No Track for this chapter.
Chapter Three: It's a Family Bonding Activity
Lunch had been a disaster, not from Alfred's doing of course, but the absolute riot Damian threw about the two of them flying to Iceland over some ridiculous notes in a book. Tim did his best to stay out of the argument, finishing early and heading upstairs to his temporary room the minute he could.
Which left Dick and Damian.
"If you insist on going on this 'expedition' of yours, Grayson. I will be coming along to ensure that you two don't end up getting yourselves killed." Damian finally relented.
Dick raised an eyebrow.
"You want to come?"
Damian gave his darkest look he could muster at him for even suggestion such a thing.
"I did not state that I wanted to come, I stated I'm coming to make sure that you don't get yourself killed. I would prefer to avoid the wrath of Father should you two not return."
Dick grinned.
"Alright baby bird, I guess if that's your plan I'll let you come. Why don't you go get packed, I have to go make a few calls."
Damian didn't like the mischievous grin that Grayson had sported as he left.
0o0
Jason Todd had had a rough night. So the prospect of sleeping in till two in the afternoon sounded like an excellent notion to him. He had shut his heavy curtains so that no sunlight could bother him, and turned his phone on silent.
At least he thought he had turned his phone on silent.
The insistent ringing was growing more and more annoying the longer he let it go. Jason tried covering his head with his pillow, but it seemed whoever was trying to get through to him wasn't going to give up. He only knew one person who was determined enough to keep calling.
Leaning over, he finally grabbed the cursed device and hit the answer button as hard as he could.
"Do you even listen to the voicemail I kindly left to people to whom I don't answer the phone for?" Jason growled; sleep still hinting within his inflection.
"Well, it's not very friendly Jay."
"Gee, I wonder why Dick." Jason flipped on the bed, letting the pillow fall as he finally sat up. He took a glance at the clock and scowled even more.
1:35
"Jay," Dick drawled out his name. "It's important."
"I don't care; I only had three hours of sleep. I was aiming for four." Jason growled out. "Whatever it is it can fucking wait."
He was so close to hanging up when Dick started to scramble over his words to make sure he was heard.
"Wait, wait Jason! Please hear me out; just drop by the Manor please? Bring a few days worth of supplies, and I promise it'll be worth it."
Jason paused in absolute confusion. Bring a few days worth of supplies?
"I'm not spending nights at the Manor just because you want me there to play House. I know Bruce is heading out of town, you can't pull that over my head."
"No, that's not it, I swear. Just, just drop by please? I'll explain everything when you get here."
Jason checked the time again. 1:36. He sighed as heavily as he could manage just to annoy Dick, at least tall and brooding wasn't going to be there. Maybe, he could sneak some of Alfred's cookies in the deal. Not to mention he could always leave when he wanted to.
"Fine Dickie bird, give me a half an hour."
He could almost feel the excitement coming off the older man.
"Thanks Jaybird!"
0o0
Tim dropped his suitcase in front of the door the same time Dick did, their luggage rather small thankfully. Damian had yet to make an appearance, which although Tim wasn't concerned about, Dick was a little curious as to why he was taking so long.
"I trust you will keep in touch whilst you all are away, Master Richard?" Alfred asked.
Dick nodded.
"Of course we will Alfie, every day. We shouldn't be gone more than two days, just checking that sensor and heading home. Maybe a little sightseeing, it is Iceland after all."
They choose to keep mute on Tim's uncle.
"If you say so Sirs, I assume you would not like me to inform Master Bruce of this plan?" Typical Alfred already knew there was something afoot amongst them.
"Probably for the best Alfred." Tim gave an apologetic smile, as he lifted a small book bag over his shoulder. "If everything goes well, and it should, it should all go over fairly smoothly."
"As you wish Master Timothy."
At this point Damian made his way downstairs, holding two duffle bags and an additional suitcase. Dick and Tim shared an equally amused look as the youngest struggled to come down the stairs on his own.
"Did I miss the memo? Are we going on vacation?" Tim remarked as all the bags finally came to a ceremonious heap before him. Damian shot him a look.
"It's called being prepared, Drake. Not that this is a prospect you may be aware of."
"What? Are you prepared for us to be stranded for a month?" Dick jested, as he looked over all their luggage, Damian's taking up most of the space.
There was a knock on the door that distracted the youngest Wayne from making a sly remark in return. Which probably would have been something equivalent to the fact that they were about to travel up the side of a mountain for a useless sensor in the middle of nowhere, you could never be too careful.
"I'll get it Alfred, don't you worry."
Dick disappeared around the bend.
"Do be careful you two, mountain climbing is a rough business; even for those who have been trained like you." Alfred commented lightly beginning to take hold of their things to pack into the car.
Then, a loud voice began to comment from down the hall, and it certainly did not sound very happy.
"What the hell is going on? You promised an explanation, you Dick."
For once, Tim and Damian looked at each other with equal looks of unhappiness as Jason Todd and Dick rounded back around the corner. Jason was dressed in his usual attire of a worn shirt and leather jacket, a lone tattered duffle bag swung over his shoulder. From the look Tim and Damian received, they could tell this was Dick's doing and not his.
"You invited Todd?" Damian frowned, looking incredulous at the idea. Tim didn't look as pleased either.
"Well, Jason has a lot of traveling experience. Not to mention safety in numbers right? We could use his help and experience on the trip." Dick smiled, as if that solved everything.
"Do you realize how much four last minute flight tickets cost to Reykjavík? Bruce is going to have your head." Tim gaped.
Dick shrugged.
"He won't mind if it's a family bonding activity, which is exactly what we're going to tell him if he asks."
Jason finally broke into the conversation.
"Excuse me? Family bonding? Reykjavík, Iceland? I don't believe this is what I signed up for, and you certainly didn't say any of this on the phone." He pointed at Dick with a scowl.
"Oh, calm down Jay. Family bonding is our cover; we're really going on a scientific expedition!" Dick grinned as if they had all just won the lottery. "And on the way, we might find out what happened to Tim's missing Uncle!"
"You're welcome to stay here." Damian grumbled.
Jason leaned against the wall staring at them all as if he had realized maybe he was the only sane one in the family, and it was them that were bat shit crazy.
"Well," He shrugged. "Now I'm curious."
Dick checked the time.
"Shoot! We got to go or we're going to miss our flight. We'll explain on the way Jason. Everyone to the car, I'll grab some last minute things and then we're off!"
Jason ended up snagging the front seat, leaving an irritated Tim next to an even more irritated Damian for the car ride. Dick used the time to fill Jason in on everything that had happened since that morning, even handing him the copy of the book to see for himself till Tim snatched it away.
"So let me get this straight, I'm being dragged all the way over to Iceland to find a stupid sensor that any one of us could have found and achieved on our own? Because, and don't deny it Dick, that sounds like one of your ridiculous ruses to play at family bonding time." Jason glanced in the mirror to the back seat.
"And how did you manage to get the demon child in on this?"
Damian sniffed.
"Tt, I'm here to make sure they don't die. I don't want father to get on my case for it later."
Jason nodded.
"Right." He snorted.
Dick sighed as they pulled into the airport parking lot. Alfred had informed them he would be happy to arrange the pick up for the car later, since Dick had insisted on driving himself to add to the whole brothers' thing.
"It'll be fun Jason. You never know, maybe you'll like Iceland."
"Sounds pretty empty to me, but hey. You want to climb a mountain and drag me along? You get to bring up the rear. Then when we get back maybe we'll go to fucking Disneyland."
Dick grinned happily.
"There's the spirit!"
Damian was not a fan of public airports; they were loud, noisy and packed with people who didn't know their left from their right. Dick had somehow managed to make himself the leader of their expedition, so he led the way as they weaved about the crowds heading to their gate.
He couldn't have been more relieved when they boarded the plane, at five o'clock ready to leave the United States and travel half way around the world.
Since the plane was set up in rows of three, Jason had been more than happy to take the ticket that sat him across the aisle with complete strangers. It looked like he was going to use the trip as a sleeping experience.
Damian had fought tooth and nail for the window seat, leaving Dick to sit in the middle and Tim to sit on the end. Damian had brought along a book of Iceland to occupy his time, seeing he might as well get acquainted with the country. So Dick and Tim set about planning what the plan was when they landed, ignoring him which suited him just fine.
Half way through the flight, Tim leaned over to see what Dick had been up to. He had been awfully quiet which in any bat book, was concerning.
"What's with all the notes you're taping to the chair?" Tim asked. Till now, he had been taking the time to read a good chunk of 'Journey to the Center of the Earth', but it was a slow process.
Dick tapped his pencil on the multiple sticky notes.
"Trying to decipher the notes you're Uncle made in the book. I think I'm onto something here with the periodic table, see how their in pairs? As, Ur, Gr, I just haven't figured out what he might be trying to say."
Tim raised an eyebrow studying the message himself, before giving him a look.
"Sigurbjörn Ásgeirsson."
"Bless you." Dick commented. Tim huffed, before pulling the notes out if his hand and running his finger vertically down the letters.
"No, you moron. Sigurbjörn Ásgeirsson, read it this way, it's a name."
Dick snatched the notes back out of his hand to look for himself. He began to mutter before turning to Damian who, until now had been ignoring them.
"Is Sigurbjörn Ásgeirsson a name of a place? Can you check your map in that book?"
Tim rolled his eyes, before pulling out his device and beginning to type on it.
"It's the name of a person, not a place Dick. Check it out-"He held up his phone to show him an article published a few years ago. "Sigurbjörn Ásgeirsson was a scientist in Iceland who studied volcanic activity. His institution is just a few miles South from Mt Sneffels."
"Are you googling at 30,000 ft in the air?" Dick asked, looking at him in surprise.
"My Uncle would have known this guy, we have to check out is Institution first, he might have some answers as to where he went." Tim ignored the comment, focusing on the task at hand.
"Good point; as soon as we land we'll get a rental car and head out that way. But after we get something to eat, I'm starving."
Damian scoffed, placing his headphones back in. Tim scowled at the particular obnoxious snore that came from Jason across the way.
"The sooner the better." Dick added.
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