Archive of Our Own

Steph opened her eyes slowly, taking a moment to find her bearings. The last thing she remembered was crashing at Tim’s place for the night after a long stakeout for a case they were on working together. 

This was not Tim’s place. 

It wasn’t any place she recognized, either. 

She took a few deep breaths to center herself before she got out of the bed she was in. Looking around the room it looked like she was in a studio apartment of some kind. An apartment belonging to someone that had remarkably similar tastes to her, if the few hints of decor were anything to go by. 

She may not usually consider herself the best detective of the lot (unless it came to the crushes a dozen or so heroes were sporting for various oblivious Bats), but she was hardly a slouch either. She grabbed the phone sitting on the nightstand next to her. It wasn’t her phone, but, well…

Her thumbprint unlocked the phone right away. 

Right. 

Theories so far: 

1. Time Travel to a very near future
2. Alternate universe 
3. Magic and/or this wasn’t real 
4. She had gotten hurt but didn’t remember it and was now on the really good stuff and thus hallucinating.

Now, if this were either of the first two options, what about the Steph that belonged here? Had they switched? Had she taken over her body in this time/universe?

Well, there were plenty of answers that needed answering, but she was hungry and detectiving took brain power, which took actual energy. So? Food. 

Other-her, if that was the case, had good taste. Which, if it was her, was kind of a given. A quick perusal around the small apartment had resulted in the discovery of most of her favorite snacks, several items she knew most likely were for meals that were favorites of hers but way too time-consuming to be made regularly, at least with her kind of schedule, and scrubs. Multiple pairs of scrubs. 

Crap. 

Did other-her have work today or something?

Hurriedly she brought up the calendar app on her phone, hoping it had an answer. 

It did. And, thankfully, other-her wasn’t scheduled to work until tomorrow, which gave her nearly 24 hours to get back home or get out of this hallucination/magic trip. Or, if she failed to do that, acquaint herself with other-her’s life enough to pass as other-her until she did manage to get back. 

It shouldn’t be too terrible, right? She’d just have to pass as a nurse. Nurse? Probably. She should probably confirm that though. 

Other-her saved a lot of passwords on her phone, a habit Steph was quite grateful for at the moment. Obviously, other-her was not a vigilante or otherwise paranoid individual. 

Other-her was, she found after some rather easy sleuthing, a nurse at Gotham General (called it!) in the ER department. That was probably the best news for her if she did end up needing to pass as other-her for a little while. ER? In Gotham? She might not be a fully-fledged nurse (yet) but that was something she knew a lot about, thanks to certain nighttime activities and the injuries fellow participants seemed to collect like participation awards. 

Other-her did not appear to be dating anyone (thank goodness!) at the moment, so she was in the clear as far as that went. She would not have wanted to try and navigate that particular situation. 

Other-her was also researching programs and saving up money to go to school… Again. Huh. Go other-her. 

Nurse Practitioner wasn’t a bad gig at all. She could see other-her enjoying that. 

Job? Yes. School? Not at the moment. Significant other? Not right now. Pets? Nope. Hotel? Trivago. Bats? 

Not in this Gotham, apparently. 

There were no superheroes, and it wasn’t just Gotham. There were no mentions of any superheroes or vigilantes anywhere. 

No Batman, no Superman, no Justice League. 

Out of curiosity, she looked up both Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, both of whom appeared to exist in this world, albeit as normal, none-cape-wearing members of society. 

Bruce Wayne had still been orphaned, though at age nine instead of eight, and Clark Kent was a reporter for the Daily Planet. 

Since knowledge was power, and all that jazz, she looked up several other individuals. 

Lex Luthor? Not an evil megalomaniac. Just a regular billionaire with dubious ethics. 

Oliver Queen? Sold his company and was semi-retired to spend more time with his family. Huh. 

Dick Grayson? Working for the FBI as a forensic accountant. That… How did that man sit still enough to have a job like that? Wasn’t accounting, like, the desk job? He had still been adopted by Bruce Wayne though, as had Jason, Cass, Tim, Duke, and Damian. Well, Damian was referenced as being a biological child of Bruce Wayne, and… Wow. Bruce Wayne managed to get together with Talia al Ghul in this world? 

Wait. 

Bruce and Talia were married? 

A twenty-minute-long fall into a rabbit hole later and Steph could (probably) safely assume there was not a League of Assassins here either. Which was good, right? She kind of wondered how this world had a Ra’s al Ghul though since the dude was like a thousand years old and this guy was seventy-six and enjoying his retirement years in a gorgeous villa on the Amalfi Coast. So it couldn’t be the same Ra’s al Ghul…

Well, this was definitely an alternate universe and the multiverse was weird. 

And Ra’s al Ghul got to retire in Italy. So not fair. 

Shaking herself out of her al Ghul family-related research spree, she went back to looking up people she knew. And liked. 

Barbara was in Congress. Go Babs. 

Tim was working in R&D at Wayne Enterprises. That was probably a healthier career track than high school dropout teenage vigilante turned young adult vigilante slash corporate businessman. 

Selina was a film star in France? That was unexpected. 

Jason was working on a second doctorate in Human Genetics and Microbiology. Why.

Cass was in New York in her fourth season with the New York City Ballet. Steph was so proud. 

Duke was… In her contacts. Why was Duke in her contacts? Other-her did not appear to have any connection to the Waynes, but other-her knew Duke? 

Interestinger and Interestinger. 

Damian was like twelve, so he didn’t really show up in much. She wondered if this Damian still liked animals. And swords. 

It was just after 2 pm that Steph felt like she had researched enough to make it through. And by make it through she meant panic loudly on the inside because this was a world without superheroes, yes, but also a world without magic, metas, alien contact, or anything else that could offer a dimension/universe-hopping solution. 

Whatever had caused her to wind up in this world was probably not going to be an option for getting back. 

Which… Was a problem. That she could handle. After she freaked out for a few more minutes. 

Her first day of work as other-her and she had nailed it. Most of it. She had only been asked if she was doing okay by concerned coworkers eleven times, which was pretty good in her books. She just needed to go learn how to use the hospital’s electronic health records system before her next shift, no biggie. 

Day two of work went much better. She had done some minor hacking and gone over the names of everyone she was supposed to be working with (having very much regretted not doing so before her first shift), as well as any other potential pertinent information that might help her pass as Steph-of-this-universe-who-definitely-knows-what-she’s-doing. 

Day four of her alternate universe experience was spent researching Ra’s al Ghul’s career. For reasons. 

Day five was another hospital shift. She was really starting to get the hang of this. 

Day six she met up with some “friends” and didn’t make a total fool of herself. All in all a success. 

Day seven she panicked, had a minor breakdown, and still got to work ten minutes early like a boss. 

She also discovered why other-her knew Duke Thomas. 

Duke Thomas was shadowing Stephanie Brown at her work, since apparently as a high school senior he was looking at possible majors and was considering nursing or pre-med. 

Day eight she broke down again and called Duke. 

“Okay, look, I know this is going to sound entirely crazy, but something happened and I could really use some help.”

“Are you okay?”

“Uh, no, not really. Sort of? I mean I’m not bleeding out this time, so…”

The silence on the other end reminded her that this wasn’t someone who would joke about that kind of thing with her. Better save the death jokes for when she got home. 

“Right, sorry. Just freaking out here. Anyway, I’m kind of, not Steph? I mean, I am, but not this one. Sorry, I know that doesn’t make any sense, and I don’t know if anyone here even gets multiversal theory, and Bruce is not a vigilante furry, so I doubt he’s actually going to be any help, but-”

Duke cut her off, though he might have said her name a few times by that point. 

“Stephanie, look. I have no idea what you’re talking about but do you want to meet up somewhere? Tell me more about it?”

She nodded despite only being on a phone call but replied in the affirmative. 

Maybe Duke would think she was crazy, which, understandable, but she had been here just over a week and she had nothing to go on. At least confiding in someone familiar would be something different. 

“Where are you headed, kiddo?” Bruce asked. 

“Remember Stephanie? The nurse I’m shadowing over at Gotham General?”

“The ER nurse?”

“Yeah. Anyway, she just called and she sounded really freaked out. I told her I’d meet her at that diner on 9th. The one with the really good fries? Anyway, it’s going to take me longer to get there so I was just about to head out.”

Bruce frowned. “Do you think it’s going to be safe?”

“I mean, yeah? Why? Do you think it might not be?”

Bruce continued to frown but eventually shook his head. “I’m sure it’s fine. Do you want to see if one of your brothers is available? I don’t think any of them have left yet.” 

Bruce could see the small roll of Duke’s eyes but didn’t comment on it. It was better to be safe than sorry, and all his children knew that despite their occasional protests. 

“Yeah, sure. I’ll go see who’s around.”

Bruce nodded with a small smile and watched as his son made his way to the game room where his other kids present today were gathered. 

Steph didn’t tap her foot or make any other nervous gestures, but she did go through a series of breathing exercises as she waited. 

What was she thinking calling Duke? He was in high school, for crying out loud, and was not a meta or vigilante or anything like that. She couldn’t realistically expect him to be able to help in any way, and she was more likely to freak him out entirely than she was to make any progress on getting home. 

The door opened, the little bell rang, and Steph watched as Duke and Jason of all people walked in. 

This Jason was not quite as big as the one she knew, but he was impressively close. 

He also looked curious, not suspicious, which was a really good sign for her. Even if she could probably take this version of Jason easily, the guy had a vibe. It was intimidating and Steph almost wanted to congratulate him on being able to look both threatening and not at the same time. Except that would be weird. So she didn’t. 

“Hey, Stephanie, how are you doing?” Duke asked. “This is my brother, Jason. He’s the one studying-”

“More biology than I think my poor brain can handle?” Steph finished without thinking. 

Jason just huffed a laugh. “It’s not that bad,” he said. 

Despite this not being her Duke the look they shared was full of understanding. 

“‘Not that bad,’ he says,” Duke muttered loud enough to be clearly heard. 

They all started laughing at that for a brief moment before Steph sobered and looked at them both. 

“Hey, so, Stephanie,” Jason began. 

“Steph,” she said quickly before taking a breath. “You can call me Steph.”

“Steph then,” Jason said with a nod. “Duke said you called him a little earlier sounding kind of freaked out. Can you tell us what’s going on?”

She was struck at that moment by how very like Red Hood this Jason still was. She had heard Red Hood talk in that tone dozens of times to kids or victims he had been helping. It was comforting, confusing, and before she could stop herself she felt tears falling down her face. 

The look of concern on both Jason and Duke’s faces only increased. 

“Are you in some kind of trouble?” Duke asked softly. 

Steph shook her head. “Not like that,” she said. “I just-”

She took a deep breath. 

“What do you know about the multiverse?”

Duke’s face was entirely one of confusion but Jason’s eyes sharpened. She wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not, but a small little something resembling hope settled into her chest. 

“This is not how I was expecting this conversation to go,” Steph said with a wet laugh from the backseat of Jason’s car. 

Jason glanced back with a sympathizing smile. “I can’t promise we can help, but I think if anyone can, it’d be gra…”

He trailed off without saying a name. 

A little lightbulb went off in Steph’s head. 

“Your grandpa?” She asked softly. 

Jason’s head only jerked slightly. 

“Ra’s al Ghul?” She prodded.

“You know Grandpa?” Duke said with a frown, clearly trying to figure out what was going on. 

“Not really,” Steph said. “Not this one, anyways.”

“But back in your world?” Jason asked. 

“He’s kind of the semi-immortal leader of an assassin cult?”

Duke’s face was dumbstruck but Jason chuckled weakly under his breath. 

“That’s a meeting I definitely want to see,” he said. 

By the time they reached the manor, it was nearly eleven o’clock at night. Steph had already traded shifts, knowing she wasn’t going to be up for working the next morning. This would probably take a while, if what she thought was going on was, in fact, going on. 

“Well, home sweet home,” Jason said with a short laugh as they waited for the front gate to open. 

“Not unless you have a cave full of bats in the basement,” she said with a laugh. 

“Okay, I’m definitely going to need to hear that one,” Duke said. 

“Same,” Jason agreed. “Bats? Really?”

Bruce looked at the young woman walking into the kitchen with his sons. This was presumably Miss Brown, who he absolutely did not recognize from the background checks he had certainly not run of everyone that Duke would be working closely with at the hospital.

No recognition whatsoever. 

She, however, appeared to easily recognize him. And not just the “oh yeah, that’s Bruce Wayne” kind of recognition. She actually relaxed slightly upon seeing him and gave him the type of glance you give people you know well as acknowledgement. 

“Miss Brown, I presume?” he asked. 

“That sounds so weird from you,” she muttered before replying, “yeah, that’s me. Call me Steph. Please.”

Bruce nodded and turned back to his phone. 

“What time do you think we’d be able to get a hold of Grandpa?” Jason asked. 

Bruce looked right back up. 

“What?”

“Ra’s. Grandpa. When do you think he will be up?”

“I would give it about an hour before he’s awake, three before he’d answer though,” Bruce said after a pause. “Why?”

“Someone got a surprise multiverse adventure,” Jason said, jabbing a thumb in Stephanie’s direction. 

The young lady in question sputtered. 

“You can’t just throw something like that at someone,” she said, “he’s not even Batman!”

Jason gave her a smug grin.

“Okay, yes, I see how that’s a little hypocritical of me, but in my defense, I had a breakdown due to being stuck in an alternate reality with normal versions of all the people I know. I have a normal job! You all have normal jobs. Ra’s is retired. In Italy.”

Jason turned his smug grin towards Bruce. 

Bruce nodded, trying to collect his thoughts. 

“Who’s Batman?” he asked. 

Steph stared in mild horror at this universe’s version of Ra’s al Ghul. He was in shorts. She was never going to be able to unsee this. 

“I take it this early morning, or very late evening, in your case, phone call was not to inform me of an upcoming marriage? Or adoption?”

Steph’s eye twitched in a very Batman-like manner. She made it stop. She would not turn into Bruce. Any version of Bruce. 

Bruce sighed. 

“This is Stephanie Brown,” he said. “Not this universe’s Stephanie Brown.”

Ra’s al Ghul leaned back in his chair, a smoothie with a little umbrella now visible in his hand. 

Steph did not understand this universe one bit. 

“Go on,” he said, before bringing the smoothie up to his mouth for a sip. Through a bright blue straw.

The three men on her side of the video call all looked at her. On a whim and a small suspicion, she decided to treat this like a mission report. 

And so she did. 

And Ra’s listened, hmm-ing and ahh-ing at various parts, nodding along occasionally as if everything she was saying made perfect sense and didn’t sound crazy at all. Which, if her budding suspicions were right, it probably didn’t. 

Eventually, she got to the end of her tale (it only actually took a few minutes, it just felt like forever) and Ra’s took one more long sip of smoothie before setting his cup down and leaning forward towards the camera, folding his hands together and bringing them up to rest under his chin. 

“So you need a way to get back,” he said succinctly. 

“How did you end up here?” she asked, deciding to follow her hunch. 

Bruce looked surprised, Duke even more so, but Jason looked like he might pull out a bucket of popcorn at the closest opportunity. 

Ra’s gave her a small smirk and a nod. 

Ha. She knew it. 

This Ra’s wasn’t from here originally either. She suspected he had been here for quite a while if Talia’s existence was anything to go by, but his presence in this world at this point in time just hadn’t made sense. 

“Very good, my dear,” he said. 

She resisted the urge to fake gag. 

“Unfortunately I do not know the manner of my arrival here, nor do I know why you seem to have swapped places with your alternate self instead of simply appearing, however, I may be able to assist you in finding a way back to your universe of origin.”

“Wait, Grandpa’s from a different universe too?” Duke asked, though this information was obviously not a surprise for either Bruce or Jason. 

“Indeed,” Ra’s said, looking proud at Duke’s conclusion. “Although it has been many years since I arrived, I was not born in this particular universe.”

“So, you’re several hundred years old?” Steph asked. 

“Nearly eight hundred,” Ra’s said, now looking strangely proud of her as well. It was weird and she didn’t like it. 

“Whoa,” Duke said under his breath. 

“Yes, well, my particular set of talents did not prove particularly necessary in this world, at least most of the time, so my life here took a bit of a different turn, you might say.”

All of that was directed at Steph, who saw it for the inquiry it was. 

“No Leagues here?” she quipped. 

“No indeed,” Ra’s said with another smirk. 

“And no Batman,” Steph pointed out, “and no magic or aliens.”

“Aliens?” Bruce asked. 

“Magic?” Duke asked at the same time. 

“Can we circle back to the Batman thing?” Jason asked with a wide grin. 

“I’m afraid I never did meet a Batman,” Ra’s said, ignoring the others’ remarks, “but I can imagine who that might be in your world.”

Steph nodded. 

“So different universe, but the same time?”

“Yes, it does appear to have been that way for both of us,” Ra’s said with a nod. 

“But you never went back,” Steph pointed out, seeing as that little fact didn’t exactly fill her confidence that this conversation would in any way help her get back. 

“I did not have enough of a reason to,” Ra’s said. “By the time I had worked it out, I was seeking more as a matter of knowledge than of potential use.”

He had a fond sort of smile on his face. It was still weird. 

“Talia?” Steph guessed. 

“Talia,” Ra’s affirmed. 

Well, that certainly answered how long he had been here. And how long it had probably taken him to figure out multiversal travel if indeed he had. 

“So,” Jason said, once the video call was over. 

It was far into the night, not that Steph had any particular problems with being awake at that hour, but she had the feeling Jason wasn’t going to give up until he had learned all he could about Batman. 

Well, she didn’t have anything else to do at the moment. 

“Okay, so it all began on a dark and stormy Gotham night,” she began in her most dramatic voice, “with a boy and some bats.”

“She’s comfortable here,” Talia commented to her husband as they watched their three children currently at the manor laughing with the young woman her father was now coming to see. 

Bruce hmmed. 

“She knows us,” he said. “Or a version of us, at least.”

“The boys like her,” she added. 

“She’s too old to be adopted,” Bruce said with an amused huff. 

Talia smacked his chest lightly, saying, “Don’t pretend I was the one to start that particular trend, darling.”

Bruce chuckled and pulled her closer to him, bending down slightly to press a kiss to her neck. 

“I didn’t do it alone,” he pointed out. 

“Besides,” she continued, ignoring his little interjection, “there are other ways of joining a family.”

“Jason’s known her for a day,” he said with a laugh. 

“'A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step,’” she quoted in retort. “Everyone has to meet sometime.”

Bruce laughed again but didn’t respond, instead choosing to just hold her close as they continued to watch. 

“This is so weird,” Steph said, looking at Ra’s al Ghul walking up the driveway in a light-colored suit and fedora. 

“I still have so many questions,” Duke muttered. 

“I can’t believe I missed all of it,” Tim complained. 

“That’s what you get for being obsessed with beating Damian at Mario Kart,” Jason snarked. 

“He’s twelve,” Tim practically whined. “He should not be that good.”

“Hate to break it to you,” Duke said, turning a now grinning face towards Tim, “but you’re kind of getting old for video games now, aren’t you?”

“I’m twenty-four,” Tim said with an exaggerated gasp, “I’m not old.”

Steph couldn’t help but laugh at that. 

“I still don’t get how Damian is so much younger than you here,” she said. “You’re all different ages than my versions and it’s confusing.”

“Ready to go tell them all about our clearly more impressive selves?” Jason joked. 

“Oh, I’m definitely teasing them about this forever. I mean, Dick is an accountant? And Jason’s on like his fifteenth degree.”

“Fourth,” Jason said rolling his eyes.

“Practically the same thing,” Steph said with a grin. “And Tim has a normal job that normal people his age do. And Duke is actually sane instead of just pretending to be.”

They all laughed at that, Steph’s stories of her world and their counterparts there fresh on their minds.

“Wait,” Steph said, “I almost forgot to ask. Is Damian obsessed with animals and/or swords?”

The three looked at each other for a moment before laughing. 

“Absolutely,” Tim said. “On both accounts.”

“He almost got away with getting a cow,” Jason said.

“You know, my Damian does have a cow,” Steph drawled. 

“No way,” Duke said with a grin. 

“Even named it Batcow.”

The three of them all laughed loudly at that. 

“I can’t believe it,” Tim said. “No, wait, I actually can, because that’s totally something he would do here too, but I can’t believe Dad let him.”

“Pretty sure it was less ‘let’ and more ‘it could be worse.’”

“Are you ready?”

Still. Weird.

Regardless of the strangeness of this interaction, Steph nodded. 

She was very ready to get home, and, if what Ra’s had suggested and what she had been thinking was correct, other-her was probably more than ready to get back to her normal, no-superhero world. 

“I’m ready,” Steph said. 

Ra’s nodded once before pressing a button, turning up a dial, and pressing another button. 

Steph really hoped this worked.