AN: I am incredibly sorry for the long wait! The past few weeks have been so hectic in my personal life! I hope you accept this new update as my token of forgiveness. Warning: this is the most feelsy chapter ever! I promise to bring back the action in Chapter Six! Enjoy!
Final note: I have a DeviantArt! All fanfictions (except for Afterwards because it is going to be heavily edited) that I have written can also be found there and link is provided on my profile! NOW I hope you enjoy!
Chapter Five
Batcave
Bruce was caught off guard from those simple words. Why in the world was Dick apologizing to him? Did he feel responsible for what happened at the carnival? That he wasn't able to hack into the controls in time? Was he even apologizing for disconnecting himself from the heart monitor? What was it?
Bruce pulled back from the hug and looked into the blue eyes that he missed so much. He settled himself on the edge of the bed as he prepared for what he predicted was going to be a long and serious discussion. "Sorry about what?"
It wouldn't be the first time if he apologized about messing up on a case or accidentally letting the bad guy get away. Robin had improved quite significantly from the past few years. But what was on his mind?
"I'm sorry," the boy said, "I wasn't being truthful back at the building."
Bruce looked intently at the boy. Where was he going with this? "What are you talking about? Not be honest about what?"
Dick kept his head down. He observed the bruises that appeared around his wrists. He remembered more from that night. He was captured twice! He had been bound in some form or another twice! He got separated from his partner twice! He had needed Batman to come to his rescue...TWICE. All happened in the same night.
"I am sorry about lying to you...when you asked me if I was feeling alright." he began. "I felt a little…" he played with his fingers as he thought about what word would be most fitting. "Odd, but I thought it was something I could brush off...which was a little true until later."
Bruce had heard the words his son spoke...but he couldn't help but think about his last meal. Besides being nourished via IV for the past few days, what was the last thing he ate?
"Dick, its ok." he told him. "I don't blame any of what happened that night on you." he pulled him into a hug—since when was Bruce the type to willingly give hugs?—"we can talk about this later, you must be hungry."
He got up and walked over to the computer monitor where there was one of the silver platters Alfred had brought down for him—still untouched. He lifted the lid. "You like French onion soup, right? I can heat it up for you if you want." He said as he sniffed over the contents in the bowl. "Alfred brought it down only about an hour ago. It is still good."
"Bruce, stop it." His shoulders started shaking lightly.
He's trying his best not to break down in front of me.
Slightly ignoring what he said, Bruce brought over the tray to the bed where he set up a small table for Dick to use. "I should inform Alfred and Leslie that you're awake." he said as he generously helped Dick into a better sitting position and prepared to leave the area to use a phone by the computer.
"How long was I out?" Dick asked as he poked the soup with a spoon, still looking sullen.
His mentor stood by the curtain with his back towards him. Dick couldn't see the look on his face, but based on his posture...it wasn't something he would be glad to hear.
With a deep heavy sigh, he said with a bit of a nervous vibrato in his voice "Almost three days, son."
The silver spoon dropped from his hand as he gave out a small gasp. "Bruce..." he said with a deep knowing feeling that he wouldn't like the response, "please tell me what happened!"
Bruce still stood at the curtain with a small bunch of the light green fabric balled up in his fist. At the moment he turned back around to face him, Dick asked another question.
"Do you still want me as a partner...do you still want Robin?"
Dick had been trying to hold it in for as long as he could manage—he tried his very best—but sometimes trying to hide your true emotions is just as hard as fighting crime. Tears streamed down his cheeks in slow flows and drops fell into the bowl of soup sitting in front of him. He immediately started rubbing his cheeks to wipe away the tears. His face started turning red— the result from wiping his cheeks so hard and from the utter embarrassment of crying in front his mentor.
Bruce removed the tray from the bed and sat on the edge. He took Dick's hands and removed them from his face and embraced him once again. Feeling safer in his arms, the boy let out a few gasps that he had been holding in and shook a little more violently has Bruce soothingly rubbed his back.
"We can talk about this later if you want." He said as Dick got quieter.
"Wait…" Dick said as he slowly removed himself from the hug. "Are you actually considering not bringing me out to the field anymore?"
He didn't know what to think. He almost completely expected Bruce to contradict what he said. He looked upwards to face him. Bruce's face remained stiff.
"I am feeling so incredibly blessed to have you talking to me right now." The older man said as he gently laid a hand onto the boy's shoulder. "I don't want to risk your life, just because you have miraculously come out of this."
Dick just continued looking at him. The words he spoke circled around his head and settled heavily. If he was still connected to the heart monitor it probably would have been beeping frantically. He's retiring Robin! He's actually doing it!
"You mean too much to me, son." He continued with a gentle squeeze on his shoulder. "It was even probably a bad idea to have gotten you involved into the crime fighting business. It was even a stupid idea to have recruited someone so young! You were nine-years-old for God's sake!" he said as he rubbed his face in frustration.
"But, Bruce!" Dick cried. "If it wasn't for you—for this—who knows what type of person I would have become!"
"I have zero regrets taking you in," Bruce said. "I want you to understand that!"
"I am still here! I am still alive!" the boy countered.
"Yes, but I don't want there to be a day when I won't be able to save you!" Bruce exclaimed.
"But who will be there if it's you who will need the saving?!"
That last statement echoed through the hollow walls of the cave. then followed by complete silence. They just stared at each other—observing each other's features—until sound of loud alarms from the computers finally broke the thick silence. Bruce immediately got up from the bed and was about to walk out of the medical area, but he took a double take. Dick was still sitting in the bed but with a straighter back and a startled expression on his face.
"I'm calling Alfred down here. Stay put." He ordered as he mentally transitioned from the worried and fatherly Bruce Wayne role to the demanding and intimidating Dark Knight Façade.
Everything right after that was like a blur. Everything that happened afterwards happened so quickly. Bruce had phoned Alfred down to inform him that Dick was awake. The alarms were ringing because there was finally a Joker sighting…at the carnival—where all this madness started.
Bruce had changed into the Batman suit in what seemed like an instant. As he was about to get into the bat mobile—he looked back at the medical area where Dick was sitting there watching all this go down. He still had a hurt look on his face. He walked over and pulled down the cowl. Bruce Wayne is talking right now.
"I'm doing this because I care." He said as he once again put his gloved hand on his shoulder. Seems like his own way of showing that he cares. "Now rest up. I'll be back as soon as I can."
Dick still didn't know how to react. All at the same time he felt sick, hungry, angry… and valued. As he watched his mentor walk away he finally decided to say something. "Bruce." He called out before he got into the car.
He turned to face him.
"Please be careful." Dick croaked. "Everything you said about me…it's not just you. I don't know what I'd do if we lost you."
Behind the bat symbol on his chest, he felt a sense of heartbreak. He only thought about Robin's safety- then he realized that Robin also constantly worried about Batman's wellbeing. With a small smile on his face, he pulled the cowl down back over his face and nodded. "Don't worry."
How could he not?
As Batman drove away, Dick heard Alfred's footsteps from the top of the stairs. They were quick steps and he was then soon within his view. Alfred's solemn face then sprouted a smile as he walked over to the bed in his usual gentlemanly manner.
"It seems like you've had quite the wakeup call, Master Dick."
"No kidding." He answered as he blew out a puff of a laugh.
Alfred looked over to where the bowl of the still untouched French onion soup was. He sighed heavily as he kneeled to pick it up from the ground. "It's one thing to try to feed you one of your least favorite meals, but not heat it up in the least?" he mumbled. "I swear that man may be a great detective, but he is such an ignorant man in some aspects."
"He offered to heat it up."
Noting the sullen tone in his voice, Alfred stopped what he was doing and let the bowl back down on the ground. "Did you and Master Bruce have a…discussion before he left?" he asked worryingly.
Dick looked up to the old man. "I guess we did." Tears started to pool up in his eyes again. Not now, not now!
Alfred could sense the tension his youngest charge was radiating. "Would you like to talk about it?"
"Bruce" Dick said as he decided it would be better to keep his head down as he wiped his eyes. "He's going to take Robin away from me."
The Carnival
Based on the police reports, there were a few anonymous calls made saying that they witnessed the Joker poking around the carnival—that was as of one day ago left untouched by police.
As he speeded his way through the currently almost empty streets of Gotham in the bar mobile, Batman thought about the hell the Joker made him go through within the past weekend. Not knowing whether or not Dick would wake up, the struggle of finding an antidote that he currently still didn't know what it was, the gall to actually infect his only child with it, the murders he had committed, the children he had orphaned, and probably worst of all—actually thinking he could get away with it.
The bat mobile whizzed rapidly into the parking lot. Batman jumped out of the car and glared at the carnival entrance.
Time to make him pay...for everything.
AN: Oh my goodness, I never meant for this story to turn out so emotional but it just happened! I hope you liked it a lot better than the last chapter! I'll try to update soon! Have a wonderful day fellow readers!