thegoshdarn | (no subject)

(no subject)

They actually have some relative peace and quiet. Ra's doesn't contact her, for once holding to his word. She spends most of her grounding working on designing a new identity and exploring some ideas for the Neon Knights Foundation. Going back to school is... a bit awkward after her long absence, but she had plenty of free time to catch up on the schoolwork. Zoanne and Ives are both a bit pissed off at her for her disappearing act, but they calm down a little when she tells them she had major surgery, with the medical alert bracelet for a compromised immune system to show for it. Ives is actually especially supportive, to the point where she sort of wonders why the hell she didn't talk to him earlier, minor breakdown notwithstanding.

So things are actually going really well when "Bruce Wayne" shows up to sign her out of classes. She's careful not to let any of the confusion or anger show on her face but the minute she can get away with it, she whispers a furious, "What the hell are you doing?"

Hush smiles at her genially and just says that he wants some bonding time with his kids, like that's a normal thing. She's just about ready to slip him and walk away when the plural hits her.

Damian's school lets out earlier than hers. "What did you do."

He slings an arm around her and guides her towards his car. Once the door's open, she can see that Damian's already in it, buckled in fastidiously and unconscious. The unnaturally pale tint to his skin tells her it's absolutely not a normal sleep, although the lack of apparent injury makes her think it's due to being drugged rather than violence. She wants to just grab the little demon brat and make a run for it, but she's not confident she can fight her way out of this with 84 pounds of unconscious hellspawn in her arms.

Hush's reminder that, as far as anyone knows, he's their legal guardian, and assurances that he just wants to talk (not to mention the clear threat that he's perfectly willing to drug her cooperation, too, or give the extra dose to Damian and god knows what that would do to the kid) just barely convince her not to make a scene yet. Instead, she sits stiffly next to Damian and keeps a finger on his pulse to monitor it for danger.

So. That's her day.

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Dick has never in his life had a reason to appreciate the way that Gotham's assorted reporters seemed to hound their family's every step. It wasn't as bad as some celebrities, sure, but Bruce had definitely made a name for himself and that name hadn't exactly tied in with the 'adopting hordes of kids' trend, so they was always a vague sort of interest hovering over all of them. Dick had found it a constant annoyance, and he knew his siblings had similar experiences - until today, when a random reporter idly tweeted a picture of Bruce Wayne unusually taking the time to pick up his kids from school - early, in Tim's case. That made him appreciate the unusual monitoring system almost immediately.

Unfortunately, it didn't do him any good, by the time he got to the school they were gone, and he had no idea where to start looking. Chafing at the delay, he rushed back to the manor to start hunting for any sign of them. The third time he's gone hunting fo r Tim in recent months and he still didn't have a tracking device on her. Still, at least this time it wasn't her fault.

The next lead he gets is also in the form of another Tweeted picture, this time of "Bruce" ushering his kids out of the car at a private airport with an arm around Tim's shoulder. Damian looks conscious but barely, and Tim's half-holding him up. where do you think they're going?? ugh wish MY dad would pick me up so we could go flying in the middle of the week.

Once Tim realizes he's planning to get them in a plane, she gives up on a temporary cooperation and starts really fighting. As she predicted, trying to hold onto a groggy Damian is enough of a hindrance that she doesn't succeed. Tim wakes up about an hour later to an incredibly irate Damian who immediately starts complaining about how she uselessly let them get kidnapped before returning to his lecture already-in-progress on exactly how bad Hush was going to regret this when Batman and the Justice League found them.

It would be an almost adorably ten-year-old kind of threat if it wasn't for Damian's frankly disturbing imagination. Tim ends up grabbing him and smooshing his face into her side to muffle him before he gets himself drugged again.

It's Alfred who draws his attention to the next tweet, and it's Alfred who talks him out of suiting up and speeding over there in the Batmobile. However it might add to their secret identities, it's going to look really weird if Batman shows up just to kidnap Bruce Wayne's children.

Instead he grabs some designer clothes and leaps into a sports car to get over there, ignoring any and all speed limits (he'll deal with the tickets later) and making it to the airport in record time. Then it's just a case of charming the girl behind the desk with the full force of his flirtation and his 'dad told me where they were going but I completely forgot and it's so long since I've got to spend any quality time with my little siblings, aren't they just precious, they'd hate to not see their big brother for this little family outing, really' to find out where they were going and how he could follow them.

Details in hand, he talked (and spent) his way into chartering a flight to follow them, and then he was in the air and on their tail.

As best she can tell, Hush hasn't just snapped and decided to take out his frustration out on her and Damian. Taking them is a power play of sorts, but what he seems to primarily want is to force a legal confrontation. Because he has legal custody of them, even if Dick or Batman takes them back, if 'Bruce Wayne' makes a public enough spectacle of wanting to spend time with his kids and they don't play along, people are going to start asking why they're so adamant about not spending time with their father.

Basically, he wants to force a custody battle and make Dick destroy Bruce Wayne's reputation himself. Which... well. He's treading a very fine line there. Tim points out that it's not too late for them to lock him up somewhere and go public with Bruce Wayne's death. It would sure as hell be easier on them to not have a psychopath running around with their father's face.

While she's doing her best to keep Damian from running his mouth off, she pisses Hush off enough to knock her out again. It's not really very smart, but she's not really feeling all that rational right now, yelling at Bruce's face. Whatever else happens, she wakes up in s hotel suite with Damian glaring at her (again) and Hush chatting on the phone jovially with - Vicki Vale, she thinks? He's clearly not trying to hide where they are, which means this has to be more of a stunt to point out that this is something he can do, taking them out of nowhere and transporting them out of the country on a whim. Although she can't imagine that just waiting around for Dick to make a move is a very good plan.

It takes him a little while longer once he's landed to try and locate exactly where they're going, but not nearly as long as he thought it might - the trail seems just a little too easy to hide, and he has to force himself to take a moment to consider why.

He hasn't completely figured out the reasons, but he's got the edges of it enough to realise he needs to tread carefully and can't just burst in and demand to take his little siblings back, not when Hush had drawn so much attention from the journalistic set. That said, he also didn't have to sneak around too much, that same attention would (he hoped) keep Hush on the reigns a little as well, the trouble is he'd need to get the three of them out in the open in order to capitalise on that, and the conversation they needed to have... couldn't happen out in the open. His only hope was that they could at least avoid a fight.

Finally locating the hotel they'd come to and sweet-talking his way into the room number, he headed up and knocked on the door, resisting the urge to make a room service quip, if only because he was still on edge. He hoped they were both fine, they better be both fine.

He's actually let in soon enough, which is probably a good sign that this isn't about to turn into a fight. Of course, a fight would probably be easier.

Hush glances in his direction and holds up a finger indicating that he should wait a minute while he wraps up his conversation. "It's been good talking to you, Vicki, but my oldest just arrived, and I can't keep the kids waiting, can I?"

Damian may be wearing his I hate everything and you all disappoint me face, but he has grudgingly placed himself in a somewhat protective position near Tim, who's only half-sitting up and not looking too great after being drugged twice. He may be a tiny bit relieved to see Dick, but that doesn't mean he relaxes his if you come near us I will end you body language. "Tt. About time you got here, Grayson."

My oldest he says, and Dick clenches his fist as the casual way his father's entire identity is being stolen. It's like a slap in the face, to see him there, and he desperately wishes this was a fight, that would be easier to deal with. Instead he moves over to Damian and Tim, casting searching looks over them to check for injuries. He places a reassuring hand on Tim's shoulder, watching her worriedly for a moment. He hopes her obvious wooziness fades soon, or he is not going to be happy.

"Sorry to keep you waiting little D," Dick ruffled his little brother's hair with faux casualness, partly teasing and partly checking for any bumps and contusions that might indicate injuries he couldn't see.

Looking up at Hush, his forced smile drops and he hovers protectively over his siblings.

"What the hell are you up to?"

Tim tries her best to give him a reassuring hey, I'm fine and totally with you smile. He's probably going to have to continue not being happy, because Tim's probably gonna be headache-y and nauseous for a while longer. Damian, meanwhile, bristles at Dick messing up his hair, even if he is checking for injury.

"I was just thinking it might be nice to see the family," Hush says amiably. "Especially since apparently my daughter's been skipping school and having major surgery."

"What she's been doing is none of your business," Dick shot back, he didn't bother asking how the other man found out about it, he was pretty sure that was another question he wasn't getting an answer to and he had more important things to focus on.

"So, you've seen us, here we are, the family. Well done, now i think i'm going to take my family home." Of course he knew it wasn't going to be that easy, but he felt that Hush should at least know his intentions.

"I wouldn't be much of a legal guardian to them if I didn't take an interest in their activities now and then," he says blithely. "It seems like I've spent long enough ignoring my kids."

Well, that certainly sounds ominous. Damian bristles next to Tim. "You are not my father."

"We'd be happy enough to go back to you ignoring us," Dick told him firmly "Like Damian says, you're not our father. What's the point in pretending to be, what good does it do you?" He frowned, trying to figure out the angle, to peg what would actually happen if he just grabbed his siblings and left. Testing the waters, and unsure she was well enough to walk, he reached over to pick Tim up.

As far as Tim's concerned, she doesn't need to be picked up, but it's not worth arguing unless it comes down to her being in the way. For what it's worth, nobody stops him. Yet.

"Like it or not, Dick, I'm their guardian as far as the law's concerned, not you."

And wow hey that sounded like a threat. Holding Tim just about managed to step him from just launching himself at the other man, instead he moved back to hover protectively behind Damian with Tim in his arms.

"I don't care what the law says, you are not our father, so stop trying to fucking pretend to be." It's not often he swears, but he has to admit Hush kind of has a point, and Dick doesn't know what he'll do if the other man actually tries to press the matter.

While it's probably for the best if Dick doesn't straight-up attack him, Damian clearly doesn't think so. Tim's awake enough to be paying attention even if she's too sick to add much to the discussion, and she snags hold of Damian's wrist before he can launch an attack on his own.

"You may know that and I may know that, but as it stands, if you take them out of here and I object, you're not going to be the one the law looks on favorably."

Dick casts a grateful look at Tim for keeping hold of Damian, then turns his glare back to Hush.

"So what is this about? Or are you just going to keep pretending all you want is this twisted family reunion?" He wasn't sure he was expecting an answer at this point, but he could keep asking, maybe Hush would give something away if he kept him talking.

Damian is considerably less grateful to his older sister for holding him back, but Tim feels shitty and not above throwing up on someone to make a point. Preferably Hush, but Damian probably deserves it, too.

She's also not willing to let this conversation drag on forever. "He wants to provoke a public, legal confrontation to force us into ruining 'Bruce Wayne's reputation in court to make him look like an unfit guardian."

Now can they skip to the threatening and go home?

Dick's grip on Tim tightened briefly, until he got control of himself and realised what he was doing, giving her a quick apologetic look.

"He's gone and now you want to force us to drag his name through the mud as well?" He ground out through clenched teeth. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he turned towards the door, jerking his head to Damian.

"Come on, we're leaving."

She's not a stress ball, and she lets out a grumpy noise until he loosens his hold.

"If you insist," Hush says faux-amiably. "I've already made the appropriate excuses to their schools for a day or two off." Just, you know. A friendly reminder that he can do this sort of thing again. And he can make it a lot harder for Dick to find them.

Damian is... not as cooperative as any of them might have hoped. He crosses his arms and glares. "I don't understand why we let this man continue his charade as our father." (If the situation were a little less tense, it might be a victory of sorts that he said our and not my.)

"We can't do anything to him right now, Damian, he's made it pretty clear everybody knows we're here..." Dick said reluctantly. All that friendly chatter to Vicki and letting them be seen by photographers meant they couldn't exactly do anything to him right now - he had to walk out of here or there would be questions.

"But don't worry, we won't let him get away with it for long." He added, tone like steel. He was talking to Hush just as much as Damian.

"Sorry you had to cut the family vacation short," Hush replies with that same blandly amiable tone.

Damian finally follows with a last haughty glare to make it clear that this course of action is taken under protest. Tim considers whether or not to demand Dick put her down once they're out of the room, but 'my sister got sick, unfortunate timing all around' is as good an excuse for the 'family vacation' to end as any.

Dick glared at him one last time as they left, nudging Damian out with his foot when it looked like the younger boy didn't want to listen to reason. As soon as they were outside the room he bit down on his anger, marshalling his expression into one of concern. Outside the hotel, as he expected, they encountered a reporter.

"Why are you leaving? Is Miss Drake alright? What's happening?" They asked, rushing in their questions in case Dick didn't feel like stopping. He didn't want to, but he forced himself to slow and talk briefly.

"As good as Dad's plan was to give us all a little break together, Timmy got a little sick, must have been something she ate, so I'm taking her and Damian home." He explained, making it as sincere and convincing as he possibly could, doing his best doting big brother act to make the woman swoon rather than questioning it too deeply. It sort of worked, just.

"Miss Drake, how are you feeling? Do you think it's serious? Are you having trouble walking?"

Before she can say anything, Damian scowls. "Of course she's having trouble walking. She won't get better with you asking her questions-"

"I'm fine," Tim says quickly. "As you can tell, both my brothers are a little overprotective."

"Why isn't Mr. Wayne coming with you?" someone asks.

"You'll have to forgive my little brother," Dick says smoothly, flashing his best winning smile "he's a little worried about Timmy here, and it's making him grumpy." He gave Damian a subtle nudge, warning him not to object.

"Oh, he'll be coming along soon i'm sure, he just had to cancel our bookings and things, tie up a few loose ends you know?" He replied easily, he didn't know quite sure how they were going to handle this whole situation, but he wasn't going to play into Hush's hands with any negativity. "Thank you all for your concern, but I'd like to get my sister home now." He finished, pushing through the crowd.

Damian scowls harder at being painted as the concerned little brother - as if - but he doesn't object any more.

Despite the clear signals that the 'interview' is over, they get some more questions thrown their way, ones that Tim is more than happy to ignore. When they're far enough out of sight, she nudges Dick slightly. "You can put me down now." Probably.

Dick ignores the remaining questions resolutely and kept walking, keeping an eye on Damian to make sure they didn't push any of his buttons. Once they were away from them, he glanced thoughtfully at Tim, clearly considering not doing it, but he relented and put her carefully back on her feet.

"Okay, let's head back to the airport. We can figure this out when we get home."