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saffronaa · 5 days ago

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This is Home- a Batfamily fic about Cassandra Cain and Barbara Gordon

A short Cass-centric fic I wrote over many short breaks at work! A friend has been liveblogging Cass' original Batgirl series and it makes me so emotional about her relationship with Babs. I have ideas for more little vignettes, so please let me know if you like this, it'll help motivate me.

This is Home

Barbara was mad at her, she could tell. Mad at her for having such a bad brain. Mad because she couldn’t read, that when she sounded out the words, they were heavy on her tongue. And even as she strained, she could not connect them to the scratchy marks on the page.

Cass had hardly ever seen her this angry. Her eyes were flashing, her teeth were grinding so hard she might file them down to nubs and her muscles were coiled and tense like she wanted to hit something. Like she could punch through a brick wall right now.

“Let’s take a quick break,” she said abruptly, wheeling away.

Cass had to do something. She slowly trudged after her, and found Babs in the simulation room. Her back was turned, and her shoulders were shaking. Cass’s throat was dry, her tongue like glue. She gulped.

“I’m sorry…” she spoke, her voice small. “I know it’s…I’m sorry for being so stupid. We don’t have to…keep doing this.”

Babs straightened up, and wheeled around so quickly Cass took a step back.

“Cass, no. You’re not stupid! I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at what he did to you. Your father.”

And it was true. Cass could see it now. Barbara’s anger was turning to sadness, distress. The slight slump of her shoulders, the tilt of her head, the twist of her lips.

“You…you missed out on so much. When I think—” Babs breathed in. “When I think of all the books you could have read. That you could have loved. That you didn’t even get the comfort of a parent reading to you at bedtime as a child…it… I want to make up for it, but I don’t know what to do, sometimes. And I’m sorry about that.”

“Um…” Cass shuffled her feet awkwardly. “I know I’m not…good enough yet. But…if you want…do you want to read to me? Sometimes?”

And just like that, Barbara’s entire body screamed delight. She actually clapped her hands. Cass loved seeing that feeling on her.

“I’d love that! What kind of book do you want me to read?”

“Um. I…want to be a better detective. So…that guy? You and Bruce, um, quote him sometimes. Sher---” Cass trailed off, trying to remember. It was a weird name.

“Sherlock Holmes?” Even more delight. It flowed into Cass, and filled her with warmth. “Oh yes! I think you’d really like it.”

Babs read to her that night. Cass liked the way her voice sounded when she read. It was…powerful, almost. Full of life.

When she finished, Cass said, “That was cool. How everything came together. He, um, reminds me of Bruce.”

“Because he’s not much of a feelings guy?” Babs laughed.

“Yeah. But the way he thinks so quick…it’s hard to keep up…that reminds me of you.”

Babs laughed again “That’s flattering! I’ll try to explain my thought process to you more.”

“Are there…any other book detectives?’

“Oh yes. Tons. I loved Nancy Drew as a kid. And Miss Marple.”

“Cool. If you want…I can listen to those too.”

Babs grinned. “You know, as much as I wish you’d gotten these experiences before now…it’s nice to see you discover all these new things.”

“I like you showing me.” And it was true. It was the first time Cass had been excited over all the things she still had to learn.

---

Babs reading to her became a regular thing after that. When Cass told Steph about it, she insisted on getting in on that too. “You will love Dracula. Super spooky, you’ll totally vibe with it.”

When Steph read, she liked to do dumb voices. It annoyed Babs, and Cass could barely stifle her laughter watching them argue.

“That sounds nothing like a Transylvanian accent, Stephanie.”

“You’re just mad because you can’t do voices.”

“Excuse me? I’m a former librarian. I read to children all the time, and they loved my voices.”

“Fine,” Steph tossed the book to her. “I challenge you to a voice off. Show me your incredible Transylvanian accent. Cass, you’re the judge.”

After a full hour of competing, Cass said “Babs has more voices. And they’re more, um, real. But Steph’s are funnier. I can’t choose.”

“See?” Steph said. “Being funny is the most important thing.”

“Not for a horror novel!” Babs shot back.

Please, Dracula is part comedy. Anyway, I bet those kids at the library would love my voices way more than yours.”

“Come to the library reading circle and find out.”

“Fine, I will.”

Babs’ arms were crossed and her face was scrunched up. She was sulking like she did whenever she didn’t win, and it had Cass giggling into her hand. She never would have thought it when she first met her, but Babs could be such a kid sometimes.

---

“Babs,” she said innocently one day, offering a book. “I’m having trouble with this. Read it?”

Babs narrowed her eyes at The Da Vinci Code and pursed her lips. “No. I refuse.”

“Oh.” Cass gave her best puppy dog eyes. “Guess I miss a chance to learn.”

“Uh-uh. I see what you’re doing, and it won’t work.”

“Deprived of an education,” Cass shook her head sadly. (She was very familiar with this phrase because Stephanie said it a lot, whenever Cass didn’t know about some movie or show or meme. She’d recently said it in regards to Spongebob Squarepants.) “Poor me.”

Babs put her head in her hands. “You’re not going to give up on this, are you?”

Cass nodded.

“Ugh,” Babs pinched the bridge of her nose. “You win, give it to me.”

Cass was fascinated with the way Barbara’s eye twitched as she read. She’d never heard Babs’ voice drip with so much disdain, even when she was interrogating a supervillain or talking to Green Arrow*. Babs interrupted herself a lot to rant about bad writing and inaccuracies— “Haereticus is ancient Greek, not Latin!” She was especially livid about lines like “his eyes went white, like a shark about to attack".

“I can’t even start with how horrible that mixed metaphor is!” She snarled.

Eventually she slammed the book shut. “Cass, do you seriously like this?”

“No.”

“Then why—”

“I like seeing how mad you get.”

Babs groaned. “You know I set up all your government records, right? I could legally change your name to “Little Shit”.

“That just my first name? Can my last name be a really bad word? Like—"

“You’re killing me, kid.”

Cass bought Babs more bad books after this, and she could somehow always talk Babs into reading them. It was good for Babs, Cass decided, to get mad at books sometimes. She clearly enjoyed it deep down. Cass was doing her a favor.

---

Cass noticed she could learn things about people from what books they liked. Steph was the one who introduced her to fantasy and sci-fi, which Cass found strange at first, all these things that didn’t really exist, but soon she found she liked thinking about things that didn’t exist. Steph also knew about all the cool girl fighters in books, she read Cass the Tortall books early on. Steph also liked horror, which Cass found funny considering she was constantly accusing everyone else of being creepy. When she pointed it out, Steph shrugged. “I mean, it’s no surprise, right? Obviously I appreciate creepiness sometimes, look at the company I choose to keep.”

Babs seemed to like mysteries, and sometimes read to Cass about history or real science. She also liked science fiction that “realistically explained” the advanced technology. Steph called it “hard sci-fi” and Cass thought that was a good name for it, because it was pretty hard to not to get bored when Babs read it.

Babs must have told Alfred about the reading, because he started to offer when she was injured. He read Alice in Wonderland first, and moved onto other fairytales. He told her “I read all these to Master Bruce as a child before... well, before decided I should stop. I know you’re not a child anymore, but I think it important to have a bit of whimsy.”

A lot of the things Alfred liked weren’t a surprise, like Shakespeare. But sometimes he’d pull out a wild card, like when he read her Artemis Fowl. He approved of Butler being so important to the story.

Alfred must have “greatly encouraged” (this was what Alfred called it when he told Bruce what to do) Bruce to read to her when he was absent, because one day when she was recovering from a bullet wound in the cave and Alfred was off visiting a friend, Bruce mumblingly asked her if she wanted him to.

Bruce did like mysteries and nonfiction, but Cass was delighted to discover he also like grand adventures with sword fighters, pirates, knights fighting dragons…The Three Musketeers was the first thing he read to her. The way Bruce read the words was stiff sometimes, and he didn’t do the emotions as well as Babs and Steph. But Cass didn’t care. He was content when he read to her, and that made it sound nice.

Dick never read to her, but he liked to tell stories from memory, usually fairy tales or weird adventures. His voices were as funny as Stephanie’s.

With the others, she just talked to them about books. But she could still see new sides to them that way. For example, Jason liked classics, he appreciated a good romance, and could go on forever about Jane Austen and Alexandre Dumas (Cass wondered if Bruce had read him The Three Musketeers too, back when he was a kid, but she knew better than to ask). Tim liked sci fi and comics. With Damian it was hard to tell because he just chose whatever books he thought were the most impressive. Cass had caught him reading a manga called Fruits Basket once though, and he’d reluctantly explained to her about reading right to left.

And so she made a habit of asking everyone she knew. Learning about people through their favorites—it was one way of being a detective.

---

Cass could read now. She still struggled occasionally, but she could connect the sounds to the letters easily.

She could read now, but when Babs said, “Well, I guess you probably don’t need me to read to you any—"

“Can we,” Cass interrupted. “Can we keep doing it? Don’t tell the others but… when you read, it’s my favorite.”

Babs blinked rapidly. She was trying not to cry, but her body said she was happy. She put her arm around Cass. “Of course. I didn’t want to stop either.”

That night, Cass curled up with Babs on the couch, and let her voice wash over her. She thought the words she hadn’t told Babs, because she didn’t need to, because Babs already knew.

This is ours. This is home.

---

Tons of Authors notes!

*Babs not liking Green Arrow is canon. She claims it's for his many sins against Dinah, which is probably true, but it also definitely because she doesn't want him to steal her gf. She spent a HUGE amount of time trying to convince Dinah not to marry him.

-I was thinking of going with Twilight with the "bad book" but that's pretty overdone, as funny as Babs reactions might be. So I had to go through famously bad books and find another one I've actually read--I did technically read The Da Vinci Code when I was a kid though I was too young to think it was bad and don't remember much about it. Based on research, Babs would hate it though, so it works.

-As for everyone's literary tastes, a lot of it does come from the comics, mostly the post-reboot comics for Steph but I will happily adopt it-- Dracula is her confirmed favorite book, she's seen reading The Dispossessed etc. Jason's reading taste definitely also has the most comics basis, he's famously into Jane Austen and had mentioned Alexander Dumas, and it tends to be classics he references. Alfred really did read Bruce Alice in Wonderland when he was a kid, and mention that he was reading Artemis Fowl, which is incredible, a rare W from Grant Morrison. I figure Bruce likes swordfighting adventure tales with the whole The Mark of Zorro thing, and idk there are a lot of Batman comics he's probably referenced the Three Musketeers somewhere.

Tim is seen reading comics in the well, comics and well. his friends like sci-fi. I think he probably does too? Been a long time since I read Robin.

Damian reading manga (what appears to be shoujo manga too) really tickles me. I think he'd like Fruits Basket, (the animals! The family drama he can relate to!) though if anyone asks he'd call it stupid and overly sentimental, then go back to reading it voraciously.

-As for the fic itself, I always thought it was shame we didn't get more of Cass learning to read and familiarizing herself with books-- though I think they showed more of that in the Rebirth/Infinite Frontier era, but I'm drawing from the preboot universe. I started thinking about moments between her and Babs

There is a fight between Babs and Cass that probably wouldn't have happened with the version of Babs I've established in this fic...but I always thought that fight was OOC forced drama that was probably editorial mandate to isolate both of them, so who cares.

-A lot of people in that poll thing were saying they'd read Cass fic if there was any. Let's see if that's true.

-Again, I might do more of these vignettes in the future so let me know if you like them!

#dc

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