Notes: This is the final chapter of this story. The people from the past go back and Ibn continues his Tuesday. Thank you to all those who have left reviews! (It's not too late to leave one!)

Part 6 – Tuesday in Wayne Manor

Lunch was served. Ibn felt calmer as he looked at the cool salads sitting on the table, ready to be eaten.

"You are welcome to help yourselves," Alfred said to the guests from the past.

"I hope you didn't make this all yourself," Bruce murmured in his roundabout version of concern.

"I assure you, I had the best of assistance."

"Jewia!" Tal'i said. She knew who helped Alfred.

"Yes. I thought I saw Julia on the way up here," Mar'i said, picking up her daughter and placing her on her chair.

"She seems to like sneaking around the manor and doing jobs while we're not looking," Ibn muttered in annoyance.

"Whatever it takes to keep your skills sharp, Master Damian," Alfred commented.

"I really think she just gets a kick out of jumping out and scaring us," Ibn said.

"She scares you?" Mar'i teased. Ibn's neck flushed.

"You know that's not what I mean!"

"Who's Julia?" Damian asked, looking between the three adults for answers.

"You will find out in the future, young Master Damian," Alfred responded.

Damian frowned but accepted this as an answer. The group moved to take places at the table as Mar'i instructed. She was warm and open and her hair seemed to waft around her as she moved gracefully around.

"Let's see. I think we have enough food for everyone," she mused, nodding to herself.

"There's not much meat," Jason complained, although his tone wasn't harsh.

"True," Mar'i mused. There were more vegetables. "But, Ibn doesn't eat meat. So he doesn't need any and his ten year old self can also have the vegetarian options."

"Are you stupid? I'm not a vegetarian," Damian said to Mar'i. Mar'i didn't even blink.

"Well, if you're not going to be grateful for the food. You don't get it," she said, moving his plate.

Damian was standing in his seat in moments, yelling protests which fell on deaf ears.

"Damian-"

"Shut up, Grayson! This woman needs to learn!" Damian ducked just in time to dodge a batarang. He glared at Ibn. "Do you carry those around or something?"

"He also carries a collapsible sword," a smooth voice from the door. When all eyes turned to him, he added, "sorry for interrupting."

"Great. Father's home is a place for vagrants."

The shaggy haired red head, dressed in an oversized white shirt and jeans, narrowed his eyes at Damian and then turned to Ibn.

"I deserve a medal. You were a horrific little brat."

"You knew what you signed up for," Ibn responded.

"Sure. Motorbikes and punching in faces," Colin responded jollily.

"Consider your status as my best friend revoked," Ibn said in a deadpan. "I am now instating Lian as my best friend."

"I thought Mar'i was Lian's best friend. You can't have the same best friend as your wife. And I thought we had something special."

"The designation of best friend only implies 'something special'. In practice, your revoked status just means that we will no longer be expected to spend time together while on patrol."

The people from the past watched this exchange in bafflement. The only one touching his food while they watched to adults discuss 'best friendship' was Jason.

"I'm sorry, you have a what?" Tim asked in shock.

"A 'best friendship agreement'. It's a contract covering all the parameters of our friendship," Ibn explained.

"Barbara created it for us when she claimed that our behaviour without each other was beginning to mimic each other."

"In other words, Damian started acting like you and you started acting like Damian?" Dick questioned.

A warm feeling blossomed in Ibn's chest. Dick called him 'Damian'. He didn't want to speak up, because it was convenient to call him something to differentiate him from his younger self but, it hurt to hear his family call him by the nickname which was special between him and Mar'i. In this time, the family knew that 'Ibn' was Mar'i's nickname for him. To them, he was Damian. To this people from the past, he was 'Ibn'. Disconnected from the Damian they knew.

He didn't like that.

Ibn turned back in during Colin's explanation.

"So Barbara forced the story out of us and created the agreement. It actually helped. I stopped being so violent and Damian had more than the superficial friendships he kept making with people."

The people from the past didn't really know what to make of Colin. He was a mystery. How did he become friends with Damian? From what he said, it sounded like they had been friends for a long time. Yet, the ten year old version of Damian was still glaring at Colin like he wanted to tear his throat out.

They didn't get too much time to ponder it as Colin pulled Ibn aside so they could exchange a few words and then he left.

"I should probably go too," Mar'i sighed. She gave Ibn a slow embrace which lasted long enough that a certain Birdwatcher slipped in through the door and tried to sneak up on them.

"Ruin the moment, Richard, and I will maim you."

Birdwatcher made a disappointed but playful face and stepped back while Ibn and Mar'i let go. Mar'i then gave her father a hug and told him to 'be good' before flying out the window.

"Ooh, sandwich," Birdwatcher commented, reaching over Jason to grab an egg and salad sandwich.

"Oi," Jason scolded, leaning far away from him as he could get. Birdwatcher smiled at him before moving towards his granddaughter.

Tal'i immediately wrapped her arms around her plate and pulled it close, squishing her lunch with her chin as she glared at her grandfather.

"No!" she stated. "My food!"

Birdwatcher moved back and held out his arms in a peaceful gesture. Tal'i did not relax.

"Richard, is there a reason you've decided to steal lunch?" Ibn asked.

"Yep. I'm back with the stuff and Bruce is getting ready to send them back."

Relief swept through the adults in the room.

Tension vanished from Ibn's shoulders.

"Still doesn't explain why you're stealing lunch," he commented.

Birdwatcher shrugged and snatched another sandwich from Tim's plate.

"Hey!" Tim whined.

"Eat when you get home," Ibn told him. He started to clean up around Ry'an so he could lift his baby out of the chair. "Also, keep an eye on Tal'i. We're going downstairs."

Tal'i perked up at that. Her face split into a wide smile.

"I'll meet you down there," Birdwatcher said, quickly ducking out of the door.

Home. Dick was going to be relieved when they were back. Judging by the way his family had relaxed in varying amounts, he had a feeling they were also relieved. There was no feeling worse than being out of place. Add in over a decade of unknown happenings and this place was alien despite its familiarity.

"Hey, Dick?" Tim whispered to him. "What's up with your future self?"

Dick shrugged.

"What makes you think I have any idea? He's only one of my possible futures."

Tim frowned at him but kept looking at him like he had the answers.

"Don't even try it, Replacement," Jason said. "Dickie's trying to ignore how everything turns out. I liked your gun."

The subtle jab at his future self's change in weapon hurt, even though Dick didn't have a problem with guns themselves. He only had a problem with how people used them.

The shift in Bruce's gaze to disapproving didn't help. What bothered Dick was that he wouldn't use a gun in their time so why was he getting criticism for Birdwatcher's choice of weapon?

The elevator down to the cave stopped and the doors opened. Tal'i was out like a shot, Ibn trying in vain to grab her while also juggling baby Ry'an.

"Hey, Princess!" The future version of Jason had changed into short sleeved navy shirt and jeans and his hair was hanging loosely over his forehead. He was leaning on the back of the console chair where Bruce Wayne was sitting. The chair swung around as future Jason moved to give Tal'i a hug and lift her off the ground.

"Where's Dick?" Tim asked, looking around for the future version of his other brother.

"Behind you," Birdwatcher said from behind them, causing Tim and Damian to jolt a little. "I took the stairs."

"Getting slow," future Jason teased with a wide smile.

"Says you," Birdwatcher countered, "care to try me on the practice mat? See how slow I really am?"

"Nah. Still sore from training. Besides, how long has it been since you slept?"

"Not telling."

"Ignoring us?" the Jason from the past grunted in distaste as Birdwatcher walked past them.

The person in question flinched as Jason had been almost right.

"I do not miss that attitude," grey-haired Bruce commented.

"Hey!" both Jasons scolded him. Whatever rebuttal they were going to make was drowned out by the Batplane which taxied into the cave.

Red Robin jumped out, split cape flaring behind him as he leapt to the ground and then grappled the rest of the distance from the hanger to the Batcomputer.

"Am I too late? Have they gone yet?" Then he looked around and pulled the mask off. "Oh good. I'm not too late."

Tim blinked as his future self unmasked. He had guessed that he wasn't Robin in this time. Truthfully, he knew he wouldn't be Robin once he reached adulthood. However, it was a shock to see that his future self had taken up a new costume and possibly a new name.

"How was it?" Ibn asked Red Robin and Tim was reminded that whatever he was in the future, it wasn't a weird as seeing his future self and Damian's future self interact civilly.

"Fine. Manhattan is safe and everyone can get on with their lives. Those that have them."

Eyebrows raised in surprise and shock at the utterance of the last sentence. It was said in a dark tone.

"What happened?" Birdwatcher asked, hovering nervously.

Red Robin shot a glare at grey-haired Bruce, whose shoulders twitched in a shrug. He had no idea what he had to do with this.

"The Batman Inc. members keep sending me these!" Red Robin said, pulling out his phone with a flourish.

Realisation flashed on future Jason's face and he snickers a laugh at his brother.

"You would laugh," Red Robin said in a threatening tone. His thumb flicked along the screen and the people gathered could see all the colourful little characters on it. "They keep sending them! Bluebird, numerous variations of Batgirl, Red Hood and Robin. Some 'chibi' Batman ones which really shouldn't exist Bruce! They shouldn't exist! But the worst one is this!" He turned the phone back to him as he swiped at the screen, stopping on one which had a crowbar splattered with blood and the words 'don't let them beat you down'.

The people from the past paled at what was obviously a reference to Jason's death as Robin. They glanced at future Jason who was frozen and staring at the screen.

"Wow. That turned out good. Nice art, Damian."

"-tt-, I told you I could make it look good," Ibn said.

"What's going on?" Birdwatcher asked, looking between his two scheming brothers.

"I lost a bet. Barbara ordered me to send one of those things to Tim and I managed to get her to let me design my own. Something not so cute."

"But it certainly looks cute," Birdwatcher mused, hovering over Tim's shoulder. "I mean, it's kind of cartoony."

"I would like to go home now," Damian spoke up. His Dick, Tim and Jason all nodded in agreement while Bruce just frowned disapprovingly.

"Right," grey-haired Bruce agreed. He typed a few things on the keyboard and then chucked the bracelet at them. Damian caught it. "I've reconfigured it. See, it was supposed to be able to track Tal'i anywhere and anytime. But, I think she may have fiddled with it in order to make it take her through time."

"Did not," Tal'i huffed.

"I checked the cameras, little Tali'ander," Bruce said in a soft voice to the little girl. "You took your father's screwdriver to my gift for you."

"Didn't wanna go past. I want to find Ry'an a family."

"Did it occur to you that if you handed Ry'an to them and let him grow up with them, you'd come back here and Ry'an would be the older brother? Because he would have grown up with Daddy and not you."

Tal'i blinked her large green eyes at her grandfather and then frowned.

"But, I'm older!"

"Not if you let Ry'an go with them."

Tal'i whimpered.

"No, no, no. Don't cry," Jason said, bouncing her awkwardly in his arms. "Ry'an's still here and you're still the older one."

"Yep. Really want to go back now," past Tim said, edging closer to Damian who was holding their ticket back.

"I don't say this often but, please, please send us back," past Jason commented.

"You're so good with kids," Dick mused in an impressed tone.

"Please," Jason repeated.

Grey-haired Bruce pressed a button, there was a flash of light and the visitors from the past went back to whence they came.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Then, Tim, Jason and Dick quickly reminded Ibn that it was Tuesday and that he shouldn't be here. They got him back upstairs by kidnapping his children and fleeing upstairs with Ibn yelling after them.

Five minutes later, the doorbell rang. Irey West was standing on the doorstop, there to see the people from the past. She's too late but stays anyway, watching a kids show with Tal'i. Ibn sits through the whole thing even though he hates every moment of it. Irey cheers with the characters and gets right into it.

"It's embarrassing for a grown woman to act like that," Ibn commented. The red-haired West just smiled at him and vanished in a blur.

Mar'i came home later, during dinner. Someone had broken into her workplace during the lunch break. She had to try and sneak back in to stop them before Pamela did.

The family, there for dinner, all welcomed her home with smiles. They talked about their visitors and Dick finally had to explain why he didn't seem to interact with them.

"It was like looking at ghosts," Dick said and then refused to say anything more.

Tim nodded while Jason just shrugged. Jason was used to ghosts from the past.

"Hn," Bruce hummed as the window lit up.

The Batsignal.

Dick jumped up and pressed a finger to his ear, activating the comm. device he had in there.

"Babs, we've got trouble," he said as he moved out of the room.

Jason was on his phone.

"Hey, Carrie! You've heard? It's a break out. Well, suit up, you're with the old man today." Bruce had already vanished downstairs.

Tim was talking with Harper Row, alias Bluebird, as he followed Jason out of the room.

"Don't take any unnecessary risks," Ibn said to his wife as she moved towards the window.

"We'll call if we need you," Mar'i said to Ibn, kissing his cheek as she floated outside the window. "I promise."

Ibn sat back down to finish his dinner, assured his children that everything was alright and spent some time hating how he couldn't put on a uniform and mask and fight on Tuesday.

Tuesday ends like this:

Ibn puts the children to bed and reads Tal'i a story. He makes himself another tea and tunes into the Bat Communication network (far more accurate than the news or police radio). He's torn between hoping that the situation will get bad enough for him to justify intervening and leaving the kids to Alfred and hoping that it's not too dangerous and his wife will come back safe.

And before bed, he sets up motion alarms and other safeguards so he will know if his children leave their room. Hopefully.

After midnight, his wife slips into bed with him. She's safe and warm and Ibn wraps his arms around her as he drifts into a restful sleep.

In a few hours, now Wednesday, Ibn will get up and spend a few hours patrolling the streets before sunrise.