A/N: Please read and review!
I walked into the Manor, and I could tell something different was going to happen. Father was there, and he was quietly speaking with one of the League members, that alien Superman who somehow fooled the whole world he was not Clark Kent even though they look so similar. Something pretty big must have happened if Father allowed him to be in Gotham City. They may have considered each other to be friends, but Father actually did not like him in Gotham, feeling the worst kind of trouble followed him wherever he went. They stopped talking when they saw me.
"Damian," Kent said to me in greeting. He was one of the few people outside Father's immediate group of people in Gotham City who tried to treat me with some amount of kindness.
As I went to leave the room, I acknowledged him. I was too busy thinking about what happened to Fritz that day to be a part of the present. I stopped walking for a moment and went back to Father and Kent. They wanted to speak to me. that much I was able to see even when I was not fully paying attention to everything around me.
Apparently Clark Kent did not come alone. He brought his son, Jonathan Kent, with him. There was something important about that.
Jonathan Kent was more like his own father in appearance and demeanor. He acted like the simple Kansas farmer that was in his blood, so to speak, but it was nothing I would have mocked as Fritz acted much the same way. I was numbed to that sort of demeanor. If one could look closely enough at Kent, one would see the fire in his eyes he must have gotten from his mother. There was no way he was completely like his father. He had always been sickly, but that may have been from his mixture of Kryptonian genetics.
"Damian," Father was saying, and by the tone of his voice, I could tell he was trying to be patient as he was trying to tell me something that was both very important and not what I would have wanted to hear. He wanted me to listen to him. "The Team needs your help."
I quirked an eyebrow at my father. "I can understand that, but it did not work out the last time. We could never get along."
Kent was not happy at the notion of my return to the Team. Drake would have been the person who made sure they would remember how trying my time with the Team had been, and any new members would learn about it as well. It was to be expected with Drake.
Kent's father would have been able to understand that. "They need all of the help they could get. They do need you."
I made a face, but I resigned myself to the situation. Because the nature of my work for Father, I knew about my responsibility to help where I was needed. Kent was just as resigned as I was, but I knew he would have much to say about that.
"Master Bruce," Pennyworth said. "Baby has arrived."
Father had looked at me, and I shrugged. She was mad at me, so she should not have been there. That had always happened. He nodded at Pennyworth, and we took that to mean we should not talk about that for as long as Fritz would be there. Especially when Fritz was there. she would risk her life to help us.
Fritz came into the room, back to wearing the classless t-shirt and sweatpants she loved so much. She was not as mad as before, so she probably used the drive to the Manor to make herself calm down. Kent's father and mine left the room, probably to talk out the finer details of my second time with the Team.
"You," Fritz said, her voice raising just a little to show me she was still not that happy at me. "Are very infuriating, you know that right?"
"One would say if has to do with our conflicting personalities," I remarked.
She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Since you're the one who said it, probably not."
Kent watched out interaction with a bemused expression on his face. That sort of reaction would have come from anyone who would first meet Fritz.
"Why are you here?" I asked her.
"Oh, yeah," she said like she had almost forgotten why she was there. It did happen to her quite frequently. "I'm not mad at you."
"That is good," I said.
"Well, duh," she said. "Anyway. . ." She looked almost self-conscious with Kent being there for hear everything she was going to say to me. "I'll always be there for you. No matter what."
"Even when you get mad at me?" I said to her. As always that was pretty humbling for someone like me.
When I lived with Mother, any member of the League of Shadows had to earn that kind of respect and trust, but I was starting to learn that was never the case with Fritz. That was where one started with Fritz. She would be the one to truthfully say that to me of all people. I would always believe and trust her in return. There was something about that kind of openness that sort of demands it from the people around her.
"Even when you can be so infuriating," Fritz said. She held an envelop. "Now, if you excuse me, I have to do something to keep my grandma from harping at me."
She went to leave the room, and Kent and I could only watch her leave. Fritz had that effect on people.
"Who was that?" Kent asked, being completely bemused by her and what she was like.
If one was not used to having a conversation with Fritz, she could be too much and confusing. It was why I liked her so much.
"She is Baby Fritz," I told him, almost smiling when I said her ridiculous nickname. "She. . .is a friend. . ."