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Jason was the first member of The Dead Birds Club. The bomb went off in that building and the next thing he remembered was waking up in his own coffin. He remembered screaming his head off and trying to dig his way out with his belt buckle and strong arms pulling him out of his own early grave. Then he remembers the cave and questions- a lot of questions- and entirely too much hugging if he was being completely honest. Then he remembers tea and a pinprick in his arm and Alfred shoving Bruce out of the med room. Then nothing else until the next morning when Dick showed up. That was when he found out that he’d died. That he’d been dead for six months. That was a traumatizing conversation for everyone involved. It took awhile for him to come to terms with his death, with the scars he had from that crowbar breaking skin and the weird ways his bones sometimes moved now. He did come to terms with the changes though. Sometime after finding out the Joker had died (Bruce keeps swearing he didn’t do it, but there’s no way golden boy Dick killed him and he died way too soon after Jason’s death for it to be a coincidence) and before he went out again he learned that he could really creep people out with how he moved now. Almost as much as Dick freaked him out at first.
Dick died two years later in Blüdhaven, not in nearly as big a way as Jason did. He died on shift at the Blüdhaven Police Department. Shot in an alley. It didn’t feel real until Bruce had brought his body back to the cave and Jason saw him lying on the morgue table and was suddenly struck by the fact that everyone else had seen him in the exact same way as Dick. Pale, lifeless, dead. It was terrifying, seeing his big brother killed by something that could have happened a million times over to anyone else. Bruce had to drag him back to the manor that night. Jason screamed the next morning when he went down to see him one last time and found Dick sitting up on the table wrapping his own, decently healed, wound. Bruce found them two hours later with Jason’s head in Dick’s lap, both of them half asleep. He’d stared at them for 20 minutes before Dick dragged him over and they practically became a cuddle pile. Well as much as this particular group of people ever could.
After their deaths both Jason and Dick found that they did not have the pull to leave Gotham as much as they had before. In fact, when Dick had tried to go back to Blüdhaven under the premise that it still needed its protector, they found out that they couldn’t leave anymore. Cars broke down half a mile out of town, they would get called back for an Arkham breakout, or, on one particular occasion where they’d been determined to prove they could leave after failure after failure, They both dropped dead on the side of the road and their hearts didn’t start again until they were back in the cave. The only reason they hadn't been found by a civilian was because after Dick’s death he’d made trackers that tracked vitals as well as location and had brought them back decently quickly. He hadn’t let either one of them leave the manor during the day for a while after that.
In order to maintain some sense of control over their lives Dick and Jason had created The Dead Bird’s Club. Membership only to be given to any bird (NOT Bat, just give it up Bruce you’re not getting invited) upon being dead for at least a day. At first it had been a joke. Jason had said it when the two had been paired up to go on patrol for the first time since Dick’s resurrection. They did not go on patrol that night. Bruce made them both stay back for that comment which only made them want to use it more. Especially when Tim started as Robin and would follow them everywhere he could. He’d ask to come somewhere and Jason would say it was a Dead Bird’s Club thing. Dick would come into the library and drag Jason away yelling about Dead Bird’s Club business while Jason desperately tried to save his spot in the book before he lost it.
It only gained in use when Tim died in Jake Kane’s drone attack. When Bruce was finally able to get his body back to Gotham they had all sat around his body for days, waiting for another miracle. Nobody knew why Jason and Dick came back, no amount of testing showed traces of anything. They couldn’t even find traces of magic to give some hint of what had brought them back. Given that Dick had only taken a day of being in Gotham to come back and it had taken Jason six months they didn’t really have a timeline on death to resurrection. It took almost a week before anyone left his side. Alfred went upstairs to cook, Dick had gone up for a change of clothes, Bruce was scrolling on the bat computer looking at some of the cases that had started to come in in the week they’d been fine, and Jason was slowly starting to nod off for one of the first times since Tim’s death. That was of course when Tim finally woke up. In fact, in true Tim fashion, he’d made it to the bat computer and was scrolling through his own cases before Bruce even realized he was up. Bruce had to lock him out of it before Tim finally let them run his vitals and check him over.
Once it could be used as a way to keep Bruce out specifically it was used very often. Nightmares were suddenly Dead Birds Club business. Random ice cream trips, sparring sessions, and even fast food runs on patrol were DBC specific. Bruce and Alfred were the only ones who could leave Gotham now, they could at least have this.
When Damian appeared, use dropped off. It was still used, in fact sometimes it was used specifically to piss off Damian, just a little bit. Even if he never let it show, it was something they had to use against him. As older brothers it was their job to mess with him at least a little.
When Damian died everyone expected him to be up again in a day. He had been killed by a clone of his. One who the rest of the family found dead 3 days later. His death had been… different though. A week passed, then three, then a month and still no sign that he was coming back. They were starting to lose hope that he would come back. Maybe their luck had finally run out and he would be the first to stay dead. After all, he was the fourth bird to die. Maybe Gotham was tired of bringing them back and decided that this one would stay dead as a warning that she wouldn’t always protect them. Dick, Jason, and Tim had all decided after a month that they would retire The Dead Birds Club. They could always reinstate it should another member join them, but it was more painful than comforting now. What was intended as a way for them to reclaim some little freedom was now a reminder that they had an eternally dead bird instead of a new member. A reminder that even if they did come back, mortality was always an option for those around them.
It wasn’t until three months after Damian’s death that all four of the remaining bats and birds went patrolling again. When the group finally made their way back into the cave they found Damian sharpening his swords by the computer. He started in on them about their patrol and how they could be better, as if nothing had ever happened. Bruce had insisted on his normal tests, checking his wounds and vitals, before finally going up to the manor after Damian told him he had yet to tell Alfred about his resurrection. Dick and Tim soon followed after him, leaving Jason alone with him while he put away his swords. Jason could only think to say one thing to him before they went upstairs.
“Welcome to the Dead Birds Club, kid.”
Jason hoped he wasn’t imagining the ghost of a smile that went across Damian’s face before they finally went upstairs for ice cream. Resurrection always called for dessert before dinner.