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If you'd told Dick Grayson three years ago that he'd be driving across the country in a souped up RV with three super kids, a Batman super fan and an alien princess then he would have laughed in your face.
But three years on and he's doing exactly that. He's driving them from Gotham back to San Francisco, and it turns out it was a lot less fun than Dick had envisaged. It turns out that shoving four teenagers with major trauma into the back of an RV for extended periods of times and expecting them to just…get along, had been a tall order. He's beginning to wish they'd taken the jet.
It doesn't help that they mostly have to drive at night, Dick's paranoid they'll get spotted during the day and he refuses to put those kids in any more danger. He and Kori take turns driving whilst the other one catches a few hours of sleep. It's Dick's turn to drive and it's late, getting on towards 2am, but it's peaceful at least. Everyone else is asleep, the roads are quiet and he can just lose himself in his thoughts which admittedly isn't always a great idea.
He taps at the display on the dashboard and sees they have an hour or so to go until their next rest stop. He can manage that. Kori told him to wake her if he got tired, the last thing they want is one of them falling asleep at the wheel and running them off the road. But Dick's okay. For now.
He glances into the mirror that shows him into the back of the RV. The kids finally fell asleep about an hour ago and he hasn't heard a peep out of them since. That doesn't stop him worrying and checking on them every now and again.
Dick had thought they'd never fall asleep, they'd been bickering for ages about something Gar had said until exhaustion apparently caught up with them all. They've got separate cabins and beds in the back but they never use them. The kids seem to prefer to sleep all together in the living area.
Rach is sleeping on the biggest of the sofas, a blanket pulled around her and one of the pillows from the bedroom under her head. Gar is asleep at her feet, in tiger form, curled protectively around her. He sleeps like this more and more these days, he told Dick that he feels less vulnerable in that form and Dick understands. He's glad Rach has someone else looking out for her too.
The other two boys, Conner and Tim are sleeping on the smaller sofas. Dick doesn't question that they all like to sleep together, it's like their closeness is the way of dealing with all the trauma they've been through.
Dick, well he's just glad they're safe. He loves these kids like they're his own, especially Rach and Gar who've been with him from the beginning.
'You don't deserve them.' says that annoying little voice in Dick's head. That one that sounds suspiciously like Bruce. 'Do you really think you can protect them?'
Dick hates that the little self destructive voice inside his head sounds like Bruce. Like his old mentor. He's pretty sure a psychiatrist would have a field day with him.
He glances in the mirror at the sleeping kids again and his heart contracts. He ignores the nagging little voice because he will protect those kids. No matter what the cost.
//
They arrive at the rest stop an hour later. He glances back into the main cabin again to check he's not woken the kids. But there's no movement or noise aside from Rach's sleepy little snuffling noises. At least she's not screaming, Dick thinks to himself.
The first night on the road, Rach woke screaming from a nightmare she was having. Obviously that woke all the others up too and Rach was so inconsolable that Dick had to pull over and clamber out of the cab and check she was okay.
In the end, she'd only fallen back to sleep curled up against Dick's shoulder with his arm tucked around her. Apparently just having somebody else there made sleep easier for her. But obviously sleeping on Dick wasn't a practical arrangement so that's how Gar ended up sleeping at her feet every night. And it seemed to have done the trick, no more nightmares.
Dick knows he should get some sleep too, he's bone tired and his eyes feel gritty. He's no good to any of them in this state but the idea of something happening to them whilst they're all asleep terrifies him. He doesn't want to leave them all vulnerable like this.
At the other end of the bench seat in the cab, Kori is fast asleep too. Dick should wake her up and catch a few hours of shut eye himself but he doesn't want to disturb her. He's just debating what to do when there's a feather light tap on his shoulder. He jumps at the sudden contact but when he turns around, he realises it's just Rachel, her face illuminated by the light of her phone.
'Sorry.' she says quietly. 'I didn't mean to startle you.'
'It's fine.' Dick whispers back. 'I didn't wake you did I? We just got to the rest stop.'
Rach shakes her head and scrambles over the back of the seat so she's sitting next to Dick.
She's so powerful and so strong that Dick sometimes forgets she's still just a kid. She looks so young and small right now, she's wearing a pair of Gar's basketball shorts and Dick's oversized worn out grey hoodie.
She nudges Dick's shoulder gently with the tip of her nose as she tucks her feet up underneath her. Rach does this a lot to all of them, it's her way of telling them she's scared or needs comfort when she can't or doesn't want to describe how she's feeling. In this case, she probably doesn't want to wake Kori.
Rach may be a powerful empath but sometimes she struggles to talk about how she's feeling.
'Runs in the fucking family' Dick thinks to himself as he wraps an arm around Rach's shoulder and her whole frame relaxes into him. Dick's glad she feels safe with him, he's let her down too many times in the past, hasn't protected her but he's determined that won't ever happen again.
'You okay kiddo?' he asks under his breath. 'Bad dream?'
Rach nods against him but doesn't elaborate. Her breathing is becoming deeper and more regular and he realises she's falling asleep again. He's essentially trapped now so he might as well get some sleep himself, half an hour or so of resting his eyes won't hurt.
Dick shuts his eyes too and he's asleep before he knows it.