Disclaimer: I don't own it.

At eight, Richard had a very good life.

He had two loving parents, an awesome uncle, and a supercool butler-grandpa. He had all the toys he needed, as well as a best friend and cousin who he could get into trouble with. Most of his family were also superheroes.

Richard had all the things an eight year old needed to be happy.

Richard was not happy.

Why?

His father had a girlfriend.

Now, he understood that his mom and dad weren't married like other mom and dads. He understood that it meant that both his parents could date other people. It didn't mean he had to like it.

A lot of girls seemed to hang around his dad, and Richard didn't mind them. Much. As long as they kept their space he could deal with it. If they got to close, he could complain about them or drive them away. Sometimes his dad would actually thank him for it. The problem was when Bruce liked someone back. Then he couldn't even whine about them. If he did, his dad would scold him. Thankfully, Bruce didn't like that many people.

The only person who Richard could ever remember being a problem was a woman who sometimes showed up to charity galas. Each time she did, his father would give her one of his genuine smiles, which were reserved for him or Alfred, and they would dance together. After a while and they had been dancing together for just a bit too long, Richard would start to plan on how to get his dad's attention, or maybe put extra effort into driving her away. But he would look away for a few minutes, mostly to get away from the fingers trying to pinch his cheeks, and she would disappear. Then she wouldn't come back for a long time after, and he decided the effort wasn't worth it. Besides, he hadn't seen her at any parties for a long time.

That mysterious woman was not the problem this time. It was another one, and he knew she was much worse.

She was a reporter. And the only reporters he had ever liked were his Uncle Clark, Lois, and Jesse. They had been invited to ask questions, other reporters were mean and loud and took pictures of him wherever he went. He saw no reason why this Vicki Vale should be any different.

He had no idea why Bruce wanted him to bond with her either. Bruce had met Vicki a few weeks ago; when Jesse had said one of her friends were very interested in meeting him. Then, somehow, an interview turned into a dinner. Then another. Then they were dating.

Yuck.

"Look! There's a panther! Didn't you say that was your favorite animal?" Vicki exclaimed, pointing to the large feline in front of them.

Richard looked at the blonde woman in front of him. She was trying hard to get to know him. She asked a lot of questions about himself, about his dad, his school, and his life in general. She had somehow already known that the Zoo was one of his favorite places ever, and had taken him to Gotham Zoo to bond, but that doesn't mean he liked her dating his dad.

"Nope." He lied, looking anywhere but her. "I don't like panthers."

Vicki turned around to face the small boy with a knowing smirk. "Oh really? Then what is your favorite animal?"

"Uhhhh." His eyes darted around for any assistance. "Um… Elephant?"

Richard really didn't like her smirk. She was too smart and had definitely caught his lie, but thankfully she changed the subject.

"Are you hungry Richard? It's nearly lunch."

If she was going to try and bribe him, she was going to have to do better than that. "No." His stomach rumbled and he blushed. "Yes." he mumbled, looking down.

"Do you like ice cream?" Vicki asked.

Ok. That was better. Ice cream was perfect bribery material.

Surprisingly, the day at the Zoo wasn't a complete disaster. Vicki hadn't stopped asking questions, but they had had fun. After lunch, they had gone to see the reptiles, arctic animals, birds, and monkeys. Vicki was surprisingly knowledgeable on most of the animals in the zoo, and answered all of his questions. He had also gotten a scoop of ice cream, as well as some cotton candy. He still didn't like Vicki dating his dad, but they had come to a silent agreement to disagree. It had been a good day.

Then he saw the man leaning on Vicki's car.

"Excuse me?" she questioned, pulling Richard behind her. This man wasn't dressed very spectacularly, but he had a large scar running from his cheek down the side of his neck. Even though they couldn't see any weapons on him, he seemed to ooze intimidation.

"You Vale?" he rumbled as he stood up from his slumped position.

Vicki tensed and her hand drifted down to the knife in her pocket, while her other hand went to grab Richard. "Yes. Who are you?"

"If you're lucky," he said stalking towards her. "You'll never know."

A shriek escaped Richards's lips when two big arms encircled him and lifted him off the ground. He thrashed and kicked at the two men who had managed to sneak behind them. His feet managed to land a few good kicks in, but the small amount of training his mom had given him wasn't enough for the eight year old to escape the man's grasp.

Hearing Richard scream, Vicki whirled around. In her distraction, she forgot about the first man, and soon she was grabbed as well. A rag was pressed over her face, and after a moment the only thing keeping her off the ground was the man supporting her.

"Get them in the Van." barked the man with the scar. Richard screamed and thrashed around more, as he saw a van screeching toward them. Then a rag was pressed over his face, and all he saw was blackness.

"Richard, get up."

Richard moaned and curled up into a tighter ball. He really didn't want to get up. His head pounded so badly he felt like someone had used his brain for drum practice.

"Richard, please get up."

Despite the pain, he peeked one eye open. He hissed at the bright light and snapped them shut again. Ow.

"Oh thank God you're alive." Exclaimed a relieved voice. He cracked his eyes open slowly as the feminine voice continued. "What were they thinking? Using chloroform on a kid? They're not getting a ransom if you're dead. Idiots."

Slowly regaining his bearings, Richard rubbed his eyes and struggled to raise his head off the ground. Carefully sitting up, he discovered that one of his ankles was shackled to the wall on a long chain. The chain was bolted into a concrete wall on one side, and looking behind him, Richard could see an identical chain restrained Vicki on the other side of the room. Across from them was a wooden door with at least five different locks on it. A bare bulb hanging precariously from the ceiling was the painful and only light source.

"Vicki?" He asked, barely a whisper. His throat burned like he had drunk an entire vat of acid, and he dissolved into a coughing fit.

"Shhh, It's ok." Vicki comforted. She shifted and tried to get closer to him, but the chain prevented her from getting further than halfway across the cement prison.

"Can you try to move closer?" She inquired. He nodded, and then immediately regretted it when it brought another wave of pain. Moving incredibly slowly, he painfully crawled toward her. Every twitch of his muscles made him want to collapse back onto the floor, and it was almost an eternity before he felt himself being lifted into Vicki's arms.

"W-where are we?" he rasped.

She held onto him tighter and rubbed circles into his back. "Shhh. We're in a basement."

Richard didn't have to ask why. Someone wanted his Dad's money, and had decided that the easiest way to get it was by kidnapping the billionaire's son. People had tried to take him before, but this was the first time they had ever succeeded. His dad had always told him to get away before he could be taken, and since Richard was surprisingly quick, no one had ever managed to grab him before he could find help.

His thoughts were cut off when the man with the scar slammed the door open. He seemed to be in the middle of a phone call, but he stayed in his place in the door.

"Fine, Mr. Wayne." He spoke into his cellphone. "You want proof of life? I'll give you proof of life." The man stalked to the two people huddling in the center of the room. Richard shrieked when the man pulled him up by his collar. "Say hello to your daddy, rich boy." He snarled and held the phone up to Richard's ear.

"D-dad?" Richard whimpered, desperately hoping to hear his father's voice on the other end.

"Richard!" Exclaimed Bruce, obviously relieved. "Where are you? Are you hurt? Is Vicki OK?"

"I-I don't know," He stuttered. "Vicki's here, Dad I-" He was cut off by the man pulling the phone away and throwing him back to the ground.

"There you see? Your little brat's alive." He snarled into the device. "If you want him, or the bitch, to stay that way, you'll pay up." He continued, and Richard could hear his father roaring in rage before the man hung up. The man looked at the shaking eight year old and snorted. "You two ain't goin anywhere, ya hear?" He said with disgust. The man then turned around and slammed the door behind him.

Richard was shaking so badly that his teeth had started to clatter. He didn't have the strength to move, much less cry, but he could feel Vicki pulling him back into her arms. He clenched his teeth shut and curled into a tighter ball. He was the son of Batman and Wonder Woman, he couldn't show his fear. However as time went on, the room seemed to be shrinking, and the silence was killing him.

"Do y-you have a story?" He whispered, hoping to break the silence. Vicki stiffened and looked down to the tiny boy. He was so small; he easily fit into her lap. She could feel the tremors racking through the tiny boy, and hugged him closer.

"Yeah, kiddo." she whispered back, gently poking him in his belly to try and distract him. "Wanna hear?" The kid nodded in response, and after a few moments of thought, she began. "Once upon a time..." Vicki said, and for the next few hours, Richard listened to the most detailed story he had ever heard.

Vicki described a desolate kingdom, where evil monsters roamed day and night. Only one thing stood before the monsters and prevented them from casting the kingdom into eternal shadow. One lone knight, still loyal to the king, and not swayed by the monsters' promises. However, the kingdom wrongly believed that because he could walk beside the monsters, he was one as well. Believing these lies, they cast him aside. Still, the knight fought on.

Then, one day, a scribe became interested in the strange warrior. They began asking questions, wondering how one man could be surrounded by so much darkness. They came to the conclusion that while the knight wasn't amongst the monsters, they were a different person, one who could walk amongst the people and not be an outcast. The scribe made it her mission to discover the knight, and worked tirelessly to reach her goal.

Vicki had just described how the scribe had approached the king to ask about the knight, when the single light in their room went out.

They both fell silent.

"Shi-" Vicki was cut off by Richard grabbing her arm tightly. He knew he had heard something upstairs.

"Listen." He whispered.

Straining their hearing, they could hear running footsteps and muffled cursing above them. They waited with baited breath as the noises quieted down.

.

.

.

A gunshot.

.

.

Two more.

.

.

They both flinched when they heard an entire magazine being unloaded, as soon as it ended, a scream of pure terror.

.

.

.

Suddenly, the thin door was blasted open, as the man from before was thrown through it. Half in and half out of the room, the man groaned. His groaning turned into screaming as he was dragged backwards into the darkness. Vicki and Richard looked through the new hole in the door, and watched a dark figure approach the man. The screaming turned into begging, than into silence.

When the Batman turned to face them, they both sighed in relief. They were safe.

Batman strode over to the two and inspected the chains connected to their ankles.

"Hold still." He ordered, as he bent down to grab the connecting links. Richard gasped when the chains snapped like twigs under Batman's hands. He knew his father couldn't do that without tech. He looked into the hero's face, and stared hard. After a moment, he found that instead of his father under the mask, It was his Uncle Clark.

"Wha-" Richard murmured. He was so confused. His Father was Batman. Why didn't his dad care enough to save him personally?

"I've already alerted the authorities on your location" The disguised Superman said. "They're outside, can you stand?"

"Y-yes, Batman. Sir." Stuttered Vicki. She scrambled to her feet, and picked up Richard, who was still staring at his Uncle and trying to figure out exactly what was going on. She nodded to the vigilante and stepped through the broken doorway and over the unconscious kidnapper. Red and blue lights illuminated her face as she walked up the stairs, and she could tell that the small building they had been held in was surrounded by cops. Clutching Richard tighter, she opened the front door.

"Don't shoot!" she yelled.

The police cursed and lowered their guns, but Richard's eyes locked onto one person standing behind the cops. Squirming out of Vicki's grip, they cried out to each other simultaneously.

"Dad!" "Richard!"

Bruce pushed past the line of police, and raced to his son. They embraced in the middle of the small lawn, and they held onto his each other so tight that it was hard to imagine that they would ever let go.

"I'm so glad you're alright." Bruce exhaled as hours of stress and anger washed away.

Richard tightened his grip on his father. "I-I was so scared." he cried. He leaned closer and buried his face in his dad's shoulder. Whispering, so that no one else could hear him, he asked. "Why is Uncle Clark in the suit?"

Bruce replied in a barely audible murmur. "It was necessary. I'll explain later." Bruce stopped whispering when he heard the cautious steps of the reporter coming closer. Still hugging his son he looked up at Vicki.

"I'm so glad you two are OK." Bruce said, meeting her gaze.

She opened her mouth to reply, but a roar of an engine interrupted, and the Batmobile emerged from the shadows. Vicki gaped at it while it zoomed past them and back into the city. She seemed to be awestruck at the appearance of the sleek vehicle, and continued to look at the spot where it disappeared.

"Vicki, are you alright?" Bruce asked, picking up his shell shocked son to look at the woman. The reporter snapped out of her daze, and turned back to study the little family.

"You're not...?" She murmured, but cut herself short. "Uh...I'm fine, It's nothing. Nothing Bruce."

Richard couldn't hold it together any longer, and he interrupted into tears. The emotions he had been bravely trying to suppress had overflowed, and he couldn't focus on anything other than the solid and stable person that was his father.

He didn't pay attention to any of the police officers around them, or what Vicki was saying to them. However he did notice when his father carried him to their car. He wouldn't let go of his dad until Bruce said the words he so desperately needed to hear.

"Don't worry son, you're safe now."

Reassured, He let go of his father's jacket and allowed him to be buckled up. He was safe, his dad was with him. And with that thought in his head, he drifted into a restless sleep.

Bruce looked at his son, and hated himself. Criminals would never stop trying to use his son against him. And now that a group had almost succeeded, His son might never be safe.

"Bruce."

"Diana."

"This could have been prevented."

"Enlighten me, then."

"Had you allowed me to train-"

"Would that have deterred the kidnappers?"

"No, but he should be able to protect himself. And..."

"I agree."

"...If you can't- What?"

"I agree."

"..."

"..."

"So you'll train him as well?"

"Only in self-defense."

"He's going to want more than that."

"Self-defense. That's all."

"You're so damn stubborn sometimes."

"It's part of my charm."

"Too bad for you your stubbornness is genetic."

"What?"

"Richard's going to get you to teach him, one way or another, Bruce."

"I'd like to see him try."

Diana laughed. "Me too."

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