Two Years Later
Dick Grayson gritted his teeth as he swatted away more buzzing insects with his newspaper, sending the pages slicing through the air in his attempt to get them to leave him alone. Unfortunately for him, he was in a position that made him their perfect prey; he was sitting outside a bar at a small table with the still sticky warm air suffocating him and making him sweat, which the insects seemed to want to get at. The pint he had ordered was doing nothing to help him with the heat and it was nowhere near as good as the stuff at home. He sighed and gritted his teeth as one landed on his neck and he felt its sharp bite. If the business he was on wasn't so important or personal, this dusty American city would be the last place he would go. And yet here he was, he thought disgruntled as he shook out his newspaper and held it out in front of him, sitting with a lukewarm pint and an out-dated newspaper looking for a glimpse of an old friend who he had believed was dead. He must be crazy.
His eyes scanned the paper even though he had looked at it so many times since he had brought it, he could practically recite it line by line. The front page screamed about the fall of the Academy Hotel and it went on for a good number of pages inside; how it had mysteriously collapsed with no warning, about the attack that had taken place the night before by the HIVE Five, about the murder of Mumbo the Magnificent that had taken place just a few nights before. The article hinted that Miss Jinx may have had something to do with it but it didn't have any evidence. How could it, Dick had thought at the time, all their evidence had gone down with the hotel and Miss Jinx had disappeared, she hadn't surfaced since then. When he remembered that day, he still felt the same heartbreak go through him, the same emotions that had reduced him to a wreck when he believed Wally had perished in the collapse. He remembered how Kori and Victor had had to drag him away from the site and how for days afterwards, he had felt numb, his brain only able to focus on his guilt. If only I had forced him to come, he had lamented to himself in those dark hours, if I had made him come down to the hallway with us, he could have gotten out in time. I could have saved him.
Kori had been consumed with guilt as well but he hadn't blamed her; she had only been trying to do the right thing. She had helped him through those days, been the ray of sunshine when he felt at his worst and it had drawn them even closer than he thought possible. He looked down at his hand and smiled as the sunlight briefly caught the gold ring he had on the third finger of his left hand. He wondered what Kori was doing back home in England; she was probably chasing doggedly after another story knowing her. Being a witness to the fall of the hotel had allowed her to write some very heartfelt articles about it and now as a journalist, she was in high demand which Dick couldn't have been more proud of. She had wanted to come with him on this trip to discover the truth but she hadn't forced the issue of coming. They both knew this was something he had to do himself.
He flattened out the black and white pictures of the rubble of the hotel and stared at them intently with creases between his eyes. He had first been suspicious that his friend wasn't dead when afterwards, during the resulting investigation, he had been told the hotel had been brought down by a number of explosives, one of which had come from inside a carpet bag in the room where Wally and that woman had stayed the previous night during the attack of the HIVE Five. These suspicions had grown when he realised that the bombs had gone off at the time when the least amount of people had been there and that there had been no other casualties. When the wreckage was searched, the bodies of Wallace West and Jane Hexelton were nowhere to be found and that had only confirmed what he had suspected; Wally was alive and not only that, he had escaped with Miss Jinx.
At first the idea had seemed absurd to him. Why would Wally, one of the most promising detectives in the force with a glowing career ahead of him, choose to throw that all away for a criminal? He had wondered if maybe Wally had been kidnapped but then he realised that that made no sense either. After that he had been determined to find the truth. His personal investigation had been long and hard; not surprisingly Wally had covered his tracks well and he had all his other cases as well to deal with. It had taken him the best part of two years but it had finally lead him here, to a small yet still growing American town called Jump City.
It didn't feel like much of a city at the moment, he thought as he coughed at another layer of dust coating his throat. The place felt more like an overgrown town but even he could see the place had the potential to grow. Maybe that was why they came here, he pondered. Anyone could start afresh in a place like this, where everything was new and full of possibilities. He began to watch the quiet street in front of him and he thought of how things had changed back home. What was he going to tell him first? Well, him and Kori would probably be a good place to start. Kori was now living out her dream and he was rising fast among the ranks of the detectives, even the more senior ones now seemed to respect him and his mentor had never been prouder. Only a few months after the hotel fell, he had finally manged to arrest the entire gang of the HIVE Five whose criminal activities had grown a lot sloppier after their leader disappeared. They had been caught easily and were now all in jail. Victor was still working with the force in looking over their dead bodies and was now a leading figure in the advancement of prosthetics. Garfield too was steadily making a name for himself on the streets of London as one of the most reliable cops there and he had made a lot of headway with the community. Just last week, he had also announced his engagement to Raven Roth, who had continued to work with the police on his and Gar's recommendation, and the pair couldn't have been happier. He had become really close friends with all of them, Victor, Garfield, Raven…it was like they were a team now and London was under their protection. He smiled at the thought. The idea of a team did have a nice ring to it…
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of talking and laughing and he held up his paper as two figures emerged from a building opposite labelled the sheriff's office. One of them was a tall man with a large brown moustache and a bulging brown suit who was almost bent over bellowing with laughter but Dick barely noticed him. His eyes were locked on the young man who was standing next to him and continuing to feed the other man more lines that were making him howl even louder. The man was undoubtedly Wally; he would have recognised him anywhere. Dick was stunned at how different he looked yet at the same time he still looked exactly the same. He still had the same mess of flaming red hair topped with a hat but the hat was now light brown and there was no longer that band of yellow and gold lightning bolt pin. He still had the same shining blue cherub eyes but they somehow looked more worldly-wise, like the person behind them had grown up a lot. He was still wearing a long flamboyant coat but like his hat it was plain brown like the suit underneath and his skin was also a few shades darker from the constant sun. Dick could hear his voice as it called across the street and it was still full of laughter but it was now laced with traces of an American accent, though he hadn't quite lost his London twang.
Dick lowered his paper just a little and tried to listen in. It seemed like Wally, in his typical fashion, was telling some sort of outlandish story.
"…and then, blam! The whole place just opened up and there he was, completely unable to move with all the whisky he drank!"
"No! Stop it Wallace!" The man cried out being fits of laughter, seeming unable to hold himself straight. "That can't possibly be true!"
"Believe me Sir, it's as true as I'm standing here." Wally grinned as he held up his hand like he was swearing an oath. This only sent the man over the edge as he let out another bark and wiped a tear from his eye.
"Wallace Weston, you are truly something else! I hope you don't bring those kind of stories home to your dear wife."
"Well, why don't you ask her?" Wally answered. His attention was now focused on something down the street and his eyes were shining as his mouth broke into a soppy smile. "She's just there."
Dick turned his head to see the woman Wally was looking at and he almost dropped his paper. Walking down the street towards the two of them was a pretty young woman in a long light blue dress with bright pink hair tied up in a bun and wide pink eyes that sparkled when she caught sight of him. Dick tried to conjure up an image of the woman he had only briefly seen at the hotel but he couldn't see much of a resemblance. Her skin which had been so pale was now very tanned and had lost its hint of grey. The hair she had hidden before under a wide hat and wig was now boldly on show and although some people were staring at it, she didn't seem to care. Looking at her, he could barely believe that she was the woman who had terrorised London for years but there was something else that had changed about her. Under the line of her dress, he could see how her stomach was curved into a neat bump that stuck out in front of her and the realisation of what that represented was enough to make him freeze in place. Although he hadn't wanted to believe it was true, there was the proof right in front of him-his friend had truly fallen for her.
Wally almost flew down the steps to greet her, pulling her into an embrace and stroking a hand over her stomach as he tenderly kissed her. She tightly hugged him back, completely unaware of the man standing behind them who was watching with a fond grin under his moustache.
"So you must be the young lady that Wallace here is head over heels for. Jenny, isn't it?" He greeted her when they remembered his presence and broke apart embarrassed. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last, he never stops talking about how beautiful his wife is and I must say, he sure ain't wrong."
"Oh really?" She said with a smile aimed at her husband. Her voice also sounded completely different; whilst Wally's was still hanging on to his London accent, her voice now had an easy American drawl that made her sound like she had lived there all her life. "You both are teasing me now, I feel like the size of a house and I probably look it."
"Nonsense, you look as beautiful as ever." Wally told her and it was obvious from his face that he believed it fully. His arm automatically went around her waist and she leaned into him, their bodies fitting easily like puzzle pieces. "Besides, you only have a few more months to wait and then you'll feel back to normal again. Then everything will be perfect."
"My, I can't believe you both are going to have a little one soon." The man smiled at the two of them. "It feels like only yesterday, you both turned up here and you came in asking for a job at the sheriff's office. It must have been very different from what you were used to."
"Yes…very." For a brief moment, a flicker of panic went across her face and she looked up anxiously at Wally who then stretched out his arms and took the opportunity to look at his pocket watch.
"Well would you look at the time, we must be heading home Sir, I wouldn't want to keep your missus waiting." He said whilst maintaining a charming smile. "I'll see you back here in the morning."
"You bet I will." The man, who Dick realised must have been the sheriff, said with a laugh as he began walking in the opposite way to Wally, who was leading Jinx down the street with his hand on the small of her back. "Goodnight young Wallace, Miss Jenny."
"Goodnight."
The pair of them walked down the street a little way, their bodies still close together, when Jinx suddenly stopped. "Hey, what's wrong?" Wally asked her softly, their heads so close together, Dick could barely hear them. He got up from the table and stood by the side of the road like he was waiting to cross but there was nothing to prevent him from doing so. "Is there something wrong with the baby?"
"No it's nothing like that," She said, her head still downcast. "It's just…do you ever regret leaving London? I can't forget you had so much, all that promise in your career and your friends… and yet you're now here. Don't you regret that?"
Wally looked at her in surprise before a thoughtful look came across his face. "I…guess I've never given it that much thought." He finally said. "I miss it, sure. I miss the city and how unique it was, I miss all my friends and how everything was…but I don't regret it. If I did, that means I would regret meeting you and all that's happened since." His hand trailed over her stomach again and that made her smile again. "Why, do you regret it?"
"Me? No chance!" She let out a bubble of laughter and he visibly relaxed. "Right now, I'm happier than I've ever been and that would never have happened if we hadn't left."
"There you go then." Wally beamed at her. "Now let's get home and stop thinking all these morbid thoughts about regrets in the past. We've got a whole new future lined up."
They started walking again and Dick stared after them. He's only a few metres away from their retreating backs, so close that he could just open his mouth and bring their newly-formed world crashing down. He has the power to shatter their new lives in his hands and he can feel it running through his veins. For a second, his mouth opens as if to shout but it closed again just as quickly. He then smiles, shakes his head a little almost sadly before he puts his hands in his pockets and starts to walk away, not looking back over his shoulder.
"Goodbye old friend." He said out loud to nobody in particular as he strode away, his newspaper tucked under his arm. What he didn't see was the redheaded man turning around and staring at his retreating back, his gaze lingering on him for a moment before he faced forwards again.
"Goodbye old friend," He whispers, looking down at the contented face of the woman he loves and resting his head on hers. "See you later."
Finally done! Wow that was a bittersweet ending but I hope you all liked it. If you are reading this, thank you so much for reading my story and thanks also to everyone who left a review/favourited, you guys make my day. Please leave a review to let me know what you thought and I'll see you next time!