Jason called and let the kids know he'd be gone for a week, assuring that Red Robin, Nightwing and the others would be keeping them safe while he was gone. No one seemed to have a problem with it as Tim had already dropped by to explain things. He wasn't sure exactly what Tim said, but everyone was fine. Everyone except Lisa who refused to speak to him when Jason tried to talk to her. He was half convinced to suck it up and go back to Gotham, but Alex talked him down, promising him that Lisa would be fine and he'd take care of her. Reluctantly, Jason agreed, but on the condition that Alex text him daily updates.
He worried constantly at first, but the sun, water, and Roy and Kori quickly wore him down. After a couple of days, the kids were still fine, Tim wasn't having any issues keeping them safe, and Jason was warm. Despite Lisa's anger, he found himself relaxing.
"No," he declared the second Roy's shadow fell over him. He was lounging with a book, enjoying the warm winter sun. This far south it was strong enough to be pleasantly warm, but not so hot that he was sweaty and miserable. It was pretty much perfect, and Jason had spent three days reading and napping lazily out by the water. The water itself was a bit too cold for his taste, but Kori, with her super-heated core body temperature, was in and out constantly. Roy was dividing his time between causing minor explosions with projects he was testing out, hanging out by the water with Jason and Kori, and making macaroni and cheese. The last one was what had Jason protesting.
"But, Jaybird," Roy complained, and Jason cut in quickly.
"Roy, I've eaten macaroni and cheese for three days now. They've all been delicious and gourmet worthy, but damn it I'm not eating it again this week. Next time."
Roy gave a huff and dropped into the chair by Jason. "Fine. Be that way."
Jason rolled his eyes and went back to his book. It'd been only three days, but he already felt ten times better. Being out of Gotham, being here on the island, a place that felt like it belonged to them where no one else could touch them, was like being able to breathe easily again for the first time in months. It was exactly what he needed to get a handle on his chaotic emotions before he dove back into the muck and finished what he started in Gotham. After just three days of warm sun and lazy afternoons, the idea of returning to Gotham didn't make him feel like shooting someone anymore.
It was early afternoon and the sun was lulling him into a light dose. Jason settled his book down in the sand and let himself drift a bit, only to be brought back to reality minutes later by his phone beeping. He sighed and picked it up, unsurprised that it was a text from Stephanie. She'd been texting him almost constantly since he left Gotham, not at all happy that she hadn't been able to check in with him in person before he left. She calmed down a little once he assured her he wasn't letting Bruce run him off for good. Still, she kept up a steady flow of conversation, telling him about her classes, what she and Cass were getting up to on patrol, what she was eating since she didn't have his food to mooch off of. And she wasn't the only one.
Tim was keeping him constantly updated, letting him know what he'd found on the kids' families thus far, how Lisa was doing, letting him know that Damian had dropped by again to continue the "child army" training or whatever. Jason was no big fan of the little demon, but he thought maybe that Dick wasn't wrong all those weeks ago when he said that socializing with the kids would be good for him. The younger ones seemed to like him so he didn't have the heart to banish him completely.
Dick was also in consistent contact. The first day of Jason's vacation, Tim had texted saying that their older brother asked for Jason's number. Against his better judgment, he'd given Tim permission to pass it on to Dick, and they'd been in contact since.
Surprisingly, Jason hadn't regretted it thus far. Dick didn't actually talk much besides the occasional, "How's it going?" and "What's up, Little Wing?" Instead, he sent a steady stream of pictures. A steady stream of candid pictures of different members of the family in funny positions or with funny facial expressions. Pictures of Damian looking utterly undignified with a mouthful of food, Tim dead asleep with his face mashed into the keyboard at the Batcomputer, Cass with a quizzical expression on her face, Stephanie mid trip, arms flailing.
Every single one of them had Jason snorting in amusement and he very gleefully saved them to his phone to use for blackmail purposes at a later date. There were even pictures of Alfred, but they featured his infamous, raised, sardonic brow since it was almost impossible to catch the butler looking undignified in anyway.
Jason replied with pictures of his own; Roy with a sunburn everywhere but the white strip across his eyes where his sunglasses had been, a long streak of orange underneath the blue water as Kori swam, fresh fish they cooked over a fire, wrapped in banana leaves.
Stephanie got pictures too; pictures of the crystal blue water and white sand just so Jason could laugh at her jealous, angry faced emojis and complaints of class and dirty snow. Privately though, he thought that if anyone deserved a free vacation on a tropical island, it was Stephanie Brown. Out of all of them, she'd gotten to enjoy the perks of the Wayne fortune the least, and she hadn't had the chance to get out of Gotham much lately. Once Jason's business was all wrapped up and she had a break from classes, it might be nice to bring her along for another island vacation. She and Kori would probably get along well. It was Steph and Roy that worried him. They'd get along too well, and Jason would probably find himself facing karmic retribution for how much he and Steph teased Tim. Also he wasn't quite sure the Earth wouldn't be destroyed by a Batgirl/Arsenal team-up.
Then again, maybe Arsenal and Starfire didn't have to be involved. Maybe he could just send Steph and Cass on a tropical vacation as a gift. He had the money for it. Who cared if it was dirty?
"It's nice, Jaybird," Roy said as Jason sent Steph another picture of the water.
"What is?"
"You talking to people. We traveled around for months and you didn't talk to anyone but me, Kori, and the random girls you put the moves on. Your phone's been going off constantly since we got here."
Jason tensed a little, hand tightening around his phone.
Beside him, Roy rolled his eyes. "I said it was a good thing, Jaybird, sheesh. It's good that you're working things out with your family. You don't have to work anything out with Batman if you don't want to, but you deserve to have something good with the rest of your family. Like me and Dinah. Things with Ollie will probably never get better, but just because Dinah and Ollie are getting along again, doesn't mean I can't have something good with her. And Kori's been reconnecting with our generation of Titans. Talking to Garth, Raven and Vic again. Me too a little, even though we're both still keeping our distance from Grayson. We're growing up or some shit. But it's good. We deserve some good, Jaybird."
Jason sighed, but didn't argue. It was nice; having Tim, Steph and Cass. Dick wasn't bad either. He was still an infuriatingly perfect self-righteous goody-two-shoes, but he'd always been that way and everyone had their flaws. As long as Dick wasn't using that flaw to try and tell Jason what he could and couldn't do, he supposed it was okay. He might be able to overlook it. He didn't know how realistic it was—thinking that he could have any sort of relationship with his siblings knowing he'd never reconcile or come to terms with Bruce, but for now it was okay. He was alright with letting it happen. Things might change later, but for now it was nice.
Roy broke Jason out of his thoughts. "You know though…you and Kori come first. You guys are my family now. We're a team. That trumps all the other stuff," he said, staring out over the water.
Jason didn't look at him, but answered. "Yeah. Outlaws first."
He could see Roy grin wide in his peripheral vision. "Damn straight."
Jason closed his eyes and settled back for a nap.
The sixth day on the island, the day before they were set to leave, Jason was yet again stretched out on the beach reading. Kori was napping beside him and beside her Roy had headphones in and was tinkering with some device that Jason really hoped wouldn't explode. He had his nose stuck in another book when he got a text from a number not in his contacts. It had a Gotham area code though, and Jason read the text with a frown on his face.
Are you well, Jason?
Jason stared for a moment before texting Tim, anger and annoyance welling up in him as he realized who it must be.
Jason: Who gave Bruce my number?
Tim's reply was satisfyingly swift.
Tim: I doubt any of us did. Not even Dick would have pulled that without your permission after the memorial case thing. But he's Bruce so it's not like it would have been difficult for him to get. What'd he do?
Jason: He texted me. Said "Are you well?" What the hell. No one talks like that except Alfred. And what makes him think he gets to text me anyway?
Tim: Do me a favor. If you ditch this number at least give me a heads up and a way to get in touch.
Jason glared at the text for a long moment, debating on what he'd do. Tim was right; if Bruce wanted his number, he'd get it. It didn't matter if he got a new phone, Bruce would manage to get a hold of him. He could get new phone after new phone and Bruce would still manage to text him somehow. And if by some miracle, he didn't manage it, then he might show up in person instead, and he sure as hell didn't want that.
He sighed.
Jason: What's the point? It wouldn't help anything. I'll just ignore him, I guess.
Tim: Whatever you want. Just keep me informed.
Jason huffed, not seeing the point of keeping the little bird informed. Tim was a whole hell of a lot like Bruce with a dose of Babs on top. He suspected Tim already had the numbers for all of his burners anyway. He'd blame Tim's incessant need to know everything about everyone, his need for control, on Bruce, but he suspected those were natural born Tim Drake tendencies. Again, the kid got his start by stalking Batman and Robin, figuring out who they were when no one else could. Bruce certainly hadn't helped things though.
To cheer himself up, Jason forwarded Tim one of the pictures Dick had taken of him drooling on some papers.
Tim: Dick.
Jason snorted, unsure whether it was an accusation of who was responsible for the picture, if Tim was calling Jason a dick, or if he was calling their older brother one.
He sent a few more of the pictures, snickering at Tim's reply.
Tim: I'm going to kill him.
Jason: As long as you film it for posterity.
He put his phone away and sat up. The week was almost over and Jason needed to gather his crap. He would have gladly stayed longer, but it wouldn't be fair to Tim who was carrying the load of the warehouse and the orphanage while Jason was enjoying a nice, Caribbean vacation. He'd gotten his break and the chance to get his head on straight. It was time to get back to his responsibilities.
"So what's the plan?" Roy asked him, removing his headphones and waking Kori from her doze. The sunburn he'd gotten earlier in the week had mostly faded once he started using sunscreen, but his freckles were standing out more than they usually did. "I mean, not the immediate plan, but the plan plan. We're still gonna be the Outlaws right? We're not breaking the band up for good or anything? Cause you guys will always be my family no matter what we do, but I like us as a team and I'd prefer to keep it that way."
"I have to wrap things up in Gotham before we do more Outlaw stuff," Jason said, frowning a little. He certainly didn't want to give up the Outlaws, but it would take time for all the kids to migrate and acclimate to the orphanage, and Jason wasn't sure he'd ever stop feeling responsible for Crime Alley. Even if the kids were taken care of, there was still Sasha, Holly, Jamie, Bill and everyone else.
Kori nodded and stretched languidly. "That's fine. There's no need to rush. We are a team no matter what we're doing at the moment. And I think it's possible for us to be a team and have you still return to Gotham between missions."
Jason turned towards her, confused. "What?"
"You have commitments in Gotham, don't you?"
"Well, right now, yeah. The alley kids and the working girls." Though thankfully he no longer had any tenement buildings to take care of on top of everything.
"I doubt those commitments will fade easily," she continued, echoing his earlier thoughts. "I don't see why you can't work in Gotham between whatever missions we choose to work as a team. I see no reason why some of those missions couldn't involve your city. We've just been staying on my ship thus far. You could choose to stay in Gotham between missions instead."
"Stay in Gotham. With Batman," Jason protested.
Kori shrugged. "I don't see why not. The decision is yours, Jason. If your commitments are important to you, you should be able to be the Red Hood of the Outlaws and the Red Hood of Crime Alley."
"That's what we did back in the Titans days," Roy piped in. "I don't have a problem splitting my time between Star City and Outlaw missions. Hell, I wouldn't mind splitting time in Gotham too. I know how territorial you Bats get over your precious city, but work will probably put us in Gotham at some point. And with Kori's ship, it's not like travel is much of an issue. There's plenty of ways we can work this, Jaybird. You don't have to pick one or the other."
"Why the hell would I want to pick Gotham at all?" Jason protested. He'd been spending weeks trying to come up with solutions to get out of Gotham. Why on earth would he want to stay in?
Roy and Kori both gave him knowing looks that had him bristling. Reconnecting with his siblings was one thing, but he hadn't planned on staying.
"Jaybird," Roy said, patronizing. "You pretty much literally built yourself a nest then adopted a few dozen baby birds to take care of. You've been settling into the city pretty much since you got there, and now you're patching things up with the other birds and bats. Gotham's your home."
"Gotham's a hellhole."
"But it's your hellhole," Roy pressed. "And that's fine. We can still do us whether you go back to Gotham in between missions or not. You don't have to make any decisions now. It's going to be a little while before you can leave for missions even if you do decide to make Gotham your home base. We're just saying that we, as your teammates, can work with that so you should consider it as an option."
Jason didn't want to consider it an option. He was starting to feel pinned in and he didn't like it. Gotham was a sensitive topic for him and he was feeling a bit ambushed. It made him defensive and combative. "I'd have to play by the rules. No killing at all, no matter how rotten the scumbag."
Roy shot him a look, unimpressed. "Don't even pretend you haven't already made that decision. You've been playing by Supes' rules for months already. Were you planning on suddenly breaking them and having the united righteousness of the Justice League reign down on you again?"
"I was keeping my options open about it," Jason retorted, snappish. Superman's rules or no, if he had the chance, he would kill the Joker. Even if it brought Batman, Superman, all of the Justice League and the GCPD down on his head, he would take that chance.
Roy scoffed, clearly not buying it. "Yeah, okay. If that's the story you're going with, you can continue to keep your options open. Like I said, you don't have to make decisions now, and when you do decide, you're allowed to change your mind later. It's just an option, that's all. No one's making you do anything."
"Yeah, sure. I'm going to pack," Jason grumbled and stalked off.
"That could have gone better," he heard Roy say to Kori.
"Give him time to get used to the idea. Jason will make the decision that's best for him when he's ready," Kori replied, unconcerned.
Jason huffed. Returning to Gotham to wrap up his business was one thing. Staying in Gotham? That was just stupid.
The city was frozen and covered in piles of nasty, black snow when Jason got back, but someone had come through and turned his heat on and made sure there was fresh food in his fridge. It was pretty obvious who'd done it, so he texted Alfred a brief thanks before sending a message to Tim, asking him to meet at the warehouse. A week had been wasted so now it was time to get to work.
He very pointedly ignored the new text from Bruce.
Bruce: Do you need anything?
Somehow he thought answering For you to fuck off wouldn't get him anywhere. And if Bruce got any kind of response, he'd see it as a progress. Jason refused to open the line of communication between them. He had no idea what Bruce thought he was doing, but he was having none of it. So he pushed aside all the curses, all the vitriol he wanted to spit in Bruce's face, and made his way to the warehouse instead.
The kids had a lot of questions, but they quieted down when Lisa stomped his way and placed her tiny little fists on her hips. She didn't speak, just stood there glaring up at him. Jason didn't think he'd ever felt sheepish in front of a six year old before, but there was a first time for everything. "Hey there, Carrot-top."
She continued to glare.
"Still mad, huh?" he asked, wondering how he was supposed to fix it. He wasn't interested in making excuses. He'd promised to keep her safe and he'd ditched for a week. She had every right to be put out with him. "You know I wouldn't have gone if I didn't trust Red Robin to look out for you." It wasn't really an excuse, but it was true.
Her little brow scrunched up and she looked like she was about to let him have it when another kid, one of the younger ones named Jose piped up. "Is Batman your dad?"
Jason twitched. "What? No."
"But Red Robin and the others are your brothers and Batman is their dad, right?" Jose pushed and several of the other younger kids nodded. Dozens of pairs of eyes stared at Jason curiously as he fumbled, trying to figure out what to say. Lisa stood in front of the pack, hands still on her hips, waiting.
"Why is this happening?" he asked himself, uncomfortable.
Alex stepped in to explain, poorly covering the fact that he was laughing at Jason's pain. "The little kids were upset when Red Robin came and said you'd be gone for a little while. He told them you got hit with fear toxin when you helped them fight Scarecrow and then you got in a fight with your dad—Batman. Is that what happened?"
"Well, yeah, but Batman isn't my dad," Jason said firmly, crossing his arms. "The asshole just likes to pretend he is."
"Were you a Robin like Nightwing?" a scruffy little blonde named Charlotte asked, only for an older, dark-skinned kid named Jacob to answer for him.
"Of course he was. How else was Batman his dad?"
That caused immediate chaos and there were suddenly a dozen little kids crowding around him all asking questions over each other.
"You were Robin?"
"That's so cool! What's the Batmobile like?"
"How long were you Robin?"
"Which Robin were you?"
"Can I be Robin?"
"Why are you fighting with Batman?"
Jason groaned, covering his face with his hands. For months he'd been looking after these kids and for months they'd minded their own business. He left them with Tim for one week and everything goes to hell.
"Okay!" he shouted after a dozen more questions. The kids quieted down and waited eagerly. "Yes," Jason gritted out. "I was Robin. For three years. Batman and I got in a fight and I left Gotham. For a long time," he said, skipping over his death. He didn't even want to begin to explain his inexplicable resurrection to the kids. "I came back to Gotham, but we're still fighting."
"Why are you fighting?" Danny asked quietly, causing many of the others to nod.
"We have different views on dealing with the bad guys."
"Like what?" Jose asked curiously, but Jacob answered before Jason could, rolling his eyes at the other boy's apparent ignorance.
"Red Hood kills bad guys and Batman doesn't. Duh."
Jason didn't even wince. These were Crime Alley kids. They may be young, but they were no strangers to the bad things in the world.
"Well that's stupid," Charlotte said with frown. Her face was smudged with dirt and it looked like she hadn't managed to get a hold of fresh clothes in a while. Jason would talk to Wilkes, see if she could scrounge some stuff up if he provided a donation. "If you don't kill the bad guys, how do you keep them from coming back and doing more bad things?"
If anyone disagreed with Charlotte, they didn't voice it out loud. Jason just nodded. If nine year old Alley kids got it, how was it that Bruce still didn't?
He changed the subject. "I'm sorry I left. Batman really pisses me off and I knew you'd be safe. I'm back now, and I won't do it again."
This seemed to satisfy most everyone but Lisa who was still scowling up at him with hands on her hips. Jason sunk down to a crouch and for a moment he strongly considered taking off his domino so he could look her in the eye properly. "I'm sorry, carrot-top."
"You're not supposed to leave," she told him, frowning. Jason could see wariness in her expression, and he cursed silently. He'd absolutely needed to get out of town, but he wished it hadn't meant negatively impacting the small girl.
"I know. I'm sorry."
"I'm mad at you," she declared, outright.
"That's fair," Jason agreed. "You can be mad for as long as you want. I'll still be here when you're done being mad."
She considered this for a moment before deciding those were acceptable terms. She nodded once and turned on her heel, marching away from. Jason sighed and looked up, spotting Tim waiting up in the rafters. He made his way up and gave him a glare as he sat down.
"You didn't have to tell them about Batman." He'd been relieved when the kids hadn't really minded his week vacation. Now that he knew the cost, he wasn't so sure.
"They wanted to know why you were gone," Tim replied, unrepentant.
"Did you have to tell them that?" Jason protested.
"You mean the truth?" Tim challenged. "Look; you needed a vacation. You needed one where you wouldn't have to worry about upsetting the kids or anything like that. They needed to understand why you took off with no warning. And it didn't hurt anything." He then changed the subject before Jason could argue. "We'll need to be careful though or else we'll end up with thirty-four little Red Hood disciples."
Jason waved it off. "Nah. I leave the child soldier raising to Bruce."
"Jay…"
"Tell me I'm wrong, Baby bird."
Tim sighed, but didn't argue. Instead, he passed Jason a list of names. "You'll probably need the laptop I gave you for Christmas to get what we need. If you've even used it yet." At the look Jason slid his way, Tim huffed in exasperation. "It's not like I booby-trapped it or something."
"Yeah, yeah," Jason replied, scanning the names. He was more inclined to believe it now than he was at Christmas. And if they wanted to build iron-clad cases, he probably would need it.
"Oracle's also available to help if you run into trouble finding anything," Tim replied.
Jason nodded and slipped the list of names into his jacket pocket. "Thanks for this, Tim. I didn't mean to just dump all this on you while I was gone."
"It was fine. You needed a break and I didn't mind. Any more texts from Bruce?"
Jason scowled. "Do you need anything? Honestly, what the hell is going through his big, fat head, huh?"
"Well, if I had to guess, I'd say he was wondering whether or not you needed anything."
Jason gave him a flat look. "Not funny, Timmy."
"You say anything back?"
"Of course not. I'm not encouraging this. Whatever the hell it is, he will get no encouragement from me."
"Sure. Stick to your guns." Tim said, sounding completely patronizing. "Just not the literal, physical ones. Those you can lose any time."
"Ha ha."
Tim stood up. "I should patrol. Meet up in a few days to discuss progress?"
"Yeah, sure," Jason said, rolling his shoulders. "Come over. I'll cook."
Tim smiled. "Dick'll be jealous. He's been waiting for you to let him come back over. He was so upset when you had all the girls over and he wasn't invited."
Jason smirked, believing it easily. Dick seemed to be all about family these days, and he wanted to be included in anything that could even remotely be called "family bonding." That night at Jason's, he'd been purposely excluded and it'd probably driven him crazy. His smirk widened as he considered possibilities. "Maybe I should have you, Babs, Steph and Cass over all together then. Leave Dickie out in the cold."
"That's mean, Jay," Tim chided, but he was smiling. Jason thought maybe all the pictures of him drooling had Tim in the want of a little payback.
"We won't make him suffer long. Just long enough to make him think he really doesn't get to join in."
"Sounds like a plan," Tim said, moving to the window. "Let me know what Bruce texts next. Alfred and I have a bet going on his social ineptitude."
"Sure, but I expect a percentage of winnings seeing as how I'm the one having to suffer," Jason replied. Tim nodded and slipped out into the night, leaving Jason up in the rafters alone. He needed to get back to a regular patrol, but for tonight he thought it might be better to stick close. To help reassure the kids that he wasn't going anywhere. To help reassure him the kids were still fine. A nice quiet night before he got back into the swing of things. He settled in to keep watch.