-The façade of perfect parents cracks under the stress of parenting-

They wiped the children's faces clean, put shoes on those who allowed it, and Barry took the tots out the hanger door. There was a grassy glade there, back in the day certain leaguers would use it as the relaxing lounge and smoking section. But just as Barry had dropped cigarettes, the grounds seemed to have as well, now lush and clean once more; safe for the sidekicks to play in.

Wolf waited behind and followed after the group, nudging and nipping their ankles to make sure no one was lost. He shepherded Barry and the pups outside and, upon insuring that each pup was present, he began to relax and play with the children.

"FETCH!"  Wally lobbed a stick about a-foot-and-a-half. Wolf looked quizzically at him, and nudged the stick back onto Wally's feet.

"No wally, like this!" M'gann lifted the stick out of Wolf's reach and used her telekenisis to throw it into the edge of the trees. "FETCH, BOY!"

Instantly, the huge beast tore after it.

"Good doggy!" Wally howled. He started chasing the dog but Barry plucked him off the ground, returning him to the other children, but refusing to put him down (a bit of a hassle since he was also holding Dick)

"Down!" The redhead whined. 

"uh uh, sorry bud." Barry sat on the grass, balancing a baby on each leg. "Can't have you disappearing."

"Won't!" He insisted, trying to liberate himself. Barry Set Dick down on the grass to entertain himself, and busied himself brushing his fingers through his Nephew's hair. In all the chaos of the past several days, there was some serenity in petting Wally's hair and watching the children chase each other around the field.

Wally squirmed out from under his arms while he was distracted and hurried off across the grove. "Stay close!" Barry stood and paced, just incase he needed to take off after his nephew.

"Hey!" Wally said, hugging Wolf's leg and leaning on it. The beast raised its paw and let Wally topple onto the ground.

Wolf nudged him with his nose to ensure he was alright and, deciding the pup was fine, he galloped off to retrieve the branch.

"Hi Wally." M'gann picked him up and hugged him a few inches off the ground. "Wanna help me take the stick back?"
Wolf trotted close, and immediately pulled away, playfully.  "Wolf, drop it." She grabbed onto the branch and tugged. Wolf snorted and shook them off, very pleased with the game of tug-o-war. "Down! Drop it!"

Wolf lunged and skipped back playfully, trying to get them to try and grab the branch again. Both gingers took the bait, and Wolf shook them off into the grass.

 "Supey! HELP?"

Conner glanced over his shoulder, and continued showing Kaldur all the cool weeds and flowers and rocks he could find. Kaldur, for his part, was encouraging, but Conner was clearly a bit Jealous with having to share attention with Artemis, who was drawing shapes in the mud and also wanted to talk to Kaldur.

Barry had to constantly check where he was pacing, so as not to step on Dick, who was having a whale of a time tearing up fistfuls of grass. 

All seemed peaceful as M'gann and Wally decided that Wolf was an Alligator (apparently super-5'6-Mutant-wolf wasn't exciting enough) and that they had to escape him to get back to the castle-boat. the shrieks of young children had never calmed him like they did then. They were happy, his job was to keep them in the place they seemed pretty content, and for the first time all week it was someone else's responsibility to make sure they get back to normal.

He squatted down to tussle Dick's hair, smiling as he turned to look at him. He smiled, making faces at him to make the baby laugh. For the first time, everything was kind of okay.

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Bruce was still on the edge on his seat, lips pursed, fists clenched on his legs. Dickie was fine, he reminded himself, it was a misunderstanding, and now Dick was playing outside with his friends.

Still, he was jumpy, the image of his hand deforming his precious baby's head burned into his skull.

"Coffee?" Dinah asked, sitting across from him with a heavy sigh. Bruce took a mug in silence. "I love them. I want to protect them. I just... I'm not a babysitter! I want to take care of them, but I only signed up to be a trainer-- to show them the ropes of combat and how to take falls without getting hurt, but now I'm the one everyone goes to if they need any attention of care or help with anything. I would do it all if I could, but I'm so tired, I'm not trained in childcare..." Bruce didn't reply, watching the coffee fixatedly. "Sorry," Dinah said. "I'm-- I'm just so tired."

Bruce didn't blame her, She had Dick AND five others... and she hadn't even gone through the adoption process.

The thought of Dick came back, if Dick was in his presence he could get hurt, if he wasn't then Bruce had no way of keeping him safe. It was a self-fulfilling prophesy leading to Dick's pain.  How was he supposed to raise his boy in a world like this?

"I mean, I love Superboy, I really do. I want to keep him safe. But he's not my kid!" Dinah rambled on to the room at large, slurping down burning hot coffee. "He needs so much all the time... I'm not trained in this! I can't give 40 hours of therapy every week... and then there's M'gann, she..."

Dinah's rant was interrupted by the beeping of the communications screen. Audio call.

"Red, pick that up, please." Canary said.

There were two short beeps and the cave filled with the sound of heavy breathing.

"FLASH TO CAVE"

"Flash?" Bruce spoke for the first time in an hour. "Why are you calling? You're outside..."

"Requesting backup! Backup to the knoll outside the hanger bay NOW!" Flash grunted. "They're taking the kids."