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“What do I do with it?” Bart looked over at Tim with a worried expression, a baby held in his arms. He looked more composed carrying bombs away from fight scenes than he did now.
“Her. She’s a girl. Just, um hold her. Make sure you’re supporting the head. You need to do that, right? I’m looking it up online, okay?”
“She won’t stop crying! Can’t you call Arsenal? He has a kid, right?”
“I know, Bart. I can hear her. And you know Roy is undercover right now. We can’t risk calling him,” Tim snapped as he punched into Google “How to make babies stop crying”
--
The fight hadn’t been all that bad, compared to the Teen Titans’ usual. Just some low-ranking criminals robbing a convenience store. Something that wouldn’t have even made the Teen Titans’ radar if that particular group didn’t have links to a larger organization they were working on tracking. Red Hood, Starfire, and Arsenal had been watching, and in Roy’s case, infiltrating, the operation for a few weeks before an informant gave up one of the leaders, who was rumored to be based in San Francisco, and the Outlaws moved into Titans Tower while they finished their investigation.
When the call came up on the police scanner, the Titans had headed over to the scene, just in time for the robbers to come peeling out onto the main road. Kid Flash ran over and punctured the tires, as the rest of the team made their way over to the car. The three men jumped out of the car, and ran in separate directions. Robin headed one off as he reached an alley, taking down the criminal with ease and zip tying his hands behind his back. Ravager had gotten the other, who had given up with barely a fight, upon the sight of her swords, muttering that he didn’t sign up for this. Superboy leaped after the final robber as the man drew his gun, managing to wrest the weapon in away from the direction of his friends, but not able to knock the gun from the man’s hand before it went off. Superboy pinned the man to the ground as Kid Flash kicked the gun away from the man’s hands. Superboy could see Robin heading in the opposite direction, and turned his head to see a woman lying on the ground next to a baby carriage.
--
Jason walked into Titan’s Tower to be greeted by the noise of a wailing child and the sight of baby supplies littering the kitchen counter while Tim and Bart, not even out of costume, seemed to be frantically trying to reason a baby into silence.
“Whose kid?”
“Victim’s. We’re trying to figure that out. Her mother didn’t have any identification on her, so we’re taking her while we track down the family.” Tim explained as Jason made his way around the counter.
“Please tell me you know how to make her stop crying. We tried everything! Diaper change, feeding her, I even sang!” Bart said with a tone terrifyingly close to panic, considering the baby in his arms.
“Did you burp her?”
“Burp her?” Tim asked, slightly dumbfounded.
“You idiots.” Jason grabbed a dishtowel from the counter and swung it over his shoulder and reached out to take the baby from Bart’s very willing arms. He gently held the little girl against his shoulder and patted her on the back, cooing about how beautiful she was, how her mommy must have loved her very much and how the Titans would find the rest of her family as the baby coughed up a bit of the formula onto the dishtowel and her wails very quickly became happy giggles.
Bart and Tim looked on in astonishment.
Jason looked up from his charge “What, haven’t you ever taken care of a kid before?”
Bart shook his head while Tim said “I never had siblings and Robin doesn’t leave much time for babysitting.”
“It shows. Go get changed. And where are the others? Shouldn’t they be helping you out?”
Bart gave Tim a look before speeding off to get out of costume. “Ravager went and bought the baby supplies and then promptly disappeared saying she wanted no further part in this. Roy is undercover and Kory is in New York with Dick,” Tim explained. “Conner… Kon blames himself. For her mom. He didn’t have enough time to get the gun away. Cassie’s trying to help.”
“Ah. Do we have a name for her?” Jason set the baby down on the counter and undid the blanket loosely wrapped around her and re-wrapped it so she was properly swaddled.
“No. There was no kind of identification. Just the carriage and diaper bag. Her mom didn’t have anything in her purse either.”
“So she’s ours for now. Go hit the shower, Replacement. I’ll take care of her.”
--
When Tim got out of the shower and into his civvies he went back to the kitchen, only to find that Jason and the baby had migrated. He eventually found the two in the living room, Jason cradling the girl to his chest while softly informing her what sounded like the plotline of whatever reality show was playing on the television. Tim watched for a few minutes, marveling at how the baby seemed to be lulled to sleep by Jason’s voice, when just twenty minutes earlier he had tried the exact same thing to no avail.
“You gonna sit down, or keep stalking from the doorway?” Jason called over to him, voice still low.
“How do you know all this?” Tim gestured to the baby “You didn’t have siblings, did you?”
“Just because my mom didn’t have more kids doesn’t mean there weren’t any that needed looking after. You know where I’m from. The kids in that building, well, let’s just say my mom was better than most.” Jason muttered.
“So you took care of them.”
“Yeah. Been changing diapers since I was eight. You gonna sit or what?”
Tim came to sit on the sofa as Jason turned back to the tv. “Rosalynd is way too good for that pretentious douchebag. I cannot believe she’s sleeping with him,” Tim heard Jason mutter as he looked down at the sleeping girl in his arms, a serious expression on his face. “You’re gonna grow up smarter than that, okay kid? No douchebags. I mean it.”