Batman sat in the cave. His head in his hands, the league were at the Watch Tower they had taken the kids there so they wouldn't have to be alone after the horrific day. Kid Flash had said

"So the only way you'd take us to the orbiting space thingy was if one of us got hurt? No thanks!" and he'd run off, of course Flash had followed and convinced him to board the tower. But they could tell the kids were pissed.

Right now he could care less about the kids though…he cared about his kid. That's it. Alfred had discreetly turned on the radio about an hour ago to try and sooth the troubled man.

It must've been in a place so dark you couldn't feel the light
Reachin' for you through that stormy cloud
Now here we are gathered in our little hometown
This can't be the way you meant to draw a crowd

Oh, why? That's what I keep askin'
Was there anything I could have said or done?
Oh, I had no clue you were masking
A troubled soul, God only knows what went wrong
And why you'd leave the stage in the middle of a song

Oh, why? There's no comprehending
And who am I to try to judge or explain?
Oh, but I do have one burning question
Who told you life wasn't worth the fight?
They were wrong, they lied, and now you're gone, and we cried

After the song the radio became a smoldering pile of bits and pieces, it sparked and smoked. Thank god it was breakable. The man retrieved his batarang; and sat heavily at the bat computer running every lead on the Riddler he could find. After several hours of searching he had found only one thing of interest.

A newspaper clipping about an old beach house. Old and abandoned. The Riddler had shown interest in it…even willing to pay honest cash for it, but with his reputation and record the cops and commissioner forbid the sale.

The Riddler had been outraged.

"Master Bruce"

Batman jumped in his seat, and spun to face his butler

"Shit Alfred" he said placing a hand on his heart.

"I'm sorry sir, but did you find anything on Dick?" Batman sighed

"Maybe, but probably no" there was a thoughtful silence,

"Bruce-oh my! What happened to the radio?"

"Whaddya think?"

"Hmm. A song that reminded you of Dick?" there was no response from the bat. Alfred softly smiled and walked away after placing a reassuring hand on Bruce's shoulder.

"Bruce?" Robin said walking into the Bat cave, he was clutching a coffee and he set it in front of the man "Sorry, I-I heard you having a nightmare" Batman looked at his ward

"I'm fine, Robin" his clawed gloves tapped furiously on the keyboard,

"Well…okay but Bruce? I had a nightmare about my parent's death again tonight and I wondered that if I needed to talk about it, if I could talk to you? I mean we're family now so if there was a nightmare we could talk right?"

"Robin why do I have the feeling you're not talking about yourself?" the man looked at his son, Robin smiled softly and stirred Bruce's coffee.

"I remember when I was 6 I had a terrible nightmare, my dad was the only one there at the time so he made me a cup of coffee…ha, I was so wired that neither of us could sleep!" Batman chuckled

"My dad used to make me tea" Batman said "it had honey and herbs in it" Batman chuckled "only he could make it that way…it was so soothing that it would just put me too sleep all of my worries would just slip away" Robin smiled and pulled the mans cowl off.

"Night Bruce"

"Night Dick"

Batman scrubbed his face with his hands and reached for the coffee.

Bringing it to his nose he could faintly smell honey and something that smelled like herb. He sipped it and smiled.

"I should have guessed Robin, I should have guessed"

Robin must have dozed off to the rocking off the boat, when he awoke he was lying on the cold hard ground, blindfolded, gagged and handcuffed. His limbs screamed in agony.

"B-batman?" he said squinting in the darkness of his blindfold.

"Robin I'm here-shhhhh."

"Batman? Dad?"

"Robin shhhhh-I'll never let anything happen to you, ok? Do you hear me? When your in danger know that I'm only a few steps behind ready to pull you out, you can trust me to that Robin, I will be there, I will ALWAYS be there"

"Yeah? So where are you now? You aren't going to pull me out of this one are you?"

"Robin, my little bird…please-stay-stay strong we're coming for you okay?"

"Yeah? Then where are you dad, WHERE? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"

The Riddler watched his pet scream out. A smile growing on his thin face, this kid was crazier than he thought… and he liked crazy.

Reviews are loved. sorry it took me so long to add. more coming.