"You said you weren't a vampire."

"And I am not."

"I don't know anymore, to be completely honest." Jason raised an eyebrow. "First the thing about needing permission to enter, then the fangs and now this?"

He put a hand on his neck, turning away from his girlfriend with a little smile to show he was kidding.

"Hold up! Fangs!?" Steph slammed the table, eyes wide. "Show them! Show them!"

"Stephanie, I don't think—"

"She's not a show pony—"

"Oh my god, they are real."

At Duke's comment, everyone turned to look at Cass poking at Jazz's face, slightly lifting her lip enough to show the long canines. The woman's face was completely red, but she stayed still with her eyes closed.

"Also the pointy ears." Cass' hand moved to gently push away the hair and show off the tapered ears. "Like an elf."

Jazz got even more red.

"Or a vampire!" Stephanie's grin was stretching her face in a way that looked like it hurt. "Do you guys have, like, a fang kink? Does she bite you when you kiss?"

"Oh my God—"

"Stop." Tim facepalmed.

Jason's face was becoming as red as Jazz's. "No."

"I knew it!"

"I'm not a vampire!" Jazz complained. "Didn't you guys read the report about liminality? It's all in there."

The table got quiet. Tim cleared his throat. "Skimmed it."

Jazz's face was not kind. "I can't believe this. All this trouble for a research you don't check."

Bruce lowered his head in shame for a moment, but curiosity won the battle. "So you need to drink blood?"

"No! I do not need to drink human blood."

"But you need to drink blood."

"No, because I'm not a vampire." She crossed her arms. "These," she made a vague gesture at her mouth and ears, "are common ghostly treats. Everyone has them! My body changed due to prolonged exposure to ectoplasm."

"Define 'prolonged exposure'." Tim leaned in. "The report wasn't clear about dosage and timeline."

"Because we didn't want to go into detail about it, and also we just don't know. We were kids!" She made a 'I don't know' gesture. "Food was contaminated and by the time we knew that stuff was radioactive enough to affect us I was in middle school."

The mood sobered immediately.

"I was born human. I have human parents. But apparently they didn't think that it wasn't advisable to expose growing children to radioactive substances."

Bruce controlled himself before he said something he'd regret. "Why didn't they get contaminated as well?"

"They always wear protective suits."

"But didn't make suits for you?"

Jazz sighed, leaning back on her chair. "They didn't think about it. Not at least until we were grown up enough for them to notice we existed." Her expression was sour. "We literally grew up in a house with a portal to the Underworld in the basement. I sometimes think it could have been worse."

Yes. It could have been worse. Some people glanced at Damian, some even glanced at Jason. He didn't look back at anybody, his attention on his girlfriend as he took her hand in his.

"I'm fine, darling," she told him. "It's just so annoying to think about it. I left it all behind and yet…" She gestured vaguely with her free hand, frowning.

Several people nodded in understanding. Funny enough, if there ever was a room of people that got what she meant, it was them.

"Any other cool body mods?" Stephanie's voice was curious, but more gentle. "Or special needs?"

Jazz smiled at the topic change. "Well, it's mostly general ghostly abilities, but nothing crazy like my brother can do. I am still human, still alive, and I'm limited by what human bodies—"

"She has super strength and speed."

Jazz glared at him. "I'm not a super. I told you—"

"No way? Really?"

Jason nodded at the family friend, ignoring Jazz's protests. "You should have seen her lift Dickward over her shoulders like he weighed nothing."

Dick looked up from the glass of water he was drinking. "You sent a picture."

"In real life it is more impressive." He chuckled.

"You won't be laughing as much when she breaks your back—"

"Enough." Bruce cut off whatever Dick was saying to rile up his brother. Both huffed but didn't continue the argument. "So, Jasmine—"

"Jazz is fine."

"Jazz. Um… any other special needs?" He looked at her plate. "Nutrient wise?"

"Not a vampire," she murmured, cutting another chunk of her steak. "But nothing humans can provide. I do need constant doses of ectoplasm to survive."

Recognition shined in his eyes. "The vials."

She nodded. "I have a supply of ectoplasm since Gotham, as I mentioned, has very little ambient ectoplasm."

"You just— You drink it?" Duke made a face, imagining drinking Lazarus Waters.

"Yep." She popped the 'p'.

"How often?"

"Every month or so." She made a face. "Although it's getting shorter and shorter."

Whatever mood they managed to get back up was gone again.

"It's killing you."

Jazz didn't immediately answer Bruce's unsaid question. She fixed her gaze on her hands, on Jason's hand in hers, considering.

She took a breath. "Yes. Yes, I am dying." What was the point in saying otherwise? Jazz didn't look up, knowing she would find pitying looks. "But if I don't drink it, death would be agonizing and slow." She shrugged. "The decision was easy."

There were many things they could ask, but nobody asked them. Instead they glanced at Jason. Did he know? Was that why they made up? Because their time was limited?

"Don't act so glum, people!" She switched gears immediately, one hand rubbing the back of her neck, nervous. "Dead but not gone, remember? Is very probable that I will come back, so no need to worry anyway."

'Probable' didn't mean it was a sure thing, and they knew. But it was time to drop the topic.

"So," Tim cleared his throat, "you were talking about Jason's blood?"

She smiled sheepishly. "So. Jason cut his hand while making dinner—"

"Aw. You made her dinner? So romantic!"

Jason glared at Stephanie, but didn't make a comment, nudging Jazz to continue.

"He cut his hand and while he went to dress the wound I noticed it smelled like ectoplasm and I knew that Red Hood was liminal and I thought 'it can't be' and tasted it, and yeah, there was ectoplasm—"

"You licked it?"

Jazz put her hands on her face to hide her embarrassment. "Yeah? Without the proper equipment that was the only way to check." She answered her boyfriend through her shield. "Sorry."

"You are so fucking weird." Somehow he made it sound like it wasn't an insult.

"I told you! I have no frame of what is 'normal human' anymore!"

"All this time I thought you were being mysterious, it was just you being a dumbass."

"Oh wow, thanks for the compliment, darling." She glared at him, which only made Jason laugh. She didn't keep up the glare, joining him with a little smile.

Duke looked at Bruce, noticing the longing in his eyes. Was this how Jason laughed, back then? How he actually was? Before everything happened, did Jason behave like this with him?

No wonder it was heartbreaking to see him now. It was only growls, threats and disappointed stares.

"What does ectoplasm taste like?" He asked, trying to reign in the conversation back to the previous mood.

"Ranch two." She answered without thinking. Jazz blinked at her own answer and started giggling. "Sorry, that's… Danny calls it that. Um… I'd say it smells like citrus and tastes like battery acid."

"And you drink that?"

"Been doing that since I was a little kid!"

"No wonder your taste buds are busted." Jason raised an eyebrow.

"Okay then I won't compliment your food anymore!"

"Oh but you can compliment my blood instead?"

Jazz's face got red again. She was so easy to fluster and rile up, it was refreshing in a house of trained detectives used to hiding their emotions. Dick watched the exchange with his head between his palms, elbows resting on the table, satisfied with watching the show in person.

"I'll let you know your blood tastes wrong, mister."

"Dying does that to you," he shrugged, nonchalant.

Bruce tensed at the reminder of Jason's passing. The couple continued arguing without noticing the table sobering up.

"I've tasted death and I know ectoplasm, but what you have is not it. Does this have anything to do with—"

"The Lazarus Pits."

Everyone looked at Bruce.

"Yeah, that. Thank you."

Bruce needed a moment before talking again. "Jason told you?" His voice was small. Jason never talked about what happened apart from vague details.

"About his death?" Did Jazz not see some of them cringe or was she just ignoring them on purpose? "Yeah, a little. There's stuff that doesn't make sense to me, but—"

"Before you say anything: No, she didn't know about Ra's or the Pits." Jason stopped Bruce, catching the analyzing look on his face. "She actually said she can do something about it." He added with a smile.

Damian looked up from where he was very obviously texting someone under the table. Steph smiled, knowing it was Superboy, the small one — kids were texting all the time lately.

"You can?"

Jazz thought about it for a second. "Part of our responsibility is to shut down any unauthorized use or distribution of ectoplasm in the living world." She put down the glass of water she had been drinking from. "From what Jay told me, that looks very much like something that requires our attention."

"Ra's is dangerous."

Damian looked between his father and Jason's girlfriend.

"He also has artificially extended his lifespan using what sounds like corrupted ectoplasm. He is our responsibility. We will take care of it."

Her tone was final, letting them glimpse at a bigger picture. They knew she held some kind of authority in the supernatural world, but enough to not heed warnings about Ra's al Ghul?

Again, she worked at Arkham. By choice.

"Wouldn't be the first time we have to deal with stuff like this. The Infinite Realms function by Big Fish rules — the strongest are at the top and feel the right to stomp on those beneath them." Her smile wasn't kind. "We are used to it."

Bruce's face illuminated at the chance to ask about the Infinite Realms. "And who is at the very top?"

Jazz looked away. She was not going to lie, but she was going to hide some of the truth. "The King. There is a High King of the Infinite Realms. Everyone else bows down to him."

Who was this King? Did she bow down too? If she was influential in the supernatural world, who was she to this King?

Dick looked between Jason and Jazz, arching an eyebrow at Jay's surprised look. This was news to him, then? Was he making the same connections, wondering what Jazz was to this King?

Like a Godsend, Alfred walked in with the food cart, making quick work of clearing the table. Jazz tried to help him, but she was pushed down back to her chair by gloved hands, earning a laugh from Bernard. Soon they were talking about the first time the young man came to the Manor and how awkward it was.

"Bet you twenty bucks she's the King or something." Stephanie leaned towards Dick, who was sitting next to her.

"But she said it was a 'he'." Dick whispered back. "Also bet you she's a Princess."

"What's the matter? Women can't be Kings? I didn't peg you as a misogynist, Dickie." She shook her head.

The older man groaned. "Ok. Sure. Fine. You won't laugh this much when you lose."

From Dick's other side, Tim leaned into the conversation. "Bet she's some kind of Ghost Police."

"Or a Knight." Cass said from her place on the other side of the table.

"What about a knight?" Jazz snapped into attention. "Thanks." She looked up at Alfred when he placed down the dessert, who nodded in answer.

"Are there knights and that stuff? In the Infinite Realms." Tim lied through his teeth.

"Yeah! There's actually a medieval-like region." Jazz ate a bit of the chocolate cake, making a delighted face. They never missed how she enjoyed food like she was tasting things for the first time. "It was time locked for millenia, but Danny and the others freed them."

"Time locked?"

She nodded at Tim, eating more of the cake with gusto. "The King there, well, 'ex'-King, Aragon, wanted his people stuck in time and blindly obeying him for all eternity."

"And your brother fought him?"

She giggled. "I was told it was actually Sam who did most of the work. She was kidnapped to marry him but she organized a revolution instead, radicalized Aragon's sister, Dorathea, and together they liberated the Dragon Kingdom."

"Dragon?" Damian perked at the word.

"Samantha Manson, right?" Bruce remembered the reports. Danny's childhood friend and romantic partner.

"Yeah, that Sam. Dora is now the Dragon Queen and one of the nicest people I know." She chuckled. "Which is interesting because she turns into a dragon when she gets mad."

"And Knights and stuff? Like, for the King?" Steph leaned in.

Jazz's smile widened. "There is the Fright Knight. Loyal to the King since the beginning of time." She scooped the rest of her cake slice and ate it. "He is also the Aspect of Fear."

"Fear?"

She nodded at Tim. "Yeah. That's his whole thing. He's also very old fashioned and speaks very formal. It's hilarious." She scraped the last bits of cake on her plate. "Has a sword called 'Soul Shredder' that traps you in your worst nightmare. Indefinitely."

"Like fear toxins?" Tim asked.

She shook her head. "The nightmares are real. Like, they can hurt you for real. So, worse? In a way."

"Have you—?"

"No." She answered before he could formalize the question. "Frighty is friendly and he wouldn't do that to me."

The pieces of the kind of person she was were starting to fall into place. If she was so familiar with someone so close to the King, it wasn't so farfetched to think she was somewhat related to the High King. She also talked about duties and responsibilities, about jurisdiction, and it was very in line with some kind of authority in this world.

Bruce looked at Jason, who was watching Jazz with the same calculating eyes the rest had in their faces. He was coming to the same conclusions — did that change anything for him? Was Jasmine too dangerous for him? What did that mean for a resurrected individual like him?

Dinner ended with lighter conversation, the group deciding to move towards the living room again to chat before it was time for the lovebirds to go home.

Bruce carefully watched Jason as he lagged behind the main group, maybe not interested in the spitfire interrogatory the night had become. His son always had a hard time dealing with crowds, he never liked when he brought him to galas, so it made sense that he didn't wish to join Jasmine as she thrived asking anything and everything about the vigilantes' lives.

"You are not subtle." Jason was the one that spoke first. "What do you want, old man?"

Bruce took it as a victory that Jason used his old nickname for him. It meant he was comfortable enough to not fall back to grunts and name calling.

"Just watching." Jason held his gaze until the older man surrendered. "I'm trying to guess — you know I can't turn the detective off."

He looked away, watching the group sit around the sofas. Jazz's smile was relaxed and her eyes sparkling, enjoying the attention as she talked about how the Infinite Realms looked like, about some of the ghosts she had encountered before. She really loved what she did, a whole part of her life that she had tried to hide the time she lived in Gotham.

"I also want to know." He admitted after a few moments watching her interact with the family. "But she is the one that has to offer it."

"I know," Bruce grumbled, a testament of all the times he had been given the same lecture. "Dick already gave me the speech."

Jason smirked, knowing full well the temperament his older brother had. Golden boy was annoying, but he knew how to throw down with Bruce and, even better, how to make it hurt.

"Barbara also had her chance to get mad at me," Jason glanced at Bruce, distrusting. "She actually told me to wait until we confronted Jazz. She was very pissed at me—"

"Understandably."

Bruce sighed. "And I get that. But— Please know she wasn't 'in on this' in any way." The man looked away. "She actually wanted to come to the dinner tonight, but she wasn't sure if she could face you both."

Jason really, really wanted to be mad at Barbara for poking things she shouldn't and giving Bruce ammunition to be cruel. But he couldn't.

The younger man deflated. He could see Barbara being concerned about what looked like a villain in the rising, especially if that person was taking advantage of Jason, or so it seemed like. He understood why she called Bruce about it.

"It's okay." Both knew it really wasn't, but that was a conversation for another day. "It was a nice touch to invite blondie." He changed topics. "Did you expect them to become friends?" He made a gesture towards where Bernard was enthusiastically nodding at what Jazz was telling Tim. By her little smirk and Tim's eyeroll, it was probably not something he wanted to hear.

"I thought bringing partners to the dinner would make it less oppressive for her." Bruce's smile twisted for a second. "Good thing Wally had a previous engagement or there wouldn't have been enough food for everybody."

"Wally?" Jason turned to check that Bruce wasn't kidding. "Really?"

"Dick didn't tell you? Well," the older man lifted a hand towards his chin, thinking, "is pretty recent? You know them. Have been best friends since forever and one day Dick just walked in talking about his boyfriend expecting everybody to magically know they had started dating."

Jason frowned, watching as Dick stood up and pulled Jazz' hand to follow him, familiar jealousy blooming in his chest. It was easier knowing his brother was already in a relationship, but the nagging feeling wouldn't go away anytime soon, he was sure. Jazz's face was red, listening to what Dick was saying, and her body language was nervous and closed.

Jason made a move to step in and rescue her.

"Wait," Bruce stopped him. "Watch."

In a matter of seconds, Jazz lifted the other in a princess carry without any difficulty. Dick was delighted, making a gesture at the people watching from the sofa as if saying "see? I told you".

"Higher! Higher!" Steph clapped her hands, cackling as Jazz did so, lifting the man over her shoulders.

Dick wasn't light by any means — he had those gymnast muscles that made him look smaller than Jason and Bruce, but still as heavy.

The fact that Jazz was chuckling was the only thing that stopped Jason from jumping in and reminding everybody that his girlfriend wasn't a show pony.

Her face was still red — Bruce guessed then that she didn't like being the center of attention if it was to show off, but she was fine with it when it was about lecturing people.

"Do me next!"

Jazz let Dick fall graciously to the floor on his own, quickly turning to pick up Stephanie when she jumped to her arms. She then maneuvered the vigilante into another princess carry, much to her delight, watching with an amused smile as Stephanie dramatically declared that Jazz was her new favorite person right then and there.

Cass appeared out of nowhere and jumped in, forcing a bit of a shuffle to happen. Jazz didn't even stumble as she quickly adjusted her grasp on the girls, even chatting with them and answering their questions — "do you know your limit?" "Have you tried lifting a car?" "Would you arm wrestle a super?" — with a wide smile, even showing her fangs.

Jason barely had time to be happy that she was so relaxed she didn't feel like she had to hide her inhuman traits, because the onslaught of questions suddenly stopped and the whole group was looking at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Jay, can you come over for a minute?"

Was he missing context? He approached her anyway, watching her lower the girls to their own feet and narrowing his eyes at how Cass was smiling all innocent as she stood besides a smirking Dick.

"Don't freak out, ok?"

He couldn't ask Jazz what she meant by that, because his feet left the ground and his world was tilted too fast for comfort. Strong arms were circled around his thighs and his torso, her slightly cold hands firmly grasping him so he wouldn't fall down.

It's been a while since anybody lifted Jason like this — last time he could remember was probably a month or so before his death. But that was long ago and since he came back and his malnutrition-related stunted growth was reversed via Lazarus Pits, Jason was a big man.

He looked up at Jazz's red cheeks, her lower lip between her teeth, one pointy canine poking out.

I hope this doesn't awaken anything in me. He thought.

Jazz choked, the first sign that he actually said that out loud. She threw back her head and started to laugh. Distracted as she was, she misstepped and her heels slipped, making them both crumble down to the floor.