Richard

He leaves with Mr. Wayne and they get into his fancy car. It's the first time Richard has sat shotgun in years and it's the nicest car he's ever been in besides the limo to the ball, but he can't enjoy it. Guilt fills his heart. Even though she was the one who told him to leave, he feels like he shouldn't have. Dread comes over him, what if something bad happens and both he and Garfield aren't there? Garfield doesn't know he left either...

That's probably for the best though. Garfield is living his dream. He shouldn't have to feel guilty while doing it. Richard just needed to get out of the house. He probably would have left with almost anyone.

"Why didn't Raven want to come?" Mr. Wayne asks. He'd driven himself today, so it's just him and Richard.

"I don't know," Richard wishes he did know, because then he could argue with her, but it's hard to argue against things you don't know.

"You seem upset," Mr. Wayne observes.

"I shouldn't have left her there... I should have made her come." Richard bites his lip. He's going to worry about her the entire time. Especially after that fit she threw yesterday. That wasn't like her.

"Do you want me to have Alfred swing back and pick her up?" Mr. Wayne says. Yes, but there's no way she'd get in the car with him and Richard isn't sure she should either. What does he really know about Mr. Wayne other than that he's a billionaire? Plus, if she's hiding, it might get her in trouble when the teachers can't find her.

"That's okay," Richard says. Mr. Wayne glances at him. "I don't think that's necessary." Richard can't tell him the truth, but he can't come up with a reasonable sounding lie either. It's been a while since he's had to talk to adults and it's harder than he remembers. He doesn't even know how he'd explain that she doesn't normally go places. The ball was the first time she's ever gone anywhere and look how that turned out.

He could probably see if the Daytons are really that good of friends Mr. Wayne, maybe ask to meet up, but that might hurt any chance Garfield has with them. He needs time to show them how awesome he is, if he's going to convince them to make permanent arrangements. Richard doesn't want them to and hopefully they're just patting themselves on the back for taking him out, but if Garfield has a chance... He can't be the asshole to take it away.

"How are you doing?" Good, Mr. Wayne has decided to drop it. Richard knows he means because of what happened, but he's not sure how to answer that question. Obviously, he's not fine. No one is fine after what happened. The staff members are barley holding it together. Richard had even caught James, the resident handyman shedding a few tears and he wasn't even at the ball. He didn't see Jessica right before she...

"Fine."

"The library didn't look fine," Mr. Wayne counters. That surprises him. He didn't expect him to press. No one else had. Ms. Vanderbelt just pat his shoulder and moved on, because there were plenty of kids who definitely were not fine and needed her help coping.

"That was all Raven." Richard sighs. It had surprised them too. Never, had she ever shown so much emotion. Something about Mrs. Huntington being dead really bothered her. He was sad about that too, but not as sad as he was about some of the other kids. He'd never really liked his roommates, because he never really liked anyone, until Garfield and Raven came along, but he still wishes they weren't dead. They were just kids, like him. Trying to survive in an unfair world. The universe or God, whoever ran the show had already given them pretty crap luck. Why did they have to die like that too? Can life really be that unfair?

"Really?" Mr. Wayne seems equally surprised.

"She was... upset," It's an understatement, but what else can he say?

"Understandable," Mr. Wayne says. "She saved a lot of lives though. The police chief wants to invite her to city hall and give her a medal." Richard's eyes widen. His head snaps to look at Mr. Wayne. He knows? Richard doesn't even remember seeing him until after the explosions, so there's no way he could have seen her.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Wayne takes his eyes off the steering wheel for a second to look at Richard.

"You don't have to pretend. I know it was her." Richard bites his lip.

"I think you're confused." Mr. Wayne takes a hand off the steering wheel and pulls his phone out of his pocket. He presses a few buttons and hands Richard the phone. A video starts to play. Someone inside the shield recording or maybe a security camera from the venue. It's posted online and has over a million views. Inside the shield Raven has her arms raised and is looking out towards Jessica. He can't see her through the shield, but he remembers where she was standing. Suddenly she moves her arm out farther and the Flash is inside their shield. Half a second later the bomb goes off, making a loud bang and there are screams. The camera captured the white glow from her eyes. It fades when the shield drops. Richard passes him back the phone. His stomach hurts. This is not good.

"The mayor and the police chief will probably stop by in a few days when things calm down. They want to have a ceremony at city hall." Mr. Wayne puts the phone back in his pocket.

"She won't like that." He doesn't even have to ask her, to know that she doesn't want anyone to know it was her. Richard chews on his lip. Can he even tell her about the video? What will she do?

"They didn't want to broadcast it or anything," Mr. Wayne says. "They don't want to draw another circus down there. Just a quiet one with some of the victims she saved."

"No." Richard shakes his head. "There's no way she'll agree to that." If they even try to have that kind of ceremony, she'll probably go bananas again, like when she hurt herself. She hasn't done it since then, but he can't forget the way she looked sitting outside in the snow, like a shell of a person. If nightmares could do that, what would having the whole world know one of her secrets do?

"Gordon thought it might help her find a placement." Mr. Wayne says. "Garfield too. Ms. Kinders and Ms. Reeves told me he'd be hard to place."

"Placement?" Richard raises an eye.

"A family." Mr. Wayne rephrases.

"We don't need to find families." He'd already had a family and they could never be replaced by some do-gooder jerks who just wanted a pat on the back or to make themselves feel special, by adopting a kid. Garfield might want that, but like Mr. Wayne had said, he'd be hard to place. Especially with someone trustworthy. He didn't want that and Raven didn't either. She never went to any of that stuff. As far as Richard was concerned if he had to have another family, it would just be those two. They were as much family as he ever needed or wanted again.

"I didn't mean to upset you," Mr. Wayne says. Richard frowns.

"...You can't let her see that footage." She doesn't use the computers, so as long as no one tells her it's out there, she'll never know. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. Hopefully...

"The police want to question her," Mr. Wayne says.

"Can't you stop them?" Mr. Wayne pulls the car to the side of the road and looks at Richard. "They'd listen to you."

"What are you so worried about?" Richard looks out the window. How much can he tell?

"She doesn't get anything for Christmas." Mr. Wayne raises his eyebrow, clearly unsure where this is going. "Garfield and I each filled out a tag for her this year and she still didn't get anything." Richard turns from the window and looks at Mr. Wayne. "When visitors come, she hides in the book cases or disappears completely somewhere." Richard can see him beginning to understand. "She has nightmares, really bad nightmares."

"Are you saying she's hiding from something?" Mr. Wayne asks.

"I don't know. There are things we don't talk about, but I do know if she finds out about that video or that anyone else knows it was her, she's not going to like it." Richard says. "She's... fragile. This will break her." Mr. Wayne doesn't say anything for a few minutes, considering his words.

"I'll try to quiet things down, but I can't erase something that's already made it to the internet," Mr. Wayne says.

"She doesn't ever go online, if you can get everyone to leave her alone, she'll never know." Richard says. "If there's one of Garfield, that needs to be shut down too. He doesn't need people trying to take advantage of him." Mr. Wayne starts driving again.

"Amusement Park or the zoo?" Mr. Wayne asks.

"Amusement Park." Richard has seen enough animals for a lifetime thanks to Garfield.