Dick stood in shock as he looked at the flaming remains of the warehouse he had sent Timmy to. He could've killed his little brother.

He probably killed one brother anyway.

Tim had held him back, keeping him from turning every rumble in search of Jason, saying that he wasn't there, that if the bomb went off, it was 'cause Jason had just let it.

After all, Jason was known for wanting to watch the world burn.

Tim was a crappy liar.

They searched anyway; there were areas sill too hot, where it would've been impossible for anything to survive – Dick deliberately ignored those – but there was nothing to be found, no sign of anyone dead or alive.

Tim kept telling him that that was a good sign and Dick nodded in agreement, feeling completely numb. He'd have to tell Damian. God, how in hell was he supposed to tell Damian?

Dick didn't know in what terms those two were since Jason had his bitch fit and later sent the boy the care package, but he did know that they had bonded. Jason was the first one to get close to Damian after everything that happened, and now Jason was probably dead…

If Dick had gotten there sooner... He heard the explosion, saw its glow and couldn't do anything.

"Alfred," Dick called as soon as he slumped onto the batmobile driver's seat "I need to talk to Damian."

Tim looked disapproving next to him. "Jason's doing this on purpose and you're worrying over nothing." he grumbled.

Dick was about to sush him when Alfred replied "Master Damian is not here."

"Could you call him for me? This is important."

"I believe there was some miscommunication, master Damian hasn't been here at all."

"What? I told him to go straight back home."

"Perhaps he got caught up with something on the way."

Dick's head snapped to the side finding Tim looking as grim as he felt.

Talia. It had to be Talia.

Dick kicked down Talia's door even as Barbara shouted in his ear for him to calm down, to be careful, that he promised he'd control himself if she found out where Talia was based. Tim is also yelling something behind him, maybe for Dick to slow down.

"Where is he?!" Dick growled at an unimpressed Talia.

"It seems truly impossible to hire good help." she sighed, closing the lid on her laptop "Top notch security and not a scratch on you. Father would be appalled." She talked like Damian, or Damian talked like her, Dick couldn't tell anymore, but her whole demeanor reminded him of his littlest brother.

He wanted to break her face. "Tell me where he is now."

Talia is in the middle of a smile when Tim walks in breathing a little fast and her expression twists in confusion "What is he doing here?"

"You killed Jason!" Dick voice seemed to bounce off the walls and hit Talia square in the chest, and even before her lips parted in shock, Dick was getting in her face "And you will give Damian back." he orders her through clenched teeth "You won't steel another brother from me."

"What?" she shakes her head "Damian is not with me."

"STOP LYING!" Dick is desperate, he's shaking Talia by the shoulders, he wants his brother back.

Talia might be disturbed by the news that she killed the wrong person, but she wasn't some damsel in distress and reminded Dick of that by hitting him upside the chin with the heel of her hand and used his moment of distraction to stand and step away from both boys.

Tim inched towards her and had a gun pointed to him in the same second "Don't test me, boy. You were supposed to be already dead, it will not pain me to finish the deed. In fact…"

The shot is so silent, Dick is only sure it happened when Tim falls back, grabbing his own shoulder "Tim!"

"Stay down." she orders Tim snidely "I will deal with later. The grownups need to talk." and she turns her attention to Dick "Where is my son?"

"Stop playing, Talia. Give him back, you know he doesn't want to be here." they stare each other down, Talia's aim is still trained on Tim, and Dick tastes blood in his mouth from where she hit him. They could do that all day long, except for the fact that Talia's face might a cool mask, but the gun on her hand is trembling slightly. Slow realization dawns on Dick "You don't have him."

"And you lost him." she says with a cracking voice "You lost my son! You get my child to trust you, you have him beaten by that one," she gestures with the gun, and Tim swallows hard from his spot on the floor, Dick feels his brother's eyes on him, but doesn't dare to look back. Talia doesn't know. She thinks she does, and that is the only reason Tim is still breathing "he disappears under your care, and you dare accuse me?" her eyes are wild "At least the biggest threat is already contained." she glares at Tim.

Dick closes his eyes and shakes his head in disagreement, somewhat dazed "If he isn't with you, then-" his breath catches and he turns wide-eyed at Tim "He heard me. When I was talking to you, he heard what we said about Jason he… Damian went to the pier after Jason."

Talia balks "I do not understand… You said Jason- That can't be."

They were grabbing at Jason. It was annoying, he only wanted to sleep.

"Move, Hood! I can't lift you like this, you need to move!"

Nope. No way. Jason needed to fucking sleep. Either this was the mother of all hangovers or he fell into a meat grinder, 'cause he fucking hurt. Everywhere. But they were still grabbing at him with small fingers made of steel.

"Robin!" Bruce's – Batman's – voice growled at him and Jason twitched "Can you hear me?" Jason could. Jason should move, Bruce needed him "Get up, soldier." Yeah, fuck him.

Jason wasn't his little soldier bitch anymore, and wouldn't get up if he didn't want to. Even if he was getting colder and colder by the second and moving seemed like a pretty good idea, but it was the principle of things. Bruce can go suck it.

The little fingers go lax and Jason thinks they're finally leaving him the fuck alone, but suddenly there's this slight pressure on his forehead; he moves to push whatever it is away and gets a hand full of fine wet hair.

"Todd" a small voice whispers close to Jason's ear and cheek; he knows that voice "I can't do this-" the voice breaks, then it comes through clenched teeth "I will not leave you like this. You will not die, but you have to move. I need you- I need you to do this last thing for me." The voice was upset.

Jason hated that the voice was upset. He began to stand, feeling his knees digging into what feels like sand and his ribs scream in pain. Jason was about to crumble down when the little steel fingers came back with such force that instead of supporting him up, they knocked the air out of his lungs. He groaned.

"I'm not going to touch you if you don't want me to." the little voice told him somewhat flat and awkward, but the words gave Jason a sense of déjà vu "We are nearly there."

Jason's arm is draped over something small and strong that kinda drags him along the way "Where?" he manages to ask, and starts to cough water.

"Oh, so you can hear me, you have just been ignoring me." the voice sounded strained now.

And you're deflecting Jason wants to say, but that word is so hard. Deflecting. Def-lec-ting. Deflecting.

Jason falls seated and his head bangs on something that makes a loud clank. He blinks and a very blue eye comes into focus close to his face, the fact that the skin surrounding the eye is covered in blood takes a moment longer to compute.

"Stay here." the voice tells him harshly "Don't move. Do not fall asleep."

"You're hurt…" Jason slurs worriedly.

The eye narrows a bit and Jason's not sure he's being glared or frowned at. "Like you care." the voice sounded childish, maybe even pouting; Jason wasn't sure why he felt so guilty about it "Stay put. I have no interest in finding you died over your own stupidity while I was gone."

This voice was a little shit.

Before Jason could tell it that, both voice and eye were gone. Everything began to grow foggy without the focus point, but before the world grew completely dark, he heard the little shit of a voice further away now "Mister!" it whined on the verge of tears "My big brother got hurt, will you help us?"

Dick slammed his fist on the keyboard and went back to pacing around the bunker "We're wasting time!"

"You have to be there in case Damian comes back." Barbara tells him, so calm and collected, like she knew everything would be fine. It pissed Dick off so bad.

"Have you been paying attention? Damian does not come back. Ever. He doesn't trust us enough and why should he?" Dick sighs, trying to keep his tone in check "If he comes back, Alfred will be here. I can't let Talia be the only one searching."

"The Birds are searching too, you know that. I am checking security cameras as we speak and you have spent like what? A week sleeping a few hours a night? You're not in shape to do this. You shouldn't even be patrolling, neither of you should."

"Yeah, that's comforting, thanks Babs."

"You know what I mean. How's Tim?"

"He's okay… I don't even know how. Talia shot him and… She should've shot me, who would blame her?"

"If that's how you're gonna act now, I'm leaving. Bye."

"Come on, Babs… I have to own up."

"Grayson?"

"All that's happening is my fault, how could I even think that I could fill Bruce's shoes?"

"Grayson."

"How could I even try to raise his son? Hell, in our first crisis he'd rather run to Jason."

"Richard!"

Dick looks up at the monitor, even though he knows that's not Barbara's voice, and finds she's really gone. He takes a deep breath because he has to be hearing things. Damian cannot be here calling him Richard of all things. Except he is.

Dick's knees threaten to give at the sight of Damian with Jason's arm over his shoulder, like the boy had been dragging the sometimes criminal. Half of Damian's domino is gone, and there's blood – a lot of it – in its place.

"What happened?" Dick asked so completely appalled he forgets how to move.

"Help him" Damian's order sounds a lot like a question, and it shatters Dick's heart into a million pieces.

Dick picks Jason up and has absolutely no idea how Damian managed to drag the dead weight all the way to the bunker.

No. Not dead. Jason's alive. Dick cannot believe Jason's alive.

He's definitely not okay with his cracked ribs, ruptured spleen, concussion, and… well, yeah… Dick got the point, it was bad. But at least Jason was still breathing.

Damian hovered close by completely silent and dead serious as Dick and Alfred worked on piecing Jason back together. As soon as Alfred gave the ok, Dick turned his full attention to the boy. He was dying to know what the hell happened, how they got here, why the fuck Damian didn't listen to him when he told him specifically to go straight back to the bunker, how could a little 10 year-old have the strength to save someone double his size and age… But there was a way more important question.

"Are you okay?"

Damian still had that too-serious look to his face which wasn't all that unusual, but his frown was just a little too deep, Dick was sure he was in pain. Yet the boy glanced at Jason "Will he live?"

"Jay-Jay is way too stubborn to die."

"He died once." Damian deadpanned.

"Too stubborn to stay dead, obviously. You see the pattern?"

Damian deflated a little and pushed his bottom lip out, seemingly lost in thought. Dick took the opportunity to pick the boy up to place him on a nearby gurney and pretend it wasn't a hug.

"You do know I am perfectly able to walk."

"I know, I know…" maybe Dick let the not-hug linger a little bit too long, sue him "Can you tell me what happened?" he asked as he began to peel the remainders of Damian's domino away.

"The bomb went off."

"So that's what that huge explosion sound was…" he shot Damian a look "Maybe a little bit more specifics?"

There was a huge gash on Damian's temple and Dick made a mental note to check for a concussion, but only after he could reset the boy's shoulder. How the hell did Damian get Jason here?

"Todd is incompetent. I told him not to touch the bomb, I would handle it. He did not listen to me, it wasn't my fault."

Okay, he's kinda bitchy now – Dick was worried after getting away with the hug – so maybe not concussed, just in shock. Or tired. Definitely tired. He got in position to fix the dislocated shoulder.

"Jason's usually pretty good at bombs. You really knew how to disarm it? On the count of three. One." there was a loud snap when the joint popped back in. Damian barely grunted.

"It was mother's work." he said as if that explained everything, and maybe it did "She meant it for Drake, but as usual he is incapable of even walking into a trap right. Your successors are useless. And you are not so bright yourself."

"You're my successor too, asshat" Dick says lightly through a fond smile. Tired Damian was kinda hilarious.

"I am well aware, and doesn't that suck. I used to be good at things, my tutors praised me, now I have your moronic legacy to bear."

"Thank God we have you to save us all."

Damian scoffed and sneered all at once before giving Dick a hearty "Fuck you."

Dick snorted loudly and bit his lips, though he couldn't quite hide his smile "I mean it, you saved Jason." he began cleaning the gash on Damian's temple "Even if you totally ignored my telling you to come straight home to do so, but yeah… You did good."

"Do you think it will change anything? In how he sees me."

"What do you mean?" Dick asked distractedly, his focus on the wound.

"-tt- Nothing." Dick stops and leans back enough to look at Damian's face, he keeps staring until Damian's eye begins to twitch in annoyance "What."

"Tell me."

Damian sulks for a couple of seconds, but Dick knows to wait "His knowing changed everything. He left. Perhaps now…" the boy shrugged his good shoulder "He will overlook past grievances."

Dick gets back to check Damian for any other injuries, with no doubt in his mind that if he doesn't, the boy will run around with a broken bone and no one will ever even know. After making sure that Jason was the one who took the worst of the explosion, stitching Damian's temple, and bandaging his twisted ankle – just to be safe – Dick set up an armchair next to Jason's bed.

"I'm gonna keep watch for a while" he told Damian "You can go upstairs to get some sleep."

Damian didn't even move a muscle.

"Or" Dick offered "you could stay down here with me and we can both yell at Jason when he wakes up."

"If he wakes up." Damian countered somberly.

"When." Dick corrected and kept going when he saw Damian was ready to add something most likely depressing and bitchy "And don't argue with me, I'm the goddamn Batman, I know my stuff. Go take a shower, 'kay?"

The words didn't seem to convince Damian, but he still hopped down from the gurney and left for the shower. Dick changed out of the batsuit, got food, cushions and blankets and met Damian standing by the armchair, the boy was wearing sweatpants and a red hoodie way too big for him.

Dick was about to ask if the hoodie wasn't Jason's, but Damian was still frowning too much, so he decided to let it go for now.

He made Damian get settled in the armchair and re-did the necessary bandages, finishing by throwing a blanket over him.

By the end Damian has his eyes narrowed in suspicion "What is the meaning of this?"

"I just want you to be comfortable" Dick sits on the cushions on the floor leaning back on the armchair "Are you? Comfortable?"

"Are you weird on purpose?"

"How can you even ask that? I'm obviously a natural" he hooks his arm under Damian's calf, half hugging it, leaning his head on the boy's knee "Hey, D?"

"Yes, Grayson?"

"Can you tell me what happened? Tonight?"

"I have already told you-"

"I got the bomb part. What happened to you two?"

"Todd tried to shield me, the idiot. He only managed to get himself hurt as usual. I helped him out of the water, onto the shore and left him there as I acquired some transportation."

"How?"

"I hitchhiked."

"Again, how?"

"I pretended to be a child in distress and asked for help."

"You are a child. And you were in distress." Damian knocked his knee into Dick's head "How did you explain your getup?"

"Costume party."

Dick smiled "And then?"

"I drove us here."

"In the civilian's car?"

"Yes."

"What about the civilian?"

"He is fine. Alive if that is where you are getting at, I simply knocked him out. You know I couldn't let him see where we are based. I will return the car later."

Dick doesn't even try to berate Damian for that, 'cause seriously, considering the boys options at the time and what his usual attitude would be, he handled it fine "You never cease to amaze me."

Damian lets out a low, apparently satisfied grunt and relaxed onto his seat.

"There's something else I want you to tell me, D."

"Didn't I detail it enough? Do you want me to tell you how it felt to hit the water?"

Dick thinks that was a joke, but since it sucked he decided to ignore it "I wanna know what happened on that night."

Damian tensed, Dick did his best not to move away, even in face of the impending kick to the teeth "No. You said you knew. You cannot make me say it just to satisfy your morbid curiosity."

"I wouldn't do that to you. I won't laugh, I won't punish you for it and I won't leave. You are my partner and I trust you with my life, with our brothers' lives. And you should be able to do that too."

"I fight beside you, my life is constantly in your hands."

"So you trust me to keep you alive?"

"Obviously, yes."

"So why not with this?"

Damian shifts and Dick hugs his leg closer. "Why are you doing this to me?"

Dick clenches his teeth and closes his eyes tight "I'm sorry. You don't have to- Forget I ever said anything. Just remember that you can talk to me. About everything. Anytime."

"Todd told me the same thing."

"Well, I'm not Jason. He-"

"Overreacts, I know."

Dick sighs and hands Damian a cookie "Well, if it counts for anything, I really do lo-"

"If you say you love me, I swear I'll kick your teeth in."

"But Damian… I looooooooove you. Oh shit, my mouth!"

A/N.: I kinda think this ending has an Unearthly Things vibe, it wasn't my intention, but I kinda like it. It fits.

I think there will be one or two more chapters to go and that will be it! I'm so happy I got to write a less crazy Talia, you guys have no idea.

Thank you a whole lot for all the favorites and follows and reviews! I never thought this story would get so much attention, specially because there are way more people who write in english (I'm brazilian) and in this fandom, I really think I have a future in writing every time I get one of your awesome reviews (specially the long ones, I love the long ones)!

Okay, I'm done being sappy.

Hope you guys enjoyed this