_ Epilogue _

"Hey."

Jason looked up, hiding the cigarette he knew he shouldn't be smoking so soon after being released from the manor. "Hey."

Dick brushed his hands awkwardly on his Nightwing suit, looking for all the world like a nervous teenager. "So, you kind of skipped out before I could talk to you."

Jason nodded, "That's because I didn't want you to talk to me." As soon as he woke up the second time he figured there was nothing keeping him at the manor any more. Bruce went out to get the rest of his brood, Jason hearing them slamming doors and shouting through the halls as he cleaned up. Not one of them came to check in his room to see if he was okay, all of them passing it so they could get to Dick. He heard Damian make some comment about being able to spot a demon from miles off, the air light even as Tim snapped something back at him. He wasn't wanted in the manor, and he got that, he understood why they didn't come to see him. If he was honest, he didn't want them to either. His head hurt too much to be able to do much more than gather his things together. He doubted he would have been able to make it through a family reunion without snapping at one of his siblings himself. Only, when Jason did it, things seemed to fly out of proportion. It was better if he just left quietly.

"B went mad when he found out," Dick laughed.

Jason just bet. He was actually surprised Bruce wasn't trailing Dick. He did that sometimes, just after they had recovered from a cold or stomach flu. He would follow them, make sure they were okay as they patrolled. It was his own way of parenting without actually parenting. Kind of crappy, sure, but if it meant Jason wasn't facing Bruce any time soon he was okay with that. Only, he hadn't seen a shadow the first night he went out as Red Hood again. He'd figured Bruce was after Dick, but, since Jason still couldn't see a shadow where there shouldn't be, he figured maybe Bruce was trying a different approach this time.

Joy.

"Can I sit?" Dick asked.

"You're asking?" Usually Dick just sat himself wherever. Jason remembered one favourable time when he almost got tossed over a roof because Dick shimmied himself closer than he should have.

Dick came over, sitting gently next to Jason on the ledge. Since he probably wasn't going to get away with taking another drag Jason tossed the remaining butt over the edge, watching it fall behind his lenses. Dick was unusually quiet next to him, his hands still fidgeting with the bricks beneath them.

Jason sighed when he'd had enough. It was late, he had a bed waiting for him and a new safe house he didn't need following back to. "What do you want Nightwing?"

Dick breathed shakily next to him. "A number of things actually. Since you skipped out, I'm here on behalf of Bruce too. He wants to know if you want to go to counselling."

"Counselling? Why the hell would I-" Right, the whole rape thing. "Tell him I'll pass." Jason had long ago learnt how to deal with that trauma. Really, the only thing keeping him up at night were the noises he would hear. Living alone had its disadvantages. One being, when Jason heard a knock, even if it was just a pipe rattling, it sent his senses tingling. It would be a while before he stopped sleeping with a knife so close to his pillow. But, other than that, he didn't need someone, definitely not a counsellor, to tell his woes to. "Next," Jason ordered.

Dick actually smiled for this one, "Well, don't tell D I told you he asked, but there's a new production of Coriolanus that he needs someone to take him to. I was going to offer going with him, but I thought, why not ask someone who won't fall asleep."

"The brat asked for me?" Jason could barely believe what he was hearing.

Yet Dick shrugged that smile still on his face. "He said if you picked him up and didn't talk through it he would suffer your company for an evening. It's basically his way of saying he'd love to go with you."

That was, unexpected. So much so Jason didn't really have an answer right away.

It got to the point where Dick was going on to his next point just to alleviate the silence again. "Anyway. Agent A wanted me to remind you that you're still expected at movie night in a few weeks and I... I just wanted to see you." Jason knew why, he could hear the emotion bleeding into Dick's voice. It was still a marvel to hear it, to know that they had won. That this was Dick in front of him, not the other thing. It would never be the other thing again. "You know, we're going to have to talk sometime."

"Or," Jason countered. "We don't and we just file this under things that are never mentioned."

"Jay," Dick tried.

"Nightwing," Jason reminded, him for once not breaking the no real names in the field rule. "It's over, we won, why is that not enough for you?"

"Because that thing was me," Dick snapped. "That thing was me Jay and I can't get over that. I can't get over what it did. It..." He took a deep breath, his anger simmering, cooling slightly so it wasn't so explosive. Jason knew it wasn't directed at him, Dick was just frustrated that Jason didn't feel the same passion he did for this subject that was all. "How do you do it? How do you look at me and not see it?"

Oh, so that was it. Sometimes in circumstances like these it was hard not to be a little self centred. Jason was the one at the end of the creatures desires sure, but it had taken Dick for a ride. It had used him, made him do things he didn't want to do. It had effectively violated him too. Jason bet it was harder for Dick to move on than Jason. For Jason, he had experience, he could separate the two things into the creature that had threatened his life and his brother, Dick, the guy that he would do anything for and who he was never going to tell he felt that way. But Dick, every time he looked in a mirror he was looking at the person who ruined him. He saw what he could become, and it probably terrified him that the other him shared anything in common with present him.

Also, as much as Jason would like to tell Dick that he wasn't that thing, he wasn't evil or manipulative, which was true, he couldn't because that wasn't all the creature was. Some part of it, the part Jason didn't get to see, the part that had latched on to Father Todd for reasons more than feeding, was human. It felt loneliness and humour. It was capable of being kind. The point was that Jason wouldn't have been so confused if that thing wasn't like Dick in some way.

So Jason couldn't tell his brother that. What he could say was, "Look, it's just like going to another universe. When we go there and we see these other versions of us, we know they're us, but they're not. They have the same essence, and yeah, Dick the demon did too, but it's not you. It chose to do those evil things. It told me itself it chose the life it had. But you chose yours too. You chose to be considerate, to ask people if they were comfortable before you did something. You're Nightwing. It's going to take some time before you can look at yourself again, but, you've been through worse. And if it's any consolation, when I look at you, I only see the parts of the creature that were good. The parts that make you, you Dick."

Jason watched the city when he was done. He'd always been bad at this making people feel better stuff. He liked to show rather than tell, so when Dick stroked his fingers over his hand Jason turned his palm up. It wasn't a hug. Jason didn't think it would be for a while. But it was something, and that was what Dick needed right now. He didn't need an easy fix, he just needed to know that everything would be good in time.

"You would've made a good priest Jay."

"I know."