fic: Family Affairs, part 1

[sylph_fics]

Title: Family Affairs, part 1
Co-writer: merfilly
Fandom: DC
Word count: 1,551
Continuity notes: I hate current canon. My canon stops pre (the idiocy of) Graduation Day. So it's 'The Titans', Young Justice, the full Bat-clan, and the rest of the world.
Feedback: Please?
Summary: Continued from Surprise! and Announcements
Dick has that conversation that's making him nervous..



Dick finally got the baby in his arms back to sleep now that the senior heroes had left and the babies had been fed again, and carefully settled him back into the bassinet before he glanced at Roy and walked over to him. "I... guess I need to head down to Gotham, try and get some of this started..."

"Yeah, 'mano." Roy stretched fitfully. "That is what you have to do, while I stay here and... watch the babies."

"And Lian. And maybe, now that the screaming's stopped, you can go ahead and get a hold of Ollie?" He walked towards the door, giving Dinah a wry smile as he laid a hand on the door.

"I was going to bat my eyes at the Pretty Bird there for that end of things..." Roy smiled at his mother/sister/friend and got a tongue stuck out at him.

Dick laughed at that and left, heading up for the jet. He swung out over the ocean to avoid the usual traffic, and headed fast for Gotham. He settled the jet at the airstrip outside of town, changed, and took the car they left there into the city. He drove up through the city and up into Bristol, to the manor's gates, stopping to key the code in to open the gates, and drove up into the garage.

Alfred soon met him, smiling. "Master Richard...this is a wonderful and welcome surprise."

"Hi, Alfred. Good to see you. Is Bruce around?"

"I do expect him within the half hour...traffic being what it is." He led the younger ward of his heart to the kitchen.

"...D--rat. Alright. I can wait..." //Damnit, Bruce, you couldn't have decided to be idle rich for once?//

Alfred's lips twitched at the conscious self-censorship. "Certainly...with a fresh sandwich and drink."

"Thanks, Alfie... oh. yeah. I think I am starving, now that you mention it..."

Alfred efficiently set about feeding Dick, doing so in silence, to see if the boy would talk on his own. Dick sighed into the drink, foot and fingertips tapping impatiently, eying the clock hung over the stove.

"I do believe they say communication is important."

"This time, I need to talk to Bruce first, Alfie... I... need his help."

"Ahh." Alfred was actually quite pleased to hear Dick wished to speak with Bruce first. "It should not be much longer, if you'd prefer to wait in his study..."

"Alright. Thanks, Alfie..." He hopped up, heading for Bruce's study... at least as long as he was moving he could--kind of--keep from thinking. He tried to settle once he was in the study... but just wound up pacing circles, patterns around the furniture. He did manage to stay just on his feet, though, which at one point Bruce would have considered progress.

"You were waiting for me?" came the deep voice, lightly stressed by the day at the office.

Dick spun around, caught completely off guard, "Bruce!" He probably looked like he had as a teenager when had Bruce caught him out.

That drew a smile to the elder's lips. "What brings you to Gotham, so soon after shift?"

"I... Somehow, this is your fault--or at least it's the 'Mite's fault, and if I wasn't so freaked out I'd be a lot more pissed about it..."

"What has Bat-Mite done this time, Dick?" Bruce had a long-suffering tone to his voice as he thought about one of the annoyances of his life.

"I have twins, with Roy, about seven weeks old. Boys. His hair. We're not sure about the eyes yet."

Bruce looked at his adopted son, his long-time partner. He then calmly sat down at his desk, still watching the younger man. "Tell me the details, Dick. Please."

"I got a call from Roy with about three hours left on my shift, telling me to get my butt to the Tower as fast as I could. So I did, got down to his room, and there're these two cribs, bassinets, whatever, practically plastered in my masks and arrows, with these two little bitty red-haired babies in them. Bags of baby-stuff underneath them... So I got Donna to go get Garth, given that they just appeared out of nowhere." Dick took a breath, spacing out the report. "Garth got up there, checked things over, said they were real, with real souls and everything, the DNA scanner said they're half Roy's, half mine. Jesse wouldn't calm down and stop thinking they were some kind of trap until we coaxed Dr. Fate into coming over and checking, and he's the one that figured out it was either him or the 'Mite, and I kinda doubt it's him, so it's got to be your favorite little pest's fault!"

"A logical deduction." The prince of Gotham looked thoughtful. "I see several problems with your current situation, Dick." He said it patiently, offering his insight, but without the usual Bat-abrasion.

"Yeah, so do I. The biggest one I see is I can't leave Roy with them all the time, but there's no way I'm taking kids into the 'Haven, so somehow, I've got to get back out of the 'force. Damnit, I worked my tail off for that job!'

"I know. You did a very good job, Dick." Bruce leaned back in his chair. "But certain priorities have shifted now." He debated making the offer, stopped himself, gauging Dick's body language to see if it was the wisest course. "You've made me proud with what you've done over there."

Dick stopped, looked at him, trying to hide the shock that brought, and smiled. "Thanks, Bruce. I... Do you have any good ideas about getting me back out--preferably without losing everything I managed to accomplish?"

There was a quick blink of his eye to betray the fact Bruce was surprised. "There is one way...one I planned out in case you ever felt a need to get Dick out. Should make you out as a sympathetic hero on the force, and extend the Brash Bruce with Money image..."

Dick looked at him for a long minute, then his lips quirked in a slow, far too amused smile as he thought about that. "I... think I know exactly what you're talking about, and yeah, it should. We both know how to play that image back and forth, so that ought to be easy enough... Oh, oh how interesting that will be..." Thinking about the reactions of a few of the people that had tried to bribe him in the last year or so seeing him as that Dick Grayson made the smile widen.

Bruce gave him a sharkish smile. "Your next shift is tomorrow, yes?"

"...Yeah, it is." Dick couldn't help but smile back at him. "Okay, that'll settle that part. We're thinking that we'll keep the kids in the Tower, at least until they're older, where there's more protection for them, and so Lian'll have Cere around at least part of the time. Moving 'me' to New York shouldn't be that hard either... The Haven's the biggest problem... well, that and that I have no idea what I'm doing!" he heard his voice starting to raise in the panicked worry he hated admitting to, and shut up again. "Sorry," he said after a moment.

"You'll learn. You'll adapt. You're too fine a man not to." Bruce nodded. "We can handle the 'Haven...and you moving to New York, in a 'temper' with me is quite suitable."

Dick shook his head with a laugh, "It's not even the first time.... At least this time it's just a show." His nature got the better of him for a minute, and his lips quirked as he went to tease Bruce a little "..Heck of a way to wind up being a grandfather, isn't it, Bruce?"

The relaxed, casual demeanor of a man at peace with his 'son' gave way abruptly to the intense darkening of his visage that came with the Bat falling across his nature. "Grandfather?" Even the timbre of his voice shifted, as that one casual remark put Bruce on the defensive, his mind coping with further ramifications.

"They're my kids--" and that awe flashed over his face all over again, sharp contrast to the darkness on his father's face, "--Bruce. That... does make you their grandfather..." he managed to keep his voice from being as tentative as he suddenly felt.

"Yes...yes it does...." Bruce made himself relax again. "At least the other parent has already shown himself able to the parenting challenge."

"Yeah, he sure has--thank god, because I don't know what I'm doing... but yeah, I'll learn. Not like I've got much of a choice. Oh, lord, Bruce, papers for the kids..."

"Dick..." Bruce stood, came over, and put both hands on the younger man's shoulders. "Trust me...these things will be handled."

Dick leaned back into him, soaking up the solid comfort of his partner for a minute. "Okay. Okay. Sorry. Still kind of in shock--in case you couldn't tell?"

Dick then blinked, realizing--finally--that Bruce had honestly complimented Roy on something.

"I can...let's go get some cocoa, and we'll discuss this with Alfred. He might have access to knowledge neither of us do."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Dick agreed, and shifted away enough to go get cocoa.

Comments

[ilyena_sylph]

Filly does damn good Bruce, and Thank you so much, hon!

*happysquee*