"So… Can I offer anything? Tea? Orange juice? Tap water?" Jazz chuckled nervously, looking between the vigilantes awkwardly standing in her living room and her boyfriend standing on the other side, close to the door, glaring at them.

Red Robin glanced at her and smiled softly. "You have coffee?"

"I don't, sorry. Don't like the taste."

"Then water is fine."

Nightwing cleared his throat. "I'm fine with tea."

"You don't even like tea." Jason growled. "Why are you here."

"We wanted to apologize," Nightwing lifted his hands, trying to look as harmless as possible. "To you and to Jasmine."

"Jazz is fine." She said, setting the kettle to start boiling water.

"Then apologize. And leave."

"Gee, no need to get so territorial. Thanks," Red Robin accepted the glass of water from her. "We wanted to explain, too. And maybe ask her a few questions."

"But if you guys are busy we can come back in a few hours~" Nightwing smiled at Jason. "Or maybe tomorrow?"

"That's it!"

Jason started marching towards the costumed vigilantes, knife in hand, but was stopped by Jazz as he passed by her. Her grip was like iron, Jason noticed, her muscles not straining at all to keep him from getting out of her grasp.

Was this how strong she really was?

Would she casually do displays of inhuman abilities like this now that he knew?

(He wanted her to, actually. He wanted to see it all.)

"Darling," her voice was like honey as she took the knife from his hand, "no murdering anyone in my apartment."

He didn't answer, not trusting his voice to be normal after hearing the pet name coming from her lips again.

"You guys are the cutest thing ever."

Both turned to look at the masked vigilante. Jason tried to subtly get out of her hand, but she didn't budge. Impressive.

"I recommend you guys start talking. It's kind of late and I have work tomorrow."

Dick's smile vanished, reminded why they were there. "We wanted to apologize," he repeated, "What happened… it shouldn't have happened."

"Bruce didn't have any right to go for you like he did."

Amazing.

Even when Bruce fucks up so bad that he attracks the attention of potentially the next supervillain, he didn't have the balls to come himself here to apologize.

Jazz hummed, finally letting him go. "It was bound to happen."

Tim frowned. "What?"

"When I moved here I knew there was a possibility that Batman came after me, I was prepared for it." She didn't look happy, her eyes finding Jason's for a second. Right. She never planned on dating anyone so probably she would have disappeared if she was found. "I had a plan B in case that happened."

This was news to Jason. "Would you have run away?"

She nodded at him. "Back to the Infinite Realms until it blew off. And change identities and everything — we knew the bats are very thorough."

What good it did now.

"And are you?"

"What?" Jazz turned back to face Dick, confused.

"Running away." The man glanced at Jason, a slight tension in his smile. "Will you run away now?"

Jazz frowned. "I cannot leave now, even if I wanted to. The GIW will come and they will hurt anything that has a signature, even innocent ghosts. And, well, recent development has, uh," she blushed when she glanced at Jason, and then looked away, "convinced me to stay."

Dick squealed and picked her up to squeeze her against his chest, happily bouncing in place with Jazz in his arms.

"This is the best thing ever! I mean, not the whole clusterfuck, but aaaaa, I'm so happy you decided to stay!"

"Dick—"

The vigilante continued rambling even if the woman was unresponsive, ignoring Tim's worried tone. Jazz was completely paralyzed, eyes wide, arms frozen where she touched Nightwing on the shoulders as he bounced her around.

Jason narrowed his eyes. Why was Jazz so… like that? She had interacted with Nightwing before but she had been fine. Maybe a bit annoyed and worried when the whole "break and entering" incident happened, but now—

"Dick, let her go." Jason finally said, stepping closer.

"Huh?"

He finally looked at the woman's expression stuck in a shocked visage, eyes wide and mouth tightly pressed together.

"You okay?" He asked when he let her safely on her feet. Jazz snapped back into attention.

"Uh, yeah?" She passed a hand through her hair, nervously laughing. It didn't take a detective to know something was up. "I'm cool. Totally cool!"

Huh.

Weird.

Jazz said she was very touchy feely and loved hugs, why have this reaction now?

Jason had the fleeting thought that maybe she had a crush on his brother, either in or out of the uniform, the same spark of jealousy burning in his chest with the same intensity her cheeks burned as she sat down at the sofa ignoring everyone present.

He still felt her lips on his, her tongue dancing with his. She had said yes to him. She wanted him.

With a sigh he walked to the sofa and slumped next to her, looping one arm around her shoulders. No, it wasn't meant to be a possessive gesture. She still looked kind of spooked.

"Everything okay? Is my brother bothering you?"

She jumped at his words.

"I'm fine," she took a deep breath, steeling herself. Her hands stopped combing her hair. "Is just… ugh," she rubbed her face, "when I was like, fifteen? Yeah, around that era, I was such a Nightwing fan." She dipped her head, clearly not wanting to look at the beaming smile in Dick's face. "And now that I know he's my gymnastics teacher… I've face planted so many times in front of him."

"Is okay, dear!" Dick was practically sparkling as he danced towards the sofa, picking one of her hands in his. Jazz's face was red as a tomato. "You are just learning, you'll get better in no time."

"Wait, wait, wait." Tim interrupted the moment, picking a kitchen chair to place it in front of the coffee table with an even bigger smile. "You were a Nightwing groupie?"

"I was… very young."

"Even in the Discowing era?" Jazz whined, closing her eyes with a nod. "Even in the mullet era?"

"Since the Robin era," she let her head drop. "We all knew, of course. There were whole channels dedicated to analysis of Nightwing's movements and how it was very obvious he was the first Robin." She made a gesture with her hand, rolling her eyes. "I thought it was a waste of time to obsess over that, as if we had to prove it again and again to newcomers."

"Channels?"

"Was I that obvious?"

"So you were in those fanclub forums?" Tim ignored the others to ask.

Jazz looked him in the eye. "I was the club president for two years."

If Jason had to describe Tim's smile at that moment, he would say "predatory". Like a lion that found its prey and was getting ready to pounce. Jason knew that expression. It only meant one thing: blackmail.

"Interesting…" He opened the wrist computer of his suit, typing something on it.

"You won't find the site, it was taken down for 'unauthorized Nightwing merchandise' and 'unauthorized use of Nightwing's image without his consent'." She crossed her arms, lifting her chin in defiance.

Jazz had so much to learn if she thought that meant she was safe from a Bat.

"That's no problem for me—"

"Don't you fucking dare."

She stood up so fast Jason didn't see her move. He almost didn't catch her fast enough either, but managed to loop his arms around her waist before she lunged at Red Robin, fists ready. He would otherwise pay to see her go nuts on the shortstack, but it didn't seem like a good idea at the moment.

Jazz stumbled at the unexpected pull and fell on his lap with a soft "oof".

"What happened to 'no murdering anyone in my apartment', darling?" He chuckled at her flushed face when she looked up at him.

"It's okay if I'm the one doing the murdering." She grumbled, but there was no real intent in her voice.

He was so tempted to kiss her senseless right then and there, damn his brothers watching the show, but tried to be happy enough with having her warmth on his lap. She didn't even try to fight her way out of his arms, choosing to stay there and get comfortable on his legs, pouting and crossing her arms.

"I've done things I'm not proud of in those forums, Red Robin. If I find out you looked, I will end you myself and not even being my favorite Bat will help you."

Yeah. He couldn't resist. He kissed the top of her head, burying his face in her hair. It smelled nice.

"I'm your favorite bat?"

"That's the only thing you take from that?"

Jason looked up from his redhead heaven. Dick was between looking horrified at the murder threats and smiling at how cute they were being. He rolled his eyes. Whatever, he could love his girlfriend in public if he wanted, he was not a coward.

"You can call me Tim," Replacement continued talking, but wisely chose to close the wrist computer and give up on poking the bear. "Now, tell me more about me being the favorite."

"As in Tim Drake?" All anger left her at the piece of information.

"Yeah? I thought you already knew about us."

"Not everyone," she shook her head, "I haven't had time to review my research. I've been a bit busy, you know, being threatened."

Dick sighed, sitting down on the sofa, combing back his hair with his hands.

"We're sorry. If it helps, we didn't know B was going to jump like that. He didn't tell anybody what's going on and by the time we found out it was too late."

"And we are sorry to you too, Jason." The mentioned jumped at the unexpected apology. "If we had found out about Bruce's plans sooner… Duke and Cass knew even less about what was happening. They feel really bad."

"The guys at the Diner, right?"

Tim nodded at Jazz. "They wanted to come to apologize as well, but we didn't know if… Well, we didn't even know if you were going to still be in Gotham."

Jason felt her deflate and melt against his chest. The situation wasn't the best, things were never going to go back to how they were before, and the weight of that knowledge rested on her heart. And his.

He wasn't going to lie to himself and say everything was Bruce's fault. If he believed her a little more instead of letting what Bruce was saying get to his head, maybe they would have talked out everything that same afternoon. But he didn't believe her, he broke that trust, and that would be his cross to bear.

It was still shitty, though.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere for the moment. Apologies accepted." She was such a nice person. At what moment did he ever consider she could be as bad as her parents? "And I'm going to regret this, but I don't mind if they come by to visit."

"Don't." Jason whispered softly. "Don't leave an open invitation."

"It's my apartment, though."

Jason grumbled against her shoulder. "At least get that damn window lock. And curtains."

She hummed, but didn't make any promises. Was she messing with him? At this point he was positive she was not putting a window lock out of spite.

"Well," Dick stood up, slapping his hands against his thighs as he did, "is getting late and the lovebirds need to continue 'making up' or whatever the younglings call it these days."

"Hey."

"Actually, I agree. I have a long day tomorrow."

While it was late and it was true that Jazz needed to at least keep a normal sleep schedule, Jason didn't want to let her go. His arms tensed around her waist, just enough to stop her from moving out of his lap.

She turned to smile at him. Her relaxed expression was a complete opposite of the uncomfortable smiles she offered earlier that day. He didn't know how warm and true her smiles were until they weren't, and he decided to keep making her smile like this forever.

"You go as well."

"Do I have to?" He didn't pout. He wouldn't do that with an audience.

"I will be here tomorrow. And the day after that." It sounded like a promise. Did she guess he needed reassurance?

Maybe she did, because she gently placed her hands on his arms, carefully prying them away from her. Once she was free, she took his hands in hers, interlacing their fingers.

Everything else in the room vanished as he looked into her teal eyes, noticing the subtle variations in color, the green creeping in the borders of her irises.

"Tomorrow."

He nodded in agreement, not sure what he was agreeing to.

His attention snapped back to the present when he heard Tim make a sound like a strangled duck. Jazz stood up, careful to not upset his still healing leg, and started pushing his brothers to the window. They were sharing some quick parting words, mostly Tim asking her to elaborate on the whole 'favorite Bat' thing and Dick trying to fish for compliments of his Discowing outfit.

Jason ignored them all, standing up to glare at the costumed duo until they were outside and Jazz closed the window. He made a mental note to add his own traps since she refused to get a lock.

"So…"

He looked at her, watching her every move, his mind going back to the kiss they shared. They were alone again, the air still buzzing with the underlying tension after the day's events.

That morning he thought he had lost her forever and now he couldn't help himself from approaching her to go for another kiss.

She accepted it with another one of her easy smiles.

"You have to go."

"Do I?"

"Yeah."

"Do I really?" He leaned in for another kiss, trying to tempt her into a round 2, but she was faster and put a hand on his chest, stopping him.

Jazz arched an eyebrow. "Maybe vigilantes can go for days without sleeping but for sure I am not willing to imitate that behavior."

"I thought you were superhuman?" He teased.

"Not a super." She bit her lip, grabbing his arm and dragging him to the front door. She was not using a lot of strength and he humored her.

It was easy to laugh around her. He missed this. He missed feeling so weightless.

Once he was at the door he grabbed her by the waist to pull her closer to his body, eager to feel her presence. He needed to imprint her warmth in his memory until tomorrow, not willing to let her go without taking that with him until he saw her again.

That goodbye kiss was deeper, her lips welcoming him and her tongue hesitant to let him closer to her sharp teeth. Not that he minded getting cut here and there, but they would work on that.

Jason opened his eyes when he heard a noise coming from the window.

Of course the idiots were still there, watching with wide smiles on their stupid faces.

He flipped the bird at them.

The next day found the couple cuddling on the sofa watching a movie like they were supposed to before everything went down. It had been Jason's idea, he texted her while she was still at the hospital; at first a bit hesitant but when she said she was completely in with the idea, he immediately started making suggestions of what to watch.

It wasn't until Christine tapped on her arm with a knowing smirk that Jazz noticed her lunch break was almost over. She had been texting Jason with a silly smile on her face.

Whatever, she thought as she leaned closer to Jason, relishing on their joined hands and the warmth of his shoulder under her cheek. She almost lost him, lost this, and she was allowed to enjoy the giddiness until the reality of what they would need to face came knocking at her door.

The ripple of the events of that week were starting to happen.

Dylan, her boss, looked at her with a smug smile every time they interacted, making jabs and asking not-that-innocent questions about what Bruce Wayne wanted from her.

Her coworkers whispered behind her back. Christine was her friend at work, but she was a horrible gossip, and by thursday everyone knew that the man came to visit Jazz and picked her up after work. So far nobody dared ask, but speculation ran rampant the longer Jazz refused to say anything.

"What's wrong?"

Jason paused the movie — some kind of fantasy adventure both had agreed looked interesting.

"Just thinking."

He hummed, considering her words. "I won't ask if you don't want to say," Jazz winced where he couldn't see it, "but let me know if I can help with something."

"Not everything can be punched into submission."

He chuckled, making her shake as well. "I still haven't found one problem I couldn't blow up or punch in the face."

Jazz's mind pictured the face of Jason's adoptive father and had to bite back the comment that she hadn't seen him punch the man in the face yet. That wasn't the time or place for that conversation.

"I'm just worried."

"About?"

What could she say? Everything? They had been in their quiet bubble cuddling and kissing, but sooner or later they'd have to face the music and talk about all the things left unsaid.

What Jason did at night, what she did before coming to Gotham. How long she had in the city. What would happen after.

The GIW.

Vlad.

Batman.

"Stuff." She chose to make a vague gesture with her free hand. "We need to talk to Batman. Eventually."

He scoffed but didn't let go of her hand. "If I could not talk to him ever again I would be happy."

Jazz bit her tongue again, questions fighting to get out. What happened to them? Did that have anything to do with why Jason became a Crime Lord? Did Batman treat his own son like a criminal too?

She heard a rustle coming from the window, turning her head less than a second before she saw the dark cape pass by. She jumped into action, not caring about moving like a human anymore, quickly approaching the sword display Jason kept in his living room and picking the twin blades — talwar — that looked sharpened.

Jason was already standing by the time she was back between him and the window opening — Batman had come to visit.

"You have a lot of nerve coming here," her boyfriend growled, his stance tensed. His injuries were mostly healed, but she knew that it still hurt on his left side. "After what you have done."

Jazz watched Batman— Bruce step into the apartment and close the window behind him, drawing the curtains. He slowly took the cowl off, not making any sudden move.

She didn't lower the talwar.

"What do you want?" Her voice betrayed nothing, but she didn't want to bring the animosity just yet.

Bruce hesitated, looking back at the window as if he expected someone to be there. His stance was guarded but defeated. He didn't come to fight. The whole furry suit could have fooled her.

"I came to apologize."

Jason scoffed, walking to Jazz and standing closer to the sword display. Just in case.

Batman followed his every move, eyes going to his injured leg. So now he was worried about his son's health?

"Bruce apologizing? Someone check the weather, pigs may be flying."

Jazz wanted to roll her eyes at the sarcasm, but let it slide.

"My behavior was… badly timed— " Understatement, Jazz thought " — and I acted before getting the whole story first."

The couple waited. And waited.

That's it?

She lowered the swords a little. "You really need to work on your communication skills."

Jason barked a laugh, but she didn't turn to look at him. Her eyes were fixed on the intense sky blue of the other man's eyes watching her, analyzing her. She didn't care if he thought she was dangerous anymore, or if he wanted to kick her from the city — she was here to stay, even if he liked it or not.

"I'm sorry." Bruce tried again. He looked again at the closed curtains, head almost imperceptibly tilting to the side. Jazz could hear the buzzing of a comms device, but couldn't identify the words or the voices. "I'm sorry you and your loved ones went through what you went through. We should have been there. I should have been there."

So he had been listening to her and Jason. The thought wasn't surprising. At least it would speed up the explanations.

"We dealt with it." Would things be better if the Justice League had been there to help? She still thought it was a bad idea for the heroes to get tangled in ghost business, but they were so lost in those first years. Some guidance would have been nice. "It's all in the past."

Bruce made a face. He didn't like her answer.

Well, that's the only one he was going to get. At least until Danny was there.

"I'm sorry for accusing you. And revealing yourself against your will."

"I was in hiding."

"I know." More words coming from the comms. "We need to—"

She cut him off. "You still don't understand, Batman—"

"Bruce is fine." He tried to smile, but it was weak. Not reassuring at all.

"Bruce," Jazz gave the talwar to Jason, who had been quietly watching the exchange, "you may think you are impossible to find, that your technology is the best; but it is not enough. Not when dealing with ghosts. Not when there's been an ongoing intelligence war between us for years and nobody is above mixing magic with tech."

This interested him, but he didn't ask anything about it.

"We have magic users in the League." He said as if it would take all the problems away.

"Ghost magic is different. For starters, it is in a language no one alive can speak or understand." A fact Tucker struggled with, but made do with what he could understand. "I can do some basic warding, so if you let me—"

"I didn't do the research. It was done by—"

"Barbie?" The betrayal was palpable in Jason's voice. "She's in on this?"

"She approached me with the information, but it was I, and I alone, who drew the conclusions." The way he insisted seemed practiced. More voices came from the earpiece. "But if only looking will put her at risk…"

Jazz didn't know who this "Barbie" was, but even if Bruce was trying to cover for her she was still an innocent tangled with the bullshit that was her life.

She sighed. "Wait here."

With a hope that they wouldn't kill each other during the time she ran to her apartment, Jazz quickly searched for some paper and a pen. She drew the sigil she had memorized and bit her thumb with one of her fangs, drawing a few drops of her blood.

Danny's would be more effective, but the Princess' should be enough to deter any low level ghost. Just in case.

Jazz repeated the process a few times. It was always better to place them in the doors and thresholds, and she didn't know how many this Barbie person would need.

Once she was done she fast walked back to Jason's place, half expecting to find them at each other's throats. They were not, but the air was more tense than how she left them.

"Absolutely not."

"Jay—"

"I said no."

Bat—Bruce turned towards her. "She should know."

"Know what?"

"Don't!" Jason rushed to step in between them. "Don't drag her into your bullshit."

Jazz carefully stepped around Jason, eyes fixed on the still unmoving figure of Bruce by the window. "Know what?" She repeated.

Again voices were coming from the earpiece. Louder this time.

"Tomorrow night," Bruce took a fortifying deep breath, "there is a family dinner. We'd be delighted if you and Jason joined us."

"I told the Golden Boy plenty of times that I won't be going!" Jazz was taken aback by how incensed Jason got with this topic. She understood by now that his relationship with the Waynes was strained, but enough to warrant this reaction? "She won't be going, I won't be going, end of conversation!"

"Maybe she should decide for herself."

"Oh that's rich!"

Bruce winced. "What I meant to say is…," he looked her into her eyes and then away. "We… I mean," the buzzing from the comms became louder, "I would like to invite you, Jasmine, as an apology for… everything. Just dinner. And we can properly, uh, meet. Outside all of…" He made a vague gesture that encompassed his suit.

Jason was going to step in and continue growling, but she stopped him with a hand on his chest. It was good to know what Jason wanted, but she wasn't sure that cutting all communication was the way to go. Just look at how things go bad so fast when they keep things from each other — why wouldn't it be the same for him and his family?

"Do you really not want to go?" She turned to ask her boyfriend. If he said no then she was not going, but she needed to ask.

He narrowed his eyes. "You can't be seriously considering—"

"I just want to know."

It was a simple question. Yes or no.

And yet, he hesitated, eyes going back and forth between Bruce and herself. There was a certain longing in his eyes — maybe not towards his adoptive father, but it was there. Jason never outright talked about his family, maybe to not reveal many facts that connected him to the dead son of Bruce Wayne, but Jazz had seen him interact with the others. There was banter there, a sense of belonging.

Whatever happened to drift them apart was between Bruce and Jason. Not the rest of the flock.

"I don't want you to endure them more than you have to," he finally said, not really answering her question. "It will be more of an interrogation than a family dinner."

He was probably right. If all of them were the Gotham heroes, it could end up being an intense situation.

"Alfred's cooking." Bruce's words made Jason flinch a little. "He misses you."

Okay.

That was not nice, Bruce.

"I'll go," this made both jump snap back towards her, "but is not enough of an apology. Or your practiced speech." She didn't know what face she was making, but Bruce's expression was… sad. "You almost cost me everything I have in the Living World and put every death-touched individual in this city in danger." She didn't care about mincing words. This wasn't just about Jason and her, not anymore. "Your meddling has put a target on my back so big and so bright that it has affected every part of my life."

This made Bruce frown. "What do you mean?"

Jazz took a breath. "You draw a lot of attention, you know? Coming to Arkham in person, asking around about me, only raised suspicion. Dylan is waiting for the pressure to become too much that I resign, and that's not taking into consideration that he won't ever approve my changes in Arkham if I stayed.

"On the other side, Gotham has now become a place of interest for the supernatural world. There was a delicate balance, a way things have managed themselves here, and now people will come asking questions and shooting ghosts and I will have to step in and protect them. There is a reason why I was hiding who I am, Bruce."

"You are an influential individual? In the supernatural world."

He was fishing for information she wouldn't provide. For now.

"I am. In a way." She let him draw his own conclusions. "So the ramifications of what you have done go further than the unpleasant experience."

"I'm sorry."

It seemed genuine. She smiled.

"I know you are sorry, but that's not enough for me." She shook her head. "We can help each other, though." She lifted the sigils that pulsed with magic — her magic. "I give you this and we go to the dinner—"

"Hey, I haven't said—"

" — and you support me and my cause, publicly. I don't need your money, just the support." She added when Bruce lifted an eyebrow. "That will shut up Dylan and make him and his little circle of mobsters wannabes back off for a while."

"The what?"

"You didn't know?" She turned towards Jason. "There is a whole operation going on in Arkham. They are not that subtle, but since nobody ever looks at what's going on at Arkham they don't have to."

Jason flinched. Bruce shuffled his feet.

"You guys didn't know."

Unbelievable.

"Okay. It's… well. We can talk about this later. I have a list." She turned back to Bruce. "Do we have a deal?"

She walked closer to him and extended her hand. Bruce looked at it like it was going to jump and attack him.

(Did this man really raise Jason?)

"You'll also have our… my protection, while you stay here. Whatever long that stay is." He still wasn't moving, his eyes going towards his estranged son watching the exchange from behind Jazz.

She never expected seeing the dark figure of Batman look so small and vulnerable. Bruce was waiting for Jason's little nod of approval, it didn't take much to see it. When he got it, he extended his gloved hand.

There was so much going on there, Jazz knew. The communication issues weren't even the main part of the problem.

But she would take this one day at a time. For the moment she was going to shake Bruce's hand and smile at him in reassurance.

"Deal."