A/N Apologies to the extremely, uncharacteristically late chapter. This note is important.

TRIGGER WARNING for Extreme Panic Attacks and Flashbacks in this chapter. I have noted where to skip and where to pick back up for the worse one. It's a realistic panic attack. It sometimes triggers me when rereading it, so be careful. There's also a milder sensory overload if anyone is triggered by that.

This chapter has a lot of angst with some fluff nuggets thrown in. Also, Dick talks a lot in this chapter. He's getting better at one language, but there's still some words in there I might have missed translating. Point them out if you see them and can't pick up the meaning from context clues. I wrote the section long enough ago that I do not remember most of the languages, so if you ask you'll get my best guess.

End A/N

Chapter 8

Still 4 July 2013

"Where are we going?" Dick asked. He scowled down at the wheelchair that Thomas insisted he use. Thomas had given him a pair of comfortable sneakers to wear, but insisted that he get in the wheelchair as soon as they were on. Damian was busy playing with the Velcro straps on his Batman sneakers, a small curious smile on his face. He was sitting on the bottom step.

"We're going out."

"I got that much. Where are we going?"

"You'll see when we get there."

"Do I really have to use the… what's the word… chair wheel? I can walk."

"Wheelchair. And Yes. You are able to walk, but only short distances walks without leaning on something. And you're still bruised from falling down the stairs a few days ago. Where we're going, it would be a lot of walking with nothing to lean on." Thomas started pushing the wheelchair towards the door. "Damian." He called, holding a hand out. Damian looked up, and then jumped up and rushed over to them, grabbing Thomas's hand.

"I could lean on you."

"You could. Or you could use the wheelchair and save your energy. We'll be up late tonight."

"Pourquoi?" (Why?) Dick asked. Damian was hopping up and down. His smile was growing as he watched the sneakers light up.

"Richard, do you know what day it is?"

"It's June… something, right?"

"No. It's the Fourth of July."

"Oh." A moment of silence. "Oh!"

"Yes, oh."

"So, we're going to a… Rahat. Queso es le mot? (What's the word?) Exploding lights?"

Thomas snorted. "We're going to a fireworks show."

Dick winced. "Yeah. Fireworks."

"What are Fireworks?" Damian asked. They were at the car now, and Thomas had dropped Damian's hand. He reached down to help Dick into the car.

"I got it." Dick said. He pushed up out of the wheelchair and pulled himself into the car. Thomas sighed again. He seemed to be doing that more and more while dealing with his stubborn grandchild.

"If you keep pushing yourself too hard, you're going to have a relapse, Richard."

"I did okay before I came here."

"You mean before you fell into a coma? Your muscles atrophied, Richard. That's not something you can recover from easily. And add the chemicals they pumped inside you before you were comatose. I don't even know for sure what they were, but some of them are still working their way out of your system, even months later. You've come a long way, kid, but you're still not healthy."

"I should be though. It's been months." Dick leaned back against the seat and crossed his arms, scowling.

"Barely." Thomas muttered. He gave Dick's hair a light ruffle. "Put your seatbelt on. Set a good example for your brother." He closed the door. "Come on, Damian. Other side." He folded up the wheelchair and stuck it in the trunk. Then, he helped Damian into his car seat on the other side of the car, and put the child's seatbelt on. Finally, he closed the door, opened the front door, slid into the front seat, and started the car.

"Marhabaan." (Hi.) Damian said to his brother, who was looking out the window.

Dick looked over at him. "Marhabaan, Dami." He said.

"Dick, ma hi 'fireworks'?" (What are fireworks?)

"Fireworks… Fireworks are big explosions of pretty colors."

"Explosions?"

"Explosions."

"Scary." Damian shivered. "I thought we were trying not to get blown up. Isn't that how we ended up here?"

"These can't hurt us."

"You sure?"

"Ja." (Yes.) Dick reached over and laid a hand on Damian's knee. "Don't worry. I won't let anything hurt you."

"Tt."

Yep. Still 4 July 2013

HONK! Dick winced and fought the urge to cover his ears as another car sounded loudly nearby. They had reached the outskirts of Gotham City about ten minutes ago and had been in awful traffic ever since. He might have spent five years growing up in Gotham City, but he had forgotten how loud the city could be. The horns, the shouting, people talking as they walked past on the sidewalk, music playing from other cars, loud laughter. It was a sensory overload with his ears alone.

That didn't even include the smells that managed to seep through the windows into the car. There was the smell of sweat, exhaust from cars, overflowing garbage, the smell of the hot asphalt of the road, and various smells from vendors. He could smell street food, baking bread from a nearby bakery, roasted nuts, grease, a random faint scent of cinnamon, and rotting food from the aforementioned garbage.

As if that wasn't enough, Dick was also resisting screwing his eyes shut to keep out the light. The skyscrapers worked twofold. They lessened direct light, but reflected indirect light into his eyes. There were also advertisements, giant signs for different Wayne companies as well as shows in the city. Ads for food, religious beliefs, a water park just outside of the far side of town, and even ads for different events going on like today's fireworks show.

Honestly, Dick wanted nothing more than to beg Thomas to turn around and drive back to the manor. Maybe they could get sparklers or something. They could probably see some of the fireworks from Wayne Manor. They didn't really have to go there to watch. Unfortunately, he knew that his grandfather probably had to be there for other reasons, to represent Wayne whatever the company did in this universe. It couldn't just be Casinos, right? Dick wasn't completely sure of everything Wayne Enterprises did in his home universe, but he knew Bruce had offshoots into everything he could from technology to charities to sponsoring different products and R&D. Wayne Enterprises was huge. Thomas probably had to make an appearance.

"Dick?" Damian asked, turning away from where he'd been watching the city go by since they left the house. "You okay?"

Dick hesitated and then shook his head. "Sensory overload. There's trop beaucoup… too much noise. Too many…"

Thomas grunted. "You'll be okay. We're in the VIP viewing area. We'll be separate from bulk of the crowds."

"What's VIP?" Damian asked.

"It stands for very important persons. It means we're special."

Dick snorted. "Understatement."

Damian considered it for a moment, and then looked at his brother curiously. "What do you and Tati normally do? It's a holiday, right?"

"Yeah. Umm. We don't have a tradition. Depuis deux annees, (Two years ago,) Tati took me and some others to be inducted into essentially the Junior Justice League."

"Junior Justice League?"

"Ja. Fun story." (Yeah.)

"Tell me!"

"Umm. I can essayer (try). Two years ago, Tati and some of the other Justice Leaguers brought me, KF, Aqualad, and Speedy to the Hall of Justice."

"The big building in Washington, DC?"

"Hai. Nosotros pensamos (Yes. We thought.) that we were being shown the HQ, mais (but) it was not the case."

"Huh?"

"We. Thought. That we were being shown headquarters, but no."

"Oh."

"Speedy got mad, and left. Tati and the other Leaguers went on this blocking the sun mission, but they had to ignore this mission about this didian (place) called CADMUS that was on nar."

"On fire?"

"Oui."

"Hang on." Thomas interrupted the story. "Are you telling me you went into a building that was on fire?"

"Aqualad put it out! And the firemen were there."

"On fire… Do you have no sense of self preservation?"

There was a telling silence.

"Anyways," Dick said, clearing his throat. "We erm… snuck into the building. And there was an express elevator in a two story building, so we went down the shaft."

"Did I understand you correctly? You went in a building that was on fire, without your father, and then when you found out there was a suspicious elevator shaft, you went down the shaft?"

"… Correct."

"What is your father teaching you?"

"Detective skills and how to kick as-butt."

"As-butt?" Dami asked.

"How to kick butt. J'ai dit (I said) how to kick butt."

Thomas shook his head. "I think I'll need to have a serious talk with your father about what he lets you get up to."

"Good luck." Dick hid the quick twinge that Bruce would probably listen to Thomas over anyone. Especially because he'd already be inclined to ground Dick forever when Dick got back.

"He told you to go on this mission while he was away."

"Not exactement… He might have said 'stay put.'"

"And you went anyways."

More telling silence.

"Continue with the story!" Damian demanded. They hadn't moved far in traffic yet.

"Hasanana. Okay. I shot my grappling hook at the top of the shaft so that I would drop at a steady rate. But I ran out of line about half way down. So, I swung over to the door. KF and Aqualad followed me down, and Aqualad opened the door. And we explored. It was the cool cave, completely off the grid. I hacked their server. They made their own power. There were these things called genomorphs who controlled everything in the building. The power, moving things, and even some of the employees' minds."

"They can do that?"

"Yeah. The main bad guy, Blockbuster, he'd say something to the one on his shoulder, and then the one on someone else's shoulder would alter that person's thoughts. There was a good guy, Guardian, another hero who was almost completely under Blockbuster's control through the genomorphs. When he found us, he was willing to let us go, but when we mentioned he was breeding weapons… the genomorph took over, and we were attacked." The more Dick talked, the more he calmed down, ignored and the more his speech smoothed into one language. It was Romani, his first language, but as Dami understood Romani now, that was fine.

Damian gasped. "Were you okay?"

"Eh. They didn't manage to get me. Tati taught me to disappear, so I did. Went straight for the museid… elevator. Left KF and Aqualad behind though. I thought they were behind me. We didn't really know how to work as a team then."

"But you told me you were on a team with Aqualad, KF, and other people."

"Ah. But this was actually the mission that created that team."

"Really?"

"Yes. We found Superboy in CADMUS, and decided that we wanted to do more missions like it."

"I'm sure your father was thrilled about that." Thomas said.

"Actually, he was in charge. He made us wait. Three day. But he put together the team, and decided what we did, mostly."

"Comforting." Thomas commented, sarcastically. "Your father clearly had your best interests in mind."

Dick's eyes narrowed. "Sumimasen. Bruce is an ausgezeichnet Tati!" (Excuse me. Bruce is an excellent father.) He shouted at Thomas. Damian flinched. "He's tatsächlich super überprotektiv! He simplemente no puede stop me from yakhruj, donc él controla que je fais the luchsheye, chto on mozhet!" (He's actually super overprotective. He just can't stop me from going out, so he controls what I do the best he can.)

"Calm down." Thomas said.

"Kwa nini? Do you not like shenme I'm hua? (Why? Do you not like what I'm saying?)

"You're speaking too many languages. I can't understand what you're saying." He spoke slowly and clearly.

"Eh?" Dick asked, breathing a little heavy.

"Deep breaths. I 5. And ou 5." Dick flushed, but concentrated on his breathing. "I 5. Ou 5. Good. Keep breathing. We're almost there."

"Are you okay?" Damian asked softly, when Dick started breathing more evenly.

"Yeah." He replied, face still a little red.

TW START: PANIC ATTACK

Dick flinched as another group of families slipped past going the other way. The people passing were giving the wheelchair a considerable girth, but the people in front seemed unaware there was a wheelchair behind them and were walking very very slowly. Damian was stomping around to Dick's left, peering down at his shoes as they lit up with each stomp. The little kid occasionally giggled, and kept one hand on the wheelchair by Dick's insistence. He found himself frequently checking to make sure Damian hadn't moved away. The sounds of the crowd seemed to be building up the deeper they got in the crowd, and Dick found himself curling in on himself, frantically looking in every direction.

"-chard." Dick jumped as a warm, rough hand landed on his shoulder, and suddenly, it was too much. It was Logarithm. Dick instantly grabbed the hand and shoved it off his shoulder. "Richard." The voice was right by his ear. That was wrong. Logarithm never called him Richard. It was in his space, inside the wheelchair. He was in a wheelchair, right? He was in the now. But it was too close, too close. And it was hot and there were so many people, so many. Too many, too close.

Get away. Get away. Get away. But he couldn't, and he was trapped, and he was back in the box, but he wasn't. That wasn't right. He couldn't get away, because he couldn't walk, and there was something touching him and he cried, and tried to push it away, but it grabbed hold of his hands. He couldn't use his hands! He yanked them back towards him, but the grip just tightened. And the light was fading, his vision was darkening, and then it was all dark with just slivers of light. And his head was in his knees? When had his knees gotten pulled up? But it was still so loud.

A hand was rubbing his back, and it was actually pretty gentle. Who? Why? The voices had quieted a bit, almost like a hush had fallen over. He couldn't hear what they were saying. There were too many, far away. Far away was good. Something was being muttered in his ear, and there was still a firm, strong grip on his wrists. Two small hands were resting on his arm and leg on the other side. 'Damian' his mind whispered to him. Damian…

Slowly, ever so slowly, his vision cleared a bit. His ears popped and he could hear again.

"Come on, Richard. Breathe for me, buddy." Dick heard. He hadn't realized his breathing was uneven until he heard that. He wanted safety. He curled a little tighter. He tried to take a deep breath and couldn't quite manage it. "There we go. Keep trying. You can do it. Listen to me and follow. Breathe in. 2. 3. 4. Hold it. 2. 3. And out. 2. 3. 4. 5. In. 2. 3. 4. Hold. 2. 3. And out. 2. 3. 4. 5. You got it. In. 2. 3. 4. Hold. 2. 3. And out. 2. 3. 4. 5." Slowly, agonizingly slowly, Dick's breathing evened out. As it did, he became more aware of his surroundings. Thomas was to his right, gently holding his wrists up and rubbing his back. Damian was on his other side, watching with a confused, frightened look on his tiny face.

TW END

"Dick?" The kid whispered. "Are you okay?" Dick took stock of himself. His whole body was shaking and he felt wobbly and totally spent. He flushed, and shook his head. Thomas lowered the teenagers' hands slowly, and let go when they were resting on the teen's knees. He kept rubbing Dick's back, and Dick found himself leaning into the man for comfort, still trembling. Thomas stopped and pulled Dick in close, rubbing his arm instead.

Thomas looked up and searched the surrounding area. There were several people gawking, some looking like they wanted to help, and some whispering disapproval. He caught the eye of a nearby vendor. Dick sluggishly watched as Thomas made some gestures to the vendor, and the vendor nodded in understanding. Looking down at Damian, Thomas took a $20 bill out of his pocket and gave it to Damian, still keeping an arm around Dick. "Damian, take this. Do you see that vendor over there?" He pointed at the vendor, and waited until Damian nodded. "Can you slip over to him, and get three water bottles? Go straight there and straight back. I'll keep an eye on you. Make sure to get change and see if he can give you a straw, too."

"Three waters, straw, change."

"That's right. Go quickly." The child trotted off. Dick tried to make a sound of protest. He tried to turn to watch Damian, but Thomas kept him close. "It's okay, Richard. You're okay. Nothing to be ashamed of." He let the teenager turn enough to see the vendor stand. Damian was waiting near the line. The vendor called him forward before the next customer. He said something to the customer, and the customer turned and spotted Dick. Dick cringed away from the attention. Damian stood on tiptoe to talk to the guy. He soon trotted back with three water bottles in his arms and $8 and a straw clutched in one hand. Thomas took one from Damian, opened it, and stuck the straw in, before handing it over to Dick.

"Richard, here." The teen slowly uncurled a bit and grabbed hold of the water bottle. He took a sip from the straw. "Drink slowly." Thomas reminded him. Thomas leant him against the back of the wheelchair. He opened a second bottle for Damian, handed the bottle back to the child, and threw the third in the backpack. "Do you think you can go on?" Thomas asked softly, his brow crinkled, after a few minutes.

Dick thought about it. He felt a bit scared, but going back would feel like defeat. Damian had never seen real fireworks before, and it felt selfish to take that from him. But he didn't want to be in this crowd. He wanted nothing more than to go back to the manor, curl up under a mound of blankets, and hide from the world. Lock the door so no one could get in.

"We have a VIP section. It should be less crowded there. It's just a little bit further. Do you want to go there and then decide?" Dick nodded. That sounded okay, fair. "Here." Thomas tapped Richard's knees to get the teenager to uncurl. He picked up Damian, who gave him a bewildered look, and plunked the child down on Dick's lap. Dick automatically snaked an arm around Damian's waist to keep him safe. "Focus on Damian, not the strangers, okay?" Dick nodded. Damian tutted, but leant back against his brother, and kicked the armrest to make his shoes light up again. Thomas patted Dick on the shoulder, gave Damian's hair a ruffle, and then moved behind the wheelchair. He pushed them back onto the route and on their way.

A/N

I would like to apologize for my long absence. Life got a bit crazy. And I LOST HALF THE CHAPTER, and it bugged me so much I had trouble working on this story for a while. It had Bruce finding Logarithm and it was really good. I managed to write an equally good, but different scene that is in the next chapter with a little help for Inky, but I'll post the original one in TMB: IF ONLY if I ever find it. I think I left the scene handwritten on the back of some notes at my college and then consequently in storage where I have no access to it until late January. I think I just needed a break from this story. I should be good for a bit now. The next chapter is ready to post, and I'm debating if posting it tomorrow is too close to this one. It will be posted either tomorrow or Sunday.

I would like to thank everyone who reviewed in the last few months, and, especially the guest that I'm highly suspicious is the same person each time, who bugged me at least once a month to update. I know this isn't Thanksgiving themed and the fluff is next chapter, but I hope you liked it. I figured you wouldn't want me to skip certain fluff scenes like Damian's birthday, Robin School, and Damian's first day of Kindergarten. :P Oh, and this wonderful holiday called Halloween. (('))