It's All Relative
Chapter 9: Unexpected Visitors
By Teala373
"And just who are you supposed to be?" Batman asked the black-clad figure that he somehow immediately knew was Dick Grayson.
He had been surprised when the spare Batmobile had crashed in through the laboratory's glass ceiling, distracting Inque long enough for him to shoot the Freeze gun.
"I'm the guy who's saving your sorry ass," Dick bit back sarcastically with laughter in his voice. "Looks like you hyper-extended a few muscles, got a few nasty cuts and gained some well-expected bumps and bruises. I'd be surprised if all your ribs are in one piece."
"And scrapes," Batman groaned as Dick helped him into the Batmobile and programmed the other vehicle to return to the cave on autopilot, "you forgot the scrapes."
Dick smiled from beneath his cowl. It hadn't been hard for him to call someone other than Bruce 'Batman' or to accept that someone who wasn't Tim or himself was taking up the cowl. Terry just seemed very natural to him somehow.
"You did good, kid. The old man and I were watching and you've definitely got what it takes. Just relax and I'll take a look at you when we get back."
Batman smiled to himself as he settled in the passenger seat. He felt like he just had a bonding moment with Dick Grayson and, for some reason, he was very happy about that. He tried to analyze it on the ride back, but he couldn't come up with anything that made much sense.
"How do you usually do the drop off?" Dick asked, jerking his thumb towards the rear of the vehicle. The trunk of the batmobile had recently been fitted with a deep freeze feature for towing a captured Inque, as was the case now.
"You have to be careful with the Commissioner," Batman began sternly, "he's not too keen on vigilantes. Even though the police are not equipped to deal with Inque, he's pretty ungrateful."
Dick snorted. "Bard being a jack ass. What a surprise."
"Oh yeah… you told me had some thing with Barbara there…"
"It wasn't so much a 'thing' as it was an annoyance," the tight fit of the cloth mask allowed the visible lines of a scowl forming on Dick's face to show. "He thought I was some kind of bratty little kid in short pants. He didn't get what Babs and I had."
"How do you know?" Batman asked softly, sounding less like a costumed champion and more like a young boy needing fatherly advice.
"How do you know what, kid?"
"How do you know when you've found the right person?"
Though neither man could read the other's facial expressions well from beneath their cowls, Dick turned briefly towards the young man. "The typical answer is 'you just know', but I've found that love is when you know that the other person is your missing half. It's when you realize that all this time you haven't been whole, but only half filled and this person completes you by filling the empty space," he heaved a heavy sigh that seemed to draw from the depths of his soul. "When I married Helena, I had foolishly convinced myself that I was over Barbara's death and that Helena filled the space Babs had. She didn't. I had deluded myself. It happens. It's very hard to tell real love false love."
Batman was silent.
"I didn't really answer your question, did I?"
"No… no, you did. It's just that…" Batman struggled to find the words, "is it really easy to convince yourself that someone is your other half when they're not."
Dick laughed. "You're taking to the king of falling into false love. There was one too many ladies before, in between and after Babs. As Bruce says, I'm 'overly emotional and highly volatile', or something to that effect. I get carried away easy. I'm a lot better now than I was, though. "
Quickly changing the subject, the two began rehashing the night's events, pausing only to make a discreet drop-off at Commissioner Bard's window ledge.
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"Just hold still, kid," Dick warned, "this is going to hurt for a second."
Gritting his teeth, Terry let a few yelps slip out as the painful sting of the antiseptic hit the open gash on his arm.
Emitting a small chuckle, Dick quickly dressed the wound. "Don't worry, Bruce is the only one who never yelped from antiseptic. I was the biggest baby in my day, I was even worse than Tim!" He laughed as the old memories came back to him of nights when he was on the table being aided.
"I wonder if villains will list that as my weakness: 'vile reaction to antiseptic'."
"Never let 'em know anything about you," Dick warned sternly. "I gave Freeze way too much to consider when he kidnapped Barbara. As both Robin and Dick Grayson, I tweaked and panicked and was obviously way more worried about her than I should have let on." He shook his head in embarrassment. "I never thought straight where that girl was concerned."
Terry began to say something, but quickly changed his mind.
"You know what you need?" Dick quickly swept away the soured mood with a lighter tone. "A chick partner. It wasn't so bad getting banged up on the days when Barbara tended to my wounds," he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, "and it wasn't so bad when she got banged up and I tended her wounds."
Terry laughed, "For now, I'll fly solo. I don't know if I can handle balancing a partner and Bruce buzzing in my ear." They both laughed at that. "One day, though, I'll walk away without quite so many battle wounds."
Though Dick knew from experience that walking away without a scratch was almost impossible, he put on a brave face. "Sure you will, kid. I'll be rooting for you, even if the old man isn't." They continued to laugh. "You know," a pensive look touched Dick's face, "you remind me a lot of when I was your age, only you aren't chasing after Barbara…" a far away look touched his eyes at the thought.
"No, but my girlfriend is going to eventually stop chasing after me," Terry sighed. "This has put a pretty big strain on our relationship."
Bruce walked towards the first aide station and couldn't help but to smile as he watched his first and recent apprentice interact. It gave him hope that maybe this time, there was a happy ending in sight. Hope wasn't something he was used to feeling, but after all these years, it was a welcome flood of emotions.
"You know, Terry, if you really care about your girlfriend, you should tell her. Don't be an idiot like I was and wait too long. I almost lost Babs the first time because I didn't appreciate her as much as I should have," that heavy sigh escaped him again. "It's hard to balance your two identities, but there is a way. Work hard at finding it. Don't lose the light that sees you through the darkness."
Terry nodded gravely, appreciating the heartfelt advice. He paused a moment before asking his next question. "You're still in love with Barbara after all this time, aren't you?"
Bringing a hand to his chin, Dick averted his eyes to an imaginary spot on the floor. "I've been in love with her for as long as I can remember," he began softly, "she was the one. She was special."
Terry began to feel slightly uneasy and shifted a bit. "I… I'm sorry…"
"Hey, it's okay," Dick quickly looked back up. For some reason, he didn't want Terry to feel bad. He had developed some odd, instant protectiveness for the young Batman that he didn't bother to question. "Just do me a favor and break the whole 'wear the cowl, have the curse' thing."
Knowing that there were many unhappy endings for the original Batman and his partners, Terry understood Dick's words and agreed.
"Bruce talks to you about things more because it's his way of trying to keep you from ending up like us. He wants something better for you. He'll never say anything as mushy as that, but that's his reasoning." He fixed a pointed look at the young man before him. "You're going to have to be stronger than we were. You can do it. You were meant to."
Both men's eyes locked and a moment passed between them where they spoke volumes through the silence.
Ace stood up then, sniffing the air and rumbling low in his throat. Bruce called him to his side and reassured him there was no need to attack, even when the door opened and a figure began walking down the steps.
Sniffing the air again, Ace began heeding his master's commands more. He recognized the scent of this new person as he had recognized Dick Grayson's.
"I knew I'd find you losers in the cave."
A slight nervousness overtook Bruce. Tim was earlier than he had expected. Things were about to get more complicated.
Leaving Terry's side, Dick bounded over to his estranged surrogate brother and hugged him hard. "You," he cried in joy, though he was trying to be stern, "have some serious explaining to do."
Tim Drake, who had changed from a young boy into a man laughed through his slight grimace. "You don't know the half of it, bro."
As Bruce walked over to Tim and greeted him, the wheels in the back of his mind began to turn. He was concerned as to how Dick was going to react once all the cards were out on the table.
Plastering on a devilish grin, Dick began attacking his little brother. "So, before you dropped off the face of the planet, you had met a girl. Tell me you disappeared because you had a happy ending, Tim. Tell me you didn't turn out all screwed up like the rest of us."
Tim's face fell. "Sorry Dick," he mumbled quietly, "but I think you'll find that I'm the most screwed up one of all."
Dick's face also fell as he began examining the somber and worried man before him. Before he or Bruce could respond, Tim suddenly straightened up and began fixating at something over Dick's shoulder.
"So, you're the infamous Tim Drake, the second Robin," Terry appeared and stood half behind Dick.
Tim nodded. "And you're the new Batman, I take it."
"That he is," Dick announced proudly. "He's good, too."
Terry cleared his throat. "I'm just going to clean up a bit. I'm sure you all have a lot to talk about and I should be getting back home."
The three men nodded as Terry began to head towards the small bathroom that contained a sink and shower stall. As he turned, he locked eyes with Tim Drake. There was something eerily familiar about him, but it was different than how he felt towards Dick.
He felt an instant connection to Dick, almost as if he had known him all his life. It was comfortable and natural. Time Drake, however, made him feel very defensive and threatened. He had seen him before, but he didn't know where or when.
Sensing something was wrong with the younger man, Dick went after Terry, pretending he wanted to double check the bandages.
Once they were both out of earshot, Tim turned towards Bruce. "Tell me that isn't Terry McGuiness."
Bruce didn't seem fazed by Tim's knowledge of the new Batman's identity. "Why?" he asked with that unattached, unemotional, unreadable way that revealed nothing.
Not knowing what he knew, Tim continued. "I know his mom. That's a lot of what I have to talk to you both about."
Stifling a sigh, Bruce nodded. "Yes. There is much to discuss."
Dick came back then. He wasn't completely satisfied that Terry was okay, but he decided to give him a little breathing room. "What'd I miss?"
Both Bruce and Tim looked at him with blank expressions.
"What?" Dick asked innocently. "Is something coming out of my nose?"
Under normal circumstances, Tim would have laughed, but these weren't normal circumstances. "Dick… there's something that you should know about where I've been for the last several years."
Ace picked his head up.
"Tim, you don't have to explain yourself," Dick began sympathetically. "Let's just move forward…"
"Dick!" Tim interjected, "I was chasing after a woman that I thought was Barbara!"
Dick stared at Tim as though he had just struck him in the face.
Ace began sniffing the air as his ears turned, straining to hear a distant sound.
"Maybe we should sit down," Bruce suggested as Dick's right eye began to twitch slightly.
"What do you mean you were chasing after a woman you thought was Barbara?" Dick's face began to clench.
Ace started whining softly.
"Right after Cass and I started dating, I met this woman and I thought she might be an amnesic Babs," Tim started babbling as he saw Dick begin to grow upset.
Bruce tried again to suggest they sit down, but no one seemed to hear him.
"You had a lead on Barbara and you never told me?" Dick practically yelled as his face began to twist with emotion.
Terry had gotten as far as washing his hands when he heard the rising voices. Quickly jumping into a pair of jeans and pulling an old t-shirt over his head, he headed over to where the three men were standing. But he wasn't paying attention to what they were saying because as he approached, he noticed Ace's behavior.
"Listen, Dick, you don't understand," Tim continued.
Dick, for his part, was trying very hard to control his emotions. "I shouldn't be surprised. After all, you two always were keeping secrets from me." He wasn't necessarily doing a good job.
"What is it, Ace?" Terry asked as he walked over to the dog and scratched him behind his ears. Ace looked at him and whined as he continued sniffing the air.
Bruce looked at Ace, then looked up the cave stairs. "Alright, that's enough," he stated in his most authoritative Batman voice.
His sons ignored him.
"What secrets?" A high pitch hit Tim's voice as he stared at Dick in disbelief.
Dick narrowed his eyes. "You and Babs always had those stupid inside jokes and whenever I would ask either one of you about…"
"Those aren't secrets!" Tim shot back, "They're inside jokes! If you're not there when the joke was made, you can't be in on the inside joke! You know that!"
Ace barked.
Bruce grimaced.
"Hey!" Terry shouted, causing Dick and Tim to break eye contact. "Someone's upstairs!" Not bothering to wait for a response, he tore up the stairs.
"Terry!" Bruce called, grabbing Ace's collar and restraining him.
Dick, feeling another burst of protectiveness for Terry, ran up the stairs after him.
Tim turned towards Bruce. "What's going on?"
"Normally Ace isn't so docile in recognizing another presence. Unless I give him a command, he attacks right away."
Tim gave Bruce a skeptical look. "So why was he just acting agitated and on edge now? Like when I came in?"
"He didn't seem to have a big problem with Dick, either. It's because he recognized both of your scents. They still linger on items in here. I met Dick at the door not knowing exactly how Ace would react. When I saw he did recognize the scents, I decided you would be okay," he paused to see if Tim was catching on to his meaning.
Tim swung his neck towards the stairs, almost as if he meant to go up them. But he stayed rooted to his spot. "Is Dick still good at making a bad situation worse?"
"Funny. I was under the impression that torch was passed to you."
Turning back towards Bruce, Tim locked eyes with him. "So you do know."
Ace wriggled free of Bruce's grip and bounded up the stairs. Bruce sighed. "I hope you are prepared for your brother's reaction."
"I just didn't want to give him the same false hope I had given myself," he hung his head. "I'm glad I didn't. You must have seen the test results. It's not her."
"Then why is Ace picking up her scent?"
Knotting his forehead, Tim released a tight sigh. "I may not be the world's greatest detective, but I'm not exactly a gumshoe, either. Nothing matched. I wanted her to be Babs, but she's not. Ace must have picked up her scent on Terry."
Bruce scowled. "That's because Barbara's information was altered in the public databases. Someone went through an awful lot of trouble to hide her. And now, she's here. I'm guessing she doesn't have amnesia anymore."
Shocked, Tim took a step back.
Bruce began walking up the stairs. Tim took a moment to compose himself and then mutely followed. He had been so sure that Mary wasn't Barbara.
This changed everything.