Chapter 19

School was uneventful for Dixie, she barely paid attention in class and she didn't even notice the concern glances Brandon was shooting her every now and then. When the bell rang signifying the end of classes, she hardly even noticed.

"Hey Dixie," Brandon said as he approached her, his concern evident. The redhead already had his bag slung over his shoulder, waiting for the ebony girl. "You ok? You've been out of it since the start of the day."

Dixie just nodded before stuffing her things in her bag. "Yeah, just some stuff happening at home," the ebony explained, grabbing her bags and leaving the classroom, Brandon following her.

"You sure? Did something happen yesterday?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah but Bruce said we're going to have a family meeting about it," Dixie said, trying to brush it off.

Brandon winced, "That bad huh?"

Dixie sighed and nodded her head. As they approached the gate of their school, they noticed the black car parked right in front, with Alfred waiting outside.

"Well, gotta get it over with," Dixie sighed, waving Brandon goodbye before rushing to the car.

"Goodluck!" Brandon yelled after her before walking his way back to his house.

Dixie walked up to where the elderly man was waiting before giving him a small smile. "Sorry for running off last night without telling you or Bruce where I was going," she apologized.

Alfred smiled softly, "It's quite okay Miss Rachelle but I hope that you'll be the one to call where you were staying for the night."

Dixie let out a small laugh before getting in the car and quickly noticing that Jason was already there, waiting for her as well. Her smile quickly dropped as Alfred closed the door behind her and heading to his seat to drive them home.

"Hey," Jason greeted, her immediate older brother let out a small strained smile.

Dixie nodded her head in acknowledgment before turning her attention to the view outside her window. She heard Jason sigh from where he sat but said nothing. She was grateful for that since she didn't know what to say to him and didn't want to deal with her family right now, not when she would have to do it when they get home.

The car ride was quicker than she wanted it to be, arriving at the manor for what felt like mere minutes to her. She stared at the manor as if it was a prison and the last place she wanted to be. It was her home but the idea of having to confront her brothers again placed a negative feeling inside her and now she needed to confront her father as well.

"Miss Rachelle?" Alfred asked, breaking her thoughts, already having opened the door for her. Jason already got off before her, now in front of the manor door, looking at her concerned.

"Thanks, Alfred," Dixie said, getting out of the car. She grabbed her things but as she was getting her duffle bag with her clothes, Alfred got it.

"I'll take care of this Miss," the butler said. Dixie sighed before giving him a thankful smile knowing full well to not argue with Alfred.

Jason entered the manor with Dixie following a couple of steps behind him. When the two teens entered they saw their two older brothers and Bruce already waiting for them in the living room. From the looks of things, they were already discussing about something and that Damian and Tim were already arguing with one another.

"Hey," Dixie greeted under her breath as she and Jason approached the living room.

Damian stood by himself, his arms crossed, glaring a bit into their second oldest brother while Tim and Bruce were seated by the couches.

"Dixie, how was school?" Bruce asked in acknowledgment.

"Wow, my day went fine thanks for asking," Jason tried to joke before plopping himself on the couch Tim was seated, their older brother looking like he wanted to say something to Jason before just letting it drop.

"Eventful," Dixie said dryly, her distaste and wanting to leave evident to her family. She sat down in a single chair, dropping her school bag beside her. "Can we just get this over with?"

"What happened last night?" Bruce asked, no longer beating around the bush. "Tim and Jason already told me their part of the story but I wanna hear it from you."

"So it's only after I leave without telling anyone is when you all actually start caring about my side of the story?" Dixie hissed, her anger over the past week tipping and boiling.

"Grayson," Damian warned but Dixie just glared at her oldest brother.

"Why?" she asked, the hurt and pain finally leaking through. "Do none of you trust me? Is that why you all lied?"

"Dixie, no," Tim denied. "We were just scared."

"... so you don't believe in me. You don't believe I can handle things on my own?" the thirteen-year-old said to herself.

"No, Rachelle, we do believe in you," Jason said, sitting straighter, all his joking gone. "We do believe in you. Hell, if we didn't believe in you do you actually think we'll allow you to go out at night to fight Gotham's craziest?"

"Then why did you lie to me? Lie to us?" she asked.

"Dixie, we didn't do it to hurt any of you, we did it to protect you," Tim explained.

"I don't see how that was protecting us," Dixie argued. "How is lying to us about going to the Justice League headquarters protecting us?"

"We don't know," Damian spoke up. "But we didn't want to take the risk."

"Well, you did and this happened," Dixie said, slumping in her chair.

"And we're sorry," Bruce said. He stood up and walked towards her before kneeling on the ground and clutched her hand, wrapping his hand around her's as if trying to protect her and keep her safe in his palm. "We're sorry for lying and hiding about this from you and the team. We're also sorry for not talking to you after al this."

"But why?" Dixie asked, tears gathering at the corner of her eyes.

Bruce brought her in for a hug, a hug she so dearly missed. She returned the wholeheartedly, her fists clenching around his shirt as she hid her face in his neck, wanting her tears to be hidden for the world to see. She felt a hand on her left shoulder before Tim spoke up.

"We were scared to lose you, we just wanted to protect you," her older brother said once more.

"Yeah, we just wanted you to be safe," Jason said from her right.

"You'll have to let me go someday, I can fight my own battles," Dixie said, her face still hidden in her father's embrace.

"And you will," Damian said. "But not now, when you're older."

"And not so suddenly, we'll let you go slowly," Bruce said, rubbing his hand comfortably on her back.

Dixie nodded, sniffling slightly before lifting her head. "Yeah, that's all I could ask for."

After that, the comforting feeling of her house came back, the tension gone, and all were forgiven. It was late at night when Dixie heard the door of her bedroom open and felt someone slip into her bed. Dixie hummed in appreciation as she felt Damian bring her closer to him. Smiling to herself, she snuggled closer to her older brother and falling back to sleep, feeling the happiest she's ever been for a long time.