Dick laid between the crisp sheets he had dreamed about so vividly an hour before and stared up at the ceiling. Taking in the plaster whorls above him, he smiled. He remembered them now, every single one of them, and he trusted what J'onn had said about that being all but a miracle. I'm home, he sighed to himself as he closed his eyes. Home and safe.
The last thing he recalled was watching Red Hood swing away into the night following their short meeting. The Martian had given him a very basic outline of what had happened after that, but it was all news to Dick. He supposed he must have woken up in the silent room, begun to lose his grasp on his sanity, and made the conscious decision to barricade himself behind every wall that he could throw up. That was what J'onn suspected, at least, and he had neither memories nor solid evidence to the contrary.
Grimacing, he pushed the past out of his mind. He'd been advised not to go looking for those lost days in the chamber until he was completely recovered and ready to deal with the heavy emotions they were likely to inspire. It was a prescription he was happy to take for now, especially since there was so much to look forward to in the immediate future. His brain had insisted that his ears were broken when J'onn had said that Jason was in the house, and even after hearing the words twice he didn't quite dare to believe it. The Martian hadn't elucidated on why Jason had chosen now to come home, but Dick didn't really care. All that mattered was that there was a chance for his family to finally be whole again.
Impatience flooded him without warning. J'onn had left ten minutes before to fetch the others, and yet there wasn't so much as a whisper from the hall. He couldn't imagine what the holdup was, but he was determined to find out. He'd already spent years longing for the day when all three of his brothers would stand beneath this roof together, and now that his daydream had become reality he wanted to see for himself. Alfred and Bruce would be upset at him for getting up with a fever, he knew, but they would just have to deal. As soon as he saw Jay and Timmy and Dami sitting in the same room and not trying to murder one another, he'd come right back to bed without so much as a whimper.
"...I don't think you're supposed to be doing that," a voice spoke from the doorway just as he levered himself into a half-sitting position.
The shape of his chamber prevented him from seeing the speaker, but he'd know that voice anywhere. Falling back to his pillows, he stretched out his good hand. "...C'mere, little brother," he requested quietly.
Jason emerged from the shadows hesitantly. "Are you you again?" he asked.
"Jay, seeing you standing in my bedroom makes me feel more me than I have in a very long time." Dick smiled shakily. "You are real, right? You're not some wishful fever dream?"
"...No. I'm...I'm real." He approached the bed then, gripping Dick's hand once he was close enough. "Jesus, you're still boiling," he frowned as their palms met.
"J'onn said it will take my body a couple hours to catch up with my head, that's all. I'm okay." He tugged him downward. "Sit for a minute, huh? Let's talk a bit."
Once Jason was seated on the edge of the mattress Dick realized that there was a question burning in his gaze. "What's up, Jay?"
"…It's nothing, Dick. Don't worry about it."
"I've never known nothing to make you look like you do right now. Do you want to try that again?"
Jason looked away for a long moment. When he turned back there was a hopeful spark in his eyes that Dick could only remember having seen a few times before. "Do you...do you remember anything about since you were kidnapped? Anything at all?"
He had to shake his head. "I don't, and J'onn says I shouldn't try to yet. He told me you were a huge help in getting me to this point, though." He sent him a smile, but it wasn't returned. "...You know...if there's something you were hoping that I did remember, I'm sure you can tell me what it is. It probably won't hurt anything if it's a good memory."
The extra light in the younger man's expression faded away. "...No," he refused with a half-suppressed sigh. "It's nothing."
"I don't believe that, little brother. C'mon, you know you can tell me anything. That's never changed. Don't keep it inside and let it upset you."
"I'm not upset," Jason countered sharply.
Recognizing the warning tone in his voice, Dick backed off. "...Okay. Well...if you change your mind, you know where I am." He paused. "...Have you seen Bruce?"
"Yeah."
When that was all that was said, he pressed on. "It must not have been too bad of an encounter, since you're still here and you're not complaining about him," he tried.
"To be honest, Dick, we were both too busy being worried about you to get into much of anything else. But...I guess he hasn't been as bad as I always thought he would be if I ever...you know...came back."
Dick bit his lip. He desperately wanted to verify what Jason seemed to be implying, but the topic was too sensitive to withstand the force of full-strength words. "Does that mean that you're staying?" he whispered instead.
"Staying…staying would be too much right now. I mean, I'm not going to sleep here or anything like that. But I want a piece of the person who put you in that room." Jason bristled, then calmed when Dick squeezed his fingers. "I've sort of half-agreed to work with Batman on that."
"Aw, Jay..." Red Hood working with Batman; it was almost unimaginable, and yet it was everything he'd dreamed of for so long now. He had to sniffle before he could speak again. "...You're the best, do you know that?"
"No. If I was the best you wouldn't have been kidnapped in the middle of my own goddamn territory."
"Hey, hey, hey," he frowned. "That's not your fault. Not even Batman knows where everyone is all the time on his turf. That's impossible." Guilt lingered in his brother's posture, so he continued. "I don't blame you, Jason," he swore. "And if anyone else does, you send them to me. I might only have one functional arm right now, but I'll straighten them out."
Jason turned to face him fully, and now Dick could see that his mouth was trembling. It was obvious what the other man wanted, but he knew he'd never ask for it. That being the case, he brokered an invitation. "Come down here, would you? I think we've both earned a hug."
He didn't have to push beyond that offer, and that by itself told him just how shaken up Jason was. There was no way for him to pinpoint the exact cause of his sibling's distress without knowing the details of what had occurred while he was out of service, but he could imagine the maelstrom of feelings that must be involved. "...It's okay," he murmured to the cool, damp face that had buried itself against his uninjured shoulder. "It's okay now. We're home. We're okay."
"...I missed you..."
He wasn't just referring to the last few days, and Dick knew it. Years had been lost to foolish stubbornness, and it seemed that Jason was finally feeling the weight of that tragedy. Dick's heart wept with sorrow for his wayward little brother at the same time that it swelled with pride at whatever personal breakthrough had allowed him to finally come home. "I missed you too," he answered sincerely. "So much."
Jason eventually straightened, swiping at his cheeks and looking sheepish. "...I should probably go get Bruce," he muttered. "I thought his head was going to explode when J'onn said you wanted to see me first and not him."
"I had to make sure you were real. But now…now I want Tim, if you don't mind relaying the message." A beat passed. "...I'm so glad you came home, Jay. I know it was incredibly difficult, and I know it's not going to be perfect sailing up ahead, but...just stick it out, okay? We'll make it work. Together we can do anything, right?"
It was an old mantra, one they had used to buck themselves up when they'd been running the streets together as Nightwing and Robin, and to Dick's joy it made Jason smile. "Civilian things are harder than mask things," the younger man mused aloud.
"Not harder," he corrected gently. "Just different. But you don't have to deal with them all alone any more, and that automatically makes them easier. Right?"
Their eyes met, and for an instant Dick would have sworn he saw that little flame of hope flicker back into life. After a moment Jason nodded. "...Right."
Tim required no cajoling to come forward from the doorway. No sooner had he entered the room than he was crossing it in double-time. Occupying the same spot Jason had left only minutes before, he leaned forward and wrapped Dick in a tight embrace. "...God, I'm glad you're better," he whispered thickly.
"Me too, Timmy," Dick agreed. "Me, too."
They separated after a long, silent minute. It was Tim who broke the silence, giving out a long sigh. "...I think you're hurting Bruce's feelings."
"Because I asked to see you and Jason before him?"
"Yeah. He looked a little upset when Jason came up, but I thought he was going to cry when he heard that I was next."
Oh, Bruce... The last thing he wanted to do was further wound the billionaire, whom he knew was already going to be in emotional tatters over the ordeals of the last week. At the same time, though, he didn't particularly want to have an audience while he greeted the other members of his family. Experience told him that there was no way his surrogate father was going to be convinced to leave his side for several hours at least, so he was forced to save him for the end in the interest of having a little privacy with the others. "He's going to be very unhappy, then," he winced. "I plan on asking for him after everyone else."
"You'll be lucky if he waits another three minutes, let alone through another three people."
"I guess you'd better hurry up and tell me anything that you don't want him to overhear, then," Dick made a weak joke.
"Yeah..." Time trailed off. "...Hey, Dick?"
"Mm-hmm?"
"J'onn said you're not supposed to try and bring up stuff from the last few days just yet, but…how did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Get out of your own head. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you did," he raised his hands in a show of innocence, "and I don't want you to hurt yourself if you don't remember, but…you're just so different now than you were an hour ago. I don't understand it."
"I don't really remember much," Dick confessed, "but if I put together what J'onn told me and what little I do have of waking up I would say it was several factors. Being home helped a lot, I guess, even though I don't think I recognized anything or anybody. It must have just been something subconscious, that...that safe feeling you get, you know?" Tim nodded. "Jason was a big part of it too, apparently, but that makes sense. Him actually coming home of his own accord…" He shook his head. "Well, that's enough to shock anybody back into their senses, right?"
"Mmm…I'm just glad he listened to us," Tim remarked. "I don't know what we would have done about you if he hadn't come."
Dick's lips turned down. "Wait…listened to you? What do you mean?" Carried away by his curiosity, he tried to sit up again. "Do you know why he came home? J'onn didn't say, and I was afraid I'd scare Jay away if I asked him straight out…"
"Whoa," Tim said, holding him down easily with one hand. "Stay down there. You're not supposed to be up. As for Jason…I have an idea of why he came back, but I don't know if it's the whole story. Anyway…" His face grew bashful. "…Damian and I went out to Hood's territory last night and…well…we pretty much begged him to come home and see if he could help you."
Simultaneously baffled and overwhelmed, Dick gaped at his brother. "Timmy…now I don't understand. Neither of you ever go into Hood's zone. What did you think that Jason could do that you and Dami and everyone else couldn't?" Obviously it had worked, whatever it was, but he still wanted to hear the details.
"I just thought he could commiserate with you on a level that we couldn't," Tim shrugged. "I mean, you were in an anechoic chamber. In the dark, and the silence. And I thought…well…isn't the closest thing to that a grave? And Jason…well, it made sense."
"…Oh, Timmy," Dick moaned. "My brave, clever little Timmy." Holding back tears, he tugged him down into another hug. His brothers had literally risked life and limb in order to play a hunch that might very well not have worked, all in the hopes of restoring him to himself. As if that wasn't enough, their efforts had not only made him whole again but had given their family a chance to be the same way. "There goes that brain of yours, saving the day again," he laughed through the wet streams he could no longer control.
When they'd parted again, Tim pressed for more information about his recovery. "So did you know J'onn was there? In your head, I mean?"
"I…" He narrowed his eyes, thinking hard. He was playing with fire trying to remember such things so soon, but Tim had done so much for him of late that he wanted to give him something back. "…I didn't at first, I don't think," he said finally. "The first thing that happened after the night I was kidnapped, though, was that I realized he was nearby. I was still unconscious, obviously, and…you know how when you're sick sometimes you get that feeling like you're locked inside your own head and you can't get out? Like you want to move and talk, but you don't have the energy or the control?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean. Is that what it was like?"
"Yeah. The part I remember, at least. Anyway, so I was trapped in there, trying to figure out how to break free, and I just heard, like, a whisper." It had taken him several minutes to realize that the voice was one he knew. Once he'd made that connection it had been a quick leap to identify it as belonging to an ally, someone he could trust. Only then had the whispered words become clear in his mind. "He told me to break down the walls. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I started repeating him. Break down the walls, break down the walls…
"I guess that must have been enough to help, because I kept hearing him louder and louder. There was this one second after we broke into the same…I don't know, the same area of my mind, maybe…when he was just mentally overpowering. I mean, I've had J'onn in my head before, but I've never felt him using so much strength." It had been like looking into the sun, he recalled, only without the pain that was usually inseparable from such an action. "…It was amazing. You don't realize just how powerful he is until he really lets loose. It's like with Superman. You wouldn't know he could punch an asteroid into smithereens unless you'd seen him do it, you know? I mean, you'd know, but you wouldn't know. You know?
"But after that I go blank again. I get the sense that J'onn knocked me out after we ran into each other. He said there was a lot of stuff he had to, uh…to put back where it belonged." He shivered involuntarily. "Guess I went a little more crazy than he was comfortable with. But then I woke up for real, and he told me Jay was here, and…and…" Grabbing Tim's hand once more, he squeezed hard. "I can never thank you enough for being who you are, Timmy," he breathed. "You made this happen. Me being back, Jay being here…it's thanks to you, and to Dami, too." Sniffing, he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "I wouldn't be anything without my little brothers. I want you to know that."
Tim stared at him for a long moment, blinking rapidly. "…Hey, Dick?" he choked out.
"Yeah, Timmy?"
"I know how you can pay me back."
"How's that?"
"Don't ever, ever scare me like this again. If Jason hadn't come, or if his coming hadn't worked…there are a hundred ways that I might never have gotten you back. That's not a prospect I ever want to find myself face to face with after today."
"Two summers in a row is enough, huh?"
"Beyond my limit, Dick. Way beyond it."
He smiled through his fresh tears. "…You just keep on being Timmy, Timmy, and I'll do my very best to hold up my end of the deal. Okay?"
Tim smiled back weakly. "Okay, Dick. Deal."
