The Curious Case of Jason Todd

VII

After a late meeting that ran hours past its end time, Bruce returned home a couple hours after dinner had ended. He had the pleasure of being on the receiving end of Alfred's disappointed: "Master Jason was asking for you tonight." Perhaps after the disaster that was Jason's last life in the Manor, Alfred positioned himself as Jason's guard dog. Whatever the reason, Alfred wasn't letting Bruce get away with shoddy parenting this time around. Taking his butler's not-so-subtle hint, Bruce stopped by Jason's room after changing out of his suit but found it empty. Seeing the light in Dick's room was on he popped in but found it also Jason-free.

"Where's Jason?"

Dick sent him an amused look from behind the pile of papers he had stacked in front of him. "Well hello to you too."

Realizing that his oldest wouldn't let anything slip, Bruce decided to humor him, "Hello Dick. How are you?"

"Fantastic! Thanks for asking, Bruce! I am just loving all this paperwork for Haly's!"

"Good, now where is Jason? I thought you had him for the day?"

Dick gestured to the paperwork on his bed, "As you can see, stuff came up. Timmy has him now."

Bruce frowned at how his son was being handed off from one brother to another, "Where is Tim then?"

"Where is he normally?"

"The cave?"

"The cave," Dick affirmed.

Bruce could feel a headache forming, "He is in the cave, with all those cliffs and sharp objects and explosives."

Dick paled, "With a five year old Jason. Ah crap, didn't think about that."

They ran down to the cave, vaguely apologizing to Alfred when they sped past him. The Batcave was lit up for when patrol would start in a couple hours. Damian was practicing throwing batarangs at straw dummies in the training area and Tim was parked in front of the computer. Remarkably, Titus the Great Dane was sleeping soundly at Tim's feet rather than hanging around at the edge of Damian's mats. Jason was nowhere in sight.

"Tim! Where's Jason?"

Tim jerked up at the sound of his name and stared wide-eyed at Bruce and Dick. He turned around in the chair and paled after looking over the cave. A box of crayons was lying on the floor behind the chair and several different colored crayons were spread across used paper. The child that had been using the crayons was long gone.

"He was right behind me not thirty seconds ago! I swear!"

Bruce felt his stomach churn and tried to not let his panic show. Instead, Dick was quite literally freaking out. "Oh crap! Oh crap! Jason! JASON! Come on buddy! Where are you?" Damian shot a dirty look at Dick for breaking his concentration but the eldest brother seemed immune to Damian's irritation. Bruce moved to help Dick search but paused at an unusual sound.

A quiet giggle echoed behind him and he turned to stare at Tim's face. His face was blank but amusement glinted behind his eyes. The giggle sounded again from under the computer's desk. Bruce grabbed the arms of the leather chair and yanked it away from the desk. He ignored Tim's exclamation of surprise and stared down at the small black figure curled into a ball next to Titus.

"Jason?" Bruce crouched down next to his giggling son and pulled back when Jason raised his head to smile at his dad. He was wearing one of Bruce's older cowl and cape combination, it fit him poorly but the child didn't seem to mind judging by the brilliant smile.

"I'm not Jason!" He jumped up and pulled the cape around him. The black material was far too long for him and fell in folds at his feet, "I'm Batman!"