Tim leaned over towards Dick and spoke in a whisper. "Are we supposed to feel badly about this?"
Dick shrugged. "I'm pretty sure we aren't supposed to look happy about it."
Tim tugged at the collar of his good dress shirt. "Who knew we would actually be thanking Joker for getting out?"
Dick elbowed him in the ribs. "Shhh. Bruce is actually sad about this. Yeah, I know he might be the only one, but, you know…at least try to seem a little down."
Tim sighed. "I think he just thinks he's sad about this. Once he realizes that this was a blessing in disguise, everything will go back to normal."
Dick began to rub his temples. "He was still his son, you know?"
Tim shrugged. "Yeah, but there's only so much crying you get to do about lost time and not having the chance to get to know your own son. After that you have to realize that the kid wasn't a good person, and get over it."
Dick nudged him again. "Well, aren't you a mean one when you're uncomfortable."
Tim shrugged again. "Yeah, you know…it happens."
Bruce glared at them, and the two were silent for the rest of the ceremony.
XYZXYZXYZ
One week earlier…
"Oh, it's you again, bat boy wannabe!" Joker glared at the intruder.
"I am Batman's-" Damian began before being cut off by the clown.
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it. Go fly away. I don't need your special brand of uselessness. I have other birds and bats to kill." Joker returned to what he had been doing.
Damian tried again. "I am…"
"…not worth my time." Joker spat back at him. "Now go! Baiting bats, times a wastin'. Maybe daddy's got something entertaining for you to kill yourself with. I, on the other hand, just don't see the point in wasting the supplies. Run along now--Joker's got some nice bat steaks to fry up." He went back to looking over blueprints of some kind.
Unfortunately, in Joker's opinion, Damian seemed to be determined to win the "most annoying wannabe bat" award. The kid kept going on and on. Nightwing would have at least attacked by now. Joker wasn't even sure what the bat brat was saying--he just knew there were far more words coming out of the kid's mouth than he would have preferred. "Not going to kill him. Not worth the time. Have better things to do. Need to get this done, and soon. He's a waste of space…probably why daddy doesn't keep him on a tight little leash like the others. Not going to kill him. I swear."
Joker kept repeating his mantra out loud as he grabbed a stress ball he had nearby. He was squeezing in time with every word coming out of his mouth. At one point, he was squeezing the ball so fast that it flew out of his hand and bounced off of the table in front of him. Joker watched as it flew past him and landed in Damian's open mouth. It took mere moments for the ball to block the kid's air way, thus rendering him silent. The Joker merely stared for a few moments, and then shrugged. "Well, that's one way to shut him up." Joker returned to his work while Damian slowly suffocated to death.
The End