Chapter Text
A statement from the Wayne estate regarding the condition of Jason Todd-Wayne
The Wayne Estate is issuing the following update regarding the health of Jason Todd-Wayne to address ongoing media speculation.
Recently, Jason was hospitalized following exposure to a high dose of "Joker toxin," which induced life-threatening organ failure. Thanks to immediate medical intervention, his condition is now stable. However, he requires an extensive period of medical care and rest for a full recovery.
The Wayne family deeply appreciates the outpouring of support and well-wishes. At this time, our sole priority is Jason's healing, and we strictly request absolute privacy.
Any attempts to photograph Jason, trespass on Wayne property, or breach the medical facility will be met with the maximum legal consequences.
Jason is a minor. Any attempts to exploit this tragedy or dig into his personal past will face swift, harsh legal repercussions from the Wayne legal team.
We ask the media to respect our boundaries during this difficult time. No further comments will be made.
Jason has liver failure from the Joker toxin even with the antidote delivered. He has to be put in a deep coma and intubated for almost two weeks. When he is aware again, he's in a super-ultra-private room in Wayne General Hospital, with Bruce holding his hand. His face is solemn.
"...B?"
Bruce turns to him. "Jay? Jason? Do you know my face?"
God, his throat is dry, and it feels like something is dying inside. "...I just said that you're B. Bruce. My dad?"
Bruce squeezes his hand tight. "Good. Good. Do you know where you are now?"
Jason looks around. "...Hospital?" he says questioningly.
Bruce nods, seeming happy. "And do you know what time it is?"
He glances at the window. "I dunno. But the sun is up. Probably morning?"
Bruce sighs in relief. "Good. That's good. This is the first time you're fully back. Welcome back, my son."
Bruce bends down and touches his forehead to Jason's, gently.
"Fully back? What do you mean--" Jason lifts his hands up. His hand that's full of IV lines, tape, and needles plunging into his skin with that laughter that he cannot stop--
Jason's other hand lifts up to pull them out, but he feels that hand held back by another swarm of lines.
"Get them out!" Jason tugs, tugging at anything, anywhere. He's trapped. "Get them out! Let me go!"
But Bruce grabs his arms down. "No, Jason. Calm down. They're--"
"Not you too!" He screams at the top of his lungs. "Let me go!"
Some conversations that happen without Jason.
"'Ello, Bruce."
"No, Tim. You cannot come in today."
"What? But you texted us earlier that he woke up!"
A sigh. "There's some... complications. And he has to be sedated. Deep."
"What happened? You said you reversed the toxin in time."
"We aren't sure yet. I suspect both PTSD and trypanophobia. He can't be awake and see those IV lines yet, but he does need them until his liver is better than this. It's going to be a long recovery, Tim."
So Jason is pumped full of even more anxiolytics for another week until all his medication and fluids can be taken orally. He's alert now, with something in him that is fundamentally changed from not just having the worst nightmare of his life happen, but happen online in front of everyone's eyes.
"But 99% of the world sees you as a hero, both in what you did, and the fact that you helped (maybe permanently this time) defeat the Joker, Jay," Tim explains to Jason, who's lying half-up in the hospital bed. "There's... uh. Last week some jerk reporter tried to ask Bruce about, um."
"My past on the streets," Jason says for the boy.
Tim nods. "Bruce straight up punched him in the face, probably broke his jaw. No one on the internet even has a mind to reproach him. Commissioner Gordon did come and literally slap Bruce on the wrist and say things like, 'I'm just too happy that my daughter has the strength to do her rehab now.' Well, he's still a good cop, and there'll probably be a case, but with that reporter probably getting even more penalties for pestering Bruce about you. And no one even knows if those evil blackmail materials really exist. Every piece of equipment Carl Jamieson had was fried to a crisp somehow."
Jason shrugs. Honestly, whatever Carl Jamieson intended to do is only a small part of a big clump of his trauma now.
"You are a hero, Jason. I think even the president wants to visit you for your courage. There's a mass prayer for your recovery--"
"Tim," Jason cuts the boy off. "I don't want to hear about it."
Tim shuts his mouth. His face turns red. "Um, sorry, Jason. My mouth just kept running and I'm so stupid."
"No, no, Tim." Jason sits fully up to reach the boy. "It's me that's not ready. I'm sorry. You have good intentions. Just give me time."
Tim nods. "I want you to get better," he says, his voice sounding like he's about to cry. "That night, when I landed from the plane and saw the national news headlines... It was just..." He scrubs his eyes again. "I'm sorry I mentioned it again. Let's play a round of Marvel Splendor."
He plays a mindless board game with Tim. Well, not that mindless when you play with Tim. Tim and Bruce with board games are competitive as fuck. But Jason does notice Tim going easy on him a few times.
"You don't have to go easy on me. I notice you keep hogging cards unnecessarily."
"What? I may just be a Winter Soldier stan," Tim says nonchalantly.
At that moment, the door opens and Dick rushes in. "Jason."
Jason tries to muster his cool-kid energy and greets his brother. "Yo, Dick."
The coolness probably doesn't show up. Because Dick is instantly tearing up at the sight of Jason. "I'm sorry I was not there" is the first thing he says.
"Man. I got caught by the fucking Joker. What could you do?" Jason shrugs. But Dick shakes his head.
"Lots. Lots of things. I should have been there for you to talk to. To consult. To be a barrier between you and that piece of shit reporter," Dick replies. And there it is. Dick's eldest-daughter syndrome rears its head.
"You can't take the blame for every bad thing in the world, Dickhead," Jason says and pats the empty space beside his bed.
Dick quickly sits there and side-hugs Jason. Man, his brother is like a giant retriever. Funny.
No. No. It's not funny. No. Stop laughing. No, please.
"Jason? Jason!"
Jason doesn't hear it. His mind is trapped somewhere far away.
In the end, Jason stays in the hospital for a whole month until he is cleared by the intensivist, gastroenterologist, toxicologist, psychiatrists, therapists, physiotherapist, and a dozen other -ist people.
Not like he comes out unscathed. He has a new bag load of trauma, and sometimes Jason doesn't know what will trigger him. He can be talking to his family, and suddenly some noise or phrase brings him right back there. What's worse is Jason doesn't even have a solid memory of his Joker toxin hallucinations. He only remembers the needle plunging in.
Plunging in.
Jason snaps back from his dissociation. Yes. The needle. Then the urge that everything is so funny, and help.
Help.
HahahaHAHAhahaha.
Yep, that dissociation. It happens a lot, which puts Jason's comeback to school as a long-term plan for the future.
"Do you want to try online classes? I can talk with the school," Bruce tells him.
Jason shrugs. "I don't know. Not sure." He can't imagine liking an online classroom, but the prospect of going back to school after everyone saw him like... that makes him want to puke his guts out, too. So school is on pause.
"On the bright side, you can pause for two years and then we can go to school together!" Tim says.
"Come on, kid. That is on the side of toxic positivity," Jason comments.
Thus, Jason is now a recluse in the manor. He wakes up. He helps Alfie with breakfast, getting triggered by the sound of a metal pan hitting the stove. He eats breakfast with Bruce and Tim (the Drakes have gone on another months-long excavation). He stands on the porch, waving to Tim as Tim leaves for school. He goes back to his library, reads, dissociates. Bruce pulls him out from dissociation. Bruce seems to have late nights again and looks fatigued to the bone, so he wrestles Bruce into bed. Go back to the library, read, get triggered by some sentence, and hyperventilate alone. Eat lunch with Alfred. then stay frozen at the door, unable to step out of the manor to help Alfred with groceries. Nap in the living room. Wake up confused, feeling like he's back in the hospital. Help Alfred prepare dinner. Wait for Bruce to wake up and for Tim to come back. He eats dinner, feeling normal for maybe one hour a day. Play games with Tim, thinking he's better.
Then wakes up screaming at night, with Bruce holding his hands to keep him from scratching his own face.
It's hell.
At two months past the Event He Will Not Mention, Jason is allowed to watch TV if there's someone with him. This rule had to be applied because in the hospital, Jason turned on the TV, and the news was talking about his incident. Even though there was no footage, Jason had a severe panic attack.
The news cycle is starting to move on. But of course, news about the nighttime vigilante is always juicy.
"Batman upping his rampant crusade again? Local reports indicate the familiar masked man's sightings are reported every night, with a heavy focus on child predators. The police note the concerning increase in violence in his methods..."
Bruce turns off the TV, turning to Jason. "Are you okay?"
Jason shrugs. "Not really triggered, it seems. But man, you're the one who looks like you're on the brink of collapse. Go to sleep or something."
Bruce shakes his head. "I'm fine."
"Hey, I forgive you for that motherfucker Carl thing." Jason nudges his dad. "You didn't know what he had on me."
He can observe Bruce clenching his hands. He must be really exhausted. Jason can easily read Bruce's body language. "No. I should never have doubted you. I will never doubt you again, Jason."
Jason rests his back against the sofa. He really wanted to hear this, and it means so much.
Maybe enough to let go of that other unfinished conversation, about having no secrets from each other.
Their fight seems inconsequential now, after everything that happened.
Some conversations that happen without Jason.
"B?"
"...Yes, Tim?"
"Your reply is even slower than normal. Taking care of Jason during the day and relentless Batman-ing at night is taking a toll on you."
"I'm fine, Tim."
"I can help."
"Hmm. Saturday or Sunday, yes. But you need to go to school."
"I mean... at night."
"No."
"You need a Robin, Batman."
"No."
"You can't be an adequate father to Jason if you carry Gotham alone at night like this. I know you. I know the city. You've already half-trained me. Let me be your partner."
Three months after, Jason sees the news mention the return of the mythical Robin. Unbelievable.
It causes a significant amount of buzz, since Robin has been gone for a few years, and this one seems to be a new one. He's more sneaky and less showy than before, so the footage is all dark and blurry, but this one is small. A new child.
Of course, people who saw the first Robin debut say that when the first Robin came onto the scene, that one was even smaller. Practically an elementary school kid. But Jason feels queasy just thinking about a child smaller than him fighting crazy, crazy men. It's wrong. No child should have--
A rogue laughs in his mind. He's being held down, down, down for trying to do good. His good deed is paid for with a needle, and a needle that does not stop.
A strong hand ushers Jason somewhere, piles him in a blanket, and reads something familiar. And Jason doesn't have the mind to concern himself about Robin anymore.
Some conversations that happen without Jason.
"I come back again and you make Tim a Robin!?"
"More like Tim coerced me to make him Robin, like a certain tiny menace I know."
"Come on! I was not that bad."
"..."
"Okay. I was that bad. But are you sure? Will he be safe? Is he ready? Seeing his footage, I feel like I'd have a heart attack every 10 seconds."
"..."
"It's karma, isn't it? You did that to Alfred. I did that to you. Tim did that to me."
A sigh. "It's not like not being Robin makes Jason safe, so I really don't have the right answer. But Tim has his own talent, and really did help a lot. Here, his own algorithm flagged the arrival of David Cain, probably here to do nefarious things for hire."
"Huh. Kidnapping? Why is the CCTV showing him walking with a young girl?"
"That, we'll see. Anyway, I'm concerned about Jason. He does get better, gradually, but he's... I think he doesn't want to go back to school, or even meet his friends, and sometimes even face Tim, because he doesn't like showing himself vulnerable to them. Triggers, dissociating. He seems... afraid we may judge him, or love him less."
"That's not true. At least for us. And if any of his peers do that, I will--"
"Not now, Dick. But maybe Jason needs someone new. Someone who he feels he doesn't have to measure up against from before the event."
At month five, another curveball is thrown at him.
Not a bad one, but surprising nonetheless.
"Jason," Bruce sits him down on the sofa, and talks to him gently.
"What? Has my liver ultrasound result gone south?" Jason asks, alarmed.
"No. The result is stellar. We think you won't have any permanent organ damage. But..." Bruce seems to struggle to find the words.
"Come on. Just say it, old man."
"What do you think of the idea of a sister?"
"You got Selina pregnant!?"
Dick is laughing on the sofa, slapping Jason's back. Bruce is sitting in the armchair of their living room.
"It's not that funny, Dick," Bruce sighs. "And I haven't seen Selina for at least half a year now, Jason. Why do you think it's her?"
Jason snickers. "She's the one you always fling back to, dude. And she's cool. If I'm gonna have a stepmom, it'd be Catwoman."
Bruce and Dick stare at him.
"Um. Bruce. You know she's Catwoman... right?"
Bruce and Dick do their signature wordless eye-communication. Then Bruce slowly says, "Wow... I didn't… know before. Jason, how do you know?"
Jason shrugs. "It's not a hidden secret on the streets. She'll sometimes even let the street kids stay in, and we sometimes cover for her. I... didn't just destroy your very-complicated-on-and-off relationship, right? Right?" Now he feels bad.
"I think it'll be okay, Jay," Dick says. "Anyway, are you okay if Bruce brings another kid in?"
Jason shrugs again. "I guess? She doesn't have anywhere else to go, right? The manor has thousands of rooms if we want to avoid each other. Bruce says she'll need an army of therapists to help with her communication. I also need an army of therapists. We will conquer the world with our armies of therapists."
Thus, Bruce brings one girl in: Cassandra Cain. She's the same age as Jason. She's not mute or deaf, but she doesn't know how to talk. Bruce says she was raised without anyone teaching her how to communicate in any way. Her dad is a freak abusive prick.
Jason is standing in the living room. Bruce slowly ushers her in. She's slender, with pale skin, dark hair, and dark eyes.
His sister?
Jason waves awkwardly. "Hi."
She does not react. Instead, she looks at him from head to toe.
Oh, she doesn't understand any language. Jason points to himself. "Jason." Points back at her. "Cassandra." Then back at himself. "Jason. Um. Brother?"
Cassandra then steps toward him, fast, until she's in his arm's reach. Bruce seems alarmed.
Then she touches the left side of his chest, above his heart, and smiles.
Having Cassandra is a good thing in Jason's currently miserable life.
It seems Babs is the one tasked with how to make Cassandra able to communicate. Jason doesn't know why Bruce doesn't use the plethora of therapists he can hire. Bruce explains that Cassandra's case is not a standard speech issue. She isn't even able to communicate with ASL. She just doesn't communicate at all, only reads your body language.
Still doesn't explain why it's Babs that's responsible for her therapy, but Babs is also in her own rebuilding. Jason is so lost in his own trauma that when he's back in the manor, Babs has a comeback mindset and does not let her paralysis hinder her. Jason knows she's strong and will be okay eventually, but it's like she makes a 180-degree turn in her outlook while he was indisposed.
"I've realized that even if I can't walk, it doesn't make me powerless or useless," she said to him. "Who I am or who I'll be will not be based on a tiny shatter in my spine. I'm more than that. And you, too."
So Cassandra has her own homework. It's a set of cards and a device. The cards have pictures (not ASL, but pictures, both illustrations and photos). When she puts the card in the device connected to the notebook Babs prepped for her, there is a voice reading the word, with a video to further explain the word.
That in itself is advanced enough, but she can put some cards together, and it will produce a new word. If she puts the mouth card and the happy card, the device will print out the smile card, accompanied by pronunciation and a context video.
Jason thinks of a picture book, a very, very elaborate picture book. Babs explains that the first step is to connect her brain to the existence of language. Sound and words and meaning.
Somehow, Cassandra does her homework in Jason's library, which Jason also uses for his reading. He's (re)reading Matilda, while Cassandra is doing her card homework, which is basically playing with words.
Cassandra has a very calm presence. Bruce says it's because she can read your body language at a level that is almost like mind reading, but Jason thinks that's only half of it. It's because she's a compassionate person, so she tends to act with care for the feelings she perceives. A good person.
A good person is peering at him upside down, perching on the chair back.
"Whoa!" Jason shouts and throws his book up, which Cass ninjas into her hand. "Oh my god! Please don't do that. I'm not usually a scaredy-cat, but I have dozens of triggers that I still can't pinpoint!"
Cassandra points at the book, then she shows the card that depicts a black-haired girl, tilting her head with a confused face, with a question mark on her head.
She slowly says, "Wut."
"What," Jason corrects her. Cassandra is not deaf, but she never practiced pronunciation either.
"Wat," she says, and taps the book.
"What am I reading?" Jason replies, which Cassandra seems not to acknowledge. Agh. Abusive parenting. Jason swipes Matilda back, and opens it for her. "What am I reading. Book. Inside. About." He thinks of the words she may know.
Cassandra nods.
"Um." How can he explain? Matilda has some pictures, but very few. He gets up and goes to her pile of cards.
A girl card. "Matilda. Girl." He pulls a like card and a book card for her. "She likes reading."
Cass taps Jason's chest. "You."
Jason shrugs. Well, there's a reason he decided to go back to reading children's books about a girl who loves books and libraries so much.
A mom and dad card above her. Then Jason piles the bad card on top of them. "Matilda has bad parents. Has bad mother and father."
Cassandra sees the bad card on top of the dad card. Then she slowly says, "My. Dahd."
Eh. Matilda's dad is stupid and bad. Cassandra's dad seems evil and bad. Same difference. "I guess." He pauses. "My dad was bad, too."
Cassandra shouts in horror.
"What?" Jason lifts her head up.
Cassandra pulls the card with Bruce's face; everyone in the family has a special card. Then she slaps the bad card and the question card on top, face full of disbelief.
Oh. Guess she can understand basic sentences like "my dad bad."
"No, no." Jason shakes his head. He slaps the good card on Bruce (weirdly satisfying). This is more challenging than he thought, but in a good way. He pulls the old card on top of dad and bad. "My... first dad was bad. Bruce is good."
Cassandra exhales. "Gut."
"Good," Jason absentmindedly corrects. Then he pulls a teacher card, and the good card on top. "But Matilda has one teacher that loves her and sees her potential, Ms. Honey."
"Barbara," Cassandra says.
Jason thinks. "Well, if Ms. Honey is a badass."
"Bad-ash?"
"Ughhhh. Cool. Awesome. Great?" he explains. Cassandra seems not to get it, so he pulls his phone out and types in the YouTube search bar: Badass Batman Moment. And he shows her the footage of Batman doing various cool finishing moves on goons and rogues (no Joker in it).
"Batman." Interestingly, Cassandra can pronounce the word Batman perfectly when she sees him on the phone.
"Yes, Batman. I guess he's kinda badass?"
Cassandra furrows her brows, then she points at herself. "I badash Batman."
"Maybe. You seem pretty cool," Jason comments, then he continues to explain the plot of Matilda to her as best as he can.
It's fun. Neither has expectations of the other. Jason picture-talks with Cassandra for four hours straight until the sun outside starts setting. This is the first time since then that he stays with someone and talks for hours without concerning himself about his own condition.
"Kids, you in here?" Bruce peers his head in. "It's time for--"
Cassandra appears in front of Bruce, swipes his legs, and pushes him down, evading Bruce's hand, climbing on top of his prone form, and putting a fist against his cheek.
Then she turns to Jason. "I badash Bush."
Some conversations that happen without Jason.
"Cass is very good for Jason. I mean, they're both good for each other."
"Cass?"
"Cassandra. Jason started shortening her name. She likes it."
"B, how do you explain Cassandra's ninja skills to him?"
"...I honestly told him that she was raised and trained as an assassin. Helped explain her communication issues."
"Wait, really!?"
"Yes, really, Dick. We're living in a town that frequently has crazy rogues. Jason accepted it gracefully."
"..."
A sigh. "I know what you're going to say, Dick."
"Tell him, B. It's this close."
"Hmph."
"He will know. Eventually. Bruce, you still have the ball in your court. Tell him."
"He will have... a reaction."
"Then it will be an expected reaction, Bruce. Your flaw as a parent is, frankly, your ineptitude to have a heart-to-heart conversation before it all blows up. If you keep pushing it back, it will be me and you all over again."
"At least until he's better, and Cass is settled down."
"I want to go back to the dojang," Jason tells Bruce in month six. "I also want to learn more self-defense."
Bruce looks up from his notebook. "You're sure, Jason?"
Jason sighs. "It's not like I don't have plenty of time. And I do want to be better... in case it happens again."
"It will never happen again," Bruce abruptly cuts him off, his voice harsh. Then he softens. "Sorry... I mean, of course, if you want to. I just worry your mind may not be ready."
Jason glares back at Bruce. "If I wait to be ready to get my life back, how long will it take? I'd better trudge on with all the burden instead of being coddled until I'm thirty."
Thus, Jason returns to the dojang. Bruce tries to ask Master Kim to give Jason private lessons, to which Master Kim replies, "The utmost core of my dojang is discipline. There is no reason you should concern yourself that my students will disturb him," and, "You cannot keep him in your own fenced garden forever. A potted plant dies in three weeks; a wild tree survives the storm."
He also shoos Bruce out of the dojang during Jason's session and makes Jason redo all the basics of the basics again, like a hundred times, while some small kids, really small, elementary school kids around him do cool things like spinning kicks.
"Momtong-jireugi, Jason!" Master Kim shouts in his face. The man is an old man with a booming voice when he wants attention, but speaks like a whisper when talking normally.
Jason huffs and punches the air.
"You're in a hurry again," Master Kim comments. "You are really like your father, pushing yourself too soon."
Jason continues punching the air until he completes the set, because he knows if he talks during punching, Master Kim will make him redo the set again. Then he says, "You said a wild tree survives the storm. I want to be stronger before the next storm hits."
Master Kim looks at him. "Jason, that's what the now-you wants. You let the storm around you affect your mind. You are a tree. You must remember the root. What was the first desire that brought you here?"
Jason thinks, it's not even a year ago, but after the Joker, life before seems so far away. "I wanted to control my violence. I didn't want to be like my father... my birth father."
"Yes, Jason. Hastiness is the opposite of control."
Jason huffs, not looking Master Kim in the eye.
"In which, you always did well."
Now he looks back at Master Kim in surprise.
"What is the phrase I most often tell you?"
Jason thinks. "That I am in too much of a hurry, like my father."
"Which father of yours did I imply?"
He blinks. Oh.
"You progress every day, Jason. Also, you have exhausted my compliment quota for this year. Don't expect any good words from my mouth in the next twelve months."
Jason goes to the dojang three days a week. He wants to do more, but Master Kim literally drags him out. He does self-defense with Bruce and Dick. Cass and Tim join sometimes, too. Cass seems to have lots of fun escaping from various forms of bindings.
"I trained to hurt. Not escape," she explains. Cass is better at forming sentences now.
Then at month seven after that event, Dick, not Bruce, sits with him and Cass on the sofa, his face serious.
"Jason, Cass." Dick pauses, struggling to say what comes next. "The plane the Drakes were on crashed this morning."
Jason abruptly sits up. "Where is Tim? Is he safe?"
Dick sits up and holds Jason's shoulders. "He's safe. Tim came to send them off at the airport, and Bruce was going to pick him up from the airport to be with us. But... just fifteen minutes after departure, the plane nosedived. 142 people died, Janet included. Jack is alive but in critical condition, and sent to Gotham General. Tim is with Bruce at the hospital now."
"You're going there after, right? Let me go with you."
"But Jason, you hate hospitals. Your fear--"
"But I'd hate it more if I wasn't there for him. Tim is our brother in all but name, Dick. Let me be there."
Now Jason is sitting with Tim, Bruce, Cass, and Dick in front of the operating room. Hospitals are fine for Jason, what triggers him is the needle. Being in a hospital does make his anxiety ramp up from thinking about needles, but he's still in the territory of fine.
Jack is still in the operating room. Bruce didn't tell him much, but from his conversation with Dick, it's implied that it's critical.
"Bruce." Jim Gordon appears from the doorway opposite the door to the operating room, with another tired-looking woman with him.
"Jim?" Bruce stands up. "Why are you here?"
Jim looks at Tim with pity in his eyes. "I come as the official authority to notify about Janet Drake per protocol. This is Rachel from CPS. I understand that the Drakes already granted you temporary guardianship in their absence."
Bruce greets Rachel, who says, "I need to talk to Timothy Drake, but it can be later. Can I discuss things with you first?"
"Of course. Dick, can you stay with them?"
Dick nods.
Bruce, the Commissioner, and Rachel walk out of the doorway. Before the voices fade, Jason hears parts of the conversation.
"--if the father also dies, we may--"
"--my foster license is not expired--"
"--someone needs to go to the local coroner--"
Tim is clutching a camera in his hands tight. Dick is hugging him with one arm. Jason is on the other side. Cass sits next to him.
"I was happy," Tim whispers. He lifts the camera up.
Jason turns to Tim.
"Nowadays no one really cares if we take pictures of planes anymore, so after I sent them off and waited for Bruce, I went to find a spot to take a picture of the plane," he says, in a monotonous voice. "I was happy. Because... because while they're great, oftentimes I like staying with you more. I was happy. I found a good spot for photography–”
His hands are shaking.
“I was happy, excited to be staying with you. I was thinking that when I lifted the camera, the Boeing 737 was flying past, so I aimed the camera. I was happy, and then the engine erupted in front of my eyes. The plane started to tilt–”
Dick is hugging Tim in a tight embrace, whispering nonsense. Tim is crying, and still talking.
“It's because of me. It's because I wanted to be with another family that is not my own, so I got this wish. It's because–”
Jason slowly pulls the camera out from Tim's hands. He realizes it's the old one that Tim loves so much: his first camera, a birthday gift from his parents.
Sometimes, the curveball is very cruel.
Jack does not survive the operation. Jason's first public reappearance is at the Drakes' funeral. The plane crash is already national news, and someone caught wind that the Waynes will take care of the Drakes' sole heir, alongside the first public emergence of Jason Todd-Wayne, the tragic young hero of Gotham.
"Notify my lawyers and PR that I will put all of these hounds in a ten-year legal nightmare," Bruce tells Alfred.
The reporters are tightroping on the line of the law now. The church is private property, so they camp just outside the parking area. Tim and Jason, the focus of the reporters, are still minors. They cannot bring up the Joker incident or the Drakes' deaths directly, but they can ask just enough questions.
"Jason, how are you doing right now?"
"Timothy, is it true that you have been staying with Bruce Wayne for several years now?"
"Mister Wayne, what will you do with Drake Industries?"
"Is this related to the growing Wayne Pharmaceuticals?"
There's a lot of implication in that question. Jason can sense that Bruce is tense from it, but he suppresses his reaction, mostly to calm Jason and Tim down.
Dick departs from the family.
"Dick," Bruce whispers.
"Let me handle them. I'm the media darling. They couldn't bite me even if they tried."
Dick approaches the camping reporters and greets them with a solemnness in his voice. After personally greeting all the reporters he remembers (which shows how Dick is a very sociable person), he explains to them, "You do know I'm really not a business-savvy guy. The Drakes have always been dear neighbors to us, so Tim has been like family to us for a long time."
Dick lures the reporters away from them, acting as the only person who will open his mouth.
Some paparazzi still aim their cameras at them. Jason doesn't really like that. His... entire self has been exposed enough for a lifetime.
Then Cass suddenly disappears from beside them and reappears right in front of the cameras, literally covering the lenses with her hands.
"No photo," she says.
"What the-- who are you!?" The paparazzi try to shake her off, but Cass is Cass, and no one can stop her.
Cass tilts her head, thinking. "Tim-Jason older sister," she answers.
They murmur in confusion. "Sister? Does this mean Bruce Wayne has another secret daughter?"
Cass smiles. "Yes. Bruce-daughter."
It causes quite a commotion.
"Um," Dick seems to fumble for an explanation. No one knows if it's intentional or not, but all eyes are looking away from Jason and Tim.
Tim is not an emotional boy, especially when it comes to showing his distress. The boy's face is impassive, even as the caskets are laid down, six feet under.
That doesn't mean his siblings will not hold his hands throughout the funeral.
In the end, Tim has no close relatives. Bruce becomes his guardian. Soon after, Tim is living with them full-time. The physical transition of Tim's belongings is smooth. Tim already had one foot in their house anyway.
Tim is, as he always has been, exceptionally good at hiding his grief. He acts normal, he talks normal, but everyone knows Tim hasn't touched his camera since. Is it trauma, or unjustified guilt, or grief? No one can pinpoint it.
Bruce himself is pulled in a thousand different directions again. The guardianship, the counseling, fighting the hounds for the Drakes' fortune, stabilizing and finding a suitable CEO for Drake Industries, public relations.
And Jason learns that if he waits for the world to be the right place to go back to, there may never be that moment.
"Dad," Jason knocks on his door one day. He seems swallowed by a mountain of paper stacks. "Can I have a sec?"
Bruce looks up, frazzled mixed with guilt, like he just realized maybe he hasn't talked with Jason all day, drowning in the fight to hold custody of Tim and maintain the Drakes' business. He quickly puts the pen down and says, "Of course, Jay-lad."
"I want to go back to school. The new academic year is starting soon. I guess re-enrolling would probably be best."
"Okay, okay," Bruce says, deep in thought. "We can contact them and set up the equipment for the online classroom and--"
"No, Bruce. I want to physically go there." Jason takes a deep breath. "It's time for me to get back to the world. There'll never be the perfect landing spot. The only thing you can do is fly."
Turns out, returning to school is not that bad.
Jason does know Gotham has its unspoken rules about Joker's victims: you don't stomp on a Joker victim. Nobody deserves that bastard's hand. No innocent deserves to meet him. Even criminals who suffer at his hands were considered to have gotten paid for their crimes. Preying on the victims is a total no-no. Gothamites don't do that to another Gothamite.
There are even things like special support or scholarships for Joker's victims.
He isn't sure whether it applies to high society kids, but it seems to be the case. No one brings up that event, or his trauma, around him. Everyone is civil—maybe a little bit too civil for his liking. Since Jason re-enrolled and his old friends passed to the next grade, the school assigned some freshmen (actually, Jason is still a freshman, too) to be Jason's buddies, in case he has triggers or anything. Jason does not like that and fights back to a degree. Dude, no high school kid needs to be assigned friends. But in the end, he relents under Bruce's persuasion (re: intense logical explanation).
Most of the assigned kids are high-performing students, either chosen because they want to pad their profile or because the teachers directly asked them to. They are polite and civil to Jason, but they also put an invisible distance between him and themselves.
Then there is this one girl named Stephanie Brown. A scholarship student. She seems to have skipped a grade maybe once, looking more like a tween than a teenager. She reminds Jason of Tim.
She's pestering him all the time, glaring at anyone who looks at him wrong, and directly confronting any student who tries to film him. She even accompanies him to the library, which is kinda annoying. But she is also the only one in school who can always sense when Jason is dissociating or needs to get away somewhere quiet.
One day, in the library, Jason tells her (quietly), "Honestly, you don't have to follow me all the time. I'm mostly fine here."
"It's my assignment. I'm not the type to abandon my assignment."
Jason sighs. "Come on. You probably got assigned because you're a scholarship student or something. You can go. I won't snitch to the teachers."
Stephanie fidgets. She seems torn. Jason has observed that she doesn't find sitting still and reading books that interesting. Kinda like Dick, the type who is constantly in motion.
"I volunteered, you know," Stephanie says eventually.
Jason puts his book down.
Stephanie plays with the spine of a book. "I watched it live... with my mom."
She looks at Jason, observing whether he's okay with her talking about that event or not. Jason nods for her to go on.
"My mom cried through the whole livestream. She said, 'Why? Why is the world so cruel to that good boy?' She prayed for you all night," she says, the accent of a girl who grew up in the not-so-savory parts of Gotham slipping through. "But for me... I thought the moment you fought back against the Joker was the bravest shit I've ever seen anyone do."
She looks Jason square in the eye.
"And I swore I would be as brave as I can be, just like you were. So that no one else has to suffer again just because I was too scared."
Jason got a real friend. Steph still takes Jason’s permission and goes off to do something else when he heads to the library because "enclosed spaces are as stifling as my sinuses in spring," but a genuine friendship has blossomed.
Since she’s actually younger than him, Jason brings her over to the manor to meet Tim, hoping to pull him out of the grief of his parents’ death.
They get along like wildfire.
And Tim thinks he should introduce Steph to Cass.
They get along like a tsunami.
Then Dick comes back to the manor and teaches Steph (and everyone else) acrobatic moves in his jungle gym. With a new agent of chaos joining the mix, it leads to an all-out paintball game in the jungle gym—which ends up putting paint on the ceiling, the windows, and the chandelier in the main ballroom. Alfred forces them all to scrub every last inch of it by themselves.
Bruce comments that they all get along like demons from Pandemonium.
"Today, let's try to improve your descriptive vocabulary," Barbara is talking to Cass, with lots of her cards surrounding them. "I want you to try describing each of us with three words that explain them best. This should improve your neural synapses connecting words to meanings."
All the other family members are present, including Steph, who is now stealing food from the manor back to her home every weekend (with Alfred's permission and insulated food containers).
"First, let it be the guy who has no shame." She points at Dick, who steps in and bows.
Tim, sitting with Jason on the sofa, comments, "Showman, shameless, crazy."
"Bad-puns-always?" Steph says.
Jason supplies his own version, too. "Peacock, octopus, monkey."
"Is that all you think about me!?" Dick turns back to the children, clutching his chest in mock offense.
Bruce is observing from far away by the doorframe. Alfred is dusting the shelves nearby.
Cass looks at Dick, then she pulls the first card out. The machine reads "Bird" aloud.
"Bird," Cass repeats.
Dick laughs. "That's totally true."
"Why didn't you go for peacock?" Jason objects, only for Babs to lightly slap him on the thigh.
Then Cass pulls another card out. "Hope."
Dick looks at her, softened. But Cass proceeds to search for the next word. However, after looking through the cards and even attempting to combine a few, it seems she's not satisfied yet. She looks more and more frustrated.
"Babs, maybe we should postpone?" Dick suggests softly.
"No," Babs says firmly. "Let her try."
After a while, Cass turns to Jason. "Book. Words. Lots. In other book-room."
"You mean this?" Bruce, always ahead of the game, lifts a standard dictionary up.
"I didn't know she could use a dictionary," Tim says.
"I taught her once, but at that time it was too complex for her," Jason replies. She was probably trying to use it again, but Cass is shaking her head.
"The other one."
Oh. Oh, Jason knows now. He stands up and quickly walks to his library, then comes back with the thesaurus, the heavy one that always sits right beside his dictionary.
Cass grabs it and opens it, flipping through the pages to the word love with some struggle. But she perseveres and points at one specific word under that category.
Devotion.
"Dewochon," she says.
"Devotion," Babs gently corrects her.
"Devotion," Cass repeats carefully. "Dick: Bird, Hope, Devotion. Best words describe he."
Dick looks at Cass, his eyes shining. "I'm really touched, Cass."
"Devotion is not a simple word," Babs says, looking at the entry under Cass's finger. "But it really is you, Wonder Boy."
Cass, despite the struggle, is really pushing to bring her thoughts out. No one even knew she could use a thesaurus before. Cass is brilliant. She was just brutally robbed of her chance to learn.
So it goes on. Cass searches and searches for the words she thinks suit them best, refusing to stop at simple words if they don't feel right.
For Babs, she chooses Guide, Competent, Determination.
For Tim, it's Sharp, Intuition, Selfless.
For Alfred, it's Caring, Warmth, Acceptance.
For Steph, she chooses Bright, Motion, Companion.
For Bruce, she chooses simpler, foundational words: Kind, Lonely, Safety.
And then she turns to Jason.
She slowly says, "Loyal." Then she points at another word in the thesaurus, looking at Babs to help her pronounce it.
Babs gives a slight, proud smile. "Empathy. She sees right through everyone, doesn't she?"
Then Cass pulls a final card out from her stack. This one was already in her cards all along.
"Brave."
Jason feels something settling deep in his chest. Looking around at the chaotic, fiercely protective family surrounding him, he knows they're going to be okay. No matter what curveball the world throws at them next.
Some conversations that happen without Jason.
"Steph!? You're Spoiler?"
"And YOU are Robin? What the fuck?"