Family in Counting (BatBrats AU)

1: Interruptions, Richard?

I was in the middle of forth period English when my phone rang. Mrs. Summers glared at me as I flicked the phone open and saw Alfred's name illuminated in blocky letters.

"It's my grandad," I said. "It's gotta be an emergency."

Mrs. Summers set her jaw and shook her head with a huff.

"Make it snappy, Richard," she hissed. I darted out the door and quickly pressed answer.

"Alfred?" I asked. "What's going on? Is everything ok?"

"No sir," Alfred replied, his voice hoarse and dry. "Your father ... there's been an accident. I need you to get your brothers and sisters as soon as possible. I will explain everything when you return home."

"Alfred, what's ---" dial tone.  I let my arm turn flimsy by my side before I scrambled back into the classroom to get my things.

"Mr. Wayne, what on Earth do you think your doing?" Mrs. Summers asked, her shrill voice peeved.

"Family emergency," I muttered before running out the door. I swept through the halls and barged into the detention room where Jason lounged with shut eyes. He creeped them open to catch the disturbance of the peace around him. "Something's wrong," I whispered, trying not to let out the sob I had barely managed to choke down. Jason swiped his bag off a nearby desk and followed my lead to the senior parking lot. We piled into my car and floored it all the way to the middle school.

When Cassie speedily pushed into the front office and caught sight of Jason and me both disheveled and off center, she shuddered. Her night black hair fell into her face as she leaned into my side and hid in my jacket. I put my hand on her head and sighed.

"Something happened?" she mumbled. I nodded and took her hand, pulling her and Jason to my car.

"Gonna drop you off at home, then get over to the little kids," I told them with soft inflection, like the fragile air might break under the weight of my words.

I said nothing else and neither did Jay or Cass. We were all just silent, hoping we might get a break in it with the phone ringing, Bruce telling us this was all a big misunderstanding, he was fine. I haven't stopped waiting for that call.

After dropping off Cass and Jay, I skidded down a back road as a short cut to the elementary school where Tim and Steph went. As I took a turn, the tire of my Ghia was eaten by the grass and I ended up stopping in the middle of a field. I slammed my hand on the wheel and floored the gas, digging myself into a mud puddle.

"Shit!" I swore, throwing my door open and jogging to the back of the car. With all the force in my body, I pressed forward on the bumper. I felt the car move, falling out of the hole before slamming back in and spewing sluggish mud all over my jeans and T-shirt. "FUCK!" I slammed my body against the trunk, this time forcing the back tire out of the hole completely. I marched back into the car, turning the engine over with annoyance.

When I got to the little kids' school a woman was standing underneath the awning waiting for me as the rain came down. I left the car running and marched up with a purpose.

"Mr. Wayne?" she questioned.

"Dick, not Bruce," I whispered, as she led me inside. It was habit. One I didn't want to break quite yet. Tim and Stephanie were sitting together on blue plastic chairs, their fingers clasped behind the shadow of their backpacks. When they saw me, Steph's lip began to quiver.

"Dick?" she said, her crackling voice slicing into the brick wall I was building. I shook off the feeling and grabbed her harshly by the hand.

"Lets go get Damien," I hissed, tearing through double doors and through the rain before we got to my car. Tim climbed in the front seat with me, and Steph laid over the back. Their fingers snake together again between my seat and Tim's, but I don't say anything.

"Dick?" Tim finally asked. "Is ... is it Jay? Did he get sick again?"

"No," I declared, yanking the wheel around for the turns.

"Was Cassie in another fight at school?" Steph asked.

"No," I hissed.

There's a long pause before Tim picks up again.

"Is Daddy hurt?" he whispered, carefully. I slammed my foot on the breaks and pressed my forehead into the steering wheel.

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know," I said, through gritted teeth. A few tears trickled down my cheeks.

"Ok," they replied, curling closer to each other.

I pulled my head up and shifted my foot back to the gas.

I made Tim and Steph stay in the car while I got Damien from daycare. He was the only one happy to see me.

"Diddie!" he squealed, running up to wrap his little arms around my leg. I pealed him away and pulled him onto my hip.

"Say g'bye to Ms. Kayla, Dami," I ordered, pointing to his teacher.

"G'bye to Ms. Kayla!" Damien giggled, shaking his hand at the woman and resting into my shoulder. "I go home with Diddie!!"

I swept him away, piling him into his car seat next to Steph--who had laid her head into the window, her and Tim's hands still connect but on opposite sides. She looked far away.

"Steph ..." I began, catching myself before I could think too much about it again.

"Steepy!!" Dami announced. "Stepha steepy!!"

"Damien!" Tim snapped, wiping his head around. "Shut up!"

"Timothy," I hissed, "turn back around. Leave him be."

He sank back into his seat and curled around his stomach, breathless.

~

"He's gone," Alfred said, his same stoic face he always wore built harder than I had ever seen it. Harder than when Tim had surgery to get a cist out of his stomach, when Jason ran away after he got sick, when Steph fell off the counter and broke her arm, when we all saw Cassie's scars, and when my appendix burst. Now he was telling us that this man, who he raised from an infant into the successful man he is ...was, this man with six children who loved him, who still needed him, is dead.

"He ... there was an accident at work ... EMTs found him ... didn't have a chance ... funeral ... I'm sorry," his words break, like they can barely get through the pressure of our tightly bound bodies.

"Daddy ..." Cassie began, turning away from us and talking off up the stairs.

"I'll, uh, I'll go talk to her," Jason offered, his voice breaking a little.

"Dick?" Tim whispered, wrapping around my arm. "What's gonna happen to us? Are we going back? Back to the home? I don't wanna go back. I want us to stay together. I can't go back Dick." His little body trembled. I lifted him into my arms and held him close.

"I won't let anybody take you away. Dad had plans for us if he ever died, I know he did. We're gonna stay together and I'll be here. Forever, your stuck with me brat," I assured him, rubbing his back and nuzzling my nose to his shoulder. He clung to me and cried, trying to reply or laugh or do anything else but think that Dad was gone. Bruce Wayne was dead.