Authors Note: Sorry this took so long. Fanfiction wasn't letting me upload this for a few days, then I forgot about it and just remembered today. I was like: Oh yeah, I wrote another chapter last month. Hope you enjoy it ... it's really like ... kinda' boring. XD

"I wake from my sleep and face the day, but I have to hope to reach you some day. I cannot go on, take other steps, because my way's not easy to go. No, even though I do really want to see you I have to take my time. Spend some days alone - being by myself - will be all I do. Thinking of you made me cry, so my eyes they were filled with tears. And all I've got is my will to be with you again. Thinking of you made me cry, so many times. All I have my will to be with you some day."

- InuYasha 'My Will' -

Oh Silent Prayer of My Thoughts

By: The BatThing

Tim pushed the door open, slowly – ever so slowing. He knew what waited inside, or rather who. And he knew that the moment he saw the person waiting for him, he knew that it would signify that he was really just as lost as ever. He didn not even have the hope, now, that Bruce and he would be reunited and go back to anything close to normal. The boy paused, took a deep breath, and then forced himself to take that step into the room and raise his eyes.

Bruce.

The man was standing, gazing at a portrait hanging in the room, he didn not even notice that the boy behind him.

Considering the options Tim cleared his throat, inwardly flinching as he watched the man he considered a father turn to face him. It were as if nothing had happened, everything were normal. The boy had to force himself not to run at the man, expressing how much he had been scared, how so very scared. "Hi." Tim managed.

Bruce was looking at him, cool blue eyes studying the small figure before him. "Hi." Then a smile, a very unusual smile – almost confused. "So you're Timothy."

"That'd be me." Tim managed, his voice shook slightly and he could feel himself starting to go into a fit of shivers. He took another deep breath, closing his eyes and forcing on a smile. This wasn't the time to panic, not now. The boy rephrased his words lamely. "That's me."

"Yes." An awkward pause followed as Bruce rubbed a hand against his jaw – a frown starting. He looked flustered, and for good reason. He had just been told that he had an adopted child that he had no idea about. Not just one, two. The fact of the matter was that he hadn't believed it at first, not till he was shown newspaper clippings, certificates of adoptions, pictures, and Leslie assured him again and again. "They said that you were missing?"

"I was, I – er – I didn't want to be found. I, um, I knew you'd come back." He sighed, thinking through his lie as he spoke. "People kept telling me that you'd died and that I shouldn't think stuff like you'd come back, but I couldn't stop myself. You know? And the last thing I wanted was for them to put me under someone's care that I didn't know. So I figured I lived on the streets before, I could do it again. Besides, I knew you weren't dead. I knew you'd come back." The last part seemed a bit hopeful, but Tim couldn't help it. Something in him was waiting for his words to awake his mentor.

"This must be a disappointment for you, it has to be hard." Bruce whispered. "My not remembering anything about you."

It was as if the room had suddenly dropped twenty degrees in temperature. Tim couldn't stop himself from shivering, his jaw buckling. He lowered his head, closing his eyes, and his throat burning. The tears being held back warned a breaking point.

Bruce moved towards the boy. His words were strange. "I'm so sorry, Tim. I wish I remembered you."

Tim nodded, shrugging like it didn't matter when really … it mattered so much. "S'ok."

The man brought the boy to him, taking the teenager into a hug. "It's not ok; you're probably hurting a lot from this."

The boy went stiff, he could smell Bruce, smell the old familiar smell of the man that he had put all his hope on. Clenching his jaw tightly, he tried to 'tough it out'. But he didn't want to be tough anymore; he didn't want to go back to blindly following a dream. It hurt too much to discover that the dream wouldn't come true. Slowly the boy returned the hug, smaller arms going around the man. "You were supposed to r-remember me."

And the tears came.

Gordon checked the clock once more, and then made his way over to the phone. "That boy better have a good reason why he's out this late." It was 4:30 in the morning, hardly the time that he'd allow the boy wonder to roam around the city, even for the Boy Wonder. The boy wasn't answering to any of his calls – something was up.

Picking up the phone he dialed Leslie's number, figuring she might have possibly heard from him. "Hello? I would like to speak to a Miss. Thompson."

"Commissioner Gordon?" The voice smoothed out. "This is she; you're probably calling about Quinn, right?"

"Yes. Is he there?"

Leslie sighed, pausing a moment before answering the question. "The fault is mine, you see, Quinn and I go pretty far back – I knew his father."

Silence.

"I'm sorry, yes, he is here, and we've been … talking and discussing a few things."

Gordon didn't want to sound snappy or pushy, but Robin could have at least had the decency to call him about staying with the woman. "Do you know what time he's planning to come home? I've been up worrying about it for hours. Perhaps he's there so I could talk with him for a moment?"

"Um, I'm afraid he's asleep." The woman hated lying for the secret, and was amazed how easily she was able to do so. "It's my fault; I should have had him call you. It's just that we talked so late and I told him he could stay the night if needed. I guess he might have figured you'd be asleep it was so late."

"Well, tell him I'll stop by and pick him up in the morning then. Are you at the clinic?"

Leslie grimaced. "Um, actually I could drop him off at the house in the morning, if you'd like. I'm at my house." Lies. "And it'd be easier. I'll have him there before you go to work, if you'd like."

The man smiled. "That'd be fine. If he could get here around 7:30, if it's not much trouble."

"None at all. And thank you commissioner, for taking such good care of him."

"It's a pleasure."

Leslie hung up the phone and covered her eyes. How perfectly awful this situation was. Gordon loved Tim, he needed him. It was easy to see why the man would come attached to a boy who was struggling in the same manner – Robin had probably healed Gordon. What now? Bruce was back, and Bruce would want the boy.

Leaning back in her chair, the woman breathed - how perfectly awful.

They had told Bruce, the next morning, that Tim had to go back and collect his things, think things over – and the man said he understood. So they set off, the only two people left in Gotham who knew about the Batman's secret.

"What are you planning to do?" Leslie questioned. "You know if you don't like with Bruce people will start to wonder. He can't just ignore the fact that you're his ward, he wants you back. And even if he did agree to let you go back to 'life on the streets' he'd still have to keep up his reputation and hire a search party. Sooner or later you'll be discovered and what then?"

"I figure I can have two lives."

"Excuse me?"

Robin turned, looking at Leslie with a small smile. "What can I do Leslie? I thought about it last night, and came up with a solution … kind of."

Leslie frowned. "That doesn't sound promising."

"Well, then listen. I'll need your help to make it work though, ok? I figure Bruce will want me to go to school, so during my 'school time' I'll head over to the station as Robin and have Harvey tutor me. Then, once school is out, I'll tell Gordon that I'm helping you out – after all, you told him you know the secret, he'd understand. Then while I'm 'helping you out' I can go to the manor and stick around till night. At which time I'll rotate. One night I'll work as Robin and the next I'll sleep at Gordon's." The boy took a deep breath, and then smiled proudly. "You can't say that's a pretty good plan."

"You're right, I can't." The woman said. She didn't want to be such a rain cloud, but it couldn't be helped. "Why can't you just tell Gordon that you found your father?"

"If I tell him that all he has to do is put two and two together. That's why. He's not an idiot, he knows that Batman has to have money – and Bruce just came back from the dead. He'll put two and two together when I say that Batman's back." There was a pause. "Besides, he needs me, Les."

The woman shook her head, becoming unhappy as they approached the Gordon's residence. "All it takes is Bruce walking in on you at night and discovered you're not there, or what if he calls the school? What then? How are you going to make him think you're actually attending a school?"

The boy shrugged. "I can hack; Barbara taught me how to hack. I'll just delete any records they have of me being there."

"It's your old school. I doubt they'd not notice."

"Then they'll call and ask where I am."

"And they'll talk to Bruce?"

"No, they'll talk to me. I'll change the contact numbers at the school, make it my cell phone number, and tell them that I don't go there – and ask if I'm in the files. They'll of course say no, and I'll say I'm being home schooled. They'll buy it." He stifled a yawn. "Speaking of which, I need a cell phone. It's on my list of things to do."

Leslie chewed her lower lip. "And if Bruce discovers your missing one night?"

Tim rolled down the window only to roll it back up. He turned to face the woman again and gave another smile. "Then I tell him I'm out and about. I'm a teenager, it's what I do. Besides, I doubt he'll check on me while I sleep."

"What are you going to tell Gordon in the morning, when you're not at his house?" The woman turned to Tim with a questioning expression. "School won't start till at least 8, what then?"

"I'll tell Jim I want to come in later, seeing how I'm helping you out a lot. He'll let me come in later, and it's not like he checks to make sure I'm in bed each time he wakes up. He respects my privacy."

"You can't live like this, Tim." Leslie told him. "Sooner or later you'll burn out or someone will catch onto your lies. You can't live that kind of lie and not get into trouble."

The boy nodded his agreement. "I know that, but I also know soon enough Bruce will remember. In which case, he'll think of something and understand that I have to hang with Jim. And soon enough I can tell Jim that Batman is back and he won't connect it with Bruce."

The doctor pulled into the parking lot where Gordon and Tim lived. "'Soon enough' might be a year or more, Tim. You can't do that for a year."

"I have to."

Leslie fumed. "This stupid, idiotic secret! It's not worth it, Tim, it's not worth it. You could tell Gordon, it's not like he'd go public with the situation. He cares about you and about the secret, he'd understand."

"Sure he would, but then what good was any of this?" The boy opened the car door, stepping out. "The secret is everything to me, Leslie. You saw Bruce, what he's like without the secret. I don't want to live that life. I don't want to become a normal kid, I've been normal, and let me tell you – after being Robin I don't think I'd live being that again."

The woman watched as the door slammed and sighed. She bit back the urge to yell at the Boy Wonder walked towards the entrance of the building.

Life for Robin, the Boy Wonder, was about to become even more complicated.

"Hey!" Tim called out as he closed the door behind him, smelling the scent of eggs. He couldn't help but frown. He was home, and that was the problem. He made his way into the kitchen, leaning against the counter as Gordon turned to glance his way. "Sorry I didn't call last night."

The commissioner made a face that seemed to stress disappointment. He quirked an eyebrow and gave his head a little tilt. "Well, you only kept me in wonder for a few hours."

Robin blinked at the comment then sighed. "Something came up, and I forgot."

"Yes. I know."

"Ok, ok, it's my own stupid fault; I won't do it again – yadda, yadda." He gave a small smile as he made his way to the refrigerator. "Leslie said she told you about her knowing Batman."

"She did." Gordon removed the eggs from the oven top and scoped them onto a plate, glancing at the boy watching. "You look like you didn't eat last night – or sleep. Leslie said that you two had to talk?"

"Um, yeah, about that, well – Les needs some help at the clinic, and I volunteered my time. It won't be much, just every afternoon for a few hours. You know? I figure I can make it work." He pulled out the juice and unscrewed the top, peering into the contents. "Does this have pulp?"

Jim placed his hands on his hips. "Yes, it does have pulp – which is fine. Now back to this volunteering stuff. What times are we talking?"

Putting the juice back in the 'fridge, the boy shrugged. "Like, um, 3 to 9 or something? What? It's not like it's anything that bad, besides, if I didn't help out at the clinic I'd probably hang out at the station and do stuff there. She really could use my help, you know."

"No, I don't know. What I do know is that you need to consider schooling in all of this – not to mention your Robin activity."

"I did, geesh Jim, I'm not a dolt. I figure I can do tutoring still, Bullock only teaches me for a few hours, right? So I even have some time in between. And Robin, well, you say only every other night, and that can stay the same. It's not like this will change anything. I just won't be home as much, is all." Suddenly the boy felt like his parents were divorced, weekends with Jim and weekday with Bruce. Tim hid a smile. If other kids could do it, well, so could he.

"I suppose its fine, so long as you promise me something." The man put a plate of eggs before the boy.

"Yeah?"

Jim eyed the boy with a look of distrust – almost. "You call me if those plans change. If something like last night happens again, well, volunteer work will end till further notice. Got that?"

All at once Tim felt himself coil back inside from the commissioner. He didn't like being given orders like that, not from Jim. Not now, and probably not ever. It was as if Jim were more of an Uncle figure, a relative – and the boy had to hold back the urge to fight what the man said. He took a big bite of his eggs and smiled. "Sure."

"What'd you do with the juice?"

"I told you, I don't like pulp."

"I hear you're takin' on extra work." Bullock sneered as he closed the book with a snap. He looked a Robin with a doubtful glance and then shrugged his shoulders – acting indifferent. "Think yer' cut out for that."

"You aren't the first to underestimate me, Bullock. I seem to get a lot of 'are you sure' questions lately." Tim answered as he slipped his books into his backpack with a frown.

The large man leaned back in his chair, happy the tutoring lesson was over. While the boy was bright he didn't take quickly to any of the school subjects. It was hard to keep the teenager's attention on the work. "Maybe 'dat's because people realize you're not a superhuman. Last I checked Batman and his partners were still human."

"Who says that?"

Bullock didn't look amused.

Robin got to his feet, heaving the back pack up and slipping it on with a half smile. "Have you seen Superman lately? He totally looks human, what's to say I'm not a superdude holding back my powers? Huh?"

"You bruise and break, 'dats what says."

"Hmm."

The day at the station passed by with ease, and Robin even had time to enjoy going out with Justin to get some food that they could bring back for the other cops working. The two talked with ease, finding each other's company pleasant, and at times Tim couldn't help but feel a dull pain as he was constantly reminded of Dick. It was right before Robin was preparing to head towards Leslie's that Gordon stopped him.

"Leslie called."

"Uh, she did?" Tim felt butterflies rise up. He hoped that Leslie hadn't turned him in, said that the boy was lying – that he was tricking Gordon yet again for the secret. The boy cringed as he waited.

Gordon nodded. "Said she'd pick you up, and not to start out till she comes."

Phew. "Oh, ok. Thanks, I'll probably see you tonight, or something."

"Yep."

To be continued…