Chapter Text
Batman doesn’t panic. Really. He doesn’t. Ever.
Bruce Wayne, however, does.
When he got the call from Alfred saying Jason had been missing for an hour and a half, he quickly packed his things and left the Watchtower with no more explanation than the “Family emergency,” he blurted out at Clark.
Batman knows the League business is really important, but Bruce sees that as a second priority because right now his kid is missing. It really shouldn’t surprise him that much. He knows Jason has a tendency to disappear and read for some time, and on several occasions Jason has gone on his own trips to visit some of his old hang outs near Crime Alley (something which Bruce is highly against). Jason disappearing for a little more than an hour shouldn’t be that worrisome.
Except this time its different.
Usually, if Bruce doesn’t know where he is, then Alfred probably does, but Alfred doesn’t know either. And when they tried calling his phone, they found it in his room. If Jason were going to Crime Alley, he would at least bring his phone or tell one of them that he was going (it used to be an issue before but now he’ll at least tell Alfred). The last straw was when Jason’s tracker registered him in the Cave, but upon investigation, the watch with the tracker in it was lying in Jason’s locker.
In short, Bruce had absolutely no idea where Jason could be, which is really stupid because he’s the world’s greatest detective and he can’t even find his own kid.
Alfred is out in the car driving around Jason’s old stomping grounds looking for the boy, meanwhile Bruce is calling the different places Jason might have gone.
He called the library. He called the school. He called Jason’s volunteer group. He called the parents of Jason’s school friends. He called Dick and the Titans.
No one knows where the kid is. He promised to keep Dick updated on the situation.
Bruce is terrified. He’s only had Jason for about eight months. Not even a year. When he had first adopted Dick, a lot of people went after the boy to get to the Wayne fortune. Obviously, none of them succeed, but every time there was so much as a threat, Bruce’s stress levels would spike. He put precautions in place, so many of them. And then he applied those same ones to Jason. Which means that whoever took Jason knew exactly how to work through Bruce’s system. Which means these guys meant business.
Bruce shook his head. He’s over-reacting. Jason is probably taking a walk or reading somewhere and just forgot to tell Bruce where he was going, and also forgot his phone, and also his watch which Bruce told him strictly not to forget but it happens.
No it doesn’t happen. Jason always wears the watch.
Bruce’s League communicator rings. Its Clark.
He answers.
“I’m busy,” is all Bruce grunts the moment the line is open.
“Just wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help. And no rush to get back, we can reschedule the meeting for another time.” Clark replies.
Bruce hums, which is his version of thank you.
“Are Dick and Alfred okay?” Clark inquires. Of course Clark would be worried. He’s basically Dick’s uncle and the super has always had so much respect for Alfred. Bruce feels a tinge of guilt knowing that he left his friend worried about them when he left.
“Yes. They’re fine.” Bruce answers.
“Then who’s in trouble?”
Bruce belatedly realizes he hasn’t told any of the League members about his newest ward. He’d been busy.
“My other kid,” is all Bruce says.
“You have another kid?!” Clack exclaims.
Bruce sighs. “Yes.”
“Since when? Why didn’t you tell me? Does anyone else know? Does Diana know? Is he adopted like Dick or are you the biological father?” Clark asks in rapid-fire succession.
“Eight months ago. I didn’t tell because I was busy. No Diana doesn’t know. I adopted him, he’s going to turn twelve soon.” Bruce lets out another desperate sigh. “And I can’t find him. He’s gotten over his running away phase but he didn’t tell me or Alfred that he was going and he left all his stuff here.”
“He’s missing. That’s the emergency.” Clark states in revelation. “How can I help?”
At this moment, Bruce is grateful for a friend like Clark. “Can you come to Gotham and help look for him? He was in the Manor when I left this morning so he couldn’t have gone far. I’ll give you his data when you get here so that you can do a quick scan of Gotham for him.”
“Sure Bruce, I’ll be there soon. I’m sure he just ran off with some friends and forgot to let you know. Kids do it all the time.” Clark adds. Clark knows that Bruce is always worried about someone kidnapping his kid (Dick is a prime example), so he does his best to dissuade that fear.
“Thank you, Clark.”
“Anytime Bruce.”
***
Jason is fine now. He might have been a little flustered at first when he was meeting all the different Justice League heroes, but now he’s fine.
Or as fine as one could be surrounded by some of the world’s best heroes who are finding him just the most adorable kid ever.
Jason finds that he doesn’t mind the attention.
Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern (the cool one), and Black Canary took him to the cafeteria to get ice cream to calm him down. He’s still really embarrassed about crying earlier but the ice cream is helping. Diana let him get a whole banana split to himself. Alfred never lets him do that.
Wonder Woman is the best.
That reminds him; he should probably tell Diana that he’s Batman’s kid. The charade has gone on long enough, and now that he’s feeling better, he’s more ready to face Bruce.
“Are you liking the ice cream, Jason?” Diana asks him as she eats her own strawberry ice cream.
“Yeah, I never get to have a whole banana split to myself.” Jason answers. “But I don’t think I could ever eat as much ice cream as the Flash is eating.”
Beside Jason, the Flash is finishing his eleventh bowl chocolate ice cream. Black Canary and the cool Green Lantern are keeping count.
“Can’t help it,” the Flash replies. “I have a fast metabolism.”
“Which means he can eat tons of food and he’ll probably never gain weight,” Black Canary supplies.
“If only I were that blessed,” cool Green Lantern comments.
As the group continues to eat, Hal Jordan (which Jason will now dub lame Green Lantern) approaches the table.
“Banana splits may be good,” he begins, “but you know what’s better? Ice cream sandwiches!” He exclaims as he hands one to Jason. Jason is very confused by this.
“What are you doing?” Black Canary asks.
“He’s trying to prove that he’s not every kid’s least favorite hero,” the Flash interrupts before lame Green Lantern can say anything.
Jason snorts.
“Gee Flash, jealous much?” lame Green Lantern teases. “By the way, the meeting is cancelled for today. Just got the word from Big Blue. We’re rescheduling. ”
“Where is Superman, anyway?” cool Green Lantern asks.
“I think he went down to Gotham to help Batman with his family emergency.” Lame Green Lantern responds.
“If Superman went down it must be serious,” the Flash points out. “I hope everything is okay. Let me just send a text to Kid Flash and see if it’s something about Nightwing.”
Jason is getting worried again. He feels like his stomach is in knots. He just got this new family, he doesn’t want to lose them so soon. Not after his mom. But Batman leaving a Justice League meeting means it must be something very serious.
Was Alfred okay? Maybe he fell down the stairs when Jason was gone? He’s so old he’d probably break all his bones. Or maybe something happened with the Titans? Dick is always talking about how they take on their own villains now, what if they’re up against a really bad guy and Nightwing got hurt?
“Might be Nightwing,” lame Green Lantern adds in. “I overheard Superman talking to Batman about a missing kid.”
Jason takes a deep breath. Dick can’t go missing. Its impossible. He was the first Robin. He’s Nightwing. Things like that don’t just happen.
“Nope its not Nightwing,” the Flash answers back. “Kid Flash just texted saying they’re all at the Titans Tower playing video games. He says Nightwing is looking pretty anxious though and is asking us if we know what’s going on. Said he heard Nightwing say something about a missing kid too.”
Black Canary shrugs, the two Green Lanterns exchange curious looks. Diana just ruffles Jason’s hair and tells him “Don’t worry, Jason. With Batman and Superman on the case, I’m sure everything will be fine.” She gives a certain look to the others at the table, as if telling them to drop the topic. She probably thinks that Jason doesn’t need to hear this or that it might scare him.
But slowly things are starting to click together. Batman’s family emergency, a missing kid, but its not Dick, so that must mean…
“He’s looking for me…” Jason announces in a gentle realization.
The whole table turns to him.
“What?” Diana asks.
Jason turns to her and finally admits, somewhat embarrassed, “Bruce is my dad.”
The group bursts in shock.
“Excuse me?”
“You know Batman’s real name? How does he know Batman’s real name?”
“Batman has another kid? When did that happen?”
“How could something as innocent as you come from the embodiment of darkness himself?”
“Stop insulting his dad, Lantern. No not you John, I’m talking to Hal.”
“Wait,” Diana shushes the entire group, slowly putting all the pieces together. “You’re Bruce’s son?”
“I’m adopted, like, 8 months ago.” Jason shrugs.
“What the hell? Does he collect kids or something?” lame Green Lantern asks. Black Canary gives him a sharp elbow to the rib. “Ow.”
“How come you didn’t tell us Jason?” Diana continues.
“I’m not supposed to be here,” he answers honestly. “I left my book on bat-spaceship and I didn’t want Bruce to ground me. I was just going to get it and leave, but then I ran into you.” He tells Diana. “And,—and I guess I kinda got starstruck and nervous and then the thing with my mom and it was so much to process at once and—”
“Jason,” Diana calls his attention. Jason is expecting her to be mad, but when he looks up, she’s concerned. “Its okay. Just breathe.”
Its only then that Jason realizes he’s been holding his breath.
“There you go,” Diana continues. “Its okay Jason. We all make mistakes sometimes. But I think your dad is probably worried sick about you. We’re going to have to tell him what happened.”
“I know,” Jason resigns to defeat.
“Don’t worry about it, bud,” the Flash encourages, “We’ll put in a good word for you. Someone should call him now though, so he stops freaking out.”
“Sure hang on,” Hal pulls out his Justice League communicator and hits Batman on facetime.
***
Batman’s League communicator is ringing but he couldn’t care less about it right now. He’s in the middle of giving Clark Jason’s information.
But the damn thing won’t stop ringing. When he picks it up, he sees that Hal is trying to facetime him and he does his best not to throw the communicator across the room. He wouldn’t want Clark to see him act like a child.
So Bruce answers.
“Busy,” is the first thing he says. He’s not even looking at the screen.
“Gee, how about a ‘thank you?’ We found the missing kid.” Hal turns the screen to show Jason sitting next to Diana with an ice cream in front of him. He waves at Bruce.
“Jason!” Relief washes over him in waves. Then he notices Jason’s eye are just bit red rimmed, a clue that shows he’d been crying recently. Bruce immediately turns on Hal. “Why does it look like he’s been crying? Jordan, what did you do?” he questions furiously. This has Hal Jordan written all over it.
He can hear Superman stifle chuckle behind him.
“What? What makes you think it was me?” Hal replies.
“Remember that time you tried to cheer up a child by creating clowns with your ring?” Bruce counters.
“Yeah, clowns are funny. Everyone loves clowns. They’re the funny men of the circus.” Hal defends.
“We were in the middle of Gotham city, Hal. Everyone hates clowns.” Bruce stumped the argument. He can hear the others laugh in the background.
“Okay, but I didn’t do anything this time,” Hal pauses then says, “You know what, just talk to Diana.” He hands the communicator over to Diana.
“He’s safe, Bruce.” Diana reports, then addresses Jason off camera, “You’re okay, right, Jason?”
Jason gives a small “Yeah” from off screen.
Diana brings her attention back to Bruce, “Do you want me to bring him over?”
“Yes please,” Bruce remarks, then adds. “Thank you.”
***
The zeta-tubes in the Cave buzz to life and in come Diana and Jason.
“Jason,” Bruce calls him over. “Are you hurt? How did you even get into the Watchtower?”
“I’m okay Bruce,” the boy brushes off his concern quickly. “I hacked the system to get there.”
“Why?”
Jason shifts awkwardly but its Diana that answers “I think he was just missing his father. You are up in the Watchtower a quite lot.”
Jason glances up at her in awe and Bruce has to hold himself back from a face-palm. He can hear Clark giggling behind him.
“We’re going to talk about this more later,” he tells Jason. “Go to your room. Now.”
Jason seems a bit dejected but heads up the Cave steps into the Manor. Before he’s gone, Diana tells him “It was nice meeting you Jason. Maybe next time we can try some ice cream places on earth and you can tell me how you’re book ends.”
At the mention of ‘next time,’ Jason’s face lights up. Bruce cannot believe this. The audacity.
Once Jason is gone, Bruce turns to Diana, “What was he really doing in the Watchtower?”
“He missed you.” Diana teases plainly.
Bruce gives her a dead look. “He left his book in the Bat-shuttle, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” she smiles. “But I think he did it on purpose to get your attention. You’re a very busy man, you know?”
“Hnn”
Clark chooses then to make his presence known again. “You should bring him around more often. He seems like a nice kid.”
“He’s very sweet,” Diana comments. “You should let him eat more ice cream.”
“I can’t just let him have all the ice cream he wants,” Bruce argues. “That’s not how parenting works.”
Diana rolls her eyes and Clark laughs.
“I’ve got some work to do up in the Watchtower.” Clark says as he approaches the zeta-tubes. “I’ll see you guys around.” With a flash of light, Clark is gone.
The moment Clark leaves, Bruce asks “Why was he crying?”
“He was thinking about his mother.” Diana responds. “What happened to her?”
Bruce sighs. “She died of a drug overdose about a year and a half ago. Jason was the one who found her body. He was running around the streets, homeless, without adult supervision before I met him, barely scrapping by. He looks like he’s nine but he’s going to turn twelve soon. ”
“That’s horrible, but that also explains why he’s so jumpy around everyone,” Diana states. Bruce gives her a curious look. “He started tearing up when he told me I was his mother’s favorite hero. And after that he seemed to get nervous whenever any of the others came around.”
Bruce just hums in acknowledgement. “He doesn’t like feeling trapped around people who could easily over-power him.”
“That makes sense,” Diana replies, putting the pieces together. “There isn’t exactly much room to escape when you’re a kid stuck in space.” She pauses, “but he’s strong willed. You can see it in his eyes.”
Bruce’s lip turns up just a tad at that comment, which in Bat-language (as Dick so often called it) is very close to a smile.
“The three of us should go out sometime,” Diana remarks. “I would like to get to know him more. And you, of course, outside of League business.”
Bruce feels the tug at his heart. This friendship-almost-romance he has with Diana is always so confusing to navigate. He hums in approval.
Diana begins to make her way to the zeta-tubes. Before she leaves, she says “Take care of him. He’s a sweet kid. And let me know when I can babysit him. There are a few ice cream places I’d like to take him to.” The zeta-tube flashes and she’s gone.
Bruce groans. Diana had better not try to steal Jason from him.