The Winchesters' New Protege

Bruce Wayne.

Bruce has been in the board meeting for about two hours now, to be perfectly honest, he'd zoned out about five minutes after it started. He occasionally glances around the room or shift in his seat slightly to give the illusion of focus. It's a technique that had been developed after many, many years of not paying attention in board meetings. It isn't like he's missing much anyway. He'll just tell them to get Lucius to check over everything.

Besides, he has much more important things to worry about. Like a warehouse full of decapitated bodies and his dead son and that thing that attacked him in that alleyway.

He's already made a little list of what he has to do when he finally manages to escape:

The first thing he was going to do was dig up Jason's grave. He just wants to make sure that the Jason currently in his house is actually his Jason. The thought makes him slightly uncomfortable, but it's the easiest way to catch 'Jason' out. It won't actually do anything to verify 'Jason' as his Jason, but it'll put his mind at ease for a small while, at least.

Then he's going to have to go to that warehouse and get some samples from some of the bodies. A head, and some blood samples would probably do. He's also going to have to clean it all up, and he genuinely has yet to think of how the hell he is going to go about this. There were at least a dozen bodies and decapitation is particularly messy.

Once he figures out how he's going to do that, he'd going to try and find the alleyway where that thing attacked him and Jason. It was dark and Bruce was tired and it was probably just a rabid dog, but Bruce just wants to make sure.

THEN he's going to attempt to convince Jason to give him some DNA samples and let Bruce test his fingerprints. Maybe he'll get Dick to ask for him (Jason is probably a little apprehensive of Bruce). He honestly not really sure of what he'll do if Jason isn't actually Jason.

"Mr. Wayne?" someone to his left asks.

"Sorry, what was that?" Bruce replies, glancing around the table. A woman across the table from him speaks.

"Are the changes okay with you, Mr. Wayne?" she repeats.

He glances at the board briefly – something about increasing exports. "Everything seems to be fine. Just check it all over with Lucius."

And just like that he can leave. Magic.

-

He drove himself home. Alfred mentioned something about wanting to keep an eye on Jason and Bruce didn't press any further than that – although he does feel that Alfred was too comfortable with Jason too quickly.

Speaking of Jason, Bruce has a grave to dig up.

-

It's a more tiring job than Bruce expected. He wanted to finish the job before sundown but there was a lot of traffic coming back, and he only just starts when it begins to get dark. Luckily, he manages to find a headlamp and some batteries and he continues.

A couple of shovelfuls of dirt later and he's already beginning to ache. By the time that he gets halfway, he feels on the verge of collapsing. There's this strange sensation of someone watching him and he turns.

Off in the distance, by the entrance of the cemetery is a tall figure – Jason.

One hand is in the pocket of his leather jacket and the other is down by his side, holding a lit cigarette. He brings it up to his mouth and the two make eye contact. In the light of the moon, Jason seems almost ghostlike, pale skin and dark shadows thrown across his face. Jason gives a short nod, tips his hand in a short salute, and turns on his heels, walking back towards the manor.

Bruce feels unsettled, but continues. Within a couple of minutes, he reaches the coffin.

It's caved in – Bruce feels his heart stutter in his chest. He crouches down and examines the hole. There are scratches in the wood – Bruce thinks that he's going to throw up.

Jason dug himself out of his own grave. He woke up in his coffin.

He stares up into the sky and tries to breathe – he has other things he needs to do. He makes a note to check through the security footage archives (because he has to see it for himself) and begins to fill the grave back in. His hands are shaking slightly, but he tries to ignore that.

It's past midnight when he gets back into the manor. He goes straight into the batcave – he doesn't want to have to think about it anymore.

-

The night air is cool.

A shadow flickers across the rooftops. There's a flash of a black cape and a small thud echoes down an empty street. The warehouse door creaks as he slides it open.

The pools of blood on the floor had dried into flaky stains on the concrete. There's an overwhelming smell of rotting flesh. He sighs, grimacing. He'd better get started. If he's lucky, he can be home by 2AM.

Bruce is not lucky.

It's around 4AM by the time he gets back to the cave. The smell of blood and rotting flesh has literally absorbed into his costume. His body aches and he can barely keep his eyes open. He drags himself out of the batmobile with the bag of DNA samples.

The sweet release of sleep will come soon, he can put the sample in the computer and then let it do the rest. He manages to get the analysis started and not much further.

On the way out, he decides that he'll quickly check on Jason. He takes a seat at the batcomputer monitor and brings up the camera screens. In the darkness, he can just about see the shape of Jason curled up under his covers.

He glances around at the other screens and everything kind of blurs, then fades.

Alfred finds him slumped over in his chair at six in the morning, but leaves him there. It's about time Bruce gets a full night's sleep.