Patchwork Siblings, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl

Chapter 7 - When the Bat's Away [rough draft]

Bruce stumbles across it when he checks the security logs for something completely different.

A month ago, Bruce's dead son returned home, alive and- Well, not well. But alive, and with no new major injuries.

He was still a mess, not even counting the brain damage: malnutrition, bones riddled with badly healed breaks, lungs not working at full capacity, skin covered with scars and scrapes and scabs. He'll need a lot of surgery and physical therapy to fix the malunions, but Bruce is putting that off for the short-term, focusing on gauging the brain damage and evaluating possible treatments while also giving Jason's body a chance to gain strength from proper meals.

Sometimes Bruce gets lost in the minutiae of Jason's medical problems and forgets to marvel at the fact that Jason has come back to him. When he remembers, and if Jason permits it, he'll go find his son and just hold him. Just...sit with his boy in his arms and lean his head against Jason's hair and focus on his scent and his warmth. Jason is alive.

Bruce still grieves for him, though, in a way. The son he had before is still lost, that bright little boy with his smirks and sassy comments and tender heart and love of reading. The version of Bruce's son who's returned is still that boy at his core, Bruce knows. But it's not the same. How can it be? This Jason drifts through the manor like a ghost, occasionally showing sparks of life but mostly wandering in the confines of his own mind, where Bruce can't reach.

Bruce loves him anyway, of course. He loves his son so much that he can feel it as an almost physical pain, sometimes. He loves his son and it hurts to see Jason as such a shadow of his former self.

At least Jason doesn't act like he's in pain. He shows curiosity and occasional flickers of his old defiance. He gets into things when his caretakers' backs are turned, or creates things that the men don't notice until the work is finished. Bruce has always planned for all the possibilities he can think of, and if the worst happens and Jason's mind is never fully restored, Bruce thinks he can love this new version of his son just as much. He just needs some time to get to know him better, until everything about the new Jason is imprinted on his heart just like everything about the former Jason was.

So Bruce got his son back, and Jason is not well but isn't doing too badly, and Alfred's been working on getting him fed and Bruce has been working on rebalancing his own life between Batman, WE, and caring for a child with special needs. It's been a month, and he thinks he's getting better.

Jason's return is still very mysterious. After much research, Bruce is pretty sure that, horrifically, the boy woke up in his grave and somehow managed to crawl out; that most of the brain damage was probably from oxygen deprivation; and that most of the other old injuries are the ones Jason died with, unhealed by whatever force brought him back to life. Bruce thinks that Jason was checked into a hospital as a John Doe and eventually either wandered off or was kidnapped. Extensive tests have proved that the boy is legitimately Jason, not a shapeshifter or a clone or some other form of deception.

Bruce still has no idea how or why Jason came back to life, or how Jason somehow bypassed all the security measures around the property and appeared like magic in the kitchen, where Alfred came across him on his way to bed after patrol. Bruce doesn't know why Jason seemed freshly bathed, fresh cuts and scrapes bandaged, when he arrived in the kitchen. Bruce's gut still clenches at the memory of the shadowy, swathed figure caught briefly on the manor's cameras the same night Jason returned home.

For now, he's checking the security logs for something completely unrelated to Jason and is startled to find records of Jason leaving and returning to the property. Almost every single night. For nearly a month.

Bruce feels chills. He checks with Alfred, just to be sure, but Alfred had no idea, either. Somehow, Jason has been sneaking out without either of them noticing, at times when he's supposed to be in bed. No wonder he sleeps through so much of the mornings - until now, Bruce had just chalked it up to the medical issues.

Bruce waits until Jason has eaten and seems to be in a relatively good mood, then asks, "Jason, where do you go every night?"

Jason simply gazes into the distance and doesn't answer.

"Jason, this is important. I have records of you leaving the manor and coming back every night. Where do you go? Do you meet with someone?"

"...Good," Jason says, very softly.

Bruce goes to get Alfred. Alfred has always been good with Jason, maybe he'll have better luck. "Master Jason," Alfred asks gently, "your father and I are worried about you. We know you probably grew accustomed to looking after yourself, but now that you're back, we would very much like to help keep you safe. Will you please tell us where you go at night, while Batman is in the city?"

After a long moment, Jason stands up. He drifts out of the room and Bruce buries his hands in his hair in frustration. Then he realizes that Alfred is following Jason, and with a sigh, he gets up to follow, too.

Jason plods into the mudroom and stops at the door that leads to the garage, which is closed. He stands there for a moment, swaying a little. Then, slowly, he struggles to open the door and finally succeeds. He takes a few steps into the garage, then pauses. Sways a bit. Then, slowly, turns and shuffles back into the mudroom. He works his feet into a pair of slip-on shoes. Then he heads back out again. He stops when he reaches one of the car-sized garage doors. Pauses. Shuffles over to the end and fumbles at the knob of the human-sized door. Gets it open. Trudges outside.

Bruce's heart is pounding in his chest as he and Alfred follow their boy. It's a long walk, but Jason keeps up a steady pace, not pausing until he passes the fence. That's when he stops for a long time, at least five minutes. Bruce is about to give up and try to coax him back to the house when Jason starts walking again, slower than before. After a while, his pace picks up, and he's shuffling along at a good clip (by his new standards) by the time he reaches the front gate of the house next door. He waits for another few minutes as Bruce wonders uneasily if he should call the Drakes and explain why he and his family are lurking outside their home. Then, to his great alarm, Jason moves closer to the fence, turns sideways, and squeezes through the bars.

"Jason!"

Jason ignores him, ambling toward the house. Alfred quickly presses a button on the intercom by the gate, but no one answers. Bruce exchanges a helpless look with his butler, who can't follow. Then he backs up and runs at the fence, throwing himself up to climb it. Surely the Drakes will understand when they see the security footage, right? Bruce has to trespass in order to retrieve his son.

He's upset, and he barely remembers to act clumsier than he actually is. It wouldn't do to have Brucie Wayne caught on camera scaling fences with ease.

Bruce catches up to Jason and grabs him by the shoulders, halting him. "Jason, what are you doing?"

Jason doesn't answer, but his face scrunches a little in annoyance and he tries to shrug Bruce off.

"No. You're staying with me." Bruce hesitates, but they've come all this way, after all. He takes Jason's hand and walks the rest of the way to the house, Jason following amiably.

No one answers when he rings the bell and then knocks. They wait on the porch for several minutes, but there's obviously no one home, not even any household staff.

Bruce sighs. "Come on, Jason. I'll look around some more later, but it's time to go home now." He pauses. "If this is really where you've been going every night, thank you for telling me." He has no idea why his brain-damaged son would sneak away to Drake Manor every night, though, or how in the world he hasn't gotten caught yet. Hopefully Bruce will find some clues when he comes back to investigate.

For now, however, it's time to get Jason back home and safe.

o.o.o

Talon watches from the windows, wearing 'sunglasses' to protect his eyes.

Jason came during the day instead of at night like he's supposed to, and he brought Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth with him even though they're not supposed to see Talon. Alfred Pennyworth stayed on the far side of the fence, but Bruce Wayne climbed over the fence and got too close. And he touched Jason and Talon was about to rush out into the harsh light and protect Jason, but Bruce Wayne didn't hurt him.

Then they all went away. Talon wishes that Jason was still here, but he's glad that Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth are gone. He wishes that Tim was here, but Tim is at school. Talon is all alone and he doesn't like it.

An hour passes, and then Talon is not alone anymore. He investigates the intruder and is surprised to see that the intruder is Batman who is Bruce Wayne. Batman is very quiet as he explores the whole house. Talon is even quieter as he follows, and Batman never sees him, which is good. Tim doesn't want Batman to see Talon.

Batman looks frustrated. He probably didn't find what he was looking for. He doesn't damage or steal anything. He leaves, and Talon goes back to the window again to watch until he's out of sight.

As soon as Tim comes home from school and shuts the door, Talon hurries to tell him, "Batman was here. He brought Jason but then he took him away and then he came back alone, but he didn't do anything except look, and then he left again. It would be good if Jason was here and Batman was not."

Tim stares at him. "What?"

"Jason is better than Batman."

Tim tosses his bag aside. "No, I mean tell me exactly what happened."

Talon does, and answers all the questions. He waits to be ordered to go fetch Jason, but Tim only says, "I need to think about this. You hungry?"

Talons don't get hungry, but Talon says "Yes" because when Tim thinks he's hungry, he lets Talon eat nice things.

"Okay. Let's go make something to eat."

o.o.o

Bruce calls Jack and Janet Drake.

Neither of them answer their phones.

He sends them emails. There's no response, even after two days (Jason manages to slip out both times, because his Robin training is still somehow intact beneath all the catatonia and Batman is distracted by trying to stop Two-Face from killing people and Alfred is distracted by trying to stop Batman from accidentally killing himself). Bruce then uses his Bat resources to track down the Drakes and contact them through channels they're actually interested in answering.

"Oh - Bruce?" Janet says, sounding perplexed. "I thought- I was told this was a call from the grant office."

"Haha, that's funny!" Bruce says in his best airhead Brucie voice. "Nope, just li'l old me. Say, Jan, you got anyone looking after the house while you're out of town? My boy said he noticed something odd over there the other day, but when I drove past, everything looked fine."

"Your...boy? You mean Richard?"

"No, Jason. I'm surprised you haven't heard, it's been all over the news! He's come back to me, Janet!"

"Come back? Jason, your- er, what do you mean 'come back'?"

"I don't know how, Jan, but I don't care; we found him wandering in the street. The street, Janet, my poor boy!"

"The poor thing," Janet says dutifully.

"Anyway, Jay seemed pretty interested in your house for some reason, and I was just wondering if there's anything over there that would catch a teenage boy's interest." If she says anything about street rats and casing the place, Bruce will figure out a way to punch her through the phone.

"Hmm, nothing I can think of, unless he's been speaking to Timothy. He always looks after things while we're gone."

Timothy? Their son? Has Jason found a playmate or something? "Maybe that explains it. Does Tim have a curfew?"

"Oh, he's very mature for his age, we trust him to behave without needing that sort of thing."

Hmmm. Jason going out every night and being attracted to a house containing an under-supervised boy only a few years younger than him... In any case, if Timothy has been home, he'll probably have a better idea about what could be attracting Jason to the house than his parents do, since they seem to spend more time out of the country than in it. Bruce will have to try visiting again outside of school hours, maybe on a weekend.

"Well, I'll let you go, Jan. Good luck with everything!"

"Thank you, Brucie!"

TBC