Work Text:
“Drake!” Damian’s voice echoed through the cave (who knew a ten year old could be that loud?) as his index finger poked the older boy in the chest. “Did you not pay attention to my instructions? I said you were going to take the Bowery, Todd was going to take the docks and I was going to handle the east side of the city. Todd listened.”
“I was going to the docks, anyway.” Jason objected with a shrug as he leaned against the cave wall, watching the other two go back and forth with the most bored looking expression on his face.
“Am I really supposed to take instructions from you? You’re like eight !” Tim spat, smacking at Damian’s hand. “Nobody left you in charge. Bruce didn’t leave anybody in charge!” He threw his hands up in the air, completely exasperated. “And of course this is the week that Dick is definitely busy.”
“I’m the oldest.” Jason piped in. “So shouldn’t I be in charge? I mean, technically, right?”
There was a pause as Damian and Tim looked at each other before looking back at Jason and completely in-sync said, “No.”
“Look, you two agreed on something!” Jason smirked before scrunching his lips to the side as he thought. “Do we really need to work together? We can just do our own thing.”
“It would flow better if we worked together.” Tim pointed out, arms crossing over his chest and sighing. “Look, just...let me try to take charge.”
There was another echo of ‘no’s’ from the other two and a chorus of sighs. The three boys really were not getting anywhere. Everybody wanted to be in charge and absolutely refused to acknowledge anybody else being in charge out of the three of them. Their saving grace came in the form of a ding from the elevator, signaling the arrival of someone down in the cave. Somehow managing to be in sync, they all turned to look at the arrival -- and maybe in their hearts they were hoping for Bruce or Dick, coming to straighten all of this the hell out.
Instead, the new face was even more welcome than the former two would have been. Shoulder length red hair, glasses and emerald green eyes that were filled with a look that said, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’, Barbara Gordon rolled into the cave, not saying a word as she rolled over to the computer.
As expected, Damian broke the silence. “What are you doing here, Gordon?”
“Saving the day.” Barbara said, nonchalantly. “Alfred called and said the three of you couldn’t get your crap together and needed someone to take charge. Of course, that meant I had to get out of my comfortable bed, toss my takeout in the fridge and drive over here to deal with the three of you.”
“We were figuring it out.” Tim muttered.
“Of course. That’s why the three of you have been in here almost all night instead of taking care of anything going on in the city. Thankfully Canary and Huntress were free and could pick up your slack.” Barbara tsked, fingers typing away at the computer and pulling up what was going on in Gotham.
Just like Barbara had previously stated, thankfully Canary and Huntress were around or else, who knows what kind of mess the boys would have to clean up? Muggings had been stopped, a hostage situation at a bank downtown had ended and Penguin had been tossed back into Arkham. She glanced over at them with a sigh. “Luckily, your stubbornness didn’t result in the city falling apart.” She commented as Damian frowned, Tim glanced at the floor and Jason just looked up at the ceiling. “So let’s stop the bickering and focus on your jobs , alright?” They seemed like they felt bad enough so she stopped the lecturing -- at least for the moment.
“Yeah. So where do you want us?” asked Tim.
Barbara’s eyes went back to the map and various red dots popping up around the city. “Looks like Bruce was tracking gun smuggling down at the docks and there’s a meet tonight, Jason, why don’t you take that?”
“Docks, got it.” He lifted his helmet, pulling it back over his face and turning to leave the cave.
“Jason,” Barbara stopped him and he turned to glance at her, head tilted to the side. “Remember to remain non-lethal.” She reminded, earning what she was sure was an eye roll underneath the helmet. It rolled off her shoulders before she decided to focus on the other two, lips scrunched to the side as she thought about what would play to the strengths of the remaining two boys. “Tim, looks like there’s an increase in gang activity toward the Bowery. Might want to check that out before a war breaks out and we’re in over our heads.”
She pretended to ignore Damian’s little smirk as she focused on the final red blinking dot and looked at the youngest. “And there’s a robbery attempt on the East End that you can handle, Damian.”
And once again, Barbara found herself in the role of pretending she didn’t hear Damian muttering ‘Told you so, Drake’ as the two exited the cave, leaving her shaking her head and holding back a chuckle.
The cave fell silent, except for the occasional beep of the computer, the tapping of her fingers and the screech of a bat as it woke and left the cave just like the boys did. The comm lines were open as she waited for the boys to report in with their respective missions. There was a familiar echo of footsteps behind her that caused a smile to creep onto her face and her typing to pause, “I think I got them sorted out, Alfred.”
“I had no doubt that you would, Miss Gordon.” Alfred said warmly, sitting a sandwich and a cup of coffee by her side. “While those boys normally have brilliant ideas, it takes them some time to work together. Unless someone orders them to.”
“Glad to be able to give that extra push.” She grabbed her coffee cup and took a sip, leaning back in her chair. “Next time though, make sure Bruce puts someone in charge. I don’t have time to babysit two practically grown boys and Damian.” Barbara meant it good-heartedly, of course she’d always be there to take care of the boys if they needed it, but she wasn’t slipping into some gender-swap Charlie’s Angels role.
“Now you know how I feel.” Alfred chuckled before nodding. “But understood. And Miss Gordon?” Barbara looked up as a response. “Master Bruce has requested that you don’t reorganize his system, even if you deem it ‘prehistoric’ and ‘ineffective’.”