Wayne Manor

Chapter Seven

Bec POV
"Come on! You promised!" I whine, pushing Jason down the hall. He was making things way more difficult than they needed to be.

"What's your rush, Bec?" He asked, looking over his shoulder with a smile.

"It's my first day of training! You promised me!" I answer as he starts to fall on me. "Jaaaassooonnnn!!!!"

He was literally about to crush me when he finally decided to pick up his body weight. "Alright, alright."

He still had a slow pace, so I got in front of him, grabbing his wrist and pulled him forward. "Just come on!"

He smiled and picked up the pace of his feet, so I didn't have to drag him anymore.

We finally reached the Batcave and Tim and Dick were already here. Tim sat in the chair while Dick stood next to him, watching what he typed. They both looked at us as we passed, heading towards the training room.

"Oh, don't mind us. I'm just about to whoop Jason's ass right quick." I smile and Jason playfully scoffed. "Yeah right."

"I wanna see this." Tim says, running from the chair and chasing after us.

I smiled as I took my black, fingerless gloves from my back pocket and put them on. "Ready, Bec?" Jason asked, smirking and getting in a fighting position.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

He grinned and turned around, "Attack me."

I shrugged and charged towards and threw my fists out. He leaned onto the side and my fist went right above his shoulder, and he didn't hesitate to grab my wrist and flip me over his shoulder. My back hit the mat underneath us with a hard thud and I clenched my jaw from the expanding pain. "You definitely need to work on stealth," He starts with a smirk as he let my arm go.

I stood back up and rubbed my back. "Did you have to slam me so hard?"

All three of them crossed their arms with smiles. Jason answered, "Yeah. You're training with us now, so prepare to be sore."

"Tag team!" Tim says happily, putting his hand out for Jason to smack. Slapping his hand, Jason went to the sidelines next to Dick as Tim took a step forward.

"Not fair!" I whine, and Red Robin runs at me. I roll over before Tim's foot could smash against my head. I get up and as I see his swing coming, I bend my back backwards a little until his foot sweeps under me. When I was in the middle of falling, his foot slams onto my stomach, making me hit the ground even harder. "You need to boost up your stability." He informs and I roll my eyes. "You need to boost up your stability." I mock in a high pitch voice, making him laugh.

And again, I'm left on my back on the ground, wincing in pain. What did they have against my back?

When I opened my eyes, a hand was gestured out to me. I saw it was Dick, so I grabbed his hand so he could help me up. He pulled me up, but instead of just leaving it at that, he pulled my arm past him and drew his thigh up, forcing my gut into his knee. I groaned loudly as his elbow came crashing down onto my shoulder blades with a smack, making me fall onto my stomach.

"That...was not...fair." I say as I try to get up. I've never felt so sore in my life. I thought my bones were broken.

"Come on, take it like a man." Tim says with a smirk, and I scowl at him, "Well if you haven't noticed, I'm not a man."

Jason pulled me to my feet, not caring if I was tender or not. "Alright, now n-"

"GUYS!" A familiar young voice yells from the main room in the cave. Entering the training room was Damian, smile wide and eyes big. "Alfred's back!"

I took in a breath as Tim, Dick, and Jay looked at me. Without another word, I ran pass them and out of the Cave. They all caught the elevator ride back up to the manor with me, but it was awkwardly silent. I began to wonder if Bruce had told Alfred what had happened with my dad already.

Does he know he has to take me to Blackgate to see him? I hope does because I really don't want to explain it.

When the elevator doors opened, I walked out of the study room quickly, the boys keeping up with ease.

When we made it to the front, Bruce was already there and speaking with Alfred. "Alfred, this is Rebecca. The girl I was talking to you about." Bruce says as I walk beside him. He put an arm around my shoulders as I shook Alfred's hand. "Hi." I say, and Alfred bows his head. "Rebecca, Alfred is aware of the situation with your father-"

"Ah, yes Miss Valentine," Alfred says in a thick British accent, calling me by my last name, "I'm so very sorry. It'll be my pleasure to take you to Blackgate."

I saw that his bags were by the door, so I said with a fake smile, "I wouldn't mind waiting a little. I can at least give you time to get unpacked and situated."

He nodded with a kind smile as he turned and grabbed his bags. I looked at the ground as I walked away.

The four boys were standing a few feet away from us, and it was then that I realized if they were paying attention closely, which I'm sure they were, they would've found out that my dad's in Blackgate...prison. Well besides Dick, he already knew.

I went back to my room to mentally prepare for seeing my dad again.

I clenched the mattress under my hands as I thought of what to say, or how to respond to things he would question. It started to get frustrating.

My door cracked open and Damian, Dick, Jason and Tim walked in. Dick and Damian sat criss cross on the floor in front of me while Tim and Jay took the seats next to me on the bed.

No doubt they knew about my dad now because their concerned looks gave it all away. Before any of them could say anything, I answered their question I knew they were about to ask.

"I swear, guys. I am perfectly fine."

I saw Damian's mouth open, but before a sound could come out, I interrupted, "And yes. I am positively 100 percent sure." The boys smiled and I did briefly, until reality hit me again. I took in an accidentally shaky breath as I brushed my long hair out of my face.

"Do you know what you're going to say?" Tim asks and I shake my head. "No. That's what I'm working on." I sigh, looking down at my lap.

"We can help." Dick offers and Jason agrees, adding on with a comforting smile, "We've been in almost every argument you could come up with. I'm sure we have a reply to almost anything."

I smiled, looking at the four of them. "Thanks."
*****
There was a gentle knock on my door and our conversation was interrupted. The boys helped me so much with possible responses to whatever my dad could say or ask me. Damian laid on my left while Jason laid horizontally at my feet. Dick sat on the edge of the bed on my right while Tim sat in front of him. We were kind of like a big puzzle.

"Miss Valentine," Alfred says from outside of the door and I sit up, stomach tightening. We all got off of my bed and I walked over to my door. Opening it up, I inhaled deeply.

"Are you ready?" Alfred asks and I nod, holding in my breath.

"Ready as I'll ever be."