Welcome to the newest chapter! I just wanted to thank everyone real quick for the lovely comments I've been getting. I know free-forming it isn't usually what I do, but I like to think I've been at least somewhat successful? This story will be coming to an end soon- I planned to end it at 15 chapters, and I'm almost done writing the final chapter. So here's the beginning of the winding down chapters.
Dick took Regan and Gracie back to her apartment after dinner Sunday. They both took Monday off work, mostly because Dick refused to let Regan out of his sight. She had to threaten him with no sex for a month just to get him to let her go to work on Tuesday.
Yeah, she got that he was being a good boyfriend, but he also was being really over-protective. She was an adult with a brand new pocket knife and pepper spray who would be paying a lot better attention to her surroundings from now on. But no matter how much she promised to pay attention, Dick was still paranoid that she would be taken again at any point, and their sporadic texts throughout the day became an almost constant stream.
It died down after a couple of days, once the burns fully healed. Regan's wrists would always have small scars on them from the chains rubbing them raw, and Dick kissed them every time he saw them.
The nightmares started that very night. Yeah, this wasn't the first time that something fucked up had happened to her, because Gotham was just kind of Like That, but it was the first time she'd ever been afraid of possibly dying. And even though Dick's arms were wrapped around her, their legs tangled under the sheets, once she fell asleep, that didn't seem to matter.
Because in her dreams, Regan was once again tied up over that vat, purple liquid bubbling menacingly. Sometimes her dreams went as it happened, with the Bats rescuing her in the nick of time, but the ones that made her shoot up in bed with a scream on her lips were the ones where they didn't.
Sometimes the chain broke, sending her into the vat. Other times Nightwing tried to jump for her, only to miss and hit the vat himself. Two-Face was always there- who could forget that scarred half of his face?- and sometimes he was dropping her into the vat himself. But no matter which version of the dream she had, Two-Face was there, laughing as he lowered her into the bubbling vat.
When she woke up screaming, tears running down her face, that first night, Dick had shot up with her.
"Hey, hey, it was a dream!" he had exclaimed, arms closing around her as she fought to catch her breath. "It was only a dream, Baby, I'm right here!"
"I know," Regan gasped into his chest, holding onto him tightly. "I know. Please don't leave me."
"I'm right here, Rae, I'm not going anywhere," Dick held her close, placing kisses in her hair as she calmed down. He hated that he couldn't do anything to really help her, but he eventually just had to accept that him being there, helped her a lot.
…
For her birthday the next weekend, they did exactly as Regan had wanted; Dick got take-out and a couple chocolate milkshakes, and then they spent the rest of the evening cuddled up watching cheesy romcom movies. It was absolutely perfect. She'd loved the necklace, and now wore it all the time.
After one last week of summer vacation, Regan started her second year of her Master's education, and hopefully her final year of college education ever. Most of her classes that semester were online, except for one. It was every Monday at 6 PM, leaving the girl to return home by 9:30 every Monday night. Luckily Sasha was in the class with her, so they could still study together.
For the first month, she and Dick still lived apart. But they were working hard to change that.
"What about this one?" Regan asked one Friday afternoon once they were both home from work, laptop balanced on her legs and a realter website pulled up.
The apartment she had pulled up was a two bedroom, full kitchen, a big living room, with included washer and dryer, and even a double oven. The complex was pet friendly, and also included a pool and weight room.
"That one looks good," Dick agreed, sitting next to her with his own laptop opened. "Where's it at?"
"On Grant Street," Regan answered, scrolling through pictures of the apartment. "Pretty much right in the middle of the police station and the museum, and campus is only about ten minutes longer past the museum."
"That's a perfect location," Dick said, leaning over more to look at Regan's laptop screen. So close, in fact, that she could smell his cologne. "How much are they asking a month?"
"Eight hundred," Regan answered. "For the middle of Gotham, that's not bad."
"Wanna go look at it in person?" Dick asked, finally looking away from the screen to look at her.
"Yeah," she said, meeting his blue gaze. "I do."
Dick smiled, and then closed the distance between them to press his lips softly against hers.
"Everything goes right," Dick said, pulling away after a moment, "We could be living together by our first anniversary."
Regan grinned. "That's a month and a half away," she reminded him. "Didn't realize until after we had gotten together that our anniversary is Halloween."
"I didn't, either," Dick admitted, "But I'm glad it's a holiday; easier to remember." He settled back onto the couch and closed his laptop. Reaching over, he closed hers as well and stood up, placing both laptops onto the coffee table. "Come on, up." He held out his hand.
"What're we doing?" Regan asked, taking his offered hand and allowing him to pull her up.
"Your burns have healed, and I said I'd give you some self-defense lessons," Dick reminded her, taking her other hand and sliding both hands up her arms until they were at her biceps. "Go change into work-out clothes, we're gonna go to the manor."
"The manor, why the manor?" Regan asked, pulling away from him to do as he said.
"The Batcave has an entire training area," Dick said, following her down the hall to her bedroom. He leaned against the door frame as she changed, watching as she changed her bra out for a black sports bra, and changed her jeans for a pair of black athletic leggings, blue stripes running down both legs. She kept her back to him the entire time, but he still had to think hard about certain things in order to keep himself calm. She turned to him, an electric blue tank top in hand. "Speaking of, that apartment we were looking at, did it have a big living room?"
"I think so, yeah," Regan answered, pulling her tank top on. Grabbing her hair tie from around her wrist, she twisted her blonde hair up into a bun- quite the feat, considering how long her hair was. "Why?"
"I'm gonna build a false wall for it," Dick said. "So I can keep my Nightwing gear there. I've got one at my current apartment, I should be able to just dismantle it and put it back together at the new place."
Regan nodded. She'd found her shoes, and was now grabbing a pair of socks and her jacket. "I always kind of wondered if you were supposed to stop back at the cave after patrol and just… wasn't."
Dick chuckled, pushing off the door frame. "Nah, usually I stuff it into my backpack when I come here instead of my place. But once we're living together, it won't be an issue anymore."
"You know, I had a boyfriend when I was getting my bachelor's degree, and when I brought up moving in together, he acted like I had asked him to sacrifice someone in the name of Satan himself." Regan had an amused smile on her face, and she pulled on her jacket. "He broke up with me pretty quickly after that. But you being so excited for it is… pretty awesome."
Dick made a face. "Whoever that guy was, he was an idiot," he said, moving over to wrap his arms around her and press his palms against her back, fingers laced together. Her own came up to rest on his chest. "I'm excited to move in with you because it means we're moving on to the next step of our relationship, and I love you. More than I'm pretty sure I've ever loved anyone. And as long as you still want this, I'm in it for the long haul."
Regan smiled, a blush darkening her cheeks.
"God I love you, Richard Grayson," she said, and Dick smiled, ducking down to leave a searing kiss against her lips.
…
An hour later, they finally left for the manor. Their little… Warm up… would have worn off by the time they got there, but neither of them cared. It was nearing dinner time, but Dick had promised to give her self-defense lessons, and the Batcave was the best place to do that. He didn't bother going in the normal way, through the manor. No, instead, he took his motorcycle to the entrance to the cave itself.
The entrance was well-hidden, but Dick was so familiar with it that he could have found it in his sleep.
Tim was down there, sitting at the computer. He had a cup of coffee next to his mouse, and was typing so quickly on the keyboard that the computer was struggling to keep up. He either didn't hear the engine of the motorcycle when it pulled in, or he ignored it completely.
"Hey, Tim," Dick said, ruffling his younger brother's hair as he passed on his way to the training mats.
"Dick, you're not supposed to patrol today," Tim said in confusion, turning to look at his eldest brother.
"I'm not," Dick assured. "Promised Regan I'd teach her some self-defense moves."
"Regan's here?"
"Hi, Tim!" Regan said, following after Dick and into Tim's line of sight.
"Oh," Tim's eyes widened in surprise. "Hi, Regan. Your burns healed?"
"Yup!" she chirped. Following Dick to the training area of the cave, she found a large wrestling mat, punching bags, and weights. "Alright, how're we starting?"
Dick grinned as she began to bounce on her feet, from one foot to the other. "We're starting with the hold that Two-Face goon got you in," he said.
"A bear hug," Regan said.
"Yes," Dick said. "There's a couple ways to get out of that, but the easiest is to essentially use their weight against them. I'm gonna put you into a bear hug, okay?"
Regan nodded her consent, so Dick stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her the same way that man had weeks ago.
For a second, all she could feel was that man, his arms so tight around her that for a moment, she hadn't been able to breath. She flinched now every time someone came up to her from behind, including him, and it broke his heart.
"Rae?" Dick asked, voice soft. "You okay?"
Regan shook her head, reminding herself that this was Dick. This was her boyfriend, who loved her. He wouldn't let anything bad happen to her.
"I'm fine," she said finally.
"If you want to stop, we'll stop," he said quietly.
"No," Regan replied. "That man got a hold of me, and was able to kidnap me; I'm not going to let that happen again."
She sounded so sure of herself and Dick couldn't find it within his heart to deny her. So he nodded and slightly tightened his arms around her. They rested right at her midsection, an easier place to grab someone like that rather than their waist.
"Okay, what you're gonna do is squat low to the ground, spread your legs, thrust your elbows up, grab my hands, and then essentially throw me over your shoulder," Dick instructed.
"Okay, so squat low, spread my legs," Regan said, doing so. Dick was forced into the squat with her, essentially bent over her body.
"Thrust my shoulders up, grab your hands…" Regan trailed off as she did so.
"Now you're gonna throw me over your shoulder," Dick instructed.
"And how am I supposed to do that?" Regan asked, "You weigh like 60 pounds more than me."
"This is one of those situations where me weighing more than you is a good thing," Dick said. "You have both of my hands in yours. Because I'm behind you, you'll be able to drag me up your back, duck down lower, and then throw me off you."
"Like this?" she did as he said, bringing his hands down her front, and lowering herself lower to the ground. But when it came to physically throwing him off, she failed.
"Almost," Dick said, bringing them both up to standing up straight. "Try again; using some speed should help you."
"Okay," Regan nodded, before going through the steps again. This time she almost got him off her, but his grip held tight, and he stayed in the bear hug.
"Maybe it would help if she actually saw what she was supposed to do," Tim said, having watched this whole thing from his seat by the computer. He got up, walking over. "Dick, bear hug me, and she can see what she's supposed to do instead of you just giving her instructions."
Dick nodded, releasing his grip of his girlfriend. "Good idea," he said. Regan traded places with Tim, and Dick wrapped his arms around his younger brother the way he had wrapped them around her, the way that man had wrapped his arms around her several weeks ago.
Regan shook the memory off, and watched as Tim did exactly what Dick had told Regan to do, easily bringing Dick's hands down and throwing his brother over his shoulder. Dick landed on his back on the matt, a winded look on his face.
"Okay, so I'm not so much bringing your hands down, but tugging them down," Regan said, arms crossed.
"Yeah," Dick said, taking his brother's hand as he offered to pull him up. Once he was up, he shook his limbs out. "Regan, let's try again."
She nodded, and traded with Tim again. Dick wrapped his arms around her, and she did exactly as she had seen Tim do. This time, instead of just bringing his hands down her body, she yanked them down, making him go off-balance just enough that she was able to finally bring him up and over her shoulders, causing him to land on his back on the matt in front of her.
Dick lay on the matt for the moment, a look of surprise on his face.
"Are you okay?" Regan asked, leaning down slightly to look at him.
"Oh, he's fine," Jason drawled, having come down to the cave for patrol just as Tim and Regan had switched back. "Come on, Dickie, up you get." Walking over to his elder brother, Jason hauled Dick up to his feet.
"That was really good, Regan," Tim complimented, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, didn't know you had it in you," Jason added.
"That was awesome," Dick finished. "Now let's make sure you can do it again."
Regan nodded, so they got back into position and she flipped him over her again. Jason and Tim both had a good laugh, and they wondered off, Jason to get dressed for patrol and Tim back to the computer.
At some point Damian and Bruce came down, as well. Damian ignored them, walking off towards the locker rooms, but Bruce paused to watch for a moment.
By now, Dick was walking her through another way to get out of a bear hug, one that involved her stomping on his foot and forcing him to let her go. The thing was, she didn't want to hurt him, and so was refusing to actually hit him.
"Rae, I promise, I'll be fine," Dick was saying. "Just stomp on my foot."
"I'm not stomping on your foot!" Regan refused. "What if I hurt you?"
"You won't hurt me!" Dick exclaimed, sounding exasperated.
"I'm still not gonna stomp on your foot!" Regan exclaimed right back. "Besides, that guy lifted me off my feet, there was no way for me to stomp on his foot."
"Okay, then we'll work on how to get out of that kind of grab," Dick said, raising his hands, defeated. "Really when you're grabbed and hauled back and up, the best thing to do is to wiggle a lot."
"I was wiggling a lot," Regan said. Bruce suppressed a chuckle, and finally walked away to get dressed for patrol.
"Not enough," Dick said. "I'm going to put you into the exact hold, and you'll try to get out."
Regan paused. She gulped. "Okay." She was looking down, avoiding his gaze.
"If you're not cool with this, we won't do it," Dick said. He stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, using the other to tip her chin up and force her to look at him. "That was a really traumatizing event, and if this is making you relive it…"
"It isn't," Regan said quickly. Dick gave her a look, eyebrow quirked up. "It's not!"
"You've had nightmares nearly every night this month, Rae, I won't blame you if you want to stop," Dick cupped her face in his hands, thumbs brushing her cheeks. "You're a strong woman, and I love that about you, but it's okay to not be strong for once."
"Kind of hard not to be when your boyfriend is a big strong vigilante," she pointed out.
"Which means that you don't have to be strong all the time," he replied. "Okay? Let's call it a night."
Regan nodded and brought her hands up to place them over the back of his. He leaned down to brush his lips against hers lightly, to which Tim gagged.
"As cute as this is, please get a room," Tim said, eyes intently focusing on the computer screen.
"Why are you watching?" Dick asked, keeping his own blue eyes focused on Regan, hands still cupping her cheeks.
"I'm not," Tim responded. "But I can hear you, and I'd really rather not be traumatized tonight."
Dick chuckled and finally let go over her face. "Alright, alright, we're leaving," he said. Grabbing her hand, he brought her over to his motorcycle and handed her the second helmet. "Are you watching over them tonight?"
"Yeah, Babs has a thing with her dad, so I'm manning the cameras." Tim didn't look away from his typing, only pausing to take a sip of coffee.
"Let me know if things go south," Dick said as he swung his leg over his motorcycle. Once he was settled, Regan copied his movements to get on behind him.
"Will do," Tim responded. Once again he didn't look at his brother. Dick chuckled, shook his head, and then put his helmet on and started up the motorcycle. They took the long way home, Regan's arms around him and her head leaning against his back. If she wasn't occasionally tightening her grip on him, he'd think she was asleep behind him.
That was the first night where Regan didn't have a nightmare.
…