Chapter Text
The ride to Barbara's home was long and fairly tiresome. After the talk with her, that ended in incoherent curses, Dick managed to run for another ten or so minutes with a teenage girl and a green cat on him. When he finally stopped, he almost dropped Rachel, but he didn't, so that's a win. Garfield jumped down and turned into himself, stretched and fell face first into the grass.
“What are you doing?” Rachel asked, while Dick tried to catch his breath.
“Dude, the last time I saw grass was before they caught me. Give a guy a break!” He rolled in the grass like a wild dog and Dick thought that they definitely needed to go buy clothes before going anywhere.
Now that they were away from the immediate threat Dick could relax a bit and take a closer look at the kids. Rachel stood beside Garfield, looking down at him. They both wore jumpsuits that resembled the prison ones, but these were a dirty blueish-greenish color. It was surprisingly clean, at least before Garfiels started to roll on the ground and then pulled Rachel with him.
Now she was just laying on her back, looking up at the dark starry sky. It was pretty, definitely. No light pollution in this middle of nowhere, no noise beside cicadas and other insects and maybe a frog ot two. They were probably close to a swamp or something like that.
“You two done with stargazing?” Dick asked as he approached them.
“I think I am,” Garfield got up, then layed back down. “Sorry, I lied, nowhere close, you can leave me here, I'm gonna live in the jungle.”
“It's not a jungle though. It's a forest. And maximum that you will find here is a few wild berries and very sour apples,” Rachel said and Garfield made a face. Then he got up again with a long tired sigh.
Dick kept his eyes on Rachel, who just stared at the sky, deep in thought. Or maybe without any.
“Ray, you gettin’ up?” Garfield asked her and she just shrugged.
“You can leave me here,” she repeated his words, but then added, “I just didn't want to die as a lab rat.”
Well, that took a turn. Dick squatted down to talk to her, but for the first few seconds he looked at her face, full of completion. She really didn't want anything. As if the only thing she had ever wanted to not be in that place that they ran away from. And now that she was surrounded by nothing but nature she could die happily.
“Love this edgy side of you, had a similar phase myself, but we really need to get going. C'mon, Oracle already started gathering materials for your documents.”
She looked at him and now he could see how tired she also was. Probably could fall asleep here. To be fair it was late, these two probably didn't even try to sleep at daytime. How did they even thought that the escape attepmt would be successful. Dick was sure they would've gotten caught. He helped her get up and put and put a hand on her shoulder.
“C’mon the motel shouldn't be far from here, I have a car there.”
In the motel they tried not to lay on the bed, probably fully aware that they will fall asleep the moment their head touches a pillow. So they just stood there as Dick took his things, found that consisted of only his wallet and laptop and a backpack that was mostly empty.
The first floor of the motel had a shop with clothes so he quickly bought two pairs of pants and t-shirts, hoping he still could guess the size of clothes by just looking. Unfortunately, he couldn't and the clothes happen to be a bit too big for them, but at least they didn't look like they escaped from the prison now. Just… hipster rebellious teens who like oversize a bit too much.
As they approached Dick's car, parked at the very far corner of the parking lot Rachel stopped in her tracks as she saw her reflection in the black car's surface. She looked at herself and touched her face. She pulled down on her cheeks, attention on her eyebags and reddish whites of her eyes. Then she noticed her hair and made a face that was very much teenage-like. The way it should be.
Disgusted, on the verge of tears, like when you went to hair stylist and instead of them giving you whatever you wanted they gave you a bowl cut. But Dick was sure that whatever she was feeling was so much more intense that she barely contained tears.
“Ray, you good here?” Garfield asked and also looked at his reflection “Damn, that buzz's not my thing. Gonna grow it out. You think I can get them as long as N's?”
She turned to him and nodded. “Will take a long time, I think.”
“Think there's spell for growin’ hair?”
“I hope so,” she caressed her reflection and then Dick approached them.
“C'mon, you two can go to the backseat and sleep. If the police stop us when you're awake you're telling them that I'm your dad and we're riding back home from a concert. Good?”
They nodded and went to sit in the car. Garfield patted Rachel's hair and smiled at her.
“Don't worry, I'll find a pair of scissors and make you a good haircut.”
“Please don't,” interfered Dick as he started the car. “Don't do home haircuts please. I can get you to my hairdresser.”
“It costs money though. But a pair of scissors is available for grab,” Garfield said it as if it was something only the wisest of men could come up with.
“Yeah and I have money, now go to sleep,” he rolled his eyes and checked in the mirror if they put the seat belts on. They just sat there together, Garfield touching Rachel's hair, trying to make them somewhat decent. If normal kids, given the opportunity, sat on different sides of the passenger seats, being fond of having enough space for movement and seeying the view outside the window, these two chose to sit as close together as the seat belts (left one, behind Dick, and, surprisingly, the middle one) allowed.
They fell asleep a few minutes after a steady ride. The roads were surprisingly straight with no bumps. Good. But weird. Dick was sure they were there, he remembered a particular part of the road that was a reason for his ass hurting hor a few minutes after it ended. Dick looked back at them every now and then, checking if they vere fine, didn't had nightmare. It looked like they didn't. Maybe they didn't see dreams right now. Or at all. But sleeping Rachel definitely did something, and if the girl could change the whole road unconsciously, just for the sake of it not messing with her sleep… Dick thought that one of the top things on his to-do list should be calling Constantine..
Dick praised himself for the way he managed to ride the car normally, while being severely sleep deprived. Also he didn't meet any police while driving, which was surprising. He assumed it was also thanks to Rachel. Maybe he should take her on a lot of car rides in the future.
The moment they drove into Gotham the magic seemed to fall, because the roads became familiarly awful. Maybe it's for the best, Gotham wouldn't be able to handle a good thing even for the little time that Rachel had to sleep.
Dick parked the car at apartment building where Barbara lived, and with a pained expression woke up the kids. They both startled awake and Dick was almost sure that the car floated at least an inch up for a few seconds. Maybe Dick will also call Dinah so that she could teach Rachel relaxation methods, because he was afraid to even imagine what the girl could do if she had a panic attack.
“Hey, it's all good, you're in Gotham, we're going to my friend,” he said, while Garfield started to unbuckle the belts.
“Sorry,” Rachel said and the car gently got back on the ground. Dick reached his hand to her, helped her, then Garfield, to get out of the car and closed it.
“That's okay, but be careful, car repairs are a pain in the ass.”
They went to the apartment on the first floor and Dick saw a rather strange sight of Wally standing beside, clearly asking her something just before they came. It wasn't weird that Wally was with Barbara, they talked, just not often. Wally noticed them and beemed, hamily waving his hand at Dick, not noticing the kids yet.
“Hey! I was at yours, cleaned there a bit while waited for you. Then called Babs, she said you'll come straight to her, for some reason, though you did promise to call me before you go home, so I came here!” Wally said rapidly, when he saw confusion on Dick's face. Always knew how to read him.
“There were some… unpredictable circumstances, so I had to go here,” he stepped aside, showing two teens, looking at Wally with curiosity. They probably wondered how he talked that fast.
“Hey little guys!” He smiled to them and they hesitantly nodded. “Alright, not my crowd.”
He stepped aside, letting Dick finally talk to Barbara, whistling some song awkwardly. Dick could see how much Wally wanted to run away, but he didn't really have time to comfort him about it at the moment.
“Babs, hey, I brought you the freshly new nephew and niece!” He said her, while the kids looked around the apartment and at am annoyed looking Barbara who was typing on her computer, rows of data running on both monitors. Dick was almost sure that data on two out of three monitors was just a moving wallpaper and was made purely for aesthetic reasons.
“Hope you brought hot sauce, the teens taste better that way,” she said and yawned. “How close are you to falling asleep standing?”
“Really close.”
“I'll bring the mattresses!” Wally said and all but disappeared from his spot, leaving marks on the floor.
“I'm gonna kill him,” she turned with her wheelchair and looked at the kids. “Now, we need full info for the documents, then you'll have to wait for two days till they are ready.”
The kids nodded.
“I'm gonna ask questions, you two gonna answer as honestly as possible, good?”
They nodded again and Babs started typing on her computer.
“Name?”
“Rachel.”
“Garfield.”
She sighed and stopped typing.
“I need a last name for the adoption papers.”
“Oh, we're doing full on adoption?” Dick asked, a bit surprised. He didn't think about all that too much.
“Well, if we're to make the guardianship then we need to tie it all to an organization that would pay you for being a legal guardian, but we can't really do that, since this would be too public for our liking and would create a need to make even more forged papers. So forging an adoption is just easier.”
“Roth,” Rachel said quietly.
“Logan,” Garfield mumbled.
“Okay. Date of birth?” Barbara asked again
“October 31st, 2003,” Rachel answered with a little bit of pride in her voice. She probably loved halloween or that was because of her a bit of an edgy nature that prided her in being born on All Hallow's Eve.
“I don't know,” Garfield said and they all looked confused at him. “What? Mom and Dad weren't really into birthdays, so they never told me when it was. Just from time to time they reminded me of my age and… that's all.” He shrugged.
“He can have my birthday!” Rachel quickly said.
“Don't see a problem, but don't complain when you have to celebrate it together. Dick is gonna be insufferable on your birthday.”
“That's so not true!”
“Dick, I love ya, man, but you can be much on birthdays,” Wally said suddenly as he entered the room. “By the way I put everything in tge living room.”
“You're just mad you can out do me on birthday presents.”
“I think he's more mad he can't do you,” Babs said too casually for the likings of any one in the room.
“Babs, for-”
“Why are we calling N a dick?” Garfield interrupted the starting banter, looking a bit uncomfortable. “He seems nice.”
“Oh. Oh!” Dick went into a small giggling fit. “That's my name, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Dick Grayson, Dick is short for Richard, I'm used to being called Dick, so don't worry.”
Rachel made a face, probably trying to come up with a niche name so that she doesn't have to call him by that name. Meanwhile Garfield's mouth turned into a full blown grin.
“Alright, good to know, dick!”
Dick quirked his eyebrow, unamused.
“I know when the D is lowercase, so don't try.”
They finished everything after an hour and a half, that included the info gathering and finding a house close to a good enough school. Dick didn't know why they couldn't live in an apartment, but he guessed it looked more American Dream style so maybe it would make the kids more comfortable.
Rachel and Garfield went to the living room and both quickly fell asleep on the couch and one of the mattresses respectfully. Dick didn't even want to know how exhausted the two of them were that they slept this much in one day. Dick meanwhile didn't want to sleep. Well, his body very much did, but his mind kept telling him to watch over kids, so he just stood there, listening to a steady breath and quiet snoring. Barbara already went to her room, clearly also lacking the precious eight hours of sleep.
“Dude,” Wally was also still there, beside. He was whispering so that he wouldn't wake anyone, “you look like you're about to pass out.”
“‘M not.” He shook his head. “What if they see a nightmare?”
“Dick, you're the nightmare they're gonna see, when they wake up and here's you, looking like a zombie. C'mon. Go to sleep too, you deserved a little rest,” Wally led Dick to an empty mattress and helped him lay down. It was surprisingly easy to make Dick do something in this state. Wally didn't even want to know for how long Dick had been awake.
“But-”
“I'll watch over.”
Dick looked at him for a moment or two and finally closed his eyes. And Wally just sat down in the armchair, thinking about how he once again lost tge right moment. Well, now there was none, because Dick needed help, rather than a “moment”. And Wally will help. At least the kids didn't look like much trouble.
At least that's what they think.