I Forgot to Mention

Obligatory Star Wars Reference

It seemed so simple in hindsight. Make sure the boys finished their homework, introduce them to the league, and then make sure they all got home by the time Alfred finished cooking dinner. (He said that he was lasagna tonight. It's no lobster Thermidor in Batman's opinion, but it was still in his top five meals.)

Instead, his kids all collectively decided to pick today to try and kill each other. Of course, it also just had to be in front of an audience. An audience made up of several people that he worked with.  Just perfect.  The Justice League members weren't like his other employees, who could easily be bribed to ignore the more eyebrow raising antics of their boss's sons. After all, money talked as much as it hushed. However, that strategy was strictly too Bruce Wayne for Batman to pull. Besides, something told him that it probably wouldn't work with most of the heroes to begin with. Oliver Queen was rich enough in his own right and not greedy enough to be influenced by the promise of more money.  While a newspaper reporter like Clark would likely benefit from a few extra zeros in his bank account, that ridiculously self righteous moral compass of his would probably prevent him from taking the offer.  Flash might would consider it if approached alone, but that wasn't going to be able to happen.  Batman wasn't even going to try with Wonder Woman.

So, there he sat at their old meeting table in Mt. Justice, (not nearly as nice as the one in the Watchtower, but there was no way he was going to let them drag him to outer space for this) forced to justify his parenting style to the Justice League.  Well, it could be worse.  It could be CPS.

"I believe I speak for everyone present when I say that what we want to know is, why?"

Batman fought the urge to roll his eyes.  Leave it Clark to, once again, be the one to call him out regarding his students.  He was sorely tempted to ask if Conner was alright after pulling Wolf off of Clark.  However, now was not the time to bring up Superman's hypocrisy.  Right now was the time for damage control.

"Could you be more specific?"  Batman folded his hands out in front of him.  "Because if you're referring to Robin's possession of a sword, then I can assure you that I'm handling it—"

"It's not about the sword!"  Superman argued.

"...I thought it was about the sword..."  Flash mumbled.

"So did I," Green Arrow shrugged.

"It's a little bit about the sword, Clark," Wonder Woman agreed.

Superman pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine. But it's mostly about trying to find out why he even had a sword in the first place."

"I've already been investigating that," Batman told them. "I narrowed it down to three possible—"

"Again, not the point." Superman took a deep breath.

"What Superman means to ask," Wonder Woman explained as she quickly took over for him, "why are you training a student so young? Your other three protégés aren't as old as the rest of the team, but there's still a clear age difference between them and Robin."

"Yeah, what parent just lets their kindergartener go out and play superhero with the Dark Knight?" Flash asked while leaning forward in his seat.

The hypocrisy was strong with more than one person tonight it seemed. After all, if one of his kids almost died trying to give themselves superpowers just to catch the attention of another hero, Bruce definitely wouldn't have immediately let said hero then have unfettered access to his kid in order to "train" them. Relative or not. (Of course, that spoke more to the potential ineptitude of Wally's parents, but that was neither here nor there. Later.)

"Maybe we should ask Dinah to sit with the kid, one on one? I mean, they're already supposed to have counseling, it couldn't hurt to move it up."

Leave it to Oliver freaking Queen to talk about Batman's own son like he wasn't sitting right across from him.  He very nearly asked how Roy was enjoying his new side hustle as a babysitter.  Dick had been sure to tell Batman all about his encounter with Oliver's former ward.  (In all seriousness, he had been considering hiring Roy.  Him and Alfred could really do with another set of eyes on the boys as of late.  He'd definitely pay far better than the Justice League did.)

Still, as the four other heroes continued to discuss Damian, Batman couldn't help but notice that they had strayed off topic.  It was none of their business to speculate about what sort of "deal" he had worked out with the boy's family.  That was between him, Talia, their respective lawyers, and Bruce Wayne's bank account manager!  However, it suddenly struck him that none of them actually know who Damian's parents are.  As far as they knew, Robin was just another random kid Batman had taken under his wing for some unknown reason.  One that just so happened to only be six years old. 

Batman treasured his secret identity above all else. It was always his most precious possession. Something worth more than all of his money and assets, yet couldn't ever be bought. He never thought he would find any one thing in the universe that even came close to eclipsing its value, much less ever exceeding it...and then he found four. He loved his sons, and he did his best to teach them to cherish their secret identities as much as he did his own. It was their escape clause from the superhero life. Their guaranteed "out" in order to be able to live a normal life, (Well, as normal a life they could as trust funded minor celebrities.) and a way to completely sever all visible ties with the Batman. Again, a priceless gift.

He had worked hard to convince the other members of the Justice League that his identity was nothing to be concerned about. He played up the loner persona enough to keep them off his back, give or take a few random instances, and to more importantly keep them away from his sons. Unfortunately, that once well constructed wall was now plagued with cracks. Although, they were all a result of his handling of the situation.  He had chosen to get ahead of it all once his sons were discovered, as he knew it would do absolutely no good for him to try to lie about it. After securing their physical safety, he did his best to protect their futures. The result was not perfect, but he's worked with worse. They all have.

"I have a perfectly good reason for recruiting Robin."

Batman watched as everyone redirected their attention back to him. It seemed that they only just remembered that he was still there.  Deception, he once again decided, would get him nowhere.

"Robin is my son. I am his father."

A pin could have dropped it was so quiet. Well, at least until Flash had registered what exactly Batman had revealed.

"YOU'RE WHAT?!"