Teen Titans
All These Lives
Chapter 6
A/N: Hey guys, here's the next chapter. I can't say this is going to top the last chapter for shock factor, but hope you all enjoy it anyways.
I received an anonymous review with a ton of questions in it, so I'll answer them all here. I apologize to all the other readers who have to put up with this.
No, I don't really have a complete plot thought up, I just kinda write and make sure it all ties in. I don't do the whole 'outline' thing. It feels weird, so I write on the fly.
In the area of co-author, I expect ideas and being able to write here and there. I'm not asking you to write a full-length chapter, but suggestions here and there would work out nicely.
Hope that answers all of your questions. If the unknown reviewer finds these acceptable, I ask that you either add me directly with my penname in your MSN name so I know not to block you, or send me a private message on FanFiction if you have an account.
With that out of the way, onto the story!
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Dick shook his head and muttered, "What happened?" He looked around and saw lots of empty oil barrels, a few fish cartons and some large boxes marked RATIONS. He saw that Jim was sitting a few feet off, rubbing the back of his neck.
It all came back to him in a flash. Kori Wilson had taken Jim, Donna and himself down to the Looking Glass to try and capture the Tornado, but had found out they had been hoaxed. As they were heading back to the submarine to get to the surface, Donna had sealed herself in the control room as two or more charges detonated, consuming that half of the station, taking her and the evidence against Tornado with it.
Looking around, he saw that only he and Jim were left. The submarine was gone, as was Kori. "She was in on this the whole time!" Dick seethed, getting to his feet. "I told you we should have arrested her on the spot, Jim! Now we're stranded here with very little food and we're going to run out of oxygen eventually."
Jim shook his head. "She didn't leave us Dick. She's taking the sub around to the other side to see if Donna and Barbara's bodies can be salvaged." Jim choked on saying his daughter's name, but his voice was still mostly strong and steady.
Dick laughed sarcastically. "Right, you actually believe her? She's the daughter of a crook for crying out loud! She was trained how to lie through her teeth as a child!"
Just then, the submarine surfaced inside the small area and the hatch hissed open. Jim smirked. "Believe me now?"
Kori walked out and said, "Hey, nice to see you're awake Dick. You kinda passed out after the explosion. Anyways, Jim, I was able to get the bodies, but everything else was totaled when the charges went off. I was able to get some of the remains for you." She handed him a large evidence baggie filled with a large mass of gray goo.
Dick took one look at it and muttered, "Customized heat sensitive C4. As soon as we walked in, it triggered a timer that gave us 5 minutes. After that, boom." He sighed and said, "I need to go home and lie down. I need some time to sort this out." He headed off to the submarine and walked inside and sat down.
Jim followed and sat behind him with Kori taking the controls once more. Showing Jim a button, she said, "That will release the storage tank I have the bodies in. You can take them to your forensics guy for autopsy before burial."
The sub dropped with a whoosh of compressed air as the water that was in the ballast tanks shot out. They rode home in silence. The water was still quite dark, even though it was close to midday.
A few minutes later, the sub surfaced inside the docking bay under the fishing wharf. Dick was the first out and he climbed up the ladder as fast as his tired body would let him, got into his car and drove slowly home.
He reached his house, parked the car, locked it with a fweep-fweep from his car alarm and unlocked the front door before finally crashing on the bed, not even bothering to take his shoes off. "Things just keep getting better and better, don't they?" he sighed to himself. Curling up on his bed, he closed his eyes and tried to grab a quick nap, but it eluded him.
Groaning, he rose and went into the kitchen. He opened the fridge door and found the small blue container he used to hold his Folgers coffee grounds. Popping the lid off, he took three large scoops, dropped them into the coffee filter and added 6 cups of water. He flicked the machine on and went to the kitchen table to sit down.
Just then, his doorbell rang. He called out, "IT'S OPEN! COME ON IN!" He was too tired to get up and leave his spot at the table.
Imagine his surprise when Kori walked in, arms laden down with some groceries and books. "Where do you want these?" she asked, nodding at the groceries.
Dick raised his eyebrow. "Put them on the counter but make sure I have enough room to get at that coffee pot." He rose, grabbed a mug from the cupboard as he asked, "You drink coffee?"
"Yea, I drink it. I'll have a mug if you don't mind," Kori said as she moved to the kitchen table, sitting down with her back to Dick.
As he poured himself a mug and added cream and sugar, he asked, "How do you drink it?"
"One sugar," she replied. The sounds of another mug being poured were heard and the sound of a spoon on the inside of a sugar dish before a plop and a clink. Dick came around into her view and he placed a blue mug in front of her, the spoon inside the jet-black liquid. "Thanks," she said, taking a small sip.
Nodding, he sat down and took a swig from his own mug. "So," he said after a few moments, "why did you come here and more importantly, how?" He set his mug down and leaned back in his chair.
Kori shrugged. "Finding you was easy enough. I got directions from Jim. The why is a completely different story. Jim has assigned you as my legal guardian for the time being."
Dick raised his eyebrow again. "He assigned me as your guardian?" he asked before rising to go use the phone. "I think he would have asked before doing something like that." He dialed Jim's cell phone number. A few rings later and he picked up.
"Dick, I know what you're going to say and I couldn't find any living relatives in the database and I asked around; nobody else would take her. It's only for a few months until the Social Services find her a home."
The younger man sighed before responding. "I still would have appreciated you asking me before doing something like this, Jim. You know I hate this kind of gig." He leaned against the wall and looked at Kori, who was simply drinking her coffee quietly. "I'll do it, but you owe me a giant bonus on my paycheck." He hung up and moved back to the table.
"Sorry for springing this on you, Dick," Kori said, taking another swig from her mug. "It wasn't my idea either."
"Ah, it's no problem. Come on, I'll show you to your room. Luckily I got a spare room set up for times like this… Well, more like times my younger brother and his pals come over and get hammered and I won't let them drive home to Jump City." He chuckled as he opened the door, revealing a medium sized room with hardwood flooring, a double bed and a large closet that was currently empty.
Kori sat down on the bed before flopping backwards, her hair flying around her like a halo. "Nice room. I could get used to this. A lot better than Slade treated me, that's for sure." She pulled herself back up into a sitting position. She smiled at Dick. "Thanks."
He half smiled back at her. "No problem, but let's get one thing straight. You're under my roof; you do what I tell you. I tell you to jump, you ask how high. Got it?" He leaned against the doorframe as he spoke.
"Fair enough. Can you drive me down to the docks later? I want to get the rest of my clothes from the old hideout, so at least I won't be in the same clothes every day."
Dick nodded. "We'll do that in about a half hour or so. I just need to do a few things around here. My younger brother is coming over to talk to me about something important. We set this up weeks ago, so I kinda don't want my house looking like a pigsty."
Kori nodded and stood up. "I can help with that, if you want. Might as well make myself useful while I'm here. What do you want me to do?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a hair elastic and used it to tie her long hair back into a ponytail.
Dick jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "There's a small closet back by the kitchen. Grab the Swiffer duster in there and go over the floors. I'll do the bedrooms and the entertainment center. We'll meet in the kitchen to do dishes."
He set off in one direction and she set off in the other. He was running through his bedroom, quickly picking up loose clothes and throwing them into his laundry hamper before making his bed again. Grabbing the plastic hamper, he walked down to the laundry room in the basement and dropped the clothes on the floor, promising to do the laundry later when he had Kori's clothes.
He hated to admit it, but he was getting an attachment to the girl. She was fiery, attractive and caring. He didn't expect her to be fiery or caring, especially considering her father. When he met her, he expected a hard girl, ready to beat the crap out of him and anyone else if need be, but she was nice. "Who would've thought?" he said to himself as he started on the stairs.
Kori called, "DICK! I GOT THE FLOORS DONE!" She put the Swiffer back in the closet and dusted her hands off. "Ready to do the dishes?"
He nodded. "I'll wash, you dry. Just gimme a minute. I'll call Tim and see if he's coming or not. Sometimes stuff comes up." He was just reaching for the phone when it rang. Jumping slightly, he picked up. "Dick Grayson here."
It was Tim. "Hey bro. Sorry to tell you this, but I can't make it tonight. Working a tough case down here, so can we reschedule?"
Dick laughed. "Sounds good Tim. Next week, same time?"
"Works for me. See ya then. Talk to ya later. Gotta get back to work or my boss is gonna have my head on a silver platter." He hung up as Dick did the same.
"Well, let's get started." Dick let the water run for a few minutes as he got all the dishes together. "Towels are in the drawer by the stove, second from the bottom."
Opening the drawer, she grabbed a towel and set to work drying the dishes. After they were all dried, Dick showed her where to put everything so she could get stuff for herself.
Looking at his watch, he said, "It's about 6:00. You want to go grab your clothes and stuff from the hideout now?" He grabbed his coat and keys as she nodded. "Well, let's go."
They both climbed back into Dick's car and drove off. The first few minutes were quiet. Finally, Kori asked, "So, what made you want to go into the police force?"
Dick made a turn as he replied. "Long story. I don't really wanna get into it right now. I'll tell you one of these days." He stopped at a traffic light and asked, "You wanna listen to the radio or something?"
She shrugged. "I guess so. What station do you listen to?"
He turned on the radio and it was on the rock station. It was playing a song by Default. "Count On Me. My favorite song," Dick said as he made the final turn that took them to the docks. "You want me to come and help you or are you good on your own?"
Kori climbed out of the car as she replied, "I could use the hand if you don't mind." She closed the door and walked into the warehouse and started down the ladder, Dick following close behind. They both grabbed some over-the-shoulder duffel bags from Kori's closet and began just throwing clothes, books and other random items into them. Before long, the closet and drawers were empty and the room only held the bed.
Dick glanced at his watch. "Done in a half hour. Not bad. We got time to get home, wash these for ya and then we can watch a movie or something, if you want." He turned and walked out to the ladder, Kori behind him this time.
"Sounds good to me. Wait, is today Tuesday by chance?" Kori asked, climbing the ladder with one hand on the rungs, one hand holding her bag. She gladly let Dick take the bag so she could hoist herself out.
Dick thought for a second before nodding. "Yea, why?" He dropped his bag of clothes into the trunk of the car and took hers from her a second later, placing it alongside the other bag. As he climbed into the cab, Kori sat down next to him and replied.
"NCIS is on at 9:00. I always watch that show to see if I can pick up any ways to trap Slade in his work. I found a couple, but they wouldn't work under the circumstances." She buckled her belt up as Dick turned the engine over and pulled out back onto the street, heading up home.
Nodding, he said, "Fair enough. That gives us two hours or so. I can get some laundry done and you can chill if you want." He sniffed the air and at the next stoplight, smelled his coat and nearly gagged. "You're gonna want to grab a shower too. If my coat smells like this after being down there, you must stink too."
At exactly 7:00, the car pulled back into the driveway and they got out, each taking a bag of clothes downstairs to the laundry room. Quickly sorting out the clothes, Dick set the machine to wash the dark colors. "I'm going to go grab a quick shower before that starts. I'll be in and out in five minutes." He went upstairs and did as he said.
He climbed out and wrapped himself in his bathrobe after drying off quickly. Opening the door, he heard the sounds of the TV in the den, so he called to Kori, "Has the washing machine started yet?"
"No, why?" the reply came back, the TV being muted for a minute.
Dick popped into his bedroom and put on some pj pants and a white shirt before yelling back "Go grab a shower quickly before the machine starts." He handed her his bathrobe and said, "I'll bring you up some clothes after the machine stops. Until then, just use this. Towels are in the cupboard in front of the toilet, top shelf."
Smiling, she set off to her task. Dick sat down and ran his hands through his still-somewhat wet hair. "Shows how many chick flicks I've watched. I'm a natural at this," he muttered.
Glancing at the clock, he saw that it had been a half hour since he started the clothes in the washer. Time to go put them into the dryer, he thought to himself as he rose to head downstairs.
Kori just came out of the bathroom and he bumped into her, knocking her over. As he leant down to help her up, he saw the back of the robe had slipped down, revealing a long, jagged scar that started from right shoulder and went down to at least the middle of her back. The rest was covered by the bottom half of the robe. "Oh my goodness," he breathed. "When did that happen?"
She tugged the robe over her back and stood up. "I'd rather not talk about it. Excuse me," she said, pushing past him and heading up to her room. As she was walking down the hall, she started doing something she hadn't been allowed to do for 13 years. She started to cry.
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A/N: Well, that's the end of this chapter. Sorry if it seemed a little long and boring, but I felt I needed a bit of emotional content in this one. Kinda let Dick and Kori get to know each other a tiny bit more.
Just gimme a review to let me know what you thought of the chapter. I also will be posting The Case Swap as a tie in to this story. It'll be up by Wednesday at the earliest, Friday by the latest.
Thanks for reading!
Love, peace and chicken grease
Dash