Chapter Text
Tim goes home three days later, when Janet is discharged, the planned 72 hours ending late enough at night that it's more convenient for everyone to keep her until morning. Bruce drives Tim to the hospital, where he visits his dad, staying one more night, while Janet's discharge paperwork is filled. And then he drives Janet and Tim both back to their house, promising to call later to check in, though he knows they have a housekeeper for that.
It's hard, sending him home. Not nearly as hard as it would be if he was keeping him because he hadn't reached the Drakes in time. He's gotten to know Jack and Janet a little over the last few days, and Cass, Dick, and Jason all seemed to be having a good time with Tim; Bruce is sure he'll see him again.
He won't ever be anything like Tim's dad again. But Tim will be safe.
When he gets home, Jason and Cass are eating breakfast. He sits down across the table. Jay hasn't left the manor once since Tim got here, and it's the longest he's been home since leaving with Dick. Bruce wants to ask if he's planning to stay, but he doesn't want to pressure him.
"I'm going to the Clocktower tonight while you guys are on patrol," Jason says without looking up at Bruce. "Babs is gonna help me with the school stuff."
They got Jay officially registered for online classes the morning Tim's parents were taken, and the Tim situation has been sufficiently distracting that he hasn't started anything yet.
"That's good. Are you going back to the penthouse after?"
"Probably. It's closer."
Cass glances between them, then picks up her plate and walks out of the room. Bruce wonders what cue he missed.
Jason takes a deep breath. "Thursday," he says.
"What about Thursday?"
"That's when I'm staying."
"Are—"
"Nope. I'm having breakfast. And my hand is in a mood. I gotta focus so I don't drop pancakes in my lap."
"All right. No big conversations."
"Later," Jay says. "Now go away. You're distracting me. I have pancakes to eat."
-
Dick is in the cave, working through his stretches, when Bruce finds him.
“You talk to Jason?” he asks.
“Briefly. Pancakes took priority.”
“Well, of course. Pancakes are always the priority.” He looks away for a moment, focused on getting his foot placement just right for the next stretch, and when he looks up Bruce’s expression is soft and fond and it reminds Dick of being a little kid, safe beneath his cape.
Apparently his thoughts are moving in the same direction, because he asks, “Do you remember when you were ten, and we tried to make pancakes without Alfred?”
“That was a traumatic memory that I was trying to block out, actually, so I guess I know what I’m talking to my therapist about next week.”
“They weren’t that bad.”
“Bruce, we left them out for the squirrels, and the squirrels didn’t want them. Also you got food poisoning. How does someone even get food poisoning from pancakes?”
“Well, you didn’t get food poisoning, so in hindsight maybe I just happened to catch a stomach bug.”
“Or maybe you’re more stubborn than me and ate two whole nasty pancakes while I gave up after one bite.”
“That is…also a possibility.”
“Uh huh. Hey, come over here. I’m trying something new and I need you to spot me.”
-
When he finishes in the cave with Dick, Bruce checks the time and decides to give it a little while longer before looking for Jason again. ‘Give Jay Space and Let Him Initiate’ has been a good policy so far, but it’s a little harder to follow when they’re in the same house again, and Bruce doesn’t want to seem too pushy by finding him too quickly.
Cassandra and Alfred are in the den, Cass working her way slowly through one of the books she and Alfred bought. He stands in the doorway, listening, for several minutes.
She’s getting better. It’s been several days since Bruce last read with her, before the situation with the Drakes. He’ll have to clear some time for that tonight.
It’s not a long book. He listens until Cass reaches the end, then goes to find Jay.
-
Bruce doesn’t track him down again until three hours after breakfast, which is more restraint than Jason was expecting. And he knows he didn’t get around him by asking someone else, because only Jason and Dick know, and Dick promised Jason could be the one to talk to Bruce about it.
“We’re moving back in on Thursday, so I have time to pack and talk to my therapist one more time first,” he says when Bruce comes into the room. “Me and Dick both. Dick is staying as a buffer for at least three months, and then if things are going well he’ll get his own place again, maybe back in Bludhaven, maybe not.”
“Are you sure you’re ready for that?” Bruce asks. “I don’t—I want you to feel safe.”
“Sit down. You’re looming.”
Bruce sits, too far away; Jason gets up and moves closer.
“I feel the safest about you when I’m with you. I get in my head about it when you’re not around, but I don’t think about it so much when you’re here. I—I want you to be my dad. I want you to be my dad right here every day. I already lost my first dad, and I lost you once, and I don’t—I don’t wanna lose you again. I don’t want to lose the time I get to spend being a kid, living with a parent. I lost too much of that already.”
“Okay,” Bruce says.
“I still have nightmares sometimes about you throwing the batarang. Sometimes I have nightmares about you grabbing me and yanking me back and shutting me up in my coffin, even though I know it wasn’t anything like that.”
“Jay,” Bruce starts, sounding horrified.
“Nope. We’re not talking about that. I’ll talk about that with my therapist.” He has a Justice League talk therapist now on top of his speech therapist and his physical therapist and his occupational therapist, which is a lot of therapy. His goal is to be having less therapy before he starts going back to school. “I’m just telling you so you don’t come check on me when I’m having a nightmare and freak me out when I’m still half asleep. If I’m having the kind of nightmare I want you around after I’ll tell you—I get that kind, too. But I—it’s not all okay yet. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me, but you did, and I’m not okay with it. I’m mostly okay with it when I’m thinking about it, because I know you won’t again, but sometimes it sneaks up on me and it’s bad again. But you’re my dad and I love you and I want to come home and be with you every day.”
“I love you too. I always want to be with you.”
“I know. I—promise you won’t change your mind?”
“I promise.”
Jason nods. "Can you—I really liked, when I was sick—more sick—I liked when we sat together and you would read to me.”
“Of course. Do you have a book picked out?”
“Obviously. It’s in my room. Wait right here. I’ll be back.”