The next two months passed as normal, but with the exception that Regan now knew about Nightwing. Dick no longer had to make excuses on why he couldn't go on a date on a particular day, because he could tell her now that he had patrol that night. But he didn't always go back to his own apartment, anymore.

Sometimes, after patrol, if he happened to be closer to Regan's apartment than his own, then he would slip in to hers. Regan enjoyed it, personally, because it meant she was waking up more and more often in the warm, strong arms of her loving boyfriend. She thought it was pretty nice.

Although the injuries he sometimes came home with kind of sucked. But Regan was more than happy to play nurse on him, only leaving stitches and bullet wounds to be treated at the Batcave.

Regan managed to get through her finals week with all A's, leaving her with just one more year to go until her Master's degree was finished. And with her 24th birthday approaching (Dick's had been a few months ago), she decided that she really needed to get a car.

"Hey, I think I might get myself a birthday present," she said one Saturday, sitting upside down on Dick's couch with her phone held over her face. Her legs were hanging over the back of the couch, crossed at the ankles.

"Oh yeah?" Dick asked, coming out of his kitchen with two plates, a couple slices of pizza on both. Of the two of them, Dick could cook very simple meals, and Regan had a few, more complicated ones that she could do. But that night, they'd decided to just order pizza. "What're you thinking?"

Regan shrugged, moving to sit upright so she could accept a plate of pizza. "I'm thinking maybe a car. There's a dealer not too far away, they're selling 2018 Jeep Wranglers that I can take the top off of for 25 grand."

Dick nodded, and stuck a piece of pizza into his mouth. "You getting a car would be a good idea," he said around the food in his mouth. "But wouldn't you want a newer car?"

"A 2018's only a few years old," Regan said. She took a bite of her own pizza, chewed, and swallowed. "And not all of us can afford brand new, beautiful sports cars every time one comes out, Mr. Raised-by-a-billionaire."

"I don't buy a new car every year! The Mustang's a classic 1989, I don't want to trade it in, anyways," Dick defended. "If you want a 2018 Jeep, then get a 2018 Jeep."

"I think I might," Regan decided, finally putting her phone down on Dick's coffee table. "Want to keep looking, though, make sure I don't find a better deal somewhere else. Besides, I'm not having to walk home from campus, for two more months, and I'm not staying at the museum until late, so I can walk a few more weeks."

Dick snorted. "Even if you did have to walk home, either myself or one of the others tend to hop roofs, keep an eye on you."

This time Regan snorted, nearly choking on her pizza. "You sometimes have the others run across the roofs of buildings to make sure I get home?"

He shrugged. "If I'm across the city with Bruce, then yeah, I've asked Tim and Jason to make sure you get home alright, before." He took another bite of pizza. "Speaking of, Jason says you owe him cookies."

Regan laughed. "What for?"

"Something about you make better cookies than Alfred, and some girl he's trying to impress at Gotham University."

"Oh, I didn't know he had a girlfriend!" Regan cried delightedly.

"Ah, but he doesn't," Dick said, pointing at her. "He's still trying to impress her. Some girl named Hallie, has a kid, apparently, so his thinking is to impress the kid, and then that'll help him impress her."

Regan took this in, slightly bobbing her head up and down. "I don't know why, but something about the big bad Red Hood being completely wrapped around the finger of a little kid, is just adorable."

"Yeah, I think they'll be good for him," Dick said. "Hey, I think there's a crappy shark horror movie marathon happening on Sy-Fy, if you wanna watch it." He picked up the remote to his flatscreen TV, placing his empty plate onto the coffee table.

"Oh, yeah, I love crappy Sy-Fy shark movies," Regan said.

It was true; the blonde actually did love really bad Sy-Fy shark movies. Most of them were horrible, but some of them were actually kind of okay. And it was fun to make fun of them.

"Alright, shitty shark horror movies it is," Dick found the channel, flipping to it just in time to see the shark-octopus hybrid escape from the lab it had been created in. "Already at a terrific start," he added, leaning back as he did. Regan sighed comfortably, leaning her head on his chest.

Half an hour later, Regan was laying on the couch fully, with Dick on top of her. He was resting his head on her stomach, his arms under her back. Regan had one arm behind her head, and the one against the back of the couch was resting on Dick's shoulder so she could run her fingers through his hair. It was nice.

…

A month and a half later, and Regan was able to drive herself to work, in her brand new (new to her, it was a 2018 after all) dark blue Jeep Wrangler. It had about 50,000 miles on it, and she'd gotten it for $25,000. Not a bad deal for a newer Jeep Wrangler with low milage and the ability to take the top off.

Dick had wanted to have sex in it to really christen the car, but Regan had declined that.

"I'm not making my new car smell like sex!" she had laughed, pushing him off her. "Give me a few weeks, then we can talk about it."

Dick had thrown his head back in laughter, and kissed her soundly.

Her birthday was the next weekend, and Dick had already bought a beautiful necklace with a blue gem stone hanging from it.

She'd shown in the last year that she really preferred jewelry that was simple, nothing gaudy. There was another necklace she liked to wear sometimes, which was a simple silver chain she'd bought at the local Target for fifteen bucks, and a tiny, heart shaped pendent. It had belonged to her father's mother, and after she died, Regan and her mother had gone through her jewelry, where Regan found the pendant.

"So, have you decided where you want to go for your birthday dinner?" Dick asked, a week off still. They were in Regan's kitchen, where she was working on a recipe for a loaf of bread. She'd been working on it all day, and had just put it into the oven.

"Honestly?" Regan asked. "I'd be okay with going to Bat Burger and getting a milkshake."

"We can go to Bat Burger, if you really want," Dick said. He wrapped his arms around her, resting both hands on her back. Her own arms went up to hang around his neck.

Regan chuckled. "How about a quiet night in?" she asked. "We can get take-out, definitely a milkshake, though, I really want one, and we can watch movies all night." She looked up at him, blue into blue. "I really just want to spend it with you, and that's it."

"That's it? Nothing else?" Dick asked, surprised. It seemed like Kori had always wanted to celebrate anything she conceivably could, and Barbara had always been a fan of big expensive dinners for birthdays.

"Well, I guess there is one thing," Regan said, her voice turning seductive.

"Oh yeah?" Dick asked, a wicked grin turning his lips up. "Anything I can do?"

"Yeah, actually," Regan purred. "We're both going to get pretty sweaty, though."

"You gonna tell me, or am I gonna have to guess?" Dick's voice had turned husky, his mind running all sorts of scenarios, each one dirtier than the last.

"I want you," Regan said, voice low, "to teach me how to fight."

What.

Dick's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Excuse me? No!" He let go of her, taking a step back from her so he could run a hand through his hair.

"Oh, come on, Dick!" Regan exclaimed. "I'm not looking to turn into a vigilante, or anything, just a few self-defense moves so if another mugger, or something even more nasty tries to grab me, I can at least defend myself!"

"Regan, no!" Dick responded. "Sure, basic self-defense might help you against a mugger, but not against someone like the Joker! No, I'm not going to be the one who makes you into a target for someone like him!"

"Why not?!" Regan asked, "I'm dating you, I'm already a target for someone like that! At least if you teach me some self-defense, I could hold them off until you get to me!"

"Self-defense isn't going to help you against them!" Dick nearly shouted. "Jason had all the training of a Robin, and the Joker still killed him!"

Silence.

"W… What?" Regan finally found her voice, staring at him with wide blue eyes.

Dick, seemingly recognizing that he'd said something he shouldn't have, took a step back.

"I-I have to go," he said, "I'm not teaching you how to fight. Just… no." with that, Dick turned from her, practically running out of her apartment.

"Wait- Dick!" Regan exclaimed as he ran out the door. He didn't slam the door, but still shut it harder than she'd ever heard before, and Regan was left wondering where she'd gone wrong in asking for self-defense lessons. Personally, she thought she was perfectly reasonable in asking for some lessons, but apparently, there were some things he would never tell her. He probably never meant to tell her about Jason.

The fact that Jason had apparently been killed blew her mind. Yeah, the original story was that Jason Todd had been killed, but then it changed to him being kidnapped and kept hostage for a few years before escaping. To find out that he had, in fact, actually been killed, shook her to her core. And by the Joker, no less. No wonder the Red Hood had spent his first couple of years killing people. She knew he hadn't killed anyone in almost two and a half years, now, but when Red Hood first appeared, he didn't have any issues with killing.

It all kind of made sense, now. But Dick's reaction…

Regan could feel the tears trying to leave her eyes, and she raised her hand to angrily scrub them away. Why was she crying? She had made a simple request, and Dick had denied her it, very angrily. She should be furious. But all she could do, in that moment, was fall to her knees in her kitchen, tears finally escaping, as she sobbed. Gracie practically ran into the kitchen, nosing her way through Regan's arms so she was hugging the dog, and then she licked Regan's face. She just cried into the dog's fur.

…

Over an hour later, Regan had eaten almost half of the loaf of bread she'd made. It was delicious, and she was well aware that she was eating her feelings. But in that moment, she didn't really care. It was a Saturday night, her boyfriend had run off very angry, and she didn't know what to do. She'd tried texting him a few times, but he didn't respond to her. So she deemed to leave him alone, deciding to give him a few more hours.

Gracie had stayed with Regan the entire time. Regan was still sitting on the floor, only getting up when it came time to take her bread out of the oven. She'd taken the loaf out of the Dutch Oven she'd baked it in, and set it on a cutting board, setting that cutting board on the floor with a plate of butter. For the past hour, she'd been cutting off small pieces, smearing some butter on them, and eating them.

With a sigh, Regan looked down at the mess she'd made. Cutting off fresh pieces of bread tended to leave a lot of crumbs, so her floor was covered in crumbs. Wasn't much of a dinner, but Regan found herself kind of craving an Oreo blizzard from Dairy Queen, so she forced herself to get up, clean up her mess, and grab her keys.

Thirty minutes later found her sitting on her car hood in the middle of a Dairy Queen parking lot, eating a blizzard. It was dark, and she knew she should probably be heading home. Still, though, she leaned against the windshield, digging out a particularly big chunk of Oreo, completely eating away her feelings. She'd call Dick when she got home, she finally decided, and finally slid off her car, empty cup in hand.

It was as she was walking back to her car after throwing away the empty cup, though, that she felt someone grab her from behind in a bear hug. Whoever it was had been watching her from the moment she went into the ice cream shop, and finally had the perfect moment to strike.

"Ah, Two-Face will be happy with you," the man said, his breath horrid as it washed over her face.

"Let me go!" Regan thrashed, trying anything to get him to let her go. He responded by lifting her into the air so she couldn't stomp on his feet, and she could see the car he was heading too.

"The Batman never says no to rescuing a pretty little thing like you; he'll fall right into Two-Face's trap!" the thug laughed.

"Let me go, Batman doesn't have a reason to come for me!" Regan exclaimed, still trying to move as much as she could despite how she was currently being held.

"Not on your life, girlie," the thug said, and then Regan felt the distinctive coldness and pinch of a needle sliding into her skin, and then her world went dark.

…

Dick hadn't had a great afternoon. After storming out of Regan's apartment, he'd gone straight to the Manor, ignoring everyone in his quest to get into the Cave and beat the shit out of a punching bag. He hadn't even bothered wrapping up his hands, first.

He didn't know how long he was down there, but eventually one of his brothers got curious, and stood behind him, arms crossed as he watched his older brother hit the bag so hard it nearly broke from the chain holding it up.

"Okay, Big Bird, I think it's time you settled down," Jason finally said, coming forward to grab the bag. "I'm pretty sure you're supposed to have someone hold these things, too."

"Oh shut up, Jay," Dick said, keeping his eyes on the bag. He continued to beat on it, although with Jason holding it, it no longer swung around wildly.

Jason let him hit it a few more times, before finally pulling it out of the way of another punch, causing the older man to stumble forward.

"The fuck, Jason?!" Dick exclaimed.

"Man, I don't know what's wrong, but taking your feelings out on an innocent punching bag isn't the way to go," Jason said. Then he realized the bag was covered in fresh blood, as where Dick's hands. "You didn't even wrap your hands, first?"

"Kind of had my mind on other things," Dick growled. "Move."

"Not until you go over to medical so I can wrap your hands up."

"Jason."

"Richard."

Dick stared at his brother. The fact that he was taller than Dick, now, even if only by an inch, kinda bugged him. Finally, he sighed.

"Fine."

"Great!" Jason chirped, and practically led Dick over to the medical area. Pushing him into a chair, he grabbed a simple first aid kit, so he could wash Dick's bloody knuckles and wrap them up.

"What's got you so chipper, today?" Dick asked, his eyebrow raised.

Jason shrugged. "Sadie, Hallie's daughter?" he started. "She told me that I'm her favorite babysitter she's ever had, today. I impressed the child, now I just need to impress Hallie."

Dick snorted. "You've got the kid, so you've most likely got Hallie," he said.

"Hopefully," Jason said, holding out a hand expectantly. Dick sighed, and give him his left hand. "Now, the real question is, what has you down here trying to murder that punching bag? Did it offend you?" He cleaned the blood off Dick's knuckles, revealing torn skin that was still oozing blood.

Dick sighed. "Regan and I got into a fight. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, and she said she wanted self-defense lessons. I said no, we fought, and I stormed out and came here."

Jason looked at him, then, with a look that clearly said he thought his older brother was an idiot.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Dick asked, defensive.

"She wanted simple self-defense lessons, and you stormed out?" Jason asked, sounding surprised. "What, like how to get out of choke hold?"

Dick shook his head, "I don't know. She said it was so if muggers tried to grab at her again, she could get free and run, or at least hold them off until one of us got there, but then she mentioned it would be useful for if someone worse came after her, and all I could picture was when the Joker came after you. I froze, yelled at her that no self-defense moves would protect her against one of the really bad villains."

"You're an idiot, I hope you know that," Jason said, finishing with Dick's left hand and reaching for his right. "All she was asking for was you to teach her some self-defense. None of the big bads have a reason to go after her, not like the Joker did for me."

It had taken a long time before Jason was okay with talking about what had happened with the Joker. Once he found out that Dick had killed him, only for Bruce to bring him back to life, he'd been furious. His death, in his eyes, had never been avenged, until Dick killed the Joker. And then Bruce had brought him back. He'd been furious at that revelation for a long time, but then it started to make sense to him.

Dick wasn't the type of guy to kill, not like Jason had been when he was still filled with Lazarus Pit rage. The sheer guilt of killing someone, even someone as horrible as the Joker, would very well have killed Dick himself. So Bruce brought the Joker back, if only to keep him from losing another son.

All of that, plus the Lazarus Rage wearing off, finally allowed Jason and Bruce to talk. He hadn't killed anyone in six months, and Bruce had allowed him back into the Bat Family, with the condition that he never kill anyone ever again, not even the Joker. It had taken some time for Jason to accept that, but he had, and he'd been saving Gotham the Bat way for over two years now.

"Still," Dick said, "You should have seen her face. I said no, and she immediately exploded, telling me that she wasn't asking for vigilante training, just some moves to hold someone off until I got there."

"I think you should do it," Jason said. Picking up the anti-infection cream from the box, he spread it over Dick's torn knuckles, and then grabbed the second piece of gauze. "Regan's a spit-fire, but her mouth's gonna get her into trouble one day, and knowing how to actually hold off someone long enough for help to get there, or even just throwing them off so she can run, is a valuable asset."

Dick sat in silence as Jason finished wrapping his right hand. When he finally had both hands, now bandaged, back in his own lap, he sighed. "I should go talk to her."

"Yes you should," Jason said, lounging back in his chair like he hadn't just had a really serious conversation with his older brother. "Get her some flowers, bring her dinner, and say you're sorry and that you'll be more than happy to teach her some self-defense."

"Yeah," Dick said. "Yeah, that's a good idea." Standing up, Dick grabbed his sweatshirt off the floor, but then smelled it and dropped it. "I'm gonna shower first, then I'll do that."

"Go get her!" Jason called, watching as Dick headed for the showers.

Dick just chuckled and shook his head.

…

An hour later found Dick letting himself in to Regan's apartment, a bouquet of lilies, her favorite flowers, in one hand, and a grocery store bag with a big bag of Skittles, her favorite candy, in the other.

"Rae?" he called, noticing that the apartment was dark. It was nearly ten; maybe she was already in bed? "Regan, it's me! I'm sorry!"

There was no answer. Going further into the apartment, he found Gracie curled up next to her empty food bowl, and furrowed his eyebrows. Regan would never just leave her dog without feeding her, first.

"Regan?!" he called again. When no response came, he dropped the flowers and Skittles onto her counter and quickly fed Gracie, and then made his way down the hall to her bedroom. The door was open, and when he peaked his head in, he found it to be empty. She wasn't in her apartment. "Rae!"

Pulling out his phone, he dialed her number.

"Come on, baby, pick up," he whispered. "Pick up, pick up, pick up." Her phone went to voicemail.

Taking a deep breath, Dick tried to calm himself down. It was entirely possible she'd gone to Sasha's, or a club or something. But no, she'd left the house without feeding her dog, and if he knew his girlfriend like he thought he did, then he knew that she would never do that. So, he went back down the parking lot and circled the lot, looking for her car. It was gone.

"Okay, maybe she just went out," he said. "It's possible." Then he remembered that she'd mentioned ice cream, earlier. Yeah, she loved Bat Burger, but when she was upset, like she had been earlier, then she had a habit of going to Dairy Queen and getting a blizzard. So, he turned his car towards the closest Dairy Queen.

The parking lot was abandoned by the time he got there, except for one car. A Jeep Wrangler.

He could only tell that it was dark blue when he shone his lights on it, and then he noticed the little Nightwing sticker she'd stuck on the back window. She'd done it as a joke, but now he was glad for it. Parking his Mustang, he hurried over to the car, figuring that maybe she was sitting inside. But no, the car was locked, she wasn't inside, and her purse, strangely enough, was sitting on the hood. Pulling out his phone, he called hers again, and then turned when he heard her ringtone behind him.

Right there, on the ground, was Regan's phone.