Dick awoke to the sounds of a scuffle coming from his living room. He was fairly certain that he had told the other two not to break anything. Before he could get up and go yell at them, however, the fighting stopped. Dick knew better than to be relieved by that. He walked out of his room to find Tim and Jason sitting on his couch watching a Discovery Channel program. Dick smiled as he turned to Jason. "So, how'd he win the remote?"

Jason folded his arms over his chest and scowled at the screen. "By being a sneaky bastard."

Tim smirked at him evilly. "It's not my fault that you fell for it."

Jason glared at him. "You're evil. You totally would have thrown my kriss out the window."

Tim breathed out a laugh as he turned his attention back to the TV. "And that's why I win."

Dick just laughed at the two of them as he made his way to his kitchen. "Why do I have a feeling I'm going to have to make an emergency shopping trip with the two of you here?"

Tim shook his head as he moved the remote away from Jason's grasp. "Nah, I did that this morning. However, I can't promise that you won't need to buy a new coffee table." Tim knocked said coffee table into Jason's leg to get him to stop reaching for the remote as he spoke.

Dick rolled his eyes as he opened his cupboard. "Tim, do you want to explain why there are two different types of peanut butter in my cupboard?"

Tim shrugged. "Jason likes the crunchy kind, you don't, and I could care less."

Dick stared at him oddly for a moment. "So, the two of you have gotten close while you were hiding out then?"

Jason turned to face him. "Not really. I promised not to try to kill him during this hellish mission and he promised to stop filling my knife sheaths with peanut butter."

Tim smirked at the memory. "Its how I found out that you preferred crunchy peanut butter, after all."

Dick laughed again as he started making his breakfast. "Now if only that trick would work on Damian."

Tim and Jason both stopped their squabble for the remote at the mention of Damian. "Um, maybe now would be a good time to think about what we intend to do about that."

Dick sighed at Tim's response. "Yeah, I think we should, but I really just don't want to think about any of that right now."

Jason got off the couch and stormed into the kitchen. "Well, too damn bad, Grayson. I know that you're probably still all fucked up in the head over daddy Bats kicking you out, but now isn't the time to whine about that."

Tim glared at Jason as he, too, came to join them in the kitchen. "Let him have his breakfast, and if he needs some time to brood over the fact that Bruce will always pick his family last, well, then I think we should just give him an hour or two." Tim didn't actually want to let the bitterness into his tone, but he couldn't help it.

Jason rolled his eyes at Tim's response. "I don't see why it's so damn surprising. Need I bring up The Joker?" Jason was pretty sure that he saw both of them wince at the mention of that name, but he didn't really care. He couldn't comprehend why the two of them didn't seem to understand what he had learned quite some time ago. "Bruce will always protect everyone…except those he calls family."

Dick's brows furrowed at that. He really didn't want to get into a fight with Jason right now, but he couldn't let that go. "Jason, it's not like that…not at all."

Jason laughed, but there was no humor in it, as he folded his arms over his chest. "How many times does he have to toss you to the wayside, Dickie bird, before you realize that Bruce isn't worth our time?"

Tim sighed as he stepped between the two of them. He didn't want to agree with Jason, but that fight in the warehouse hadn't actually made anything Jason said false. "Guys, let's not fight about this. Let's just accept that none of us will ever truly understand Bruce and move on. We have to focus on the task at hand."

Jason shook his head as he started to walk back towards the couch. "What's the point? If we go after Damian, we're going to have to fight the Bat. Now, I'm completely okay with that, but are you two?"

Tim and Dick stared at each other for a moment. It wasn't as though neither one of them hadn't realized that or anything, but the prospect of such a fight was still daunting to them. Neither of them could really imagine fighting their mentor when it wasn't a spar. Tim pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to breathe. "He's right, you know. There's no way we're going to get within ten feet of Damian without the Bat standing in our way. We've got to be ready for that, and I don't know about you, but, as it stands at this precise moment, I'm not ready for that. There's no point in even thinking about going after Damian until we're prepared to fight Bruce."

Jason scoffed from his seat on the couch. "Don't kid yourself, baby bird. When we go up against him there won't be any Bruce there to fight. It'll be the Bat, 100%. That's what you've both gotta be ready to fight, cause it won't matter to him that you used to be his sons."

Dick didn't know how to respond to that. The fact that being Bruce's son was past tense was enough to make his heart seize. Dick didn't think that he'd ever be ready to really fight the man who was far more than just a mentor to him. "I…I'm going out. I'll be back later. Don't kill each other while I'm gone." Dick was out of the door before either of them could say a word.

Jason turned to Tim. "He's gotta get over that."

Tim rolled his eyes. "Give him some time, Jason. He's not used to…" Tim trailed off searching for the right words.

"Meaning nothing to B…well, he should be used to it."

Tim shook his head. "Go watch TV. I'm going to go work on something."

Jason shrugged. "Yeah, okay, you two go have your breakdowns. I'll be over here when you guys feel like growing up. Bruce is not the end all be all, people."

Tim rubbed his temples with one hand as he grabbed Dick's laptop from his desk with the other. "Not now, Jason. Please, just not right now."

Jason grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels. "Yeah, sure, whatever, baby bird...just remember that I'm the one who told you that Bruce would protect that little demon no matter what proof we gave him."

Tim sighed to himself as he opened the laptop and tried to ignore the tension headache that was blossoming at the base of his neck and head. "Yeah, I know. I just hoped that, for once, he'd see reason."

Jason glanced over at Tim. It was hard not to feel bad for the kid when he looked that down. "I know, but that's just not Bruce."

Tim nodded once before focusing on the screen in front of him and typing away. "Noted."

Jason wanted to hit Tim the moment that the word had left his mouth, but Jason knew that one word responses and ignoring everything else around him were just Tim's way of dealing. Tim liked to disengage from the things that were bothering him, and most of the time that suited Jason just fine. It wasn't like he needed Tim to keep his mind occupied. Jason returned his attention to the TV, and decided to just let Tim have his moment.

***

When Dick came back four hours later, Tim was still sitting in a chair in front of his desk doing something on his laptop while Jason surfed through the channels before settling on the military channel. Dick rolled his eyes at Jason's choice before going to bother Tim. "Whatcha doin'?"

Tim exited out of everything that he was doing before shutting the laptop and handing it back to Dick. "Nothing, I think I'm going to go get a bottle of water, want anything?"

Dick shook his head. "No, thanks."

Tim turned to Jason. "What about you?"

Jason smirked at him. "Beer, same as always."

Tim rolled his eyes as he headed toward the kitchen. Dick followed him out of the room. "We can actually work through this whole Bruce issue together, you know."

Tim shook his head as he opened the refrigerator. "I'm good. I think I just want to work with your free weights, plan, and possibly throw this beer bottle at Jason's head…not necessarily in that order."

Dick sighed as he grabbed Tim's forearm. "Tim…"

Before Dick could say anything else, Tim tore his forearm from Dick's grasp. "Look, we've got a lot to work through, and it's not just the Bruce issue that I'm worried about. I've been in touch with Jason Blood, and he seems to think that our original plan has a few more kinks in it than we originally thought. I'm meeting with him tomorrow to work out a few of the problems, but there's no guarantee that this is going to work, even if we find a way to deal with Bruce."

"Okay, relax; we'll find a way through this."

"And if we don't?"

"Then…" Dick trailed off, not really sure what to say.

"Then everything goes to hell. Yeah, you see the problem."

"Tim…"

Tim held up a hand to stop him. "Look, just let me deal with this in my own way. I'll figure something out after my meeting with Jason Blood."

Dick nodded and followed Tim back into the living room. Tim tossed the beer to Jason, and the three of them settled on the couch.

The End (for now)