Chapter Text
"This is Cassandra," Bruce says, gesturing towards a gold and black mer in a tank that's decidedly too small. "She's like a daughter to me."
Barbara grits her teeth. That's the problem, she wants to say, but she also wants Cassandra out of his custody ASAP, so she's trying very hard to be civil.
Apparently, he had taken her in after she was rescued from the home of famed exotic pet trafficker David Cain. She's generally very good at maintaining her composure, which is why she was sent to talk to Bruce after the aquarium found out he had a pet mer on the grounds of his manor (that, and the fact that he's friends with her dad), but he is testing her patience.
Bruce beams. "Look, she's smiling at me! I told you she liked me!"
Barbara turns to look, and Cassandra is grimacing in a clear demonstration of discomfort. She takes a breath. "I understand that you care for her, Mr. Wayne, but I really think that she'd be better off under the care of trained professionals—"
"Don't you dare try to take her from me," Bruce interjects. "You're just saying that because you want to put her on display and make money on her."
"You could visit whenever you wanted. We'd be losing money on her, and she'd have plenty of areas to be out of the public eye," Barbara says, and refrains from adding, Unlike her current setup. They both watch Cassandra in silence for a few seconds before Barbara continues. "Also, mer are social animals, and she really needs at least one companion. The Bludhaven aquarium has said they'd be willing to entrust one of their mers to us so she could bond with him."
This was a bridge too far for Bruce, apparently. "She has me. I'll thank you to leave, young lady," he says icily.
"You have my number," Barbara replies, and makes her way out of his stupidly large and really quite tacky house.
—
Barbara isn't really expecting Bruce to call her, and he doesn't; at least, not at first. Aside from complaining to her coworker Dinah about Bruce and his piles of cash and his lack of sense, she keeps doing her work without hitches, but Cassandra stays in the back of her mind.
Six months later, she gets a call from an unknown number.
"This is Dr. Barbara Gordon with the Gotham City Aquarium, how can I help," she says.
"They're trying to kill her," Bruce says.
"What?"
"Animal control is trying to have her euthanized even though she didn't even bite me!"
Barbara sighs quietly enough that she hopes Bruce couldn't hear her. "Then why do they want to euthanizee her?"
"Because they all have sticks shoved so far up their asses they're willing to kill innocent animals just to prove a point," he exclaims.
"I'm going to call Animal Control and see what I can do. No promises, okay?" Before Bruce can respond, she hangs up and calls animal control.
"This is Dr. Barbara Gordon with the Gotham Aquarium, I'm calling regarding a mer you're attempting to euthanize."
The person on the other end of the line must recognize her, because he says, "Okay, I'll pass you on to Leslie. She's in charge of the Wayne case."
Hold music plays for a second before a familiar voice says, "Thank God. We're trying to find somewhere that will take a bonded pair of mer, one of whom has bitten someone recently."
"A bonded pair? Bruce only has one mer, doesn't he?"
Leslie sighs. "I guess you're not up to date on the story, then. A little under six months ago, he 'rescued' another mer from an animal abuse situation; he says you told him his first mer needed a companion. I'm assuming that's not what you meant, but he took it that way. Anyways, he was hand-feeding the second mer and she bit him. Bruce says there were no signs of aggression beforehand, but we've requested the security footage to check. He wanted Stephanie—that's the newer mer—euthanized, but we told him that since they're a bonded pair, it's likely we'd have to euthanize Cassandra too for QOL reasons."
"I'm guessing he didn't take that well," Barbara says, which is probably the understatement of the century—Bruce refuses to even donate to Gotham shelters unless they're no-kill, and Leslie had to talk him out of starting a media campaign when animal control euthanized a coyote.
"Can Gotham Aquarium take them in?" Leslie asks, hope obvious in her voice.
"I can't promise anything," Barbara says, "but if you send me the footage and Stephanie was clearly showing signs of discomfort before the bite, we can probably take both of them in. We have a large enough tank that will need minimal preparation and the resources to take care of them."
"Perfect. I'll tell Bruce that the only option to avoid euthanasia is to send us the security footage, and then I'll forward it to you," Leslie replies, before hanging up.
—
It takes 15 minutes for Leslie to send the footage. Barbara opens it with a mixture of hope and trepidation.
Bruce is shown approaching the tank with a bucket of fish. Cassandra is still, but Stephanie is clearly somewhat agitated. Bruce holds the food out above the tank, and Cassandra takes it right out of his hand.
Stephanie is clearly unwilling to be handfed, but Bruce continues to hold the fish above her. He shakes it, and her eyes are tracking it. Her tail is curled behind her, and she's making an expression with superficial similarities to a smile but is actually much closer to a grimace. It's the clearest example of aggressive posturing and stress behavior in an animal Barbara has ever seen.
Barbara smiles, closes her computer, and walks to her boss's office. She's prepared to have to fight, but she walks out less than 10 minutes later and immediately calls Leslie on her personal phone.
"Great news, we can take both of them in by tomorrow!"