The Last Talon

Chapter Ten

The seeds were laid out to the public a week later and by the Thursday, Jason had joined Bruce at Wayne Corp for a press conference. Dick had stayed at home, as per their plan, watching the conference on the news. The press had tried to tear Jason apart.

They had accused him of having a double life (if only they knew how ironic that statement was), accused him of being reckless, impulsive. They drilled him for his reasons for leaving all those years ago and when Bruce had let "slip" about the splicing incident that had turned Dick's eyes to their golden colour, they had gone on to insinuate Jason wasn't able to control his son. But it had been the final question that had cut Dick to his core.

'Mr Todd, your son, what's his name?'

'Richard.' Said Jason calmly, but Dick could see the slight tension in his shoulders; he knew what was coming.

'Did you name your son after your brother who went missing twenty years ago?' The reporter looked at his notepad. 'Richard Grayson?'

Jason waited for a beat and then nodded, he didn't need to pretend to be affected by the statement. For twenty years he had had no idea what had happened to his brother, it had torn him apart. Even now Dick was back, he knew his brother couldn't have his old life back. But that was why he was here, listening to these clueless fools; so that Dick could have a normal life.

'Do you blame yourself?'

Back at the manor, the question made Dick sit up.

'Excuse me?' Said Jason.

'Do you blame yourself for your brother's disappearance?'

Jason gave them a puzzled look.

'No,' he said 'I was fifteen when Dick went missing. There was nothing I could have done to prevent it.'

'What about you, Mr Wayne?' All eyes were suddenly on Bruce. 'Is it true you sent Richard to a boarding school, the very boarding school he was abducted from?'

Bruce froze. Bruce never freezes. Dick watched the man on the screen, he knew the man must blame himself to some degree but he didn't realise it was tearing him up this much.

Jason brought the attention back to himself and manage to steer the conversation back to the reason they were there. With the attention off himself, Bruce managed to regain his composure.

Four hours later they returned to the manor and Jason slammed the front door closed.

'Bloody animals.' He muttered. 'I need a drink.'

'Got you covered.' Annie emerged from the kitchen with a glass of whiskey. 'Well, that was brutal.'

'You're telling me. How dare they bring Grayson's disappearance into it.'

'We knew that they would.' Said Bruce quietly.

'Yeh well, they shouldn't have.' Jason sighed, reaching out to slap a hand down on Bruce's shoulder. 'Where is Dick?'

Annie's jaw tightened. 'He watched the conference on the news,' she said. 'He was pretty annoyed by their comments as well. He's been up in his room since.'

Bruce went to walk forward but Jason stopped him.

'I'll get him. You get some of this in your system.' He handed the older man his untouched drink and headed up the stairs towards Dick's room.

He knocked on the door but there was no answer. Opening the door a crack he poked his head around but saw there was no one in the room but the window was open. Apparently, old habits die hard. He went over to the window and leaned out of it.