Notes: Oh golly this was a tough chapter to write. Making sure to get Bruce and Jason's characters as close to in character as possible for the story was difficult. This has seen so many parts edited, taken out, rearranged and ideas which never made it into the chapter. The ending though, which I just finished, has made me think that we might be near the end. I think there's only another chapter left in me for this story.

Part 18 – Bruce

Bruce walked in and managed to have a quick look around before Jason gathered his bearings.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded to know. Without the masks, he knew Bruce could see the angry glare he was sending his former mentor's way.

Bruce met Jason's eyes and they stared at each other for a few moments. Disgusting feelings twisted and curled in the centre of Jason's chest.

When Bruce didn't say anything and the itching of Jason's skin frustrated him to boiling point, Jason ordered, "get out." The more he looked at Bruce, the more irritated he felt. What was he doing here now anyway? He couldn't suddenly care. Was it because Dick was hanging around Jason?

Bruce continued to look at him.

"GET OUT NOW!" Jason bellowed in a growl. He cursed in annoyance as he had left his guns in his room, on the other side of Bruce.

"I heard about Catalina. You put her in prison," Bruce finally said in a tone that was all business.

Jason bristled but cooled a little towards Bruce with the reminder of Catalina redirecting some of his anger towards her and not Bruce. Jason crossed his arms and continued to stare Bruce down.

"Yeah. I did. You here to say something about it?"

"You didn't kill her."

Jason took a deep breath, huffing it out. "Do you know what she has done?"

Bruce's gaze dropped. For a moment, Jason's heart with light with a cry of victory. Bruce's following words were enough for Jason's heart to grow heavy again.

"The Commissioner and Oracle made sure I had enough information to piece it together." He looked up at Jason. The skin around his eyes was tight and his mouth was open a small amount in pause before he added, "she hurt Dick. Had already hurt him before I let her operate in my city."

Stupid Bruce for making him feel guilty. He never felt this guilty when facing Batman. "Hey, I didn't notice either."

"You knew something was wrong." Bruce shrugged. "I just thought he was going through a phase."

"A 'I'm going to join up with the first villain to take interest' phase?" Jason snorted. It was better to inject some humour rather than feeding the ball of hot anger in his gut from thinking about Bruce's approach to ex-Robins.

"He's been hurt and I didn't notice-"

"He didn't want you to," Jason pointed out. "I haven't even told him that we know. I'm not even sure he wants to admit it to himself."

Bruce groaned and walked around to plant himself on the couch. He put his head in his hands while Jason looked around for some way out of this situation. It was surreal.

"I don't know what to do."

"Join the club."

"She'll stay in prison, that's for sure. No Wayne-affiliated organisation will help her with parole until she's served her whole sentence. There's not much else I can do."

"Right," Jason said, only half-listening. How was he going to get Bruce off his couch and out of his apartment? Raging hadn't worked. Would calling Alfred help?

"Why didn't you kill her?" Bruce asked, sounding conflicted.

"Do you want me to?" Jason hung onto Bruce's every movement as he waited for the answer.

"No. But that doesn't stop you."

"Yeah. You're right. It doesn't stop me. I don't care about your approval, old man. I care about making sure that scum like her can't hurt anyone else." He had made this argument over and over again and Bruce never listened.

"And yet you let Catalina live."

"Because Dick would blame himself if she died." Jason crossed his arms and glared down at Bruce. "If I had killed her, he never would have forgiven himself. He didn't forgive himself for letting Catalina shoot Blockbuster dead. His mind twisted that into him being a killer." Jason wished he had a camera to take a picture of Bruce's shocked and baffled face.

He couldn't resist poking at B just a little more. "You know, if you didn't preach that 'no killing' rule of yours, then he probably wouldn't be in such a dark place now."

Bruce's shoulders tensed. "That's not how it works. There's a difference between someone dying on your watch and actually pulling the trigger. Especially in Dick's situation. I've been in situations where someone has died. You can't save everyone."

Jason snorted and lent back against the wall, fixing Bruce with a stare.

"That's not what you preach." Before Bruce could counter, he reminded him, "and don't you dare say otherwise. I was Robin, remember? I know. You give the impression that we need to save everyone, that we should take the blame for any death. Does it really surprise you that Catalina could twist Dick's thoughts to believing he's a murderer when you've already planted that seed?"

Bruce was silent, his brows furring in that way which meant he was thinking hard. It was strange seeing that look without the background of the cave and some case sitting open on the computer. It had been a long time since Jason had seen that look.

Bruce next words, when they finally came, stopped Jason's heart.

"Do you think the same? Do you blame yourself when someone dies outside of your control?"

Jason couldn't hide his flinch. He grabbed the nearest thing, a knife slipped up his sleeve, and tossed it at Bruce. "What does it matter?" he shouted. These were not questions Bruce should ever be asking! "I'm a killer and I know it. I choose to be!"

Bruce's body moved with the knife, flinching back as the blade sunk into his upper arm. Jason hadn't aimed for anywhere too dangerous. Blood welled up around the blade and a few drops streaked red trails down Bruce's arm.

The sight of the blood made something curl in Jason's stomach. For a moment, neither of them moved. Then Bruce's lips curled into a broken smile.

"Alfred's not going to be happy. I think I've ruined one of the good shirts."

"Just buy yourself another," Jason growled. Despite the sharp edge to his voice, it was a better response than the violent ones floating through his head. He was certain that, had Bruce reacted in any other way, Jason would have yelled at him or punched him. However, he couldn't deal with this emotional roller-coaster anymore. He decided to do the smart thing and leave. "Don't bleed out on my couch," he said as he left.

Jason spent hours just wandering around Bludhaven. He thought about his days of being just a crime lord who kept crime in order, punishing criminals and messing with Batman every now and then. The days before he took Dick in as Renegade.

"I didn't sign up for this," he sighed. He hadn't expected to care about the older man. He hadn't expected Dick to have circumstances which made it difficult for him to walk away.

His walk ended when a voice called out from behind him.

"Jason!"

"Dick? Why aren't you with the Teen Titans?"

Dick had run to catch him and was sweating and slightly winded. Jason's deductive mind figured out that he must have been running for a while; searching for him across Bludhaven?

"Oracle called. She said that Bruce came here to 'do something stupid'. Are you okay?"

Jason blinked to distract himself from Dick's gaze on him. He internally cursed since they weren't meant to care about each other, they weren't family!

"I'm fine."

"And Bruce?"

Jason sneered at the reminder of what he was avoiding. "Hopefully he decided to go back to Gotham." He purposely didn't mention stabbing Bruce with a knife.

Dick sighed in relief. "Let's go back then. I need to change uniforms for tonight."

Jason rolled his eyes but turned to start the walk back to the safe house. He paused a moment before opening the door and breathed a small sigh of relief when it opened to reveal an empty safe house.

Dick either didn't notice or decided not to comment because he bounced into the room with a grin.

"So, what are Red Hood and Renegade going to do tonight?"