"You know Tim isn't dead, right?"
Jason's voice startled Bruce. He hadn't expected him to be home. It had been many months since he joined up with Artemis and Bizarro, and even longer since he had last spent the night at the manor. However, what alarmed him more than the boy's presence was what he said and how casually he said it.
"Jason, you weren't there, you didn't see it happen. We didn't even have a body left to bury."
"It's exactly that lack of body that concerns me. Bruce, he could be out there somewhere! Lonely, caged like some kind of animal-"
The same thing happened with Dick. Granted, he turned out to have faked his death, but Bruce was sick of Jason acting up in times like this.
"Jason, no! I'm not having this argument with you again. Why is it that you always try to undermine my mourning unless it's Damian?!"
"Because Damian was actually dead!"
That earned him a punch in the face from Bruce, who luckily wasn't wearing his gauntlet yet. He'd been on the receiving end of those before, and didn't particularly look forward to doing that again. Jason gingerly rubbed the reddening flesh of his cheek. That was going to bruise. Great. Artemis wasn't going to let him hear the end of this.
"And exactly what makes you think Damian was more dead than Tim is right now?"
"Be-because—" Jason hesitated, unsure whether or not to tell him. No, he started it now, he has to say it. "Because I can't see him... Bruce, I can see ghosts. When Damian was dead, I saw him following you around. I saw him trying to get close to you. Like—like I did. Bruce, when we die we all come back to you, and I haven't seen him since he supposedly got killed. He's alive. I'm sure. Bruce, please, don't let him suffer the way I did..."
Bruce's face grew softer, he pulled his hand back and rubbed the knuckles that just made contact with his son's face.
"How long have you been able to do this?"
Jason shrugged.
"Since I came back. Talia and Ra's can't fully explain it either, but we think it has something to do with being completely revived by the Lazarus Pit."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because why should I? We haven't been on the best of terms since very recently, remember?"
Bruce looked down. Jason was right. He was ashamed that it took Tim's death, no, disappearance, to make him realize he should have spent more time with his sons.
"If there's anyone who can find him it's you... Just promise me, Bruce, that you'll search for him. That you won't give up on him. That you'll find him."
"I promise."