Dani's To-Do List

- heal Jason

- heal herself

- pet a dog

At Damian's command, Dani's mind goes blank. She drops the gun like it burns (which, admittedly, it does) and hitches Jason up higher on her shoulders. He hisses in pain as his chest rubs against her back, so Dani shifts him over until she's under one of his arms instead, hers wrapped around his waist as support.

Red Robin is gaping like a fish, but both Dani and Damian ignore him, walking past the mute hero and towards an open doorway leading to what looks like a private emergency room. Dani lowers Jason into the nearest bed, gently easing the injured man into a position that avoids as many of his burns as possible.

The burns look even worse under the blinding fluorescent light.

Dani's eyes hurt. It feels a bit like she's looking into the sun. Her head is starting to pulse with her heartbeat, so she takes off her helmet and sets it on one of the counters.

Without a word, Damian pulls out a keyboard for a nearby computer and types a short command into it. Then he takes out a tray of metal tools in plastic sterile bags, setting it down on the table next to the bed. After removing Jason's helmet, he peels the wrapper off a part of weird-looking scissors and starts cutting off the remains of Jason's shirt.

Red Robin finally seems to have recovered the use of his mental faculties and has followed them, evaluating Jason's injuries with a quick scan before going to another part of the room to retrieve some other medical supplies.

The sound of scissors cutting fabric is overwhelming, the sound like screeching against her razor-fine senses. It feels like ants are marching under her skin, up and down her arms and Dani kind of wants to scream, but she doesn't know why.

She's breathing heavily, still staring at Jason's wounds.

Red Robin approaches his bedside and Dani tries to resist the urge to snarl at him. It doesn't work, if Damian's unimpressed glance is anything to go by. She doesn't want random strangers around her injured fraid right now. It's making the tension in her grow all the more taunt, when all she wants is for it to go away.

She hears footsteps coming from behind her, and she turns to assess the new threat entering the medbay, her eyes glowing fiercely.

"Oh, dear," Alfred says, the old butler raising a mildly surprised eyebrow at the scene. "Let's see what trouble you lot got into this time." He walks right up to Dani and scans her form with a critical eye. "Miss Dani, I do believe you should also be in a bed."

Dani doesn't immediately make a move to follow the order, her gaze shifting to Red Robin in distrust.

Red Robin sighs from where he's setting up an IV for Jason. "Dani, please," he begs, and Dani only narrows her eyes at the use of her name. "Please, just… put two and two together. This is physically paining me."

Oh, she'll show him physical pain if that's what he wants, only… Damian and Alfred are looking at her with a mix of exasperation and incredulity, albeit Alfred with a fond undertone. She's missing something. Alfred is here. Damian is Robin. Jason is Red Hood. If the pattern continues, that means Red Robin must be… "Oh, Tim."

It can't be Dick. This hero is too short, not broad enough. But Tim fits the shape of Red Robin well, and Dani kind of wants to go dig herself a grave and put herself out of her misery for taking this long to figure it out. She should've been able to do it when she first met Jason, or at least when she found out Jason was Red Hood. But nooo, she had to get surprised by the reveal several times before finally making the logical assumption she should've made ages ago.

Tim mouths a whispered thank you to the heavens. As reward for her correct guess, he peels off his own mask, confirming that the vigilante is also part of her fraid.

Dani's stress fades a bit at the revelation that she's surrounded by fraid. Fraid who, by the looks of it, can offer her injured brother medical care Dani can't.

Some of the adrenaline fades away and Dani's shoulders slump in relief, even as the pain from her own injuries start grabbing for her attention. It's still too bright. Too loud. She can hear every heartbeat, feel Jason's pain and Alfred's worry and Damian's anger and Tim's exhaustion.

There are gentle hands on her shoulders and Dani yelps, jumping away from the startled Alfred. Her eyes are still glowing. Have they stopped at all?

"Are you quite alright, my dear?" Alfred asks kindly. "Did I press on your injuries?"

"There are more?" Tim mutters, his own concern starting to pop up on Dani's radar.

That's what Dani wants to cry, hearing yet another pair of footsteps approach the medbay. These are much lighter, more graceful, and Dani can guess that Cass is joining them.

There are too many people in here. "I'm fine, I just –" Dani closes her eyes, but the light still sears through her eyelids, and like this, the sounds are more prominent. She should do something about Jason. His emotions are so jumbled, and it's having a really hard time fighting off the synthetic stuff…

"Get off!" Jason suddenly roars, pushing off Tim and the needle he'd been trying to fit into the older man's arms. The sudden noise is like a slap to frozen skin: far more painful than it normally would be. Dani's eyes pop open to see the two younger heroes back away from a flailing Jason. His eyes are bright, toxic, and everyone adopts a defensive stance. "What am I doing here?! What do you think you're doing?"

"Relax, Jace, we're just helping–"

"Shut up, Replacement! I don't need your help!"

Tim doesn't flinch, but Dani feels the spark of hurt at the comment. Cass approaches cautiously, but Jason glares at her just as fiercely. He can't think clearly like this, Dani knows. He's hurt and angry and the emotions of his corrupted ectoplasm are taking over. The synthetic stuff is burning inside of him, neither side able to clear the other, like two equally matched opponents locked in battle.

There's a little advantage on Jason's side, but it's not much; his ectoplasm is a little cleaner from the day they spent in the Zone a few weeks ago. If she can just get him some more — wait. She has more.

Dani pushes past the protective barrier Damian and Cass have made between her and Jason. Damian's gloved hand lashes out to clamp down on her arm and she looks him dead in the eye. "Stop, I can help."

"There's no helping the Pit Rage once it gets going," Tim offers up from where he's standing back on the other side of the bed.

"Watch me," Dani challenges, shaking Damian's grip free with the additional strength still surging through her from heightened emotions and the inability to fully clear the adrenaline from her system. Damian gapes after her, obviously surprised she managed to break her hold. Dani passes him and plants herself right in Jason's line of sight from where he's about to get off the bed.

He snarls at her, rising from his seated position into a half-standing crouch.

Dani snarls back, more emotion than noise. Sit down and shut up, is what she's telling him. I'll help you when you've knocked it off.

Jason sits. He looks a little baffled by his own obedience, confused enough that a little more of his reason starts filtering through his enraged mind. Dani keeps glaring at him until he fully settles back in the bed, glowing eyes still boring into hers. It's not perfect, but it'll last.

"How did you –"

"I need to go to my room," Dani cuts Tim off, glancing over at Alfred, who has started to approach the more docile Jason. "I have stuff for these kinds of burns."

"So do we," Damian interjects, nodding sharply at the rows of creams and antiseptics Tim had accumulated on another metal tray.

"No, it's not the right kind," Dani snaps, irritable. Her eyes won't stop glowing. And the next person that touches her is going to get bit, so help her. "I have the right kind, I need to go to my room!"

Tim and Damian exchange glances. Alfred looks at her with those infinitely calm eyes. "Miss Dani, he is not in critical danger. You can rest for a moment so we can address your injuries as well. I have not been able to see them clearly, and likely won't be able to without removing the remains of your shirt, but they seem equally as extensive."

"I'll worry about it after Jason's fine," Dani says. "And the medicine is mine too –" actually, it's specifically for her, but she doesn't want to go into semantics right now "-so everything will be fine once I have it and I swear if you have one more argument for me I am going to explode so keep your mouths shut–"

Cass slides easily into Dani's clouding vision. She signs an easy "let's go" that pops the balloon of frustrated panic welling within her. If her senses don't dim in the next little bit Dani might actually have a breakdown, not so easily solved by someone giving in to her demands and rushing her away from the room with bright lights and too many heartbeats.

Still, the urgency for Jason doesn't fade, so Dani follows at a light jog as Cass leads her up a flight of stone steps and through a secret passage through a large grandfather clock and into the main office in Wayne Manor. Dani notices because later she'll care, but right now she is completely focused on her current mission.

Dani switches to a dead sprint now that she knows where she is. Cass is fast, but Dani is enhanced, eating up the ground between her and her room twice as fast as her silent shadow. She reaches her room in a blur of hallways, plunging her hand into the space between walls where she nestled her backpack and pulling it back into tangibility.

She tosses it on the bed and nearly rips the zippers apart opening the main compartment. She empties the contents on her comforter just as Cass joins her, sliding in seamlessly beside her.

Dani doesn't have to look hard for her medkit. It's one of the biggest things in her bag, besides a couple of notebooks and a thermos. It's a small black zip-up case a little bigger than Dani's hand, marked Dani in silver marker, the i emphasized with an underline, the dot made into a big star. Jazz had put it together, telling the younger girl she made it from an insulin travel case and packed with ghost ice from Frostbite that wouldn't melt (ectoplasmic ice didn't melt, but Dani doesn't really know the science behind it).

Once the case is in her hands, Dani pivots on her foot and sprints back down to the office, Cass once again on her heels. She's stumped at the clock, which had been open moments before but was now the same old clock Dani knew, the passage behind completely hidden. Dani pauses for a moment trying to decide whether or not she should phase through it and give herself away completely, but Cass catches up to her and opens it with a tap on her watch.

Dani takes the stairs down three at a time, sprinting to the medbay and skidding to a halt, panting a bit from the run. Alfred is trying to clean Jason's chest with antiseptic while Damian and Tim hold him down from trying to either escape or fight them all. Dani knows from experience that antiseptic and ectoplasm does not feel good.

"I'm back, I got it," Dani says in one breath, stepping forward and unzipping the case. "Here –"

Faster than she can blink, the vial of ectoplasm she'd withdrawn is thrown out of her hand by a small blade, narrowly missing her fingers as it catches the glass tube and sends it to the ground in a shatter of glass and a splash of neon green gel. "Why did you do that?" Dani shouts, pulling the case close to her chest to avoid the hands that are suddenly trying to grab it. Her hands loudly protest squeezing it while burned, but she doesn't exactly have many other options.

"Why does she have Lazarus water? Why do you have Lazarus water?" Tim demands, stepping forward to further crowd Dani back from where Damian is attempting to pry the case out of her hands.

"Boys," Alfred says sharply, drawing them away from Dani, who was backing up into a wall.

"Where did you get that?" Damian demands, his eyes harder than she's ever seen them. "Who gave that to you?"

Cass seems to be on their side, though she looks far more reasonable about the whole thing as she gently signs, "Do you know what that is?"

Dani shuffles under their scrutiny. "Jason mentioned Lazarus water before," Dani says slowly. Her hands are shaking a little from all the emotion she feels. She was supposed to solve everything, but now she was thrown into another highly emotional situation that runs along her jagged nerves like sandpaper on raw skin. "But this isn't that."

"It most certainly is," Tim argues, glaring at the package clutched in her hands. "And more of that stuff is only going to make Jason worse."

Jason, who had been recovering from the inaccurate cleansing of his burns, has sit up to watch the showdown. His still-green eyes traces the puddle of ectoplasm on the floor and then trail up to Dani, holding her gaze with an understanding. He tilts his head, as if asking for confirmation, and Dani dips her chin in a nod, not entirely sure what she's agreeing to.

"It's different," Jason interrupts the next round of questions. "Have a little trust in With-an-i. This hurts like a b–" He glances at her, groans, and tries again, "It hurts. Give it here before I start expressing myself with more firearms."

Dani giggles a little, the statement so ridiculous with tension so high, and Tim looks at her like she's grown a second head. Dani thinks if she didn't laugh she would cry, she's so strung out.

She shuffles around the group towards Jason, watching the others track her every movement. Damian in particular is rigid with tension, glaring at the case in her hands with unveiled suspicion.

Slowly, Dani pulls the case away from her chest and opens it back up. Two vials are left from the original three, and Dani pulls out another one, keeping her fist around it to prevent losing it to the same fate as the first. She needs Jason to have one, but she also wants one for herself. She used a lot of ectoplasm today, and she's anxious about her reserves.

Dani hands the vial over to Jason. "Don't lose it, I don't have much left," Dani instructs, the comment directed to the other Bats more than Jason himself. "Here, I have a syringe."

"It needs to be injected?" Jason asks, likely noticing the stopper on the top of the vial that is for the needle. "We can hook it up to the IV."

"The IV you didn't let me set up?" Tim clarifies with a roll of his eyes. Jason's eyes flash a bit, edging closer to green, and Dani shuffles over to break his line of sight with the others.

"This one's specific," Dani says, because it's true. She has no idea if other syringes will work, but she'd rather play it safe. She takes out the packaged syringe that Danny swiped from his parents' supplies before they'd Fenton-ized it, peels off the plastic, and uncaps the needle.

Her hands shake a little. She really, really hates needles. It reminds her of ectoplasm dripping off her skin as she melts like a snowman in summer, slowly losing her ability to keep her form together–

"I've got it," Jason says gently. He gently takes the syringe from her hands and easily fills it with the entirety of the vial. "How much?" he asks.

"All of it," Dani says faintly, watching as Jason tries to tap out the bubbles. Ectoplasm is pretty sticky, so it takes a bit. She doesn't really know why he's doing it, but she doesn't want to say anything. She doesn't think she can handle another conversation. She needs Jason to be healed now.

When Jason is done checking for bubbles, he looks at Dani. "Does it matter where?"

Dani shakes her head. "I usually just put it right here." She taps her thigh. The few times in the past eight months she'd felt the need to give herself an ecto-boost, she always jammed the needle in her thigh while looking away and trying not to have an anxiety attack.

Jason considers his own leg, which is still covered by dirty jeans, and then at the arm Tim had been prepping for an IV. "Well, if it doesn't matter, we'll go with right here." He adjusts the needle, and it seems like every other person in the room inhales at the same time.

"Are you sure, Master Jason?" Alfred asks, finally giving in to the desperate glances the others were giving him as the highest authority in the room. "Are you sure you don't wish to run some tests on it first?"

"Nope," Jason says, popping the 'p'. Without waiting for additional input, he jams the needle in his own arm and pushes down the plunger.

Immediately, his eyes grow a searing green. The group takes a collective step back, Tim and Damian adapting defensive positions.

Dick suddenly leaps across the med bay from the entrance to Dani and yanks her back, pulling her back towards the rest of the family. Dani's more concerned with Jason than she is with the prickly feeling of someone touching her hypersensitive skin, watching with fascination as the synthetic ectoplasm is burned away.

"What's happening?" Dick demands, and Dani is too preoccupied to wonder at his sudden appearance, at the cape and cowl he wears, that he hasn't even pulled back the mask but Dani is too anxious to refuse to put two and two together.

The group holds their breath, Dani trying to shirk out of Dick's grip, reeling from the overstimulation, as the glow in Jason's eyes dims to a more reasonable level. They're still green, casting a faint eerie light on his face, but they're not painfully bright anymore.

The weeping wound across his chest starts clotting immediately, seeming to heal minutes in seconds. His healing factor wouldn't be as good as Dani's, but she's glad the pure ecto seems to be picking up the slack.

"Jay?" Dick broaches, voice hesitant.

Jason looks at him, letting out a sharp exhale. He kind of stares at Dick like he's not quite sure why he's there, then lets his gaze slide over to Dani. He smiles warmly. "Thank you." He leans back into the pillows behind him, observing the rest of them. "Have a little more faith in With-an-i, will you? She risked her life to get me out of there."

"Not my life," Dani corrects, grim. "Something much worse." Then, seeing Jason's wounds so much better, the adrenaline almost completely fades away. She just needs to get out of Dick's arms, if he would just let go.

"Will you now allow me to address your wounds?" Alfred asks, sternly, looking at Jason first and then Dani. "Miss Dani, I must insist that you sit down."

Jason sits back up, looking back over at Dani. Her wounds were much better than his, but they're also more well hidden. She got hit by a bazooka same as Jason, but her clothes managed to stay somewhat together where Jason's didn't, probably due to the aura of ectoplasm that she was exuding during the fight absorbing some of the impact. Dani tries to shrug off Dick's hands again.

Her ears are starting to ring again, and Dani's head hurts.

"Do you need some too, With-an-i?" Jason asks, nodding at the case in her hands. "Do you have more?"

"Uh, yeah, I just –"

"Let's see your injuries," Dick says resolutely, shepherding her over to the bed next to Jason. The adrenaline continues to fade away, her senses only becoming more overwhelming as the focus drains out of her. She protected her fraid, and she should rest now, but she's too wired, too anxious, and it's too loud.

Dani tries to escape from Dick again, but even though she fails, he withdraws as soon as she's seated on the bed, pulling up a stool to sit in front of her. The cowl is disconcerting, and Dani wishes he'd take it off.

"What hurts?" Dick asks her directly as he swings a tray of tools and bandages towards himself. The sound of metal scraping on metal is grating. The wrinkle of the plastic might as well be gunshots. "Did you hit your head at all, Dani?"

"No – wait, yes, but I was wearing the helmet." She gestures vaguely to the helmet on the counter behind her.

Dick frowns, picks up a pen, tilts her head and points it at her. Dani recognizes what it is a second too late: a penlight, and when the light hits her retinas it's like a little supernova goes off in her brain. Dani kicks the stool in front of her, sending Dick skidding across the space until he hits Jason's bed hard enough to push the metal bed a few centimeters on the tile with a loud shrrk!

Dani clamps her hands over her ears and slams her eyes shut. It barely makes a dent in all the chaos, but she doesn't know what else to do. She's never had such an extreme reaction to all the sensations around her before; anytime she got close, she left the area. And the combination of shock and pain and concern has certainly exacerbated the severity.

"Dani, are you –" Dick pauses, then hums in consideration. The panicked yelp of Tim when Dick went flying isn't followed up with a flurry of questions, and Dani hears someone – Damian, based on the footsteps – turn off a nearby machine that Dani didn't realize was adding to the noise.

She feels a tap on her knee from where she'd curled them up to her chest. It's soft enough that it doesn't set her off again, and she blearily opens one eye. Cass is knelt in front of her, eyes warm as she holds out a pair of noise-cancelling headphones.

Dani accepts them with shaking hands. They wouldn't help much, but they'd certainly be better than Dani's hands. Besides, if she's not covering her ears, she can block out more light with her idle hands.

Only, the headphones are actually good. The world goes all but silent around her, the only sound a very faint rumble of someone's voice that she can no longer hear clearly and her own heartbeat. Surprised, Dani's eyes open more fully.

Cass smiles. "Headphones, enhanced hearing," she signs, "Many our friends sensitive hearing." Then she holds out a pair of sunglasses. "Also enhanced."

Dani settles them over her eyes, pleasantly surprised to see the world dim. All the bright light loses its edge, and she can only see a few meters in front of her. The figures of her family are a little blurry, but she can still make out a shocking amount of detail.

Cass also wraps a warm blanket around Dani's shoulders, which the younger girl instantly latches her fingers into and pulls tight over her body. She didn't realize she was so cold.

"Better?" the dancer signs.

Dani nods.

Dick approaches again, his cowl now down to reveal messy black hair and deep bags under his eyes. He speaks, but signs as he does so Dani can understand too. "You need medicine, too?" He gestures at the case Dani had dropped into her lap, still sandwiched between her knees and torso.

Yeah, she probably should.

Dani shuffles back to sit against the back of the bed, letting her legs unfold. She picks up the case and pulls out her last vial of ectoplasm and another syringe. She hesitates at the sight. She finally feels a semblance of calm and already she has to stick herself? It's necessary. She has to remember it's necessary.

Cass smiles gently, seeing everything written on her face even behind the thick glasses, and holds her hand out for the ectoplasm. Dani hesitates for a moment before handing it over, turning her head away so she doesn't have to look.

Damian is waiting for her on that side, Titus at his side. "Legs hurt?" he signs, expressionless. Dani shakes her head. Damian looks at Titus and points to Dani's outstretched legs, barking a command Dani can only hear the faintest undertones of. Titus launches himself onto the bed, settling down comfortably on Dani's chilled legs and resting his head on her thigh.

Dani goes to pet him, but Damian snatches her hand, pointing at the burned skin of her palm. "Bandage," he signs, his free hand tapping the sign on her wrist where he would usually use his own. Dani relents, sending Titus a baleful look that he seems oblivious to.

A tap draws her attention back to the other side of the bed. Dick is holding up the funky-looking scissors and makes sure she's watching before he gently cuts away Dani's sweatshirt.

She likes this sweatshirt. It was one she got (stole) from Danny, even though his smell had long since faded over the months she wore it. The logo that had once shown some sort of clipper mission was so faint Dani couldn't tell what it was for anymore.

Damian on her other side draws her attention next as he does something similar, though he doesn't cut the sleeve all the way up – just enough to see her injuries. He grabs antiseptic and Dani wrenches her hand away, signing 'no'.

"Infection," Damian argues.

"No," Dani reiterates. "E-C-T-O-P-L-A-S-M burn away."

He pauses, considering her, his eyes clearly asking if she's sure.

"Infection impossible," Dani stresses.

Damian sits back, lips pressed into a firm line. "Cannot hurt," he tries.

"Hurts bad," Dani argues.

Damian sets down the wipe, looking over at someone else she assumes is talking. He nods, then holds up burn cream, a question in his eyes. Dani's never had burn cream before, but it really can't hurt (y'know, unless it does, but most creams usually don't). Dani nods and lets him have her hand again.

A sharp prick, and suddenly power is singing through her veins. Dani feels her eyes light up once again, having dimmed to almost-blue as she calmed down. The energy glows in her, washing the pain away like a river through her bloodstream, cool and soothing.

With her pure ectoplasm, the healing is much faster. Her power already knows what to do, how to heal her. She feels the skin start etching itself back together. She'd be fully healed by noon tomorrow at the very latest, probably much sooner.

Humming in contentment, Dani leans back against the pillows and lets the others fuss over her. She feels the remains of her shirt and sweatshirt get cut away up to about her sternum, wrapped in cool cream and tight bandages. She's gently tugged forward after and told to replace her ruined shirt and pants with soft sweats.

Dani agrees and goes to the curtained area, briefly taking off the headphones and shimmying into the borrowed clothes. The sweats are Damian's, given their close size, and the shirt is Tim's going off of the Star Wars logo printed on the front. They smell good. Dani washes her face and heads back into the medbay, letting the headphones rest around her neck despite the ache in her head at the returning noises.

"Are you feeling better?" Dick asks softly.

"A little," Dani says. "I'll put these back on in a minute. You guys have to go after the GIW before they get away."

"Don't worry, With-an-i," Jason pipes up from his bed, also wrapped up in bandages. "I filled them in."

"We're headed out," Dick confirms. "Alfred will stay with you two while you get some rest. Little Wing is about ready to pass out and you look dead on your feet."

Dani giggles, unsure if Dick intended the pun. Has Jason told him? "I guess," Dani says. "But you have to go now. Hurry, they work fast."

"I'll say," Tim mutters, tapping rapidly on a holographic keyboard. "You guys were only in need of help for ten minutes. We'd barely gotten the alert before you arrived."

"We're wasting time," Damian snaps. "Danishara, put the headphones back on and rest. Drake, Richard, Cain, we have work to do."

Dick nods, looking back at Dani with a small smile. "We'll be back soon. Please try and relax?"

Dani nods and goes over to Jason's bed, climbing up to lay beside him. She needs the comfort of her fraid right now.

Dick smiles more genuinely at the scene before pulling up the cowl, his expression turning grim. Dani slides on the sunglasses and puts up the headphones, though she keeps one ear uncovered so she can hear Jason's heartbeat.

"I'll be just outside if you need me," Alfred announces, following after the vigilantes. He turns off the light on his way out.

"I'm glad you're safe," Dani whispers.

Jason settles his arm around her, pulling her close so she can settle her ear on his chest so his heartbeat is all she can hear. "Not as glad as I am that you're safe, kid," Jason rumbles, his chest echoing with the sound. "You mean a lot to me, y'know that?"

Dani smiles into his bandages, and she can feel how Jason's fondness blooms at the action. He settles a large hand on Dani's head, ruffling some of the hair not trapped by the headphones. "Healing takes a lot of energy," Dani mumbles. "We're going to be starving when we wake up."

"Hunger is the best ingredient," Jason teases, but she can feel he's close to nodding off. "We're safe here, With-an-i. Rest easy."

Dani yawns, "You too, Jason," before drifting off to sleep in the warm, dark quiet.

Bruce is exhausted.

It's been three and some months in space, on a distant planet that had set its sights on Earth due to a League invasion (under mind control) several years ago. Cleaning up the diplomatic relations had been difficult, leading to several hours-long meetings a week of smoothing wrinkled egos and trading promises.

Bruce hadn't taken off his suit outside of showers and medical aid since he left, and all he wanted was to shed his second skin, climb into some sweats, and curl up on the couch to the sound of his children bickering.

He wouldn't admit it, not to anyone else, but he was worried for his children. He'd had no contact with them since they left reasonable communication range (a few thousand lightyears outside of the Milky Way Galaxy, with their current technology). His children are intelligent, skilled heroes, more capable than anything Bruce had dreamed of when he was their ages.

And yet. They are his children.

Honestly, if the Manor is still standing and all of his children unharmed when he returns, he'll be shocked. It's an unfortunate reality that his children are too smart for their own good, and that they're incredibly talented in getting themselves into trouble. Hopefully Alfred managed to keep them from killing themselves or each other.

As soon as he reaches the Watchtower, Bruce sends a message to Alfred that he's on his way back. Technically, he should check the League database and make sure nobody (cough cough Green Lantern) had majorly screwed up and started some kind of interdimensional war, but Bruce needs a break. There's no screaming or flashing red lights, and that's enough for him.

Of course, he's still stopped several times on his way from the ship to the Zeta tube, but not nearly as much as he should have been. Dick must have been doing a good job filling in; Clark, Diana, J'onn, and John Stewart had been accosted the second they arrived. Bruce is infinitely grateful for his eldest for staying on top of things enough to spare him the same fate.

He arrives at the Zeta tube and keys in the Cave, running through the authorization process on autopilot as he scrolls through the notifications on his phone that started popping up with the return of service. He had hundreds, of course. For Batman and for Bruce Wayne.

But there weren't many from his children or Alfred, which wasn't wholly surprising. They wouldn't bother messaging him knowing his phone wouldn't receive anything. Still, it's a bit disappointing when Bruce misses his children so terribly, to see a lack of evidence that they missed him too.

Oh, well. He'd see them soon enough.

He steps through the Zeta and into the Cave, gaze already searching for his pseudo-father.

Alfred, as always, doesn't disappoint. He's waiting at the mouth of the tube with a small tea cart with refreshments, a warm smile on his weathered face.

"You've been sorely missed, Master Bruce," Alfred greets, his casual greeting letting him know the Cave is currently secure and free of intruders. "Come give an old man a warm welcome."

Bruce's lips twitch in fondness as he strides over, lowering his cowl as he does. He draws to a stop in front of his dearest companion, who scans his face with a slight crease of disapproval, probably at Bruce's clear exhaustion. Then, apparently satisfied for now, Alfred wraps Bruce in a sure embrace.

"It's so good to be back, Alfred," Bruce sighs, indulging in the small comfort for a moment before drawing back. "I need a shower and some civilian clothes."

"I'm pleased you recognize that," Alfred quips, his nose wrinkling. "I've set some clothes in the locker room."

"Where are the children?" Bruce asks as he walks in the direction of the locker room, running a gloved hand through his greasy hair. "I'm surprised none are in the Cave." He would never dare call them children if they were around to hear. He values his sanity, and his children certainly would take away the last vestiges of it if they heard of it.

"They're out dealing with some unfortunate business," Alfred says simply, face as serene as always, but that sets off alarmed bells in Bruce's head. He's known Alfred his whole life, and he can usually tell when the butler is upset or angry. And right now, his surrogate father is pissed. "But the matter can wait," Alfred assures him. "The young masters and misses have it handled. Wash up, and we can discuss in more detail."

Bruce stays still for a moment, searching Alfred's face for distress. The older gentleman only raises an eyebrow, his gray eyes starting to narrow the longer Bruce stalls.

As much as he wants to press the issue, Bruce recognizes a lost cause when he sees it. Alfred would not budge on the matter until Bruce was clean and dressed.

Despite his urgency, Bruce is thorough as he showers. He knows with the certainty of repeated experience that Alfred would not consider the job done if Bruce tried to cut corners.

With a fresh shave and a new set of soft sweats, Bruce returns to Alfred, distractedly running a towel over his wet hair. Alfred doesn't immediately answer the question in his eyes, instead offering him a sandwich and bottle of water.

Bruce is famished, but he'd rather get to the matter at hand. Still, he downs the delicious sandwich and follows it up with half the bottle of water before asking, "Alright, what's the problem?"

"Check the med bay," Alfred says mildly, taking back the water bottle.

Bruce is immediately in a sprint, his mind flitting through each of his children as he tries to swallow the panic crawling up his throat with the insistence that Alfred wouldn't have waited to tell me about a serious injury.

The lights are off, so Bruce assumes whoever it is is sleeping. He raises the lights to a dim glow to minimize the disturbance.

Of all his children, he least expected Jason.

Jason had a complicated relationship with the Manor and its basement Cave. He avoided it whenever possible, and almost never stopped by while Bruce was around. He had a particular dislike for the medbay, though Bruce only ever managed to theorize about the reasons behind it, since his second eldest was so adamantly against divulging any potential weaknesses.

That he was here was surprising, and Bruce wondered at the circumstances behind it, but he was far more concerned with the young girl curled up beside his son on the hospital bed, Jason's arm around her and drool soaking into the bandage on his chest.

Jason's steady vitals are clearly displayed on the screen behind him, his designation marked as observation, low risk, so Bruce takes the time to return to Alfred with a blank expression.

"Who is that?"

Alfred has the audacity to look completely nonplussed. "She is the Manor's newest ward."

Bruce just stares at him. Alfred doesn't blink, doesn't show any emotion whatsoever. "Alfred…"

"Yes, Master Bruce?"

This man. "There is a new child living here. Who knows our secrets, sleeping on one of our own, both of who are injured."

"Astute as ever, Master Bruce."

They stare at each other for another long minute. Bruce breaks first, as he always does with his butler, throwing up his hands. "I can't be blamed for this one. I wasn't even here."

"You were not," Alfred confirms.

"I wasn't expecting to come home to another child," Bruce says, a bit obviously.

"I imagine you must be quite shocked."

Bruce pauses in his dismay for a moment, the comment sounding a bit too pointed. He eyes Alfred, who hasn't moved a single muscle in his face, but whose eyes are certainly dancing with mischief. "This is payback, isn't it."

"Only the lack of warning, Master Bruce," Alfred says.

… No wonder he didn't have many messages from Alfred.

Bruce lets out a heavy sigh and sinks into his computer chair. "Just bring me the adoption papers. Assuming none of the children have forged my signature yet."

"Oi! I didn't agree to being adopted by some rando!"

Bruce startles. They were much too far from the medbay for their voices to carry, and he'd been watching the doorway of the medbay while conversing with Alfred. She had been asleep minutes ago, and she certainly wasn't close enough to hear them anyway.

A figure pops out of the medbay, long black hair wild around her face. She's young, about Damian's age, with features soft with age and mouth twisted into a frown. She's glaring at Bruce —already so reminiscent of the same look he gets from the rest of his children — and as she stomps closer, he sees that her eyes are a clear, crystalline blue.

…

…

How does this keep happening to him?

"Yes, I imagine Master Dick would be quite upset with you if you did," Alfred says, calmly offering the young girl another one of his cart's sandwiches wrapped in a white napkin. "I believe he called 'dibs'."

The girl scowls, her expression screwed up in an adorable pout. "I'm not agreeing to any adoption, thank you very much." She chomps on her sandwich in irritation, which quickly consumes her interest as she focuses on inhaling the food. Alfred only calmly holds out another for her to take once she's done with the first.

"How are you feeling, Miss Dani?" Alfred asks, pushing the cart forward so Dani can take one of the macarons laid out on the plate.

Dani hastily swallows her bite of sandwich so she can start on the macarons. "Fine. Good. Thank you for the food!" She stuffs her face with a macaron, eyes sparkling at the taste as she grabs for another.

Alfred is watching her with indulgent fondness.

Looks like she'll be a permanent fixture, then. She is pretty cute, so Bruce isn't upset. He will need to run some thorough background checks – as always – and settle some legal affairs, but if she's already won over Alfred, she has a place in his home.

"How did you get injured?" Bruce asks, gesturing at the wraps around her hands. "Those look pretty serious."

Dani glances down at her hands like she forgot they were bandaged. "Everyone's just making a big deal out of nothing."

"Second degree burns are not often described as nothing," Alfred chides her gently. "May I offer you some tea?"

"Yes please," she replies, her tone much more polite when referring to Alfred. "What kind is it today?"

"This is a type of green tea called matcha. It is known for its clean, revitalizing properties." He pours a cup, glancing over at Bruce for his reluctant nod. Bruce never had been the greatest fan of tea, preferring the caffeine-dense ambrosia of black coffee, but he missed Alfred's brews. They're warm, and taste like comfort.

Dani tastes her tea before nodding in approval, thanking Alfred with a smile. "So you're Bruce Wayne?" She nods in his direction.

"I am," he confirms. "It's nice to meet you."

"How was dengue fever?"

Bruce looks over at Alfred, a bit surprised she doesn't already know it was a ruse.

In response, Alfred explains to the both of them, "Miss Dani only discovered our night lives earlier this evening." Alfred nods to Bruce with a smile. "Master Bruce was on an intergalactic mission with the Justice League. He just returned not a full hour ago."

"Where?" Dani asks, her eyes sparkling in curiosity. "Which galaxy? Why?"

"Triangulum," Bruce replies. "We were resolving a diplomatic dispute."

"Having a diplomatic dispute with a different galaxy is wild," Dani comments. "We're so far away we should never even come into contact with life in the other galaxies. How did you manage to do that and piss them off?"

"It's a long story," Bruce sighs, disinclined to explain the details after months of living them. "What's wrong with Jason?"

Dani tilts her head, pouting a little at his curt dismissal. "He's dead, and the government doesn't like that."

"His vitals are within normal range," is Bruce's immediate response.

She rolls her eyes. "It's a long story."

Bruce narrows his eyes at her. She just stares back, as if daring him to contradict her. He breaks the gaze first, looking over at Alfred. Bruce is exhausted, but he'll push through every physical limit if his children need it.

Alfred shakes his head fondly. "The children are handling it. There is no immediate danger, and Master Jason is well on his way to recovery, more than he reasonably should be." Dani draws herself up in pride at the comment, and Bruce wonders how she contributed to the whole situation. "You can rest, Master Bruce. Everything can wait until tomorrow, and I imagine you've earned a break."

Some sleep sounds phenomenal. In his bed, no less. He still wants to see his children before he goes upstairs, but Alfred gives him a pointed look that makes his choice for him.

"I expect full reports in the morning," Bruce says, aiming the words at the newest addition of his family. "And I'll be down to check on Jason first thing. Make sure he stays in that bed."

"I will do my best, sir," Alfred says in a dry voice. "But I can only do so much. After all, he does take after you."

Bruce would be lying if he said he didn't miss Alfred's sarcastic quips.

He'd also be lying if he said he wasn't a little excited to have a new addition to the house.

Bruce could already tell that Dani would fit right in.

This chapter was LONG. But I didn't feel like it should be split up, so congrats, lol. Big lore drop, as a treat. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed this to the fullest extent - I wanted to give you guys a big thank you for checking out my mom's fic. She means the world to me, and it means so much that you guys are supporting her fic. (She even gave a little plug-in for this fic at the end of her most recent chapter, which I thought was the cutest thing ever, guys, can we just... my mom is adorable 3).

On the note of big thank yous, I have another to give to Wallycet, who drew ANOTHER SICK FANART PIECE. Drawing one is epic, but two?! That's exponentially cooler. Here's the link: wallycet/773048221544202240?source=share (it's of Dani's Halloween costume, which encompassed the aura I was going for perfectly!) and I think (hope) I managed to get the image to load in!

- thank you for all your comments, guys. I know I haven't been responding to them as much as I did at the beginning, but I appreciate them all the same. I take notes of what you guys specifically liked and questions/suggestions you have, so I hope you guys continue to give them, even if I can't respond to them all (and isn't that remarkable, seriously?). I appreciate all of you so much, and I'm glad you guys are enjoying this fic as much as I am!

Oh, and let me be clear: if any of these AI art scams are started by actual readers, stop sending me offers to commission your artwork. I love artwork, but I don't get paid to write this. I certainly am not going to pay someone else to draw art for it when I already give my time to write it and don't earn any money for it myself. I'm not going to give you money. Please leave me alone. Thx! That said, anyone can draw art for this fic. But your labors will have to be volunteered, just like mine, I'm sorry to say :(