The seeds were laid out to the public a week later and by the Thursday, Jason had joined Bruce at Wayne Corp for a press conference. Dick had stayed at home, as per their plan, watching the conference on the news. The press had tried to tear Jason apart.
They had accused him of having a double life (if only they knew how ironic that statement was), accused him of being reckless, impulsive. They drilled him for his reasons for leaving all those years ago and when Bruce had let "slip" about the splicing incident that had turned Dick's eyes to their golden colour, they had gone on to insinuate Jason wasn't able to control his son. But it had been the final question that had cut Dick to his core.
'Mr Todd, your son, what's his name?'
'Richard.' Said Jason calmly, but Dick could see the slight tension in his shoulders; he knew what was coming.
'Did you name your son after your brother who went missing twenty years ago?' The reporter looked at his notepad. 'Richard Grayson?'
Jason waited for a beat and then nodded, he didn't need to pretend to be affected by the statement. For twenty years he had had no idea what had happened to his brother, it had torn him apart. Even now Dick was back, he knew his brother couldn't have his old life back. But that was why he was here, listening to these clueless fools; so that Dick could have a normal life.
'Do you blame yourself?'
Back at the manor, the question made Dick sit up.
'Excuse me?' Said Jason.
'Do you blame yourself for your brother's disappearance?'
Jason gave them a puzzled look.
'No,' he said 'I was fifteen when Dick went missing. There was nothing I could have done to prevent it.'
'What about you, Mr Wayne?' All eyes were suddenly on Bruce. 'Is it true you sent Richard to a boarding school, the very boarding school he was abducted from?'
Bruce froze. Bruce never freezes. Dick watched the man on the screen, he knew the man must blame himself to some degree but he didn't realise it was tearing him up this much.
Jason brought the attention back to himself and manage to steer the conversation back to the reason they were there. With the attention off himself, Bruce managed to regain his composure.
Four hours later they returned to the manor and Jason slammed the front door closed.
'Bloody animals.' He muttered. 'I need a drink.'
'Got you covered.' Annie emerged from the kitchen with a glass of whiskey. 'Well, that was brutal.'
'You're telling me. How dare they bring Grayson's disappearance into it.'
'We knew that they would.' Said Bruce quietly.
'Yeh well, they shouldn't have.' Jason sighed, reaching out to slap a hand down on Bruce's shoulder. 'Where is Dick?'
Annie's jaw tightened. 'He watched the conference on the news,' she said. 'He was pretty annoyed by their comments as well. He's been up in his room since.'
Bruce went to walk forward but Jason stopped him.
'I'll get him. You get some of this in your system.' He handed the older man his untouched drink and headed up the stairs towards Dick's room.
He knocked on the door but there was no answer. Opening the door a crack he poked his head around but saw there was no one in the room but the window was open. Apparently, old habits die hard. He went over to the window and leaned out of it.
'Dick, I know you're up there.' He shouted. 'I am too old to be out there, can you come down please.' This wasn't true, he knew if he went out there he would be perfectly fine, he was in good shape, but this was a conversation he would rather have on the solid ground.
He went and sat on Dick's bed with his back against the headboard and his legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. After a few moments, Dick landed silently back into the room. He didn't look happy.
'I hear you watched the conference.' Jason said. The boy didn't react, he just stood there looking at his feet. 'Do you wanna share what's bothering you?'
'You're ruining your life.' Dick muttered. That was not what Jason had expected to hear.
'How so?'
'I saw...' He paused, biting his lip for a second before continuing. 'I heard everything those reporters said to you. Those are the kind of accusations you're going to get now that you've stuck yourself to me.' Jason honestly thought Dick was going to cry, but that appeared to be something the Court had knocked out of him. Dick was always controlled these days, never letting himself completely let go.
'Yeh, they were pretty brutal. But you know what?'
Dick finally looked at him with his big yellow eyes.
'Once they have had their pound of flesh they will move on to the next story that comes their way. We just have to ride the tempest.'
Dick nodded. 'Do you want to throw any more Shakespeare references into that statement?'
They both grinned.
'Come here.'
Jason opened his arms and was glad when Dick came over and lay against him, his head resting on his chest. He wrapped them around the smaller being and held him. Dick had always been a hugger when they were younger, he loved physical contact. When they had found him, he wouldn't let anyone near him. As much as Jason had hated Dick's bear hugs when he was younger, he found himself feeling relief that the Court had not taken that trait away from his brother...well, he supposed now Dick was technically his son. Annie had been busy all that week creating birth certificates and a paper trail for them both.
Dick was 17, he had been born a year after Jason had left home and his mother had left him with Jason when Dick was a few months old. They had spent a lot of time travelling, but now Jason wanted Dick to have a proper education so he could go to college and settle down so they had come back to Gotham and moved back in with Bruce. That was the story.
Dick lay in Jason's arms listening to the steady sound of his heartbeat. Watching them at the conference today and brought it home to Dick that his life was not going to be the same, but it also brought to his attention even more that now Jason's wouldn't be either. It made him feel so guilty. He drew himself closer to Jason unconsciously as he thought this.
'I know this isn't what you expected your life to be like Dick.' Jason said quietly as he stared at the ceiling. 'But if doing this means you can live a normal life I am more than happy to do it, just do one thing for me in return?'
Dick lifted his head to look at him. 'Anything.'
'Make yourself a good life.' Said Jason, his expression was deadly serious, he had really thought about what he was about to say. 'Graduate from school, make friends, carve a path for yourself and live a good life despite everything that happened.'
Dick bit the inside of his cheek. Bruce had brushed on the topic of Dick going back to school for the next school year. Even though he had dropped out of school when he was 16, he had still passed all his exams in his own time. Bruce had suggested that they could forge school records for his new identity, but he wanted Dick to think about going back for his final year. Dick had said he would think about it, but here was Jason saying it was something he wanted him to do.
Dick didn't much like the thought of going back to school, he had hated it the first time around. His persona of the timid charity case had left him with a lot of bruises from bullies whom he couldn't fight back in fear of them discovering he was Robin. This time around he would be pretending to be a completely different person. But he found himself nodding and accepting Jason's terms.
'Thanks, Dickie.' He ruffled his hair. 'It will be good for you. Give you a chance to reinvent yourself. Speaking of which.' He pulled Dick's hair between his fingers, over the past few months since Dick had been awake his hair had grown a vast amount. It was now just below his ears. 'You, my friend, need a haircut.'
'It hides my ears.' Dick said, pulling his head away from Jason. He sat up and crossed his legs, feeling a little scrutinised under Jay's gaze.
'You can't notice them that much.' Said Jason, inspecting the sound filters in Dick's ears. 'And the long hair makes you look like you're out of a 1990's boy band.'
Dick couldn't help but laugh at the comment.
'Terry's friend from school is good with a pair of scissors, I'm sure Max can give you a do that will make you the envy of the school.'
Dick stared at him with a weird expression.
'What?' Said Jason.
'Nothing.' Said Dick, shrugging. 'It's just when I left you were a fifteen-year-old trouble maker with a lot of anger issues and now...'
'Now...?'
Dick shrugged again. 'You've got the dad thing down pretty well.'
Jason sat up quickly, grabbed Dick and pulled him back down. After the initial shock, Dick laughed.
'Just as well,' said Jason, 'Because you're stuck with me. Now, enough of this cutie bonding shit. I need to go and get that whiskey back off Bruce and you need to get some dinner in you, you skinny runt.'
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Terry's friend Max was not what Dick was expecting. For starters, Max was a girl. Her short crew cut hair had been dyed bright pink and contrasted dramatically against her dark skin. You couldn't help but draw your eyes to her and her bubbly personality kept you drawn in.
Max knew Terry was Batman, apparently, it was a fact she had worked out by herself and over the last year she had gained more of the Bat families trust. This being said, she was spun the same story as the rest of the public when it came to Dick.
She arrived with Terry after their school day much to Dick's surprise, he had thought Jason was joking about the haircut. He joined them in the kitchen and blinked in surprise at the newcomer.
'Hi, I'm Max.' She smiled a big grin. 'Heard you needed a trim, and yes boy do you ever!' She flicked his bangs out of his face. 'Terry wasn't kidding about the splicing thing either. What look were you going for?'
She had a very thick Gotham accent and clearly didn't hold back her opinion, even with strangers.
'No idea.' Said Dick, averting his eyes and pulling his hair around his ears. It was a strange feeling for him to feel self-conscious. It wasn't a feeling he had ever particularly felt before his time with the court.
'Hey,' she clicked her fingers in front of his face and drew his gaze back up. 'They only look weird if you don't follow through with the look. Have some confidence and people won't think anything's weird.' She pulled a chair out and pushed Dick towards it. Terry chuckled and leant against the kitchen counter watching them.
Dick hesitated, eyeing the chair up like it was going to attack him.
'Dude, come on, have a little faith.' Said Terry.
Dick glared at him and Terry's grin slip from his face. Dick's glare was just as intimidating, if not more so than Bruce's. Max didn't seem affected, she rested a hand on Dick's shoulder.
'Dick, trust me, I won't let you look stupid.'
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
'It's a bad idea.' Tim rested his head back against the armchair he was lounging in. They were all there; Tim, Bruce, Damian and Jason. Sat in the study discussing the second part of the plan; taking Dick out in public. 'He's not ready.'
'He'll be fine.' Said Jason from the desk chair, he tapped his foot against the leg of the desk. 'We can't keep him, prisoner, here forever.'
'But what happens if he becomes overwhelmed. We don't know what the court ingrained into him.'
'I hate to agree with Drake,' said Damian from his place on the floor, Ace at his side. 'You remember when I first came to live here after leaving the League of Shadows? My training was my fall back, in an unfamiliar environment I was dangerous because I was running on pure instinct.'
'Oh come on guys, the kid has already been overwhelmed and he's dealt with everything pretty well.' Said Jason, his foot tapping harder.
'Has he though Jay?' Said Tim, sitting up and leaning his elbow onto his thighs. 'Haven't you noticed? He doesn't react to anything. The only real reaction we managed to get out of him was the first day when he tried to fight us off him. Since then he's shut himself down and hadn't allowed himself to react.'
'What are you saying Tim?'
'I think he's depressed Bruce and I think if he doesn't start addressing that soon he's going to become a powder keg about to explode.'
Bruce nodded slowly, he remembered dealing with Tim's depression when he was a teenager. There had been no signs at first, Tim had seemed perfectly happy...too happy. It wasn't until later that Bruce realised, Tim had been acting in a way he thought everyone wanted him to act. All of his reactions and interactions were staged to please other people. After that came the lying, insomnia and the self-harm.
'Do you think he's ok?' Bruce asked Tim. His third son had started helping out at schools to help teens with mental health problems years ago. Tim knew the signs when even Bruce sometimes missed them.
'I think he is a 17-year-old trained assassin who has been thrown into a world that is almost completely foreign to him.' Tim leant back again and shrugged. 'I'm not saying one way or the other but I think we need to be careful.'
Jason brought his fist down on the table.
'You know what might make him feel a bit less depressed? Getting out of this house and actually making a life for himself instead of being constantly reminded that he can't have his old life back.'
'We can't ignore this Jason.'
'I'm not saying we should ignore it, Replacement. Just give the kid a chance.'
Tim went to start again but Jason stood up, holding a hand up to silence him.
'No Tim.' He turned to Bruce for support. 'Bruce, you gave Dick into my custody because you thought I was the best chance he had of a normal life. Please, trust me.' He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. 'I can't believe I'm saying this, but you trusted me to be Dick's father so please, let me be a parent.'
Bruce was surprised at Jason's passion. It was true, there had been an element of desperation and convenience to him passing guardianship of Dick over to his second son, but there were other reasons. Jason was level-headed, he didn't take any messing and he knew how to make the best of a crap situation. If anyone was going to bring Dick back from his ordeal it would be Jason.
Before any more could be said, the door to the study creaked open and Dick popped his head around the door.
'Max said I had to come show you.' He said flatly coming fully inside. His hair was short, shorter than he had ever had it before; one of the sides had even been shaved to a light shadow around his ear. The top was a little longer and it had been gelled.
'Now that is more like it.' Said Jason. 'You look like a member of this generation rather than Boy Zone.'
Dick glared, but it was half-hearted.
'What were you arguing about?' He asked.
'We weren't arguing.' Said Tim.
'Sounded like you were.' Dick tapped his ears. 'They filter out white noise but I still have impeccable hearing.'
'Drake was being a first-class worrier.' Said Damian bluntly, earning himself his own glare from Tim.
'I'm just concerned.' Said Tim. 'You've been through a lot Dick, I just want what's best for you.'
'I'm fine, Tim.' Dick gave him his most convincing smile and Tim seemed to relent.
'Brilliant.' Said Jason, clapping his hands together, he called Dick's name when the kid went to leave the room. 'We're going to check out the school Monday afternoon. Don't give me that face, you promised.'
Dick wiped the scowl off his face and nodded before closing the door.
Jason sat there looking smug for a moment, but Tim kept quiet. He didn't know if it was just him or if the others had seen it too, Dick's smile had been bright but his eyes were dead.