Chapter 3: "Without Wonder"

Chapter 3: "Without Wonder"

When Dick opened his eyes this time, he was surprised that they had not arrived at Wayne Manor yet again. Instead, he recognized this house as the next door neighbor to the Manor. This house was the one owned by Jack Drake. "Well, what are we doing here?" Dick asked the figure as she walked past him up the stairs.

"Paying a visit to a friend."

The walked into a room and Dick saw the room of a normal, seventeen year old boy. Tim Drake sat at his computer desk, talking on the phone. "Yeah… of course we're still on. I'll pick you up tonight at seven thirty… No, I'm not telling you where I'm taking you. It's our six month anniversary. I'm surprising you. Okay, hun. I'll see you then." He hung up the phone as Dick stared at him, awed.

"So this is what Tim could have been?" Dick asked, looking at the young man. He was athletic, as Dick could tell not only by his build, but by the trophies and plaques lining the walls. He had grown into his face, which had become lean and sculptured. Pictures on his desk showed that he was involved in everything: three different sports, student government, volunteer work, all around popular, good natured kid.

The figure nodded. "Yes… you never became Batman's partner, so when Tim figured out Batman's secret identity was the thought of Tim being Batman's partner didn't occur in either of their minds. So he got to live out the life of a normal, teenage boy."

The figure began to walk away, but Dick couldn't take his eyes off of Tim. "So… if I hadn't of discovered the cave all those years ago, then Tim never would have been Robin?"

She stopped and shook her head. "Neither would have Jason Todd."

"And the whole Joker thing… when he was kidnapped… never would have happened?"

She continued shaking her head. "No… he was never Robin, so Joker never targeted him."

Dick laughed bitterly. "Are Bruce and Barbara married here, too?"

"No… not at all," the figure said sadly as she continued walking.

As they walked through the door, Dick looked around at his surroundings. "Yep… it all comes back to here, doesn't it?" he asked, looking around the Batcave once more.

The figure walked toward the computer where Batman sat, furiously typing keys. He was focusing intently on the computer screen. "He's been sitting here for days," the figure commented, as she picked up a newspaper from the desk and browsed the front page.

"Why? Why hasn't he been out fighting?"

She handed the paper to Dick. On the front page he saw a picture of Batman, standing over a dead body, and the headline "WANTED. Batman terrorizes city."

She figure explained as he digested the words on the paper. "You grew up here, yet you never found the cave. Once you went off to college, started your own life, and Alfred left, he had no one to keep him grounded… no one to balance him out. After a while, he went over the edge and he crossed the line… he killed. So now, he's the hunted. He only goes out when he absolutely has to."

Dick stared at Bruce for a long moment, before turning to the figure. "Barbara… Where's she?"

The figure stood, silent and still, for a moment before speaking. "You can stop here… if you believe you've seen enough."

He walked to her. "NO. I want to see where Barbara is."

She nodded. "Very well," she said as she passed through the door.

When they passed through the door, the first thing Dick saw was the sunlight. Bright and clear, not a cloud in the sky. When his eyes adjusted to the light, he looked around and saw where he was.

"Why are we in a cemetery?" he asked, nervous.

"This is where Barbara is," the figure replied, walking toward a tree.

"Why? Because her father died, right? She's visiting her father's grave, right? Please tell me that she's visiting a grave," Dick pleaded as the figure stopped at a patch of tombstones underneath a tree. Dick saw the tombstone from the corner of his eye, but he refused to look at it, merely grabbing onto the figure's shoulders, until she nodded sadly. He nodded back and crouched down slowly, reading the tombstone.

Beloved Daughter, Wife

Friend and Mother.

Barbara Gordon-Grayson

1970 – 1998

Dick felt the words, trying to prove to himself that they weren't real. "She… we were… we married?" he asked, slightly sobbing.

"And had children. Two," the figure said, standing behind two other tombstones in the patch. Dick looked at those through the tears, and saw the inscriptions on them.

Jonathan James Grayson Mary Elizabeth Grayson

1995 – 1998 1993 – 1998

Dick let out a loud sob as he touched the names of the children he never got to have. After he regained composure of himself, he looked up at the figure. "What happened?"

She knealt down to him. "The Joker. Nothing changed with that. His vendetta against the Gordon family still existed. While the family was out walking in Gotham Central Park one day, he shot her… and shot the children too. They all died instantly."

Dick thought a moment. "You said 'the family was out walking.' Was I there?"

The figure halted a moment before nodding. "Yes… you were."

Dick swallowed. "What did I do?"

"Nothing," she said simply. "You froze and did nothing, other than hold your wife as you waited for the paramedics. There was nothing else you could do then."

He stood up to tower above the figure. "Why didn't I do anything before? Why didn't I stop the Joker?"

She stood up to face him. "You were only human," she said, almost pleading with him. "You didn't know how to fight like Robin. You didn't know what to do in a situation like that. You were in shock and you froze."

He shook his head. "How could I live with myself? How could I live after that?"

The figure turned silently and walked to the fourth tombstone in the patch. Dick saw this and followed her. Looking at the last tombstone, he clenched his jaw.

Richard John Grayson

1969 – 1999

At last, with his

Beloved

"The life alone… the pain… the guilt… without even Bruce you had no one. Three months after your family was buried, you shot yourself in your bedroom. Alfred came to the funeral, as did Comissioner Gordon. Bruce did not," the figure informed him mechanically and unemotionally.

Dick shook his head. "No… it doesn't go this way. It can't. I want to see something else."

"Haven't you had enough?" The figure yelled at him.

"No," he replied. "Show me more. Show me what would have happened if I had never gone to Bruce's. If he had never taken me as his ward."

The figure exhaled heavily and sighed. "Fine."