batmanschmatman | 048 [voice]

[Costigan took the journal and read it in silence. After a beat, he sighed and motioned vaguely at the small couch across from his bed; ever since he'd changed his room to the place on L street, he hadn't had much space or many pieces of furniture like before. The two had a sort of coffee table between them.]

"You should sit down." [He offered the journal back to his warden, then pulled out his own and handed that over after, already having two of the relevant conversations pulled up. Then he was walking over to his dresser in the corner, pulling out the third drawer and reaching to remove the envelope taped to the bottom of the second.]

"It started when I asked around about him. I told people I was looking for something for something to get him off my back." [That was what he had told them, not the truth; he didn't care if Dick picked up on the distinction.] "First this guy, Warren White, tells me about his past as the Riddler and his history at Arkham. Some of it. Then Slade Wilson gives me this conversation--"

[The actual file was deleted from Slade's journal, but Costigan had made a transcript of it. It was what he removed from the folder and laid before Dick.] "Nygma was helping Crane make his fear toxin. I don't have proof because Nygma broke into Slade's room and deleted the conversation off his journal. Slade said Tim had seen it, though."

Edited 2011-06-07 07:11 (UTC)

[Dick watched Costigan read, brow furrowing slightly, but did as suggested, taking the journal back, accepting Costigan's and sitting down on the couch, brow furrowing further as he read. He looked up briefly when his inmate started talking before going back to reading the conversations, eventually setting the journal aside and reading the other transcript.

He finally looked back up at Costigan, expression more focused and serious than it had been when he'd first entered the room.]

"Do we have any proof he broke in?"

[Although really, the evidence they had and the fact that it was Nygma's word against Slade, Tim and Costigan's would probably be good enough in the minds of some people, and was certainly enough for Dick's. Even Slade was usually trustworthy, except when you'd pissed him off enough to drop a bomb on your city.]

"No." [Costigan shook his head as he came to take a seat across from Dick. He'd expected his warden to ask but, since he hadn't, just jumped right in to continue the conversation.] "Look. In that post, I told them it was about getting Nygma off my back, but it wasn't. It was about getting him off Rex's back. He was already blackmailing Rex to be included in a project we'd been working on."

[It occurred to Costigan only as he spoke that what he was about to say would mean something different now than it did then.] "The nanomites. He wanted to be a part of Rex's research. Rex ended up injecting him because he didn't really have any other choice; Nygma had some ability to tell when people were lying for a few days because of it. This was.. months ago. Back in October, maybe?"

[He was missing something..] "--Oh. And that Warren guy I told you about? Nygma found out what he'd told me, about their past at Arkham, and he threatened Warren to keep quiet. The guy was so afraid, he'd barely talk to me long enough to tell me he wasn't talking to me any more."

[Dick frowned.] "You knew Rex was actively working with the nanomites and going around injecting people, or he told you about it afterward?"

[His tone wasn't accusatory, but there was definitely a slightly new edge to how he was approaching this, and it wasn't really a good one. This was supposed to be about Nygma, not Rex and Costigan, but if Costigan had known about everything before it had happened, and hadn't said anything, Dick was going to be pissed.

The rest of the behavior - the blackmail, the threats, the general not morally gray at all, to him, anyway, nature of the whole thing - was classic Riddler, and far from surprising, and therefore could be addressed after Costigan clarified.]

[Costigan gave him an incredulous look.] "It was months ago, like I said, and he was doing something else. Experimenting and stuff. I know I shouldn't have supported it, but then he stopped. I didn't think it was a problem. I didn't know he'd started up again." [Pause.] "With Nygma, if you remember."

[The inmate still had a little more to add about the Riddler, but it could wait until Dick was satiated.]

"Yeah, I remember." [And he let the matter drop. Costigan had been genuinely surprised when he'd told him Rex was behind the crisis, so even if he had known his friend had been experimenting again, he'd obviously not realized how involved he was.

He looked back at the transcript for a moment, still frowning slightly before looking back at Costigan.] "Do you know how much Nygma actually helped this time around? Did he know what Rex was actually planning, or just that he was experimenting with them again?"

[And what the hell did he say to Warren was another question, but he wasn't sure he'd have the answer. Admittedly, Warren had always been a sort of nervous guy, but all this just made him continue to wonder why the hell this guy was still a warden.]

"I don't know, guy. I haven't asked." [That wasn't to say he couldn't, but the subtle pull of his eyebrows suggested it wasn't his favorite idea.]

"When we was my warden, he always wanted to meet. It didn't take me long to realize it was because he didn't want a paper trail. We met on deck once and he told me he wanted me to trust him, so he would tell me everything. He admitted to helping Crane with the toxin, to deleting the file from Slade's room, to blackmailing Rex both for his own curiosity and to help Rex -- though he claimed he never wanted the plan to actually work out."

[Costigan shook his head. It was frustrating to know so much and have so little evidence.] "He told me about Crane being his only friend, but basically admitting to using the bastard. When I called him on lying the whole time, he told me I'd never asked."

[There was a hard bitterness to Costigan's tone that was generally reserved for talking about Sullivan.]

[The warden ran a hand through his hair, frustrated, but not with Costigan. He generally went along with what little system they had without too much complaint - although admittedly, he usually tried to stay out of Barge politics as much as possible because he didn't need the headache or trying to convince people they were wrong - but this was really starting to make him question how things worked. If Nygma could get away with all this shit and still get away with being "reformed", it really wasn't much of an argument to say that someone like Slade or Jason could be a warden, too.

Still, he kept the business face in place, pushing his doubts away to focus on getting the rest of the information.]

"Have you told anyone else about all this? How much of this did you say to Howie?" [A beat, and then he added:] "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I'm just curious what everyone else knows."

"Rex knew most of it as it happened, but nothing since." [He replied, unconsciously mirroring Dick and running a hand through his hair.] "I told Howie I had some concerns, and the basics of some of what Nygma did, like the blackmail. I never told him all this. They should be the only ones outside of who's involved.. Crane and Slade, I mean. Warren's gone. You could ask Tim how much he knows."

[The inmate paused.] "If you're serious about this, about knowing everything, you should get Howie in here."

[He nodded, making a mental note to ask Tim as soon as possible, because if he knew as much as it seemed like he could, Dick was starting to wonder if he'd just never talked to Nygma about it, or if he had and nothing had come of it.]

"You'd be okay with that?" [Because he was serious about knowing everything, because if there was some crazy loophole in the system that let someone like Nygma get away with bullying inmates and treating them like crap, he wanted to know about it, but he didn't want to do anything without making sure it was okay with his inmate first.]

[Costigan hesitated for a second before nodding. Howie had truly fucked up by letting it slip to Nygma and the rest what Costigan had said, but Costigan also trusted the guy to have some information he might not, if only the wardens' side of events. And he still trusted Howie.

Maybe what John said was right. Maybe this place was testing him and Howie's slip up had been a gift from God-- Not that he was sure what it would be, except to bring him closer to his warden.]

"Okay." [He picked up his journal again, but waited before sending Howie a message, looking at Costigan with concern. Before he called in the other warden, he wanted to make sure he wasn't too stressed out about all of this, because really, it could wait. They didn't have to launch a full scale investigation tonight - or ever, really, except that Dick was curious and wanted to know exactly what was happening - for stuff he'd done months ago.]

"Are you okay?"

"Sure, yeah." [Costigan replied out of instinct more than anything else, immediately dismissive of any concerns. After a beat, when he realized Dick hadn't moved and was still staring at him, his shoulders fell a hint and he gave his warden an incredulous glance.] "Yeah, kid. I'm okay."

[Unfortunately, it seemed elaboration was needed.] "I don't want this getting out. You want to know everything? We handle this as soon as possible or not at all."

Edited 2011-06-08 07:03 (UTC)

"Fine by me." [Dick did want to know everything, and while he could probably work out pieces of it by himself if he had to, he'd much rather be working with his inmate instead of behind his back.] "And it won't. I know Howie messed up, but he knows he did and he won't do it again. And I'm not telling anyone unless I make sure you're okay with it first."

[And he meant it, too. While he was definitely going to be asking other people about it - namely Tim and Kay, since the former apparently knew some of what was going on and the latter had approached him about Nygma forever ago - none of the details, where he'd gotten the information from, or what Costigan had told him specifically was going public or being spilled to anyone without the other former cop's approval.]

[Costigan nodded again. This whole thing had him feeling apprehensive, but it was honestly a bit of a relief that Dick seemed to be supporting his claims after all the bullshit he endured from Nygma himself. All he wanted was for all of this to be over -- and he kind of thought it had been, until Rex had completed the nanomites. It was a conversation he needed to have with Rex, separately. For now, Dick wanted to know things, Costigan wanted to keep things from being talked about and slipped to the public again, and Howie could help with both.]

[Dick smiled reassuringly and quickly typed out a message to Howie, sitting quietly and waiting for his reply. But, quiet and Dick Grayson never really went well together unless the situation really demanded it, or if he was too upset to actually know what to say, and since neither was the case here, he said,] "Thanks for telling me all this. I appreciate it."

[Really, reading through all those old conversations between Nygma and Costigan made it strikingly clear that for all the bickering he and his inmate might have done, they were way better for each other than Nygma and Costigan had been.]

[The most time consuming thing Howie was doing right now was worrying about Angelica, so he didn't take long to respond to Dick, and despite talking to Nygma recently, he was still very, very suspicious. There was just no proof. Nothing stuck to him, and it was frustrating, really. There was no way he wasn't showing up to this.

About ten minutes later, he knocked on Costigan's door.] It's me, guys.

[The accent should give it away.]

048 [voice]

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