Despite all of their best efforts, Bruce quickly outlawed any form of vigilante work, even just working on cases, which Tim thought was really stupid.

"There's nothing that could really go wrong," Tim tried to reason with him as they finished up lunch. "I mean, think about it. We won't be leaving the Cave. We won't be training with weapons. We won't even be talking with you over comms when you're out on patrol. It's totally safe and perfectly fine for us to be working on cases in the Cave."

"Totally safe," Dick agreed hopefully.

"Perfectly fine," Duke said with a nod.

Bruce rubbed his forehead with one hand. "You will not be working on cases. You won't even be in the Cave."

"Wait, what?" Jason demanded.

"No children having anything to do with vigilantism," Bruce said firmly.

"That's not fair," Tim objected.

"Just because we don't look like much doesn't mean we can't do much," Jason said hotly, voice getting louder and louder with each word. "I bet we can do all the stuff we used to do. Being kids can't affect too much!"

Bruce looked over at Damian.

Tim followed his gaze.

With great concentration, Damian was using his fork to draw swirling lines in his mashed potatoes. He looked up, the tip of his tongue sticking slightly out of his mouth with his focus.

"Uh," Dick said. "What're you doing?"

"Nothing," Damian said quickly. He looked back down at his plate, frowned, and forcefully smashed his drawing with his fork. Bits of mashed potato splattered out from under the fork, spraying across the table and across Damian's own face. Damian's eyes widened, then crossed, looking at a blob of potato on the tip of his nose.

Dick coughed, clearly trying not to laugh.

Tim didn't hesitate. He burst out in a fit of giggles.

Damian scowled. Between the roundness of his cheeks and the bits of food all over him, it didn't look even slightly intimidating.

"We still don't know all of what Baby Doll's powers did in combination with the Applicable Technologicals device," Bruce said, drawing the conversation back around. "Until you're returned to normal, no vigilante work of any kind."

Tim stopped giggling. He opened his mouth to complain.

Jason beat him to it, jumping up from his chair. "You can't say that!"

Bruce blinked at him. "It's for safety."

"It's for suppression!" Jason snapped, and to the alarm of Tim and probably everybody else, tears began rolling down Jason's cheeks. Jason sniffled, bunching his hands into fists. "You're being stupid, and a dictator, and mean, and a terrible person, and-"

"Whoa, whoa," Dick interjected, looking almost ready to cry as well. "I don't like it either, but Jason, you've got to chill."

"I'm chill!" Jason screamed. "I'm really chill!"

"No, you're not," Dick objected.

Jason's face, already pinking up from crying, went full-on red, and his mouth dropped open in preparation to scream again.

"Okay, that's enough," Bruce said before Jason could say anything in response. Jason looked even more furious, but then Bruce continued, saying, "Jason, I'm sorry."

Jason's mouth clicked shut. He looked stunned.

"I didn't realize this was going to be so impactful for all of you," Bruce said, looking around. "I think we can come to a compromise, but it might take some time to figure out, and we don't have that time right now. The doctor and social worker will be here soon, and we need to be ready for them. We can talk about this at supper."

Jason hesitated. He scrubbed one hand across his cheeks, clearing the tears. "You promise?"

"I promise," Bruce said. "We'll figure it out together. In the meantime, though, Barbara and I need to talk about a few things that might come up. Will you all be okay in here?"

"We'll be right as rain," Steph chirped, looking way too thrilled at the idea.

Bruce glanced between Jason, whose face was still red and a little streaky with tears, Dick, who was frowning at Jason, and Damian, who was drawing in his mashed potatoes again. Bruce looked unconvinced.

"We'll be fine," Tim offered. "We can handle it."

Bruce sighed. "Okay. Alfred will let the doctor and social worker in, and he's working on a schedule on how they'll see each of you. Hopefully Barbara and I will be finished by the time they're getting done."

"And if not, we'll take a break," Barbara added, backing away from the table.

Bruce nodded and stood. "We'll take a break."

The two of them left the room.

"Sooo," Stephanie said mischievously, drawing the word out. "I hear it's harder for some of you to do things?"

Cass and Dick exchanged a glance.

"Dick can't tie his shoes," Duke said promptly and happily.

"And Damian can't tell time," Jason said, sniffling again.

"I can too!" Damian protested.

"No, you can't," Tim, Jason, and Duke said in unison.

Damian huffed.

"I wonder what else kids can't do," Steph said thoughtfully.

"Look it up," Cass suggested.

"Oh, yeah," Tim said. "That'd be good. We could figure out what we're probably gonna have trouble with. Let's look up childhood milestone stuff."

Steph pulled out her phone. "How old are you all?"

"I'm seven," Tim said immediately. "Look that up. Seven-year-old milestones."

Steph tapped at her phone, humming to herself.

After a couple of moments, Tim couldn't wait any more. "Let me see!"

Steph handed her phone over.

"Can ride a bike," Tim read. "Can dress themselves. Have a better-developed sense of time. Are developing empathy. Can likely…"

"What?" Steph asked when he paused.

Tim frowned. "Um."

"What?" Dick asked as well. "Is something wrong?"

"Uh. No?" Tim said.

"Then what?" Dick asked. "Can likely… Can likely what?"

Tim paused, trying to think of a way out of it.

He wasn't fast enough. Jason reached over and snatched the phone, sniffling and saying, "I bet it's something embarrassing."

"Not really?" Tim said awkwardly.

"Can likely articulate thoughts and feelings to be understood," Jason read. He looked up from the phone. "That's not really embarrassing. Why'd you stop?"

Tim hesitated. Finally, not coming up with a solution, he asked quietly, "Articulate?"

"Yeah?" Jason said in confusion. Then he got it. "Oh. Oh! You couldn't figure out that word, could you?"

Tim shook his head, laughing a little nervously. "Yeah, I couldn't read it. I had no clue what it said."

Jason cackled, handing the phone back to Tim, who took it gladly as Jason said, "Oh, wow. That's hilarious. Keep going, what else on here can't you read?"

Going through the websites on childhood milestones took them right up until Alfred ushered in two men, introducing them as the doctor and social worker. At the men's request, Alfred divided them into pairs, sending Cass and Jason to see the doctor in one of the offices first. Tim and Duke went with the social worker to a sitting room, and Damian and Dick stayed to hang out with Steph and Alfred in the dining room.

The social worker, who told them to call him "Miles," was nice enough. He asked some questions about if they felt safe with Bruce, if they felt like they needed anything they weren't getting at Wayne Manor, if they felt nervous or upset or anything like that and when and why and how. It was kind of boring, in Tim's opinion. He'd done this before, back when he was moving into Wayne Manor the first time when Jack was in a coma, and the second time, after Jack died, for that matter. It wasn't a big deal to him.

To Duke, it seemed to be more of a big deal. Duke kept fidgeting in his seat, shooting nervous glances between Tim and Miles. Eventually, though, Miles seemed to get enough information, and he let them go back to the dining room, telling them to send the next group to him as soon as Alfred was ready.

As soon as the door to the sitting room shut behind them, Duke blew out a long, noisy, tense breath.

"What's that about?" Tim asked, starting back toward the dining room.

"What's what about?" Duke asked, following him.

Tim imitated the long, noisy, tense breath. "That. What's that about?"

Duke shrugged. "I don't know."

"You sure?" Tim asked. "'Cause it seemed like you were going to freak out in there."

"I wasn't going to freak out," Duke said.

"Right," Tim said sarcastically.

Duke sighed. "I guess I was kind of worried. All those questions just made me feel like there was a wrong answer to each of them, like I could've messed it up."

"You couldn't have," Tim said.

"You think so?" Duke asked.

"Yeah," Tim said. "You're a smart dude. Besides, if you did mess something up, or give an answer Miles thought was wrong, it's not like anything would've happened."

"Anything other than maybe us being taken away from Bruce," Duke pointed out.

Tim stopped walking for a second. "Oh. I hadn't really thought of that."

Duke stopped walking too, looking nervous.

After a moment, Tim started walking again. "That wouldn't have happened. Bruce wouldn't let it. And there's no reason for it to happen anyway. So you don't have to worry."

"I guess," Duke said heavily, but he started walking again too, and they returned to the dining room to tell Alfred to send Dick and Damian to see Miles.

Soon after, Cass and Jason came back into the dining room, and Alfred sent Tim and Duke to see the doctor, who Jason informed them was called Harrison Jackson, which he seemed to think was beyond funny, given he kept repeating the name and laughing.

Dr. Jackson gave Tim and Duke a check-up, writing things down on a clipboard throughout. It was pretty boring, but thankfully, sooner rather than later, Dr. Jackson wrote one more thing down and said, "All right, that looks fine. You can send the last two in."

"That part wasn't so bad," Duke said as he and Tim headed back to the dining room. "And now it's done, so we're good."

Before Tim could respond in any way, an indignant yell came from the dining room.

"No way!"

Tim and Duke traded wide-eyed glances.

"Was that…" Duke began to ask.

"Dick?" Tim finished. "I think so."

Without another word, they hurried forward to the dining room.

"You can't make us!" Dick continued. "You can't make me!"

Bruce held his hands to his temples. "I won't be making you. The Gotham public system will be making you."

"Making him what?" Tim asked.

Dick whirled around, looking furious. "He said we're going to have to go to school!"

"Oh, that's all?" Duke asked, fully nonchalant. "We're kids, Dick. We have to."

"I'm not a kid!" Dick said.

Duke squinted at him. "Pretty sure you are right now."

"Yeah, right now, but not really!" Dick said.

Bruce sighed and crouched. "Dick, chum. We don't have a choice in this."

"We could all get emancipated," Tim offered.

Dick raised his eyebrows thoughtfully.

"Because that would work well," Steph said sarcastically. "Not."

Dick deflated. "Yeah. It wouldn't work."

"We'll have to make the best of it," Bruce suggested. "Barbara and I have already set up the schools."

"It was rough on short notice, but we were able to find a combined preschool-kindergarten for Dick and Damian, and an elementary school that would take Jason, Tim, and Duke, and a middle school for Cass," Barbara said. "At least that way, most of you will have someone in the same building."

Dick looked thoughtful. "Damian and I got into a combined school?"

"That may not be too bad," Damian said slowly.

Bruce smiled a little. "Good. All you have to do is tolerate it, after all. Everything will be fixed eventually."

"And then all will be normal, and I'll go back… To going to school," Duke joked. "Just at a different level. Such is the life of Duke Thomas, whether age fifteen or age nine."

Dick nodded. "At least I'm not you."

"Wow, thanks," Duke said, deadpan.

"You're welcome," Dick said, but he finally cracked a smile.