No one knew what to do.
Dick felt like a bad actor. He didn't know what to do with his hands, or how his face should move to reflect what he was feeling. The feeling was foreign to Dick, who was normally at home in his own skin. Now his sometimes home was too tight and stiff. His fingers drummed on the dining room table, where he sat with Tim.
Technically, it was breakfast. There was a vaguely defined ray of light coming from low in the eastern sky streaming across the heavy oak table. On this table was Alfred's usual spread. Oatmeal, fruit, and all sorts of protein. The usual food, but unusually untouched. The pile of bacon was still stacked high, and the oatmeal sat undisturbed. Dick drummed his fingers once more, pointedly looking at Tim.
Tim stopped poking his grapefruit with a fork and looked back. He raised an eyebrow. Dick raised his in response. Tim cocked his head.
"What?" he implored.
"You have to eat."
"Not in the mood."
More silence. Dick didn't stop looking at the oldest of his little brothers—formally the only little brother that was still breathing. Tim looked up at his brother, at his food, back to Dick, and back down. He opened his mouth a few times, and Dick just sat and waited. Finally, Tim was able to speak.
"What's he going to think?"
Dick blinked, the corners of his mouth pinched, and the little worrying crease in between his eyebrows appeared. Dick leaned over the table slightly, his forearms crossed and bearing his weight. He stared at the teenager. Tim felt his brother's eyes boring into his, and looked even more intensely at his untouched grapefruit.
Dick pulled his hand out of the crook of his arm and grabbed his brother's. Tim looked at the window, uncomfortable. His hand, however, stayed still but lost its tenseness. He closed his eyes, warmed by the sunlight.
"You know, I looked up to him. We were pretty much the same age, I think he might have even been younger than me. You, well," Tim let out a short laugh, "you were a god. But Jason… Jason was real. He was doing things for this city and I was actually there to see it. I hid in the shadows, he did something. I always wanted to be him.
"Then… then he died. Then I was him. It was everything I wanted, you know? To be Robin. Every kid in this city wants to be Robin, and I took it from him. And what do you think he'll think, the he died, the he was brutally murdered, and now you guys just put up a shrine and replaced him?"
Tim scoffed.
"He's not going to like that. I wouldn't like that."
Dick released Tim's hand and leaned back in his chair. He looked out the window, breathing in the warmth. Tim did the same.
Leslie had left a few hours before, with promises to return well rested and with a few ideas and medications for Jason.
Bruce had yet to leave his silent vigil. Because Batman didn't need sleep. He just looked at the boy, wrapped up in heated blankets. Jason's cleanliness did little help his appearance. It just proved that the shadows around his eyes, his cheekbones, his ribs, were real. The the darkened cool tones of his fingertips were hypothermia. His skin actually was that white, that lifeless.
Even as Bruce thought about, as he looked at the ghost-like skin, he hated himself. He wasn't dead. Not anymore. Not ever again. At least, not while Bruce was alive. He scooted closer to Jason and tucked his limp hand back under the blankets. The hand was slightly warmer than it had been. Bruce smiled in the best way he could. Really, it was just less of a frown, but that was still a major improvement.
He looked at Jason's hollow face, shallowly breathing, and his perpetual frown lessened even more. He was back, he was alive, breathing. He was going to be okay. He had to be okay. Jason was a fighter, a survivor. He may have doubted that whole "survivor" thing for a while, but look at that. Jason survived even death.
Bruce fought the urge to hold him. Jason was so small. Smaller than he'd been when he died, maybe even smaller than the eight-year-old Batman had found on the streets and that Bruce Wayne had adopted. With his sizable muscles gone, Jason was just a skeleton.
While Bruce was reminiscing, Jason's breathing started speeding up. Bruce scooted closer to the bed, wary, just as Jason's back arched. What was left of his body didn't quite shake, but tensed so severely that his body was forced into unnatural contortions.
Bruce leapt to his feet and did everything right he turned Jason on his side, made sure he was breathing. He relaxed, and Bruce turned him onto his back again. He felt Jason's forehead. High temperature. Seizure was the result of an infection. Bruce frowned, checked his IV, made sure the antibiotic was flowing, and sat back down.
As he was sitting, Jason's eyes lazily opened. He was trying to fight through the heavy drugs keeping him relaxed. Bruce grabbed his hand just as Jason tried to open his eyes wider. He whimpered, glanced around, and the whimpering grew louder, more confused. He tried to fight the hand, but in his weak and drugged state, he could barely move his eyes. Bruce could see how much this scared him. Tears quickly started falling. Whimpering was quickly turning into sobbing when Bruce acted on what was pretty much his only paternal impulse to date.
He lifted the crying skeleton off of the bed, blankets and all, and held him. Bruce supported Jason's neck like he would support a baby's. Jason shouted, fought, sobbed into Bruce's chest. In between sobs, Jason breathed in. And then the shouting stopped. The fighting stopped. Jason leaned into the smell and Bruce could tell by the additional rush of water on his shirt that Jason had closed his eyes. Bruce followed suit, closing his eyes, trying his very best to absorb all the pain emanating from Jason.
Maybe it worked, because ten minutes later the sobbing had stopped and Jason was asleep in Bruce's arms.
A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating! My life has gotten a bit hectic, but my spring break is just starting so I may have some time to get some writing done. No promises. Sorry, this chapter was sort of a repeat of the last one but there were a few more things I wanted said. Reviews/ideas on continuation are welcome! I have a plan for the rest of the story, but I'd love to incorporate some other stuff that you guys want to see. Thanks for sticking with me!