Title: My Richard. Part three

Author: Simon

Characters: Dick/OC

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Dick and Laura's relationship continues.

Warnings: None

Disclaimers: These guys aren't mine, they don't belong to me, worst luck, so don't bother me.

Feedback: Hell, yes.

My Richard

Part Three

Dick and Laura quickly became a couple, as teenagers tend to do. They weren't the kind who made out in study hall or embarrassed anyone when they were walking between classes or anything, but they were together and it just sort of became a given that if one of them was working in the library or somewhere the other would probably be close by. Being paired with Dick also gave Laura an entry into the school's social life. It wasn't that Dick was one of the big wheels, but he was one of those kids who was generally liked and had friends—or people he would talk to, anyway, across a lot of the various social groups. When Dick accepted Laura, she was accepted by a lot of the other kids. All of a sudden she had other girls wanting to eat lunch with her and talking to her in the locker room.

It annoyed her, though, because she realized that it had nothing to do with her and everything to do with Richard. Part of her resented it and she would make snotty and caustic remarks to some of the other girls when they'd laugh and ask if he was a good kisser or something, and after the first few tries they left her alone, deciding that she was a bitch and that Dick could do better. She never said anything to Dick about it, though. The time she and her new boyfriend had together was too good to ruin because of something stupid.

During the fall and into the winter they would study together after school at either Laura's house or the manor. They went to movies, they would spend evenings and weekends sitting around watching TV, tossing a Frisbee or swimming since both families owned pools—the manor's being both larger and fancier, of course. As the weather got cooler they simply moved to the indoor pool at the manor, both of them doing laps before relaxing and playing and knowing that Alfred or Bruce could walk in any time to make sure nothing was going on.

It annoyed Dick and made Laura laugh that they had more freedom and seemed more trusted alone by her parents than with Dick's household and she teased him to tell her what he had done—and with whom—to make Bruce so suspicious. The fact that he hadn't really done anything with anyone made it all the more irritating for him.

They got to know one another better as the months went by.

For one thing, she found out that Richard was probably one of the smartest kids in the school, though he kept that under wraps. He made good grades, sure, but he could probably have done even better if he'd wanted. A solid 'A-' seemed okay with him and he let it go at that.

Bruce made a lot of demands on Dick, too, which Laura thought was unfair. She'd want to hit the mall or something and a lot of times Richard would tell her that he had to go to some dinner or sit in on a boring meeting or that Bruce had made plans which he was expected to clear his schedule for. He'd say that he'd call her in the morning or see her in school instead. Sometimes it almost seemed like he was just another Wayne Corp employee or something.

Laura also clued in pretty fast that Richard, as she always called him, was a lot more athletic than he was given credit for and asked him why he didn't play on any of the school teams. He told her that he didn't have time and, besides, the school didn't have his favorite sports so he wasn't really interested. This led them to Laura's backyard so Dick could show off a little by throwing a couple of tumbling passes—nothing too advanced, nothing that a reasonably talented high school kid couldn't do, but enough to impress Laura and her parents who were watching from the family room window. That was the night he told her that before his parents had been killed he had lived in a circus and that they had all been aerialists. He'd started working with the act when he was four and if they hadn't died, he'd probably still be touring with Haley or Ringling Brothers or something.

She told him that being a gypsy was sexy and that night they had one of their best make out sessions yet, only stopping because even Laura's parents had their limits and with the moon being full there wasn't much they couldn't see of what was going on down on one of the pool chaises. The outside lights flicked on just as things were seriously heating up and Dick scrambled to get his shirt back on before Laura's father came out

Despite the usual parental concerns, the Woodward's seemed to be doing everything they could to subtly encourage the romance. They made sure that Dick knew he was always welcomed to stay for dinner or to join them at a show. He was included in family parties and birthdays. One evening they asked him if he had any plans for the Christmas break and said that if he could get away, it would be fun if he could join them in Aspen for a couple of weeks. They owned a condo on the slopes in Snowmass and it was a family tradition to spend the holidays there, they'd done it since the kids had been small.

Dick thanked them, but Bruce had made plans for them to ski Kitzbuhl this year and they were looking forward to it.

When the two youngsters were alone together they would do the things every couple do but drew the line at actual sex. Oh, they had more than their share of pretty good make out sessions and those swims in the pool and times in the Jacuzzi weren't what anyone would call platonic, but they didn't cross the final line—not that they didn't want to, but, well, they weren't quite ready for that.

One day Dick found a box of condoms in his medicine cabinet that he knew he sure hadn't put there and wondered if it had been Bruce or Alfred who'd gotten them. He wasn't about to ask and no one said anything.

He did make a point of taking one or two out of the box every week just to see what would happen and laughed to himself when the empty box was silently replaced with a full one. He even mentally wrote out the conversation that Bruce and Alfred might have had about it. "Well, sir, it appears that I have an errand at the pharmacy this morning." Oh, Alfred, what would that be?" "It seems that the young master has been availing himself of the, ahem, the prophylactics. The box is completely empty." "Well, see to it, then, if you would, Alfred." "Of course, sir. Immediately."

He and Laura were mostly compatible, they liked one another and they were pretty well matched. They were both intelligent, both cared about their grades and seemed to have similar opinions and views of most of the major issues. They simply got along well. They did argue now and then, but it was never anything earthshaking and Dick, in particular, would usually be the one to calm things down and smooth whatever the problem had been so they could get back to normal.

The one thing that he couldn't smooth over was Laura's frustration with his schedule. Though he gave her as much time as he reasonably could, he still had to devote a lot of hours to training with Bruce down in the Cave and there were a lot of nights he had to leave her place early or have her leave the manor so that Batman and Robin could do their thing.

He insisted that he just had a lot of homework to do or that the AP classes were harder than he thought they'd be or something like that. Once in a while he used the line of having to do Wayne Corp stuff, but the excuses were starting to become a problem since Laura didn't believe them and wanted to know why he was angry with her or where he was really going—and with whom. There had been tears and a couple of tantrums about it and Dick was starting to feel guilty about it.

The afternoon the two of them were over at the manor and the Titan's decided to surprise Dick was beyond difficult and Dick could only thank whatever God was above that they had at least arrived in civilian clothes. Laura took one look at Richard talking to Donna in a bikini while they were all swimming and decided that Dick liked her better and started an argument that lasted almost a week. Laura refused to believe Dick's explanation that Donna was just a friend and, besides, she was dating Roy. And Garth had liked her just fine; he was just shy and a little self conscious about his accent and imperfect English. Honest, they had liked her—they really had.

Actually Dick's old friends thought that his new girlfriend was a little neurotic and that he could do better, but they weren't about to say anything to him about it, at least not yet. She was possessive and clingy and seemed to want to monopolize him. It was obvious she resented him having other friends and Donna had picked up the daggers and bad vibes the little snip was throwing her way all afternoon.

Bitch.

This wouldn't last. No way. Dick was smarter than this and would clue in soon enough.

After Christmas, after everyone had gotten home from their respective ski trips and things were settling back to normal, Dick and Laura were in her family's TV room watching a movie when Dick got a phone call. Alfred wanted him to know that Bruce had been called out for one of his 'evening meetings' and would appreciate Dick accompanying him. Alfred was on his way out the door to pick the young master up and please be ready when he expected to be there in about ten minutes.

"But you just got here. The movie isn't over..."

"Bruce wants me there for some reason, I have to go." Batman wanted Robin as backup. He had no choice.

"But it's just another boring meeting, why do you have to sit there? It's like you're on his payroll or something."

Robin WAS on Batman's payroll, if you wanted to look at it that way. "He always has some reason, Laura. You know that. Besides, he wants me to join the company eventually, this is the kind of stuff that is supposed to help get me ready for that."

"But..."

"Alfred's going to be here in a second, I have to get my shoes on and find my coat."

"But Richard..."

"I'll call you tomorrow."

"But..."

She didn't speak to him for three days. Finally, she called him in tears and begged him not to be mad at her, but she just so wanted to be with him that when he had to leave or something it was hard—he had to understand that she loved him and wanted them to be together as much as they could.

About a week or so after that Dick was in the cafeteria in third lunch instead of his usual second. He'd been working on a chem lab that had run late but was sitting at his usual table with Marcia, his lab partner and they were talking. The conversation was light and the two of them were laughing. She tapped his arm as they talked to emphasize some point when a bowl of soup was tossed down her front.

"Richard is my boyfriend, you cunt. You stay away from him, you hear me?" Dick got up and grabbed her arms as she started to slap Marcia, sitting there in disbelief.

"Laura, for Christ's sake, stop, will you?"

She turned on him. "You were asking her out, weren't you? You said we were going steady and now you're twotiming me with that bitch—you were, I heard you, you were asking her to the movies this weekend."

"We were talking about chemistry."

"Bullshit. You want to go out with her."

"Be quiet. That's not what was going on."

"Like hell. You and the bitch were talking about going out this weekend, weren't you? I heard you, you were. You were laughing about me."

By now everyone in the room was listening. "That's enough, okay? We were just talking about class and you owe Marcia an apology." He had slipped into his Robin persona without realizing it. He was as close to the Bat as any of these kids would likely see. Laura backed down immediately, seeming to crumble.

Close to tears, she turned to the other girl who was vainly blotting her sweater. "I'm sorry, Marcia. I really am. I'll get that dry cleaned for you or get you a new one. I promise I will."

Nodding, not buying any of it and wanting to get the hell away from this nutjob, Marcia left to change into her gym shirt. Dick picked up both trays, taking them to the collection window then walking out into the hallway. Laura followed.

"Richard? Richard? Please, don't be angry with me. Please. I thought that you were, well, you know. I was wrong. I know you wouldn't do anything like that. Please?" She was holding his arm as he looked down at her. "Please don't be mad."

He looked at her for another few moments. The bell would ring any second. Hell. "We were just talking about the lab."

"I know. I just saw you two laughing and I thought..." She kissed his cheek. "Are we still going to the movie tonight?" He nodded. The bell rang and they separated for the next period.

Things were pretty quiet for the next month or so. Laura was sweet and funny and Dick almost forgot that about the couple of times she's weirded out on him. They were back to their usual sort of schedule. They'd spend time at one house or the other; they'd see movies and hang out. They almost never spent time with anyone else, other than their families and that seemed to keep things on an even keel.

In the school library Laura caught up with Dick studying for an English test. "Hey."

"Hey. You busy this weekend?"

"I've got some stuff to do, nothing major, though, why?" Just the usual patrols with Batman and some research on a jewel theft they were working on. The usual.

Laura smiled the whole Monty at him. This was working out perfectly. Her father was going to London this weekend to work on some legal thing and her mother was going along for the ride. Richard could come over. They'd have the whole house to themselves and maybe they could, well, you know. Maybe now they could finally spend a whole night together. She'd been thinking about it more and more and she knew he had, too. It was what they both wanted and this would be perfect.

All Richard would have to do was say he was spending the weekend with some friend of his or something. It would be easy.

It would be wonderful. It would.

Please?

"I don't think it's a good idea." They were whispering, not wanting anyone to hear.

"But—why not? Don't you want to?"

Not really. Well, yeah. Sure he did, but this wasn't what he wanted—he didn't want to sneak around and lie and all of that. "Of course I do, but I can't lie to Bruce and he'll know. He always knows when I'm lying, and if he doesn't, Alfred will know. There's no way to get past Alf. None."

"But you could if you wanted."

"Laura..."

"Well," The disappointment was obvious. She'd been hoping for a love nest complete with soft music and candles. "You could still come over, just not spend all night. You could do that."

"Why don't you come over to the manor?" That might help diffuse things. Laura liked the manor—and there was no way in hell they'd end up doing anything beyond what they had been already with Alfred hovering around.

"...Don't you want to sleep with me? I thought that, I mean, I thought—you said that you love me." Her voice had that quaver in it, she was going to cry.

Shit. In fact he'd never said he loved her. He hadn't. Oh, Laura had told him any number of times and had taken to referring to them as being 'in love', but he'd never said it. He hadn't. He liked her, sure, but he didn't love her. Cripes, they were fifteen years old and Dick wasn't anywhere near close to wanting to deal with this.

Well, okay, sure he wanted to get laid, but this was getting too complicated and Laura was starting to piss him off about the whole thing. He was being pressured into it and he'd like to have a little more say than he seemed to be getting here.

The hell with it, he could wait.

Plus he really didn't want to hurt her feelings. He did like her. He did, just not much more than that. Maybe someday, but not right now. Sure, they'd fooled around and made out and stuff, but it wasn't like they were Romeo and Juliet and about to kill themselves for each other or anything like that. They were girlfriend and boyfriend, sure, but—it wasn't like they were about to get married or anything.

Besides, they'd never even really talked about sleeping together. They hadn't. Sure, they'd made it to about third base and done some major groping, but that was it.

Christ.

"Look, Laura, I think maybe we shouldn't do this. I mean this weekend. Is that okay? If you want to come over to the manor, that would be cool, but I don't want to start all this right now."

"But you said you loved me."

Hell. "No. I didn't."

"Of course you did. That night we were in my parents pool and we were skinny-dipping. You said that you loved me."

Holy crap. Her voice was getting louder. He shushed her. "Laura, we never went skinny dipping in your parents pool. You wanted to, but I wouldn't because they were up in their room overlooking the pool and would have seen us. The lights were on, they were still awake up there."

"Yes we did. You've just forgotten. We did and you wanted to make love to me right there in the water but I stopped you because my parents would have had a fit."

Never happened. "Laura..." He was the one who'd stopped her, not the other way around.

"You really don't remember? Richard, you said you loved me and it was all I could do to stop you that night. I wanted you, too, but we were right there under my parent's window and..."

"Laura, look, ah, I think maybe we shouldn't see each other until your parents get back. Is that okay?"

She stared at him, trying to understand. Dick was about to speak when the small silence between them was broken by a half choked sound. "It's that other girl, isn't it? That Donna person. I saw how she was watching you that day. I did. I knew you liked her and that she wasn't just a friend like you tried to tell me. You've been seeing her, haven't you? You have. You've been seeing her instead of me. You're going to see her this weekend, aren't you? Aren't you?"

The librarian came over and told them to either keep it down or leave.

"Laura, look, I'm busy this weekend with Bruce. I'll call you when I can."

"You're just doing this so you can screw that other girl, aren't you? That's all you want. You've been trying to sleep with me since we were assigned together in class."

Christ. "Laura..."

"You're a pig. All you wanted was to get laid and since I wouldn't let you do whatever you wanted you've found someone else who will, right? Well the hell with you." She swept her hand across the top of the table, smashing all his books to the floor.

The librarian looked up. "Out. Both of you."

Picking up his stuff, Dick walked out to the hallway. It was the end of the day anyway. There were only about ten minutes to the bell as he walked to his locker. Laura was nowhere around.

What had just happened?

Sure he knew she could be a little flaky now and then, but she wasn't stupid and she was usually rational—except lately.

Alfred was waiting at the curb when he went out the main doors. It was a rainy day, pouring really, and he jogged to the car without looking around. He didn't see Laura standing behind that tree watching him leave and he didn't notice Lynn Woodward waiting in the Jag a few cars behind Alfred's Bentley.

When they got home Dick went down to the cave to work out. He was upset and angry and wasn't sure what he wanted to do about the whole thing with Laura. He liked her, he really did, but this was just bullshit. He had enough on his plate without this being dumped there as well.

He went through his warm-up and then moved to his favorite piece of apparatus, the high bar, swinging, releasing, catching—throwing a dismount only to jump back on the bar as soon as he landed. He was down there for over three hours, sweating, working, concentrating on the movement, the breathing, the rhythm—getting into the zone where the bar was all that mattered.

He missed the calls to his private line and it was only when he went upstairs to shower and change for dinner that he saw the light flashing on the machine. There were over thirty calls lined up. He pushed the button.

"Richard? Call me, okay? I need to talk to you."

"Richard? Are you there? Pick up...Richard?"

"Richard? I know you're home. Call me back."

"Richard? Please don't be angry with me. Please? Call me when you get this."

"Richard? I know you're mad at me. Please call me."

"Richard? I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to get you upset—honest. Call me, okay?"

"Richard? You're starting to piss me off with this stupid silent treatment. Call me."

"Richard—are you there?"

"Richard? Where the hell are you? Is someone with you? Just call me back."

"Richard, this is stupid. Stop ignoring me, will you? I know you're there."

"That bitch is there with you, isn't she? I know you're there—pick up the damn phone."

"Where the fuck are you? Richard—you're acting stupid. You're making me really mad now."

"Richard—you're getting laid, aren't you? It's that bitch Donna, right? Is that why you had to rush off right after school? You're doing it right now, aren't you? I bet you two are going at it right this minute. I'll just bet you are, you bastard."

"Richard—God. You're breaking up with me, aren't you? I know that's what you're doing. You can't do that—we love each other—don't you remember? You said you loved me. Richard, please call me. Please."

"Richard, it's okay if you have another girlfriend besides me. I can share you if that's what you want. I'll do whatever you want. Please, Richard, just call me back."

The phone rang as he was listening to the messages. Caller ID—it was Laura.

Hell.

"Hello?"

"Richard? You're there! I've been going out of my mind worrying about you. We're not breaking up, are we? You wouldn't do that, would you?"

"Laura, I, look, I think that maybe we should..."

"You don't want to break up, do you? Richard, can you come over so we can talk?"

"I don't think..."

"I'll come over there, is that alright? I can be there in like fifteen minutes, okay?"

"I think Alfred will have dinner ready then and..."

"I can stay in your room or eat with you or whatever you want, can I come over?"

Oh, God, just leave me alone. "Yeah, sure."

"Oh, thank you, I'll be right there. I love you." The connection was cut.

The intercom in his room buzzed. "Master Dick? Dinner is going on the table, please join me. And Master Bruce phoned earlier, he'll be delayed so we shan't be waiting for him this evening."

"Is there enough for Laura, too? I think she'll be here in a couple of minutes."

If the old man was startled he was the only one who knew it. "Of course. I'll set another place."

Sitting at the family dining room table fifteen minutes later, Dick and Laura ate in a strained silence. Alfred had chosen to take his meal in the kitchen so as to not interfere. He knew how young people liked to be alone together.

"Was someone here before? I tried to call you, but..."

"I was downstairs working out. My phone doesn't ring down there."

"Oh."

"...Did you want to talk?"

"Do you want to break up?"

"Laura, I don't know. I think, maybe, um, I think we should maybe back off for a while."

She looked stunned, as if he'd slapped her. She wasn't crying or yelling or anything like that. She was just sitting there as if she'd taken a body blow or a punch to the stomach. She looked at him, staring, trying to get a read on what he really meant by that then nodded once, placed her napkin carefully on the table by her plate and walked to the front door, closing it behind her as she left.

No tears, no hysterics, no thrown breakables, she just walked out. It was too easy.

The next day she wasn't in school, which slightly surprised Dick. She never missed class, she'd come in sick if she had to, but she never missed school. Her grades were too important to her.

That evening after dinner Dick called the Woodward's house to see if Laura was okay. Her mother answered, sounding strained.

"Mrs. Woodward? Is Laura there?"

"Richard?—No, she's not here right now, could I take a message?"

"Will she be late? I'd like to speak with her."

"Richard, honey—Laura is in Saint Clare's under observation for a few days."

"Saint Clare's?" That was the local hospital.

"She's alright, we found her in plenty of time, but late last night she took three bottles of sleeping pills."

TBC

21