Summary: How Bruce met Dick and how they're brothers.
Bruce: 16
Dick: 6
In this universe John, Mary, and Rick Grayson are all siblings instead of John and Mary being married to each other.
Just as sort of a heads up, I will be taking some things from Gotham and mixing it into here. One of which being how Bruce and Selina met each other.
I'm mentioning this now because of how I mention in the story that Bruce ended up bringing a friend with him. That friend is Selina. It also means that Bruce and Selina have known each other for about six years when this chapter takes place.
For those who haven't watched Gotham, Selina was hiding on a fire escape in Crime Ally the night Thomas and Martha Wayne were shot. Something happened (irrelevant in this chapter) that made her go to Gordon and reveal that she was in the ally that night. After lying that she saw the shooter's face, Gordon ended up having her stay at Wayne Manor, thinking that no one would think to look there for her.
Another thing I'm taking from Gotham is how Selina would, at times, be called Cat instead of her actual name.
April/1/2006
When he first met Bruce, it wasn't that long after his family had fallen to their death. Him, like the rest of his family, were trapeze performers in CC. Haley's Circus. His family was performing the finale, a quadruple flip without the safety of a net, when the wires had snapped. He wasn't old enough to help with the finale, a detail that had actually saved his life in the end.
After he saw them fall, he couldn't find it in him to climb down from the trapeze platform. Bruce had been the only one in the crowd that had found the courage to climb up the ladder and carry Dick down.
He recognized the teen from before the show; he had been talking to his mom about something. What it was, he didn't know and now he might not be able to find out.
During the climb down Dick held as tight as he felt he could without risking strangling the teen, realizing that if Bruce fell, he'd go down with him. Even though his mom, aunt, uncle, and cousin were now dead, he wasn't ready to join them just yet. Especially not if it was at the expense of someone else's life. The whole climb down, Bruce tried to keep him from seeing the now lifeless bodies of his family.
Dick didn't want to let go of Bruce, there was something about him that felt safe and, somehow, even familiar. However, that didn't last very long because not long after him and Bruce made it back to the ground, a police officer had taken him from the teen's arms in order to hand him over to a social worker. That was when he learned that he was going to be taken from the circus.
Dick wanted so badly to cry over his family, but he couldn't. Not now, not when someone was trying to take him from the circus, the only home he's ever known his whole life.
He knew that he had family outside of the circus. He may have only been five years old when he found out about how his mom met his dad and why he wasn't with them, but that hadn't stopped her from telling him how his father had already been married to some other woman. A woman that she didn't know about until after she'd confronted his mom. How his father had a nine-year-old son with her, making him fifteen or sixteen now.
It wasn't until almost a month after his mom had joined her brothers, nephew, and sister in-law, his uncles, aunt, and cousin, that she realized that she was pregnant with him.
This was the first time since he'd been born that his mom had been back in Gotham City, the city his father lived in. He told the officer, who he learned was Captain Gordon, everything he could about his father.
If he wasn't aloud to stay with the circus, where all of the members were all like an extended family to him, he would at least like to see if it was possible to stay with his father and older brother.
Dick told the police captain everything he could remember his mom telling him about his father, but sadly the captain said that wasn't enough to find his father. That's when Bruce ran back over to them from where he'd previously been talking to a friend of his that he had, apparently, brought to see the show with him.
"Captain Gordon, that's actually part of the reason why I came to see the show. I was going through my dad's old desk a couple of weeks ago when I found this letter he wrote me." Bruce said, handing the captain an envelope he pulled out of one of his pockets.
"Your mother's name was Mary Grayson, correct?" The captain asked Dick while handing Bruce the letter back. Dick nodded his head yes. "We'll need to run some DNA tests on both of you, just to be sure, Bruce. In the meantime, I guess I could set something up for him to stay with you and Alfred. Otherwise, I don't know where they would put him."
Although Dick had no clue who Alfred was or had even known Bruce before that day, he could tell that Bruce was safe and was someone he could trust.
When some people came over to take some DNA samples from him and Bruce, Dick knew that it was for the testing the police captain had mentioned earlier, but didn't know what the tests were for. He had asked, but he hadn't gotten the answer he was hoping for. The people who took the samples said that they didn't want to get his hopes up and Bruce said that he wanted it to be a surprise.
It wasn't until after Alfred, who Dick quickly learned was Bruce's butler and legal guardian, came to pick them up and they started to leave the Circus grounds did it make Dick realize what was really going on. Although he'd wanted to cry before, it wasn't until they started to leave that Dick really understood that his mom, uncles, aunt, and cousin were dead and wouldn't come back. That was when he couldn't hold the tears back anymore.
Bruce, who was sitting across from him next to his friend, moved to sit next to him and wrapped him in sort of a side hug, in an attempt to comfort him.
Dick accepted the hug and found that he didn't care if he was getting his tears and possibly his snot all over the teen's shirt. He didn't really care about anything other than the fact that he had just lost all of the family he'd ever known.
Bruce's POV
When I was cleaning out my father's desk, I hadn't expected to find a letter in his handwriting addressed to me. Then again, it wasn't the first one I'd found and it probably wouldn't be the last.
Reading it, I realized that my father suspected that something bad might happen to him soon and how there were things he felt that he should say to me. That was how the first letter I found was, but that one was more light hearted. This letter was him telling me how he'd done bad things. How he'd joined a group that few people in Gotham are offered a chance to become a part of. How he'd said yes because of how they'd told him that they were trying to help save the city. How when he'd finally found out the truth about them that it was too late for him to leave without them going after him, so he'd been gathering evidence to bring to the police to shut them down. He'd only mentioned the group as The Court. By that time' I'd already learned the full name of the group. The Court Of Owls.
He also mentioned how he'd cheated on my mom with another woman.
Thankfully he didn't go into any details about what exactly he'd done with her. He did say how each time he went to go see her, he felt bad for betraying my mom like that, yet he still continued to see her. How my mom was furious when she found out what was happening and how she'd told him that either he leaves that woman or she would leave him and make sure he never sees me again.
He'd mentioned how the woman's name is Mary Grayson and how if I'd found the letter it was either because I'd been going through his desk even though I shouldn't have, or it was because that feeling he'd gotten about how something bad was going to happen had come true.
He wrote that if I'd found the letter because of something bad happening to him, to try to find Mary Grayson and let her know what happened to him.
It took a couple of months, but eventually I found out that after my mom had practically forced my father to leave her, Mary Grayson had ended up joining her brothers, her sister in-law, and her then seven year old nephew in a circus act there family had done for generations. She'd gone to become a trapeze artist in C.C Haley's Circus. The same circus that just so happened to be coming to Gotham in a couple of weeks.
Thankfully, I managed to get ahold of two tickets to the first show. One ticket for me, and one ticket for my friend Selina or, as she prefers, Cat.
I had asked Alfred if he wanted to come to see the show too, but he'd turned the offer down, saying that there was still a bunch of work around the house he needed to get caught up on after the time he'd spent helping Gordon search for me when the group my father was a part of had been holding me captive.*
I'd offered my help around the house, but he'd turned the offer down, reminding me of how the injuries that the Court had
By the time the day came for Selina and I to go to Haley's circus, I had told her how talking to Mary Grayson was part of the reason why I wanted to go there, but also because of how we had both never seen a circus show before. Both of which were true.
She offered to grab some snacks for the two of us and to make sure no one tried to take my seat while I try to find Mary Grayson.
I didn't really want the two of us to go too far away from each other because of how easy it could be to get lost in a crowed this big, but she'd insisted on it, saying how she felt it might be best if I were to confront her by myself.
Eventually, I did find her. She, along with who I could only guess was safe to assume was her family based off of their matching outfits, were having their picture taken with some others here to see the show that I recognized as the family that lived near Wayne Manor. Of course, the only reason why I knew what they looked like was because of the few times my parents had taken me over there, not because I personally knew them.**
I waited until they walked away before I walked up to to the Grayson family. I noticed how the two youngest members of the family looked like they were younger than I am. Both of them boys with dark hair, one brown the other black, and one appearing as if he were only two or three years younger than me while the other as if he were either still in kindergarten or first grade.
"Excuse me, which one of you is Mary Grayson?" I asked, facing the only two females in the group. One had reddish hair while the other had brown.
"That would be me, and this would be my sister in-law, Karla. Is there anything I can do to help you?" The red haired one said.
"A little under seven years ago, you had feelings for a man that lived in this city only to eventually find out that he was married and already had a child with his wife. Did you, by any chance keep track of what happened to that family after you left to join your brothers in this circus?" I asked her. I know that it wasn't the best way I could have gone about figuring out what she did and didn't know, but it was the only way I could think of at the time.
A look of surprise briefly showed on her face before changing into a more neutral expression. That was when she turned to face Karla Grayson and whispered a question in here ear that I obviously wasn't supposed to hear. She asked Karla to take the younger of the two boys back to their trailer until it was time for the show. The little boy who'd been watching me the whole time, the same boy who was apparently named Dick. If I hadn't known that Dick was somehow a nickname for Richard, I probably would have wondered why she was calling the boy that.
"I have no clue what happened to him nor his wife or son after I left. Now, sorry if I seem rude for saying so, but unless you're interested in a picture, there's nothing else I can help you with." She said, turning to me after making sure that the boy and his aunt were out of hearing range.
"Actually, you can. I was his son, and before you assume anything, I'm not mad and I'm not planning on doing anything bad to you. I'm just here to let you know something."
"And what would that be?" She asked, crossing her arms.
"A couple of weeks ago, I was going through my dad's desk he had at home when I found a letter he wrote to me after you left. In it, he asked me to find you and let you know what happened to him if anything bad happened to him. He died a few days after writing it."
I saw a mix of multiple emotions pass over her face before she asked how he died. I told her.
I told her how it was six years ago and how my parents were taking me to see a movie that I had been begging them to take me to see since I found out that it was going to be in theaters. I told her how we were going to cut through an alley way to get to the ice cream parlor that was behind the theater and how they'd both gotten shot and ended up dying.
"Sorry for telling you this now, before the show, but I figured you had the right to know." I told her before I started to walk away.
"Wait. If what you just told me is true, then there's something you need to know." She said, grabbing my shoulder in an attempt to stop me from walking any further. "The boy that I had Karla take away, Richard, he's my son. If you really are who you say, then that would make him your half brother. You were forced to watch your parents die, and I'm sorry for that, but I figure that you should know about having a brother."
"Thanks for telling me." I said before heading to the Big Top to try to find Cat and our seats before the show started.
Her telling me that her son is my half brother was something I didn't see coming, but then again a part of me might of suspected it.
Still Bruce's POV
Watching the Flying Graysons perform, I could see how they got their name. It almost did look like they were flying!
Looking next to me at Selina, I saw a look of awe and joy on her face, it was actually one of the few times I've seen her look that happy and I actually couldn't blame her. The Flying Graysons really were as great, if not better than I'd heard.
That all changed when the awe and joy was replaced with worry, and then the worry with fear.
"Bruce, the wires!" She said, right before they snapped.
The Flying Grayson's hadn't even touched the ground yet when people started to panic, running out of the tent. Quickly, I counted how many of the Grayson family fell, five of them. The youngest, the one Mary Grayson said was my brother, wasn't one of the now-dead bodies.
Looking up to the trapeze platforms, I quickly noticed that he was still up there. Without thinking, I ran over to the ladder leading up to the platform he was on and started climbing up.
Once I got to the top, I noticed how he'd switched positions from leaning an almost dangerous distance past the edge of the platform to curling in a ball in the middle of it, whimpering.
"Hey, you want to get down from here?" I asked him gently, remembering how scared I was after watching my parents get shot.
After he nodded his head yes, I carefully made my way over to him before letting him know that he could latch onto my front if he felt like he couldn't climb down on his own. An offer he accepted.
On the way down, I tried to ignore how his feet were sort of digging into my back and how he had his arms wrapped around my neck just a bit too tight. It was worth it if it meant getting him down as safely as I possibly could.
When my feet touched the ground again, I made sure that he knew he could let go of me if he wanted to by holding him up just tight enough that he could get down if chose to do so. He stayed clinging to my neck and I honestly didn't mind. Sadly, that didn't matter. Hardly even a minute later and Gordon was taking Dick from my arms before passing him over to a social worker.
I wasn't mad at Gordon for taking Dick from my arms because I knew that he was just trying to do his job. However, taking one look at the social worker, and I could tell that there was something off about her. I couldn't get rid of the feeling that something was wrong. She had gotten there too fast. I doubted that she was actually ever here to see the show in the first place because of how she had her work badge clipped to the waist band of her pants and had a brief case with the papers she needed.
I didn't get much of a chance to think about it because Selina ran up to me not long after. However a fact that I wouldn't find out about until years later is that if I had just payed more attention to what she looked like, I would have noticed a mark near her ear that represents a certain group in Gotham.
"So much for our first time at the circus being an entirely happy experience." She said in a sort of joking tune before asking "Not that I'm complaining or anything Bruce, but what were you thinking when you were climbing up there?"
"I wasn't thinking about anything. All I knew was that his family had just fallen to their death, he saw it, and he was still up there." I told her, and it was mostly the truth.
While Cat and I were talking, I was also listening in on what Gordon and the social worker were talking about. When I heard the social worker say that she was going to be taking him from the circus because of how she felt that it wasn't a safe place for kids like him to be growing up, I knew I had to do something. While I was telling Cat what Mary Grayson had told me and what I was planning on doing, I heard Dick tell Gordon what he knew about his dad, which was pretty much everything I knew about my father and Mary Grayson's relationship, erasing any doubt I had about his mom being the wrong one. That them having the same name was just a coincidence and that, for some reason, she had decided to lie to me.
"If you really do think that he might be your brother, then you should go tell Gordon and I'll call Alfred to ask him if he could come pick us up and let him know what's going on."
Alfred had been the one to drop off me and Selina at the circus. I may be old enough to legally drive, but that didn't mean that Alfred trusted me behind the steering wheel of a car just yet.
I felt in my jacket pocket to make sure that my dad's letter hadn't fallen out at some point. When I felt it, I found myself running up to where Gordon was with Dick.
"Captain Gordon, that's actually part of the reason why I came to see the show. I was going through my dad's old desk a couple of weeks ago when I found this letter he wrote me." I said, handing him the envelope with the letter inside. I wasn't worried about him reading the part where my dad admitted what he'd done with The Court because of how he found out about that when him and Alfred had had managed to get me out from where they were holding me.
Shock briefly made its way onto his face before he turned towards Dick and asked for confirmation that Mary Grayson was his mom. When he said that a DNA test would need to be run to make sure that what he was thinking and what I was sure of was actually true, I was a bit annoyed, but I didn't let it show.
By the time they had taken what they needed from both me and Dick, Alfred was waiting in the car outside the tent and the bodies of Dick's family had been taken away. Dick was now the sole survivor of the Grayson family, sort of like how I'm the sole survivor of the Wayne family.
Since it was kind of cold out and Dick was still in his performance outfit, I found myself taking off my own jacket and wrapping it around his shoulder when I noticed that he was starting to shiver. Later when he started crying in the car on the ride back to Wayne Manor, I moved to sit next to him and wrapped one of my arms around him in a side hug. It didn't matter to me if the shirt I was wearing ended up with snot and tears all over it, as long as he knew he was safe
When he fell asleep, I was the one to carry him to what would now be his new room, assuming that he would be able to stay here.
Remembering how I would have nightmares almost every night after my parents died, I put him in the bedroom right across the hall from mine.
Later that night when I woke up to him screaming, I was confused at first, having been asleep myself and temporarily forgetting what happened earlier that day. Once I did remember though, I had ended up getting one of my feet tangled in my blankets, which ended up with me face planting on the floor of my bedroom because of how fast I was trying to get out of bed.
Once I woke him up and let him know that he was safe, he ended up asking me if I could stay with him in his room tonight because he didn't want to be alone. Because of that, I found myself falling asleep next to him promising myself that no matter what, I would do anything I could to help him.
*This, in a way, is something I'd taken from Gotham. The Court Of Owls, which was apparently recently taken over by Ra's, had sort of kidnapped Bruce in an attempt to, in my opinion, possibly turn him into one of their Talons. If that isn't what happened in the show and you're someone who actually watched that episode, I'm sorry that I got that information wrong. That is, however what happens in here, as a way to make Bruce pay for his Father's attempt at betraying them. The way they go about it however is way more extreme than what they did in the show.
I won't go into the details about what they were doing to Bruce, but let's just say that he might have ended up dying if Alfred and Gordon had found him at least a day or two after when they had.
** In case you didn't get it, it was supposed to be Tim and his parents. Tim is one or two at the time in this, so he won't remember how the Grayson's died or what their moves looked like. However, I am aware that Tim recognizing a move Robin does as a move that only the Grayson's have been able to do plays a major part in what led to him becoming the third Robin, so I will be fixing that later on.
If you're someone that read the previous version of this chapter, then you can tell that I added a bunch more in this version. So you know how much, the previous version took up a total of three pages in the writing program I'm using, while this version takes up twelve pages. Yeah, I didn't even think that there was that much I could have added!
Also, for those of you who are interested, I have a Tumblr account where you could find some stuff about what I'm interested in along with some hints at what I might or might not end up doing for any of my stories. This one included.
