Another day and more snow later and it was Monday morning. Dick was sitting in the living room watching the news. He still felt horrible about what he had heard Saturday from Bruce, he didn't want to let Bruce know anything was different so he acted normally. The only difference was when he asked to go out plowing again Dick refused.

Dick was watching the news when they told of a circus coming to town. Frowning Dick started getting ideas into his head. Getting up off the couch he headed up to Jason's temporary room and peeked inside. He saw the boy tying his shoes and asked.

"Hey, Jase. Can I talk to you for a sec?"

Looking up startled he said. "Sure, come on in."

Shutting the door he took a glance out the window and saw the sun slowly rising in the distance.

"What's up?"

Dick smiled knowingly at the younger boy as he sat on the trunk at the foot of the bed and started talking.

The two younger boys joined Bruce and Conner at the table closer to 7, Bruce had noticed that Dick had been up previously and well before anyone else. Maybe he's just going to miss his new friend and wanted to spend some more time with him?

Bruce took note how the boys seemed to be up to something but brushed it off as he read his morning newspaper and had his coffee.

Half-hour later they drove to the city together, little did Bruce know that things were about to take a turn.

Bruce dropped Conner and Dick off at school and took Jason to the CPS office. Jason froze and asked quickly. "Are they going to send me back to the Center? I thought you said that I was going to an orphanage?"

Looking back in the rearview mirror Bruce told him gently. "You are, but I have to stop by here to meet with your social worker. Jim told me that she would meet with me about where you would be placed."

Getting out of the car he watched Jason climb out slowly. He looked better in his clean clothes after Alfred washed them and the boy didn't complain about being in any pain with the cut on his leg. As they walked into the building a smiling familiar face greeted them.

"Good morning Bruce."

Turning Bruce saw Conner's social worker May coming towards them. Jason looked up at Bruce confused. "You know her?"

"Yes, she's helping me adopt Conner." Turning back to May he said. "I understand that Jason is now in your care?"

"Yes, his social worker has been terminated around an hour ago after our boss realized that he had put Jason in the Detention Center after his time was served."

Bruce frowned and asked. "How long was his sentence there?"

"For attempted burglary, 30 days. He's been in there for 3 months, thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. Was he hurt by chance?" May asked seeing the rip in Jason's pant leg.

"He has a cut on his leg and bruises old and fresh all over his body. He's been bullied pretty badly from what I understand." Bruce told her.

Jason frowned and asked. "So am I going to that orphanage you told me about?"

"Yes dear, you will go to the Wayne Foundation Boys Home until a permanent place is found for you," May explained. "Do you have any belongings that you would like to take with you?"

"Nah, they threw out all my shit when I went to lock up..." "Jason, we talked about language," Bruce told him firmly.

"Sorry, anyway ma'am, all my stuff was trashed because it had roaches on them. The only reason I got these clothes was because they washed them real good. Kinda sucks that they got ripped but what can I do about that?" Jason told her more politely.

"Well, we will just see what is in the donation box. Most kids in foster care leave some of their belongings behind if they've outgrown them or what not."

Bruce had been busy while the two were talking, using a desk near where they were talking and was writing a check. Turning back to May he told her as he handed her the check. "That won't be necessary May, here, get him anything he may need."

May took the check from Bruce that was made out to her for Jason's clothing and other personal items. "Bruce, you don't have to do this, the Wayne Foundation donates clothes for the boys to wear I'm sure there's another cause this could go to."

"Nonsense, take it. Let Jason get what he needs, please I insist. The boy deserves a second chance in life. Besides, it might be bad luck to wear clothes from children who didn't get adopted out."

"I wasn't aware you were a superstitious man, Mr. Wayne?" May said cocking an eyebrow.

Shrugging he told her. "I'm normally not. I am just speaking from experience."

Jason stood on tip toes to see the check when he saw the amount he told Bruce. "Thanks, Mr. Wayne. That's cool of you, you know you don't have to do that for me."

"I know, well I better get going. Let me know how he's adjusting to the Boy's Home."

May placed a hand on Jason's shoulder and told him. "Will do Bruce, and thanks again for bringing this to our attention."

"I thought Bruce was going to take me to the orphanage?" Jason asked looking up at her.

"He was until he saw who your social worker was, I am helping him gain custody of Conner Kent so he knows I am trustworthy. He's not a man that takes trust lightly kiddo."

Jason watched the older man go and told May. "I'll remember that."

Dick had watched Bruce drive away and followed Conner into the school, he knew his and Jason's plan had to work out. He had to wait for just the right moment, Jason had told him about a small traveling circus that was strolling through Gotham.

Hours went by and lunch time rolled around, he had tried to keep up his good nature like he normally would have. But Bruce's words kept coming back to haunt him. He doesn't think I'm good enough to be his sidekick anymore… I'll show him.

Looking around the lunch room he saw Conner sitting with some of the older boys not paying attention to him at all. Dick got up and put his trash where it belonged and used his Robin skills to slip out the side door. No one noticed him slip away, not even the teachers.

Slipping through the school yard Dick made his way off the grounds, still not being noticed. He knew Bruce kept trackers on him by way of having them sewn into his clothes, so he had to change. He saw the Boy's Home, coming into view and saw who he was looking for.

The shorter boy told him. "Bout time you show up."

"Hush, I can't just up and leave without raising attention to myself. You got what I asked you for?" Dick asked in a hushed voice.

"Yep, got it out of the donation bin, it's your size and should help you move around at night without being seen."

Dick held up a black undershirt, black hoodie sweatshirt, and black jeans. "Thanks."

Going to the dumpster he changed his clothes and handed them to Jason. "Thanks, kid, I owe you one."

"You owe me more than that if we get caught! Be careful out there."

"I will. See ya around."

Dick left the Boy's Home and found a place where he could hide until dark which was hours away.

Bruce was sitting in his office at Wayne Enterprise when his desk phone rang. "Hello?" Who would be calling me at this time of day?

"Mr. Wayne? This is the Headmaster at Richard Grayson's school. I regret to inform you that after lunch he did not return to class as he was supposed to. I spoke with your other ward, Conner and he didn't know where Richard went."

Bruce was to his feet in a second and shouted. "He what! How is it that a school of your size looses one 13-year-old boy! Have you called the police?"

"Mr. Wayne, I understand your upset. Honestly, I have no idea how he got away from the lunch room monitor. No, we have not informed the authorities yet."

Bruce tried to control his angry breathing as he said through clenched teeth. "So no one knows where he went? How long ago did lunch end?"

He glanced down at his desk clock 1:45.

"Lunch ended at noon."

"So he's been gone for at least two hours cause I know lunch starts at what? 11 or so."

"11:30 for his group, Mr. Kent was actually late getting back to class because he was looking for Richard when he told me. When we searched the premises and didn't find him that's when we called you."

"So it still took you 2 hours to come up empty handed."

"Yes sir, I am very sorry."

Bruce felt his temper rise again and then he said. "Have Conner get his assignments for the rest of the day and meet me at the front gates in 30 minutes. We are going to find my son, call me if by chance you do hear from him."

"Yes sir, I will get Mr. Kent for you."

Bruce slammed the phone down and tried to figure out what happened. He glared at the phone for several moments before pushing a button on the phone for Lucius's office.

"Hey, Bruce what's up?"

"I am stepping out of the office for the rest of the day, and possibly tomorrow too. Dick's missing, the school called. I am going to start searching for him."

"Are you going to call the police?"

"If I can find him on my own it would be better, I will call in the authorities if I can't find him within the next hour or so."

"I will call your cell if he happens to come here or calls."

"Thanks."

Hanging up he ran a frustrated hand through his hair. What could have happened? Did he get kidnapped? Did he run away? I guess I better head down to the school and find out.

Bruce grabbed his coat and headed out the door. He ignored the stares he got from his employees as he half ran to the elevators. Once on the ground floor, he took off for the parking garage where his car was and drove quickly to the school watching the sidewalks and allies on his way for any signs of his missing son.

Dick knew at least two hours had passed and he was freezing cold. Why did I have to do this in the middle of winter?

He shrugged off the cold and took to the side streets of Gotham and away from passing cars that could recognize him. The last thing he wanted was for Bruce to find him so soon. He knew full well the school had to have called by now and knowing his adoptive father he was out looking for him without calling the police first.

With that in mind, he moved on to the fairgrounds that were more than a mile away. He would reach it by dark. Keeping in mind that this was the last night that the circus was in town. A circus that travels during winter… they must be hard up on money if they are traveling at this time of year.

He saw a small coffee shop that was along one of the side streets and stepped in out of the freezing temperatures. He had a little cash in his pockets and purchased a hot chocolate to warm up with. The cashier watched him for the longest time before going back to cleaning off the counters and restocking cups. Dick left the shop and continued on his way. He made a crucial mistake in going near the main road.

"Dick? Dick hey stop!" The familiar sound of Bruce's voice carried over the sound of traffic. Pretending not to hear him Dick turned down and alley and out of sight quickly. Climbing on a fire escape he raced across the rooftops. Careful not to be seen by the traffic below. Once he was a good several blocks away he continued on to the fair grounds where once he was in sight of it, he could see they were packing up.

He noticed how worn out the workers were and the animals cages smelled horrible. He saw the trainer whip a few of the elephants for not going into their cage when told to. Dick frowned at how the animals were being treated. Do I really want to go with them?

"Hey watch it, kid!" Dick ducked as a long pole nearly hits him on the head when he got too close. He saw a large man holding one end of the pole as he put it on the back of a long trailer. Once it was up there he turned to Dick.

"Who are you kid? Never seen you round here before." The man asked walking up to him. He easily would be as tall if not taller than Bruce with thick black hair that hung nearly to his shoulders. His tan skin and dark brown eyes told Dick this man was Latino, or at the very least judging by his accent.

"I'm Richard Grayson. I was wondering if you guys needed any help?"

"Grayson? Huh, where have I heard that name before?" He looked over to a short white woman wearing a long dark robe and turban on her head. "Hey Pauline, you ever hear of a Grayson?"

Dick wondered if they remembered his parents? They were pretty well known after all. Pauline shouted back. "Yeah, I heard of em. The Flying Grayson's from Haley's Circus. But they died years ago, no thanks to that weirdo that tried to scam money off Haley."

"Huh, so you knew them Grayson's or is your last name a coincidence?" The man asked.

Dick was hesitant to answer, but he did. "I was their son."

By now Pauline had wandered over and said. "I'll be damned, Richie Grayson? Is that really you? Damn you've really grown up."

"You know this kid?"

Pauline gave him a dirty look before replying. "Yes Frank, I know Richie. He and his folks parked in our lot down in Florida a lot several years back."

"That's fore you came to join this lot isn't it?" Frank replied.

"Yep, so Richie? What ever happened to ya? I thought yous got adopted?" Pauline asked.

Dick wasn't sure how much information to really give these people. "I bounced from one place to the next."

"Awe man sorry kid. That's a tough break. So whatcha doing down here?" Frank asked.

Before Dick could ask the circus manager walked over, his face red with anger. "I am not paying you to stand around and talk! Get that shit loaded up and I mean now."

Frank and Pauline jumped slightly and faced Dick for a second before taking off. The circus manager was a balding heavy-set man, he was about 5'6 or 5'7.

"Who are you kid? You lost? Do I need to call your mommy?"

Dick swallowed hard and told him. "I'm Richard Grayson, no I'm not lost. I was wondering if you needed help? I used to be in an act at Haley's Circus."

Giving the boy a slight unsure look he asked. "Really? What act?"

"I was part of the Flying Grayson's, I was their son," Dick replied nervously.

"I heard of em, I heard about how they died too. Tough break kid, you been out of practice for too many years. I ain't got time to re-train you." The big man turned away and Dick put his hand on his arm.

"No, wait! You don't have to retrain me. I remember the acts and how to do flips."

The large man yanked his arm out of Dick's grip and glared back down at him. "Fine, you can tag along. But the second you show me you can't keep up, yous gone. Got it?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"So who ya belong to? A brat like you couldn't still be living on the streets or is ya?"

"I've been in foster care, I uh, I ran away actually. But don't worry, no one will miss me."

The older man studied him for a long time before saying. "I seen your face somewhere before? Besides on them posters."

"Nah couldn't be me."

The closer the older man looked the more it dawned on him. "Well I'll be damned, you're Wayne's ward, Dick Grayson. That billionaire socialite. Why you run away from him? He hurt ya or something?"

Dick tried to come up with an excuse that wouldn't damage Bruce's reputation, though he was mad at the man he didn't want to bald face lie about him. "He's always so busy, he never has time to actually be around. So I ran away."

The older man rubbed his chin with his hand and thought for a moment. "So Wayne is too busy for ya huh? Well kid, come on you can join us, we'll pay attention to ya."

Dick had a bad feeling about this man, the way he looked at him was unsettling. When Dick didn't follow right away the man grabbed his arm and said. "Come on kid, we gotta lot of work to do before nightfall. Then we gotta get outta town."

Hours earlier…

Bruce drove to the school and stormed into the office, he caught Conner's eye as he passed by. The boy wouldn't look at him for a moment. "I'm not mad at you Conner, so don't worry about it. Go get in the car."

Nodding once Conner darted out of the office and towards the parking lot. The Headmaster stepped out of his office and saw Bruce. "Mr. Wayne, I am so sorry about this."

"Still no sign of my boy?" He wasn't in the mood for small talk.

"No sir, we haven't seen him."

"Have you checked the surveillance videos?" Bruce asked firmly.

"No, not yet..." "Well damn, it don't you think that would have been a great idea?" Bruce interrupted angrily.

The older man walked over to the surveillance TV and popped out the tape. "This is the tape from the day, this covers the entire school inside and out. Feel free to have a look."

Frowning hard he told the man. "I intend to."

Stalking out of the office he stormed down the hall towards Dick's locker taking the padlock in his hand he gave it one hard jerk and broke it free. Opening it he saw all of Dick's books, pictures and his backpack still inside the locker. Grabbing a couple of notebooks and other items he thought would be useful in his search he shoved it all in the backpack and stormed out of the school.

Opening the car door he threw the backpack in the back seat and sat down in the driver's side slamming the door shut. "Such idiots!"

Conner was silent as they pulled out of the parking lot. Once they were more than a block away Conner sensed it was safe to speak. "Do- do you think that he's been kidnapped?"

Bruce glanced over at him and replied back still angry. "I'm not sure at this point, he could have been but then again he knows to try and yell for help or he is allowed to fight back using his Robin skills."

Pulling his cell phone out of his jacket pocket he dialed Richard's number and tried calling him. The car was silent for a short time before a buzzing sound could be heard. Conner turned around and looked back at the bag in the back seat. Reaching back he grabbed the bag and pulled out Dick's phone.

Tapping Bruce on the arm he held up the phone with the word 'Bruce' flashing across the screen. Letting out a frustrated growl Bruce threw his phone in the cup holder and gripped the steering wheel tighter. They drove around the area for quite a while before Conner spotted a figure that matched Dick walking quickly along the sidewalk looking for an exit.

"Bruce? Is that Dick?"

Glancing at the figure in question he replied. "Impossible, Dick was wearing his uniform."

Bruce rolled down the window and they both watched the teenage boy pick up his pace just a little after glancing back behind him. Bruce frowned and shouted out the open window. "Dick? Dick Grayson is that you?"

The boy went from walking fast to running down an ally. "There's your answer Bruce, I think Dick ran away."

"But why? I thought he was happy about everything going on?"

"He never said a thing to me, I thought he was OK with everything too. He has obviously changed clothes and ditched his backpack and phone so you couldn't track him. But where will he go? Should we chase him? Call the police?"

"We wouldn't be able to track him by day, you know as well as I do he's pretty fast when he doesn't want to get caught. He won't be on the move after nightfall so we will set off then. I'm calling in Superman so we have an extra set of eyes and ears. We could always call the police but they won't be of much help."

Conner tried to hone in on his x-ray vision that was slowly developing, but he still couldn't see from a long distance yet.

Bruce drove around the block but lost sight of Dick, he looked up to the roofs but still didn't see him. He knew his boy well if he didn't want to be found then he would disappear without a trace.

Letting out a frustrated growl he turned the car back in the direction of Wayne Manor. Once home he headed to the Batcave after telling Alfred what had transpired, Conner followed along silently. Knowing that saying anything at this point would only anger Bruce further.

It was now late into the evening, Dick kept looking out of the window of the trailer he was staying in with Pauline. They had long since packed up and were planning on moving out before daybreak. I wonder if Batman is out there looking for me? I know Bruce saw me, Conner was with him. Am I doing the right thing? Running away like this? Bruce would probably send me away for running away like I did anyway and keep Conner. After all, he's the better crime-fighter, Bruce even said so.

"Penny for your thoughts kiddo." Pauline said as she sat down at the small table across from him.

Shrugging Dick told her. "It's nothing."

"Don't look like nothing kid. You worried about your old man finding you? Or do ya think he's too busy to even look?" She asked nearly hitting the nail on the head.

Shrugging again Dick replied back. "I guess a little of both. He's a powerful man, who runs most of Gotham City."

"Was he mean to ya? Is that why you ran off?"

Thinking Dick told her. "No, he's a good man, it's just… well, I don't know."

Pauline could tell the boy was struggling with something, she told him softly. "It's OK hun, you don't have to talk about it right now. But I'm here if you ever need someone to talk to."

"Thanks, hey what is the Circus Manager's name?"

Pauline looked at him seriously and told the young teen. "His name's Bud, but you have to call him 'sir' at all times when speaking to him. We never use his name."

"How come? Is he mean?" Dick asked leaning forward.

"He gets grumpy when you don't show him proper respect. Richie, you best take good care of yourself while you're with us. Now that Bud knows your old man is Bruce Wayne he may try and scam money from him. Use you as bait."

"Great… so basically I just got myself kidnapped?" Dick asked with a slight sigh.

Sitting back Pauline told him gently. "Probably, but let's see what happens OK? You need to be cautious of some of the performers around here Richie. Frank and Bud have known each other for many years, I don't trust him hardly at all. Now the trapeze artists are alright folks, Don and Marcia along with Don's two brothers and Marcia's sister have been with the circus for a long time. They are a tight nit bunch and don't like competition."

Dick was silent for several moments before asking. "What does Bud do when someone steps out of line?"

Pauline paled at the question and told him softly. "Oh, honey… let's hope you never have to find out."

A/N: OK guys I really hope you all are reading this authors note. For several chapters, there will be mentions of abuse and mistreatment. There will be some graphic details but nothing to the point of the rating changing to this story. I will put a warning up on the top of each chapter. This won't last long so please stay with me.

Also: I am aware obviously that Richard's nickname has always been Dick, the only person allowed to give him another nickname is my OC Pauline. She calls him Richie.