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They've been at the park for most of the afternoon, and Bruce was about to give Dick the twenty-minute warning when the errant seven-year-old appears before him.
"Dad, this is Jason. From the park." He gestures to the smaller child upon who's wrist he has an iron grip. Jason looks terrified. Bruce feels mildly concerned.
"Hello, Jason.”
"Jason's coming home with us tonight," Dick says with the solemn finality of a king declaring war to his people.
"Dick. We can't just bring your friend home with us, that's kidnapping."
"Not if nobody's looking for him."
Bruce's level of concern skyrockets.
Jason ends up coming home with them anyway, of course.
A year later and he finds Jason on the patio, grim determination carved into the features of his face.
He’s holding tightly to the hood of a small boy’s jacket.
Said small boy had been making vigorous attempts at escape until Bruce opened the sliding glass door, at which point he slithered to the ground in a miserable lump.
“Jason.”
“He’s stayin’.”
This boy does not look nearly as gaunt and disheveled as Jason had, that day in the park.
“We cannot kidnap small children, Jason.”
“He’s alone .”
Bruce sighs.
Bruce grills some hot dogs on the patio, to avoid being the sort of person that invites the neighbor-child into his house while their parents aren’t looking.
The child’s name is Timothy, and he lives next door.
He is, in fact, alone.
Tim tells him so, reluctantly, over dinner.
The boy hasn’t talked to his parents in three days.
“They’ve been home!” He’s quick to assure, a little panicked. “They just have adult stuff to do, so they’re busy.”
While the kids eat ice-cream, Bruce looks up neglect laws in their state.
His boys are right, no-one should be alone.
Tim comes home from school one day with a friend.
He met her on their field trip, he says, and she followed him onto the bus even though she isn't in his class.
She doesn’t talk, at all. She’s rake-thin and covered in scars. She won’t let Bruce touch her.
Bruce calls his family resource-worker immediately.
With no records, whatsoever, getting custody is something of a nightmare. It helps that she adamantly refuses to be separated from Tim, though.
Bruce thought she was a normal runaway child, one of hundreds.
He is understandably confused when the Justice League comes knocking.