Bringing My Children Home

A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!

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

Chapter Fifteen

Stephanie

It was the middle of the night, but Stephanie could not sleep. Bruce and Dick were out in the streets on patrol, Jason was taking a breather in his apartment, and the other three were all in bed. So much had happened this summer. She had finally gained what she had wanted, so badly, for so long.

What she had not told anyone, was that the ache of longing was not completely gone. She loved her chosen family. She would die for any of them. Yet, she missed her mom. It hurt, that the dad she had been given would rather choose a life of crime over her, and her mom would find more comfort in a can of beer than in her lively daughter.

As she sat in one of the halls, in the curtained little window seat she had discovered let her have solitude, while still able to see members of the family racing down the hall, jumping banisters, or slamming bedroom doors, she heard the grandfather clock in Bruce's study below, strike two. A slow, light pair of footsteps trod on her ears once it rang itself to silence.

It was coming from the wrong direction to be Bruce or Dick, so she spun around towards where the family's bedroom wing connected to the hall.

Damian was walking towards her, looking completely lost.

"What are you doing here?" She asked softly, aware any louder would wake at least one of the others.

"Mother said I had to leave," he muttered, continuing in slow, strange steps. "I'm not good enough."

"Damian, are you awake?" She asked.

"Father will send me away, too."

"Damian," she touched his shoulder.

He flinched, drawing his shoulder up, as if he was expecting a blow. She gently held him in place.

"Come on, wake up," she said. "You are safe here, Dami, I promise you are safe here. You won't get sent away, or hit, or ignored, if you aren't what your dad expects. He'll see you."

"Brown?" Damian flinched. "What are you doing? Why am I out here?"

"Oh, Dami," She said, and wrapped her arms around him. He tensed even more, fists clenching. "This isn't an attack, baby bat. You were having a nightmare and sleep walking."

"Mother will not like that," he said dully. "Will Father be mad?"

"No! You are afraid, Damian. Bruce, he knows about being afraid. He was younger than you, when his parents were killed. If he gets mad about us being up… I'll slap him!"

Tim or Cass would have laughed it off as a joke, but Damian did not understand it was a half joke. All he knew was that he had to be perfect, so his Mother would love him. In an opposite way, Stephanie understood perfectly. She had intentionally annoyed her father, just to be noticed.

"Why are you hugging me?" He asked.

"Because I'm not letting the world get near you. You are going to make it. I am not going to let you go," she said, giving him the promise she had wanted to hear.

"Why? I'm not what Father wants. He wants Drake, he wants Dick," the boy sneered, trying to pull away. She refused to let go.

"He can want you, too. Sometimes things take time. He's already said he's not giving you up. You are his blood I know, so that probably helps, but it is far more than I had."

He gripped the edge of his t-shirt tightly, wanting to slug her in the gut probably. She did not let go.

"But Father loves you," he hissed. "He is afraid of losing you."

"Yeah, and it's nice to have that, but he didn't want me in the first place. I forced my way in."

"He doesn't want me either. I am… I am his duty," The boy groaned, and then leaned into the hug, finally. "I think Grayson likes me more than Father does, and he shouldn't count. He likes everyone!"

"It's not that Bruce doesn't want you, it's that you are unexpected. He had no idea you existed because Talia hid you. Yes, he has a duty to you, but why does everyone act like doing something out of duty is not love? If my dad had done his duty, it would have been an act of love."

"You are really weird," Damian said. He pulled back and looked up at her. "Why does it make me feel safe?"

"Because I'm not letting go. You can be the brattiest kid in the world, but I am not going to let go. Call it duty, call it choice, but you will have me as family, whether you want it or not."

"Tt. Grayson says we're already family. If that is true, you are the strange one. Everyone else looks a little alike."

She laughed and pulled him into the window seat. "I like to stand out. Just think, you or Tim could get lost behind the dark hair, blue eyed Dick and Jason. I'll always pop out of the Wayne Family line up."

"Hemph," he choked, trying to stop a laugh.

"Let's hide here, and when Dick and Bruce come up, jump out and scare them," She said.

Bruce

The soft sounds of breathing caught his notice, as he steered his half asleep eldest towards the bedrooms. Dick mumbled something about cereal, and continued on, without noticing the hiding child. Alfred would not be pleased if Dick ate a snack in his bed, but Bruce decided Dick would have to deal with that. He turned to the window seat, that had become Stephanie's safe place.

Stephanie opened her eyes, when he pulled the little curtain aside. She blinked a little at him.

"Gonna scare you, but Dami fell asleep," she murmured sleepily. "Had a nightmare and sleep walkin'. Promise not to give him back. You promise."

"I promise," Bruce said. "I promise you and him won't have to go back."

"Knew it, still not letting go," she said, leaning her head back against the wood panels, letting him see that she had Damian curled up on the seat. between her and the window, mostly covered by the purple blanket she had dragged there. "Not letting go, Bruce. Won't be like… my dad."

"I know," Bruce said, easing her into a better sleeping position. "I won't let go, either."

Bruce

As September came into being, sending Stephanie and Tim back to school, tensions began to die down. Dick made it his life mission to raise Damian, Bruce had eyes on Arthur Brown, who was sneaking around in dubious areas. Cass and Damian were tutored at home by Dick. After Damian's second panic attack, even Jason had begun to relent towards him a little.

Crystal Brown would hopefully be leaving rehab soon, and Bruce was considering the options for work for her, hoping an occupation would keep her from the despair and the bottle.

Stephanie and Dick had both connected to Damian. Damian did not realize that he used their first names on occasion. The boy still did not understand why Bruce did not kill, but there were glimmers of understanding. No one was supposed to know about his nightmares and sleep walking but Stephanie, who had somehow attuned herself to him, so if he stirred in the night, she woke up. It was, however, an open family secret.

Healing from these latest trials would take time, but Bruce was able to see his family growing closer together. All except one.

Tim was always tense, watching and waiting for an attack that Damian was too frightened to make. It had escaped both Jason and Dick's notice that Robin had fallen back into his old patterns of quiet watchfulness. Jason had been far too overprotective, and Tim was annoyed with him, while Dick had thrown himself into redeeming Damian. Cass saw, but as much as Tim loved her, he would not confide in her as he would Jason. Cass might be older, the better fighter, and able to see through Tim's masks, but Tim had taken her under his wing to teach and protect from the world her father had not shared with her. Steph also remarked how quiet Tim was, but Tim did not ask for her support.

Not for the first time, Bruce wished he could read his third Robin's mind. He wanted to know if Tim was not going to Stephanie because she had connected with Damian, if their rather amicable split as girlfriend and boyfriend had built a wall between them, or if Tim did not think anyone would give him support. Alfred made every effort to draw Tim out, but usually would find Bruce to snidely inform him that Tim was just like him.

"What are you working on?" Bruce asked, Tim late one afternoon. The sixteen-year-old was bent over his laptop, typing furiously, or pausing to look out the window for ideas.

"We're remaking the Titans, you know," he replied. "After Dick left them, they sort of disbanded. Roy, Donna, and Kori tend to band together, but the others are gone on to other things. Raven and Beast Boy are willing to help us get set up. Young Justice was pretty much disbanded after last summer. Kon, and Bart, and Cassie, and I, are going to remake the Titans. By the way, Jason is hanging out with Roy, Kori, and Donna a lot. I think they might be plotting something similar."

That was more surprising than it should have been. Jason was never gone for long, but he did take many day trips all over, usually with those three. He made it sound like it was just young adults needing to commiserate, but it was entirely possible that a new group would be formed. As for the Titans, it might give Tim a much-needed boost.

"I am aware of Jason's friends," he said, though Tim grinned knowingly at him. "What has you plotting so furiously?"

"Raven and Beast Boy don't want to lead. I was chosen to lead the Titans at our last meeting," Tim said a little shyly. Tim's tendencies to hide and mask things had led to a squabble among Young Justice the previous fall. The fall out was that Tim had stepped down from leadership. Wonder Girl had led for a few months, but without Tim's mind behind them, they had become aimless and disbanded, although the friendships remained. His friends had forgiven him for hiding the trouble he went through with Jason's return, and were ready to let him lead them again.

"Does this mean you will be heading to San Francisco every weekend?" Bruce frowned. "And leaving me with Dick and Jason?"

"It won't be every weekend," Tim said earnestly. "But yes, we will have regular meetings and stay overs. I… think it would do some good for me to be away a couple days."

In typical Tim speak, he had not mentioned whose good it was. Bruce frowned.

"If this is your way of sneaking away because of Damian, I won't let you go. I promised this was your home Tim. I know things are hard for you right now, but I'm not letting you go."

Stephanie's sleepy words popped out of his mouth unexpectedly. Tim looked offended.

"I'm not leaving, I'm just expanding. I think I am old enough to make that decision."

Right. Because to Tim it would appear as a controlling statement. For Damian and Stephanie, the words were a promise they would not be sent away. For Tim, they were a threat to make him do something he did not want to. Perhaps Clark was right, and Bruce's pieced together family was a little more damaged than he knew. He did not know how these neglected, abused, ignored children had become his, but he would not give them up for the world.

"If that is what you want to do, apart from any other consideration, then I am glad to see this. You are a great leader. What I mean, is that this will not be running away. This is still your home."

"You have said that a lot. I am hearing you, Bruce," Tim said irritably.

"You haven't fully believed me, yet," Bruce replied. To Batman, Robin would have protested, but from Tim to Bruce, it was not a lie he could pull off.

Tim glanced out the library window to the side yard, where Dick was continuing his lessons on defense, with both Damian and Stephanie. There was a little jealousy in his demeanor, the first real hint of why he could not relax. Dick treated Tim the same as before, with hugs and jokes, praising him and teasing him, but he had less time for Tim. Worse than that, Dick had not understood the full impact of Damian's attack on Tim. After being promised a family, a new member had tried to force Tim out. For Dick, it would have been a futile gesture, but not for Tim.

Tim still wondered how he had the right to belong.

Dick's affection for Damian had made him wonder about it a bit more. Intellectually, Tim understood why Dick fought so hard for the preteen. Emotionally, he retreated in fear that he would have to see Dick choose Damian over him.

"I've been looking all over for you!" Jason marched into the room. "Bruce, I told you, he needed time away from work. Come on, baby bird. We are going to the skate park. I am going to make that jump, if it's the last thing I do. We'll drag the others along too. Dick is going to have Stephanie and the brat doing blocks in their sleep, if he doesn't give them a break. Besides, you can rub the Brat's nose in the fact that he can't skateboard."

And then there was Jason. Upon being restored to his right mind, Jason had determined to right his wrongs against Tim, and ended up being even more overprotective as a big brother than Dick was. Fortunately, his brotherliness included distractions like video games and skateboard parks and less smothering hugs. For Stephanie, and perhaps Damian, Dick's smothering worked. Maybe not Damian, as there had been some threats made recently as Damian grew more confident that he was not being sent away.

"Where is the Silent Ninja?" Jason demanded, as he picked Tim up and threw him over his shoulder. "She's coming too. I think you should be grateful, Bruce. You'll have a child free afternoon."

"Thank you, Jason, for stealing my hardworking children to go play. I hope their work ethic rubs off on you," Bruce retorted.

Roaring with laughter, and quite proud of getting a reaction, Jason bore the half-hearted struggling Tim to find Cass and round up the others. Bruce had to wonder when his biggest and loudest child had gotten home from his most recent excursion.

A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!

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

I am posting 2 chapters tonight as I may not get a chance tomorrow.