Surprisingly, everyone had taken to Jason's explanation of the supernatural reasonably well (Bruce was the only one who tried to attack him), and he'd managed to stumble through a basic crash course.
"So," Barbara began once Jason had finished his speech. "the vampires? They were why you came back?"
"Yeah." There was a general wave of nods. "I was finishing up when Bruce…"
He gestured quickly between himself and Bruce, and Bruce and Damian both tensed up. Dick cleared his throat, clearly sensing the tension.
"What about in the alleyway? B said something attacked you."
Jason sighed, deciding how much he wanted to say. "It was a werewolf. There's probably an entire pack that I need to find. It's the only reason I haven't taken off." There was a glimmer of hurt across Dick's face and Jason could have sworn he saw something on Bruce's. Barbara and Alfred nodded in a sad sort of understanding. Damian actually seemed disappointed that Jason hadn't left. "And…"
"And?" Tim interrupted. Jason glanced at Tim before fixing his eyes on Bruce.
"Were you bit?" There was an unsure flicker in Bruce's eye that told Jason everything he needed to know. "And that's the other reason. I don't know whether Bruce was turned. I need to stick around until the next full moon to find out."
"What if he is?" Tim said. "What would you do then?"
"I don't know." Jason's voice was dark and empty. There was a moment of silence and everyone glanced nervously at Bruce.
Then the conversation turned to Cas. And, then everything went downhill again, very, very quickly. Dick and Alfred had actually accepted that Cas was an angel, although Dick was honestly just down for the ride at this point. Jason could have told him that there were bedazzled, ten-foot tall garden gnomes that lived underground and he'd probably accept it without any hesitation. Barbara, Tim and Damian had, very clearly, been sceptical (but at least none of them had attacked him).
"Cas?" Jason called out, ignoring how completely insane he looked, yelling some random name into the air. He was still waiting for Bruce to try to cart him off to Arkham. "Cas? Can you please come back down?"
Jason glanced around in anticipation, before the comforting flutter of wings behind him. "Jason."
There was a slight tremor in Cas's usually monotonous voice. Everyone gaped at how Cas had just appeared out of nowhere. Bruce looked like he was physically about to implode, Tim was the human equivalent of a computer lagging and everyone else just looked downright confused.
Dick was the first to snap out of his stupor and immediately strode over to them, climbing up onto the breakfast bar.
Jason had clambered up there to escape Bruce after another attempted attack, and, since he was too scared to come back down, spent the last twenty minutes stood on it, pacing back and forth, gesturing dramatically.
Cas stepped behind Jason and Dick held his hand out. Jason stared at him. No…
Some stranger appears in his kitchen and the first thing Dick Grayson does is try to befriend him. Of course.
"My name's Dick," he said with a grin. Jason cracked a smile when he felt Cas glance at him when Dick said his name.
"It's okay, Cas," he muttered, stepping to the side slightly.
Cautiously, Cas took Dick's hand and shook it slowly. Everyone watched the exchange intently and Jason was very much prepared to tackle Dick if he tried anything. They eventually parted and Cas whispered something into Jason's ear. Jason looked at him with a slightly concerned expression, but beckoned Dick over to him, muttering something to him. Tim managed to lip-read the words 'friends,' 'manor'… and 'bunker'?
Dick looked at Jason with same expression that Jason had given Cas and Jason looked back at Cas with a 'see? I told you' look. Cas stared back at Jason with same expression that he had given before and Jason let out a loud sigh, turning back to Dick with an eye roll.
Dick pondered over whatever it was that Jason had asked him and everyone could practically see the cogs turning in his head. There was something comically dramatic about the entire exchange, like a pantomime.
After a minute of two of solid glancing between Bruce and Jason, Dick gave an anti-climactic shrug. Jason, unlike everyone else, didn't seem too bothered by the lack of enthusiasm in Dick's response and hopped down from the counter, making his way over to Alfred and Tim.
He bent down and whispered something into Alfred's ear. There was a flicker of surprise in the butler's eyes before he whispered something back to Jason. Jason turned back to Cas and gave him a thumbs up and Cas disappeared.
Jason perched himself onto the dining table in a manner far too nonchalant for Tim's liking. Barbara let out a small chuckle. "Is this normal for you?"
"Pretty much."
Barbara nodded thoughtfully before moving onto the question that was honestly on everyone's mind. "What was…" she gestured between Dick and where Cas had been, "that all about?"
Jason pulled a face, glancing at Alfred and Dick for some kind of backup. Luckily for Jason, Alfred spoke up. "Master Jason was requesting that he brought some of his… friends?" Alfred looked at for confirmation and Jason nodded curtly. "To the manor."
A silence settled over the room, like a thick layer of dust. Then…
"Do you hear that?"
Everyone immediately began listening for something, and, boy, was there something. A very low, very loud… barking?
Jason was up like a shot, and was out the door before anyone could even comprehend what was happening. When everyone finally came to their senses and followed him, Jason was sprinting down the hallway, full speed with heavy, thundering footsteps, to a large German Shepard, who was bounding towards Jason.
It was rather reminiscent of those scenes from old romance movies where the two love interests would run in slow-motion to one another across a flowery field. Tim could practically hear the cliché piano music.
The dog leapt into Jason's arms and he was basically swept off his feet. Tim imagined the piano music coming to a screeching halt, complete with record scratching.
He groaned and Tim had to stop himself from bursting into laughter at the sight of Jason lying flat on his back, completely limp (looking very much like a dead body). And the dog, being both literally the same size as Jason – if not larger – and stood on Jason's chest, staring down at him concernedly, did little to help Tim keep his composure.
"TC," Jason muttered, staring his dog dead (lol) in the eye. "Do not even think abo-"
The dog licked a huge stripe up Jason's face, leaving a large glob of saliva in Jason's hair. His expression turned from pure joy to abject disgust (he was still very, very happy to see his best friend, he just… didn't particularly like the taste of dog saliva). Tim could no longer keep back his laughter and, fortunately, he could hear Barbara and Dick laughing over the sound of his own roars.
"TC!" Came a faint shout. Tim, Dick and Barbara's laughter faded.
Both Jason and the TC's heads simultaneously perked up at the sound. The dog barked loudly, and the noise was followed shortly by the clumsy thundering of footsteps and more shouting.
The footsteps grew louder and louder until eventually a woman with bright red hair stumbled around the corner, then an Asian man, and then Cas. Jason pushed himself to his feet and ran over. "Charlie! Kevin!"
The excited tone in Jason's voice tugged at Dick's heartstrings. So, this is it, he thought. So this is his family.
Alfred, at some point during all the commotion, had strolled across the hallway without anyone noticing. Once Jason had put Charlie down, and stopped acting like a six-year-old at the zoo (well, less like a six-year-old at the zoo), Alfred gave a polite nod and held his hand out. Charlie stared at him, eyes wide, and looking very much like Jason had. "You must be Alfred. I'm Charlie," she said, shaking his hand and grinning at him. "Jason's told us all about you."
There was a small flicker of something across the man's face and he turned to Kevin, who stammered slightly. "Uh, Kevin," he said, with a short nod, before quickly adding, "sir."
Alfred returned the gesture politely, yet again, offering his hand out. Kevin took it hesitantly.
Everyone else had rambled over and were standing very awkwardly behind Jason and Alfred. Dick and Barbara were eyeing Bruce concernedly and Dick looked like he was ready to grab him. Bruce seemed… calm?
Something was definitely wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. Like 'hell has frozen over and the apocalypse has begun' wrong.
There was a good few minutes of terse silence and everyone glanced nervously between Bruce and Kevin and Charlie. Even Cas seemed uncomfortable.
Very, very surprisingly, it was Bruce who made the first move, pushing past the group and holding his hand out with his 'Bruce Wayne' smile (which was really unnerving in the Batsuit). "Bruce Wayne," he said. Jason eyed him carefully and was more than prepared to strike if he so much as thought about hurting either of them. Charlie was clearly suspicious (and rightly so) but took his hand, nonetheless.
"Uh, Charlie," she returned, quickly pulling her hand back. Bruce turned to Kevin and did the same.
Yet again, there was a moment or two of really, really uncomfortable silence before Alfred spoke up. "How about Master Jason show the two of you around?" he said, placing a hand on Jason's shoulder. "I'm sure that everyone else is exhausted from their 'late-night activities' as it were."
"Yeah, sure. That sounds great."
Alfred immediately moved to usher them all out of the corridor, and Jason followed after them, glancing over his shoulder at Bruce.
"What was that all about?" Dick asked, nudging Bruce as they walked back down to the Batcave.
"DNA," he muttered, tugging off his glove and pocketing it. Dick rolled his eyes. Of course.
/
"So, who was all that?" Kevin whispered.
"What, like names? Or…" Jason said, frowning. "Well, you know Bruce and Alfie, of course. The one in the black and blue is Dick, and yes, that is his actual name, stop looking at me like that Charlie. Barbara's the one with the red hair. The short, angry looking one is Damian. And the other one's Tim."
Charlie and Kevin glanced at each other at the mention of Tim's name and the pseudo-dismissive way that Jason had said it.