Wally was pacing outside the medical room while the others sat in the living room staring at him and the door just hoping that it would open to give them good news when Batman came into the room. He was starting to sweat and his pace was slowing, but he didn't want to leave the outside of the room for something as trivial, or as important in his case, as food.

"What the hell happened?" Batman yelled once he was fully out of the zeta tubes. He had been on a mission when he found out about Robin. He had a system installed into Robin's glove to monitor his health, which he placed in when Robin collapsed during a mission because he was sick and hadn't told Batman, and it had always warned him about small injuries or illnesses that Robin got, but never once had it set off an alarm like the one that went off while he searched the streets for his target. At first he wasn't sure what it was, but then he looked at his own glove's screen to see that it was blinking the words critical condition while showing a model of a body with all the injuries that Robin sustained on it. He had immediately turned around and headed straight for the mountain.

Everyone in the room winced. None of them, not even those in the Justice League who had come to console the children, had ever heard Batman raise his voice let alone yell at the top of his lungs. They couldn't really blame him, though. Robin was, after all, his son.

"Batman," Black Canary said as she stood and walked over to him to try to calm him, but there was really nothing she could say. "He's in critical condition right now."

"You think I don't know that," Batman growled as he thrust the screen into her face. She frowned at it before looking back at Batman. There really was nothing more that she could say. He already knew everything that there was to know about Robin's condition. The only thing that he didn't know was how it all happened and she didn't thing that any of the Young Justice team were going to be able to talk any time soon. "Just show me to him," Batman finally hissed.

Black Canary nodded and led him over to the door that Wally was pacing in front of. Wally looked up hopefully, but she shook her head. Robin needed Batman right now. And only Batman. She opened the door and Batman walked past her and shut the door before she could even attempt to follow him inside the room.

Robin was not looking good. There were scrapes and bruised forming all over his body. His arm was in a cast and there were bandages wrapped around his head. It was pure luck that Robin's legs hadn't been broken. Robin would have been really upset if that had been the case. One thing that bothered Batman, once he had catalogued all of the injuries and felt anger for each one in turn, was that Robin's whole uniform had been removed. It looked like it was completely necessary, but this made him much more vulnerable than anyone would ever understand.

"I'm going to take you home," Batman leaned over Robin and kissed his forehead. "I'm sorry." With that he stood and started readying the boy for a move. Luckily, the only things that were still attached to him were the heart monitor, which Batman could just re-apply once he got to the Batcave, and the IV that was feeding Robin much needed blood and medicine, which was completely translatable.

When he was finally ready to move and had called Alfred to ready the Batcave to receive them, Batman opened the door once more and started wheeling Robin to the zeta tubes.

"What are you doing?" Wally yelled as Batman passed him.

"I'm taking him to the Batcave," Batman growled back at him. "You guys have clearly shown your inability to take care of him so I'm taking him somewhere that I know someone will be there for him."

"At least let us see him before you take him," Wally demanded, but Black Canary grabbed his arm and shook her head solemnly. Robin didn't need them.

"I'll be dealing with you all when I return," Batman completely ignored Wally and continued until he disappeared from sight.

"Oh god," Wally sighed as he sagged to the ground. Of what he saw of Robin as the bed passed him, it look both worst and better than when he had carried him to the mountain. It was better because the worst of the wounds had been bandaged up expertly, but it was worse because wounds he hadn't even seen before were much more noticeable.

Black Canary gave him a pitying look, but she decided that she and the others should leave the Young Justice team to their own devices. They needed to work this out themselves and the only way for them to do that is for them to be alone. So she and the rest of the Justice League left through the zeta tubes.

"I can't believe this is happening," Wally cried. He had been so stupid. He never should have left Robin's side. He never should have let anything get between him and Robin. He had claimed to love Robin and then, at the first test, he had immediately failed the boy. He was an utter idiot.

"Maybe you should eat something," M'gann said worriedly.

"You're really thinking about food right now?" Wally hissed, but then he laughed at the irony of the comment. God, he was such an idiot.

"Get a hold of yourself," Artemis growled as she pulled him back up to his feet. Wally took the warmth of the body in front of him as a comfort even though it wasn't supposed to be and he leaned his head on Artemis's shoulder.

"I'm such an idiot," he continued to laugh at himself because it was true. He was an idiot and he probably ruined everything between him and Robin.


It took almost an hour for Wally to calm down enough to eat some of M'gann's cookies. She had been getting better ever since Robin had shown her the correct way to cook them. This fact was not lost on her as she cooked them.

Then it was another excruciating hour of waiting in the living room for someone to come and get them to tell them what to do with themselves. Unfortunately, that someone was Batman.

"What happened," Batman demanded once again.

"It was a mistake," Kaldur defended his team. "We didn't realize there were still guards inside and we were completely unaware of the bombs."

"Why weren't any of you there to protect him?" Batman pointed out.

"I was supposed to be," Wally admitted knowing full well that he would be incurring all of Batman's wrath upon himself. Right now he thought that was the least he deserved. "I left him because there were more guards on the outside to fight."

"So you just completely disregarded his life in order to have fun of your own?" Batman growled menacingly.

"He did the same thing to us," Artemis said. She felt bad about what happened during their mission, but that still didn't mean that she would forget what he had done during their simulation.

"First of all," Batman growled, "you weren't even there when Robin took over so you have absolutely no right to talk. And, second of all, I reviewed Martian Man-Hunter's memory of the simulation and Robin wasn't the one who said that everyone was alive despite the obvious evidence against that. It was Kid Flash who made that assumption and Robin tried to tell him that it might not be the case, but he would not be swayed." Suddenly, Wally felt like a complete asshole. Batman was right. Everything that he had been blaming Robin for was really his fault. Oh god he was stupid. "The only reason that he went along with it in the end is because he knew that it was the only way for you guys to go along with his plan even though it would probably cost you your lives. He knows that our job is to do anything it takes to finish the mission because that is how I taught him and you need to learn that too. In case you hadn't noticed, Robin sacrificed himself just as much as he sacrificed you guys by going inside that ship." Now everyone felt awful, but Batman wasn't done. There was still one more thing that they needed to be made aware of. One more thing that they needed to realize before they go and judge his son. "Robin's only thirteen and he has many more pains than any of you have ever had to endure so I suggest that you think about that before you go blaming him for something that he had no control over because he is way more vulnerable than any of you can ever imagine." Batman felt bad about letting this little fact slip, but these people needed to know that Robin wasn't just some kid who loved fighting crime. They needed to know that Robin had emotions too, but he knew how to hide them because he had been fighting the pain for much longer than they had. They needed to know and now they did so he allowed himself to leave the same way he came in an angry huff.

The Young Justice team stared wide-eyed at the zeta tube even after Batman had left the room. The man was right. How could they all forget the fact that Robin was younger than him? They put the responsibilities that he should never have had to bear into his hands and then they yelled at him when he was completely successful, but in a way that wasn't to their liking. He was already compromising himself for them by working with a team in the first place, but they didn't like that he used that team to get him into the safety of the ship even though he still died in the end. What struck them the most, though, was that they had never considered Robin's emotions. Even they knew that the boy did have more than he usually let on because he would occasionally slip when he was in his everyday clothes, but they had completely neglected that fact and chose to remember only how emotionless Batman was and contribute it to his sidekick as well.

They were horrible team members, but, more importantly, they were horrible friends.


I know that Batman was completely OOC in this chapter, but someone really needed to talk some sense into Young Justice so there it was.

I hope you liked it.