This is my gift to Arminearlelt for the YJ Holiday Fic and Art Exchange. She asked for Batfamily, Jason Todd, angst and more Jason Todd. I've wanted to tell this story for a long while and I'm so happy with how it turned out.
"Honey, I'm home!" an ever chipper, extra grinny Dick Grayson called as he stepped from the ship hub into the main room of the Cave with teammate Karen following in his wake. "Where's my kiss, love?"
"Sorry Nightwing," Barbara called from her spot at the computer screen, "your number one honey is out to dinner with Artemis." She didn't turn to look at him, even when sending out her sass. Ignoring Karen's snort behind him, Dick made his way across the room to her.
"I guess I'm stuck with you then, huh? I think I can live with that," he said, leaning in towards her and fake puckering up.
"I'm touched you thought of me," Barbara said deadpanned as she pushed his face away with her hand so that he fell back comically onto the dashboard. He could see Bumblebee shaking her head in his peripheral vision — yes, stupid Dick and Barbara best friend banter as per usual. Barbara tapped a few more keys to shut down her program before facing him. "I take it the mission went well."
He held up the flash drive. "What do you think?"
Five people to infiltrate a low-security off-shore laboratory that the Light set up post-Cadmus. Tula and Garth taking the ocean-side port entrance leaving Karen, Jason and Dick to take the rooftop. With Barbara's experimental hacking tech, they could pull data from the lab's systems without staff being the wiser.
It was a simple mission, so of course Dick expected something to go wrong. The weird thing was … it didn't. For the most part. Only one explosion.
But screw the flubs — he was next to Babs and her hand just barely touched his as she snatched up the flash drive and she was giving him that smile. The smile that made him feel like he could do anything. Plus with Karen talking to Mal across the room now, they were essentially alone.
"Good work, Nit-Wing," Barbara said, pulling out another smile that seemed to warm him from the inside out.
Shoot for the moon, Grayson.
"Good enough to take you out for dinner tonight?"
"Sure," she said as she carefully put the flash drive in the system, "I could go for a Wayne Manor movie night. You think Alfred will make those amazing chocolate pots if we ask nic—"
"No," Dick said. He flashbacked to how he had psyched himself up to ask her on his birthday the past weekend before work got in the way. Up until a few seconds ago he had planned to wait until Christmas to try again, but what's a couple weeks early? "I meant that maybe you and I could do something special and—"
"The mission went well, Nightwing?" came a very familiar voice. Dick sighed — perfect timing as always, Bruce.
"Yes sir," Dick turned to Bruce in full Batman gear, "Bumblebee and I got the intel, although we had some issues with the headsets — they fizzed out just in time for Tempest and Aquagirl to get into some trouble with guards. Really B, we should have upgraded the headsets months ago considering how much they're being used with M'gann going more often to visit the Logans—"
Bruce gave him the patented "stay on topic" stare.
"So, sir," Karen said as she reached them, "the Aquakids needed help and Jason ran off to help them out. We got confirmation from Garth a few minutes later that the guards were taken care of."
"Very static confirmation," Dick added, "but yes, still confirmation."
"Sphere didn't get damage, did she?" Barbara asked. "You know how 'protective papa' Connor gets when she's put in missions without him."
"Yeah no, she's fine," Dick said with a wave of his hand, "Not even a scratch. And I'm sure the Bioship will be fine when the others get here."
The doors from the ship hub opened.
"And speak of the devils!" Dick grinned as he spotted Garth. "Hey Tempest, did Robin have to swim to the ship?"
Garth stopped in his tracks. "What?"
"Well see," Dick moved toward him, hands motioning as he went, "Rob gets really pissy when his suit gets wet and the whole way back I was just imagining this wet kitten all sourfaced and …" The description died away when he saw the confused looks on Tula and Garth's faces. No, not confused … something worse. "What's going on?"
"Nightwing," Tula moved forward, "… Robin didn't come back with us."
Dick's heart stopped.
"What," Bruce said, suddenly right behind Dick, "are you talking about."
"He— he was coming to you." The words fell off Dick's tongue. "You said he knocked out the guards."
"I said we took care of it," Garth said, "Tuls and I took care of the guards. We didn't even know Robin was coming for us."
"No, you—" Dick started, turning to Karen, "Bumblebee, you heard them, right?" But Karen looked just as panicked.
"I … it happened so fast!" She put her hand to her cheek, clearly struggling to remember the misson. "We told them he was coming, but the headset…"
Karen might have kept talking, but Dick had already turned, trying to get a hold of Jay via their communicators. Nothing. Dick tried to recall Garth's exact words over the headset … they were so garbled from the static. Outside of the moment, he couldn't remember ever getting a clear confirmation Jason was with them. He had just assumed …
"We need to work fast," Bruce said, apparently to everyone, "I have calls to make. The four of you, get your report together. Every detail can help. Batgirl," he looked at Barbara, "your surveillance tech. Use it."
She nodded, but her eyes were unfocused. Like she was somewhere far away. She looked right at Dick for only a moment, a moment of clarity before making a 180 and dashing towards the computer again.
"Come on," Karen said, putting her arm around Dick and nudging him towards the conference room where Tula and Tempest were already headed, "We're going to find him. It's going to be okay."
"Yeah," Dick nodded, "of course." So why can't I shake this feeling?
"So how did your class project go, Jay?" She asked as she held her hand towards him.
"Not bad," Jason shrugged, handing her the next empty balloon, "Mrs. Fleming was shocked I knew Roman de la Rose. And that's before I started quoting it in French."
"Ha! I told you!" Barbara said, still kneeling by the brick wall of the foundation, setting the balloon to the old iron spigot, "Didn't I tell you tying that into modern gender politics would work?"
"Yes, oh fearless tutor of mine," he rolled his eyes and smiled, dramatically placing another balloon in her hand just as she was done with the last, "You are so very smart and I am so very grateful."
"That's what I like to hear," she smiled back as she filled yet another balloon with cold water before tied it up and placing it carefully with its brothers-in-arms. She got to her feet, readjusting her bikini top while she looked over their handiwork. "Do you think this is enough?"
"I counted 15, Gordon," he said. "I'd say that's pretty good." But the awkward little cough he made as he stood and stretched made her eyebrow raise.
"Getting cold feet, Boy Wonder?"
"I dunno." He shrugged noncommittally, picking at his nails. "Isn't Nightwing, like, big about getting people back with pranks? I know about the Wally Valentine's Day incident."
"Jason," Barbara laughed and put her hands on her hips in a not unappealing way as she turned toward him, "Are you telling me the great Boy Wonder is scared of Dick Grayson?"
"Uh, no," he sputtered, knowing full well she wasn't convinced.
"You're such a chicken, Jaybird."
"Hey, it's easy for you to say," Jason put his hands in the air indignantly. "I get caught and Dick will get major revenge on me. You get caught and all you have to do is give him that look."
"What look?" she said with a squint.
"You know, the look," he said, expecting her to know. When she didn't reply, he elaborated. "The look, Barbara. The one where you make your eyes all doe-like and you bite your lip? The one that gets him all lovey-dovey and makes him forget why he's mad at you?"
She paused a moment before saying, "I don't do that, Jason."
"Um, I'm around you two all the time and yes you most certainly do. It's actually pretty ridiculous how much of a couple you are."
She snorted. "We are not a couple. And considering he's flirting with Lucy Bloomsbury at this very moment—"
"And I'm sure you recruiting me for this plan out of the blue has nothing to do with that, right?" Jason crossed his arms as if to say "Prove me wrong." She shot him a nasty Batgirl glare before he shrugged. "Fine. Let's pretend it isn't a thing."
"Look, do you want to help me mess with his party?" Barbara asked. "Or are you really afraid of the big bad Grayson?"
Jason thought about it, then grinned. "I think I just got over my phobia."
They made their way back into the pool party, creeping the bucket of water-filled ammo past Brad Hedson and the football guys, who were still yelling "Woo! Spring break!" No one noticed them, especially one Dick Grayson as he sat on his towel and reapplied lotion to Lucy Bloomsbury's left shoulder. Barbara cringed a little as Lucy let out a giggly "That's cold!"
"Hey," Jason nudged her, "Don't worry about her, Barbie."
"I'm not," she said instinctively. Defensively. She was glad he didn't call her on it.
"Well," he said, "ready to see a Robin get wet?" He held up a particularly full water balloon. Barbara's smile grew and she took it.
"One …" she whispered, "two …"
As Alfred carried out refreshments, a piercing scream nearly startled the tray of fresh lemonade out of his hand, followed by a "What the hell?!" Two very familiar laughs hit his ears as Miss Barbara and Master Jason sprinted into the main house, a drenched Master Dick in quick pursuit.
It was day three and … nothing.
"We need to figure out who else can help. Have we gotten a hold of Troia? Or Roy?" Dick asked, still looking at the list of squads prominently displayed on the main screen.
"Nightwing," M'gann said, "you know we haven't gotten a hold of Troia since she went back to Themyscira."
"And Roy is still MIA," Artemis said.
"Well, we need more people out there already," Dick said, turning towards them, "and we need them now."
Artemis and M'gann shared a look, clearly using the psychic link — Dick hated knowing the only other two people in the room were talking about him right in front of him. Artemis was the one to step forward. "I know you're worried," she said, "clearly you're worried, but it's not your responsibility to organize the squads. And when have you last slept?"
Dick ignored her. "What about Aquaman?" he asked, "He can't take the time to come up and help?"
Artemis gaped at him. "He's dealing with the oil spill off the Alaskan Coast, Nightwing," Artemis stared at him before sighing and shaking her head. "Look, Karen and I still have Lex Corps' docks to search—"
"Then why are you still here?" he snarled, staring her down.
Artemis eyed him, clearly contemplating how to respond. Dick didn't bother waiting for her decision, turning around to face the screen. After what he suspected was her headset hitting the wall, he heard the zeta tubes confirm Artemis' exit. He didn't care at this point — those damn things needed to be replaced, anyway.
He felt M'gann move tentatively behind him.
"Nightwing," she said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, "we're doing all we can."
"Clearly we aren't." He didn't turn around, his body still rigid.
"You need to rest," she pressed, "You won't find him if you can't even think straight—"
"What if it was your brother?!" Dick snapped his head towards the bewildered (horrified) Martian. His heart raced. "Would you be so calm if Garfield was taken to god knows where?! Alone and scared and probably being tortured—"
A hand yanked him around and he was face-to-face with Kaldur.
"Nightwing," their leader said. No obvious stress showed on Kaldur's face, but Dick could see the way his friend's eyes faltered and his mouth curved down just slightly. In stress, maybe. Frustration. Displeasure.
Disappointment.
"M'gann," Kaldur said, "could you please excuse us?" He waited as their friend left towards her quarters.
"You must stop this," Kaldur finally said, his ever firm hand still gripping Dick's arm. With those words, Dick gained his senses and with a glare, he leaned forward.
"I can't," he said. "Not until Robin's home."
"My friend," Kaldur said, giving him a look somewhere between empathy and pity, "you are unwell. You must talk to someone. I am here for you, but if not me then perhaps Kid Flash or—"
"They're too busy." Dick yanked his arm away before heading towards the zeta tubes. Before passing the threshold, he added, "And so am I."
It was day three and—
"I'm busy," Barbara muttered, her eyes still on the computer screen.
"I know … you keep saying that," Mal said, settling on the bed of her room in the Cave.
"You've been saying that since Sunday," Connor added, his arms folded as he leaned against her dresser.
It was true, though. She was busy. Her brain was busy. It was full of facts and intel and locations. But this is what she did. She was the tech girl and if there was anything she could do well, it was figure out where they hell they took Jason.
She was on a roll after the first day and you get used to not sleeping by the end of the second. Now it was day three and she was definitely on a roll. Definitely.
Jason was taken, but they could find him. They had to find him. He was her tutoring buddy, her and Dick's partner-in-crime … they were going to goddamn find him. Good thing school had gotten out for the holidays the week before. Good thing her dad was working triple shifts and wouldn't notice she wasn't home. Good thing she could last on energy bars and Gatorade.
It would help if her eyes would stop unfocusing.
"Barbara, are you even hearing us?"
She could see Connor in the screen's reflection and paused. Apparently they were still in the room. And still talking. Her index fingers circled the raised bumps on the F and J keys impatiently.
"Too much work to do," she said, her fingers resuming their typing as she searched another system, "I need to go through the data." Just leave me the hell alone already.
Gotham was out for sure — Bruce scoured it. Artemis was going to check the Lex Corp docks in Metropolis but no way would the Light bring Robin somewhere so obvious. There were still Lex Corp side-companies with warehouses on the coast. And the older Cadmus labs — most of them were sold off to legitimate independent businesses, but a few were just abandoned. She needed to gather all the locations and figure out what others the Light were hiding. She wished she could go to the main computer down the hall, but people were in and out. She had spent the first six hours of the mission there before the distraction of other people got to her. She didn't need to be distracted. She didn't need her teammates telling her what was good for her. She didn't need to hear them wondering out loud where Jason was.
Now Mal was saying something about M'gann and Karen, something about talking to Batman. She stood up to grab a file off her top shelf.
"Barbara," Conner said right behind her, "You need to stop and think." And then he touched her shoulder.
"Don't goddamn touch me!" she shouted as she turned, pushing Connor away. "Don't you dare touch me!"
Mal's jaw had dropped and Connor looked shocked … for the first time since she met him, actually.
"I'm doing my goddamn job," she said, shaking a little as she sat back down and went back to the keyboard. The adrenaline was pumping hard in her veins — she could use it.
"The warehouses owned by Lex Corp subsidiaries," she said, typing, "A couple in San Francisco, one in Chicago. Those are our best bets at this point. Let Batman know I'll have the data sent to him in three hours tops."
Barbara was pretty sure she heard Mal say something else as the two of them left her room.
Dick walked slowly, carefully towards Jason at the end of the hallway. From the rumors he heard around school, the kid was having a pretty crappy day — Dick wasn't sure how to approach him. Best not to startle him.
"I know you're there," Jason muttered into his hands.
Dick paused, more than a little surprised. But he tried for a smirk. "You've been practicing sensing intruders. I'm impressed."
Jason shrugged, still not looking up. Dick took his silence as an invitation to sit … or at least not a "fuck off." He settled in the hard plastic chair next to him in front of the principal's office. Dick's fingers went to the tiny grooved texture of the seat that turned smooth on the side. A minute ticked by, with nothing for him to do but read the poster on the opposite wall ("Join Us at the Kick Off to Summer Dance!") and wait.
"Are you going to yell at me, too?" Jason's voice cracked as he broke the silence. There was bitterness there; it was also the frankest, the rawest emotion Dick had heard the kid's voice in a good while. Robin gave him confidence, but Dick could see that confidence dim in front of him.
He eased in slowly. "Who yelled at you?"
Jason snorted. "Boothby. Obviously." He looked towards the door.
Dick sighed. "Yeah, Boothby knows how to dig the knife in there, doesn't he?" Dick knew firsthand how nasty Principal Boothby could be to students who made bad first impressions with him. This wasn't Jason's first "talk" with the principal, but it had been a while.
"He said I was a delinquent," Jason said as he stared at the wall, "that Bruce taking me in didn't change the fact that I'm a punk. That clearly I'm not 'improving' after all."
"Jason—"
"The last fucking day of school," Jason snapped. "I've kept my head down all semester, I've stayed out of his stupid office since the thing in November — and my grades are up, damnit! Just ask Barb!"
"I know, she—"
"And the last day of school this happens," Jason said, his eyes locked on the linoleum, tiles just past his feet. "I hate this place."
They sat in silence for a few more moments. "Can I ask what happened?" Dick had heard the very basics already, but he had a feeling Jason didn't need to know the story had spread around school.
"Fought Tyler Gilbert," Jason picked at his fingernail, "But he can't throw a punch for crap and I can — he went down just in time for Mrs. Halloran to come see me attack him. Tyler's buddies made sure to collaborate."
"Jay," Dick said, delicately, "if Tyler provoked you, then that's on him." Okay sure, Jason needed to control his anger, but Dick knew that telling him so right now (again) wouldn't help anything.
"He didn't …" Jason sighed, "I kind of provoked him. He and his friends were giving crap to this guy in my Chem class and I told them to stop acting like Neanderthals and—"
"Wait," Dick said, putting his hand up. He closed in eyes. "So you were standing up for someone getting picked on?"
"Well … yeah." The younger boy said it like it was obvious.
"Jason," Dick said, jaw dropped, "Why in the world would you think I'd yell at you for that?"
Jason shrugged. "I dunno … you and Bruce and Barb kept telling me last semester that I needed to stop picking fights. And the day before summer break I do something stupid—"
"You were trying to help someone," Dick said. "That's what we do, you know?"
"Yeah, tell that to Boothby. I mean, I know I shouldn't give two shits what the guy thinks but," he rubbed his face, "I don't like thinking about people seeing me like that. Like … angry white trash or whatever."
Looking at him made Dick's heart ache — months ago, Alfred had suggested to Dick over a late night snack that Jason's Robin bravado could be hiding the insecurities of his life before Bruce found him. Dick hadn't realized until just now how affected Jason really was by it all. If he was being honest, it wasn't an alien concept.
"You know," Dick said, putting his hands together, "my first week here, I got into a fight."
Dick paused to let that set in, but Jason didn't respond.
"They were older boys picking on this nice girl from my class," he said, "This was a few months before I found out about Bruce's 'hobby,' but I managed to use the acrobatics to dodge them.
"The thing is," Dick continued, "when I was brought in to Boothby's office, he … he pretty much told me I had severe emotional issues."
Jason look towards him, mouth open. "What?"
Dick sighed, rubbing his eyes with his open palm. "Well," he said, his voice dropping, "it wasn't like he just came out and said it or anything. But he told me that he'd hate to see me become one of 'those troubled kids.'"
"Holy crap— what the hell did Bruce say?"
Dick pushed out a laugh. "I never told him. You have to understand, I was only 10. It had only been a couple of weeks since— since Bruce took me in. I was angry, Jason. So when Boothby warned me about being a troublemaker, I was scared I had really done something wrong. It was a couple years later that I realized Boothby was out of line and by then …"
Dick shook his head.
"The point is, it took me a while to figure out who I wanted to be." And yes, part of the reason he adopted the carefree rich kid persona at school was to stop people from thinking of him as the damaged orphan … but Jason didn't need to know that.
"It can't be that easy," Jason muttered, looking away.
"Yeah, well," Dick said, standing up and cracking his back, "I had some help from Babs. And Alfred and Bruce and the team. And you've got all of them and me backing you up now. It just takes some time."
Jason looked up at him. "I'm going to make you guys proud. I promise."
He smiled. "No doubt in my mind."
There was a moment just between them and Dick couldn't help but think this is what having a brother was really like.
"So," Jason said, breaking the silence, "is Bruce really going to take it as well as you did? Somehow I have a feeling Boothby won't let this slide."
Dick shrugged. "I have it on good authority that a certain redheaded tech genius hacked into the school's system half an hour ago and changed Bruce's emergency contact info to her own phone. Boothby has probably already left a message with a very friendly, very young sounding receptionist by now but I doubt he'll be getting a call back." He offered his hand to help Jason up. With a bit of that Robin smirk back on his face, Jason took the invitation.
As they walked down the hallway, Dick found himself relieved. It wasn't just that his brother was beginning to open up, either — Dick had never told anyone about what happened that day his first week of school. It felt like a weight had been lifted and he was so lost in thought that he didn't realize Jay was smirking at him again.
"What?" Dick asked, suspicious.
"It was Barbie, wasn't it? The girl you stood up for?"
Dick coughed. "I'm not sure that's relevant."
"Sure it isn't."
Dick was really starting to regret telling Jason who gave him his first kiss.
It was day five and Barbara was on a roll.
She had finally made it back to the main computer of the Cave once she knew everyone was out actually doing their damn jobs instead of trying to talk to her. Or maybe they had tried talking and she just fazed them out. She vaguely remembered Artemis (or Zatanna or Dinah) offering to pick her up some coffee an hour ago. Maybe it was two hours.
She got over the four day hump by timing her sleep perfectly in three hours cycles. She also managed a couple times to chug coffee, take a 15 minute power nap and wake up refreshed enough to go back to the computer (thank you Officer Montoya for teaching her that tip first midterm freshman year).
But what really kept her going were the new leads. As the hours passed, she dug deeper into the Light's business. More side businesses and facilities. And then they managed to catch one of the Light's henchmen for interrogation; no one knew what Bruce had done when he walked into the cell, but no one really asked either, especially since it was his son out there. Within a half hour, Bruce had walked out of the cell with the codes she needed for certain warehouses in Chicago. None of them could be tied to Luthor (or anyone else in the public light) at this point, but that didn't really matter. Not to her, not to Bruce, not to … not to anyone on their Team, she figured. All that mattered was that she kept working. Faster, faster.
They were going to find Jason. They never lost anyone — not on the Team, not in the League. Yes, there were some close calls. Hell, her very first assignment on the Team (after months of begging Bruce to let her join) started as routine reconnaissance and ended as the unnerving mission of saving Zatanna from having her life essence drained by Klarion. She and Artemis had gotten there with the counter-curse just in time and while the three of them would eventually make jokes about it — "My Gotham heroes," Zee would say with a dramatic sigh — the experience shook Barbara to the core. Two months later and a mission had ended with Barbara half-conscious from a bad fight with Blockbuster, Wally carrying her as he literally outran a freaking explosion. It was the first time she hid bruises from her father.
Then there was Kaldur's head trauma after that one bad fall, Conner's kryponite bullet, Wally's knife wound. They came out alive.
She wasn't an idiot. She was well aware of how close those close calls were. Barbara was the daughter of a cop — she had been to enough service funerals to know that no hero was bullet-proof. But when Zatanna was taken, Barry had told her and the other newbies, "We haven't lost one yet." Call it hope or call it naivety, but if that mantra got her through this week then so be it.
That's what it came down to and nothing else mattered. She knew she had been rude. Obsessive. Cold. She knew she scared the shit out of Connor and Mal the other day. She could apologize later. She could apologize when Jason got home.
The zeta tube flashed faintly in the reflection of the screen. Barbara didn't hear who it "recognized."
"Hey Artemis?" she guessed, "I'm going to need you to go over these translations." She stood up, still looking down at the files. "I'm tracing this message from the Brain and your French is better than mine so—"
The train of thought fell with the papers when she realized who was actually at the tube entrance. Suddenly her blurry, sleep deprived vision snapped to clear and she could see every single detail. Dick looked like hell, with mud splattered on his uniform and a bruise turning purple on his cheek. He had his mask off, his arms hanging at his side. He stared at the floor.
She thought she saw blood.
"Dick." Her voice didn't sound like it belonged to her.
Taking a few step towards him, Barbara waited, waited for him to look up with a sparkle in his eyes and the patented Dick Grayson smile (the big one, the one that radiated from his heart) that would tell her they found him. For him to laugh in bewilderment, for him to tell her with happy tears in his eyes that it was another close call but they were bringing him home. It had happened before — it could still be true.
But he lifted his gaze and the look of pain, of sorrow on his face said it all. Her hands moved to her mouth. The tiny bit of hope died with the confirmation in his eyes. She knew, and it burned her like a fire where she stood.
Dick rushed toward her, falling into her embrace as they both fell to their knees. She clutched him tight as he broke down, crying hard into her shoulder.
"All my fault," he sobbed, "it's all my fault, Babs. H—he's gone."
She didn't know what to do as the knowledge hit her in waves. Her partner-in-crime was dead. Jason was dead. They had all failed him and her best friend was broken and she couldn't find the strength to comfort him. She couldn't stop the tears from welling in her eyes, couldn't stop them from trailing fast down her face as she closed her eyes shut. She couldn't even be numb. She could only cry. She could only hold on as their world crumbled.
"So where exactly are you taking me?" Jason asked right before a branch nearly smacked him in the face.
"Just a little bit further," Dick said as he led them further into the woods, "Be patient."
"I am patient. I'd just prefer to know ahead of time if this is some sort of 10 month-belated hazing ceremony," he said, moving away another branch, "You know, emotionally prepare myself for the spankings."
Huffing in mild indignation, Barbara hitched the bundle of blankets in her arms as she stepped over a log. "Sorry, Boy Pervert. No spankings for you."
"You're such a spoil sport, Barbie," Jason smirked.
"Almost there," Dick said cheerfully over his shoulder.
"But no really, did you pull me away from the party for a blood bond ceremony or—"
"We're here!" Dick pulled back the last bit of brush to reveal a grassy, unimpressive meadow. And Grayson was all smiles about it, grabbing the blankets from Barbara to spread them out in the middle of the field. When he was satisfied with the arrangement, Dick held his arms out as if to say, "Ta da!"
Jason blinked. When they nabbed him away from the Kent's apparently annual 4th of July cook-out, Jason really didn't have any idea what they were going to do.
"Really, Grayson?" Jason asked, "This is your big surprise?" He looked to Barbara for some confirmation that Dick was ridiculous, but she just smiled back.
"Just trust us, Todd," she said with a little pat to his shoulder blade.
"Sit, you too," Dick said as he plopped down, inviting the other two over. Jason reluctantly made his way next to Dick, Barbara situating them so Jason was in between them on the thick wool blanket. He looked up at the night sky just in time for the fireworks.
"Okay," Jason said half an hour later as the last firework fizzled into the dark, "That was pretty cool."
"Told you to trust us, Boy Wonder," Barbara smiled.
"Plus, you keep saying you want to see the stars," Dick added, "So Babs and I thought you'd like the best view."
"I said I wanted to go up to the Watchtower," he scowled at Dick before looking back at the sky and reluctantly adding, "But this is nice." He knew the other two were thinking about where he used to live, how even at the Manor the lights of Gotham City overtook the stars. He knew what they were doing bringing him here, but he couldn't bring himself to call them on it. Not when the view was this good … because truth be told, he'd never seen so many stars.
"Yeah," Dick said, "we did this place at last year's party. It was getting dark and I hadn't see Barbara in a while—"
"It was my first time here and Martha was very interested to learn everything about me," Barbara added.
"Right," Dick said, "so when Martha went to get Babs another piece of pie—"
"'You're so skinny, dear!'" Babs said in an uncanny impression of Ma Kent.
"—that's when I grabbed Barbara's wrist and we made our way out into the woods and ended up here."
Jason stretched and yawned despite himself. "Do I need to know the rest of the story?"
"Nothing happened, Jay," she said, nudging his shoulder with her own, "but I can't say what Dick was doing the year before."
"Hey, this is our place, Babs."
"Oh, so you didn't take Zee here the year before?" She kept the teasing in her voice and he knew she wasn't trying to judge, but Dick was adamant about getting the record straight.
"I found this place with you last year. Scouts honor!"
Barbara laughed. "When were you ever a scout?"
"I don't know … I've made fires before. I can tie ropes. That totally counts."
"It so doesn't count, Grayson," Barbara said.
"I think it does! Hey Jason, what do you—" He turned only to find the other boy's eyes closed, his mouth relaxed slightly and his head rolled over to the side.
"Did," Dick started, "Did he fall asleep to my story?"
Barbara tried (and failed) to suppressed her laugh.
"I wouldn't take it too personally," Barbara said in a whisper. "Growing boys need their sleep."
"He's almost 15, Babs," Dick whispered back, doing his best to give her a dirty look in the dim light of the moon.
"Yeah," she smirked, "maybe we won't tell him I said that."
"I guess it is getting late, though," Dick said as he checked phone. "The others might be looking for us."
"Should we wake him up? I'm not sure you can carry him back in the dark."
Dick shrugged. "In a little bit. Let's stay here a little longer."
They gazed up at the stars for a minute before Barbara turned her head to look at Dick again.
"Penny for your thoughts, Grayson?"
He sighed a happy sort of sigh. "You know, I was worried about him. With the Gilbert fight and everything. But with today and how the summer's been going," he turned to Barbara with a smile, "I think Jason's going to be okay."