Fanfic / Second Generation

Second Generation is a Batman fanfic written by lowflyingfruit and posted on Archive of Our Own.

This takes place nine months after the "Blockbuster Incident" and Dick Grayson desperately tries to get a grip on his life until a call from Lockhaven Penitentiary regarding Catalina Flores derails all of his plans for the future. Now he must adjust to parenthood while trying to hide how he came to become a father from his well-intentioned and decidedly nosy family.

Unfortunately, working things out peacefully never were easy for the Bats. And this new crime lord called Red Hood really isn't helping.

This fanfic contains the following tropes:

• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Dick is on the higher end of Teen Pregnancy since he's barely eighteen when the twins are born, but Bruce finds extremely weird to become a grandpa at thirty-seven.

• Babies Make Everything Better: Zigzagged. Nightwing's unplanned and sudden paternity unleashes a crapload of issues in the short term, but confronting these issues actually help the Batclan in the long term.
• The Bad Guy Wins: A disgusted Bruce considers Catalina a successful stalker — by bearing Dick's children, she's ensured that he would be forever linked to her.
• Big Brother Instinct: For all the bad blood and morality disagreements between them, Jason offers his help and support to Dick right after learning his adopted sibling was raped.
• Broken Pedestal: Jason loses any vestige of trust he felt towards Bruce after realizing Dick - who's supposed to be the favourite - was raped and Batman apparently never helped him with it.
• Child by Rape: Dick's twin daughters. He struggles to properly love them as a consequence.
• Color-Coded Characters: Amy is dressed in yellow and Bridget in pink since they're otherwise identical.
• Department of Child Disservices: Dick flat-out refuses to put his babies for adoption because of that — his social worker threw him into juvie for being half-Romani and as such, he would end up a criminal.
• Doting Grandparent:
  • Bruce is hilariously awkward when he meets Dick's babies but has no problems buying half a baby store for them.
  • Alfred is totally okay with the fact he's now a great-grandpa, in his dignified, British way.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: It's acknowledged In-Universe that the standard is unfortunately real (Batman once arrested a female sexual offender who swore she never raped anyone since all of her victims were male), and Barbara thinks she would have guessed the truth earlier if Dick had been a woman, but absolutely no one ridicules or tries to diminish Dick's trauma over the fact he was forced to have sex.
• Family Theme Naming: When he learns that Dick named his daughters Amy and Bridget, Jason snarks the third Grayson baby will have a name beginning by C.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Catalina Flores appears only twice yet her decision to give birth to Nightwing's children drives the entire plot.
  • Talia al Ghul did resurrect Jason before unleashing him in Gotham's streets.
• Hypocrite: When Red Hood claims he's not a threat to Nightwing's infant daughters because he Wouldn't Hurt a Child, Spoiler calls him out on his assaulting the thirteen-year-old Robin. Red Hood justifies himself by pointing Robin is old enough to put a cape and defend his person.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Red Hood is extremely violent and threatening towards Batman and his associates, but when he understands how bad Dick was victimized, he immediately does his best to help him move on.
• Love Redeems: In spite of his dip into the Lazarus Pit and bitterness towards Batman's failing, Jason ultimately rejected the opportunity to avenge himself from Joker by prioritizing Dick's trauma and need to move on.
• Missing Mom: Enforced with Catalina since she's currently serving a life sentence without parole. And the Batclan is more than okay with it.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Learning Dick's sexual encounter with Tarantula wasn't consensual doesn't fly well with some.
  • Barbara calls herself a really bad friend and tearfully apologizes to Dick for thinking he would willingly sleep with the woman who almost killed her.
  • Jason is disgusted by himself for taunting his brother about sleeping with a cop-killer.
• "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Dick's twins are named after his Friend on the Force and his landlady. When Tim later interrogates Amy Rohrbach, he implicitly trusts her because of this.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jason started to suspect foul play when he saw Bruce buying baby products, leading him to discover Dick was now a father.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Talia is her gloriously Manipulative Bitch self when she deigns to interact with Red Hood.
    • Which is kind of ruined by her acting as a Woman Scorned when she thinks that Bruce might have a baby and then goes into Green-Eyed Monster mode once she is made aware that the babies Bruce is doting on are Dick's. She refers to Dick as circus trash in front of Jason, who has all to often been called street trash.
  • Superman playing the Honourary Uncle happy to meet and babysit the newest members of the Batclan.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Cuddle Bug, social butterfly Dick Grayson being unable to handle touching his daughters and keeping his newfound fatherhood under wraps instead of telling everyone in the superhero community is enough to freak the Batclan and make them realize something is seriously wrong.
• Papa Wolf: In which circumstances would Dick be pushed to assault the baby brother he believed to be dead? Why, finding said brother lurking in his newborn daughters' bedroom while packing a gun.
• Parents as People:
  • Dick cannot help but feel resentful about being a father. It mingles with guilt since he knows his babies are innocent and deserve to be loved.
  • Bruce is very much awkward about showing love, and his miscommunication issues with Dick make it difficult for the latter to tell him the truth about the babies' mother. He still does his best to ensure his son and granddaughters' happiness and well-being.
  • Jack Drake worries about Tim and wants to become a better dad to him, but only manages to alienate his son by trying to protect him.
• The Power of Love: The Pit madness noticeably loses grounds when Jason worries about his newfound nieces. Throwing the possibility of revenge away to help his traumatized brother finally does the trick of silencing it.
• Rule of Symbolism: When antagonizing the Batclan, Red Hood always wears his helmet. When Dick blurts out that he was raped, Jason immediately ditches the headgear to expose his domino, becoming Robin again because there's a victim to help.
• Stalker without a Crush: Jason spied on the Batclan for several weeks and is a bit miffed that he was never confronted about it, even when he tried to be spotted.
  • After hearing Dick became a dad, he decides he will meet his nieces, no matter what.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • Tim chafes under the obligation to pretend he's nothing but a mundane teenage boy when interacting with his dad and stepmother.
  • A traumatized Dick had to attend a Christmas party and let people flirt with and try to grope him.
• Upper-Class Twit: Talia of all people. While talking to Jason she expresses disgust that Bruce is doting on Dick's daughters and calls Dick circus trash. Jason privately lampshades if she thinks that he himself, who grew up in the streets of Gotham has a better pedigree.
• Woman Scorned: Talia is furious when Bruce is photographed buying baby items. She is not much happier that the babies are Dick's and resents that Bruce is spending money and affection on his granddaughters.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Even when suffering from Lazarus Syndrome, Red Hood vehemently refuses to raise a hand against Dick's children. He goes so far as hesitating over killing Nightwing, since it would leave the babies fatherless.