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Watching
Part Three
Eleven Years Ago
"So, I was thinking that if you don't actually need me, I'll just stay around here tonight."
"I think you should be at the meeting. You'll be working with the JLA sooner or later and the better you get to know them, the more effective you'll be." Period.
"But it's not like I'm even allowed to sit in or anything. It's boring. Besides, I could be doing homework." Anything, try anything to avoid this.
Batman didn't say anything, his look was enough. Robin would be spending the evening sitting in the JLA waiting room. Fine. Whatever. He'd go. Maybe he could get his homework done or something.
He was in the waiting room, drinking a can of coke and ignoring the other two kids who were also sitting there in weird super hero costumes. So far he'd been in this room for almost two hours and of course he knew who they were—Aqualad and Kid Flash but Robin was busy finishing his reading and he really needed to get it done. He knew Bruce had probably known the others were going to be here and Dick knew he was supposed to introduce himself and do what? Maybe they could all go to a movie together or get a pizza. Did Atlanteans eat pizza? Sure, why not, just be sure there was a triple topping of anchovies and everything would be cool. He settled in with his copy of 'The Crucible', the current English assignment and did his best to pretend he was alone. Or he did until he got to the point where he couldn't ignore being stared at any longer.
"You're Robin." That was Kid Flash speaking and no shit, Sherlock. He sounded like Dick should be impressed he'd recognized him—like it was hard when he was in costume. Not. It wasn't like he wasn't ever on the evening news or in magazines and stuff.
"And you're Kid Flash and you're Aqualad. Hi. Look, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but this is homework and I kind of have to get it done." He turned a page in the book, trying to make a point that he was occupied, thanks. He really did need to get this done by tomorrow.
"Hi. Yeah, sure." There was a pause. "I'm Wally and this is Garth." There was another pause when Dick didn't respond. "You want to be here as much as we do?"
The hell with it, Arthur Miller could wait. "Pretty much. You want to get out of here?"
"Oh, yeah but Uncle Barry will get mad if I leave without telling him."
"Arthur told me to stay here." That kid seemed really cowed by something and Robin gave him a hard look, which was returned. He might be whipped by something, but being afraid of Robin wasn't one of his problems. Well, maybe he was just good at following orders or something like that. Okay, so they seemed to be agreed that they weren't going anywhere for the time being.
"So, you like being Robin? My uncle is always talking about how good you are, like I'm supposed to be you or something."
"Supposed to be me? What does that mean?"
"You know; perfect." He glanced towards the closed door to the conference room. "You're the perfect sidekick, they all say so"
Whatever. Besides, it wasn't true, Batman yelled at him all the time to be faster or smarter or more alert. "That a problem for you?"
"No, but I suspect it is for you." That was Garth, Aqualad and it was about the last thing Dick would have expected from him since he seemed like a harmless puppy sitting there with his bottle of water. "Isn't it difficult always being perfect? I couldn't manage it but fortunately for me Arthur has no such expectations where I'm concerned."
Meaning what? Arthur, Aquaman thought his sidekick was a screw up? So why would he keep him around if that was the case. Maybe the kid, this Garth, just had a problem with self-esteem or something but that was unusual in this business. You pretty much had to have some self-confidence or you didn't do this line of work. Maybe he was just some kind of charity case Arthur had taken on, who knows? Jeez, they actually seemed okay and maybe they could even be friends, and he knew they were probably the reason Bruce wanted him to be here, but he really did have to finish the play. Besides, he wasn't hungry and if his weight got above one-twenty-five he had trouble turning the quad so maybe they could get to know one another some other time. He looked up from the page again when he felt Garth still staring at him.
"What?"
"Forgive me, but does it ever annoy you? The pressure to be you?"
Dick returned the stare. "Do you always ask questions like that of total strangers?"
Garth seemed embarrassed, "I'm sorry, but I've been curious and I thought you might not mind, but I don't always understand things on the surface and so I say things I shouldn't…" He seemed really upset, like someone was going to yell at him.
"Forget it, it's okay. I never really thought about it, to be honest. I mean, sure, it's a lot to do, but it's all stuff I work at and mostly stuff I like doing so it's okay—does that make any sense?" Dick was trying to give a real answer to the kid. This Garth gave the impression that he was looking at everything for the first time and, being from Atlantis, maybe he was because this had to be serious Twilight Zone land for him. Dick put the book down on the table beside him. "Sometimes I wish I had more time to myself or had regular friends who I could just hang out with—it's really hard because of the secret identity thing, y'know? But to back off some of the things I work on would mean I'd have to give up being Robin and I don't want to do that, so I just do what I have to."
"You're lucky." Garth didn't elaborate, Wally didn't say anything and Dick went back to Act Three of his play.
"John, look at this—this isn't right. Why isn't Dick talking to those other two boys? You know how outgoing he used to be."
John looked up at the TV screen then back down at his crossword puzzle. "He looks like he's doing some work."
"Would you please pay attention? Give him a nudge. What he needs right now are some friends his own age." She crossed her arms and that meant she wasn't about to stop any time soon. "John…Ann told me that if we just let him slide along it won't be the best thing for him and that's why we were given the remote in the first place; now please do something to help your son." Period. No argument accepted.
Sighing and putting down the sports page he's been reading, he spoke into the remote's microphone. "Dick; talk to them. Do you hear me? Start a conversation and make a couple of friends. Go on, do it. These seem like nice kids and you could hang out with them, talk, do things together."
Dick started feeling uncomfortable; maybe he was being rude and Bruce did want him here so he could meet these guys. Ah, hell…"You guys want to look around? You know, check this place out?"
Wally started to smile. "I think I saw Wonder Woman's sister or daughter or whoever she is over in the pool—maybe she's like to join us. Speedy thinks she's pretty hot."
"Speedy's here, too?" Cripes, Bruce would be seriously annoyed if he spent time with Speedy; he thought the kid was a train wreck waiting to happen. "But if Diana's sister is here, that might be fun." He'd seen her picture just last week in Time and she was seriously okay. Oh yeah, no question and if she was in—or even better, if she was out of a bathing suit, well…
Even Garth smirked at that. "Y'think? And Speedy isn't here. I think GA said something to Arthur about his being grounded 'until he dies'."
"He's taking after you already, John—twelve years old and leering at girls. Really!"
"That's m'boy."
"So I understand the young master is going to the Titan's Lair again this evening, sir. And might I be so bold as to point out the articles regarding their latest adventures?"
"Ding Dong Daddy? Dear God."
"Well, I must agree the name is unfortunate, but they did acquit themselves well, if I may say so myself. I'm quite proud of the lad and his new friends." Alfred picked up one of the weekly news magazines with coverage of the same story. It seemed the young Teen Titans, as they'd taken to calling themselves, were being accepted easily and had become quite the rage. Evidently there was a run in the stores on red vests for boys and star covered shorts for young girls were flying off the shelves. The requests for talk show appearances and interviews were overwhelming and Alfred had volunteered to act as their unofficial scheduling secretary until they could hire an appropriate person full time—anonymously, of course. They'd already been forced to sign on one of those companies which answered fan letters and sent out autographed pictures, just like the TV stars had to do and Master Dick was complaining it was costing them fifty cents a letter times the over ten thousand they were receiving weekly.
"I think they need to pull back a bit; did you see Dick this morning at breakfast? He was exhausted and his grades are starting to slip. I'm going to have talk with him later and let him know…"
"You'll do no such thing! The young master is happier than I've seen in quite some time, he's out and about with friends his own age and they're doing good work and solving crimes." Alfred put the magazine down with a bit more force than usual. "And I would hardly consider a slight slip in one subject from a solid A to a B+ to be cause for major alarm."
The Grayson's were out on their patio, which was similar to the clearing they would try to arrange outside their trailer when they were traveling around with the circus—just enough space for a couple of folding chairs they'd picked up at K-mart and maybe a small grill for hamburgers or chicken. The difference was that though the basic idea was the same, this patio had about ten times as much space, an in ground pool and no bugs. The odd thing was that when you looked at it, it looked like the old place. It wasn't until you were standing there you saw it for what it was. There was a lot of that up here…things not being what they seemed at first look.
"I like Alfred, John. I really like that old sweetheart."
"And more to the point, so does Dick. The man is about the only softening influence he's getting now."
"I know and it breaks my heart. I just wish he'd been able to stay with Haley's, or at least some of the people there—he was so happy there."
"He's not unhappy here. Look at him—he's always laughing, just like when he was with us." The scene on the portable TV screen shifted to him working in the gym, smiling as he stuck a quad then changed to him in the pool, shouting as he and Garth competed to make the largest cannonball splash followed by him in the kitchen helping Alfred mix cookie dough. He really did seem happy—or happy enough, anyway.
"He has almost no friends his own age and because of that horrid man he lives with he's not 'allowed' to really make some. He works all day, day in and day out, he almost never is allowed a real vacation and while all this is going on he's expected to maintain perfect grades, perfect manners and keep his room clean. My God—he's being turned into a Stepford student."
"Mary…"
"Well, it's true. He needs to get out with those youngsters more and just have a good time. In fact—hand me that remote."
"Mare…"
"Dick? You'd love to go camping with the Titans this weekend, just you kids. And while you're out there, you're going to seriously think about what you'd like to do with your summer vacation. There will be an opening at Haley's with their flying troupe and you're going to fill in for the summer tour through Europe. You're going to practice your quad and make sure it's solid and then Pop will call you. You're going to have the time of your life. Bruce will complain at first but then he'll go see you perform and he's going to tell you how wonderfully proud he is of you."
She handed the remote back to John. "There."
John had a slight smile on his face, he knew how she was when it came to Dick and she wouldn't stop until she thought she'd done what needed to be done for him. "Happy now?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Wanna celebrate being happy?" He had that smirk on his face, the one that always used to tell Dick to make himself scare for an hour.
She just smiled back and headed into the house.
Bruce was sitting in his skybox at Gotham Arena. The circus was playing below him, though he'd ignored all the acts until now. Dick was billed as the Special Guest Artist with the Flying Pendletons and was swinging high to get the speed and distance he needed for the quad. Beside him Alfred was staring intently. Nervous and apprehensive. Now Bruce knew the boy could turn the quad, but he flashed back to the last time he saw Dick on a circus trapeze above a sold out crowd. The boy had been eight years old and his parents only had minutes to live that night. He pictured the broken bodies and shattered lives and couldn't help but put Dick back into that picture, first as a devastated sobbing child and now as a confident professional. As long as he didn't fall. As long as the ropes held. As long as nothing went wrong.
The drum roll started, the safety net was dropped to the ground, "Alfred, did you know about this? If the damn net had been used he wouldn't have been orphaned, for the love of God. How can he even consider…"
"He wants to impress you, sir."
"Stupid. Stupid, reckless, foolhardy…" The long swing, the split second timing of the release immediately going into the turns almost too fast to count, straightening out, catch and final swing back to the platform. Applause, bow and a special wave to the skybox with that big smile on his face and laughter because he'd done in on his own terms. "I can't believe he'd do something that dangerous just to hear some applause from an arena full of strangers."
"It wasn't the strangers he wants to impress, sir, and I would suggest you keep that in mind when you speak to him."
John picked up the remote: "You're proud, as proud of him as though he were your own son and you're going to make sure he knows that. You're not going to say anything about being worried he couldn't turn or land the stunt and you're most definitely not in any way let him know you're angry he decided to tour with his old friends during his summer break. Furthermore, when Christmas break comes around, you will suggest that the two of you get away together to either ski or visit your home in the Caribbean and while you're there, you will use every opportunity to let Dick know exactly just how glad you are that he's in your life and how much you love him." There, that would make Mary happy.
Four months later while they were spending the two week Christmas break at Bruce's house in the Bahamas, Dick was awarded his certificate proving he was a fully qualified scuba diver and as he shyly showed the paper and card to Bruce, was surprised by the arm around his shoulder and the hand ruffling his hair as Bruce told him how proud he was. "You know? I was thinking that the work you've done with the Titans is pretty good. In fact, I think it might not be a bad idea if you kids were willing to join forces with the Justice League now and then. What do you say?"
"You're serious?" Dick wasn't sure about this, Bruce had, as far as he knew, never invited anyone, anywhere to work with the JL.
"Have you ever known me to joke?"
That made Dick stop. Had he? In the almost four years he'd been living and working with Bruce, had he ever heard the man actually joke about anything? Well, no and that was a shame, but if he really thought the Titans were ready to work in the major leagues, who was he to disagree?
"Next case—we're there! Partners?"
Bruce put his arm around Dick's shoulder. He actually out his arm around him. "Partners."
John and Mary watched this on the large TV in the living room. Back when they were alive and all living together, they couldn't really do this, they couldn't do the deed like this right out in the open in front of the fireplace (Which was another weird thing about this place, no matter what the tempreture, hot or cold, snow or fire, it was always comfortable. Go figure.). They'd be worried about Dick or someone walking in but up here…well, things were different.
"It worked out well, didn't it?"
Mary nodded against his chest. "John? I miss having to bribe Dick to leave for an hour or two."
"So do I."
tbc
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