Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot! The plot belongs to me; DC Comics basically owns everything else.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Saturday
December 10, 2005
7:30 AM
Wayne Manor-Kitchen
Dick walked into the kitchen and yawned before taking his usual seat at the island.
He was just about to speak but stopped upon seeing that the man making breakfast that morning was not Alfred.
The man stopped what he was doing and turned to Dick and smiled.
He was 5'9" with a head of thick black hair that was brushed neatly to the side and had a clean shaven face. He was a little more built than Alfred and about half his age which put him in his late thirties. His eyes were a dark brown but just by looking into them Dick could obviously see the same kindness that resided in Alfred's own crystal blue eyes.
"Who are you?" Dick asked immediately as he got up from his seat and crossed his arms over his chest.
Before the man could speak Bruce spoke up from behind Dick.
"His name is Nicholas Pennyworth, he's Alfred's nephew." Bruce explained walking up to Dick. "I'd like to see you in my office. Now." Dick slowly followed Bruce out into the hall and down to his office a few doors down.
Once the door closed behind him he sat in the chair across from Bruce's desk.
"What happened to Alfred, Bruce?" He immediately asked.
"He fell down the stairs about an hour after you, Kory, and Donna left for the courthouse yesterday." Bruce explained as calmly as he could but Dick detected a small tremor in his usually strong voice, "The doctors said he'd be okay but he's overexerting himself and needs to rest. They are had him stay overnight last night and I'll be picking him up in a few hours and bringing him back here. I'm keeping him on bed rest until he gets stronger and he gave me Nicholas' number so we could still have a little help around the house."
"How long is he staying?" Dick asked turning his head over to the door.
"As long as he needs to." Bruce answered.
"He can't know." Dick told him, "We can't trust him until he proves himself and if he's only gonna be staying for a few weeks or months than it's not worth telling him."
"I agree." Bruce said with a nod, "But until Alfred gets better he'll still be staying."
Dick got up and walked out of the room and back down the hall to the kitchen. When he got there he saw Donna and Kory speaking with Nicholas.
"That must have been fascinating," Donna said in awe as she looked up at the older man, "I've always wanted to visit the raft through the Amazon river."
"Did you meet anyone interesting?" Kory asked as he set a plate of eggs down in front of her.
"Oh, my last employer knew many people." Nicholas told her with a grin, his voice just a bit deeper than Alfred's but had the same thick, British accent, "He was very interested in politics however. He liked to dine with the Queen and Prime Minister very often, especially whenever he was in England. He was a friend to many rulers and very important people, so many, I don't think I can name anymore off the top of my head."
The girls laughed at that.
"So, how long do you plan on staying with us Nick?" Kory asked as Dick took his seat once more, beside her.
"For as long as Master Bruce will have me Miss Kory," Nick told her as he grabbed another plate off the counter and set it in front of Dick, "It is only my first day but I must say I quite like it here. It's much more different than traveling with my last employer. A little calmer as well."
Kory and Donna locked eyes for a moment and grinned.
"Trust me, Nick," Kory said turning back to their new butler, "it's definitely different here but it's still about the same as well."
Nick just raised an eyebrow in question before turning to Dick.
"I do hope you like your eggs, Master…" He started but stopped and waited for his name.
"Dick," He told him after he took a bite and swallowed, "and I do like them. Thanks Nick."
"It is my pleasure, sir." Nick said with a smile before he turned back to the stove and started to clean up.
The door opened and closed and, a few moments later, Babs walked in brushing the snow out of her hair.
"Morning everyone." She said with a smile before looking up to Nick a questioning look in her eyes, "Are you Nicholas?"
"Yes I am," He told her with a smile, "and you must be Miss Barbera Gordon, correct?"
"Yeah," Babs told him with a grin as she took her seat at the island and took her jacket off, "it's good to see you got here okay. With the small snowstorm that blew in early this morning I wasn't sure if you'd been able to still land at Bruce's hangar."
"It did take a while but I got in fine." Nick assured her, "Would you like something for breakfast, Miss Barbera?"
"Babs or Barb, please, and thanks but I grabbed something on the way over." Babs told him before turning to the others, "Dad told me that you guys don't have to go to court today because of what happened last night. The Justice's are at the hospital right now getting checked up on to make sure that the fumes in the knockout gas wasn't toxic or caused any harm to them, so court won't resume until Monday."
"Yeah," Kory told her with a nod, "I got a call about it this morning."
"Me too." Dick said as he quickly finished up his breakfast.
"So what are we gonna do today?" Donna asked as she finished up and put her plate in the sink, before leaning against the counter.
"I have some work to do." Dick said as he got up and put his plate in the sink as well before he turned to Nick, "If you come across any locked doors upstairs on the second floor, they belong to the other teens that live here most of the year. They're on vacation right now."
"Yeah but you'll meet them later." Kory said as she put her plate in the sink as well before turning to Donna and Babs. "We can head out for a while."
She gave them a wink before heading out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
Babs left and went down the hall and Donna went and followed her up.
"Um, Master Dick," Nick said, stopping Dick before he could leave, "I was wondering if you could explain a few things to me before you go. Master Bruce has already said that he'll be leaving soon and since the girls are heading out…"
He trailed off and waited for Dick to reply.
"Sure," Dick finally said as he took his seat at the island once more and motioned for Nick to sit across from him. Once he did he continued, "Well, first of all let's start with Donna. Right now she's just visiting from Metropolis. Her brother-in-law, Clark Kent, is one of Bruce's best friends as is Diana, his wife and Donna's sister. She'll probably be heading back around the first week of January.
"Kory lives here all year round. She and Donna are like sisters and practically inseparable when they're together. Kory's a few months older than Donna and kinda acts like the older sister a few times but only when she needs too. They both stick up for each other a lot and don't like it when someone puts one of them down. Basically, you mess with one of them, you better be ready for the other. They're also both talented athletes. Kory's the captain of all the teams she's on in school. Volleyball, basketball, softball, and she's also a martial arts expert. Donna is pretty good at martial arts as well but, as far as I know, she isn't on any teams at her school. She is pretty smart though since she's fifteen and is already in her last year of high school.
"Babs is the Commissioners daughter and spends a lot of time here, except around this time of the year. This time of the year her dad usually takes some time off to spend more time with her but most of the time she's around here because her dad works so late.
"Vic, Karen, Gar, Rachel, and Tim are the others that live around here most of the year because of school. Tim's my adopted little brother and he's a year younger than me. He usually stays year-round but this year Gar invited him over to his place.
"Gar and Rachel are Babs and Tim's age and don't usually agree. Rachel's a big reader and Gar's a big prankster, or likes to think he is. He likes to annoy Rachel a lot though and she usually likes to slap him on the back of his head or give him a quick, sarcastic comment to bring him down a bit.
"Vic and Karen just started dating this year and they're the same age as Kory, Donna, and I. Vic likes to play video games with Gar and Tim and is good with computers and loves cars. Karen is more into music. She basically always has her iPod with her wherever she goes and loves dancing as well.
"Selina Kyle stops by pretty often. She lives in this apartment building in the East End and works at an orphanage down their. She and Bruce have a thing for each other but he doesn't like to pursue it for reasons that I won't explain right now. This house is usually pretty busy but if you don't catch sight of us for a while, don't think anything of it. We're all usually night people."
When he finished he got up and left the kitchen and Nick to his thoughts.
After he changed he snuck down the stairs and made sure Nick wasn't anywhere in sight before he went to the last room down the hall and played the soft tune that opened the bookcase and quickly walked through.
When he arrived in the Batcave a few minutes later he walked straight to the training room and saw a large pole had been raised about thirty feet above the ground and mats were placed around it.
On top of the pole, Kory and Donna were balancing on it while trying to knock the other over with a stick about and inch thick in their hands.
"What the hell are you two doing?" He asked as he looked up at them.
"Playing battle staves." Donna replied as she blocked a swift side-slap from Kory.
"We played it on the island last April." Kory explained just before a loud crack was heard as both hers and Donna's sticks locked against each other. "Thought it'd be fun to play it again."
She shifted her weight and pushed Donna over the edge of the two inch wide pole, but was pulled down with her.
They shifted in the air, both trying to push the other under them so they would hit the mat first.
Babs got up from her seat in the stand and knelt tot the ground just in front of where they were gonna hit and slapped the ground just as Donna's elbow hit the mat.
"Donna!" She cried out as Kory hit the mat on her side, shook her head and quickly got back up.
Donna just groaned and let the back of her head hit the mat once more.
"I was so close." She said as Kory offered her a hand up.
"I have to admit," Kory said as she helped her up, "you almost had me there."
"We need to come to an understanding right now." Dick told them as he walked over to them, "So, before you three get back to your game, I want to let you all know to not let Nick know anything about our lives as heroes. Until he earns our trust, he knows nothing. Got it?"
"Got it." Kory told him with a smile, "Don't worry Richard. The only time when you should is when Gar probably comes back, only because he'll assume Nick will know."
"Speaking of assumptions," Dick said as he snapped his fingers, "Donna, Roy will be coming Tuesday with Ollie. They're both gonna be staying for the Christmas party."
"Why should I know that?" Donna asked.
"Because, as usual, you're in charge of him." Dick told her before turning her back to him and walked over to the boy's locker room.
"Well, this is gonna be the best Christmas ever!" Donna said sarcastically before grabbing the stick she had been holding.
Kory grinned at her sister before heading over to the girl's locker room.
"I have to go help Richard write that report about last night." She told Donna and Babs, "I'll meet up with you two later."
A few moments later-Nightwing and Starfire's Office
Kory entered to see Dick already typing away at his computer.
"I think we can trust him." She said as she took her seat at her desk.
"Good for that." Dick answered as he continued typing. "I still don't."
"Alfred obviously trusts him," Kory said as she started her computer, "if he didn't, he wouldn't have told Bruce to call him."
"I still don't trust him because I don't know him or anything about him." Dick explained as he finally paused in his typing and looked at her. "That's why I'm looking into him."
"I figured you were." Kory replied as she opened up a new file and started typing, "That's why I came to type up the report on our fight last night with the Justice's."
"Commissioner Gordon found the cell phone that was used to talk with Grant. He'll be taken in soon." Dick told her.
"Which means Zucco will be giving up the moment he Grant gets booted." Kory replied.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, each working on their own thing.
"He's smart." Dick finally spoke, addressing Nick, "He went to Oxford and was an A student. He worked for the royal family before he was employed there until he was about twenty-five. From there he was employed by Henry Jacobson until now. Jacobson is a known adventurer and has traveled the world about ten times over. Nick's record is clean and, according to the queen and Mr. Jacobson, he's very loyal and trustworthy."
Kory grinned at him after he read the last sentence.
"Told you." She told him immediately before going back to her typing.
"We're still not going to tell him until we figure out how long he'll be staying." Dick told her with finality, "And until he proves how dependable he can be."
"How is he in the medical department?" Kory asked as she started to put the finishing touches on her report a few minutes later.
"Just as good as Alfred according to his records." Dick said as his eyes continued to scan the pages.
"Finished." Kory said as she clicked on the print button and pulled out a new manila folder from one of the drawers of her desk. "Since I typed it, you can file it."
She handed him the folder and got up from her seat and left the room.
A/N: So, it may seem a little out of nowhere that Alfred just suddenly got sick, but remember, this story focuses on the Titans, not Alfred, Bruce or Selina. And with all of the things the Titans have been through so far this year, Alfred's failing health, unfortunately, easily slipped by. You may not see remorse between the Titans that are currently in Gotham now, but it will show in later chapters.
Hope you all liked this chapter! Please review.
