Chapter Text
Ch. 1: Birth-3
CW: missing child
Dick looked down at the sleeping baby in the crib, swaddled in a bright pink blanket. He felt tears prick at his eyes and just let them run down his face. He felt a presence behind him.
“If you’re going to lurk, you gotta do better than that, dear,” Dick said, not bothering to look at who it was or to disguise the tears from his voice. He knew this person would see right through him anyway.
He felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist and a face bury itself in his neck. He leaned his body against the man holding him and lay his head against the one belonging to his love. They stood there for a few moments, taking in the small miracle in front of them, Dick still with tears drying on his face.
“Baby, why are you crying?” Wally asked with concern in his voice.
“I just…” Dick started, “I never thought I’d get this, us, let alone her.”
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When Richard John Grayson was born, his parents were overjoyed.
“My little Robin,” his mom would call him.
“Our little Miracle.”
Dick would later have a memory of being unable to move but still feeling safe and warm, like he was wrapped in a hug.
He remembers gazing up and seeing his mom and dad gazing up at him with wet faces. He babbled happily up at them, his two favorite people in the world.
They would go on adventures together through the cities they traveled to with the circus. He would sit in his baby seat during the shows, watching Papa Haly and the rest of his adopted aunts and uncles, watching the flashing lights, and watching “The Flying Graysons” soar through the air. He knew nothing would ever happen to them and their undying love for him.
His favorite acts, though, were any with animals. He would start laughing, kicking his little legs and wiggling, trying to get out of his seat to get close to the wonderful animals.
Dick loved watching the circus’s resident bears, lion, gorilla, and his very very favorite - the elephant.
The elephant’s name was Zitka, and as soon as Dick Grayson could walk, he could be found with her. Luckily, Zitka seemed to love Dick as much as he loved her, and would care for him, let him climb on her, and be generally a bother.
Dick was very prone to wandering off whenever he got bored (which was a lot for a three-year-old at the circus every day. He found a talent in silently sneaking off by himself.
Luckily, he wasn’t too much of a menace, and he could always be found with Zitka, sometimes even sleeping on top of her, with no clear answer of how he made his way onto her.
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After Gracie turned three, Wally decided that they were going to have a “Daddy-Daughter Day” without Dick. His plan was to go to the zoo, get lunch there, go out for ice cream after they left, and then have a “fancy dinner” from Batburger.
Of course, it would go completely wrong almost immediately, this was Dick’s child he decided to take out. By Himself. What was it that his Uncle Barry’s boyfriend would always say? “Make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw away the plan.”
They should’ve just stayed home and watched a movie or something. Dick had laughed in his face when Wally had told him about his plans for the day. Wally, still indignant from the incident, refused to call Dick and ask for help.
Besides, he was perfectly capable of handling his daughter’s antics by himself. He was Super Daddy.
Wally and Gracie had gone into the gift shop that was the entrance to the zoo for Wally to buy their day passes. They had stopped at the front counter to pay, and Wally had let go of Gracie’s hand for two seconds to get out his card to pay for them. He paid, turned around, and she was gone.
Wally would later admit that he’d panicked. Wally at that moment would say that he acted perfectly rationally when he ran (at human speed) frantically around the store. He would still say he acting rationally when he “flashed” around the zoo, looking for Gracie. He looked everywhere they had talked about in the car on the way there that morning. He checked the monkey enclosure, the bear den, the snake house, and the bug palace (ew). He checked the giraffes, the hippos, and the penguins.
In retrospect, the place she was found should’ve been the first place he looked. But, again, panicking.
Wally did not know what to do. Does he tell someone? Does he stay put and wait for her to find him? Calling Dick was out of the question. He was busy today, and fully on some mission in Asia (slightly irrelevant, Wally knew, due to the mere existence of Zeta Tubes, but he was gonna use it as an excuse anyway). Wally knew that if he called Dick, he would drop everything and get there as soon as he could, but Wally could handle this.
Eventually, Wally decided to tell a zoo worker, some teenager working their summer job. To their credit, they looked appropriately worried. There were lots of little hiding spots for a three-year-old at the zoo.
They sent him over to the zoo’s security office while she radioed to let others know about the situation, and where Wally was going. At the security office, he was subjected to the most nerve-wracking interrogation of his life.
“Uh, she’s small?” Was Wally’s answer when asked Gracie’s approximate height and weight. Dick was the one who memorized those things. Wally had gone to all of her doctor’s appointments too, but he’s not good at concentrating during the “long talking” part of the visits. He is usually in charge of child distraction and entertainment.
Thus, all he could say was “She’s short and it’s easy to carry her.”
The intimidating security man looked concerned. “Sir, we’re going to need more than that… maybe you could call your wife and she would know?”
He must have clocked the ring on Wally’s hand, but Wally really did not want to have this conversation right now, especially when his parenting skills were already in question. And he refused to call Dick.
“No, she wouldn’t,” Wally stated, “She’s dead.”
That was not what he was expecting to say, but he guesses it’ll give him some sympathy points with the scary guy in front of him.
The man softened slightly.
“I am so sorry for your loss, sir. We’ll move on to other questions. What is your daughter’s name? What does she look like? What is she wearing?”
“Uhh… Her name is Gracie, she has bronze-ish skin, and her hair is curly and dark. She wanted space buns today. She also has bits of blue and purple in her hair. She begged for it when my hus- best friend dyed his hair. Umm.. she’s wearing leggings and a shirt dress thing that makes her look like a penguin. She was so excited to see them, and was hoping they would accept her as one of them because of her outfit.”
The security guy nodded and wrote stuff down on his notepad.
“Okay, sir. I just need your phone number, and then I think we have everything we need from you… actually, do you have a current picture of her?”
Wally nodded, he had taken a selfie with Gracie this morning and sent it to Dick. He pulled it up on his phone and showed it to the man.
“I’m going to have you airdrop this to me, so I can distribute it to the other zoo employees.”
“No, sorry. I have an Android. It’s faster.”
The man sighed. “Text it to me then.”
Wally did as he was told.
“Stay here. We will let you know when we find her.”
Over an hour later, Wally was more worried than ever and was even considering calling his husband. In the time that the zoo staff had been looking for her, anything could have happened. She could’ve fallen into an enclosure, she could’ve been eaten by an alligator, she could’ve been kidnapped. Halfway through his spiral, Wally’s phone rang.
An unknown number.
Wally quickly answered.
“Mr. West?” a voice questioned on the other side, “We’ve found your daughter…” Wally almost cried with relief at the news. “But we can’t get her down.”
Down? Down from where? Where did she end up?
The person continued, “Well… we’ve sent someone to come and get you, to bring you here and you can try getting her down.”
Wally ran outside after he hung up and waited very impatiently for the zoo employee in the golf cart.
“Mr. West?” Asked the person in the golf cart.
“Yep,” Wally responded and jumped in.
The ride to Gracie was silent. When they arrived, and Wally saw where they were, he nearly face-palmed. Of course, she would be here. She was Dick’s daughter. She would find the elephants. Over the years, Wally had heard all of Dick’s stories of sneaking off and playing with/sleeping on the circus elephants growing up.
He found the security guy from before. “We found her here, but we have no idea how she even got into the enclosure, let alone how she got on top of the elephant. We can’t seem to convince her to come down and leave.”
Wally sighed, this time with exasperation. He had no doubt that his lovely husband was responsible for his daughter’s breaking-in and climbing skills.
Wally called up to his daughter. “Gracie-love, it’s time to come down from there! We can’t get ice cream if you’re on top of an elephant!”
Gracie looked at him, shrugged her shoulders, and shimmied down the elephant. She ran into Wally’s waiting arms.
“Daddy! I made a friend! Her name is Zitka, just like in Papa’s stories!”
“Yes, honey, I am sure it is.”
Having his daughter back with him was a huge relief, and Wally started crying, tears running down his face as he squeezed Gracie and pecked kisses all over her head.
“Don’t ever do that again, I love you so much, I was so worried. Don’t tell Papa.”
The rest of Wally’s big day with his daughter went off without a hitch, with him never letting go of her for even a second. She was either on his back, on his hip, or holding his hand for the rest of the day.
If Wally bought a toddler leash after that, Dick never had to know why.