Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Neal—”

“Hi Peter,” Dick leaned back in his seat. Slade had a private plane chartered to fly them from the Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Springfield, Illinois. There would be a car waiting for them when they landed to get them all the way to Amity Park; all in all it was expected to be a rather smooth trip.

Dick tilted his chair, one hand resting on the buttery-soft leather armrest while the other held his phone up to his ear. He ignored Jason’s answering grunt, annoyance clear when Dick’s seat stole his leg space.

“Neal, please tell me you’re at home.”

“I could be at brunch,” Dick spared Jason a look, rolling his eyes with a grin.

Jason didn’t give two damns, and jammed his knees into the back of Dick’s chair. His grimace broke into a smirk when Dick was forcefully pushed up-right.

Dick grunted at the unexpected shove forward, “Or not.”

“Do you know why I think you’re not out having brunch, Neal?” 

Dick pulled his phone back to look at his the blinking bars of his reception. Slade assured him the plane’s wifi was perfectly adequate for whatever he was planning to amuse himself with. Peter’s voice sounded shrill. 

 “Because you don’t believe in meals outside of the big three?” Dick shrugged, his phone held back to his ear.

“I just got off the phone with the U.S. Marshals.”

“Aw, did you tell Steve hi for me? You always forget to, but I told you I wanted to hear how his daughter’s recital went; I swear, that girl was working on her kick-ball-change for weeks.”

“John’s got weekend-duty right now—” Peter interrupted himself, “That’s not the point, Neal!”

“Did he finally propose to that girlfriend of his? Man has had that ring burning a hole in his pocket for at least two months now.”

“Neal!”

“Yes, Peter?” Dick looked down the aisle, catching Slade’s eye when the man pushed past the curtain to the cockpit. His smile was wide and he pointed at his phone with a shrug when Slade shot him a raised eyebrow in question.

Dick turned away when his eye narrowed in suspicion.

“Please tell me you haven’t fled the state for Akron, Ohio.”

Dick scrunched his nose in distaste on instinct, brow furrowed, “Why would I go to Akron?”

“You tell me!”

The shrill voice was back. 

“I am on a plane,” Dick said, thoughtfully.

“A plane!” It sounded like Peter knocked things over, from wherever he was calling from. Dick hoped he was at home, for Elizabeth’s sake. It was the weekend, after all.

“Yes, you know, flies in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s Superman, it’s a plane—” Dick sang the words in the familiar cadence.

“Neal,” Dick imagined Peter was rubbing at his forehead, the furrow in his brow refusing to budge. It was a familiar look on the man.

“I’m still here, Peter.”

“You left your radius. You fled the state!”

“I’m working,” Dick looked up at Slade when his knees bumped against his own, taking the seat to Dick’s left. He frowned, losing his view of the window thanks to Slade’s imposing frame. 

“We don’t have a case in Ohio.”

“I told you, I’m not going to Ohio.” 

“We don’t have case outside of your two-mile radius, Neal!”

“Peter, why aren’t you taking Elizabeth out to brunch? There’s that new spot over in Chelsea, we were talking about it earlier this week—”

“Don’t try to distract me,” Peter sounded like he was gritting his teeth. “The Marshals are planning on intercepting you.”

“Peter, I have a question.” Dick leaned back in his chair, this time without crowding in on Jason’s space, his cheek pressed to the seat’s attached pillow. He smiled at Slade. 

“I don’t have time to answer your questions, I need you to—”

“When have I ever tried to skip town or make a run while still wearing the anklet?” Dick’s eyes crinkled in mirth, smiling at the incredulous look Slade sent him. 

He lifted his ankle, rotating it to eye the blinking red light that hadn’t stopped for nearly two hours, now. Jason had bumped his shoulder with his fist, more playful than painful, when he dragged himself out of his seat opposite Dick’s in favor of the empty row behind him. He’d been grumbling about how distracting the blinking light was.

“You aren’t making sense, here, Neal.”

“Things rarely make sense when the Justice League are involved.”

The line went silent.

Dick wondered if Peter was pacing or slumped on his living room couch.

Before either of them could start talking, Dick heard the unmistakable sound of Elizabeth’s voice, “Tell El we say hello!”

“Is that Neal? Tell him hi for me, hon,” Elizabeth’s voice was louder, now. Probably sitting next to Peter, tucked into his shoulder in a way that forced his rigid shoulders to relax if only to properly pull her into the embrace. 

“I am not playing phone tag for you two!” 

“Peter,” Elizabeth and Dick spoke simultaneously.

Dick promptly started laughing.

“Who are you with, Neal?” Peter’s no-nonsense tone was as sharp as ever.

“Same people as before,” Dick pushed Slade forward, smiling when the man didn’t put up a fight. The clouds they’d been flying through had finally dissipated enough for Dick to make out the landscape tens of thousands of miles below them. 

Slade pulled himself upright in his seat when their view slowly disappeared in wisps of white, the plan passing another cloud. Dick rested his head on Slade’s shoulder in favor of being trapped between the man’s shoulder blades and the leather seat. 

Not that he didn’t like being stuck between a rock and a hard place, when the rock was a soft leather interior and the hard place Slade’s—

“Deathstroke and Red Hood,” Peter’s voice didn’t leave room for argument.

Dick sighed.

“Don’t forget Robin,” From his position against Slade, Dick could see through the scant amount of space that separated the chairs, a pocket of air just above the armrests. Damian and Danny had started the flight on opposite ends of the plane. Now, Dick could see both boys’ elbows pressed against each other. Judging by the way they kept pushing back against each other, Dick assumed they were playing a video game that they were both more than familiar with.

No one was screaming, and there wasn’t any bloodshed, so he figured it was safe to assume they were cheering each other on. Or fighting for dibs on the next game.

At the mention of his name, Damian twisted in his seat. When he didn’t see Dick from over the back of his chair he leaned down, his narrowed eyes the only thing Dick could see from his position. 

He smiled fondly. 

“Your trip is related to the boy that was found,” Peter was always able to make leaps faster than most; his deductive reasoning skills were the best for a reason.

“It is,” Dick confirmed. 

“You’re not going to tell my anything else,” It wasn’t a question, or an accusation. Peter sounded resigned.

He never liked giving up cases to other departments or agencies.

“I’ll be back Monday.”

Slade tapped his fingers against Dick’s knee.

“Wednesday at the latest.”

“Your JLA contact needs to update the Marshals,” Peter said in lieu of an argument. “We can’t waste FBI resources looking for you when you don’t require finding.”

“Robin will give John updates,” Dick promised. Damian’s narrowed look turned into an outright glare before he sat up and moved out of Dick’s field of vision.

“And Neal,” Peter started. Dick answered immediately with a soft hmm. “Whatever it is you’re doing, be careful.”

“I always am, Peter.”

“That’s what has me worried.”

“Your pet fed is proving to be a nuisance,” Damian had his hands on his hips, glaring down at Dick. It would have been a formidable sight if he wasn’t wearing sweatpants and a graphic t-shirt.

“Go do your job, Mr. JLA Liaison,” Jason chastised without sitting up from the slump he’d fallen into, legs hooked over the armrest and into the seat next to his. 

If he wasn’t going to use the leg room then there wasn’t any reason for Dick not to lean his chair back—

“Cut it the fuck out!” Jason slammed his hands against the seat, forcing it upright again.

Slade looked like he’d just eaten a lemon.

::

“How are you feeling?” Dick thought about resisting the urge to put his hand on Danny’s shoulder, but then he saw how absolutely miserable the kid looked and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze anyway.

“It’s not normal to feel sick at the thought of going home, is it?” Danny stared down his front door like it was the world’s biggest boss battle. 

“If being home is making you anxious,” Dick was happy to ignore the way Danny stiffened at the easy call out, “then that is a perfectly reasonable reason to feel nauseous.”

“I mean,” Danny shifted but remained rooted at the spot he’d taken across the street, “living there made me legitimately sick.”

Dick frowned, confusion apparent.

“What the hell are you talking about, kid?” Jason shared the sentiment.

“Meat that’s exposed to too much ectoplasm radiation has the uncanny ability to turn sentient.” Danny shrugged, “Not to mention the defense measures that would go off anytime I entered a room.”

“Your home is an actual death trap,” Jason shook his head with a low whistle. He looks over at Dick and Slade, “I do not envy you two. That kid’s going to need at least two years worth of therapy.” 

“At least,” Danny muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Todd guesstimated I would need five years when we first met,” Damian didn’t look away from the house when he answered. 

“Is that a good or a bad thing?” Danny looked back up at Dick, who could only give a light-hearted shrug in response. 

Slade was halfway across the street before they realized he’d gone ahead without them, the beep of the SUV letting them know he hit the key before pocketing it. 

It nearly felt like a real blended family vacation when they’d landed at the airport and started piling into the SUV-that-was-definitely-not-a-minivan. Dick almost wanted to snap pictures to send to Rose and Joey before worrying that they’d be jealous at the implication that they’d gone away without them.

Slade had watched him pause, camera pulled up on his phone and thumb poised to press the button, with a sigh. A quick kiss to the side of his head and a hand carding through his hair, and Slade was directing Dick to the front passenger seat. 

“If I have to be the one to tell them to shut up while we’re driving, we will not make it to Amity Park.”

Dick couldn’t argue with that logic. 

Thankfully, the ride went fairly quickly and it wasn’t long before they were parking on the street in front of the Fenton’s home. Or rather, Fenton Works, judging by the giant monstrosity installed on their roof.

“I’d hate to see this place at Christmas time,” Jason shook his head with a laugh. Dick didn’t miss the way Danny shot Jason a glare at the thought. 

“Property values are probably abysmal,” Jason continued.

“Since when do you care about neighborhood ordinances and nuisances,” Damian looked ready to trip Jason if he made any more comments. 

“Since it turns out Danny here has been living a pretty shit life,” Jason rolled his eyes. He turned to Danny to add, “That’s saying something, coming from me.”

“Don’t bore him with the stories of your youth in Crime Alley,” Damian was two steps ahead,, having pushed past Jason and grabbed Danny’s hand to pull him alongside him.

“That’s a real place?” Danny leaned his head close to Damian’s, risking a glance over his shoulder at Jason.

“Unfortunately,” Damian had tilted his chin in the air.

“Don’t start,” Dick curled a hand around Jason’s elbow.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Jason shook his arm, brushing Dick off of him. “I don’t give a shit about what the demon brat’s has to say about how I grew up.”

Dick didn’t bother arguing, patting Jason’s shoulder two times before quickening his pace to stand beside Slade at the door.

“We don’t have to knock, I have a key,” Danny grumbled from behind them.

“I thought you lost all of your belongings when you were abducted,” Damian pointed out.

Danny’s faced heated at the reminder, “I mean, there’s an extra we keep—”

“Under the doormat, perfect,” Dick smiled at him, eyes bright and thankful. 

Slade had already knocked on the door by the time Dick had the key in his hand.

“They’re probably not even home right now,” Danny crossed his arms, staring down the street. 

The door opened, Maddie Fenton pulling it wide to welcome them in.

Before she could say hi, much less anything else, Jason interrupted, “You got any anti-ghost shit on right now?”

Dick watched as the back of Danny’s neck and the tips of his ears turned red.

“Excuse me?” Maddie didn’t look like the kind of person who was used to stumbling.

“Anti-ghost shit,” Jason repeated, voice dry.

“Are you a ghost?” Maddie’s words turned icy.

“I’ve been dead before, if that’s what you’re asking,” Jason stepped around Danny and brushed shoulders with Dick. Slade was back to looking like he’d just eaten something sour, and Dick had to wonder how he kept an entire tree’s worth of lemons on hand with such short notice.

“I’ll turn them off, for now,” Maddie didn’t turn her back to the group but did step further into the home, pressing a series of buttons on a panel next to the door. A light blinked red before holding a steady green light and she waved a hand, beckoning them into the house.

“Danny,” Maddie started the second the door was shut.

Danny opened his mouth to answer, and froze. Dick watched silently, waiting the boy out. He’d had more than enough practice with all of his brothers, but especially Damian, and knew it was better to let the boy take his time finding his words.

Maddie Fenton clearly didn’t have the same opinion on the matter.

“Danny, sweetie,” She reached out with both hands, flinching when Danny took a step back from her. His hands were balled into fists. 

“I don’t understand,” Danny’s voice was quiet but steady. He looked around the room, eyes jumping until they finally settled on a spot on the opposite wall. “You’re my mother, you were supposed to care that I was taken—”

Maddie sighed. Her demeanor shifted, and Dick hoped she was willing to drop the pretense about her raising of Danny as her own.

“You were entrusted to me,” Maddie looked at the couches in the living room, gesturing for the group to get comfortable. Dick sat on the opposite end of the same couch she sat in, Slade standing at his back. Damian and Danny took a smaller sofa perpendicular to them, with Jason in the single chair. 

“Our deal requires full honesty,” Slade’s voice was low but firm. 

Maddie nodded, and Dick thought she almost looked thankful. As if she had been waiting for the opportunity to explain, to tell some semblance of the truth. 

“You have my word,” Maddie looked up at Slade before turning her attention back to Danny. 

“I don’t understand,” Danny was shaking his head, knuckles turning white as they curled in his lap, fists clenched. 

“It was a terrible burden, to be entrusted with an heir to the Demon’s Head,” Maddie started again. She looked up at the ceiling when Danny recoiled. “They did not refer to you as an heir, but I was not foolish. It was obvious to all of us how they would use you if the true heir became unable to take the throne.” 

Dick watched as Damian tugged one of Danny’s hands into his own, his eyes focused on Maddie. 

“It was even worse to watch the pain they put you through,” At that, Maddie looked back at Danny. Her eyes shined with unshed tears. “In the League, you are trained to put the mission above all else. There is no greater purpose than to serve the Demon’s Head.” She took a breath, “If someone dared to show care for anything else, they were quickly disposed of.”

Nobody refuted her; they knew it to be fact already.

“Your mother,” Maddie looked at Damian before turning back to Danny, “saw the change in me. We both knew my days were numbered at that point. She had the responsibility to turn me in or dispose of me however she saw fit. For whatever reason, she saw it as an opportunity to instead let me live but only if I took on the task of raising you as my own.”

“Talia made them think she killed you,” Dick surmised.

Maddie nodded.

“What did they think happened to Danny?” Dick didn’t look at Maddie, eyes focused on the two teens.

“I’m sure some assumed he’d reached the limits of what the pits could do for him,” Maddie didn’t blunt her words, speaking as casually as ever despite the implications. “Or, they found him to no longer be necessary to the mission and was disposed of accordingly.” 

“I don’t understand, I don’t remember any of this, why would—”

“They used your body to harvest organs for that one,” Jason’s words were harsh but his expression only twisted in anger when he looked at Maddie. “And used the Lazarus Pits to revive you every time it killed you.”

“I don’t have scars, something like that would leave a mark, wouldn’t it?” Danny’s voice was becoming impossibly higher with each round of questions.

“The pits heal every part of you,” Maddie explained.

“Most parts,” Jason interjected. 

“You were still so young,” Maddie continued, leaning forward in her seat. She pressed on, even when Danny pulled his feet up, “I had never dreamed of having my own family until you were forced into my hands, but you were my salvation as much as you were my burden.”

“How do I have an older sister if I was the reason you got out?” Danny crossed his arms, breaking the hold Damian had on him. 

Dick felt a swell of pride when Damian didn’t withdraw or take offense to the change. 

“I did not dream of my own family, but that does not mean I wasn’t building a life for myself outside of the League,” Maddie looking at the wall behind the sofa Danny and Damian sat at, eyes moving between the various picture frames that catalogued all of the ways their family had grown and changed in the last fourteen years.

“Does dad know?” Danny had wrapped his arms around his legs, knees tucked against his chest.

“He knows enough.”

“What does that even mean!” Danny stood up. Dick thought about Danny’s control, wondered if he was likely to shift accidentally when riled up. “How much did you have to tell him to get to agree to ‘sending’ me to a boarding school and pretending like I never existed?”

“Danny,” Maddie started but stopped when Danny shook his head.

“No, no,” He was pacing the length of the room, now, “You don’t get to look at me like that! You didn’t care that I was taken or what was happening to me! You don’t get to—”

“I didn’t have a choice, Danny,” Maddie tried to explain. 

Dick locked eyes with Jason from across the room. What a load of bullshit—

“If we brought too much attention to you, if your picture began circulating in the media, it would only be a matter of time before the League came looking for you.”

“You were protecting yourself,” Slade spoke for the first time since the conversation had started. Dick leaned back against the armrest to look up at him. “If Danny was found, you would have been found.”

“That is correct, but that isn’t why—”

“If you refuse to be honest, we’re done here,” Slade moved to step around the couch.

“No, wait—” Maddie was wringing her hands, looking between Slade and Danny. “We were worried. We were. But, I need you to understand—” She looked back at Danny, “wherever you were, was still better than the torture you experienced.”

“I highly doubt that,” Danny muttered with a shake of his head.

Jason and Damian looked thoughtful at the notion. Dick watched the both of them, waiting to gauge their reaction. 

Damian was the first to speak, “It is highly likely. There are few horrors worse than the trials and punishments Grandfather gives.”

“They know their practice is lethal, why else would they make a fix-it baby?” Jason added.

Danny and Dick both frowned at the reminder at what Danny’s real purpose was. 

“Should we expect to see Jack during our visit?” Slade asked Maddie when a silence fell over the group. Danny looked up at the thought.

“He does not know you are here,” Maddie shook her head, looking back at Slade and pointedly not facing Danny. “I told him the League took Danny back and we had to create a paper trail to explain his disappearance.”

“I hate you,” Danny took a step in Maddie’s direction. “It wasn’t enough to abandon me, leave me for dead. But you didn’t even—you make it sound like I chose to leave. I didn’t! I’ve never chosen any of this! You chose to bring me here and you can’t spare even a drop of empathy to care now that I’m gone and—”

Dick had stood up when Danny continued to walk closer. He intercepted Danny when he was half a step away from Maddie, wrapping him in a hug. Danny kept his head up, speaking over Dick’s shoulder, but did not fight Dick’s tightening embrace. 

It wasn’t until he started to stumble over the last of his words that he brought his hands up to clutch at Dick. He cut himself off with a sharp intake, pressing his forehead against Dick’s shoulder.

Dick felt his shirt becoming damp. He moved his hand from Danny’s shoulder to hold tight at the base of his neck, hands splayed into his hair.

“We’re done here,” Slade pulled an envelope out from his jacket’s inner sleeve, taking the enclosed packet of forms out for Maddie. 

“We’ll need to go down to City Hall, get a notary—”

Jason waved a metal-handed stamp in his hand, whistling to catch their attention. 

Dick bit back a wet laugh, turning Danny in his embrace so that he could face Jason, “When did you become a notary?”

“Guys gotta make a living somehow!”

Danny pulled back from Dick when his laughter started jostling him. He frowned, but his eyebrows were relaxed and Dick took that as a win; he smiled when he saw the same expression mirrored on Damian’s face.

“We’ll be gathering Danny’s things,” Damian stood up, Danny’s wrist held in his hand tightly as he was dragged up the stairs.

“How do you even know where my room is—”

“The blueprints were not hard to find, Danny,” Damian shook his head. “If you’re going to be part of this family, you will need to work on your ingenuity, honestly.”

Once they were gone, Maddie let out a sigh that left Dick wondering if it was the only thing keeping her upright. 

“He belongs with you,” Maddie said. Dick assumed it was as much for her benefit as it was for Slade’s. “He deserves a life filled with people who love him, who will treasure him—”

“And that’s not here, with you,” Dick watched her closely. He could understand the circumstances that put Danny in Maddie’s arms, but for a woman who had been out of the League for over a decade it baffled him how detached she remained from the boy. 

“I will never look at him and not see his family, his purpose,” Maddie frowned, looking down at her hands after she passed the completed forms back to Slade. “It’s a burden he should not have to carry and yet, it is the first thing I think each and every time I see him.”

Dick didn’t have an answer for that.

Thankfully, it didn’t take Damian and Danny long to return. 

Danny adjusted the bag draped over his shoulder, “I won’t be back.”

“No, you won’t,” Maddie nodded. She moved to step forward but stopped herself, looking down. “I am sorry I wasn’t able to be the mother you needed.”

Danny’s eyes glistened. 

“You were the mother I wanted, and that was enough for me,” Danny’s words were thick, his voice quiet at the unexpected admission. 

Maddie let herself be pulled into a hug by Danny, hands tentatively wrapping around him. She patted his back, letting out soft soothing words when he tightened his grip around her. 

Dick understood, then, why it was so alarmingly confusing for Danny. Maddie truly was his mother; she didn’t stand by and watch him grow up from the sidelines. For a woman who didn’t dream about having a family, she filled the role easily, her instincts guiding her expertly. 

Slade had the front door pulled open, Damian and Jason having already ducked out the second the option became available. Dick had wrapped an arm around Danny’s shoulders when he finally pulled back from Maddie, and guided him to the door without fanfare. 

“Wait,” Danny pivoted, forcing Dick to turn back with him. “There’s one more thing you should know, if this is goodbye.”

Maddie watched, waiting in silence except for a small nod.

“The portal downstairs killed me last year and I’m half ghost,” Danny had the transformation started before he’d so much as said the word portal. His confession was punctuated by his glowing eyes and white hair. 

“What are you—” Maddie was truly stumbling over her words, crying out, “Phantom?!”

Dick’s laughter carried them out, steering Danny back towards the door and all but pushing him out in front of him. Slade didn’t sound amused when he told them to get back in the damn car, but the crinkle in his eye was all the sign Dick needed.

“Don’t tell me we missed something good,” Jason was leaning against the car door, foot kicked up and his arms crossed. 

“You look like you belong in a greaser movie,” Slade spoke bluntly, kicking at Jason’s ankle and forcing his foot down. 

“Stay golden, Ponyboy,” Jason pushed at Dick’s shoulder, the only person he could reach now that Slade was around the car and pulling open the door to his seat. 

Dick could only laugh harder, smiling when Danny climbed back into the seat next to Damian. 

They had a long way to go, but watching Danny talk and be playful with both Damian and Jason, so soon after the emotional monsoon that was their meeting with Maddie Fenton, gave him more than enough confidence to tackle things head on. As a family.

Dick’s hand found Slade’s, resting on the center console between them. His comforting squeeze was immediately reciprocated, and Dick’s smile widened. He pulled their interlocked hands to his lips, pressing a kiss against their knuckles. 

I love our family, he breathed into their shared grasp.