A/n: Finally we get to the - dreaded for me, highly anticipated (I hope at least) for you guys - chapter with Bruce and Jason talking it out. I intend to do it from Jasons pov, but we'll see how and where this goes.

His consciousness returned to him slowly.

The first thing he was aware of were the sounds in the room; from the familiar beeps of medical machines and the way they echoed, he knew he was in the Cave. The why evaded him for now, so he slowly blinked his eyes open to try and see if anything would trigger his hazy memories. Past experiences made him half expect, half hope that Dick or one of his other brothers were in the seat beside his bed, but no such luck it seemed. Not even Bruce was anywhere to be seen. But as he slowly looked around, he realised why Dick - who was almost always right there for him if he woke up from being sick or injured - wasn't there.

The Cave's medbay wasn't huge, but it still had a few cots. One was occupied by Jason, but the other also had someone under the sheets; Dick. Seeing him, the memories flooded Jason's brain.

The explosion. The claustrophobia. Dick's voice in his ear, arguing with a stoic Bruce's. Batman telling Nightwing to go because he was injured, but him not going because of Jason. The second explosion; the one that had sounded so loud and so close in his ear and made him terrified even if Dick's voice did speak moments later. The debris crushing him before it started going the other way, being lifted up to reveal Clark. Flying and… nothing.

The memories remained hazy, but he knew they'd all happened. He looked back at Dick with new eyes, breath catching in his throat because his brother was too still, too pale, and that explosion really had sounded so loud over the comms, but he had a vague memory of asking Clark on their way back about Dick and the Kryptonian saying Dick would be okay. Superman wouldn't lie to him, would he? But then why was Dick still lying there, eyes closed, motionle-

Dick stirred, and Jason let out a breath he hadn't really realised he'd been holding. He saw his brother's eyes slowly blink open as he was sure his had done moments ago, the blue flickering around the room trying to take it all in before settling on Jason. Dick blinked, then his face brightened, relaxing into a relieved smile the longer he looked at his brother.

"Jay, you're okay," he breathed, trying to get up in a sitting position but only managing to end up wincing, stuck with leaning awkwardly against the pillows behind him. Jason knew better, and stayed put, his broken arm lying over his stomach as he shifted carefully to his side to look at Dick better.

"I'm… alive," he responded, since 'okay' still seemed to be a stretch. His feelings - emotion and physical pain - had yet to kick in, so alive was the best he could do for now, but from the sympathetic look on Dick's face, he could tell his brother understood. "You?"

Dick winced again as he shifted slightly, leaning his head back with his eyes closed. "Side hurts, head hurts, shoulder hurts, but otherwise, I'm doing great." His brother somehow managed a grin in his direction, tired eyes opening as he searched Jason's face.

Jason just rolled his eyes. "Of course." Then suddenly the world felt like it was spinning a little and he had to pause, just blinking and taking deep breaths. He wasn't sure if it was his concussion causing it, pain, or something else, but when he was good enough to look back at Dick, the other man was regarding him with a frown on his face.

"You sure you're good, Little Wing?" Dick asked softly, genuine.

Jason remembered suddenly what he'd been stuck listening to over the comms while he'd been trapped under that rubble. How Bruce had been quick to prioritise with Jason on the bottom and the mission and Dick on top. He tried not to hold it against Dick that Bruce's priority had been him, but only because Dick had been fighting back against Bruce. Jason knew the other two had not been on the best terms in the past week - the result of a disagreement over how a case was handled or something - but it still felt good to have someone fighting on his side, for him, against Bruce. Don't get him wrong, he was perfectly capable of advocating for himself, but sometimes it was so much nicer to have someone else do it for you.

Speaking of Bruce, Jason's feelings came back and anger was most prominent. Anger and frustration and a bit of disappointment if he was being honest even if he should really know better by now. He'd really thought him and Bruce were getting better now, but this just proved that nothing had changed. Bruce didn't care about him. Had probably never really cared about him since the beginning, probably only taking Jason in from guilt or it actually was a PR stunt or something.

As angry as Jason was at Bruce, as angry as he wanted to be, the longer he thought about it, anger just turned to sadness. The indifference in Bruce's voice, the lack of any emotion at all as Jason had been panicking, reliving bad memories, dying, and Bruce was treating it as any other mission which had hurt. It hurt, because as much as Jason hated Bruce, he didn't. Not really. Any hate he'd had was the pit madness exaggerating his mixed feelings about his own death, but now he just wanted to be part of the family again. He thought he was part of the family again. Maybe not then.

Either way, he couldn't stay here.

He shifted, testing his body's functionality at this moment. He ignored Dick's wary gaze as he slowly sat up, wincing along the way, his legs weak and tingling weirdly but working. His arm was out of commission, but it wasn't the first time he'd broken an arm so he was okay in that department. It sucked, but he could work around it. His head felt heavy, and the rest of his body - especially his chest - was sore, but none of it was bad enough that he couldn't deal with it himself at home so he didn't really have to stay here until he was better.

Plan made, he slowly shifted forward, reaching out and folding the blanket on top of him so his legs were exposed to the chilly cave air. Dick watched on.

"What are you doing Jason?"

He considered what to tell his brother briefly, but eventually decided on the truth. Dick might try to stop him, but one look at the guy told him that Dick physically couldn't actually do much. He felt a little bad, taking advantage of the situation like that - especially after what Dick had done for him back in the building, arguing with Bruce - but there wasn't an alternative. Staying here was too… painful.

"Leaving," he answered simply, ignoring the noise Dick made.

"What? Leaving? Where are you going? Why? Jason, you're hurt - "

Jason cut him off with a glare. "Where I'm going is none of your business but I can't stay here. And I'm fine, it's not that bad."

"Your arm is broken."

"Not for the first time," Jason replied, not even looking at Dick now in favour of walking over on unsteady legs to where his gear was laid out on a nearby chair. He expected Dick to make a comment about how he 'was walking like a penguin' or something, but no such comment came.

"Jason, you're welcome here, you know that right?"

"I know."

"Then why are you going?" He paused and looked up at Dick, who was watching him with sad eyes.

"I can't stay," he repeated quietly. It took a second, but soon enough, understanding sparked in Dick's eyes and he softened. Dick had always been able to pick up on things like this so easily where Bruce and all of the others had so much trouble with it.

"It's because of Bruce, isn't it? What he said?"

"I could hear you the whole time," Jason said, voice barely above a whisper as he sat back down on the bed, staring at the floor. He didn't know what made him admit it, or even engage with Dick at all. He was just so tired of fighting, of not knowing where he stood with Bruce and all of them, and he just wanted them back. He just wanted his family again. He thought he had that, but every time, it didn't last. Things had been going so well recently that he honestly should have expected something like this to happen and ruin it all.

"I don't know how much you heard, Little Wing," Dick started softly. "But B wasn't forgetting about you. You couldn't see it but he was tense. Scared. If he didn't have to take care of me, he'd have probably done something stupid."

"He still managed to do it," Jason scoffed, unsure of how to take the new information because it didn't matter that Bruce had been scared, it mattered that he hadn't seemed to remember Jason would be scared too and he'd done nothing to make Jason think help was coming.

"Yeah, but that's just B. He was stupid not telling you the plan, but the plan was the only reason he didn't try to get you himself. Part of his brain was working well enough that he knew going in himself would probably just crush you then, so he called Clark. You know he hates doing that, so it's gotta count for something, right?"

Jason closed his eyes, taking it all in. Bruce hadn't forgot about him, even going so far as to sacrifice his ego and call Clark for help to save him, but Jason couldn't just forgive him. He still remembered what it was like under that rubble, the panic and fear and hopelessness, because like the emotionally constipated bastard Bruce was, he hadn't been able to say anything to make Jason feel better. He hadn't said a word to Jason that told Jay someone was coming, or he wasn't forgotten, or anything at all, and had let Jason panic the whole time, thinking he was alone again.

"He could have told me," Jason whispered.

"I know," Dick said quietly, and Jason looked up to see his brother smiling tiredly at him. "But you know how Bruce is. He's still working on the communication bit. But just… don't be so quick to dismiss him, okay? I know how hard you're trying, Little Wing. He's trying too, even if it doesn't seem like it sometimes. Don't let a misunderstanding undo all that work. So just talk to him okay? Got that B?"

For a moment, Jason was confused, until Dick turned to glance at the shadow in the doorway. Jason was horrified that he hadn't noticed Bruce's presence earlier, and now he scrambled to get his emotions in check as the billionaire stepped inside the room.

"Good to see you both up," Bruce said, smiling softly as the white lights highlighted the dark shadows under his eyes, telling them both that he'd barely gotten any rest.

"Not for long," came Dick's weak laugh, and Jason was brought back to the room as he noticed how exhausted Dick looked. God, had he been leaning against the pillows behind him that heavily two seconds ago? Was he injured worse than Jason knew? Come to think of it, Jason vaguely remembered Dick taking a few bad blows before the explosions had started but even before, he had no idea what his brother had been up to before this case.

Bruce frowned, seemingly noticing and thinking the same thing. "I'll call Alfred, he can take a look at you."

"No - " Dick started, but a new voice interrupted from behind Bruce.

"No need, Father. I am already under orders to help Grayson upstairs."

Bruce turned to reveal Damian standing in the doorway, sharing a look with a weakly-grinning Dick. Bruce raised an eyebrow, looking between his oldest and youngest son.

"Isn't it better for you to stay here - Can you even make it upstairs?" He asked Dick incredulously, who was already shifting to the edge of his bed, wincing. Damian quickly moved to help him.

"Yeah," Dick managed to say, standing up with a lot of support from the small figure at his side. "The couch upstairs is comfier anyway." His eyes happened to meet Jason's as he left, and Jason couldn't help but roll his eyes at the look in Dick's. He should have known his brother was up to something. He didn't care if Dick was injured; the second he was okay, Jason was going to absolutely beat his ass in sparring later. That cunning, meddlesome, self-sacrificial, impossible -

The sound of someone clearing their throat brought him back to the med-bay, and he looked at Bruce - now the only other person in the room - still awkwardly standing in the doorway.

"How… how are you feeling?" Bruce's gaze drifted to Jason's arm, indicating which type of 'feeling' he was talking about.

"Fine," was Jason's automatic response, because he mainly was, even if it was probably a lot of painkillers making it so.

There was a beat of silence before Bruce stepped forward stiffly, hesitating as if he was unsure whether it was okay for him to really enter the room or not. "So… we, uh, need to talk. About what I said."

"I heard it for myself, and what I didn't, Dick already filled me in on." Another silence, before Jason sighed. "It's more what you didn't say anyway," he muttered under his breath, but Bruce seemed to hear regardless.

"Jason… I'm… sorry," Bruce finally managed to get out, and Jason blinked in surprise, before narrowing his eyes a little. He wasn't expecting an actual apology from Bruce, but now that it'd happened, he had to be sure it was for the right reasons.

"What for?"

Bruce frowned and sat down on the edge of Dick's vacated bed so he was now facing his son, and Jason watched him.

"I'm sorry that you thought you couldn't trust me to help you, or that you thought I'd forgotten about you and what that situation could have reminded you of because… it reminded me of that too. I…," - he took a deep breath as if steeling himself for what he was about to say - "I was scared, Jason. I didn't want to lose you again, and I thought that… I knew it'd take too long for me to get you out, especially without Nightwing's help, and I didn't want to be too late again so I called Clark. And I should have told you about the plan, talked to you or something so you didn't have to feel like it was last time when - when I wasn't there, but I was just so lost in that memory that I forgot you might be too in the moment. I wanted to get to you as quick as I could, but I couldn't. I shouldn't have sent you off on your own anyway, I should have just let you stay and help Dick and maybe both of you would be okay. I just… I'm sorry," he finished lamely, eyes wandering now so he didn't see Jason move until the boy's arms were already around him.

It took a second before Bruce hugged Jason back, not expecting it at all.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly into his son's messy hair, not talking about whatever pain his son might be feeling in his arm this time.

It took a while for Jason to respond, voice slightly muffled through Bruce's shirt. "I will be, as long as you don't do anything stupid and talk to me next time."

"I'll do my best, okay? As long as you talk to me too. I want you here, Jason. You may have done some things in the past that I don't agree with, but you're still family. You're still my son. And that doesn't mean that we always have to agree either - Dick's a perfect example if we look at the past week alone - but as long as you just talk to me and give me time, I'll do the same for you."

"Thanks Dad," Jason mumbled, holding Bruce a little tighter before they finally parted. "Speaking of Dick, we should probably make sure he's not passed out right outside the door trying to eavesdrop or the Demon didn't just leave him on the stairs because he's too heavy or something."

"Damian wouldn't do that to Dick," Bruce chuckled, before he paused and the smile was gone. "Would he?"

They both looked at each other then quickly went to the door, Bruce helping Jason as they made their way into the main Cave to see that Dick had, in fact, passed out, but on the couch upstairs. Damian was sprawled on the armchair next to his brother, slightly breathless. Beside him, Tim was sat on the floor, massaging his arms and answering everything Bruce and Jason asked with their raised eyebrows with one tortured look.

A/n: So funny story, I kinda maybe wrote this a while ago and forgot about it until I came across it again yesterday and had to reread it because I couldn't remember if I actually finished writing it but whatever, it's here. I'm not 100% happy with it because it felt so ooc for Bruce to be apologising but it needed to be done and I definitely remember this chapter fighting against me tooth and nail when I was writing it but I hope you still enjoyed it. If nothing else, I hope you enjoyed a bit of meddling Dick who is most definitely the protege of the master of contingencies because he made sure Damian wouldn't leave him on the stairs by getting Tim involved too lol.

Stay safe and see ya soon!

- CrowofArcadiaOaks