grumpyoldbat | Unexpected Guest(s?).

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Unexpected Guest(s?).

Bruce had been sent home, more or less, by Terry. His own son had straight up told him to go home and rest, that he and Damian would handle the patrols of the other dimension and make sure THAT Bruce was staying down, as he was told (but surely not without some force). It wasn't as though Bruce didn't have things to do in his own time and dimension anyway, a few having to do with the other, information he had to gather from the data base in hopes of getting these murders figured out and one less things on the other Bruce's plate to worry about.

So far, he had nothing. That was a disheartening feeling.

And granted, he didn't just need to research, he probably did need the rest. Damned if he was going to let that keep him from what needed to be done, however.

Other people were worse off than him right now and that was the important factor in all of this.

Glancing over the computer holo displays, Bruce noticed the warning up in the corner. A rift had been opened. Strange, only he and Tony had the capabilities in this dimension to do that, aside from Zee...

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Even with Clark's willingness to finally share Kryptonian technology with him, early simulation had proven unstable. Bruce followed his older self, with the older black dog at his side. "If you say Hal Jordon I might kick you in the back of the head out of reflex." Bruce said dryly.

Bt's face actually screwed up in disgruntled frown. "Jordon? No." Bt didn't play nice with any of the JL these days or for the last fifteen years. He let that go Lane a long, long time ago. And Kent. Augh, just the thought of that asshole made his blood boil.

That was not the point right now. "Stark, actually." He reached the bottom and headed toward the study, Ace padding along with loyal respect to both Bruce's.

"I assume you were also able to help cure him of his poisoning from the palladium toxicity." With the freedom of resources available to them, Bruce was sure it had only taken the two men a long weekend to troubleshoot; if it had been the case on this Earth.

"Never an issue," he stated. "He had Extremis shortly before we figured that might have been a problem for him." Though had it been a problem, yes it would have been dealt with.

"Are you here alone or does my presence need to be explained?" Bruce asked, walking around in his home in his silk pyjamas would be easily accepted except for that fact that it was not technically his home, and there were two of them walking around.

He shook his head, entering the study. "Alone. As I mentioned, Alfred's been gone for a few years. None of the kids live here anymore. Haven't for years. Just Ace and I on most days." And Zee, when she wasn't in her own time, but that wasn't really worth mentioning.

There it was. "How many kids."

Bt stopped, he actually had to mentally count this now because there was that knew he didn't know about recently. How many was it now? "Six. Two aren't technically my own, however."

Bruce wasn't sure he shared the same technicality, even so ... he only knew about the four boys, not six. "Richard is the only one from my time. Though, I met three others in the pocket dimension."

Bt could have sworn he sensed a bit of annoyance in that last part -- that was almost amusing. "Which three?" Could hurt to see which were neutrally the same.

"Jason Todd. Timothy Drake. And ... Damian." Never mind the girls. The boys had explained how they fit in and even met Stephanie Brown, though had not be impressed by her nor her role in the future.

He knew all but Jason. That was a foreign name to him. "Don't know the first."

"Not even while dimension jumping?" Interesting. Had Jason really been a unique case? Perhaps. "Who are the other two, for you?" Trading intelligence would be easy enough, if they could find it within themselves to trust each other.

"I don't do a lot of hopping, actually. Case by case, and the few I've been to haven't had him." He paused a moment, he for a fact that his personal children were unique to only a few other dimensions, maybe not even that.

"My daughter, Addison, and my son, Terry." There was also the one he just found out about, but he hardly knew her as his daughter and only met her once. Really not going there right now.

The term daughter and son were strange to Bruce, even though he regarded Dick as his son, it was still sensitive ground for both of them; the title was used privately, internally, mostly.

Bruce had no knowledge of either of the names. "How old are they?"

"Addie is twenty-two and Terry will be nineteen soon." Bt really only referred to those two as his kids these days, the estrangement he had with Richard had only just be resolved, Tim was still missing, and Damian still held a few grudges. Of all of them, only Addie ever called him Dad or Father these days.

"Is Terry your partner?" The age was right and as far as he was concerned, he would never give up his night job, he would die first.

"He does most of the work these days. Between him and Damian, they take patrols. I've... been out of action on and off," he admitted, though it's probably one of the harder things he'd had to admit to, aside from the actual not going out at night.

But there were reasons for that, and some things you just can't cheat.

For the most part, Bruce accepted the truth of this man's situation without too harsh a criticism, even though he lacked the details of it all. "What about Dick?"

"He hasn't patrol in over fifteen years. He suffered an injury that left him unable to efficiently get the job done and he removed himself from action." And it wouldn't matter if this other Bruce did criticize him or not, truth was some things were even bigger than Batman and that was a harsh truth to come by and comes to terms with.

Bruce frowned deeply, "What sort of injury." He imagined the worst of course, more then what had been explained to him about Barbara Gordon and the Joker, because even with something like that, he doubted Dick would ever give up.

"It was a spinal fracture. Couldn't be completely repaired. He..." this had been where he and Dick had split ways for years, this reason alone, "He could still do the job, but he was noticeably slower. And with Tim and others relying on him, he didn't want to get anyone hurt if he... fucked up."

Bt had had all the faith that Dick could keep going, but he saw, now, that the young man had every right to be worried, it wasn't just him out there, there had been others. It had been obvious at the time that Dick didn't want to quit, but he believed he had to.

"I see." Bruce said neutrally. He would file this along with everyone else he had learned from his time in the village, regardless if it was something for his own future or not.

Bt shrugged. "Managed without him. Still am," he replied, rather irritably; the subject of Dick, whether they had made up recently or not, was not a kind one.

He took a seat at the desk in the study and pulled a small device from his pocket, he'd need to reset a few things on it in order to get the dimensions numbers exact. He didn't have any spares, having leant them to Damian and Terry to help out in other dimension.

Not. Ever. When given the choice, Bruce would ultimately choose an imperfect world with Dick Grayson in it, then one without. So the subject of Dick Grayson was not one they would be agreeing on any time soon. For that reason alone, it was perhaps best that he leave as soon as it became possible to move on. "It's your technology. Do you need anything else from me?"

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