Truth Behind The Jokes
"Mr. Wayne?" Alfred walked into the large room. "Have you seen young Bruce?" He asked. "I want him to meet someone." Mr. Wayne looked over to Alfred.
"No Alfred. Maybe check in the garden? I believe he's with Rachel last I checked. Who is this person you wish him to meet?" Mr. Wayne noticed a small boy almost hiding behind Alfred. He was maybe about five possibly six years of age. "Who is this?"
"This, Mr. Wayne," He said gently pulling the boy out from behind him. "Is my nephew Jon." He said. "Jon, this is Mr. Wayne, the man I've been telling you about." The boy looked up at him. He had deep hazel eyes and curly dirty blond hair that fell almost to his shoulders. He hunched slightly as he stared at him biting his thumb.
"You own Wayne Industries don't you?" The boy asked shyly. "Alfred's told me about it. Though he won't tell me what you do. He says it's grown up stuff and I won't understand. It's nice to meet you."
Mr. Wayne laughed. "It's nice to meet you too Jon." He said gently shaking the boys small hand.
"Come now Jon. We will find young Bruce." He said taking Jon's hand and leading him out of the room.
They entered the garden and immediately saw Bruce and Rachel.
"Ah, young Bruce." Bruce and Rachel stopped their played and looked towards Alfred.
"Good morning Alfred!" Bruce said. Rachel smiled at the man.
"Good morning Alfred." She said as well though a bit more calmly than Bruce had. They both ran up to Alfred wide grins on their faces. They both came short and frowned when they saw the boy behind him.
"Who's this?" Bruce asked staring at the hiding boy.
"Bruce, this is my nephew Jon. Jon this is Mr. Wayne's son, Bruce. And this is his friend Rachel." Jon smiled shyly.
"Hi." He said quietly.
"Why is he hiding?" Rachel asked.
"He's a little shy. He just started school the other week, he's been off to a rough start. I thought maybe I'd bring him here for you to play with him."
"What do you mean by rough time?" Bruce asked.
"The kids pick on me." Jon said. "They say I'm weird. That I'm a freak." Rachel raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"You look normal to me." She said.
"That's not what they think." He said looking down at the ground. "They don't want to be friends with me cause they say I have cooties. What ever that is." Rachel moved up to him and lightly poked him in the shoulder. He flinched from her slightly and watched as she looked at her finger.
"Nope….. No cooties. Come on. You can play with us." She said taking Jon's hand. "We'll be you're friend!"
Jon looked to Bruce who didn't seem all to happy about this. He just want to play with Rachel by himself. He didn't want this new kid coming into his home and stealing his best friend.
"Come on Bruce. Lets play tag!" Rachel said running into an open area of the garden.
"What's tag?" Jon asked. Bruce groaned.
"You're kidding right?" Bruce asked.
"Bruce!" Rachel said annoyed. "Leave him alone." She turned to Jon. "All you have to do is run from the person that's 'It' if the person that's 'It' touches you then you become 'It' and then you have to catch someone else." She explained to him.
"Sounds boring to me." He said.
"It's more fun when you're playing in a pool. But it's still fun out here." She said. "Bruce is it!" She cried out before running. Bruce looked around startled at the declaration, almost as stunned as Jon was. Jon paused and looked at Bruce before running away from him. Bruce of course went after Rachel. Jon paused and watched as Bruce chased Rachel. She evaded him with every turn moving around the large fountain. It wasn't long before he caught her and the chase was reversed. Rachel chased Bruce around the garden before pausing and going after him. Jon jumped and ran but it wasn't long before he was caught. Rachel ran so much faster than him.
Jon looked around to see if he could see Rachel but she had disappeared most likely hiding somewhere. Then he saw Bruce. He ran towards him but Bruce didn't move. Jon touched his arm making Bruce 'It'
"You're It!" Jon said as Rachel had before with him. Bruce just stared at him a moment before walking away to go after Rachel again.
Bruce finally found her and chased after her. Though from Jon's point of view it looked as if he was purposely letting Rachel get away. Almost like….. he didn't want Rachel to tag him again. Jon sat down in the grass resting his chin in his hand as he watched Bruce chase Rachel around the yard. Bruce didn't want him here, he could tell. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. After a few moments Jon stood up and moved back up into the house. He went to the kitchen to find Alfred and Mr. Wayne at the kitchen island drinking a hot mug of coffee.
"Jon my dear boy." Alfred said. "What's wrong?" Alfred picked him up and sat him down on his lap. "You don't want to play anymore?"
"Bruce doesn't want to play with me." He said resting his head on Alfred's shoulder.
"Bruce said that?" Mr. Wayne asked shocked. Jon shook his head.
"I could tell." He said. "Rachel wanted to play tag. He didn't want me to play so he made himself it and only went after her. But he'd purposely let her get away so that I couldn't get involved."
"I wonder what's up with Bruce." Mr. Wayne said. "He's never been like that before. That doesn't sound like him at all. I'll go talk to him." Mr. Wayne said moving from his chair.
Jon shook his head. "No, It's okay." He said. "Do you have a deck of cards I can play with?" Mr. Wayne looked to Alfred who shrugged and nodded. Alfred moved Jon off his lap and onto the chair next to him. He left the room and a few moments later came back with a deck of cards. He handed the deck to Jon who opened the deck and removed the jokers. He spread the cards out before picking them up again in his small hands and shuffled them. He then spread them out to play solitaire.
"He's a bit young to know how to play that isn't he?" Mr. Wayne asked. Alfred shook his head.
"He's a very intelligent young boy Mr. Wayne." He said. "He's very good with the cards."
"So Mr. Jon." Mr. Wayne said.
"Jon is fine." Jon said. "I don't like titles and Mr. Makes me feel old." Mr. Wayne laughed at the prospect of the boy feeling old.
"Alright Jon. So have you thought about what you want to be when you grow up?" He asked trying to make conversation with the boy. He knew the boy wouldn't know yet he was to young.
To his surprise Jon nodded.
"I want to be a police man." He said. "Like my father."
"Really?" Mr. Wayne asked.
"Yes. I'm going to be the greatest police man ever!" He said still not looking up from his cards. Once he finished his game he put the cards back in the box leaving the two joker cards out. He stared at them a moment before pushing them through the slit in the lid of the closed box, leaving the top half of them sticking out.
"Well then you best try to keep your marks up." Mr. Wayne said. "Try your very best in school."
"I do." Jon said. "School is too easy anyway. I don't really have to try."
"Is that so?" He asked smiling at Alfred. "What have you done in school so far?" Jon looked up at him.
"So far not much." He said. "Boring stuff like colouring. Nothing like the stuff in the books I read at home."
"You can read?"
"Very well." He said. "I can read chapter books already." He said. "Not like…. Very hard ones….. but I can. My mom started teaching me."
"And what kind of books do you read? Like what genre?"
"What's a genre?" Jon asked. Mr. Wayne smiled again.
"It's like the type of book it is. Like horror of fantasy or mystery."
"Oh. I don't read books like that. I think I've read one but it was kind of boring. I don't like things that aren't about real life. Things that have happened before." He said. "I like educational books."
Mr. Wayne looked to Alfred. 'What kind of kid his age likes educational books?' He thought. 'Most kids want to play all day not sit and read.'
Rachel came running into the room followed closely by Bruce. "Jon. Where did you go? Bruce caught me and I went to find you and you where gone." She said.
"I didn't want to play anymore." He said simply. He didn't want to say that it was Bruce that didn't want to play with him cause he didn't want Rachel mad at him.
"Oh…. Did you want to play something else?" Jon saw Bruce roll his eyes.
"Like what?" Jon asked.
"Hey I have an idea." Bruce said. "Follow me!" He said running back out into the yard. Rachel looked to Jon who shrugged. Rachel followed Bruce out soon followed by Jon.
"Kids." Alfred said making Mr. Wayne laugh.
Bruce stopped on the porch. "Okay Rachel you stay here. Jon, you come with me."
"Why?" Jon asked.
"Cause we're going to play a game dummy." He grabbed Jon's arm and pulled him along down the stairs. Jon followed behind and looked back to Rachel who looked equally confused.
Bruce pulled him along to the other side of the house out of Rachel's sight.
"What are we doing?" Jon asked.
"It's a game." He said as he lead Jon towards a small shed. "I'm going to find you and Rachel's going to have to find you." Jon smiled.
"Oh you mean like hide and seek?" Jon asked.
"Yeah, only you don't get to hide where you want to. I'll hide you and watch her when she tries to find you I'll tell her if she's hot or cold."
"What do you mean hot or cold?" He asked.
"I mean I'll say cold if she's no where near you and I'll say hot if she's getting closer." Bruce grabbed tightly onto Jon's arm and threw him into the small shed. He closed the door behind him. Jon looked around. It was dark. He didn't like the dark.
"Bruce!" He called. There was a small click from the other side of the door. "Bruce I don't like the dark!" He said trying to pull the door open. "Bruce! Let me out!"
Bruce returned to Rachel's side. He was limping slightly and paused to rub his knee.
"Where's Jon?" Rachel asked.
"He kicked me!" He said. "He kicked me and took off. I don't know where he went."
"What? Bruce are you alright?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said. "Lets go play in my room." He said.
"But….. maybe we should go find Jon." She said.
"Hey, if he wants to come back he'll come back." Rachel looked unsure. This didn't seem right. "Come on! I have a new board game we can play." He took her wrist and lead her back into the house.
"Bruce!" Jon called out. "Alfred!" Tears ran down his cheeks. He was scared. The dark frightened him. "Someone?!" He banged on the door. He called and called for anyone to help him but no one came.
Jon laid on the ground tears running down his face. "I'm scared." He said quietly to himself.
"Kids! It's time for supper." Alfred said. Bruce and Rachel came running down the stairs laughing a toy in their hands.
"Bruce?" Alfred asked. "Where's Jon?" Bruce paused. In their play both kids had forgotten about the young boy.
"Um…" Bruce felt his body stiffen in fear as Rachel looked to him.
"Tell him what happened." Rachel said.
"Um… he kicked me. And he took off." Bruce said.
"He what?" Alfred asked. "That's not like him at all, he would never hurt someone."
"Well he did."
"When was this?"
"This morning after we came and got him."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Bruce's father asked. "Where did he go?"
"I-I don't know." Bruce said. Alfred gabbed his coat.
"I'm going to go out looking for him." He said. Mr. Wayne nodded grabbing his coat as well. He picked up the phone and called the police. After the report was made he looked to one of the maids. "See that their fed. And that Rachel is taken home. Bruce I expect you to be in bed by eight tonight! No fuss!"
"Aw but dad!"
"Not buts this time!" He said sternly.
"Where do you think he could be?" Mr. Wayne asked. Alfred shook his head.
"He doesn't know this area I have no idea where he could have gone. If what Bruce says is true he's been gone almost eight hours."
"I don't understand. Why didn't they tell us?" Mr. Wayne asked.
"Come on. I'm going to go search the grounds maybe he just didn't want to play with them and found somewhere to hide."
"Has he done that before?"
"This situation has never happened before. His teachers have told me that he tends to hide sometimes. So it may be a possibility." Mr. Wayne nodded.
"I'll start on the streets. You go search the grounds."
"It's been thirteen hours now." Mr. Wayne said. "And still no sight of him." Alfred looked ultimately worried. Mr. Wayne had never seen Alfred this upset before. He put his hand on Alfred's shoulder.
"Don't worry so much Alfred. We'll find him." He said.
"What if something's happened to him?" Alfred asked. "This is all my fault. He didn't want to come here. If I had just listened and let him stay with his mother…" He paused.
"Don't worry about that now Alfred. We'll find him." They searched the grounds again. It was already dark out making it hard to see. They both carried flashlights.
The came up to the shed.
"Jon?" Alfred called out. "Jon answer me!" Mr. Wayne looked to the shed.
"Odd."
"What is Mr. Wayne?" Alfred asked.
"This shed wasn't locked before." He said. "I lost the lock to it ages ago and just use it to keep the thing shut."
"Jon?" Alfred called out. "Jon are you in there?" There was no answer. Mr. Wayne moved to the side of the shed and picked up an axe that leaned against it.
"Alfred move." He said. He hit the lock on the door but it didn't breakt. Once. Twice. Three times. On the third try the lock finally gave way. They pulled the door open.
"Jon!" Alfred said moving to the boys side. He lay on the ground dried tear streaks down his cheeks. "Jon. Wake up!" Alfred said. He put his fingers to his throat to check his pulse. "We need to get him to a hospital." Alfred said picking Jon up into his arms and making his way to the house. Alfred placed Jon on the couch as Mr. Wayne called an ambulance. As he hung up the phone he looked up to see Bruce looking down at him through the bars of the stair railing.
"You better have a good explanation for this boy." He said. Bruce looked shocked. Never in his life had his father ever called him 'boy'. He looked down at Jon who was pale as a ghost against the dark coloured couch.
Bruce sneered at him before moving back up the stairs and into his room.
TBC. Hope you all enjoyed chapter one….. no Jon is not an OC but his name is xD lulz can you figure out who it is yet?