Jason knew it was his fault.
He had attacked Tim, had killed so many people (he could sometimes see the blood staining his hand red), he was still a crime lord and occasionally got rid of people permanently.
It's no wonder he was never accepted back into the family.
(He had no time to think about that; he had a criminal empire to run.)
Thankfully, the bats left him alone in Crime Alley, and he kept the murders to a minimum. The last time he had killed someone had been over a year ago. (The bastard had deserved it; he was a serial child rapist.)
Sometimes, Red Hood could see the birds flying through Gotham's night sky on the edge of his territory.
(There was a new Robin).
Red Hood patrolled his territory, greeting the girls in the street, talking to the kids and making sure they were okay, and handing out blankets to those without a home (not thinking about his family the bats.) He made sure his rules were upheld and kept order in his territory.
(Crime Alley was his to protect, no one else's. It was his corner of Gotham, not Bruce's.)
Jason shivered as a strong, cold wind nipped him even through his layer of protective clothing. It had been a silent night; even the girls had turned in early. Maybe he should, too.
(The rage from the pit used to keep him warm. Now it was mostly gone. It was always there, underneath the surface, waiting to be unleashed.)
He refused to let the pit out; it had taken everything from him. Jason couldn't help but touch his throat, where a thick scar decorated it.
(A parting gift from his father Bruce.)
How different would things have been if Jason had just come home? If he hadn't listened to Talia? If he had gone to Wayne Manor the first time he had come to Gotham? The pits had been loud, but he could've found a way to ignore them. If only he had asked for help.
(No point in asking 'what ifs' now.)
Jason was a block away from his current safehouse (an abandoned building he had bought and remodeled) when he heard a child's cry. He knew he should be more cautious, but for once, the Lazarus pits weren't angry; they were worried. The child was in pain; the child needed help.
Jason found a bleeding boy with black hair and blue eyes. The boy's cries tugged something deep from Jason's chest. Jason knelt at eye level with the boy.
"Hey, kiddo, where are your parents?"
"They don't want me anymore cuz I'm a freak."
The kid's eyes turned Lazarus green, and his hair turned white. Instead of freaking out, Jason felt calm settle in his bones.
"How'd you get here, kiddo?"
"Jazz threw me through the portal, and then I landed here. I don't know why I'm so little. Where's my sister? She was supposed to be behind me."
"I don't know, chum," Jason watched as the kid (he couldn't be older than six) wiped away tears.
"Do you mind if I pick you up, lad," Jason asked.
The kid looked up at him, searching, and nodded.
Jason picked him up and didn't look back.
____
Jason had only had Danny for a few days, but the boy quickly became the center of Jason's world. Danny quieted the pits in a way nothing or no one else could. Danny seemed to have latched on to Jason, too.
"You feel like me," he would say, "and you took me in after my parents kicked me out."
Danny had been kicked out, just like Jason had been kicked out of his family Bruce's cult of superheroes. Now, he had taken in his dad's Bruce's tendencies in picking up children and adopting them.
(See Bruce, I'm not a monster. Monsters don't miss family connections.)
A few days after he had found Danny and figured out the kid had come from a different dimension, Jason had asked Danny if it was okay if Jason would adopt Danny. The kid had said 'yes' without hesitation. Jason had paid a pretty penny to get papers that said he was Danny's birth father.
So what if people thought he had been a teenage father? Danny was the best thing that had happened to him.
Red Hood had disappeared. There was no way Jason would leave his son alone while he went fighting crime. Now that he was a father, he didn't know how Bruce did it. How could he put the safety of strangers over the children he professed to love?
Besides, Crime Alley had survived before Red Hood; it would survive without him.
(Thinking Red Hood was dead, his lieutenants had taken up the torch, and Crime Alley was still safe.)
"Daddy, who are those people I see sometimes jumping on the roofs?"
"That is the Bat and his birds. You have to avoid them, Danny lad or they will hurt you and me."
Danny turned his soulful eyes toward Jason, "They hurt you."
"I hurt them first," Jason answered while fingering the scar on his throat. His son saw the movement and frowned.
Danny looked out the window and watched Red Robin and Nightwing disappear in the night. They had been coming closer and closer to the alley since Jason stopped patrolling.
"I hate them," Danny said with vitriol.
"Why, baby, you don't even know them?"
Danny turned to Jason, "They were your family, and they hurt you. I hate them."
"I hurt them first," Jason whispered, "I hurt them first, baby."
Jason had a plan. He was leaving Gotham. He refused to let Danny out lest Bruce or one of his broods saw Danny and tried to take his son away from him. Jason had enough money, he had a fake identity, and he could start a new life somewhere else. Maybe Canada.
Besides, he didn't feel right having his son in the same city as the man who murdered him.
"Are you sure you want to leave your haunt?"
Jason had learned much from Danny. (Ectoplasm, ghosts, powers, things that made his head spin.)
"Chum, as long as I'm with you, our haunt can be anywhere. Now, are you ready?"
Danny nodded. Jason got into a car he had bought with cash and avoided any cameras he could. He hid Danny in the back under blankets and changed his appearance with make-up and prosthetics.
He was leaving Gotham behind. There was nothing left for him there.
A few days later, they had made it to the Canadian border. Danny giggled as Jason told him jokes. As long as he had his little boy, everything would be fine.
