Babysitting Duty

Chapter Six

One more part after this, we are almost there y'all!

Bruce stared down at the footage of Wally revealing his identity and just heaved a heavy, prolonged sigh. He knew the day was coming, he just didn't expect it to come from Wally or for the speedster to be tricked into revealing the secret.

Although, to be honest, that should've been at the top of his list for most expected ways his identity would be revealed. That or one of his de-aged children blabbing. Either one was a very likely occurrence.

Bruce slid his phone into his utility belt and went back to the task at hand, pushing all thoughts of his children and his team to the back of his mind as he got back to work.

- - - - -

"I am not tired!" Dick snapped at Conner as he carried the miniature acrobat up the stairs. "You can't make me go to bed, I won't do it!"

"Dick, please, you need to sleep." Artemis groaned.

"Sleep is for the weak!"

"He sounds like Jason right before he passed out." Wally commented, stepping out of said boy's room and closing the door behind him. "Want me to take over?"

"Nah, we got it. Besides, you had to deal with Jason, this is the least we can do." Artemis waved Wally off with a smile. "Go get some rest yourself."

"Alright, but Conner?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful. Dick is known to-"

"Ouch! The little brat bit me!" Conner yelped, shaking his hand out.

"-bite. Alright, goodnight you two, good luck with him." Wally sped off to his designated room, climbing under the covers and turning the bedside light off, his eyes closing instantly.

- - - - -

Wally had gotten up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, returning to his room with a big yawn. He yelped, jumping out of his skin when he saw a figure standing by his window.

"Batman, you just gave me a heart attack."

"Kid Flash, we need to talk."

Wally gulped. When Batman says you need to talk, that is never a good sign. "About what, sir?"

"I have found a cure for my children's predicament. Gather the team and meet me in the Batcave."

"Of cou- wait, how'd you know they found our your identity?!" Batman just raised an eyebrow. "Of course, you're Batman. I'll go get the team."

Batman grunted in response, disappearing as soon as Wally turned his back. Wally rolled his eyes, going to work on gathering teammates, checking on the sleeping brothers as he did so.

- - - - -

"So, this is the famous Batcave. It looks...exactly how I pictured it." Artemis yawned, still half asleep and slightly annoyed about being woken up in the middle of the night for, as she put it, 'no apparent reason'.

Batman didn't respond, he just continued to type away on his computer. He finally turned around when he heard the team start to wander around, whirling around to glare at Conner and Wally. "Don't touch that."

"Why? What does it do?"

"Nothing that concerns you." Batman growled.

"Are you ready to tell us why you woke us up or do we have to keep annoying you until you get the point?" Kaldur crossed his arms challengingly, staring up at Batman.

Batman sighed. "I had Wally bring you down here so I could tell you all that if you reveal my identity to anyone-"

"You won't kill us, you'll just make us wish we were dead?" M'gann finished.

"Yes." Batman grit out, feeling a headache come on. He really should have just waited until morning if he knew waking the team up would make them this snarky and annoying. "And, to inform you all that I have found a cure for your teammate, Robin's, and his brothers'...condition."

"Oh, you mean the fact that they are much younger than the pictures you showed us at the mountain?"

"What are you ta- Black Canary never updated the photos before I showed you them, did she?"

"Nope." The team all responded at the same time.

"And you probably didn't realize this because you were so distraught over finding a cure for whatever happened to your sons."

"Sir, the mob was never after them, were they? That was all a ruse to get us here to protect them since they are literal children, correct?"

"Correct."

"What even happened to them?" M'gann asked, eyeing the needles Batman was pulling from his utility belt.

Batman sighed a long sigh, recalling the night it happened to his team. "I was on a mission with Robin and his brothers- we are training them in the art of detective work and crime fighting, they need to know this stuff since they are my children after all, who knows who will come after them. Anyways, we were at this chemical factory, looking for 'clues' Robin and I had planted for the younger three when Tim discovered that they were being played by us. He got annoyed, letting Jason and Damian in on it. Damian and Jason did not take it well and decided to enact...payback. While we were up on one of the catwalks observing the factory floor, Jason picked a fight with Dick. They started to physically go after one another...one thing led to another...a batarang pierced a pipe over head and sprayed this mist over all of us, knocking us out. When I woke up, all of us were five years younger-"

"You included?!" The team cried out in shock.

"Yes, can't you tell?"

"No, you always wear the cowl."

"Fair enough, but I was affected as well. So, I went back to the factory after recruiting you lot to watch my children. I got a sample of the same chemical and reverse engineered it. I tested it on myself first and it has worked, so now I need your help in curing my children."

"You want us to inject your sons with a foreign chemical in the hopes that it will reverse the de-aging process?"

"Yes."

"Alright, I'm in. Dibs on Dick, that little shit bit me and I think I'm going to have a scar."