Title: Man on the Bench-part three
Author: Simon
Characters: Dick Grayson and Manor crew, plus OC
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Dick learns about the estrangement
Warnings: none
Disclaimers: These guys aren't mine, they don't belong to me, worst luck, so don't bother me.
Archive: Fine, but if you want it, please ask first.
Feedback: Hell, yes.
The Man on the Bench
Part Three"I thought that you might like to see some of these, Dick. Come on over here with me."
Dick's newly discovered grandmother, Carolyn to her friends, Gram to Dick's generation, gestured him over to the couch in front of the condo's fireplace, the large photo album resting in her lap. The rest of the family were busy with their own interests, reading, talking, playing video games while they looked over now and then with comments and jokes.
Page by page the two leafed through the book, snapshots of his unknown family growing up in front of him. Baby pictures of his mother, toddler years laughing in a swimsuit on some beach and her mother's too big sunglasses. Years of school pictures, all taken in front of the same blue screen. There she was dressed for her first communion looking pious in a white party dress and veil, birthday parties with clowns or ponies in the backyard. High school dances in formals standing next to awkward boyfriends. Summer camp, Halloween costumes, sitting on a department store Santa's lap, a trip to Disney World, slumber parties with a group of giggling girls, Brownies, swim meets, cheerleading at some football game laughing and wearing a huge chrysanthemum corsage. High School graduation in cap and gown. Showing off her first car, smiling from the driver's seat.
All the usual things you'd find in any family's album, but things Dick had never seen before and he found himself touching each picture in turn as though trying to capture the memories he couldn't have known. Much as he was engrossed in the part of his mother's life he'd never really known about, it angered him to see what she'd been forced to give up just because she'd fallen in love with someone these people didn't think was up to snuff.
"She loved you and your father so much, honey. You've no idea." Gram had her arm around his waist.
"I know." He looked at her, she was wrong. "I do have an idea, a pretty good one, in fact." Which brought up what he'd wanted to know since he was old enough to understand what he'd heard his mother crying about after she'd though he was asleep. "Even if you didn't like my father, why did you cut her off after they were married, after I was born?"
"Your grandfather didn't think that the life she'd chosen was—appropriate." Carolyn seemed to find that difficult.
"Because of my father or because of the circus—or both?"
"John was a lovely man and…"
"Spare me. As soon as they hooked up she never really saw any of you again—how come?" Dick really didn't mean to be obnoxious, he really didn't, but this was something that had been festering ever since he'd understood it was what that made his mother cry.
"Mary always knew that whenever she wanted to see us or…"
Right, sure she did—if she got a divorce or something. "Bullshit. She used to cry at night because she wanted to see you and she wanted you to know me and my father—she cried all the time when she didn't think I'd hear her."
"We never meant for anything like that to happen, Dick, you have to understand that. You need to understand that we loved her and just wanted what was best for her—and for you as well, just like we're concerned about what's best for you now." She gave him a searching look as though willing the child to understand the actions of adults years before he was born. The others in the room were watching, listening.
This was total crap. Alfred's manners or not, this was garbage.
"You were so concerned that when I was thrown into the state foster care system you couldn't be bothered to get me out or stake any kind of a claim. Did you even know that I spent the weeks after my parents were killed locked up in Juvie because the system screwed up? Did you know that? Bruce was the one who got me out of there when he found out—you didn't do shit. You were so concerned that when a total stranger gave me a place to live you let it ride for five years. You were so upset that when he finalized a legal guardianship you never made a single protest—you never even bothered to show up at the fucking hearings or meet him before signing away any rights you might have had." Dick was becoming really upset, breathing hard, face flushed, muscles tense. "You couldn't be bothered." He looked around the room. "None of you could be bothered."
"Dick, it wasn't like that. We did care and we tried to…"
"You sure didn't bust much of a sweat, did you? Isn't he—" Dick looked at his Grandfather "—supposed to be some hotshot lawyer? That's what Bruce told me—head of some big law firm in the city and you couldn't assign a couple of your associates to maybe make a couple of phone calls? Heavy caseload that week, was it?"
"Dick, honey, let me explain what was going on then…"
"I know, your daughter was just killed and you were upset. You know something? So was I." He stood up, the fight suddenly going out of him, at least for now. "Look, I'm, I'm going for a walk." One of the cousins started to put on his jacket to go along, shrugged a question to Dick then followed him over to the front door. "We'll be back in a while."
"But the man is reasonably wealthy in his own right, sir. Surely the motive couldn't have been simply money? After all, the young master is his grandson."
"Alfred, look at the facts here. What else could it be?"
Dick and Peter, the oldest cousin, walked almost two miles before either one of them said anything. Then the conversation was quiet, matter of fact.
"Were you really locked up in a cell when your parents were killed?"
"They died at like ten at night and then the authorities said it was too late to find a temporary foster family and they wouldn't let me stay with the circus people—which was lame. Those were the people I knew; that was where I wanted to be but instead I was loaded into a police car then some jerk case worker lost my file and I ended up staying there for almost a month." Another block passed. "Bruce got me out, let me stay with him and then he filed for adoption but that was rejected because he's not married. He went for legal guardianship instead."
"How old were you?"
"Eight, almost nine."
"How come Bruce Wayne cared? Did you know him or something?"
Dick shook his head. "He was there when they were killed; it was a benefit performance for some charity and Wayne Corp was one of the sponsors. He didn't know I'd been lost in the system for like three weeks but as soon as he found out he got me out."
"You know, we—me and my brothers— didn't know you even existed until like an hour before you showed up here."
Dick gave a small laugh. "And vice versa. Nice to meet you."
Peter returned his small laugh. "I'd caught some talk I wasn't supposed to growing up about how Mom had a sister who'd died somehow, but they never talked about you, you know—we really didn't know about you. It was one of those things we all knew we weren't supposed to ask about."
Dick shook his head, his voice; both of their voices still quiet. "But what I don't understand was why cut me off? I was this little kid, I was orphaned—what the fuck did I ever do to them, y'know?—and why contact me now?"
"I don't know why now, but I know they're really excited that you're here. But you're right, it's pretty screwed up and you got me why it happened."
"That's fucked." Dick turned around, headed back the way they'd come.
"Yeah, it is."
"I'm getting cold, let's go in here." It was a Starbucks, a place Dick usually avoided like the plague, but he wanted to warm up and they served hot chocolate. Besides, any port in a storm.
"Really, Philip, how could you have just turned up at the child's school like that? You could have gotten yourself arrested if you hadn't been careful! You were practically stalking the boy and you're lucky you didn't scare him half to death."
"Carolyn. That's enough—you know as well as I do that if we're going forward with this then we might as well just get started and if we have Dick on our side, if he sees that we mean him no harm it will be much easier in the long run."
"There was no reason why we couldn't have called the child or written a letter to get him used to the idea and you know that as well as I do."
"This way he gets to know us a little, he sees how much fun he can have with the boys and he'll…"
"He'll what? Go home to a big empty house on a hill and feel homesick for some people who are almost strangers to him? And had it occurred to you that he might resent us the way he does after the way you treated poor Mary? And John—I don't think you ever said a civil word to the man in all the years they were together. No wonder the poor thing ran out of here all upset."
"He'll be back. Peter will talk some commonsense to him and they'll be back here and you'll see that he's just fine."
"Oh, really Philip—I just hope that you're right."
"I am. You'll see."
"Well, for his sake…"
"Y'know, Dick, even though it sounds like Grandpa was kinda shitty to your Mom and Dad, I think he really does want to make it up to you."
"Yeah, well, maybe he does, but I live with Bruce an Alfred and they're really great—I don't want to move or anything."
"Who's Alfred? He like Bruce's father or brother or something?"
"Technically he's the butler, but he raised Bruce after his parents were killed and he's sort of like a grandfather to me. He does pretty much everything around the house."
The two boys were slowly strolling back to the condo with their large cups of hot chocolate as they talked.
"What's it like living with Bruce Wayne? He's like the richest man in the world, isn't he?"
Dick hated questions like that. Sure Bruce was super rich, everyone knew that, but there was no reason to talk about it all the time and it wasn't like Peter's family was on welfare or anything.
"It's, I don't know—he's got money but he's really not into showing off with it. I mean he has nice things, but it's not to impress people—not usually, anyway. He has nice stuff because a lot of it was there from his parents and grandparents. He doesn't really spend all that much on himself, considering."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"So if you wanted, say, a fancy car or something, would you get it?"
"You mean when I get a license? I doubt it. I guess I'll get something to drive, but it won't be a Lamborghini or anything."
"Honda Civic?"
"Oh, God…! Maybe a Miata, at least."
"Nah, no trunk space—hold out for the Z."
"I'll keep that in mind." That was the first thing to make Dick laugh since he'd stormed out and he suddenly realized that, if nothing else, he was really glad he'd met his cousins.
When the two boys walked back into the condo Dick was met by his grandmother and aunt, both of them asking of he was alright, was he warm enough, suggesting he take a nice hot shower and could they please talk with him? They'd been so worried and upset and thank God he and Peter were back.
"I'm alright—I'm sorry I kinda walked out, but…"
"Not a word, dear. You had every right to be upset about how your grandfather treated Mary and John and I'd like to talk to you about it when you're ready." Carolyn had her hand on his arm and Pat looked like she'd been crying. "We just found you, Dick, we don't want to lose you again, alright?"
He nodded. He wasn't sure what was really going on, but he didn't want to be exiled to Siberia again, either.
"Come over here and let me tell you what happened between your mother and her father. Come on, sit here next to me."
They were back on the same couch they'd used earlier to look through the albums, the fire a little lower, but still burning in front of them.
"Philip and Mary were as close as any parent and child I've ever seen—I used to almost be jealous of the two of them when I'd see them out together. He'd have her up on her horse or a bike and he'd just glow looking at her—isn't that right, Pat?"
His aunt was on the chair next to the couch, close enough to put a hand on his knee. "I used to wonder what I could do to get him to treat me the way he treated Mary, Dick—she could do no wrong as far as he was concerned. None. She was just perfect to him and when she got a little older and started dating he made it pretty clear that no one was good enough."
Carolyn smiled at that. It was true. "Well, he never really bothered about any of her high school boyfriends because he knew they didn't really matter, that they'd disappear sooner or later but then when she met your Dad, well, they just sort of clicked and that had him worried."
Dick looked at his grandmother as she talked, though he wasn't sitting as close as he had been when they were looking through the album. "How did they meet? I never knew."
"Well, the summer before Mary was supposed to leave for Radcliff she worked as a volunteer at the local hospital three days a week. The circus had been through town the week before and John had been injured somehow; she met him there." She smiled at the memory. "She would come home and just go on and on about him—he was so handsome and funny, he was such a gentleman, so polite. I knew she had a crush on him, but I just thought he'd be released soon and then he'd rejoin the show and be gone so that would be the end of it."
"And that's not what happened." Of course it wasn't, they'd ended up married, but Dick wanted to hear.
"When he was released from the hospital Mary asked if he could stay with us for a couple of days because he had to wait for the money to arrive for his bus fare to wherever the show had gone—why they didn't just wire it, I don't know, but it had been mailed and was slow arriving. Well, I didn't think a lot about it since I knew it was very temporary, but then he got to the house and…"
"And what?"
"He was everything Mary said he was; he was a beautiful man, well spoken, intelligent, kind and he treated her like a princess—he just doted on her and it was plain that she adored him right back. Then the next day your grandfather found them up in Mary's bed together and absolutely saw red. He was outraged that John would do something like that when he was a guest in the house, take advantage of Mary right in her own room while we were home and he threw him out."
So his parents had slept together, okay, maybe it wasn't the most tactful thing to do, but it wasn't the end of the world, either. "So he was angry, but why didn't he just get over it?"
"Oh, honey, you don't know your grandfather very well yet. No, no—he's a wonderful man, but sometimes he holds a grudge when he thinks he's been wronged and…"
Pat spoke up as well. "Dad is stubborn, Dick. Maybe if the two of them had apologized or something—but they didn't, not really. They just said they loved each other and wanted to be together."
"But she was his daughter and you said they were so close."
Carolyn took it up again. "Oh honey, they were, but when John left, Mary went with him, you see. Philip went to the circus and found them there and asked her to come home. I know he said everything he should have—and meant it. He told her how much we loved her and just wanted the best for her and all of that, that if they wanted to be together then surely John would understand that she was too young to get married, that she was about to start college and it was important. If he loved her as much as he said then he'd wait for her—all the things you'd say to a child who does something like that."
She had paused, hesitating. Dick prompted her. "But…"
"But by the time he caught up with them they were already married. Philip said they could get it annulled but, of course, they refused."
"Was it a shotgun wedding?" Dick knew his mother was young when he was born—if she'd had to get married that might help explain why his grandfather was so...
"Oh, no, nothing like that. You weren't born for almost two years yet. Philip was just so angry and betrayed right then. He said that if she insisted on marrying John they could have come and talked about it with us. They didn't have to run off like that and get married in secret like they were hiding out."
"But he threw Dad out, so…"
"Well, yes, he did, but he would have calmed down in a few weeks. I know him and so did your mother. He was angry, but he loved her so much that he would have accepted it sooner or later if they had just waited a little."
But…Dick asked his grandmother, "Where were you during all this? What did you do?"
"I contacted Mary through the circus—Philip didn't know. I'd call her when he was at work so he wouldn't be upset and I knew how happy she was with John. They loved each other so much, honey. I'd meet her sometimes if the show was somewhere close by and she was just so—she was so happy. They both were. And then when you were born I asked her to go see her Dad. He'd calmed down quite a lot by then and I knew he missed her desperately."
"And did she?"
"She went up to his office with you in your carriage and the visit started out well enough until he asked if she would consider coming home to raise you—Philip didn't want you raised in a traveling show…"
Dick shook his head. "But I loved it there, we all did."
"I know, honey, I understand, but your grandfather thought that it wasn't the best place for either of you."
He was looking over at her. These people had no idea what their lives had been like in the circus—the family, the friends, the feeling of belonging and safety he'd almost never felt since.
"Your mother thought it was another attempt to break up her and John and they exchanged harsh words. That was the last time she saw him. I stayed in touch with Mary, but it was strained after that and when we learned about the accident—I thought Philip would lose his mind. He blamed himself completely for what happened."
"If he blamed himself, wouldn't he want to make some kind of amends by taking me in?"
"I wanted to, but he was so close to…" She stopped for a moment. "You just look so much like Mary he couldn't bear it right then… I know that's a poor excuse." She stopped again for a second or two. "It was so wrong, I know that and then when we learned you'd ended up in a good home I…"
"Let it ride." Dick's voice was bitter.
"I'm ashamed of that, Dick. I'm ashamed to think of how both Mary and John would feel about the way we behaved but now all we do want to make things right…If you'll let us."
Around eight the next morning the phone at the Manor rang. "Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt your breakfast, but there's a call from Master Dick."
"Dick, how are you making out? Are you having a good time?"
"It's pretty good. The cousins are great and everyone is really nice."
Bruce could hear some strain in his voice. "No problems?"
"We were talking about my parents last night, that's all; I learned a lot I didn't know before. I'm okay—we're about to go do some runs but I wanted to check in; is everything good there?"
"Fine, quiet. I 'went out' last night, but you didn't miss much."
"Uh, good. I think that my aunt and uncle can bring me home tomorrow, so could you tell Tom he doesn't have to bother? And I was wondering if it would be alright if my cousins came over next weekend?"
"Of course. I'll see you tomorrow, then."
"Right. I've gotta go, bye."
Bruce hung up the phone as Alfred hovered around while pretending to be busy with the coffee pot. "He seems to be having a good time."
"Well, sir, I'm sure that was their hope."
"I'm sure." The question was, what else did they hope?
TBC
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