Title: Whisper Me Words Of Comfort
Rating: T
Word Count: 5,900+
Characters: Dick/Barbara, Bette, Artemis
Summary: He takes her, anyway, because he probably remembers the look on her face when she was left in the horror of trying to figure out where her best friend disappeared to in the middle of the chaos.
Prompt: #159: brave
Other Inspirations: none
Note: I had a Robin-centric one that I wanted to have finished by "Performance", but it's ending up a lot longer than just the one chapter I thought it was going to be so I decided to finish the Barbara-centric one first because it's been a while since I wrote with her. I'll admit my Chalant-shipper heart felt like I was betraying them, though. Ah, the disadvantages of multishipping!
Anyway.
Whisper Me Words Of Comfort
Barbara isn't afraid of a lot of things.
She's not even afraid of the dark, though she has a nightlight. She's afraid of what she hears going on in the city, because there's always a lot of noises and none of them are pleasant, and at least if they wake her up in the middle of night then she won't have to sit and stare at the black nothingness as she listens.
Anyway.
One night there's a really loud crash that wakes her up, and then car alarms start going off and people are yelling at each other, and she can't get back to sleep.
Her parents come to check on her a minute later, and she scoots aside to give her dad room on her little twin-sized mattress while her mom goes to the kitchen to make tea. He sets his big hand over her head and strokes hair a little bit, because she's like her mother and likes it when her hair gets played with, and she snuggles against his chest.
"It's okay to be scared," he tells her, but she just shakes her head because no, it's not okay. She doesn't like feeling afraid of anything. He just laughs when she says this. "Why not?"
"Because!" she exclaims, like it should be obvious. "It's childish. You're not afraid of anything."
"First of all, you are a child." She huffs, and he chuckles and ruffles her hair. "And second of all, that's not true. There are a lot of things I'm afraid of."
"You don't act afraid."
"I have you to be strong for." He grins. "And your mother, too. She's a grown woman, and she's still afraid of everything."
Barbara giggles and pulls the covers up higher. "I want to be brave, just like you."
He kisses her forehead. "You don't have to be."
(But she wants to be.)
... ...
She's a lot more nervous about the fact that Richard Grayson is going to her elementary school than she's letting on, at least in comparison to all of her classmates.
They're all talking loudly and excitedly, and all about him, because he's the son of billionaire Bruce Wayne and already a black-belt in tae kwon do and won all of these math competitions and is supposed to be some sort of genius.
But she's anxious for another reason entirely.
Her father told her over breakfast this morning (her parents say that she's mature for her age and can handle things without being babied) about his parents' deaths. She's sure most of her classmates don't know about the entire accident and that he's actually adopted, or else they wouldn't be acting as crazily as they are now.
Anyway, he finally arrives in the middle of math class, and Barbara finds it a little weird that he's late on his first day.
But then Bruce Wayne is there and smiling and making some of the teachers laugh, so she thinks that Richard Grayson isn't going to be in trouble for being tardy. He has a backpack slung over one shoulder and meets her gaze from where she's sitting at her desk.
His eyes are really, really blue.
Once Bruce Wayne is gone, Mrs. Kelly says, "Settle down, class," even though they're not really talking much, and then introduces Richard Grayson as if they don't already know who he is.
Then Mrs. Kelly tells him to take his seat, and since they're sitting alphabetically by last name, his seat ends up being right next to hers.
She feels her cheeks warm up just a little bit when he sits down with his backpack at his feet. She wonders if he can tell, too, because he looks at her again for a lot longer this time. Then he's looking down at her notebook and commenting on how she should try to write neater, and she kind of blinks a bit.
"Excuse me?"
"You're going to make a lot of mistakes if you can't read your own writing," he tells her. He's grinning and she can tell some girls are looking at them, but he's making fun of her.
"I can read my own handwriting," she says defensively, shifting her notebook closer to herself. She doesn't like showing off or anything, because that's not nice to other people, but she adds, "I usually get all of my answers right, too," and feels her cheeks grow warmer.
His grin gets a little bigger. "Me too." She turns her head away, chin up a little, and her hair falls over her shoulder. He laughs. "You don't try to be girly, don't you?"
"What's that supposed to—"
"It's cool," he interrupts, shrugging a little, "That you're a pretty girl but not girly."
She huffs a little and hopes her cheeks don't look as warm as they feel.
... ...
Dick (as he insists to be called, because apparently only Alfred and sometimes Bruce call him Richard) makes fun of her tiny crush on Robin.
She tries not to let it bother her, though she hates that he calls it a crush. She's always, always loved Batman, so of course she's going to love his sidekick just as much, right? It's perfectly normal. She has no idea why he constantly brings it up all the time. Probably because it's the one thing he can tease her about that she can't counter, because as far as she knows, he doesn't have any crushes right now.
Anyway.
Her daddy told her just not to let it show that it bothers her (after she had to placate him by saying it was just teasing and Dick wasn't trying to harass her), and she figures that makes sense. Him putting on a brave face to keep her and her mom from worrying is pretty much the same idea.
"Oh, come on," Dick says with a roll of his eyes. She'd been giving him the silent treatment for the first five minutes of lunch when he dropped a Robin keychain in her lap. "You're no fun."
She smirks. "I'm lots of fun," she argues. "I just don't like it when you tease me about Robin like that."
"Well, what else is there to tease you about?"
She gives him a look. "What do you mean by that?"
He just shrugs his shoulders. "You kind of don't let anything get to you. I mean, I could've teased you about your red hair and you would've just brushed it off."
"What's wrong with my red hair?"
"Nothing," he says, rolling his eyes again. "I'm just saying. Robin was like, the one thing that made you squirm." He grins. "Why do you have to be such a kill-joy, Barbie?"
She groans and shoves his shoulder, and he laughs and uncaps his thermos. "Don't call me that! It's worse than being called barbed wire."
"Who calls you barbed wire?" Dick asks, sounding way too amused for her liking. She glares at him. "What? I was just asking, so I could beat him up for you!" She scowls. "Or maybe I could like, shine a Robin symbol and get Robin to beat them up for you instead."
"My dad calls me it! Now eat your lunch, Grayson!"
He cackles and stabs a fork into his pasta. "Chill out, Barbie! Yeesh!"
She shakes her head.
And it's silent for a moment or two before he adds, "And for the record," and makes her look at him. "I like your red hair. And I'm sure Robin would, too."
She's not sure why that makes her smile like an idiot. And when he offers her a bite of his lunch, she thinks she sounds way too happy to accept considering he offers her some every day. But whatever, Alfred's cooking is always delicious and she'd never pass up the chance to taste some.
(When the lunch bell rings, Dick slides the Robin keychain into place on one of the rings holding the strap to her bag. She pretends not to notice.)
... ...
That year for Halloween, Dick invites her over for a party that his dad is throwing, because apparently they're turning some of the rooms into a sort of haunted house walk or something.
She doesn't know why that's necessary, because they live in Gotham. But she saw an article about it in the newspaper her dad was reading this morning and it's this Wayne Tech thing. All of their classmates are invited, really, because they had guys in suits passing out fliers, but Dick's asking her personally and she thinks it'd be rude to turn him down.
(Not that she would've, but still.)
She dresses up like a gypsy, with colorful fabrics and a sparkly scarf in her red hair. Dick's a pirate, with an eye-patch and a big hat and sword that looks too real to be made of plastic, and he gives her this cheeky smile when he asks if she wants to walk through the haunted house.
She doesn't get scared. She doesn't, and the only reason why she grabs Dick's hand is because he tried ditching and she'd rather not get lost in here when it's stuffy and dark.
Their hands are still clasped when they're in the hallway and laughing and catching their breath, and she swears the only reason why her cheeks feel warm is because they ran the whole way out.
... ...
The first time she meets Robin is at a gala for some charity event. Her father gets invited to these things because he's the police commissioner, and he brings her along because so he's not alone and so he'll have an excuse to leave early if need be.
Dick's always there, though, because Bruce seems to be the epicenter of anything involving the socially elite. So at least they keep each other company.
This gala is for breast cancer research and is held in the ballroom of a five-star hotel she's only been in once because they were on a fieldtrip to the museum nearby and she needed to use the bathroom on the walk back to the buses. It's fancy and elegant, and as much as she hates the dress her mom put her in, she's kind of glad she was forced to wear it, too. At least she doesn't look underdressed.
Anyway, she's standing with Dick off to the side of the crowd when suddenly glass is shattering and people are screaming, and a single gunshot goes off moments before the large chandelier falls.
She finds Dick's hands and squeezes tightly, but loses it in the commotion as people are rushing all around her.
She's kind of terrified.
Her father finds her quickly, pulling her close, but her throat is kind of swollen and her chest is tight and she gets tears her eyes when she asks where Dick is and her father is unable to answer.
They get down onto the floor as the robbers in ski masks walk around with their guns pointing to the empty bags they're carrying, yelling threats.
Her father's grip tightens around her as one of them walks right up to them, beginning to say something, but he's cut off by a cackle and then he's suddenly dropping to the floor, unconscious, as a lithe body touches down from overhead and smiles right at her.
"Robin!"
Batman swoops in only seconds after, and somehow, despite the loud pounding of her heart in her chest, she knows that they're safe.
After they've placated the situation, she slips away from her father and hears him yelling for her as she's looking, scared that maybe they've left already. "You'll give your dad a heart attack if you keep running from him like that," that boyish voice laughs, and she yelps a little and jumps back as Robin gives her a salute from.
She gives him a bright and giddy smile, but it leaves as quickly as it had come. "I got separated from my friend, Dick! Ah, Richard—"
"Grayson?" She blinks. "Don't worry. Bruce Wayne's rushing him home. He got a cut from the glass, but just a little one," he informs, holding his thumb and index finger less than an inch apart as if to emphasize his point.
She presses a hand over her heart, sighing in relief.
"You two are—"
"He's my best friend," she answers. "He kind of reminds me of you."
Robin grins widely. "Guess I should be going now," he says, shooting his grappling hook out the tall, now-broken window. "By the way," he adds, reaching for her scarlet locks, "I like the hair."
She knows she's blushing as he swings forward and disappears out the window, his cackling still ringing in her ears.
... ...
She practically demands to be taken to visit Dick before they go home, and even though her dad's furious at her for ditching him like she did, he takes her, anyway, because he knows they're close and probably remembers the look on her face when she was left in the horror of trying to figure out where her best friend disappeared to in the middle of the chaos.
Alfred leads them all the way to Dick's room even though she knows the route by heart, and Bruce is sitting in a chair beside Dick's big bed when they get there.
She spends at least a whole five minutes just yelling at Dick, arguing with him, and the fact that Bruce and her dad are chuckling because they think the whole this is amusing just makes her madder.
"Why are you yelling at me if I'm the one that got hurt?"
"Because," she sort of shrieks, "I was worried sick and couldn't find you anywhere! Don't ever do that to me again, Richard Grayson!"
He kind of blinks and just looks at her for a minute, and she hopes he thinks her cheeks are warm because she's frustrated and not because she climbed onto his bed when she first got there and just realized that she somehow ended up practically sitting in his lap while they were screaming at each other.
He mumbles, "Sorry, Barbie," then asks if she wants to sign her Band-Aids. She rolls her eyes—because, really?—but swirls her name with the Sharpie that Alfred hands her before they leave.
... ...
Bette Kane transfers to their school in the sixth grade and somehow winds up being their best friend, too.
She has the biggest crush on Robin, even more so than Barbara, but she's also funny and sweet and kind of strong in a lovable way when she's not completely infatuated with the Boy Wonder. Barbara knows Bette is prettier, because her hair is golden blonde and falls in bouncy ringlets and her skin is fair rather than pale, but somehow Bette envies Barbara's scarlet hair and light complexion over her own.
Maybe that's why their friendship works.
"See, Barbie?" Dick says when Bette first tells them how much she loves Barbara's hair, "People like your hair color."
He says it in a smug way that makes her role her eyes, but then Bette is staring at her all widely and nearly yanks her arm out of her socket when Dick gets up to go to the restroom. "What was that about?" she demands, and Barbara must look as confused as she feels because Bette adds, "Is Dick your boyfriend?"
"What? No," she protests. "We're only ten, Bette!"
"Age is but a number!" Bette sings, and Barbara shakes her head. Maybe she's wrong. Bette's completely psychotic like them and that's why their friendship works. "He likes you!"
"He doesn't!"
"And you like him!" she says, ignoring Barbara's comment altogether.
She feels her stomach sink and checks to make sure no one's listening (thankfully, everyone's out of range) before hissing, "It's not like that!"
"Well why not? You guys are totally cute together," Bette pouts. "And you wouldn't be scared unless it was true!"
"I'm scared that someone might hear you and think its true," Barbara insists. "We're friends, Bette—best friends! We've been ever since we first met."
"Which makes it even cuter," Bette says. Barbara gives her a look, and Bette holds up her hands in surrender. "You're in denial, but fine! I'll drop it for now. I'll have you know, though, you're only proving that you guys are like a romantic movie, and I hope for your sakes it's a comedy instead of a tragedy."
Barbara sighs.
Psycho.
... ...
They're about to graduate the eighth grade (all three of them at least a year ahead of their level, if not more) when she finds out his secret.
See, for a while now, she's been afraid that Dick doesn't like them anymore.
It's irrational, she knows, but it's just that he seems busy all the time now and can never hang out with them. It's been forever since she's actually been to his house even though she used to be there every day, and he's vague with them. She knows Bette notices it, too, and she's even tried pressing him for answers a few times when he says he can't hang out with them after school or something.
Except that Barbara notices it. It's just… She's known Dick a lot longer, and while he may be able to get Bette to dismiss his behavior, he's nowhere near fooling Barbara.
Then one day when Bette is sick and can't come to school, she sits with Dick in the back of the car as Alfred drives them to drop off Bette's homework. She doesn't even remember what they were talking about, but she brings up that coming Saturday and then gets kind of furious when Dick says he can't go anymore.
"Why not?"
He blinks and looks at her like he wasn't at all expecting that.
"I'm really sorry, Barbara," he answers quickly once he's over her snapping at him, "It's just that Bruce has—Are you crying?" She wipes furiously at her face, trying to angle her body away from him even though the seatbelt makes it difficult. "Look, I'll tell your dad 'happy birthday' when he picks you up if that's—"
"That's not why I'm mad," Barbara argues, and she's kind of amazed she didn't snap at him again. "Do you really think I would cry over you missing my dad's birthday party?"
"No," he admits. "But why else would you—"
"Forget it."
"Barbie," he says, and she hates him for pulling out his nickname for her. He knows she likes that he's the only one who uses it, not even Bette. Now it'll be harder to be mad at him.
"Do you not want to be friends anymore?" she blurts out.
He looks shocked at first, and then kind of offended and mad next. "No!" She makes a noise. "No, not like… Of course I want us to still be friends!"
"Then why won't you hang out with us anymore?" she demands. He frowns, makes a face that tells her he had an idea this was coming but still doesn't know how to deal with it. "You never spend time with us or tell us anything and you're always lying to us about it."
She looks away after he's completely silent for a few seconds and catches Alfred watching them through the rearview mirror.
"I'm sorry. Hey," he says to get her to look at him, "It's just complicated. And I'm not sure if you'd believe me if I tried to tell you."
She gives him frown that's entirely challenging. "I think I'll manage."
He sighs, and in the back of her head, she wonders if Alfred purposely takes the super-long, super-scenic route from Bette's to the Mansion just so Dick can tell her the whole story.
... ...
"You can't tell anyone."
She looks at him like he's crazy. Well, he is, but still. "Of course I won't."
"Even Bette," he adds, and then looks guilty. "I mean, don't get me wrong. We'll definitely tell her eventually. Sooner than later, I hope… maybe before graduation, or after it? I don't want her to feel left out or anything. I just… Gosh, Bruce is going to be so mad when he finds out that I told you everything," he mumbles all at once.
She laughs.
"Chill out, Wonder Bread," she tells him, and he rolls his eyes like he was entirely expecting the nicknames. "I won't tell Bette until you're ready. And Bruce won't kill you. He loves you too much."
He grins at her, looks down at their Algebra II textbook for a second before frowning and looking up at her again.
"What?" she asks.
"How could you ask me if I didn't want to be friends anymore?"
He asks this all quietly and she can't help but feel guilty. "I was just worried," she admits.
"Well, don't be," he says flatly, like it should be obvious and he shouldn't have to reassure her that they'll always be friends. And maybe it should be obvious, but she likes that he tells her, anyway.
... ...
Her heart's beating kind of loudly the day they choose to tell Bette just after graduation. They agreed to hang out at the park because it's the beginning of summer and the weather's nice, but she can't help the thought that Bette will like, completely hate them for keeping such a big secret from her when they're all supposed to be this unholy trinity, as Bette nicknamed it.
"Why are you nervous?" Dick questions, and she hates him for having a point.
Bruce was mad for all of ten seconds when he came home that day and they (meaning Dick) told him that Barbara knew. But then he kind of sighed and admitted he expected this sooner or later and said it was alright because he trusts Barbara.
He trusts Bette, too, but the man was still grumpy when they told him they had to tell her eventually.
Bette's completely silent for an entire minute after they break the news, which is very alarming considering this is Bette and the girl is always talking.
Then she lets out his sort of shriek and storms away. They look at each other worriedly and debate whether or not to follow or let her blow of her steam or something, but she's back before they decide on anything and has a Neapolitan ice-cream sandwich they assume she bought from the ice-cream cart they saw at the edge of the play structure.
"Start from the beginning," she demands, glaring at the both of them, and sits between them on the bench as she splits the ice-cream sandwich into three halves (strawberry for herself, chocolate for Barbara, and vanilla for Dick because he's weird and likes it).
Bette acts mad all the way up until Dick's done narrating, but then she slips her arms around them and squeezes a little tighter than necessary. "You're just lucky I happen to like you two."
All three of them laugh at that.
... ...
She's over at Bette's house, sitting at the kitchen island and "doing their homework" as Mrs. Kane is cooking, when they hear the names Batman and Robin from the TV where Mr. Kane is watching the news, and she and Bette just look at each other for a second before they run into the adjacent room.
Cat Grant is sitting at the anchor desk with the image of the Gotham Police Department behind her, saying something about Joker and Harley Quinn and the Dynamic Duo, and gunfire and explosions.
Bette grabs her hand and squeezes so hard Barbara thinks her fingers may fall off, but she's squeezing back just as tightly and trying to swallow down a lump in her throat.
Mrs. Kane sits them down on the couch (she probably just thinks it's because they both love Robin—and they do, just differently) and squeezes her daughter's shoulder as they kind of hold their breaths and react to every little detail they're being told.
Even Cat Grant has tears in her eyes and a million-watt smile on when the camera focuses on the top of the building and you can see Batman and Robin gliding out. Bette exhales loudly and wraps her arms around Barbara, who just closes her eyes and smiles way too widely as Mrs. Kane teases them for being obsessed and then tells them to hurry up and finish their homework before dinner's done.
If it's going to be like this every time Batman and Robin come up on the news, Barbara may very well die of a heart attack or something.
... ...
Artemis Crock seems exactly the kind of person they'd be close with. She imagines in the near future, they will be, as soon as Bette gets her hands on her.
(Oh, not like that. Ugh.
Bette's right, she needs to work on her word choice.)
Except that they both know who Artemis is, in relation to, well, everything, because Dick still feels guilty (he'll never admit to it) to putting them through thinking he was abandoning them to try and keep his secret so now he tells them everything. Bruce probably isn't all that pleased about it, but every time they're over, he says things that tell them he's just glad they're there for Dick like they are.
And well, she's not intimidated by this, nor does she think badly of her, because Dick trusts Artemis and that in itself says a lot.
It's just that she's afraid.
"You think she's going to swoop in and take him away from you, huh?" Bette asks, popping up from behind her locker out of thin air in the annoying way only she and Dick can pull off.
After Barbara's caught her breath, she argues, "I am not," in an entirely unconvincing matter that makes Bette throw up an eyebrow. "Okay, maybe a little. What if he's closer to her than us because they have common… you know, activities. "
"Have I ever told you that you worry about the stupidest things?"
Barbara rolls her eyes.
"You're being irrational," Bette says matter-of-factly, shutting Barbara's locker for her and linking their arms together as they walk towards the dining hall. "Do you think Dick would do that to us?"
"Not intentionally, no," she admits, "but what if—"
"Don't you dare start listing off your delusional theories," Bette interrupts, "because I'm supposed to be the crazy one in this trinity, and what's the big deal, anyway, if we turn our triangle into a rectangle?" Barbara just stares at her and it's Bette's turn to roll her eyes. "Oh, don't give me that look. We've been friends for five years, now. You know what I really mean."
"I know he'd never ditch us for Artemis, okay?" Barbara sighs. "And it's not that I don't like her, either! She seems awesome. It's just…"
"Look, I get it, okay? You're threatened because he seems interested in Artemis and you feel threatened because you're in love with him and can't even admit to it."
She blushes almost instantly. "I'm not in love with—"
"Okay, you're in really strong like with him," she corrects herself. "Either way, Barbara, you're not going to lose him. You should know better than to think that."
Barbara makes a face. "I guess I was just being silly," she admits, and ignores the lookBette shoots her that's somewhere in between well, duh and I told you so.
When they walk inside the dining hall and get their lunch (teak with grilled onions, red-skinned potatoes, and steamed veggies), they go to their usual table and find Dick cackling like his usual self and Artemis with a frustrated look with a hint of embarrassment on her face.
"Didn't I tell you not to bother with the freshman?" Bette asks, sitting across from Dick.
"You're a freshman, too!" Dick protests.
Artemis chuckles and then catches Barbara's eyes as she sits across from her.
Barbara grins and says, "You'll get used to them soon enough, Scholarship," and is glad the nickname makes Artemis laugh. She didn't expect her to be offended by it, but still. It's nice starting off on a good note. "By the way," Barbara continues, sticking her hand out and sounding creepily like Bette as she adds, "I'm Barbara, and you don't know it yet, but you'll come to love the three of us."
... ...
She's met Wally, Kaldur, and Roy before (just obviously without knowing their alter egos), so she recognizes them before she even spots Dick. She and Bette weren't entirely convinced when Dick said to go shopping downtown today so they could meet the Team, but they should've known this is what he meant.
And because Dick's in his Robin shades and she's not sure if they're allowed to recognize, Barbara lifts her hand and calls out, "Artemis? Is that you?"
It's entertaining to see Artemis pale as she spots them, and no, Barbara doesn't miss the way Wally is looking at her. It's accusing, but there's definitely something there that she knows Bette notices, too, and will tease Artemis until the end of time when they get back to school.
"Babs, Bette," Artemis breathes, and Barbara catches Dick smirking at her as she looks at him over Artemis's shoulder when they hug. "What are you doing here?"
"Uh, this is a mall, Scholarship," Barbara teases. "We're shopping! What else would we be doing?"
"Right," Artemis laughs nervously.
"Are these friends of yours?" Bette asks, looking at each of the faces as if trying to take a mental picture of them. It's not so far-fetched, considering the girl has photogenic memory.
"Yeah." Artemis looks uncomfortable. "They're—we're—"
Barbara laughs, deciding to put the girl out of her misery by waving her hand off, "Tell us about it at school. We don't want to take you away from them!" She hugs Artemis again, and lets her eyes linger on Dick and that proud smirk of his longer than the others before adding, "It was nice meeting you all," even though no names were at all exchanged.
She and Bette cross the street to go to this café they've come to love and laugh so hard in line that everyone's staring at them. "She was totally horrified!" Bette gasps.
"I'd feel worse if it wasn't so funny," Barbara admits. "God, she looked so freaked out!"
"Now she knows what it's like to be you, since you're scared of everything," Bette remarks, waving off the glare Barbara sends her way. "So, you're paying, right?"
... ...
She's trying to keep herself calm, except that her teachers just disappeared right in front of them and that's a perfectly good reason to lose it right now.
Bette's staring at the thin air where their principal was standing, jaw slack and eyes wide. Everyone else is kind of quiet, too, for a few seconds, until worried, panicked chatter fills the air of courtyard where they associated student body had to come in uniform (really, she didn't understand at all) to help the teachers prep the place for the weekend carnival they're going to have.
Or, well, supposed to have.
She feels her cell vibrate in her pocket, slides it out and sees the name she didn't even realize she'd been dying to see until it lights up on her screen and she wants to cry with relief.
"Barbara? Are you guys at the school still?" Dick asks, because he and Artemis were supposed to help, too, but obviously their extra-curricular business came up.
"Yeah," she answers breathlessly. "Where are you? What's happening?"
"We don't know," he admits, and her heart sinks. "Look, I need you and Bette to tell everyone to go around and bring all the kids to the gym. Search homes and cars and don't leave any place abandoned without checking first."
Barbara makes a noise and Bette looks at her. "Does that mean that all the adults are—"
"Yeah," he breathes into the line. She closes her eyes and Bette laces their fingers together, standing closer. "You and Bette stay strong for me, okay? We'll figure this out as soon as possible, but for now it's important that adolescents all over the world look out for the younger kids, okay? I'm about to broadcast an announcement about it soon, so I can't talk for much longer."
"Okay," Barbara says.
"We're rooting for you!" Bette kind of blurts out, voice shaking slightly like it does when she's terrified (which only ever happens when Robin's involved, actually). "And Artemis… I mean, I know you can't really tell her yourself, but can you make sure she knows we're thinking of you both?"
"I'll pass on the message," he promises. "Be safe, guys."
"You, too," Barbara whispers.
Then Bette yells, "We love you!" and Barbara smiles at her because Bette's always had a knack for saying the things Barbara couldn't get herself to admit.
They hear Dick chuckle softly and easily return with, "I love you guys, too," before hanging up.
... ...
They wait in the Gotham Academy gymnasium for the rest of the kids to be collected before they leave. Her dad and mom, and Mr. and Mrs. Kane, came by shortly after their teachers suddenly reappeared and then stick around, too, to help other parents be reunited with their children.
Her dad kisses the top of her forehead and says that he's proud, calling her brave and asking where Dick and Artemis are, since he knows the four of them are close and he hasn't spotted them yet.
"We were just making sure the kids weren't trying to take the desserts from the kitchen," Dick's voice answers, and Barbara gasps a little and watches as Artemis and Dick are walking towards them. Barbara wants to badly to run up to them and hug them to death, except that wouldn't make sense to her dad if they'd supposedly been together this entire time.
"Hi, Commissioner Gordon," Artemis greets. She catches Barbara's eye and winks ever-so-slightly before adding, "Um, I think some of the teachers wanted to talk to you…"
She and Dick watch Artemis lead her father away, and Barbara waits until he's out the double-doors before throwing her arms around Dick, nearly knocking him over. He laughs at her (jerk!) but hugs back tightly, holding her at arm's length when she finally pulls away.
"You did an awesome job today," he tells her. "Would it be condescending if I said I was proud of you?"
She shakes her head. "God, I haven't been this terrified since—"
"That robbery at the charity gala all those years ago?" She blinks. "Do you think I'd honestly forget that night? You yelled at me, after!"
"You deserved it!"
"Do I deserve it now?" he asks, challenging her.
"Absolutely!" He raises his eyebrows. "Dick Grayson, I said never to put me through something that terrifying ever again, and what did you do? You did and made me —"
He laughs loudly and she blushes, glaring at him unconvincingly. Then he pinches her side lightly and makes her squeal and hold onto him even tighter. "If I didn't know you any better, I never would've guessed that you were afraid of everything." She scoffs and tries to pull away but he holds her in place. "It's a good thing you have me."
She rolls her eyes, "My hero."
He smiles at her in a way that makes her feel silly that she was ever that little girl who was afraid of the streets of Gotham below her window but felt the need to be pretend to be brave.
She doesn't need to be. Not with Dick Grayson in her life.