Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind
[+++]
They agreed to have dinner at a place that Dick and Barbara had not been to since what happen with Freeze decades ago. As she enters, she remembers them dancing that night though she recalls his stuttering preoccupation with her flowing dark blue dress, which she had purposely chosen knowing how he would probably react it too. A simpler slice of time, to be arm in arm with him on the dance floor either in that dress or the jazz festival just before Freeze had come into the picture again. The fate of Freeze had not been a pleasant one for he had lost all to save his beloved wife yet it shown that even the most outwardly cold men still had a 'bleeding' heart.
Freeze and by extension Batman…Bruce had shown that appearances can often be deceiving yet by no means does it mean that there is not some telltale sign as to what may be going on underneath it all. All of her experiences with Batman's rogues had different impacts yet the ones she had felt the most sympathy for were Freeze, Two-Face, and of course Harley. The thought of Harley however trips her back to the last time she fought her. What happen to Tim and the fact that Harley went along with it made her so furious at the time. In the end, both of them seem to perish while the Bat family was left with the aftershocks and the scars.
It had been during those turbulent years as Batman's partner that she fallen in love with Bruce even though he did not really seem to reciprocate her affections often or at all. Her attention snaps back to Sam as kisses her before asking for a table for four. Dick and Donna are running a little late between Dick's work as an attorney and hers as a well-to-do photographer. It gives Barbara and Sam some time to consider what to order yet some part of her reminisces again about the early years with Sam.
[+++]
She had been in her own way flirting with three different men at once. As Batgirl, she had made the slip perhaps of having taken things further with Batman after what happen with Robin. As Babs she had seen more of Dick than she thought possible yet by then she saw him more and more often in the company of Donna Troy. Donna visually reminds her too much of Diana, the very idea that she let herself fall into the delusion that she is competing with Diana for Bruce's affections seem like a laugh yet Bruce had for whatever his reasons put a stopper or a wedge to the prospects of seeing Diana too often.
One night as she recalls, they were both drunk and probably 'fessing up things they should have kept to themselves. Bruce found more restraint it seems than she did after she kissed him on the lips. He did return the kiss yet not much else happens in the weeks that follow at least until they were drunk again. They had spent a few drunken nights together in the same bed yet they never slept together. He didn't think it was smart to keep going along like this simply because Barbara had hit a rough spot realizing things were never going to be the same again at least until she met Sam. However before then they finally did sleep together because that one night they were both too drunk to stop themselves it seems to Bruce in retrospect.
Barbara had met Sam during her last year in college after all the Batwoman incident. It had become clear to him that he let things go too far with Barbara ad they had in one sense of the word gone over some boundaries they definitely should not have gone over. The things had happen, there is no taking it back, and so he tries to ease out of having anything more than a working partnership with her. She is reluctant to take the hint yet Sam being almost the exact opposite Bruce except in regards to his heart, his compassion made it less trying to push away from Bruce in terms of romance. Sam had gone onto to law school and she had gone onto the police academy to follow in her father's foot steps.
[+++]
Dick gets a flying lift from Donna to the restaurant since his car is still in the shop after something of a bump on the way from work his law office. Wally even in his older years still provides crime scene investigation support so Dick periodically consults him as well as others, which means while not exactly active in costume anymore, he still had outside the system contacts.
Dick recalls the manor being rather lonely at first as he saw very little of Bruce Wayne yet the Waynes portrait hanging in the sitting room or den caught his eye. One evening he finally caught up with Bruce and the two had a long talk about their parents. He had found later that Bruce tried to track down the Graysons' murderer yet Zucco had gone to ground leaving trace to follow so eventually the case had gone to the cold section of the archives for the GCPD. Many years later, He and Batman are on stake out, which leads to the capture as well as interrogation of one thugs working for one Billy Marin. Batman… Bruce had already known Marin's real identity and so set off to find 'Marin' alone.
Dick having spent so much time around Bruce or rather picking up so much from Batman decides he will not be left out in the cold as the pursuit of Marin continues, which brings them full circle to the situation that brought them together as father and son of a kind. Marin is an alias for Zucco, which fuels then Robin to pursue his parents' murderer. Both of them remember the events that follow differently where for once both Bruce and Batman had to think of someone other than himself in the mission. There had been bystanders yet this is different, this is practically personal.
The original pursuit of Zucco had gone awry because Batman chose to save Dick over catching Zucco much to Dick's frustration despite having been kept from drowning. Both went after him separately the first time and Dick had to track separately once Bruce shut him out of tracking the Batmobile. A phone tap got him Zucco's location and so he heads there only to find Batman there ahead of him unlike the first time. However Batman… Bruce… is hurt from dodging Zucco's attempts to shoot him. Robin… Dick is ready to avenge his parents yet Batman… Bruce intervenes on the insistence that he let the police take it from here… to not do what he is thinking of doing right now.
"You let him get away the first time… I could have stopped him that night… could have said something …done something… both times I did nothing and you did nothing… you don't know how I feel! How could you?" growls Robin/Dick.
Dick realizes his error in his commentary before looking at Batman… looking at Bruce apologetically before dropping Zucco. The police take Zucco away where he will be face multiple criminal charges and likely never get a shot at a parole. Bruce limping along with Dick shouldering him they choose to remember that they are doing what they do for each other and for their sorely missed yet beloved parents.
"I'm sorry…"
"It is alright… you have a right to be angry with me… but he had already taken away so much from you except your life… I couldn't let him do that… I mean I had Alfred… he's more… perhaps even twice the paternal figure I could ever be…"
"You do yourself an injustice Bruce… for a man that's not a father like figure by birth… you are doing okay aside from an upstart rebellious streak in me…"
"I am already down the road that follows if you take a frustration of not being able to prevent so much… and I didn't want you to follow that… you can be a much happier… better man than I am Dick."
"Again such an injustice… let's just go home and take care of our injuries…"
[+++]
Things would sour more in the years to come and once Dick graduates from Gotham State… it went through the roof. Bruce in his Batman voice summons Dick away from dinner with Barbara, of course he would grouchily complains Dick is late and Dick in less than joking way apologizes in the context oh sorry Batman for having a social life. It had almost been rhetorical for their verbal spars before going in to handle the criminals except this time its Joker stealing a radar jammer.
Batman gets buried leaving Robin to pursue on his own except their only lead is the left behind driver, Conner, yet Robin shows signs of recoil when encountering the suspect's family, especially the suspect's little boy. Batman smashes through the window and slams Conner against the wall then starts the interrogation as the family watches in something a horrified gaze. Robin bails out after declaring his intent to leave so there are no leads; Batman abruptly leaves later, and gets out of the suit with nothing to go on until Joker makes a move.
However Barbara turns up, they get to talking about Dick's behavior and notices a common string in all of it that Dick for better or worse is developing a mind of his own, which means some thing has got to give sooner or later. If their partnership dissolves it would not end well and his suspicion to that end got confirmation after what happens later that night on the rooftop to stop Joker's scheme involving the radar jammer. He is unable from his position to stop Batgirl… to stop Barbara from taking a hit across the face that sends her plummeting off the side of the tallest building in Gotham. Robin's arrival at street level is timely for again saving Barbara's life even though he had apparently not known his lovely lady at the time is also Batgirl.
He had made some kind of connection when he saw Barbara's car outside the manor earlier so he had come at incredible speed on the Batcycle. The detachable booster seat built into the cycle enables him to close the gap then fire off a grappler to land on the nearest roof yet at her insistence they head back up as Batman is in a jam literally. Joker is beaten by being tricked into shooting the jammer yet Batgirl narrowly dodges the exploding jammer with Batman's help. Joker is taken away as are his goons while the trio falls back to another roof where the lovebirds have it out.
"How could you keep something like this from me?"
She jabs him with her gloved index finger before saying anything.
"You weren't exactly honest with me either."
He parts his arms before continuing his rant.
"But you told him!"
Dick points directly at Bruce.
"He knew…"
The slight surprise is short lived in Dick's expression.
"It was not my place to tell you."
Dick fumes inwardly then pushes his way around Barbara before advancing on Bruce.
"Though it was your place to put her in danger!" retorts Dick.
The two men stare at each other dead on as Barbara attempts to interject on her behalf.
'It wasn't like that I volunteered!"
"You think you did…"
He looks first to her then back to him.
"… You don't know him like I do…"
The impassive gaze on Bruce's face reads through the cowl except there is a sign that there is truth in Dick's interpretation of his behavior.
"… He manipulates … pulls strings…anything to get what he wants…."
Barbara does not consider the unstable ground she puts herself on by trying to mediate a way out of this. There is no way out except through the splintering that is soon to happen between the two. She gazes downward knowing that trying to work this out between them will not come the way she believes it can, the only way is however Dick aims to end this and what Bruce contends to be the case in turn.
The anger and the sadness are all too visible yet it seems necessary to come clean now.
Batman… Bruce tries to reach out to him despite knowing this will not end well.
"I thought we had the same goals…" says Bruce somberly in the Bat voice.
"Things changed! The game is over, Batman! I quit!"
He begins to walk away; Bruce places a hand on Dick's shoulder only to get the receiving end of Dick's well aimed yet somewhat unexpected punch. Bruce falls back, Barbara conceals a gasp at what just happen, and Dick throws down the mask, and tosses the cape. He pulls out the grappler then leaps over the side and disappears into the night. They would not see him again for awhile yet at his return he is naturally older, leaner, and of a different costume look, he becomes Nightwing.
[+++]
For a time after that things seem to have gone on the mend yet after Tim's abduction things went sour again. At first only Tim is forbidden, then he tells both Barbara and Dick to stand down. Dick simply distances himself from Bruce, from Batman, from Gotham, and even from Barbara. His romance with her smoldered despite the fact they still did care and feel for each other. He had instead chosen to reconnect with Donna once she had come to Bludhaven.
Their friendship is only kept intact by Donna's relationship with him and her attempts to at least get them talking once she informs Barbara of their intention to marry likewise when she marries Sam, they come out for that occasion. Bruce on both occasions sends gifts yet makes no appearance and later on both days makes a phone call on Dick's wedding day to Dick and a call to Barbara on hers. Both times the calls are brief yet friendly.
[+++]
"Hello Sam… how's the docket?"
"More of the same… what about Bludhaven?"
"Same too… sounds like your wife's job got a little more exciting with a new Batman out there."
"So far he has done some good… problems with the Jokerz are down for the moment. He put a stopper in the sabotage going at Foxteca holdings yet of course there is someone else at work here or at least some of us who knew Batman in the past would guess as much."
"I doubt someone with a morality akin to the original Batman would withhold information."
"Only time will tell."
"She's got a point."
There is a break as each of them sips their drinks.
"We'll keep that in mind Donna… so how's Diana?"
"She's definitely taken with a lot of news surrounding this new Batman and been a little talkative about the uptake in a certain someone's public appearances…."
"She still carries a torch for someone after all these years?"
"No way to be sure that he still does…"
"Maybe she should find out…"
"I think she is afraid to… sure we may be Amazons, but we are still women with hearts that are about the most vulnerable part of us that if not treated with care… well we become hesitant and guarding in that respect."
A few start munching on complimentary bread with butter.
"Well its not like we have forever… best to use the time as you have got it rather than fearing what would happen if you did do something…"
"He on the other hand seems to have made up his mind yet there are signs he has doubts too."
"Anyway back to dinner…"
"Waiter…"
It is a rather quiet dinner yet at least the company is good as well as the food being of high quality. They part ways as Sam drives Barbara back to Gotham while Donna flies Dick back to Bludhaven. Talk of the past is limited simply because some prefer not to speak of it much or often.
[+++]
Once back in Gotham, Sam and Barbara cozy up to watch an old film favorite of theirs. The male character is an arts connoisseur that swipes paintings for fun yet it becomes so much more when he has met his match in a female insurance agent/bail bondsman.
Elsewhere in Bludhaven, Dick and Donna dance slowly on a rooftop to an old song that they used to dance to a lot called Windmills of Your Mind.
A/N 1: Lyrics at the beginning belong to a favorite song of mine called Windmills of Your Mind by Sting, who an unrelated note has the same birthday as me. The song can be heard in both versions of the Thomas Crowne Affair movie. I have only seen the newer one as of yet.
A/N 2: Much of this one is flashbacks separately for Dick and Barbara. A lot of it well falls into the category of angst or hurt though some of it is comfort. I kind of lessened whatever implications are made about any kind of flirty/romance-y stuff that goes on between Bruce and Barbara. I was never really a fan of that so I recrafted it as them being well platonic/drunk at the time.
A/N 3: The concept of them having done certain things while drunk seems believable and plus they both have some kind emotional/psychological baggage in their lives.
A/N 4: The first string of flashbacks concentrate on Barbara. The second is primarily for Dick especially regarding the contrast between his early days as Robin and his last nights as Robin before switching over to Nightwing.
A/N 5: Diana gets mentioned indirectly... her full reintroduction is still kind of pending. Some future ideas down the line are episodes that involve Freeze, maybe Shriek, definitely bringing in the Royal Flush gang particularly for the sake of Melanie and maybe some way of more involving Selina aside from the mention. Of course Powers transformation into Blight is likely to crop up too.