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The thing is that it isn’t even a thing.
It’s normal for Bruce to dismiss them from patrol and come back to the cave thirty minutes later. It doesn’t happen every day, but a couple times a week. It hasn’t always happened, Dick knows, because Dick knows a lot about Bruce’s patrol habits, but for a long time, now, it’s pretty common.
Dick doesn’t even question it and neither do the others, but Duke is new, and Duke says something.
“Where does he go, whenever he makes us leave?” Duke says. They’re back in the Cave, Duke and Dick and Tim and Cass, and Bruce has just dismissed them. “He can’t be doing more patrol, he’s never that far behind us.”
“I’ve timed it and it’s never more than thirty minutes,” Tim says. “He always stays out for a little while more and then comes back.”
“It's important,” Cass offers, and Dick knows she’s right. “But has he always…?” Everyone turns to look at Dick.
“Not always,” he says. “Uh. It started after Jason, but not right after. It was before Jason came back, but not…” Dick thinks for a second.
“I noticed it when Tim was Robin,” he says. “A few months before Jason came back, I think. But he could’ve been doing it before I noticed, I don’t know.”
“So he started after I became Robin again for the second time?” Tim says. “That tracks, I think.” Cass nods in agreement. “I don’t know, maybe there was a rough case and he checks up on them.”
“Maybe it’s a series of people,” Dick suggests. “A rotating cast of people he’s saved.”
“Maybe he has a secret lover,” Duke says, clearly wanting this to be more dramatic than it probably is.
“Nah, if he was meeting a lover it would be more than thirty minutes each time, right?” Tim says.
“I mean….” Duke says, waggling his eyebrows. “You’d think that, but….”
“ Please don’t imply things about Bruce’s sex abilities,” Dick groans.
“Yeah, Batman is the best at everything,” Tim says.
“I’m going to kill you,” Dick says, and Cass shakes her head.
“No,” she says. “He meets his secret lover at other times.”
Everyone turns to look at her.
“Excuse me?” Dick says.
Cass smirks.
“Oh, come on!” Tim says. “Who is it?”
Cass says nothing, and Dick decides to take this up with Bruce himself at a later time.
“Never mind all that,” he says. “If he hasn’t said anything about his little errands, clearly it’s not for us to know.”
Duke and Tim level him with matching unimpressed looks, and Cass rubs her hands together gleefully. Dick can feel the bad ideas forming.
“No,” he says.
“Absolutely,” Tim says.
“Now we have to know,” Cass says.
Duke gives up on words, and fixes Dick with a huge pair of puppy-dog eyes. Dick didn’t know Duke could even do that--who taught him? Dick would need to have words with them .
He throws up his hands.
“Fine!” he says. “Next time he goes on his stupid little errand, we’ll follow him.”
“Yay!” Cass cheers, and she and Duke start a little dance while Tim gives Dick an appreciative head-nod. Dick’s face falls into his hands. He has so many regrets already.
----
Three days later, Batman dismisses them from patrol early and says he will “follow shortly”, which is code for “I’m going on my mystery errand.”
Nightwing and Black Bat do a lap around the block. Signal and Red Robin meet them on a nearby building, and Red Robin pulls up the tracker screens.
They watch Batman’s signal move east, and Spoiler and Robin’s move back towards the Manor. Red Hood’s goes towards the docks, and then Nightwing looks at Batman’s blip again--but it’s gone.
“What happened?” he asks.
“He disabled his tracker,” Red Robin says, frowning. “This must be serious.”
“We already knew it was serious, he was doing it for years,” Signal points out, and Nightwing says, “If we want to follow him, we should go now before we lose him.”
They head east, splitting up to cover more ground. Nightwing asks O if she’s seen anything, but she tells him to fuck off so she can sleep.
So they’re on their own, then.
“Found him,” Signal pants into the comms. “His shadow--from my powers--I saw it headed into a neighborhood. We’re in the Heights.”
Nightwing turns and heads in Signal’s direction. Red Robin joins him after only a minute and they race side-by-side until they meet up with Signal and Black Bat on a house’s rooftop.
“He’s in the next neighborhood,” Signal says. “Come on.”
He leads the way and Nightwing can’t help but look around. This is an upper-middle class area, with nice houses and low crime rates. It’s not so nice here that thieves are a problem but not anything like Stephanie or Jason’s old neighborhoods either. The most trouble around here is, like, T.P.ing.
Signal pinpoints Batman’s location and they fan out. Nightwing settles on the roof next to the one Batman is on and watches, crouched by the base of the chimney.
Batman doesn’t look at him, nor does he turn his head to look at Black Bat on the roof on his other side. He’s sitting on the roof, tucked into the shadows, watching the house across from them.
The house is painfully normal, with pumpkins next to the front door and curtains in each window. The lawn is nicely-kept and there’s a Camry in the driveway. There’s chalk drawings on the driveway, too, but it’s too dark to make them out. The house is still, but it’s four in the morning so Nightwing doesn’t really blame the occupants.
For eleven minutes (Nightwing counts), nobody moves.
And then, Batman shifts into the light, just a bit, and makes a quick gesture with his hand. It’s the one that means come here, for when they’re in a situation where speaking isn’t going to be happening.
Nightwing thinks about disobeying but doesn’t. He leaves his post on the neighboring rooftop and moves to sit next to Batman, quiet as he can.
Black Bat settles on Batman’s other side, and Red Robin fits himself behind and between Black Bat and Batman, while Signal sits on Nightwing’s other side.
For one more minute, they say nothing.
“Before Spoiler was Robin,” Batman says, and Nightwing is so surprised at this opening that he nearly falls over, “and before she dated Red Robin, she had a different boyfriend. And she got pregnant.”
Nightwing knows this story, knows that Red Robin and Black Bat do too. He doesn’t know if Steph has told Duke, yet, but it’s not like she keeps it a secret. Dick remembers when she told Damian. He had to talk the kid down from murdering Steph’s ex.
“She decided not to terminate the pregnancy,” Batman continues. “But she gave the baby up for adoption.”
For the first time, Nightwing thinks of a joke to say in response to this, something about Batman’s own adopting habits, but he keeps his mouth shut.
“And after--when she was on her...deathbed. I made her a promise.” Batman breathes in, and out. In all this time, his face has not moved from the house across the street. “Max Smith and Branden Gonzales live in that house. Abigail Elizabeth Smith-Gonzales is their daughter. All three of them...are very happy. But--if they ever weren’t…”
“So you’re...you’re just watching Steph’s baby’s house?” Red Robin says. “Abigail?”
Nightwing knows that Abigail is Steph’s middle name, but he doesn’t mention that, either.
“Yes,” Batman says. “It makes me feel better.”
“And you haven’t told anyone?” Signal asks. Batman shakes his head.
“You can’t tell Stephanie,” he says. “She can’t know.”
“Why not?” Nightwing asks. “She’d...she’d be so honored, I think.”
“She hates me,” Batman says, as if that explains everything. And what, Steph will find out that Bruce has been watching over her kid--literally--for like, years, and get upset about it?
Bruce, Dick thinks, is very stupid, sometimes.
“That’s stupid,” Black Bat says before Nightwing can say it, and Batman turns away from the house.
“Seriously, B, this is taking emotional constipation to the next level,” Nightwing says. “You should tell her.”
“You can’t,” Batman says.
“ I won’t,” Nightwing promises.
“We won’t tell her but you should,” Signal says. “This is insane.”
It’s sort of creepy, sort of weird, sort of like a self-punishment, Dick thinks. So basically, it’s entirely in character. Is Abigail Smith-Gonzales just always going to have a guardian angel shaped like a bat watching over her?
Batman stands.
“Let’s go,” he says, and his voice is the firm, don’t-argue voice.
They leave, but Nightwing casts one look behind at Abigail’s house, anyway.
Next time Batman dismisses them from patrol, Nightwing exchanges a sad look with Red Robin, who’s patrolling the Narrows with him.
“I’ll go with you,” Black Bat says over the comms, leaving no room for disagreement.
“Fine,” Batman says, his voice resigned, and Nightwing and Red Robin head home.