Title: To Love and Lose
Word Count: 1455
Warnings: This (including my a/n) has spoilers for the New Batman Adventures episode "Chemistry". While it does also reference Mask of the Phantasm, there are no direct spoilers, just hintings.
Summary: Dick had not taken Bruce's promise, nor his newfound love, seriously. But all it took was one accidental invasion of privacy for him to wonder, had he been mistaken?
A "missing scene" style fic.
A/N: I re-watched "Chemistry" and decided that the ending was way too abrupt for my taste. I mean seriously, who would just walk away from that and be totally at ease like nothing was lost, especially considering that he obviously loved her? Poor Bruce can't just catch a darn break. So I thought I'd at least show from someone else's point-of-view (in this case, Dick's) that he obviously wouldn't be A-O.K. And then I was listening to the MOTP soundtrack while writing this and got totally rammed right in the feels. Such gorgeous music!
It also made me realize that Susan was the only other woman besides Andrea that Bruce actually proposed to (at least in the Animated Universe and in my knowledge). Food for sad thought.
He'd given it a month….
Sure, when Barbara had called him out on his prediction, made almost as if he were thinking aloud and not intentionally creating conversation, Dick Grayson had made it clear he was referring to the mantle of the Bat and not the marriage. Despite his pointed attempt to clarify the meaning of his words, however, he could not help but feel that perhaps he really was referring to union between the man who had raised him and the strange woman they barely knew. (1) For some reason Dick had yet to define in his own mind, he found himself just flat-out disliking the woman from the very beginning.
It was not as if she had done anything that had prompted him to feel the way he did, in fact, it was the complete opposite; nothing she did was ever displeasing. Besides, Susan had barely spoken to him or to Barbara or Tim except in polite conversation, her energies and attentions solely focused on Bruce and hanging on his every word. It was as if he were her entire world, her only reason for living. Perhaps Dick just had a cynical view of women lately, but there was something that just seemed too perfect about his guardian's new fiancé. In his experience, no one was ever that selfless…
The whole situation and its timing seemed too rotten to be coincidence, but no one was asking his opinion on the matter, so it ventured no further than his passing discussion with Barbara. Instead, despite his apprehension over the whole affair, he attended the wedding and put on his best happy face for Bruce's sake, drowning his misgivings and cynicism in the only good draft he could scrounge up at a party consisting of fruity cocktails and, in some cases, even fruitier company.
He was truly not surprised when Bruce returned from his honeymoon cruise thirteen days early without his new bride, instead with Batgirl and Robin in tow; the cape and cowl he had once forsaken again shrouding those especially brooding features.
He was surprised to hear, however, that the now former Susan Wayne had turned out to be merely one of Ivy's test tube concoctions come to life in plant form. It took all his good manners and Grayson family tact to not elbow Barb in the ribs for a much-needed "I told you so". He was instead astonished by the level of nonchalance with which his guardian and mentor seemed to shove off the whole ordeal despite the gloominess his companions held toward his shattered prospects. Dick found himself being reminded of a time when he had once called the man out on his "stone cold heart" and he now wondered if he not truly been that far wrong. (2)
They all had expected him to be, after his apparent excitement (his lightheartedness could only be interpreted thusly) and the forfeiting of his more important commitments all for the sake of matrimony, more upset by the turn of events. But Bruce Wayne, and thus Batman, carried on as if nothing had happened.
Or so they all thought.
It had been a week since the wedding and subsequent sinking of Bruce's "marital bliss" (both literally and metaphorically), and for once in many a great while, each one of them was roaming above ground and about the manor during daylight hours. Tim had been pestering Dick all morning about playing a few rounds of outdoor tennis, as apparently "Bruce is always too busy to bother and Alfred says he doesn't trust my serve." So, the elder had nothing better to do than humor his younger partner, knowing full well what it felt like being the only child in this endless, winding manor; it had often felt so… empty.
Also, as per the current Boy-Wonder's request (well, more like pleading), Dick had popped into the study to see if Bruce, who had for all intents and purposes barricaded himself inside for the duration of the afternoon, would want to join them. He knew the answer he was most likely to receive, unless by some miracle of the heavens the man might actually allow himself to have an enjoyable hour or so away from his brooding time. It was unlikely, but a promise is a promise.
Knocking on the heavy mahogany door that closed off the study from the rest of the world garnered no response (big surprise), so he decided to stick his head around the corner and at least try to get the man's attention before he gave up entirely. When he did so, his query was cut off before it even had time to form in his throat, the sight before him causing him to stare in stunned silence.
Bruce was sitting at his desk, sweater-covered shoulders and arms hunched over its dark surface, his chin and jaw rested in the palm of a cupped hand. What most intrigued Dick was not the soft reflection in Bruce's eyes, which had he looked closer he would have instantly recognized as the beginnings of barely controlled tears, but what Bruce was dangling from his other hand and gently swinging from side to side on its long, golden chain. A gold locket?
It seemed to have some sort of heart-shaped carvings on the side; Dick had seen it before, but no one had ever bothered to tell him the story that must have accompanied it, not even Alfred. Whatever it was, it must have held a lot of sentimental value for his ever-alert mentor to become so totally lost in thought that his surroundings were entirely forgotten. It was almost as if he were entranced by the very thing, his gaze following it as it swung gently from his hand.
A quick surveillance of Bruce's desk revealed that, though littered with various paperwork, two framed photographs lay atop all else. Dick did not need to look very hard to recognize one of the photographs as one that had been taken at the wedding. The other seemed to be a portrait of a redhaired woman he did not recognize with a pair of the most striking blue eyes he had ever seen.
It was then, at sight of the photographs and the realization that accompanied them, that Dick felt sudden shame at having intruded what must have been a very private moment that he had no right to interfere with or even be witness to. It had never really occurred to Dick, considering the apparent ease with which Bruce seemed to shrug off the whole affair, that he might have sincerely loved the woman. Despite all the warning signs that someone who was uninvolved could have easily detected, perhaps Bruce had been so innocently preoccupied that he had truly missed them. Truth be told, as hard as the man often tried to prove otherwise, he was human.
Maybe, Dick Grayson had been wrong.
It was then, as those thoughts were flitting through the young man's mind, that he was startled back into reality by an uncharacteristically loud, wet sniff coming from the direction of the desk, his eyes widening as he witnessed the man who was the Dark Knight quickly dash an angry, rebelling fist across his noticeably misted eyes. If the situation had been different, Dick might have considered getting his eyesight checked, or better still, waking himself up from this strange dream he was obviously having.
His better instincts, however, told him to leave the man undisturbed in the privacy of his own thoughts and he turned to leave as silently as he had approached; yet, something deep within an unknown corner of his heart told him to turn back around as he begun to close the door. Something told him that perhaps, just this one time, his mentor who favored the darkness and the aloneness should not be left to those things. Every once in a while, Dick thought to himself as stepped into the room and cleared his throat gently to get the occupant's attention, you just need to get out and enjoy the sunshine.
And so, Dick was surprised yet again that day (chalk it up as a day full of them), as the man accepted their invitation with an eagerness that caught him thoroughly off guard. Perhaps it was just his day to be proven wrong…
"Two against one," Tim had beamed at them as they approached on the lawn, an "I told you he would come" gleam flickering pointedly in his aquamarine eyes.
And for once, as Bruce effortlessly fielded the first return with a small laugh at Tim's miffed expression, Dick was more than happy to admit that, this time, it felt good to not be right for a change.
(1) Referencing Barbara's quip of "You raised him…" to Bruce in the episode "You Scratch My Back".
(2) Referencing the episode "Robin's Reckoning"
