Chapter Text
Life had been good for Dick Grayson-Wayne as of late. Slowly but surely, he was cutting the rot out of Blüdhaven PD, he and Bruce were not only on speaking terms, but as close as they had been since he stopped being Robin, and his personal life wasn't currently a total mess! That was why he had come to the manor for dinner and chosen to stay after for a bit. It was a decision he was beginning to regret as his father brought out old photo albums filled with pictures of a younger him while Tim and Jason made teasing comments with sadistic (no B, he was not being overdramatic) glee. Cass had said no such things yet, but Dick could tell she was enjoying the show.
"I still can't believe I was the one who had to add pants to the Robin suit," Tim snickered.
"Seriously. I really wish I had thought of that. We looked so stupid," Jason said with a sigh.
"It was necessary," Cass responded with a wizened nod.
"The suit was based off my leotard in the circus! You didn't have to keep it Jay," Dick shot back with a tone that held no venom. It was nice to be surrounded by his loved ones. He loved being a big brother so much and was happy that Jason was slowly reintegrating into the family, Tim was making Robin his own with that big brain of his, and Cass was moving beyond her past while helping others at the same time.
There was just so much to be grateful for.
"You know B, I bet there are some embarrassing pictures of you as a kid in one of these albums…" Dick said in an attempt to get the attention off of himself.
"There is no possibility of that. I burned them all," the older man responded in a blunt way that only those closest to him would be able to understand as unserious.
"If I'm not mistaken sir," Alfred said as if summoned with an old, brown photo album in hand, "I believe this contains some pictures from your childhood."
Before Bruce could even attempt to stop them (not that it would have been successful), Dick had already snatched it up like a greedy wolf.
"Shit, I never thought I'd see little B in a schoolboy uniform," Jason said with an amused laugh.
"Hardy har har," Bruce said as he crossed his arms, but with a slight uptick of his mouth that betrayed amusement.
"Who is that? No way, did you actually have friends?" Dick asked, pointing to a ginger boy who was close to his father in some of the pictures.
All signs of Bruce's amusement died nearly instantly as he noticed the boy too.
"Yes. His name was Robert," he said simply, but all of the children took notice of how quickly he clammed up. Bruce took and shut the album before standing up, “Tim, I think you should start getting ready for bed given you have no patrol tonight because of that test tomorrow."
The older man's desire to end the discussion had the subtlety of a jackhammer, but Tim complied. Cass made an excuse about getting ready for bed too and Jason chose to take a French leave before anyone could stop him. Dick did not linger much longer either and decided to go back to Blüdhaven so he could begin that night’s patrol.
However, all throughout his rounds, the young man couldn't help but think back to Bruce's reaction. It was just too… off, even for someone like him. Dick couldn't shake it, the event replaying in his mind and causing him to toss and turn once he finally tried to sleep. Eventually, he gave up and decided to leave a message in the group chat he had with his siblings. Given their shared messed up sleep schedules, it was difficult to believe at least one wasn't awake.
Hey, is it just me or does anyone else think that B was acting super weird earlier?
Dick was about to put his phone down, but it buzzed with a new message from Tim almost immediately.
Oh yeah, he's definitely hiding something.
The rest of his siblings chimed in soon after with their own agreements.
He said that his friend's name was Robert, right? Dick typed back, I think I'll ask Babs to look into it.
No, wait. Let me look at it first, Tim insisted.
The man agreed to let his younger brother handle it for now and tried to move on. It was not easy, however. The thoughts rang in his head even as he got dressed for his civilian job, even as he clocked in and was well into his shift, all the way until he finally clocked out. Dick checked his phone as he finally settled back into his apartment and was met with a text from Tim.
This is what I found, the message said simply with an attached file. Taking a breath, Dick opened it.
Words and headlines describing the disappearance and murder of several children instantly sobered him. A scandal that led to the retirement of the headmaster of Bruce's boarding school and Thomas and Martha pulling him out shortly before their own deaths. Of course, Robert was one of those missing children. The next few files spoke of how this "Mr. Winchester" came back and murdered some of the prominent mob bosses in Gotham during Bruce's early years as Batman before he had taken Dick in. A sense of guilt overcame the former acrobat. He was so used to Bruce just keeping secrets for secrecy sake or out of a misguided sense of protection, that the idea of the man hiding something due to genuine trauma that they had no business knowing hadn't occurred to him. Now, Dick felt like, well… a dick.
With his curiosity satiated and feeling sufficiently chastened, Dick finally allowed himself to drop it. The shame he would probably feel if Bruce ever found out how deeply he looked into this combined the image of his disappointed and hurt face was more than enough to convince him. He refused to ask Bruce more and the man would never know if Dick had his way. Tim didn't bring it up again either and the current Robin being given an off-world mission soon after only added to that belief.
That worked just fine with Dick. Things would have remained that way if Bruce hadn't called him a few nights later to help when the Scarecrow escaped Arkham.