Humans had become the most fashionable pet in the system. The collection of wild humans was governed by rules. It was forbidden to harvest a juvenile human as the survival rates were too low. Humans were social creatures. It was considered unethical to take a human away from its family group. Humans in social leadership roles were also off limits for harvest.
Dick Grayson sat aboard the alien spaceship with a room full of bums, widows, widowers and lonely people. Wasn't this fun.
Batman and the Justice League were deep into the investigation of large scale reports of missing persons. Trends had been noticed. The disappeared were almost all adult unattached orphans of the type that liked to stay under the radar.
Dick had been gone for two months with friends and family increasingly snarking about how he'd gone dark again before the thought occurred to Bruce that maybe something was seriously wrong. None of the trackers or communicators picked him up. He'd not been to work or given notice at the station. Bruce silently searched for Dick with increasing urgency before calling a family meeting.
"When was the last time anyone saw or heard from Dick?" asked Bruce. A chorus of grumblings and he always does this was the answer.
"Why?" asked Damien finally.
"I think he might be one of the disappeared," answered Bruce.
Damien scoffed. "He has a family! You adopted him when he was like eight. Only people without anyone have disappeared."
"What about you Barb. He gave you a ring," spoke Tim.
Barbara shook her head. "I'm ummm.. I'm with..." She pointed to Bruce sheepishly.
"You're nailing your son's ex?" exclaimed Jason. "You dog."
"He's not…" Bruce didn't finish the statement. He'd never wanted to replace John Grayson but this … Bruce looked at the horrified eyes staring at him waiting for him to finish the statement. He'd called every other child he'd taken in family. Had he ever said the word son to Dick. Had he ever looked him straight in the eye and said I love you? Bruce had a nearly photographic memory. It failed him. He couldn't remember saying... not even once agonized Bruce.
Richard had called him Dad or Daddy a few times but he'd always looked apologetic after.
Richard said I love you…
"Bruce?" asked Jason. "Tell me he has official ties to any of us."
"He's not my son," admitted Bruce.
Jason looked predictably unimpressed.
"This was why child services was so awkward and resistant to Richard when he stepped forward to take care of Master Damien," Alfred explained to Bruce dryly. "Don't forget you disinherited him in a fit of pique. He had to fight every step of the way to keep Wayne Enterprises from chaos as well. Thankfully Lucius hired him as CEO while the company remained in Damien's name."
Damien's glare toward his father was almost one of betrayal.
Dick and Jason had been the only two above the age of majority and Jason was legally dead. Tim rolled his eyes. "Please let me help you next time you prepare a will. Better yet let Alfred and Lucius help you." Tim was glad that at 17 he'd been old enough not to require mandated foster care. He'd been in college at the time. He'd not been happy with how Dick handled things at the time but in retrospect could see that Dick had probably done the best he could with a complete mess of a situation.
"So this fine specimen has dark fluffy head fur and simply gorgeous blue eyes. He's young and extremely healthy and can do tricks and flips but he has proven to be a bit of an escape artist so the upgraded cage is recommended. He gets along well with others of his species. Do I have an opening bid?"
Dick leaned casually against the wall of the cage concentrating hard to figure out the alien language. He was good with languages. As near as he could tell he'd been purchased by a pet store but they were hoping to breed him before reselling him. He'd been put in a cage with a dozen girls of assorted ages. The swanky cage with red silk bedding and mood lighting was ridiculous. They were drugging the food so that everyone was continuously in the mood. But this particular male had more self control than that. It was uncomfortable. For the first time in his life he found himself insisting his name was Richard, not Dick.
When Dick didn't cooperate with the voluntary breeding program, a vet was involved and his genetic material was forcibly collected then girls were medically inseminated. Bae who was sick passed away before giving birth. Nora was too old to be ovulating regularly. She was in her early fifties at month seven she was the only girl still not pregnant. She and Dick ended up midwife and doctor delivering babies. It was really scary with only Dick's emergency medical training to rely on. The decor was changed to pastels in fleece
There were four miscarriages, one mother died in childbirth as did two babies. There were ten live births in the first year. Four of the girls were pregnant again when nearly eighteen months into the ordeal Dick finally managed to bust them all out and get them headed home. Nora was pregnant too at that point. One of the children had died of causes unknown. Though Dick would never know it the survival rates in his breeding cage were the highest in the sector. The aliens had a lot of trouble with breeding in captivity. The food, light and radiation levels and altered gravity were a big part of the problem.
Dick was father to one set of identical twin girls, three boys and four more girls. Nora was carrying a girl and a boy. The aliens had used implanted fertilized eggs. Elli was carrying a boy and Vasha and Gertie were early enough in their pregnancies that the genders of the babies were unknown.
Back on earth at last Dick had enough intel on the aliens to allow the Justice League to stop the human harvesting but most of the disappeared were never returned to earth.
The governments of the various countries Dick's haram had been abducted from gave complete parental rights to the mothers because sperm donors weren't fathers and though many of the girls felt indebted to Dick for his efforts with their care and for helping them escape, everyone was traumatized and the committee in charge of the returned felt it was healthiest to separate them. The mothers mostly didn't dispute this. Dick was denied any and all rights to his fourteen children until one of them decided for herself that maybe that wasn't entirely right.
Nora showed up on Richard's doorstep. She was the only one who asked what Richard wanted. He'd done everything he could in a difficult situation. He'd cared for every mother and baby as best as he could. He'd done so much more than involuntarily contributing genetic material. Nora knew her babies would best thrive if they were allowed to have their dad, if he was willing to be one.
A teary eyed thank you was Richard's answer.
Nora moved into the apartment next to Richard's in Bludhaven not much later. It turned out the young man owned the entire building. They didn't date each other or anything like that. They were just their own non-standard family unit. With the assistance of doctors, at 54 years of age Nora delivered two healthy babies by C-section. Mother, babies and father were declared in good health.
Richard took his new family to Gotham at Alfred's invitation.
"Jason! Tim! Damien! Alfred!" There were hugs all around. Bruce stood back feeling like he didn't really have a place in this reunion.
Nora marched up to him. "He's family if you'll let him be you idiot," the white haired mother scolded in German. "Go hug your son, then say hello to your grandkids."
"Sprichst du Englisch?" asked Bruce. (Do you speak English)
"They didn't really care about that sort of thing," answered Nora in German with a shrug. "Richard speaks my language for me. The children will be multilingual like their father."
"Dick?" called Bruce looking forsaken.
"Bruce we might have yelled at each other a lot over the years but in case you were wondering? I love you and I think of you as my second Dad."
Alfred swatted Bruce in the back of the head. Bruce had just silently gaped instead of saying anything in return.
Richard laughed.