car.
"Sorry… alright. Here's the deal. I'm gonna take you home. But I'm not gonna leave until I know you're safe and happy in the situation, ok?"
Glancing over to see Nell just staring at her, she shifted her grip self consciously on the steering wheel.
"I know what it's like to have a terrible home life. And I'm not gonna let you have to deal with that just because of who you love, alright?"
Seeing Nell's eyes start to glisten she cleared her throat and shifted her eyes out the windows, all the windows, no she wasn't going to cry damn it.
"Thank you…"
Came the voice from next to her softly. Sniffing sharply, she clapped her hands together and shifted in her seat.
"Any time, sweetie. I'm uh… I'm gonna need an address now though."
They sat staring at the house for a good five minutes.
The both of them. Just staring at the front door.
Gently squeezing Nell's hand, Steph speaks softly.
"I'll be right here. If you need me at any point, know that. I'm not going anywhere."
Nodding and taking a deep breath, Nell got out of the Compact. Slowly, she made her way to the front door, glancing back every few steps as if to make sure Batgirl was keeping her word. Steph hadn't even moved. As Nell reached the front door, she offered a double thumbs up of support, and watched her biggest supporter go into what was probably the scariest situation of her life.
And so Steph waited. Her shotgun earpieces activated and the windows cracked to listen in case there were calls for help.
Her eyes locked on the house like it was the most important stakeout of her life.
Hours passed. The downstairs lights flicked off. All but one of the upstairs lights flicked off. Seeing the curtains part she registered it as Nell's room.
She could leave. But she wanted to check in.
Pulling herself up onto the roof, she lightly rapped a knuckle against the glass, for the window to shoot open.
"You really didn't leave!"
Nell whisper-shouts, wrapping her arms around her shoulders. Rubbing her back, Steph smiled softly.
"I said I wasn't going anywhere. Is everything ok now?"
Nell paced around the room, now Steph observed, in pajamas. Steph took a perch on the window sill, still mostly outside the room.
"You were right, mostly. Mom was also hurt that I didn't think I could talk to her about… who I am. But we talked now. I think we're gonna be better."
Hearing a window a room over slide open, Steph leant back slightly, looking in that direction. Seeing Ms Little lean out, presumably ready to yell at a girlfriend already creeping over, and receiving a finger wave from below Nell's line of sight from the vigilante that brought her home, she just shook her head, offered a half wave and slunk back inside, shutting the window again.
"That's great, Nell. I'm glad. Honestly, you're already off to a better start with your dating life than I was. My first boyfriend was like. Six years older than me, and I was thirteen going on fourteen. Hey, gimme your phone a sec."
While Nell was still trying to process the piece of information about the creepy first boyfriend, she handed Batgirl her phone, unlocking it first. Swinging her legs around into the room, and leaning forward she began punching her number into the phone. Hitting save she stalled on her decision on what to save it as. Deciding to go through with it, she passed the phone back to Nell. Looking at the new contact in the phone, Nell frowned slightly.
"Who's Steph?"
Shaking her hair free of the cowl, Steph smiled her first full face smile at Nell.
"I am."