A/N: Hey there, everyone. It's been quite a long time. I'd like to apologize for my very long absence. Life has gotten extremely busy, which drew my attention away from my stories entirely. I don't have as much time to work on these as I would like, but recently I've sat down to try and work on what I have so far. You guys have been so supportive that I didn't want to leave you wondering too much. That being said, I haven't looked at this chapter all that closely, so I apologize for any mistakes that I didn't catch.

I will do my best to write for this story especially, whenever I have the chance. I hope you all haven't lost interest, and if this chapter isn't as good as the others I do apologize again. Let's hope I can find more time to write, because I really do like what I have planned for these characters.

Thank you for all of your feedback and support! It encourages me to keep going through the hard times.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics.

Bruce Wayne never panicked.

He was a firm believer that in order to act accordingly, he needed to keep a cool and clear head. Even in his most distraught moments, using anger or vengeance as a reason to fight never ended well. No matter the situation, Bruce forced himself to think logically, to calculate every move in order to stop the worst from occurring. Only once had Bruce Wayne ever truly panicked in his adult life, and that day had ended in flames and a broken boy.

Batman couldn't afford to have such a fear in his veins. He was fear itself, he was the dark protector of Gotham. Every time he stumbled upon a particularly dangerous crime scene or situation, he had to not be blinded by sheer adrenaline. He had to use his head and not allow emotion to get to him. That being said, Batman never panicked.

But he was getting dangerously close to it this time.

He had been off-world, dealing with the Justice League and international problems. Nobody had expected them to get so deeply involved, and certainly they didn't expect that the case would cut off their interaction from Earth itself. By the time Bruce was able to return to Gotham, the Joker had been out of Arkham for an entire week. That alone would have been bad enough, but then Bruce had another realization. This one slammed him into a brick wall of fear, and he had to stamp down on it before it sent him spiraling into a place that he didn't need to enter.

He couldn't contact Tim.

It didn't take long for him to discover that his partner had seemingly disappeared without a trace. Alfred had worriedly explained that Tim never came to the manor, even though he had intended to come back to the city. Bruce called the Titans, only to receive confirmation that he had left and returned to Gotham. Tim hadn't checked in with his friends since then, and had left them all wondering what was happening across the country. Every contact that had a connection to the boy the Bat contacted, and all gave replies he didn't want to hear: No one had seen or heard from Tim Drake.

Bruce had then started his near-frantic search, going straight to the sight of an explosion that he had missed by a few days. The sight of it threatened to pull him back to another explosion, another dreadful night full of his own mistakes. The more he did his own search, the more he feared he'd be pulling his partner's broken body out from under the destruction, even when the police assured him no bodies had been found. But, to his slight relief and overall frustration, there was no evidence in the rubble; any clue that had been there was long gone. All that he found was the GPS tracker cut out of the Robin suit, and it was enough to make his stomach churn. Other than that, both the Joker and Robin left no hint to their whereabouts.

Batman now sat in front of the large computer screen in the cave, his hands clasped tightly in front of him, elbows on the keyboard. How long he'd been staring at the multitude of security feeds he had all over the city he wasn't sure; it could have been hours and it might have been days. Inside his mind it became harder and harder to focus on a simple missing person case when he had to put Tim's face on the cover. If only he had told Tim to stay with the Titans until his return, if only he'd made it specifically clear that he would, under no circumstances, leave his base of operations or the manor. And why had Tim even gone after the Joker in the first place?

No, Tim knew better than that. Batman had never had this problem with Tim before, in fact he was the most obedient partner that he'd ever had. Tim did not test his boundaries, he did not ask for much more than he was given. The most he'd ever asked was to be a part of the Titans, and since that day his requests were few and far between, and nothing as major as that. Tim would not have gone after the Joker on his own while knowing Batman's orders. Something had happened to get his partner in the crossfire.

His partner-why did he keep saying that? Maybe it wasn't in writing yet, but this was Bruce's son who was missing. He hadn't brought up the suggestion to Tim yet since his father's death was so recent, but he had for a long time looked upon the boy as his own. The adoption papers were sitting in his desk in the manor, ready to be signed whenever he got the courage to talk to Tim about the possibility. He'd do it as soon as the boy was safe, Bruce decided, in an effort to keep the panic at bay. It gave him a goal, something to look forward to, and kept him from thinking anything else.

"Batman. You there?" The voice flooded through the comm link, snapping Bruce from his thoughts.

"Nightwing," Batman greeted, forcing his voice to sound business-as-usual. "What is it?"

"Alfred called," Dick responded simply, and Bruce could just see the frown on his eldest son's face. "How long has he been missing?"

"Four days now," Batman replied, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I only returned yesterday, and so far I haven't found anything."

"Think it's connected to…?" Nightwing trailed off, and with good reason. No one ever wanted to bring up a connection between a Robin and the Joker, not ever again. But it was the reality of their current situation, and Bruce had to do his best to keep his eyes forward.

"I'm not entirely convinced," Batman replied, "The GPS tracker was cut out of the suit. I don't think the Joker would think it through that clearly. But he's the only lead we have so far."

"Yeah?" Nightwing said, and then there was the distinct sound of a punch being thrown and connected with flesh. "So what if I tell you I'm about to do some serious interrogating to one of his handy men?"

Batman rose from his seat. Leave it to Dick to come racing to the city the moment he heard his family was in trouble. He probably had left Bludhaven without a second thought. How long he'd been investigating in Gotham he didn't bother to ask. Batman would take all the help he could get, even if he wouldn't verbally admit it. "Send me your coordinates."

"Already on it," Nightwing replied. "Not to rush you, but I'd appreciate it if you hurried. I'm kind of in the mood to get to business."

Batman had to agree with that.

"Enough of this," Nightwing finally snapped as they stood amid the slums of a building by the ports. They'd been interrogating their capture for about forty-five minutes, and he hadn't given them much information. Granted, Nightwing had been doing the interrogating the majority of the time before Bruce had shown up, he just hadn't mentioned that. He figured he could give the guy a chance to confess before Batman made an entrance.

But the man had been stubborn, stuttering but not giving up anything useful. Batman walked over to where the accomplice was bound and lifted him off his feet with ease, slamming him into the wall so hard the building seemed to tremble. "Where is the Joker? What has he done with Robin?"

"I-I don't know!" The man's eyes darted around the room, as if begging for a rescue. Batman moved in closer, forcing the criminal to look nowhere but into the depths of the cowl. "I didn't even know we had Robin! I wasn't in on this whole plan!"

"Then where's the Joker?" Nightwing repeated, arms crossed as he scowled at the man. "We'll go and ask him ourselves."

"No one knows!" The man almost squealed as Batman lifted him off his feet, holding him against the wall by his shirt collar. "H-he disappeared after the explosion. N-no one has heard from him! I swear!"

"So he's underground," Nightwing muttered, running a hand through his black hair. "Great. A maniac on the loose and Robin gone."

Batman narrowed his eyes at the pathetic sight squirming in his grasp. He drew the man closer to his face, and spoke lowly, a threatening edge to his tone. "You better be giving me all you know."

"I swear!" The man closed his eyes, trembling in the Bat's grasp. "I'm telling you all I know!"

Nightwing didn't even bother to watch Batman knock the man out cold, pacing the length of the room they were in. This was exactly how the interrogation had gone before Batman intervened, except now it appeared no one knew of a plan to get Robin. He blew out a breath and turned to face the Bat, who stood staring down at the man in obvious frustration. Obvious to Nightwing simply because he knew his father well enough. "Looks like we're going to have to go straight to the source for this one."

"We'll find him," Batman said in that stern, no-questions-allowed tone. "Joker won't stay hidden for long. He always finds a way to put on a show. For now we spend our time trying to find his whereabouts."

"That an invitation to stay in Gotham?" Nightwing raised his eyebrows, avoiding the real words he wanted to ask. It was Bruce's way of asking for help, without actually saying it. He just expected Nightwing to follow his lead, and he was right in that thinking. Dick would follow his orders without question if that meant they would find Tim.

"It's still your home, whether you live here or not," Batman answered, glancing to the window. "For the time being, I suggest you stay here. We can spend the rest of the night on the search for more of Joker's accomplices. One of them may just give us at least one piece of useful intel."

Nightwing didn't have high hopes for that tactic, and he doubted that Batman did either. It was unspoken, but Dick understood where his father was coming from. As long as they kept occupied for the remainder of the night, they wouldn't feel so lost. They wouldn't feel like they were sitting around and doing nothing, which was the worst thing either of them could do. It would drive them crazy if they didn't get to work on at least trying to find somewhere to search. "Robin is a smart kid. He'll be okay until we find him."

The encouragement didn't reach either of them. Tim's predecessor had been smart too, intelligent in both street wits and logic. But it hadn't saved him when it came to the Joker. Not much could when dealing with a lunatic. Batman didn't say anything to that, but suddenly his gaze snapped to the side, almost causing Nightwing to jump. He reached for his escrima sticks and brought them to his hands just as Batman darted out the door. Nightwing ran after him, but didn't have far to go. The Bat stopped just at the hole in the wall at the end of the corridor where they had entered. Nightwing peered out into the night, and saw not even a shadow moving in the distance.

"See something?" Nightwing hadn't, but it had to have been something if it caused Batman to jump like that.

"Apparently not," Batman muttered, and shook his head. "We've wasted enough time here. Let's get to work."

Jason really needed to stop with the close calls.

He had been spending the majority of his time with Tim, keeping the boy company and a watch over him in case someone tried to ruin his plan. For once things were going right for him, and he intended to keep it that way. Tim didn't say much to him, despite the curiosity Jason knew was nagging at his mind. If anything they made brief conversation about topics that didn't run too deep, in between all the doctors and nurses coming to run tests and check his vitals.

Eventually though, Jason felt the need to step out and do some investigating. He hadn't heard any news about Batman's return, but felt inclined to check out the crime scene where he'd found Tim anyways. He'd purposely gone back there and left the tracker for Bruce to find, knowing that the authorities wouldn't have picked up on it. If it was gone, he'd know that Batman was back in town and surely onto the case.

The first thing he noticed when he arrived at the scene was that the docks were oddly quiet. It could have just been the fact that the cops had been all over the area recently, but even then he had caught sight of people on the pier, watching the investigation unfold. Now there was an uneasy quiet over everything that dared to send a shiver down Jason's spine. Luckily, it didn't.

He made his way over to the rubble, and sure enough the tracker was gone. That information was really all he needed to know in order to decide what move he would make next. But as he rose to his feet he turned his head at the echo of a sound he was sure couldn't have been made without an exertion of force. His own wonder took over and he crept to the building, staying low and within the shadows as much as possible.

The voices were clear to him, and he peered around the corner and into the room where they came from. There stood Nightwing and the Bat himself, clearly in the middle of an interrogation. He smiled underneath his helmet at the mention of the Joker; so they hadn't caught on yet that Robin's disappearance was due to an outside source. More power to him, although now he had a limited amount of time to make his next move.

He drew away once he heard Batman's plan, inching his way out of sight when somehow the Bat's ears caught the sound of him in the shadows. Jason didn't know how, but even though Batman was human he seemed to have superhuman senses. Freezing in place for a moment, Jason knew he really didn't have the option of staying still and risking discovery. He bolted down the hall and dove out the hole he had entered, and scrambled to the side where he attempted to mold himself to the darkness. He was balancing on a rocky ledge that dropped straight down into the water, and he held his breath as he heard the Bat stop at the entrance.

It was possible the Bat wouldn't think it a trick of the eye and start scanning the area. Jason held his breath, hoping his luck hadn't run out just yet, and nearly shouted in relief when Batman ordered Nightwing to come away with him. Something in the universe had his back, which was new to him, but he wasn't about to complain either. As soon as he was certain the Bat and Golden Boy had gone Jason made his way out of the area, shaking off the rush he'd gotten at almost being discovered. That was enough risk taking for now.

From there he returned to the hospital, a bag slung over his shoulder. He pushed open the door to Tim's room and the boy looked up at him, his expression wide awake. A Bat habit, Jason knew, to be up in the night hours even when they weren't patrolling. It was a system that was hard to break. "How are you feeling, kid?"

Tim stared at him like he was choosing his words carefully for such a simple question. Maybe he was analyzing Jason's words to see if there was any threat in them, or to try and get two steps ahead. Joke was on him though; the question meant nothing more than a regular inquiry. Finally Tim answered, "Fine. I can get around on my own."

"Glad to hear that," Jason responded and approached the end of the bed. "Cause I'm not about to carry you all the way out of this city."

With that he dropped the bag onto the bed by the boy's feet. Tim sent him an inquisitive blue stare, as if wondering if it was a trick. Jason waved his arm over it as an invitation, and Tim slowly reached out and pulled the bag to him, unzipping it and pulling out the contents. Jason had been kind enough to pack the boy some essentials: clothes, a toothbrush, and at the bottom the tattered remains of his Robin suit.

Tim didn't pull that out, but did look up at Jason with an unreadable stare. There looked to be a tinge of gratefulness in it, along with suspicion. But he did not bark out questions, he did not attempt to interrogate the secretive man before him. In fact, he looked like he was waiting for some sort of instruction.

"Get dressed and pack your things," Jason said with a small smirk. "We leave at dawn."