Chapter Text
Tucker tried valiantly to math out the frequency of Danny's slips in a vain attempt to predict their timing. He did manage to narrow down the window; Danny was guaranteed to slip within the next 11 to 52 hours of the last one. Considering that was just the shortest and longest gaps they'd noted between slips, Danny wasn't hugely impressed with that deduction. They seemed to happen entirely randomly within that 41 hour window, defying Tucker's every attempt at prediction.
Still, knowing he had at least half a day's reprieve before he had to slip again helped.
In the end, he got over a full day. Sam and Tucker had put together a Friday night movie marathon to help cheer him up, and blessedly, no ghosts had come along to ruin it. To his credit, Danny was doing his best to be cheered, nestled between his friends with a lap full of snacks as the sights and sounds of D-grade horror movies washed over him; though he couldn't tell you the plot of anything they'd watched if he tried.
Abruptly, the fake groans of zombies slid into the silence of a bedroom in the dead of night. Danny's eyes saw well in the dark, allowing him to take in the opulent yet tasteful decor and the large form lying still in the four-poster bed. Silently, Danny floated over and sat on the side of the bed, back against the headboard but floating an inch above the mattress to avoid disturbing it's sleeping occupant.
It wasn't the first time he'd slipped while Bruce was sleeping; often when Bruce was young and still had enforced naps. The Bruce sleeping beside him seemed to be in his early twenties, looking much as he had when Danny originally explained their situation in his college dorm.
This was Bruce before he lost a child, yet even in sleep, there seemed to be something like worry twisting his features. It was something that had been there for a long time and Danny wondered how he'd never noticed it before. He'd known Bruce as a child, an adolescent and a man, yet he'd never noticed the cracks that Bruce held closed by sheer force of will until the weight of grief tore him apart.
Then again, perhaps he could see it now because this was a Bruce entirely unguarded, with no older friend to impress or younger friend to reassure. This was Bruce as he was when alone and vulnerable, unable to escape the depths of his fear even in sleep. The same man who would light up around his children, who would destroy himself when he lost them.
Bruce was achingly human and all Danny wanted to do was protect him from all the horrors to come.
All of the bitter frustration and pre-emptive grief that Sam and Tucker had done their best to ease came flooding back. To be forced to slide in and out of someone else's life, seeing them at their best and worst, sharing all the good and the bad yet never being able to help, never being able to just be there for his friend, tore at Danny's core. There was so much Danny wished he could protect Bruce from that he knew was inevitable. He ached to soothe the fears that chased Bruce even in his sleep, but all he could do was watch.
Was that the point of all this? Was he just meant to be an observer, like Clockwork in his tower, never able to truly interfere, just bear witness? Danny felt immense pity for the ancient spirit if this was how he'd felt for eternity.
A sliver of dim light sliced through the darkness, pulling Danny from his wallowing. He tensed, ready to spring against a threat, until the size of the silhouette slipping inside registered.
It was a child.
A little boy who tiptoed hesitantly through the darkness, unaware of his invisible observer. As he approached the bed, Danny was able to make out the tear tracks on the face of an impossibly young Dick. He stopped just shy of the bed, eyeing Bruce's sleeping form with uncertainty.
Not that Bruce was sleeping anymore. He'd likely woken the moment Dick opened the door, but he made a show of blinking his eyes open.
"Chum? What are you doing up? Is everything all right?"
Dick looked down at his feet, hands clenched in a well-loved elephant plushie.
"...had a nightmare…" he admitted to the floor.
"Oh, chum. Did you want to stay in here-"
The half finished question was all the permission Dick needed to clamber onto the bed and curl up against Bruce's chest, sobs renewing. Bruce was clearly startled, but instinctively wrapped his arms around the boy, crooning reassurances into his hair. From the dumbstruck expression on Bruce's face, this was probably the first time Dick had felt comfortable coming to Bruce for comfort like this.
It was an intimate moment between father and son, and Danny felt terrible for witnessing it without their consent. He regretted his earlier decision to wallow in the dark, since now he couldn't send himself back without Bruce noticing. So he remained, curled up in a cold corner of the bed while Dick cried himself to sleep in Bruce's arms.
Danny didn't mean to fall asleep himself, yet the next thing he knew, daylight was valiantly trying to wrestle it's way past the blackout curtains. Danny was still curled up in his corner, but now Dick was sprawled across the space between him and Bruce, one outstretched hand just inches from Danny's nose, like he'd been reaching for him. As Danny blinked sleep from his eyes, he saw Bruce on Dick's other side, watching Danny with soft, bleary eyes.
"Good morning," he whispered, clearly trying not to wake Dick. "When did you get here?"
"Not sure," Danny admitted sheepishly, voice just as low. "Sorry,I didn't mean to fall asleep, but Dick needed you and I was just gonna wait for a good time, but I guess everything sorta caught up with me."
"It's okay," Bruce assured him, "you know you're always welcome here."
Danny still felt wrong-footed. "I didn't wanna intrude."
"You're not." Bruce's eyes drifted to the little boy snoring between them. "Besides, I'd been hoping to introduce the two of you soon."
"He hasn't met me yet?" Danny asked, grateful for the distraction talking about Dick provided.
"No. I wasn't sure if he'd believe me if I told him and you weren't here to prove it either."
Danny gave Bruce an unimpressed look. "Okay, now I feel even worse about intruding."
"Why?" Bruce looked baffled.
"Because now the poor kid is gonna wake up next to a complete stranger."
"Oh. I didn't think about that."
"Yeah, I didn't think so. You're too used to me popping up whenever. You gotta remember that absolutely nobody else is. Except maybe Alfred."
Bruce chuckled softly. "I don't think anything surprises Alfred. If I didn't know better, I'd think you warned him about things in advance."
Danny rolled his eyes theatrically. "Jeez, you mention college to a guy's guardian once and you never hear the end of it."
Bruce's eyes crinkled as he continued to laugh at him, an open smile on his face. Lying here in the early morning gloom, with Bruce happy and carefree and Dick sleeping peacefully between them, Danny felt something settle in his core.
This was what mattered.
The peaceful moments, the happy moments, the rare exciting moments when Danny got to fight at Bruce's side. Yes, there would be pain, and yes, one day Danny would lose Bruce and his family forever, but he would always have these moments. He would hoard these memories like precious jewels through all the hardships, through the loss, and that would be enough.
"Danny? You okay?"
Danny realised he'd been quietly staring at Bruce and Dick for far too long as he basked in the peace and acceptance he'd just reached.
"Yeah, sorry, just thinking."
"Oh? What about?"
Danny shrugged as best he could while lying on his side. "A lot of things. Like how Dick's gonna be just as used to me popping up as you and Alfred soon. And I'm only just now realising how much changed for you when he arrived."
Bruce's brow furrowed questioningly.
"You're a parent now, Bruce. Everything is gonna shift now, because of him. Its not bad, I guess I just now realised how much more responsible you're gonna get."
"Implying I wasn't responsible before?" Bruce raised a teasing brow at him.
"Considering what you get up to at night, is that a serious question?"
"How exactly does that make me irresponsible?"
Danny huffed. "Ask Alfred, I'm sure he'll be happy to explain."
"I'm taking responsibility for the city."
"At the expense of yourself."
"Its a price I'm willing to pay," Bruce insisted, getting defensive. Danny sighed sadly.
"What about him?" He nodded his head down towards Dick. "Do you think he'd trade you for Gotham?"
That got Bruce to shut his mouth with an audible click, eyes falling pensively on the child beside him. Apparently the full ramifications of taking Dick in hadn't occured to him yet. Danny offered him a comforting smile.
"Like I said, you're about to get real responsible. Whether you like it or not."
Bruce stared down at Dick's sleeping face for a moment. Danny could only assume he was watching Bruce decide that the responsibility was worth it.
"I suppose responsibility comes for us all eventually." Bruce looked up at him, eyes teasing again. "Even you. You won't be fourteen forever, you know."
Danny snorted. "Please, responsibility came for my ass the day I decided going inside an unstable experimental machine was a good idea."
Bruce paled as he stared at Danny, wide-eyed.
"You did what?"
Danny frowned. "Haven't I told you how I got my powers already?"
"You told me it was a lab accident."
"Yeah, it was. I went into my parents' lab and they had this portal they'd been trying to build to the, like, dimension that ghosts exist in, only it seemed like it hadn't worked," he explained sheepishly. "I was messing around trying to take a picture for my friends, tripped and accidentally hit a switch that turned it on on top of me." Danny curled up a little tighter, fingers twitching at the memory of being flooded with electricity and ectoplasm for the first time. "One crazy electrocution later and I'm basically Schrodinger's Cat with a side of ghost powers."
Bruce's hand hovered in the space between them, unable to offer the comforting touch he wanted to without sending Danny away.
"Danny…I'm so sorry."
Danny's heart warmed at the sentiment, unnecessary as it was.
"It's okay, I'm still here. And it's the reason I'm here here. Your house, I mean. Or your time? You know what I mean. A lot has majorly sucked since it happened, but," Danny smiled at his friend, "a lot has been majorly awesome too. I wouldn't trade it."
That melted some of the devastation from Bruce's face, though there was still an air of sadness to his smile.
"Still. It's a miracle you sur…that you're here at all. I'm grateful. I just wish it hadn't been so painful."
Danny snorted. "You and me bo-"
Danny was cut off as he was abruptly whacked in the face by an elephant plushie.
"Who are you?!" Dick demanded, scrambling back and away from Danny, colliding with Bruce. "Bruce! Who is this? Why is he in your bed?" Bruce's presence seemed to have calmed Dick's alarm a bit, though now he sounded scandalised.
"This is my friend Danny. It's a long story, but he's temporally displaced at the moment."
Dick blinked at him. "I don't know what that means."
"Time god gave me a magic item that got damaged, I slammed into Bruce once and now I time travel to a random point in his life every few days," Danny explained for him as he sat up, "it's completely random, so neither of us get any say on when or where I land."
Dick looked skeptical, glancing at Bruce as though waiting for him to reveal this was a prank and give a less outlandish explanation.
"That is the gist of it, yes," Bruce confirmed instead, "I've known Danny my whole life. You can trust him, I promise."
Dick still seemed hesitant, eyeing Danny warily.
"You're really a time traveller?"
"Yep. I've actually already met you before. You kicked me in the face. You got a mean right foot on you, dude."
Dick giggled in spite of his clear suspicion.
"But I can see you're a smart kid and you're gonna want proof. Plus, I should be heading back anyway," he added to Bruce, who nodded in understanding and offered a hand.
Danny fistbumped him and gave Dick a cheerful little wave. "See you some time."
"See you some time."
"What's gonna ha-aargh!"
Dick's cry of alarm grew an echo as Danny found himself back in Sam's entertainment room, both of his friends scrambling away from him.
"Oh god, I think I'm gonna throw up!" Tucker wailed.
"That felt so nasty! Nasty and wrong!" Sam added vehemently, even paler than normal.
"What?" Danny asked, looking between them both in confusion.
"Dude! How messed up it looks when you glitch is nothing compared to how it feels to be leaning on you when it happens!" Tucker explained, looking aghast.
"Like lying on a flailing sack of meat and bones that's somehow sliding through your skin," Sam added, gagging.
"Ew," Danny grimaced at the visceral imagery, "I'm sorry. No control, you know?"
"Yeah, we know. It's whatever," Sam shook it off, retaking her seat on the couch next to him, "though I maybe kinda really wanna slap Clockwork the next time he shows. There has got to be at least something he can do about this. I bet he's holding out on you."
"Yeah, but you just know he's gonna have some crappy 'big picture' excuse if you call him out on it," Tucker agreed, flopping back down on Danny's other side.
"Oh definitely. Classic Clockwork," Danny added with a sigh, though he was smiling. His friends eyed him.
"You seem a lot more chipper," Sam commented.
"Fun slip?" Tucker guessed.
"Not really fun," Danny shrugged, "but…good. We talked, I met his eldest kid for the first time, his first time, not mine I mean, and yeah, it was just…good."
Sam and Tucker nodded like they understood, though perhaps they were just glad Danny was happier now.
"I'm glad," Sam said, bumping their shoulders together.
"Did this one try to stab you too?" Tucker joked.
"Nah. He did try to knock me out with a plushie though."
"Man, what is Bruce teaching his kids that they always choose violence?" Sam asked with a snort.
"I'm pretty sure you'd choose violence too if you woke up next to a complete stranger. He was asleep next to Bruce and I accidentally woke him up."
"Fair enough, I withdraw my judgement."
"I'd hit first, ask questions later too if I woke up to your face unexpectedly," Tucker teased, earning him getting pounced on and put in a headlock by his friend.
Sam was rolling her eyes and Tucker was crying uncle, but they were both laughing, and Danny along with them. He may not know what the future held, but Danny wasn't alone. He knew he'd make it through, and make a lot of good memories along the way.