Disclaimer: More sure than anything, I'm more likely to get colds than get rights to DC comics characters.

Heh, so glad you guys liked the decking of Ollie. This Ollie really earned it. Dunno if he's gonna be in this story much after this chapter though. Now for the aftermath!

You know what the best part about being sick is? having to stay still for hours on end to let yourself recooperate. So laying on your bed with a laptop typing is obviously the best thing in the world. Been getting quite a bit of typing done. =D Enjoy!

Without Me

Ch. 20 – In Need of a Talk

"Robin?" Superman knocked on the kid's door, knowing the boy could hear him. He tried opening it a few times but the thing stayed firmly shut. Somehow the boy had jerry rigged the door panels so he could lock it from the inside. How no one could be sure. This kind of technology wasn't Clark's thing, and the kid had left his utility belt outside the door, along with his gloves and boots.

"Robin please open up," the man of steel begged. Technically he could have ripped the door open, but he wasn't very good with this technology, and it wasn't an easy door to replace either. They'd have to move the kid to another room and there weren't any. "I just want to talk."

"Phft. Talk? To what? The kid who doesn't understand anything?" What he said wouldn't normally be audible, but they both knew the alien could hear it. He also knew the man could see through the door, and the boy curled up on the bed, his back turned from the door.

Superman sighed. "It's not like that."

"Yeah right."

"Look Robin," he tried to explain, "you know we don't approve of—"

"My whole existence."

"—children being apart of this life," he finished firmly, trying to explain himself.

"Do I have to remind you of the Legion?"

Superman took a step back, shocked the kid knew about his time with the Legion of Superheroes. They were in the 31st century and helped him gain control of his powers when he was… "I'm different."

"Oh, so because you're an alien with godlike powers, that makes it okay to run around in the future saving people is it?"

"How do you even—"

"My Uncle Clark told me stories about them okay! About the Legion, about Krypton, about Smallville, about everything!" Robin shifted on the bed uncomfortably. "Really liked the ones with Nightwing. Bet he didn't get barked at as a kid because he decided to save the day."

"Robin…"

"Just go away Clark." He curled in again, not wanting to see anything but the blank wall before him. "Leave me alone."

"I can't leave you alone," Superman insisted. He was really starting to feel bad about what he said now. "We really hurt you out there and—"

"I know this isn't a game," the boy muttered. "Just take a look at my back. Thank Two-Face and Joker for half of them."

Hesitantly, Superman focused his X-ray vision to see through the boy's Kevlar tunic straight to his bare back. Several long and painful scars of varying shapes danced across his flesh. There were even signs of bullet wounds and burns. A bruise was forming on one shoulder and another on his neck, though much lighter in comparison. The strongest of the League gasped at the sight, and without thinking looked even deeper into the boy's body, to his bones. Several of his ribs showed signs of being broken before multiple times. His arms and legs even showed signs of past fractures and the cracks on the boy's skull seemed just as many as on Batman's, if not more.

He took a step back at the picture before him. This boy had suffered more injuries fighting along side his Batman than he thought Bruce would ever allow. How could anyone justify—

"If I had listened to Batman's rules earlier on, I might not have so many scars," Robin muttered. "But each one's worth it. It's always worth it."

He turned completely around on the bed and faced Superman, glaring through the door. "So back off."

How the boy knew exactly where to glare to meet the man's eyes, he couldn't tell, but he did. As Superman stepped back again, the kid turned back to his original position, cringing slightly at the bruised shoulder. Come to think of it, that was the same shoulder he held on to earlier. His grasp while holding the kid back hurt him in more ways than he thought.

Dejected, the man of steel turned away from the door towards the main hall. Diana was returning the bike to its proper place now Zatara had fixed it. The little family unit left shortly after Robin confined himself, Zatanna finally subdued enough to be guided home. Oliver was busy rubbing his ears as Canary shouted her opinion at the archer. Hal was occupied glaring his displeasure not only at Ollie, but at Superman as well.

"Rejected huh?" the space cop stated as the big blue boyscout came back in.

He nodded. "And he jammed the door lock."

Hal grinned. "What'd you expect? He was trained by his DaddyBats. There's no talking to him when you attack him like that."

"I didn't attack him," Superman snapped back.

"Oh, sure you didn't." The pilot rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he looked back to Ollie and Dinah's heated argument. "You just belittled his intelligence and pretty much said the same thing as Ollie here in a kinder way. I wonder if we can get that punch on YouTube. I'm sure the public at large will love to see it."

"Have you seen the scars on his body?" he jibed back.

Hal shrugged. "Have you seen mine? Or Barry's? How about Bats and GA's? Canary's got a few good ones too ya know. Comes with the territory."

"A kid shouldn't have those scars."

"A kid shouldn't be shot through space and adopted by strangers on a farm either," he pointed out. "They shouldn't see their parents' die, they shouldn't have powers, they shouldn't go through a lot of things. But we all did in some way or another. And we survived and became better people because of it."

Superman glared at Green Lantern for a moment, already knowing where the man was leading him. "He really shouldn't—"

"It's not our choice to make for him Blue." Hal straightened himself, readying to leave once Canary's lecture to the archer was finished. It was winding down now. "It's his, and I'm pretty sure he made it long before we knew him."

"But—"

"I don't know if you noticed, but I did." The space cop turned and stared him in the eye. "He was more concerned about this Roy than he was about himself. I wonder what he found out there to make him so upset at Ollie for not taking him in. I'd ask, but I've gotta clock in at my other job. Tootles."

With that, the Green Lantern shot into the zeta-tube and out of the cave before anyone could be the wiser. Wonder Woman looked over to Superman and gave a quick nod before entering her own code to leave for the night. She was visiting the UN tomorrow, but they had talked earlier and were very good friends. She supported Clark's opinion that the kid shouldn't be fighting, but more importantly that he had to be sent home quickly.

"You're completely mad lady!" Green Arrow shouted at his comrade as he ran to the tubes.

"And you're only qualified to be a dead-beat dad!" Black Canary was just short of using her canary cry.

"You know what? Screw you! Don't ever ask me to baby-sit that brat!" Thankfully the tube's light took the man away before anything else could be said by the archer.

"Who'd want you as a father-figure anyway!" she retorted to the air. For a long minute she glared at the tube the man exited from, then turned bitterly towards the hall leading to her quarters. She looked Superman in the eye and then at his demeanor. "Rejected huh?"

"Yeah…" Superman rubbed his head in shame. He still didn't like the idea of the kid fighting, but Hal did bring up some pretty good points.

"Well what did you expect, a round of applause?" Dinah shook her head and strode past him. "Let me try."

"He locked the door from the inside," Clark chimed in as he followed her back to the kid's room.

"Huh. Really is Batman's kid." Her voice was steadily becoming softer as they walked forward. She was not going to use her angry voice with Robin. "Can't get either to do what you want. Only hope they'll agree it's the best decision."

She stopped short when she spotted the boots, gloves and belt outside his door. It won a smirk from her lips and a slight shake of her head. "He really is a good kid."

"He disobeyed orders," Superman insisted.

"And yet he knows we would have taken these things away again and left them out here." Dinah looked over her shoulder at the man of steel and shook her head. "He's trying to be good so we'll help him get home. He didn't go out lightly. That security feed proves Zatanna was the one who shoved them out the door.

"And don't you think it's interesting?" She cocked her head as she looked over Superman. "On the same day and time we're all occupied with that ice age plan, Happy Harbor is attacked by five criminals? At least one's an assassin and another registers on the 'super' list. Cheshire and Sportsmaster don't usually work together. What do you think they were after?"

"Um…" Honestly he hadn't thought of things like that. With Robin and Zatanna's little escapade, he only thought about how neither of them should be fighting and it was a miracle they came back alive. But it was pretty suspicious.

"I'll have to ask him." Quickly, Dinah rapped her knuckles on the boy's door. "Robin, it's me, Black Canary."

Looking through the wall, Superman could see the boy turn his head towards the door at the lady's name. He slowly uncurled himself and pushed himself up as she continued speaking through the door. "Mind if I come in and talk for a few minutes? Or I can just listen."

Robin hesitated, still sitting on the bed but looking at the door all the same. Clark could tell he didn't want to talk to anyone, but Black Canary must have been an exception. He probably had a relationship with his Dinah, one he felt was safe.

Slowly the woman sighed. "Look, I know what Oliver said was harsh. I've already yelled at him for it," Robin smirked at this comment, "and he's gone for the night. He won't be watching you later. But there are things I have to say.

"He's wrong. I haven't known you very long, or very well, but I do know you're a strong and dedicated person who'll do everything he can to protect the people around you. Zatanna said you were the only one fighting, she only cast spells. You wouldn't put her in the crossfire no matter what, and probably take a bullet for her if you could.

"I would have for the JSA too." Superman stared openly at the woman, not understanding what she was bringing up. Slowly she continued. "I don't know if you've heard my story. My mother… she died while working along side the Society. They raised me into who I am today. They taught me how to fight, how to serve, and how to live each day to its fullest. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have Wildcat or Flash or Green Lantern back then. I understand what you meant. The influence of one person in another's life makes all the difference in the world."

Clark watched Dinah in shock. He never heard her story before. Raised by the JSA? He knew she worked with them back when… she was a teen. A kid. Like Robin, this was her life. Now look at what she had become.

"The others don't understand because they didn't grow up doing this. It's something they have to learn another way. Please, let me in and—"

The door hissed open and Robin looked up at her, still dressed in his uniform. He really did look ready to talk to her. He looked past her to Superman, then his eyes narrowed. "He stays outside. No peaking."

Dinah almost laughed. "Alright. May I?"

Robin nodded and stepped aside as she came into his room. Instantly after she was through, Robin tapped some wires on the other side of the electronic lock inside the wall, closing and locking the door again. Superman turned and walked away, rejected once again.

Black Canary looked at the wall next to the door and smirked. From what she could tell, Robin kicked in a hole to reach the back of the door's control panel and rewired it so only he could lock it. "Interesting trick with the lock."

"Diana woke me up this morning," Robin explained, not looking at her. "Hardly slept at all last night. And I didn't want to hang out with her after that. Best solution I could come up with."

The lady nodded her understanding, taking a good long look at the boy. He was hugging himself as he looked away from her, obviously uncomfortable still with this situation. His cape was tossed over the end of his bed, but that was the last piece of costume he removed when he returned to this place. His mask was obviously still there to hide his emotions, but it didn't help much. He was hurt and angry, but was trying to keep strong. Robin's whole demeanor was different from the first few hours he arrived in this world, even more so from when she saw him a couple days ago.

As if much more was sinking in to him, things he hadn't thought of, ideas he rather not have.

Canary started again. "You know Green Arrow's wrong."

"In a lot of ways and a lot of times," Robin finished. "I just didn't think he'd be this screwed up."

The boy hung his head, wanting to explain further. "In my world, Ollie's one of the cool ones. He and Roy butt heads a lot, but he's trying. He's trying to understand him and make things right. Roy may not be his sidekick anymore, but he still worries about him. Ollie calls me and KF all the time to see how he's doing. I just thought…."

The boy wonder shifted uncomfortably, not able to think of much more to say. "Things are really different here. More than I thought."

"Apparently so." Canary sat down on the edge of the bed. "I think you called Superman your uncle earlier."

"Almost." Robin leaned against the chest of drawers, still not ready to meet her eyes. "He was the first Leaguer outside of Batman I met, and you know those two are best friends."

"They'll never admit it," Dinah joked.

It won a smirk from the kid. "Bruce won't. Clark said they were good friends a few times. He and Barry love embarrassing him. Diana doesn't press it."

He shook his head to clear it. "Clark mentioned once it wasn't safe for me to go out on rooftops with Bruce, but then he talked to Alfie and it ended that. Alfred doesn't really approve of us going out every night like this, but he's glad we're together. He told me once so long as we had each other as backup, we didn't worry him as much."

Dinah smiled fondly. She hadn't met this older man, but everyone who had paid him the highest complements. "It's always better to have someone watching your back."

"Can you watch Roy's?"

Their eyes connected at last and Canary could tell this is what was troubling him most. There was a plea in his voice, one she hadn't heard since he called after Batman when he first arrived and was rejected by the dark knight. He was begging her to help their version of his friend.

"What?"

"When we went after Sportsmaster," Robin explained, his eyes not leaving hers, "we ran into him first. He's going by Arsenal, and I don't think he really wants to be there."

"I've heard of Arsenal," she admitted. "Shot Green Arrow in the back once."

"That hardly sounds like him," the boy admitted. "Roy would shoot at him if Ollie kept teasing him, but he's a fair person back home. Something here must have set him off, something—"

"Robin." Dinah placed a hand on his arm gently, hoping to calm his rambling. "This isn't your friend. He's a criminal here."

"But you can change that!" he pleaded again. "He doesn't have to be a criminal. He doesn't have to be a hero either! He just needs someone who believes in him, who'll support him and give him a good example."

"But the police have him in custody," Canary reiterated. "He committed a crime and—"

She stopped as Robin turned his head slightly away. Something was up. She watched his expression become more and more nervous. "Robin, what did you do?"

"I didn't let him go," he answered quickly, still not meeting her eyes. "I could have left him with Sportsmaster, Cheshire and…" Robin shook his head in disappointment. "Tigress. But I couldn't. I… Roy's like my big brother. I can't just…"

The woman stared at the boy, her hand still on his arm to keep him there. Calmly she repeated. "What did you do?"

"He's at the hospital, rehab center. He's why it took so long for us to get back." He lowered his head again, sadness burning through him from the memory. "Zee and I took him to the farthest hospital from the crime scene and checked him in. We told him we found him in the gutter and all we got was his name. I said he was seventeen too.

"We said his name was Jordon Lance." Robin looked up guiltily as he added, "Took some money out of Ollie's bank account to pay for him too. Told them Ollie was my uncle."

Dinah stared at him in shock. This kid really had some guts doing all that. He was aiding and abetting a criminal, falsifying information, and stealing money from a member of the Justice League, all to help someone who wasn't even his friend there. How he managed to do all this when he had a hard time controlling his expressions now was a miracle.

"Robin…"

"I know you guys don't really approve but it was the only thing I could think of." Robin took a step towards her, his eyes behind his mask pleading for her help. "Roy had no one after Brave Bow died here, and you know what it's like in orphanages. And at fifteen? Most teenage orphans turn to crime only to get attention from someone. He got Sportsmaster's or someone else's eye right around then and probably got him hooked on drugs to keep him in their clutches. He's an amazing archer and a great fighter. They'd probably do anything to keep him on their side.

"He's not an evil guy." Robin pulled down his collar and showed her the bruise starting to form on his neck. It was going to be light, but it would still hurt for a bit. "If he were really a bad guy, he'd have taken out one of his knives and stabbed me in the back. He wouldn't have put me in a headlock. I know Roy. I know what he's willing to do and what he won't do. And one thing he won't do is kill."

He let go of his collar and sighed, looking a little away from Dinah for a moment. "He just needs someone who'll be there for him. He was with those three for a reason, but back home, he was the one who fought Cheshire in Relasia. Roy's saved my hide more times than I can count. I owed it to him to make sure he had a way out of that life. To set things right for him. He… he just needs someone good to look out for him."

Dinah watched the boy in silence for a while, rolling it over in her mind. Robin's sincerity and concern for Roy was far more than she first anticipated. No wonder he decked Oliver earlier. Seeing his "big brother" turned into a twisted form of who he really was, broke the kid's heart.

Slowly she lifted herself off the bed and held Robin's shoulders lightly. She leaned over to be on eye level with him, hoping he'd look at her face once again. "Which hospital is Roy in?"

Robin lifted his gaze to her face, a little hope returning to it. "You're going to help him right? Please tell me you're going to help him."

Black Canary smiled warmly. "I'll do everything I can for him. I swear it."

A smile lit itself gently on his face, relief and hope returning to him. "Junction Hospital on Juniper. He's on suicide watch and heavily sedated so he won't be leaving any time soon. The doctor said it'd take a long time for him to recover from his injuries too."

Dinah smirked. "Thought of everything haven't you?"

Robin shrugged, a bit embarrassed. "Just did what Batman did for Stromwell's kid."

This made the woman blink. "What he…"

"You'd be surprised how many people he's saved," the boy murmured, a small proud smile on his face. "It isn't always about fighting or detective work. Sometimes it's just pointing someone in the right direction."

Dinah watched the boy for a moment and smiled fondly. She pulled the boy into a warm hug and after a moment, he returned it in thanks. Green Arrow and Superman really were wrong. This kid did understand. He knew exactly what he was doing out there. He knew exactly what it meant to be a hero, and he was exactly that.

"Good job today," she murmured in his ear. Robin sunk deeper into her arms at those words, somehow calming his troubled heart. "But you did run off on us."

This won her a short laugh. Robin released her and looked her in the eye again. "Then next time I just won't watch the news. Happy?"

She shrugged sarcastically. "It'll do. But you're still grounded."

The boy rolled his eyes. "What else is new?"

A/N: LOL! I get Dick grounded a lot I've noticed. the little trouble maker, and this isn't going to be the last time he gets in trouble here either *laughs hysterically*

Now, notes on certain characters. Dinah. That bit of history about her mom and the society I got from Brave and the Bold TV series. Her mom (identical to her) died in a fire where she told Wildcat to take care of her little girl. When I did some reading up on her, it didn't say whether or not her parents were dead, just that she had the society as her sitters since she was a kid. So i may be wrong about her past. I do know though that she was critical in Roy's rehabilitation to his drug addiction! Roy's three main adult figures in the league growing up were Ollie, Hal, and Dinah, so I thought making Roy's false name Jordan Lance was pretty clever. Gives her unlimited access to Roy at the very least. And I saw on another series that people on suicide watch are sedated and can only be checked out of hospitals by family members if that's the case. Just saying.

Everyone's logic is winning Superman over to Robin's views. really, when Clark was with the Legion of superheroes, how old was he? and then there is Dinah with the society. Plus Dick was really more concerned about Roy more than anything else. There's going to be more convincing though before the man of steel bends his rules for this boy.

and for those who want batman back, get ready. he's coming back shortly. ^^V