The sound of Steph's motorbike roaring into the batcave was loud - echoing sharply against the cave walls in a way that didn't quite feel right. She and Duke rode back in silence, not quite sure what to say and not quite sure what they were supposed to be feeling.

Alfred was there - as he was every night - ready to see to any injuries. They dismounted from the bike, still a little shaky, and Alfred's face dropped ever so slightly in confusion. He quirked up an eyebrow in question.

"The others are still out," Steph said, her voice coming out raspy. She swiped the back of her hand over her eyes tiredly. "Uh, Jason took a hit of fear toxin. It was... It was pretty bad."

Alfred nodded, though his eyes glimmered with concern and worry. Although he'd never admit it aloud, Jason was probably Alfred's favourite (at least that was what it looked like to Steph) - he definitely worried about Jason more than he did the rest of them. Steph felt a sudden pang of guilt at her wording; Alfred was probably assuming the worst.

"He's gonna be fine, though," she added quickly, in an attempt to comfort Alfred. "It just looked like he was going through a regular run of it, but it's just that he isn't usually..."

"Master Jason isn't usually as affected by Scarecrow's fear toxin," Alfred offered. Steph nodded and Alfred turned sharply on his heel. "Seeing as though the both of you have had quite a distressing night, I believe that hot drinks are in order."

"Thanks, Alfred."

"It's my pleasure, Miss Stephanie." And with that, Alfred made off towards the elevator.

Steph turned her attention to Duke, who was staring bleakly at the floor. Duke was still pretty new and hadn't seen the effects of fear toxin before - it wasn't ever a pleasant thing to see, especially not with someone like Jason who had more trauma than anyone ought to. Duke looked like he was replaying what he'd seen, and Steph knew from experience that it was never a good idea to get inside your head too much.

"Hey," she said quietly, nudging him. He jolted slightly and looked at her blearily. "You okay?"

"I don't know," he said after a few moments, shrugging. "I just... I don't know."

Steph nodded. "Wanna talk about it?"

Duke shrugged again and Steph pulled him over to the stairs that led up to the batcomputer. "I know that it's rough to see someone like that," she said, resting a hand on his knee. "Especially when they're normally as stubborn and pig-headed as Jason."

Steph cracked a grin and Duke gave a weak smile. "I'm gonna have to re-evaluate where I've put Scarecrow on my threat-list."

Steph cackled - louder and more enthusiastically than was really due, but it was keeping the mood up. Duke's face broke out into a genuine smile and he laughed quietly along with her. "Yeah, well," she said, shrugging nonchalantly, "at the end of the day, Crane's still just a nerd with a bag on his head."

The laughter died out slowly and that same pensive look returned to Duke's face. Steph gave a sad smile and nudged him again. "Jason'll be okay. He'll be fine."

Duke nodded. "I know. It's just that..." He frowned a little before shaking his head. "Never mind."

"Come on," she urged. "I wanna hear it."

He looked at her for a moment. "It's just that- Jason told me about his mom after he found out about my parents. And when he was... It was just kinda..."

She nodded sympathetically, before deciding to divert the conversation a little. "I didn't know that you and Jason talked."

Duke shrugged and made a small noise. "It's not really like... We're cool, but it's not like we're friends or anything. It's not like you or Barbara or Cass or Tim," he said. "We hang out sometimes - play video games, watch movies, talk about stuff."

"That sounds like friends to me."

Duke shrugged again and his expression was one that Steph recognised. He didn't feel like he fit in, like he belonged. "I help him cook sometimes. He's really good at it, though, so I don't know why."

Steph raised an eyebrow. "He lets you help him? Like willingly?"

Duke nodded, frowning. "Yeah?"

She let out a small scoff. "He doesn't let the rest of us. He even banned Tim from going into the kitchen unsupervised because he accidentally started a fire." She grinned at Duke and elbowed him playfully. "If you and Jason aren't friends, then I don't know what to tell you."

Duke smiled, visibly surer of himself.

"How'd you two even meet?" Steph said, staring up into the dark roof of the cave. "Your patrol route doesn't go near Jason's turf."

"It was like last year, I think," Duke began. "I came across this robbery and the guy bolted before I could get to him. He made it all the way to Bowery before I cornered him, but he had a gun and he... y'know."

Steph nodded. She vaguely remembered it being the first time that Bruce had gotten pissed at Duke. Though she was sure that he was more concerned about the fact that Duke had been shot and then gone radio silent for an hour in one of the most dangerous areas of Gotham.

"I thought I was gonna die," he said. "But then Jason showed up and saved me. I mean, I still thought I was gonna die, because it was the Red Hood."

Steph gave a small snort of laughter at that.

"He asked me if I was okay. And I was just... confused. Like really confused." Duke frowned to emphasise the point. "He took me to one of his safehouses and I was a little less terrified but I still had no idea what was going on. He patched me up and it was kinda weird how nice he was about everything. Like he offered me food - I think it was probably the nicest stir-fry that I've ever had."

Steph nodded. "Bruce benched you after that, didn't he? He thought you were out there by yourself. You could have told him. Jason and Bruce have been cool for a couple of years now."

"Jason told me not to," Duke said simply. "He said that he didn't want Bruce to get any ideas about him becoming some sappy babysitter like Dick. His words, not mine."

"That sounds like Jason," Steph said amusedly. "You know that it was probably a test, right? Jason has this thing about trust - can't exactly blame him, but still. He was definitely just testing you."

To Steph's surprise, Duke just shrugged. "I figured it was something like that because his excuse was kinda lame."

"Yeah, Jason sucks ass at excuses," she said, shaking her head very solemnly. "Couldn't lie his way out of a wet paper bag."

Tim and Barbara returned about an hour and a half later. They both looked awful - hair mussed by their helmets and their eyes red and dry. Tim had the dart zipped up in a plastic bag that was clutched in his hand and Jason's helmet tucked under his arm.

Steph and Duke looked up from the game of Monopoly that Alfred had brought down to distract them. Identical looks of concern plastered their faces when they realised that Tim and Barbara were alone.

"He's still..." Duke whispered, watching as Barbara and Tim dismounted their bikes. "Isn't he?"

"I think so," Steph replied, frowning. "Oh, god..."

They watched as Tim and Barbara wandered over into the open space of the batcave. Barbara tore back her cowl and rubbed a hand over her face tiredly. Tim did the same, though he completely removed his cape, leaving it sprawled out over the floor.

Alfred hurried over and snatched up Tim's cape, folding it neatly and then draping it over one of the railings. They exchanged a few words and the sad look in Alfred's face returned.

"Shit," Steph mumbled. "It must've been pretty bad."

Tim handed Jason's helmet over to Alfred and then excused himself from the conversation. He sped over to the lab, fiddling with the plastic bag in his hands, from across the cave, Steph caught Barbara's eye and she motioned for Steph to go after him.

"Don't cheat," she said, waggling her finger at Duke. "I'll be right back to kick your ass."

Duke just looked at her with an eyebrow raised - Steph had been losing, horrifically too. She backed away very slowly, drawing her cape up around her face with her arm and doing a very poor imitation of Bruce's bat-glare at Duke. "What are you doing?"

"Asserting my dominance." Duke gave a loud sigh, but Steph didn't stop.

She bumped into the wall and then began to grope blindly for the door handle, refusing to break eye contact. Once she found it, she turned and went into the room, giving Duke one last accusing look.

Duke shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This family..."

"Hey, Tim," Steph said, coming up behind him and peering over his shoulder. "Is that the dart that got Jason?"

Tim nodded, not trusting his voice. Steph backed away, moving to Tim's side, and Tim focused on dismantling the dart instead. He could still hear Jason's voice echoing in his head and it made him feel nauseous.

Steph rested a hand on his shoulder and he barely managed to suppress his reaction. "It was bad, wasn't it?"

He gave another weak nod, leaning into Steph a little. His hands fumbled with the dart. There were tiny smudges of blood on the needle and a small amount of the toxin still in the glass chamber. "Jason..." Tim said, slightly croaky. "He woke up in his coffin, and... and he was just... god, he was so scared."

Steph rubbed his back comfortingly. Tim felt his hands begin to shake and he set the dart down on the table. His eyes fell shut as he tried to compose himself.

"He's claustrophobic, Steph," he murmured. "He told me and I've... I've seen him have panic attacks. I knew that he woke up in his coffin. But, I never... I never put those two together."

Tim's hands moved to grip the edges of the table to stop them from trembling as much. He was so scared, Steph. And there... there wasn't anything that I could do to help him. He had to suffer, terrified and alone, and there was nothing that I could do to help him."

Steph gave him a soft smile. "You can still help him," she said, ducking her head down to meet his eye. "He's gonna need us - all of us. You can still help him."

Tim nodded, sniffling and swiping a hand over his face. "Yeah, you're right."

Steph grinned wickedly and punched Tim in the arm with as much force as she could. "Well, no shit, Sherlock."

"Ouch," Tim mumbled, rubbing where Steph had hit him. She snorted in response.

"Don't be such a baby," she said, leering at him playfully. Tim was a lot calmer now, but his hands weren't nearly steady enough to dismantle the dart. Steph nodded towards one of the lab stools. "Why don't I take over? You can walk through it."

Tim dragged it over to where they were and perched on it, putting most of his weight on the table. "When'd you get so good at all that therapy talk, anyway?"

"I think it's just my personality; I'm real good with babies," she said, laughing. She pulled on a pair of latex gloves and picked up the dart. "Nah, I guess I just picked up some stuff from Dick and Cass."

"I'm sure that they'd be proud."

"Yeah. Yeah. Whatever." She brought the dart up to her eye-level, turning it in her hands. "Alright, tell me what to do, nerd."

Tim rolled his eyes but relented. "There are four buttons around the base. You need to press all of them at once."

When they returned to the cave, it was quiet. On most nights, the air would be bright - alive with chatter and post-patrol adrenaline. This time, however, it was hollow and empty.

Barbara was up at the batcomputer with Duke stood next to her, leaning against the computer chair. They both glanced behind them when Dick's motorcycle rumbled into the cave. Dick and Cass dismounted quietly and Damian got out of the sidecar without a single word.

Bruce wasn't with them. Barbara and Duke glanced at each other. Bruce wasn't with them, which meant that he was still...

Dick tugged off his helmet clumsily and ran a hand through his hair. He tore off his mask, not caring about how it stung when the glue pulled at his skin. It was like he didn't even realise that Cass and Damian were there until Cass grabbed his hand, frowning up at him.

Dick stopped, closing his eyes, and took a deep breath. He rolled his shoulders, trying to force the tension out of them. He was only successful superficially - the stress and anxiety was clear in every stiff step and sharp breath that he took. Cass's frown deepened and Damian was watching him carefully.

"How is he?" Barbara called out, already knowing the answer.

"He's still..." Dick gestured uncomfortably. "Bruce is there with him."

There was something in Dick's voice that was unsettling. Something that lurked just below the surface of his usually bright demeanour. Cass knew what it was immediately: anger.

Anger, surprisingly, was something that Dick was very familiar with. Everyone always pegged Jason as the 'angry Robin,' and thus, neglected her eldest brother's wrath.

Dick's anger was always an explosion - an uncontrolled flurry that, whilst short-lived, was dangerous. It pushed him to do things that he would never do otherwise; it was overwhelming enough to push him to kill. His fury came as raised voices, and righteousness, and painful things that you don't really mean but say and do because you want them to hurt. It was dry and sharp and callous.

How someone so kind could also be so cruel was something that she'd never know.

All that she did know was that it radiated off him, and it had something to do with the Joker, her father, and that awful scar on her brother's neck. She could only dread how they were connected.

Damian was concerningly quiet. It was understandable, all things considered, but that didn't make it any less worrying. He hadn't said a single word - not as they fled the rooftop, not as they returned to the cave, not as Cass led him into the kitchen.

"Little brother," she called, peering at him from around the freezer door, "what ice-cream do you want?"

Damian looked at her from his perch on the counter - his face unusually blank - and said nothing. She could tell that he was still processing, judging by the way that his fingers clawed gently at the edge of the marble countertop and the fact that he was chewing on the inside of his lip.

"Chocolate," she answered for him, with a firm nod. She remembered Steph and Jason telling her that chocolate was good for lifting spirits. "Chocolate is good."

She lugged the ridiculously large container from its drawer and walked across the kitchen. The floor tiles didn't feel nearly as cold as they had before but they still sent small shivers up her legs as she went. She set the container down and noted that Damian visibly flinched at the loud noise.

She made a point of not looking at him so that he had the time to compose himself. Her littlest brother was very prideful and she didn't want to upset him. She rooted through the drawers, watching out of the corner of her eye as Damian ran a hand through his hair (a nervous tick that all her brothers seemed to have) and tugged at the collar of his pyjama shirt.

She let out a quiet, triumphant noise as she found the scoop beneath the tea towels (presumably hidden there by Bruce or Alfred). She heaped the ice-cream into two bowls and then carried the notably less heavy tub back into the freezer.

She handed Damian his bowl and climbed up onto the counter, next to him. Alfred certainly wouldn't approve of their choice of seating, but he was still in the cave and Cass was sure that he'd make an exception - this was an emergency, after all.

They sat in silence for a few moments, Cass quite happily eating and Damian watching blankly as his ice-cream melted. Cass always ate quickly - it was a force of habit, she supposed. It was better than it used to be: she wolfed it down like she hadn't eaten all day instead of desperately shovelling it into her mouth faster than she could chew. Jason did the same, though it was clearly something that he'd forced himself to grow out of.

She set her empty bowl down beside her and looked over to Damian, frowning slightly. Damian was sensitive and empathetic, even if he tried to pretend that he wasn't; it was gradually becoming more obvious as he became more comfortable at the manor.

"Little brother."

Nothing.

"Dami."

Nothing.

"Damian."

Nothing.

She cocked her head to the side, thinking of an appropriate next step. She turned her spoon in her hand and suddenly had an idea. Slowly, she brought her hand up behind Damian and pressed the cold metal of the spoon against the back of his neck.

Immediately, Damian jolted forward, almost coming off the counter, and his hand swiped behind him defensively. His eyes met Cass's in a furious glare and she looked at him amusedly - that was the little brother that she loved. "What was the meaning of that?"

She shrugged, reaching over to touch him with the cold spoon again. He swatted at her hand and narrowed his eyes at her, though it lacked any real malice.

"You were thinking too much." She tapped his forehead with her index finger and he let her with nothing but a small wrinkling of his nose. "It's not good to get inside your head."

Damian bristled, pulling away slightly, and made a haughty face - Cass always thought that expression made him look like his mother. She raised an eyebrow at him and shifted so that her body was turned to him.

"It's okay," she said softly, bringing her knees up to her chest. "You're worried, and that's okay."

"I'm not..." Damian muttered - Cass probably wouldn't have heard him if it weren't for the silence of the kitchen. The expression that flickered across his face was entirely his - their - father.

"It's okay," she said again because she needed him to believe that. "It's okay to care. We all do."

Damian shuffled a little closer to her and she smiled at him. Her littlest brother was never very good with words or with feelings. But that was okay too.

The batmobile roared into the cave - so loud that it practically shook the walls. It came to a rolling stop alongside the collection of motorcycles and, after a few moments, Bruce climbed out. His boots made soft thuds against the solid ground and they echoed in the awful silence. Bruce was exhausted.

His armour came off in pieces scattered across the cave floor; his cowl and cape, then his belt, then the Kevlar, and finally his boots. He came up to the batcomputer and slumped into the computer chair - the creak of leather was painfully familiar.

He swallowed roughly, eyes flickering shut. Jason was screaming again, and Bruce wasn't sure if it was a hallucination or just a memory. It felt real, his son's voice dragging along the cave walls like he was right behind Bruce.

Jason was crying too, or was about to - Bruce could always pick it out in his voice; the way that it would crack and catch in his throat like he was about to shatter. There were very few things that cut into him like that sound did.

"You replaced me. I was dead and you replaced me like I was nothing." Jason's voice was low and soft, and Bruce couldn't stand when it was like that. It was worse than the screaming - infinitely - because at least when Jason was angry and shouting, Bruce could pretend that it was a fight. He knew how to fight.

But, this - his son crying and trembling, and looking every bit of the child that he was - this wasn't a fight, and Bruce never knew what to do. He loved all of his children but none of them got to him like Jason could. None of them made him feel as vulnerable and helpless and guilty as Jason could.

"You chose him over me." Bruce could feel himself tearing up. "I didn't expect you to do it, and I didn't expect you to let me do it, and I didn't expect that you'd try to kill me to save him."

Bruce shuddered as a sob forced its way out of him. His hands shook slightly as he logged into the batcomputer and brought up a file drive.

"What if it had been Dick?"

That made him tense up. Jason had always had a way with words - he jabbed at Bruce's armour until he found a weak spot and then, he pried it open with his bare hands. It didn't seem to matter how hard Bruce tried to hide it; Jason always knew when he hit a nerve. It was like watching a predator go straight for its prey's throat and sinking its teeth into the jugular.

"Would you have done it then?"

Bruce closed his eyes and forced himself to take a deep breath. It felt like he was drowning.

"I'd get it if you said yes. He's your favourite - the golden son - and I was just some street rat that you felt bad for."

Bruce remembered that moment. He remembered looking into Jason eyes - dark and teal - and knowing that Jason meant every word of what he'd said. Bruce also remembered not being able to answer, and that had been worse than saying 'yes.'

He went for the first video that he could reach. The video came up - the batcave, too long ago. Robin was stood on the batmobile, a wicked grin spread across his face. Bruce - younger in more ways than one - approached him and he flipped down.

"This is awesome!" Jason said, throwing a kick into the air. "I'm Robin, the Boy Wonder."

That Bruce gave a low chuckle and ruffled the boy's hair. "Yeah. You are, Jay."

Jason took off across the batcave, cape fluttering behind him. "I'm Robin and being Robin gives me magic!"