A/N: I don't own DC Titans. The title is from I Won't Give Up by Jason Mraz.
I WON'T GIVE UP
~ a DC Titans oneshot by singmetothesun ~
New Stanton, Pennsylvania.
30 miles outside of Pittsburgh.
"From here, we stay on the I-70 through Columbus and onto Indianapolis for our overnight stop, and tomorrow we'll head on to Oklahoma City. Everyone okay with that?" Dick was saying as they all piled out of the RV and started to disperse. "Stick together, keep safe, back here in an hour, okay?"
As everyone nodded and headed off towards the gas station, Gar hung around the bus, still debating whether to ask what had been on his mind for the past five hours. Knowing this was probably the best opportunity he'd get for the next leg of their journey to San Fran before they stopped again, he blurted out.
"Hey, Dick, can I talk to you for a sec?"
"Sure, is everything okay?" Dick frowned at him, concern and worry evident in his eyes, and Gar realised his somewhat nervous disposition had set off alarm bells ringing in the older man's head. Over the past eight months they'd known each other, Gar had become a lot more confident in approaching Dick for anything so the fact he was acting awkward was cause for concern.
Gar instantly put his hands up. "I'm fine, everything's fine!" he said, glancing over at the others, seeing Kory sling her arm around Rachel and Tim and Conner chatting to themselves before guiding Dick further away. He sincerely hoped Conner wouldn't listen in. "I just… I just don't feel like it's something I can talk about in front of the others, at least without some sort of reaction, and even you might not be okay-"
"Gar, hey, what's wrong? You know you can tell me anything." His eyes were searching now, the worry mostly gone, and Gar recognised the detective face, could practically see the cogs working inside Dick's head. "You want to talk about Jason?"
Gar let out a breath and nodded. "I'm sorry, I just. I'm worried. I was hoping you'd be able to give me his new number? I know he has a burner, but Molly wouldn't give up his number to me, and I know he's called you before, right? I want to check in with him, make sure he's doing okay. You're not mad, are you?"
Dick moved to hug him, and Gar found himself instantly relaxing in his hold. When he drew back, Dick kept a hand on his shoulder.
"Of course, I'm not mad. Worried, maybe? But I know that if that's what you need then I won't stop you. I'm proud of you, you know? Of the faith you have in him. You refused to give up on Jason, you saw the good in him when I couldn't, and he knows that. I don't deserve to be his brother but I'm working on fixing that," he said softly, taking his phone out of his jacket pocket. "I hope you both can be to each other what he and I never were."
Dick held out his phone to Gar as he got his own out of his pocket and copied down the new number into Jason's existing contact. There was a high chance he'd already ditched it for another new one, but Gar knew Jason, and though he acted like he didn't care about anyone or anything, deep down he desperately wanted people to connect with him. Gar understood that all too well, and it was one of the reasons they'd gotten close when Jason was with them in San Francisco before everything went sideways.
Gar only hoped he could tap into the softer side of Jason that needed someone.
He wasn't prepared to give up on him just yet.