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“Exactly! Doc, Gotham is – it’s dangerous enough on its own.” And why would no one listen to him, understand him when he told them, warned them…

“But the people who have me on their hit list, both me and the Hood… Leslie, you couldn’t even fucking imagine. I don’t wanna expose her to that. I can’t…”

I can’t risk losing her to that.

It was already too late for that, Jason knew that, but the incident with the traffickers had torn off the sheer naivety of his infatuation, and exposed the perils that lay around.

A shudder travelled up Jason’s spine, and his body tensed up when the pain followed soon after. “Doc…”

“She’s already exposed to it Jason. You’re missing the point.” Leslie quipped. “Right now, she has no idea, but if you’d just-”

His wince of pain had her cutting off mid-sentence. Right. Maybe now wasn’t the best time for this either. There was no doubt in her mind that she had more to say on the subject, but for now, perhaps it could wait.

With a soft sigh, Leslie leaned forward slightly into the space. There were a few things she could suggest, but as Jason had said himself, he had been dealing with this for some time. She would defer to him this time. “What do you need? Let me help.”

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Act normal.

Act polite.

Jason managed a smile as the therapist - doctor, Bruce said she was an actual doctor - let him in her office. She looked friendly enough, not as old as Jason thought she was going to be. Dark hair, an easy smile, despite the sterner set of her brow. She fit her office, Jason noted.

Warm colors, modern, but not skimped on comfort.

Functional. To the point.

No other exit.

No way out.

Jason shook her hand, fairly certain that his quick glance around could be taken for mere interest. “Good morning, doc,” he replied, hiding the fact that his stomach was in knots. “Nice to meet you too, hope all is well.”

“I’m very well, thank you.” Polite. Well spoken. All in all, a good first impression.

Spotting the curious look around the room, Leslie gestured to the soft, comfortable looking armchair towards the back of the room, facing the door. “Would you like to take a seat?”

Most people were nervous for a first session. Outwardly, the boy didn’t seem all that fussed but Leslie busied herself anyway, opening a drawer on the side so he could make the decision whether to sit or not without her directly watching. “I’ve always got a mixture of drinks and snacks in here, is there anything you’d like?”

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Trust Grace to put her mark right on the money. Even though she didn’t quite get just how close to the truth she was getting. “She’s too smart for her own good,” he muttered under his breath, but pride laced his tone.

But the faint smile fell, as Leslie continued.

He could see it.

Grace worrying over him, working herself up over him, and what he’d done. Trying to find an explanation. “I – I’ll put her in too much danger if I tell her. That is… if she even wants anything to do with me for lying to her.” Jason shook his head. “I never should have let it get this far between us, I was an idiot.”

“She’s planning on working as a doctor, in Crime Alley, Jason.” Leslie pointed out. “I’ve had this talk with her, when she started - and again after the bombing. She’s not exactly playing it safe as it is.” While a doctor wasn’t the most dangerous profession someone could go for, in a city like Gotham it certainly came with it’s own set of risks. Leslie had the personal experience to attest to it.

“Grace isn’t shying away from the Red Hood either. Even after everything she knows about him - you.” Talking about Jason as if he were two different people was going to give her a headache, but when it came to Grace, the distinction was there. For now, at least. “These are all choices she's making. And after what happened to her the other week, Gotham can be plenty dangerous all on its own. If you hadn’t have given her that alarm...” Her voice trailed slightly, not wanting to think of what might have happened to her if not for Jason.

“She likes you. And judging by how she is around you when the mask is on, she likes more than just whatever civilian front you’ve put up for appearances sake. Don’t even try telling me it’s not the same for you, or you’d never have let it go on for this long. Even the others have noticed." Leslie wasn’t sure if she should mention the curious questions she had received from the others, Bruce especially who was all too keen to know what his son was up to, but it slipped out all the same.

Realising she had long since ventured into lecture territory, Leslie shrugged, pulling back. “I just think she deserves the option of deciding for herself. A real, informed decision. I think your secret would be safe at this point. She only speaks to me about it because she already knows I know The Red Hood.  And who knows? You might be pleasantly surprised at how things turn out.”

Tim took a deep breath. He had met Leslie before, but not like this. It was all Bruce's idea; if Tim wanted to continue as Robin, he had to talk to Leslie. Sure, he had been through a thing or two, but he didn't really think he needed therapy. He always had Dick to talk to, his brother always picked up the phone when Tim needed him. Taking another deep breath, Tim applied his Timothy mask and knocked on the door. @nerdybirdboy

Bruce was concerned, that much was clear.

Leslie was in agreement that perhaps having someone outside of the immediate family to talk to would be helpful, however on the few occasions she had met young Tim Drake in the past, he hadn't exactly been keen on the idea of therapy in general. Still, she was optimistic enough to keep an open mind. And really, the pool of qualified professionals in the know about the Wayne's was very limited. There weren't many other options.

"Hello Tim." Leslie greeted him warmly, pushing down the sense of Deja vu and stepping aside to let him past into her office. "It's good to see you again."

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Jason wanted to leave.

He didn’t want to talk about his mother.

Didn’t want to share how he had witnessed the slow descent from over the counter painkillers into heroin and morphine.

He resisted the urge to get up and leave. And he pushed down his desire to look for another feasible way out. She’d report back to Bruce, and he couldn’t risk Bruce taking away what he had worked so hard for.

So, instead, he found himself shrugging again.

“Dunno,” Jason muttered, still fiddling with the water bottle. “She was in pain a lot. And – normal painkillers didn’t cut it eventually, y'know. She needed stronger stuff to keep going. And that…” Jason trailed off, knowing that she’d pick up on it. Everyone knew what that meant, especially down in the Alley. The streets were riddled with addicts and sob stories like his. And no one cared.

She had hoped it had been something else. Not that there were any pleasant alternatives considering that the woman had died long before she ought to have. 

Leslie didn’t want to delve any deeper, not for a first session, it wouldn’t be fair.

Tightening her face into a grim kind of understanding, she nodded, not wanting to segue without acknowledging  what he had said. “It sounds like you did your best to look after the both of you during a really difficult time.”

Letting the weight of the moment settle slightly, Leslie made another mental note to circle back to this - his parents. It would take some time before he was ready for that, she was sure.  

“Is reading still something you enjoy?”

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And that made Jason look back to her. Because he had pushed away all that had reminded him of her at first; it was too painful, too raw. Too much of a liability.

He was barely getting used to being able to feel safe again. Let alone remember.

“She was… Before she got sick, she always read to me,” Jason started, a little hesitantly. “Encouraged me to read as much as I could too, and do well in school. Said I might actually make something of myself instead of getting stuck in the Alley. She tried to care, and be nice, but she…” She ended up caring more about the drugs than me.

Jason’s jaw tensed, before continuing. “When Willis died in prison, and she got sicker, that just – it was just us, you know? I had to look after her. Be the man. But she… guess she was too sick.”

That amount of grief. His father - Willis, rather, and then his mother. In the face of it, it was surprising that the boy before her seemed so well put together. 

She fought against a pang of  her own sorrow for what he had been through. But this wasn’t the time or place for her own emotions. When she had first began working with the Wayne family, one of the few reservations she had, had been around how it might be more difficult to maintain the professional boundaries that were needed for the job. Being in the know, almost a family friend... It had the potential to compromise her role as their therapist. She was careful not to allow it to happen.

And again, education seemed to be a common theme for Jason. It was clearly on his mind. Something that was important to him perhaps. Leslie made a mental note to come back to it, but while they were on the subject, she wanted to try and get a clearer picture of exactly what Jason had had to deal with.

A soft, slightly sad smile crossing her face, Leslie tried to match Jason’s careful tone as she inquired further. “Can I ask, what illness did she have?”