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The Batcomputer wasn’t just any computer; it was the pinnacle of Wayne Industries technology. But even high-tech computers need to be cleaned after a set period. Normally, she’d do it with Bruce, but he was on a mission with the Justice League, and the Batcomputer urgently needed to free up space. So, Barbara brought her flash drives to save information on resolved or less critical cases at the moment. All she needed was to go through a thorough review of the files, but it was fine; she’d cleared her whole afternoon just for this, along with a long Spotify playlist to help her relax.
Everything was going well, though she had to admit at one point she got distracted watching old recordings of the Batcave, where everything seemed simpler, and she was still Batgirl. She tried to get back to her work; she hadn’t been that easily distracted in the past. But as she was about to open the next folder, her access was denied. Barbara was surprised: she generally had access to all files. *She’s Oracle!* She took it personally. Who would encrypt an entire folder on the Batcomputer? They wanted to hide something.
Barbara took it as a personal challenge and decided to hack the file. It took a bit, but she managed. Upon opening the folder, she found recordings of the cave itself from different years, years when Dick was Robin and she was just beginning as Batgirl. *Why would anyone encrypt this?* Maybe it was just a glitch due to the computer’s full storage, she hoped.
She decided to watch the first video. What she saw was a fight between Bruce and Dick, which didn’t surprise her; those two had fought forever but would reconcile as if nothing happened. Usually, Dick was the one who came back and apologized, because you’d never hear an apology from Batman. That man is awful with emotions.
But then, the fight turned violent; Dick yelled at Bruce in anger.
"I only made one mistake!" he shouted, nearly in tears. Dick looked very young in the video, perhaps eleven or younger. As soon as he shouted that, a hard hand slapped him, knocking him to the ground. Barbara was startled; it wasn’t training or any kind of mind control. Bruce had hit Dick.
"A mistake in the field could be fatal; I don’t tolerate mistakes in my line of work," Bruce said. Robin lay on the ground, barely processing what had happened. Barbara wanted to reach through the screen, stand in the way, yell at Bruce, hug young Dick—anything. But it had already happened, and Dick never told her about it. And she never did anything.
The next videos were similar. Barbara wanted to stop; she shouldn’t be watching this, but… this changed everything.
"You adopted another child!" she heard Dick shouting at Bruce. This video was from Nightwing’s early years, and when Jason Todd started as Robin.
"Batman needed a Robin," was Bruce’s only response to Dick. The teenager’s face twisted in rage.
"And what? Are you going to hurt him every time he makes a mistake?!" Batman was silent. "You can’t do this to another kid, Bruce. I won’t let you hurt him!" Barbara felt her heart sink. This couldn’t be true; it seemed unreal, yet here was the recording.
"No, he’s more efficient than you." That was cruel and spoken with such venom that Barbara’s skin prickled. It was like seeing a different side of Bruce, a side none of them knew or only saw in fragments. Worse was seeing Dick’s face shatter at the words of who was supposed to be his father.
"And what will happen when he stops being efficient?" Dick demanded. "Listen, I’ll come back to the mansion… if you promise that, instead of taking it out on Jason, you take it out on me… Every time he makes a mistake, you’ll pour your anger onto me, never onto Jason." Barbara froze. She could see the determination in Dick’s eyes, the way Bruce tensed.
"Fine," was all Batman responded, his voice cold and firm, appearing menacing.
"But if you hurt him… I’ll take him away. I’ll tell Clark and Diana; the League will cut all ties with you. Would you really risk Batman like that?" Bruce paused before responding. Barbara could hear a heavy sigh from the Bat, as if accepting the situation. Then the video cut off because Bruce seemed to turn off the cameras.
It was too much to process. That twisted deal between Dick and Bruce… How Dick kept this hidden for so many years. But everything began to make sense in Barbara’s mind: how Dick acted around Bruce, always keeping their arguments out of sight. Yet, the worst part was how Dick seemed to cherish Bruce, going out of his way to get the other kids to get along with their "father," how he… Barbara wiped away a few tears. She felt like an idiot, the worst friend in the world. *How hadn’t she noticed? Did Dick think she wasn’t trustworthy enough? Did he think she wouldn’t support him?*
Barbara looked at the dates of the other videos. While there were some fairly old ones, there were recent ones too, which chilled her. She didn’t want to watch them; she knew what they’d contain, knew why these files were encrypted. Bruce wouldn’t want anyone to know about this, about that twisted deal… Barbara wanted to scream, to punch something until it shattered, imagining it was Bruce.
It was then that she heard someone coming down to the Batcave and realized… she had to tell the others, everyone… This couldn’t stay hidden, she couldn’t let Dick keep bearing this alone.
"Hey, Babs, I know you’re busy cleaning the files, but we ordered Chinese with the guys, and I think you could use a break… Babs?" It was Dick. The former Boy Wonder looked at her, concerned, as she must look a mess. She wiped her tears and gathered the strength to ask:
"Why didn’t you tell me?" she demanded, bluntly. Her voice was so broken that she felt embarrassed; worse was seeing she couldn’t stop her own tears. "Why did you hide something like this from us?" Dick looked confused, not seeming to understand.
"What do you mean?... " She watched him discreetly glance at the Batcomputer; the previous video was paused. "Babs… what did you see?" Now Dick sounded scared. Barbara let out a small sob.
"Everything! He hurt you! He hit you! And you kept quiet all this time. Why? Did you think we wouldn’t support you?!" Barbara shouted; her voice echoed through the cave, sounding hysterical, and she knew it. Dick flinched at her anger, making her feel even worse.
"I’m sorry…" She hated that Dick apologized; it wasn’t his fault. She was the one angry, but she couldn’t hold it back. "What you saw… it’s not what it looks like, Babs, it’s just fights that got out of hand."
"What?" Barbara looked at him in disbelief. "Those weren’t fights that got out of hand, Dick; that was abuse. Don’t try to excuse it, because I won’t go along with it anymore. You were so scared of him hurting the kids that you let him hurt you instead, and that’s wrong, no matter what excuses you make for Bruce." She tried to sound calmer toward the end. Dick looked anguished.
"I didn’t have another choice… Look, Bruce’s been behaving; he hasn’t hurt anyone else… he’s getting better, it’s all in the past, he hasn’t had those outbursts again…" Dick sounded desperate, and Barbara couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
"That doesn’t change anything! You can’t just sweep this under the rug like it never happened… Why didn’t you say anything?" Barbara’s voice came out as a plea. She wanted to know why he kept this secret. Dick sighed heavily, and Barbara could see his slight trembling; he was nervous.
"I didn’t want you all to get mad at Bruce, to distance yourselves… When we work together, we’re truly unstoppable, good for Gotham. I love coming to the mansion and seeing you all, doing things together… I’m afraid that if I revealed everything, it would all fall apart, that Bruce would push me away from you guys… and I don’t want that to happen because of me." Dick’s voice broke at the end. "I encrypted those files so you’d never know, so you wouldn’t see me like this… or see Bruce act like that…" Dick noticed Barbara’s horrified look and realized she’d thought it was Bruce who’d locked the files, not him. "I’m sorry."
Barbara wiped her tears and calmed herself internally.
"He’ll never push us away from you. We’d never distance ourselves; as you said, we’re unstoppable, and when one of us needs help, we’ll be there, even if we have to go against Batman himself. I’ll never abandon you, Dick; you’re my best friend, and this… this needs to be discussed, I can’t ignore something like this." Dick looked at her, tears brimming in his eyes.
"Thanks, but… I’m fine, really. He’s not like that anymore." Barbara looked at him doubtfully.
"Is he really? Has he apologized to you? Have you ever talked about this?" Barbara pressed. Dick wiped his tears and shook his head.
"No, but… he hasn’t lashed out like that in years, and he hasn’t hurt the kids since we made that deal… everything’s fine."
"But it still hurts, you’re still afraid. What would happen if he did it again? If one day something went wrong on a mission, and he took it out on you again?" She watched Dick tense up, uneasy and unsure.
"I…" he stammer
Unsure of what to say, realizing Barbara was right but unable to express it. Barbara gently held his hands.
"I’ll be here for you, always. And one day, I’ll be there with you when you confront Bruce, and we’ll work it out together. You don’t have to do this alone anymore." Dick looked at her, his expression a mix of relief and gratitude.
"Thank you, Babs…"