Work Text:
Bruce is one of the first to order everyone who can to work from home. He hopes to set an example - that if an organization as big as Wayne Enterprises can do it, then so can everyone else.
Of course he, just like most people, thinks (hopes, prays) that they will return to office by the time that school ends for the year.
He is wrong.
At first, he keeps his office door open unless he’s in a meeting. After a week, Bruce has to admit that the open door invites too much disturbance, and he starts to keep his door closed at all times. He puts up a little note on the door to indicate when he really is not to be disturbed unless there’s an emergency.
There’s an emergency two days after he sets up this new rule.
“Bruce! BRUCE!”
His door slams open so hard that Bruce actually jumps. He mutes his microphone after a quick apology to his colleagues. “Jason? What’s going on?”
“Dick fell down the stairs.”
Bruce is up in a blink. He follows Jason to the main staircase where Alfred is already helping Dick sit up. Damian is telling Dick that he is an imbecile (which means Damian is really worried) while Tim holds a first aid kit with a gloomy look on his face.
“What happened?” Bruce asks as he kneels down next to Dick.
“Ow,” is Dick’s reply.
“I don’t think anything’s broken,” Alfred says.
“Except my pride,” Dick says. “And my phone.”
Sure enough, the screen of Dick’s phone is shattered.
“Did you hit your head?” Bruce asks.
“Uh… I don’t know?”
“Dick, I need you to think.”
“I really don’t know! It happened too fast. It’s not hurting, though. I think it’s just bumps and bruises.”
Bruce sighs. “Alfred, what do you think?”
“Given the current circumstances, I think it’s best if we keep an eye on him here at home.”
“Okay, all right. Dick, if you start to feel queasy or you get a headache…”
“I know, I know,” Dick says. “Important lesson, boys,” he says to his brothers. “Don’t text and walk.”
Bruce pauses. “You fell because you were texting ?”
“Hey, I do it all the time!” Dick says. “How was I supposed to know that this time one of the steps would magically disappear?”
“Idiot,” Damian mumbles.
“B, you better not buy him a new phone,” Jason says.
“Hey!”
“Well, serves you right for scaring us just because you couldn't wait ten seconds to reply to your precious boyfriend!”
“Oh, I’m so sorry for being a little eager to talk to him as, you know, we have not been able to talk to each other face to face for three months !”
“Boys!” Bruce cuts Jason’s reply off. “Dick, you’ll have to survive with one of the old phones for now. We’ll get your screen fixed once it’s okay to go to the mall but Jason’s right, you’re not getting a new phone.”
Dick shrugs.
“And the rest of you, don’t antagonize him. No doubt he learned his lesson. Right?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Good. Now, I’m pretty sure it’s time for lunch. I’ll go wrap up my meeting and join you.”
Bruce gets up and helps Dick to stand as well. Damian still looks like he wants to throw insults but is holding them back with difficulty, Tim disappears into the kitchen with the first-aid kit, and Jason hovers behind Dick with a stormy expression. It’s clear he’s not happy but still worries that Dick might fall backward at any moment.
True to his word, Bruce ends the meeting and goes to join his sons at the dining table. They seem to have reached a peace in the last minute or two if only to direct their energy to devour the paninis Alfred has made them. Bruce sits down to eat his own and tries to focus on Tim telling him about his new project while also keeping a subtle eye on Dick.
He really, really hopes that the rest of the summer will be boring.
A few days later, Tim walks in during a mind-numbingly boring meeting about… numbers? Progress? Bruce can’t even pretend to know. He looks up from the screen and raises his eyebrows but Tim merely curls up into the corner of the couch with his laptop and puts on his headphones. Bruce lets him stay without comment, as Tim is the least likely of his sons to cause any disturbance.
The meeting ends about an hour later and Bruce is still not sure what the point of it was. He stretches and turns off his camera and microphone. Tim is still curled up in almost the same position and is tapping away furiously.
Bruce gets up and walks up to him. “What are you working on?” he asks. Tim looks up and blinks as if he had forgotten Bruce was even in the room. Given how into his little projects he tends to get, Bruce wouldn’t be surprised if he had.
“Just playing around with Photoshop,” Tim says and turns the laptop around to show Bruce a picture of a bird. “Trying different things. It’s… calming.”
“It’s beautiful, Tim,” Bruce says. “Did you take this yourself?”
“Yeah. A few days ago. After the…”
“Accident?” Bruce guesses. Tim nods. “You saw him fall, didn’t you?”
“It looked worse than it was.”
“Still. Must have been scary.”
“He didn’t move, at first. I thought he…” Tim pauses. “Never mind. I’m being stupid.”
“Tim. Did you think he died?”
“For… For maybe 2 seconds? And then he moved and talked and he was fine . I didn’t… I… I went out, after lunch, and I thought I forgot about it and then, last night, I had a…”
“Nightmare?”
“...yeah.”
Gently, Bruce takes the laptop away from Tim. Tim doesn’t protest. “You know you can always wake me up, right?”
“I’m too old for that,” Tim says.
You’re 12.
“If you’re too old, then how come Jason and Dick still wake me up sometimes?”
“It’s… different?”
“How?”
Tim doesn’t answer. Before Bruce can say anything else, the door suddenly opens again.
“Father, have you seen…? Oh.”
“Damian,” Bruce greets his son.
“Timothy, you’re breaking Father’s rules!” Damian says instead of acknowledging Bruce’s greeting.
“It’s okay, Damian. Breaking the rules is allowed sometimes,” Bruce says. The mere idea seems to confuse the poor boy. “Did you need something?”
“We were looking for Timothy. Jason needs him on his team.”
“What are you playing?”
“Trivial Pursuit.”
“Do you want to join them?” Bruce asks Tim. “You can stay if you don’t.”
“No, it’s fine,” Tim says. “Thanks, Dad.”
Tim hops off the couch and follows Damian out of the room. Bruce considers going after them but he does have work to do, so reluctantly, he returns to his desk.
He turns his computer off a couple of hours later and goes to the living room where his sons are still playing. He walks in during a rather heated argument: Dick is holding Damian by his waist to keep the boy from jumping on Jason, who looks seconds away from flipping the board over in frustration.
“This is the old version of the game, the answer isn’t true anymore!” Jason says.
“You should have thought of that when you answered, you imbecile! The card says Queen Victoria!” Damian spits back.
“You know it’s Queen Elizabeth, you Goddamn gremlin, you just don’t want to lose!”
“Actually, it’s Queen Elizabeth II.”
“Whose side are you on, Tim?”
“Bruce, we really need the updated version,” Dick says. He doesn’t seem to care if his team wins or loses. Bruce is pretty sure he’s just happy to have all his brothers in the same room.
“What was the question?” Bruce asks.
“Who is the longest-reigning monarch of Great Britain?” Dick answers.
“Ah, should have guessed.”
“Father, the correct answer on the card is Queen Victoria!” Damian says. “They said Queen Elizabeth and that’s wrong!”
“No, it’s not!” Jason snaps. “Bruce!”
“Choose your words carefully,” Dick says with his arms still around Damian. “They get this, they win.”
“Did you know it’s the old version?” Bruce asks Jason.
“Well, yes, but that shouldn’t matter if we all know what the real correct answer is!” Jason argues.
“He has a point, Damian,” Bruce says.
“So, we win?” Tim says.
“I will not accept…!”
“Damian,” Bruce interrupts the youngest. “What would you have answered?”
Damian frowns, then tuts, and finally sits down and folds his arms. Jason takes that as a sign of victory and lets out a cheer while Dick starts to pack the game back into its box. He and Damian didn’t lose by much, Bruce observes, they are only missing one piece.
“Come on, Tim,” Jason says. “Let’s go tell Alfred what we want.”
“The winner gets to pick what we have for dessert for the next two Saturdays,” Dick explains to Bruce when Tim and Jason go find Alfred.
“They will surely be petty and choose something that I don't enjoy,” Damian says sulkily.
“They won but they’re not evil,” Dick tells him. Bruce agrees or at least knows Alfred will step in if he thinks the boys are being unfair.
That night, Bruce wakes up when his bed dips in the middle of the night. Tim crawls in under the covers and hogs one of the many, many pillows before promptly falling asleep without saying a word.
Bruce smiles and falls back to sleep as well.
The next few weeks are relatively peaceful. Tim comes in from time to time to work on a new photo or project. Jason sneaks in sometimes to read in peace and quiet. Dick stays out because he’s the loudest and Damian because it’s ‘against the rules’ to come in if there’s no emergency.
His will to win, however, is apparently stronger than the need to follow rules (and honestly, Bruce is relieved). Because when Damian finally does come into Bruce’s office, it’s because he wants to win hide-and-seek.
“Shh!” he hisses to Bruce as he pushes the door closed behind him. “He’ll never find me in here.”
Bruce chuckles and turns his attention back to his meeting while Damian makes himself as small as possible behind the couch.
A moment later, Jason comes in, clearly also looking for a place to hide.
“Get out!” Damian whispers.
“No, this is the perfect…”
“Aww, come on , we can’t have all thought of the same thing!”
Because now Tim is there, too, and the three brothers stare at each other, all ready to defend their claim to the office.
“Ready or not, here I come!” comes Dick’s voice from somewhere in the Manor, and Tim quickly closes the door.
“Ugh, whatever,” Jason mumbles. He falls to his knees and crawls under Bruce’s desk, forcing Bruce to push back a bit. He’s definitely no longer paying attention to the meeting. Tim merely sits down on the couch and takes out his phone. Damian’s expression promises murder but he stays quiet as he disappears behind the couch again.
Bruce’s phone bings with a message.
Dick: I know they are all in there :D Let me know when your meeting ends. I’ll use the opportunity to call Wally.
“Who was that?” Jason whispers.
“Clark,” Bruce lies easily as he sends Dick a thumbs up emoji. He feels bad for his oldest. In the last four months, not once has he asked if he could visit Wally or if Wally could visit them in Gotham - he knows Bruce would have to say no and it would likely start an argument and given how cramped they are, any extra tension is not welcomed. Bruce also knows the calming force that Dick is and how many fires he’s put out while Bruce has been forced to work. It should not be Dick’s job to keep the peace between the three younger brothers, and yet he does it willingly and amazingly well.
Bruce will gladly give him the hour or so of quiet that he probably really craves but doesn’t ask for.
If his colleagues have noticed the disturbance, they do not comment on it. Bruce becomes more invested as the meeting’s agenda turns to new development projects. He gives his opinion when it's asked for but makes a point to not weigh in on things he can’t claim to know much about. Finally, after a brief summary of the budget, the meeting comes to a close about an hour later. Bruce sends Dick a message that it’s okay to come in, but Dick doesn’t see it until 10 minutes later. When he does, he sends back a smirking emoji.
“Bruuuuuceeee!” He comes in with so much drama that Bruce can’t help the laugh that escapes him. “They’ve disappeared! I’ve searched… Oh. Hi, Tim!”
Tim doesn’t even look up from his phone as he gives Dick a wave.
“This is cheating, you know. We’re not allowed to come in here,” Dick says but his tone is joking.
“I’m trying to beat Alfred in Words With Friends. I needed the quiet,” Tim says.
“But where, oh where could the other two be? I’ve searched high and low, I even went to the attic and the basement and there’s no sign of them! Bruce, I think they’ve been kidnapped!”
“Oh, for fu… God’s sake!” Jason exclaims. “You knew we were here the whole time, didn’t you?” he says as he stands up.
“Of course, I did,” Dick laughs. “You three are pretty predictable.”
“Liar!” Damian jumps up, too. “I win!”
“Technically, yeah,” Dick admits. “I did see you last.”
“Ha!”
“He still knew you were here,” Jason says.
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
“Did not! ”
“Rule-breaker!”
“You broke them first!”
“And now you’ve broken them, too!”
“All right, hey, let’s go another round, yeah? This time, Bruce will lock the door,” Dick says before the argument can continue.
“Actually,” Bruce says. “Why don’t you take another hour to call Wally? I’ll take these three to blow off some steam outside.”
Dick blinks. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. You can even stay here if you want. It’s pretty well sound-proofed.”
Dick clutches his phone and looks close to tears as he says: “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“But Father, we…”
“Come on. Dick will have plenty of time to play with you later,” Bruce says as he ushers the three younger boys out of the room.
“We’re not playing! We’re competing!”
Bruce shakes his head in amusement as he pulls the door closed.
Dick has an extra spring to his step in the evening and Bruce - poor, poor Bruce - unfortunately has an idea why that could be.
When it’s Alfred that comes in, Bruce knows he’s needed immediately.
He has 57 unread emails but he gets up and follows the butler to the living room where Jason and… Dick? Are yelling at each other.
“I don’t see what the big deal is, it’d only be the three of us!” Jason says.
“Jason, for Heaven’s sake, you know you can’t go!” Dick replies, obviously frustrated.
“Go where?” Bruce asks.
“Roy and Kory are coming to town for a work thing,” Dick says before Jason can. “They’ll be staying in one of Oliver’s Gotham apartment and Jason apparently thinks that means it’s perfectly okay to go see them!”
“I’ll stay in my goddamn room for a month afterward if that’s what you want if I can just go out for one night!” Jason says. “Bruce. Dad. Please! Just one night. I swear, I won’t come out of my room for the rest of the summer, if I can just go hang out with Roy and Kory for one night when they are here.”
Bruce sighs. He wondered when one of the boys would finally crack. “Jason... “
“I know! I know, Bruce, Dick’s already listed all the fucking reasons. Alfred’s elderly. Tim doesn’t have a fucking spleen. But guess what? I’m going insane. We all are and I’m not ashamed to say that I’m not holding it together anymore. I’m ready to explode and it won’t be pretty when I do.”
“We have more space than 99.9% of people in this country!” Dick says. “You should consider yourself lucky. Wally has only…”
“And how the fuck do you know Wally is actually staying indoors, huh? How do you know he’s not hanging out with his friends? You know, like Artemis ?”
Dick’s hand forms a fist. “He’s… he’s allowed to hang out with Artemis. She’s our friend.”
“Oh yeah? And how do you know he’s not fucking her? Or anyone that he can actually see and touch because they’re not paranoid?”
For a moment, it looks like Dick might actually punch Jason. Bruce steps in closer but before he can say anything, Dick turns on his heels.
“I can’t,” Dick says quietly and leaves the room.
The silence is loud.
“Jason,” Bruce finally sighs.
“Fuck you,” Jason spits out but it’s weak. “This sucks. Everything just… sucks.”
“I know,” Bruce says. “I know, Jason.”
“For the record, I know we’re lucky. It’s just… hard to remember that, sometimes.”
“Hm.” Jason’s anger seems to give way to regret. He glances in the direction Dick went but doesn’t move to follow. “There… might be a solution,” Bruce says.
“What do you mean?”
“If you were to meet outdoors, with masks on, then maybe you could go see your friends.”
Jason blinks. “I…”
“Your brothers and Alfred have to agree to it and you have to promise me that there’s no touching.”
“I promise!” Jason says quickly. “The building has a sky terrace, we’ll stay there. We can keep a few feet between us. And I’ll quarantine afterward. Anything!”
“We’ll see about the quarantine,” Bruce sighs. “One more thing, though.”
“Apologize to Dick. Yeah.”
“Exactly.”
To his benefit, Jason does look guilty. “I don’t actually think Wally’s is cheating on him. Those two are like… the golden standard. I was just being a bitch.”
“Tell that to him.”
“Think he’ll listen?”
“Go find out.”
Privately, Bruce thinks Dick will forgive Jason at the first sign of honest regret. Just in case, though, he follows Jason upstairs where Jason hesitates for a few seconds behind Dick’s door before knocking.
“Go away, Bruce.”
“It’s me,” Jason replies. “Can I come in?”
A few seconds later, the door cracks open. “Are you gonna suggest my boyfriend is unfaithful again?”
“No,” Jason says. “The opposite. Look, I’m… I’m sorry. Things are fucked up but it’s not your fault. You’ve been… pretty great, actually. I’m sorry I was shitty. Wally’s great, and I know he misses you a fucking lot.”
Bruce’s heart clenches when he sees tears fall on Dick’s face. Dick is clutching his phone - Tim’s old one - and it lights up with a message every few seconds.
“Thanks, Jay,” he croaks out. “I’m texting him now but… Mario Kart later?”
“I’ll be in the library,” Jason says.
“I’ll be down in a few,” Bruce tells Jason before taking his turn to talk to Dick, who’s left his door slightly ajar as a sign that he’s a bit more welcoming to visitors now. He’s tapping quick replies with a crooked but slightly forlorn smile. “Does Wally get a summer vacation?” Bruce asks.
Dick looks up. “Yeah. A couple of weeks in August. Why?”
“We’ll have to take a lot of precautions, but…” Bruce starts, and doesn’t get further before Dick jumps on him. “I haven’t finished.”
“I don’t care,” Dick says. “Thank you. For even considering it.”
The honest, plain gratitude and relief in Dick’s voice has Bruce choked up, too.
A few days later, the office door is opened just slightly before a cat appears, held by a pair of hands. The cat is placed down gently, and the door closes, leaving Alfred the Cat with Bruce. Totally undisturbed, Alfred trots like the king he thinks he is, hops onto Bruce’s desk, and starts butting his shoulder in a demanding way that very much reminds Bruce of Damian.
“Who’s your friend?” an amused board member asks.
“My son’s cat. Excuse me,” Bruce says shortly before picking up the pride feline and putting him down.
A second later, the cat is back, meowing now. It only then occurs to Bruce that he doesn’t even know what the cat is doing in his office. He reaches for his phone to send Damian a text to come get him, only to remember he forgot it in the kitchen in his hurry to set up his laptop for his board meeting.
Alfred is now dancing on his keyboard, accidentally sending unintelligible messages to the meeting’s chatbox, which based on the chuckles Bruce hears through his headphones, causes even more amusement.
Just as Bruce is about to give up and actually go find Damian, the door opens again, and this time Titus is guided in.
“Da…!” is the only thing Bruce manages to say before the door shuts. Titus paws at the door a couple of times, realizes it won’t open, and submits to his fate by walking up to Bruce and placing his head on Bruce’s lap, and looking up at him as if he’s not a 140 pound Great Dane but a mere puppy who’s been abandoned forever.
For a dog that guards Damian like a mother bear guards its babies, Titus can be quite the drama queen.
Bruce moves Alfred away from the keyboard, to which the cat protests but settles down as Bruce pets him with long, strong strokes like Damian once instructed him. He scratches Titus behind his ears, all the while listening to what various members of the board are saying. He feels a bit less embarrassed by his predicament when a parrot appears on one screen and a small child suddenly hops into the frame of another.
It’s definitely less boring than if they were in a normal meeting room at the Wayne Tower.
An hour and a half later, the meeting is over. Bruce’s entire left arm sleeve is covered in Alfred’s fur and his leg is wet with drool. He gets up, causing Titus to realize he’s getting out of his prison and back to Damian, and Alfred to stretch mightily like he wouldn’t care one way or the other.
“You can’t come out,” is the greeting he gets when he opens the door. Tim’s sitting in an armchair that definitely is not usually placed right outside the office. For once, he doesn’t have a laptop, which makes him look like he’s been standing guard. “Oh! No, Alfred!” he exclaims when the cat darts for the stairs. “Ah, well. Titus, here. Come here.”
Titus, while clearly eager to find Damian, does not refuse a direct order, and goes to Tim who takes a firm hold of his collar.
“What’s going on?” Bruce asks with a bit of dread.
“Um…”
“Tim.”
“I didn’t do anything!” Tim says. “I sort of protested, even! I swear! I only agreed to make sure the animals didn’t get out. At which, I failed…” he adds, looking at the direction Alfred disappeared. “I guess he can’t do harm upstairs. Probably just went to Damian’s room.”
“Why would he cause harm downstairs?”
“Well, Damian thought he might be spooked.”
“By what?”
“By the… the cow.”
“Excuse me?”
“I… guess I should show you. Can you hold him, though? Make sure he doesn’t bounce?” Tim says and Bruce obediently does as told, though Titus is usually well-trained enough to behave himself. Tim starts leading him to the backyard, which confuses Bruce until his mind suddenly just goes ‘the cow ???’ and a drop of cold dread drops into his stomach.
It grows into a lake when he sees an actual, live cow chomping happily on the grass by the side of the pool.
“Timothy! You failed your mission!” Damian exclaims. “I gave you clear instructions!”
Tim merely shrugs, undisturbed by both the cow and his brother’s frustration.
The cow does, however, disturb Bruce very much.
“Damian,” he starts slowly. “Why is there a cow in our backyard?”
“They were going to kill her, Father!” Damian says. “The meat industry is disgusting and I will not stand for the way the animals are treated. She is one of the cows rescued from a particularly cruel slaughterhouse. We have the room so I generously offered to take her.”
“She was brought here by the people who rescued her this morning but the gate to the backyard was locked for some reason. So Damian had to bring her here through the house,” Tim explains.
“Which is why Alfred and Titus took part in my board meeting,” Bruce sighs. He’s still holding Titus, who’s anxious to get a good sniff at the strange newcomer but good enough to know he does not have permission. “Do you know how to take care of a cow, Damian?”
“You’re letting him keep it?” Tim asks.
“ Her , Timothy. And yes, Father, I have done lots of research. I am now an expert. As of now, I’m also a vegetarian.”
The last part is said with such conviction that Bruce doesn’t doubt his commitment to this decision for a second. He knows Alfred the butler will not deny the boy and already sends him a silent thanks for adjusting his cooking routine.
“Holy crap, I thought I was seeing things!” Jason, followed closely by Dick, looks absolutely delighted at the sight of the cow as he steps outside. “Is that real ?”
“ Yes , and her name is Bat-Cow,” Damian informs him.
“Bat-Cow?” Dick repeats.
“Bat-Cow,” Damian confirms with his nose up in the air.
The coloring around her eyes does look a bit like a bat, Bruce thinks. Dick has moved to pet the cow, who pays him no mind, and Jason pulls grass for her to eat from his hand. Titus is finally released and seems quite confused to have a playmate so much bigger than him.
“So we have a cow,” Tim says, and it’s not a question.
“I guess we do,” Bruce replies, though he does not remember actually agreeing to this.
At least he’s working from home still, so he can make sure Damian actually sticks by his promise to take care of the thing.
The pandemic cannot end quickly enough.
Bruce’s meeting-turned-social-call with Lucius ends when Damian bursts into the room, cheeks red with anxiety. Immediately, Bruce is alarmed, and Damian’s frantic ‘Father, come quick’ does not help.
Damian leads him to the gym, where a faint sound of fists hitting the punching bag can be heard. Expecting to find Jason releasing aggression, he’s surprised to see it’s Tim instead.
“I tried to get him to stop,” Damian says, breathless. “He’s not wearing gloves.”
It’s true, and Tim’s knuckles are bleeding.
“Thank you, Damian,” Bruce says and Damian understands that as his cue to leave. “Tim? Tim, buddy? What’s going on?”
“It’s me, isn’t it?” Tim says, still hitting the bag with his small fists. “I’m the reason no one can see anyone.”
“What? No. Tim, the virus…”
“Iris has it,” Tim cuts Bruce off. “She has it, so now Wally has to quarantine. By the time it’s over, he has to go back to work. So now Dick won’t see him for what? A few more months, at least. Because of me . Because I could die, for real, and Dick won’t take the slightest of chances, I know he won’t. He says it’s fine, but it’s not. It’s not fair that Jason has to stay 6 feet away from his friends or that Damian can’t visit Jon and that Dick hasn’t seen his boyfriend in almost half a year! All because I’m so… weak!”
Tim emphasizes the last word with a punch that lacks strength because he’s clearly exhausted. He gasps for air, both from the exercise and because his breathing is now interrupted with small sobs. Bruce quickly gathers the boy into his arms, and at that moment it’s so clear how young he is. It’s sometimes so easy to forget that he’s not yet even 13, because sometimes Tim forgets it, too.
“It’s not your fault,” Bruce says. “And you’re not weak.”
“I am. The flu could kill me.”
“The flu could kill anyone.”
“The flu would probably kill me.”
“Tim,” Bruce sighs and pushes the boy away just a bit to look him in the eye. “Sure, your immune system is more compromised than average. No one blames you for that, though, and it limits your life more than any of ours. It’s so much more unfair to you.”
“It’s true,” Bruce hears and looks over his shoulder to see Dick. Damian peers from behind him and Bruce sends him a grateful smile. “Tim, this is not your fault,” Dick says as he steps further into the gym. “This whole thing sucks, it sucks so bad, but Bruce is right. This sucks for you even more than it does for us.”
Tim sniffs. “I miss my friends. I - I miss Conner and Bart and Stephanie.”
“I know, buddy,” Bruce mumbles and puts his hand through Tim’s hair.
“And it’s not fair that you all have to be extra careful because of me .”
“Tim, we’re glad to do it,” Dick says. “You deserve to feel safe.”
Through a small hiccup, Tim says: “I just want this to be over already.”
“Yeah. We all do,” Bruce says. “Come on. Let’s go clean up your hands.”
A little later, with his hands cleaned and wrapped, Tim curls up next to Dick to have a video call with Bart and Wally, who have already driven Iris to the brink of insanity by practically running a track into her soft backyard grass. After they hang up, all four brothers gather in the movie room to consume a frankly ridiculous amount of junk food. Tim stays glued to Dick’s side, whether because he still feels guilty or because Dick is the most comforting, Bruce is not sure, but it’s clear that Dick is squeezing as much comfort out of Tim as Tim does of him.
Even later, when the Manor quiets for the night, Bruce hears soft sniffs and sobs through Dick’s door. He quickly checks that the other three boys are asleep and then makes his way to Dick’s room. His oldest is muffling his crying by hugging a pillow but looks up when Bruce sits on the bed.
“Oh, chum…”
His breath hitching, Dick falls forward to lean his head on Bruce’s chest. He doesn’t have to say anything, his heartbreak and frustration evident now that he doesn’t have a little brother to comfort and assure. Bruce knows he truly doesn’t blame Tim, but that doesn’t mean he’s above being disappointed. Bruce doesn’t expect him to be.
“It’s not forever,” he says.
There’s really nothing else he’s absolutely sure of.
“What are we doing here?” Dick asks as Bruce opens the penthouse door on Boxing Day.
“It’s a late Christmas present,” Bruce replies. Dick frowns with a slow ‘oooohkaaaaay’ that turns into a gasp when a certain redhead appears from behind the kitchen counter.
“Wally?!”
“Hey, ba… oomph!”
Wally catches Dick easily, and it’s never been more plain to Bruce how well the two fit together, and how much Wally truly loves Dick. They are both in tears, kissing and laughing and crying and kissing with no worry of their audience.
“How are you here?” Dick asks. “How is he here?” he asks Bruce.
“It’s only until New Year’s Day. And you’ll have to quarantine here for two weeks before you come home and get tested, too. Maybe I should have asked but I figured you’d agree to those ter…”
“I do!” Dick cheers, practically bouncing. “I do, I do, I do!”
“I’ll leave you two alone, then,” Bruce says. “It was good to see you, Wally.”
“You, too, Mr. Wayne,” Wally replies, his arms still around Dick.
So Bruce leaves, his heart a bit lighter than it’s been in almost a year.
“What is this?”
“It’s a… creative solution.”
Tim tilts his head. “A creative solution?”
“Lucius came up with it,” Bruce says.
“Okay, but what’s it for?”
“It’s for you to see your friends.”
It would be comical how Tim’s eyes widen if it wasn’t also heartbreaking. “Really?”
“Yes. Clark is bringing Conner over tomorrow. I know it’s not perfect but…”
“It is. It is perfect. Thank you!” Tim gushes.
Another stone lifts off Bruce’s heart. “You’re welcome.”
“Spring Break in Kansas?” Damian repeats.
“With the Kents, yes.”
“What about Timothy?”
“Let me worry about that. But I assure you, I wouldn’t allow this if I didn’t think it was safe.”
Damian considers for a few moments, before giving a decisive nod. “I guess a Kansas vacation would be acceptable. Can I bring Titus? Jon claims to miss him. And someone has to take care of Bat-Cow.”
Bruce knows Damian is more eager to go than what he lets on, because he even agrees to the long car drive instead of a plane with nothing more than a slightly annoyed huff. As the tail lights of Clark’s car disappear (and Bruce really has to think of something grand to thank him for agreeing to make the drive four times), Bruce is left with one more stone to deal with.
The last stone lifts itself. Jason, it seems, has decided to devote his entire Spring Break to make sure Tim doesn’t feel totally isolated. Bruce gives him the same option as Damian, to spend the break somewhere else, but Jason waves him off. Bruce likes to think he knows his sons well enough to see that Jason is sincere and truly does not long for his normal, rowdy Spring Break that he also didn't get to have the year before.
And then finally, finally , after months and months of vaccines working miracles, herd immunity starts to win over the virus. By the end of May, everyone but Damian has had at least one dose of the vaccine and slowly, but surely, things start to go back to normal.
It’s a much happier summer with a lot fewer interruptions during meetings.
When Bruce eventually returns to his normal office in Wayne Tower, however, he realizes that he sort of misses the chaotic atmosphere the boys created. There and then, he starts working on a new sort of work culture that allows for employees to work from home more often.
If the number of new pictures of his family that appear on his office walls is alarming, no one says it.