Chapter 26

AN Enjoy. also I realise this will be my third chapter today, but I wrote a lot and i'm excited, so yeah. :)

The next day at work we all ran down leads on the painting that was stolen form Bruce's office, only to have him come in at the end of the day to tell us that whoever took it, returned it sometime during the day. By the smirk lingering on his face, I could tell that he had gone out and gotten it back, it wasn't returned.

So when I got back to my apartment, I wasn't all that surprised to find B there, drinking wine on my couch, and having a conversation with Mozzie. From the little bit of their conversation that I heard before I opened the door, they were discussing the merits of different conspiracy theories. I just smiled at them and went to go change into something more comfortable, when I came out of my closet I was surprised to see Moz waiting for me, an excited look on his face.

"Your dad is Batman!" he said excitedly

"Um, what?" I said, dumbfounded.

"The way that you work, when your in the middle of a heist, I figured out that you were Nightwing a long time ago, but Nightwing hasn't been spotted in years. I figured you were retired. So I never brought it up. But now that i've spent time with your father, he's definitely Batman. And that means that Jason is the Red Hood, and Timothy is Red Robin, and Damian is Robin." he explained.

I would try and refute what he's saying, but he got it all figured out. Even if I tried to tell him he's wrong, which he isn't, he would just figure out how to get proof, and then be upset at me because I lied to him.

"How?" I asked instead

"The way you work, it wasn't that hard to put you and Nightwing together. Jason's leather jacket and overall demeanor gives him away, besides i've worked with him before, the build, the jacket, the attitude. Damian fits the build of the latest Robin, and that leaves Batman and Red Robin, Batman has been around long enough that I know he couldn't be Timothy, so Tim is Red Robin, and Bruce is Batman." he finishes with a triumphant grin.

I probably should have expected this, Mozzie is one of the smartest most paranoid people I know. He is quite observant, and he works on conspiracy theories in his spare time, I should have figured he would have at least worked on the 'who is Batman' theory before.

I then looked over into my living room, where Bruce was sitting with a smile on his face, weird, I thought he would be pissed someone figured it out. He then said something unexpected.

"I like him, he's smart. He also knows how to keep a secret" the last part was growled out as a threat.

Mozzie gulped from beside me and just nodded.

"It was nice meeting you Mr. Wayne, I hope to talk to you again soon, see ya later Neal." Moz said as he hurried out the door, probably a little shaken from being threatened by Batman.

"We need to talk Dick" Bruce said, sounding like Tim had yesterday.

"Okay" I said hesitantly

"I bugged your apartment" he said, without a trace of emotion on his face.

"Why!?" I asked, outraged. What gives him the right?

"I know you have passports and ways to leave the country, fast. I wanted to be able to know if you were planning on leaving again" he said, matter of factly.

"Oh" was all I said.

"That means you heard me and the boys conversation yesterday?" I asked him.

"Yes" he answered

"Listen, Dick. When you left, you almost tore us apart. The boys were fighting each other to the point of serious injury, and I was so wrapped up in trying to find you, that I didn't even try and stop it. And listening to you yesterday, explain to them why you left, I understand. I get why you left, and I know that you were hurting, so I need you to never forget. You will always have a place in this family. No matter what happens, no matter what you do, you will always have a place with us. Your my son, and I will always love you. I don't care what you choose to do, just don't leave again." he said.

The steel reinforced walls that he always has up behind his eyes, hiding his emotions, are finally down, and I can see that he means every word that he's saying.

I decide to to pull a Damian and launch myself over to hug him, no warning. I just need a hug right now, and honestly, B gives the best hugs.

** Time-skip one year later **

I smirked as I sauntered out of the building a free man, my commutation hearing went perfectly. I already told Peter that I would be back at the office monday morning, but my first thing to do when I was a free man, was to go to the Manor, for the first time in 9 years.

Over the last year since my family found me, they have all visited me, including Alfred, a lot. We all spent christmas at Peter's house, and it made me so happy to have all of my family together for the holidays, both my families have meshed surprisingly well, Jason and El became close and Jason visits her just as much as he visits me. Moz and B have also struck up an odd friendship consisting of wine and conspiracy theories. Damian and Tim come up the most out of everyone, and they crash at my apartment at least every other week. Damian loves going over to the Burkes house, mainly for Satchmo, but I know he likes El and Peter too. Tim and Peter watch baseball together, and El always makes Tim take a nap when we are over at their house, she says he should sleep more, and I agree. El has taken over being the mother of our motley little group of misfits and fuck-ups, and it suits her well, she basically just started telling us what to do one day, and we all listened. She is pretty much our new leader.

Damian has also made it a habit of his to come to work with me so he can hang out with Diana, they are scary together, they whisper and laugh, and it's downright creepy, I think they are planning a murder. Jones and Tim like to geek out over computers and have taught each other a lot, they hang out and help each other update their software and different ways to hack different people, they became fast friends.

Overall, i'm the happiest i've been in years, and i'm about to be so much happier, because tonight, tonight I get to go out on patrol. Now that i'm a free man, I plan to go to Gotham on the weekends so I can be Nightwing again. My room is still there, alabiet missing a few things, since my brothers decided that now that I wasn't missing it would be alright if they stole some things from my room. Alfred has kept a running tally of who stole what for me, and I plan on retrieving those items as soon as I get the time, they won't know what hit them.

"Hey Tim" I greeted as I swung myself into the passenger seat of his car.

"Ready to go" he asked with a grin on his face. We were all excited to go patrolling together again.

I nodded my head excitedly as he revved the engine and took off down the road, speeding towards Gotham.

END

AN IT'S THE END! I hadn't planned on ending this here, but then I started writing and it just kinda flowed to an ending. So I hope everyone enjoyed reading. It was amazing to write and finish a story, I am so fuckin proud of myself, and so very thankful to everyone who favorited, followed, and commented. I love you guys, thank you for sticking with me to the end! Lemme know what you think!

PLEASE READ THIS!

I'm thinking of doing a sequel to this, about when Peter and everybody from NY finds out about Neal being Nightwing, and subsequently, finding out about the batfam as a whole. Would anyone enjoy that? Does that seem interesting? Or should I just leave it here? Lemme know what you want, lemme know what you think. Byeeee!