Summary: Takes place in January of 2013, so New Year's has already passed. I skipped writing a New Year's chapter cuz it woulda been kinda repetitive with the other sorta-team bonding chapters I wrote.

Disclaimer: I don't own DC

New Year's came and went, and everyone was still in a good mood. Dick had written a love poem to Zee in backwards English, which she loved. It was sappy as hell, but he didn't want to get her yet another piece of jewelry because he thought that would be pushing it a tad bit. He was gonna do that for Valentine's Day, anyways, so he figured he would try a different route for their anniversary. Zatanna had used her magic to create a specialized fireworks display for Dick in return, and he of course thought it was the most amazing thing ever. Dick had also started to hit a bit of a growth spurt. He was a few inches taller than Zatanna at this point, almost on par with Wally and Arty though not quite there yet. Zee had also grown a bit, but she was no longer the same height as the Boy Wonder. It wasn't a huge difference, just two or three inches, but it was unusual for her. She had to say, she kinda liked her boyfriend being taller than her now.

Unfortunately, the team's good moods were not meant to last, as towards the end of January, Megan received some rather troubling news. Batman had assembled the team in the monitor room.

"Do we have a mission?"

"No, that's not why I've called you all. M'gann, on the Bialyan mission late last year, you mentioned a boy and her mother in your report." Megan stepped up with a smile.

"Yeah, Marie Logan and her son, Garfield." Batman's expression scared her, and her smile immediately left. "Wh-what happened?"

"I'm sorry, but Marie Logan is...dead." Megan's eyes widened and she started to break down as she denied the claims. Connor stepped up to her for comfort, and she buried her head in his chest.

"Y-you're wr-wrong! Sh-she can't be d-dead!" Bruce looked genuinely sorrowful before he continued.

"Queen Bee seems to be the culprit. From the biopsy, it appears she took control of Marie and forced her to run her car off the road. Marie couldn't do anything to fight it." Megan was completely broken down, and everyone was trying to help her. Dick looked to Bruce.

"Wh-what about the boy?" Bruce's expression dropped even more, and Dick knew what he meant. Dammit. Not another orphan.

"She left him at home, and he only got the call after she was gone. He has no external family, no friends to turn to. The only person he wished to contact was you." Megan was devastated, and so she could do little to respond to Bruce. He understood and felt he was not needed here. "I'll...leave you to process this. I'm sorry for your loss." Dick looked to M'gann, who was beyond tears at this point. While her loss may not have been as extreme or close to the heart as Dick's parents or Zee's father, Marie was still a role model to Megan, and just thinking about Gar's pain must have hurt. Dick could empathize with the loss of a parent, even if he barely knew either of them. He watched as Connor walked Megan to her room, wondering what she would do with Gar.

The very next day, Dick and Zee woke up and left her room only to find Megan already awake and up, and Gar was sitting with her in the kitchen, bags all around him. What's going on?

"Megan? What's up?" Zatanna did not recognize Gar, as she hadn't been part of the Bialya mission with Dick.

"Ooh, Zatanna! This is Garfield Logan!"

"Garfield? As in the..." She looked to Dick, who nodded, and she shut up so as to not hurt either of them.

"H-hi." Gar rubbed his neck at the sight of the two, though he did not recognize Dick either since he didn't know his identity. Dick walked up to Megan, whispering in her ear.

"Uh, what's he doing here?"

"I...I had custody of him, so I decided he could live here. H-he has nowhere else to go, I can't just leave him!" Dick nodded, understanding, and he looked to the boy, who seemed uncomfortable with the apparent strangers that had just walked in. Well, if he's gonna live here...

"Uh, hi Gar. I'm...Robin." Garfield's eyes widened as he ran up to hug the Boy Wonder, who tensed up before returning it. Zatanna giggled at the affection the kid was showing, and she walked up to introduce herself. The rest of the team eventually woke up or Zeta'd in, and Megan explained to them all Gar's living situation. Everyone was fine with it, and seeing as how he was going to be living here, they all revealed their identities to him.

Dick noticed that Gar was trying his best to not think about or mention his mother, and he knew that would only compound the pain for later. Pushing it in never works. You can't just forget about it. He was overjoyed to be around all the team members, particularly the more public heroes such as Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, or Artemis, though M'gann was his favorite, for obvious reasons. The group enjoyed themselves with him, using their powers and skills to appease the 8-year-old, but Dick knew he was doing his best to not confront the pain. He was alright with it, it wasn't really his call to make. But he knew this would only lead to more pain for Gar later. He wanted to help, but Gar barely knew him. He was far more comfortable with Megan, so he thought he would leave it to her.

Later that night, Dick's suspicions were proven true. He had left Zee in bed alone to run an errand for Bruce on the cave's holo-computer, and on his way back, he saw the lights in Gar's new room on, with crying originating from it. He eavesdropped to hear Megan trying to calm him down but failing miserably. Man...I can't just...but we barely know each...ah, screw it. Dick walked into the room, silently asking M'gann to leave so he could try. Probably would be best if we were alone for this.

"Uh, hey Gar."

"H-hey Dick, I-I can't g-get the nightmares to-"

"I know. That's why I'm here." Dick was gentle and did his best to manage his wording, as Gar was not only vulnerable, he was far younger than Dick was. "I, uh, I don't know if you know this, but when I was your age, I, uh, I saw my parents die, too. Since then, I've lost a lot, and it hurts. It'll never stop hurting, I'm not gonna lie to you and say it will. You'll always feel this...emptiness in your heart. But...one thing I've recently learned is that you can't just be stuck up on your past traumas forever. You gotta...you gotta let go. You need to live your life, and you need to know that that's exactly what your mother wanted from you. Heck, when you were bleeding out back last year, all she could think about was you. It's what mothers do. I'm not saying you need to leave the pain behind right now, no. Keep her close to you. Just...try to remember the good times you had with her, and that way...it might not hurt as much." Gar started to slow down his crying as Dick did his best to soothe him. He felt awkward with Gar, he wouldn't say he was particularly close with the kid, but he saw someone like himself and needed to help them. "Plus, if you ever need help, we all live with you now. Just ask and we'll be there in a flash." Gar did his best to smile, and Dick rubbed his hair. "I'm gonna go now. You gonna be okay?"

"Y-yeah. Thanks, i-it helped." Dick grinned before walking out of his room, leaving Megan to stay behind and be with him as he fell asleep. He went over to Zatanna's room to find her stirring, clearly having subconsciously noticed his absence. Dick walked over and kissed her on the forehead before getting in bed and letting her cuddle with him. Another orphan may have been added to the group, but Dick did his best to make him feel at home, maybe not to the extent he did with Zatanna, but to a level of comfort nonetheless.

I've started to run out of fluff chapter ideas, so I'm going to just work my way through the timeline now, slowly but surely. It's not the worst thing in the world cuz we can always come back to add more fluff, plus in future points on the timeline there are even more opportunities for fluff, but I just thought I would let you know. Sorry if the last chapter was underwhelming, or if this one was also not up to par, I might slow down uploads to try and make them higher quality cuz I think you would like that more. I'm just running out of very much free time on weekdays to write, so there may be gaps in the daily upload schedule, but I'll do my best and I'll definitely upload on weekends at the very least. Feel free to leave comments or suggestions for chapters you wanna see. Next chapter up soon.