Chapter Text
The next day, Jason was feeling better. He was still really tired and sore and just feeling bad all over, but he actually ate his whole breakfast and it didn’t make him feel sick at all. He also felt okay enough to start texting with some people and take a turn reading his book with Bruce. When the doctor came, she checked him over and asked a bunch of questions and then finally said that he could go home.
“You’ll need to keep taking antibiotics for a few days still, and I’ll also write a prescription for some pain relief.” Then, she turned to Bruce. “Both of them come in a liquid formulation, which is usually what I give for kids Jason’s age. You can pick them up from the pharmacy here.”
“I can swallow pills,” Jason said. Or, at least, he was pretty sure he could. He never remembered it being a problem from the first time he was a kid, but so far the only thing Alfred or Bruce had given him when he’d been sick was the liquid kid’s stuff.
“But you don’t have to,” Bruce said back. He pushed his hand through Jason’s hair.
And that was all it took for Jason to give in. He didn’t want to have to work for anything right now, including taking whatever medicine he needed. It was nice to just be able to take the easy way out.
It turned out there was a lot of other stuff that Jason didn’t have to worry about while they got ready to finally leave the hospital. Bruce took care of getting all the medicine and talking to the nurses and everything else. Cass was here, too. She packed up all of Jason’s stuff and kept him from getting too bored while they waited. She taught him a kind of reflex game that was just with their hands so Jason could play and not move any of the stuff that hurt.
Then, Jason didn’t even need to walk anywhere because Bruce carried him to the car on their way out. Cass stayed with him in the back seat the whole drive back home and made sure he was warm and comfortable and all of that.
When they got inside, Jason finally asked to be put down. He needed to start to do at least a little stuff on his own.
“I’m supposed to be walking around a bit, remember? Dr. Li said so.”
“You’re also supposed to be taking it easy.” Gently, Bruce set Jason down, but he still kept his arm on Jason’s shoulder.
And it turned out that meant Jason had to take things really, really easy. Just the walk over to the family den had Jason feeling even more tired and sore than before. His stitches hurt and his belly felt weird and he didn’t want to move anywhere for a really long time.
He sat on the big sofa that was there and cuddled up against Cass. She’d grabbed a blanket and pulled it over both of them.
“How long are you staying today?” Jason wondered, wiggling a little closer to her while also trying not to move his middle.
“As long as you want,” she answered.
Which was really, super nice and just what Jason needed. He loved being with Cass. She was always so nice about helping Jason with all kinds of stupid shit like giving him hugs and playing games with him or sometimes just being there and not talking at all.
Jason knew his dad would be with him for however long he wanted, but he was also… maybe feeling like he wanted to try being a little bit more on his own. Just a really, really little bit. He was starting to feel better, but he was still kind of needy and clingy and all that. Cass was a good balance. She was his sister, not their dad, but she also never got annoyed by any of the little kid things Jason needed. She usually gave Jason exactly what he wanted without him even having to ask.
For the rest of the day, Jason stayed in the den. Just like at the hospital, a bunch of people took turns spending time with him. Cass stayed the whole time, and Bruce was there a lot, too. Dick came to visit just after lunch, Damian and Tim let him watch them play video games, and Steph brought him a big pillow that was shaped like Wonder Woman’s emblem.
The pillow was pretty cool and Jason used it to help prop him up into a more comfy position right away. He also still kept Batman with him the whole time. Steph had bought him a lot of fun gifts, but he was fucking attached to that stupid Batman plushie, and that’s just the way it was. Having Batman tucked in his arms was an easy way to feel better with barely any effort.
Well, having Batman and wearing the big grey hoodie that used to be Damian’s. The sleeves were getting kind of frayed, but Jason didn’t care about that at all. He was just happy that being off the IV made it way easier for him to wear it. He already knew he was going to keep it on for as long as he could before Alfred made him wash it.
The problem was that Jason was getting bored. He still wasn’t feeling good enough to go and do something, and he wasn’t even feeling good enough to actually play video games or anything else. His brain was hopping around to all kinds of stuff, but he couldn’t focus on just one thing. Part of his body felt sore and sick and miserable, but there was another part of him that was restless and annoyed at everything.
Everyone tried their best. Dick told him fun stories, Damian taught him some new Arabic words, and Steph played him a bunch of fun music. But Jason was still so grouchy.
“We can watch a movie,” Tim suggested.
“Nooo.” Jason hid his face in Cass’ shoulder.
“We could move to the library,” Dick said. “A change of scenery might be nice.”
“I don’t wanna have to move.” Jason knew it didn’t make sense, and he knew he was whining, but he didn’t really care right now.
Cass hugged him a little tighter, and he huffed out a sigh. She tapped her finger up and down his arm which… somehow, it helped him feel just a little less grumpy.
And then Duke came into the den. He would be just coming home from visiting his mom and dad in their hospital. “Hey, Jay. Good to see you home. How are you feeling?”
Fuck.
Jason kept his face mostly tucked against Cass, but he snuck a little look at Duke. This really wasn’t how he’d wanted Duke to see him. He was being a total whiney kid, cuddling beside his big sister with a novelty pillow on his other side and a Batman stuffie squished in his arms. And, okay, yeah, Jason really was a real kid, but he’d been trying to show Duke that he wasn’t always this much of a kid.
Although there wasn’t really anything he could do about it right now. This was how it was, and he didn’t feel good enough to even try to behave anymore grown up.
“Hi,” he finally mumbled back.
“Jason is being grumpy,” Cass said simply. She booped him on the nose, too fast for Jason to do anything about.
Duke shrugged. “Yeah, makes sense. Recovery is always hard, isn’t it?”
“...yeah.” Slowly, Jason sat up just a little bit straighter so that his face wasn’t hiding anymore. He still stayed right next to Cass, though, because he really liked getting all her hugs and little touches and everything else. “I just want to be all the way better by now.”
With a nod, Duke sat down in one of the empty chairs. It looked like he understood everything that was going on, but… Jason didn’t want any more of those misunderstandings from before. He wanted Duke to actually, fully get it.
“It’s always kind of like this for me when I’m sick or whatever,” he shared. “I’m just sorta… more like a kid than usual.”
Duke looked at him. It felt kind of intense, but not bad. More just like he was trying to solve a puzzle. “Okay, that… I guess that makes sense. Healing takes a lot of energy.”
“Yeah. So, um… Sorry I’m a little extra annoying.” Jason meant it for all of his siblings that were hanging out here. It didn’t matter how cute everyone thought he was; everyone had a limit eventually.
Cass let out a soft hum and traced her fingers up and down his arm. “Love you anyway.”
And another thing about being extra like a kid right now was that that line made Jason melt into her all over again. He squished his nose into her arm and closed his eyes, and that made it easier to say, “Love you too.”
No one else said anything, but just from the silence, Jason could tell that people were, like, watching him. Probably because this whole thing looked cute in some dumb way. He kept his eyes closed and took in a deep breath. Cass was still right there with him. It helped him realize that he didn’t care about what everyone thought right now. He didn’t even care that Duke was watching all of this.
Then Duke cleared his throat. “Hey, so, if you’re feeling stir crazy… I’ve got something new I’ve been working on.”
Jason pried his head away from Cass again. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. It’s kinda hard to explain, but…” With everyone watching him, Duke shook out his hands and then stretched his fingers up to the ceiling.
Everything kind of… went dim. Not like the lightbulbs went out, but more like the light coming out of them started to twist upwards instead of staying where they were. Weird, shimmery, curly shapes twirled as Duke’s fingers moved. The light was starting to collect all together and the shadows around them were getting even sharper until Jason could suddenly recognize a picture forming right there above their heads.
“That’s the symbol on your suit!”
Duke grinned. “Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?”
“It’s awesome.” Jason pushed himself up a little straighter so he could see better. His stitches tugged a bit, but they didn’t hurt that bad. “Can you do other shapes?”
“Yeah, for sure.” He frowned and twiddled his fingers. Then, the lights started to shift again. They stretched out a little and got narrower at the ends until it looked exactly like the Nightwing symbol.
“Cool,” Jason breathed. It reminded him of the thing Duke had done that night when he’d found Jason on the streets. When he’d made the bat signal all by himself. The difference was that it was the whole room that was changing, not just the picture that Duke was making.
“Yeah, it’s uh… making use of the shadows, too, not just the light,” Duke explained. “Opens up a lot of new possibilities.”
“And it looks really cool,” Steph added.
“And it looks really cool,” Duke echoed. “I’ve decided that’s going to be my vigilante brand. Always looking cool.”
“Good luck keeping that up past your first fight with Condiment King,” Tim grumbled.
“That’s why you gotta have a jacket as part of your uniform,” Jason said as he held Batman a little tighter. “If it gets dirty, you just take it off.”
“A cape serves the same purpose,” Damian pointed out.
And that of course started up the whole uniform debate that never seemed to end with them. Everyone always insisted that their design was the best one ever and always came up with a million stupid reasons for it. Even now, Jason still got sucked into it sometimes because he still had opinions about shit, and he’d put up with Dick’s stupid short shorts for way too long when he was younger.
Or… older. Whatever. Even after all this time, the ages still got mixed up in his head when he tried to make sense of it.
But while Steph and Damian tried to convince Dick to get back onto Team Cape, Jason leaned just a little further away from Cass so Duke could hear him better.
“Can you make the lights into an R for Robin?” There were literally a million cool things that Jason could ask Duke to do with this, but he liked the idea of trying the Robin symbol. Damian would like it too, even if he might not say it out loud.
Duke nodded, and grinned, and did just that.
Slowly, things got better. Jason’s stitches stopped hurting as much, and he started feeling stronger. He was eating just like normal, and he could do more walking around and stuff without getting way too tired.
He still wasn’t allowed to train downstairs, and he still wasn’t back at school yet. And there was one other thing that was still really bugging him.
This had all started when he’d been trying to do something fun. Something that was a big step for him in his little kid life. He’d wanted to prove that he was old enough to sleep over at a friend’s house for the night and that he didn’t need his dad or a big brother or sister right next door to help him.
But that wasn’t what happened. Instead, he’d gotten sick and puked and then needed to be fucking carried out of Ethan’s house before the night was even over. Then, he’d been even whinier and clingier than normal ever since. He’d basically always had someone hanging out with him over the last couple days, and he was really, really glad for that. If everyone hadn’t decided to baby Jason like this, he probably would have ended up asking for it, which would have been super pathetic.
And it was obvious how much he extra needed Bruce right now: to carry him around, to help him with his meds, to just sorta… be there for Jason in a million different ways. Any kind of sleepover where Jason ended up spending the night away from Bruce was not going to happen. Not until Jason was all the way healed from his surgery. All that effort, and he was right back to where he was before.
The whole thing really sucked, and it also made it so he felt a little nervous when Ethan stopped by to visit him one day after school. The night of the sleepover, Jason had been hurting way too much to pay attention to what Ethan had been like, but it probably wasn’t good. Jason had been crying and asking for his dad a million times. He’d puked on the floor. Ethan’s mom had had to look after him.
“You look better than before,” Ethan said once he came into the den and sat down beside Jason.
“Yeah, um… I am.”
“But Ms. Cheryl said you’re still not going to be back at school this week?”
Jason pinched the extra fabric of his sweatpants. “Yeah. I got a bunch of boring rules I still have to follow. And even when I go back next week, I’m still not allowed to go out for recess.”
“That sucks. Remember when Claudia had to stay in for recess cause of her leg? Maybe you’ll be allowed to pick a friend to be with you at recess time.”
“Oh, maybe.” That wouldn’t be too bad, then. And Jason could pick Ethan to hang out with him. “We could do some Lego?”
“Yeah! Oh, and I brought yours back to you. We forgot to pack them the night you got sick.” Ethan yanked Jason’s planes out of the bag he’d brought in with him and put them right on top of the box of Legos that were already down here in the den.
“Thanks,” Jason said, still looking at his two little planes while he thought about what Ethan had just said.
It meant that Ethan had helped his dad pack up all of Jason’s stuff, right? His clothes and his sleeping bag and his Batman stuffie. Fuck, even his little kid friend had ended up needing to take care of him.
“Sorry I got sick and wrecked our sleepover,” he mumbled.
Ethan shook his head. “Nah, it’s okay. I didn’t want you to be sick, but— Well, before that, I thought you were mad at me.”
“What?”
“Cause of… you know. Talking about you being adopted.” Now it was Ethan who was staring at his lap and twisting his fingers. “My dad said that you might not want to talk about it and that it’s okay if you don’t.”
“Oh.”
With everything else, Jason had totally forgot about that whole thing. Ethan had asked about where Jason lived before he was adopted; Jason had done a really bad job of answering. Whoops.
“No, I wasn’t mad about that,” he said. “And I don’t… I can talk about it. I’m just not always good at answering questions.” He really didn’t feel weird at all about being adopted; that had happened years ago. But the problem was that he hadn’t figured out how to tell all about his life in a way that made sense for this version of him. The version who was supposed to be only eight years old and had never been Jason Todd.
So far, they’d just stuck with the plan of keeping things vague for anyone who asked, but Jason would probably have to figure out something soon, right? He had actual friends now who were around his age, and he was getting old enough that kids were asking real questions and caring about the answers. His story had to make sense, and it had to be as true as he could make it because he didn’t want his whole life to be a lie.
It was a big, confusing puzzle, and Jason wasn’t really sure how he was going to answer it. One more thing he’d probably need his dad to help him with.
For now, Ethan just nodded and dropped the whole topic. Then he looked over at the bin of Legos. Damian had carried them down for Jason two days ago, plus the K’Nex set that used to be Dick’s and a big stack of paper for drawing and writing. It was nice for Jason to have a few things to do down here instead of having to climb all those stairs to get to his bedroom.
“You wanna play?” Jason asked.
“Yeah. K’Nex? I don’t have them at home.”
“Yeah, you always say.” Jason didn’t mind, though. He liked the K’Nex almost as much as the Lego. He scooted himself to the edge of the sofa and then pried the lid off of the box of Dick’s old toys.
Ethan dug around in the sea of plastic pieces and took out one of the white connectors and a few long rods. “So, when are you gonna be better enough that we can do the sleepover again?”
“I dunno yet.” Jason bit his lip. He pulled out a half-connected wheel from the car he’d built with Damian yesterday. “But I still wanna do it.”
Being with his friend right now reminded him just how much he liked this kind of thing. There really was some good stuff about being a kid, and even though he was stuck growing up all over again, there were all kinds of important things that he wanted to be sure to do this time around. Too much other stuff got in the way the first time.
“Cool.” Ethan nodded. “My mom doesn’t care how many sleepovers I have, so you can come over whenever your dad says you can, okay?”
“Okay,” Jason agreed. Because even though he wasn’t healed up enough to do a sleepover right away, he’d get there eventually.
And, as soon as he could, he was going to get right back out there.