The room was still, everyone stared in shocked silence. They waited for Dick to laugh, to say "fooled ya!" but his confused stare remained.

'Dick, it's Joey,' Bruce said gently. 'Do you remember?'

'I don't know…' Dick's eyes remained on Joey. It wasn't that he didn't remember him, his gut was telling him that the man was safe, and he recognised the face as one he knew, but he couldn't place it. But then, when he thought about it, he couldn't place a lot of his thoughts.

'Do you know where you are?' Bruce said, trying to remain calm. His eldest son looked around and quickly pieced together that he was in a general hospital, rather than the med bay at the League. But when Bruce asked him if he knew how he got there, the young man shook his head slowly. He didn't remember anything about the incident, he didn't even remember going to work.

'What's the last thing you remember?' asked Jason.

'I don't know…' Dick's eyes were closed as he tried desperately to conjure up memories. 'It's all in pieces. I remember fighting with someone.'

'That narrows it down,' Jason said flatly, but Bruce elbowed him.

'No not fighting…arguing. I was arguing with someone…in a bar?' The pieces were slowly falling together, but it was like looking at his memories through a kaleidoscope. It wasn't completely clear.

'Do you remember what about?' asked Joey tentatively. Dick glanced at him cautiously, but then tried to remember.

'A church?' Dick said weakly after a few minutes.

'Does Gotham Church Fundraiser ring any bells?' said Joey, after a few moments Dick nodded. 'That was me. You were arguing with me about going to the fundraiser together.'

'We were?'

'But that was almost three weeks ago.' Joey said, more to Bruce than to Dick. Bruce nodded and mentioned going to get a doctor. As the man left, the rest of them fell once more into quiet for several minutes.

'Why were we fighting?' Dick asked quietly.

'You didn't want to go,' Joey said with a shrug.

'But you did?'

'Not particularly. But I got the impression you didn't want to go, because you were worried about what people would think.'

'About what?' Dick's expression of confusion was almost childlike as he stared up at him. But Joey shook his head, telling him it didn't matter. Thankfully Bruce returned with the doctor, who immediately shone a light into Dick's eyes.

'Alright Mr Grayson, good to see you're awake. I hear you're a bit confused, so we're going to take you for another CT, see if we can rule out anything serious.'

'I think I hit my head,' said Dick, his kaleidoscope thoughts were starting to scatter again. Things he had been on the cusp of remembering were starting to fall away.

'You did, in quite a show of bravery so I hear,' said the doctor. 'You have a few stitches back there and the bruising will be severe. But you're awake, which is a good indicator.'

Joey watched as Dick was painfully transferred to a wheelchair and taken for a CT scan. He managed to hold it together until he had been wheeled away down the corridor and out of sight. Then he gasped for air as he allowed the panic to take over.

'Woah, Joey!' Jason ran to him and guided him to sit on the bed.

'He doesn't remember me,' Joey said in gasps. Over the last year he had guided Dick through so many panic attacks, but as the cold feeling of dread swept through his body, he couldn't remember a single coping method.

'Breathe Joey, it's going to be fine!' said Jason. 'I'm sure whatever is going on in that thick skull of his is only temporary.'

'But what if it isn't, what if he never remembers?'

'Then it will be like that movie, the one where that girl loses her memory.' Jason gripped the man's shoulder, hoping his pop culture reference would help.

'You mean The Vow? Doesn't she marry someone else?' Joey said in despair.

'Oh no, not that one. The one with the penguins!' He looked to Bruce for help, but his father looked just as confused. 'You know, the blonde chick has a brain injury and forgets the funny looking dude and he basically stalks her everyday making her fall in love with him.'

'50 First Dates?' Joey offered.

'Yeh…there were penguins in that right?' Jason shrugged; he wasn't very good with actors' names. Joey just stared at him.

'How the hell is that supposed to make me feel better?'

'Well, it distracted you from your panic attack!' Jason shrugged. But Joey realised he was right; he could breathe again. He thanked him and Jason silently nodded.

'The doctor said that he had some brain swelling, that might be causing his thoughts to be a bit jumbled,' said Bruce, leaning against the doorway and watching down the corridor for them to come back. 'He knows who we are, and he remembered your argument in the bar, so his memories are still there.'

'According to his notes, he took a nasty hit to the head.' Said Jason. Neither of the other men bothered to ask how he had managed to get a look at Dick's medical notes. 'I mean, I know Dick has that whole weirdly fast healing thing, but if he walked away from an injury like that completely fine after a few hours, I would start to wonder if he really is human.'

'All we can do now is wait and see what the doctors say.'

Down the hall, Dick was staring up at the bright lights as a loud repetitive thumping echoed throughout the chamber. Now that he was alone, he closed his eyes and tried to bring the memories back. He thought back to the argument and tried to picture the other person's face. It was like they were wearing a mask and their voice sounded like it was far away. Joey had said they were fighting about the fundraiser; why didn't he want to go? As the noise continued around him, the voices in his head slowly became clearer.

'Is it that you don't want to go. Or you don't want to go with me?'

'Let's not talk about this. Bruce's fundraisers are boring, you wouldn't enjoy it anyway.'

'I wouldn't know, I've never been to one before. I'm sure you'd rather keep me away from the press.'

'Why would I want to keep you away from the press?'

'Oh, come on Dick, aside from around your family and occasionally around the team, you're not exactly very open about our relationship.'

'You're mad because I don't want the Gotham rag to know about my personal life?'

'I just don't want to be your dirty little secret.'

The loud banging stopped, and the lights went out. Dick dragged himself away from the memory. The man, Joey, had said it was him he had been arguing with. Dick led there for a while in a state of confusion. They'd been arguing about the openness of their relationship. Dick had never really been in a relationship…as far as he knew. And yet, the thought did not feel alien to him. If anything, it felt comforting.

The doctors removed him from the machine and by the time they had wheeled him back to his room, he was exhausted. He lay back against his pillows and dutifully tried to keep his eyes open while the doctor spoke with Bruce.

'Just as before, there is no bleeding. The swelling has gone down, but it's not completely back to normal. I'd say, for the moment, we can assume his amnesia is being caused by the remaining swelling.' The doctor turned to try and include Dick into the conversation, but he remained mostly facing Bruce, aware that Dick was losing his battle against sleep. 'From what I can gather from talking to him, his long-term memory is intact. He remembers his life perfectly up to about a year ago, then the memories become fragmented. Our main concern is whether he is still able to create new memories and store them to his long-term memory. Providing he can still do that; he will make a full recovery.'

'Thank you, doctor,' said Bruce, seeing the man out.

'You should think yourself lucky, at least he is only missing a year. It could have been a lot worse.' The doctor added before he left them alone. Bruce came and sat on the end of the bed; Jason occupied the chair by the bed while Joey remained sat in the window.

'How are you feeling, Chum?'

'Tired, sore, confused,' he looked at each of them in turn. 'No one will tell me how I got here? They said there was an accident, but what happened?'

'A building fell on you,' said Jason bluntly. Both Bruce and Joey glared at him. 'What? It did!'

'A building fell on me,' Dick repeated. 'Well, makes a change from being shot.' He closed his eyes. 'Is it safe for me to sleep?' he said without opening them.

'Yes son, you're in good hands.' Said Bruce. And with that, Dick let go and drifted into sweet unconsciousness.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Generally, repetitive sounds grated his nerves. But the methodical beeping of Dick's heart monitor was somewhat comforting. Joey sat in the chair by the bed, he had no idea how long he had been sat hunched over. Bruce and Jason had gone downstairs for food several hours ago. Dick had been asleep for a while. Joey fought back the burning in his throat once again, sheer will power stopping the tears from falling. He knew he should be thankful that Dick was only missing a year's worth of memories, the doctor had said it could have been so much worse. But Joey's heart was breaking, that year was all the space he had in Dick's head. He wasn't woven into his story like Bruce and Jason. He was a new ink mark on the pages of Dick Grayson's life. But now his page had been ripped out, like he had never been there. Joey was slowly coming to the realisation, there was a very real possibility that Dick would no longer want him around. It had been pure chance, that Dick had reacted to that kiss the way he had. It had been a spur of the moment decision and every step of their relationship was like a domino effect, each experience leading to the next. Without all of those events, who was to say that Dick Grayson could ever relearn to love him.

'Pancakes.' Dick's voice was quiet, but it still managed to get Joey's attention. He looked up at the man on the bed, who was looking at him under half open lids.

'What?' You want something to eat?' asked Joey, he stood up, looking around the room for food. But Dick shook his head.

'You brought me pancakes.' Joey nodded, slowly coming to sit on the bed.

'I did. Yesterday. You remember?'

'I think you were right,' Dick grinned painfully.

'About what?'

'I should have called in sick.' Joey finally let the tears fall as he touched the side of Dick's face.

'You remember?'

'Not everything. It's all still muddled and some of it doesn't fit.' He leant into the hand against his face. 'But I remember you.'

'Thank God,' Joey couldn't hold them back now. Dick patted the bed next to him and Joey climbed up, carefully wrapped his arms around him, so that Dick could curl in beside him.

'And you're not a secret. I have so many secrets from people, so many parts of my life that must be hidden. But you're not one of them, I don't want to hide you.' Said Dick, picking at the fabric of Joey's shirt. 'We can go to the fundraiser if you want.'

'I know babe. You said the same thing the morning after the argument. The dry-cleaning tickets for our suits are pinned to the fridge.'

'Oh,' Dick said and suddenly the memory of his apartment was changing. Small little pieces were starting to fall back into place. The guitar in the corner of the living room, the photo on the coffee table, the leather jacket that was always on the kitchen island stool (even though he always told him to hang it up in the closet). All these small little details that were Joey. Slowly, they return to their place.

When Bruce and Jason returned an hour later, they found the two asleep. Bruce smiled.

'I guess his memory is starting to come back. We should give them some privacy.'

'Not the worst thing I've walked in on them doing,' said Jason, following Bruce back out of the room. The other man frowned at him.

'Those are details you will never, ever share with me.'

'How do you think I feel? I considered bleaching my brain!'