Yes, I'm alive and yes, I'm sorry that I keep you guys waiting for months. My bad. Hopefully, and I really mean it this time, this next chapter will be done soon.

Alfred

He was just stepping inside, shaking the raindrops from his umbrella, when he saw Bruce walking towards him. Eyes downcast, shoulders hunched in defeat and concentration, hands fidgeting endlessly by his sides.

"Bruce?" Alfred calls.

The man looks up, slightly baffled. "Alfred."

The old butler looks him over, feeling suddenly hostile towards the man he raised. "Why have you come here?" He pulls his coat tighter around himself as the puzzle pieces fit together. "What have you done?"

"I came to make things right." Bruce answers sincerely.

The two watch each other for several breaths before Alfred gestures to a nearby seating area and moves towards it. The two sink stiffly into the unrelenting plastic, the air frigid between them.

"I really did come here to make things right." Bruce says.

"I've an odd feeling it didn't go well."

"No, it didn't." Bruce sighs heavily, slumping into his chair. "But I don't know what else I can do if he won't let me help him, if he won't let me fix it."

"It doesn't need fixing, you do." Alfred says.

Bruce stares uncomprehendingly, "You told me to make amends." he says slowly.

Alfred sighs deeply before speaking very carefully, "Your children are not responsible for how your failures cause you to view them Master Bruce."

Bruce takes off his ball cap and digs his fingers into his scalp, and stays that way for a long time. Eventually, Alfred collects his things and stands. "If I get back to the manor and the dogs have starved to death you best hope you starved with them."

Then he walks away without a second glance. He has no more pity to spare these days, because just a few floors away is a young man on the brink and he cannot waste one moment on the man who put him there.

He's just reached Jason's door and put a hand on the nob when a voice calls out behind him, "You're here to see Todd Peters?"

Alfred turns to find a young man behind the nurses counter, and nods. "Yes, he's my grandson."

The young man smiles sweetly. "He's had so many visitors, it's great to see our patients have such a strong support system."

"Yes, my son has quite the habit of adopting strays, and has acquired a much larger family than either of us ever expected."

The nurse laughs, "Well he sure is lucky to have you all."

"We're the lucky ones." Alfred replies with a smile. Then he steps silently inside and closes the door behind him.

Alfred steps into the center of the room softly, eying the young men before him. Jason lay nearly obscured from view, what with all the cloth and pillows surrounding him and the oxygen mask covering half of his face. Dick, who sits slouched over the edge of the bed with his back to Alfred has apparently fallen asleep in the few minutes since he told Bruce to leave.

Alfred is just reaching forward to rouse the boy, to get him to go home to bed where he can get an actual night's rest, when Jason, whom he had thought asleep, speaks up horsley.

"Let him sleep. He's exhausted." wheezes the boy.

Alfred freezes momentarily, sparing Jason a glance, before he removes his damp overcoat and draps it over Dick's inert form. He then turns to Jason, who looks positively ghastly among the white linen he's been adorned with. A chill races through the room from the vent overhead and all three of them shiver in response.

Alfred steps forward and adjusts the oxygen mask that's gone askew over Jason's mouth. He's just stepping away when Jason grasps his hard, trapping him there.

"Don't go." Jason pleads weakly, the simple request making it clear to the old man that the boy is fighting hard to stay present.

"Never, dear boy," Alfred promises as he envelopes Jason's hand in both of his own, "I'm right here."

Jason sags in relief, disappearing into the world of morphine and exhaustion in an instant. Alfred reaches behind him to snag a chair, keeping a tight hold on Jason with one hand he settles into the stiff pleather. And that's where he stays.

The sky's protests have quitted slightly as the storm has died down. The sun struggles to rise through the gloom, streaking the room with a shadowy pink twilight. Alfred sits silently in wait as the room brightens and the wind makes shadow puppets of the trees and dances them playfully around the room. After nearly an hour Dick stirs restlessly beside him and jolts into awareness with a small cry of alarm.

"Sorry." He mutters groggily.

"It's alright my boy." Alfred assures him gently, filling a cup on the side table with water and handing it to him.

Dick takes the water without protest, knowing it's pointless to resist. He nods to Jason as he takes a drink.

"He finally asleep?" He whispers.

"Thankfully so." Alfred says, taking Dick's cup from him, refilling it and placing it back in his hands. "What happened?"

Dick takes a weighted sign and relays all that occurred. Him letting Bruce into see Jason, the yelling that brought him running back into the room, Bruce's inappropriate anger at Jason and self righteous approach to their problems, and finally escorting him out of the room.

"I don't know what came over me," Dick says, "He was promising me it was going to be different, he was talking about Jason as a little kid, which you know he never does!"

Alfred nods knowingly, Bruce tries to never look back. Reminiscing means admitting to himself that he -even if it may not be true- has made it so those happy memories can no longer exist.

"I believed him, I thought maybe he could change, that he'd finally learned something!" Dick shakes his head. "I let him in here, and all he did was make things worse, like he always does."

Alfred is transported back in time as he watches Dick wrestle with his thoughts. Not too long ago they'd had a very similar conversation when Dick had left for the Titans for good.

"This is not your doing." Alfred says, echoing his past self.

Dick crumples into himself, "Yeah, I know."

It's unconvincing, as it usually is.

"I'm gonna go. Call if you need anything."

"Make sure that you eat something. I've left food in the fridge for you all."

"Okay, Alf." Dick raises stiffly and stretches. Then he gently folds Alfred's overcoat and places it on the chair, pats Jason's leg once and leaves.

Once he closes the door behind him Alfred turns to Jason. "You're awake aren't you?"

He's rewarded by a small huff of breath and a glint of blue eyes.

"How do you always know?" Jason asks.

Alfred shrugs with a small yet gracious smile. He watches as Jason's eyes train on the empty chair at the foot of the bed.

"He will be alright." Alfred assures him.

"He needs to stop blaming himself for everything." Jason says. Alfred has to suppress an eye roll as the irony of the sentence plows into him.

"You both do." Alfred tries.

Jason creases his brow as the request falls flat, "No."

The rage that flushes Alfred's face would be hard to hide if Jason didn't have his eyes trained past the foot of his bed. Alfred steeples his hands against his brow and breathes deeply.

"Jason." He says softly but with force.

The boy continues to stare unblinkingly past him, as if listening to an unseen being.

"Jason." Alfred repeats.

Jason starts, and turns to look at the older man, his eyes clouded with confusion. His brow wrinkles as if he had forgotten Alfred was there.

"Are you here with me, my boy?" Alfred says, reaching out to feel his cheek reflexively. Jason's eyes follow his hand but he doesn't move away. The boy nods, his facial expression unchanged.

"This," Alfred gestures around him with his free hand "is not your doing."

Jason blinks numbly, nodding his head slowly.

"This is not your fault," Alfred insists again.

Jason is eyeing him dangerously but Alfred continues telling him in a soft in measured voice, "This is not your fault."

"Don't lie to me."

"Jason, you aren't seeing sense. You're unwell, but you are not responsible."

The boy is shaking his head now, refusing to make eye contact, "please stop." he whispers.

"Jason, look at me boy." Alfred pleads, grabbing the young man's face in his hands, "Please believe me."

"Alfred," he says softly, "I can't."

The room settles into a dizzying silence as Alfred comes to the conclusion that this feeling in his chest is true helplessness. Then Jason's physical therapist enters the room and Alfred leaves to acquire Jason something to eat.

As he walks, heel toe in his shiny loafers, his mind becomes very still.

What can be done? He asks himself, but there is only silence. The only solution the man can conjure into focus is getting Jason into a mental health facility as soon as his body is healed enough.

Alfred reaches into his pocket to retrieve his cell phone and pulls up Diana's number. Out of all of Bruce's acquaintances at the justice league she is by far his favorite, and has proven a deep admiration for Jason in his formative years and even after his return.

The phone rings twice before she answers, voice quizzical but polite as she always is when they speak. "Mr. Pennyworth, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"If you have a moment to spare Miss Prince, I would appreciate a word with you."

"Of course. What is troubling you?"

"I'm sure Master Bruce hasn't shared what has happened with Master Jason, but I was hoping to bother you for some assistance with his rehabilitation," Alfred begins, temporarily distracted by the sound of a rush of people stampeding into a nearby room behind him. "The boy has always looked up to you, and I was hoping you would know of a place to keep him after his body is healed to help his mind."

Diana takes a moment to process this, and Alfred can vaguely pick up on the sound of a pen on paper as she writes.

"How bad is he?" She asks, voice tense.

"I'm afraid he's on the brink." Alfred replies, his throat seizing momentarily with grief. He opens his mouth to say more when a howl of panicked voices raise around him. There is a young woman in front of him, trying desperately to get his attention. An alarm begins to blare and Alfred briefly registers that he's momentarily last the ability to inhale.

"I'm sorry-" he begins but Diana interrupts him, surely hearing the sudden commotion.

"No need to be, I'll reach out to a few colleagues. Call when you can." Then she hangs up, leaving Alfred without the task of saying goodbye, and lord is he grateful.

The doctor standing before him begins ushering him back to Jason's room and asking him questions he can't quite comprehend. Nurses and security personnel walk in and out of the room, barking orders at each other. Alfred is just pushing himself free from the good natured doctor's grasp and turning to ask Jason what all the commotion is about when his stomach bottoms out. Because, before him in the stark white light of the hospital is something he can't make sense of.

The bed is empty, and Jason is nowhere to be found.

So, I really want help figuring out what will happen with Jason, so please click on the link below to cast your vote!

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Until next time, MS