Summary: Suggestion from SunkissAngel. Takes place about 3-4 months or so into their relationship. The suggestion asked for 6-ish months in, but I actually have something planned for that time period, so I pushed it up a bit.
Disclaimer: I don't own DC
How did this all go so wrong so fast?
The team had been sent to apprehend the Joker. Normally a job for Batman and Robin, except Bruce was out on important WayneTech matters and they just couldn't risk anything. It was a simple objective. Bruce and Dick had done it together hundreds of times. With the team it should be no problem, right? Well...not exactly.
During the fight, Zatanna had exerted an unusual amount of energy. Joker had managed to get a hold of a weakened Zee. His maniacal laughter caught Robin's attention, and his eyes went wide as he saw who Mista J was holding.
"No! Don't!" Dick watched as Joker stabbed her in the gut before taking off with a gleeful laugh. He ran over to catch his girlfriend before she fell, and cradled her body lovingly as her lip started to quiver and tears began to fall down her face. The rest of the team was too caught up in battle to notice, but Dick didn't care. Right now all that mattered was her safety. Zatanna softly cried as Dick held her, caressing her features gently in an attempt to calm her down. She spoke in a very weak voice, and Dick was scared by how crackly her voice was.
"D-Dick, it h-hurts!" She used his real name since nobody could hear her, and honestly, neither of them cared if the others could hear. Dick just needed to keep her safe.
"I-I know Zee. Listen, I'm right here, alright? I promise, everything is going to be just fine. I swear. P-please, just stay awake." Zatanna weakly nodded as Dick got to work on her injury. She buried her face in his chest, unable to handle the pain. He had managed to just barely stabilize her, but they needed to get her to Leslie's clinic ASAP. Zatanna had passed out from the pain, and Dick was beyond frantic. By the time he had stabilized her, the team had finished the battle and a terrified M'gann had summoned the Bio-ship. Dick stayed with Zee in the brig, crying into her chest and practically begging her to wake up. This was seriously the worst day he had been through in a looooong time. Zatanna had never gotten hurt like this on a mission before. The team had visited the hospital several times, once for Arty, once for Kaldur, once for Wally, but never for Zatanna, and surprisingly never for Dick either. Dick remembered when Artemis was crippled. Wally refused to leave her bedside and he himself could barely keep Zee from exploding with anger, especially since he was pretty angry at Metallo for throwing her off a building, too.
The others checked on Robin a few times, but couldn't do anything to pry him away from her. They arrived at the clinic, and Wally had to physically hold Artemis back when Dick asked them all to leave.
"THE HELL YOU MEAN 'LEAVE'?! SHE'S MY BEST FRIEND! I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE!"
"Look...Leslie needs peace and quiet to do her best work. I'm staying cuz I'm a regular here. You all...please just go home for now. I promise you guys can visit tomorrow. Please." Dick's normally cheery voice was morbid and broken. He was far beyond terrified for his girlfriend. There was honestly nothing wrong with the team staying, but Dick was desperate right now. He didn't want the others to see how worried he was, and he wanted to be there as Dick, not Robin, when Zee woke up. He could only do that if the others were gone. She'll wake up. She has to. Please. After much convincing, Wally got everyone to side with Dick, and they all left him alone with the unconscious Zatanna while doctors worked to stabilize her.
Dick was left to himself for almost 30 minutes, waiting outside. Part of him was burning to find the Joker and beat his sorry face into the ground, and part of him thought otherwise. This is all my fault. I shoulda stopped him. If I had, Zee wouldn't be hurt. She's in there fighting for her life cuz of my dumbass. God, what the hell did I do? Zee...just...please wake up. I need you. Dick was scared out of his mind. He knew Leslie was the best, and if anyone were to save Zatanna, it would be her. However, she wouldn't even be in this position had he done a better job of keeping her safe from Joker. They had been dating for nearly 4 months at this point, and Zatanna was the most important thing in his life. He didn't know what he would do without her.
Leslie walked out 5 minutes later to find Dick in a hysterical mess with tear streaks very evident on his face, pacing back and forth and pulling his hair out. She sighed before walking over to him. "We've stabilized her. It looks like she is expected to make a full recovery in a few days' time, but I can't promise she won't be traumatized or weak in the chest. She's asleep right now, but you can see her if you want." Dick nodded before walking over to her room, but before he could, Leslie addressed him. "You know it's not your fault. Accidents happen all the time, especially in your line of work." We can't afford accidents. Not with Joker.
"Sh-she woulda been fine if I h-had done my job pro-"
"You're starting to sound like Bruce. You know how many times he's carried your half-dead body in here, blaming himself in the waiting room?" Dick sighed. "Don't be angry at yourself for this. She's fine, and she'll want to see you. Just...learn from whatever may have caused this. And try your best not to let it happen again." Dick nodded before hurrying into Zatanna's room. Leslie let a small smile come to her face at his determination to see her. Young love.
Dick was currently sitting next to his girlfriend's bed, staring at the young magician as she was locked in a deep slumber. He had taken hold of her hand with such determination that he was somehow hoping she would wake up just from his wishes. God, please wake up, Zee. I need you. More than anything. They stayed like this for nearly 30 minutes until Zatanna started to slumber a bit, and Dick shot up faster than even Wally could. He stared at her intently, praying to some force out there that she was okay. Zatanna slowly opened her eyes, and Dick let out a shaky sigh of relief before gently but desperately cradling her in his arms. Zatanna squirmed for a bit, a little dazed and confused, but quickly recognized her boyfriend's embrace and hugged him back, smiling gently. Dick kissed the side of her neck repeatedly, taking a moment to just breathe her in. Tears started to well up in his eyes and he just couldn't hold it in anymore. "Oh god, Zee, I-I'm s-so sorry! I-I didn't see h-him with th-the knife and I-" Zatanna cut him off with a kiss, and Dick relaxed into her embrace. They broke apart and she grinned at him, wiping some of his tears before pulling him in for another hug.
"I'm fine, I promise. It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have stopped it." Dick thought otherwise, but knew it was best to keep it to himself. For now, he just took her in, kissing her neck and hugging her tightly.
"I love you, more than anything in the world." Zatanna smiled brightly and broke off the hug, scooting over a bit in her bed. Dick questioned it as she let out a few flinches at the side pain. "Zee, what're you-" Zatanna smiled and tapped the side of her bed that was now vacant. Normally, Dick wouldn't bother her like this, but he was just relieved that she was okay. He grinned before lying in bed next to her.
"I love you more." It was now Dick's turn to smile as he held her close and let all the tension in his body out.
"Not possible." He gave her a quick peck on the lips which slowly turned into a more heated exchange. The two eventually broke apart for air and stayed up a bit longer before falling asleep, Zatanna snuggled up against him.
Leslie walked into the room to find the two cuddling with one another, Zee's head resting on Dick's chest with his arm wrapped around her. The old woman couldn't help the smile on her face as she draped a blanket over the two, shut off the lights, and closed the door. She thought about scolding Dick for lying in bed with an injured patient, but decided to do it when they didn't look so blissful together.
Sorry if it wasn't all that you wanted, but I did my best with it. Feel free to leave comments or suggestions. I will soon do a similar chapter with Dick, but that's something special I'm planning to do a little bit later. There's a few more serious ideas I have for chapters, and I wanted to space them out more, but I also wanted to include them all before new team members start joining, so they would all take place in the span of the next year and a half or so. The next team member to join will be Donna Troy, but that's in like 18 months or so from this point (see the timeline for details). Gar gets adopted a little while after the upcoming New Years but doesn't become a team member until waaay later, when his Martian powers start to activate. He just kinda lives at the cave with the team (for reference, this story takes place 4 months into Chalant, which is around April time). The timeline in ch1 has all this info, and I may update it to have even more details. One semi-major storyline I left out of the timeline is the Deathstroke/Dick rivalry, which would start soon after this point and carry on well into Dick's Nightwing days. I wanna do some form of the Judas Contract (not with Terra since I kinda want her to stay a good guy with Beast Boy's Teen Titans but maybe my version would just see Nightwing having to save the Titans from Slade), Grant Wilson dying, Dick becoming Slade's apprentice temporarily, etc. I also kinda wanna eventually end their rivalry with Slade and Nightwing making amends, not unlike how Slade and Oliver become friends in Arrow. That would be a nice way of showing how they both actually respect one another, and are not mortal enemies even if they are on opposite sides of the law, sorta like Flash and Captain Cold. Anyways, I might add that to the timeline just to highlight it, since Slade is kinda a major part of Dick's story. Anyways, Feel free to leave comments or suggestions. Next chapter up soon.