Bruce's phone began to buzz as he gazed into the apartment he and Robin were checking, ticking off their seamlessly endless checklist. Taking off his armoured glove, he removed his phone from his belt and found himself quickly unveiling his cowl and pressing his phone to his ear.

"Dick?"

"Brucey. Brucey. Brucey."

"Who is this?" Bruce asked despite knowing exactly who it was. The creepy cooing voice of the Clown of Gotham had Bruce gritting his teeth.

"Just a guy with a plan." A small cackle emitted, "Someone wants to say hello."

"Bruce?" Came Richard's unnatural quiet and defeated voice.

"Dick?! Where are you?"

Silence.

"Dick?"

"He'll kill them."

"What can you see?" Bruce asked instead and held in his growl as Joker's voice drowned out Dick's whimpers.

"Ah, ah, ah! No giving anything away, Dicky Bird." Joker cooed at Dick, his distance tone quickly focusing back to Bruce. "Bruce Wayne, King of Gotham, I have something that belongs to you. If you want him back, I suggest you head to-"

"-Found him." Jason's voice flittered over the radio. The address Joker told him was the same Jason repeated through the radio. When Dick's phone clicked off immediately after another cold laugh, Bruce quickly replied to Jason.

"We're on our way." Bruce brought his cowl back up hiding his hard features and quickly replaced his glove. He swiftly ran after Damian, who had already thrown himself over several buildings.

When Batman and Robin joined Red Hood and Red Robin on the roof opposite the apartment building Dick was being held hostage, they found it surrounded with police cars and ambulances. All their eyes followed their partner, family, and friend being taken to the ambulance. Dick was announcing he was perfectly okay, and the others needed more care than he did. Batman noticed the other hostages and found them missing certain body parts, and were covered in blood. Bruce furrowed his brow, what did Joker want with his employees?

"We better get to the hospital," Tim announced.

***

Bruce rushed through the emergency doors with Damian close behind, demanding to be taken to Richard's room. They headed up the elevator and briskly walked down the hall until the number thirty-two burned into their eyes. Bruce opened the door and he sighed both in relief to see Dick in one piece, and in guilted anger for what he was put through. When Dick's head turned to find them standing there, he smiled weakly, lifting his hand in greeting. Bruce's faze floated to the needle sticking out his hand, swiftly turning his attention to Dick's face. He frowned deeply. Up close he could see the vast bruises. Dark ones covering not only around his eye but covered his jaw. He walked over behind Damian and stood before the bedridden man. The situation and the look on Dick's face brought back too many memories; finding Dick when he was young in his room attempting to hide the bruising he received from that night's patrol or catching Alfred carrying a tray of medical supplies covered in blood, knowing Dick had approached Alfred with confidentiality.

"I'm okay," Dick reassured and smiled blindly at them. "The doctors said I could come home tomorrow."

"It's not okay." Damian snapped, "What did he want?"

"Let's not talk about it here." Bruce's hand landed on Damian's shoulder. "We should let Dick rest."

***

"What did he want?" Damian growled as he paced behind Bruce who typed incessantly at the bat computer. "He took an eye, a hand, an ear, and an expensive ring. What did he take from Grayson?"

"From the people he abducted, he's planning to enter the vault at Wayne Enterprises," Batman explained. "Dick, however, I'm not sure. Perhaps to get to me."

"But Joker has a vendetta against Batman, not Bruce Wayne," Jason called out, removing his helmet as he headed down the cave stairs.

"Maybe he connected the dots and figured out Father is Batman," Damian suggested in disdain. "You are quite sloppy."

Jason snorted in amusement and ruffled the boy's hair. He smirked at Damian's attempt of a death glare and walked up behind Bruce. "I visited Dick. He seems a bit ruffled."

Bruce furrowed his brow, Jason was right. Despite Dick's best attempt at covering his pain, Bruce had known the young man long enough to know that his bright smile was fake. He played along for Damian's sake, determined to get to the bottom of this when Dick returned home.

***

Bruce and Tim were down in the Batcave when Richard arrived back home. The acrobat was slightly thankful for this and appreciated Alfred and Damian for their help before retiring to his room.

Walking into his ensuite bathroom Dick removed his shirt, groaning as his bruised muscles contracted with the movement. He ran his hand over the small stitching on his side and gulped. From his pocket, he fished out the knife he managed to retrieve from his bag before Alfred confiscated them, and flicked it open. He removed his pants and stood naked in front of the mirror, gazing over his damaged bruised body. He breathed deeply as he placed the knife to the sloppy stitches. Dick let out a small pained groan as the knife penetrated his raw wound, but continued ignoring the blood that began to flow down his abdomen and leg, seeping onto the white tiles, staining it red. He took some quick deep breaths as he pushed the knife deeper using his other hand to stretch the skin open.

"Master Dick?"

Dick gasped silently at the sudden voice and unintentionally pushed the knife further into his body causing it to go far deeper than he wanted. His body spasmed before he quickly pulled the blade out, letting it clatter to the floor as he fell forward. Hands clenched the porcelain sink as he leaned over it, almost gagging with the pulses of pain that wracked his body. Dick attempted to calm himself with deep breaths, pushing the agony to the back of his mind to focus on the man on the other side of the door. The pain was becoming bearable, he'd been through worse- of course- but he never inflicted them on himself.

"Master Dick? Are you okay?"

"Fine, Alfred," Dick called out with as much confidence as he could muster while staring at his bloodied hands.

"If you need me, I won't be far away." Alfred seemed to hesitate before his footsteps faded. Dick wiped the sweat from his forehead and glanced down at his side. The blood was flowing faster now, like a river down his body, and he knew he had to continue. Picking up the knife he slowly re-entered his wound, and when the knife hit the device, he was searching for he began to move the blade around hoping to dislodge it. Dick held his breath as the device was brought closer to the surface, and felt like collapsing when it popped out and landed with a small clang on the floor. The acrobat slumped against the bathtub and picked up the device Joker had his goons implant into him.

They had drugged him before they operated which he was grateful for and he managed to overhear the clown cackle about being able to trace him with the device before he passed out. Analysing it now between his finger he was unimpressed. It was minuscule, oval in shape and had a small clown-like face engraved on its surface. It was boringly simple. Leaning his head back against the bath, he snapped the device between his fingers and covered his wound, attempting to stop the blood flow. He knew he should have thought this through, grab some supplies before chopping away at himself.

"Alfred!"

Dick yelled out and began to feel dizzy from the blood loss. He closed his eyes hoping the wooziness would disappear. Hearing the door open, Dick sighed a little in relief. He couldn't give a shit if Alfred saw him naked; he'd seen him in his birthday suit too many times and thought nothing of it. But when he heard the younger voice ring through the room, Dick's eyes exploded.

"Grayson! What happened?!" Damian's voice came out in a panic after seeing the pools of blood on the floor with Dick holding his side, hands covered in blood.

"Get Alfred," Dick ordered the boy, attempting to cover his nether regions with his legs. Damian quickly fled from the room and Dick's hands slowly fell from the wound as he began to lose consciousness.

***

"Master Grayson, what have you done?" Alfred scolded. With a great amount of effort, the butler managed to haul the acrobat up from the floor. "Master Damian, could you please call Master Bruce?"

As Damian disappeared once more Dick slowly regained consciousness, but his mind was foggy. He noticed Alfred and he giggled as the older male strained under his weight. Dick was heavy, he knew that, so he attempted to help Alfred with the weight distribution.

"You're not as light as you used to be, Master Dick," Alfred commented, noting Dick's hysterical state.

"Of course, I'm not Alfred." Dick snorted. "I'm a grown man."

"Ah, but you still remind me of the young boy who used to crawl into Master Bruce's lap after a nightmare."

"He always smelt nice."

"Master Bruce always enjoyed those cuddles." Alfred let out on a secret. "Don't tell Master Bruce I told you."

"My lips are sealed." Dick motioned to his lips before groaning in pain, his hand finding his side. "Ah fuc-"

"Master Dick!" Alfred snapped. "Do not use that kind of profanity in this house."

They managed to manoeuvre themselves to Dick's bed and Alfred began to clean the wound not saying a word as Dick would wince at the pressure. Alfred didn't ask questions and Dick didn't expect him to. Alfred had sewn too many wounds to count, almost all of them without question, without a reason, he would simply clean and patch. Alfred knew what they did was dangerous, and wounds like the one Dick had now were common. The acrobat could tell the butler was curious; Dick had conflicted the wound on himself but he still didn't ask, not even a simple why? Dick watched the man steadily thread the hook through his skin tightly pulling the wound together, continuing the process until he was done. Dick let out a sigh in relief when the butler cut the excess thread and lightly washed his newly stitched body.

"We'll have to clean the extra blood away before I cover the wound."

"Alfred, is Dick okay?" Bruce's voice vibrated down the hall. His hurried footsteps came to a halt in the doorway, eyes widening at the blood covering the acrobat and swiftly rushed to his side. "What happened?"

"Nothing, I just-"

"-Enough." Bruce snapped at the injured young man. "Tell me the truth."

"I cut out a tracking device Joker implanted in me." Dick gently pushed Alfred away and stood, grunting a little. "Now I'm going to clean up."

"Dick, don't walk away from me." Bruce pressed him.

"You don't get to tell me what to do," Dick growled, spinning around. "You gave that up a long time ago."

Bruce and Alfred stood stunned as Dick slammed the bathroom door behind him. The acrobat turned the water on, slipping inside and stood under the showerhead for a moment, letting the hot water flow over him. A heavy breath left him as he slowly slid down the wall and grasped his side.

Dick knew he had been unfair to Bruce, but the man just didn't get it. He could look after himself, he wasn't the boy he took in all those years ago. Dick had grown and found himself in a predicament he was yet to reveal to Bruce. The Joker had played and twisted with Dick's situation, and Dick let him. The acrobat still didn't know how the clown knew, but he was sure if that crazy loon could figure it out, then others weren't far behind. Dick couldn't tell if it was a tear or the shower water, but he let it slide down his cheek undeterred. He'd have to avoid him. It was the only answer. The Joker couldn't manipulate him if he cut Bruce out of his life completely.

***

"I thought he had forgiven me for that," Bruce spoke out, turning to Alfred who began to gather the used supplies and bloodied sheets.

"Perhaps Master Dick is just traumatised, he just needs a little time," Alfred spoke softly.

Bruce glanced at the bathroom door before turning and heading down the hall. The Joker was going to pay.