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Spending nearly a week in Gotham was torture. In a normal situation, she didn’t like traveling for work, but case she was working called for her going to a city that was basically hell on earth. She couldn’t get a sitter to stay with Theo the whole week, and unfortunately the Burke’s were at El’s sister’s house, so she couldn’t drop him off with them. The best she could get was Mozzie agreeing to come with her to Gotham and watch Theo while she was at work. So during the day she worried about her case and about what Moz was teaching her son, and at night she worried about the constant sound of sirens and whatever Moz was doing when he when out to “network.”
Not tonight though, tonight Mozzie insisted she take a night off while he swore up and down that he and Theo wouldn’t be getting in any trouble. So Diana found herself in what was perhaps the shittiest bar she had ever been to, trying desperately to relax during the last night she’d be spending in this godforsaken city. She took a swig of her beer and tried not to roll her eyes when she saw a tall guy in a leather jacket approaching her out of the corner of her eye. He sat down a couple barstools away from her, ordered a drink she didn’t pay attention to, and waited for a few moments for it to arrive. Once it did he turned towards her, without even fully facing him Diana could see the look in his eyes—this was about to be a conversation she did not want to have.
“Hey.” he started, his voice was deep and rough in a way that probably had some girls swooning by now. It didn’t quite have that effect on Diana, though, he really wasn’t her type.
“I’m gonna cut you off right there.” She help up her hand, stopping whatever he was going to say next. “Not only am I a single mother on my first night off in six months, and therefore extremely uninterested in getting hit on by some rando in a city I’m literally leaving tomorrow, but I’m also extremely gay. Before you ask, no, you can’t change my mind. You can move along now.”
“Alright, Diana, I was just coming over to say hi, but if you feel that strongly about it, I’ll get out of your hair.” As soon as she heard her name, Diana whipped her head around to fully face the man. Worn out leather jacket, dark sunglasses, wavy hair slightly messy. The look was all wrong, all rugged where she was used to seeing him refined, but she still recognized him immediately. She’d worked with him for years, one of the last things she did before moving to DC was go to his funeral, yet here stood Neal Caffrey.
“Let it be noted that the only reason I’m not slapping you right now is because I don’t want to make a scene.” She glared at him and he looked appropriately sheepish. After a second she let her expression soften. “It’s the same reason I’m not giving you a giant hug right now.”
“I really missed you, Di.” Neal smiled at her before quickly glancing over his sunglasses at something behind her.
“You too, N-“
“Jay.” He cut her off before she could say the name she knew him by. “It’s Jay now.”
“Well, I missed you, Jay.” Diana rolled her lips nervously. The fake name, plus the way that he kept looking at something behind her really had her worried about what he was up to here. She tried to turn to look at whatever he kept glancing at, but he put hand on her shoulder and turned her attention back on himself.
“Hey, so it is really great seeing you again, and we should totally get coffee or something before you have to leave town,” Neal—Jay, whatever—trained an all too charming smile on her, though there was clear tension in his shoulders. He was nervous about something and he really didn’t want her to know about it. “But I’m actually a little busy right now, so I’m gonna have to head out soon. You should, uh, probably get out of here too. Go spend your night off resting. Plus, if it’s your last night here, you should probably be packing. Long way back to DC and all.”
“Neal, if you’re in some kind of trouble, I can-“ Diana lowered her voice, but she was cut off again.
“It’s Jay, and I’m not- shit.” Neal stopped himself. He looked like he was listening to something and it was the first time Diana noticed the small comm-piece in his ear. “Yeah, Red, I’m all finished in here, just got a little held up with an old friend. I’ll- no, she’s cool, just wrong place, wrong time. I’m… yeah, exactly, as soon as I can get her out of here I’ll be out too.”
Neal turned his attention back to Diana, officially looking more annoyed than anxious. He stood from his stool and offered a hand to her.
“Look, Di, we’ve got about fourteen minutes left until the others… well I can’t be here when it happens. We have to go now.” Diana looked between Neal and the hand he offered her. He’d dropped all pretenses of charm, instead there was thinly veiled anger and tension that she wasn’t used to seeing from him. Her eyes met the dark shades he was wearing and she hardened her expression.
“I’m not moving until you tell me what’s going on.” She could see Neal repress a groan when she said it, but she wasn’t budging. “It’s clear that whatever is happening here is very different than the jobs you usually pull. You said you weren’t in any trouble, but I don’t believe you, so just tell me what’s going on. Neal, you know I’m a skilled agent, I can handle whatever it is you’re doing here, I can help you.”
“It’s Jay.” He corrected her again through gritted teeth. “And hey, why don’t you speak a bit louder when you talk about being a fucking fed? I don’t think the guys running the trafficking ring out of the back rooms heard you.”
“Wait Wha-“ Diana felt a heavy hand close over her shoulder. She quickly turned and pushed herself away from the big tough looking guy who had come up behind her, effectively pushing herself into Ne-Jay, who took a protective step in front on her.
“Who’s yer friend here, Hood?” The big guy asked, he crossed his arms and snarled down at her.
“Just a little someone special,” Jay responded, his voice was rougher than it had been when he was just talking to her, and he was now using a clear Gotham accent. He slipped his hand down to grab hers and started walking her to the door. “She and I were just headed out.”
“Not so fast.” Big guy reached out to grab Diana again and she moved to push his hand away.
Evidently, Jay moved faster, because by the time she turned around, his grip was already off of her hand and around the Big guy’s. And he was Twisting. There was a deafening crack that echoed throughout the bar, along with a suppressed scream of pain from the owner of the injured wrist. He got no time to rest though, because Jay’s grasp quickly moved to the collar of his shirt, pulling the man down, so that his chin rested on… Neal’s gun? When did Neal get a gun? Did he have that the whole time? Doesn’t he hate guns?
“I think you’d better keep your hands to yourself.” He growled. “Now, we were leaving, and I suggest you don’t get in our way.”
Jay pushed back from the big guy and grabbed Diana’s hand again, pulling her the rest of the way out of the bar with no protest from the surrounding crowd. He started guiding her away from the area they were in, still carrying the gun in his free hand, causing people to give the two of them a wide berth. After a bit he slowed his pace and loosened his grip a little, he glanced back at her momentarily before speaking up.
“Before you say anything, I know how this all look and I swear that this isn’t what it—“ Diana stopped in her tracks, tugging on Jay’s arm lightly to make him stop as well and actually look at her.
“So you’re not the Red Hood, ex-crime lord and current vigilante?” She asked innocently. “And you weren’t just working with the other vigilantes in Gotham to take out that trafficking ring you mentioned? And you never went undercover in the FBI, I’m guessing in correspondence with the JLA for some job you probably can’t tell me about?”
“I forgot how smart you are…” Jay mumbled, sheepishly avoiding Diana’s eyes. He sighed and bit the corner of his lip, giving up on any lie he was going to tell. “Okay, so this may be a little bit what it looks like.”