"Hey Birthday Boy" said the voice on the line

"Jason! You neatly gave me a heart attack!"

"What? I can't call my older brother and say hi?" Jason complained

"Well since the only time we really see each other is when a family member is in trouble or one of us is bleeding out on each others couch, I would say this is strange behavior coming from you" Dick grip tightened on the steering wheel.

"Well excuse me Goldie! I didn't know you thought that low of me" Jason voice grew with irritation with each word.

Dick signed, typical, Jason taking the smallest comment as an attack on him, "That's not what I meant Jason, ..I…Thank you for remembering."

There was a long pause where Dick thought Jason had already hung up.

"No problem." Muttered Jason.

Jason and Dicks relationship had grown during the time when they thought Bruce was dead. Dick was willing to give Jason another chance when Bruce didn't. Dick made Jason lower his body count significantly, only killing the head bosses and not every henchmen involved. It was not ideal but it was progress, but when Bruce returned, well lets just say that Batman doesn't easily change his values, it complicated things…again.

"Sorry I didn't make it tonight, I didn't want to ruin your party with getting in a fight with Bruce and punching him in the face."

"Jason, I don't know why you think Bruce hates you, if you just –" Dick was cut off quickly by Jason, he always avoided the touchy subjects, unless someone was on their deathbed.

"I don't want to hear it Dick! I just … do you want to grab a drink tonight?"

Dick smiled to himself; at least Jason was trying to reconnect with his family in some form, even if he was doing it illegally since Jason was still a few months from his 20th birthday. "I'll have to take a rain check Jay, I've already left Gotham and I still need to patrol tonight"

"Alright, but make sure you cash it in soon, before I change my mind. I'll also let you know if I make any progress on the drug bust tonight"

"Sounds good, make good choices Jason!"

"Okay, MOM!" Jason disconnected the call, leaving Dick in silence as he traveled down the highway.

Dick smiled to himself, happy that his family was coming together, slowly. When the batfamily worked together for a case, Dick spent more energy trying to keep his family members from ripping each other apart, than fighting the actual criminals. . It was exhausting, Jason fought with Tim, Tim fought with Damian, Damian fought with Jason, Jason fought with Bruce and it goes on and on and on. Dick just wanted them to be one big happy family, okay maybe that was asking a bit much of them, but he wanted them at least to all be in a room for 30 minutes without fighting.

Dick was not a cocky guy but he knew that he was the glue to his family; he was scared that if something happened to him they would drift apart. Tim would run away, Jason would go back to killing (well more of it), Damian would return to his mother, and Batman would go back to that dark place, like when Jason died. Dick just needed to know that they would be okay without him. Dick thought out loud "I need to get Bruce and Jason to talk to each other," good luck with that, he thought.

Dick's eyes starting to drupe, in the past two weeks Dick only got 2-3 hours of sleep each night. Driving in a warm car, in the middle of the night was not helping with driving while staying awake; some might say that's important.

Dick rolled down the back window as he curved around another corner. The dense woods on either side of the highway, created a memorizing pattern as he drove by, it wasn't helping. Dick quickly turned up his radio, only 45 minutes from Bludhaven city limits, he could so this. Still his eyelids started to fall.

As Dick followed another curve in the highway he was met with a blinding light. A sudden jolt caused Dick's body to be thrown forward, causing Dicks head to hit the steering wheel, hard. Glass fell over Dick, slicing his face and body. Dick lost track to which way was up. His body was thrashed around, the seat belt cut into his skin, his joints slammed into the metal frame of his car. The car came to a stop when it hit a solid object, causing Dick to hit his head on what was left of the window. The sudden smell of pine flowed into his nose; it was soon overwhelmed by the smell of blood and gasoline. Dick felt warm liquid running down the side of his face before he passed out.

Read and Review
I don't own anything