an ode to those still standing

by dirtyshoes_drysocks

Summary:

Gotham suffers from another fear gas attack. Batgirl, Oracle, Batman and Robin save the day, of course... but inside they are still scared.
Set during Dick Grayson's tenure as Batman, this is a story about fear and healing and bonds which help you through it.

Notes:

My first multi-chapter fic, I'm so excited!!!

Chapter 1: The War We Fight Outside

Barbara is watching.

No, no Oracle is watching. Oracle is watching because Barbara Gordon’s heart is too busy clenching in her chest.

All three of them- Stephanie, Dick and Damian- are wrestling with the panicking throngs of people rushing, curling around them like a vice. Damian is jabbing at the crowd indiscriminately, wielding the syringes of antidotes like weapons. Stephanie is shuttling all the ones who’ve already received the antidote away from the wannabe stampede. They both have rebreathers.

Dick is dealing with the violence which arrives nipping on the heels of fear and desperation. He is gentle- gentler than Batman is supposed to be- and he is without his rebreather.

As Batgirl, she’s had some really, really shitty run-ins with fear toxin. So right now, she has no idea how Dick is functioning. She has no idea how he is wrestling apart these men who resemble rabid dogs more than human beings, she has no idea how he is herding the crowd to the stocked crisis centre, she has no idea how he is keeping an eye on both Steph and Damian. She has no idea.

He’s off his game, obviously. He’s taken more than a few punches and he was this close to yelling out “Damian!” in front of half the population of Gotham. But he’s managing- and that’s the thing about Dick isn’t it? He always manages.

It was Steph’s idea to work on making the antidote air-borne. “Like a reverse Nazi gas chamber, y’know” she’d said with finger guns and Barbara had felt pride bloom in her chest. Her idea really paid off- Dick and Barbara did most of the actual chemistry- but the real mastermind was Stephanie. Even Dick, reluctant as he was to have her in the field, was impressed.

“Oracle, initiate phase 2,” Dick’s voice is bordering on unsteady and a slight, vaguely Romani accent has crept into his voice.

Hacking into the city’s mechanical channels had been a piece of cake, and Barbara quickly pulls up the barricades turning the highway into a serpentine path for the crowd to follow. There are no entrances or exits left, there is only way and it leads to the fully equipped crisis centre. Along with the “reverse gas chambers”, they had also included a waiting room for people who didn’t want to be alone after the experience.

There’s not much left to do now. Robin and Batgirl stand at their stations to monitor the crowd but it’s mostly unnecessary. She’d say so to Dick but he is too busy overcompensating for not being Bruce and there’s not a single precaution he is willing to miss.

But today he'd made a mistake. She’s worked with Batman and Robin a very long time and this isn’t Crane’s first stint with the fear gas but never, ever has she seen Bruce willing give away his rebreather. It’s a rookie fucking mistake and she can see Dick with his shaking hands and clenched eyes and she wants to scream.

Who does he think he is?

They had a plan. They had a plan that anyone who they couldn’t inject would be herded into the centre. They had sat and made protocols for this type of situation but the first kid he saw and Batman caved. Batman never caves! He was not supposed to take the fucking rebreather off, no matter what happened but Dick Grayson is hardly one to follow plans. Even if he was the one who'd made them.

Chapter 2: Kitchen Light

Summary:

Damian overhears a private conversation between Dick and Alfred.

Notes:

This is set really early into the Dickbats era, so Damian is still a gremlin and I loved writing him.

There is warm, muted light spilling from the kitchen to the base of the steps where Damian is sitting. Strategically, he is at a distinct tactical disadvantage- most of these old stairs at Wayne Manor creak. Of course, he has pointed that out to Richard before, who seems to be unconcerned with the fact that his house (not really his house because he’s a Grayson and Damian is the true heir) is falling apart at the seams and the man hired to take care of it is very much incapable to do so.

Instead, both of these men- one unconcerned and one inept- are drinking hot chocolate. Hot chocolate! Damian is absolutely sure that Batman should not be drinking hot chocolate with his butler. Well, Damian supposes he can allow the company since the butler does also happen to be Agent A. Despite whatever skill Pennyworth may lack regarding housekeeping, he makes up for it by aiding their vigilantism.

Tonight... Damian doesn’t know what to make of tonight.

That’s why he is here: he needs to know whether to reprimand or accept Richard’s actions. Loath as he is to admit it, Damian does not know the correct choice and Pennyworth has enough experience that his verdict matters.

Damian shifts a little towards the banister so he can catch a glimpse of them and listens.

Richard sits at the counter with his head tucked over his untouched cup, the steam wafting under him and shadowing the tired lines of his face. Damian has a fleeting urge to draw him like this- solemn and fatigued, the person under Batman’s cowl. Damian doesn’t really know what his Father was like, how truly he had become Batman but Richard is still human.

Just a man in a costume, playing pretend.

He seems week as he sits hunched over and waiting for Pennyworth to turn from the stove. It is not befitting but Damian understands the effects of fear gas, and doesn’t begrudge Batman this comfort. Damian, himself, would never show his vulnerability to anyone, of course.

Pennyworth turns around to face Richard. His hands are trembling. Damian cannot understand whether it is fear or anger, but Agent A is standing in the kitchen with shaking hands. Damian has seen the surety and the neatness of Agent A’s stitches, heard his calm voice on the comms. This is... unnerving.

“You made the wrong choice.” Pennyworth’s voice is strangely flat.

“What was I suppos-”

“You were supposed to wear your rebreather!” His voice is still quiet enough that Damian has to strain to listen but he can feel the fever pitch of his words. “You were supposed to protect yourself! For no other reason, than the fact that you’re a bloody person too, you were supposed to protect yourself!”

“Alfie,” and Damian sees Pennyworth deflate at Richard’s quiet voice. “What could fear gas possibly show me that I don’t see anyway?”

Richard tips his head back and lets a small, bitter laugh leave his lips.

“After all these years of trying,” Richards says, hands combing then pulling at his own hair. “Batman is finally immune to fear gas.”

Notes:

I absolutely adore the Dick, Damian and Alfred trio and I really hope I got them right! Let me know down below, yeah? Your comments mean the world to me!

Notes:

Comments and kudos fuel me!
If you have ideas or suggestion or thoughts, I'd love to hear them