To Know Your Family

Chapter 8

After Tony dropped Jason off and was sure all the boys were in their rooms, he went to his own room, knowing that he was going to need his sleep if he was going to be dealing with five boys.

Just as he was about to go to sleep his phone lit up with a call from Pepper.

"Hey Pep," Tony answered with as much happiness as he could muster after the debacle that he just had.

"Hey Tony! I'm just checking in. Making sure that you didn't get into any trouble and that you got to Gotham in time," Pepper said kinda awkwardly.

"We all made it here nice and safe, no need to worry. You should trust me Pep. My trouble making days are over, I have five boys to look after who would much rather take that job," Tony joked with a smile.

"I know what you're doing Tony," Pepper said sternly.

"What am I trying to do exactly?" Tony asked her.

"I broke it off Tony. I couldn't handle the stress anymore. You always go out on those dangerous missions and never call until hours later. I told you that you have to choose. Iron Man or Me and you choose Iron Man," Pepper said angrily.

"I actually chose both, but you didn't like that answer. Look Pep I'm sorry, but can we at least give this, us, another shot?" Tony asked her.

"I'll call you tomorrow Tony. We'll finish this conversation later in person," Pepper told him as he said goodnight as well and hung up.

As Tony put his phone down he sighed with his feet still on the ground and just sat their for a moment. He just sat their to think about his life right now.

Here he is 45 years old with a relationship that he's trying to save, four boys all ranging from preteen to teenager, and an old family friend that he hasn't seen in years.

After five minutes Tony finally came to a conclusion. "I need to be the best I can be to get Pepper back and to raise these boys. Friday," Tony called out as his phone lit up.

"I want all the records you can find on the five of my boys. I know that I already have Peter's but I want to make sure that I don't miss any details. They've all taken enough time off from school, so once this weekend is over I want to be able to have them all back in school. They need their education. I want to get to know their friends and have their friends meet all of us. Anytime I think of something new I want you to add it to this checklist. We'll start listing things off tomorrow," Tony told his AI.

"Right away Mr. Stark," the disembodied voice said.

"Good, but in the meantime set an alarm for eight 'o'clock in the morning," Tony ordered.

"Right away Mr.Stark," Friday answered.

XXXXMEANWHILEXXXX

Jason woke up early the next morning groggy, but what can you expect from him. He had a hard time last night, then he was worried about his big brother. He turned his head so that his green eyes met his alarm clock and he could see the time.

4:00 a.m.

Jason goraned, but knew that he wasn't going to be getting any more sleep with his worrying.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stood up, not caring that he was nothing but a pair of pajama pants and walked to the room across from his, into Dick's, making sure to shut the door.

As Jason walked into his older brother's room he could hear Dick's soft snores, but knew that the older boy wouldn't mind being woken up if it was important.

"Dick. . .hey Dickie Bird," Jason whispered to slowly wake the older boy.

"Jay," Dick mumbled quietly as he slowly let himself wake up.

As Dick awoke and saw the other boy in front of him, he immediately woke up as he saw the look of fear and worry in Jason's bright green emerald eyes.

"Come sit down," Dick said as he sat up against the wall, as his bed was in a corner, and made room for Jason.

"I- Tony told me about what happened last night. I mean with you. He said that you had a breakdown," Jason started, and he could already see guilt creep into those baby blue eyes.

"After you stormed out of my room last night I just felt like I failed you and had to do something. It was nothing to worry about though," Dick tried to defend himself.

"But it was something!," Jason yelled at him, but remembered that everyone was still asleep, so he went back to speaking normally. "I just want to know what you did and how bad you got. Okay?" Jason said, but it sounded more like a question.

"I felt like I was turning into Bruce. I couldn't stop the voice in my head that was comparing everything I did to him. I loved Bruce, and that's never going to change, but I can't be the Batman like he was. I can't sacrifice everything for the mission. I can't put the mission so far up on my priority list that I end up taking down all the relationships that I built over time. I. . .I felt like a broken bird," Dick said as he carefully chose his words.

"Oh Dickie," Jason said sadly as he grabbed his brother's hand to rub comforting circles around it. "Was I the cause of it," Jason finally got the courage to ask.

"No Jay. You might have been the turning point, but this was all waiting to come out, but I haven't had a chance to talk to Dinah, so it all just exploded in my face. Ever since Bruce died I've been holding everything in, which is why we have the mess that you see now," Dick said as he gestured to his still dirty room that he was going to clean in the morning.

The two sat in silence, with Jason trying to gain the courage to ask one last question, and Dick doing his best to wait, but he couldn't wait long, "You want to ask me something else?"

"Tony said that when he found you you were drunk and had smashed glass around you, but I want to know if you did anything with that glass. I know that the replacement and demon spawn don't know anything about it, but I was their when you relapsed and I was terrified, so please tell me that you didn't do it," Jason asked, fearing the question.

"No Jay. I can say with 100% truth that I didn't cut. I was more angry at Bruce then myself at the moment so you don't have to worry about that," Dick said, trying to reassure Jay.

"But I have to worry. Just because you didn't relapse this time doesn't mean that you won't in the near future. You showed signs Dick," Jason said worriedly.

"Jay I promise you that if I feel like I'll have a relapse I'll talk to someone," Dick promised as he grabbed Jason's hand.

Not knowing how to end the conversation Jason got up to leave, knowing full well that if he went back to his room he wouldn't be going to sleep, not with the terrible thoughts plaguing his mind.

"C'mon Jay," Dick said as he pulled Jay towards the bed. "You don't have to go back to your room. Sleep on the opposite side of my bed. Maybe this way we can actually catch two more hours of sleep," Dick offered, and Jason, still wanting to act tuff, accepted reluctantly.

"Good night Jay," Dick said to his younger brother.

"Good morning Dickie," Jason answered back as Dick gave a half yawn half laugh.