The Birds Who Smile, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Deleted sequence: General Foster Care - Part 8 (rough draft)
A/N: I know it's really spelled "Wearhouse," but I have no idea if the real Men's Wearhouse is what I need, so I'm going with the "Warehouse" spelling to make it fictional. X'D
o.o.o
Everyone was out of bed a little earlier than usual, and ate a quick lunch so that they could be out the door by 11:30. Jack sobbed and tried to squirm away when they attempted to put a seatbelt on him. "Jackie." Dick took his hands and gazed at him earnestly. "You can stay home with Alfred if you want, or you can wear the seatbelt and go with us to see Johnny and Peter. Do you want to stay home with Grandpa, or go see [chirp-chirp] and [caw]?"
Jack stared back with big tearful blue eyes. "I...wwan'tt...[chirp-chirp] [caw]...ccome hhere wi' me."
"They can't come home yet, Jackie. We have to go see them. Can you wear a seatbelt so you can go see them, or do you want to stay home and see them later, when we get custody back?"
"No sseatbet!"
"So you're going to stay here with Grandpa?"
Yet Jack wailed when they tried to leave without him.
Tim pushed Dick aside. "Timothy Jackson Drake," he said crisply, holding out a closed fist, "either you stay here at the manor with Alfred and the dogs and no brothers," he brought up his other fist beside the first, "or you get the seatbelt and Dick and John and Peter. Which one?" He shook each fist to indicate the choices. "You want to stay home, or you want to go in the car? You can't have both. Choose."
After a long moment, the little boy reached out a trembling hand to rest on the car fist.
"You're sure? That means we're going to tie you to that seat so you can't get up, for hours."
"Tim-"
"You want the seatbelt and your brothers?" Tim stormed on. "You're sure?"
"...Gentle me," Jack signed shakily, and edged toward Dick. He cried when he was buckled in and held tight to Dick's hand, but he didn't struggle or protest this time.
They were soon on their way in the van, Tim driving and Duke beside him and Damian grumbling next to Cassandra in the back. Most of the ride was spent keeping Jack occupied so that he could bear being restrained.
Unfortunately, when they pulled up to John's group home, they were told that the boy had been transferred. "What do you mean he's been transferred?!" Dick raged, not realizing that he was frightening Jack. Duke gently tugged the child into his arms to soothe him, and Damian patted his head in an inexpert attempt at the same. "You can't do that without telling me! I'm his prime, I should know if my kid gets kicked out of a foster home!"
"Mr. Grayson, I'm sorry, you're not listed as a contact, so we didn't think-"
"He's MY KID! You can't just-!"
Tim kicked the back of his foot to get his attention and tapped in code on his back, "Calm." "He's worried," he said out loud in an apologetic tone, "like any parent would be if their kid wasn't accounted for."
Dick finally figured out what Tim was trying to tell him, that losing his temper could hurt his case for being a good guardian and jeopardize his chances of getting John back. He tried to swallow his fury. "Where did you send him?"
"To Oak Park Children's Home. I can get you the address."
Damian, standing protectively in front of Jack, demanded, "And just why did you feel the need to get rid of the child who'd been entrusted to your care?" Jack was in Duke's arms, face buried in his foster brother's shoulder and hands clinging to his shirt as the teen murmured reassurances to him.
"We would have kept him, we'll take him back if the situation improves, but he was causing severe distress to our other residents, aggravating at least one case of Joker-related PTSD. I understand and fully sympathize with what John has suffered, but we couldn't keep putting our other children at risk. We're hoping that Oak Park will be a better solution for everyone, including John."
Dick snatched the paper she gave him and stormed back to the car, his siblings following in his wake. "Dick," Tim said sharply, stepping in front of him before he could open the front driver's side door, "are you going to drive recklessly if I let you behind the wheel?"
"GODDAMMIT-"
"Still watching!" Tim reminded him in sign, and Dick wanted to explode. He squeezed himself into the back seat and tried to meditate away his frustration, leaving Cassandra to comfort Jack through the next seatbelt ordeal.
They never made it to Oak Park, because an important message from Bruce came in before they arrived. "We might not make it in time if we go all the way to the manor and back," Tim said, making a smooth U-turn. "We can't risk being late for this."
"You and Richard aren't dressed properly," Damian pointed out.
"And we can't pop into a fancy store to buy suits for them because...?" Duke suggested.
"Vivaldi's is on the way to the courthouse," Tim agreed.
"They're gonna spend hours brownnosing and trying to swindle all the extras they can get out of us," Dick pointed out, still in a bad mood.
"Men's Warehouse is on the way, too."
"Father's sons can't be seen in attire from Men's Warehouse!" Damian protested, scandalized. Tim found it greatly heartwarming that the brat had so matter-of-factly included him in the 'Father's sons' category, not that he would ever admit it.
Duke rolled his eyes. "All they need is just to not show up to a court hearing wearing jeans and T-shirts."
Tim nodded. "Suits are suits. The point is to rescue our birds, not uphold the glory of the Wayne name or whatever."
"-TT- Very well. But I expect those purchases to be donated to charity directly afterward."
"You are such a snob..."
o.o.o.o.o
The morning was a blur. Sleep-deprivation, stress, and preoccupation made it difficult to concentrate. At one point, Lucius simply came to work in Bruce's office, since that was more efficient than Bruce calling or emailing him every twenty minutes.
Just before lunch, Bruce got a call from JoAnn. "Can you get yourself, Dick, Tim, and Jason to the downtown courthouse before one o'clock?"
"I can, and Dick and Tim will probably make it if it's for the kids. I still haven't been able to get hold of Jason, though."
"Bruce, if that boy wants to keep his chances of making custody decisions for his sweet pumpkin, he had better either show up to the gosh-diddly courthouse or be reported as a missing person."
"I'll take care of it. What's happened?"
"Just me and my brilliant team earning our pay. If their angels up in heaven are smiling today, then all three little treasures will be sitting around your obnoxiously huge supper table tonight, papers and all."
"Thank you, JoAnn. Really, thank you, I can-"
"Just be in court, Wayne, with your sons."
Bruce immediately messaged Dick and Tim and, hopelessly, Jason. Tim responded with a simple Fine. Dick promised to be there and added that the rest of his siblings were with him, including Jack. Bruce supposed there was no harm in them tagging along, assuming Jack didn't have any kind of alarming episode in public.
It was a casual meeting, though Bruce was still glad to see Dick and Tim show up in suits. Judge Mitch Avery was doing a huge favor to JoAnn by meeting with her and her clients during his lunch break. "Okay, so what've we got here?" he asked, bringing his meal back from the microwave.
"The custody papers," JoAnn announced, laying them all out neatly along with other relevant documents. Bruce and Dick were sitting on one side of her, Tim on the other; the others were wandering throughout the courthouse as they waited.
"Let's see here..." They all tried to wait patiently as he looked through the documents. Mitch eventually raised his eyes to move between all the men at his table. "I'm seeing a Bruce Wayne, a Richard Grayson, and a Timothy Drake-Wayne, but who I'm not seeing is a Jason Todd-Wayne."
JoAnn tensed, then relaxed again when Bruce pulled out a file (it was, for the most part, legitimate, though he'd had to Bat-doctor the date to make it seem like he'd filed the report a few days, rather than weeks, after anyone in the family had heard from their wayward brother). "His missing persons report. He would want to make custody decisions for Peter if he knew about the boy's situation, and I am positive he would not want Peter in general foster care."
Mitch looked at the report, then laid it aside. "All right, youngest first. Timothy, talk to me."
"I want someone I trust to adopt Jack," Tim said at once. "I will, if there's no one else, it's just that that I'd have to hire a nanny or something, which I can definitely afford. I'm not happy with him being thrown out into foster care alone. I only let him go in the first place on the understanding that he would be placed together with his brothers, but the agency we entrusted them to decided to separate them."
"Says here he's designated as your brother rather than your son."
"That was before the whole foster mess. If I'd known it was going to turn out like this, I would have claimed him as my son from the start."
"All right. You have anyone in mind to adopt him?"
"I'd been hoping Bruce, but we tried foster care in the first place because the kids weren't settling in at the manor, even after more than two months. If Jack wants to be adopted by Bruce, then I'm all for that, but I can't...really think of anyone else I trust who'd also have the means to raise him. Like I said, I'll adopt him if I have to."
"All right. Well, I can't see any reason to deny you full guardianship for now, so..." He signed a set of papers and pushed them at Tim, who lifted them up very carefully. There was no change in his expression or Bruce's, but Dick let out a deep, relieved exhale on behalf of them both.
"Now then, the oldest one, Richard Grayson, Ctr."
"Johnny. He's mine. Same as with Tim; thought Bruce would adopt him, but I will if there's no one else. I have to get him out of the system, he needs to be with his brothers, I-" He shut his mouth when Bruce discreetly pressed his leg in warning.
"Says here you don't have the means to support your son."
"I signed that because I'd just lost my job, but I have another one now." It was a fib - what he really had was no more pride holding him back from accepting Bruce's money to take care of John, as well as no more reluctance to put his life on hold in order to raise unplanned children, but the end effect was the same. "I've got more than enough income to raise a kid, I can take care of Johnny now. And Peter, if I have to; all three of them. I want to, if no one else does."
Mitch scrutinized Dick's bank statements, then shrugged and signed the guardianship papers for John as well. Dick snatched them up and resisted the urge to hug them.
"And last but not least, the younger Jason Peter Todd, here."
There was a long pause, where only vigilante training prevented the three Waynes from showing their anxiety.
"So Jason prime's been missing for two months?"
"Yes," Bruce said. "He was at the manor when I brought the children home - we'd had more reason to believe back then that the boys would eventually settle in - and nothing seemed amiss. He's always done a lot of traveling, and we expected him to be back for his usual visits. I don't know if he would have wanted to raise Peter himself or allow me to adopt him, but either way, he seemed to be expecting Peter to reside at the manor indefinitely. And like I said, I am certain that he would not have wanted his son in general foster care without his brothers."
"Hmm." Mitch considered, chewing on another bite of his lunch. Under the table, Dick was desperately drumming his fingers on Bruce's knee so that he could keep the rest of his body still, something he'd used to do as a child enduring boring social functions. "You said you'd be willing to be his guardian, Richard? Are there any other takers?"
"None that I know of, except Bruce."
"I will, if the only other option is keeping him in the system," Tim volunteered.
Mitch eyed him. "You're seventeen. You don't seem like the parenting type."
"Regardless of my personal parenting abilities, I can hire good caretakers if necessary."
"He has an excellent track record for hiring at Wayne Enterprises," Bruce put in. "Very thoughtful, good at reading people. I trust him to find loving, responsible caretakers for these children, and I think it would be greatly preferable to leaving the boys' welfare up to a system that has failed them so far."
"These are the records I was able to get from the agency," JoAnn spoke up, sliding over a folder. "Peter and Jack didn't last more than a single night at their first placements. The person we spoke to at the agency stated that almost thirty potential foster homes rejected the children outright. Dick and Bruce told me right before this meeting that John's been transferred out of his first placement, and Peter's second one was abusive. Jack, on his own initiative, ran away from his foster home and made it to the Waynes' neighborhood, which I think is pretty telling. I strongly support guardianship of all three children being given back to the Waynes."
"If you're all so keen on getting custody of these kids," Mitch asked, "why did you give them up in the first place?"
Bruce successfully suppressed his frustration. "I had no reason to believe that this situation would be any different than my other successful guardianship cases, but John, Peter, and Jack are more traumatized than my older children were. I thought they would do better in a different kind of home, but from what I understand, their anxiety has only worsened. I had explicitly specified that they were to be placed together, but by the time I learned that my wishes were not being honored, I no longer had custody of them."
"Separating them is the worst thing they could have done," Dick couldn't help saying. "These kids have been through absolute hell together, they made up their own language together, they don't trust anyone nearly as much as they trust each other, and then the first thing Gotham social services does is tear them apart and put them in different homes with strangers. At least with us, they were together." Bruce pressed his leg again, and he managed to choke down the rest of what he wanted to say.
"Would you like to meet Jack?" Tim said suddenly, his voice soft.
Mitch blinked at him curiously. "The kids are here?"
Bruce surreptitiously texted Duke and Damian.
"Jack is. The agency couldn't find another placement for him after he made his way back home, so we kept him. He was running errands with us when Bruce texted us about this meeting."
A few minutes later, Tim was ushering his siblings into the room. Jack, immediately picking up on the tense atmosphere, latched onto his older counterpart. Tim tried to pick him up, but Jack was clinging too hard to allow enough range of movement, so Tim knelt to his level instead.
Mitch approached, his expression softening. "Hey there, little fellow. So you're Jack, huh?"
Jack stared at him in despair, arms still tight around Tim's neck. Tim tightened his own hug and murmured soothingly. With their faces pressed together, the uncanny similarity between them was clear, despite the superficial differences.
"Amazing. Jack, do you want to stay with Mr. Timothy here?"
"...Ddonn't hhurr't mme."
"Ah." Mitch looked like his heart had been struck by a platonic arrow from Cupid's quiver. If Dick hadn't been on pins and needles, he would have laughed at his babiest brother's ability to charm the most stoic heart, even when he wasn't trying. "No one's going to hurt you, Jack. I can see that someone hurt you a lot in the past, but that's over and done with. I bet you're missing your brothers, hm? I think you're going to see them again very soon."
Mitch returned to the desk, signed Peter's papers, and slid them across to Bruce, who had to force himself to pick them up calmly rather than snatching them up in victorious relief. "There you go, Wayne. Congratulations on your sixth ward, God help you. I hope Jason turns up safe and sound soon."
"Thank you."
To be continued...
A/N: Okay, so I'm a few chapters ahead on this story, and I've finally written the scene that contains sexual abuse, and I'm trying to decide how to handle it. I think I'll have to censor it on DevArt because I don't know how strictly they interpret their rules; I might censor it on FFN just out of spite because I hate that site (or leave it in, for the exact same reason); AO3's the one where I feel indecisive. Although I like to read and write fluff and family feels and cuteness, I have no qualms writing or reading darker stuff, but then I get squeamish when it comes time to post.
...I'm actually not sure what kind of readers most of you guys are, like which parts of TBWS you actually like (the cute kids and Dad Bruce? The angst? General Batfam interaction? The recovery progression? Interpretation of the aftermath of "Metal"?) and which parts you're only tolerating until it gets back to the good stuff, whatever "the good stuff" may be for you. X'''D Like, I'd feel bad if the majority of TBWS readers are here for family fluff or something, since the less-than-cute stuff might be ruining it for you. If that's the case, I might be more inclined to censor.