Chapter Text
Prime Earth…
Dick blinks awake slowly and feels a small weight against his torso. He looks around the room, careful not to jostle the sleeping bundle. The space looks like a bedroom, it’s not familiar but it’s empty. Safe. He smiles to himself and places a hand on the small child resting on his chest.
“We did it, baby.” He whispers and presses a kiss against the head of raven hair. Dick sits up, Tim grumbles against him and adjusts to hold on as though he were a koala so Dick can push off the bed into standing. He wanders the small apartment, making sure the pair are well and truly alone, and then he moves to the window on the far side of the living room.
The moon isn’t out tonight, or it’s lost behind the clouds. Lights bounce off windows colliding to create something beautiful in the late hour. The scene looks unreal reflecting off the soft falling rain. Cars still fill the streets even in the middle of the night, the city is well and truly alive. A stark contrast from the cities that were left on Dick’s home world. He closes his eyes and listens to the sound of horns and sirens below. The rhythm of the raindrops hitting the window calms his heart. Tim’s head pressed against his shoulder is enough to finally soothe his nerves.
They made it. His heart mourns for the world he left behind and the family he lost with it. Grief wars with relief in his mind, knowing that after everything Tim is safe and he’ll be here to make sure of it.
With the calm comes a bone deep ache. He doesn’t have to fight anymore. Exhaustion hits him and the knowledge that it’s finally safe to rest is what draws him back to the bedroom. Tim has the right idea, a nap and then he can start building a life for them.
Jason flits around the kitchen video calling with Dick as he works on dinner.
“So how’s everything over there?” His older brother’s voice filters from the device propped up on the island.
Jason fights a grimace and covers it with a shrug. “They're fine. Bruce is Bruce as usual but the brats are mostly getting along. Tim’s been busy with the company…” He trails off, distracted by his current task. He turns around and Dick’s features are soft and it makes Jason’s stomach do a little flip. “What?” He bites out.
“And how are you?” Dick asks softly. Jason flinches. He had really hoped Dick wouldn’t ask that.
The truth is, this older sibling shit is harder than it looks and in Dick’s absence it feels a thousand times harder. Jason and Bruce had already had a rocky relationship, prior to Dick’s death, and now in light of everything they learned in the other dimension anything that was there has all but vanished. Jason has gone to bat in defence of his younger siblings more times than he can count, and Bruce has grown more and more untrusting of Jason and his dealings in Gotham or otherwise. It’s become increasingly hard to keep his cool and to operate as the Red Hood, or even Jason Todd these days.
It’s suffocating, and Jason can tell the whole family is feeling Bruce’s most recent mood decline. Tim spends most of his time either throwing himself into work at Wayne Enterprises or cases and the rest of it at Jason’s apartment. Neither of them spend much time at the manor at all, unless they know Bruce won’t be there. Nevermind that Tim has his own apartment to go to.
Jason regularly fights internally against being angry at Tim. He’s over the whole Robin thing, but then Tim had to go and drop out of highschool and throw himself headfirst into the world of billionaires. Jason was worried and he hadn’t even known Tim could drop out at 15. Apparently Tim had skipped several grades when he was younger and still living with the Drake’s so he was smart enough for it and both Bruce and Lucius signed off on it.
Jason just wanted Tim to be a kid and relax but Tim had insisted he wanted a role in Wayne Enterprises, said he could do something really good with the company and Jason couldn’t argue. Jason might have also been projecting since legally dead people don’t get to maintain any sort of education.
Needless to say, It had put a lot of tension on their relationship for a few months.
Damian spends his school breaks with the Kents’. When he’s in Gotham he’s usually at Jason’s asking for help with his homework, which Jason knows is actually just an excuse to stay out of the manor. There are times, though, where Damian will turn off his trackers and disappear. Jason figured out after the second time that the kid was sneaking out and going to Dick’s old apartment in Bludhaven, which they kept to eventually set up as another safe house but have yet to actually get around to.
And Jason… Jason is exhausted. Between therapy, his responsibilities as Jason Todd which he rather enjoys since getting a job at the library and his responsibility as Hood, he thought it was a lot. Now he’s also trying to keep Tim from running himself into the ground, Damian from getting himself killed, and making sure Bruce doesn’t hurt his family any further.
And despite all his effort, it still feels like he’s losing. How could Dick do this all by himself when he feels like he needs a crew of people just to keep up with it all.
“I’m fine.”
Dick frowns. “Anyone ever told you you're a shit liar?”
“Screw off Grayson, I learned it from you.”
Dick chuckles. “Point, I guess. But seriously, my offer still stands, you know… If you ever need a break.”
Jason scoffs. “Not everyone can run away from their responsibilities, Dickhead.” Dick’s expression freezes and Jason's heart beats a little faster. He hadn’t meant to say that. “Shit, that wasn’t what I meant.”
Dick’s smile doesn’t reach his eyes when he says, “I know, Jay. Look, Wally just got home so I gotta go, but I’ll call you soon okay. Love you, Littlewing.”
Jason sighs. “Yeah, alright.” The screen goes dark and Jason scrubs a hand over his face before returning to his lasagna.
He’s supposed to be making progress. Things are supposed to be getting better… So why does it still feel like it always has?
He starts with the obvious stuff. Researching this world’s important people, current events, laws etc. Creating ID’s for him and Tim and putting together a backstory. Things they need to start their life. There is of course one minor obstacle. He chose this world for its lack of Dick Grayson, however this world does have a Tim Drake, mind you he isn’t 9 years old.
This world's Tim Drake is 15 years old and currently apprenticing under Lucius Fox and working on his GED so as to take a more active role in the company's future.
He smiles as he reads the articles, his baby is growing up here and he’s so smart. Still he wishes Tim wasn’t in such a rush to grow up here. 15 is so young, he should be spending that time being a kid.
There’s a picture of Tim standing next to Bruce but Tim is stiff as a board and Bruce’s smile doesn’t reach his eyes. This world is not ending and yet Bruce looks much the same here as he did nearing the end back on Dick’s earth.
It makes something in his stomach twist. His family is hurting.
Another picture shows Damian standing next to his father. Dick had barely met the child by the time he held his cooling body in his arms. He’s glad this world's Damian has had more of a chance. The boy is glaring at the camera and Dick chuckles a little at such a stoic figure on such a small boy.
Dick Grayson is legally dead, so he puts John on his ID. He can’t bring himself to part with Grayson though, no matter the risk. He hopes he doesn’t make a big enough impression that anyone important will notice, because he just can’t do it.
They become John and Jax Grayson. Jax at Tim’s request, a pull from his middle name, he says it sounds like a robot name. Dick laughs and indulges the boy.
He figures out that they are currently holed up in the old Dick Grayson’s apartment. He would rather not stay here for very long but they have no money for somewhere else. He wants Tim to be comfortable until they’re on their feet here so he supposes it will do. He sets up enrollment at the nearby elementary school for Tim, so that in a few weeks when Tim is settled he can start attending. Then he heads out with a resume that’s only partially fake and starts handing them out.
Dick doesn’t really want to stop helping people completely. He’s not sure what he’s going to do about the vigilante thing but he knows that needs to wait for now. He needs to take this one step at a time and focus on Tim. He doesn’t really want to be a first responder now either, for risk of Tim having to lose anything else.
In the end, the answer is staring straight at him. The Gotham 9-1-1 call centre is two blocks away from his and Tim’s apartment and they’re hiring. It’s perfect.
Jason is pretty sure he’s being watched. For the last three days during patrol he’s felt eyes on his back but when he turns around there’s nothing there. Whoever is watching him is good. He’s already crossed Bruce off the list, having felt the eyes while working a case right next to the man yesterday. The same with the other two brats and he knows for a fact that Cass and Steph are in Hong Kong together.
“Hood, have you been leaving specialty coffees in all the places I frequent?” Tim’s voice comes through the comms.
“Do I look like I have time for that?” He hits one of Two-Face’s thugs.
Tim sighs. “Yeah that’s what I thought. I think I have a stalker.”
Jason doesn’t freeze because he’s in the middle of a fight and he’s better than that but it’s a near thing. “Yeah, you know I’ve actually been thinking the same thing.”
“Has someone been leaving you specialty coffees, too?” He sounds genuinely curious and it makes Jason snort.
“No, I wish. All I get is creepy eyes on my back during patrol. Can’t seem to figure out who they belong to either.”
“Huh. Think it’s the same person?”
“It’s definitely likely. Were the latte’s tampered?” The last thug is down and Jason starts zip-tying the unconscious thugs.
“Nope.”
“Babybird?”
“Yes?” The kid's voice goes high.
“Did you drink the latte’s?”
“Well I wasn’t gonna waste good coffee.” He shouts.
“I’m not even shocked. But I’m definitely telling Agent A so he can lecture you about the danger of drinking things of unknown origins when you live in a family that frequently loses people to kidnapping and ransom calls.”
“Noooo.” Tim groans.
“Sucks to suck. Anyway I’m wrapping up here so I'm clocking out.”
“Night, Jay.”
“Night, Red.”
Jason calls the scene into the police after cleaning up and heads back to his safe house. He freezes when he gets into the apartment. On the kitchen island sits a cardboard travel cup. Jason approaches wearily and grabs the cup, smelling it. A latte, he shakes his head. A vanilla chai latte if the smell tells him anything.
A memory flits through his mind. Him in the short pants following Dick as he takes them into a 24 hour coffee shop.
Dick hands him a cup. Jason takes it hesitantly. “I don’t like coffee, Dickhead.”
Dick smirks. “You’ll like this, I promise. I’m good at this sort of thing.”
Of course, Dick had been right. Jason still sticks to tea most days, but sometimes on slow nights he finds himself heading to the coffee shop and ordering the drink. He shakes his head and takes a sip, after all wouldn't want to waste good coffee.
Dick was supposed to stay away. The whole point was for him and Jax to lay low. To be normal. But Dick couldn’t resist the pull. His family, a version of them anyway, was just a city away, alive and safe. Dick’s real family was worlds away and very much the opposite. He had lost everything so he figured he would just… check on them. Just to make sure they were okay.
So he took Jax to the zoo and then went for lunch at a cafe near Wayne Enterprises.
Only one check showed him that just because his people were safe did not mean they were happy. Tim was withdrawn and working himself into the ground. When Jax and Dick returned to the apartment he found Damian asleep in the closet. He carried the boy to the couch and then took Jax for a walk hoping the boy would be gone by the time they got back.
One check turned into following Jason on his patrols and leaving pick-me-ups for Tim on Dick’s breaks at the call-centre.
Dick should have stayed away, because now that he knows… he’s not sure he’ll be able to look away.