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Chapter Summery: Bruce thinks about what his options at this point are and he has to comfort a distressed child.
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman or anything else that I might mention in this piece of fanfiction
Chapter 7. Thoughts and Comfort
Bruce's POV
I found it extremely hard to sleep that night, most likely because I almost never got to go to sleep this early since it was only 11pm.
With no clear solution to why the boys are younger than they should be, with nothing abnormal with them other than age to point to a cure. I had no clue how long it would it take me to figure out a cure for this.
What should I do or say to cover for them? Was the thought that occured to me while I tried and failed to fall asleep.
A disappearance from everywhere, not tell anyone anything or tell the media that they were deaged.
Those were the options that I had to chose from for this. One would cause a whole lot of suspicion and two would cause the press to pay attention to the family even more than they normally did.
The thrid and final option was the only one left even with as crazy as it was it seemed to appeal to me the most for some reason.
Okay, I would call and tell Clark that he needed to get here right away in the morning. I decided.
What exactly should I ask Clark to write as the reason that they were younger. I questioned myself.
My train of thought was interrupted as I heard quick and quiet small footsteps heading towards my bedroom.
One of the boys were coming to my room but which one of them and why would they be coming to my room?
I then realized that my bedroom door's handle was too high up for any of the boys to reach now and the door was shut.
I walked over to the door and opened the door to have a crying Dick fall into the room. He must have been pushing with all of his weight to try and get the door open.
I picked up Dick's now tiny frame and walked over and placed him on my bed and sat next to him.
"Dickie, what's wrong?" I asked the sobbing child as I put a hopefully comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I had I nightmare," He began trying to speak between sobbing fits. I held him in a hug as this had comforted him before. It worked as the sobbing grew.
"What happened in the nightmare? I can't help if I don't know what it is." I told him when he stopped sobbing.
"It wasn't the normal nightmare Daddy, in it I was older and people would call me 'Nightwing' even though that is the name Dami is going to use when he can go out with you on patrol." Dick began to explain.
Dick nightmare must have been of a memory of his and it was terrifing for him since he was as young as he was now.
"There were flashes of scenes but I don't remember anything in particular about it." Dick finished telling about the nightmare.
I looked at his face and the look of terror and I knew I had to comfort him even if that meant lying about what his dreams were.
"Dickie, they were just bad dreams, everything is okay." I told him in a kind and gentle tone to calm his nerves.
"Okay, Daddy I trust you but can I stay here tonight with you to make sure the bad dreams don't come back." Dick asked me. He wanted to sleep in my bed after a nightmare like when he was younger.
"Of course you can Dickie." I told him.
I tucked him into my bed and I watched as my child quickly fell asleep as the fear left his small face.
It was not until I knew that he was asleep and the sleep was peaceful and not riddled with nightmares that I allowed myself to try to sleep again. This time as I held my child I fell asleep easily.
After breakfast the next morning the boys had gone out to play in the backyard as I watched them.
They seemed to be playing some form of tag, with how they had played that in the pool yesterday I guessed it was a popular children's game.
They were currently playing two on two. With Dick and Damian on one team and Jason and Tim on the other team.
Everything with the children seemed to be going well and they weren't playing rough at all so I figured that it was a good time as ever to make the call to Clark.
I picked up my cell phone from the patio which I was seated at. I dialed the annoying boy-scout's number.
"Hello, this is Clark Kent. Who am I speaking to?" Clark asked.
"Clark, I need you to come to the manor sometime today." I told him not wasting anytime for formalities.
"Oh, Hi Bruce. Why do you need me in Gotham?" He asked me thinking that it might be something to do with hero buisness.
"Clark, I just need you to write an article on something." I told him. "Before you ask I will not tell you what till you get here." I told the boy-scout and I ended the conversation by hanging up the phone.
I looked up from my phone after putting it back on the table I noticed the children were all racing towards me.
"Daddy, who were you talking too." Dick asked as he approached and was pointing to the cell phone.
"Clark." Was all that I told the curious children.
They all looked at each other and had a silent conversation.
"Daddy! Will you play heroes and robbers with us!?" Dick asked me with excitement lining his voice as he asked the question.
Heroes and robbers? That is a game I had not heard of before. Ah, it must be a spin of cops and robbers.
"Of, course I'll play with you." I answered the question to my question to my nervous for the answer children.
