Dick sighed as he fumbled to get his uniform off it had been a rough night, and all he wanted to do was sleep. He had to go to work in two hours something he dreaded. He was almost asleep when he heard something in a sleepy haze he thought it was crying.
Morning came and his alarm rang waking him up to hear his neighbor on the right slamming kitchen cabinets and yelling at his girlfriend. Bludhaven, got to love it. His neighbors had seemed so nice. Mary loved to cook and Tom could be weird at times, but they had seemed so happy.
Dick got dressed in his uniform he was going to be late for a briefing and he didn't feel like chewed out for being late, again.
As he climbed in his car to go to the station he could still hear Tom yelling at Mary. When he first moved to his apartment they were a happy couple. Mary had loved taking walks in the park and going out with friends. Dick hadn't seen her go out with friends in months now that he thought about.
As he patrolled in the police cruiser with Amy around Bludhaven he wondered if Mary was being abused. He thought he heard her crying last night but, he wasn't certain. It was a normal day for Bludhaven a few robberies nothing too hard for a protégé of the Batman.
That night after work he ran into Mary coming back from the laundromat in the building. Her hair was down covering half her face and she looked sad. Not like the Mary he first met.
"Hi, Mary." Dick said cheerfully as he flashed a smile that usually made the person he smiled at smile back. Mary didn't.
"Hi, Officer Grayson." Mary said dully as she shifted the laundry basket on her hip.
"You want to take a walk with me? There is a park a few minutes from here I hate walking by myself." Dick said he wanted to ask her if Tom was abusing her and the park was open and public so she wouldn't be scared of him.
"Oh no, I couldn't I have some stuff to do." Mary scampered away.
Dick was left puzzling what to do he was a cop, and heck he was Nightwing. He didn't want to do anything if nothing was going on. If something was going on and he just sat on his hands he would never forgive himself.
At 10:00 he suited up as Nightwing and started his nightly rounds, after stopping robberies, car thefts and a panda from being stolen. [You don't want to know.]
He slipped back in to his apartment to hear crying again. It was the kind of crying that made you want to cry to, it was quiet and as if someone's heart was breaking. It had to be Mary. Dick went to bed but didn't sleep.
When he got up in the morning he could hear Tom and Mary fighting. He could hear Tom hitting and throwing Mary around.
Dick decided that was enough evidence he put on his Nightwing uniform. Politely, he knocked on their door when Tom opened it he saw Mary beat up and crying.
He punched Tom and beat the crap out of him. "If I ever hear you beating Mary or any other woman I will find you and I will make your worst nightmare come true." Nightwing threatened he didn't see how any man could hurt a woman.
Five minutes after Nightwing left Dick Grayson showed up and arrested Tom for domestic abuse. Mary never talked to him again but, she never saw Tom again and that's what mattered to Dick. He made sure that Mary was safe with her parents in Opal City.
AN
So, this is inspired by a song, Mary Can You Come Outside? By Christian Kane. I like listening to it and I thought what if instead of Christian Kane, it was Nightwing? Thus this story bounced around my mind until I wrote it down.
If you are in an abusive relationship don't stay in it. No one deserves that. Get help from trusted friends and family. You are worth so much more than a crappy relationship with someone who doesn't appreciate you.
