Tim set down "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" he was reading out loud to Dick. Tim finished "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" a few days ago and decided to read something that everyone could enjoy, since he got complaints from Jason about his previous selection.
"Where you going Tim?" Jason watched as his younger brother rolled off the side of the bed. Damn, he was just getting to the good part.
"I just had a thought, since Dick hasn't really made any progress on his own I'm going to look around the manor to see if I can find anything that will jog his mind." Tim took a side-glance at his empty brother sitting in bed gazing off into the distance.
"Good luck," With that Tim walked out of the room. "Hey, if you run into the Demon on your search tell him that he is patrolling with me tonight!"
"Master Jason please reframe from calling Master Damian that, you know how much it displeases Master Bruce." Alfred entered the room caring a tray decorated with colorful pills for Dick.
"Well Bruce isn't here, so when he decides to come back and deal with his problems he can tell me himself." Once Jason heard that Bruce had left to investigate Dick's case he was outraged. Once again Bruce was running from his problems. More than ever his family needed him here, Dick needed him.
Alfred set down the tray on Dick's side table, "Master Dick it's time for your medication."
Dick took no notice to the butler and continued to shut himself out from the world. Alfred sighed "Master Richard," with that Dick turned to look at Alfred, "Is time for your medication."
Dick shifted and shared to gather the pills on the tray. Alfred quickly learnt that the young man would only respond to being called Richard, but the man still attempted to get his attention first by asking for Dick before resorting to Richard.
"My word," Alfred cringed his nose at the unpleasant scent coming off of Dick "it is about time we bathed you Master Dick. I'll go draw a bath." With a quick turn of his feet Alfred headed to the attached bathroom.
Jason immediately noticed the change in Dick. Jason has noticed Dick's odd behavior towards the bathroom before. Even for a quick piss Dick would be all tense and be in and out of the bathroom as fast as possible. But this was different more extreme. Dick was violently shaking from head to toe, and his eyes were shifting across the room as if he was expecting something to attack him.
"Come on Dick, we both know it's a bad idea to keep Alfred waiting." Jason reached out to help Dick up, but Dick avoided the touch and got up himself. Jason was a little surprised. It was the first time Dick really acknowledged that Jason was actually there, even if it was to avoid him. Jason walked behind his shaking brother, half expecting him to bolt from the room in a moments notice.
The pair entered the bathroom, Alfred was leaning over the tub checking the water temperature as the bath filled. Jason decided to stay and make sure things went smoothly, something was defiantly off.
Sure it might be a bit awkward to help bathe a naked Dick, Haha naked Dick,.. Damn, Tim is right I'm really immature, but it wouldn't be the first time he saw Dick's dick. It happened from time to time while dealing with injuries, besides his Nightwing costume left little to the imagination anyways.
Alfred looked at Dick; the young man was just staring at the tub. Jason noticed Dick's shaking was worse than before and now beads of sweat started to collect on his forehead.
"Come on now Master Richard you can't expect to bathe in your clothes."
Instantly after Alfred made the request Dick started to strip off his clothes, but was struggling due to his injuries.
"Damn Dick slow down, at least close the door. You don't want Damian walking in. It might scar him to see you butt ass naked." Jason turned and closed the door with a click.
And for the first time since they got Dick back Jason heard a noise escape his mouth.
"No."
Jason swiftly turned around mouth agape. Alfred was even shocked. No one moved for a solid minute in hopes that Dick would say more.
Alfred took a cautious step forward, arm stretched out, "It's alright Master Richard, it is only a bath." Alfred gently touched Dick's arm. Dick curled into himself and started to back away from the older man.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no.." Dick backed into the wall, making him jump.
"Dickie it's okay, it's us. You're safe." Jason and Alfred slowly walked towards him. "We just want to clean you up."
Alfred made another attempt to guide Dick to the tub; neither of the men expected the blood-curdling scream that came from the simple contact. Dick fell to the ground and curled into himself, making himself as small as possible.
Repeating "No, no, no, no, no, no, no.."
Jason turned and left the bathroom; he couldn't watch his naked babbling broken brother fall apart on the bathroom floor. It was too much.
Jason and Alfred did not tell the others about the incident that happened in the bathroom the other day. They both agreed that it would just upset them.
The past two days everyone had been putting in great efforts to bring Dick around. Jason attempted to bring around Dick by simply talking to him, sharing his problems cause he knew Dick loved it when Jason opened up. But Jason might as well have been talking to a wall.
Damian was constantly picking fights with his brothers in front of Dick out of frustration, but in truth the child hoped that Dick would just magically "wake up" and tell Damian to stop insulting his brothers. Barbra had even came to visit the other day, they were all hopeful that she would be able to get him to talk, but Dick still found the wall to be more interesting than the conversation the people around him were having.
Tim continued to read to Dick in his free time. Tim had also found some of Dick's old favorite toys, but they had no effect on him. Earlier this afternoon Alfred had brought up old photo albums from the study. Currently all the Bat Boys were sitting on or around the bed looking at photos, well everyone aside from Dick.
"Wow, look at this one," Tim passed the photo to Damian, "it's Bruce and Dicks first Christmas together."
"Huh, apparently Grayson has always been short." Damian made a quick glance at Dick hoping he would pipe up and say, "What do you expect I'm an acrobat".
Jason pulled the dated photo from Damian's hands and shoved it into Dick's face, forcing him to look at it. Jason was not a patient person, and if he was being completely honest being ignored by Dick was starting to really piss him off. Dick hadn't even looked at any of them, he only looked at Alfred when he asked Dick to eat or take medicine.
Damian looked at another photo with a confused expression across his face. "Todd why is there a photo of you and Grayson in father's office smiling? As I recall whenever father does paper work it is extremely dull." Damian passed the photo to Jason.
Jason was a little taken back at the photo, "Oh, that is Bruce signing our adoption papers." Jason looked at the two young boys grinning up at the camera. Standing on either side of their guardian who was also wearing a warm smile. Jason remembered that day well, it one of the best days of his life, becoming apart of a loving family. Jason handed the photo off to Tim who looked at it, then showed Dick.
A few moments of silence passed until Jason found a picture that caused him to burst into laughter.
"What? What's so funny?" Tim grabbed the picture out of his older brothers hand. "Oh my God! HAHAHA!"
Tim turned the photo towards Damian, "You're so cute!" Damian's face paled in horror.
In front of Damian's face was a photo of his and Dick's first Easter. The pair was sitting in the kitchen holding up their collection of painted Easter eggs. That wasn't even the best part; both boys in the photo were wearing Easter bunny ears.
"Give that to me Drake!" Damian tried to pull the photo out of Tim's hands, but Jason beat him to it.
"Look! He is even smiling!" Another round of laughter came from the two boys. To most people they would not count the slight curve in the boys lips to be a smile, but for those knew Damian it was almost equivalent to the young man broadly smiling next to him in the photo.
"How on earth did you mange to get him to wear those Dick?" Damian jumped up and grabbed the picture out of Jason' s hand grumbling curse words under his breath as he sat back down.
The giggles slowly faded away and it was quiet once again. Damian started to search the piles of photos in hope to find embarrassing photos of his brothers to even the playing field. Before he found any he stumbled upon another photo.
"Who are these people in this photo with Grayson?" Damian passed the old picture to Tim.
"Oh my God, I didn't know we still had this photo."
"What is it?" Jason leaned forward to get a look.
"It's a photo of Dick's and my family at the circus." In the photo was an eight-year-old Dick Grayson all dressed up in his circus costume with his parents on his right and Tim's parents to his left. Dick was holding a two-year-old Tim Drake on his hip. Everyone in the photo appeared to be having a good time.
"You were there that day?" Jason had no idea.
"Yah, I don't really remember it but I was there. " There was a pause when a sad smile spread across Tim's face.
"My Dad said that when I first meet Dick we had an instant connection. I followed him around all afternoon; he took me around the circus and played with me. When he left to go warm up they said I started balling my eyes out."
Jason heard a small sniff, noticing a few tears run down Tim's face.
"It was like we were family before we even knew it." At this point streams of tears were escaping Tim's eyes. "Excuse me," Tim promptly got off the bed and left the room.
Rage built in Jason's chest. "Look what you fucking did Dick!" Jason stood up from his chair, arms flaying. "You made Tim cry, stop sulking and get your head out of the fucking clouds!" He had enough of Dick's bullshit.
Jason looked towards his brother, all he could see was red when he noticed that Dick gave him no reaction. He was still starting at the wall like an idiot.
"THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Jason sent his fist flying towards Dick's face. The force caused Dick to fall to the side.
Dick cupped his face with is good arm, and looked up at Jason. He was actually looking at Jason. Dick's gaze shifted to the shocked Damian sitting on the bed and back at Jason.
Jason was completely frozen. I did it. I fixed him! Hope grew in the brothers' chest.
Dick opened his mouth, but instead of words coming out, vomit replaced it. Dick got up and ran to the trashcan. After Dick finished puking he quietly murmured, "My name is Richard Grayson I killed 9 men, and I went insane. I created a family in my head, Bruce Wayne isn't my adoptive father, Jason isn't real, Timothy isn't real, Damian isn't real, none of it is real. My name is Richard Grayson…"
And just as quickly as it appeared the hope disappeared. With each word that came from Dick's mouth sent knifes into their hearts. None of it is real.
Damian pretended that it the words didn't hurt him, but he couldn't just sit and listen to Dick. "I'll go get Pennyworth."
Jason regrouped himself, "Well at least he is saying something."
One step forward, two steps back.
Wow, longest chapter yet!
Thanks for reading and thanks for all the reviews!
Just a side note for anyone that noticed the Harry Potter is actually called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." In some countries they changed it to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" thinking it would be more relatable to children. But mine was the "philosopher's stone" so I chose to stick with it. - FUN FACT!
Anyways until next time!