Title: My Richard. Part ten
Author: Simon
Characters: Dick/OC
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Post college and we go to a wedding
Warnings: None
Disclaimers: These guys aren't mine, they don't belong to me, worst luck, so don't bother me.
Feedback: Hell, yes.
Thanks again, Jim.
We get a bit AU here. I don't want to give too much away, but I changed one bad guy who made canon problems for Dick into Laura for just this fic. I know that's not how DC had it, but it works here. You can forget about it as soon as you're done reading this, I promise.
My Richard
Part Ten Five Years Ago"So what did Bruce do when you told him that you weren't going back to school? You never did tell me about that."
Donna was sitting next to him on the sofa in the rec room in the Tower. He was just hanging; not watching the movie that was playing and finally starting to feel some of the tension from the last year melt away. It was February, and he'd been trying to unwind for a few months now—skiing for a few weeks with Bruce out in the Canadian Rockies and now reconnecting with his friends and doing a lot of just chilling. Well, chilling for him, anyway.
That had happened, the thing about him dropping out, so long ago—more than a year— that he didn't even really mind talking about it anymore. Besides, other stuff had happened which made that look like a walk in the park.
His shoulder still wasn't a hundred percent from the Joker's bullet and Dick was sort of floundering. A sick part of his brain said, 'Nah, Garth might flounder, you're adrift—no, that would be Garth, too. You're, well okay, you're just a little lost right now. Having a slight crisis of confidence.'
My Richard,
I know that you're back with Bruce and that you're not officially working at his company, but you still show up at the social things sometimes. I know how much you hate that sort of stuff.
I'm worried about you. Are you alright?...
Laura
"Bruce wasn't too bad about that. I guess Alfred tempered him a lot, took him aside and sat him down and stuff. He wasn't happy, he was disappointed, but he finally conceded it wasn't right for me to go the whole Harvard MBA route. I guess he's given up on the idea that I might take over Wayne Corp for him." He sipped his beer. "I don't know, maybe Bruce'll have a kid of his own who'll do what he wants, at least more than I did. And if not, he can always adopt one."
Jason Todd, the thorn in Dick's side. No, not the kid himself, though Dick wasn't what you'd call close to him, just the fact that Bruce had canned Dick then gone out to 'adopt a waif' and come up with the new kid in no time flat.
Nothing says 'expendable' like being replaced before your chair was even cold.
My Richard,
Sometimes I think it would have been so good for you if you had a little brother or sister to look after, or maybe even an older one who could check in on you to make sure you were okay.
I know how I like it when my brother takes care of me.
Maybe I could be like your cousin and watch out to make sure nothing bad is happening to you. Would you like that?...Kissing cousin, perhaps?
Laura
Donna, well, all of Dick's friends were worried about him. He'd dropped out of college a year ago Christmas and since then he'd been aimless—well, as aimless as someone who still worked twelve and fifteen hour days could ever be. He spent a lot of time with the Titans, both for work and socially. He was seeing a lot of Kory and that seemed to be pretty good—weird, but pretty good. And he had been doing the Batman and...thing.
Or he had been doing it until about six months ago when he'd taken a bullet through the shoulder and Bruce flipped out, deciding it was too dangerous for him to continue and basically fired him, taken 'Robin' away from the person who had breathed life into the persona for ten years, fired Dick and then not really understood why Dick was upset.
Or if he did understand it, discounted it for the greater good.
Too dangerous? For the love of God. Dick had grown up in a circus; he could turn quads when he was eight years old. He had watched his parents die. He founded and led the Titans and he had trained with and been Batman's right hand for a decade. In that time he had been shot at, gassed, captured, knifed, kidnapped, worked off-planet and dealt with some of the hardest asses ever seen all while staying on the honor roll.
And now Bruce decides that he's worried about him?
What a load of bull.
Then Bruce took on another kid who was younger, had maybe a tenth of Dick's ability and ten times his attitude.
Jerk.
My Richard,
I'm concerned that you may not have enough to do to keep yourself busy. I know how much you hate being bored—it was all I could do to tie you down to eat dinner or watch a movie with me!
Are you sure that you're okay? I could come over there and I'd love to see Alfred and Bruce again. I really would. What do you say?...
Laura
No wonder Dick was at loose ends.
Of course Dick at loose ends was a normal person on their best day. He still managed to keep himself occupied.
He had helped Roy quit heroin when Oliver was just spouting platitudes, disappointment and anger at his partner. Thank God the cold turkey seemed to have taken with no backsliding—at least none anyone had been able to discover and as a result, Roy would probably cut off his right arm if he thought Dick needed it.
He was in charge of the Titans.
He had invented the persona of Nightwing.
He was the rock they all leaned on, even though the Titans seemed to be in some kind of transition or flux or something.
Garth wasn't a member any more and so they didn't see him too much, something about there being internal political problems in Atlantis and Arthur not being tactful enough to handle them so Garth had been drafted to deal. It was almost as if Garth was being groomed to do some kind of diplomatic work somewhere. No one knew for sure how he felt about that, but then Garth was never one to complain. If he thought that was what was expected of him, that's what he'd do. That was Garth, and no one would ever know how he really felt about anything except for maybe Tula.
Donna was still Donna, God love her, but she was a little lost herself and seemed to be leaning towards Terry Long to find some kind of stability. Maybe that was what she needed and if not then her old friends would still be there for her later.
Wally seemed the same, just good old conservative Wally. Dick privately thought he was probably a charter member of the Young Republicans and would goad him into political arguments whenever he was bored, always shredding anything Wally would say. It was too easy, though and lately Dick had been backing off that. Shooting fish in a barrel was never really his thing.
Kory was a big help. She really was. Talk about not like your other girls on the block. Dick didn't have much trouble getting past the fact that she was really tall or had gold skin or that she didn't have pupils. All of that was pretty cool the way he saw it—and he saw it in a lot of ways and from every direction. Their relationship had started with a bang, literally and figuratively and had just kept heating up from there. Sometimes it was even embarrassing how much and often in how many different ways they were together. Not that Kory cared in the least, but there were still enough remnants of good Catholic boy in Dick to want to keep things behind closed doors, or at least not flat out in the open.
My Richard,
I was wondering of you still ever see that girl, that Donna person I met when we all went swimming at the Manor.
I think that she liked you and I think that you liked her back.
Are you seeing her now? Are you?
She's a slut and I bet that she's the type who has slut friends...
Laura
Things weren't always peaches and cream with Kory, make no mistake about that, but they always managed to make up—usually for several days straight.
She intrigued him, kept him interested and he was never bored with her. In fact, he was starting to think that he might be in love with her. He wasn't sure yet, and he knew that she was waiting for him to get the fence pole out of his butt, but he was closer to her than he'd ever felt with any other girl and that was pretty cool.
And he really wanted to be in love. Okay, he knew hat smacked of moony teenage-ism, but he didn't care. He wanted someone in his life he could tell anything to and touch whenever he want and go to sleep with and wake up with and everything in between and he wanted that person to feel the same way about him.
It was looking like Kory might be that person and every time he started thinking about her he found himself smiling, and that was just so cool.
Meanwhile he really had to figure out just what he wanted to be when he grew up.
Sure, he knew that crime-fighting would always be a big part of his reason to get up in the morning, but he wasn't sure how he wanted to go about it. Besides, he—well, Nightwing— was superfluous now.
Bruce—and Jason—had Gotham; he wasn't even close to being needed there. Clark was in Metropolis, Barry in Keystone City. Diana was in New York and Arthur and Garth had the oceans pretty much covered. Most of the other members of the community had their own cities or territories and hero etiquette said you didn't poach someone else's turf. In addition, there was the JLA and the JSA to cover anyplace that they'd missed.
Okay, he was leading the Titans, but he didn't know what was going to happen with them and he wasn't going to be a teen much longer. In fact, none of them would be teenagers much longer. Maybe they should have a meeting about that and see how they all felt about it.
He had some major decisions to make and he was avoiding them like the plague.
He had to get a grip here, or as his father used to say, go out and buy himself a clue. Okay, Dad, he'd see what he could do about that.
He was going out with Kory a lot and he knew that she wanted to move on to something more. She wanted to live together or get married or something but he still wasn't sure. He wasn't trying to keep her hanging or anything like that, he just didn't know...He liked her, he even knew that he loved her, but God—he'd never been there, never felt like that about anyone before and he was just so afraid of screwing it up.
He tried to imagine his life with her and then without her—here on Earth or on Tamaran.
A month later he'd come to a decision; he and Kory, if she still wanted to, could move in together and see where they were after a while like that.
Kory was thrilled when they talked about it, Bruce was noncommittal and the other Titans seemed happy enough for them both, if reserved and a little doubtful.
One night he asked her if she still wanted to try it and that was that. He moved a few boxes of his things into her place and Kory spent several months and too much money trying to turn it into a home for them. Dick inwardly cringed at both her decorating taste and the cost, but kept his mouth shut.
They began going out together as Dick and Kory while Nightwing was seen dancing around Koriand'r. The press and the tabloids had a field day and somehow, God knew how, no one made the connection that they were the same man.
My Richard, (well, maybe not 'my', not after this.)
Jesus, I can't believe this, I really can't!
How could you get caught up in something like this freak-show and with a freak like that?
I saw you going to dinner with that—that—whatever the hell she is and I couldn't believe that you actually kissed her!
God, I almost puked right there, it was so disgusting.
And you even smiled at her and looked like you were having a good time and everything. God. It's perverted, it's just wrong and maybe you aren't the person I thought you were.
But then I started thinking that there must be some reason why you were doing this so I watched and I saw you a few nights later going to a show with her and I couldn't believe that you were still so—God, I can't even write it down...you were so—happy looking and it was completely disgusting and she's disgusting and she's making you gross just because you're with her.
Don't you get it?
Don't you understand what you're doing here?
Do you hate me this much? Do you really have to embarrass me and humiliate me in front of the whole world? What am I supposed to tell my family? What should I tell my friends? They all know how you feel about me and now you go and do something like this. I just can't believe you'd stoop this low.
Why? Can you tell me that? Just why?
Who the hell do you think you are? And why the hell are you doing this stupid wedding thing you seem to be going along with?
Can you even sleep with her? She's like an alien, isn't she? Does she even have the right parts to do things with or are you just really creative?
You're disgusting—SHE'S disgusting and together you two...God.
You make me throw up.
Both of you do and don't you think for one minute that this is over, you bastard. It isn't, not by a long shot.
You'll see what it's like when you screw around with someone. You'll see.
You will.
I'm not done with you yet.
LauraOh, sure Dick had his friends to run interference for him and wear disguises so it looked like there were two of them, but this was hardly the type of thing that would stump anyone who was trying hard. The relationship was still the best one he'd ever had, so that was what mattered.
Finally they decided to move it to another plane and so Dick Grayson was seen to be challenging Nightwing for the fair maiden's hand. If Kory went to a show with Nightwing, she would go to dinner with Dick. If Dick took her to Hawaii, Nightwing would take her to some fancy hero's award thing. It went back and forth for a couple of months until finally the two men were seen together meeting in a neutral place—The Russian Tea Room—and having a heart to heart.
Dick Grayson, son of Gotham billionaire, seemed to come out on top and two weeks later his engagement to Ms Koriand'r was announced in all the media. The wedding would be huge, as befitting a merger between money and beauty with a liberal dose of accomplishment thrown in. Bruce Wayne's ward, Richard Grayson would be marrying Koriand'r in a private wedding on the Wayne Estate, no specific date released. In a separate announcement, Nightwing said the better man had won, wished them both all the best and happiness.
Leading up to the actual day there had been reports on the TV tabloid shows, articles in everything from Time Magazine to the National Enquirer. They had been followed and telephoto pictures taken through their windows appeared worldwide. If they stepped outside of their door they were mobbed or followed. If they stayed in they felt like prisoners.
The whole thing was complicated by Bruce's broken back, happening barely a month before the ceremony. Dick was distraught, worried and basically a mess while Kory was worried about both her lover and problems back on Tamaran. Neither of them was a picture of calm, much as they tried to keep that from each other.
It was a nightmare.
The day of the wedding was a media circus and Dick wanted to cancel the entire thing and either elope to somewhere or just forget the whole stupid idea.
Their whole life would be like this and he was a fool to think they would be able to have a life together.
It was impossible and he was an idiot.
The day was hot and sunny and Dick felt like he was a pawn being moved and dressed with no real will of his own. He knew that Kory was happy and that she was better able to block out the things that were making him insane, but he wasn't so lucky.
Everyone else, including Dick, was on edge and snapping at one another. The caterers were late, the tent wasn't as secure as it should have been and so was sagging. The flowers were dropping in the heat and the champagne was domestic.
This was a Wayne affair, though, even though the best Bruce would be able to manage was to watch from his bed upstairs. The location for the vows had been chosen with that in mind. In an hour the tent was tightened, the flowers had been watered and the correct wines had been delivered, already chilled. Alfred would allow nothing less than the best today of all days.
Finally, finally they were ready to start.
Dick had on a new tux Bruce had insisted on from Armani and Kory was wearing a dress one of the French biggies had made as a present for her. Actually the catfight between Vera Wang, Stella McCartney and Galanos had been the funniest thing Dick had seen since the whole mess started—nothing like fashion queens with their backs up for a good time.
Dick was standing at the makeshift alter on the Manor lawn, their friends were all sitting on hundreds of chairs facing him and he turned when he heard the music start to see Kory come down the aisle toward him.
She had insisted on an Earth ceremony so that Dick would feel more comfortable, saying that they could always do it again when they went to visit her family. She figured that with Dick's body he had nothing to be worried about the nudity involved but decided that she could run that past him some other time.
Donna was smiling at him as she preceded Kory and then Kory was standing right next to him, holding his hand.
"Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here..."
The explosion tore through the alter, obliterating the candlesticks and the flowers, the cross and the rest.
Everyone within twenty feet of the blast was thrown aside and Dick threw himself on Kory in an effort to protect her.
There was noise, screaming, sirens, the smell of gunpowder and burning and Dick was dazed enough to wonder what was going on here, but lucid enough to wonder which one of his enemies had done this—Joker? Luthor? Harvey Dent? Catwoman?
There were so many possibilities...just an occupational hazard.
The injuries were minor, considering. There were a few broken bones, some burns, some cuts and bruises. It could have been worse as far as that went.
The wedding was postponed, indefinitely.
That evening a few of the inner circle were in the Manor kitchen, quiet, wearing jeans and casual everyday clothing to replace their ruined finery when Alfred slightly started and fetched something from the far counter, handing it to Dick.
"Forgive me, but in the confusion this afternoon, I forgot that a young lady asked me to give this to you when you were free."
Dick opened the pale pink envelope.
My Richard,
I told you that I didn't want you to do this. You just don't listen...TBC
17
