Rating: PG-13 (sex talk—nothing graphic)
Synopsis: Sometime after “Catcher.” Every time Dick’s home, the Forum convenes.
“The Forum”
“DENIED!”
“Aw, come on! You can’t just—”
“Uh, I just did.”
“No, you can’t, Jason,” a different teenage voice piped in. “It’s got to be collectively.”
“Spoken like a true goodie-two-shoes.”
“Spoken like a true thief!”
“Oh, you just can’t—”
“—can’t what? Get over—”
“Don’t make me—”
“Pee in your pants?”
Dick banged the butt of his fork against the counter, the reverberating loud enough for the noise to reverberate through the kitchen. The prattle silenced, and he sat back with a contented smile. It was a usual weekday breakfast, though Dick normally came home on Fridays, not Mondays, but some things couldn’t be helped. So, as protocol with his return home, the Forum met at breakfast the next morning. and any concerns or disagreements were to be voiced.
Sitting upon the kitchen counter, one leg hitched up, Dick impaled his eggs. “Okay, okay, everyone calm down. Damian’s right. He’s allowed to make a motion to the Forum. So, let our baby brother finish, Jason.”
Sitting at the table with his legs propped on an opposite chair, fourteen-year-old Damian narrowed his eyes. “You’re biased.”
“Hey, I used to bathe you. Of course I’m biased.”
“He’s giving you your time.” Tim snapped his bacon in half. “Be happy you’re getting that.”
Damian shook his head hopelessly and stole some of Cassandra’s potatoes. “Look, I get it, okay? I’m the youngest. No matter who Dad adopts or whatnot, I’m always going to be the baby of the family. All right, but the hair tassels, the nicknames—especially Batsquirt—have to got to stop.”
Jason tasseled the boy’s hair. “DENIED!”
“Jason!” Damian growled before whirling in his seat. “DICK!”
Dick rolled his eyes and swallowed a bite of ham. “All right. All right. All in favor of losing Batbaby or Batsquirt or Battykins as Damian’s nicknames?”
Damian raised his hand, and when no one followed, he slapped Tim in the shoulder. “Dude, you owe me for last week’s vote on rooms!”
“Ow! Fine!” Tim raised his hand.
“All opposed?” Dick asked, and Cassandra, Jason, and he raised their hands. “Motion denied. Babysquirt remains!”
“Damn!”
All at once, the four siblings yelled, “Twenty!”
Growling, Damian pulled a bill from his pocket and slipped it onto the table.
Dick smirked from his place on the counter, snapping at Jason to throw him a muffin. The younger brother complied. “Okay, who’s next?”
Cassandra raised her hand, and Dick nodded. “The Forum recognized Cassie.”
She sat up straighter and met each of her brother’s eyes. “I am dating.”
Forks clanged to plates. Mouths dropped, agape. Food tumbled to the floor.
“No you’re not,” Jason spat.
Cassandra met his doubting eyes calmly. She blinked once, twice, and shaking, Jason put up his hands in a surrender position. “Okay, okay, so you’re dating.”
“Forum asks for identity of aforementioned date,” Tim asked.
“Denied,” she replied.
Damian shook his head. “Nope. Can’t. All significant others are open to judgment.”
“Overruled,” Dick said with an amused tone.
The three boys turned him with wide eyes. “What!” Jason snapped.
Dick shrugged. “I’m going to allow it. With four brothers, Cassie has reason to fear giving us his identity, but chairperson requests identity in confidence as eldest sibling.”
Cassandra thought for a moment. “Permission denied.”
Tim crossed his arms. “Now how does it feel?”
Dick smirked. “I’ll allow it because Kid Devil knows to treat Cassie well, and if he doesn’t—”
Tim spit out his orange juice. “Eddie? You’re going out with Eddie!”
Cassandra averted her eyes, and if it were possible, a shade of red tinged her cheeks. “He asked me, and I said yes.”
“All right! All right!” Dick put up his hands. “All in favor of the aforementioned dating?”
Dick, Damian, and Cassandra raised their hands.
“All opposed?”
Tim and Jason raised theirs.
Dick hit the counter. “The Forum gives approval for the courtship of Cassandra by Eddie Bloomburg, but we do reserve the right to kick his ass if he acts like one.”
Damian raised his hand. “I say we move to place Jason on said ass-kicking if need be.”
“I accept said motion,” Jason agreed.
Dick waved his hand. “No one will be appointed to ass-kicking until it is necessary and the motion has passed. As of yet, no vote is needed. Motion and topic closed. Any more new business?”
“Some old business.” Jason sat up. “I had my first date with Jasmine Willis.”
“The heiress to Premium Industries?” Damian scooched up in his chair. “Details, brudda.”
“Well, we didn’t do it or anything. We just went out for a nice dinner, but man-oh-man, the lips on that girl—”
“Minors!” Dick admonished. “And no one tell Dad.”
“Seriously,” Jason agreed. “The moment Dad tells me a girl’s a good fit, I stop liking her.”
“And if he says he doesn’t?” Cassandra inquired.
Jason’s smile became dangerous. “She is all the more hot.”
“Condoms.”
Jason’s face immediately brightened. “Excuse me?”
Dick pointed a finger directly at Jason. “Condoms. If you need some, I’ll even buy them, but you have got to have protection. And don’t leave it up to her.”
“I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation with you—again.”
Tim shrugged. “Why? It happens every other Forum. By the way, while we’re on the subject of condoms—”
Dick swiped his. “Motion denied once more. Any more business?”
“Oh, come on!” Tim whined. “You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”
“Tim, you’re sixteen. SIXTEEN! I’m not even entertaining the idea of you staying overnight at Stephanie’s.”
“But it’s
okay for Jason to do every girl at
Jason laced
his fingers behind his head with a wicked smile. “It’s more like every girl in
“My point!”
“My point,” Dick interjected, “is that you’re sixteen, Tim, and you have to be willing—emotionally and spiritually and physically as well as monetarily—to raise and care for a child. Do you honestly believe you can fulfill those needs for a newborn?”
“And Jason can?”
“This isn’t about Jason. It’s about you, and answer the question.”
Tim crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “I didn’t say we would do anything.”
Dick ruffled his own hair in frustration. “Little brother, the lives we lead don’t allow for much chance of a future. I know that, and where one sees death everyday, it makes everything seem so mortal. But I tend to be optimistic, and I know you. You’re one of the best there is, and I’m not going to let you end your childhood too early.”
“What about you?” Damian asked.
Dick blinked. “What about me?”
“When you were Tim’s age, you gave up a lot of your free time to babysit me and whatnot.”
“That’s different.”
“How?” Cassandra demanded.
Dick let out a sigh and looked out the window perpendicular from him. “Because you guys are my life, all right? I know what it’s like to be without a family and when you think the one you have wants nothing to do with you, and I wanted to make sure you never felt that way. Ever.”
Shadows darkened his face as he refused to meet their questioning eyes, but as fast as the shadows came, they lifted. Tim was about to ask what happened when Alfred walked into the room, all dressed and shocked to see the children of the household up already.
“Gentlemen and lady,” he greeted.
“Hey Alf,” came from Dick.
“Morning, Pennyworth,” from Damian.
“Allll-fred,” Jason greeted, while Cassandra bowed slightly.
“There’s breakfast over on the stove,” Tim gestured. “Almost anything you can think of and only the bacon was burnt.”
Alfred
smiled back at his younger charges, who had made a breakfast fit for the
royalty of
“Leave the plates in the sink, Alfred,” Damian added. Pushing up onto the counter next to Dick, he nodded. “It’s my turn to do the dishes.”
Sure enough, when Alfred saw one by one the children of the manor adopted and welcomed into the household, he thought his workload would be doubled if not tripled. It simply did not happen. With five caring and benevolent charges, he sometimes wondered why he was still paid.
“So, how is the Forum evolving this morning?”
“I think we’re pretty much done,” Dick said with a shrug, pouring more coffee into his cup. “Any other business?”
Tim smiled deviously. “What about the ring—”
Dressed in a double-breasted business suit, Bruce walked into the room.
“—dings? What are you going to do with all those ring dings?”
“Good morning, boys,” Bruce greeted.
“Good morning, Dad,” they chorused.
“Cassandra.”
She granted him a tiny bow.
Dick shrugged and went on like nothing changed. “I guess I’ll hand some out at the hospital. Now, who needs a lift to school?”
Jason and
Cassandra stood first, the brother pulling on his leather jacket. “I can drop
Cassie at the JSA headquarters on my way to
“Could you take me?” Damian asked. “Tim usually does, but since he started picking up Steph, they like to—”
“Say no more, Batsquirt.” Dick patted Damian’s knee as he took a sip of his coffee. “No one wants to be around Steph and Tim.”
“Hey!”
“So,” Bruce’s commanding voice rumbled over the group, “what are you doing to do with the ring?”
Dick spat his coffee out across the kitchen like rain drops.
The movement stilled, as everyone’s eyes went to Dick, who barely breathed as he stared at Bruce with disbelief. His father stood calmly at the coffeemaker, pouring his own cup of black gold, before looking at the younger man.
“I asked you a question.”
“I have to get going,” Jason interjected, already half-way out the door.
“Which means I must leave as well,” Cassandra quickly began to gather the plates with Tim.
“Oh! Steph’s calling!” he yelled, though no phone sounded. “I should probably get to her.”
Damian slid off the counter. “I’ll wait on your car.”
After a brief hug with Alfred, exchanging cheek kisses with Cassandra, giving Jason a one-armed embrace, tussling Tim’s hair, and pointing at his younger brothers, “Hey! You, condoms. You, no condoms! You hear me?” Dick sat in the kitchen, his legs still crossed on the counter, Bruce to his left, seemingly reading the paper.
Silence held.
Finally, Dick replied, “I’m going to give it up.”
Bruce flipped a page. “Is that you want to do?”
“Yes.”
“Have you given it adequate thought?”
“No, not really,” Dick said, shaking his head.
“Then perhaps you should.”
“Perhaps I would if I wasn’t in surgery ten-hours a day. Perhaps I would if Tim didn’t make the nurses put him on speaker phone as I’m removing a bullet and freak out because he doesn’t know where the fumar is and needs my help for studying the bones. Maybe I would if Jason didn’t call me at three o’clock in the morning to ask and if he should go out with Jasmine Willis or just do her right there.”
Bruce studied the business section. “She’s a good—”
“Don’t say it, even though she is, and—”
“Do her?”
“Hey, the kid was sexually active before we met him. The fact that he took a six-year furlough is a blessing.”
“And Tim’s ‘no condoms’?”
“He wants to stay over Steph’s house. She’s active. He’s not, and he wants to be. And he’s not ready for it.”
“And you’re the judge of that?”
“I know it’s not fair—” Dick poured some of Bruce’s coffee in his own cup. “—but Tim’s an innocent. It’s Cassie and Eddie you really should worry about.”
Bruce flipped to the local news. “And all this has prevented you from debating whether to keep one of the most powerful weapons in the universe.”
Dick traced his thumb on the edge of his cup, wiping off the excess liquid. “No, it makes me not want to. Look, we don’t know what would’ve happened if we didn’t intervene with Damian—or Jason, or Tim or Cassandra even. All I know is I have one brother who’s the leader of the Titans, Teen Division. I have another as second-in-command under me in the Adult Division. I have a little sister who’s training the new recruits for the JSA and Batsquirt waiting on the hood of my car for me to take him to school. Me, his twenty-five-year-old brother.”
Dick finished off his coffee and dropped the cup to the sink. “I’m not a soothsayer, Dad, but Jason might have died if not for us. And Tim could’ve gone down the wrong path. Cassandra might have been a murderous maniac for her father, and Damian could’ve been raised by Talia and Ra’s, growing up as the prince of the League of Assassins. But he’s not. They’re all not, and I want to make sure they never do.”
Bruce finally looked up from his paper and met his son’s eyes demandingly. “They’re not your responsibility.”
“No, they’re my family, and I want to be there for them like they’re there for me.” Dick slapped his father on the shoulder and grabbed his jacket from Tim’s chair. “I’ll be back on Wednesday for dinner.”
He was halfway toward the door before Bruce called, “Dick, seriously think about what you will be giving up.”
Dick smiled his patented carefree grin and raised his left hand to show his naked finger. “Dad? I gave it up a week ago.”
Bruce met his son’s eyes for a long moment. “You’re a good man, Richard.”
“I had a hell of an example to follow.”
With a wave, he left, and Bruce watched out the window as Dick approached his Ferrari, where Damian sat on the hood cross-legged, studying for a test. When he saw Dick, the boy bounced off the car and grabbed his bags, making a face when Dick ruffled his hair. However, he allowed his older brother bend over to plant a kiss on his head.
For a moment, Bruce almost thought he saw a resemblance between the two—their posture, their mannerisms, their smile. Everything seemed to mirror, but then they were gone a minute later with a faint beeping.
Bruce let
the thought pass. After all, it was impossible. Dick was born in a trailer
outside a circus tent in
“Bruce?” Alfred called when he entered. “The time, sir.”
“Hmm? Ah, yes.” Bruce finished his coffee before heading toward the front door. He stopped right before Alfred, turning his head toward the window once more.
“Alfred, have you ever…I mean, with Dick and Damian…”
“Ah, the self-proclaimed Big D and Little D, sir? Have I ever…?”
“Have you ever looked closely?”
“Ah.” As always, Bruce own personal forum eased of tension, the older man for the first time looking elderly. But of course, the former Scotland Yard Associate noticed. “Sir, if I may so bold as to say, the past is gone. Perhaps it should be left where it cannot hurt the ignorant.”
Bruce’s lips quirked into a half-grin, and he patted Alfred’s shoulder once. “A wise course. Have a good day, Alfred.”
Alfred’s eyes sparkled after Bruce left, and he looked at a picture of Dick’s graduation on the refrigerator and the semblance between father and son. “A wise course...indeed, sir.”
THE END