Summary: Takes place about 6 months after Auld Acquaintance. Continuing right after the previous chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own DC

Zatanna was still in the med bay, holding Dick's hand. She had run out of tears to shed, and her chest was extremely sore from all the sobbing. It had been about an hour since the team was kicked out of Dick's mind, and Zee was just about to call it. She was certain Dick had chosen death over life, and she wasn't mad. After everything he had been through, the kid deserved a bit of peace. But...she would be lying if she said she was okay with it. Her heart felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer and crushed it into a million pieces. She didn't even know what to think. Dick...why? I...I needed you. God, I needed you so badly. Why did you leave?

Zatanna was a second away from letting a new wave of tears out when something miraculous happened. Dick started to stir. She looked in blankly for a minute, not sure if this was real or just another hallucination. Zee rubbed her eyes to adjust her vision, and as clear as day, Dick was slowly twitching his fingers and opening his eyes. Oh my god, i-is this...is he...

Dick groaned a bit as he came to. He let a smile form on his face as Zee was the first thing he saw. "H-hey Zee." The moment she heard his voice, Zatanna threw herself around him, pulling him in for a tight hug and sobbing into his shoulder. Dick smiled as he returned the hug and repeatedly kissed her neck to calm her down.

"I...I th-though you w-were gone. I th-th-thought y-you weren't c-coming-"

"Hey, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. Ever. Promise." Zatanna continued to sob into his chest, so Dick tilted her head upwards a bit and brought her lips up to his own. She let her crying spill into their intimacy as she just took him in, hugging him tighter and tighter. He shifted himself so she was laying next to him in the bed, and he hugged her close, whispering sweet nothings into her ear. She eventually stopped crying and lay with him peacefully. Her head was resting on his chest, and they were practically smushed together thanks to the closeness of their bodies, but neither minded in the slightest. They stayed like this for almost 10 minutes, and in those 10 minutes, Zatanna got to expel all the fear and horror she had built up over the past 24 hours. Dick smiled before kissing her forehead and sitting up. "We should probably get going."

"Yeah. 5 more minutes?" Dick laughed.

"Let's go now, and afterwards I'll give you all the time in the world." Zatanna smiled and gave him a peck on the lips before they got up and started to get out. Dick stumbled after a few steps, but Zee caught him and helped him walk. Damn, why am I so...stiff? Guess that's what happens when you don't wake up for a whole day.

Dick walked out of the room to see Bruce and Alfred sitting by a couch, clearly worried out of their minds. He walked up to them, and the moment Bruce saw him, his eyes widened and he jumped up. "Dick?"

"Hey, old man." Bruce smiled before bringing him in for a hug. Zatanna couldn't help the upwards twitching at her mouth. Batman never showed emotion in public, but she had seen firsthand how close he and Dick were. Watching them now was just heartwarming. They broke off after a few moments, and Alfred immediately went over to Dick to pull him into another hug.

"Master Dick, words cannot express how glad I am to see you awake."

"I'd say I missed you, but I can't really remember anything, Al." Alfred grinned as he broke away.

"Well, perhaps a hearty meal would fix that." Before Dick could respond, Bruce placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You've got some others who want to see you."

"Y-yeah. Lemme get my glasses."

"Oh, and one more thing." Bruce gestured to the glasses. "You won't be needing those anymore." Dick looked at him, confused until Bruce elaborated. "We...we went into your mind. To help you get through it. They...they saw some things, and they know your identity." Dick's eyes widened and he started to panic internally. "Don't worry, though. None of them hold anything against you, and none of them will see you as any different. If anything, it'll be the opposite. Trust me on that one." Dick nodded, smiling. Bruce asked Alfred and Zatanna to go get the others since he wanted to say some things to Dick alone. When Zatanna left, Dick asked a question that was plaguing his thoughts.

"Did they see my scars?"

"No. They saw how you got a few, but they never saw all of them. I'll leave that secret for you to tell."

"Thanks."

"There's, uh, there's one more thing." Dick looked on, confused as Bruce got down to his knees and took off his cowl. "I...thank you. Just...for sticking with me. I know these past 5 years have been hard on you, and I haven't made it any easier. You've had to walk through hell and back, and I know that was hard. Truth be told, I just didn't realize how hard it must have been until I entered your mind."

"Yeah, it sucked. But I wouldn't give it up for the world." Bruce was taken aback as Dick hugged him. He stiffened up for a moment before returning the hug. "And, uh, just for the record...you do make it easier. Every day." Bruce let a smile come to his face as they stayed like this for a while. "Thanks, Bruce."

"Anytime, Dick."

The two eventually broke off and Bruce put his cowl back on as they walked to the living room. Zee and Al hadn't entered yet, as they thought Dick might want to greet them himself. He walked into the living room, giving a sheepish smile as everyone's jaws dropped at the sight of him. "Uh, hey guys." Dick was pulled into a bone-crushing group hug as everyone huddled around him. He laughed as he was picked up into the air by his teammates during the hug, and the adults watched on with smiles at the gesture. Once the team broke the hug, Arty walked up to Dick and punched him in the arm rather hard. Dick rubbed his arm as Arty half-smirked, half-glared at him.

"'We'll laugh about this someday'? I'm certainly not laughing right now, bird-brain." Dick grinned before Arty pulled him in for another hug. The rest of the team just looked on, confused as to the interaction. "Welcome back."

"Thanks." Wally grinned and grabbed Dick away from his girlfriend, wrapping an arm around his neck and fist-bumping him.

"You and I are spending all night together. I already got a full itinerary for our boy's night out. Kal and Connor can attend the next one." Dick smiled.

"Eh, let's do all that tomorrow. I kinda got some stuff to do today." He threw a glance at Zatanna that nobody else noticed, and she blushed and smiled at him.

"Fine, but I'm holding you to that." Clark walked up to Dick and ruffled his hair, Diana in tow.

"Gave us quite a scare, partner."

"Heh, sorry about that." Diana kissed the top of his head.

"Just so long as you're okay."

Robin spent the next few hours with the team, just getting to introduce them to this new character of Richard Grayson. He loved being able to talk and hang out with his friends without those shades. But he was still gonna keep them, he had decided that he might wear them every now and again. He did look damn good in those. Bruce let him stay the night with his friends, so long as he promised to spend all of the next day with just him, Alfred, and Diana on a family get-together. He agreed once Bruce said he could bring Zatanna with him. After everything he had just underwent, there was no way in hell Zatanna was letting him out of her sight for at least a solid week or two.

The team had all fallen asleep together on the couch during a movie night, the respective couples cuddling with one another. Wally and Arty were sharing a loveseat, Connor and M'gann were on the floor propped up next to one of the sofas, and Raquel and Kaldur were sharing that very sofa. Dick and Zatanna were the last ones awake, and Dick looked to his girlfriend, who seemed to be drowsing off. "I love you."

"I evol uoy erom."

"Show off." Zee giggled.

"C'mon, that's not even that complicated. You try."

"I e-elov u-uoy?" Zatanna giggled even more at his horrible pronunciation.

"We've got some work to do." Dick smiled as their lips met. Their tongues played together for a minute before they broke off and fell asleep, her head resting on his chest with his arms wrapped around her waist as they both smiled. "I evol uoy, Yob Rednow."

Bruce Zeta'd to the cave early in the morning just to check on Dick, and he couldn't help the smile as he looked on to see the whole team snuggling with their significant others, his little bird and the young magician included.

Sorry if it was not the best, but I had fun writing it. Feel free to leave comments or suggestions. Suggestions would actually be appreciated since I'm more than willing to write any ideas you guys have(I've already made a few suggestion chapters). If not, I'll just stick with the list of chapters I made for myself. That list keeps getting bigger, but I have no problems with adding as many chapter prompts as I can think of onto it, since it just gives me more ideas for what to write. Those prompts include any suggestions you may have, so keep them coming. I'm gonna TRY to start moving through the timeline a bit more now, but I'm still gonna be throwing in a ton of fluff chapters/suggestion chapters everywhere to space the serious ones out a bit. I kinda wanna get a lot of these fluff chapters in before new team members join just to reinforce the notion that the original 8 members are the core team, who will eventually form the Titans in this universe (see ch1 timeline for details). But I will add new members soon, since I did say I wanted to move through the timeline a bit more efficiently. I'm just also gonna be throwing in fluff as well to add more chapters to the book and space out the serious ones. This book has become a big part of my life, so I have no plans to stop anytime soon. Anyways, next chapter up soon.