*Sigh* Jason, what is up with you and your language. Seriously. If you keep acting like this I might just decide to quit writing stories with you in them!
They've got the little bird settled into a simple box with an old fluffy pink towel in it. Alfred has been instrumental in finding something comfortable to put it in. Dick has accused Damian of being an adorable mother hen several times already – despite this, he is still holding the box gingerly in his arms and peering down at his exhausted charge.
"No sabotage," says Tim as he comes up the stairs, Jason following right behind him, "You have to let fate decide."
"Kiddo, I won't need to resort to sabotage," says Jason, "All I have to do is wait."
Damian looks over at them. "If you so much as threaten Peep, Todd, I swear I will break your fingers."
Tim busts up laughing. "You're naming it Peep? Wow."
Tim is subjected to yet another death glare from Damian, but by this time, all of his big brothers are able to easily brush off the lowered eyebrows, narrowed eyes, and contracted pupils. Jason and Tim are barely able to control their laughter, so it's Dick who has to stick up for the youngest of the human Robins.
"Hey! Peep's a cute name," he says. "Besides, Stephanie's the one who came up with it, and it just stuck."
"You are going to be absolutely inconsolable when the thing dies, aren't you, Dickie bird?" Jason says, just as Stephanie comes back in the room carrying a bowl of what looks like mushed-up insect and an eyedropper.
"What the hell is that?" Jason says, and Dick smacks him on the back of the head.
"Language," Dick warns him.
"Come on. Baby Bird's the youngest here, and he's got a fouler mouth than I have. Kid swears like a sailor." Dick just gives him a look of disappointment that quite clearly says, 'You're the older sibling here so you ought to act like it.'
Tim is wrinkling his nose in disgust at the foul-looking mash. "Steph, what is that?"
"Crushed cricket, mixed with a little water," Stephanie says, motioning for Damian to set the box down on the table. "Peep's got to keep his strength up if he's going to survive. Come here, Damian, let's see if we can get him to swallow a bit of this."
Jason and Tim watch incredulously as Stephanie sucks up a little bit of her concoction with the eyedropper, coaxes Peep to open his mouth, and then squirts it inside.
Jason's voice is horror tinged with nausea when he says, "You have the way tougher job in winning this bet, Timmy."
"Where did you even find crickets?" Tim asks.
"Alfred had a couple left in the freezer," Stephanie says, "After that time we nursed the bat back to health. You remember."
Dick laughs and crouches down next to the two of them. "Yep. Batty nearly got you more than once, right Jason?"
Jason mutters something under his breath that might have been, "Stupid bastard," but nobody bothers to comment on it. He watches as Stephanie forces another helping of cricket mash down the bird's throat, then stretches and turns.
"I'll leave you four to nurse dying birds and go get some shut-eye," he says, clomping up the stairs.