A/N: This took me a couple of days to think about which direction this was going to go. I want this to be longer than just one of two parts. Sorry for not posting yesterday. It was my 31st Wedding Anniversary.

/

The Meeting

By

AJ

Part 2

"Bruce . . ." Dick said weakly as Bruce knelt down. "Poison."

Dick blacked out at that moment, slipping into unconsciousness.

Bruce saw the wound through Dick's bloody shirt. It wasn't that deep, more of a scratch then a serious wound, but what did his son say, that there was poison? Bruce turned toward Damian and saw the bloody sword in his hand.

"What was on the blade?"

Damian stood stalk still, a scowl on his face. "He was stealing Richard's things."

"WHAT WAS ON THE BLADE?" Bruce demanded ignoring his son's statement.

"He's a thief!" Damian yelled back.

"No, he's not." Bruce said quietly, "He's my son and your brother."

Damian's eyes grew wide. Richard? He was Richard? Damian dropped the sword and ran from the room, his chest heaving.

'I . . . I killed . . . my brother?' Damian said confused. 'NO! I have no brothers. I am the true son of Bruce Wayne. Mother said I was the only son. And if I am, who is this Richard? And why did my father say he is his son? I must speak with Mother.'

Damian raced down the stairs to his father's study. He picked up the phone and dialed a number. 'I need to know the truth. Who is this Richard and why didn't my Mother tell me about him?'

/

Bruce picked up the sword that dropped from Damian's hands then picked up the unconscious Dick Grayson and carried him down the stairs.

"ALFRED!" Bruce cried out.

"Sir?" Alfred rushed from the music room as he heard Bruce call. Seeing the unconscious figure in Bruce's arms he rushed back into the music room. He opened the face of an old grandfather clock and moved the hands to where they pointed straight up to 12:00. The clock swung out from its base to reveal a staircase leading down into the cave. "Alfred, make sure no one comes down here, and I mean NO ONE."

"Master Timothy is already down there. I just took him a meal. What has happened?"

"Damian just tried to kill Dick," Bruce said. "The wound isn't bad, but there's poison on the blade. I need to determine what it is to know how to treat Dick. I just hope the poison that is on the sword has an antidote. Make sure Damian doesn't leave."

/

Damian waited for what seemed like five minutes for the phone on the other end to answer. His Mother wasn't available, and yet this was the phone number he had been given. He did not want to leave a message on the outside chance that someone else would pick up the message. What kind of game was his Mother playing?

Damian hung up the phone, discouraged, and fuming that his Mother would leave him here without any other way of contacting her. Now he couldn't get his questions answered.

Alfred came in seeing the discouraged look on the boy's face, though his own anger was barely in check when he learned what Damian had done to Dick.

"You seem troubled, young sir?" Alfred asked, though he would have preferred to reprimand the boy for his actions. And under the circumstances the only respect he would show this impudent child was addressing him in the formal tone.

"It's none of your business Pennyworth. Don't you have duties to attend to?"

Alfred stiffened at Damian's remarks. "Yes, Master Damian and I am seeing to that duty right now."

"And what duty is that?"

"Watching you," Alfred said.

"I don't like your tone, Pennyworth."

"Your Father asked me to keep an eye on you, and that is exactly what I am doing."

Damian crossed his arms in defiance. He was only trying to protect Richard's belongings only to find out that the man who was in Richard's room was Richard Wayne. Why hadn't his father said anything to him two days ago when he arrived, or had he? Damian couldn't remember. He was so bent on wanting to meet his father that he didn't listen to anything else. He had to clear his mind and think about what his father said to him when he arrived.

"You have two brothers you will meet later," his father had said.

'Two brothers?" Damian said in response. "My Mother said I was your son."

"Your brothers are adopted."

"Adopted?" Damian frowned at that. Why would his father adopt two sons? And what of the third name, what was it? Oh yeah. Jason. His father had created a mystery for him.

'He should have just told me their names,' Damian's thoughts were brought to the present as Bruce entered the study.

"Why was there yellow oleander nectar on the blade?"

Damian didn't answer his father at first, but glared at him in return.

"Did you say Oleander, Master Bruce?"

"Yes."

"That is a slow acting poison when ingested. What was it doing on a sword and how did Master Damian get a hold of a sword in the first place?"

"The sword belongs to me. It was given to me by my Grandfather."

"Your Grandfather, Master Damian?" Alfred asked as he turned to face the child standing with his arms crossed in front of the fireplace.

"Ra's al Ghul," Bruce said. 'I still don't know how Talia got a sample of my DNA. I never laid a hand on her.' Bruce turned to Alfred rather than dealing with Damian right now. They weren't starting this relationship out very well and right now, he had other matters to tend to, and one of them was finding the antidote to whatever Damian had given Dick through that sword. "I need to see Dr. Leslie Thomplins, see if she will know what antidote is needed."

"Can you not find out using . . ." Alfred started to say something, but decided against it when he noticed the slight shaking of Bruce's head. They didn't know how much Damian knew. Talia might have told him the truth of who Batman was, but he wasn't about to learn everything right at that moment.

"I've moved Dick to my car. I'm taking him down to her clinic. Pray that I get there in time."

Continues with Part 3