Abril: Hold on to your seat belts bookaroos. We're about to have a bumpy ride.

One day after Cassandra and Alfred picked up Jason and Tim from school, they arrived at Wayne Manor to the strange sight of an unknown car in front of the porch.

"Master Bruce?" Alfred called as he stepped into their home through the garage entrance, hanging the keys on the rack by the door.

No one answered him for a moment as they came in. But soon enough a tired looking Bruce walked out of the sitting room to greet them.

"Hey boys, Cassie, Alfred." He gave the girl a kiss on the head and a side hug to the other two. "I ah," he looked back at the sitting room door. "I have some company right now. How about you guys eat without me?"

"Something important, sir?" Alfred asked without batting an eye.

There was a worried, stressed look trying to break free on Bruce's face though he tried very hard to make it seem like everything was normal.

"You could say that. I would appreciate it if no one interrupted me for now, yeah?" he added looking at his children.

"Sure B," Jason answered, slightly put out. Bruce seemed very uncomfortable, it was a strange look on him.

Alfred ushered the children away, reading the room and the tension on Bruce.

"Thank you," he mouthed at the butler.

"So?" A low, imperious, voice asked, making the retreating party turn to look. A tall, brown skinned woman with long dark hair was standing at the door of the sitting room.

Bruce's shoulders raised up. His face shutting down, guarded.

"I'll be right there Talia," he said perfectly polite, his voice as smooth as hers. Without looking back at them, he disappeared into the room.

After a while as they ate in the dining hall, the kids and Alfred heard the front door open and close, but Bruce did not turn up for lunch. By the time they finished the strange woman was long gone.

A week later Talia turned up again with a smirk on her face and an eight year old boy in tow. His skin was lightly brown and his eyes as green as his mother's. His features did not take after her though.

"I assume you got the confirmation mail?" She asked, still smiling.

"I did," Bruce answered coldly.

"Well, are you going to ask me in or not?" Talia asked after the man made no further action.

With a bitter gesture, Bruce beckoned them inside. The little boy followed dutifully behind Talia and did not grab onto her hand. He looked up at Bruce when he passed him though, with big, serious eyes. A spark of wonder shined there though.

Unlike how he'd done with Selina in the past, Bruce did not introduce Talia to his family. It was clear to those present this was not a woman he liked. At home there were only Cassandra and Jason. Tim was off playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friends and Dick was still in Bludhaven at the university, though he'd promised he'd come visit tomorrow.

The three of them were on their way to Bruce's study. Alfred and Jason were just about to go back to where they had peeked in curiously at the sound at the door.

Jason had given a polite nod to Talia but the woman had not even glanced his way.

"Are you not going to say hello to your son?" she asked within perfect hearing range of everyone else.

They all stared at him. Bruce stood frozen to the spot. His eyes shifted to the others for a moment and then he swallowed, looking down at the little boy.

"Hello Damian," he said quietly.

"Hello father," the boy answered back with perfectly clean diction and a slightly British accent.

Alfred's face fell into a frown.

"Come on," Bruce bit out, jaw tight and fists clenched as they headed to his study.

When they came out again an hour or so later Talia looked like that cat who got the canary.

Alfred did not look at Bruce when he asked if he could show Damian to his room. They all knew what it meant.

As Talia and Bruce walked out of the Manor, Cassandra, popping out of nowhere as per usual, pulled Jason by the hand.

"Fuck," he exclaimed, startled at her appearance. The girl dragged him outside through one of the windows and did not heed his complaints.

"Cass, relax, what are you doing?" he asked, a little panicked by how insistent she was being.

They arrived at the front porch and hid in the side bushes half a second before the big wooden doors of the main entrance opened.

"Shit," Jason mouthed. They were going to spy on Bruce and his lover's conversation.

It was not like he wasn't curious and hadn't tried a thousand times to do similar things, but this particularly felt very wrong. It seemed too serious. Jason did want to know though. He wanted to know what the hell had been going on with Bruce this past week and what would happen next.

"He'll be safe with you," Talia said as they stood on the porch.

"Of course, I won't let anything happen to him." Despite the sentiment, Bruce's voice was void of emotion.

"Oh, come on beloved. You have three little brats already running around and your circus monkey somewhere else. I was so sure you'd be happy to finally have a legitimate son," she said with her arms crossed delicately before her.

"Do not talk about my family like that," some of that anger Jason seldom saw in Bruce was shining in his eyes now.

"Damian's your family."

"They are my family first. Damian is yours," Bruce said with fiery ire.

They stared at each other for a long time.

"Why are you so bitter? I thought you loved children," Talia said with an incredulous look.

"You know what this is about." Bruce crossed his own arms defensively, looking away from the beautiful woman.

"I really don't beloved, you're being childish." And she did seem long suffering, as if she'd put up with Bruce time after time again.

"Don't make me say it, Talia."

"I'm not making you do anything," she rolled her eyes.

A crushed look made its home on Bruce's face, plain to see under the light of the sun.

"Oh… Is this about our time together?" Her eyes opened a little wider, struck by realization.

"Don't call it that. That's not what that was."

"Hm, really? What was it then?" She asked sweetly. When Bruce didn't answer she added teasingly, "It was magic. I remember you enjoying yourself very much." She brushed her hand lightly to the side of his leg. It made Bruce flinch back as if burned.

"You and I remember that night very differently, Talia."

"Oh," she took her hand back and rested her elbow on her crossed arm so she was laying her head on her palm. "So now you're saying you didn't want it?" Talia asked with a playful smirk.

"Don't you dare say that. Don't you fucking dare," his eyes bored into her furiously.

"So I'm lying?" She batted her eyes innocently.

Bruce's breath hitched as he tried to speak. "You know damn well that I didn't… I didn't want that," he finally said once he gathered himself.

"The fact that Damian's even alive should be proof to the contrary"

Bruce couldn't seem to find words again. He looked torn.

"You drugged me," he said, voice wavering only slightly, almost heartbroken. "I trusted you, and you drugged me."

"You just needed a little push, beloved," Talia said tenderly, taking a step towards Bruce and pressing herself against him, caressing his chest.

Bruce's breath wobbled. "Get out… get out of my house now."

"Don't be like that-"

"Get out of my house, now, Talia." Burce did not scream but it was a near thing.

She pulled away and rolled her eyes.

"God, you are so dramatic. I can say with certainty that is one of your great flaws. Alright then, have it your way. You can tell yourself whatever story you want to spin around, I don't care. If it helps you sleep at night then go ahead you poor, helpless victim of abuse."

Jason felt like a little kid again, fifteen years old and tied to a chair, unable to help his dad as he just watched. But he wasn't a little kid anymore.

Jason got a grip of himself, or perhaps lost it in that moment, and jumped from his hiding place, stumbling a little as he did, taking a stand in front of his dad.

"Didn't you hear him? Just fucking leave already, bitch!" he shouted.

Talia blinked surprised at Jason and then at the bush he'd come from. Then she laughed delightedly.

"Oh my. Is this your guard dog, beloved?" she asked, covering her mouth. "Your shining knight in armor to protect your honor? Your… virtue?"

Jason jumped at her, fist balled and flying as fast as it could.

Jason wasn't particularly muscular, but Bruce had told him from a young age he had a strong build and should be careful with his strength. It would serve him well now.

"Jason-" But Bruce was faster as he caught his son in an immobilizing hold, struggling to pull him back.

"That is very cute," Talia said with amusement. "Until we see each other again my love," she said, looking intensely at Bruce through her long lashes.

And then Talia just left. Just like that she climbed into her car and went away.

Bruce let go of Jason, arms falling down like puppets cut off their strings. He couldn't look at his son, he was finding it very hard to breathe.

"Don't listen to her Bruce," Jason hissed at him, holding his bicep in a tight grip. Bruce flinched and Jason let go, taking a startled step back.

The teen didn't know what else to say.

"H-how…" Bruce swallowed, looking horrified at the floor. "How much did you hear?" his voice broke.

Jason had always wanted to know about Bruce's nightlife, to get more details on the fights, the parties. But his dad was very tight-lipped about most things he did once the sun went down besides broad strokes. Perhaps it was things like this that made him hesitate. Jason never wanted to find out anything like this though.

When Jason didn't answer, at a loss for words, he glanced for a second towards Cassandra's hiding place, but it was enough. Bruce turned and a hesitant looking Cass emerged from the brambles. It made Bruce unsteady on his feet.

"Casie?" Bruce breathed out.

The man rubbed his eyes off of unshed tears, willing them to disappear.

"Bruce," Jason began softly, but he was quickly interrupted.

"I- I should go see to Damian now," he said, not daring to look into his children's eyes.

Cass and Jason stood alone on the porch.

"Shit," he said.

All of the kids had come to the manor with their own flair and style.

Dick had been full of hurt and anger. His first weeks with Bruce filled with shouting and crying, oscillating at times with fierce clinging.

Jason had been wary and guarded. He had not trusted Bruce as far as he could throw him and Jason at twelve could not very well lift a man four times his size.

Tim and Cassandra shared slight similarities. Both had arrived quietly. But whereas Tim bloomed into existence after a while, chattering and smiling through his shy want for approval. Cass remained a quiet fixture that seemed almost dangerous in her silence even though there was no danger at all.

Damian was quiet too, at first. But his arrival was anything but. He came to Wayne Manor in the fashion of a tsunami breaking against the coast. The signs subtle and the consequences high.

Apparently the boy had been raised like a little prince.

"Excuse- excuse me, what did you just call me?" Jason asked flabbergasted, unable to to understand how this child before him was even real.

"It appears you are hard of hearing as well as poorly qualified to live under the graceful charity of my father's will," Damian answered with grandeur and little interest on his face. "I called you a peasant."

When Bruce has said 'raised like a prince' his children had not fully grasped the magnitude of what 'prince' would encompass.

The boys tried to give Damian some grace, after all, the kid had been raised very… particularly. It was not his fault. But it was hard. In the house they had never had to deal with something like this, and while they all had been different, they hadn't been Damian different. Cassandra though, unlike the boys, had no qualms about expressing exactly how she felt to Damian.

"If you cannot get through your little skull that you are lesser than me in this house then that is on you not on me," Damian said imperative as always, his brow furrowed slightly.

"It is not a wonder you of all the… charity cases my father has amassed, would be the most desperate to usurp me from my rightful place as father's true blood son. After all, as I understand it, your own father could barely put up with you."

"You little shit," Jason said.

"Who told you that?" Tim said at the same time.

It was unclear what was louder, either the devastated look of true hurt on Tim's face or Cassandra's slap. The hit was so strong it toppled Damian to the ground.

"Cass!" Jason exclaimed. The oldest teen was out of his depth and half a second away from getting Bruce, who was the only one who could control Damian. Also unsure what to do about Cassandra who had never hit anyone inside the house, not even on her rare tantrums.

"You dare strike me, daughter of Cain!" Daimian shrieked, face red with righteous fury. A handprint was blooming on his left cheek.

"You. Do not say things like that to Tim." She pointed at the boy on the floor, enunciating each word slowly and clearly. Her dark eyes were cold, daring Damian to act. Wanting him to do something about what she'd just done.

The boy pounced up.

"I will not stand for any disrespect from a sad experiment like you who can barely string a sentence together!" He was looking threateningly at the girl while not being very successful as he barely reached under her chin. Cassandra from her part looked imperiously at him.

"I need not words to deal with you."

"I will skewer you with my blade Cain-"

"Damian!" A breathless Bruce came rushing into the sitting room where it was going down. The fight could probably be heard all over the manor. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Your pet dared to strike me!" He pointed at the girl petulantly.

"Damian!" Bruce barked.

"He hurt Tim," Cassandra was quick to follow, her eyes still so cold.

Bruce turned to look at Tim with worry, the boy seemed okay but for the red in his eyes.

"It's fine," Tim muttered.

"Damian say Tim lesser. Damian say he unwanted by Jack," the girl went on, only stopping when Tim's worried hand held her wrist. He shook his head when she turned to him.

"I did not say anything that was untrue," the boy did not bother to defend himself, so sure of his righteous position.

"Enough!" Bruce shouted.

The sound was so loud it vibrated inside Jason's chest. The room was at once silent as a grave. Jason thought Bruce looked… he looked scary.

"Enough, all of you. Cassie, we'll talk later. Damian, come with me." He gestured at the hallways with his head and the boy followed at once. Damian looked self pleased, which was a clear sign he did not know Bruce very well at all.

When father and son disappeared through the frame of the door, the air around them was still tense with the leftover commotion. Jason hoped Bruce would handle the Damian issue soon. He had not lived under such tense circumstances since he'd lived on the streets.

Some things about the fight were odd though. Cass and Damian fought as if they were having a completely different conversation than everyone else in the room. He called Cassandra an experiment, and while it wasn't unusual for Damian to insult them all at any given point, his insults were always based on some truth. That's why they hurt.

The boys knew vaguely that Cassandra had been in a bad place before coming to the manor, but not the extent of that situation. Saying that she was an experiment was a stretch though. It was mighty strange indeed.

With Damian's presence at the manor, there was little time to address the elephant in the room. And Bruce Wayne was not going to address that elephant himself under any circumstances.

Jason knew, like one knows the sun will rise and Superman wears underwear over his suit, that Bruce would not go to a therapist for anything in the world, not even for something like this. So Jason was not even going to consider asking or hinting at it. And while Dick was studying psychology, it was child psychology he was majoring in and Dick was like, in diapers on the subject still. He did not want to throw a newbie to a Bruce sized problem. Not that Dick hadn't been playing pseudo therapist/minder for Bruce for years now, but that was beyond the point. And Dick had already tried talking to their dad, which had gone as well as expected.

Bruce had always lived on a precarious, invisible edge, but since the coming of Damian, it seemed that the man was unraveling slowly but surely.

So Jason decided he could do some research himself and do his very best to help Bruce with this. His heart ached with his want to help, to make things better, just like Bruce had done oh so many times before. Now at eighteen years old, like all children who grow up, Jason knew his father was not perfect or indestructible or always right. He'd known it for quite a while but that knowledge always overlapped with his sense that told him Bruce was a giant who couldn't be taken down.

But everyone had their limits.

It was Jason's turn to make it all better. But first, research.

While he tip taped away at his laptop, there was one thing above all which had stuck to Jason the most. And it was that, of all the things that had happened in the last couple of weeks, it was the fact that he hadn't known what to say to Bruce when he and Cass had eavesdropped on him and Talia. He hadn't known what to say. He hadn't had one useful word. He'd been so useless.

He couldn't allow things to worsen so, research.

And against all odds. It was Alfred who made everything worse.

Abril: That was for SURE a ride hehe. Hope everyone's alright after that.

I have been saying for years that Alfred is not perfect and if you think that he is well... that's like, your opinion man :P But yeah, now way is a man of his generation not having VERY strong opinions about Bruce's "lifestyle," and ya know, the roles of men in society or whatever. Fight with me in the comments. Or not, I'm so weak willed I'll probably cry (,: