A Fair Price
by TwinEnigma
Warnings for chapter: none
11.
The prince, try as he might, could not bring his son home again. In this, all his powers were useless, and so he sought out the greatest of the fair folk.
"Your son lies beyond the reach of darkness," she told him. "The way to him will open when you open your heart and no sooner."
"Would that I could leave behind the curse that poisons my heart, I could be reunited with him to-morrow!" the prince lamented.
The fairy was kind and took pity on him. "That, I can do. But it will cost you dearly, for all things have their price, and you will have but one chance to make amends."
"Name it and I shall pay," the prince said.
The fairy told him and the bargain was struck.
Bruce doesn't stop looking for Dick.
Others try to help, ask him to see a therapist – or, barring that, talk to Black Canary – and say that they'll keep an eye out for his wayward son. He doesn't really want their help or their concern. He just wants his son back.
Dick is one of the only people he has left in the world that he truly calls family and it's killing him that he can't find him anywhere. It kills him to smile to cameras as a civilian and say that Dick's at a prestigious private boarding school somewhere, just as badly as it kills him to talk to Young Justice and say Dick is on a mission.
It keeps him up at night, wide-eyed and frowning as all the possible scenarios churn in his head (what-if, what-if, what-if), and his lack of sleep and moodiness are showing.
Criminals are no longer being beat half to death every night, but some that wouldn't normally slip away are and it hasn't gone unnoticed. They're getting bolder, harsher, and crueler. He has to step up his game.
Years pass.
He still doesn't stop looking.