The Grey Ghost and the Mysteries of Family

"What are you watching?"

Duke flinched at the sound of Bruce's voice, almost choking on his pop. He didn't, but it was close. "Um." How did he get so quiet? Someone that big shouldn't be so quiet.

Beside him, Dick bent backwards so that his head was laying on top of the backrest of the couch, staring at Bruce who was standing in the doorway. "Hey Bruce! Check out what Duke found!"

Just an old VHS tape, that had somehow survived Zero Year and Joker's Endgame, and moving to different foster homes, and general obsolescence. Duke had found it when he had been unpacking his stuff from storage. Then Dick had walked in, and completely freaked, insisting on watching it.

Bruce stood transfixed. He walked around the couch staring at the tv screen. "The Grey Ghost. I haven't watched this show in years." He sat down next to Dick, and watched with them until the end of the episode. "It's just as good as I remember."

Duke smiled. "Yeah. My parents were big fans too." The now-familiar pain constricted in his chest at the mention of his parents. Nothing too big, just enough to remind him that he missed them. "They kind of got me hooked."

Dick let out a laugh. "Yeah, Bruce did the same to me. This was the only thing he wanted to watch when I was growing up. He thought Animaniacs was dumb."

Duke leaned forward so he could shoot Bruce a glare, raising one eyebrow.

Bruce just shrugged. "It was."

Raising an eyebrow of his own, Dick gave Duke a 'what are you going to do about him' look. "Told you."

"Well, Bruce having no taste aside," Duke stood up, hitting eject on the VCR, "that was the only episode I had." It had been his favourite, so his mom had taped it when it had come on rerun and he'd watched it again and again. It... was a little worn out now. The quality on the tape was deteriorating. Dick hadn't minded though.

Bruce just smiled. "Luckily for you, I have them all." He stood up, typing on his phone. "Dick, go collect Damian and Stephanie please. She took him to the mall for the day. Duke, I need you to track down Jason. Ask Alfred for his current safehouses. He knows more of them than I do." And then he swept out of the room, still typing on his phone.

Duke stood stunned for a second. "Wait, so what? Why do I need to go track down Jason?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Dick reached behind the couch for a backpack. "We're having movie night."

"Yeah, I got that. But why do I have to go after Jason? Why can't you?" The second Robin wasn't a bad guy, but Duke still liked to give him his space. It was a survival thing.

"Because I'm going after Damian." He started going around the room, putting things in the backpack. Damian's sketchbook. His music player. A helmet and a tactical vest. "He just went to the mall after all. I'm probably going to have to smooth over any shoppers, shop owners, or mall security he managed to insult."

Duke thought back to the movie theater he had ended up taking Robin to, before he'd known who Robin was. The kid had managed to insult everything from the popcorn to the seats in the five minutes before the show, but afterwards, Duke had gotten the sense that he'd really enjoyed himself. He dreaded to think how the mall was faring. "Yeah, I don't think I'm up to that. Have fun."

Dick was pulling on a set of falconers gloves. "Thanks! I will!"

This family was weird. At least Alfred was normal. Sort of. Duke found him in the tea room, dusting one of the portraits on the wall. "Hey, Mr. Pennyworth?"

"Just Alfred, please Master Duke." He flicked one last speck of dust off of the frame and rubbed the area down with his polishing cloth. "How may I be of assistance?"

"Bruce wanted to do a Grey Ghost marathon with the family. I need to know where Jason is right now."

"I see." Alfred climbed down the ladder swiftly, somehow making it look dignified. How did he do that? No one could climb down a ladder with dignity. Duke's butt always stuck out too much. "Well, let's go find out, shall we?"

Alfred led him to the kitchen, opening up the massive walk-in dry goods closet. "Hm. We appear to be missing several cans of stewed tomatoes, as well as a bag of rice." He walked over to the fridge next, also massive and filled with more food than Duke knew what to do with. "The green peppers and celery too. I suggest his apartment in Burnside. It's right over a Cajun restaurant and being there for any amount of time gives him a craving for jambalaya." He wrote the address down on a sheet of paper near the phone and handed it over.

"Um, alright." Duke took the paper, but didn't look at it yet. "Jason steals food from here?"

"I suppose he does, technically. However, I have made it clear under no uncertain terms that all the food in this house if free for him to take whenever he desires it." Alfred reached into the top cupboard, grabbing out the hot air popcorn popper and setting it on the counter. "Odd as it may sound, coming into the kitchen and noticing a few missing ingredients is a relief."

"Right." Duke got it, kind of. He used to go home after school and trip over his dad's shoes in the doorway. Then one day he'd come home and there were no shoes to trip over. "Thanks Alfred. See you in a bit." And then he headed for the garage.

Bruce had offered to buy him literally any car, but they all made Duke kind of uncomfortable. What if he crashed one? Or just scratched the paint? What if he went to visit Riko, and someone stole his car? So he kept saying no to every car magazine that Bruce slid his way. Finally, he'd walked into the garage one day to find an old, beat up Chevy with only two working seat belts that barely ran. He and Bruce had spent the day fixing it up. Now it ran like a dream, but it still looked like crap.

He checked to make sure his license was in his wallet, then drove off. Burnside was a half hour drive normally, but Duke knew a short cut through Otisburg. Twenty five minutes later, he was pulling up outside the Louisiana Purchase. The address for the apartment was right next door. Takng a deep breath to brace himself, he walked towards the buzzers on the side of the building.

Jason was apartment 504. The buzzer for 504 was conspicuously absent. "Great." Hoping, he pressed the button for 506.

"Whaddya want?" The voice was gravelly and angry sounding and distinctly not Jason.

"Hey. I'm trying to get 504, but there's no button."

"Fuckin' again? Hey!" There was a loud thudding noise, that sounded like the lady was pounding on her wall. "You got a visitor you sack of crap!"

Very, very faintly, Duke heard Jason call, "Love you too Mabel!"

Mabel pounded on the wall one more time. "He'll be down in a bit." And then she hung up.

"Thanks." That was weird. Duke went back to his car and sat on the hood. With the new change in position he could see someone climb out of a window on the fifth floor and start scaling down the drain pipe. When the person got to the third floor, Duke was able to make out his face. "Jason?"

Jason slipped a bit, dropping half a story before getting his grip back. "Oh, hey Duke!" He climbed down the rest of the way, then walked over to Duke, dusting off his jacket. "Why didn't you say it was you?"

"Who did you think it was going to be? Any why did you take the drain pipe?!"

"Fire escape's busted. The platforms are fine, but the stairs are rusted through."

And yeah, now that Duke was looking they did look pretty rusty. "Shouldn't someone report that? It's not really safe."

Jason shrugged. "Yeah, we did. Landlord doesn't care. And to answer your other question, last week I kicked nine kinds of crap out of the local street thugs. Thought they might have wanted payback. And before you ask, I was in my civvies when it happened, and the Purchase told me that if I got into another fight outside their restaurant, they weren't going to give me anymore sassafras. They get theirs from New Orleans, and it's the best."

Duke knew for a fact that he could just go to New Orleans himself and get his own sassafras, but he also wasn't going to ask. "Good to know. So Bruce is having a Grey Ghost marathon at the manor. Do you wanna come?"

"Really?" Jason perked up, giving a nostalgic smile. "Yeah I do. But only if we get to the episode where they introduce Clancy. I love Simon Trent, but Clancy is the best character on that show. Well, second best. But Claire doesn't show up until season three."

"We're going to have to agree to disagree on that one." Duke and Jason got in the car, Duke starting it up when Jason fastened his belt. "Don't get me wrong, Claire was fantastic as Wisper, and Reaper was a great counterpoint to Grey Ghost."

"All true."

"But Kitt Terra was the best character on the show." Dark Owl was the best. She was morally grey, charismatic, and had more than a few stories where she wasn't just Grey Ghost's love interest.

Jason considered it. "Ok, I can see it. Dang, that puts Clancy down to third."

"Claire, Kitt, Clancy?" Duke guessed.

"Yup."

They continued chatting (geeking out, if Duke was being honest) about the show until they pulled into the garage. Before he had the engine shut off, Jason was out of the car and headed for the kitchen, tossing a, "Good talk Duke," over his shoulder as he went.

Duke was just closing his door when Dick's car pulled in. It was nicer than Duke's, but nowhere close to Bruce's cheapest car. It was also an awful shade of bright blue. Normally, blue didn't have bad shades, but this one was so bright it hurt Duke's eyes.

Before he could ask how the mall had gone, Damian had stomped past him and into the manor, slamming the door behind him. "That bad, huh?"

Steph looked a little frazzled, but otherwise otherwise un-maimed. "It was going really well until we stopped for lunch and the waitress gave him a children's menu without asking."

He winced in sympathy. That had gotten bad enough reactions when Damian had been twelve. Now that he was thirteen and technically too old for the children's menu... "Ouch. Did the waitress make it out ok?"

Dick shrugged and lead them into the manor. "She was crying when I got there, but I managed to put a smile back on her face. The restaurant owner even promised not to press charges."

"Yeah, but we're banned for life now." Steph pouted. "That was my favourite Lebanese place."

Duke patted her shoulder in sympathy. It was all he could do. Except maybe help her with her make up when she inevitably decided to disguise herself and sneak back in.

When they got to the theater (and the manor had a theater. A. Theater.), Bruce, Cass, and Tim were already there, Tim and Cass sitting and Bruce trying to hook up the DVD player to the television. Tim looked well rested, which was weird, and also mad at Cass, which was weirder. Cass noticed his confusion, of course, and said, "I did a nerve strike on him yesterday. He had a full twelve hours of sleep."

"Yeah, and I missed four board meetings!"

"You'll have to make them up later Timmy." Dick ruffled his brother's hair and sat next to him. "After Bruce has a word with your secretary about your schedule."

Bruce was saved from having to answer by Damian stomping into the room, Alfred the Cat close at his heels. He flopped in the seat next to Dick, pulling up his legs to sit crosslegged, and crossing his arms too. The cat hopped into his lap and started purring. "So, what monstrosity are we watching today?"

Oh good, he was in a good mood. Duke just rolled his eyes and sat next to Cass, letting Steph explain as she sat on Duke's other side. "The Grey Ghost. It's a little campy, and you'll probably hate the action, but it's got great humor. I think you'll like it."

"Yes Grayson, because I am known for my love of humor." But Damian had uncrossed his arms and was petting Alfred the Cat. Duke knew that soon, the cat would have relaxed Damian enough for him to be happy and content and much less critical of the show. Clearly, Alfred the Cat was a mad genius.

The door to the theater opened once again, letting Alfred the Butler and Jason in, wheeling a cart filled with goodies behind them. "Alright nerds. We've got milkshakes, popcorn, and miscellaneous snacks." Jason handed out the milkshakes, chocolate to Cass, vanilla to Tim and Damian, bubble-gum ice cream to Dick and Steph, strawberry for Duke, claiming a chocolate one for himself and sitting next to Steph.

Alfred handed out bags of Skittles and bite sized chocolates, then handed a bowl of popcorn to everyone. They had to have individual popcorn, or there would be fighting. Duke shuddered to remember the popcorn fight of '16. He'd barely come home from that war. "Remember children, this is for tonight only. It is not permission to spoil your diets with this junk on a daily basis."

There was a chorus of, "Yes Alfred!" Alfred nodded, sitting on the end and leaving the spot between him and Damian open for Bruce.

Bruce stood up from the DVD player and took his seat, grabbing his own vanilla milkshake and assorted snacks from Alfred. "Let's get started then."

He hit a button on the remote and the television turned on. After a long moment of darkness, the screen brightened to grey, the title card announcing, Beware the Grey Ghost.

AN: Welcome to Batfam Week! Until Sunday, I will be posting a story a day following one of the prompts for the week. This one is Family, and my first attempt at writing Duke!

This is also a homage to the late great Adam West, who played Batman in the 1966 series and The Grey Ghost in the Animated Series. In the episode he appeared in, it was just the Grey Ghost in his series, but I added more characters based on the '66 Batman. Full cast below.

For Gen Batfam Week, I'm also taking prompts. Message me if you have something you want me to write. Since it's Gen, and since I don't write romance anyways, no shippy stuff.

Read and enjoy! Loxie out!

Credits:

Simon Trent/Grey Ghost – West Adams

Clancy Johnson/Reaper – Ward Burton

Claire Barber/Wisper – Yvette Craine

Kitt Terra/Dark Owl – Sandy Kitner