Soldiers Playground

Chapter 4

Dick pov-

Over the next few weeks, I had FINALLY managed to sit Jason down with the family. 

It helped that Bruce was off world at the Watch Tower, which I had a feeling set Jason into a lot more ease. 

So, all of us were in the living room with a fireplace going, all curled up on couches and chairs with blankets, pillows, hoodies, and sweatpants, and socks, and we were trying to find a way to get Jason to open up to us. After that night, when he woke up from the night terror that  sent him sprinting away from all of us and running to the kitchen, where Damian's pets had found and helped him, and after everything we had all heard Little Wing tell Titus, clearly not knowing that all of us were listening to him, I'd been enraged with Bruce, more so than I had ever been. It was that night that confirmed my suspicions about Bruce, that the billionaire was abusing him, and that Jason was lying and hiding it from us and has been since the day that I first met him all of those years ago, and we had sat Alfred down and he had told us of how Bruce used to train my little brother, and how the kid was always stressed out and way too overwhelmed with both of his lives, in and out of the mask.

The stress that Jason had always been under had been one of the reasons that Jay had almost always been sick every time I had come to visit, and how he would almost never leave my side unless he was going to Alfred or absolutely had no choice but to leave, and even then it was reluctant back then.

I was angry at myself, and was ashamed that I had never noticed any of it from the beginning. All of the signs that Bruce was abusing him had been there, right in front of my damned face, and I had been to oblivious to notice. I was a cop, the best detective in Bludhaven, and I hadn't noticed signs that I had been trained to look for. Then again, in my defense, Jason was the best liar in the manor, and he was the only one that could lie directly to our faces and not one of the family know he was lying, even at a really young age, he was able to hide a lot of things from us that we sometimes found out about later on. 

But, that day, when I finally found out what really happened to Ace, the puppy that I had given Jason as a companion on his 13th birthday to be with when I wasn't around, I was furious. I had carried Jason to my room and carefully laid him on my bed, Kitty Alfred refusing to leave while Titus went to Damian's room, and I had left to go find Bruce, who was, as usual, in the cave. 

And when I found him, I had lost my shit on him and ripped a new one into him, then beat the shit out of him until Duke, Roy, Damian, and Alfred had forcefully pulled me off of him, even though I was still shouting and cussing Bruce out, still trying to break free of my restrainers to kill Bruce.

Anyway, all of us were in the living room since Bruce was away for a few days, and I'd finally convinced Jason to tell us what Bruce was doing to him, even though I had just found out. I just needed his confirmation, and then Bruce would be non existent the moment Jay was done telling his story.

My little brother was curled up in a large cushy chair with Timmers, both cuddled up together under Jason's Red Hood blanket that the younger boy had bought him for Christmas a couple of years ago, when he first came back to the manor due to all of our convincing and pleading. I regretted it, but only because I hadn't known that Bruce was abusing Jason. 

I felt like a terrible brother.

Jason sighed. "So, you all want to know what I've been hiding from you and lying to you about," he said in a knowing voice. All of us nodded, and he looked down and was silent for a very long time. "B-Bruce..." Little Wing swallowed. "Bruce is... hurting me. I'm being abused by Dad, and have been for a really long time." he quietly admitted, and everyone was silent, until Damian and Roy stood, weapons suddenly in their hands. "I'm going to kill him." They both said in unison, and were about to leave when Jason let out a screech.