Chapter 1

Dick groaned, slumping further into his couch, when his comm started lighting up from where it was sitting next to his feet on his coffee table.

"I literally just sat down," he complained, running his hands over his face, as he removed his belt and gun, without getting up. "What could they possibly need from me?" he cleared his throat, and shook his head. "No, that's right. They don't need Richard Grayson. No, the only reason any of them contact me is because they need Nightwing. Not Dick. Not anymore."

Dick sighed, "Sometimes I wonder why I wanted to be a police officer in Bludhaven of all places."

Taking a deep breath, and bracing himself for whatever the League could want from him, Dick picked up his comm, placed it in his ear, and answered it.

"Grayson," he said simply, trying not to make it sound like he was available, but at the same time, not trying to sound rude, just in case it was Tim contacting him.

"Nightwing," Batman's gruff voice came over the connection, and Dick immediately wanted nothing to do with whatever Bruce wanted.

"Yeah Bats?" he asked respectfully.

"The team is requesting your presence and assistance on their mission."

"Which is?" Dick prompted. There was a slight amount of anger lacing his tone, and Dick hoped Bruce hadn't noticed.

"They're going to covertly," he put emphasis on the word 'covertly', "investigate Queen Bee in Bialya, and they want your help."

Dick was silent for a few seconds as he debated the pros and cons. FInally, he spoke, keeping his tone simple.

"Who's going?"

"Red Hood, Robin, and your old team. It's a week long mission."

"That's a lot of people," Dick commented, finally forcing himself to get off the couch, and move to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. "A lot of people with a lot of experience. I don't exactly understand why you need my help."

Bruce gave a loud huff across the line, and Dick could tell he was annoyed. It took everything the twenty-three year old had not to break down laughing.

"You're the best hacker we have, and they asked for you by name," Bruce explained. "When you left for Bludhaven two years ago you said that you'd help us as Nightwing whenever we needed you, and yet every time we've asked, you've turned us down."

"I've been busy," Dick stated.

"That's a lie, and you and I both know it," Bruce said, calling him out on it. Dick sighed.

"Look, Bruce-"

"No name's," he interrupted. "Anyone could be listening."

Dick rolled his eyes. "Alright then, Batman. Maybe if you gave me a reason to work with everyone then I wouldn't keep turning you down."

"You have a duty-"

"You were suffocating!" Dick shouted, cutting him off. "Constantly checking on me, asking if I was okay. I barely had a minute to myself! And every single one of you looked at me like I might break at the slightest insult!" His voice got dark, and more menacing as he went on, and Batman was reminded of how Jason had reacted when he'd left home as well. Only his anger had ended in the deaths of hundreds of innocents. But they'd only been shot. They hadn't suffered. Dick's anger would be so much worse.

"I will not work with people who refuse to treat me as an equal. Make the team swear they'll treat me like they did before my coma, and maybe, maybe, I'll help. But I will not make you any promises, especially when I know I can't keep them. Unlike you."

Before Bruce had a chance to say anything, Dick pulled the comm out of his ear, and ended the conversation, before throwing the earpiece across the room as hard as he could. He took a few shuddering breaths, before turning back to his coffee, and taking a sup of the burning liquid, not even flinching when it scorched his throat.

He was too numb.

Bruce sighed, and calmly removed his own earpiece.

"What did Dick say?" Tim asked. Bruce waited a beat before turning around to face the team.

"He's unavailable at the moment, but he wishes you luck." he lied, not wanting to break the truth to his youngest.

"Man," Wally huffed, as he followed everyone to the bioship. "I was hoping to talk with him."

"I miss him," Tim said quietly, and that drew everyone's attention. "He keeps saying he's busy, but he always has time to return my calls."

"Maybe he just makes time," Kaldur suggested, as they got on their way to Bialya. "You are his brother after all."

"I know," Tim said. "I just...I'm worried about him, you know? Those memories of Slade are going to come back sooner or later, and when they do, he's going to find out we lied to him about being in a coma."

"So he'll be a little upset," Jason said, as he covered his eyes with his domino mask. "He'll get over it. You know how he is."

"Have you ever seen him angry, Jason?" Tim asked. Jason frowned at his replacement.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "He gives everyone the silent treatment."

"That's his silent anger," Tim explained. "His silent anger usually leads to his loud anger if he's not calmed down in time."

"Loud anger?" M'gann questioned. Tim gave her a pitying look.

"If you've never seen his loud anger...you're lucky."

"What?" Wally asked, laughter in his voice. "Does he just shout some curse words, and throw some batarangs around?"

"He almost killed the Joker," Tim said seriously. "And by 'almost' I mean the man needed five blood transfusions, and was in a full body cast for six months, and a coma for ten months, and not to mention Batman had to take Nightwing down with two tranquilizers. He was pretty pissed when he woke up too, and almost beat Batman into unconsciousness. God, I've never seen that much blood in the batcave."

"Wait, Nightwing did all that?" Wally asked, shock in his voice. "There's no way."

"Why do you think Bruce refuses to tell Dick anything about Tony Zucco? Dick practically sees red whenever he hears the man's name, and I've seen him break the skin on his knuckles of both hands from hitting the punching bag, and pretending it's Zucco."

"But...the punching bag would have come off its chain, correct?" M'gann asked. Tim shook his head.

"When Dick's in one of those moods, he uses Superman's punching bag, and even then I've seen him knock that one off its chain too."

The bioship went silent at the realization that Nightwing's anger strength was almost as strong as a kryptonians normal strength. No one said anything after that.

About half an hour later, M'gann spoke up in a soft voice.

"We're approaching Bialya,"

Less than two minutes after she said it, Robin's comm went off. He sent everyone weary glances, as he answered, and Superboy listened in.

"Hello?" Robin asked. There was a snicker from the other end.

"When is your team getting here? I've been waiting for almost an hour."

"Wing?" Robin asked in shock, quickly connecting his comm to the bioship speaker(1) so everyone else could hear. "I thought you weren't coming."

Nightwing sighed. "I wasn't going to," he admitted. "But I haven't seen you guys in awhile, so I thought I'd pitch in. Besides, work was slow last night and I kinda need to jump around if you know what I mean. ADHD and all that."

"You don't have ADHD," Robin pointed out. Nightwing snorted.

"No, but I don't like staying still for too long. You know that."

"It's a wonder he hasn't been killed yet," Jason muttered.

"Aw come on Hood," Nightwing said, a grin in his voice. "Lighten up, would you? And if you're so desperate to see me dead, why don't you just shoot me?"

Everyone froze, and stared at one another in silent horror, as they recalled two years before, when Jason had shot Dick. As far as they knew, however, Nightwing had no memory of that time. When no one said anything, Nightwing spoke up.

"Guys?" he asked. "It was just a joke. No need to get all serious on me."

Everyone laughed uneasily, and Robin could all but see his brother rolling his eyes.

"ETA five minutes," M'gann said. She heard Nightwing sigh.

"Thank God," he said, laughing slightly. "I think I'm getting dehydrated waiting for you out here. Contact me when you land, and I'll find you."

"Got it," Tim agreed. "Robin out."

"Do you think he remembers?" Jason asked as soon as Robin had cut the connection. "That I...shot him?"

Robin sighed. "I don't know. He said it was a joke, but he always jokes when he's uncomfortable...I really hope he doesn't remember."

"We all do," Aqualad said, placing a hand on Robin's shoulder. "However, while we're with him today, we need to make sure we treat him the way we always have. We don't want him getting suspicious."

"Because that wouldn't end well for anyone," Robin mumbled.

Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of the sequel. I certainly enjoyed writing it. So what do you think? Does Dick remember, or was he really just making a joke?

Leave your answers, or any questions you have, as a review, and I'll contact you as soon as I can.

ALSO, I cannot thank Nightcrawler509 ENOUGH for helping me plan out this sequel! PLEASE go check out their work, because I have, and it's amazing!

Until next time!

DWPJ