(A/N: xD OKAY so do you guys remember that a/n I had one chappie one about BIG PLANS for this story..? HEY don't worry, it'll still be here and rather long but my ideas *that are left* are all about WAAAYYYY in the future of this story. BUT with reviews and favs still coming in way after my latest update, I've been driven to try and push past it so thanks for the encouragement~

YOU GUYS JUST ALL ROCK! =O Thank you for making me smile~

I HOPE to make up for the last chapter's shortness with this chapter, but not QUITE sure how it's gonna play out yet… got a BAD case of writer's block again! xD Wish me luck)

Dick realized what was in the clown's hand just as the bang went off…. It was a gun and it was pointed right at him.

The sound of the firing seemed to echo in the stunned and scared room. Dick choked out a gasp as the bullet pierced him deep in his thigh. He doubled over in pain, falling to the ground and clutching his wound while Green Arrow knocked out the Joker with one of his arrows.

The second the Joker was unconscious, Bruce was squatted down next to him. Roy was at the Boy Wonder's side in an instant, too, propping him up while Bruce began to go over his vitals. Dick gasped, quickly biting his lip to stop a shout from coming out as Bruce growled under his breath, pulling his hand away from the wound. The billionaire looked up at Green Arrow.

"It entered at a terrible angle, affecting his bone badly, I'm willing to bet," he explained. "We need to get him out of here. I've already called the police so they'll be here soon and they can handle it from here." His voice was stern and had the usual Batman ring of authority in it. Green Arrow nodded and pulled out his comm. unit.

"HQ or Mountain?" he asked quickly, glancing at Bruce who was now ripping off part of his cape and binding the wound tightly.

"Mountain," Bruce grunted as he picked up Dick, despite the boy's protests. Green Arrow nodded and contacted the Watchtower.

"Manhunter, this is GA, requesting a beam for four, three fine and one injured, to the Mountain ASAP," he said quickly and firmly.

"Understood, beam coming," J'onn replied instantly and the familiar green light surrounded the four before they were gone.

…. …. …. …. ….

"Lame… no way… repeat, boring… la- WAIT!" Kid Flash said as he watched Artemis flip through the channels. He was the one deciding what the Team would watch for a while but the archer had been getting fed up with his lack of ability to make a simple decision. They'd just passed another News Station when he'd screamed to stop, flying to a sitting position (he had been lying down).

Artemis scowled, going back. "Seriously, the new-" she started to say but KF shushed her with a wave of the hand and they all looked at the screen.

It was the Joker, blowing up the front of Queen Industries. The camera zoomed in on –

All five teams jumped, so intently focused on the news coverage that the sudden sound of the Zeta Beam whirring up startled them.

"Recognized – Batman 02, Green Arrow 08, Red Arrow B06, Robin B01," the computer rattled off as said four heroes stepped in. The Team rose when they realized Batman and Robin were both in their civvies… and that Robin was bleeding.

"Rob!" Kid Flash exclaimed, running over to Batman's side in surprise. Robin smirked at him as Batman headed along briskly to the Medical Bay, ignoring the young speedster.

"Dude, chill I just got shot," he said, rolling his eyes, and then pointedly looking at Bruce, "I've been through worse," he said a bit louder, pronouncing each word very clearly to express his annoyance, "so don't over-react."

Bruce growled softly at his son who grumbled under his breath in response, folding his arms across his chest as he continued to be carried.

The rest of the Team followed behind the Dark Knight and the Arrows as they went to the Medical Bay. Batman made them all stay out though when he got there, saying he had to get the bullet out and needed space.

So there they all stood in a big cluster outside the door, waiting anxiously while Kaldur and Kid Flash asked what happened.

Roy started to explain, "Joker came in, having seen the whole news bit about Bruce being Batman and wanted to hear it from Bruce's mouth himself. Bruce wouldn't talk so Joker found Dick. Just as Joker almost cut Dick's large artery on his wrist, Batman stepped in, revealing himself as the Dark Knight by knocking the knife out of the Joker's hand with a bat-a-rang. Then Green Arrow and I stepped in and helped them fight off the rest of the goons but Joker, at the last second, decided to whip out a gun before any of us could react and he hit Dick in the thigh… Batman said it went in at a weird angle, he might have fractured his femur a bit."

The team nodded, each reacting to it in a different way. Superboy seemed angered by it (as he usually was) and, surprisingly, Wally and Kaldur seemed pretty peeved too. Megan looked sad and worried about her friend's health, trying to see if there was a way to look into the room while Artemis simply had a cold, brooding look on her face.

The seven heroes and partners waited patiently (or, in the speedster's case, NOT so patiently) outside of the door to the medical room the little bird was in while Bruce worked on him.

About twenty minutes later, the door opened and Batman stepped out, now in his costume (no one knew HOW but they didn't question it). All fourteen eyes looked at him expectantly as he took in a deep breath before speaking.

"He'll be fine," he told them and they all sighed in relief. "He did fracture his femur, like I'd feared, though. I removed the bullet, stitched it up and now he has a cast on… He should wake up in about ten or so minutes."

With that, the Dark Knight stepped aside, heading down the hall as the Team and Roy (Oliver following Bruce) crammed into the medium-sized hospital-like room. M'gann sat next to her friend and gently brushed some hair out of his eyes while most everyone else was looking at his cast.

Kid Flash scowled, "Man, I'd hate to have a cast on."

Superboy nodded in agreement. "Poor Robin, it would definitely be a pain in the a-" he started to say but one look from both Kaldur and Green Arrow made him change his mind on the wording "-ah…rmpit." (1)

Roy rolled his eyes at Superboy's choice of words and was about to comment when the raven-haired boy suddenly stirred.

The room quickly went silent as light blue eyes opened and looked around blearily, not really focusing on anything. Then, Robin moaned, placing a hand on his head.

"Stupid anesthetic," he grumbled, "always gives me a migraine…"

These words seemed to release everyone from their trance. They all moved at once, some going to his side (like Wally) while others simply moved their hands, staying put.

"Hey Robin, how are you doing?" Roy asked first just as Wally had opened his mouth to speak.

Robin shrugged, ignoring the glare the speedster had sent at Roy. "I'm fine, just sort of… out of it." He yawned just then as if to prove his point.

Roy nodded and Wally quickly stepped in.

"Do you need anything?" he asked and Robin rolled his eyes.

"You guys act like I've been out for hours instead of minutes," he told them, but then he thought about it. "Actually…" he wrinkled his nose, "I'm kind of hungry for a sandwich –"

"Robin, you might not want to be eating quite yet, in fact I'd rather you wait for a bit. You know how your system reacts to the medicine, it might make you sick."

Everyone reacted to the sudden new voice except Robin who just looked at his mentor.

"GAH!" Wally said. "HOW do you do that?"

Superboy looked shocked too. "Yeah, I mean I have super hearing and yet I'm never able to hear you."

Batman smirked a bit. "It's called practice, and don't feel insulted, Superman usually can't hear me either."

Superboy rolled his eyes, folding his hands across his chest. "THAT'S real comforting, we all know Superman never pays attention to his surroundings when he's distracted, so of course you sneak up on him," he joked. He and the other Kryptonian had gotten on good terms a few months ago and were now actually kind of close, but they still liked to pick fun at each other.

Robin snickered. "Well of course we know that, who else would you have inherited that trait from?"

"Hey!" Superboy protested and everyone just laughed (you know, minus Superboy and Batman *who rarely laughs*), lightening the mood dramatically.

Robin sighed and looked at his mentor, scrunching up his expression. "So… no food?" he confirmed.

Batman shook his head, a stern look in his eyes. "Not yet, you need to wait for your stomach to settle a bit first before trying to put anything in it."

Robin nodded. "Alright, I… uh-nderstand," he replied around a yawn, shaking his head against his sudden fatigue.

Instantly, Batman started moving everyone out of the room. "He needs to rest, you can come back later," was his reasoning and no one argued with him. Once everyone was out, though, Bruce paused in the door his usual stoic expression replaced by a fatherly one.

"Press the call button if you need anything Robin," he told his son softly.

"I love you dad," Dick replied with a slight smile on his face.

Bruce smiled back. "I love you too micul meu pasăre," he replied before turning off the lights to the room and shutting the door quietly behind him.

... ... ... ...

Dick grunted as he hobbled over to the couch in the middle of the large room (or rather cavern). He'd voted to stay here for the past four days, saying that this place was practically his second home and Bruce reluctantly agreed after setting the terms of his getting checked on once every day. Dick consented with grace, not minding in the least.

So now, here he was, on crutches plopped down on the couch in the living room at the Mountain. At the moment, Superboy and Miss Martian were the only other ones there, but it was early in the day and also a weekend, so others would be arriving soon.

Dick sighed as he set his crutches ( or "infernal walking sticks" as Wally had so graciously nicknamed them) next to him on the couch before flipping on the TV. He surfed through the channels and discovered there wasn't much to watch that was interesting or new, so he picked up the paper on the coffee table next to him and skimmed over the title for the fortieth time. He swore he knew the article by heart now, but he couldn't help reading it again.

The paper in his hands had come out four days ago in the wee-hours of the morning, winning the grand honor of being the first tabloid to have a story out about Bruce's reveal at the Queen Industries banquet. The picture there on the front page of the Daily Planet was that of Bruce throwing at bat-a-rang at the Joker whilst being in his civvies and the bold, obnoxious title there captured your eyes very easily.

"He's Not Who We Thought"

Dick shivered. It was such a… almost rude title, like he felt like it was saying, "He's a leper! He's different, he's a liar! Shun!" and he hated it. So what he was a hero? If anything, people should respect him more now for it, he save lives he wasn't JUST a stuck-up playboy who was spoiled, no he was much more than that.

Of course, some people saw it that way. The Daily Planet was NOT by far the only paper to post about this new piece of confirmed news; in fact it was only one of hundreds around the world with that story as its headline. Bruce had made sure to get his hands on every different version and interpretation, too. He had stacks at the manor of all the magazines and newspapers he'd acquired because of it.

Dick had read through all of them, most from the U.S. but some were even from over-seas. He'd organized them yesterday when he'd gotten bored into piles of how the article viewed them. All-in-all, at the end he had three different stacks. The first one (the one that had the most) was the "He's Different!" view on things, the second one (the one with the least) was the "He's a Hero!" view and the last one was the "He's still a PLAYBOY" or "This Doesn't Change Anything" point of view and it was the one that had an amount somewhere in the middle…

Dick chuckled to himself when he suddenly remembered one of the stories he'd read on the incident. It had been his favorite one by far and it'd been published in Australia of all places. The title had been lengthy but quite funny, "Psycho Clowns Taken Down by Billionaire and Ward". In said article there'd been now Arrows, Dick hadn't been shot, there'd been no acting or signs of weakness and "70 some henchmen" had repelled down through a skylight with their "Jester Leader" in charge with a whip. Dick laughed a little more; it was so far-fetched it was comical.

"Morning Dick!" a soft voice suddenly greeted and Dick turned and saw Miss Martian and Superboy walking into the room.

"Hey guys," he greeted back with a grin.

Miss Martian flew over and plopped down next to him. She instantly worked on his leg, propping it up on a pillow on the table in front of him. Dick blushed, feeling helpless.

"Thanks Miss M," he said and she nodded.

"No problem, do you need anything?" she questioned, only concerned and wanting to help her friend.

Dick shook his head. "Nah I'm okay for now."

Miss M grinned. "Okay then, if you need anything I'll be making biscuits!" With that she headed into the kitchen and Connor (surprisingly) plopped down next to him. He grinned.

"Wanna play some Call of Duty?" he asked a glint in his eyes. Ever since Wally and Dick had introduced the game to him, he'd been addicted and wanted to play whenever he could.

Dick laughed, liking the challenge. "Oh you are SO on!"

With that, the two boys quickly hooked up the Xbox and sounds of gunfire rang out mixed with their laughter while humming drifted in from the kitchen. It was such a peaceful, normal scene and Dick silently wished it would last forever. It was nice to mot be freaking out because of reporters or constantly fighting crime all the time… just being a normal teen hanging with his friends was a nice change of pace.

"I wish it could stay like this for a while," Dick thought to himself as he shot down another man with a laugh, being a ninja really was an advantage in this game. "God, please give me at least two or three days of peace. I need some time down… please?"

Turns out, two days would be all he'd get.

(A/N: GAH that could mean SO many things! ^-^ WELL I seriously hope you guys liked this xD the ball started rolling again and ideas came… but I feel like it didn't flow as smoothly… Maybe it was because I took so many breaks, but did it sound good to you guys? Feel free to flame a bit if I did a bad job xD I need to know so I can fix it for next time.

NOW review! =D )