Chapter Text
Jason woke up at 3 in the morning, on his off night , to "Rockin’ Robin" blaring from his phone. He groaned and turned onto his stomach, reaching blindly for the phone on his bedside table. Ever since he had given Dick his number, his older brother practically hadn’t stopped calling. He had called Jason nearly every night since, and the first time it woke him up from a deep sleep, he had freaked out so much that he accidentally shot the wall. After having a long, long talk with his landlady, Jason had decided to change Dick’s ringtone from the default alarm (which his subconscious apparently reacted negatively to) to the appropriate (and significantly less anxiety-inducing) song. Jason answered the phone.
“Somebody better be dead,” he said irritably.
“Um actually no, not this time,” a familiar, female voice said, strangely apologetically for what she was saying.
Jason sighed and simultaneously thanked every god in existence. “What’s up, blondie? Sorry for the harsh answer. Apparently, yours and Dick’s ringtones are the same in my phone, and he’s been utilizing it significantly more than you have, unfortunately .” He remembered now why they were the same. After the tower, he had found her number for himself, just in case he needed it, and put her ringtone in as “Rockin’ Robin” because she was obviously the best one, and he wanted to subtly prove to her that even if no one else did, he thought she was a great Robin (even if he hadn’t actually seen her in action and hadn't known that she had been Robin at all until he saw her in the costume) if he got the chance. Dick’s ringtone had been changed after The Wall Incident, and he had forgotten that he’d already given the song to Steph. He supposed it would just end up being ringtone Russian Roulette to guess which one of them was calling because it was too late to change either of them now.
“Wait, you gave Dick your number? That’s great!” Steph sounded significantly happier, the traitor.
“I didn’t give it to him; he collected it himself. And not when he ‘post-patrol’ calls, and you didn’t patrol, so you’re a few hours into REM sleep, and you’re also a trained vigilante-slash-assassin so you try to fight a nonexistent intruder at waking up to an alarm, and end up putting like five bullet holes into your bedroom wall and getting yelled at by your landlady for the damage and the racket.”
“Point taken,” Steph responded sagely.
“Anyways, what’s up? You never call.” Jason had to admit to himself that he was more than a little concerned.
“Well, um. I’m kind of stranded at Leslie’s clinic.”
Jason’s stomach dropped. “What? Are you hurt? If you were hurt, you would have led with that, right? How’d you get stranded there?”
Steph laughed shakily. “No, I’m not hurt. Take a breath, Jase. And I drove here, but I don’t exactly have a license, so I don’t want to drive back if I don’t have to. Plus, my mom will need the car for work in the morning so–”
“You’re not hurt, and your mom’s there. You took your mom to Leslie’s,” Jason interrupted, putting the pieces together. That couldn’t be good. He got out of bed and threw on a shirt.
“Yes.” She offered no further comment.
Jason narrowed his eyes, even though he knew she couldn’t see him. “Why?” He knew how these things went, and he didn’t love any of the possible scenarios he’d come up with so far. He walked towards the front door and went to grab his keys, before hesitating.
“I really don’t want to talk about it right now, Jason,” Steph responded, her voice taking on a slightly frantic, pleading note.
“That’s understandable,” he said, more gently. He did some quick mental math. “I’ll be there in nine.”
“You will?” Steph said, her voice painfully hopeful.
“Of course, birdie. I’m grabbing my keys now. You ok on a motorcycle, or would you prefer a car?”
“Motorcycle is fine. It’s whatever’s easiest.” Steph sounded slightly dazed.
Jason grabbed his motorcycle’s and apartment's keys. “Great. See you in seven.” He didn’t wait for a response before hanging up and walking out and locking the door, and then running down the stairs, through the lobby, and across the street to the parking garage with his bike. He cursed his past self for putting so many locks on it that he now had to take off, but at the same time, thanked his past self for ensuring that the bike was still there. He sped off towards Leslie’s, driving faster than he should to ward off the worst of his anxiety.
He pulled up at the clinic, and Steph came out to meet him nearly immediately, waving to someone inside as she left.
“Hey, Blondie,” Jason greeted, offering her a motorcycle helmet. He felt himself relax at seeing her in front of him unharmed.
“Hey.” Steph smiled at him tiredly and took the helmet.
“So, do you want to go home?” he asked, trying to keep his tone as impartial as possible.
“I mean, where else would I go?” Steph asked, sounding only half joking.
Jason sighed and internally winced as he prepared for the upcoming delicate conversation. “Look, Steph, I had my fair share of parental struggles. I know that you don’t always want to go home after, even if they aren’t there. And if you don’t want to or you just don’t want to be alone, you’re welcome to come back to my apartment with me. Since I apparently have siblings now, I moved to a two bedroom, so you’d have your own bed and everything.” Steph paused for a minute. She looked like a buffering computer, and Jason would have laughed if he wasn’t dying to hear her answer. He wouldn’t admit it to her or himself, but he hoped she’d stay, just so he could be sure she was safe for a little longer.
“...You’re sure I wouldn’t be, like, overstepping?” Steph asked tentatively.
“I got out of my comfortable, wonderful, amazing bed at three in the goddamn morning to come get you and then offered to take you home with me. No, Steph, you wouldn’t be overstepping ,” Jason said. He tried to play up his naturally dramatic nature, but he could feel it fall flat.
Steph laughed and then looked startled by her own laughter. “Ok, then, I would rather go with you,” she said, more confidently.
“Awesome. Get on.” Jason climbed onto the bike and gave her a hand.
She climbed onto the bike. “Hold on. We may or may not be about to break some traffic laws,” he joked. He wasn’t actually going to break the law with her on his bike. He wasn’t Dick, after all. He was a responsible older brother.
He felt Steph put her arms around his stomach and rest her forehead on his shoulder. It was times like these in which Jason adored having chosen her as his sibling, and he honestly wasn’t sure that he could have stopped himself from seeing her as family if he had tried.
Jason parked in the parking garage, got off the bike, and put his locks back on it. Then he led Steph through the lobby, up four flights of stairs because the elevator was broken, and down a long hallway. They finally got to his apartment. Steph waited quietly as he unlocked it.
“Ok, kid, we’re going to go to sleep soon because it’s late as fuck, but first I’m going to make us some hot chocolate. Sound good?” There hadn’t been a single quip, banter, or psychoanalysis from her the whole time, so something was obviously wrong, but he had absolutely no idea how to go about fixing it. He thought warm drinks would be a good place to start, though. At the very least, they couldn’t hurt.
“Sounds great, Jay,” Steph said absently. She collapsed onto his living room couch.
Jason stayed in the kitchen to prepare their beverages. He was so glad his apartment had an open floor plan because it meant he could keep her in his line of sight while making the drinks. He felt himself fall into the familiar rhythm of making hot chocolate, memories of another place and time rising up unbidden. He let them, this time. He missed Alfred more than he cared to admit to anyone who wasn’t Alfred himself, and if he ever did go back to the manor, it would be to see him. Alfred was the one person that Jason felt legitimately guilty for not telling he was back, before Dick made it clear that he would have wanted to know too. Jason didn’t doubt that Bruce would also want to know, but fuck him. He didn’t get to.
Jason wondered if Steph liked cinnamon in her hot chocolate. He did, as did Alfred and Bruce, but Dick claimed it gave the hot chocolate a ‘weird texture’. He could ask just to make sure.
Steph came back into awareness with Jason poking her. “Steph? Earth to Stephanie?” Jason poked her again. Steph could open her eyes in just a few more min— “Steph? Oh my god, kid went and fell asleep on me,” Jason said, voice uncharacteristically fond.
“Ok Jason, ‘m awake,” Steph said with great struggle.
“Do you wanna drink this now, or do you want me to drink it and make you another one in the morning?”
Steph pondered. “I-um-I think I just want to go to sleep,” she said, mourning the loss of hot chocolate but also knowing that she would absolutely fall asleep mid-sip and spill it everywhere if she tried to stay awake to drink it.
“That’s fine, birdie. I can easily make more in the morning.” Jason half-turned towards a hallway opposite the couch before turning back, awkwardly. “Do you—” He sighed. “Do you want a hug? It’s just, that’s always what Dick asks when these things happen. Well, he doesn’t always ask, he kinda just hugs, but I don’t have another frame of reference for older-brothering so just…no pressure, but the offer’s there?” Jason’s cheeks were turning red.
Steph laughed, slightly hysterically, at the absurdity of such a long statement used to offer physical contact. It had Bruce written all over it, not that she would ever say that to Jason’s face.
“A hug would be nice, thank you,” she said, still smiling. She made her way over to Jason, and she now understood why Tim swore by Dick’s hugs. It was like she was experiencing the Platonian ideals of safety and comfort.
“I guess I also need to show you where your room is, don’t I?” Jason said, still hugging her.
Steph yawned. “Yeah, that’d be helpful.”
“Ok,” Jason responded. He pulled away a few seconds later but kept a hand on Steph’s shoulder. He considered her for a moment then ruffled her hair. “C’mon kid, room’s this way.” Jason walked towards the hallway grinning. “This is the bathroom,” he said, pointing to the door she could see from the couch. “This is my room.” He pointed to the one to the right of them. “This is your room tonight at least, and you’re welcome to it any time.”
“Just me?” Steph asked with a grin.
“Well, I wouldn’t turn Dick away, but if I gave him unlimited access, he’d be here every day, apparently,” Jason grumbled.
“What about Tim?” Steph asked as neutrally as she could.
Jason looked thoughtful. “Huh. Yeah, I guess he’s welcome too, now. Kid’s not half bad,” Jason said with the ghost of a smile.
That was interesting, Steph thought. She knew Jason had saved Tim from a kidnapping recently, and she knew he’d searched for him just as hard, if not even harder, than the Bats. She honestly wasn’t sure Jason had slept during the entire time Tim had been missing. What she hadn’t predicted though was Jason adopting Tim on first contact, but she wasn’t sure how she hadn’t seen it coming, with Jason’s obviously inherited (bat)adoption habit.
“Are you going to tell him that or wait until he shows up on his own?” Steph asked with a grin.
“I’m sure he’ll figure it out. He’s rumored to be incredibly smart,” Jason said, returning her grin. “Though, I’ve not seen the evidence of that yet.”
“Yeah, Tim’s got a habit of becoming incredibly dumb around people he deems trustworthy. He says it’s to ‘recharge his brain because it can’t be on all the time’, but I think it’s a classic case of book smarts only.”
“He’s Robin!” Jason said, appalled. “He’s gotta have street smarts! Why the fuck does B let him out of the house? Christ.”
“See, he’s learned enough street smarts by the book to pass for having them, but his instincts are kind of terrible,” Steph responded. “Like, he almost always goes with ‘fascinating. Let me find out more’ when anyone with even a hint of self-preservation would be hightailing it away and come back with backup later. And I mean, I’ve totally done that too. That’s a Robin Special, even. But generally I know it’s a terrible idea but want to prove that I can , not because I genuinely don’t see why I shouldn’t.”
“That actually makes him make so much more sense,” Jason said contemplatively. “I just thought he thought he was immortal or something.”
Steph sighed. “He certainly acts like it, doesn’t he?” Jason closed his eyes and nodded in agreement.
“Alright, now that we’ve compared notes on Robin 3, wait does he technically count as Robins 3 and 5 now? It doesn’t matter. Point is, it’s sleep time,” Jason said.
“Agreed. Night, Jason. See you in the morning,” Steph said with a smile. They turned away from each other, towards their respective bedrooms, and called it a night.
***
Jason woke up the next day around 12 and managed to drag himself out of bed, very much against his will. He needed to check on Steph, though, because there was no way she’d wake him up if she woke up first, if the state she had been in the night before was any indication. He got up, put on a hoodie, and brushed his teeth before peeking his head into the guest room. She was still sleeping. He closed the door softly and headed into the kitchen.
Steph woke up to the heavenly smell of…something. She tried to summon the will to fully wake up and go see what it was, and after a few minutes, she succeeded. She wasn’t sure because she hadn’t seen, but now that she was more awake, she could swear she smelled waffles. If so, Tim was about to have serious competition for the title of her favorite person. She checked her phone to see if her mom had messaged her (She hadn’t. Steph tried not to let it bother her.) and rolled out of bed.
She wandered into the kitchen and saw Jason sitting at the counter with a cup of tea.
“Whatcha making?” Steph asked.
Jason grinned at her. “You have one guess.”
Steph walked further into the room and tried to look around him, but Jason kept angling himself so that she couldn’t see. Jason chuckled. “Looking is cheating.”
“Ummmmmm,” Steph said, stalling. It had woken her up, and it smelled like carbs, and–wait. Had she told Jason her favorite food? She couldn’t remember. It couldn’t hurt to guess though. “Waffles?” she asked tentatively.
Jason looked like he wasn’t sure if he should be impressed or concerned, which meant that she hadn’t told him about her love of waffles and that she had guessed correctly. Steph smiled smugly to herself.
“Yes, actually. I feel like most people’s first guess would be pancakes,” Jason said skeptically.
Steph snorted. “Then most people are setting themselves up for disappointment because waffles are clearly the superior breakfast food.”
Jason smiled at her. “Well, I’m glad you like them because I wasn’t gonna make anything else.”
“Mhm. Sure,” Steph said teasingly. Jason totally would have made her something else if she didn’t like waffles. He was such a pushover.
They ate their waffles in relative silence, until Jason broke it by clearing his throat a little.
“Look, I don’t want to pry, but if I was your first choice to call to play Responsible Adult, clearly someone needs to.” Steph chose not to respond. It wasn’t like he’d asked her anything yet anyway. “What happened last night?” Ah, there it was.
Steph sighed. “Do I have to?” She really didn’t want to tell him. If she had to tell someone , and that someone couldn’t be Tim, Jason was her first choice, but that didn’t change the fact that she didn’t want to talk about it at all.
“You can tell Dick or B or another trusted adult if you would rather, but I think you should talk to someone about it, Steph. From what I gathered, you took your mom to Leslie’s, and the only part of the situation that was irregular was that you didn’t have a way to get home this time.” He wasn’t wrong. With Steph’s mom being…the way that she was, clinic visits were a ‘when’ not an ‘if’, as much as she hated it.
“Trusted adults aren’t all that common in my life,” she said instead.
“Oh?” Jason raised an eyebrow at her. He may have made her waffles, but Steph was in no mood to be challenged at the moment, especially not about this.
“Yeah well, when your dad is a z-list criminal and your mom is a drug addict, it damages your ability to trust adults, just a little bit,” Steph said sardonically.
Jason looked at her in mild disbelief and chuckled a little. “Yeah, I get that. Mine were too. Well, my mom being Catherine, not Sheila. Sheila was also a z-list criminal.”
Steph tilted her head a little. “Really? I didn’t know that. Actually–” Steph thought about it a little. “Yeah. Actually, I don’t think I knew anything about your life before Robin,” she said thoughtfully, half hoping to change the subject, half genuinely curious.
“Yeah well. None of it was particularly inspiring . Willis, my dad, took every job he could find to maintain a steady stream of alcohol for himself, including the job as a goon that got him arrested and then killed. My mom– My mom did her best. Her name was Catherine, and I learned later that she didn’t give birth to me, but she was still my mom , you know?” Steph nodded. If she learned that her mom wasn’t actually biologically her mother, it wouldn’t change a thing. She raised her, and she loved her, and she was the only mom Steph had ever known. No stranger, no matter their DNA, could compete. “She worked as much as she could to try and support herself and a kid. And–and that’s when the drugs started. Everything got to be so much, and I think the only escape for her was when she couldn’t think about it or feel it. Of course, that made it even harder to keep us both fed, so I dropped out of school and started working. That was ok for a while, but the extra income meant that Mom didn’t have to spend as much time working, which left more time for…recreational activities, and those led to money being even tighter, and one day I got home, and it had just been the two of us for a while because Willis was in jail, but then it was only me because she had died. OD’d on something. I was too young to remember what specifically it was. Then I lived on the streets for a year-ish. Then I successfully stole three of the Batmobile’s tires and the rest is history!” Jason finished brightly. He grimaced suddenly. “Sheila was a different story. She was my biological mother, and within a day of meeting me, she sold me out to the Joker. So. There was that.”
“That’s horrible,” Steph said softly.
“Yeah. Well, she was my mom,” Jason replied uncomfortably.
“Sheila may have given birth to you, but giving birth to someone does not make a person a mom.” Jason smiled at her a little.
“No, I suppose it doesn’t,” Jason said thoughtfully. “Then yeah, our parents were like. Exactly the same.”
Steph’s soft smile faded, her eyes going wide. “Wait…”
Jason looked up at her, and she watched as he jumped onboard her train of thought.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked, grin growing.
“We should start a club!” Steph exclaimed.
Jason looked thrilled. “But what to call it?”
They both thought for a moment.
“Well, I feel like “I hate my criminal dad, and my relationship with my mother was complicated” is pretty long for a club name,” Steph mused.
She watched the gears turning in Jason’s mind.
“Hey, you’re officially not Robin anymore, right?” Jason asked hesitantly.
The question had blindsided her a bit. “...I’m not, no. B ‘cleared up’ which vigilante personas I have access to, and it’s a grand total of one.”
“So then, if you’re not Robin, and I’m not Robin anymore…” Steph’s mind automatically filled in ‘ then who’s driving the b us?? ’ but she doubted that was where Jason was trying to lead her. “Well, Ex-Robins Club would be a lot shorter of a name,” he said, obviously half-joking, depending on whether or not she was on board. Steph’s grin returned in full force.
“It certainly is. We need membership cards.” Jason relaxed a little at her acceptance.
“Wait a minute,” Steph interrupted herself, frowning. “What about Dick?”
“Dick moved from Robin to Nightwing. It was hardly that big of a jump.” Steph snorted. “Plus,” Jason continued, “I think we only have two membership cards.”
“Seems fair to me!” Steph said happily.
“So,” Jason continued, a knowing look in his eye. “Now that we’re both part of a very exclusive club, do you wanna tell me more about what happened?”
Steph sighed and reluctantly let her defenses fall. If she hadn’t been able to distract him from trying to figure it out thus far, she wouldn’t be able to. She could keep refusing. She could walk out the front door and never speak to him again, but this was Jason, and Steph was tired.
“I found my mom passed out and had to drive her to the clinic,” Steph said quietly.
Jason angled himself more towards her and his expression softened.
“I don’t know what she took. She was still alive and breathing when I found her, so that was good, but other than that… She didn’t look good, Jay.” Steph twisted the hem of her sweatshirt, not wanting to look up just yet. “She was stable when I left, but I don’t know what she took , and I don’t know if she has more of it, and what I do know is that Leslie can’t look the other way forever.”
Jason stayed quiet for a minute. “I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this, Steph,” he said sincerely.
She couldn’t help it. Steph started to cry. She didn’t even know what caused it, but she couldn’t stop. “I don’t even have a driver's license,” she half-laughed, half-sobbed after a minute.
“C’mere,” Jason said softly, standing and hugging her, moving to gently run his hand through her hair after a minute of standing there.
If someone had asked Steph how long they stayed like that, she wouldn’t have been able to give an accurate estimate, but eventually, she pulled away slightly, and Jason stepped back and sat back down, moving his chair a little bit closer.
“‘M sorry,” she said quietly. “I don’t know what caused that,” she said, with a half-hearted laugh.
Jason smiled a small, sad smile at her. “Don’t apologize. I’m always here if you need me.”
Steph took another deep breath to compose herself. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”
Jason nodded at her with false gruff confidence.
She giggled.
The facade fell, and he grinned back at her.
“Have you ever seen Supernatural? You need to watch Supernatural,” Steph said, realization hitting her like a ton of bricks.
Jason eyed her skeptically. “Isn’t the general consensus about that show that it sucks?”
“I mean yeah,” Steph defended, “but that’s the best part! Come on, it can be the first official meeting of the Ex-Robins Club.”
“Well if you phrase it like that, how could I ever refuse?”
Steph smiled happily and bounced over to the couch.
“Fair warning,” she began, “you have to watch to season four to meet the best character.”
“Why do people watch this show?” Jason asked, slightly incredulously.
“Watch it, and you’ll see!” Steph responded with well-intentioned malice.
Jason just laughed and settled next to her on the couch. They made it through three episodes before Jason pointed out that they should probably have dinner soon. Steph suggested pizza, Jason ordered it, and they went back to their speedrunning of Supernatural.
Steph texted her mom, asking if it was ok for her to spend the night at a friend’s and almost immediately got a response that said that was fine and that her mom had to work anyway.
Maybe having one trusted adult-ish person would be ok, she thought to herself.