Son is that you? Chapter 5
By Marcie Gore
Story so far: The mystery man comes to Wayne Manor. Who is he? What does he have
to do with Dick? . Warning these chapters will have sexual situations and some violence.
Bruce and Alfred just stare at the young man for what seems to be forever, with their
mouths stretched wide" My Word!' Alfred finally says.
"May I come in?' the stranger asks.
"Yes you may, so we can get to the bottom of this. Bruce asks, WHO ARE YOU?!'
"Don't you recognize me Dad? Of course you don't, I don't look anything like I did the
last time you saw me, over a year ago, the guy says. It's me Dick!'
Both men's mouths fly open again. Bruce looks him up and down. The only features
that resemble Dick's are his dark hair and blue eyes. His nose, mouth and general face
shape are different, and something else that was intangible doesn't seem right. "So Dick
what happened to you? Why did you stay away for so long?'
"Well, after the crash I wondered around, until I lost consciousness this woman saw
me and called an ambulance. She stayed with me till it came, I'm told. I was burned
badly on my face and hands. I went through months painful treatments for my burns,
debrising, the removing of burned skin, and several reconstructive surgeries. Bruce nods.
The doctor said I was lucky I didn't lose a few fingers. . At least I was out of it from my
head injury and the drugs they gave me most of the time, so I wasn't in constant pain.
When I finally woke up I didn't know who I was or how I got in that condition, the young
man claiming to be Dick explains. I've only been well enough to leave the hospital a few
weeks. Not long after I was released I started regaining my memory. It took me a while
to get up the courage to come home. I was afraid of how you'd all react to the surgical
changes to my appearance.'
"What was the doctor's name," Bruce asks.
"I don't remember, I was out of it, Dick says.
Bruce says, "OK" with a touch of doubt in his voice. "That doesn't seem like you
Dick; you've always had a good memory, even under the worst of circumstances. Dick,
would you like to stay in your old room, here, while you get your barring? Bruce asks.
"Yes I would, I could use some familiar surroundings,' the young man says.
"Please, excuse us while we go and see if the room's in shape for guests, Bruce says.
With that Bruce and Alfred go up stairs.
####
Alone in Dick's old bedroom, the two older men talk:
"Alfred as much as I'd like to think that young man on our couch down stairs is Dick,
something doesn't seem right. I can't put my finger on it, but if he stays with us a little
while I'm sure I will figure it out", Bruce says.
"I felt it too, when he first arrived and called you "dad" and me "AL." "You've never
encouraged him to call you, father, Dad or anything of the sort out respect for his birth
father; even though you've cared for him a like a father since he was a child. Those who
really know me know I hate to be called Al or Freddie, anything but Alfred. "
Bruce says." It's not just that Alfred, but this uneasy feeling I have deep inside. I hope
I'm wrong and that he is Dick,' Bruce says. " If he is I'll welcome him home with open
arms."
"Master Bruce, what will you do if this young man turns out to be an imposter?"
"Well, old friend it may depend on his reasons for the impersonation and if he has
anything to do with the REAL Richard John Grayson's disappearance.'
"Dick, everything's ready for you. It's the room at the end of the hall." Bruce says.
" I remember," Dick says almost convincingly.
"There's a bath room next to your room. You can shower and change cloths.'
Bruce says"You can wear the some of the cloths you keep here for emergency use,
Alfred tells him. I'm sure you're tired'.
"Yes, I am, I think I'll go to bed. It's nice to be home," he says.
The next day after they have Dick's favorite breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes.
Bruce says." I have some surprise visitors for you. They'll be here at 100.p.m"
At one Alfred opens the door to let Tim and I in. Dick greets us with a polite, "hello."
Tim says, "Hey, remember us it's Tim and your girlfriend Melody!?"
Dick suddenly looks relieved. He says, "Sorry Tim I'm tired. How are you, my dear
Melody?"
"Fine," I say, he asks where the beautiful ring I'm wearing came from. I'm devastated
that he doesn't seem to remember that we are engaged. He covers, by saying he's still
having memory problems. The five of us make awkward small talk for the next hour.
Then Tim and I go home. Over the next couple of weeks things don't improve between
Dick and Tim, or Dick and me.
One Day when Dick is out on the town. Bruce, Tim, and I talk about what's been
happening since the young man claiming to be Dick came to Wayne Manor. .
Tim tells Bruce how cold he's been to him since his, 'return'.
I tell them how HOT he's been toward me. He won't keep his hands off of me. He tried
everything he can to get me in bed with him, despite the fact we'd agreed not to have sex
till we were married. I ALMOST changed my mind, but I thought about how every time
we kissed it felt like I was kissing a stranger NOT the love of my life, since he came
back.
Bruce tells me about the holes in the story he told him about his whereabouts after the
crash and his behavior since he arrived at Wayne manor. Bruce asked him about Eleanor,
the stuffed elephant Dick had as a kid; he thought I thought was talking about the fat lady
from the circus, Bruce says, "He hasn't even mentioned Nightwing, the other Titans or
Batman."
"I didn't bring them up for obvious reasons. I didn't tell them about his return because I'm
not convinced he HAS returned, Melody."
"I'm not either, I say. Why did you tell Tim or me," I ask?
" I was hoping you could help me prove his identity, one way or the other," Bruce replies.
" Do you have a plan," I ask? Of course he does.
"Yes, I do, a workout,' Bruce says. I see the slightest smile on his face.
A little while after Dick comes home, Bruce suggests they work out in the private gym.
They lift weights, jump rope. Then Bruce says, "let's get in the pool. Bruce looks directly
at Dick's lower shoulder as they swim. He's checking for the scar the Joker's bullet left.
Then sees if he can do a quadruple summersault on the trapeze. He claims his timing is
just off because his leg was injured in the crash.
The next day Bruce decides to confront the young man with his suspicions. He tells
him about of the things he's noticed over the last month Then he asks him if he had such
extensive re-constructive surgery, why are there no scars? He can't answer Bruce's
questions. Then Bruce asks him to take a DNA test. This causes the man to run out the
door. Bruce tries to stop him from leaving but can't; somehow he manages to slip a
listening/tracking device in the man's jacket pocket. He speed out of the drive way in the
car he came in. Bruce follows him in his car.
Bruce turns on receiver in his car. Then he calls me on his car phone. He told me that
he planed to confront him today, and stay close by in case he needed me. I'm at a friend's
house close to Wayne Manor. I excuse myself and catch up with Bruce's car .The
suspected imposter stops at a pay phone about two miles later. I park my car and Bruce
helps me into his. We listen intently.
He is talking to woman named Sherry. 'He' seems to be coming out of the coma' she
says. " Then we have to go with plan B, sweetheart. I hate do it, we WERE friends.
During the shift change in an hour and a half, give him a STRONG dose of the
'medicine'. It'll look like natural causes." Bruce has heard all he needs to.
Bruce grabs him by the collar, and says softly but menacingly, "WHO are you, really,
'DICK'?"
" I 'AM' your 'SON' DICK,' he says sounding scared out of his mind. " Stop lying
scum!"
"OK, I'm Robert Gates. I was Dick's roommate in collage!'
" You know MR. Gates , you really shouldn't have tried to impersonate someone you
haven't seen in such a long time. He's changed since you knew him. WHY did you do it?'
" It was for money at first," Robert says in trembling voice. "Then I fell in love with
Melody". I cringe at his words.
"She told me how you treat a woman you love, Robert," Bruce says angrily. "Do you
even know where the real Dick Grayson is?"
" A friend and I were driving just outside of Metropolis We saw the wreckage, and got
Dick out. The flight crew was already dead. It's a good thing we did because it exploded
right after that. I called an ambulance. It was then I came up with the plan to take over
Dick's life. I told the EMT I was his brother, and his name was John.'
"How did you think you could pull that off ROBERT," Bruce demands to know.
"For one thing I didn't think he'd live long enough to tell anyone the truth. His face
was all bloody, with cuts and bruises and swollen. No one else could recognize him. I
work as an orderly at St. Johns where they took him, and the staff believed my story
about Dick being my brother. My girlfriend, Sherry Braddock is a nurse there. Together
we thought of a way to keep him from waking up and spoiling our plans.'
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SON, TELL ME!" Bruce grabs Robert's neck and
squeezes hard.
" We started giving him a drug called, Nightopilos. It's an organic drug out of Asia. We
only wanted to keep him unconscious while I worked on my plan. I originally planned
to tell you what happened to Dick after I got what I came for. My plan changed when I
met HER! Now 'he' has to die!' Suddenly I feel whatever has happened to Dick is my
fault.
" You Really think she could love you, after everything you've done?' Bruce asks. 'She's
in my car listening to everything we say', Bruce tells him. "You are going to lead us to
the Hospital, NOW! If you get 'lost' I can track you down! With that Bruce punches him,
knocking him to the ground. After that Robert comes along, ''nicely'. I get back in my
car and follow them. Bruce types a message to Oracle to get him all of the information
she can on Nightopilos.
"It is a deadly poison derived from the flower Nightshade. and the liver of the poisonous
Puffer fish. In low doses it can be used as an anesthetic. IN higher doses it causes high
fevers ,sweating ,body aches, swelling of the limbs , muscle rigidity, convulsions and or
seizures, erratic heartbeat ,blood pressure and breathing. It can impede natural blood
clouting. In the worst cases it causes coma and death by cardiac or respiratory arrest."
Bruce shudders as he reads the symptoms.
"How could you do this to another human being ,much less someone who thought of
you as a friend? Bruce asks him angrily.
We finally reach St Johns, almost an hour outside of Metropolis. Bruce and I pray we're not too late. We ask securty guard to follow us to the the room. Robert leads us to Dick's
hospital room, 416. The guard has a tight grip on Robert's arm the whole time .
We see a blonde nurse sticking a needle into a man's IV line. Bruce
takes action tackling her to the ground. For the first time, we can tell for sure that the
man laying in the hospital is Dick. He looks frail and thin. He's hooked up to all sorts
of machines ,besides the IV. His hair is tousled but clean. There are no signs of the
injuries Robert described but he's still in a coma. Bruce grabs Sherry Braddock, by her
wrist.
"What did you just put in this man's IV he demands to know, twisting her wrist. She
admits she started putting Nighoplios in his IV right before we came in. She was
stopped from finishing by Bruce. Nurses hear the noise and run into the room. Bruce
says call the Police, this woman just tried to poison my son! Sherry admits it's true .
Robert admits he was working with her.
Bruce tells one nurse the entire story and shows her the print out Oracle sent him.
While the other takes Robert and Sherry to a large storage closet that locks. The Securty guard stands outside the door,withe keys. Before
she goes Sherry claims she has the antidote in her locker. We all follow her to check out
her story. We see the bottle in her locker just as she claimed. Bruce says we'll have to
take a chance that she's telling the truth and that this IS the cure and not more
Nightoplios. Then one of the nurses insists they perform a blood test to check for the
poison. Even thought they've never seen a case of Nighoplios poisoning, they will still be
able spot abnormalities in Dick's blood. His chart indicates that there have been
abnormalities other times they've taken it. At least now they're have some idea what they
are dealing with now.
Suddenly Dick starts shaking violently and sweating heavily. His blood pressure
begins dropping. His heart monitor starts going crazy, he's going into cardiac arrest! The
Nurse pushes us back and orders a crash cart. They work on him furiously for three
minutes until they get his heart started again. I pray the test results get here soon; Dick's
running out of time!
Finally the lab tech returns with results. They compared what was still in the needle
with Dick's blood, and concluded he was injected with whatever's in the needle. The
nurse proceeds with injecting Dick with the antidote. Now all we can do is wait and hope
it takes effect soon.
While we wait the nurse tells us the real story of Dick's injuries after the crash. He had a
sever concussion and broken bones in his right leg, his left arm, and a fractured skull and
internal injuries. In addition he had lots of cuts, bruises, and minor burns.
She tells us that they all believed Gate's story because they trusted him. When they saw
reports about Dick's crash they started doubting him, but he always came up with what
they thought were reasonable answers to their questions. They pushed misgivings aside.
All of the female nurses fell in love with Dick. This doesn't surprise me.
A couple of hour's later Dick's vitals start improving. We start to feel a little more
comfortable with leaving the room to eat and rest. The next morning we get a huge
surprise Dick has opened his eyes! He says hoarsely, "Where have you been? We both
smile and hug him gentle. He tells us both he loves us. I tell Dick I love him and I
missed him terribly. Bruce does the same; after that I lose my battle with the tears
building up in my eyes, so does Bruce. Dick asks what happened. I say time enough for
that later.