Bringing My Children Home

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Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.

Chapter Two

Bruce

Bruce gunned the engine of his motorcycle. Despite being dressed as Batman, at this moment it was a very worried Bruce Wayne racing through the streets in broad daylight. His entire family was looking for Stephanie. She had never answered any of their calls, although Oracle's surveillance suggested she had not gone home.

Tim was trying to remotely turn her phone on, to use it to trace her location. Jason and Cass were looking through the streets where Stephanie lived and patrolled, and Dick was leaning on a few of Cluemaster's allies to see if they had kidnapped Stephanie. Bruce himself, after several hours fruitless search, determined to head to the Brown residence to see what Arthur Brown had done upon his release. Fear that he would find Stephanie injured or worse made his hands tighten on the throttle. Arthur Brown had never laid a hand on his daughter prior to her actions that had sent him to prison, but he had never shown any qualms about physically punishing the men who had worked for him. Bruce could not allow another one of Gotham's children to suffer.

Memories of Tim's last birthday flooded the Wayne Patriarch's mind, filling him with shame and anger. He could not fail Stephanie as well.

He reached the brown apartment building where Stephanie lived with her mother. Within seconds he had climbed the fire escape and found the correct window. He opened it and entered Mrs. Brown's bedroom. A pause in the room allowed him to listen for noise. There were no voices, only a stifled sob coming from the living room.

It was not Stephanie crying, but Batman burst through the door. He stopped just cross the threshold.

Crystal Brown was sobbing into the arm of her ratted brown couch, Arthur Brown was slumped into an armchair with a blood-stained rag pressed to a cut on his forehead, and Stephanie Brown was nowhere to be seen. For the first time, Bruce remembered that Stephanie was not defenseless. It looked like she had been home however, since Crystal Brown's thin arms could not have swung the bloodstained pot with enough force to cause the very real concussion. Good girl.

"Where is your daughter?" Bruce growled, causing Crystal to scream in terror and Arthur to leap from his chair. His face managed to grow paler.

"Batman!" He gasped, falling weakly back into the chair.

"Where is Stephanie?" Bruce repeated.

Brown snorted. "Not here," He jutted his chin out.

Bruce restrained his desire to shake the man. He focused a heavy glare on him, before turning to the shaking woman.

"Mrs. Brown, where is Stephanie?"

"She ran out. She… hit Arthur with the pot," Mrs. Brown said and burst into hysterical laughter.

Bruce let her laugh as he turned to the father. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing," He said defiantly.

Batman seized him by the arms and pushed him against the wall. The images of Sheila Haywood, David Cain, Jack and Janet Drake replaced Arthur for a moment. Had another of Bruce's children been harmed by the parents who should have loved, protected, provided for them? Had Bruce's terror of losing another child caused him to leave Stephanie in danger?

Had Bruce failed?

"Where is Stephanie?" He growled. Where is Cass, where is Jason, where is Tim? Where was the ebullient, reckless Stephanie?

"How should I know? You're the one who stole my daughter and turned her against me! You're the one who taught her to fight! I barely touched her!"

Bruce growled. Arthur realized he had slipped up, and tried to back up. Crystal's giggling faded into choked sobs. For a moment, Batman stood above the criminal, wanting to mete out the punishment he had never been able to give the parents of his other children. He slammed his fist into the wall next to the man's head.

"If you so much as touch a hair on her head again, you will never walk again," he swore.

Stephanie

Cass's training had really paid off. She had seen the fist, heading for her stomach, before Arthur had finished pulling back for the blow. With moves that were almost as graceful as Nightwing, if they had not reached Batgirl's level, she had dived out of the way, seized a dirty pot from the stove top, and swung it into her attacker's face. Spoiler watched him collapse with no regret. She turned to her mother, grabbed her hand, and tried to get her to run away with her daughter.

Crystal had refused to leave, and Stephanie would not stay.

High on adrenaline, satisfaction at her small victory, sheer stubbornness of spirit held Stephanie's head high as she stalked back to her safe house. She knew she had ended the relationship with her father by her actions, but there was no regret, not anymore. Her mourning had been done two years ago. It was her mother who she worried about. Stephanie was more caretaker than Crystal. What Arthur, no longer the father she had once known, might do to her mom was the most concerning thought.

She collapsed back onto her camp bed. That was when the tears came. All her confidence was a lie.

Her phone rang. She let it go to voicemail.

It rang again. And again. And again.

When it started ringing the fifth time she grabbed it, meaning to shut the phone off. Instead she lay frozen, watching the phone number for Bruce Wayne fade in and out in time to the ring. Something flickered in her heart, her great longing to belong to him. She waited too long to answer, and her heart sank when the phone fell silent for twenty seconds.

Then it rang again. Bruce, again.

"Bruce?" She answered.

"Stephanie! Thank God. Where are you?"

She knew the tone in his voice, she had heard it before. Just, never for her before.

"What?" She asked stupidly.

"Are you hurt? Your mother said you hit Arthur and ran. We need to get you to the cave. Tell me-"

"I'm not hurt. He never got a hand on me. I'm stronger than you know," She snapped.

"Where are you?"

"In my safe house, of course," Stephanie said.

"Tim, where is her safe house?" Bruce said in a muffled voice. Stephanie thought this was too strange to be real. "Trace her phone, it's on now."

"I'm just going to wake up now, Bruce," she said, but nothing happened.

"Don't hang up!"

Her hand froze on its way to the end call button. His voice had that edge to it that happened when Tim or Cass was in danger.

"Good job, that's not far from here," Bruce said to someone on a different communication line.

Surely, she had gone mad. It had always been her belief that her mind was strong, but apparently, she had been wrong. Only in her deepest dreams would Bruce be talking to her with frantic worry. She laughed after another minute or two of silence.

"Why haven't you hung up on me? Why are you even calling me?" She asked.

"Because I thought your… parent might have killed you!"

This time his voice was an echo. He was outside her hideout. She was going to kill Tim, or at least break up with him, for tracing her phone. After facing her biological sire, she did not want to face the man she wanted as her father. He would never give her what she wanted…

"Stephanie."

Batman was there, eyes sweeping her unharmed body. She stared at him, uncertain what to do with the attention she had fought for, for two whole years now.

"Yes, she's here. She's safe. I don't think she's hurt at all," Bruce told his comm. The exultation of his family was loud enough for her to hear. She sat up.

"I told you he never got his hand on me."

"I had to see for myself. You need to come home with me. You may be in danger if he puts a hit out among his contacts. I want you safe."

Stephanie may not have been the smartest, the strongest, or the wisest, but she had forced herself into his family enough that she heard the telltale rising of his voice. Bruce had said it, not Batman. For a moment, all was right in the world. Her joy pulled her upright and she threw her arms around him, reveling in this moment of acceptance.

To her amazement he did not push her away.

Dick

Dick had not realized how important the vivacious, undaunted Stephanie had become to the family. Bruce barely tolerated Spoiler on a good day, only permitting her in his circle when Batgirl or Robin brought her in. He had more grace when it was Stephanie visiting the Waynes, although the way Tim and Cass easily shared the Bat's work annoyed Bruce. To be fair, Dick and Babs had both tried to take Stephanie out of the field too. Yet she had become more and more familiar until Dick had forgotten his initial resistance.

When Jason had remembered to let Dick in on the news, the realization that she was in danger had been a punch to the gut.

His earlier morning interrogations of Cluemaster's former gang members had yielded no clue. None had even known Arthur Brown was being released. Bruce, Jason, and Cass were searching high and low, while Tim was in the cave, trying to hack Stephanie's phone. About midday, Dick headed to the cave to check on Tim, aware that their youngest member was the most impacted by the events. While Stephanie and Tim were 'dating', it was in that young teen way that simply meant they went everywhere together. On occasion Tim would make a special event, but as far as Dick was aware, at least Cass, and occasionally Jason, would crash these 'dates'. Even so, Stephanie had been Tim's friend the longest.

"She found all my trackers," Tim said glumly. "And it's taking too long to get into her phone."

"She'll be okay, baby bird," Dick promised.

Tim nodded, before turning a grim face to his computer again. Before he could start his fifth or sixth attempt on her phone, Bruce's voice rang through their coms.

"Tim, where is her safe house?"

Tim blinked. "I didn't know she had a safe house aside from the couple I showed her," he replied.

"Trace her phone, it's on now," Bruce ordered. Tim leapt to trace the connection from Bruce's phone. "Don't hang up!"

The barked ordered from the Bat was not for them. Dick held his breath as he watched Tim's program dial in on the phone's location. There were no more comments from the Bat in the ninety seconds it took for Tim to find, and shout out, the location of the phone.

"Good job, that's not far from here," Bruce replied.

The roar of his motorcycle could be heard for a long minute. It ended in a squeal of tires.

"Because I thought your… parent might have killed you!" Bruce exclaimed. Dick winced, recognizing the edge of hysteria that happened when one of his adopted Father's family was in danger.

"Stephanie," Bruce's relieved voice could be heard across the open comms. They all held their breaths.

"Is she there?" Tim demanded after ten seconds of silence.

"Yes, she's here. She's safe. I don't think she's hurt at all."

The Bat family sent up a cheer.

Stephanie

When Bruce rode into the cave with Spoiler behind him, there was a small crowd of bats awaiting them. Even Dick was present. Only Barbara Gordon was missing, likely at her day job. They all swarmed the motorcycle. Stephanie climbed off and grinned sheepishly at them, letting both Tim and Cass wrap themselves around her while the older pair turned to Bruce. The Bat explained what he had found.

"Good job, blond child!" Jason said, holding out a hand for a high five.

"Time for next level," Cass added. Tim let go and backed up a little, reading her frustration with him.

"I've prepared the room next to yours, Miss Cassandra," Alfred said. "Will you show Miss Stephanie to her room? Do you have any change of clothes, Miss Stephanie?"

"She can borrow mine," Cass promised.

"She'll probably steal some of Tim's too," Jason laughed. Although Tim was taller than Stephanie, he was of a thinner build than the older bat men, so Stephanie did often steal some of his shirts.

"Ooh, we could all go shopping for Stephanie's wardrobe," Dick suggested.

"Not until we have an explanation for why she is living here now," Bruce interrupted.

"She's Tim's girlfriend," Jason pointed out.

"Yeah, that will go over well with the press," Dick pointed out. "Neither of them are officially Bruce's children or wards."

"Just tell the truth," Tim interrupted. "It's not even publicly known that Stephanie and I have gone on dates."

"If you can even call them dates when Cass and Jason are always showing up," Dick added.

Tim glared at him, but continued his explanation.

"Her criminal father is home from prison. It is already known that Stephanie was willing to testify against him. It would make perfect sense that she isn't safe there. It could be a foster situation. Crystal has full custody anyway, so we wouldn't have to get Arthur Brown's consent.

"Maybe Mrs. Brown would be willing to go into rehab again, in case Arthur tries to come after her."

"Stephanie and Tim, you work out a way to get Mrs. Brown out of the apartment. If we need to get her into an out of town rehab center we will," Bruce said. "I will have Lucius consider legal options."

"Really?" Stephanie interrupted, staring at Bruce. "You want to take me in?

He paused and looked at her, mouth in a tight line, while the others stilled to hear the answer.

"I can't stop you from fighting in this war. I could have kept you safer by training you sooner. Had your father been quicker, he could have killed you. It would have been my fault for not training you. So yes. You are going to belong to me now. You will be off the streets until you are trained to my satisfaction, but you will be one of us."

"Welcome to the harshest boot camp you will ever face," Jason called.

"Jason will be helping train you. All of us will be training you," Bruce said in reply.

Bruce

"Bruce, are you ok?"

Bruce looked up from his desk where he was staring at the transcripts of Arthur Brown's deal. It had slipped through the cracks. Neither he, nor Barbara, not even Tim, had thought to flag Arthur's prison visits. Arthur had been easy to take down, a minor battle when compared to the crime lords Batman had fought. They had failed to see where Brown could gain enough importance to be released. Another child had almost suffered at the hands of their parent.

"Bruce, are you ok?"

Jason stood in the doorway of the study, looking worried.

"If he had killed her, it would have been my fault. Because I thought she would become you! Because I couldn't let another one in. I nearly got her killed."

"I hardly think she was in danger. She seemed to take pretty good care of herself. I think the realization that she could have been in a lot more danger made you realize you had already let her in," Jason replied. "You're going to have to follow through now. She's going to need you to keep your promise."

Bruce nodded. He had known that even as he told her. If he broke that promise he would break her spirit. That much he had learned from his other mistakes, in trying to protect Dick and trying to make Jason into Dick. If he tried to use the training to drive her away, as he had tried with Tim, he would break that promise. She was far rawer than Barbara and Cass, who had been given skills by their fathers, one to protect herself, and the other to mold a killer.

She had the will, however. If he looked away from the evil similarities to Jason he could see the optimism of Dick, the will of Barbara, the stubbornness of Jason, the courage of Tim, and even the raw strength of Cass. She had won a scholarship to a good school on her own merit. She was likely to have the same level of intelligence that Cass and Jason had. They would never reach the simple intuition of Dick, nor the sheer brilliance of Barbara and Tim, but there was no mean intelligence in them.

He did not want her to be another of his squires. The truth was, despite her unfortunate parents, she had had the greatest chance of being normal out of all his children. Dick was never going to be normal, Jason had grown up on the streets, Barbara was too much like her father, and neither Cass or Tim had been given a chance. Bruce himself had never had the real chance either. If he guided Stephanie, she would not have that chance.

Of course, he had failed to remove her from his fight. He had never succeeded in keeping them out of the fight. Now he had one more student, one more partner, one more child.

"I never planned for this," Bruce said. Dick and Barbara had joined them now, too. "I was not supposed to build an army."

"Except for Jason, you never chose any of us to be in this fight. We all made that choice ourselves," Barbara answered.

"If you aren't going to have children of your own blood, you need a family of some sort. We are just what you need," Dick pointed out.

"Can you imagine little Bruce?" Jason crowed.

"I picture Tim," Dick dryly pointed out.

Bruce shook his head at the elder two. "Tim is a distant cousin through the Kanes. I believe my mother and Janet Drake had the same great Grandparents."

"I didn't know you were actually related," Dick exclaimed.

"I always forget Tim's technically the rich kid," Jason laughed.

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