Synopsis: Someone has stolen all the money from the Wayne Foundation Youth Charity Fund. Batman and Red Hood go after the man who did it. While doing research on the thief, Tim is hit by a mysterious beam from an odd weapon that has been sitting on a shelf and is de-aged. Oh boy, what are they going to do with a four-year-old Tim?

Part 1 – Soothing Ruffled Feathers

Samantha placed the children back in their cribs and went to sit in the garden. She didn't meditate nor did she think. She just sat there blankly, staring out into the woods.

"You can't always be healing Tim with your powers," Jason said. "He should be able to heal naturally."

"I'm his wife, what do you expect me to do? Let him die?"

"No . . . I . . . I'm supposed to take care of him. I've got to learn how, too."

"Well, your way is too slow!"

"And your way will make him too dependent! I wish you'd never discovered those powers!"

"What?"

"You heard me," Jason frowned. "Ever since you came here . . ."

"Be careful what you say, Jason," Samantha could feel her teeth getting sharper as her anger rose.

"Or what . . . Why don't you go back where you came from!"

Samantha's face paled. "You know where I came from. You know I can't go back there. You want me to leave, is that it? You wished I never met Tim in the first place? Go back to being . . . "

"I never said that!"

"Well maybe I should go back! I try to help, and I'm not appreciated!"

"That's not true . . ."

"Isn't it?"

"I don't know . . . I just want you to stop healing Tim every time! Give me a chance to practice being a nurse!"

"You want to become a nurse? Good luck with that without a high school diploma! You better go study if you don't want to fail."

Samantha remembered how Jason's face paled from her words and yet he hadn't noticed that his words had equally affected her. Both had said harsh words, and both had hit like a ton of bricks.

'I never meant to hurt Jason. I think he knows how I feel when he just stuck the truth out without thinking about my feelings. How those words cut into me, how I just wanted to get away. Then he pulls the same stunt and leaves? Talk about a contradictor.'

While Samantha sat in the garden, Sasha approached her. "We need to talk child."

Even though Sasha had called her a child, she didn't take offense. Sasha was older than her by a few years, and it was meant to be a term of endearment. Though in this case Samanth could hear the seriousness in Sasha's voice.

"What..." Samanthat began.

"What is going on between you and my husband?" Sasha questioned.

"Well, where to begin," Samantha started out. "Now, I'm not saying that I'm an innocent party in this situation because I'm not. Your husband said some things, only trying to be helpful, but I didn't like the way he put them. I in return said maybe I should leave and go back to the islands and he got angry and again said some more words. It escalated into this entire problem and I already forgave him. Earlier today he said something about studying and I told him that he should go because I didn't want him to fail, and I didn't mean that he was stupid or anything. I just wanted him to do great like he always does. He took it the wrong way and ran off.

"I see . . . . Oh Jason . . . . There are no worse words for him than failure. You never use that word."

"Well guess what?" Samantha said, getting defensive. "I didn't know that. Now I have this gut wrenching feeling that Dick is going to come and kick my ass because we are still...fighting? arguing? I don't even know what to call it."

"Jason speaks brutal truth only because he has no other way of dealing with things?" Sasha pointed out. "No one sugar coated his life or protected him from the brutality of it since before he was five years old. How long were you a prisoner of Devlin?"

"For a few years, why?"

"You at least had a childhood . . . Jason's was taken away. He was adopted at three months old. His family was stranded here in Gotham when their circus folded. His father blamed Jason for their failure then became a drunk. He went to work for Two-Face and his mother became a drug addict to relieve the pain of having cancer. When she died, and when Jason's father never came back, Jason had to fend for himself. Can you see where his brutal honesty comes from? The anger and the fear of loss is always with him."

"I see."

"He will not tell you these things himself," Sasha added. "He must succeed, be the best or he's nothing in his eyes, and no amount of comforting will console him. To tell him not to fail, he sees the opposite. I always wish him luck . . . And now with him wanting to be a nurse, to help this family, he feels you've taken that away from him. How can he compete with a healer who can heal life itself?

"So, I should just leave and never bother with this family, to help him succeed? He wouldn't have to worry about me trying to take over his job. It's not like I go out there and heal everyone. I only heal the people in this family. No one else.?

"I didn't say that," Sasha said. "What do you think will happen if you do leave?"

"I don't know. I won't be taking any one along with me."

"You are Tim's wife. The mother of his children. He would still follow you."

"Not if his children are still here," Samantha pointed out. "This is the only option I have right now."

"Your children still need your milk. Is it fair to them to abandon them?"

"Whet else can I do? Jason's made it clear. Your husband obviously feels a bit...what? 'threatened' because I'm a healer. That's stupid. Doctor Leslie doesn't even feel threatened by me. She asks for tips and some help when it comes to her patients. I never just out right heal them. I'll take pain away and that's it."

"Doctor Leslie is much older, and has seen her share of pain and suffering," Sasha continued. "For you, she must be like an elder. There is no reason in the world why you and Jason cannot share in taking care of this family, but right now, you are still acting like a child and not a responsible mother and wife. You are caring more about yourself than how they would feel. Tim thinks about everyone but himself to his credit and his detriment. A true partner in life fights to keep family together. It would devastate Tim if you were to leave."

"Then I shouldn't care about my feelings at all? I should just let people talk to me however they feel like it? I care about this family, but damn do I feel like I have to walk on eggshells with some people. I try to keep this family together but if some one doesn't like one thing I do it's automatically my fault. It's blame Samantha, get an attitude with her and screw what she feels, right?"

"You shouldn't care what OTHER people think, but care and let the other person know that your feelings have been hurt and what they said was out of line," Sasha pointed out. "Even to my husband's face. Plus, has anyone actually blamed you? You screw up, you take responsibility for screwing up. No one has blamed you for their failings, do you blame Jason when you screw up or Tim or Dick or me?"

"Dick already lectured me about taking and owning up to your mistakes and I already have. It's already a lesson stuck in my head because of him. I don't blame anyone."

"The truth of the matter is Jason does not want you to leave. If you did, he would blame himself for what he said, because he sees the tragic result of what would happen."

Samantha sighed and laid back into the grass and rolled over onto her side. "I'm not going any where."

"May I suggest that when Jason argues with you, stand your ground. Look him in the eyes and confront him with the fact that he's being an ass.*

"I'll keep that in mind next time."

"What are you going to do now?"

"Lie here and recharge for a bit," Samantha answered. "Go in and check on my children and Tim. Then I don't know what else. Just going to take it day by day I guess."

"How will you handle Jason?" Sasha asked.

"I don't know how to handle Jason. I know avoiding him won't do me any good."

"Well, when he returns, approach first, with this," Sasha handed Samantha Jason's textbook. "Let him know you want him to succeed, that you want to share in caring for this family, and that he does not need to fear this family splitting. You might be surprised by his reaction. I shall leave you with that. I need to get my children fed."

Samantha left the textbook on the ground and went to grab her sketchbook and pencils out of the carriage house. Damian had got her interested in drawing scenes out in the garden. She came back out and got started with sketching a figure. Slowly it started to come together. She darkened it in and started shading. She drew Jason not as a nurse, but as a doctor.

'This is what I want for Jason,' she thought to herself. "For him to achieve what he wants the most.'

At the bottom of the page in the corner she put 'Doctor Todd-Wayne' in fancy lettering. She must've worked on it for a good hour and a half. Tearing the picture out of her sketchbook, she slipped it into Jason's textbook.

'I hope he accepts this as my apology.*

Continues with Part 2: Resolving the Dispute