I noticed as I was watching YJ that Bruce doesn't seem to be as broody as his comicverse self is. I mean, he was trying to give Superman parenting advice, so he must know SOMETHING when it comes to parenting. And this is kind of the result of that thought process. So yeah. Here's goes. Enjoy!

Batman tried not to physically show his frustration to the other Leaguers. It was a bad situation, but something they should have expected—something he should have expected—and now was not the time to lose his cool.

All three of them were gone. The Hall of Justice was empty, devoid of any partners, and in Batman's experience, that meant nothing good. Now, all he could do was figure out where they went, and then go with the other Leaguers to retrieve them, hopefully before their partners found themselves in trouble.

"They're gone," the Flash said, just blinking at the empty room. "Where are they?"

Green Arrow met Batman's eyes. "You don't think they got fed up and walked out, do you?"

No. That was Batman's first thought. Because as rebellious as Robin could be, he knew how to express his feelings. When he was happy, unhappy, and the like., he would say so. He wasn't Batman. He didn't brood. He just needed a little time to cool off and then he would say what was bothering him, and Batman—or Bruce. Usually Bruce. Batman was even more hopeless than Bruce was sometimes—would do his best to fix it.

Yes, Robin had run off before, but he'd never just walk away from Batman like Speedy did Green Arrow. So, no. Batman knew Robin well enough to know that the Leaguer's partners hadn't walked away from them.

They probably did something equally as stupid, though. They were a bunch of teenagers looking to prove something, and Batman didn't put it past them.

Batman didn't say this. Instead, he walked to the computer on a hunch, pulling up the history—there. Robin had hacked into the system and accessed the League's files on Cadmus. So, they had heard Batman say he wanted to investigate the laboratory and decided to go themselves.

This didn't seem like it would end well. Especially because Batman knew a few more things about Cadmus than the barren file suggested.

"Cadmus?" Aquaman read over Batman's shoulder. "The lab that Superman said caught on fire?"

The Flash zipped over. "What about it?"

"That's where they are," Batman growled. He tapped the communicator in his ear, even knowing he probably wouldn't get an answer. "Robin, report."

Unsurprisingly, nothing but static. The Flash and Aquaman tried to connect with Kid Flash and Aqualad. Same result.

"Communications are jammed," Green Arrow said. He looked frustrated, and it wasn't hard to understand why. All of their partners were missing, but Arrow's partnership had just been shattered into a million unfixable pieces. "What do we do now?"

Batman walked towards the door, cape sweeping behind him, hand already tapping his communicator to change it to the League frequency. "Simple," he said. "We go and get them."

Bruce didn't know who to be more upset with, Dick or himself.

"What were you thinking?" Bruce growled, and it was his Batman voice more than his stern voice, even with his cowl down in the safety of the BatCave. Dick, his mask off, too, flinched, and Bruce tried not to feel too guilty. Dick needed to understand this. "You took Aqualad and Kid Flash on an unauthorized mission."

"I didn't take anyone anywhere," Dick argued, recovering rather quickly. "We all agreed on it. You guys were treating us like we were little kids. Like we still needed training wheels on our bikes."

"Dick, you're thirteen-"

"I've been doing this since I was nine!"

"Yes," Bruce agreed, and he found his voice going quiet and almost gentle without his consent, his anger fading as the real reason he was so upset set in, "but you disappeared on us. How do you think we felt when we came back and all three of you were gone? And right after Speedy. You could have been killed."

Dick looked away, and Bruce sighed. Despite the arguments otherwise, Bruce did learn something about interacting with Dick in the four years since he'd come into Bruce's life. Sometimes, Dick just needed a moment or two to put things into perspective. Bruce just needed to give him the time. It was better to let him think on that than continue this argument.

Bruce settled a hand on Dick's shoulder, noting the torn uniform and filing it away for later. "Listen, Dick. I get it. You three feel like you've been under the League's shadow for too long. You're looking to stand on your own two feet, but I want you to understand that letting you do that isn't exactly easy for us. For me."

Dick looked up at him, his blue, blue eyes so expressive, full of hesitance. But at least he was listening, now. "I'm not a kid anymore, Bruce," he said, just like he did before. "I've been in the game long enough to know how it works. I'm ready for this. We all are."

Bruce sighed. "I'm not going to stop you, if that's what you're thinking. But I do want to keep an eye on you. Kid or not, you're still my partner. Looking out for each other is what we do."

Dick grinned at him, sudden and blinding. And then he was off, practically skipping to the showers. Bruce shook his head at the sudden change in mood. Looks like he did something right this time. Communicating was hard, but Bruce didn't deny the results. Or the relieved feeling he got when Dick smiled at him.

God. He would never get used to being a parent.

"Table, Dick."

"Nah, I'm good."

"A building just fell on top of you. Table. Now."

"Fine. Let the court know that I'm do this under protest."

"Noted, Master Dick. Now please let me wrap your injuries."

Bruce shook his head and let Alfred take care of Dick's injuries, barely catching Dick murmur something about Alfred not being "whelmed" as he walked away. Whatever that meant.

Things were going to change, Bruce realized as he sat down at the Batcomputer to start planning for Dick's new team. Dick was going to be on a team. He was growing up, not that nine-year-old little boy who hid under the bed after a nightmare, or crept into Bruce's room during a thunderstorm (that seemed a little backwards to him, but that was Dick).

It looked like Bruce had a lot of work to do, and a lot to think about.

There will probably be at least one for every episode after this. I did these together for obvious reasons. Thanks for reading!