Author's note:

So many reviews whew Did I miss anyone? I may have missed a few anons… sorry.

Muwhahaha: Dearest Muwhahaha, you have disabled PM's so I cannot reply to your review to gloat.

Revanninja: I don't know much about Damien, other than he's a little snarky shit to everyone, but seems to respect Dick. And you're assuming that the baby was Mar'i.


Chapter 51.

"Starfire."

"Yes?" She raised her weary head and looked at the door, blinked several times and then pushed herself into a semi upright position. She looked tired, gaunt, and overwrought. There were dark rings below her eyes, her hair was mattered, unbrushed. "Bruce. Alfred." She covered her mouth and yawned. "What time is it?"

"Just past nine," Bruce said. "Have you been here all night again? You promised me you'd sleep."

"I can sleep here quite comfortably."

"In among all those cords and monitors beeping all night?" Bruce asked, disbelieving. "It's no way to sleep. If you'd slept, you wouldn't be awake now. I know how your healing sleep works."

"Dear girl," Alfred included. "You need to come away."

Starfire turned her head away from the door and sniffled. "I cannot."

"This is not doing you any good," Alfred said. "You need sunlight. Food. A shower."

"There will be time for that once..."

Bruce sighed. "Starfire—"

"Bruce, please."

"Sir, perhaps we should leave her alone. May I suggest checking on Tim? I believe he expressed some interest in a console game."

Bruce hesitated at the doorway for a moment, then nodded.

"How is Tim?" Starfire asked after a moment.

"Doing remarkably better," Alfred said with dignity. "Already he is complaining that he is sick of being confined to a wheelchair. However I am fairly certain he is enjoying the various tricks he can perform on it, much to Miss Stephanie's delight."

She smiled, no more than a twitching of her lips upward. "Please tell him I am thinking of him."

"I am certain he knows," Alfred replied. "Will you promise to eat if I bring you something?"

She closed her eyes and inclined her head in a nod. "I promise."

"I shall return shortly," Alfred said. "Do you require any pain relief?"

Starfire raised her broken wrist and considered the purple cast on it. "It is bearable." Turning her head, she took a moment to study the machines behind the bed, heart monitors and IV fluid. She sighed and stretched out on the bed again, closing her eyes. She lifted a hand, placed it against skin and allowed her powers to flow.

"Hey."

Masses of tangled red hair rose away from the bed as she looked at the door again. "Greetings Cyborg."

"How're you doing today?"

Starfire sighed and lay down again. "More of the same."

"Can I come in or will you zap me again?"

"I will most likely zap you. My apologies."

"Ahh… 'kay. Does it usually last this long?"

"It lasts as long as it lasts."

"Yeah, but… two days?"

She shrugged. "Perhaps it is the stress."

"Can I get you anything, little lady?"

"Another eighty years with him would be nice."

"Starfire—"

"My apologies, that was not the funny joke."

"S'okay. Sarah and I are just in the next room. Raven being force fed by B, and then she'll be along. You call us if you need it."

"My thanks."

The door closed quietly again and Starfire's head returned to the bed.

The bedroom at the Manor was quiet, beyond the beeping of the machines and Starfire's breathing. There was a little sunlight, trickling in through one of the semi open curtains in the room, but other than that and Starfire's soft glow, the rest of the room sat in darkness. Musty and a little oppressive.

Another soft knock at the door. "G'tuk de X'hal," Starfire muttered. "Please, do the going away! I am fine, we are fine and we do not require anything."

"Sorry, Star," Tim's voice said through the door.

Starfire lifted her head, brushed away a tear. "Tim, I apologise, I just…"

"It's okay," he called. "I'll come back later."

Starfire sighed again. "I just wish to be with you," she whispered. "Why can they not understand?" She sniffled, her fingers stroking little circles. "I do not wish to lose you. But if you need to go, I will be the okay. It will be fine."

"Not going anywhere."

Starfire's head shot up, her eyes snapping up to mine and I gave her a weak smile. It was all I could manage. So doped up on something. I wasn't quite lying on my back, sort of propped to one side. My body felt very heavy, I was having trouble staying awake, but after seeing all that, I had to say something before I slipped into sleep again. Only, it had taken me a while to rouse enough to even speak. "Hey."

She scampered up the bed so she could put her hands on my face. "Dick?"

"Hi." I frowned at the cast on her wrist, managing to lift an arm to touch it. "You okay?"

She smiled and cried at the same time, kneeling over my, dropping her head until it rested against mine. "Oh, Dick."

I lifted my left arm to touch at her face, to brush away the tears and saw the cast on my wrist too. I took a good look at Starfire, seeing the fading bruises on her face and left arm, the small healing cut on her lip. Little cuts on every bit of exposed skin. "What happened?" I asked, shifting a little, intending to sit up, only for pain to shoot through every single part of my body all at once. It started at my chest and spread out from there. Firefirefirefirefire. "Ahh!"

"Do not move," she murmured, patting me with her fingers. "Lie still. You are very injured."

"Fuck."

Starfire lifted away. "I shall call for assistance," she said, reaching for a buzzer that was at the head of my bed.

The fire dropped away as quickly as it had arrived, whatever pain medication they had me on was pretty damn good. "No." I took a breath and let it out slowly, noting all the places that breath hurt the most. "I'm okay."

Starfire frowned, her hand outstretched.

"Just… let me get my bearings first." I closed my eyes.

Starfire's fingers were against my face immediately. "Dick?" she asked, sounding panicked.

"'Kay," I murmured. "Just… how long?"

"Three days."

"Oh…"

My memory was stubborn. It didn't want to come. I clenched shut my eyes, trying to remember. The last thing I could recall was an explosion and Cyborg saying—

My eyes flashed open and I sucked in a startled gasp of air, tears already welling. "The baby! Star—"

"Shush," she said, immediately. She shifted up on the bed, took my hand and pressed it to her stomach while she lay on her side. "Our baby lives."

I stared at her, opened mouth astonishment. "But, Cyborg said—"

"They were wrong. My energy was interfering with his equipment and Raven was too exhausted to sense it properly. Once we arrived at the Watchtower, J'onn sensed its mind."

"And it's okay?" I asked, stroking at her belly. My fingers were tingling from the contact, a nice, comforting feeling. "You stopped breathing, that didn't damage it?"

"No. Tamaranian babies are sustained on energy. The flow from me to the baby never ceased."

"Oh… Thank God for that…" The relief was so strong, I had to close my eyes against the rush of tears it brought. I swallowed a couple of times to choke down the lump that had developed in my throat. "And you're okay?"

"Except for the broken wrist, I am intact."

Interesting choice of words. "Pretty strong explosion for you to break a bone."

Starfire nodded. "It is… quite painful. But I asked Raven to let it heal naturally, I do not wish for her to drain herself further."

Everything else I'd done after that was flooding back now and I looked up at her sheepishly. "Star… I think I did something pretty damn stupid then."

The look she gave me said she agreed with that statement wholeheartedly.

I braced. "How much trouble am I in?"

"Varying degrees," she said. "However Bruce has first 'dibs'."

"Damn." I dropped my eyes from hers and looked at her belly. "And you?"

"You did the 'scaring the crap' out of me, Dick."

I cringed. "Sorry."

"As much as I understand why you did what you did, and if you had not, undoubtedly Can, Nathaniel and Silkie would be dead… Dick, you were not there when I woke. No one would tell me where you were. And I knew what you had done, the moment they refused to look at me and tell me where you were, I knew you had gone after the one who did this. I was scared."

"I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "Do not. You are not sorry. I know you, Dick. You would do it all over again if you could."

"I'm sorry I scared you," I amended.

"Hmmm." She turned her head to the door. "I am most angry with you, Dick Grayson."

"I know."

She lifted away from me and pressed the buzzer at the head of the bed. I watched with a frown as she stood and moved away.

"Where are you going?"

"The valsoona," she said. "They will wish to see you and I… believe I need to shower."

"Star, don't leave me—"

Her eyes flashed. "You do not get to say that to me."

I blinked, shocked. "Ahh…"

"My apologies," she said, dropping her eyes. "You are alive and awake and for that I am glad." She turned her head to the door. "I just need to…"

I struggled to get up, or at least sit up. Didn't care about the pain or how exhausted it made me feel, I just needed to make things right. I groaned at the effort.

Starfire gasped and returned to the bed in a rush. "Dick, no—"

As she put her hand on my shoulders to restrain me, I grabbed the front of her shirt and yanked, pulling her down and mashed our lips together in a fierce and too brief kiss. "You can be angry at me," I blurted. "Scream at me, never talk to me again, hit me, whatever you like but just tell me you love me. I did it for you."

"You did it for yourself," Starfire retorted, bracing herself with her right hand.

Hurt beyond measure, I released her shirt. "Star—"

The door opened, Raven rushing through. "Starfire! What's wrong?"

Starfire just watched me for a moment, curled her broken wrist against her chest, then lifted away. "Nothing is wrong. He woke."

Raven gasped, rushed to my bed and practically threw herself at me. "Dick!"

Painful hug, but nice too. Raven looked tired, very drained. She's been pushing herself too hard, with Tim's injuries then Starfire.

And then, much to my immense dislike, my room was full of people. Especially because the one person I wanted to be in the room, slunk off to the bathroom and closed the door.

They all had something to say, often talking over each other so fast I couldn't hear them, Beast Boy especially.

Raven stood at my bedside, doing her doctor's thing. Pulse check, blood pressure, heartbeat check, listened to my breathing. She looked at my fingernails, my eyes, all without powers. She asked me questions about the pain I was experiencing, asked me to rate it before she set me up with my own pushbutton morphine drip. I winced while she fiddled with my wrist to do that.

Cyborg didn't say much at all, just sort of stared at me with his arms folded on his chest. Sarah patted my foot, looking happy. "Dick, how you feeling?" she asked after everyone had gotten over initial reactions of shock and happiness that I'd woken up.

"Awake. Tired," I answered and winced, twitching my hand as Raven jabbed me. "Ow, Raven."

"Sorry," she said, not actually sounding sorry.

"Do you know what you put us through?" Babs snapped. "Goddamn it, Dick, you know better than to go off alone, especially after something like that's happened."

"I wasn't thinking."

"Damn right you weren't thinking," she huffed. "And you blocked all tracking devices and took Gretchen off the grid. We couldn't find you, dumbass."

"Sorry."

"Personally," Tim said, pushing his wheelchair up to the side of the bed. "I think you just wanted to one up my injury. Had to show me how it was done, didn't you, Dick?"

I gave him a weak smile. "Tim, how are you? Everything okay?"

He nodded. "Body's hard at work, growing bits of liver back. I should be back on duty in a week or two."

"Two," Raven muttered, still fiddling with equipment.

"Good to hear," I said.

"You tricked me," Wally scolded, his arms on his chest. "You said you needed five minutes to compose yourself. Five fucking minutes and we couldn't even find you."

"Wal, I—"

Wally shook his head. "I would've come with. You know that. I would've backed you up, we all would've." He gestured me. "This shit would never have happened then."

"Yeah, I know—"

"No, you don't know," Wally said. "You're not a one man army. You're a leader, remember? Fucking lead by example."

"Dude—"

"I'm really happy you didn't kill yourself," Wally said. "Don't ever do that again."

"Okay," I said, confused at his abrupt about face and very tired. It was hard to stay awake. My eyes drifted to the bathroom door, wondering how Starfire was.

Beast Boy seemed unable to contain himself any longer, bouncing up and down on the spot. "Dude, Silkie, he ate Blockbuster."

I smiled, dragging my eyes back to him. "I know. Cool, huh?" Be interested, these are your friends, they've been worried, least you could do was stay awake for them.

"Did you know he could do the moth thing? Did you know?"

"Had no idea."

"Think we can train him to do it on command?"

"Do you want to clean up the purple muck after he explodes again, B?" Cyborg asked.

Beast Boy pulled a face. "Maybe that's not such a good idea."

"Where is Silkie?" I asked. There was a corner of my bed that was empty and I missed the little guy.

"Not coming in my sterile environment," Raven said. "Sorry."

"Oh." Geez, so eloquent today. And tired. I wondered if they would all mind if I just went back to sleep.

Raven lifted her eyes. "Okay, I need to check his wounds. Can we have some privacy please? Sarah, can you give Starfire a hand?"

"Sure," Sarah replied as she headed into the bathroom.

Everyone filed out, Beast Boy hesitating for a moment.

"No powers," Raven replied. "Promise."

Beast Boy nodded, then looked at me. "Sorry, dude," he said, sounding apologetic. "Choice between you and my kid, has to be my kid."

"I know," I replied. And I did know. I'd make the same choice, after all.

He looked back at Raven. "I'll go make you a tea."

Soon, it was just me and Alfred and Raven.

And Bruce, who stood at the end of the bed, just watching me.

I let myself close my eyes, I didn't think they'd mind so much. Alfred busied himself by changing the IV fluid and… catheter bag. Ouch.

"Can that come out?" I asked.

"No," Raven responded, sorting out some new dressings.

"Why not?"

"Because." She got up on the bed beside me, kneeling and bending over as much as she could. "Alfred, are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" I asked.

"Assuredly, Miss Raven," Alfred replied and gripped my upper arm and hip, rolling me toward him.

"Ow," I complained, feeling like a ragdoll, not to mention in pain, although I did notice that it was decreased from when I tried to move on my own before. Raven must have dosed me in preparation.

"Deal," Raven replied. I felt something being pried away from my lower back, before Raven inspected the wound with gentle fingers.

"Are you mad at me?" I asked, my eyes sliding shut.

"You think?" she responded. "You were so damn lucky, Dick."

"Yeah, I know," I said, my voice rather thick.

"No. You don't. Where this one hit you, another inch to the right and you'd be in a wheelchair the rest of your life. An inch higher and you'd drowned in your own blood before we could get to you. I had no energy left to even regenerate you without risking my child. Argent was feeding me hers, bless her."

"I knew the risks."

She humphed at me. "Have a think about what that did to me, you bastard. Knowing that if I tried to heal you, I'd probably be killing my child. If I didn't, I might have lost my brother."

I didn't… I wasn't… that never even occurred to me. "God, Raven, I'm sorry—"

"Sorry doesn't cut it."

"Why is everyone so mad at me?" I complained, opening my eyes to stare at the white sheets on the bed.

"Because we care about you," Bruce said in his Batman voice. "And we almost lost you because you were stupid and irresponsible. Instead of having backup and the entire Justice League descend on Blockbuster, you fucked off alone on a personal vendetta."

"He was—"

"There is nothing you can say that would justify what you put Starfire through. We were the ones that had to sedate Starfire because she went hysterical when she woke and you weren't there and we couldn't find you. You don't seem to understand the gravity of this. You can't joke your way out of it." His gaze was intense. Glaring. Boring into me. "Dick, she regained consciousness ten minutes after we got to the Watchtower. Right when we realised we couldn't find you. She should have gone into a healing sleep, instead she's been forcing herself awake, just so she could be here when you woke. I don't think she's slept more than an hour since we found."

Shit… I… damn… I didn't know. If I'd thought she was going to wake up…

Bruce flicked his eyes to Raven. "We have two pregnant women worrying themselves sick over you—"

The guilt made me angry. Why were they all being so hard on me? I was alive. Yes, I'd been stupid, but I'd gone for all the right reasons. "And you think I should have just let him get away with it?" I snapped. "He blew up my apartment building. Burnt down Haley's Circus. I thought he'd killed my child. You'd have gone after him too. And don't you be all hypocritical on me. Jason said he'd already talked to you. You weren't going to mention that, were you?"

"Tim's injury trumped that."

"Personally, I think you should have let the rest of us know what was going on so we could all have had a piece of the bastard," Alfred said, surprising me.

"I wasn't thinking."

"I trained you better than that," Bruce said. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dick, we all know why you did it. We understand and we probably would've all done the same thing. But we're still entitled to be angry."

"Later," Raven said, finishing up what she was doing to my back. "When he's well enough to handle it. He's about to drop off to sleep again."

"I am?"

"You are," Raven replied. "And Starfire's half asleep in the shower. I'm going to tuck her in next to you so she can sleep. Then maybe we can all get some rest."

"Oh." Awesome idea, really.

"Alfred, lean him back please," Raven said and I felt her positioning the pillow at my back to take pressure off my wound.

Alfred and Raven busied themselves around me for a while, turning off a few monitoring machines. Alfred made sure a curtain was open, its stream of light falling directing on the patch of bed right in front of me.

Raven lifted her eyes to Alfred and Bruce. "Naked Tamaranian coming out in a few minutes. Keep it brief, please," she instructed and went into the bathroom.

Alfred reached down and placed a hand on my upper arm. "I am glad you woke, young master. You had everyone worried."

"Sorry, Alfred," I said, feeling scolded.

Bruce stared at me for until Alfred left the room, then walked around to sit on the bed beside me, his back to me. "Dick."

I readjusted my head on my pillow. I would have liked to have bent my arm and tuck it under my head, except that my left wrist was in plaster and my right had drips and shit in it. I just wanted to stay awake long enough to see Starfire again. "Where's Jason?" I asked.

"Out there somewhere," Bruce replied. "I'll find him."

"I screwed up."

"You did. But you're alive and you're aware that you screwed up and you did manage to save two lives."

I winced. "Um…"

"I have a cover story. I'll tell you later. You and Starfire are staying here for a while anyway."

"'kay."

He patted my arm. "Get some sleep. I'll yell at you later."

"Look forward to it."

He rolled his eyes at me, tussled my hair and left.

Starfire came out of the bathroom a minute later, leaning on Raven and Sarah heavily. Her eyes were almost closed and she seemed to be murmuring something under her breath.

"Star?"

"She's okay," Raven said, as she helped Starfire into bed. "Fighting the healing sleep even though I told her not to. She had something to tell you." Raven and Sarah inched Starfire onto the bed, moving her closer and closer to me, little movements, keeping her direct sunlight too, to help her recharge. They kept Starfire on her back, even though it looked to me like Starfire wanted to roll onto her side, which would have been bad since she'd be lying on her broken wrist. She was lower down on the bed than I was, so I could stretch the hand with the IV above Starfire's head. Eventually, Starfire was flush against my side, her injured wrist lying on her stomach. Raven fussed around with a pillow before she took my plastered arm and put it on Starfire's ribs.

"I could've done that," I protested.

"But you didn't," Raven said. She leant down and kissed Starfire's forehead. "Tell him."

Starfire turned her head toward me and pressed her lips against my chest. "I love you."

I rubbed my fingers along her skin. "I love you too."

"Promise me you will be here when I wake?"

I smiled. "I promise."


Author's Note:

Had to put you all out of your misery ^_^.

On a serious note, Menamebephil is right. I did seriously consider ending it right after Chapter 49 with an epilogue of Dick death. But, since it's fanfiction, I can do what I like. Warning though, in my novels, I do not pull punches. Dead characters stay dead.

This is why I love cartoons/comics. Even they can't leave anyone dead. It's perfectly within universe to bring them back to life on a whim. So there.

Also, yes, I do know how evil I am. She Who Cannot Be Trusted after all. But consider this, I could have left you hanging for weeks on end.