Chapter Text
Stephanie squinted down at her textbook, she was never going to understand organic chemistry.
Suddenly a grating scraping sound rung through the air. Again.
“Is that really necessary?” Stephanie bites out, glaring at Damian.
Damian clicks his tongue and runs a sharpening stone over the ridge of one of his birdarangs again, creating another annoying shrill around them. Stephanie’s eye twtiched.
“You’re going to wake him up,” Stephanie said, looking pointedly to young Dick lying in a small cot. There wasn’t really a real medbay in the Clocktower, but there was an unused room that had a couple cots and a bunch of medical supplies in it. It also had a lumpy couch that Stephanie was lounging in and Damian was perched on the arm of.
“Serves him right for choosing to pass out in the middle of a fight and forcing us to drag his ass here,” Damian said primly. Stephanie rolled his eyes.
“Well, Dick is known for his theatrics, you can’t fault a man for his nature,” Stephanie said.
“Theatrics,” Damian mumbled darkly to himself. Stephanie side-eyed him, you’d think he was contemplating a murder, not ‘theatrics’. “It’s disgraceful,”
Stephanie half-shrugged.
“I don’t know,” She said, “I almost wish he’d managed it, no skin off my back and one less clown menacing the streets,” She turned a page to look nonchalant. Technically she probably shouldn’t be saying this. They weren’t really supposed to talk much about the gray areas of their trade with Damian. Not officially or anything, it was always just kind of implied. Damian had a… complicated relationship with Batman’s rules.
But Damian was probably already over-thinking everything and maybe it would help to know that even if baby Dick had ended up killing the Joker, things wouldn’t have been unrecoverable, Stephanie wouldn’t have cared.
“You’re a disgrace Brown, I knew there was a reason you aren’t Batgirl anymore,” Damian said, eyes narrowing. Ouch.
“Now you’re just hurting my feelings,” Stephanie said, in a high-pitched sing-song voice. “Is it wrong to engage in wishful thinking?”
“It sounded more like motive and intent to me,”
“Your bad cop routine needs work,”
“If I ever stoop low enough to become a member of the GCPD, know for certain it is not me and that you should be investigating Clayface’s whereabouts immediately,” Damian said tersely.
“Noted,” Stephanie said.
There were a couple moments of silence. It wouldn’t be long now.
“He is different than I expected,” Damian said bluntly. There it was.
“Yeah, definitely more… angsty than I was expecting, but I guess it makes sense, it was the late 2000s, MCR was all the rage,” Stephanie rambled.
“Don’t be obtuse Brown,” Damian said, annoyed.
“I’m not!” Stephanie said, “But, I don’t know, Dick’s been through… a lot, I think it makes sense, at least a little, he’s young,”
“He is the same age as you,”
“Exactly! I know what it’s like to be nineteen and hating life!” Stephanie said, grinning a little.
“Can you take anything seriously?”
Stephanie groaned. Damian was uniquely difficult to talk to.
“I am being serious, it doesn’t surprise me that Dick has thought about killing before, that he’s come close, I know he already almost killed the Joker when he thought he killed Tim,”
“So he’s just a hypocrite then,” Damian said, matter of factly. Shit. She needed to nip that in the bud quickly. It wouldn’t be right for Damian to lose faith in his Batman.
“No! That’s not-,” Stephanie stumbled.
“It’s exactly as I’ve said,” Damian said, barrelling over her with that snide tone. “All this time, he’s simply been pretending for Father, adhering to the rules due to circumstance, as soon as he no longer cares about Father’s respect, he will kill,”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Damian, that’s not true,” Stephanie said. “Dick wouldn’t kill just because, you know that,”
“Dick-, he-, look it’s personal,” She starts, unsure of herself, “What the Joker has done, to Jason, it’s personal and that makes all the difference, Dick did that for Jason, Dick doesn’t believe in killing, but he believes in protecting his family more,”
“I think,” She adds on at the end, for deniability’s sake.
“He’s still a hypocrite, and a liar,” Damian said.
“Yeeaaahhhh, he was being kind of a dick,” Stephanie said. Guy could’ve at least escaped on his own merits instead of manipulating trusting child assassins.
There was a moment of silence between them as they listened to the teenager snore lightly. It was impossible to explain how the way he breathed was exactly like their Dick. Stephanie hadn’t thought that people breathed in different ways but when you heard two people do it exactly the same it was eery.
“Man, what are we gonna do with him?” Stephanie sighs. Baby Dick had really gotten them into a hot mess and he hadn’t even been here twenty-four hours.
“He needs to leave, go back to his own time, it’s where he belongs,” Damian said sternly.
“What if he can’t though?” Stephanie said, biting her lip anxiously. “What if he’s like, a copy of our Dick from that time, and he can’t go back because it’ll ruin things,”
“Don’t act like you know the intricacies of time and space Brown,”
Stephanie scoffed.
“Like you know better,”
“I know far more than you do, my grandfather has lived for hundreds of years and spent his life studying the nature of our world, of course he has passed this knowledge onto me, it’s not my fault your mind is to small to comprehend the vast possibility of life, to think that one person’s temporary displacement could end the universe is absurd,” Damian ranted like the arrogant little prick he was. Stephanie’s eye twitched.
“Has anyone ever told you you sound like an chipmunk that’s deluded itself into thinking it was a doctorate?” Stephanie said, yawning over exaggerated. Damian scowled and his cheeks puffed up (exactly like a chipmunk).
“You are a blight on both Gordon and Father’s legacy-,” Damian huffed. Stephanie could already tell he was gearing up for a long-winded rant about honor and respect and sensibility.
“Damian,” Came a cold tone from the door. In the entrance stood Barbara Gordon, back lit by bright fluorescent hallway lights. She looked sort of like a savior come to deliver Stephanie from Damian’s attitude. “Your father wants you home, I let him know about your little rendezvous around the city and he’d like to interrogate you before he confronts Dick,”
Damian’s nose scrunched up adorably.
“Snitch,” Damian sniffed, and left, he made sure to hip check Barbara’s wheelchair on the way out. “I’ll be sure to tell him that you were blinded by your own sordid desires when you decided to let a volatile teenager roam,”
Barbara looked like she had sucked on a lemon.
“He’s got a personality on him,” Came a scratchy voice. Stephanie whipped around to where the teenaged Dick was rubbing his eyes in the cot. Barbara was over to his bedside and glaring down at him in seconds. Stephanie winced a little.
“You’re one to talk,” Barbara said, her arms were crossed and her thin browns were downturned, giving her a very mean librarian look. “How about we talk about your personality traits, my least favorite one is being a manipulative, self-righteous asshole,”
Stephanie winced even harder. There certainly were a lot of large, clashing personalities in this group. Dick scowled as he sat up a little. His long hair was a mess.
“Can I at least get a glass of water before I have to listen to the lecture Mother Mary?”
Stephanie took this moment to escape and fill up a glass. The bickering didn’t stop as she did.
“You really screwed me over Dick, and you really screwed yourself over,” Barbara started in, “Whatever ideas you have about this future, about how things should be don’t mean anything, you’ve barely been here a day and now you want to start deciding who lives and who dies?”
Dick rolled his eyes and Stephanie was pretty sure she could see steam coming out of Barbara’s ears.
“Please like killing the Joker is a controversial idea, they’ve been thinking about reinstating the death penalty for him,” Dick argued back, leaning in closer to Barbara. Stephanie set the water down on a small table next to him but he didn’t even glance at it. “You’re just upset I did it without your permission, that I’m not afraid like you are!”
“Oh grow up, no one needs permission to do anything, you’re responsible for your own actions and what you did was manipulate multiple people who were just worried about you, including an eleven year old so that you could go out on an ill-advised manhunt to ease your own guilt over Jason’s death,” Barbara said quickly. Stephanie wondered how long she had been sulking and crafting that one up. “Every second we have to spend damage controlling the Joker is another second we can’t focus on getting you back to your own time and therefore destabilizing our own,”
“He killed my brother!” Dick thundered. “Am I supposed to just accept that!”
Barbara was still frowned but her brow softened slightly.
“No, of course not,” She backtracked, “But Dick, you can’t just rush into something like that, you don’t know anything about us, about now, and, and everything is too fresh for you, it’s too much,” Dick opened his mouth to respond.
“Oooookayyyy,” Stephanie said suddenly. Somehow she didn’t feel like this was a very constructive conversation and if she didn’t stop it now people were going to get their feelings even more hurt. “You know, I’m starving, when’s the last time you ate Baby Dick? This morning? Why don’t we get something to eat? I’m thinking Indian food, I could do with some naan right about now,”
Barbara backed up a bit from the bed, obviously seeing exactly what Stephanie was trying to do and reluctantly grateful for it. Stephanie grabbed Dick’s arm and started bodily pulling him up from the cot.
“What the hell,” Dick muttered, shaking her off.
“The bathroom is down the hall on the left, can’t miss it, hurry up, I might wither away,” Stephanie said hurrying Dick along. When he was finally stumbling out the door, Stephanie turned to glare at Barbara.
“Good one Babs, attack the man as soon as he wakes up,” Stephanie said.
“One thing you obviously haven’t learned about Dick is that he willfully ignores subtext, you have to be direct and I was,” Barbara said. “He can’t pull any more stunts like that,”
Stephanie groaned.
“Yeah you really got through to him, I’m sure he feels real sorry,”
Barbara sighed. “Use Bruce’s money at the restaurant,”
“Pft, I always do,” Stephanie said, sitting heavily on the couch. Barbara rolled away.
Once she was gone Stephanie flopped on her back on the couch. God she was tired. She was always tired, complaining about it felt redundant. This whole situation should have been fun and quirky, not so draining. She should be making fun of Dick’s stupid mullet not tip-toeing through Babs emotional landmines.
It felt like her life often went like that. Things were supposed to be big and exciting and fun but more often than not they were just exhausting. She didn’t know where Baby Dick got the energy to cause so much chaos.
Stephanie closed her eyes for just a second to rest them.
She was suddenly awoken when cold water sprayed down on her face. Stephanie startled and threw a sloppy punch into the open air. However, instead of hitting her target she just over-balanced herself and almost fell off the couch.
She glared up at her attacker. Baby Dick was standing there with his hands in his hair where he had just rung out the excess water into her face.
“You son of a bitch,” Stephanie said.
“Are we still going out to eat? I thought you were starving?” Dick said, he looked a lot more put together than he had this morning. He was wearing some clothes that she recognized from Dick’s stack of laundry he regularly left here.
“I am, in fact I passed out from being so famished while I was waiting for you to finish primping yourself,” Stephanie drawled. The fact that Dick could go from attempting murder at 10am to joking around at 6pm was perfectly on-brand. It was actually kind of comforting to see him more like his usual self rather than a defensive teenager.
Stephanie stretched a bit, feeling her back crack a couple times and her ribs throb from the bruises she’d gotten last week.
They walked to the closest Indian place, which was around three blocks away. The wonders of the Clocktower being right downtown. That was probably the thing she hated the most about the Batcave, the fact that it was so far out of the way. She had a theory that rich people secretly loved commuting because it was an excuse to use their fancy cars.
The restaurant was small and had obviously seen better days. They ordered at the small counter and went to sit in one of the three booths. Only one was occupied so far despite the fact that it was dinnertime. The kitchen seemed to be eternally busy still though, probably from takeout orders.
She fiddled with the cracked plastic of the table, avoiding staring at Dick. As they had walked and ordered he’d gotten more and more withdrawn. He was practically radiating darkness and negativity. Things were getting more and more awkward by the moment and she wasn’t sure what to do about it.
When their order number was called out Stephanie sprung to her feet and hurried forward. The food smelled amazing and she could already feel her stomach rumbling. She put the food down on the table and immediately started in on her own plate.
Food was a pretty good distraction from the non-conversation going on, but it didn’t stop teen Dick from glaring at the table and looking constipated even while he ate.
“Soooo, um, how was train-surfing with Damian?” Stephanie asked, she looked down and mushed her rice up.
“It was fine,” Dick said. Stephanie let out a deep breath. Is this how her mom felt when she’d try to ask how school was going when Stephanie was in the 8th grade?
“Oh uh, that’s good,” Stephanie said, “I wouldn’t hope for a repeat, he’s pretty mad at you,”
Fuck, she shouldn’t have said that, that would probably just add to Dick’s stress. She was so stupid, she should go back to the awkward silence, that was going well.
Dick shrugged.
“I don’t even know him,” Dick said, “Besides, everyone’s mad at me,” He took a big bite. Stephanie frowned.
“I’m not, I would have been fine with the Joker dying,” Stephanie said, trying her best to be nonchalant.
“Well I’m glad someone has common sense,” Dick said.
Stephanie shrugged.
“I get all the moral arguments and stuff, and that it’s like, about the principle of the thing, and it’s a slippery slope and yadda yadda, but I don’t know,” Stephanie bit her lip, “I just, I wouldn’t be upset if he was gone,”
“I don’t understand how Bruce hasn’t killed him,” Dick said, “I don’t understand how I haven’t, I mean Jason is back and he wants us to,”
“You got pretty close to killing him, when he had caught Tim and we thought Tim was dead,” Stephanie said. “I don’t think I would have the self control not to if he’d killed Tim,”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Dick said, “I won’t get another chance,”
“Probably not,” Stephanie agreed, “You used up everyone’s goodwill,”
“I don’t care about that, like Barbara said, I won’t be here long anyway,” Dick said.
Stephanie frowned.
“Yeah well I will be and I’ll have to hear all of Jason’s monologues about this,”
Dick finally looked up at her.
“Jason… he’s… different,” Dick said cautiously. Stephanie shrugged. From killer clowns to zombie brothers.
“I can’t say, I didn’t know him before he died,” Stephanie said, “He’s kind of an asshole though, he really fucked with Tim,”
“Jason’s just a kid,” Dick defended quickly. Stephanie raised an eyebrow.
“Jason’s older than you,”
“What?”
“Yeah man, Jason’s like, 24 I think? I’m not sure, definitely older than you though,”
“What’s the story about that anyway? Older me won’t tell me anything,” Dick said.
Stephanie puffed out a big breath.
“Okay so, it’s kind of a long story,” Stephanie rambled, “Basically when Jason died, Ras stole his dead body to try some sort of new Lazarus experiment on and it brought him back to life, then he spent awhile with the League of Assassins, then he came back to Gotham to get revenge on Bruce for not killing the Joker in his honor, he became a drug lord, killed a bunch of criminals, and attacked Tim, and basically set up this weird-ass face off where he tried to force Bruce to kill the Joker or kill himself,”
“And then Bruce didn’t do either of those and Jason got really fucking mad about it but then he left the country for a little bit I think? And then Bruce died and everyone was in Gotham trying to keep things under control and Jason came to cause chaos and monologue about justice or whatever, and ever since then he goes back and forth between helping us and actively trying to stop us,”
“Uh, does that make sense?” Stephanie asked, rubbing the back of her neck.
“No, not really,” Dick deadpanned.
“Look just, what you need to know is that Jason likes to stir the pot, and that’s probably exactly what he was doing with you,” Stephanie said. “So, you know, if you blame it on Jason than Bruce will probably be less mad at you,” They should probably start workshopping how they were going to damage control this. Bruce would probably be a little tizzy about this whole thing and make everything worse if they didn’t play this right.
Dick scoffed.
“I’m not going to blame my dead brother,” Dick said, “Besides I don’t give a fuck if Bruce is mad at me,”
Well. That wasn’t a winning strategy for things to go over smoothly.
“Okay, yeah sure, but sometimes it’s just easier to avoid the fight you know, especially with… this,”
“No! I’m not rolling over on this! The Joker deserves to die and I was going to kill him! Fuck Batman and his rule! He killed my brother!” Dick said.
Stephanie bit the inside of her cheek.
“Alright, it’s your funeral,”
“I’ve fought with Bruce plenty, I think I can handle myself,” Dick sneered.
Stephanie sighed.
“How do you have so much energy to be mad all the time?”
Dick frowned.
“I’m not mad all the time,” Dick said, “You barely know me,”
“I guess, but I don’t know, I’m getting a vibe,”
“What vibe?”
“Just like, an ‘I’m always mad’ vibe,”
“You all are so unfair, everything I do, it’s never good enough! It’s like I’m under a microscope, I don’t have anything to prove to you!” Dick said, “Newsflash, I don’t know you!”
Stephanie’s throat felt heavy.
“Guess not,” Stephanie said.
Dick frowned and let his arms fall where he had been emphatically waving them.
“Was that you ‘avoiding the fight’?” He asked.
Stephanie nodded.
“Yeah man, not worth the circles we’d argue around each other,”
Dick growled.
“No one around here has a backbone,” He muttered. Stephanie shrugged.
“I’m in this to help people, not to win arguments,”
Dick blinked before his brow furrowed again.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? You think I don’t want to help people?”
“I’m sure you do, it’s just… nevermind,” Stephanie said, taking a bit of pleasure now in dragging this out.
“No, say it,”
“It’s just… our Dick would have never used Damian like that to kill someone,” Stephanie said, “You really hurt his feelings,”
Maybe she was a little mad too.
“I’m pretty sure that this is a little more important than Damian’s feelings,”
Stephanie huffed a laugh.
“Now you sound like Bruce,”
Dick leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms.
“I don’t know what mind game you think you’re playing, but it’s not working,”
“Just telling it how I see it, very Bruce-like thing to do you know, talking about how our feelings don’t matter, and that we must all bow at the feet of the greater good,” Stephanie said, letting her frustration at Bruce leak in.
“That’s not what I was saying at all,”
“Sure,” Stephanie conceded sarcastically.
“I’m not like Bruce,”
“I mean, not in general, but you sounded like him just then, that’s all I’m saying,” Stephanie said lightly.
There was a moment of silence.
“Was I… like Bruce when I was Batman?”
Stephanie raised her eyebrows.
“I mean, you were pretty good at the voice… but not really,” Stephanie said, “There was a lot more chatter on comms than when Bruce is Batman,”
“I wasn’t supposed to be Batman, ever,”
“Well, life has a funny way of turning out,” Stephanie said, her stomach suddenly turning iron and her appetite diminishing. She played with her rice and sauce.
There was another moment of quiet.
“You were a good Batman though,” Stephanie said softly.
“Doubtful,”
“No, really,” Stephanie insisted. “Don’t tell anyone but sometimes I wish you were still Batman. I don’t want Bruce dead or anything but, I don’t know, I miss that time,”
“Bruce isn’t easy to work with,” Dick conceded.
“No,” Stephanie agreed, “And I don’t know, I think-, nevermind,”
Dick stared her down expectantly.
“I think that you were better for Damian, you were a better parent, really, don’t tell anyone I said that,” Stephanie said hurriedly.
“I won't,” Dick said. “I know… Bruce isn’t the best parent,”
“I think even Bruce knows he’s not the best parent,” Stephanie said.
“How’d you get into this, uh, family anyways?”
“Same way anyone does,” Stephanie said, “Nepotism,”
“Bruce adopted you too?”
“Ew no, my dad was Cluemaster,” Stephanie said, “Decided I’d fight on the other side,”
“Huh,” Dick said. “Guess daddy issues come with the territory,”
Stephanie grinned.
“Is that you admitting you have daddy issues?”
“I’m not so self-unaware,” Dick grumbled. “Besides-,”
“Hey, what are you guys talking about?” Interrupted sickly bright tone. Stephanie looked up surprised from where she had leaned in to argue with Dick.
The older Dick, their Dick, was shoving his way into the booth next to his doppelganger. Tim smiled at her and Stephanie scooted so he could sit next to her. The young Dick scowled at his older self helping himself to his food.
“Wow, my favorite? How did you know?” The older Dick said through a mouthful of food. Tim huffed slightly in amusement and the older Dick grinned at the attention.
“Is the boss calling us back?” Stephanie asked, pushing her own plate over to Tim who happily took it.
“Yeah, Zatanna just got back with us and she wants to do some tests on Bon Jovi over here,” Tim said, gesturing across the table. “Plus Bruce wants him back under surveillance because he’s an ‘unpredictable loose canon’,”
Both Dicks scoffed simultaneously and then looked at each other in surprise.
“Freaky,” Stephanie said in awe.
The older Dick took another bite of the younger’s food.
“Will you stop that!” The teenager hissed and snatched the plate back.
“Lighten up little me,” Their Dick said, “We have nothing but hard times ahead,” He looked forlornly into the distance. Tim snorted.
“Bruce is pretty pissed,” Tim explained. “He just finished up with GCPD, and now he’s talking shop with Zatanna,”
The younger Dick just shrugged.
The older Dick sighed.
“Look, I know Bruce is an asshole, God I know, but I really need you to play nice for a bit, just so we can get you home and we can all forget any of this ever happened,” The older Dick said. The younger Dick’s face scrunched up into something nasty and Stephanie could tell that this very much was not going to go well.
“I’m not playing nice, are you kidding me? Bruce can go fuck himself, I don’t regret what I did, I’d do it again,” The younger Dick said.
Stephanie snorted.
The older Dick side-eyed his younger self.
“Your funeral,”