Timothy Drake. Timothy Drake. Timothy Drake.
Bruce struggles to wrap his mind around it, even as he wraps his arms around the scared and confused boy in his arms. He's already sent Dick and Jason out of the room to calm down from the situation, he's already called Alfred and let him know what the situation is, but now he has to figure out what to do about that situation.
The boy at the center of the situation sits very still and straight in Bruce's lap, not leaning in like he's finally started doing, but at least not leaning away.
Bruce takes a deep breath for probably the hundredth time since Dick, Jason, and Junior burst into his study. It's supposed to be calming. It really isn't. He takes another deep breath anyway.
"Kiddo," Bruce says at long last, not really sure what to say to refer to the boy. Is "Timothy" too weighted of a name? Is "Junior" too traumatizing of a name? He really doesn't know, so he says the same thing again. "Kiddo, what are you thinking right now?"
"I'm sorry," the boy says.
"No need to be sorry," Bruce says as gently as he can. "I just want to know what you're thinking about."
The boy shifts a little. "You're all acting like… But didn't you already know?"
Bruce hesitates. "If you're asking if we knew you and Joker had secret identities that we had even met briefly, then no, we didn't know."
The boy shifts again. "I'm sorry."
"I'm glad we know now," Bruce says.
"Okay," the boy says.
They're both quiet for a long moment.
Finally, Bruce decides to just go ahead with it. "You thought we knew your secret identities, and you already knew our identities when you first came to us. Does the Joker know our identities?"
"Yes," the boy says. "It makes him laugh."
Of course it does. Joker is all about the "game" between himself and Batman. It doesn't necessarily surprise Bruce that Joker just holds onto the information instead of using it against them in an obvious way, but it does horrify Bruce that Joker is so knowledgeable about Bruce's family. Bruce sighs.
"Sorry," the boy whispers.
"It's okay," Bruce says, gathering the boy closer to himself.
The boy lets Bruce do so, even relaxing a little into the hold.
Bruce holds him close. "It'll be okay."
It's a balance. Everything is a balance, life is always a balance, Brucie versus Batman versus Bruce, running Wayne Enterprises versus fighting crime versus maintaining his family, but at this moment, the balance seems more fragile than ever.
Bruce struggles. That's the most honest way to put it. He struggles. He wants to stop the Joker. he has to stop the Joker. He really, really needs to stop the Joker. But he wants to and has to and needs to help Junior.
(Junior appears so confused by offers of help still. Now that they know he does have a civilian identity, they want to help him return to being something other than Joker Junior, but Junior doesn't seem to understand why he deserves help. It hurts Bruce to see the boy, his boy, their boy, hurting.)
It doesn't take long for Bruce to realize he can't do both. He can't go out as Batman and stay in with Junior at the same time. It should've been obvious, but at first, it wasn't. When Bruce pulls his head out of the new casefile he's opened, it hits him like a brick to the face.
He has to choose. He has to choose between going after Joker and going to Junior. But he's not alone, he remembers at last.
So Bruce chooses. He chooses his family.
When he contacts the Justice League, they are all overwhelmingly supportive. Superman and Wonder Woman get set up to plan and lead the mission, while the rest of the Justice League are at the ready.
"Thank you for this," Wonder Woman says before Bruce signs off of the Batcomputer.
"Thank you for sending you after an incredibly dangerous criminal who, on his own, has committed atrocities far beyond many of the groups we face?" Bruce says dryly.
"Thank you for trusting us to help," Wonder Woman corrects.
Superman nods. "We're here for you."
Bruce doesn't know what to say to that. So he just nods, but from the looks on their faces, Superman and Wonder Woman know exactly what he means.
In the end, it takes less than a day: about eighteen hours, to be more exact.
Bruce is on the couch, Junior curled into his side, Dick on Junior's other side, Jason sitting on the floor in front of them and facing them. They're playing a card game, one that Dick and Jason call so many different names that Bruce doesn't know the actual name of it. Junior won the first round, and the surprised, excited look on his face was as adorable to see as it was heartbreaking.
That's when Alfred comes into the room at a pace Bruce has rarely seen from him, almost hurrying.
"Whoa," Dick says with surprise. "What's up?"
"We have just received a message," Alfred says, stopping in front of the couch.
"Was it from my school? Is something getting in the way of going back?" Jason asks, sitting up straighter. He's very eager to go back to actual school rather than the online version he's been doing since his injuries, Bruce knows, just as he knows that Jason is also very concerned about what leaving Junior behind while Jason goes to school will do.
Alfred shakes his head with a crooked smile. "Not at all. It was from Mister Kent and Miss Prince."
It's Bruce's turn to sit up straighter. "Did they-"
"They did," Alfred says. "Jack Drake has been arrested and brought directly to a high-security holding facility."
Jason whoops, while Dick lets out a sigh of relief.
Bruce is about to celebrate too when Junior goes stiff against Bruce's side.
"Hey, hey," Bruce says soothingly. "It's okay."
Heaving in a breath, Junior presses his face into Bruce's shirt, which is almost immediately dampened with tears.
"Oh, Junior," Bruce says. "Oh, sweetheart. It's okay."
Junior mumbles something into Bruce's shirt.
"I didn't quite catch that. Can you say it again?" Bruce asks.
Junior lifts his head. Tear tracks trail down his face. His mouth hangs open for a moment. Then he says thickly, "I don't know if it is okay."
"It will be," Bruce promises. "It will be okay. We're here with you. We'll be with you, every moment, until it's okay, and then every moment after that too."
Junior sobs and presses his face into Bruce again.
And all Bruce can do is hold him.