Disclaimer: See chapter one.
Chapter Twelve
After helping the police in Blue Valley for three days, I'm finally back in Gotham. I spent most of the day filling out paperwork and making sure Blood and O'Jeneus were locked away safely.
I pulled out a small piece of paper from my coat pocket and looked down at it as I entered Wayne Manor.
Sebastian Blood – juvenile hall.
Laura DeMille – still at large.
Baran Flinders – jail.
Selinda Flinders – jail.
Dr. Simon Jones – still at large.
Emil LaSalle – still at large.
André LeBlanc – jail.
Dr. Arthur Light – jail.
Jade Nguyen – deceased.
Mikron O'Jeneus – jail.
Johnny Rancid – still at large.
Slade Wilson – still at large.
Seven down and five to go.
As I look down at my list, I don't really pay attention to where my feet are taking me. When I finally put it away, I realize I'm outside, in Wayne Manor's backyard.
Why did I come back here?
My ears perk slightly when I hear a splashing sound coming from the direction of the pool. I turn my gaze to my left to see a girl around Cassie's age sitting at the edge of the pool. If she was only a bit taller, had a slightly different sense of fashion, and her hair was a bit shorter, she'd pass for Cassie's twin easily.
She wasn't, though. She was Roy's little sister. Adopted.
She ran away from an abusive home at the age of five and ended up in a child prostitution ring until she met Ollie and Roy, who got her off the streets. She was ten and Roy was sixteen at the time. When she was sixteen, she found out she was HIV positive. Roy was the first one she told and, like she had tried to help him get over his addiction, he did his best to help her see past this little bump in the road and continue doing the things she loves.
Roy always liked to tease Mia, and vice-versa, but whenever there was something big going down, they always had each other's backs. They could always talk to each other, no matter what the subject was.
She's also one of the reasons Roy came to help me look for Tim and Jason. He never said it, but I know deep down that was one of his reasons. If it had been Mia in Jason and Tim's place, I wouldn't have hesitated to come help him.
She was sitting at the edge of the pool, her legs hanging over the edge and into the water as she flipped through an ordinary spiral notebook. As I glanced to her side, I saw three more sitting next to her as well. This is where Mia reminds me of Rachel. She's always got her nose stuck in some sort of book.
"What'cha reading?" I asked as I took a seat next to her but kept my legs pulled up to my chest. While she had her pants rolled up to her knees, mine weren't and my shoes and socks were still on. That way I could be ready in case something else came up. Although it would be good to relax my legs in the heated pool water…
She looked startled for a moment but smiled when she saw it was only me.
"Hey Dick," she greeted me before looking down at the notebook she had been reading. Her eyes scanned the page before looking back at me. "Last semester, I decided to take a psych class, just for a little fun. My roommate had taken it at the beginning of the year and told me it had been pretty cool. Anyway, my professor assigned us an experiment on the first day of the class. We had to ask one person to write in a diary, or journal, if you prefer to call it that, for the whole semester. They were supposed to write one entry everyday and, at the end of the class, we'd collect the books and write a twenty page paper assessing the person's personality and compare it from what it was like when they started writing, to what it was like when they finished. Explain growth of character and maturity, how other people would react to the person in real life, and then compare it to how they would act if the journal was the person's real voice, if that makes any sense. It was much more confusing when the professor explained it.
"Well, Ollie and Dinah were too busy to do it, and I was going to ask Hal when Roy offered to help. He did it in a pretty unorthodox way, where he'd actually pretend he was having a conversation with instead of writing in the diar – sorry – journal," she paused and rolled her eyes before looking down at the notebook in her lap again, "like any other person would. He ended up getting me an A and actually showed the most character growth during the time. Of course, whenever I went to see him before the end of the semester, I always asked to see the journals to check and make sure he was writing in them. At first, he thought it'd be a one-sided conversation, but I decided to have some fun with him and add my own little notes and stuff in the borders or at the end of the page, if there was enough room. Just to have some fun with him, y'know?"
She flipped the page and stared down at the words. She wasn't reading them. I could tell by the way her eyes remained unfocused. She was lost in a memory. Obviously, it's about Roy, but it could have anything to do with him. It could even have to do with the last entry she read.
I'm not going to look. Those notebooks are personal. Something between Roy, Mia, and anyone they decided to share it with.
"I'm going to give them to Donna, she finally said after a few minutes. "He wrote a lot of stuff about her in here, and I think she'd like to keep them."
"Wouldn't you like to keep them, too?" I asked.
She shook her head no. "I've read them all already. Multiple times, actually. Especially after he died. Besides, I'll still be able to read them whenever I want. Donna's moving back to Star City and told me I could move in with her, if I want. Since Ollie lost all that money in the stock market, I had to leave the dorms to save cash so I could still take my courses. Roy was going to have me move in with him but…since that's not an option any longer, Donna asked me to move in with her. It'll be cool, and she even offered to help me with school, by helping me pay the bills and everything."
I nodded as I stared down at the pool water.
Donna was always Mia's favorite of Roy's girlfriends. Be a friend since they were kids, Donna would often visit the Queen estate and acted as a big sister to Mia since she started living with Ollie and Roy. Donna had only lived a few streets down at the time.
"How're things going with Bart?" I asked, turning the conversation away from Roy and Donna for the moment. I'm still uncomfortable with the subject right now. I thought I was doing okay, but ever since Roy died…
She blushed, but a small smile played on her face as she closed the notebook. Finally she lightly cleared her throat before asking as innocently as she could muster, "What makes you think something's going on between us?"
"Maybe cause of the way he stayed practically glued to your side at the funeral and the few days after," I replied with a smirk. I've always been good at reading other people's feelings, but when it comes to my own, I've always been in the dark at almost every turn and never really know how to handle the situation and make things better for myself.
"And he went back to L.A. after," she told me, looking away and stacking the notebook on top of the others before fidgeting with them.
"So, you've got no clue where things are going with him," I concluded.
She smiled and laughed, her eyes lighting up brightly. "No one ever knows where things are going with Bart. He's so unpredictable and…well, impulsive. He never really thinks before he acts and always says the first thing that comes to mind. Even when it has nothing o do with whatever someone's talking about."
She's keeping the subject off her feelings as well.
"Donna doing okay?" I finally asked, my gaze turning to the water. Bart was making her uncomfortable and confused again.
She was silent for a few moments before answering, "Why don't you ask her yourself? She's been watching us from the balcony."
My head snapped up and around so fast, I'm surprised I didn't get whiplash.
Donna was looking down on us from the second-floor balcony.
Mia stood up, smiled, and waved to her before kneeling down to pick up the notebooks. When she stood again, she looked down at me. "I better head to bed. I'm meeting up with Cassie, Cass, and a bunch of the other girls for lunch tomorrow. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," I heard myself reply as I continued to stare up at Donna.
"Goodnight, Mia," Donna called from her place on the balcony.
"'Night Donna," Mia called back.
Once the door shut, everything was silent for a while.
"What happened to us, Dick?" Donna finally broke the silence, asking a question I never wanted to even think about. "The three of us were best friends. What went wrong?"
"Nothing," I replied. "We just grew up and, as we did, I guess our interests just stood out more and pulled us apart."
She looked away from me and into the night sky, her eyes searching the stars. I didn't have to be up to know what she was looking for.
"I miss him." I could barely hear her voice carry over the wind that was now changing from a warm summer breeze, to the beginnings of chilly autumn gusts.
"I do too, but he left that night because he wanted to. Kory told me he had dreamed of his death beforehand. He knew it was coming, and he took it head on. He's like Hal, like that. No fear."
Donna just nodded, but her eyes stayed focused on the sky.
Hal Jordan is an officer in the Air Force. Many, including myself, have often referred to him as the man without fear. He's Ollie's best friend and he's like an uncle to both Mia and Roy. He never backs down from anything.
Roy became the same way after he got back from the reservation.
Mia had been afraid when she found out she had tested positive for HIV. No one really knows how much time they have left, but she knows that her time on this earth, could only last a few years longer as her immune system breaks down. Roy, had only a little over a day left when he found out he'd die soon. He accepted that, and I'm sure she's now accepted her fate as well.
I could tell by her smile that she's learned from Roy's example.
When Death comes, you just have to accept it, or, in his case, face it head on.
You can prolong it, but you can't stop it from coming. It's a constant. Just like I can't stop my friends and family from helping me.
I can only accept it.
Looking up at Donna now, I can see she's come to the same unhappy conclusion.
You can't change the past. You can only learn from it.
I reenter the house and, instead of going to my makeshift office, I go up the stairs, walk to each of my kids rooms, and watch them sleep peacefully from the doorway.
As I stare at Mari, I can't help but regret not being there the day she was born. It is another thing that will plague me for the rest of my life.
You can't change the past. You can only learn from it.
I feel Kory's small, warm hands snake around my stomach and her forehead against my shoulder only seconds after. I turned around and pull her closer to me, making sure one hand went to her growing stomach.
I'll be there for this baby.
I'll be there for my kids.
But, they're still in danger. I have to find a way to get them out of it. Every lawbreaker in Gotham, big- and small-time, hates my guts. I don't want a repeat of what happened with Ryan and LeBlanc.
So…I need to find someone who they'll hate more than me.
No, that won't work. Not as quickly as I'd like it to, at least.
No, I'll need to create someone they'll hate more than me. I need to talk to Bruce.
A/N: Sorry it took so long. For some reason I've been having trouble with my document manager recently.
Anway, I decided to bring Mia into this chapter, just to add a little more perspective on Roy's character. The thing with the notebooks was something I actually had planned for another story that I won't be doing. It was going to be a Roy/Donna story, but I've just become too busy and with my recent writers block it's probably best I just try and relax for a bit and wait for inspiration to come in some way, shape, or form. Reviews could make it come quicker!