Author's Note: Thank you to soccernin19 (I know, he's having a terrible day!) and IndiaMoore (Hopefully you won't be disappointed!) for reviewing the last chapter! I own nothing.

Dick Grayson answered his phone with trepidation, knowing what was coming. "Yeah?" he said and then flinched at the sheer volume of Barbara's voice.

"Richard Grayson what were you thinking," the red head snarled over the phone. "Oh wait, you weren't."

"Babs, I can explain," Dick protested as he heard her suck in a deep breath.

"Don't even try," Barbara snapped. "How could you do that to Damian? How dare you let him thing he's anything less than human?"

"Barbara," he pleaded.

"Don't Barbara me! You have until morning to make things right with Damian. Stephanie is coming over to the house to check on him at ten thirty in the morning and if he's still upset, she's bringing him to me. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes," Dick said meekly, silently praying that she was finished.

"Good," came the cool reply. "Now hand the phone over to Jason. I need to talk to him." Dick practically shoved the phone into his brother's hand. Jason looked as if he'd just been given a live grenade as he lifted the phone to his ear. Dick definitely sympathized. He also understood why she was so ticked off. Dick had done the inexcusable. He'd always been angry when Bruce hadn't told him something important and yet he'd done the exact same thing to Damian. He and Jason's decision to keep Deathstroke's presence in Gotham a secret had put the boy in danger. It also might have destroyed Damian's trust in them.

"We screwed up Gordon," Jason was saying in a level tone to Barbara. "We know this. Now if you would stop shouting at us we would actually be able to try and fix our mistake." Dick felt his eyes widen as they fixed on his brother. Jason was treading on dangerous territory. When Barbara was very angry trying to stop her in mid rant was a terrible idea. It was also exactly what Jason had just done. "Yeah, yeah. I understand the ultimatum," the younger man added after a moment. Then he hung up and handed the phone back to Dick saying, "Your girlfriend can really yell."

"She's not-We're not-Oh just forget it," Dick said, exasperated. "We have a problem to fix before she decides that threatening us what her version of the custody battle of a century is too mild a solution." Jason shrugged, already heading for the stairs.

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Technically she's not mine either. She broke up with me about a, oh you know what? Just forget it." He scrambled up the stairs after Jason, trying to decide whether or not it would be worth it to kill his brother.

Damian was shivering all over as if he was sick. His head pounded along with his heartbeat and Deathstroke was whispering to him, reminding that he was worthless. That he was just a clone to be thrown aside. Easily replaceable. The first raindrops from the thick clouds that had been threatening Gotham all evening slammed into the windows, making him flinch. The windows rattled with a strong gust of wind that made the raindrops sound more like bullets than water. He jumped and backed away from the window for a moment before forcefully stilling himself.

"Damian?" Dick's voice made him flinch again and whirl around to face his bedroom door. Anger twisted with fear in his gut, trying to close his throat. There was a moment of awkward silence and then his oldest brother said, "We understand if you don't want to talk to us but Jason and I want to apologize. It was wrong of us not to tell you that Deathstroke was in Gotham, regardless of what our reasons were." Damian was startled to realize that tears were dripping down his cheeks as he registered the fact that maybe they really did want him around. That maybe he'd been wrong.

"We weren't trying to hurt you," Jason added. "We're just idiots sometimes. And I'd claim it was genetics but neither one of us is actually related to Bruce." The boy hesitated for a moment then crossed the room to hesitantly open the door.

"You forget," he said softly. "Neither am I."

"And you think that matters?" Jason demanded, rolling his eyes. "Face it kid, none of us are related by blood but we're all family. You're stuck with us."

"Unless Jason decides he's not talking to us all again," Dick jabbed and Jason rammed him in the side with an elbow.

"That was once."

"It was one time too many." Damian glanced between the two of them and found himself laughing helplessly. Both of them looked at him as if they were wondering whether or not he had gone mad. It was only then that the boy realized he was crying.

"Dami?" Dick questioned, his voice worried.

"I-I just-" Damian cut himself off and shuddered all over, not protesting when Dick pulled him close. "I don't even know who I am anymore," he whimpered.

"It's okay," Dick reassured him in a soft whisper. "We'll figure it out."

Tim was not sitting in the Cave alone twiddling his thumbs. He was alone but he was busy preparing his explanation of how Bruce was really alive. Further research had shown that the beam that was supposed to have killed Bruce was simply light. It had been smoke and mirrors to fool people into truly believed that Batman had been obliterated. It was good to know that he'd been right, regardless of the fact that their family had been betrayed by people they trusted. Task completed, her turned his attention to the recordings, debating on whether or not he wanted to hear another of Bruce's recordings. That was when he noticed the new one. It had been posted just ten minutes ago and it was addressed to all of them. Tim hesitated a moment and then clicked on it.

When the recording started Tim was startled by how Bruce looked. The man was battered, bruised, and cut. His face was pale and the dark circles under his eyes were deeper than they'd ever been before. "Dick, Tim, Damian, Jason," Bruce said, voice rough with exhaustion. "I hope dearly that this manages to reach you. I've been betrayed. Someone in this organization has discovered who I am. My cover has been blown which means I won't be able to contact you or a while." He hesitated a moment and then added, "If I don't survive this then I want you all to know that I love you." Then the recording went black. For a moment Tim could only stare in fear and horror at the screen. Then he scrambled to his feet and ran for the stairs.