Richard

Beep

Beep

Beeeeeep

My eyes opened at the sound, but it was like I had never slept. My head was pounding. I rubbed at my eyes to get the tired feeling to go away, but it didn't. Sometimes you go to sleep thinking about something, wishing that when you wake up that you have forgotten, even for a moment. I didn't have that moment. I remembered everything from last night. I suppose it was better this way. When you forget something, but remember it a few moments later, it depresses you and you long to forget again, but it just makes it worse. You immediately lose that moment of joy. At least when you wake up remembering, there is no moment of joy.

"Master Richard." Alfred said at my door. He walked in and opened the curtains. The light was blinding. I hated it. In this dark city. This evil city, some people say, it was nice, more then nice to wake up to sun in the morning, but not today. The sane part of me, Nightwing, tells me that I have to wait and watch, just like always. The not so sane, Richard, who was lost, and watched his parents die right in front of him, wanted to get Raven and bring her here as fast as possible. I knew in the end, Nightwing would win. He always does. Being in Jump, I had forgotten that it was best to be silent. Silent, Stealth and Deadly. I had learned that from Batman the first day I had met him. I didn't even know he was Batman at the time, but I had taken it to heart and practiced every chance that I got. I had forgotten because I didn't need to be silent. Everyone that I fought with my team was always loud and easily beatable. Everyone but Slade and Red X. We never did catch them. Slade was killed by Raven before she went missing.

Bruce

This is what I know.

The Raven that Richard saw last night, is not the Raven he has been searching for. She is in fact, Raven's daughter, Raven Roth. Her father worked as a hunter to help control the population of animals that were starting to take over. He died of cancer a year ago and Raven has been living with her aunt ever since. There were only report cards that I could get a hold of. Seems like her father kept her hidden for about 5 years, but from what. There were no tax records or payments of anything that showed they lived in one place. There were payments every six months for clothing and food, sometimes medicine. They must have been on the run, but from what….. I don't know... yet.

I sighed deeply and rubbed at my tried eyes. I am use to not getting sleep because I was to distracted on getting the criminals under control in Gotham, but it has never been for someone as close as Richard is to me. It made me work that much harder. I don't even know why I was searching for answers so desperately. Maybe it was because I knew he was hurting and if maybe, I found the answers, I could help him not hurt anymore… I couldn't do much last time because I didn't know how to be a father. I didn't know how to help him. I know now that I should have pushed more to become part of his life.

"Master Bruce, Master Richard is awake." Alfred said as he walked into the kitchen. I nodded slightly and finished making my coffee.

"Thank you Alfred." I said softly. Alfred suddenly turned to me.

"What are we going to do with him? You know he is going to go on a rampage if we try and keep him here." Alfred said, worried for my sons well being.

"I have a plan. We will discuss it over breakfast. I am taking today off. He needs us right now." I said and started to help make breakfast. I liked to cook when I was worried about something and wasn't searching for answers.

Raven at the Park

"Rae~" I hear behind me. It's a soft voice, always slightly singing my name when he first greets me. I turned around and hugged the second person I knew I could trust. Only he and Sky could keep me sane. My world had turned upside down since last night after seeing someone from my mother's past. I have dreamed about him last night. He looked different then what I saw last night. Younger, loud. Something was different about his personality, but he didn't seem like the man my father had told me about.

I have never hugged Syn.

I have never even made physical contact with him, so I wasn't surprised when he stiffened and didn't know what to do as I stood there, crying into his chest. His arms slowly wrapped around my shoulders and he held me tightly to him. I had always had a connection to him since the first day I had met him. We had bumped into each other. He knocked my stuff down, we both went to pick it up. You know how it goes in the movies and its really cheesy and they end up falling in love. Well it started my friendship with Syn. It was my first day and I knew no one. He offered to take me to my first class, but I didn't let him. It was a slow starting process. He knows everything about me, including why I have never made physical contact with him. When I touch someone, I feel their emotions all at once, sometimes memories come with them. It started about a year ago and I can't explain it.

His hand slowly started to pet the back of my hair. I gripped the front of his jacket and just cried. Sky had to work this morning. Her mom had given me the day off because she knew I had to go meet my aunt. I had an hour.

Raven of the Past

They have all left me now. I can feel the emptiness of the tower and it's eating at me. I had always hoped that nothing would change. That the future that Starfire had seen would never come true. I never wanted to be alone. It is why I made the journey to Earth, so that I wouldn't be alone, like I had been my entire life. I thought about contacting Robin everyday. He was the one that really knew me. He has been gone for 6 months and has said nothing to me. Beast Boy is all but dead. He was foolish to go back to his old life. Now they have complete control over him.

Cyborg comes over every Saturday at noon to give me food and whatever else I may need. I leave a list of what I need for him to pick up at the civilian door at the base of the tower. Every Saturday at 12:30 I go down and look into the box. Everything that I have asked for is in it. I leave another note, thanking him. Each time I tell him that he can come in whenever he wants. He is hooked up to the towers data base for crying out loud. He can do whatever he wants to the place. He never comes in.

I miss everyone. I wish they would come back to me. I know this will never happen.

Raven

I knock three times. Always three. And since they never answer me when I knock, I call my aunt. "What do you want?!" She screams in her drunken rage. I always use a different phone. There is a convince store that is close to where I live. They have phones that are able to make just two calls. I buy one every Saturday morning before I go to the park and meet Syn. Sky is usually with me when I come here, but not today. I am never early or late.

"It's Raven. I'm here like always. Can you have your daughter open the door for me or is she just going to stand there looking at me through the drapes." I said in a hard voice. I hear ruffling and she yells at her daughter to open the door. My cousin unlocks it and runs up to her room. I pull out my grades. I get a 4.0 just like she asks, but now she gets angry, but I don't do it to impress her. I do it for me and my mother and father. To show them that I can be the person they wanted me to be. I walk into the front room and sit down by my aunt. We trade papers and she starts yelling at me. I look at the days that the social worker will be coming over to the house. Tomorrow at 6:30. The time I was going to meet my mothers 'Old friend'.

"Are you sure this is right? They have never come on Sundays." I said softly and ducked away from a blow to the head. I have given up the no talking rule. Its not like she will call the cops on me. She runs a drug business through her kitchen. Every once in a while when I can tell her boyfriend is really out of it, I take some and sell it to get a bit of extra cash. I don't even know if they notice it missing.

"That's what she said." My aunt said when she didn't hit me. Somehow she remembers each one of my visits, but forgets her kids name half the time. I kinda feel bad for the kid, but she treats me like shit, so I don't feel to bad.

"Alright. I'll be here. What should I wear?" I asked softly.

"I don't care..." She said and looked over my grades. " Start doing bad is school or you will get your ass kicked." She said softly.

"Yes Aunty." I said and stood up. "Thank you for the list. I'll see myself out." I stood up and walked out the door as quickly as I could. This has been the best visit that I have been to in the year that I have been here.

Richard

Father said that he knew I wouldn't be able to stay home knowing that Raven was out there in Gotham. He gave me rules to not talk to her, not be seen. So basically I was to be a creepy as fuck stalker and now that Cy wasn't going to be any help, I had no back up. There was a team that he had assigned for the disappearance of Raven, but the commander of the project was going with him on his case up here. Maybe I can catch them and just ask for advice. I'm the tracking type, not the dealing with missing people type. Fresh tracking I can do, but cases that have been open for a while, I have no clue where to start.

So, here I was, looking at Raven leaving her aunts house with a paper in her hand. She used the allyways to her advantage, I will give her that. It must be what her father taught her when they were on the run.

"Richard." I heard a voice in my ear piece. "I found a picture of her shortly after she was taken from the tower. The same day in fact. Trail her until you know where she lives.

"I found it. I'll head over there now." How could we have missed a picture of her on the day that she was taken. We were able to get access to all of the street records in Jump and in Gotham. I spent months looking for any sign of her.

I started to head back to the house and sighed softly. She was definitely my Raven's daughter. I bit my lip and continued driving. I got there in no time.

I grabbed a few drinks from the fridge, nodded to Alfred and headed to my fathers computer room.

What I saw was a picture of Raven outside a cafe. She was wearing normal clothing, but I could definitely tell that she was with a child. The bump on her stomach was clear enough. She was wearing a tan leather jacket, snow was around her. A scarf was covering her mouth and nose and she had a hat on that seemed to big for her. The picture made her look happy because she was touching her bulging stomach. Her eyes showed the fear she was feeling. I grabbed the picture from the table and looked at it closely. She looked to be about 16. The age she went missing. "Where did you get this..." I asked slowly.

"It was dropped by my office this morning. It was there when I got there so I don't know who placed it on my desk. That is her, isn't it?" Bruce asked.

"Yes..." I whispered. "She disappeared about 7 months after I had left to come back here for a little... I..." I closed my eyes softly. "I didn't mean to be away that long..." I put the picture down softly on the desk so I wouldn't crush it in my hands. "I knew..." I whispered. "I knew and I still stayed... Father I'm so horrible... I'm such a horrible person..." I banged my hand over the picture and broke out into a sob. "How could I have left her?! How could I have left her and the baby?! MY BABY!" I screamed and fell to the ground gripping my hair. I pulled slightly and my breathing picked up. I lost it. I lost her. The baby. My life...

"You mean to tell me that you stayed when you knew you had an unborn child out there?! WHEN YOU FOUND OUT YOU SHOULD HAVE RUSHED TO THE GIRLS SIDE RICHARD! I would have gotten by!" Bruce slammed his fist on the desk to keep from hitting me.

"I would have but I didn't know how to be a father! I didn't want to be one at 17! I was scared shitless!" I yelled and started to shake.

"AND YOU THINK SHE WANTED TO BE A MOTHER AT 16?! How many phone calls did you not answer. Or messages. Or anything Richard. That baby would have been loved unconditionally by me and Alfred and whoever it met. And if you didn't want to be a father you shouldn't have been having sex with her! That is what happens Richard!"

"YOU DON'T THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT!? YOU DON'T THINK I WOULDN'T HAVE TAKEN IT BACK IF I COULD?! I WOULD HAVE GIVEN ANYTHING DAD! SHE DIDN'T WANT TO BE A MOTHER! SHE WANTED TO GET RID OF IT AND I WOULDN'T LET HER! I DIDN'T WANT TO BE A FATHER, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I WASN'T GOING TO BE THE BEST GODDAMN FATHER I COULD HAVE BEEN! It kills me inside everyday to think about Raven and the baby we could have had if I had just gone there when she asked but I was to fucking focused on the case I was working on with you that I could care less. Its killing me dad and now I found her and I have to get her back..." I couldn't speak any longer. He left me there, sobbing uncontrollably in his office without a word.