Considering the disaster that was her last adventure in babysitting, Raya assumed Bruce would wisely decide to never have her watch Damian — or any member of the family — again. Yet there she was, on New Years Eve no less, watching Damian while Bruce did his playboy duty by attending a round of parties before taking to the streets after midnight to help the GCPD with their patrol.

As Raya watched Arsenic and Old Lace — Cary Grant, not Tony Randall — she considered why she got selected again for babysitting duties. This is part of my punishment for having arrested Bruce, she decided as adoor slammed at the end of the hall.

It was the only logical conclusion she could make. Why else would she be babysitting instead of Tim, Jason, or Dick? Not that I don't know why Bruce elected to not have Tim or Jason babysit.

The Manor barely withstood their last brawl.

She harrumphed as she tucked her legs up beside her on the couch. This was payback, though. There was no doubt about it. Bruce Wayne wasn't the sort to hold grudges.

No, he simply got even.

Stomping in the hall snagged her attention. She cast her gaze to the door, expecting to see a fully dressed Robin staring at her, silently daring her to tell him to put his costume away since he was not going out on patrol that evening.

Or any evening until he learned he couldn't attack Tim or Jason when the mood struck him.

He surprised her when he came trudging into the entertainment room and tossed himself into the armchair by the fireplace. The glint in those electric eyes, the slight tick to his jaw, and the stormy expression upon his face reminded her of Bruce.

Even the way he slouched in the recliner with his arms folded across his chest as he frowned at the TV was all the Wayne patriarch. His soft harrumph, however, was entirely hers. Guess he is picking up little things from us, after all.

She hid a smirk and continued watching the movie.

"How can you watch a movie that is so old?"

"For the same reason you read books that are old. Because they're classics."

Damian stewed over her comment for the next thirty minutes in total, blissful silence. Rayareached for the remote and shut off the DVD once the credits started to roll. She set it on the arm of the couch before finally glancing over at the silent boy. Something about Damian's manner had the hair on the back of her neck trembling. Something's up. I can feel it.

Damian didn't have his usual perma-sneer in place, she realized, alarm raising the hair on her nape. Raya had been around him long enough to know that him without that sneer was not a usual occurrence. He's done something. He's got that guilty air about him.

The question was: what?

Alarms weren't going off so whatever it was might not need the fire department or her having to hire a team of cleaners to set the Manor to rights before Alfred got home.

"You've been remarkably well-behaved tonight." She kept her tone nonchalant. "What did you do?"

Damian gave her his dead-eyed predator look, the one that didn't impress her one bit. She merely met his stare with her own and waited for him to answer her question. He muttered a few things she was sure weren't very nice and hunched lower in his chair.

"I may have done something that caused the Batcomputer to lock us out of the Cave."

"That's it?" One eyebrow feathered up. "You locked us out of the Cave?"

As far as problems went, that wasn't a big one. They all managed to lock themselves out of the Cave. Even Bruce has done it once or twice.

"And I might have gotten the Batmobile stuck in one of the tunnels."

"Okay..." She didn't even bother to ask how or why. She was sure she didn't want to know the answer. "Anything else?"

"Well..." He had the decency to at least look moderately shamefaced now. "I might have tried to get the Batmobile free by using the immobilizer missiles which caused the tunnel to collapse and trap the Batmobile beneath a mountain of rock and other debris."

"You did what?" She finally managed around the shock. "You... drove the Batmobile into one of the tunnels, got it stuck, and then tried to blast it free by using the immobilizer missiles?"

"I wasn't actually driving the Batmobile." He grimaced. "I was testing Father's new AI remote guidance program." He looked down at the hands folded neatly in his lap. "That's how I got us locked out of the Batcave."

"And got the Batmobile stuck in a tunnel?" He nodded. "You realize we're going to have to hire workers to get it unstuck and fix the damage, right?" Again he nodded. "And how exactly do you think I'm going to manage getting things repaired before your father gets home?"

"By offering the workers Father uses twice what he normally pays them?"

Yeah, there was no way that was gonna happen. New Years Eve? She doubted any of the workers were sober enough for such a job. I'm never going to arrest Bruce again, she decided with a sigh. Not if the punishment was babysitting any male member of the family. I'll sooner date the Joker before I will ever again babysit any of these boys.

Realizing she needed to go and investigate the damage for herself, Raya got up and made her way from the room.

"Where are you going?"

"Down to the Cave to see how much damage you've caused." She looked at him from over her shoulder. "You can call your father while I'm gone."

"Why?"

"So you can explain what you did."

His glare followed her from the room.

A/N: Hello, all, and Happy New Year!