They met in the hall in front of Dick's door. For a long moment they simply stared at one another, neither of them able to speak. Then Jason ducked his head, twisting his lips into a heavy frown as he did so. Don't look at me like that, he bit back. So...so hopefully. Stop it.

"Jason-" a husky whisper caressed his name.

"No," he interjected quickly. "...No. This isn't about you and me. Not...not yet." Later, maybe, he would be ready to have that discussion, to reconcile, or at least to come to an understanding, but the moment hadn't yet arrived. It was now only a matter of days or weeks away – his stepping foot in this house as a civilian had changed everything, it seemed – but it was still in the future somewhere. "This is about Dick."

Bruce's face contorted as if he desperately wanted to object. "Then...then tell me about him," he managed finally. "You...what did you do?"

He grimaced. "I didn't really do anything."

"What? Yes, Jason, yes you did. You weren't here before, you don't understand...he wasn't talking before you came, at least not intelligently. No one could get near him. He didn't recognize any of us...but he said your name just now." A tiny smile appeared. "You got him to smile, and talk, and say your name. How?"

Jason considered the man in front of him. The truth was going to hurt him, and for the first time in years he really didn't want to cause him pain. "He has a fever," he reported instead of answering the question. "A pretty high one, I think. His hands are broiling."

As he'd thought would be the case, the billionaire was immediately distracted. "A fever?" He glanced at the closed door with a wince. "We didn't expect that. His injuries weren't that extreme. But...you're the only one he'll let close to him. If Alfred gives you something for him to take, will...will you get him to drink it? J'onn doesn't think we should sedate him if we don't have to, and now that..." He hiccuped, his emotions trying to break through. "...Now that you're home there's another option."

"Bruce..." Was he home? He wasn't sure. Part of him wanted to be, and was rejoicing at the sight of the familiar corridor in which they stood. The angry blade he had been honing in his mind ever since he had felt the first pinch of betrayal and abandonment still gleamed in the darkness, though, casting his homecoming into doubt. Still, he noted curiously, it was much easier to sheath that edge now than it had been even a few hours before. He wasn't sure what that meant, but it felt like an improvement.

"Please, Jason. You're the only one who's been able to get through to him."

There was nothing for it, he decided; Bruce had to know what had been said in Dick's chamber, or he wouldn't understand the problem they were facing. "I'll give him the medicine," he agreed, "but there's something you need to know first."

"Tell me." The older man reached out as if to clasp his shoulder, but Jason flinched backwards. It was an involuntary motion, the result of long-ingrained muscle memory, and he regretted it instantly. Bruce's arm halted midway between them, then fell back. "...What did you do in there? How did you-"

"That's what I'm trying to explain," he cut him off. "But you're not going to like it." Taking a deep breath, he described his suspicions in as few words as possible. "He's afraid of you, of all of you. He responded to me mostly because of the fact that I sneaked in, I think. He thinks that I'm...that I'm here to save him."

"To save him from what? He's safe now!"

"To save him from you, Bruce. He thinks...he thinks that you're keeping him prisoner here, like he was kept in the silent room."

The billionaire's face crumbled. "He thinks...he thinks we're keeping him prisoner?" he repeated in a stunned voice. "But...he's in his own bedroom, for god's sake! We haven't kept him locked in, he just hasn't tried to move to anywhere else! He..." He shook his head. "He said all of those things to you?"

"Not in as many words, no, but...he asked if I was going to help him break out. When you and the re-" He cut himself off. It was going to be difficult, he realized, to refer to the third Robin by his actual name after working to dehumanize him for so long. "...When you and Tim were out here talking," he tried again, "we could hear your voices. He started biting his lip and looking at the window like he was wondering if we were going to go before we got caught. Then...then at the end he asked me not to leave him alone." He closed his eyes for a second and struggled not to recall the exact tone of his brother's terrified plea. "He's afraid. That's why he's not responding to any of you."

Bruce held up one hand and turned away briefly. When he swiveled back around there were fresh spots of dampness beneath his eyes, and the hand he had just swiped at them with was trembling. "But you came in through the window and acted sneaky, so he trusts you?"

"I...I think so." There was more to it than just that, but he kept his mouth shut. His fugitive's entrance had helped his credibility, to be sure, but he was convinced that his first words had sealed his position as an ally in Dick's mind. If he told Bruce that, though, the man would want to know what he'd said, no doubt hoping to copy it and gain his own access to his confused child. But Jason wasn't ready for that. To tell his brother that he remembered what the dark, silent interior of his coffin had been like was one thing, but to inform his former mentor of the same fact was something else entirely.

"Oh, Dicky-bird..." The groan pulled him out of his thoughts, and he looked up to find Bruce standing at the closed door. As he watched the man laid his forehead and one palm against the lacquered wood. "I'm so sorry, chum..."

No decent human being could have stood silently by in sight of such a pained display. Not yet willing to offer physical comfort, Jason talked to fill the gap. "...I don't know what else to do for him. I can take medicine and things in to him, but that's only going to work for so long before he gets suspicious and stops trusting me."

The billionaire straightened slowly and cast a needful look over his shoulder. "...He knew your name, though," he insisted. "He must have recognized you on some level deeper than the one that thinks you're here to save him from us if he said your name."

"No," Jason shook his head. "I...I gave him my name." It had been clear when he'd come into the room that Dick didn't know who he was, but he'd tried to spark his memory as he'd walked towards him. 'It's me,' he ran back through that moment in his head. 'It's Jason. It's me.' "Maybe he recognized me, Bruce, but I honestly think he just remembered what I'd already told him my name was."

"Then maybe-"

"Bruce? My apologies for coming in unannounced, but I didn't find anyone downstairs and I sensed the stress on this floor..." J'onn's apology trailed off as Jason turned to face him. For a second the Martian blinked at him as if he wasn't sure of what he was seeing; then he nodded once and offered a cordial greeting. "Hello, Jason. I'm glad to see you here." His gaze traveled to Dick's door and then to Bruce before returning to him. "...It seems as if your presence has already done a great deal of good."

"J'onn," Bruce drew their attention. "...Maybe you can...but it's risky..."

"Maybe I can what, Bruce? I stopped short of reading your minds for what has transpired; all I am working off of are everyone's surface emotions."

"Jason?" the billionaire queried. "Will you repeat what you told me?"

He wasn't delighted by the sudden arrival of another JLA member, but at least J'onn was likely to be able to help them with the predicament before them. "I assume you already know the basics?" he asked.

"Of what happened to Dick, yes. Your role in it is something of a mystery to me, however."

He hesitated, wondering how much of what he had refrained from telling Bruce would be spelled out in his mind for the Martian to see. Before he could come up with a way to say as much without revealing that he had hidden anything from the billionaire, J'onn reassured him.

"Your secrets will remain your secrets, Jason. The mere fact that you are here tells me that they are not things I need to worry about for the safety of others."

It was the best he was going to get, and he knew it. Thinking hard about shielding his mind – just because J'onn had never lied to him before didn't mean he wouldn't do so now – he went back over everything he had told Bruce. "...And that's where we were when you came in," he said finally, wrapping up his story. "Trying to figure out what to do now."

"...I can tell you that you've already done a great deal. He's gone from trusting no one to trusting you, and that is a very important step."

"He...he actually trusts me? You're sure?" After everything he had tried to or threatened to do to Dick and those he cared about, it seemed impossible that he would be the first person his brother managed to trust after going through such a horrible ordeal.

"I'm certain of it. Not only does he trust you, he's beginning to get worried that you won't come back for him."

"J'onn," Bruce interjected, "can you tell...does Dick really believe that we've been holding him hostage here? Was...is Jason right about that?"

The Martian's face softened into something approaching pity, and Jason knew what the answer was going to be before it was spoken. "...Yes, Bruce. I'm afraid that he does believe that. And I'm afraid that I have no way of knowing how long that will remain the case." He paused. "The fact that he is talking and trusting again suggests that his walls are weakening. If I can get his consent to enter his mind, I may be able to push some of them over and hypothetically speed his recovery."

"Do it, then," the billionaire all but ordered. "Fix him."

"It's no guarantee," J'onn warned. "It's also risky, not just to Dick but also to you, Jason."

Jason narrowed his eyes. "Risky to me how?" To his surprise he realized that he would do just about anything it took to get Dick back to being...well, back to being Dick...but there were always limits.

"I'm going to need to gamble his trust in you in order to gain access to his mind. If he lets me in and then something I do triggers a defensive mechanism or upsets him in another way, it may result in his lumping us both in with the rest of your family."

"...So he'd think I was working with the others to keep him in jail?"

"Possibly, yes."

"What are the odds of that?"

"I don't know. His defenses are beyond superb. It's not necessarily something you should be pleased about, given the circumstances," he added a bit sharply as a bolt of pride lit across Bruce's face. "I may be able to get inside and speed his healing. I believe that if I am careful that is the most likely outcome. I may also end up making things worse, possibly even worse than they were before. Or I may do nothing at all, good or bad. I simply do not know, and I won't know until I'm inside of his head."

"...Could you do it from out here?" Jason ventured. "Then you wouldn't have to tie me into it. If something went wrong, he'd still trust me." Having gained his big brother's confidence, he didn't want to risk losing it. That desire stemmed not just from concern for Dick's mental health but also from the slightly perverse joy he was feeling about the situation. For the first time ever, he was the only person Dick wanted to be around. Even Bruce was suddenly exempt from his smiles. Jason knew that it wouldn't, couldn't, last forever like this, and he was willing to do his part to restore the natural order of things, but that was the only way he would willingly give up his new status as most trusted.

But J'onn was shaking his head. "I wouldn't dare. The odds of him reacting negatively to a forced entry are much higher than if I go in with his permission, and the best way for me to get that permission is if you sponsor me as someone worthy of being trusted. I know it's a big risk, but if it works it could give him the opening he needs in order to regain control of himself."

He looked down at his shoes and didn't speak for a moment. "…Jason," Bruce broke the silence. "Please. I'm…I'm begging you, son. Please do this for your brother."

'Son'? His throat thickened, but he choked the sensation down. Goddamn it, Bruce. Stop trying to guilt-trip me. That hadn't been the billionaire's intentions at all, of course, but admitting as much to himself would have meant also admitting that that title meant something to him. He couldn't deal with that yet, not on top of everything else that had happened in the last few hours. Banishing the topic, he returned to the question at hand.

As great of a gamble as J'onn's request would be, the more he thought about it the harder it became to refuse. For all that he didn't want to endanger Dick's faith in him, he couldn't help but feel like it wasn't really his brother who had latched onto him. There was something to be said for being the only person deemed worthy of his trust, sure, but somehow it didn't mean the same when it wasn't a whole, healthy Dick offering him that esteemed position. Perhaps it was better to be one of many sharing in something real than to have full possession of the shadow of what you truly wanted. The thought flew in the face of everything he had purported to believe for the past several years, but it rang true in a way that none of his other mantras had for a long time. …Goddamn it, Dick. I love you too much to leave you like this.

Raising his head, he caught Bruce's pleading gaze. "This had better work." Then he turned to J'onn and committed himself. "…Ok. I'm in."