Archive of Our Own

Jason had been in Gotham no more than a few days when all hell broke loose. He went to sleep to a normal, albeit crime ridden city, and woke up to a gang war.

At least, that was what it looked like when he looked out his window. Shoot outs in the street, boarded up windows. What the fuck was going on?

Only one way to find out. Jason suited up and was out his window in minutes. Gotham had descended into utter chaos. Well, more chaos than usual.

Everywhere he looked, people were fighting and bleeding and dying. Jason grappled from one rooftop to the next, trying to get a lay of the land. He just wanted to figure out what was going on.

And then, he heard screaming. Sure, a lot of people were screaming, but this screaming sounded close. From the building under his feet.

Jason grappled to the ground in seconds. The screams were loud, and they were prolonged, constant. They reminded Jason of his time in Ethiopia.

And what he saw when he looked in the window made his blood run cold.

There, hung from a hook on the wall, was a blonde girl in a robin uniform. Not a very good one, seeing as there was no armor to speak of, how the fuck could Bruce have signed off on this?

But the more pressing issue was that she was being tortured. Fuck. No.

Memories swam through his mind. Memories of crowbars and blood and pain so bad he thought it would kill him. An explosion so bright and deadly that it did kill him.

Jason broke through the window with the but of his gun. The glass shattered and he climbed through the frame. Thanks to the kevlar on his suit, he didn't have to worry about broken glass hurting him. But he wouldn't have cared if it did.

“What the fuck dk you think you're doing?” He bellowed. “Do you get off on torturing kids?”

“Oh, look, someone else is joining the party,” Black Mask crooned. “And who might you be?”

“I'm your worst fucking nightmare.” Jason didn't even think about pulling the trigger. He just did it, and then Black Mask fell down dead.

The girl in front of Jason was more gore than person. Her face looked like one big swollen bruise, and most of her body was soaked in blood. There were more burns, lacerations, and stab wounds than he could count, and limbs weren't supposed to bend the way hers did.

“Who are you?” She whispered, looking terrified. She was in bad shape, and Jason could only imagine the pain she was in.

“Hey, it's okay, I'm here to help you. I'm Redhood.” He holstered his guns and moved towards her. “Let's get you down from there okay?”

“I know who you are, I wasn't born yesterday,” she said indignantly, but Jason wasn't paying attention to that.

There were lockpicks in his pockets. He made quick work of her cuffs and caught her as gently as he could. He tried to be mindful of her injuries, but he knew he couldn't save her from a lot of the pain.

She cried out as he moved her, though he tried hard to be gentle as he arranged her in his arms. “Sorry, kid,” he said.

“Orpheus is dead,” she told him, like it was urgent.

“I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“You have to find Batman and tell him Orpheus is dead!” she cried insistently.

“Okay, okay!” Jason said. Best to keep her happy; she really was in horrible shape. “But I need to take care of you first.”

“Why?” She asked bitterly. “I'm gonna die anyway.”

Her words hit Jason like a punch in the gut. “No you're not. Don't talk like that,” he ordered.

“My name's Stephanie Brown,” she said, beginning to cry. “I don't wanna die without my name.”

“You're not gonna die,” he insisted, because he'd rather die himself than let there be another dead robin. “I'm gonna get you to the clinic, you just have to hold on.”

Getting her there was hard. It was impossible to run and grapple across the city with an injured teen without agitating her injuries. The sounds she made broke his heart, but Jason knew he couldn't slow down. By the time he got her to the clinic, she looked even worse for wear.

He practically barrelled through the doors with Stephanie in tow (though he was taking care not to jostle her. “Hey, doc!” He called. “We got a trauma!”

Dr. Leslie looked up from the nurse she was directing. “Gurney, now!” She snapped.

“You have to save her!” Jason demanded. Suddenly, without meaning to, he'd become very attached to this girl who couldn't be much younger than him. When he looked at her, he saw himself.

In a matter of seconds, everyone in the building seemed to swarm around Stephanie like flies on a carcass. Fuck, Jason didn't like that simile.

“We need to intubate!”

“Prep an OR!”

They shoved a tube down her throat, shouting medical jargon as Jason tried not to panic. He couldn't breathe.

Then Stephanie disappeared behind double doors. Jason knew that the way everyone abandoned their posts to get to her and rush her into surgery meant she was in worse condition than anyone else.

He didn't like thinking about that.

How bad were his injuries, before he was blown up? Would he have survived if the bomb hadn't gone off?

He could almost hear that god awful laugh in his head. His memories were too loud, so he screwed his eyes shut and tried to breathe.

Then, blessedly, Jason heard a scuffle outside. Heads were turning to look out the window, where a vigilante was fighting what looked to be a gang member.

It was Batgirl, and she was kicking the guy's ass. And then Jason remembered the message Stephanie wanted him to pass on, and a sense of urgency overtook his body and then he was moving faster than he could think.

Jason ran for the door and slammed it open. “HEY!”

Batgirl looked up from where she was crouching on the gang member’s back. He was already cuffed.

“Tell Batman Orpheus is dead!”

The vigilante scanned him up and down, seeming to be trying to glean something from him. Then she bolted.

Jason hoped that meant she was going to tell Batman. He'd just been starting to look into what all the bats were up to, and apparently the new Batgirl didn't say much, but was very, very good at what she did. But that was a whole other can of worms.

Stephanie was in surgery for five hours. Jason spent that time pacing around the waiting room and ruminating on the situation.

He came to Gotham for a reason. To force Bruce to reckon with what he'd let happen to him. Never in a thousand years did he think he'd come home to find history repeating itself.

It made his blood boil. It brought back memories. Memories he wished he didn't have.

Memories of the crow bar, of the explosion, of pain he couldn't stomach, pain and fear he thought would kill him.

And Jason was so, so angry that this happened again, but that wasn't all. The anger was there, yes, but in front of it a fierce protectiveness that surfaced the minute he saw her strung up and tortured, but clinging stubbornly to life. But how much longer could she hold on?

Stephanie, he decided, was going to be fine, because he wouldn't let her die. And there was no way in hell she was going back to Bruce. Stephanie was staying with him.

It felt like forever until Leslie came to get him. But she did. Jason jumped when she said: “You can see her now, if you want to.”

And he did.

There was a tube down her throat to help her breathe. Most of her face was black and blue and her eyes were swollen shut. One of her legs had pins in it and both her arms were in casts. Almost all of her fingers were splinted, and her head was wrapped in bandages.

“We had to cut into her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain. There was also a lot of internal bleeding, and we corrected as much as we could in surgery, but I'm afraid there's only so much we could do. Many of her organs were damaged as well, and she broke multiple ribs. Her vitals are…not optimal.”

Jason knew those odds were bad. He didn't care “Will she live?” he demanded.

“I hate to say this but, I doubt she'll make it to the morning.” Dr. Thompkins looked heartbroken as she said that,

No. No. No more dead robins. “There has to be something more you can do!”

Leslie sucked in her teeth. “Well, a medically induced coma might buy her a day or so, but-”

“Do it. Just do it, and I'll take care of the rest.”

“Alright then,” she said. “I doubt you're next of kin, but I don't want her to die anymore than you do.”

Jason held Steph's hand while the nurse injected drugs into her IV line. Nothing visibly changed, but Jason trusted the medicine would help her cheat death a little longer.

“You're gonna be okay, kiddo,” he told her. “Scout’s honor.”

She just lay there, pale and still and deathlike. No, Jason reminded himself, she wasn't dead. And she wasn't going to die. He had connections, and he'd gladly owe them for the rest of his life if it meant Stephanie could be saved.

Jason picked up his phone and called Talia. He prayed she'd pick up, with the time difference being what it was. The phone rang once, then twice. His heart was in his throat.

It rang thrice, and Jason wanted to cry. Then the phone rang for a fourth time, and then a fifth.

And Talia picked up and Jason could finally breathe again. “Habibi,” she asked, “why are you calling me so late?”

“Talia!” He exclaimed, feeling relief wash over him like a tidal wave. “Thank fuck you answered!”

“Jason! What is the matter?”

He spat up the words like bile. “Another kid in that stupid fucking getup, half dead because of him! Tortured like me!”

“Another robin? What happened?”

“Black Mask happened! Please, I need your help or she won't make it! We can put her in the Lazarus pit!”

“Habibi, you know I can't do that. If my father found out, he would be furious. He was angry enough after what happened with you.”

No. No. No.

“Please, T.” Jason was desperate. “You helped me because I was Bruce’s kid. Well, it looks like she is, too.”

On the other end of the line, Talia fell silent.

“I'll owe you for the rest of my life.” More silence.

Against his will, a tear slipped down Jason's cheek. His voice cracked as he said: “I'm begging you.”

Talia inhaled sharply. She paused. Then she said: “How long did the doctors give her?’

“Before, they said she might not make it to morning. They said a medically induced coma might buy her a day or two, so I made them do it.”

“Then there's still time. I will need your exact coordinates.”

Jason couldn't believe it. “Then you'll help?”

“Send me your coordinates before I change my mind,” Talia snapped.

Jason sent her his pin without thinking. “God, T, I can't thank you enough!”

“Agreed. I assume you can get her onto the roof?”

Jason nodded vigorously. “Yes! I've seen the Heli pad!”

“Good. I'm sending a plane. It should arrive in eight hours.”

“Thank you.”

“You will bring her to the pit, heal her, and leave immediately. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, crystal clear, Talia! God, thank you so much!”

“You're welcome, Habibi. Just don't make me regret this.” And she hung up.

Thank you, Jason thought. Thank you, whoever’s up there, thank you Talia. Thank you more than I can say.

Once Jason had calmed down a bit, he stuck his head out the door and looked for a medical professional. “Hey!” he barked at the first person he saw. “Get her ready to be airlifted out of here.”

“Airlifted?”

“Yeah, are you deaf? In eight hours a plane will be here to take her away, and I don't know what you need to do to get her ready, or how long it will take, but whatever it is, do it!”

Soon Stephanie was being transferred to a gurney, that gurney was being tilted up at the top end, and her IV bag was being attached to the rails by her head.

Jason found himself talking to her the whole time, telling her what was happening. “They’re just getting you ready to be airlifted out, okay kiddo? That's why you're being moved. The plane won't be here for a while; it's a long flight even with a plane this fast.

“Don't worry, though. You're gonna be fine. I got it all worked out, and I'm gonna be right there the whole time. You get to go for a swim in the Lazarus Pit, just like yours truly.”

Jason talked her ear off until he wore out his mouth. He talked to her about whatever came to mind, if only to keep his mind off how dire her state was.

But eventually he grew tired. He checked the time and determined he had six hours until the plane came. So he set an alarm on his phone and did his best to try to get some sleep in the chair.

Then the alarm went off and suddenly he was awake. The sound startled him, and for a moment he was afraid something terrible had happened.

But Stephanie was still in her hospital bed. Of course she still looked terrible, but she hadn't gotten any worse. And then it was time to move.

“Plane’s here, kiddo,” he told her, feeling more attached to her by the second. “They're gonna take you up first, but I'm gonna come up after you. I'm not leaving.”

He had died alone. Stephanie wasn't going to die, he told himself, but he still didn't want to let her be alone. It felt like bad luck.

The bottom of the plane opened up, and someone descended on a rope ladder next to a chain that split into four parts. The attendant made sure Stephanie was strapped to her gurney and attached the chain at four points. Once she had been lifted, Jason followed on the ladder.

Inside, they wheeled her to an open space in the back of the plane, away from where doors surely led to private rooms. It seemed Talia had spared no expense for them.

Jason didn't really care about that. He parked himself right next to Stephanie and talked to her for most of the flight to Nanda Parbat.

“Kay, so, we're heading out now,” he told her as the plane started moving again. “All you gotta do is make it til then.”

He wished she could speak, but he knew even if she wasn't comatose, there would still be a tube down her throat. “You better make it,” he told her. “It would be rude not to, after everything I've done for you.”

Jason wondered if being tortured almost to death was the only thing they had in common. Did she like to read, like he did? Did she use sarcasm to cope? What did she do when she couldn't sleep, what was her favorite color, did she have parents?

Eventually, when he ran out of things to say, he took out his phone and started looking through his ebooks. He wondered what kind of book she'd like.

“I wonder if you can even hear any of what I've been saying to you,” he admitted. “Maybe it just makes me feel better to talk to you, but hey, did you know your name’s Greek?”

No answer. Not that Jason expected one. “Well, it is,” he said. “Means crown. So let's read the Iliad. If you don't like it, that's on you, because this is peak literature.”

He spent the next six hours reading to her, interrupting himself only to offer his opinions on the text. Through it all, Stephanie lay still and deathlike. Even so, her hand was warm in Jason's free one. That gave him some comfort.

At some point, he must have fallen asleep again. He didn't know when, but when he woke up, the plane was landing.

Talia was there when he stepped out of it, pushing Stephanie's gurney along with him. When his gaze landed on her, he felt like crying.

Talia had treated him like her own child when she took him in. She taught him everything, gave him everything, and she was giving again. Regardless of what it might mean for her is she was caught.

He ran into her arms without thinking. Talia returned the hug with a kiss to his cheek.

“Habibi,” she said. “It's good to see you, though I wish it were under better circumstances.”

“Yeah, me too.” Jason pulled away so he could check on Steph again. He brushed her hair back from her cheek, and squeezed her hand.

“It almost looks like you're quite attached to her,” Talia said. She was one to talk.

Jason hesitated. “Yeah, well…She reminds me of me.”

“She must, if you were willing to go to such lengths to save her. Come, follow me.”

They wheeled her through corridors, and Jason held her hand the whole time, and the whole time, Talia lectured him about how they needed to move quickly, and did he have any idea how many strings she had to pull to make this happen? He thanked her profusely as they descended the layers of R’as al Ghul’s fortress.

Finally they arrived at the pitt, and Jason remembered how it had looked when he awoke, terrified with green water in his eyes. Now, he had a clear view of everything and he knew where he was, but he still couldn't untense his muscles. He decided he would go in with Stephanie, so that hopefully she wouldn't panic when she woke up.

“Okay, Steph, ready to get this shitshow on the road?” Jason asked softly. “I'm gonna take out your IV now, and then I'm gonna pick you up and take you to the pit.”

He did just that, making sure to be gentle, but also not wanting to waste any time. He knew everyone was staring at him, at this brazen display of softness, but he didn't care. He lifted the girl into his arms, and she felt light as feathers.

Jason cradled Stephanie in his arms as he quickly made his way towards the pit. “You're probably gonna be scared when you wake up,” he told her, not caring that she probably couldn't hear him, “but it's okay. I'm right here, and I'm gonna be right here when you do wake up. I promise I won't leave you.”

The green waters splashed as his feet broke the surface. “It’s gonna be a little cold, but it's okay. It's gonna make you better.”

The second she touched the water, Jason heard the gruesome sounds of tissue and bone mending themselves. Stephanie came to with a deep, gasping inhale. The pins popped out of her legs and the casts broke to pieces as she straightened her limbs, screaming as she did.

“I got you, I got you,” Jason found himself telling her as he backed out of the pit with her in tow. She was grabbing and scratching at him, but not like she wanted to hurt him. More like she was terrified and he was a comfort item she couldn't get close enough to, one she was terrified would be ripped away at any moment.

“Get her out now,” Talia ordered. “My father will be back soon, and I'm not taking any chances.”

Jason splashed out of the pitt still carrying her, the girl shaking and clinging to him as he ascended the stairs. She was sobbing into his chest, and he didn't care. All that mattered to him was that she was alive.

Talia escorted them through the halls and back to the plane just as urgently as she had before. “There's a plane waiting to fly you back to Gotham,” she said. “Good luck. Now go!

Stephanie was sobbing into Jason as he ran up the ramp with her. She was still clinging to him and crying into his chest as he sank to the floor, thanking God, no, not God, Talia, from now on he prayed to Talia, that this plan worked.

Jason held Stephanie close to him and rocked her back and forth as she cried. “I'm alive!” She wailed.

“Hell yeah, you are,” Jason told her.

“I'm alive!” She sobbed again. Her hands found the bandages around her scalp and she started ripping them off. Her hands ran over her head, pausing when she no longer felt hair.

“Why do I have a bald spot?” She demanded. “Are these staples?”

“There was too much pressure on your brain, so Dr. Thompkins had to drill into your skull to relieve it,” Jason explained.

Her breaths were still coming fast, but they started to even out. Her tears were slowing down. “B-but I'm alive now?” She asked, like she couldn't believe it.

“Yeah. You're alive, kid. I made sure of that.” Jason kept his low and reassuring. “We put you in the Lazarus pit, remember?”

“Why'd you do all this for me?” She pulled away, and Jason didn't try to stop her. He let her climb out of his lap and sit opposite to him. Her eyes were still glossy with tears.

“Cus I felt like it.”

“I don't believe that,” said Stephanie. “You were nice to me. You talked to me the whole time I was under. I heard you.”

Jason cursed under his breath. “No more dead robins,” he said.

“Why do you care about robins?” Stephanie asked him.

“I don't like Batsy letting kids die for his cause,” he said defensively. “And where the hell was the armor on that suit you were wearing?”

“That's not what I was doing,” Stephanie sniffled. “He fired me. Took Robin. So like an idiot, I dressed up in my homemade robin outfit and tried to enact his contingency plan to prove myself, and well, look where that got me!”

She started crying again. Jason put his arms around her again and made sounds he hoped were soothing. Well, that did explain some things.

“I just wanted someone to be proud of me!” She wailed. “Isn't that stupid?”

“Stephanie, that's literally the furthest thing from stupid. You're just a kid. Every kid wants someone to be proud of them.”

“I started a gang war!” Stephanie cried. “You should have let me die!”

Jason's heart almost stopped beating when she said that. Alarm bells were going off in his head, because this was the stuff you called a hotline about. He went to all that trouble to save Stephanie, and she was saying she wished he hadn't.

“I wish you had left me to die in that warehouse!” She sobbed. “I wish you never found me and took me here! I wish I never woke up!”

Jason grabbed her by her shoulders and tipped her chin up. He needed to look her in the eye, and he needed her to know that he cared.

“No, no, listen to me Stephanie!” He said urgently. “Look at me. Don't ever say that you're better off dead! I went to a lot of trouble to save you, and guess what else?”

“What?”

“I got the message out for you. That Orpheus is dead. Not really sure why that was important, but I told Batgirl.”

Stephanie blinked. “So…I still helped?”

“Yes!” Jason said. “You helped, you hear me?”

She nodded, teary eyed. “I helped.”

“You did.”

She sniffled. Wiped her nose on her soaking sleeve. Took a deep breath. “Listen,” she said. “I don't really know you that well yet, even though you saved my life, which I really appreciate, by the way. And I know you're not really friends with Batman, but do you think this would be enough for him to forgive me?”

Jason's answer was immediate. “You can't go back to him.”

She scoffed. “As if he'd have me. He didn't even like me before all this, I just wondered if he might forgive me. Even though he'd never accept me as his robin.”

“What do you mean he didn't like you?” Jason inquired, now curious. Bruce had fucked him over, badly, but most of the time he never doubted that he cared for him. Why would things be different for another robin?

Steph sobbed again, and the sound tore Jason up inside. “I wasn't good enough. I was never as good as the robin before me. My god, why'd you have to save me?” She began to wail again. “I wish you had let me die!”

Jason held her for a long time. He told her he was sorry she was hurting, that things would get better. He told her that she didn't deserve what she went through, and that he didn’t blame her for what had happened. That one just made her cry more.

But people only had so many tears in them. Eventually, though Stephanie still looked miserable, hers dried up. When they did, she finally seemed to notice her state.

“I'm cold,” she said.

“Me too,” Jason told her. “We're still in our wet clothes, but if I know Talia, she made sure there was something else for us to wear. So let's get up and change, okay?”

Stephanie sniffled one last time. “Okay.”

After Jason had changed into dry clothes (a white thobe that he wished was red, but he wasn't complaining), he knocked on her door. “Kid, can I come in?”

“Yeah.”

So he came in. Stephanie had changed into the clothes Talia left for her (also white, though they were a little big, but she couldn't have known), and was sitting on her bed, hugging a pillow and chewing her thumb.

“I asked, and they actually had a staple extractor with all the other medical instruments,” Jason said, brandishing the tool. “So I can probably take those out for you.”

She looked up. Her eyes were still wide like the moon, like a scared child. Really, that was what she was. “That’d be good, actually.”

Jason sat down beside her, and he took the staples out. Her hair was starting to dry, and when he brushed it out of the way, she leaned into his touch like a neglected pet, desperate for affection. He wondered how many times she'd been denied comfort.

“Doesn't hurt too much, does it?” He asked, being as gentle as he possibly could.

“Nah,” Stephanie said. “Besides, I've had waaaay worse.”

Jason huffed. “Don't remind me.”

“Do about earlier, why are you so interested in Batman and his people, anyway?” She wondered

“I like to keep my enemies close.” Jason took out the last staple and cast it aside.

“But you went to crazy lengths to save my life,” she pointed out. “Why?”

“Because none of this was your fault, okay? You're just a kid!”

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. Stephanie turned red. New tears formed in her eyes and started running down her cheeks as her hands became fists.

“You said I'm just a kid, but I don't want to be JUST anything!” She exploded. “I want to do something with my life! Be part of something! Help in a way that matters!”

And fuck if he didn't pick up what she was laying down. Fuck if he didn't get it on a personal level, because she sounded just like him. He knew then that if he didn't give her something to grab onto, she would drown.

“You can help me,” Jason said.

She looked up.

“Look kid, Batsy fucked me over, too. And I want revenge.”

“Revenge?” She repeated, her brows knitting together in apprehension. “Are you gonna kill him?”

“No. I'm not gonna hurt him. I'm just gonna make him reckon with the things he's done.”

“And you want me, of all people to help you?”

“Yes!” Jason said, wishing she could value herself, because dammit was her self esteem low. “Not in the field. Not yet anyway, not till you're eighteen. But you can help me set things up, and run things from behind the scenes. And I'll teach you everything I know.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Just no field work. Not yet.”

“Because I'm just a kid?” She asked, with a note of bitterness in her voice. She looked away from him.

“Well, yeah, you're a kid,” Jason admitted. “But that's not the only reason.”

“So what's this mysterious other reason?” She asked, rolling her eyes.

Jason sucked air through his teeth. “Steph, don't take this the wrong way, but you seem kind of suicidal,” he said gently. “You told me that I should have let you die twice.”

She didn't deny it. She shrugged. “I mean, fair enough.”

Jason was surprised. So she wasn't even going to deny it? That was a new one.

Before he could say anything more on the topic, Stephanie switched to a new one. “Okay. But if we're gonna be working together, we should know each other. Who we really are, I mean. And you've seen my face and I told you my name. Sooo….that's kind of unfair, dontcha think?”

Fuck it. He knew he'd have to tell her who he was if he wanted her to help him, and there was no time like the present, right?”

Jason took off his helmet. He peeled off his domino mask, and he hoped she wouldn't run for the hills when she saw the mess of scars running across his face. “Jason Todd, the second robin and current Redhood, in the flesh.”

Stephanie blinked. “That makes sense,” she said, accepting it all immediately.

“What, no fanfare?” he asked snarkily.

“Well, it makes sense!” Stephanie said defensively. “I can't believe I didn't figure it out. That's why you protected me. That's why you hate Batman.”

Jason scoffed, feigning hurt. “Geez, you could at least pretend to be surprised.

“That's why you saved me.”

Jason sighed. “Yeah.”

“And that means Bruce Wayne is Batman,” said Stephanie.

Inside Jason's mind, metaphorical tires screeched to a halt. “Wait, he never told you he was Batman?”

“Uh, no. He did not.”

Jason wanted to explode, but he didn't want to scare Steph, so instead he took a deep breath before he said: “I'm gonna fucking destroy him, just for that.”

“Oh, you don't have to do that for me!” Stephanie said hurriedly. “I mean, you already did all this just to save me.”

“Stop talking like you're not worth it! Like it or not, this isn't just about my revenge anymore, Steph. It's for you, too.”

She looked shocked, like being cared about that much was crazy to her. “You're still not gonna kill him, though, right?”

“No,” Jason said. “I might want to, but I have morals. I only kill certain people; scum like traffickers, dealers who sell to kids, abusers.”

“Bruce always said not to kill,” Stephanie mused, picking at her thumb. “So I didn't.”

Jason sighed. “Look, I'm not gonna make you kill. But you have to be okay with me killing, ‘cus there are some people who just have to die.”

“No, I get it,” Stephanie insisted. “I mean, I never thought that much about killing before. But I'm glad you killed Black Mask.”

“He hurt you,” Jason said softly. “Of course I killed him.”

“Hm,” said Stephanie. “Before you did, I was thinking maybe I should kill him if I somehow managed to get free. But then I thought, Batman would hate me if I did.”

Goddamnit. How could one man destroy a girl's confidence this badly? Jason was going to make Bruce pay for hurting her so badly.

Stephanie leaned against Jason and he put his arms around her. She seemed so small, but maybe it was because he was bigger by comparison. No, she was small. She was just a kid, just like he had once been.

Stephanie's lip quivered. “I just wanted to be part of the batfamily, like Nightwing and T-the Robin before me.”

And damn if that didn't break Jason's heart. Even if he had his bones to pick with Bruce, even though the old man had fucked him over seven ways to Sunday, he had been part of his family. And he made sure he knew it.

Stephanie, on the other hand? He didn't know all the details yet, but she sure wasn't painting a pretty picture. And the gist of it was that Bruce rejected her. Jason didn't understand how he could do that to a kid who so clearly needed someone, anyone to be there for her.

But he could be there for her. She didn't have to be alone any longer. “We can be family,” he said.

Stephanie was crying again. She'd been doing that a lot, but Jason couldn't blame her. “Really?” She asked, like she thought she'd dreamed the words that came out of his mouth.

“Yes,” said Jason. “I'll be your brother.”

“I've never had a brother before,” she said.

“You got one now,” he said. “And no one fucks with my family.”