Three chapters in less than a business week? Trust me, I'm more shocked than anyone but hey when it rains, it pours. I am trying to be consistent on all creative fronts, including my PODCAST during these troubling times. I encourage you all to follow and subscribe on YouTube, Anchor, & Spotify. The podcast name is BODY OF AN EXTRAVERT and I would love to be supported and hear from all of you. My recent episode was about fanfiction! So please check it out. Now without further ado!
Zatanna brought her hands to Archie's chest and pushed him away before wiping her mouth.
"What the hell?" she shouted.
"I'm sorry!" Archie replied. "I had to try, I thought maybe I could change your mind or if there was something there-"
"There's nothing here Arch, I just told you I didn't want to do this."
"You said you didn't want to make the same mistake again, I'm not your ex. I can love you Zatanna." he told her.
"I don't want your love Archie! I never asked for your love, I'm sorry if you were getting mixed signals but let me be clear, I value our relationship as colleagues and friends; nothing more. Got it?" she snapped.
"Got it." Archie replied.
"Good night." she said as she moved past him and entered her room, closing the door firmly behind her.
6:33am; Wayne Manor
Dick heard the hastened shuffling and groaning before he could register what was happening and then it was too late. His eye had barely cracked open before he saw John, ashen faced and sweating, lean over to puke on him.
"Oh what the fuck!" He shouted, as he jumped up and started brushing the vomit off of him while John continued to blow chunks while his sister began to rouse.
"John?" Wyette yawned as she crawled over to her brother and watched as he held his small stomach and continued to heave.
"Alfred!" Dick shouted loudly, as whipped off pajama shorts and stood in nothing but his briefs. He thanked God he had happened to wear them. "Shit!"
Tim rushed into the room and flinched in disgust, "Ugh, oh no. What's wrong John?"
Wyette stood on the bed, her expression cumbersome before she stretched her arms out to Tim in a wordless gesture to pick her up. Tim complied, going to the opposite side of the bed and rescuing the small lady and her snuggles, from her sickly brother.
John began crying in earnest as he curled into a small ball and clutched his stomach. "My tummy hurts all over." he cried.
"Master Dick?" Alfred replied. He peered into the room, his expression entirely aghast.
"You tummy?" Dick asked as he turned, still covered in puke, to place his hand over John's head. "He feels warm." He told Alfred. "Can you do something?"
"What the hell is going on in here?" Damian snapped. "Can't we at least sleep decently anymore? - Urghh"
He pulled back in disgust, his own stomach turning at the sight and smell. "What did you do Grayson?"
"Nothing," Dick replied as he glared at him before turning to Tim. "Can you get her ready for school?"
Tim left the room quickly, whispering reassurances to Wyette as she was taken away from her brother.
"He didn't have much aside from some steamed vegetables and soup last night. I don't know what could've given him a stomach ache." Dick told Alfred.
Before Alfred could reply John contorted his body into a tighter ball before releasing the most putrid smelling stream of gas.
Damian gagged, "That's not a good sign. It smells like cow manure in here."
Alfred looked up at Dick, "The chocolate milk."
Dick looked back at him, "Yeah what about it?"
"Master Dick, what kind of milk did you use when you made him chocolate milk last night?" He asked.
Dick could feel a cold sweat go down his back. "Whole milk."
John groaned and Alfred shook his head. "Master Dick," Alfred began before he was abruptly cut off.
"Whole milk?" Damian sneered, "What the hell were you thinking Grayson? Didn't Zatanna leave you a list? Almond milk, soymilk, rice milk, oat milk! She gives you fifty different kinds of milk to give them and you give him cow's milk? Great, just great!"
Alfred sighed, "I'm afraid he's right Master Dick, these kids have never had whole milk before. That being the case - it's not going to take kindly to their system. We need to get him to a toilet and fast."
"It's a circus around here." Damian muttered as he made his way from the room.
7:45am, New York
Zatanna glared at her phone and tapped her fingers incessantly, debating whether or not she should just teleport herself to Gotham. Shae had call Dick four times already to no avail. She was trying, desperately trying not to be a worry wart but -
RING
"Hello?" she said breathlessly into the phone. "What's going on, is everything okay? Where are Wyette and John?"
"Breathe Zatanna, they're alive and well." Dick told her coolly.
"Well, where are they? I didn't get to say goodnight, I need to talk to them this morning. Right now, please." she demanded.
"Okay look, I didn't want to worry you." he started and Zatanna already found herself ripping off her covers, preparing to teleport to Gotham.
"We're gonna be a little late to school this morning, I woke up later than I should have and now we are kind of in a pinch for time. Look John's still getting ready with Alfred, I'll put Wyette on the phone." Dick told her.
Zatanna almost fell over from the quick and unnecessary adrenaline rush. "Oh, okay."
"Mommy?" Wyette said over the line.
"Baby! How are you sweetheart, what's going on? I miss you so much." Zatanna gushed.
"I'm getting ready for school, I'm being very good." Wyette told her quite frankly.
Zatanna laughed. "I'm happy to hear that baby, how was bedtime last night? I'm sorry I couldn't tell you goodnight."
"It's okay, we slept really good, we had soup and strawberry milk, and snuggles was there too even though Damian didn't want him to be. We missed you anyway." Wyette confessed thoughtfully.
"Aww baby, I miss you too, but how about this, we'll facetime right after school today so we can see each other. Then maybe you won't miss me so bad." Zatanna offered.
"Okay." Wyette agreed.
"Where's John?" Zatanna asked.
"Hey Zatanna, we're about to run out. The kids are late, I'm late, we'll do facetime later on though."
"Oh wait, did Alfred pack their lunches? Don't forget they need to pack a midday snack too, no juice, water since they had flavored milk yesterday-"
"Got it, thanks! I'll let you know once they get there safely. Bye, lots of love all around." Dick said hastily before hanging up..
"Bye." Zatanna said after the fact.
8:00am, Wayne Manor
Dick listened closely as Wyette spoke to her mother, he looked up at his mentor and adoptive father who was preparing to leave.
He willed the doubts and the words to stay in his head but they left his mouth before he could stop them.
"Maybe, maybe I'm not cut out for this. It's always one step forward and two steps back, it's happening too soon. I'm five years too late, five years behind on experience. I can't….I'm not."
Dick couldn't bring himself to finish the words, he grit his teeth and cursed himself.
Bruce looked at him and put his briefcase down, "It's a bit early to make that call, isn't it? It's been less than 24 hours."
"And I've managed to poison one of them, let them bring a dead pig to life; probably scarring them for life, oh and this morning Zatanna texted me to do a weapons check, in their backpacks before sending them to school since they just pick up what we leave lying around."
Bruce chuckled and Dick glared at him.
"Laugh it up all you want but John had a throwing star in his pocket for days without anyone noticing. Ugh, this isn't how this was supposed to go."
"And how was this supposed to go?" Bruce asked.
"Well for starters, I was supposed to know I was going to be a father when she was pregnant, I was supposed to be there, I was supposed to know that Zatanna hasn't had whole milk since high school and so it would make sense that her kids wouldn't have whole milk. I was supposed to read the list, I was supposed to-"
"You are supposed to be a father to them, now. Now that you know they exist, now that you can make a difference and now that one of you decisions didn't pan out. You can't help what you didn't know, you can't 'would have, should have, and could have' your way through parenting. There are going to millions of things you shoulda, coulda, woulda but what will matter is what you have done and will do. So, you gave your son indigestion, that can be overlooked, indigestion can be fixed. Giving up, calling it quits, abandoning them when they need you; that won't be. Not by them, not by you, and certainly not by Zatanna who wanted to avoid that exact outcome for them. You've come too far to give up now. If anyone can do this and do this well, it's you."
Dick smirked and looked at Bruce from the corner of his eye, "You haven't given me a speech this long since I was sidekick, or more like your pupil."
Bruce shrugged and started for the door before replying over his shoulder, "You still are my pupil, it's just a different class."
Just then he heard Zatanna ask for John over the phone.
He raced over to Wyette, grabbed the phone and stalled Zatanna's efforts to talk before he eventually hung up and brought his head into his hands.
He needed more time, more time to get this right, he had to get this right. He finally got what he wanted, a family and now he was getting unsupervised time with them. He couldn't afford to mess this up, he would not get in his own way.
"Are you okay Dick?" Wyette asked softly.
Dick nodded mutely.
"Is John okay?" She asked.
Dick huffed out a breath and smiled weakly, "He will be but I don't think he's going to school with you today. Is that okay?"
Wyette pursed her lips and nodded, her eyes big but brave. "Can I go say goodbye?" she asked softly.
Hand in hand they walked up the stairs and into the kids room, where Alfred sat by John nursing him to health while Tim and Damian cleaned up the room.
Wyette ran up to her brother and threw her arms around him, her forehead pressing against his, her hands running through his unkempt hair.
"I'll be back okay John?"
John nodded, his blue eyes blurred with tears.
"You're gonna be okay, don't you know?" she told him.
John shook his head in the negative and Wyette leaned into his ear to whisper some secret reassurance to her brother. John looked at her and then at Dick before he curled into Alfred again, the sight making Dick's own stomach turn.
Wyette ran over to Dick and grabbed his hand.
"Bye Tim! Bye Dami! Common Dick, we gotta go." she said pulled him out the door with all her strength.
Dick looked over his shoulder to John, "I'll be back buddy, just hold on, okay?"
John nodded.
As Dick loaded Wyette into the car, he laughed tensely. "Why are you so fidgety all of sudden? What's the rush?"
Wyette looked at him brightly, "We gotta hurry so you can come back for John because you're gonna fix it." she told him excitedly.
"Huh?" DIck replied, "Fix it?"
"Yeah," Wyette told him, "Because you have him and he has you, just like when I got my hair broken. You're gonna make sure he gets all better. That's what you do, right Dick? So we have to hurry."
Dick smiled and found himself clearing his throat, he pressed his lips into her head of hair.
"Yeah, it's what I do."
He parked the car and grabbed Wyette from the back, taking her out of her big girl seat. He placed her over his shoulder and jogged inside and knocked on the teacher's door.
Janelle opened the door breathlessly, "Dick," she chuckled before her eyes narrowed, "You're late." she observed. "And you're missing a child."
Dick smiled, "Yeah, Zatanna's out of town, so I have the kids this week. John wasn't feeling so great this morning but we're gonna fix that. He'll be here bright and early tomorrow, but in the meantime, would you look after this one? We can't afford any more mishaps, haircuts, or anything of the sort. I need the week to go smoothly from here on out."
Janelle helped Wyette smooth her dress and hair, before letting her into the rowdy classroom.
"You can count on me," Janelle promised. "I'll be on it like white on rice."
"Thanks." Dick said breathlessly as he turned to leave just as quickly as he'd come.
"Dick?" Janelle called from the door.
"Huh?" he replied.
"I'm rooting for you. You can do this." she said as she winked and closed the door behind her.
Dick smiled in earnest.
I can do this.