Who's ready for the next chapter?

Warning: This is the Chalant chapter. It's not really big, but this is the reuniting with Zatanna chapter and there will be a kiss, so if you don't like Chalant, you can skip over this one, I guess. Just so you know.

Next chapter will probably be... um... I want to say the alternate ending chapter. Like, what if Slade won. I'm not positive though.

To the chapter!

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing

Roughly an hour after the rescue:

"Where are they? What's taking them so long?"

Zatanna was frantic. Finally, finally they'd found Nightwing, Dick, her boyfriend and she wasn't allowed to go rescue him. No matter how much she'd begged, Batman hadn't let her go. You're compromised. He said. You care more than the others, you'll let your emotions get the better of you. He kept making excuses.

Zatanna hadn't taken it well. She called Batman a hypocrite (which he was), raged against him, pretty much tore apart all his arguments, even tried to fight him. Batman just raised an eyebrow at her and pointed out that that, that right there, that recklessness and temper, that's why you can't come. Because you'll do that to Slade if you think he's mistreating Nightwing. It'll ruin everything.

She paused, blinked, and pouted at him. She accused him of tricking her. He didn't respond.

So she stayed behind, waiting for her friends and boyfriend to come home.

Dick grinned at everyone in the bioship. Both teams had, for this one mission, taken the one ship instead of splitting between the T-ship and the bioship. Dick wasn't sure why.

Bruce had tried to get Dick to ride in the Batplane with him and Superman, but Dick had resisted.

"You're probably going to keep me in Gotham for a while with you." He pointed out. "Let me have a little time with my friends before you whisk me away to the Batcave."

Bruce hadn't argued any further. He knew Dick was right.

So, now Dick was seated in the front of the bioship, chatting with his friends. That had been one of the biggest things that he'd missed, contact with anyone but Slade and Wintergreen. He'd really, really missed his friends. He'd missed the easy, unimportant conversations they had, the stupid inside jokes and sayings.

Wally was telling some stupid story about something that had happened while everyone was looking for Dick. Dick laughed along with everyone else but couldn't deny the small sense of unease he was feeling. He just wasn't used to this anymore.

He'd readjust. Hopefully.

"So, Nightwing." Artemis smirked. "Are you looking forward to seeing a certain someone?" Everyone else started grinning too. Dick blinked at her. "Huh?"

Wally snorted. "Don't pretend like you don't know what we're talking about. A certain black haired magician's probably going insane back at the Watchtower."

Dick sighed. Zatanna. He'd missed her a lot too. "She'd probably furious with me for getting kidnapped, isn't she." Dick stated.

Raven smirked. "She might be more mad at Batman at the moment. He made her stay behind."

"Yeah, that probably pissed her off." Dick sat forward and put his head in his hands, but couldn't keep a smile from tugging at his lips. Zatanna was scary when she was angry- she probably gave Batman a run for his money.

He couldn't wait to see her again.

"Where are they?!" Zatanna almost screamed. Seriously, how long was this going to take? Batman had radioed with updates whenever he could (Zatanna suspected it was a sort of apology for making her stay back. At least this way she knew what was going on.), but he'd had to stop when they entered the base. That had been the most nerve-wracking hour or so she'd ever been through. It was worse than the rest of the search had been, because she knew they were so close, and he was right there, and this could be the end of this kidnapping thing.

She also knew that if this went wrong, she would probably lose Nightwing forever. And she did not want that to happen. She would probably kill Batman if it did.

Batman's voice sounded out in the room. "The mission was a success. ETA ten minutes. Stop panicking Zatanna."

Zaranna scowled. "Bastard."

Black Canary, who was leaning on the wall next to the magician, snickered lightly. "He is the Goddamn Batman." She pointed out. "No one said he had to be nice."

Zatanna turned her scowl on the blonde. "Shut up." She muttered. "I just want them to get back already." I just want Nightwing to get back already.

Black Canary's smile smile softened. "I know. But you heard the man- ten minutes, and you'll have your man back."

Zatanna blew out a slow breath. 10 minutes. She could do this without freaking out. She could. Probably.

Black Canary had to restrain another snicker. Zatanna would be freaking out again within 30 seconds.

Ah, young love.

Ten minutes later, the two ships finally landed in the Watchtower. The younger heroes quickly exited the bioship, still talking and laughing. The older heroes followed at a more sedate pace.

Batman quickly crossed over to the group, pulling his son away a little. "Are you alright?"

Dick blinked at him, opened his mouth, paused, and closed it again. Finally, he nodded. "I'm alright. Not the best, but…"

Batman nodded. "Go see Zatanna. Then we'll go home."

Dick smiled at him and nodded. He headed towards the door, Bruce following behind. As soon as Dick stepped through the door, he was almost pushed right back out of the room. Zatanna flung herself at him with such force that he was forced to take a step back. His arms automatically moved to embrace her.

"Hey, Z." He murmured. Zatanna pulled back out of the embrace, looked at him, and punched him in the face.

"You go missing for months, and the first thing you say is hey, Z?" She demanded. "Don't you dare do anything like this to me again."

"I won't." He promised, drawing her back into a hug. "And it's not like I had much of a choice."

"Don't care." Zatanna responded, her voice muffled in his chest. "Don't do it again." Then she looked up and kissed him. Dick kissed her back enthusiastically, still holding her close.

Wally wolf-whistled in the background.

"Shut up KF." Artemis hissed, hitting him on the head.

Zatanna and Dick broke apart and laughed at the two of them. Dick kept an arm wrapped around Zatanna's waist as he turned back towards his friends.

He was back with his family, where he belonged.

I... honestly had no idea how to end this, so you get this sucky ending. Sorry.

I'm going to be splitting my writing time between this story and my new one, so I'm not sure how often updates will be coming. They will be coming though.

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