Chapter Text
Dick walks into the dining room at seven-thirty.
There is only Jason, inhaling his breakfast like it’s his last meal.
"Tim?" Dick asks.
"Already in the car," Jason says with his mouth full. "He doesn't want to talk to you yet."
Dick sits, and sighs, and rests his forehead on the dining table. Jason pats his back.
Dick turns his head to Jason. "And you? Are you okay with me leaving?"
"Yeah." Jason pulls a second stack of pancakes to his plate. "It's normal. People come, people go. Not like I can help it."
Ugh. The detachment and resignation in his voice. When B gets back, they really need to talk about both kids' psyche.
"Jay," Dick says to Jason seriously, "this is not a final goodbye, you know that, right? I will be back. Occasionally. Permanently. In whatever way it will be, but I promise you, no matter what happens to me, to B, or to me and B, we will be here for both of you until you grow bored of me and banish me."
Jason looks at him with wide blue eyes, like no one has ever said this to him before. Damn. Dick can't resist the urge to hug Jason.
"Go away! I'm eating!" Jason shouts, face red.
"I'll be there for you, always," Dick whispers. Then he realizes. "Wait for me a bit!"
He rushes to his room and runs back to Jason. "Here!" He puts a small buttoned device in Jason's hand. "It's my work alone, so it’s not exactly state-of-the-art, but this is a Robin S.O.S., I usually only give it to the Titans. It uses S.T.A.R. Lab technology and a smudge of Raven's magic instead of Bat-tech, so this won't even show up on B’s radar." Dick takes a deep breath after rapid talking. "Press this, and I'll know where you are. I'll come for you, always."
Jason looks at the black device with the yellow R button. "Cartoonish design." He puts it in his suit jacket. "But thanks, Dickie. For, uh, Tim, don't worry too much. He'll come to it eventually. I'll keep an eye on him."
Dick sighs. "Thanks, Jay."
"The kid just never knows what it means to have someone, and when the moment is threatened, he overreacts."
Dick thinks on those words Jason says. "I think, for all this time, I only think too much about myself. Did Bruce do right by me? Did I live up to Bruce's expectations? Why won't he let me go? Maybe, the first step of being an adult, is to look far beyond the word me."
Dick is woken again at four in the afternoon by Alfred's call.
"Alf?" he sluggishly talks to the phone.
"Master Dick," Alfred's voice is serious. He has also forgotten the word young. "The boys are missing. They are not at their pick-up point, and I can't contact either of them."
Robin is roaming the city relentlessly. Batgirl also, in the other direction.
He should not have let Tim go to school without patching things up. He should have talked to him, hugged him before he went.
"Any news, Batgirl?" He clicks the comm.
"Negative, Boy Wonder," she replies in his ears. "No trace. What about you?"
"None. The last Batfeed shows them walking out to the bus stop, then all the feed is lost. Tim probably hacked the feed. His hacking skill is only second to yours."
"Terrifying," Babs says.
Yes. Terrifying. Tim said he would make Dick fail the test, so he must pop up sooner or later, but this is not about Bruce's test anymore. They're missing. They've (or probably Tim has) disabled all the trackers.
He doesn't think Jason wanted to do this, but the kid in the end will abide by his baby brother's whim. He probably thought he'd better go along or else let Tim do whatever shenanigans he wanted to do alone.
It is when the sun completely sets that Dick's phone rings. His civilian phone.
The code is a public phone code? Wow, he never received this before. Dick presses answer.
"Help," a small voice on the other line says. And Dick's heart stops. "Robin. H-help."
"Tim, where are you?"
"A t-t-telephone booth on 42nd Street. It—it took a while before I could—could make it w-work." Tim's voice is shaking. "The connection is gonna cut—cut—soon. Hel—" The line is dead.
Dick fires his grappling gun toward the phone booth direction that pops up in his domino lens. At least it's near Dick's direction. In five minutes, he finds the booth, with Tim crying, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth.
"Tim!" he shouts. Tim looks up and tackles-hugs him, hard. "Are you okay?"
"Robin!" he cries. "I'm okay, but, but, but," Tim is now openly sobbing, "Jason. He pushed me out of the car before he took him away. I'm s-sorry, Robin. I'm sorry."
"Kiddo. It's okay." Dick hugs the boy back, tight, swaying him.
"It's not! He found us. I wanted to hijack his stupid car but he found us. And Jason helped me run but he w-w-was gone." Tim is saying in between his sobbing.
"Who is this he, Timmy?"
"The Joker," Tim, looking up, says with teary eyes.
Dick sharply inhaled. He quickly touches the comm. "Babs, update: Tim is safe, but Jason is taken by the Joker. Agent A, pull the last possible hideouts of the Joker. Batgirl, which one of his lairs is the closest?"
"Bloody hell," Alfred swears, which is something that may happen only once a year. "The last seen location of the Joker... from Master Bruce's notes, either Amusement Mile, Ace Chemicals, or the Joker's Fun House."
"Amusement Mile is in my perimeter, I'll go there."
"Roger," Dick says back. That leaves Ace Chemicals or the Fun House.
If they choose wrong, they don't know what will happen to Jason. Joker is different from all other Rogues. All other Rogues are dangerous or cruel or whatsoever. But Joker, he's unpredictable; he would not think of using Jason for any gain, except for some twisted fun.
Dick is breathing fast. Jason, their fierce little protector. Jason, who Dick has promised in the morning that he’ll be there for him.
At that moment, Dick doesn't care about the test, about the pride, about being caged in Gotham forever anymore. The test be damned. He dials the JL channel.
The Titans are helping people from an earthquake in Tibet, the majority of the JL is out there in space, but there must be someone stationed in the JL station.
Finally, the call connects.
"Justice League," the voice says. It is Hal Jordan's voice. Shit. Why didn't this guy go on the intergalactic mission?
"JL, I am Robin. I call this on behalf of Batman. Gotham needs help."
"Spooky? Nah, Spooky is in space," Hal says. "And he works alone. Who are you?"
"I have been his partner for ten years! I'm Robin. Leader of the Titans," Dick shouts back.
"Eh, never heard of him. And aren't the cool kids doing cool kid things in Tibet?" And he cuts the line.
Dick punches the phone booth glass wall. "FUCK HAL JORDAN!" This is why Bruce keeps shouting this every time after the JL meeting!
Fuck, he needs to go out either way. Ace Chems or the Fun House?
Suddenly, there is a beep from his utility belt.
It's a Robin S.O.S. signal that Dick just gave Jason that morning—the one Tim does not know and didn't disable.
He's gonna hug that wittiest kid so hard.
"Ace Chemicals." Dick looks at the radar, readying his grappling gun. "Tim, stay here until the Batmobile arrives."
"No, take me with you," Tim says.
"Kiddo—"
"I'm useful. And I will absolutely follow every one of your commands." Tim grabs his cape. "Please."
Let me go out with you to hunt Zucco. I promise you, I will be useful and obey your every word.
Heh. Talk about taking his own medicine.
Dick shows Tim the Robin’s grin and swings him onto his back. "Hold tight, Baby Bird."
Robin and Timmy (in a domino mask) arrive in record time at Ace Chemicals.
Before opening the abandoned factory window, Dick lets Tim down, and he whispers to Tim again, "Only follow my orders, Timmy."
Tim nods.
"I trust you, Baby Bird." God. Putting trust into your kids is terrifying. It is not that you don't trust their abilities. They are, always, the best ever, but you don't trust what the world will throw at them.
Bruce's face comes into his mind.
Dick pushes that complicated thought down and opens the window, silently. Tim is following him.
What he is sure of, from Tim's previous stalking, is that he can be very, very, very silent.
They arrive to see the Joker towering over Jason, whose hands are being tied behind his back. Jason already has bleeding on his forehead. There is blood on his mouth, and the Joker has one arm with a deep, biting wound. There are some goons inside the room—five, not many, probably just here to see the boss playing with his prey.
"So I got a rabid rat, hmm?" He pulls Jason's hair up. "Are you the rumored twin terrors that bombed the Penguin's club? It seems Little Birdie is so busy with the two of you, too. All the attention is on you. I'm loooooonely!"
And he points at the literally cartoonish bomb in the middle of the room.
"So today I prepare a boom-boom for you, too! Hahaha!"
"Shaddap. You tasteless meat!" Jason tries to kick his nuts, which the Joker evades. "Worst thing I have tasted ever."
Dick, observing, whispers to Tim, "Tim, when I engage, your job is to free Jason and bring him out. Understood. Be very, very quiet."
Tim nods wordlessly.
Joker thuds him. "Feisty, feisty rabid rat." He draws a syringe out. "Maybe you can get even crazier with this."
Upon seeing the needle, Jason starts thrashing with real fear in his eyes. "Get that thing away from me!"
Dick creeps closer, closer on the factory beam above. Don't act before time, don't.
"Oh? The rat is scared of needles? Don't worry, you will not be scared of anything ever again. HahahaHAha!"
Dick is above the Joker now, and with Jason lying down, the kid is seeing him in his visual field.
Jason makes eye contact with him. Brave, fierce Jason is so scared. Dick himself is too, but he has to act like everything is okay for the kid. Dick winks at him and makes a shush gesture, with a Robin’s signature smile.
He thinks of Bruce again, acting like everything was in his plan, even though it was not, for his little Robin.
"Now, time to get a jab, come here." Joker steps toward Jason.
Robin throws the birdarang at the hand that is holding the needle and lands both his feet on Joker’s shoulders.
"The rats come to play because the Bat is away!" He grins, even though his heart is racing. He's a performer. He can do this. "The Bat is away, so the bird hunts its prey!" He throws two other birdarangs at the goons nearest to Jason.
While he starts roughhousing with the Joker, and the goons start firing, turning full attention on him, in the corner of Dick's eyes he sees Tim quietly reach and unbind Jason. Good job, Timbo.
Robin flips back, evades the bullets, and does a quick upper cut to goon no. 3 and a flying kick on goon no. 4. Extra birdarang to goon no. 5. Only the Joker is left now.
The Joker, gangly as he is, is not easy to subdue. First, the pain will not hinder him at all. Second, as previously said, he is unpredictable. A punch is a kick. A kick is a knife. A knife is a cartoon punch from a spring surprise box.
Or a gun to his leg.
Dick cries out at the blooming pain in his right thigh. Only muscle, not bone or artery, was hit, but it is still bad. He falls sideways from the momentum of the bullet.
"Haha! The flighty bird has fallen now!" Joker cries in glee.
"Get away from him!" Jason charges the Joker and they both fall to the floor.
"Kid, no!" Dick shouts.
Joker is using the butt of his gun to whip Jason's head, again. Jason falls down. Now Tim is running back toward them.
You don't trust what the world will throw at them.
Dick grits his teeth and rushes to the Joker. He wrestles the gun away from him even with all the fibers in his right leg screaming. He punches the man until he falls down.
He wants to keep punching him until that face is a pulp, but he can't. The kids will always be more important than his anger.
There is a shout from the direction of the door. They must leave now. He limply walks to Tim and Jason. "Jay, Jay."
Jason stirs up. "I'm okay. Just some stars in my eyes. I was beaten worse on—"
"—on the street, yeah." Dick makes a small laugh. "Kids, I need to use the grappling gun. One on the front, one on my back."
The kids assume their position of a koala-monkey-baby amalgamation. Dick fires the grappling gun to the balcony and lifts them up in time before the factory door breaks open and more underlings pour in. A stray bullet grazes his ear. His right leg screams.
Dick grapples, lands (his leg), grapples, lands (god, his leg), repeats, until he can't and lands hard on a nearby rooftop. It is still in the Ace Chemicals area. They are still not safe.
"Jason, Tim. I can't walk anymore. You need to go on without me."
"No, Robin!" Tim shouts.
Dick gives the Robin’s grin. "Don't worry, kiddo, Batgirl's gonna be here soon. You two need to head to the Batmobile at this destination first."
"They're looking for you! If they find you, they will, they will." And Tim hugs his oldest brother tight. "Don't leave me, Dick."
Oh, his hug is so warm. Has Bruce felt like this once, a long time ago?
"Don't worry, Timbo." Jason pulls some device from his Gotham High jacket. It's a comical button with purple and green and the word 'boom' on the button. "Trust my pickpocket skills from, again, living on the streets."
And Jason, his supposed to be the more sensible younger brother, turns to the direction of the factory building they were in previously and presses the button.
Wow, that's a Michael Bay-worthy bomb. The flame. The light. The noise. The shaking he can sense in his sternum.
"And this is for hurting my brothers! You piece of shit. And you really, really taste bad!" Jason shouts to the exploding factory far away, giving the double middle finger toward that direction.
"Cooooooool!" Tim shouts in delight.
Dick lies back down on the rooftop, light-headed from the blood loss, and smiles.
No one can beat these two terrors.
In the end, they are all safe. Dick now lies in the medbay cot, with a bandage wrapped around his right thigh. The gunshot wound thankfully does not hit anything major, but the leg muscle does need time to heal. A crutch is needed, and he cannot patrol the city for a week.
Managing the city alone is a lot more challenging than he thought. How can Bruce do this? How can Dick do this in Bludhaven?
While he is deep in thought, he catches a glimpse of black, unruly hair on a little head peeking at the edge of the bed.
"Hey, squirt, mini-squirt." Dick turns to them, smiling.
Jason and Tim pop up like meerkats. Cute. Jason has a bandage around his head, but his eyes are bright. Thank god.
Tim, on the other hand, seems to be on the verge of crying again.
"Timbo, what's wrong?"
Tim starts crying before he can say anything. Jason pats their baby brother's back. "Take a breath, Timmy. Come on."
"I'm sorry," Tim says through big droplets of tears. "Because of me. Jason was captured. He is hurt. You were sh-shot. Because I'm selfish."
"Oh, Tim." Dick gently pulls the boy up into a hug (ouch), which Tim abides willingly, hugging Dick back tight on the front like a baby koala. He then lies down again on his back. "Tim, Timmy. It's okay to feel upset. You are a child that deserves stability in your life. I'm sorry I did not include you two in my convo with Bruce. You are a family, no matter where I am or who I will be."
"I am?" Tim looks at him with teary blue eyes. Who can resist these eyes?
"You are. You too, Jay, climb up here." Dick pats the still available space on the bed.
Jason scoffs, but he does climb up, laying side by side with Dick. It's a little bit cramped now. Jason, after half a year of Alfred’s cooking, has started shooting up like a weed. He has a wide frame. He's going to be tall.
"I promise the two of you. No matter what happens, I will always, always be your big brother. Near, far. It does not matter. You'll always have me in your corner."
Jason lightly punches his shoulder. "Sap."
Tim just rests his head on Dick's chest, wordlessly.
He sighs. "I may fail the test either way."
"Why!?" Jason exclaims.
"No!" Tim also.
"Don't you want me to fail?" Dick asks Tim.
"No! Yes! I mean, no!" Tim says rapidly. "I don't want you to go, but Jay makes me understand a bit now, but, but, I also don't want Robin to fail! Robin can't fail!"
Dick chuckles, patting Tim's head.
"Dude, why would you fail? We're safe. Gotham is safe, relatively," Jason asks.
Dick sighs. "I asked for Babs' help. I couldn't do it alone."
Jason and Tim look at each other, then they turn to Dick again. "He didn't tell you to do it alone?"
Dick says back, "I think it's implied? Kids, Bruce is always doing this alone."
"Dick, he has Robin," Tim says with seriousness in his voice.
"You ain't Bruce, Dicko," Jason supplies. "Do it your own way, man."
Oh. Their words make Dick realize that, yes, he's not Bruce. He's Dick Grayson, raised by Bruce Wayne but not Bruce Wayne himself.
His new persona does not have to be Batman. Instead of thinking, "How could Bruce do all this?" he should think, "How will he do all this?”
"I think," Dick says, looking at the stalactites on the ceiling above, "during my recovery, I will ask Babs to cover the city. Roy is not a meta. I can ask Roy after the Titans finish the Tibet rescue to help cover the outer perimeter. He'd enjoy pissing off Ollie by being in Gotham, too."
Yeah, he can do this.
"And kiddo number one, kiddo number two. Do you want to help Dick Grayson do the apartment hunting? Maybe I can find one with a spare bedroom for our overnight brotherly bonding."
"So at Blud we can go out at night?" Jason says excitedly.
"Coooooooool!" Tim shouts.
"Wait. No, kiddo. No."
Batman finishes the intergalactic mission in twenty days, much faster than the schedule.
He dreads the state the cave or Gotham will be in. He had been too cruel to Dick, leaving him to babysit the kids alone.
When he steps out of the Zeta, what he finds is... Tim standing in front of the projector screen.
"So, instead of only getting NASM and being a trainer or a coach, you keep building your social media presence, and when the survey shows you are now associated with 'Sport', 'Athletic', and 'Health'—boom! You open your own gym with your inheritance. You launch a sports fashion line, with limited quantity and one-time-only strategy, and profit! My projections show you can sustain this lifestyle for at least 8.5 years, with enough money to rent a spacious apartment for our brotherly weekends," Tim finishes his epic market strategy that makes the cave feel like a WE meeting when he notices Bruce. "Bruce!"
All his kids turn to him. Dick is sitting with a crutch resting on the table, looking at the slide, deep in thought, while Jason looks bored. He has a bandage on his head. But overall, they are safe.
Batman huffs, which is equal to Bruce putting a hand on his chest and making a relieved sigh. "Situation report."
"It means, 'I'm glad you're okay. What happened?'" Dick translates to the kids. Dick is teasing him, which means he's in a good mood despite the injury. Then, he starts his report. "Jason has a mild head injury. I have one gunshot wound in the thigh without arterial or nerve damage."
"I'm fine!" Tim raises his hand up.
Bruce nods. "As long as you are all safe. I guess Gotham is safe as well."
"As safe as it can be with these two roaming," Dick uses each hand to reach and ruffle the boys' hair. Tim preens while Jason playfully swats his hand away. A picture of bliss for as much as any parent can hope for. Dick is looking back at Bruce. "So, do I pass the test?"
Bruce slowly pulls the cowl off to look at his son in all but name. "Dick, you already earned it even before I departed."
"What?"
Bruce can't help but do the Batsmirktm. "Do you truly think I, Batman, would let anyone I think incapable protect Gotham? Asking you to take care of it was already my permission." He smiles even wider. "How does the taste of caring for uninhibited, hyperactive, over-imaginative children with insatiable curiosity feel?"
Dick stood speechless. Ha. Bruce internally pumps his fist.
"You!" Dick points at him.
"Hmm," Bruce responds.
"Don't 'gotcha' me!" Dick crosses his arms, furious, but it is playfully furious, like the little Robin tended to do when he got one-up by his Batman.
Jason is munching a cheese stick like a chipmunk during all the banter. "Congrats, Big Bird. So I guess it's okay that Arsenal is patrolling Gotham."
What.
"Of course it is. He's not a meta," Tim is snacking on toasted pecans like a bird. "By the way, Bruce. I think Jason may have killed the Joker? We aren't really sure. We can't find his body."
"PULVERIZAR!" Jason throws his arms up.
Tim and Jason then do a complicated handshake that ends with a fist bump.
"What?"
Dick steps into the middle of the cave again. In the same spandex he showed Bruce before he departed on the JL mission, this time, he has twin escrima sticks in his hands.
"Electrical escrimas." Dick swings both escrimas around. "With many features packed in. Jason helped list what I probably need. Tim helped design the internal compartment. Lethal but non-lethal. Versatile and agile, like me."
Bruce nods. Tim and Jason clap like good audiences.
"And the name?" Bruce asks.
"Clark said somehow you already know it. You spoilsport." Dick snaps the escrima onto his backstrap. He grins the Robin’s grin. It used to be a wicked grin of a playful child. Now with the new suit, with the posture, with the confidence in him, he's the central man on the solo performance. "Nightwing."
Bruce is so, so (secretly) proud of his little boy. It will take more time until he can learn to voice his feelings properly. But Dick is not gone for good. He is in Gotham's sister city. One and a half hour drive. And he promises to come back for the two gremlins every other weekend. (He needs Tim to help establish his business anyway.)
The details of the shenanigans Tim and Jason did are terrifying, but from all that, Dick seems to have learned something that Bruce cannot teach. He's more mature, and surer.
He supposes it is important to let children learn to navigate the world in their own way. Nightwing will be a different hero from Batman, or even from Robin.
Despite all this, Bruce can only say, "It's a good name."
But Dick grins like he knows how Bruce feels.
"So the mantle of Robin is to be set aside, for now," Bruce continues. He and Dick look at Jason.
"Pass." Jason shrugs. "I want straight A's on my report card. I need sleep to grow."
"ME!" Tim lifts his two hands up. "Me me me me me me me me! If Jason doesn't want it, I want to. I will honor the Robin name." He jumps excitedly. "I already know how to defeat all the rogues! You see, I happened to hack into LexCorp's database and find an army of war drones! Hehehe. What if I locate all the Rogues and send the drones with hydrogen lasers to pulverize them all at the same time? I don't know how to make it non-lethal yet, but I will. Gotham will become a utopian state with these drones in my hand. Do crime, disintegrate. Break the laws, obliterate!"
Bruce, Dick, and Jason all turn visibly pale.
Batman and the all-new Nightwing then turn to Jason with pleading eyes.
Jason sighs. "I'll be Robin. But only on Friday and Saturday nights. And no more shorty shorts. Also, you owe me a new public library in Crime Alley."