Richard Greyson was awoken the next morning by a series of unfamiliar sounds. When he opened his eyes, he was faced with a room so different than his circus trailer that it brought tears to his eyes. It wasn't like they always said in movies or cartoons. His memories of the night before didn't come back slowly in warm waves. It was icy cold and all at once. His parents had fallen, they were gone. They were never coming back. Warm tears trailed down his cheeks as he tried not to think about how they had looked the last time he saw them.
The police had called a social worker to take him away. Dick didn't want to leave. The circus was his home. The only life he had ever known. It was where he belonged, even if he couldn't be with Mom and Pop anymore. Carly had explained that the police need to ask everyone questions and that it might be better if he weren't there, but Dick couldn't believe that anyone in the circus would want to hurt his parents. They were all one big family.
Still the alternative seemed much worse. The adults kept whispering about something called a "group home." Every time they mentioned it, someone frowned or kicked the ground uncomfortably. Mr. Wayne had been nice enough to open his home to Dick even though he didn't know him. He knew he should have thanked the man, but to be honest he scared him a little bit.
He had tried to sleep at the mansion once they'd gotten there, but the house was old. Everything made weird noises. Besides it didn't seem like anyone else was sleeping. Mr. Wayne even left the house and went to work! Then the doorbell rang and a reporter all the way from Metropolis had come to visit. After that Alfred had brought him in here, the living room, to watch TV until he felt like sleeping. He must have fallen asleep.
He looked around the room now. Everything was obviously very expensive. From the leather couch, he was laying on, to the flat screen television mounted on the wall. The room was also very clean. The coffee table was in the exact center of the couch and other chairs that had been arranged in a "U" shape around it. The books and movies on the shelves were perfectly organized. Not a single item was out of place.
Dick felt certain he didn't belong in the room. He had seen places like this before. Hotels, Museums and even some other mansions. People who lived in places like this didn't want children around to mess up their nice, expensive things. They won't want him and Elinore running around where they could break something. Dick tried to get up off the couch, but something heavy was weighing his legs down. It was Leo, Carly's cat. He must had slept there are the edge of the couch all night.
"Good morning, Leo." The boy greeted the cat with a friendly smile. The cat look over and appeared to roll his eyes. He the stood up on his fury paws and arched his back high. The cat jumped off the couch and wandered lazily out of the room. Seconds later Carly stepped through the door with a sympathetic smile.
"I'm so sorry, Dick. I should have made sure you'd gone back up to bed last night." She apologized. "Did you sleep, ok?" He didn't want to seem rude by saying that he hadn't gotten very much sleep, so he just nodded silently. "Do you mind if I join you?" She gestured at the couch. He nodded again, pulling himself up into a sitting position.
"I didn't forget the promise I made last night, you know." She explained, sitting down. "It's still early, but as soon as we get approval from Commissioner Gordon we can go back to see the circus. Alright?"
"Ok." Dick was quiet.
"Are you hungry at all? Alfred will be starting breakfast soon. Do you know if you have any allergies?"
"Strawberries make my tongue get bigger and there's a medicine I can't have...pen-a-sell-ing?" He said the word slowly and unsure.
"Penicillin." Carly corrected. "I'll let Alfred know. You might want to also avoid mushrooms, they are made of the same stuff as Penicillin."
"Oh, okay." He agreed. "I think Pop told me that before."
"Well, I guess I'll go let Alfred know about the strawberries. Do you need anything else?" Dick was going to tell her "no." After all what he really needed were his parents back, she couldn't get that.
"Will you stay and watch TV with me?" He asked. Unlike Mr. Wayne, Dick took an instant liking to Carly. She was kind and thought of other people first, like his mom, but she didn't act like a mom. More like a much older sister. He enjoyed being around her.
"Sure. What's on?" Carly leaned back against the couch. Out of habit Dick crawled over and laid his head on her lap. If she noticed, she didn't say anything about it.
They sat together for an hour or so while Alfred made breakfast. It was almost nine in the morning and there had been no sign of Bruce yet. Not that Carly had really expected him up bright and early. He had never been much of a morning person before and staying out till three AM wasn't at all conducive. The doorbell rang, startling both Carly and Dick who'd become very invested in their cartoons.
"Does Mr. Wayne usually get so many visitors?" Dick said, lifting his head.
"Not usually." Carly shook her head. "I suppose you want to go and see who it is?"
"Can we?" He asked, his face lighting up. In the foyer, Alfred had already answered the door. The Social Worker from last night was waiting impatiently. Her arms were loaded down with paperwork, and a heavy leather bag hung from one of her shoulders.
"Miss Carly, this is Mrs. Clarke. She is here to talk with Mr. Wayne about young Mr. Greyson's, er situation." Alfred explained with a polite smile.
"Oh. Right, of course. He's just upstairs." Carly gestured towards the stairwell behind her. "I'll go get him. Alfred, why don't you get Dick some breakfast, assuming it's ready."
"It is Miss." The butler promised.
"He's allergic to strawberries. They make his tongue swell." She remembered. "And penicillin."
A/N: I changed the rating on the story to T. I've never really been flagged for a rating before, and I'd rather not start now. (Honestly the whole rating system seems a little "Snowflake" for me personally, but it is the rules of the site so I will go along with it, because I don't want my work forcibly taken down.) That being said the change in rating doesn't really change the content of the story. (Though now it does give me some more wiggle room if I want to explore darker themes.) Long drawn out explanation made short, The rating is T now and wont be going up past that.
Thank you too Maple Sparks for your review of Chapter 17! And thank you to everyone for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and enjoying! I'm going to try and get the next chapter out tonight. Hopefully I'll be back soon.
