[Bio!dad Dick] when Dick had amnesia and became 'Ric Grayson' He hooked up with a traveling Sabine. He later discovers when looking into his old things when he was Ric he had been contacted by Sabine who told him he has a daughter named Marinette (maybe 5 years old now?idk), during his time as Batman (with Bruce 'dead', Tim missing, and Damian being well Damian) Dick makes the hard choice to stay out of his daughter's life to keep her safe from the world he lives in, but watches from a distance when he can. Before he knows it more years pass and he wants nothing more than to meet her but feels like it's to late. However everything changes when he goes down for patrol and finds one of his brothers at the batcom with a file of Marinette open, and the words 'Master Fu, ex-guardian' 'Mutlimouse, Known' 'New Guardian?'. And files on a Ladybug hero who bares a striking resemblance of his daughter.
Ric Rolled
Note, Ric/Dick is 21 at the beginning of the story while Sabine is 23.
Ric Grayson liked his job as a taxi driver. He learned a lot about the people in his city and even people from outside of it. But he always felt like he could be doing, or rather was meant for something more. Ever since he had left the hospital once the bullet wound was healed, he felt like he was missing something important from his life. It was his 21st birthday, and he decided to celebrate it at one of the nicer bars in his city.
“Hello, is this seat taken?”
A gentle voice spoke from beside him. Ric slowly turned his head and saw a beautiful woman with charcoal black hair, silver eyes, her makeup was done naturally, and her dress was a beautiful red and gold knee length qipao.
“No, you can sit here.”
He replied, gesturing toward the seat on his right side.
“My name is Sabine.”
She spoke as she gestured for the bartender. He didn’t respond, just took a sip from his glass.
“So what’s brought you here tonight?”
Sabine asked in a honeyed voice. Ric thought about whether or not he should answer that question, his already addled brain found nothing wrong with it though.
“It’s my birthday.”
“I see. You celebrating with anyone else?”
“Afraid not ma’am.”
“I see.”
Her voice was like that of a siren. Enchanting and full of life.
“Let me buy you a drink, whatever you want.”
Ric smiled at the lady and nodded.
“Thanks.”
“Of course. No one should spend their birthday by themselves.”
One drink led to another, which led to another, which led to a night that Ric hadn’t imagined he would have. When he awoke, he was alone, only a note.
Thanks for last night. Hope we can meet again one day, Ric.
~Sabine
Ric let out a groan, his head pounding up a storm. He wasn’t going to be able to work today.
_________
3 years later
Dick Grayson stared at the screen in front of him in shock. He remembered bits and pieces of his time as Ric Grayson, but he liked to pretend that those three years of his life never existed. But as he stared at the information in front of him, he wasn’t so sure he could ignore it for much longer. Turns out he had a daughter, and it had to be his because “Ric Grayson” was listed as the father on the copy of the birth certificate that he had been sent and the girl–his daughter– was just barely 2 years old.
Sabine had sent him a letter, but he had never seen it before as he had moved on from being Ric by that time. It was pure luck he even stumbled upon the letter in the first place when he was cleaning up the rundown apartment that he had stayed in. The overwhelming feeling of need that he felt at the thought of meeting the little girl, Marinette, was so overwhelming he couldn't think of anything else. Even breathing felt like a chore. He imagined being a real father, teaching her to read, watching her color, listening to her stories, he could even teach her gymnastics. It was a wonderful fantasy. But that was it, a fantasy. One that came crashing down with the sound of a katana slicing through a training dummy.
He shook his head as reality came crashing in around him. Bruce was dead, Tim was missing and probably hated him, Jason left the city, and he needed to make sure that Damian was being taken care of, he needed to be Batman and protect Gotham. He took a single minute to mourn what could have been before he stole himself and closed the files. She would be safer and happier without him. From what he saw Sabine was in a relationship with another man in Paris. He could watch after her from a distance, but it would be better if he was as far away from her as possible. It seemed everyone he loved got hurt in some way, and he would make sure that nothing would happen to her by keeping his distance.
_________
8 years later
Dick stared at his phone. There was a picture of a young girl at a sewing machine with the brightest smile. She had hair as black as Sabine’s and his eyes. She was growing up so fast and now that everything was working out he desperately wanted to meet her. But it has already been so long, it was probably too late now. She had Tom as her dad now. He had another daughter now, he and Kori had finally tied the knot, and now they had little Mari’. It wasn’t intentional, in fact it was Starfire that had named her that. It made his heart hurt when he thought of his other daughter. He often wondered if his girls would get along with each other if they ever met.
He sighed as he set down his phone and looked around the cave. He was in Gotham for the weekend just visiting his family—which was finally happy (well, as happy as they could be) together— with his wife and daughter. Star would be down soon, she was just putting Mari’ to bed. Star knew about Marinette and often encouraged him to reach out, and though he was thankful for her support, he was still too scared to approach her.
He could hear the fast click clacking of the Batcomputer’s keyboard, and as Bruce was upstairs he knew that it had to be Tim. Slowly he walked down the stairs to make sure that his brother hadn’t been down here for a consecutive 56 hours again. He had been getting a bit better at taking care of himself, but he knew Tim and which meant that if Tim found something overly important all of Tim’s own needs would be put aside until he was sure that he had finished everything.
“Tim, how long have you been down here?”
He asked as he carefully approached his baby brother from behind. Tim didn’t answer, he just kept clicking and moving things around on the screen. There was strike one, Tim may not always answer, but his shoulders would often either scrunch up or relax. And as neither of those reactions happened he may not have heard him showing how tired he was as Tim was one of the most aware and attentive one out of all of them.
Dick got closer to the screen and looked up to see what was so important to Tim. There files upon files of absolute chaos and destruction filling the screen. It looked horrifying and Dick couldn’t believe that it was real as if this was anywhere on Earth or even in space they would have heard about it by now. On the top and bottom right monitors there were files of three different people open at the moment. On the top there was an image of a girl with strikingly familiar blue eyes, dark raven hair, and a face he was staring at only a few minutes before.
Marinette Lenoire Dupain-Cheng
Identity (Known): Multi-Mouse (First)
New Guardian?
Pupil of ex-Grand Guardian: Wang Fu
Age: 11
Ethnicity: Asian-American
Location: Paris, France
Mother: Sabine Cheng
Birth Father: Ric Grayson
Step-father: Tom Dupain
Dick gulped as he read through the data. He hadn’t told his family about Marinette, but now they would know. He had told Starfire before they had gotten Married, and he was so relieved when she still accepted him, still loved him despite his mistake and cowardness. But he kept reading. He would have to process that his daughter was a hero, a hero at the same age he was. That his efforts to keep her out of this type of life were all in vain and that it didn’t matter now. That he was a failure. He started reading again.
Wang Fu
Identity (Known): Ex-Grand Guardian
Belonged to “The Order of the Guardians”1
Age: Unknown
Ethnicity: Unknown
Mother: Unknown
Father: Unknown
Needs to be further investigated
Then there was the final one.
Ladybug
Identity: Unknown
Age: Unknown
Origin: Unknown
Father: Unknown
Mother: Unknown
Relatives: Unknown
Source of power: Earrings
Power: Creation and restoration
Danger level, high. Need more data.
Tim studied the girl before him. He didn’t like what he saw. He looked at the picture of Ladybug, then the picture of his daughter, then the picture of his daughter in a mouse themed suit, then back to Ladybug. Dick was going to be sick, he was going to pass out, he was going to have a panic attack. He should have just been part of her life. Maybe if he had been in it she wouldn’t have had to become a hero. Maybe it was because he stayed out of her life that she unintentionally followed in his footsteps. He was a terrible father, how would he tell them, how would he tell her? What was he going to do now?
“Dick! Dick, you need to breathe! Come on Dick, please breathe with me.”
There was a distant voice talking to him, but it was so hard to hear over the raging voices in his head. What was he supposed to do now? It was too late for him to just insert himself in her life.
“No it’s not Dick. It’ll be okay. I won’t tell anyone, it’s your news to share.”
That was a nice thought, but there was no way that the others wouldn’t figure it out now.
“That may be true, but they’ll respect your boundaries and wait until you feel comfortable enough to talk about it.”
The voice said. Dick tried to breathe, he could feel his hand against something hard yet soft, and he clutched onto it. He could feel a gentle beating against his hand and slowly he began to even out his breathing all while the voice seemed to rattle on, saying things that he couldn’t seem to process as he focussed all of his efforts into simply breathing. How pathetic, he couldn’t even breathe right.
“You’re doing so go. That’s right, deep breath in, then a slow long breath out.”
Dick leaned forward until his forehead was resting against Tim’s shoulder, silent tears that he hadn’t even realized were falling leaking onto the boy's shirt. He could feel Tim’s arms slowly wrap around him as they both sat on the floor, silent except for the chittering of the bats and the light drip of water from the ceiling.
“What am I supposed to do? It’s too late to meet her, and now she’s in danger, she’s like us. I stayed away to keep her away from this life and it was all useless. It didn’t matter, I could have been in her life all this time but I didn’t and now-”
Dick let out a shuddering sob, unable to finish the sentence. Tim was frozen; he didn't know what to do. He could count on one hand how many times he had actually seen Dick cry. It was always so strange and foreign and he never really knew what to do. So he held Dick even tighter, rubbing his older brother’s back as he cried. He could feel someone’s gaze on them from above and slowly looked up to see Jason and Bruce, eyes wide in shock at the scene. Bruce snapped out of it first, racing down the stairs until he was at Dick’s side only a few moments later.
“Report.”
He barked panickedly, unsure of exactly what to do to help his oldest son.
“Dick found something out and he’s in distress. I’m not allowed to say what about as it’s his business to tell.”
Tim replied automatically, but he never let go of his brother though he glanced over to the Batcomputer.
Bruce looked over the data on the screen and nearly short circuited when he stumbled across the name of the father for Marinette/Multi-Mouse before he glanced down at his son. He understood the distress of his son when he had just discovered that he in fact had a child. Not knowing about Damian until he was ten because Talia had hidden his existence from him had been heartbreaking. He could only imagine what it felt like for Dick who loved those he was close with and trusted with all of his being.
Slowly Bruce bent down glancing at Tim who slowly nodded and backed away a little, but Dick only held on tighter with a slight whimper. Tim looked like he was in pain himself.
“It’s okay Dick, Bruce wants to give you a hug too.”
But Dick didn’t let go of his little brother. The little brother he nearly lost to Ra’s, to The Widower, to Lady Shiva, to the Joker, to so many people. He clung onto the boy even tighter, he didn’t want to lose anyone else.
“Okay, okay, I’ll stay here with you.”
Tim whispered softly, pulling Dick closer.
“You’re going to have to pick both of us up B, he’s not letting go, and I think bad things will happen if I try to move away again.”
Bruce grunted in his ‘I understand and I’m really worried’ way and carefully picked up both of his sons, moving them towards the upstairs family den. Jason had already left to get Alfred, worried about his big brother, but unwilling to admit it.
“We’ll figure everything out, you’ll get to meet her. I think that she’d love to meet you. You could just take Star with you, we could watch Mari’ for you. I’m sure everything will work out, don’t give up. It’s never too late Dick.”
Dick didn’t know how much he believed those words, but Tim was right. He needed to go visit her, he needed to make things right. But until then, he would hold onto the family he had now, because they loved him and he loved them. He loved the daughter that probably didn’t even know existed, and he protected the people he loved. So he would need to protect her, and in order to do that, he would need to finally meet her. He would never give her up, he would never let her down, and never again would he desert her.
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