Tim is breathing fast and wrong again by the time Cass ushers him into the Cave.
"It will be okay," Cass repeats again and again in different tones and volumes, trying to find the right sounds to make Tim know how much she means it, wrapping an arm around Tim's shoulders and gently holding him to show just how much she means it. "It will be okay."
Tim continues to breathe fast and wrong, not all the way to the hyperventilation way but getting close. His shoulders are tense under her arm as his legs take their steps with a panicked edge of feet hitting the ground.
"Alfred," Cass says, calling across the Cave. "We are here."
"And might I inquire just why-" Alfred begins, turning his chair away from the communications station he's gesturing toward with irritated concern.
Oh. Right. The comms.
Cass fumbles in her pocket, pulling both sets of comms out and shoving her set into her ears just as Alfred turns all the way toward them.
"Good heavens," Alfred says. His tone is mild, but he leans toward them with so much concern, no longer tinged with irritation. "Children, what has happened?"
Tim gulps a deep breath of air and opens his mouth as if to explain, but he chokes on the breath as it starts to rush back out. He breaks into coughing instead.
"Breathe, breathe," Cass reminds.
"What happened?" Alfred says, more sharply this time. He stands and starts to hurry toward them.
As Alfred approaches, Tim's whole body seizes with indecision. He wavers toward Alfred, but he wavers into Cass just as much. At the same time, his legs tense and ready to run, sprint, get away as fast as possible.
Cass holds up a palm-out hand to say "stop" without having to find that word.
Alfred stops. "Likelihood of infectious agents?"
Cass blinks at him.
Alfred pauses. A fast mix of different thoughts and feelings crosses his face: fear, strategizing, uncertainty, disappointment, and a bit of not-quite-anger, concern pulsing through all of them. As he hopes that what he says will help, he says, "Does what is impacting Master Tim have a high or low chance of impacting others with contact or closeness?"
It does not help. Cass tries to make the words go together, but it is so many words and several of them are so new, and all she gets is that Alfred knows something is happening to Tim. That is good, but from the fast mix she sees in him, she can tell he doesn't know exactly what is happening. She can tell Alfred doesn't know it's about Batman hurting Tim, hurting Alfred, hurting everyone.
Just as Cass is trying to find the right phrases to explain, Tim comes up with an explanation of his own. His voice shakes some, but he speaks. "Nothing infectious, Alfred, no."
Alfred steps forward again.
Cass insistently holds up the "stop" hand again. "No. Wait."
She's realized something. Alfred is an adult. He is even more of an adult than Bruce. He is the one who helped Bruce as Bruce became an adult, so he is part of how Bruce makes decisions, decisions like hurting Tim and the others. How does Cass know that Alfred isn't hurting their family too?
"Did you?" Cass asks, trying to stay calm. "Did you help?"
"Did I help," Alfred repeats. "I'm afraid I don't have the slightest idea-"
"He didn't," Tim says, his voice still shaking some, his body shaking more. "It wasn't his fault. Alfred didn't do anything wrong."
Alfred's face draws into a deep frown. "I'm sorry?"
"I'm sorry," Tim says. "I'm sorry, Alfred, I didn't, I just wanted, I didn't…"
Tim's voice shatters into nothingness. Tim looks like he wants to shatter into nothingness too.
Cass holds him closer. She believes him. She will always believe him. "Okay. That is okay. Alfred?"
Alfred is still frowning, but when Cass waves him closer, he comes closer.
"We need everyone," Cass says, hurriedly adding as she recognizes how that might go wrong, "But not everyone now."
"I'll need a little more context than that," Alfred says.
"Context," Cass repeats, tilting her voice up as a question.
Alfred starts to stick up the fingers on one hand, pointing to each one as he lists, "A reason why. Background. Explaining."
Oh, Cass knows that word, and she says firmly, "Explaining. It is wrong. We will make it okay. I will help us. Call them, each one, in the line."
Alfred sighs. He takes a long look at her.
Cass looks back evenly.
Alfred takes a short look at Tim, whose shoulders still tremble under her gentle grip, and Alfred looks at Cass again.
She can tell he trusts her before he starts to speak.
"Who am I calling first?" Alfred asks, starting back toward the communications station. "If I am understanding correctly that your instructions are to call them individually and privately. That is, to call them one at a time and not with the others hearing."
Following him with Tim in tow, Cass considers that.
While she considers, Damian appears from the direction of the bathrooms. He trots toward them with speed, taking up more speed as his gaze falls upon Cass and Tim. He demands, "Has patrol been halted? I did not get the chance to view all of the complexities of tonight's routes!"
"Halted for now," Alfred says, watching Cass.
"First Dick," Cass decides, watching the location-showing symbol-covered dots move on the communications station's screen.
Alfred nods. Then, in a voice not meant for her or Tim or Damian, he speaks, moving a few parts on the communications station and leaning closer to it. "Nightwing, status update."
"On the corner of Eighth and Meadow. Just finished this block, what's up?" Dick's voice calls from the communication station and from the comms in her ears. It's a bad echo, and Cass pulls her comms out to pocket them again.
"Your presence is requested at the Cave," Alfred says.
"For any old reason or for something special?" Dick's voice says.
Alfred looks at Cass. "Something special, I trust."
Cass nods.
"You trust," Dick's voice repeats. "Consider me intrigued. Oh, and consider me back in ten!"
"Understood," Alfred says. He moves a part of the communications station again then looks at Cass.
Cass steps closer still, pulling Tim with her. She points at the dot on the screen that has Batman's symbol. "How far and long?"
"Batman could be back in three minutes if speed is required," Alfred says, hand hovering over the communication station parts.
Tim's whole body tenses next to Cass.
Cass shakes her head. "Phoenix next."
Alfred raises an eyebrow.
"Phoenix next," Cass repeats herself with firmness.
"Phoenix next," Alfred says, raising his other eyebrow up to join the first but leaning over the communication system again to say, "Phoenix, report."
"Slow night," Jason's voice says. "Honestly, stupid slow. I was actually considering asking if I could come back in before I get too bored to function."
"Come back in, but be ready for further instructions here," Alfred says.
Jason's voice blows out a long breath. A moment later, he chuckles. "Well, I'll take it. I should be there in… Eh, eight minutes?"
"If obeying all traffic regulations, even the most direct path will take you at least twelve minutes," Damian says, leaning in and tracing a line across the screen with one finger.
"You don't know if I'm doing that," Jason's voice says.
Alfred coughs lightly.
"You don't know if I'm taking the most direct path that you know of," Jason says quickly. "Not that you don't know if I'm obeying traffic rules. I do have secret paths, and I obviously always obey traffic rules. Because that's the right thing to do. Yeah. So. See you in eight minutes."
Alfred turns off that part of the communication station, shaking his head.
Damian huffs half of a laugh, but he's eyeing Cass, not Alfred. His gaze is sharp. "So we are gathering on your say-so? What kind of information do you have that cannot be shared in the field?"
Cass thinks for a moment, then borrows a phrase from a conversation earlier that evening, clutching Tim close. "Urgent and important."
Damian's gaze goes to Tim. It softens somewhat. "I see. Or rather, I will wait to see."
They wait in silence for a few moments, then Damian turns to Alfred and begins to talk quietly, asking about what else he missed while he was in the restroom. The two of them discuss patrol moments off and on, until finally Dick and Jason come running in, Dick just a pace ahead of Jason.
"What's the big rush?" Jason calls out teasingly as he runs.
"What, you want to take it slow?" Dick calls back.
Jason speeds even more up at that, and he and Dick come skidding to a stop by the communications station at the same time.
"I won," Dick says casually.
"In your dreams," Jason says.
"And in real life," Dick says, then before Jason can say anything else, Dick asks, "What's happening? I see you called Tim and Cass too."
"Actually, they returned first and had me call you," Alfred says.
Dick looks at Tim and Cass. "Oh. Oh, hey, Tim, what's happening? You really don't look too good."
"I'm sorry," Tim breathes out, curling into Cass.
Dick's face draws together in confusion. "Uh…"
"What?" Jason says frankly.
"I'm sorry!" Tim says again, and it's a plea, one he doesn't believe will be listened to.
"No," Cass says. "No 'sorry.' I found out."
Tim strangles his own whimper, sounding more like something breaking under a boot.
"I found out, and we will be okay," Cass says. "Together. Call Batman."
"Calling Batman," Alfred says, turning back to the communications station. "Batman, status update?"
"Finished here, about to head to the rendezvous with Phoenix," Bruce's voice reports.
"Relocate," Alfred says. "All parties are back at the Cave and awaiting your arrival."
Bruce is silent for a moment.
Tim quakes harder against Cass, and she's more certain than ever about what she's doing.
"Understood. Two minutes to arrival," Batman says.
"Understood," Alfred says in return.
They wait in silence this time. Cass holds Tim, and Tim clings to Cass, a tightness to his arms and his jaw that says how deeply he dreads what happens next. But why? Together, they all can defeat Batman. They will work together, and all of them will be free and happy and all right, and Tim will not have to hurt or hide his hurt ever again.
So why does Tim look like this is the worst possible thing that could happen?
Finally, Batman arrives. From a ways away, he takes one clear look at everyone gathered around the communications station and freezes. He lowers his cowl, his face drawing taut. "Is everyone all right?"
"No injuries or anything of the sort reported," Alfred says. "All parties here and accounted for as best as possible."
"What's wrong?" Bruce asks, face loosening slightly as he starts to get closer.
Cass lets go of Tim. She gently guides him toward Alfred, who puts a hand on Tim's shoulder with a questioning glance at Cass. She turns her back, all of her vulnerability, to Tim and Alfred and Dick and Damian and Jason. She turns her front and her attack toward Bruce.
"Tell the truth," Cass says.
Bruce looks at her with confusion and parts his lips.
Cass doesn't want to let him speak, not until he is ready to confess what he has done. "I know it. You can't hide it. I see it. I know now. You… You are like him. You are worse than him. You are not good. You!"
And then the words fail in her righteous anger. She points at him in accusation.
"Me," Bruce says slowly. "I'm like him? Like who?"
Cass fights for the words, but they don't come. So instead, she puts one hand flat out in front of her, palm up. She holds her other hand high in the air, then brings it down to strike across her opposite palm harshly. Then she shakes the struck palm around, signaling how much it hurts, pointing to him with the striking hand.
Bruce watches carefully, but somehow, he doesn't understand. He isn't angry or cruel or even scared, except maybe a little scared in a scared-for-Cass. He's just concerned, and not concerned about being found out as a monster, just concerned about her.
"You," Cass says again. "Wrong."
"I'm wrong," Bruce says slowly. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time."
Jason and Dick both cough stifled laughs from behind her.
"You! Wrong! You!" Cass says furiously. Suddenly, she's done. She's done with this fake okay. She wants her family to be happy and whole and not hurting and okay for real!
Bruce is watching her with a patient look.
Cass steps right up to him. She points to herself. Then she holds a hand up next to herself at the height of David Cain, gesturing between her own face and the hand held up high beside her.
Bruce watches still.
She takes the high-up hand and slaps herself across the face.
Gasps sound from around the Cave.
Bruce grabs her slapping hand, firm but gentle, still so gentle. Why is he lying about being gentle?
But he's not. At least, he thinks he's not lying. Every line of his body says the same truthful concern that wants good things for her.
"Cass," Bruce says. "I don't want you to get hurt, which means I don't want you to hurt yourself."
Cass flings her other hand out toward Bruce, then back toward the others. She does it again, then again, then mimes as if to slap herself again.
Bruce's eyes narrow. "Is… Are you being hurt?"
He's so close, and yet not.
Cass gestures at the others with a sweeping gesture.
"Are they being hurt?" Bruce asks.
Cass nods. She points at Bruce.
Realization, clear and painful, washes across Bruce's face. "You think it's me. You think I'm hurting them, like David Cain hurt you. You think I'm abusive. You think it's abuse."
And Cass bares her teeth, but not in a smile, because that last one is the word she's been trying hardest to find.