Author's Notes:

Hey all~ I'm back with a multi-chapter fic, my first in a very long time. Please leave comments and notes~ Feedback is always welcome~ Enjoy!

Chapter 1

He remembered the first time he saw her like it was yesterday.

Bruce had just adopted Dick. They had just gotten all of the paperwork finalized when she appeared. She waltzed into the dining room while they were having breakfast, a shit eating grin on her face and a diploma in hand. Dick watched her with his mouth hanging open as she sauntered over to them. The early morning sun cast a halo around her as it bounced off her blonde hair. Dick's ten year old mind rationalized that an angel must have dropped into their midst.

"Welcome home, Harley," Bruce said with a smile, rising to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "How was Switzerland?"

"How's this for success?" she grinned, shoving the diploma under his nose. "I am now Doctor Harleen Quinzel, PhD extraordinaire! AND the youngest person ever to get a job at the prestigious Arkham Asylum!"

"Hey! So Strange finally realized he needs your skills," Bruce cheered, raising his water glass to her. Alfred quickly gave her one as well. "To your successful career." They clinked glasses. Dick cleared his throat as he stood and Bruce turned a little red. "Harley, this is Dick Grayson. I just adopted him. Dick, this is my cousin, Harley."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Harley said with a grin, holding out her hand to him. He took it and gave her a nervous grin.

He couldn't get out a hello no matter how hard he tried. He was stunned by her beauty. Even after all his years at the circus, surrounded with dancers and actresses, he'd never seen someone like her. He opened and closed his mouth a few times trying to get words out.

"Will you run away with me?" was what he ended up blurting out.

And that's how it began. In the grips of laughter from the adults, Harley told him that she might when he was older. Even as a child, he knew what he said was ridiculous. She sat with them for breakfast and Bruce invited her to stay with them at the manor as long as she liked. After all, it was closer to the Asylum than any apartment she could get in central Gotham. She accepted with a smile that made Dick's head spin.

That evening, as they sat in the Batcave waiting to see if the Commissioner would call, Bruce decided he owed Dick an explanation.

"Our moms were sisters," he said, breaking the silence so suddenly that Dick actually jumped. "Her parents, my aunt and uncle, they came here to take care of me after my parents died. We were close before that, but afterwards… We'd introduce each other as brother and sister. At least until we got into college."

"I thought you didn't go to college?" Dick asked, jumping up onto one of the counters. He was so short that his feet didn't touch the ground, so he swung his feet back and forth with glee.

"I did two years," Bruce said with a defiant snort. "She was so smart she got into college when she was 15. Spent the last ten years learning and studying. It's good to have her back."

"Where did the accent come from?" Dick asked, cocking his head to one side.

"Nonya business, that's where!" came the shout from the elevator. Dick jumped again and turned quickly, almost falling off the counter. Harley was walking in with her hands on her hips, a grumpy frown on her face. Her eyes landed on Dick and he saw the fury in her eyes when she turned them on Bruce. He audibly swallowed. "Can I speak to you in private, please?"

Bruce got up quickly and followed her. An air of annoyance radiated around him, as though talking to his cousin was a burden he didn't need. Dick couldn't imagine what needed to be said in private (it's not like he understood anything adults said) but he quickly found out. Despite them going off beyond his sight, he could hear Harley yelling.

"How DARE you drag a CHILD into this!" she screeched, his voice echoing in the cave. "Have you completely lost your mind?!" There was a silence and Dick figured Bruce was responding. "I DON'T CARE ABOUT HIS PARENTS! Are you gonna take in every orphan you find on the streets?! He's, what? TEN?! You're gonna get him killed!" Another small silence. "JUST BECAUSE HE CAN FLY ON A TRAPEZE DOESN'T MEAN HE CAN FIGHT CRIME!"

Dick smirked a little. He wanted to prove her wrong. So he grabbed a batarang laying nearby and moved until he could just see them. Carefully he lined up his shot and tossed the batarang. It embedded itself into the stones between them, just an inch from Harley's nose. She just blinked, she was so shocked.

"I learned how to throw knives too," he said with his trademark cheeky grin. Bruce laughed a little and pulled the batarang out from the wall. "Jack said I was the best apprentice he ever took on."

"It shows!" Bruce said with a smile, tossing the batarang underhanded onto the control panel. "Come on, Lee, I've seen the kid in action. He can handle himself. And I'm sure he'll get even better with some training."

"Training?!" Harley's hands planted themselves on her hips as she stomped over to Bruce, who had since moved back to the monitors. She looked at him with a calculating eye, one eyebrow raising slowly. "Who am I talking to?" Bruce didn't answer, just stared down at the keyboard and refused to meet her gaze. "Bruce? … Batman."

"What?!" he snapped, turning on Harley so quickly that she stumbled back a few paces. "Don't start with your psychological bullshit. Not with me. I'm not your patient."

"No, you're my brother," she said with a sigh, turning back towards Dick. "Do you have a name yet? Batboy?"

Dick made a disgusted face at that. "That sounds terrible! No, we didn't figure something out yet…"

The answer came a few days later as Harley was watching Dick practice his acrobatics. He and Alfred had set up uneven parallel bars in the backyard, which Dick was flipping and spinning around expertly. Harley was sitting by the pool, reading a book and looking up every once in a while to make sure Dick hadn't fallen or broken something. She had to admit, he was certainly agile. But she was still nervous with Bruce taking him under his bat wing. It just seemed too dangerous… He did a flip and launched himself off the high bar, sticking his landing on the lawn. He jumped when she clapped, like he didn't realize she was there, and flashed her a grin.

"Do you wanna try?" he asked, grabbing a nearby towel and his water bottle. "I can show you how. It's really easy."

"Yeah I know." She chuckled, setting her book side and stepping up to the bars. "Now, I haven't done this in years, so I apologize if I'm a little rusty."

She jumped on the lower bar, taking a few warming up swings. Once she'd gotten enough height, she launched herself towards the higher bar with a delicate front flip. Her years of gymnastics came back to her in a flash, like riding a bike. It felt wonderful to have the wind rushing through her hair as she swung and flipped around. She caught a glimpse of Dick staring wide eyed and open mouthed and a little red faced, like he was embarrassed being outclassed by a girl. She kept going, remembering an old routine from high school. Though she felt her grip slipping a bit, her palms were sweating and she had no chalk, so she let go with another backflip. She didn't stick her landing, she had to take a few stumbling steps to keep upright, but she grinned nonetheless. It felt wonderful to do gymnastics again. She turned to see Dick's reaction and realized he was gone.

"Please won't you run away with me?" Harley started a little and spun around, seeing Dick on one knee behind her with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. It looked like he'd just run off to the gardens to pick them. He was giving her a thousand watt smile and she grinned back, taking the flowers from him and inhaling deeply.

"Ask me again when you're older," she said with a chuckle, admiring his persistence. He stared at her for a second, tapping his foot, and then grinned again.

"Okay, I'm older. Run away with me, doll," he retorted. He kept grinning at her and she fell over laughing. Persistent indeed.

"Say, when you were swinging around, you looked like a bird," she said, wiping tears from her eyes. "Like a little robin with that red shirt."

"A robin?" he asked, cocking his head as he thought about it. "I looked like a robin?"

"A robin, eh?" Bruce said as he materialized by the bars. "I like the sound of that… What do you think, Dick? Batman and Robin."

"You two have no consideration, do you?!"

Batman was in no mood for his cousin's rantings. He and Dick had just gotten in from a brutal evening on the streets, he was bloodied, bruised, aching, and probably had a concussion. Harley's shrill voice was grating on his mind like a nail on a chalkboard. He yanked his cape and cowl off and tossed them over his chair, letting Alfred fret as he started bandaging him.

"What did we do this time?" he grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"Did you come to run away with me?" Dick cried as he bounded over to her, showing off his new costume.

"Not now, Dick," Harley snapped, harsher than she'd intended. He deflated in a second and she turned back to Bruce. "Do you have any idea how difficult you've made my job?"

"I'm sure I don't," was the muttered reply.

"Ever since you put the Joker away, we've had doctors and nurses quitting left and right!" she huffed, tossing back her lab coat so she could put her hands on her hips. "I've been on triple overtime this entire week. Arkham's staff is stretched so thin that Strange is saddling ME with that lunatic!"

"He's what?" that got Bruce's attention. They'd just tangled with the Joker for the very first time a few weeks ago. He got up quickly, grabbing her shoulders as a manic look came into his eyes. "Harley don't you see how perfect this is? You'll be his doctor. You can get him to talk! I need you to find out everything you can about him."

"That's kind of my job, Bruce. As his psychiatrist." Harley rolled her eyes at him and shook her head.

"I mean more than that," Bruce said, shaking her a little. "I'll write some stuff down. Please, Lee, can you do this for me? I need to know how he works."

"That's a breach of doctor patient confidentiality," Harley drawled. She cast her eyes to the ceiling, as if she realized she was making a bad choice. "Write down your questions. I can't guarantee anything."

None of them realized at the time how bad of a choice that was.