Back to my bullshit with a take from a stepmother's märchen, Batfamily edition. (nobody could convince me that Shuri's kids in the first timeline and Bruce's kids aren't the same shape of entitled assholes)
Imagine. Bruce's children have taken their father's presence and love for them for granted for years.
No matter the circumstances, the arguments, or the fights. Bruce loved them. And if they didn't call him dad, what did it matter? Ultimately, he was, in every way that mattered. And now Dick is getting married, and it's a chance to see their father again after years of lost contact, out of pride or something else.
No one has personally brought him the invitation, nor have they met him, but they know for sure he'll come. Except... Bruce is late.
The ceremony is about to begin, but he's nowhere to be seen. And everyone is immediately angry, assuming the worst, muttering insults and saying they've done him a favor by inviting him.
And Dick is about to agree, when his partner becomes upset by the way they talk about their father. Dick says they've always done it that way; after all, Bruce is that kind of person, and his partner can't help but notice how sad it must be to never feel loved by your children.
Dick says it's the other way around, but the partner pointed out to him that if everyone attacks you over the slightest problem without asking for explanations, it hurts.
And here, Dick has a moment of realization, wondering if Bruce knew he loved him, that he was important to them, and he comes to the conclusion that maybe he doesn't know, because no one ever thought they should.
When the delay continues, he decides to go to Wayne Manor himself to pick him up. He won't get married without his father.
(And he's decided, he didn't know the others, but he'll call Bruce dad for the first time, and thank him for everything he's done for them.)
But he is stopped when Commissioner Gordon arrives, his expression grim, and Dick half-expects to hear news of an escape from Arkham and the need to cancel the ceremony. It would explain why Bruce isn't present. However, what the commissioner has to say is much worse: "Bruce Wayne was killed on his way to the church. The body was unrecognizable, and that's why it took time to identify him."
Dick listens blankly, thinking he was dosed by the fear toxin. But Tim confirmed that it's not so, there is no toxin, no escape from Arkham.
His father—who died alone, insulted to the last by them, by angry children who could have saved him, if only someone had been with him, if for once they had set aside their pride and decided to be a family to him —was no longer there, and Dick couldn't even tell him he loved him.
Dick lost another parent after wasting years being angry and hateful.
He couldn't love his father as he deserved. The least he could do was avenge him. Even if it meant burning Gotham to the ground.
Meanwhile, Bruce wakes up twenty-three years in the past...the day of the Graysons' funeral...
