Chapter Text
There’s no way Tim could’ve prepared for seeing Cass and Steph walk into the room- not even under different circumstances. They’re both wearing far more makeup than Duke has on, both dressed in their own pastel sweatshirts and leggings. (Cass is in a pink one, and Steph’s is a light purple.) While Cass’ makeup looks expertly done- from the headband pushing her hair back to the sparkling lipstick she has on. Tim won’t lie- she looks very good. But, where her’s is amazing, Steph looks a little like she’d gotten steamrolled by purple glitter.
Jason whistles when he sees them, obviously reaching the same conclusion. They did each other’s makeup, and with Cass’ slight in-experience in the subject, it didn’t go too well for Steph. Steph, however, is taking it in stride. She flutters her eyelashes- which are a little clumpy, leaving a smear of mascara under her eye- and gives them a big grin.
“How do we look?” she asks, striking a dramatic pose. Cass flashes her own smile, waving to them.
“You both look very nice,” says Bruce, placatingly. Jason gives them both a thumbs up and tells them, “You could get on the cover of, like, Vogue, or whatever.”
Steph reaches up to fix her own headband, which is holding back the messiest bun Tim’s ever seen in his life. The way she flashes off her looks lets Tim know that she understands what Cass has done to her face, but she’s taking it like a champ. Once she chitters off, I know, I know, we’re so beautiful, she and Cass plop down beside Duke.
“I didn’t think you guys were gonna stop by,” Steph says, conversationally, as she leans back. Her arm goes on the back of the couch, around Cass. “What brings you down to the manor?”
Up to the manor, Tim thinks. He can’t take his eyes off of Stephanie. As weird as her makeup makes her look, she’s still pretty in every sense of the word.
Jason looks over to Bruce. Tim looks over to Bruce. Bruce looks everywhere he can, besides the two of them. God- sometimes Tim really wants to shake some sense into Bruce. He’s the adult here. It’s his son that’s gone- so, with all of the tact of a sixteen year old running on five hours of sleep for the past thirty six hours, Tim reaches over and swiftly kicks Bruce in the shin. Jason- with all of the tact of an undead young adult who really doesn’t have the patience to deal with Bruce’s shit- does the same to his other leg.
“Something happened,” Bruce says, spurred into action. “It’s something that’s going to affect us as a family-”
Duke shifts and looks to the door like he’s about to leave. Steph places a hand on his knee and whispers something to him that Tim can’t hear- but he’s willing to bet she told him that he’s family too.
“Don’t you think we're missing a few people?” Steph asks, once she withdraws her hand to gesture around. She’s probably talking about Harper and Cullen, but when Tim thinks about it, he doesn’t really think that the two have even met Damian, have they? “Like- Carrie. Barbara? Harper?” Steph lists them all on her fingers, counting down the people. She starts to say ‘Dick’, before she claps her mouth shut. “Maybe even Selina, or, oh, I don’t know. Your other son?”
Damian.
The fact that Steph will so easily stand up for Damian- it’s really good. It hadn’t really been until recently that Tim thought like that, of course. At first, he told Steph to leave Damian alone. He’d always been calling her names- always had been horrible to those around him- always was hurting everyone near him. But, then, Tim’s view started changing. Damian was only a little kid- one that kept getting handed a crummy hand, over and over and over. He didn’t really deserve most of the stuff that had happened to him.
Of course, Tim had only thought like that after Heretic.
Heretic had been the turning point for everyone, in regards to Damian.
But, yes. Steph was always readily available to stick up or Damian- or to stick up for Jason and Tim. She’d fight against Bruce for any of them. That part of her only serves as a sour reminder, now.
When was the last time Steph saw Damian? When was the last time Steph got to talk to him? What were her last words?
Oh God. Last words.
“They’ll be informed in due time, Stephanie,” Bruce says, drawing everything out. Is he thinking of how to break the news? Both Steph and Cass were close with Damian- Cass and he had some unspoken understanding between them, from back in their shared League Days (both with a capital L and D). Steph had tried her best to do what Dick had strived to accomplish- get Damian to act his age, to get him to let loose and have fun for once. Duke- out of all of them- had known Damian for the shortest amount of time. He’d only come into the equation after the whole ‘We are Robin’ movement, following Bruce’s memory loss.
That doesn’t mean that the two weren’t close, though. Tim didn’t know why they were- it wasn’t something he was really privy to, in the end.
So, how will they all take the news?
Something pounds in Tim’s chest. Maybe if he just let Bruce do what he wanted to do, then they wouldn’t have to have this conversation. Tim doesn’t know how they’re going to react- he’d mourned Damian by himself, last time. He’d tied himself up in case after case until Dick finally got around to talking to him.
Tim looks at Duke. We are Robin, he thinks. We are, we are, we are.
Who’s going to be Robin now, though? Will Bruce ask Tim to fill in for the time being? Tim’s no kid anymore- no matter how much losing Robin hurts, and had hurt, he likes what he has, now. He’s not Bruce’s sidekick anymore. He’s his own person. So, if Tim turns him down, will Bruce find someone new? Will he go to Cullen? Or, will it happen by fate, like with Jason?
That’s not an idea Tim wants to think about. Even if he’d been the one to pick up the ‘R’ after Jason’s death, it still felt like Jason’s at first. Now it feels like Damian’s. He can’t imagine anyone else wearing that Robin costume. Not yet.
He’s not even sure if that’s something to worry about, though. Bruce hadn’t gotten a Robin before, after the Heretic. He’d been so consumed by the mantra of bring him home bring him home bring him home that he hadn’t had the time to scour the streets for a new orphan to bring back.
What if this time, it’s different? What if-
What if, what if, what if.
Bruce had been talking. Tim hasn’t heard a single word. From the sound of it, he still hasn’t talked about Damian. Is Tim going to have to step in and blurt it out?
“Is this about Dick?” Steph interrupts. “Or- Ric, I guess. I swear I haven’t been to his place since forever ago.”
They’ve been- sort of- banned from Dick’s place, ever since this whole Ric thing happened. (Which makes Tim think- the last time Damian really saw Dick was during the Robin movement. Had anyone told him about Dick? Does he know?) Bruce kept pushing Ric, and so had everyone else- even, admittedly, Tim. They’d wanted him to come back. They didn’t think that they could take losing anyone else. But, reluctantly, they’d all agreed to let Ric make due on his own.
Ric needed time. He needed space. If he wanted to come home, he’d have to do it himself.
But, did that mean they weren’t going to tell him about what happened to Damian? Were they not supposed to tell him until his memories came back? (If they came back at all.)
No- No, that’s-
Tim’s going to tell him. Someone has to tell him, Dick or Ric be damned.
“This isn’t about Dick,” Bruce says. “It’s never been about him. He’s as good as gone, you know that.”
The admission that Dick’s gone sounds something like defeat. How is it that Bruce can chase endlessly after Damian, no matter where he goes or even if he wants Bruce around, but as soon as it’s Dick in question, he can’t? Their ages are different, sure, but they’re both Bruce’s sons. What makes Dick any different? Well, maybe it’s because Dick is Dick. He’s uncageable, unchangeable. He’s free from influence and yet he’s so malleable. He’s unmovable and indestructible and untouchable. Damian, however, will always chase after Bruce- will even follow him halfway across the world if it meant getting Bruce to smile at him for once.
Bruce never deserved the worship Damian gave him. Not then. Not now.
“Who is it about?” Duke asks, when Bruce doesn’t say anything more.
“Damian,” Bruce replies, simply. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but Damian’s gone, too. He’s gone, but- But, I think that I-”
He’s interrupted. Steph shoots to her feet as Cass brings her hand to her lips, as Duke whispers a soft oh, as Tim’s gut does a quadruple flip, as Jason grips the arm of the couch just a little tighter. Steph marches right over to Bruce with so much feeling that it bleeds into the air and threatens to choke.
“I think that I can bring him back,” Bruce tries, again.
Steph slaps him straight across the face.
Tim moves quickly, but not quick enough. Jason’s on his feet first, so Tim slides in beside Cass and Duke, slotting his arm into place around Cass’ shoulders. To them, he whispers, I’m so sorry, I’m so, so sorry.
Cass tells him to stop. He stops.
“I’m so sick of your bullshit!” Steph shouts, as Jason tries to put a hand on her shoulder. “What happened this time? He died to protect your stupid city? Your goddamned legacy? Your identity? Or, are you lying to us again?!”
As she yells, her entire body shakes like it can’t contain her emotions. She’s about to burst like a balloon, overfilled to the point of over-exertion. Steph’s going to get hurt in the aftermath, but not before she tears Bruce apart.
Tim’s not sure he wants to stop her, even as he clears his throat and says, “He’s not lying. Not this time, anyway. Damian’s dead.”
With a mighty shriek, Steph crouches down to the ground on the tips of her toes. “You damned old man!” she cries, into her hands. Jason crouches beside her, trying to wrap his arm around her, but she springs up before he can, tears bubbling over like a pot left too long on the stove. “You get everyone around you killed, don’t you? You get them hurt, or you get them killed, but it’s all the same to you! Because you’re just Bruce Wayne! You’re the goddamn Batman! And you can bring them back to life whenever you fucking please! Is that how it is?”
Her fists are curled. Her cheeks are red. Her eyes are shining, and despite the mascara running down her face and the smeared makeup that’s been rubbed away- mixing with her tears and her anguish and the hurt in her soul- Tim is left breathless in her wake. It’s so out of place.
Bruce is breathless and wordless, too, but for a totally different reason.
“I asked- is that how it is now, Bruce?! Is it of no consequence to you, anymore?” Her voice begins to border on hysterical. “Oh- it’s okay! They’ll be back, don’t worry about it! It’s not like it matters that we died! We can all act like it didn’t fucking happen when you bring us back to life!”
“Steph,” Cass pleads. Tim holds Cass a little tighter.
Steph pulls back, just a little bit. It’s enough to cover the sob that racks her already quivering body. “I can’t keep doing this,” she says, quieter now. “We can’t keep on mourning like this, only for you to pretend like you’ve fixed everything. We can’t keep dying like this, only for you to magically snap your fingers and bring us back. So- So if you’re going to say that you can fix this? Shut your goddamn mouth, Bruce. I can’t keep doing this.”
And, in the end, she’s right. None of them can keep mourning people, only to have them return. They can’t keep dying for the world, only to return to the same life that’s going to kill them again. It’s a never ending cycle. Their bodies can’t keep up with it.
They can’t keep doing this.
Jason finally pulls Steph into his side. She’s not done, though. Steph is never done, when it comes to Bruce.
“Did he die for you?” she asks, like a pleading mother, asking how her little boy died. “Did he die to fix your mistakes again?”
“He died saving the world, I think,” Tim says. “None of us were there. I don’t think we can blame this all on Bruce.” He doesn’t know why he says that. He can blame Bruce- Bruce never should’ve left Damian, or let him go off with Suren without an adult. But- blaming is easy. Blaming is easy, and Jason doesn’t want them to blame.
“We’re not blaming anyone this time around,” Jason adds, voicing Tim’s thoughts. “Damian wouldn’t want that.” To Stephanie, he says, “You know he wouldn’t want that.”
Steph says, “I know.”
The conversation fizzes out. Bruce had never even said a word.
Neither had Duke, though, so Tim shifts and reaches over, putting his hand on the worn fabric of Duke’s jeans. He gives it a little squeeze, as if to say It’s okay. Nothing’s okay right now, of course, but it will be. It can be.
“This really sucks,” Duke whispers, rubbing at his eyes. His makeup doesn’t smear, oddly enough, even when tears start slipping down his cheeks. “I didn’t even get to really get to know him. We talked- had, like, a handful of conversations? But- now we’ll never talk again. And- he was only twelve. What the hell?”
“I know,” Tim says. Cass leans her head back onto Tim’s shoulder, hair tickling his neck. She hasn’t cried, but Tim knows she’s just as wrecked as the rest of them.
Duke sniffs. “It just- God, this sucks.”
“I know.”
Tim does.