Trained Weapons (Cassandra Cain x OC)

Chapter 58: It's Been To Long

(A/N) Hi guys, sorry this chapter took a little longer than normal and there is a reason for that. 1) this is possibly the longest chapter I've written so far at about 3300 words and 2) this is a very personal chapter that covers some very real stuff (I'll explain more at the end) so I understand if you skip this one because it doesn't forward the plot a whole lot but it does give more insight into Caleb and where he was before this story started.

-Harrison

It's been a few days since Caleb nearly died trying to intercept the shipment of project X Talons and there has been no sign of the court since. Over the past few days he had been getting antsy as no one would let him out of the manor or Batcave until Caleb was fully healed. However today he was just gone, Caleb had been spotted around the manor earlier in the day but he had disappeared by noon and no one knew where he had gone off to.

It had been a few hours since anyone had seen Caleb and Cass was getting worried. She had asked Dick to try to help her contact him but all they got in response was a text from Caleb saying 'not today' then nothing, every other attempt to contact him got ignored. Cass getting fed up waiting for Caleb to just show back up whenever he felt like it went to go talk to his mother, Christi.

As Cass walks up to the woman she asks "know where hi is?"

"I have a few ideas." Christi tells her.

"Where?" Cass asks again.

"I'm sorry but he just needs some time to himself today." she tells the younger girl.

"W...why?" Cass asks, wanting to know where her boyfriend went and why.

"Again I'm sorry but it's not my place to explain, Caleb will tell you when he's ready to." Christi says before walking away from Cass.

Cass, not being satisfied with any of that conversation has decided to go to Caleb and his mother's old apartment to see if she could find him there. Once there she slips in through the window to Caleb's room to see that slayer of dust had formed over everything with no one being there in almost 2 weeks. As Cass continues to look around the room she notices that the dust on both the desk and chair in the room seems to have been moved slightly. As she takes a closer look at the desk Cass notices the only thing in the room without any dust on it being a picture sitting on a closed laptop on the desk.

Looking at the picture Cass sees what looks like a younger Caleb, with flowing long dirty blond hair, with his arm around the shoulder of what looked like one of his friends. The kid next to Caleb was a white guy with short black hair, blue eyes and glasses, they looked to be about the same age as Caleb in the picture. The two of them seem to be smiling at each other or laughing about something and Cass isn't sure if she has ever seen Caleb as happy as he looks in this picture. As a single tear forms in Cass' eyes she turns the photo over to find five letters written on the back being C M t R and D. Not knowing what the writing meant Cass takes the photo and leaves heading towards the Clock Tower where she knew Barbara would be.

Once at the Clock Tower Cass walks in to see Barbara sitting in front of a giant computer monitor with multiple smaller monitors lining the desk in front of her. Barbara then turns around to face Cass, seeing her reflection in one of her many monitors.

"Her Cass, is there anything i can help you with?" she asks, facing the younger girl.

"What this mean?" Cass asks, handing Barbara the photo she found in Caleb's room.

Taking the picture from the girl Barbara says "Cass I'm pretty sure this is just an old photo of Caleb and some friend of his."

"Flip." Cass tells her, causing Barbara to flip the photo over seeing the writing on the back.