Work Text:
Was And Is
Batman had always been a creature of habit, but certain circumstances had forced him to admit that maybe some habits needed to be...upgraded. After the incident with Prometheus, Batman had Oracle shore up the defenses on the Batcave's computer. The only things accessible with a level one access code (which he hadn't used since any of the Robins were just starting out) were profiles on the Gotham Rogues, and his own, personalized, nutrition plan. When Tim had to quit being Robin, Bruce...for once in his life, he had no clue how to proceed. He'd...grown used to working with a partner, and Cassandra...well, Cassandra was as much of a loner as he was. But there were no protocols for Robins. He'd found Dick by unlucky accident, Jason by mutual mistake; Tim had found him on purpose. Then, Stephanie Brown, 'The Spoiler' showed up in his Cave with a makeshift Robin costume. Determinedly hopeful, with as much fire as any bird that had ever flown by his side. The costume wasn't bad, for something homemade on a teenager's allowance, though it could stand some more armor. And...Tim was the one who said that Batman needed a Robin. Hopefully Tim would remember that when he saw the newest Robin on the news. Stephanie was...a different sort of Robin. Like Jason, she loved the fight, and loved learning new ways of 'kicking ass and taking names.' Also, like Jason, she thought she was ready before she really was, and she had a problem following orders. Bruce swore not to make the same mistakes with her that he did with Jason. And that included letting her patrol alone before she started following all of his orders. Batman made sure to teach her the difference between disabling and lethal blows. He was gratified to note that she seemed leery of practicing the lethal ones at all. The night they went up against Zsasz, Bruce was proud to note that her favored roundhouse right to his face hit square on his jaw, knocking him out, instead of anywhere near his broken nose bones, which could have been shoved up into his brain, instantly killing him. Just when Bruce was thinking he should upgrade Stephanie's access to the Crays, Tim's father was attacked. Robin got to him in time to stop the bleeding and call the ambulance, but it was clear that the road to recovery would be long for Jack Drake. A part of Bruce had always harbored a hope that Tim would come back to him. But it seemed that, even if that happened, in the meantime Stephanie was going to become a permanent part of the fold. Like Barbara had. Like Huntress was. Spoiler, now Robin, would.