Danny was still curled up in Bruce's lap, clinging to the man with desperation, crying it all out onto Bruce's shirt while he trembled with post-panic attack stress. Bruce rubbed his back and fuzzy head comfortingly, hoping Danny would be alright.

The boy was strong, and uniquely intelligent. Bruce shouldn't worry too much, but he did, because despite what the vigilante thought, he loved the little boy. He wanted him to be safe and feel loved, to be whole again. It was the same strong feeling he got when Dick need him.

"Do you want to go back to bed?" Bruce repeated, Danny shook his head again. He was too afraid it would return, he never wanted to fall asleep again, he couldn't risk it.

Bruce nodded understandingly with a reassuring pat on the halfas back. "Alright, you don't have to sleep if you don't want to. Let's get you some new bandages though, your starting to bleed through." Danny unlatched his arms from Bruce and scooted backwards, head down and still sniffling. Bruce stood and picked Danny up gently (as to not injure the boy's arm further) and set him on the bed. Of course his injuries had bled while he was writhing in his sleep, Danny poked his leg experimentally and held his breath as pain shot through the limb.

Bruce caught the halfas eyes, "I'm going to leave for a few seconds because the first aid kit is downstairs, are you going to be ok alone?" He didn't want Danny to have another panic attack.

Danny eyes shifted from the billionaires gaze to his core, he was telling the truth. Danny nodded reluctantly, he wanted to latch onto him again, he didn't want him to leave. What if his flashbacks got worse? What if while he was gone the GIW showed up again?

Bruce left somewhat hesitantly, and sped walked to minimalist time away from the half panicked child. Bruce eyed Dick's door as he passed, surprized the acrobat didn't wake up from Danny's screams. Bruce figured he probably did wake up but kept his distance, Dick was a smart kid.

Unbeknownst to Bruce, Dick was hiding expertly on the hallway ceiling, he didn't want Bruce to know he was spying on him.

Back inside the room, once the vigilante was gone, Danny slid off the bed and stood. He felt bad for thinking Bruce was a GIW agent. Bruce was trying his hardest to be nice and take care of him, and he was succeeding, no need for Danny to ruin it. The white haired halfa limped around the bed and got the covers up from the ground, almost drowning himself in the large fabric.

Danny huffed as he tried to throw the comforter on the bed, only to have it land on him. Danny sighed, he lifted his hands to grab the blanket but it was pulled taut by his reaching. The door opened again and Danny twisted around to face Bruce, only to tangle himself further in the blanket.

A smile played at Bruce's lips as he found Danny standing with the blanket on top of him totally twisted up.

"You alright Danny? Did you get stuck?" Bruce said in a light tone. He set the bandages on the bed corner and went over to the flailing Danny, who was trying to throw the blanket off to no avail.

"Here, let me help." Bruce grabbed the blanket corner and lifted it, Danny became visible in the shadow of the blanket. Danny limped towards him until the blanket came down again, covering him once more. Bruce smiled, trying not to laugh as Danny made an agitated 'humph'. Oops, Bruce thought, he flicked the blanket again and Danny dashed out as to not get trapped again.

The halfa stuck to the black cored man's side as Bruce gathered the blanket off the ground and draped it over one side of the bed. Danny's hair was sticking up in amusing places courtesy of the blanket. Danny scowled at the covers and hugged onto Bruce's leg as he walked. Once Bruce was done he walked over to the other side where the bandages were. Bruce sat on the bed as Danny stood in front of him, now at eye level.

"Alright let's see if we can change your bandages." Bruce said in a very official, but soft, tone. Danny gave the kind man a small smile, the first in a very long while.

First, Bruce unwound the bandage on his arm and shoulder, then the one on his leg.

When Bruce removed the bandage from the child's shoulder he was surprised to find the bandage bloody but the shoulder was completely healed. Although, an angry white scar in the shape of a net was etched into his skin. Bruce gently touched Danny's shoulder where the net had burned it, Danny flinched but otherwise stayed still.

"You heal fast." Bruce commented, Danny just nodded and went for the bandage on his foot that had gotten caught by the net. Now that a pile of bloodied bandages were off to one side Bruce looked at Danny's face. The scar there was already white, a near permanent reminder of Danny's suffering.

Danny then started taking off his clothes so Bruce could get to the wound on his side. He took off his shirt knowing Bruce would react in some form or fashion. Bruce has seen them already when he rescued him, he was shirtless during the rescue. But the sheer amount of scars still shocked the vigilante.

An ugly y-shaped scar ran from his shoulders to his stomach, Bruce's own stomach flipped. A lot more happened to this child than Brue originally thought. Puncture wounds and slash marks covered Danny, even his arms and hands had scars. Some of them were a nasty red color while others were white with age, new and old reminders to the child of what the GIW had done, and of what Danny was. The white haired boy looked down, not completely comfortable with Bruce looking at all his scars.

Bruce tried to ignore the scars as he wrapped Danny's lower torso, he then gave Danny his shirt back. Danny pushed his pants down and Bruce was surprised to see scars there as well. All down his thighs and calves were lines upon lines of scars, one particularly nasty one still wasn't done healing. His right leg was an angry red-green color and swollen, blood crusted around it. Bruce quickly wrapped it, albeit gently, and Danny pulled up his pants again.

"Now that we're done with that, you probably need a brace for your arm and leg." Danny limped after Bruce as he got up and walked to the door, waiting for Danny to catch up. Bruce let Danny hold onto his sleeve again as they walked down the hallway.

Dick held his breath as his mentor passed beneath him. The boy, Danny, he remembered, looked up curiously as they walked. Crap. Dannys eyes went wide when they saw him, Dick had heard how skittish he was. He was going to tell Bruce then Dick would get in trouble.

Danny's breathing hitched when he saw the boy in the ceiling, watching them like a stalking cat. Besides the fact that he didn't know the boy what was scaring him was the fact that Danny felt like he recognized him. He looked like him, in human form of course, but older. He had the raven black hair and bright blue eyes that almost glowed. It nagged at him, so much so that he forgot to alert Bruce to his presence. Danny rotated back, his gears turning.

Why did that boy look so familiar? Danny remembered when he saw his core, it was yellow and purple, lined in black. Not for the first time Danny wondered what the black meant, and less common, why the boy seemed afraid.

"Are you ok Danny?" Bruce asked when he noticed Dannys stiff movement. Danny nodded automatically, too lost in thought to give an explanation.

Dick breathed out a sigh of relief when they passed, Danny didn't tell Bruce. Dick smiled, he had seen everything that happened after Bruce first entered the room. It reminded him of the days where he would get night terrors and Bruce would come and comfort him. Thankfully he had them a lot less frequently now, but every now and then they would come back, usually around his parent's death date.

But there was something about Danny that seemed to click with him. Like he knew him from somewhere. Dick knew he had a brother, Dick was seven when he vanished, a year shy from their parents unexpected departure. Dick suspected he was kidnaped, but there was no evidence, no witnesses, no explanation. Just, poof, gone. His little brother would have been nine right now if he were alive. Dick was convinced his brother was dead like the rest of the circus, after little Daniel Grayson had been gone for more than a year.

Danny paused at the top of the stairs, Bruce looked down at him and Danny looked up.

"Want to be carried? or do you want to walk?" Danny smiled as he got an idea.

Danny grabbed onto Bruce's leg, wrapping his legs around too like a koala. Danny sat on Bruce's foot, linking his feet and hands together tightly so he wouldn't fall off. Bruce chuckled at his antics. Danny didn't know what made him think to do it but it felt... natural, normal even.

"Well alright then, here we go." Bruce walked down the stairs slowly, making sure he didn't jerk his Danny infested leg too much. Danny smiled as he felt the cool whoosh as they descended the stairs, a spark of yellow in his core.

They got to the bottom of the stairs where Bruce paused to Danny could get off. When Danny just hugged his leg tighter and shook his head Bruce smirked and kept on walking. The duo made it to the kitchen where two braces suspiciously sat on the table. Danny suspected Dick, while Bruce imagined Alfred.

"Sneaky butler." Bruce muttered, he grabbed the small braces from the table and sat in one of the chairs. Danny finally let go of his leg and stood, leaning to one side as to not put pressure on his bad leg.

Bruce ripped open the velcro and Danny held his arm out, the billionaire slid the brace on, careful not to jostle the healing limb. Once he secured it tightly, Bruce leaned over and dragged a chair out for Danny to sit on.

Bruce's heart spiked as Danny froze in front of the chair. Did he have a bad experience with chairs too? Though, It wasn't the chair Danny was afraid of, it was the table.

The halfas mind filled with the panic that came when he was sent to the experimentation room. Danny closed his eyes and shook his head, clearing it of its destructive fear. His jaw clenched as he tried to shove the memories away, forcing his lungs to fill with air.

Bruce watched with hopeful fascination, so Danny could somewhat control his fear. Danny climbed onto the chair, albeit shakily, then twisted around so he faced Bruce. The blue eyed billionaire gestured for Danny to lift his leg, the small halfa complied with a nervous shift in his seat. Bruce latched the brace onto Danny's thigh, which was almost too small for the extra small brace.

Danny let his legs dangle after Bruce finished with the braces, wondering what he should do now. It wasn't good to let his mind wander too far, when left unattended his mind went to dangerous places... places he knew he wouldn't be able to return from.

"How about we get some early breakfast?" Bruce offered as he got up from the dark table and went through an archway leading to somewhere. "Have you had cereal before?" Bruce asked from the pantry, scanning the shelves for some sort of cereal. It was slightly embarrassing, his butler took care of all the food in the house, Bruce didnt even know where the cereal was.

Danny wasn't too hungry, and sitting at the table didnt help calm his stomach. He was flabbergasted that Bruce and the Alfred dude wanted to feed him so much. He survived this long without food, he didnt actually NEED it. Of course he was wrong, he did actually need it for his human side, which was why he was still in ghost form. His human side had always been the weaker of the two.

Danny stalled like an airplane with its engine cut as Dick suddenly entered the room.

The older boy put a finger to his smiling lips, the acrobat wanted to scare Bruce. Danny watched numbly as Dick vaulted over the table with barely the sound of his feet thudding against the floor. As silent as a wraith, Dick pressed his back up against the wall next to the archway that led to the pantry.

"Aha, found some." Bruce said, somewhat muffled. "I hope you like Fruit Loops, because apparently that's all we've got." Bruce's voice got louder as he came back into the room, the vigilante didn't notice Dick behind him.

Danny just stared, afraid and curious. He didnt trust Dick, yet he did because of some underlying instinct telling him Dick was not going to hurt him. Maybe it's what Bruce said, or maybe it was the familiar glint in the older boy's piercing blue gaze, perhaps a bit of both...

Bruce held a brightly colored box in one hand and a bowl and spoon in the other, He set them in front of Danny (who would have taken that time to study the new objects in front of him but was preoccupied by the raven haired boy sneaking around) and left to go find the milk. Dick was following him like a shadow, right in the place Bruce could not see. He was quite good at it actually, his footfalls blended in with Bruce's, Danny couldn't hear if the boy was actually breathing, it was kind of scary. Danny was only worried that Bruce would get mad if Dick scared him, then Dick would be scared. Danny didn't want Dick to be scared.

Danny shook his head, where had that come from? He did NOT know Dick, he didnt have to protect him from Bruce's wrath. Why did he feel like he needed to protect him? Danny shoved the thoughts aside to ponder at a later date because Bruce and sneaky Dick came back.

Bruce sat down and poured the cereal and milk into the bowl, then pushed it towards Danny. Danny stared at the colorful loops drowning in milk. Why was he being fed again? Oh yeah, because Bruce is weird.

Dick stood behind Bruce hands raised in a maniacal way, a giant grin stretched across his face and his chest expanded with a large intake of air. Danny sized up.

"Dick, you're scaring him."

Dick deflated with a frown, mumbling "dang it." He moved to Bruce's side and scowled at his mentor. "When did you know?"

"When I came in to bring Danny the milk, Danny was frozen and kept glancing past me." Bruce said, with a smile twards Danny who shrunk in his seat. Danny was so confused, shouldn't Bruce be mad?

A triumphant smile broke out on the acrobats face. "Hah! So you didnt realize I was there when I followed you into the pantry?!" Dick nearly yelled, "That's like, 50% success! Even if I didn't get to scare you, you didnt notice till after I followed you." Dick waved his arms about then pointed to Bruce. Bruce shook his head.

"No, it was more like 30%, If you were able to sneak up on me without me noticing the entire time, then it'd be 50%. The scaring is another 50%." Bruce rebutted, Dick scoffed and walked to a chair on the other side of the table. He slouched in a chair and scrunched up his face with his arms crossed.

"You're no fun." he mumbled with a frown. Bruce smiled at Dick's antics, but hoped it didn't scare Danny too much.

"You ok Danny? This is Dick, he likes to sneak up on people, especially me. He won't do anything to you." Dick smiled where he sat, still excited he was able to sneak up on the bat for at least a little bit before he noticed he was there.

Danny nodded and looked to his cereal, thinking of Dick and Bruce. Dick seemed so care-free, so unafraid, so comfortable in his skin. Danny frowned in thought, Danny wanted to be that brave. Danny had been looking at their cores while they talked, Dick's core seemed to live off of yellow, while Bruce gained a slight sheen of yellow but still black. Danny really wanted to figure out what the black meant.

"Are you hungry?" Bruce asked, Danny sighed and shook his head. No he wasnt hungry, besides, the cereal had absorbed the milk and was now a disgusting green-brown goop that looked like Danny's intestines. He would know, he's seen it.

"Ok then, but you need to eat something later. You're seriously underweight and still growing, you need food." Bruce stressed to the halfa. Danny listened but shrugged, still believing he didnt need food.

Beep Beep Beep Beep

Danny felt the color drain from his face at the noise, his body stiffening as he was momentarily brought back to the experimentation table. Meanwhile, Bruce sighed and went for his waist, a black belt with lots of pockets was there. The same belt Batman wore. Dannys knuckles grew white as he gripped the seat, he focused on Bruce and his belt, anything to keep from that awful place in his mind.

Danny looked at the black cored man oddly, did he sleep with that belt on? Dick, who had remained silent for the duration of the alarm, sighed as well, putting an elbow on the table and chin in his hand.

"That's Bruce's crime alert, he's got to go lay the smack down on someone." Dick supplied for Danny. The halfa sent a worried glance at Bruce, he had to leave? The boy wasn't as much worried he would be left alone with Dick as he was worried Bruce would get hurt.

Danny blinked and cleared his thoughts, there it was again. What was up with him and protecting people? Danny thought back to when Bruce had rescued him from the GIW net, the vigilante had held his own, actually, he basically obliterated them. Danny wondered what Batman did with the knocked out GIW agents, he quickly diverted his thoughts as a little part of him hoped those men were dead.

Danny's only concern (that he was forcing himself to focus on) was he was going to be left alone with Dick.

Dick was not Bruce, Bruce knew what to do and stuff. Dick, as far as Danny knew, did not. As much as his instincts told him to trust Dick he couldn't help but be cautious. Danny had never met a kid his age, or near it, besides Jazzy. What did kids do? Were they like mini GIW agents? Danny looked at Dick, this time fearfully.

"Sorry Danny, I've got to go. Will you be ok here with Dick?" Bruce asked the apprehensive halfa. Danny stared at Dick with calculating eyes, he finally looked to Bruce and nodded. Bruce got up from his seat but then paused at the archway, he waved Dick over.

"Dick, come here for a second, I've got to tell you something before I go." Dick nodded curiously. He got up and went to Bruce, just as silent as when he stalked Bruce, leaving Danny at the table alone. Bruce turned away from Danny and spoke softly.

"I don't think English is his first language." Dick's eyebrow rose in question. "I think it's Romanian, just to let you know. Maybe, if he gets a little too panicked, speak to him in Romanian and it might calm him down." Dick's eyes widened, shocked to find an attribute akin to his dead brother.

"But when he does speak it's usually English, he also stutters a lot." Bruce continued.

"Thanks Bruce, I'll make sure he doesn't freak out or anything." Dick assured, Bruce smirked.

"Honestly I'm quite surprised he's trusted you so easily. If it were anyone else I don't think he would have been as calm as he was when you were following me." Bruce said.

"That was calm?" Dick asked, the weight of the situation finally settled on Dick. He was going to take care of a child that had massive issues with trust, noises, and certain objects. Who knows what else he could be afraid of.

"For Danny, yes." Bruce said seriously.

Dick nodded solemnly and headed back to the table and Bruce waved goodbye, silently wishing the boy wonder luck. Danny watched him leave, already regretting agreeing to be alone with the silent scare-er. Danny looked to Dick and Dick smiled nicely.

"So, what do you want to do?"