A Chance

-12-

Heo! Hi! I'm up here today! And it's still Sunday right? Yeah? I promised I'd update Sunday so hErE it iS at 11:57 p.m. cuz I can do things on tIMe just aSk my cOlleGe profEssoRs. Anywho I did mean for this to be out last Sunday but then life happened and things exploded and I wanted to die but I liVed to give you guys 20,000+ words in a sIngLe chaPter.

That's right. This is my longest chapter. I'm going to break Wattpad one day, I'm honestly kinda worried cuz the text is being delayed pretty badly as I'm writing this.

ANYWAY

This chapter had a LOT more Dick and Bruce fluff than I originally planned but I assume no one would ever say no to that so YAY FLUFF ADDED LIKE... 3,000 EXTRA WORDS TO THIS.

I was also this friggin close to splitting this chapter into two but there's literally nOwhere good to stop so yeah, big scene is big! And I guess there is technically one spot that would be pretty good but it would be severely uneven, like 15,000 one chap and 5,000 the other and I cannot in good conscious do that.

Lol and to think I was gunna keep this in chapter 11. Smh.

Anywho! Enjoy 20,586 words of Dannyangst and Daddybats and Mommabird Robin!

Also idk if this is obvious or not yet, but the first half of this fic is mainly recovery, but plot is still going on, it gets a lot more plotty in the second half. If anyone remembers that's kinda how it was in the first one too, but this time recovery is longer because heck yeah I love recovery fics and that's prolly why y'all are reading this now. For me it's the perfect blend of fluff and angst and then throw a little plot in is just 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

ONWARDDSSS

Bruce was an idiot. Plain and simple.

Why did he think it was a good idea to leave the extremely traumatized nine-year-old with his thirteen-year-old alone in a giant house when it had been attacked. TWICE.

Point being, Bruce wasn't going anywhere for the next year if his family's safety had anything to say about it. Alfred had been hurt twice, he nearly suffocated the first kidnapping attempt and then got shot a bunch of times in the second one. Dick was cranky because the GIW got away AND his room was practically destroyed. Their ID's were compromised by an enemy and the manor and its grounds were in a sad state of disarray. But all of that had to be put on hold because Danny was having some sort of breakdown under the dining table.

Bruce had never felt so stupid. Even as both Batman and Bruce he was utterly and completely useless to help this ailing child. He refused to continue to be so helpless, but Dick's information on the kid was... confusing, to say the least.

"He can... see emotions?" Bruce asked slowly, still not quite understanding his son who was both mentally and physically maxed out for the day.

He and his pseudo-family were gathered in the kitchen. Alfred was gently stirring a soup at the stove despite Bruce's protests ("I'm perfectly capable of taking care of my boys Master Bruce.") while Dick paced and Bruce (in civies) leaned against the counter. Danny's cries could be faintly heard from the other room, and it disturbed Bruce how quiet it was even though the boy must be in so much pain.

Dick huffed and rubbed his face with what Bruce decided was a groan as he turned around to walk briskly back and forth. "Yes, he calls them cores. It's a circle that swirls and it has colors that mean feelings."