Tesseract Child

Bear

"Robin needs someone to talk to other than a stuffed animal," said Batman. "In order for him to talk to someone and have them understand, carefully guarded secrets have to be revealed, secrets that could literally rip this world apart in the wrong hands. It's too much for a young child. He can't wait weeks and weeks until we figure out how to get him home. He needs someone to talk to now."

What followed after was the mother of all duty and responsibility with sensitive information speeches complete threats of consequences and everything. It was the 'loose lips sink ships' spiel updated for a modern age. Batman made it clear that no other person was to share in the information, not the other Avengers, not innuendo, hints or jokes. It seemed ridiculously over the top for my son needs a friendly ear to talk to but Steve just calmly agreed. Thor had warned him Batman was rather intense.

Steve canceled his appointments for the next day. He stopped to pick up a kid's motorcycle helmet, jacket and gloves, packed a picnic lunch. He scoped out the area around the Tower as best he could for Hydra. Early the next morning Robin climbed up behind him on his motorcycle and they took off for somewhere isolated and away from technology where Robin would feel safe to talk.

Thor watched them go. He was grateful to the Captain. The naughtiness had stopped instantly and Robin had actually slept for a few hours. Steve said Batman had issued no word of discipline or anger.

When Robin first started to talk he didn't make a lot of sense. Steve knew he had to be patient.

"I was at my circus with mommy, daddy and everything disappeared and I was here. That's what I talk to Bear about most. How can time go backwards but only for me? Where's everyone gone? How do you hide an elephant? Mommy and Daddy could play hide and seek but, Elinore elephant? I don't understand."

Steve cast out his fishing line. They were in a rowboat in the middle of a lake to be sure Robin knew no one else was around. They were pretending to fish. "Batman has an elephant named Elinore?" asked Steve.

"I'm not talking about Batman right now. I'm talking about my family. Batman came later."

"Batman's not your dad?" asked Steve.

"No, Batman's like Thor except that Batman's like two people, Batman and Bruce. Bruce is real. Batman is well, kind of like... I don't know how to explain."

"So what about your parents?"

"When I was older my family was murdered. I saw it. I didn't die only everyone else. It was a bad man named Zucco. He wanted money from the circus and when they wouldn't buy into his protection racket well... I heard him making threats and saw him with tools and I should have warned someone but I didn't understand until later. I talk to Bear about that a little but I don't like thinking about it. If I start thinking about it I can't turn off the pictures. The Martians must have helped tone down the memories. I haven't had any night terrors or episodes like that since I've been here."

Steve had to remind himself to breath. It was like a nightmare inside a nightmare. Disappeared try to wake up, murdered try to wake up.

"The authorities took me from my circus home. They said it wasn't good enough to be my family. Pop Haly wanted me, but they took me away. Police and CPS were supposed to be the good guys but they put me in terrible place where I didn't know anyone. The children were so angry they hurt each other and me too. The grown ups were angry too. I told Bear about the place where everyone was angry. He tells me angry is like poison. It's not good for you. I'm really trying not to be angry Captain Rogers. I'm not doing such a good job right now."

Steve wondered when it would stop. The circus disappeared again and was replaced by a nightmare environment orchestrated by what should have been figures of trust.