He found the assassin still at the Kensley Building, fiddling with some sort of tracker. The sniper was aiming the antenna at Wayne Towers, carefully sweeping it from side to side in a methodical manner. Tim guessed that Dick had heeded his warning and taken the others to the Bunker, and the assassin had no idea where they went.

But with the tracker, it was only a matter of time before he discovers the hidden passage from the penthouse to the Bunker. Tim couldn't let that happen.

Red Robin was still at the other end of the rooftop so he flung a batarang to knock the device away. From then on, he had less than a second to reach the assassin -

- but the sniper quickly pulled a gun from his hip and started shooting. He froze for half a second before diving behind a protruding air duct as bullets rained around him.

There was a pause as soon as he reached cover. He grabbed a couple of batarangs and held them at the ready. He couldn't see the sniper from behind the duct. And this high up, the wind carried away any sound the sniper made. He wouldn't be able to hear the sniper until it was too late.

The brief glint of light drew his attention to the next building. He set his cowl to zoom in on the flash and recognized a hovering camera. He reached up to his earpiece. "Oracle, do you read?"

"Loud and clear, RR."

"What's the status of the assassin?"

"To your right and about to turn the corner in three seconds."

"Got it." Red Robin quickly rounded the duct counter-clockwise. He extended his staff and was just in time to step behind the assassin - a half-second after the sniper discovered him missing.

Using his left, he struck at the assassin's head and legs in succession. He switched to his right and whacked the gun out of the sniper's hand even before the man hit the ground. Another quick thump to the man's temple and he was out.

"Assassin taken out, O."

"Copy that. Good work, RR."

"Is everyone ok? The baby?"

"Other than screaming his lungs out," a voice said behind him. Tim whirled to find Batman smiling at him. "Dusty's fine."

Tim sighed in relief. "I thought I might be too late."

"Your warning came just in time." Batman strode forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thanks, little brother."

"He's my nephew too, you know." Tim gave a hesitant smile. "I couldn't let anything happen to my first nephew."

Dick's smile turned into a grin.

On the ground, the assassin groaned and started getting up. Dick swiftly kicked him unconscious again.

The two detectives were mostly glad the case was over, the perpetrators on their way to being locked up, and no one else had died. Batman and Red Robin managed a quick change into civvies before meeting with the two cops - Radley and Sanders had come rushing back to the Towers as soon as the dispatcher called for backup. The detectives were the first to arrive at a scene of a classic Batman-esque arrest: the assassin was neatly tied to a lamppost and no one had seen anything.

Sanders wasn't happy that the vigilantes were taking over decent police work, but he admitted in a whisper that he was glad there was one vigilante watching out for new fathers and their little boys. Radley could only smile and nod before turning to shake hands with the Wayne heirs.

"Let me give you a tip, Mr. Grayson," Radley said, "as one father to another: Rock and swing. Sometimes, even singing helps."

Dick stared at him for a moment. And then, "that's it?"

The detective nodded. "That's it. You love your kid. Can hardly go wrong if you truly care about him." Radley grinned and set off towards his car where Sanders was already waiting, "trust me, you'll do fine."

"I'll take your word for it." Dick called after him and watched until the cops' car was gone from sight.

Damian grumbled when Dick and Tim came back to the Bunker after talking to the cops. Dick knew he didn't like being kept inside to guard the baby, and he liked it even less that Tim managed to take care of the assassin single-handedly. But the eldest brother simply crouched down to his eyelevel and said, "I trusted you to protect Dusty in case something happened. It's part of being an uncle."

And as Dick predicted, his youngest brother gave his customary "T-t," and left. Dick smiled to himself as he watched his younger brother go. It was a simple tactic of appealing to Damian's need to be trusted by stressing that protecting Dusty was more important than taking down the assassin. Now Damian couldn't argue that he was being coddled. After all, Bruce had done the same to Dick years ago.

The eldest Wayne brother headed next for the playpen and bent down to pick up his flailing son. Blue eyes frowned at him in concentration before grabbing at the fingers he proffered, pulling them into a tiny mouth. Dick smiled and pulled back, resulting in father and son having a mild tug-of-war between them.

"We'll make it, Dusty," he promised the wiggling bundle in his arms. "Somehow, we'll make it."