What if Dick Grayson takes Damian away from Bruce when Bruce majorly screws up yet again? I'm messing with some of the timelines because, in canon, it's a mess
Dick Grayson has never claimed to be a sane or stable person. Hell, he was ready to kill a man at age 8, and it was only Bruce Wayne of all people that stopped him.
Above all, there is one thing that will make Dick lose his temper every time, the thing that will make him snap faster than many liked to think he was capable of. It's a rule all of his old friends and heroes know well.
Never hurt Dick Graysons' family.
Too Bad that Bruce, for all his lectures and rules, had never learnt that lesson.
Bruce has never been great with Damian, not when he first arrived, not when he returned from the dead, not when Damian died at age ten trying to prove to his father he was good. Bruce hung Damians past with the League over Damians head through it all, and at certain point Dick has had enough.
Dicks limit comes during the Gotham war, where he altered Jason's Brain, fought all of them, and abandoned Damian yet again, despite the boy only ever supporting him.
So Dick does what he should have done with Jason and Tim. He takes Damian away from there.
He should have done it years ago, back when Bruce was going to let return Damian to the League or when Bruce blamed Damian for Alfred's death or even when Bruce thought Slade was his father.
Bruce had been given so many chances, and he had squandered them all. There were so many ways Bruce had failed Damian, and Dick wasn't going to stand by and watch anymore.
So before the GCPD arrives, he bundles Damian up and carries him away from the rain. His Robin sobs in his arms, and Dick sings lullabies into his wet hair.
Tim follows them, and Dick resists the urge to hunt Bruce down and make him pay for abandoning them all yet again.
He'll find Jason later and try undo the damage Bruce has done in his head.
He takes back Tim to his boathouse, making sure he is safe and won't do anything stupid for now. He then bundles Damian up in his car and drives to Bludhaven. Damian falls asleep after a few minutes, curled up in the passenger seat. Damian looks so small in his sleep.
They arrive at Dicks apartment building and Damian wakes up enough to go upstairs and change in pajamas.
Dick gives up his bed for the night, not like he's going to sleep. When Damian is asleep again Dick takes a moment to tuck him in more comfortably. His Robin stirs, but it's a testament to his exhaustion and his trust in Dick that even his League training doesn't force him fully awake.
"Love you, Buddy, I'll make it better, I promise."
Dick leaves the room and starts making calls. The first is Tim, who luckily has his boyfriend to comfort him. They talk for a while and plan to confront Bruce later. The next call is to Jason, who just got done having a panic attack from what Bruce put in his head. Dick calls Leslie Thompkins, and they get started on trying to undo the damage with the help of Martian Manhunter. He texts Roy so he can be sure Jason isn't alone because Red Hood won't leave Gotham just yet.
The last call he makes is to Clark. His uncle listens as Dick allows himself to break down finally. Superman comforts as best he can and offers as much support as the Man of Steel is able.
Once Dick has calmed down and said goodnight to a worried Clark, he picks himself up and sets his contingency plans into motion.
The bats are warned, and Oracle declares a state of emergency. Every bat is now fighting to right what has gone wrong in their city.
Catwoman gets an alert out and starts to explain how she was impersonated and her plans taken over.
But her and Batman are apparently fixing it.
Dick feels his temper flare. So much of this could have been avoided if Bruce had only listened, had only told them what was happening so they could all find a better solution. But like always, Bruce decided he knew better and screw all of them. Even Damian, who had supported his father, had been abandoned. Dick is sick of it, and this time, he will make sure it never happens again.
Dick gets the filled out adoption papers he had from when it just him and Damian and custody papers Bruce signed before he got lost in the timeline. It was meant to be a just in case kinda of thing.
But now, the worst-case scenario has come, and Dick has everything he needs to prove Damian is legally his.
Dick emails his lawyer all of the documents and compiles a list of ways Bruce has been a less than stellar parent as a civilian and a list of blackmail should there be a fight. There shouldn't be, but Dick is taking no chances.
By the time Dick finishes it all, Damian wakes up.
His Robin is quiet as Dick feeds him cereal. He doesn't even complain about Dick nutrition.
Dick doesn't know how to start the conversation of him keeping Damian, luckily he doesn't have to.
"I want to stay with you, Richard. I, I'm not sure being with Father is for the best right now. I think part of me still wants to please him, no matter the consequences, and that's not healthy."
Dick sighs. "I filed the papers last night Buddy, custody transferred to me this morning."
Damian nods and slowly stands and hugs Dick gently.
"You really want me?" Damian mumbles into Dicks shoulder.
Dick feels his heart break. "You're my Robin. Of course I want you, Dames. You're my son."
Dick pretends he doesn't notice the tears that stain his shirt. He promises himself that Bruce will never hurt Damian again.
They spend the morning watching movies and ignoring the events of the last few weeks.
Dick gets updates from the other bats periodically. Babs managed to find the notes on what Bruce did to Jason and start to undo it.
Batman and Catwoman defeat the mastermind and start cleaning up Gotham yet again.
Bruce doesn't call to check on Damian. Dick can't say he's surprised. Part of Dick regrets his own part in the war, but the larger part is still so angry with Bruce.
But his priority right now is making sure his family is safe.
It's really not that surprising he goes a little overboard. Be upgrades all his security measures and looks for an easily defensible new home for them. He goes so far as to plant more trackers on Damian again and ignores the ones Damian puts on him.
Damian decides he wants to do online school for now, so Dick gets him placement tests and celebrates when he easily surpasses high school and even college levels. Damian then starts on a few degrees much to Dicks delight.
His baby is so smart and so talented.
Dick brings Damian all around Bludhaven to experience some more childhood things for the first time. They go to amusement parks, the circus and museums. Dick takes him to a safari zoo with Jon weekend and is almost convinced to bring an elephant home if it wasn't for Clark intervening.
Damian goes to the manor eventually to pick up his things and find Thomas Wayne old diaries as he packs up the place. His brilliant little Robin with a jeart too big for his chest reads what Gotham used to be like and decides he wants to a doctor so he can affect a more positive change than just more fighting.
Dick is so proud he even lets Damian start volunteering at the local hospital after it's been thoroughly vetted. Bludhaven may have fewer rogues, but it is just as corrupt as Gotham, unfortunately.
Haley and Damian stick together like glue, and Dick starts planning on getting Titus and Alfred the Cat for Damian as soon as possible.
Weeks pass, and Dick patrols alone. Damian, not even looking at the Robin suit since his arrival in Bludhaven.
Dick moves into a townhouse using some of the funds Alfred left him. Damian has his own room, and the dogs have a yard to run around in. Unfortunately, there's not enough room for Batcow, so they househer a farm nearby and try visit every weekend.
Tim, Jason, Steph, Cass, Duke, and Babs visit for dinner once a week or crash on the couch, and life is good. No one mentions Bruce's absence.
Dick brings up the idea of adoption so that no one can challenge it and Damian has legal rights if Dick is ever injured or killed.
Damian thinks about it for a few days before he agrees. Dick cries when Damian tells him, and they go out for ice cream after.
Damian even accidentally calls him Baba once when he's half asleep waiting for Dick to come home from patrol one night.
Dick can't stop smiling for a week. Wally asks if he's on drugs. But no, he's just a very happy Dad!
It's takes a month for Batman to show up.
He doesn't say hello when Dick answers the door. "Is Damian here?"
Dick wants to punch him. "Yes."
Bruce hums and walks into the house. "I'm taking him home."
Dick scoffs. "He is home. Where do you think he was during those eight weeks you were missing or the month after you left him?"
Bruce just glares, "I'm back now, and Gotham needs Robin."
Dick feels his temper build. Where was this sentiment when Bruce fired him all those years ago. "No, he's mine legally, and he's just a kid. He deserves to have a childhood."
"He's my son and he's never been just a child, Dick you know this."
"He never got to be a child, but it doesn't mean he doesn't deserve the chance now."
Bruce is silent a moment before he sighs. "So what? He's going to give up protecting Gotham, like you did?"
"I didn't give Robin up. You kicked me out!"
Dick has flashbacks to screaming matches in the Manor years ago, and he cringes. "I can't do this again. This is about Damian, not us."
"Then get him ready to leave."
"He's not going anywhere! I have custody and I'm trying to adopt him."
"You left him! Bruce, he's only fourteen! What did you think would happen? That he would run off again to got get killed? or that he would just wait for you to get your head out of your ass?"
"You let him leave last time."
"Yes to explore and find himself away from all the burdens you and Talia put on his shoulders! Not to fight in a death tournament! I trust Damian to keep himself safe, god knows he has done so over and over again, but I don't trust you to take care of him."
"So you think you can do a better job?" Bruce snarls at him, and Dick steps back and gets ready to throw Bruce out of his house.
"He did! Richard was my Batman first. He loves me, he trusts me, and I'm happy here."
The two turn to see Damian looking at them from the top of the stairs.
"Damian, you need to -" Bruce starts before Dick can intervene.
"I heard, and I'm not coming back, father." He interrupts.
"You have a responsibility to Gotham!"
"And you had a responsibility to me! It took a while, but I finally realised that nothing I do is going to make you trust me or redeem me in your eyes. I can't live like that anymore, I can't keep fighting!"
"But you wanted to be better! Being Robin made you feel better after the League!"
"There are other ways to help! Maybe Gotham needs Batman, and maybe it might need me, but I found Thomas Wayne's Diary while you were away. I've been volunteering at a hospital and getting my qualifications in order. I'm going to be a doctor, not a vigilante. I will save lives like my grandfather!"
Dick has never been more proud than in that moment. Damian has grown so much from the hurt and angry little boy he first met. He is one of the kindest people Dick has ever known.
Damian continues while Bruce stands there shocked. "I love you, Father, but I want to stay with Richard. Please leave."
Dick knows that tone. Damian is about to break down, and he needs to comfort him.
Dick turns and carefully manhandles Bruce out of the house. He shuts the door behind them.
"I'm adopting Damian, so he has protection in case of emergency. You signed the custody forms years ago, fight me on this, and I promise you will lose. I have Uncle Clark and Barbara to back me up. Damian wants it, and I am not leaving him again. Ever." Dick tries to see if Bruce understands if he accepts but can't see if he can.
"He's my son." Bruce says yet again.
"He's my son too, and if you want to be a part of his life again, and that is a big if right now, you need to respect his wishes."
Bruce doesn't say anything but does leave.
Dick almost collapses in relief, but he has a kid to comfort. Damian is waiting for him in the kitchen with ice cream and spons, and all Dick can think is that he loves his baby.
They watch anime and eat junk during under the pets until they fall asleep.
The next few weeks aren't easy. Bruce tries to get in touch with them a few times, but the conversations get them nowhere. It always starts with demands and orders.
Dick has gone so far as to tell Diana on him so the amazon can get him to stop. Bruce eventually stops but they still haven't managed a civil conversation in almost a year.
Tim and Jason are too raw as well so for much of the year they get their updates from Cass or Babs.
Dick still refuses to give Damian back, not when he is happier in Bludhaven.
Damians' adoption goes through, and they throw a gotcha day party in the townhouse. All the bats, but Bruce, show up. Job, Lois, and Clark come over with a cow shaped cake, and 'it's a boy' t shirts.
Jon and Damian don't leave eachothers side for more than five minutes all night, and Dick is glad his son has such a good friend!
Dick is suckered into getting Damian a third dog by a very friendly lady at the shelter who made him for an easy sell. She was right.
There is fierce debate over the name, Dick personally liked Indianna Bones but Damian insisted on Pennyworth or Penny for short.
Penny fits into their family easily she gets along with everyone, even Alfred, the cat and Goliath. Too bad Dick didn't know much about Border Collies before he got her.
Penny is an energy monster, and Damian takes to training her in increasingly nonsensical ways. He just knows Jon helps because he finds pawprints on the roof.
Penny has buttons to ask for food and starts trying to herd Batcow when at the farm. Penny even tries to follow Dick on patrol, and he puts his foot down after he catches her the third time. Damian pouts but agrees at least until Hayley can join here. Duck might spoil his kid too much because he says he'll think about it.
The bulletproof dog vests appear a week later. Damian explains how he just wants someone watching Dicks even if he isn't Robin anymore..
When Damian goes to med school, he trains her, Titus, and Harley as therapy dogs for the hospital. Dick just suspects he just wanted to take his pets to work with him.
When he graduates top of his class at only 20, he thanks his Baba in his speech, and Dick bawls while Tim takes photos. Bruce comes and congratulates Damian, but does it so awkwardly that they all cringe. At least he stops trying to get Damian back to Gotham.
Dick may have forced him into counselling with blackmail and Superman after the third time he tried to test Dick for mind control and Damianin case he was a clone.
Bruce never apologises but he does acknowledge that Damian is Dicks kid now.
All in all, they are happy until the hospital is held hostage.
Damian presses the silent alarm and got people out with dogs guarding them but was trapped inside with a few of his patients. Dick is desperate enough to call in everyone, even the supers, because he is not risking his kid over his pride.
Jon Kent arrives just in time to shield Damian from the blast, and Dick never feels such relief as when he sees Jon Carryinga bleeding but alive Damian out of the rubble.
Damian managed to shield a group of kids with his own body.
Dick is proud but heartbroken to see Damian unconscious in a hospital bed yet again. Nightwing is particularly viscous hunting down the mastermind behind the attack with an equally angry Superboy backing him up.
Bludhaven experiences the lowest crime rate in years after their rampage.
Dick fusses over Damian for a week while he is on bedrest so completely that Damian calls Kory to come distract his Baba. Dick still doesn't leave until Jon comes to keep Damian company just in case.
Kory sets up a training session at the Titans Tower that lets Dick blow off steam, but he is anxious to return to his kid.
What he finds when he returns is Damian under Jon, kissing him. Needless to say Dick is a little overprotective.
Now Jon is a good kid, Dick mentored him himself, so he gives him five seconds to fly before Dick breaks out the kryptonite.
Damian convinces him to leave Jon unharmed as he promises he is very happy. Dick agrees as long as that stays the case but the shovel talk is legendary in hero circles for years to come.
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