A/N: So I feel absolutely horrible today. So bad that I'm home from work. That being said, if I miss something major in the editing on this, I apologize. Thank you for the lovely reviews!

On the list of why I adore YJ so very much is Dick and Bruce's relationship. Bruce always was a proponent of tough love, but there was a day when he seemed to not only care about Dick, but show him in his own way. I feel like in recent years (especially since the whole falling out and Robin becoming Nightwing and such) that's been forgotten. I love their dynamic (no pun intended) and I've always liked a Batman who shows tough love and a gentler Bruce Wayne who is just trying to figure the whole parenting thing out without looking like it. Oh, and the question was asked if this was a Robin/Batgirl or a Robin/Zatanna story. All I'll say is that I've never thought there was anyone in the entire DC universe that was better suited for Dick Grayson than Barbara Gordon, no matter what they go through. It's not a romance story, so I'm trying not to lean heavily on that, but I will say I have heavy, heavy tendencies towards DickXBabs, and they're apparent.

Just a note. Enjoy!

Unbreakable

"…any way to contact Batman…?"

"…should not move him…"

"He's coming around!"

"Robin, can you hear us?"

Everything hurt. It wasn't the ache after a tough fight, but the pounding of injury. There was no gentle awakening back to consciousness. Robin jarred, choking and sputtering, still feeling the sensation of falling through the open air. It was a sensation he enjoyed, truth be told, but only when he knew he could control that fall at any given moment. He had only scraped together a plan on this fall, and he knew that the fact that his eyes were opening and he saw the faces of his worried friends that he had come out luckier than he should have ever hoped. The next bit of luck came when he wiggled his toes and fingers, feeling a painful tingle that spoke of multiple injuries, but he could feel them. That was another good sign.

"I can hear you," he croaked.

Batgirl came into view, her pretty red hair falling in his face so that it tickled his nose. She smelled good. Like that strawberry shampoo that she had left at the manor once after staying late when her father and Bruce were both at a social event. Her cheeks were even flushing red, almost matching the color of her –

"We can all hear you," Artemis deadpanned.

Robin felt his own face flush and Batgirl was suddenly several feet away, mumbling incoherently under her breath and sneaking a strand of her hair to her nose to test the younger boy's thoughts.

"Are you alright?" Aqualad questioned as he laid a hand on Robin's shoulder.

The Boy Wonder cringed. "It's out of socket, but other than that and some really deep bruises, I think so."

"I can put it back in for you," Artemis offered and she rolled her eyes at the skeptical look she received. "What?"

Robin shifted and then nodded, accepting the help with only a little reluctance. He heard Aqualad explain the situation as Artemis' fingers moved over his injured shoulder, checking what she needed to in order to push it back into place. Lacko had ordered his men's retreat after Robin had landed. They hadn't stopped to check him, but the fall should have done most people in. They'd underestimated the former circus acrobat. Robin grinned and snapped off a quip about he knew how to fall right, at least, and Artemis moved his shoulder back into place. He bit back the cry fairly successfully.

It took a few minutes for him to get up without too much dizziness, and he promised his team that he would make sure to have a doctor look at him as soon as he as able.

"You do not know the extent of your injuries," Aqualad pointed out.

"I'm fine, really. Batgirl can make sure I get back to the Cave okay and past that… well, I'm okay. I got lucky."

The elder teen did not look convinced, but he did not challenge him. He simply sighed, resigned, and turned. "We will be going back to Mount Justice if you need anything, my friend."

"Thanks for the help tonight."

"Of course. Will you tell Batman what was done?"

Robin pursed his lips together, leaning heavily against a doorframe. "We'll see. It may not have any baring on the case, but we'll see."

"You'll contact us if anything happens to him, right?" Zatanna asked, glancing between Batgirl and where Robin and Aqualad were talking.

"Yes. Absolutely," the redhead answered, giving her a reassuring smile. "If he says he's fine, then he is, though. Surprisingly enough, he's a really bad liar."

"Or better than you think," Artemis piped in.

Batgirl glared. "Not everyone likes to keep their friends in the dark," she snapped, ready to get into whatever spat the blonde would dish out.

"Hey," Robin called, breaking it up before it began. "You ready?"

The redhead sniffed, turning without acknowledging the archer in her exit. She moved to help her younger friend, but he waved her off. It was going to be a long trek back to the manor, and they would arrive long after they had meant to. It wasn't as big of an ordeal for Batgirl, as Barbara Gordon was, supposedly, at the manor studying all evening and had called her father to let him know she would be making use of one of the large home's many spare bedrooms. Bruce was due in at any hour though, by the time they arrived, and Robin shed his costume with no great enthusiasm. He looked tired, Barbara thought as she dragged a brush through her hair and pulled it up in a ponytail. He looked tired and sick.

"You going to be okay? You took a fall."

"I know. I came off of it lucky. I'll see Doc Leslie after classes tomorrow."

"You mean later today?" Barbara grinned.

Dick shot her a lopsided smirk. "Yeah. After I kick your butt on the chemistry midterm."

"You wish!" She laughed as they started up the stairs. The young acrobat moved slowly, stiffly, but that was to be expected. They'd made it in after Alfred had left to pick Bruce up at the airport, but not before they had returned. It gave both teens just enough time to hit the showers and crawl into bed.

Dick barely remembered the shower, much less anything surrounding it as he fell into bed. He felt sick, and the ache across his ribs had turned into a deep, painful throb that could not be washed away by the hot water of the shower. He curled up around his pillows, tears welling up in his eyes. He would not cry. He was Robin, the Boy Wonder, Batman's trusted partner and protégé. He would not cry. He felt a pained tear fall down his cheek as he lost himself to sleep.


Bruce Wayne was not a fan of mornings. He had always preferred nights, even as a small child, and in his line of work, that helped. It was mornings like this though – after a long flight and a dead end on a case that he really would have preferred to have wrapped up far away from his family and friends – that he simply wanted to sleep in his oversized bed without any care of the world.

Of course Luscious had scheduled a meeting for 9AM. That made perfect sense. Bruce groaned at the thought.

"Where's Dick?"

Alfred perked at the name. "He should be down any moment, sir."

"Haven't seen him yet. Good morning, Barbara. Productive night of studying?"

The redhead looked about as pleased as her father's friend at being conscious at that hour. "Yeah. Right. Because the crazies of Gotham care what Dick and I make on midterms."

"Busy night?"

"You can say that. Where is short stuff?"

Alfred rose from his place, ready to attend to waking his young master, but Bruce beat him to it. "I'll get him. I need to see him anyway."

Bruce climbed the stairs and wound the corner, the path familiar and deeply implanted in his mind. He knocked lightly on the large door that led to the room that he had once slept in as a child and cracked it open. "Dick? You up, chum?" he called softly.

The room was still dark, with the exception of the large window allowing the slightest bit of morning light to sneak in past the dark curtains. The light fell on the sleeping form of one Richard Grayson, former acrobat of Haley's Circus and current ward to Bruce Wayne. Said billionaire couldn't help but smile at the sight of the boy, shaking his head as he approached. He had to be stern once Dick woke, but for now, with the sleeping boy unable to see his expression, he could allow it to soften slightly. "C'mon, chum," he urged, reaching out to ruffle the teen's dark hair. He pulled his hand back slightly, feeling the heat radiating off of his skin. "Dick?"

Dick groaned, turning into Bruce's cool touch. He was hot beneath large hands and blue eyes struggled to open. "Bruce?" he moaned.

The hall lights filtered into the room as the door was pushed open a little more. "Is he okay?" Barbara's frightened voice whispered into the dark room.

Bruce turned his gaze back. "Start talking."

"I… We were on patrol last night. Dick, me, and his team. The other sidekicks. Partners. We were on patrol so that we could wrap it up and come home and study."

"Go on." The boy was not waking fully, but he'd grabbed onto Bruce's arm, clinging as if his very life depended on it. The elder man leaned down, noting the paleness of his skin in the morning light and how clammy he felt to the touch. He glanced further down the hall, needing the butler very suddenly. Rising panic would do nothing. He needed to help Dick. "Alfred!"

"Well, we didn't mean to, really we didn't, because Dick said you'd told him to avoid him at all costs…"

"You confronted Tommy Lacko, didn't you?"

"We didn't mean to. We were investigating and it turned out to be him. He caught us before we could get word to you. He seemed to know that we would come."

"What happened, Barbara?"

The young girl looked startled. She had never truly felt the need to be afraid of Bruce Wayne. Batman, at times, made her uneasy, but she never would show it. She knew a lot of hardheads. They tended to work for her father, but this… Batman's voice coming from Bruce's mouth was a new experience for her. Dick looked so small and helpless in his mentor's arms, and the elder man held him as if he might break. It frightened her.

"Call Leslie," Bruce demanded of Alfred over the teen's shoulder. He softened his tone. "Go on."

"Don't be mad at him."

"Go on."

"Lacko threw him off the scaffolding," Barbara said in a rush, as if the speed of the words would lessen their impact. "He fell… He caught himself, but he didn't have a rope or anything. He fell a long ways. We thought that since he could get up and walk away from it that he must be okay. He said he was okay." Her words were coming in quick gasps now, and tears stood in her green eyes. "Bruce, please, tell me he's okay."

He had not felt this level of worry for his ward since the incident with Two Face that had nearly ended the boy's career before it had truly begun. Bruce pushed the feelings aside as he used his free hand, the other occupied by Dick's much smaller hands, to unbutton the child's pajama top, revealing the deep bruising that had begun to spread across his torso. His left shoulder was discolored, appearing painful at first sight.

Bruce sighed heavily, stroking his son's damp hair back. "Let's get him through this, then we'll talk."

"Yes sir."

"You should get to class."

"But-"

"I'll send word to the teacher that Dick is ill. He'll have to make up his tests. You don't have that excuse."

Barbara felt fear knot her stomach. "Yes sir," she murmured, feeling very much like she were talking to her father. "But… please…."

"I'll make sure he comes through," Bruce vowed.

Leslie had not been happy. She had required Bruce's help only to take his young partner down to the Batcave so that she could treat him properly, but then ushered him out. Once he returned from taking the very reluctant Barbara to school, Alfred was allowed in the Cave, leaving its master in the manor.

Bruce sat in the library, eyes fixated on the grandfather clock as if willing the door behind it to open and reveal either Leslie or Alfred to deliver good news. No matter how hard he glared, the clock remained stationary, and he was lost only to his personal thoughts for the hours on end. He had all ready contacted his office, explaining to Luscious that he would be unable to make the meeting – or any for the rest of the week – as Dick had grown very ill in the night and needed him there.

The echo of the grandfather clock's ticking time away was the only sound that filled the room. It left Bruce to think of many things. His parents. Dick's parents. The fall that they had taken that had cost them their lives. He thought of the fist time that Dick had been truly hurt on the job and how he had taken the costume away. A shudder passed through him as he thought of the hurt look on the boy's face. He couldn't bear that again. No, this time it was not Dick's fault. He had left him wide open for the assault, and he was the only one that could be blamed. He should have told him who Lacko was. He should have trusted him.

The clock chimed as it slid open, revealing a very tired looking Alfred Pennyworth at the top of the Cave's stairs. "Dr. Thompkins says that you may see him," he said, or at least would have said had Bruce not been halfway down the stairs by the time he finished.

The Dark Knight cringed at the sound of beeping and whining machines. They pushed air through a mask and down the boy's throat, watched his pulse, and he was sure that at least some of the bags dripping down to the IV held painkillers that could keep any normal child his age out for a week. Dick was stubborn.

"He'll be okay," Leslie murmured as she moved passed him, "but we can't keep doing this."

"I know," Bruce answered and laid a hand against his son's cheek. The fever had fallen some, but he was still warm to the touch.

"It's a wonder he made it home last night," she continued, glancing back at him from the corner of her eye as she stashed medical equipment away. "He must have been running off of pure adrenaline."

The dark haired man made only a small sound of acknowledgment as he pulled a chair up so that he could sit by his Dick's side. After a moment of silence he took the boy's hand in his own. "How bad was it?"

"You mean 'is it'? He has a long way to go on recovery. Fractured ribs, deep bruising, internal bleeding – that's why you couldn't wake him this morning –, a shoulder that was put back into place by an amateur, and a concussion."

Dick stirred suddenly, his small fingers curling in the elder man's grasp. Blue eyes fluttered beneath dark eyelashes for just a moment before finally sliding open to look blearily at his mentor. "Bruce?" he croaked, voice distorted behind the oxygen mask. He pulled his hand away just long enough to tug at the offensive equipment, only to have Bruce hush him.

"Leave it there, chum."

"He can take it off while he's awake," Leslie acknowledged. "It's precautionary."

Bruce nodded and slipped the mask from the teen's face, smoothing his hair back down where it had been ruffled. He found the smaller hand grasping for his again, and he realized just how vulnerable the child was at that moment. He could take down many villains in Gotham City and beyond, but then, right there, he was just Dick Grayson and he was very, very small.

"'m sorry," Dick managed, eyes saying it better than his voice could.

"We'll talk about it when you're better."

"But…" He cringed, as if he were forcing himself to focus against the pain that had crept up on him. "But… Don't…."

Bruce leaned closer. "Don't what, Dick?" he asked softly.

A single tear slipped down his cheek. "'m sorry. Don't…" He began to shake, sobs threatening him, and Bruce felt very much at a loss. Then it clicked.

"Everything's okay, partner. We'll get him. Just rest."

Dick seemed to relax at his words and he nestled back into his pillows, Bruce's hand clutched tightly in his own.


TBC

A/N: So, there's a chance that some people reading this may not follow the comic series, so just to explain: There's a point (I believe it's in Robin: Year One) where Robin, age ten or so, is caught up in a situation with Two Face that nearly costs him his life. The person they are trying to save does, in fact, die, and Robin is nearly beaten to death by Two Face with a baseball bat. Bruce fires him after that, pretty harshly. That is what I'm referencing back to in this chapter, and what Dick's biggest fear is: to be separated permanently from the Dynamic Duo. I'm a little worried I made Bruce too soft in this, but hopefully not.