What if Jason didn't reveal his identity to the family after coming back from the dead?
He comes back to Gotham, becomes the Red Hood, but doesn't reveal his identity and ends up building a sort of love-hate relationship with the Bats. Over time, Hood end up working with them more often than against them.
Like, one day he's shooting(rubber bullets) at Batman, and the next he's giving Robin advice on his English homework and how to deal with his classmates.
(Damian and Jason met in the League, before Jason left to train more and become the Red Hood. So Damian knows Jason is alive, but thinks he's still traveling, training, and going on missions.)
Hood does somethings that remind Batman and Nightwing of Jason, but they don't dig too deep on it. (Just because someone makes a comment that reminds you of someone who died doesn't mean they're back from the dead.)
Hood does things that remind Damian of Jason as well, but Damian assumes that Hood may have met Jason in the League and they may have fought alongside each other.
Until Hood makes a reference to something that happened in the League, something Jason wouldn't tell a temporary ally.
(At first Jason didn't care if the Bats found out who he was, but after he started spending more (less violent) time with the Bat he started trying harder to hide his identity.) (Like, he felt like revealing who he was would potentially ruin the small amount of good he managed to make with the Bats and Gotham)
Damian spends his free time looking into where Jason could be and finds evidence to support that Jason was not only in the same city, but around the hotel Hood was staying at when he went on a mission in New York.
(Hood is in a good enough place with the Bats to go on missions with them and trust they can watch Crime Alley when he goes on missions without them)
Looking back further, Damian can find something linking Hood and Jason more than half the time he goes on a solo mission outside of Gotham. Things like: Jason showing up on some camera in the city; various receipts paid with an alias that is some variation of Jason Peter Todd; and, the most pressing, security footage of Jason undercover, sitting with the mission targets, then leaving ten minutes before Hood arrives.
Damian doesn't plan on telling his family, but does plan on confronting Hood and convincing him to let him see Jason. What actually happens is, Barbra finds him using her system to find someone using various alias' based around Jason's name and brings it to Dick's attention.
Dick asks him about it, the truth comes out and a family meeting is called.
(Bruce and Alfred are told first and they call a meeting after digging up Jason's grave)
Finding out Jason is alive is, at first, fantastic and then saddening. Talia brought Jason back with the Lazarus Pit and turned him into an assassin, but Jason was well enough to travel and visit Hood at the drop of a hat. Where was he? Why wouldn't he come back to them? If nothing was stopping him from going where he wanted and doing what he wanted, then why wouldn't he come home?
The only connection they have to Jason is the Red Hood, so they dig into it. The only way they're bringing Jason home is if they find out where he is and why he's staying away.
Putting Hoods behavior since he arrived in Gotham under a microscope with the added context of being close to Jason, a few instances seem to make more sense.
The familiar nicknames Hood would occasionally call Bruce, Dick, and Damian could have been picked up from Jason. The Hood's innate hatred for the Joker and intense anger at Batman for not avenging his second Robin's death, he must know Jason was Robin and about his tragic death. Calling Tim "Replacement" was obviously a reference to the second Robin as well.
With the way Hood acts defensively (protectively?) in reference to everything involving Jason and the fact Jason visits him and tells him details about their family, they must be really close.
It's Stephanie who suggests they're dating.
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Stephanie: "So Hood met Jason in the League, they train and fight people together, fall in love, start dating and stay in touch when Hood comes to Gotham. That still doesn't explain why Hood came to Gotham and Jason didn't."
Tim: "Fall in love?"
Bruce: "You think the Hood is in a relationship with my son?"
Stephanie: "I thought we were all thinking that. I mean, its clear Hood is very protective of Jason."
Damian: "... Well, Todd didn't seem dis-interested in men. Hood could have drawn his interest."
Tim: "So Hood comes to Gotham, cleans up Crime Alley, where Jason grew up. He wanted Batman, Jason's father, to kill the Joker, Jason's murderer, to prove he cared and when B didn't he tried to do it himself. As an act of love and support?"
Dick: "This... makes an unfortunate amount of sense."
Bruce: "How so?"
Dick: "Jason comes back to life and finds out Tim is Robin and the Joker is still alive, thinking B replaced them would be pretty devastating. He might be too scared to come back to Gotham at all with the Joker still alive, even when you put him in Arkham he gets out. Jason tells Hood and eventually Hood comes to clean up Gotham while Jason does his own thing, away from Gotham."
Bruce: *Grunts sadly in Bat*
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I want to continue writing this at some point, but I feel like I've fleshed out the beginning of the AU
