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Thirty five years at the Motor Vehicles Commission was enough. It tipped him into the age for early retirement, and Sara loved her job in Peds at Gotham Mercy, so David retired.
On his last day, the branch threw him a very respectable celebration at the end of the day, and once they'd cheered him and had cake and shared some memories, David and some of his closer coworkers moved the party to David's usual dive.
Jim, Babs, Sara, and the boys were waiting, with a few more friends from different places over the years.
"What'll you do now?" Jim asked, tipping his beer bottle in silent toast.
David nodded in the direction of Daniel's baby daughter, Joshua's pregnant wife, and the wistful look on Jack's fiance's face as she watched both her sister-in-laws. "Spoil the grandchildren," he answered.
Jim shook his head, sighing regretfully. Babs was still stubbornly single, to Jim's dismay. Ten years ago, he'd been sure he'd be getting an invite to her wedding to the Grayson kid any day, and then he'd run off to New York, Babs had sworn off men, and somehow, nothing had ever come of it. "You'll be bored in a week," he predicted.
"Oh," David said, "That reminds me."
Jim's eyebrows rose.
David grinned. "I am so glad to be leaving this shitshow to someone else," he said, handing an envelope to Jim.
Jim opened the envelope in confusion and unfolded the paper around the plastic ID card. "Nightwing Bat" stared up at them both, white domino and blue crest shining in the MVC's fluorescent lights; the photo was nearly ten years old, but even holding it up to the real vigilante wouldn't show much difference.
"That renewal rolled across my desk not too long ago," David said dryly. "Figured you could deliver it for me."
Jim shook his head ruefully. "He still does this?"
"Every four years, like clockwork," David confirmed. "Renee's been delivering for me, last few."
Jim shook his head. "Come on," he said, tucking the card away. "Sara's giving me the gesture to get you outside. Be very surprised."
David huffed a snort through his nose and let Jim jostle him out onto the bar's patio, where a cake and a series of presents were waiting. "Goddamnit," he grumbled. "We weren't going to do gifts."
"Oh come on," Jack protested. "Let us celebrate you!"
"Getting out of that place merits celebration," Joshua said dryly. "How many times did you get held at gunpoint?"
"Me specifically?" David retorted.
"The fact that you have to clarify is horrifying," Sara said, leaning into his shoulder.
"And how many times have you been held at gunpoint?" Jack asked his mother.
"Me specifically?" Sara teased.
David laughed. Long-sufferingly, he let Daniel hand him the cake-knife and he cut the cake, and let his family and friends ply him with sugar and alcohol, which he knew he would regret in the morning.
But Babs was laughing with Elaine and Johanna, and Daniel and Joshua were teasing Jack in a way they hadn't since they were young. David figured it was probably worth the hangover.
Jim nudged their shoulders together, and tapped his chest with the ID card, held between his pointer and middle fingers. "I know you gave this to me," he said in a low voice. "But you should deliver it yourself." He tipped his chin towards the shadows of the corner of the patio.
A blue and black shadow loitered, smiling, sitting cross-legged on a fence that really shouldn't have held him.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me," David told Jim.
Jim laughed, dropped the id into David's shirt pocket, and shoved him towards the laughing bird.
Still shaking his head, David crossed to Nightwing and silently held out the driver's license.
Nightwing took it with a flourish, spun it between his fingers a few times, and then vanished it as smoothly as any stage magician. "Congratulations on your retirement," he said.
"Thanks," David grunted. "Happy belated birthday," he added, smirking.
Nightwing laughed. Of course, his driver's license expired every four years on the day in March a young Robin had made his first arrest, listed as Nightwing Bat's birthday. That date had passed a week and a half ago, hence the card renewal. "Thanks," he said easily. "The big eighteen," he added, grinning conspiratorially.
David snorted dismissively. "Please tell me you're just here for your license."
"Added bonus," Nightwing said cheerfully. "Actually here to congratulate you on your retirement."
David stared at him. "What the fuck, why?"
Nightwing's smile turned crooked and small. "Because you're kind to children and patient with grumpy old ladies, and you rush-order stuff for Commish when you agree with what he's doing, but you also sit on paperwork for the crooked cops for the full fourteen business days." He shrugged. "Because you made Gotham a little better every day, and you deserve to be thanked and go quietly into retirement."
"Still like ice cream?" David asked, instead of touching any of that with a ten-foot pole.
Nightwing's grin immediately brightened again. "Who doesn't?" he asked rhetorically.
"People with lactose intolerance," David answered anyway.
Nightwing's bright laugh drew attention.
"Holy shit," Jack said clearly into the sudden silence.
Nightwing waved cheerfully. "Hi guys," he chirped. "Everything going smoothly here?"
"It's lovely, thank you," Sara said, sounding very skeptical. "Thank you for stopping in to wish our David well."
"He deserves it," Nightwing said.
"Get him some cake, Sar," David said. "It's not ice cream," he added to the vigilante. "But should sugar you up adequately before we send you back out into it."
Sara obligingly served Nightwing some cake, which he took with a polite thank you. He allowed himself to be introduced to Johanna, Elaine, and Katrina, and greeted Babs with vague familiarity—he called her "Miss Gordon" and kissed the back of her hand like some kind of fantasy knight.
David turned to glare at Jim, who laughed at him. By the time he turned back around, Nightwing had the baby, and Jack's rapt, undivided attention.
"Oh boy," Jim murmured, sotto voce. "Never hear the end of it now."
"I've probably never been so cool in Jack's entire life," David agreed. "He never did give up that hero worship."
"No, I see that," Jim said wryly. More quietly, he said, "I mean, he picked the right one, to be fair."
Nightwing laughed at something Elaine said as he handed her back her child, demurring politely whatever they were trying to offer him.
It was Sara who called the girls' attention, letting the vigilante make his escape.
Nightwing paused in the shadows near the fence, looked back, and waved once, directly to David.
David nodded back, and the Bird was gone into the darkness.
"I hate you," David told Jim.
Jim patted his shoulder. "Just think," he said. "You'll never have to make him an id again."
"One Cave Road," David said derisively.
Jim laughed, and David finally let out the smile that had been pulling at the edge of his mouth.