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 sitting on a shelf and is de-aged. Oh boy, what are they going to do with a four-year-old Tim?

Part 37: The Search Begins Anew

'Wait . . . What . . . He's . . . He's not . . .' Damian's heart was racing. 'Tim was okay.' He didn't speak his name outloud. Like everyone he had been worried when Tim disappeared, but mostly, he had blamed himself.

Dick's eyes widened at the last part. "He's . . . He's a live. Well, where is he? Why are we still sitting here?"

Jason stood up leaning on the desk. "How does she know? Where is he?"

"She felt that he was in some kind of pain. He's somewhere in downtown Gotham."

"I didn't think she could sense his aura because he was de-aged," Dick said.

"Obviously, something has changed," Bruce stated. "Now, we need to form a search party . . . "

"Downtown Gotham?" Damian questioned, interrupting his father. "That's a large area."

"Better than not being in Gotham," Jason replied. "Could she tell if someone was hurting him?"

"She wasn't explicit on that," Bruce replied. "We are going to need searches night and day on this. If we have to switch every couple of days. We have 8.23 square miles to search.'

"Challenge accepted," Dick added. "I'm willing to look twice as hard for him."

"We'll begin by dividing up the downtown into four quadrants. We'll use Wayne Foundation as our center, since it is in the center. For now, Damian, you take the West, Jason, you take the East. Dick, you take the south and I'll take the north. We'll switch to cover each other's areas just to be certain. During the day, we take one quadrant at ground level. Which quadrant do you want to start with?"

"South."

"Very well, let's get our walking shoes on. Do we have current photos of Tim?"

"That's still not going to narrow it down enough," Jason commented.

"Apartment buildings," Damian suggested. "We don't have to search the businesses, but we can search residences, apartments, condoes, even houses since there are some on the outskirts of each quadrant, before you begin getting into actual residencial neighborhoods."

"Damian is corrected," Bruce stated. "We'll need to narrow our field, but we will still need a picture of Tim to show."

"Pennyworth . . . He took pictures of Timothy and Jason laying together on the couch."

"We need an image of Tim with his eyes open," Jason commented. "I've got one we can use."

"Have him work up a flier. 'Have you seen this boy?' We have a better chance of finding him then the police at this point. It's too long."

"We didn't want the police involved, remember?"

Damian left the study to find Alfred.

Alfred was polishing the silver, again. It seemed to be his way of coping. 'One of these days I shall polish the silver until it disappears in my grasp,' he thought. 'It is the only thing I can think of to cope right now. Even my own meager detective skills seem at a loss as to what to do.'

"Pennyworth. " Damian came running into the dining room.

"Master Damian, you seem in higher spirits today. What brings this excitement?"

"Mother knows Drake is alive. We know where to search now. We just need a flyer. Todd has a photo we can use to make a flier. Can you assist?"

"Master Timothy alive?" Alfred said with relief. "Oh, thank goodness. I was almost about to give up hope as well. Of course, let me set up my laptop and printer. Master Jason shared a photo with me. It will give me an opportunity to download the photos I have not downloaded yet."

"Thanks . . . Alfred!"

Alfred almost hesitated with surprise when he heard Damian use his first name. Damian rarely did that. 'Things must be really moving along for him to call me by my first name.' Alfred went into his sleeping quarters, grabbed his laptop, the cart that contained his printer, and paper. He found the cable in the drawer and hooked up his camera and prepared to download the images. Once he turned on his laptop and started the photo program, the images began downloading.

Samantha walked into the kitchen to get something to eat. She knew the men would be able to find Tim faster than she could. Their link was tenuous right now. Samantha grabbed an apple and walked into the dining room and spotted Alfred setting up a printer and a laptop. She watched for a moment curious as to what he was doing.

Once his laptop and printer were set up, Alfred started looking through various images on his phone while he downloaded them to his laptop. 'Let's see, which one should I use? That one does not show all of Master Timothy's face. And his eyes aren't open. There must be a better one here somewhere. Ah, here is the photo that Jason shared with me. It was during their shopping trip.'

"Hey Al, what are you up to?"

Alfred was nearly startled out of his wits. He had not seen Samantha come in. "I am to create a flier for Master Bruce to pass out inregards to Master Timothy. It is about time."

Samantha noticed the images that Alfred was searching through. "Ah . . . I kind of failed to mention that Tim went through sort of a growth spurt. He should look about seven or eight now."

"Seven or eight? Oh dear. I think the only photographs I have of Master Timothy are ones where he is much older or these. I might have a few of them from when his parents attended charity functions, but they wouldn't be of any use. Oh wait, Master Timothy's old photo albums from his parent's house. I believe they are in the photo section of the library. Can you help me search for one?"

Samantha nodded. They headed over to the library and went to look for the photo albums.

"Now let me see . . . Master Damian used a few of them to create a custom bulletin board for master Timothy when he was recovering from two gunshot wounds from Black Mask. They must be located over here." Alfred pulled an album off the shelf. "Check those two, please."

"How many photo albums do you have?"

"This whole section is devoted to photographs, ever since photography was introduced, The Wayne family has an extensive collection."

Alfred went up to a shelf and looked at the albums. There was one that was solid brown, but on the binding down at the bottom was a Golden D. He took it off the shelf and opened it up. The inside cover read 'To Drake, this is your life book. Add to it for every year that you grow.' Alfred flipped through the pages of the book. There were photos of Tim through out it, from Tim as an infant until the present day.

"Oh my, I don't believe I've seen this one before."

"I . . . I think...Damian put this together." Samantha saw on every page with a picture there were doodles around it and then as you went on, the doodles got more intricate. Bigger, better, as if to show that Tim was growing strong as an individual.

"I wonder when he started this?" Alfred questioned. "Master Damian . . . I swear, that boy surprises you when you least expect it."

"You're correct on that." Samantha flipped to the last page that had a picture on it. It was Damian and Tim. They were playing a video game. They looked so happy together in it. 'Damian needs to look at this. See that Tim is his big brother as well. He could go to him for anything.'

"Is there an image of Master Timothy when he was about 7 or 8?"

"Yes, and he's looking right at the camera. It must be a school picture." Samantha showed Alfred the age on the picture. It was seven. 'He's so cute.'

"Wonderful. Let's take the book back to the dining area. I can scan that image and replace it in the album."

"I shall print one as proof and you can give it to Master Bruce for review."

Samantha followed Alfred back into the dining area, carrying the photo album. She was interested in Tim's baby pictures. 'My Caine will look like him growing up. It would be like Tim can watch his childhood again.' She thought. "Okay Alfred."

Alfred scanned Tim's picture, designed a flier, and printed out a copy. Alfred handed Samantha the printed copy and she took it to Bruce.

Bruce pulled out a map of downtown Gotham and planned on what areas to begin searching. "We can eliminate these businesses here," Bruce said. He pulled out a marker and circled the apartment buildings around those businesses. "These are the apartment buildings."

"What about these?" Damian questioned.

"Those are hotels," Dick answered. "I doubt they would be keeping Tim in a hotel. That would get expensive, especially with these ones here."

"Let's make a list of the apartments and condos and their addressed. Alfred will want to be involed in the search as well."

"Bruce," Samantha came in with the flier and held it out for Bruce to see. "What do you think of this?"

"That's Tim? He's not four-years old."

"Yeah, I forgot to tell you that the pain was sort of like a growth spurt, since Tim didn't cry out for someone to stop."

"A growth spurt?" Bruce questioned. "Then the de-aging could be wearing off."

"That's good news," Dick said.

"And bad," Jason pointed out. "How will he explain it?"

"Tim will think of something," Bruce replied.

Samantha nodded.

"Still, this flier should make it easier for finding him. Someone might begin to recognize him."

"I hope some one does."

Continues with Part 38: Aging Up Once More