TITLE: Promise, Promises Chapter 2: Secrets
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters, so please don't
sue me.
The entire "family" of Dick, Barbara, Bruce and Tim sat
in the restaurant for hours, eating and talking. Barbara looked at the scene,
the four of them, sitting around the table, conversing and chatting. She
thought back to almost two years ago. To when she wasn't even on speaking terms
with her now fiancé. To when she couldn't even think of Bruce Wayne without
cursing his name. To when Tim couldn't drag the three of them to the same table
even if he had used a herd of wild horses. How times had changed in the course
of two years.
After a good four hours at dinner, Barbara stood up.
"Well, gentlemen, I'm very sorry, but I do have to get my beauty sleep before
work tomorrow." She walked over to the other side of the table and took Dick's
arm. "And if you don't mind, I am going to take my new fiancé with me. So, if
you don't mind…"
"Not at all," Bruce answered. "Provided that Dick allows
me to walk you out to the car."
Barbara smiled as Dick laughed. "Just don't get fresh
with her, old man. She's mine now… officially," he added with a smile.
Barbara took Bruce's hand and the two of them walked
ahead of Dick and Tim. Bruce looked at her face for a moment, before saying
anything. "You look happy, Barbara," he stated simply.
She smiled even broader and looked up at him. "You know,
I am. I really am. I had my doubts about this at first, but he's proved me
wrong on every one of them. I'm really impressed with him."
Bruce nodded. "Well… I'm glad to see you happy. That's
all you deserve, Barbara. And you're good for him, too."
"Yeah, I guess I am. I never actually thought that he
would hang up the cape, but I'm delightfully surprised."
Bruce's smile turned into a forced one. "Yes… well, I'm
glad that he makes you happy. He can treat you well… better than I ever could
have."
She stopped and faced him. Her smile left her face.
"Bruce…"
Dick walked up and put an arm around Bruce as they
arrived at her car. "May I have my fiancé back now, Mr. Wayne?"
Bruce nodded, flashing a smile. "Of course… I was just
making sure she knew what she was in for with you. Goodnight, you two. Dick…
I'll see you at work tomorrow."
"G'night, Bruce." Dick called over his shoulder as he got
into Barbara's car with her. Barbara started the car and drove out of the
parking lot as Dick turned to her. "So, what'd Bruce have to say?"
She smiled thinly. "Oh, nothing. Just happy to see us
together after all these years."
"Yeah…" he said softly as he placed his hand on the
gearshift over hers. "Finally."
"Yeah…" she repeated softly as she drove. Do you know, Dick? Do you have any idea at
all?
Barbara and Dick walked into the apartment that they now
both shared and no sooner did she set the keys down than the phone rang. Dick
went to the kitchen to answer it.
"Hello? Bruce… yeah." The smile left his words as Barbara
overheard from the living room. "Yeah… no problem. I'll be right there." He
hung up and walked into the front hall, picking up his coat again.
"Work?" Barbara asked, watching him pick up the keys she
had just set down.
He frowned. "Yeah. A big Wayne merger is falling through
and Bruce wants me down at the office right now. I'm sorry hun."
He walked over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "It's
ok… you know, sometimes I think I liked it better when he would call you to
wisk you off on some crime fighting thing… at least then we would be working
together. And you'd be in that cute suit," she added with a slight smile.
He cocked an eyebrow. "Hey now… be careful what you wish
for." He gave her another kiss. "Bye, hun," and exited.
Dick arrived at Wayne Manor and walked in, heading
straight for the grandfather clock that had hid Bruce Wayne biggest secret for
almost thirty years. Opening it up, he sighed, thinking the same thing he did
every time Bruce called him. He walked down those long steps and walked to
Bruce, sitting in his chair behind the computer.
"I can't keep lying to her like this, Bruce." He said as
he was handed the Batman costume from the elder. "Especially now… especially
when we're married."
"I know…," Bruce acknowledged. "You have to tell her."
Dick stepped back a bit. "That's not what I meant, Bruce.
I can't tell her… I promised her that I would give it up completely." He paused
before he finished the thought. "And now, after tonight, I do… have to give it
up."
Bruce did nothing but look at him for a moment before he
turned back to the computer. "After tonight…"
And knowing that that was all Bruce was going to say on
the subject, Dick walked away and changed into the cape and cowl that he had
forever been trying to get away from.
"Okay…. Watch that one… ok… got it? I'm coming down now."
Barbara Gordon carefully stepped down the ladder that led
into the small attic above her apartment. She pointed at the box that she had
handed him.
"Try that one. It should be in a big box by itself."
Dick opened it as she stepped back up the ladder into the
attic. "Babs… what is all this stuff?"
"My entire life in boxes," she yelled down. "Actually, I
don't know what half this stuff is. Toys from when I was a kid. Some of my mom
and dad's old stuff that they left me. My mom's wedding dress in here
somewhere… I know it."
Dick started looking through the box as Barbara stepped
down with another couple of flat boxes. She set them down on the floor. "Okay…
it's got to be one of these three."
She opened the first box and gasped when she saw what was
inside. Dick looked over. "Did you find it?"
She smiled and nodded, pulling the dress ever so
carefully out of the box. It was amazing to Dick's eyes. A creamy white satin
dress that was very simple with no sleeves and a cowled neck. He could already
imagine Barbara in that dress. She held it up to her and twirled around. "Well…
what do you think?"
Dick stood up and stepped over to her, taking her in his
arms. "I think you're gorgeous," he said before kissing her. "But isn't it bad
luck for me to see the bride-to-be's dress before the wedding?"
She shook her head. "No… only if you see me in it.
Besides, I don't believe in those superstitions, anyway."
He smiled and kissed her again. "So what's in the rest of
these boxes? Let's look through them."
Barbara started to put the dress back in the box as she
shook her head. "No… we don't really need to…"
Dick laughed. "Are you afraid of the box of pictures I
saw over here? Are there some cute baby ones? Huh? Let's see…" he said as he
sat down and opened a picture box. Barbara saw the box he was opening and sat
down beside him, closing it.
"No… we really don't need to look at those. They're just
old pictures from a few summers ago."
Dick held onto them as she tried to grab them away. "No…
come on, I've never seen these."
"No, Dick…" she said as she made a tug at them, but the
pictures came spilling out all over the floor. She covered her face as Dick
stared, open jawed at the pictures strewn out in front of him.
Barbara and Bruce at the beach. Barbara and Bruce at a
society function. Barbara and Bruce at dinner. Barbara and Bruce… kissing.
He stared at the pictures for a moment, seeing, but not
allowing himself to comprehend. "Barbara…," he asked softly. "What are these?"
"Pictures… of Bruce and I," she answered simply.
He took the one of them kissing and stared at it, refusing
to look at her. "And… now I may just be stupid here… but it looks to me like
you two were… what? Giving each other mouth-to-mouth?"
"Dick… it… it just happened. I don't know how. But it was
a long time ago," she explained.
"When?" Dick asked through clenched teeth.
Barbara took a deep breath. "It started a little before
Jason… died, so to speak. After I was shot. For the first month or so
afterwards, he wouldn't come to visit me at all, but then, when I was getting
ready to leave the hospital, he offered for me to stay up at the Manor with him
and Alfred. Figured that it would be easier than hiring someone to take care of
me. Well, I was living with Jason at the time, so I said no, because Jason had,
I thought, been willing to help me through it. But Bruce would come over all
the time, just to talk, spend time with me, which was great, especially with
Jason spending more and more time at the office. I didn't even notice that he
was growing so far apart from me. And then came the ski trip with his buddies
from the office… and the avalanche that killed him. I couldn't stay in that
house anymore… I just couldn't. So, Bruce said that the offer to stay at Wayne
Manor was still on the table, and, seeing that a better option than moving back
in with my father, I took him up on it. I don't know how it happened from
there… I really don't. He was there for me when no one else was. I had lost
you, I had lost Jason… he was the only person I had to turn to."
Dick hadn't looked up the entire time she was talking.
"And what ended it between you two?"
"When you told him that Jason was still alive and he
decided to relay the news back to me. That's when it ended."
Dick sat silent, looking at the pictures, for a long time
before standing up and walking to the front hallway. Barbara stood up after
him.
"Dick… where are you going?"
He took his coat from the closet and put it on. "For a
walk."
"But…," she called after him, but he was already out the
door. Damnit! She thought as she slumped down on the couch in the living
room.
Dick got into his car and headed for the interstate. He
pulled up at Wayne Manor ten minutes later (a personal best for a drive that
should have taken half an hour), and let himself in the front door. Storming
downstairs to the chair that he knew Bruce would be sitting at, he walked up
and turned the chair around to face him. Bruce's eyes opened wide with
confusion as Dick threw the pictures in his lap.
"Want to explain that, friend?"
Bruce picked up the pictures and sighed as he realized what
Dick meant. "She never told you about it?"
Dick shook his head. "Until fifteen minutes ago, no… but
neither had you. Want to give it a shot now?"
Bruce looked at the pictures. "I took care of her… and it
evolved into more. There's nothing more to say, really. I screwed it up… just
like I did every other relationship I've ever had."
Dick stood there, motionless, before asking quietly, "Her
back…"
"Did she tell you about that?"
He sat down in the chair next to Bruce. "No… she never
would. You fixed it for her, didn't you? Waynetech, right?"
Bruce nodded as he thought back to four years ago when he
told her what he thought was great news. Since the day after she was shot, he
had a team from Waynetech Medical working on possible ways to fix it. Or to do
something. It killed him to see her in that wheelchair, unable to walk, unable
to run. When she had moved into the Manor, no one had thought much of it. But
when the two were seen more often in public, at society events and the like,
people began to talk. James Gordon came to the Manor one day while Barbara was
at physical therapy and given him the third degree about it.
"What's going on here, Wayne? What are you doing with my
daughter?"
"With all due respect, James, I love your daughter and I
just want to take care of her," he had answered, knowing that at the time, it
was the truth.
"Wayne, I've known you since you were a child, and I've
seen you grow into quite the playboy and I'll be damned if my daughter is going
to be another trophy on your mantle," James Gordon spat at him before walking
out.
And then, after he had told her about Jason Bard still
being alive, Barbara had cut off communication with him as well. Then, a short
year and a half later, Waynetech had finally come through with the technology
to repair her severed spinal cord. He rushed to her apartment, sure that she
would be just as excited as he was about the news. However, the greeting he
received from far from what he expected.
When he had knocked at the door, he had heard her shout,
"Come on in," from inside of the apartment. When he walked in, she turned
around from her computer desk and her face turned cold as she turned back to
the computer. "I thought it was Lainey." She paused, typing a few words. "What
are you doing here?"
He walked over and pulled up a chair next to her.
"Barbara, I have some great news for you. Waynetech's been researching it for
years, but now, they're finally figured out a way to repair damaged spinal
cords." He watched as Barbara's fingers slowly stopped moving on the keyboard
and she turned her eyes towards him. "You can walk again, Barbara," he
whispered excitedly.
She looked at him, straight at him for the first time in
a year, and he face was one of elation with confusion dominating it. In her eyes,
he could see that she was truly happy… she just didn't know how to take it. She
looked at him for a moment before turning first her head, and then her entire
body away from him and wheeling away from the computer. "Go away," she said
softly.
He stood up and followed her, not knowing why she was
acting like this. "Why… Barbara… you're going to be able to walk again… aren't
you excited?"
She continued to wheel into the kitchen. "You're not my
friend Bruce, and I don't need your charity."
"Damnit, Barbara," he cursed as he followed her still.
"Stop being so damn proud… it's not charity. It's a way for you to walk again."
"It's charity and I don't need it from you. Please
leave," she pleaded, still not looking at him.
Bruce walked in front of her and stopped the chair by
holding the arms of it. He bent down, looking right into her face. "Don't tell
me that you don't dream every day about being able to step out your door and
walk in the grass and swim at the beach. I know you do, Barbara. You shared those
dreams with me once upon a time. Now, it can happen. You can be you again."
She sniffed away a tear and looked up at him. "And who am
I to you, Bruce? Batgirl? Because those days are long gone. Even if I can walk,
I've given that part of my life up. This…," she said, motioning to the
wheelchair. "This is who I am now. I don't know how to be anything else
anymore." Bruce's hands released the chair and she backed up, heading for her
bedroom. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like it if you never came here ever
again. You can find you own way out," she said as she went into her bedroom and
closed the door.
Bruce opened his eyes and saw Dick Grayson still standing
in front of him, waiting to her what Bruce had to say. "I told her father, who,
much like her, was none too happy to see me at first, but when Jim heard that
she would be able to walk again, he was so happy. He ended up talking her into
having the surgery. And it worked, obviously. So, yes… Waynetech fixed her, if
that's what you wanted to hear."
Dick stood there, biting his lip. "Why didn't you tell me
about you two? I mean, good God, Bruce, why did you even do it in the first
place? You knew how much I loved her. You could have any girl in Gotham…
why did you have to have mine, too?"
"I didn't…. Dick… it just happened. Neither of us
expected it to, and we didn't want to hurt you… that's why we never told you."
Dick just stood there for a moment and shook his head,
before walking away.
"Where are you going?" Bruce yelled after him.
"Out on patrol. I need to get away from you people for a
while." He said, still walking.
After Dick left, Barbara had roamed around the apartment,
not knowing what to do, before finally deciding to head to work… head down to
the station for a while to get her mind off of things.
She ended up sitting at her desk and doing all the paper work that she'd been putting off forever, but her mind wasn't in it. She was too distracted. Finally, she decided to take a radio with her and go tell Bruce what had happened.
She pulled into Wayne Manor and saw Dick's car in the
driveway. Oh, God… she thought. What's he doing here? But she
still got out of the car and entered the house. She looked around, thinking
that maybe they'd be upstairs, but there was no sign of them. With a sigh, she
headed for the grandfather clock that housed the place she had avoided even
when she had stayed there. Walking down the steps slowly, she looked around at
the cave. It had never seemed like a light place exactly, but it seemed so much
darker now than the last time she had been there. Now that Bruce was the only
one around here, it seemed sadder, lonelier without Dick or Tim training around
there, shining up their vehicles, or something else in the vein. She turned
around the corner and saw Bruce sitting in the chair, facing the computer
screen.
"Bruce… we need to talk," she warned as she slowly walked
toward him. "Dick… he…"
The chair turned around and he held up the pictures that
Dick had brought over. "Knows about us? Yeah… He paid me a little visit."
Barbara took the pictures and sighed as she sat down in
the same chair that Dick had earlier. "What did you tell him?"
Bruce shrugged. "The truth. I can't believe that you
never told him, Barbara. Almost two years, and you didn't tell him about it."
She turned away from his gaze. "It didn't matter. It was
a long time ago and it didn't matter anymore. I knew what his reaction would be
and I didn't want him to go through that."
Bruce looked directly at her and said shortly, "Well, he
did." Barbara's police radio squeaked for a moment and an officer said
something about a bank robbery, but neither of them paid attention to it. He
looked away again and said softly. "He asked about your back, too."
She turned back to him. "Oh God… Did he…?"
Bruce shook his head. "I don't know. After he heard that
he left."
"Well, where did he go?"
Bruce paused for a second before answering. "I don't
know."
Barbara sighed and leaned forward. "Bruce… what am I
going to do? I screwed it up this time. I can't even blame him. It was my
fault. He pulled up his end of the bargain, but I couldn't be honest with him."
Her bottom lip started to quiver as the radio squeaked
once more, letting the officers know that Batman had apprehended the subject in
question. She caught this piece of information, and her lip stopped as her
mouth parted into an expression of slight shock. She looked at Bruce and his
eyes widened as he saw her stand up from the chair and walk over to where the
costumes hung, almost in a daze. She went past her old costume, past Tim's,
past Jason Todd's, past Dick's to where Bruce's was… should have been. Instead,
there was nothing. There was an empty space. Bruce noticed her straighten
stiffly before she turned around and began walking back to him.
"Bruce…" she started with a quiet ferocity that could
only come from Barbara. "Bruce… how can Batman stop a bank robbery when I'm
sitting here talking to him?"
Bruce swallowed hard. "Barbara…"
Her voice rose to a level that echoed in the large cave.
"DON'T 'Barbara' me. How, Bruce? Explain it to me. And fast." She
hissed out.
He looked away for a moment, and then looked up into her
eyes. "I'm sorry." He couldn't think of anything else to say. Except that.
She shook her head, tears now streaming from her eyes and
futilely tried to form a phrase before just turning and running up the stairs.
Bruce made no motion to stop her.
Barbara Gordon walked past the security guard at the desk
and took the elevator up to the offices floor of the Gotham City Police
Department. The desk guard would remember that she had seemed unusually
distraught that night. Typically she would stop and chat for a while. Something
must be wrong, the guard thought. I'll ask her about it tomorrow.
Barbara walked into her office and went straight to the windowsill.
Removing a loose tile, she picked up a small item and stuck it in her pocket as
she went back to the elevator.
Technically… she was not allowed to have the item that
she now held in her hand. Only the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and the
Mayor were to have this item, but she was Jim Gordon's daughter. And when she
had moved into his old office, she had kept his most treasured item in its
hiding place.
Barbara arrived on the roof and turned the key… waiting. He'll
come… he won't be able to resist.
Dick sat on the rooftop of a building as his eyes
patrolled the ground below. It was a slow night… something he usually would
have relished in, but tonight was not one of those nights. He wanted to be
Batman on that night. The one bank robber he had stopped would most certainly
think twice about returning to a life of crime. The overly severe beating that
Dick had given him would assure that fact. Dick wished for another bank robbery
such as that one when he saw the Bat signal flash across the sky.
Yes, he thought. Time for some action.
She heard the clink as the grappling hook attached to the
building. The tall figure landed next, walking over to where he saw a person
standing next to the large light.
"Yes, Commissioner? What can I do for you?" The Batman
asked the figure in the darkness.
"That's a really good imitation you do there…" the figure
said.
Even though the mask hid his face, Barbara could feel his
face pale as he took a breath.
She stepped forward into the light of the signal. She
spoke shortly and simply with no expression on her face.
"I think we need to have a talk."