Mask of Glass

Ch 9

"I'm fine Father!" Damian yelled, trying to conceal his winces of pain as he limped towards Bruce. "Please let me come... it's just patrol!"

"I already told you Damian. You are not going out on patrol, not until your leg is healed."

"It's just a cut. Alfred took care of it yesterday. It's only lunch time... it might be better by the time we have to leave for patrol." Damian pleaded, desperately trying to convince Bruce to let him go out as Robin.

"For the last time Damian! I said no! You aren't coming on patrol with me tonight, and you aren't going to train! Now get back to your bed and rest!" Bruce said, putting a hand on Damian's shoulder.

Damian roughly shrugged Bruce's hand off and stomped his foot in indignation. He winced slightly as a jolt ran through his injured leg. "So you just expect me to sit back and do nothing while there are people I could be helping, saving even!" Damian yelled at Bruce.

"Damian. You need to rest. Your wound needs time to heal." Bruce said in a gentler voice this time.

"I'm not just some helpless child that needs your coddling and protection. That spot has already been taken by Grayson. You can't just order me to go to my room like I am some disobedient dog!" Damian fumed as he glared at Bruce.

"Hey, I'm not a child..." Dick started, but trailed off when the glares of both Bruce and Damian were turned on him.

"I am your legal guardian Damian. You will listen to what I say." Bruce said, turning his glare back to Damian.

"Tt... I can do what I want. I'm an Al Ghul too, not just a Wayne." Damian shot back coldly.

"Damian I'm just trying to protect you... to keep you safe." Bruce tried to reason with his son.

"You're just trying to make me weak, like all of your other sidekicks." Damian shouted, turning on his heel and storming up the stairs to his room where he slammed the door.

"I'll go talk to him, see if I can help him to calm down a bit." Dick said, rising from the chair he had been seated in and making his way to Damian's room.

Dick knocked on the door to Damian's room. He called out and asked for permission to enter the room, but he was met with silence.

"Dami... you alright?" Dick said, cautiously opening the door and stepping into Damian's room.

Everything in the spacious room was neat and orderly, but Damian was nowhere in sight. The room's single large window was open, letting in gusts of freezing cold wind that carried fluffy white snowflakes into the room.

Dick rushed to the window and looked out, shouting Damian's name. He could see a path of footprints in the snow, but they were quickly being buried under a fresh layer of flakes.

"He's gone!" Dick shouted as he ran back to where Bruce and Damian had been arguing. "The window was open, and there was a trail of footprints in the snow, leading off into the forest."

Bruce's eyes snapped up from the newspaper that he had started reading. "What?" He said, jumping to his feet and starting up to Damian's room. Dick followed behind him, hoping that his eyes had simply deceived him before and that he would see Damian sitting on his bed glaring at him when he walked in. His hopes were in vain.

"Come on. We have to go find him." Bruce said, grabbing Dick by the arm and dragging him through the manor.

As Bruce went to go find Jason and Tim, Dick texted Babs. They had planned to go on a date that night, but it looked as if that wasn't going to happen. "Hey Babs. Damian ran off into the snowstorm and we are going to go look for him. I might not be able to make it to our date tonight." Dick texted.