A/N: I am re-posting this as a single one shot. It's also in my Bat Shorts. Enjoy.

Forever Thankful

By

AJ

It was Thanksgiving, a time to be thankful for what you have. There are many who see the Holiday as a means to eat a lot of turkey and watch football games. For some, it's the biggest meal that they look forward to every year. In some schools, plays are being performed about the First Thanksgiving, the first year that the Pilgrims came and survived one of the harshest winters they had ever seen. For one, Thanksgiving became just another day in the life where if he wasn't out there, someone would be, doing things to disturb other's Thanksgiving. Then there is the other, new to the household Thanksgiving was a time to get together with family, a very large family that included more than just humans. On this day, though it was the first Thanksgiving without that.

Dick Grayson woke up to the quiet peacefulness of the Manor, a peacefulness that was punctuated with the silent hitching of the sobs that he tried to muffle. Dragging himself out of bed, he went to his private bathroom, disrobed and climbed into the shower. He let the water fall on his face and down the front of his body so no one would know that he had been crying. He felt alone, but this 10-year-old boy wasn't alone. Not really. He supposed after 15 minutes he was going to have to leave the confines of the bathroom. Dick turned off the water, grabbed a nearby towel, and drying himself off, he moved back to the bedroom to find that someone had made his bed and placed out clothes for him to wear. They were the fancy kind, a button down shirt, a sweater to go over the shirt, a pair of slacks, and shoes and socks that he might have worn to church, if he ever attended. His parents would take him on Holidays like this one.

"It's so we can give thanks to all those who came before us," his father said.

"And to be thankful for what we have," his mother would add.

'Perhaps Alfred could drive me, but I don't know what church I would go to,' he thought. Then he remembered that Bruce had a small family chapel in the mansion in the West wing. Bruce had told him that his father had built the chapel in memory of all those patients he couldn't save. He wanted a reminder that he was human and humans make mistakes. Saving lives was a doctor's calling, but not all lives could be saved. Now it stood as a memorial for Bruce's parents. He had taken Dick to that chapel before his parent's funeral. Though his parents had been buried in Newtown three days after their deaths, it had been a means for him to gather his thoughts before the procession. Now Dick walked into that chapel and sat up near the front, thinking about his parents and all they had done for him before that fateful day. His thoughts though soon strayed and he started to think about the man who took him in. It started because he wanted revenge for his parent's deaths. Bruce, however, turned that anger into something more than just the need for revenge. He showed him that there were other children in the world who didn't have the means to help themselves. There were many more whose lives were forever changed because of loss. Some were able to rise above it and there were those who became so bitter that they took their anger out on the world, becoming like the very criminals that took the lives of others.

"Why do you do this?" Dick asked Bruce one day. "Why not just take revenge?"

"Because revenge doesn't ease the pain and you can't bring them back. Believe me, I thought about it. And I nearly did take revenge on the man who killed my parents. A good friend reminded me that I was better than that. And committing a crime for a crime, that's not justice."

"So, what did you do?"

"I left, then trained myself to find ways to bring justice to those who didn't have it."

"But you work outside the law?"

"Actually, I work so the law can be preserved. My methods for apprehending those criminals that the police would not be able to handle might be different, but we work toward the same ends. The police might have ended up gunning down those criminals or getting killed by them. By helping to apprehend them, and even helping to get evidence that the police might not be able to obtain, I ensure that those criminals will stay behind bars for a long time."

Dick had thought long and hard on Bruce's words and he realized he had been right. His parents would not have wanted him to take revenge. They would have wanted him to do what was right.

Dick raised his head up to the large cross that had been suspended from the ceiling. Along with the cross there was a stain glass window with a burning challis off to one side. It was a flame of hope and truth. Six months later after they had taken down Tony Zucco, Dick came to this chapel once again to gather his thoughts, and he found himself repeating the vow that he made with Batman, but this time, the vow wasn't being made out of anger. He made it out of love, love for his parents and the growing love that he had for the man who became his guardian. And today, he was here, in this place to say thanks.

"I just want to say thanks for everything. If it hadn't been for Batman saving me not only from Zucco, he saved me from myself. And even though Batman is Bruce, I want to thank Bruce for taking me in. My circus family couldn't because someone thought I was too young to be there, that they might exploit me, but . . . they didn't understand we were a family.'

Dick sniffed as a tear slipped by.

"But I have a new family, one smaller than the circus. I have Alfred and Bruce. Bruce gets so sad sometimes. I see it in his eyes, but I'm here now, and I won't let him be sad for long. He's my new Dad. I hope you won't mind me calling him that," Dick said, referring to his own father, John Grayson. "I mean, I still love you and always will, but Bruce needs me. He needs me to help him, to watch his back, and be his partner. I'm not ready to take his name yet. Maybe some day. Maybe I'll be Richard John Grayson Wayne, but not right now. I'll let him know some day. You really would like Bruce. He's not like the person he pretends to be. That's just another mask he wears. Anyway, I better go. Alfred has a big Thanksgiving Dinner planned. Don't know why, there's only the two of us, no the three of us. Even so, it's not like anyone else is going to be here. I wish . . . anyway. I'll come back another day and sit. Thanks."

Dick was about to leave when he stopped himself. "Oh, I forgot one thing. I am thankful for everyone who has gone before me, for everything I have now . . . and for . . . for Bruce and Alfred. Without them, I probably wouldn't be here, and I'll be forever thankful for that. Happy Thanksgiving."