©December 2003
Rating: PG
Characters: Dick Grayson (Robin); Bruce Wayne (Batman)
Time Frame: Dick is 14
Disclaimer: Characters herein are owned by DC Comics/Time Warner/AOL. No profit is realized from creation of stories based on these trademarked characters. Not to be archived without permission.
Comments and feedback are welcome to SKHwrite@cranky-dog.com

Dark December

By SKH


Part Two

At breakfast the next morning, Dick sought out fellow classmate Chaz Peterson. After a brief conversation, the boys made plans to try out one of the off-piste powder runs with their snowboards.

"My older brother got me into snowboarding off the trail," Chaz commented to Dick as they traveled up the mountain on the open ski lift. "What about you, Grayson?"

"I learned last year," Dick replied as he scanned the slope they'd be boarding. "Bruce and I jumped out of a helicopter to snowboard down a mountain. It was pretty cool."

Chaz looked at Dick. More than a few of the guys at school thought it was weird that Gotham City's billionaire industrialist, Bruce Wayne, had adopted Grayson. They'd heard their parents' cocktail-comments about the questionable propriety of the arrangement, or gossip about Dick's unusual background.

"Why'd Bruce Wayne adopt you, Grayson?" Chaz asked, giving no thought to tact.

Dick tightened his grip on his snowboard and fielded the question he'd been asked before.

"He didn't adopt me. He's my legal guardian."

Chaz shrugged. "Okay... so why you?"

Dick could match bluntness with bluntness when it came to the queries from his classmates. "My folks were murdered. So were his. Guess he thought that gave us something in common."

"I forgot about that. Sorry," said Chaz. "Well... does he act like a dad? My folks said Bruce Wayne dates a different girl every night."

Dick's mouth curled tightly at the corner of his mouth, but his eyes betrayed no emotion. "He's not my dad. He told me he'd never try to be. And as for the girls..." Dick's eyes returned to the mountain but his smile softened. "...Maybe a new one every *week*. Every night is stretching it — even for Bruce."

The boys started down the slope of soft powdery snow below a ridge that was heavy with accumulated snow. There were no more than half a dozen skiers and snowboarders on the run, the first group to go down since the snow had fallen. Smaller and quicker than the adults, Dick and Chaz zipped ahead, cutting through the virgin powder and sending white plumes into the air.

Slicing tandem gouges through the snow, the two classmates descended at the same rate. Dick forgot his resentment in the exhilaration of the moment, enjoying the speed and sting of the frosty air on his face. Spotting a particular grouping of trees coming up, Dick cut sharply to his left.

He launched off the steepest part of a drop-off and went airborne, and spun into a fluid flip and 180-degree rotation. It was elementary for Dick, but this run was just his warm-up anyway. He stuck his landing and out of the corner of his eye saw Chaz tumbling through the snow. Dick pulled up quickly and sliced over to his downed classmate.

"You okay?" Dick asked, lifting up his amber goggles.

Chaz, dusted white with snow, sat up and checked his boot bindings. "Yeah, soft landing. I didn't see the drop-off until you caught air. How'd *you* know it was there, Grayson? You got x-ray vision or something?" Chaz stood up and bobbed a couple of times, getting settled in his bindings and testing his leg muscles.

Dick chuckled at the comment, savoring the irony behind it. "I scoped out the terrain from the lift," he said to Chaz.

A skier shushed up to the boys and stopped. The man lifted his goggles, checking them out from behind frameless eyeglasses. "You okay, kid?" the man asked Chaz. "It looked like you lost a battle with gravity." The man's eyes moved to Dick, narrowing somewhat. "But *you* kicked gravity in the tail, son. Nice jump."

"I'm fine," Chaz answered. He looked at Dick. "C'mon, Grayson. Let's get downhill." With a couple of hops, Chaz started down. Dick lowered his goggles and took off after Chaz.

After the downhill run, Chaz abandoned Dick for other company. Dick unlocked his equipment bag from a storage area, got out his freestyle board, and went to the half-pipe course.

The skier with the frameless eyeglasses bought a cup of coffee from a kiosk before returning to his observation of the Grayson kid. The boy swooped down into the bowl-shaped course and back up again, executing stunts of increasing complexity. After a few minutes, the man checked his watch. He turned to go back to the lodge when he collided with a tall young man with strawberry-blond hair. The young man wearing a hotel uniform carried two boxes, and knocked the coffee from the bespectacled man's hand.

"Oh, man! Hey, I'm sorry, sir," Gonzo exclaimed.

The man shook the spilled coffee from his glove. "No problem, son. My fault. I wasn't looking where I was going," he apologized.

"I can get you another coffee, sir," Gonzo offered. "That's where I was going with these boxes — to the coffee stand."

"That's not necessary," the man said. "I was just headed inside anyway." He left the apologetic hotel employee to go back to the lodge. Minutes later, the man was in his room and out on the balcony, where he could see the half-pipe course in the distance. He punched a number into his cellular phone and lit a cigarette while he waited for the other end to pickup. When it did, he spoke.

"It's confirmed. The boy is here and I haven't identified any security personnel assigned to him. It looks like his only supervision is a handful of teachers from the school....Yes....He's pretty active, athletic — likes to snowboard. I think we can catch him out on the slopes....Yes, I'll maintain observation."

Dick came in from the half-pipe course, his cheeks bright with chill and exhilaration. After packing up his snowboards, he shouldered his equipment bag and headed inside to thaw out. In his room, Dick changed clothes before heading out to get a late lunch. From the stairway landing, Dick saw the ski-bum bellman from the day before.

"Gonzo!" Dick called out, waving his hand. He caught up with the bellman. "Hey, who's got the best cheeseburger in this joint?"

"Mister Grayson, the air-man!" Gonzo grinned.

"Please. Call me Dick."

"Dickster the Trickster... Dude, I caught your act on the half-pipe. You busted some serious air, dude. Awesome," Gonzo praised.

Dick smiled. "You saw? I've only been at it for a couple of seasons. I don't know that many tricks yet."

Gonzo grinned. "Your lucky day, dude. It's time for my break. I can tell you a couple of moves while I show you where to get your burger. Here's how you do a 720 and nose grab with a tail poke...."

The snow began falling overnight and was still coming down when Dick awoke. He grabbed a fast breakfast and then hurried into his snow suit. He and Marty met up and headed to the ski lift together. There was six inches of fresh snow on the packed course. The cloud ceiling was so low it obscured the top of the mountain and made the ride on the lift eerily quiet.

By the time Dick and Marty had skied down the mountain it was snowing harder, a windless curtain of white. The boys were laughing and enthusiastic about their run down the slope. After a cup of hot chocolate, they went up the ski lift again. Two gondolas behind them, the man with the frameless eyeglasses followed, sitting alone.

"Three minutes until we reach the top," the man spoke into a walkie talkie. "Get into place and hold for my signal."

Their downhill run was a blast. Dick was impressed with Marty's skill on skis, especially when the smaller boy zipped ahead of him. The snow was coming down harder now, in fat flakes. This would likely be the last run until the snow slacked off. Dick cut back and forth, spraying the newly fallen snow. The boys were nearly alone on the slope as they reached the main bend in the course. A group of skiers had gone down before them, and they were a couple of minutes ahead of the closest skiers behind them.

Marty made the turn a few seconds before Dick. Dick gave a couple of good pushes with his poles to boost his speed. He was closing the distance between them when he suddenly felt a stinging in his right thigh. He glanced down and there was a second sting.

Before Dick could register what was happening, his right leg went numb and could not bear his weight. He went down, jettisoning the poles and tucking to try to fall without injury. To Dick's horror, the rest of his body refused to obey and he tumbled wildly. Only the growing limpness in his body and the softness of the new snow kept him from breaking his limbs. Dick slid down the slope, his awareness growing dimmer. His body came to a stop, but Dick was fast losing consciousness. His last clear thought was 'danger.'

Before the boy's limp form stopped sliding through the snow, the ski patrol Ski-Doo and toboggan came bursting out from the tree line, followed by two patrol skiers. The three rescuers quickly immobilized the unconscious teen on a backboard and moved him to the toboggan. Seconds later, the Ski-Doo was motoring back into the trees, just before the next wave of skiers came around the bend.

Marty Van Eyke reached the bottom of the ski run and skidded to a stop. He turned around, expecting Dick to be right on his tail. Except that he wasn't.

"Where's Dick?" Marty murmured to himself.

tbc in part 3