A/N: I'm happy to see you guys are enjoying this, so have another chapter! ~velvie

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Barbara woke up at the table in her apartment next to a nearly empty bottle of gin. She groaned as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. She reached over for her phone which was beside the bottle. The brightness of the screen hurt her eyes, but she needed to check her messages. She had 5 messages:

Hey Babs, just checking if you're okay. Dick's still the same. – Wally

Hey Babs, are you okay? Everything's the same over here. – Wally

Wally said you went home. You okay? – Artemis

Just thought I'd let you know everything's still okay. – Wally

Come over when you wake up. Hope you're okay. – Artemis

She was only slightly relieved to know that nothing had changed while she was asleep. She had wanted to hear that Dick was getting better, but at least she knew he wasn't getting worse. She stood up and took the bottle of gin back into the kitchen before pulling on a jacket and boots and stepping out into the bright sunshine. The walk to the manor was refreshing but Barbara was too worried about Dick to enjoy it. When she arrived, she let herself in to find everyone was awake and going about their days as usual.

"Hey" Artemis spoke up from the doorway to the sitting room, making Barbara jump.

"Hey Artemis" she replied wearily.

"How are you feeling?" Artemis asked as the two sat down on the couch.

"Worried, tired, hungover." Barbara said. Artemis raised an eyebrow at the last part.

"One of those nights, huh? I understand. I take it you'll be heading back up to the hospital today." Barbara replied with a nod.

"Why did you ask me to come here?" she queried.

"It's not good for people to be alone, especially when someone dear to them is injured." Artemis said, standing up. "That, and I'm cooking breakfast." She added, smiling a little. Barbara smiled slightly herself and going to the kitchen with Artemis. They were about to sit down at the table with their breakfasts when Barbara's phone buzzed.

Babs, you might want to get down here. – Wally

"Artemis, I need to get over to the hospital! Can you drive me there?" Barbara yelled, heading for the door.

"I don't have a car here" Artemis replied. Barbara tossed a set of keys in her direction.

"Then take this one. It's the one out the front here. Dick and I have keys to it for emergencies." She explained as she stepped outside and headed for the car. Artemis shrugged and followed her friend.

"Okay, I'm here." Barbara said as she and Artemis entered the room.

"All these monitors have been going crazy. The doctor guy said it either meant something really good or something really bad." Wally reported.

"Let's hope it's something really good." Artemis muttered.

"I think we should leave Babs here alone for a little while. Call us if anything happens." Wally said, suppressing a yawn. Wally and Artemis left the room, and Babs took her seat next to Dick.

"Dick, can you hear now? Will you wake up and get better? We all want you to do that. We all know you can, Boy Wonder." She took his hand gently. "Please Dick. Your brothers and Steph need you. Bruce and Alfred need you. The team needs you. I need you." Dick let out a long exhale of breath. Barbara turned to him to see that his face was ever so slightly twitching. She dropped his hand to get a nurse.

"Where am I and what am I doing here?" Dick asked when he'd finally come round.

"You're in the hospital because you sustained a near fatal wound." A nurse informed him.

"The wound part? Yeah, I can feel that." He replied, wincing in pain. The nurse then adjusted a drip and his face eased up.

"You need to rest now, Mr. Grayson." The nurse said before leaving the room. Barbara started moving towards the door.

"Babs stop. Come back and tell me everything that's happened." Dick said weakly.

"You need to rest." She replied, a hint of sadness in her voice.

"I just came out of a coma, how much more rest do I need?" he countered. Barbara smirked and sat back down.

"Okay, so Damian told me what happened. You guys were fighting the Joker then he stabbed you in the one second that you had your guard down. Then from there, Damian had to call the paramedics and then get off your Nightwing suit because he knew you'd rather die a hero than live life unmasked. Then he called me and told me to get to the hospital, so I did. Then they operated on you, as you can probably tell. Then for the next 36 hours or so you were in a coma and we were starting to lose hope because we were getting nothing from you then this happened and here we are." She explained.

"Hey Babs, lean in for a sec" Dick said. Barbara obeyed and Dick raised an eyebrow. "Gin, Babs? Really?"

"Hey! Why are we making this about me! You nearly died, and instead of you trying to get better by resting or asking questions about important stuff, you decide to question me on what I had to drink?" Barbara cried, smiling slightly. This meant that he was going to be okay after all.

"Okay. I'll tell you what; I'm going to give you a series of questions all in one go, and you're going to answer them. You ready? Here goes: How bad is the damage? What happened to Damian? Who's at the manor with the others? Where's Bruce? Will I be able to be Nightwing again?" he listed the questions that were plaguing his mind.

"I don't know how bad the damage is, your insides were pretty messed up but I think they fixed that all up. Damian came to the hospital with you but I took him home. Artemis and Wally are at the manor with the others right now and they've both been up to see you, Wally took over here after he made me go home and sleep. I don't know where Bruce is, the hospital haven't been able to contact him and I haven't had time to try, however I think Alfred has been contacted. I don't know whether you'll be able to be Nightwing again but I have to say I don't think your chances are great." She paused at that to give Dick a chance to let it sink in.

"I see." Dick replied flatly.

"I'm sorry Dick." Barbara said, trying to comfort her friend.

"Don't be. I need to rest. Go tell the others I'm fine and maybe bring Damian later. Try and contact Bruce. I just need some time alone to think things through." Dick told her. She nodded and made her way out of the door. Dick hung his head and sighed; his whole life was about to change.

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. If you have any suggestions at all don't hesitate to let me know. Review! ~velvie