every one of the batfam has some kind of letter titled “if i die before you.” none of them know the others have it.
dick’s is long, rambling. the kind of thing you can tell was written over years. it starts as a joke (“play ‘another one bites the dust’ at my funeral. i dare you” and “don’t let bruce wear black, make him wear the discowing”) but it slides somewhere heavier around paragraph three. there’s a sentence crossed out so many times it’s unreadable, and below it: “i’m sorry.”
jason’s note was torn and tossed in a dumpster outside his apartment. it is unorganised, more confession than message. no punctuation. no structure. just anger that keeps folding in on itself. “i wasn’t trying to make it your problem” is repeated three times, then erased, then rewritten smaller. the last line just says, “i’m sorry if it happens again.”
tim’s reads like documentation. he has it saved on the batcomputer, under a code that only comes undone after his passing. he lists passwords, evidence caches, two separate encrypted folders, and a five-step contingency for what to do if he “mysteriously disappears again”. all neat, clinical. the last line ruins it: “delete my ao3 history before anyone finds it.”
cass’s note is short, tucked in her phone case. one sentence. sharp: “don’t let them make it pretty.” she doesn’t elaborate, but she doesn’t need to.
damian’s is a formal, written letter he keeps in his desk drawer. like a will. “ensure Titus is cared for”, “inform Jon personally”, “tell Grayson he was unbearable”. then, at the bottom, written months later: “delete the recordings of me laughing. that’s private.”
barbara’s note starts practical: who to contact, what systems to shut down. halfway through there’s a lowercase line that breaks the pattern: “don’t let him shut down again.”
bruce’s exists too. the name’s the same. it’s empty. it’s been opened hundreds of times.
alfred’s phone, when it’s found, has one note pinned to the top. it just says: “if i die before any of you, i’m sorry. you deserve peace.”
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