Flashback Chapter 10 Out of the Frying Pan

Dick hugged his knees close to his chest and closed his eyes. That had been unexpected. The teacher's absence kinda made sense once he'd heard the name (William Morris had been hospitalized, one of the victims of Scarecrow's rampage last night), but the movie…It was almost too realistic, although he didn't need clumsy sound effects to hear the hard, fatal impact of flesh and bone. He wondered if he'd had the same expression as Simba, watching his parents fall.

No, he couldn't spend his life avoiding all reminders. It was just…too soon, and too sudden.

"Richard?" a voice called, and he turned, seeing Barbara Gordon approach. "What are you doing on the roof?"

"Dick," he grumbled, not thinking, unhappy that she'd disrupted his solitude. "Short for Richard," he amended, seeing her hurt look.

"Oh. Your parents must have been old-fashioned." She sat down beside him, ankles dangling over the edge. "Why are you up here? I didn't even know that fire escape led here. Glad I saw you going through that door…"

"I wasn't thinking," he admitted. He'd just wanted to run.

She shrugged. "Okay. Want to talk about why you ran off?"

"No," he said shortly, staring moodily into the distance, seeing instead the ring.

There was silence for a few minutes. "Did you like the songs?" Babs asked, clearly struggling for a topic.

Dick shrugged. "Nice music, not sure about the lyrics. But I guess Simba got what he wanted. He's king now."

"Nah, Scar guilt-tripped him into running away," Babs explained. "He meets a meerkat and a warthog, and embraces a life of no responsibilities and no concerns. Meanwhile, Scar runs the pride into ruin. Eventually Nala runs off to find a new alpha male, and finds Simba. They fall in love, go back to the Rock, and defeat Scar. Simba becomes king and soon has a cub of his own."

"Happily ever after," Dick snorted.

"Well…until the sequel."

"You're kidding. Seriously?" Dick shook his head. "Guess I've missed a lot."

"Your parents didn't show you many movies?"

"No, we didn't have a TV." Dick frowned, picking up on something. "Why are you speaking of my parents in the past tense?"

Babs squirmed. "Dad told me they were…um…"

"Murdered?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

"You're James Gordon's daughter and niece?" Babs nodded. Dick remembered Bruce mentioning Gordon's brother and sister-in-law had been killed in a road accident, leaving him with custody of their daughter. "Sorry for your loss."

"I'm coping," she shrugged. "I generally just don't think about it."

"I haven't quite reached that stage," Dick admitted. He sighed. Everyone always said talking about it helps, so maybe he should give it a go. "You know I used to be part of a circus? We were the trapeze act. It was my first night performing without a safety net, and some bastard put acid on the rope."

He could see understanding in Babs' eyes. "I was terrified of cars for a bit," she said, "after that drunk crashed into Mom and Dad. Best advice I ever got was 'yeah, it hurts, but don't just wallow in it'. Took a while, but I pulled through. I'm sure you will, too."

"Yeah, I know." He ran a hand through his hair. "Is it wrong to wish I'd loved them less, just so it hurts less now they're gone?"

"I guess that's just part of being human," Babs said.

Dick hmm'ed, still staring into the distance. He focused on something and frowned. He rose to his feet, trying to see better. "Babs, you see that?"

She also stood, following his gaze. "Those guys on the playing field?"

"You've been to school more than I have; is that normal?"

"Um, no," Babs squinted, trying to get a better look. "What're they carrying?"

"Looks like…" Dick strained to see as they approached. "Damn. Guns."

"School invasion?!" Babs gasped. "Dad said, we have to hide-"

"That's one lone whacko stretched to breaking point," Dick snapped. "Not a team. And look at them; they mean business. I'd bet anything they have specific target."

The men were advancing, and had a co-ordinated look to them. Dick prayed Babs would pick up on it so they could do something. But what?

"What they gonna do?!" Babs asked, panicking slightly.

"Kill? Kidnap? Steal? Do we really need to know right now?" Dick thought quickly. "We need to evacuate. Where's the fire assembly point?"

"Playground on the…" Comprehension dawned. "Other side of the building."

"Hit the fire alarm," Dick instructed. "I'll distract them."

"Distract them? How?"

He grinned for the briefest second. "Where do you keep sports gear?"

Babs really should have taken Dick's advice and merged into the crowd. Instead, she was hitting tennis balls at the men chasing her new friend. One of them turned, raising his gun.

Babs muttered a word she really shouldn't know, and drop-served her last ball in his general direction. By sheer co-incidence it hit his hand, and he dropped his fire-arm. Dick turned to his pursuers, dropped into a crouch and swept his lacrosse stick in an arc. Two of the men tumbled, and Babs felt the desire to whoop, but two gunshots rang out, making them freeze, one bullet lading near Dick, the other whizzing past her ear.

The leader stepped forward, swinging his gun between the two children. As he approached, Dick tensed, then whacked him in the face with the stick. A minute's scuffling later, Babs was held by two men, gun to the back of her head, and the boss was holding Dick up by the scruff of his neck, half-choking him.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you now, brat?" the boss hissed.

Dick spluttered, and Babs supplied a reason. "He's Wayne's kid," she yelled.

"And you're Gordon's brat. The cops wouldn't risk getting you hurt," the boss said. "You made us lose our target, but, well, meal ticket and security blanket will do."

A pad of wet cloth was pressed to Babs' face, and she smelled something sickly-sweet. She caught sight of the boss smacking the butt of his gun in to Dick's head, and the boy collapsing. Then everything went black.

AN: What, you didn't think it would be an ordinary first meeting? :D

There's just one more chapter in this mini-arc. As you can probably deduce, they both survive; but will Batman or Gordon rescue them first?

As always, reviews, PMs, questions, love ya all, pleasepleaseplease feedback.

Conclusion next week. See you then.

Katara