Work Text:
“And then Robin and Batman had a big fight and Robin was like, I don’t have to be your sidekick! And Batman was like, well fine then, let’s just see you try to make it without me! And Robin was like, okay then, I will! And then he got a new suit without a cape and started calling himself Nightwing.”
“What’s a Nightwing? Is that a bird too?”
“Bats aren’t birds.”
“But Robins are, and a Nightwing isn’t anything.”
“I don’t think so. Here, I’ll look it up on Wikipedia. See? Just an article about… huh, they call them boy Nightwing and girl Nightwing. That seems a little inappropriate.”
“Okay, so then what happened? After Robin became Nightwing?”
Steph stood outside the door, listening. Two girls’ voices, the one telling the story sounding older than the other, the girl asking questions still high-pitched and childlike. A smile twitched at her lips at the bit about the meaning of Nightwing. She wasn’t sure she actually wanted to see what Wikipedia said about any of it. The amount of that (and anyone else) could get wrong about, well, everything, was staggering. Which was part of the reason they were letting this little storytelling session happen in the first place.
She very quietly shifted to look into the small bedroom. The door was positioned to the side and slightly behind the bed, which meant she could see the girls clearly, as well as the book they were looking at.
Caroline, fourteen years old and a tangle of long limbs, blonde hair swinging in a braid down her back, had the handmade book in her lap and was pointing at the picture of Robin and Nightwing. “Well, he was Nightwing for a long time.”
“With pants but no cape,” Sarah chimed in. At seven, she idolized the older girl already. She even insisted on pulling her own dark hair into a braid that wasn’t quite as long as she would like it.
“Is that me?” That was Dick, having walked up behind Steph. He was peering in, too, looking at the picture just before Caroline turned the page.
“Uh huh,” whispered Steph. “With pants but no cape.”
“Can’t say I ever thought of it like that,” he murmured. “Did she draw those?”
“I think they’re traced from drawings I did,” said Steph. “Years ago. I gave her some old journals I found recently. When we decided to tell Sarah about everything, Caroline wanted to make a storybook for her.”
“That’s adorable.”
Steph beamed at him. “I know, right?”
In Sarah’s room, Caroline turned the page and showed Sarah the picture of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. “Meanwhile, there was Batgirl. And she was awesome. Only she got hurt and once she couldn’t kick things anymore she realized she could hunt down bad guys even easier with a computer.”
Sarah looked delighted when she saw that particular picture, her eyes lighting up. “Yay, mommy!”
“Yep,” said Caroline. “That’s your mommy. And she used to be Batgirl.”
“And then she wasn’t.”
“And then she wasn’t. But you don’t have to be able to kick things if you’re, like, really, really smart.”
Steph leaned in close to Dick’s ear and teased quietly, “Good thing you can kick things.”
He put an arm around her shoulders and ruffled her hair. “Same goes for you, gorgeous.”
“Also,” continued Caroline, turning the page again, “there were some more Robins but they were less interesting - ”
Dick let out a little snort of laughter, and Steph shushed him.
“This one is Tim.” Caroline pointed to the page. “And he met Spoiler who also liked to kick bad guys. They kind of had a thing but Tim went away.”
Caroline turned the page again. “And then when Batman needed a new Robin, he got a girl Robin, the girl who used to be Spoiler, and obviously that means she was the best Robin.”
Steph poked Dick in the ribs and he rolled his eyes.
Sarah pointed at the page and said excitedly to Caroline, “She looks like you!”
Caroline smiled. “Yep she does, but that’s not me. Anyway, okay, so. Then there was a sad thing and she died.”
“But not really?” Sarah prompted.
“Well, that’s kind of a spoiler,” Caroline said as she turned the page. “But yeah, not really. And I don’t have a picture of that, but then it was sad again, and Batman also died. Except, well, spoiler, also not really.”
“But we still need a Batman,” Caroline continued, turning the page one more time. “So Nightwing who used to be Robin stepped up to be Batman. And there was a new Robin named Damian who was dead Batman’s son. And apparently he was kind of a jerk.”
“Also the new Batgirl didn’t want the job anymore,” added Caroline as Sarah leaned even farther over her to get a good look at the book. “So when Stephanie who had been Robin came back from being not really dead, she became Batgirl.”
“Also Mr. Bruce came back,” Sarah reminded her.
“Sure,” said Caroline. “But Dick was still Batman and Damian was still Robin and there was still Oracle and now there was Batgirl, too.”
Steph leaned her head on Dick’s shoulder. “Here’s where it starts getting good.”
“Also Proxy,” Caroline continued. “She was a friend of Oracle’s, and then she and Batgirl became kind of a team, and then Proxy and Oracle were more than friends…”
“This is my favorite part!” said Sarah excitedly, and actually clapped her hands.
Caroline grinned at her. “Yep, because then they got married, and then they wanted a baby…”
“And they got me,” Sarah announced importantly.
“Except two girls can’t have a baby by themselves,” said Caroline. “So they needed - ”
“The jokes here just write themselves,” Dick whispered to Steph.
“- a boy to help them,” continued Caroline. “So they asked Dick. And that’s how Batman helped Oracle have a baby for Oracle and Proxy.”
“And science,” Dick added to Steph. “Science had a very important role.”
“And even though babies can’t be super heroes, she’s still a part of the batfamily,” Caroline said, reaching over to ruffle Sarah’s hair.
“Keep going,” Sarah encouraged, reaching for the book to turn the page.
“That’s Damian,” said Caroline, pointing. “He was Robin while Dick was Batman even after Bruce came back, since Bruce didn’t want to be Batman anymore. But then Damian grew up, and as soon as he grew up he wanted to be Batman. But nobody else thought that was a good idea – something about emotional maturity, I heard – and there was a big fight. But eventually when Dick got to keep being Batman, Damian didn’t want to be a sidekick anymore. So he got a new costume and started calling himself Xu'ffasch.”
“That is a really weird word,” said Sarah.
“Yeah, it means bat in Arabic. I think Damian likes that no one can spell it. Okay, so. Now there was Batman, and Xu’ffasch, and Batgirl, and Oracle and Proxy.”
“But no Nightwing or Robin,” said Sarah.
“Right,” said Caroline. “So let’s get to that. Without Robin, Batman and Batgirl started working together more. Because sometimes you just need two people to fight bad guys, right?”
Dick slid his arm down to around Steph’s waist, entwining their fingers together and squeezing.
“So all that working together meant they got to be really good friends,” continued Caroline. “And then they were more than friends.”
“That happens a lot,” Sarah said.
Dick snorted.
“Bats don’t get out much,” Caroline pointed out. “Anyway, once they were more than friends, Steph said that she didn’t want to seem like Batman’s sidekick. She didn’t want to be Batgirl anymore. So…”
“So she became Nightwing!” Sarah enthused. “That’s what Wikipedia said. I mean, not about who she was, but that suddenly there was a girl Nightwing.”
“Yep,” said Caroline. “So now Dick is Batman and Stephanie is Nightwing and they’re also - ”
“Kissing all the time,” Sarah said, making a face.
Steph made a mental note to watch the PDA.
Caroline turned the page again. “So now there was a Batman and a Nightwing, but no Robin and no Batgirl. But one day Nightwing got a big surprise when someone cornered her to ask about Batgirl. It was Nell, who’d been Batgirl’s biggest fan ever since she was about your age. She’d been studying martial arts and gymnastics because of Batgirl, and now that she was older she knew that she really did want to be just like her. She also knew there was no more Batgirl, but she’d figured out that Nightwing used to be. And after a whole lot of trying… she convinced Batman and Nightwing to train her as Batgirl. Which, let’s face it, was the ultimate I want to be a hero when I grow up dream come true.”
“I like Nell,” said Sarah. “She’s pretty.”
Caroline smiled. “Yes she is.”
“Also she and Damian fight a lot.”
“Uh huh,” Caroline agreed. “You know how your moms told you that the boys at school who call you names only like you? It’s kind of like that with Nell and Damian. Okay, so. Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl. But still no Robin.”
“You’re getting to that part,” Sarah said. “This is your favorite part, right?”
“Mmmhmm. See, a long time ago, before Stephanie was Batgirl, she had a baby. Only she was really young, so she put the baby up for adoption.”
Dick squeezed Steph’s hand again, and Steph sighed softly as she watched the two girls.
“And the baby went to live with another family, and when she was a little girl, that family really wanted more than anything else for her to go to the Olympics, so she started training at gymnastics when she was even younger than you. And when she was a little older they sent her off to train and they probably meant well but she didn’t see much of them after that.”
“That’s sad,” said Sarah.
Caroline nodded. “And it got sadder too, because her gymnastics coach was doing something bad to her. When she tried to tell her family they didn’t believe her, and that’s when she found out that she was adopted. So she ran away.”
Steph brought her hand up to her mouth, choked up for a moment, but Dick’s strong presence beside her helped, at least.
“That must have been scary,” said Sarah solemnly.
“It was,” Caroline said, her voice a little quieter. “She came to Gotham City to try to find her birth mother, only it was really hard. But you know who she found instead? Batman. And remember how when he became Robin he was just a kid who was a really good acrobat? Well, he saw that same thing in her when they met. And it was enough to get him interested in helping her. It might have ended there, with his awesome detective skills finding her birth mother…”
“I really am an awesome detective,” whispered Dick.
Before Caroline could finish, Sarah interrupted enthusiastically, “But her mom was Stephanie! I mean, your mom was Stephanie. Because that was you.”
Caroline ruffled her hair again. “It was. And that’s how I found my mom, and how I found out that she was Nightwing. And then with some help from Bruce Wayne, a judge said that I could come live with her.”
“Because you wanted to be Robin,” Sarah finished.
“Yep. Of course, that took some serious work on my part…”
“You’ve got that right,” muttered Steph.
“But now I’m Robin, even if I think that Batman keeps a tighter leash on me than some of the other Robins…”
“Good,” whispered Steph to Dick.
“And that’s the last page in the book,” Caroline said to Sarah, showing her the last page. A family portrait. “But you know what happens next, right?”
“Batman and Nightwing are getting married,” Sarah said. “And since he’s my dad and she’s your mom, that pretty much makes us sisters. When I grow up I want to be Robin. No, um, Batgirl. No, um, Batman.”
“You don’t have to though,” Caroline said, closing the book. “Only if you want to. You can be whatever you want to be. Okay?”
“Or I can be like, ten things,” Sarah pointed out. “Like Spoiler who became Robin who became Batgirl who became Nightwing.”
“Yeah,” said Caroline, and then looked over her shoulder at Steph and Dick, whom she’d clearly realized were there all along. “To me she’s just Mom, though. And isn’t it weird that whatever she is, she’s seriously awesome?”
“Your mom made waffles for breakfast,” Dick said cheerfully, and Sarah practically leapt off of the bed with enthusiasm, taking off past them towards the kitchen. Caroline went by too, stopping to kiss her mom on the cheek on the way, and passed her the book.
“You are awesome, you know,” Dick said to Steph, leaning in to kiss her.
Steph smiled at him, and flipped through the book, which was still full of empty pages at the end. “I think we need to work on filling the rest of this up,” she said.
“Absolutely. Okay, waffles then kicking things?”
“Perfect.”
THE END (so far...)
