Title: Two Roads Diverged…Part Four

Author: Simon

Characters: Dick and the various people in his life—sixteen years old.

Rating: PG-13 for violence (though not in this chapter)

Summary: Sometimes a single moment decides the path your life will take. This is a look at that moment going two different ways and the possible differing consequences.

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. Roads Diverged

Part Four

One Year Later. Sixteen Years Old.

Path A

"But I told you I was going to help the Titans last night. After the tower was trashed again the city got involved and was threatening to fine us and it took all of us to try to straighten the mess up and—c'mon, Bruce. You can't be serious about grounding me for working, for Chrissake!"

"You went out without informing either myself or Alfred where you'd be, what you were doing or when we could expect you home. I was without your backup going up against Poison Ivy. Two months."

"Ah, c'mon, Bruce—that's horse shit and you know it…"

"Three. Would you care to go for more?"

Furious, Dick turned away, leaving the study before he got himself in any deeper, but Bruce could hear the slammed door from his room a couple of minutes later and had trouble concentrating on the file he'd been studying. This just wasn't like Dick, this temper and this defiance. He'd always been so easy going, so willing to follow orders that Bruce was at something of a loss as what to do with him. If it was just once or twice, he'd let it go, but this had been going on for months now with no end in sight. Every time he tried to have a conversation it ended up in an argument and Bruce was even starting to suspect that Dick might be actually losing respect for him or for Batman or possibly for both.

"You are quite hard on him sometimes if I may say so."

Bruce looked over at Alfred, tending the fire. He'd slipped in so quietly he'd gone unnoticed. "He needs discipline."

"He's a youngster, he needs understanding and guidance." He placed another log carefully on the pile in the grate. "As did you not so long ago." Straightening up and moving to the door, Alfred paused for a moment. "I would suggest that you go talk to him and mitigate your decision somewhat. He was, after all, working and helping his friends—it's not as if he was out joy riding, is it?" He left the door opened, a clear sign he wanted Bruce to deal with this and now.

Bruce sat back in his chair. The least Dick could have done was let them know where he was going and what he'd be doing—but maybe he had, come to think of it. Much as Bruce hated to admit it, Dick had said something when they were down in the cave, but the shower had been running and he'd answered without really knowing what Dick had said, thinking it was probably something about school or something along those lines. It was probably about the damn Tower getting trashed again. Hell, Alfred was right, like Alfred was always right. Fine. Pushing himself to his feet, he walked up to Dick's room, the door very slightly ajar and Dick's voice softly coming through.

"Well, that's good—the city is dropping all the fines and everything? Great—no it's really good. It gives us some more, I don't know, some more validity that we're actually helping or something…No, I can't. He won't let me out. I'm grounded…Yes, for working last night, what did you think I'm grounded for?...Maybe…I'd like that, of course I would, but I can't right now…"

Bruce knocked lightly, Dick made a quick excuse to whomever he was talking to and hung up as Bruce sat himself in the leather desk chair a few feet from where Dick was half lying, half sitting on his bed, waiting for Bruce to make the first move.

"I think I might have—over-reacted just now. Perhaps I was more harsh than was appropriate."

Dick stared at him like Bruce had just confessed to murdering Abraham Lincoln in a previous life. "Excuse me?"

"You were leading your team during a difficult situation and I may have come down too hard on you without meaning to."

"…You mean I'm not grounded?" And he was apologizing? Bruce? Good God.

"You're not grounded. However, if it happens again, if you take off like that without us knowing what's going on, I won't be as easy on you. Do you understand me?"

This was as much as he was going to get and Dick knew it. "All right."

"Have you finished your homework tonight?"

A little slack, maybe Bruce? Y'think? "I'm working on it."

"Have you given any thought to colleges? I've been meaning to talk to you about it—Harvard for business, maybe Wharton?"

Dick gave an inward groan. He knew this was coming, he was just hoping against hope it would never arrive. He wasn't all that sure he really wanted to go to college at all and he knew for certain he sure didn't want to spend four years, plus the inevitable grad school, studying management strategies and mergers. "I hadn't really decided."

"You're a junior, if you're looking for early admission, you have to get on it."

"I was kind of thinking I might like to take a year or two off after high school—maybe work, travel around. Y'know, take a breather."

Bruce looked at him like he'd just suggested he take a job as a male prostitute. "…Really?"

Deep breath and jump in, feet first. "My parents never went to college—no one in my family did, and they all did just fine."

Bruce was hiding just how horrified he was. This was coming from left field and Dick blowing off college hadn't occurred to him; the idea hadn't entered his mind for even a second. "That doesn't mean you need to follow what they did—with your intelligence, with the advantages you've had, I'd think you'd want to go as far as was possible. And what about you taking over the company eventually? You have to be prepared for that—it's not a simple thing to run, even with someone like Lucius helping you."

"Well, yeah, but I don't know if I'd be any good at that anyway, I mean, c'mon, I'm not you, Bruce." He knew he was on thin ice here. "I thought I'd like to just keep on with what I've been doing, maybe work with the JLA, maybe get my own city some day—you know, stick with what I'm good at."

Enough of this nonsense. "You're going to college." Bruce had had enough of this foolishness, teenaged rebellion was one thing, throwing away his future was another. "Finish your homework then get ready. We're going out in about half an hour—there's a high end burglary ring I want to nab tonight."

Three hours later Batman and Robin made the collar, catching up to the theft ring at one of Bruce Wayne's neighbor's homes. Robin seemed upset about something and was taking it out on the crooks—Batman had to put a hand on his shoulder when he punched a couple of the men a little too hard, breaking a jaw and causing a fairly severe concussion to another with a roundhouse kick. By the time the cops arrived, there was nothing left to do but call for the ambulances and the backup units to take the photos and fingerprints. Jack Drake promising to make a sizable donation to the Police Widow's League in gratitude for preventing his wife's jewelry from being stolen.

Back at the cave, Alfred was forced to gently suggest to Master Bruce that it was time for the young master to stop practicing on the dummies and get to bed. Besides, he'd already knocked the heads off of two of them and the sand was making a mess of the stone floor. "It's not like him to work quite this hard this late on a school night—did something unusual happen this evening, sir?"

"Nothing. He's just working off a little aggression."

"Indeed. Yours or his?"

Path B

"Dick? Where are you going?"

"Amy and I were just going for a walk, okay?"

"Why don't you two just stay around here for a change? You could watch a movie or something."

"It's too nice to stay inside and I've been cooped up all afternoon doing homework; I want to get out for a while."

"Where?"

"I don't know—the beach, I guess. We'll be back before eleven."

"Ten. It's a school night."

"…Fine. Ten." The screen door creaked as it slammed shut. They were back in Venice for Winter Break, the kids were back in regular school—juniors in high school, and it was time for everyone to kick back a bit after the last tour. Dick and Amy were still going strong and Mary was starting to wonder if she might actually be the one he ended up with, though John laughed at the idea—they were young, they were kids and it was a long way from teenaged dating to a marriage license.

Then a couple of days ago she'd gone into his room to put away some laundry. He'd been on the bed napping after another afternoon on the beach with his friends but when she reached for the top drawer he'd woken up and real fast.

"I'll get that stuff, Mom, just put it down."

But she already had the drawer pulled out and there they were, tucked in along the side by his socks; a box of condoms, opened and half empty. There was an awkward pause then, "Is there something you want to tell me?"

He blushed and gave her a half shrug. "…We're being safe."

"You're both sixteen years old."

"Half the kids in school have done it already, and it's not like it's a one night stand or anything."

"And what are you going to do when one of these things breaks? And does Amy's mother know about this?" Oh, no. "Does your father know? Did he buy these for you?" That was the kind of thing John would do and think he was protecting both Dick from getting the girl pregnant and her from knowing and having to worry.

"No—no." He half mumbled the rest. "You can get them free at Planned Parenthood."

"You're a Catholic…"

"Oh, c'mon, Mom. What are you going to do—make me go to confession?"

She was torn between wanting to kill him, spank him, yell at him or hug him and tell him he didn't have to rush anything because he was young and had so much time, but…"It wouldn't do you any harm, you know. How long has this been going on? And where, how do you…?"

Dick sat up, sighing in embarrassment and wanting this to go away. Talking sex with his mother was like—God, it was like…talking about sex with your mother. "About a year, I guess and we're always careful." He gave her a steady look, making it clear that whatever she may feel about this, he was going to do what he wanted so there was no point in making a major issue out of it. "Do you really want me to go to confession?"

"Not unless you feel you genuinely have something to confess, that you've committed a sin."

"I don't."

She put the clothes on his bed and left the room. John knew about this, she was sure of it and that infuriated her. He should have said something, even knowing how she'd feel about it—especially knowing how she'd feel about this.

But that had been last week and things had settled back down as things tend to do. Yes, John had known but had thought it better to keep her in the dark. Evidently Donna, Amy's mother not only knew about it, but had allowed the kids to use her trailer on the road and her house when in Florida. They'd even used the Grayson's place a few times when no one was home. Lovely.

"Mary? Have you seen this? Dick showed it to me while you were at the store." It was a letter from some Ohio State recruiter. "They want to fly Dick out to the school to take a look at their gymnastics program, they may be willing to offer him a scholarship."

"Has Dick said anything to you about wanting to go to college? I thought he wanted to keep doing what he's been doing; maybe do some stunt work or move to a bigger show, but stay with the circus."

John spread his hands, no, Dick hadn't said anything about this but that was no reason to dismiss it. "I'll call this guy, see what he has to say."

Fifteen minutes later they knew the offer to see the school was legitimate, the head of the gymnastics program had seen Dick turning the quad on TV and thought he looked like he could transfer his training to competitive gymnastics and, if willing and successful and all the stars aligned, the school might see their way clear to a pretty hefty scholarship. A hefty scholarship was the only way he'd be going to any college. Yes, he was commanding a thousand dollars a day for his modeling work, but that wasn't even close to steady and no one in their right mind would count on it.

"They'd like to see him next week." So they were anxious to sign him and he was only a junior. If Ohio were interested, then probably some of the other schools would be willing to look at Dick as well. "I told them he's a professional and not an amateur, but they didn't seem to think it would be a problem. I also told them he's never competed; that didn't bother them, either."

"John, do you think he'd leave Amy for something like this?"

"I don't think it would be a problem for him." The day he'd walked in on the kids in Dick's bed about six months ago they'd had a talk after Amy left quickly. Yes, Dick knew they were young, but they were being responsible and all of that. When John had started on the track of, "If you love this girl, you want to make sure nothing bad happens to her if you can help it", Dick had answered calmly.

"I never said I loved her. I like her a lot but I'm not in love with her or anything. I don't want to hurt her, but it's not like we're going to get married."

That had taken some wind out of John's sails. "And does she know this?"

Dick shrugged. "She knows I've never said 'I love you' to her. I like her, but I don't think she's the love of my life."

"But you're sleeping with her."

Dick gave him a look like he was talking gibberish. "C'mon, Dad, you're going to tell me that Mom was the first and only for you? It's not like I'm using Amy—she knows I like her and she knows I'm not fooling around on her but I don't know where I'll be in five years and neither does she."

Dick was focused, he always had been. Amy was a stop along the way and while John believed that Dick was too basically decent to do anything to consciously harm the girl, he knew she thought she was in love with his son and that Dick seemed to have no intention of making any kind of commitment to her beyond high school. Sure, that was probably practical, but there was a coolness about it which bothered John.

John found the conversation disconcerting, to say the least.

A few months later Dick had been given the red carpet treatment at Ohio State, the current national champion for men's gymnastics. His grades were high enough to not be any kind of a problem and he'd been assured they'd see to it he would regain amateur eligibility so he could compete. With his background and training, he'd be up to speed with the kind of routines they would expect of him in no time.

Then he received similar offers from Penn State and the U of Michigan, all nationally ranked and all wanting to get in line for the latest potential gymnastics phenom and no one made a secret of the fact that Dick's looks wouldn't hurt, either. If that helped with the judges or the fans, then more power to him. They all agreed he could still do the modeling and fulfill his contracts with Lauren and Hilfiger—no problem, so long as he could fit in the training sessions and his classes.

The thing which surprised his parents wasn't so much that Dick might want college, it was that he said he might want to get his MBA because, while he loved the trapeze, he thought he might want to own a circus some day and he should know about that side of things—and get good at them.

"I'm worried about him and Amy, John. This just doesn't seem like him at all. And I furious with Donna allowing this and not saying anything. I mean, for God's sake!"

"He's fine, Mary, he's just fine. I'm not thrilled about this, either, but you know he's always been able to handle himself and he's never done anything to purposely hurt anyone in his life. I think he just sees this for what it is—a teenaged romance and at some point they'll probably move on." He kissed her cheek. "And if it hadn't been Donna, it would have been someone else giving them a place."

"It's not right."

"…It's fine and it's better than them going God knows where. At least they were someplace they were safe. And I suspect Amy probably feels the same way that Dick does—more or less. If he's going to follow through with those offers and go to college, they'll be spilt up anyway."

"Yes, but…" She stroked his arm. It was late and they were in bed. The incongruous thought occurred to her that her sixteen-year-old son might well have been doing the same thing this evening. "If Dick goes to school, what about the act?"

"We can look for a fill in."

"No one can do the quad. It will mean a cut in pay."

"I know, but we can't hold him back, Mare. We'll be fine and so will he."

TBC"

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