logicalbookthief asked: For the angst prompts, maybe an insecure Dick saying #5 to Bruce or thinking it to himself?

This is set directly after Forever Evil issue 7. It's also me pointing a big middle finger to Nightwing #30 (N52). Enjoy some angst.

"Dick," Bruce says, turning to where his son is dozing on a cot in the medbay. Dick blinks at him sleepily, and Bruce knows it's probably the worst time to have this conversation, but it has to be now Before anyone realizes what Bruce has taken advantage of. "We need to talk."

Dick seems to force himself to look more alert, but he doesn't try to get up, and for once, Bruce lets him stay that way. After all, just hours ago, Bruce hadn't thought that Dick was going to be back in the Cave at all.

"About?" Dick croaks.

Bruce hesitates, before he plows on. "There's a mission I need you to finish for me."

Dick blinks again, a confused frown pulling down his lips. "A mission?" he asks. "What kind of mission?"

"I need you to infiltrate a certain organization," Bruce tells him.

"Undercover?"

"No," Bruce sighs, covering one of Dick's hands with his own and squeezing gently. "Not undercover. As you. As Dick Grayson."

Dick's eyebrows furrow. "But, my mask—"

"You're dead, Dick," Bruce interrupts, because this needs to be said, and it needs to be said quick. Alfred will only leave him alone for so long while he thinks Bruce is grieving. They don't have much time. "The world thinks you're dead. We can take advantage of that and send you—"

"This better be a joke," Dick whispers. There's something in his eyes that Bruce has seen over and over again since Dick was just a kid. It's anger and betrayal, and it's Bruce that keeps bringing that look back. "You can't be serious. You want me to stay dead?"

"Yes," Bruce says, because it's true. He wants to take this opportunity and turn it into a win. "I do."

"After everything we just went through?" Dick asks. "You want to put our family through the pain they went through with Damian? You want them to feel like that again?!"

"Dick—"

"You," Dick says over him, "You're everything to me, Bruce. And yet, it's like I'm nothing to you. Like our family is nothing!"

"I'm doing this to save our family," Bruce snaps, and before Dick can get another word in, Bruce continues, "This is the only way, Dick. There's a chance that they know our identities, and you're the only one I trust enough with something like this."

"But Tim and—"

"They'll survive," Bruce says. It's harsh, but it's necessary. Even when his heart hurts at Dick's wince. "And it's just until the mission is complete. Then you can come home."

Dick's lip trembles, and he covers his eyes with his free hand. When Dick speaks again, there's a shakiness to his voice, the same that had been there when Bruce had first seen Dick after his unmasking, when Bruce had come in to see his son strapped to a bomb without a single hope of getting out alive.

"I don't want to do this, Bruce," Dick says. "Please don't make me do this."

Bruce squeezes Dick's hand tightly, and he hates it when he responds, "Just until the mission is finished. Then—Then you can come home again, Dick."

Dick sobs, and Bruce can't do anything but hold his sons hand and pretend that he knows that everything will work itself out.