I added another chapter to this sotry because, now that my baby's finally back(Yayyyy) I want to give him a happy ending.

This will be a 5 parts work. I'll publish the next two chapters next week and hopefully the last one by the week after that since I almost finish them.

As I said before the name of the chapters is titles of simple plan songs that fit.


Damian woke up at the feeling of something wet nuzzling against his face. He opened his eyes to find a pair of black eyes staring back at him. Damian wrinkled his nose at the smell of the dog's breath, before realizing that his own wasn't exactly better.

Sitting on his bed, the kid wondered how he ended up on his own room before the memories of the past day flooded through his mind. Damian groaned; it couldn't be happening. He covered his face with his hands, groaning harder at the dry, cold feeling on his cheeks. He'd cried himself to sleep… how pathetic.

Damian stood up, going to his bathroom, patting Titus on the way, and taking a shower getting rid of the sticking feeling of his skin. He brushed his teeth mentally preparing himself to go down. Part of him had caught a glimpse of Dick Grayson and Tim Drake waiting in the living room when his father had carried him inside the house, they both were wearing matching worrying expressions and that made it all worse.

He went downstairs, quiet as the ninja he was trained like. The kid was stopped halfway by the sound of muffled voices.

They were all there. Worse. They were all there talking about him.

Damian closed his eyes, forcing the knot on his throat away.

"Bruce" he heard Dick's voice, calming him even if it was odd to hear such an exasperated tone from the former boy wonder "he was shaking and pale as a ghost. He needs help" Damian rolled his eyes. He didn't need help; he would be perfectly fine the moment they got out of England.

"And who do you suggest I take him to, Dick?" he was brought out of his thoughts by his father's voice "He can't go to just any psychiatrist because you know what his problem is, and that's not something he can talk about with a normal doctor" Bruce, just like Dick, sounded worn out.

"I don't know, we could take him to Dinah, she's usually good at this kind of stuff" Dick suggested, and it must've been all the time they spent together before, because Damian could almost see him running a hand through his hair.

"Dick" Damian threw his head back, holding back a groan as he was suddenly reminded of the fact that Drake was there, too "you know she doesn't have the best history with the Al Ghuls"

"So what? We just leave him like this and pretend that it didn't happen?" and that was the last straw.

"Leave me like what?" Damian asked, wincing at how rough his voice was. He angrily stomped into the room. Just because he'd had a moment of weakness it didn't mean he was damaged… right?

"Dami" Dick stood quickly, walking towards him and drawing him into a bone-crushing hug "How are you feeling?" he asked, his hands gripping Damian's biceps.

Damian scowled, holding Dick's gaze "I'm fine Grayson, and I'd be better if you told me what did you mean by 'leaving me like this'?"

Dick had, at least, the decency to look ashamed "Look Dami, I'm not saying that there's something wrong with you" 'well it sure had sounded like he did', Damian thought "but you've been through way, too much during this year, and we've all just overseen it because you seemed to be dealing fine with it, and I'm so, so sorry about that; I shouldn't have left you alone with all of what was happening" Dick tried to hug him again but the kid moved out of his reach.

"I'm dealing just fine with everything" Damian spat, glaring at the young man "but you're right in something, you shouldn't have left" he added.

"Damian, that's not fair and you know it" his father said. It only made the kid's blood boil harder.

"Fair. You want to talk about fairness, father? Fine, let's talk about how fair is it to drag your son to your war, which, to make things worse, was against his mother. Let's talk about how fair it is to behave around said son as if he were a burden, let's talk about how fair is it for you to always be on their side" Damian said pointing at Dick and Tim "How fair is any of that father?" he spat the last word as if it were an insult, and for a moment, he felt like it was.

"Damian…"

"Perhaps it would be wise for Master Damian to eat something before continuing with this discussion" Alfred supplied, entering the room. Everyone turned to watch the butler. Damian's stomach growled as if on cue, reminding him he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday's afternoon.

Damian nodded, leaving the room without looking back.

No one tried to approach him for the rest of the day, nor when they left early the next morning, and it didn't change during the fly back. Dick tried to talk to him when they arrived to the manor, but Damian shut him up and locked himself in his room for the rest of the day.

Out of all of them, Alfred seemed to be a little more understanding, respecting Damian's wishes to be alone, to arrange his thoughts. The butler brought the kid a tray with his dinner and barely tried to talk to him.

"They're trying their best, it is a pity that that doesn't seem to be enough for the current situation, but they're trying" was all Alfred said after picking up the empty trail.

"I know" was Damian's answer.

"What?" Damian snapped. He was changing into his uniform in the batcave for patrol, just like he'd done every night for the past two years. However, everyone kept looking at him like his dog had died and no one wanted to take one for the team and tell him.

The three men shared a look "Listen Dami" Dick started, voice soft and careful as if Damian were a wild animal that would attack them under the slightest provocation "We believe that it would be in your best interest if"

"Spit it out, Grayson" Damian said, his already thin patience running out.

"If you try to get some rest, you know, lay down for a while?" Dick half asked, a sympathetic smile on his lips.

"Are you saying that I'm not fit for going on patrol?" Damian clutched his hands into fists tight enough to let half moon-like marks on his palms.

"Damian we don't know when or where you could have another episode" his father carefully told him and Damian was more than ready to kill everyone in the room.

"It wasn't an episode," he didn't know what it was, it just was something that happened "we're as far from England as we could be and… and this is so stupid, I can fight and I'll prove it, so don't treat me like I'm crazy" It was probably his most hated word in the entire English language. They sometimes called his mother that when they thought Damian wasn't listening.

Bruce sighed, running his hand through his face "Fine, you can come. Just stay by my side and do everything I say" he put on the cowl, sending a look to the others to do the same.

"Whatever" Damian said, putting on his own domino mask.

It had been an easy night; they were just swinging around, stopping minor crimes, like a robbery and a couple drunken fights, nothing serious.

But then some mob families started a fight near the docks. Batman had called Nightwing and Red Robin, who were on the other side of the city, for reinforcement. He told Robin to go to inspect the cargo to see what they were fighting for; however the kid had taken it as a sign of Batman not trusting in his ability to fight and had launched himself into the battle field.

Damian heard someone calling him after he'd taken down five of the goons. Before he had time to react, there was a harsh sound cutting through the air and his father appeared in front of him, it didn't take him long to realize that it'd been a bullet. Batman fell to his knees with a groan, their other two allies appearing before anyone could attack them again.

The drive back to the manor was filled with tense, uncomfortable silence and the occasional grunt of pain from his father. The kevlar stopped the bullet, but it would leave a large bruise on his side.

"That was unnecessary" Damian said, peeling off his mask "I also have Kevlar"

"Not in your head Damian" Tim growled. The teen was helping Alfred in wrapping Bruce's wounds.

That was when Damian realized that, given his father's size, the bullet that hit Bruce on the ribs would've impacted against his head, killing him.

"Damian you need to stop defying my orders" his father was never good at hiding his rage. This time was no exception.

"Well, none of this would've happened if you hadn't deemed me as too weak to fight against some morons with guns" Damian snapped back.

"We needed to know what they were receiving" Bruce said sternly.

"I asked Babs to check that out, by the way" Dick said, taking off his uniform.

His father sighed for what seemed the millionth time that week "Good, tell her to send me the report" his voice changed when he turned to Damian "You're not allowed to go on patrol for the next week and you're grounded"

"It wasn't my fault!" Damian tried to defend himself.

"Yes, it was!" the cave was filled by his father's voice "You're in no conditions to fight, that's why you'll be dismissed from patrol, and you keep challenging my orders, that's why you're grounded." Bruce explained with badly feigned calm.

It reminded Damian of the way the doctors would address his mother the few times he'd seen her on the hospital. Even if Talia couldn't see him during the first months, he still went to make sure his mother was okay.

It made Damian feel sick "Just because my mother's mentally ill doesn't mean you have to treat me like I am, too" he said, climbing the stairs after changing his uniform.

He heard Dick calling for him. Someone else stopped him from actually follow Damian.


So what did you think?

Same thing as before, english isn't my language so tell me if I have mistakes.

I'll have more characters next chapter, some deep talk in the 4 one and well I'm not going to spoil the end but it'll be happy n_n

I know I've been absent but I'm working on a big bang and a mini series for this little guy so hopefully, you'll see me a lot more from now on.

Love you