Chpt. VII: Don't Tell Bruce
Dick sat at the dinner table, eating his plate of eggs & bacon while clicking away on his laptop. He didn't think it was rude to use the laptop while eating breakfast since Bruce & Alfred had already had breakfast hours before.
Dick remembered Bruce stopping by the bedroom in the morning. Bruce had said something about Dick staying low & not going out for a while. Bruce may have said why, but Dick didn't remember. He was too dozed off.
Dick glanced up at the clock in the kitchen. It was a quarter past 1:00. Dick had basically slept through all of breakfast.
Dick didn't care. It was the first day in a while that Dick had to rest. Dick didn't want to throw it away.
Dick sighed in relief. He went back to his computer. He typed in "Cheyenne Freemont" in a search engine. He had been thinking of her ever since he got out of Nolan's Underground. He even had a dream about her the night before, despite his late night terrors. He was standing next to Cheyenne on the rooftop of a building in Gotham. It was a rainy night in the dream. It felt a bit scary, but with the feeling of her next to him, Dick felt great.
Now, with a chance to start anew, Dick only hoped he'd get a chance to start again with Cheyenne, wherever she may be.
Dick scrolled through the search results. A few were just social network pages of irrelevant women under the name. Dick took a bite of bacon, continuing through the results. Eventually, he found an online adoption record of a Cheyenne Freemont. According to the record, she had been adopted from the Gotham City Orphanage when she was 10 years old.
"Morning, Master Grayson," Alfred said from behind Dick, startling him.
"Gah!" Dick called out. "Don't do that!"
Alfred let out a laugh. "I apologize, sir," he said. Alfred took a seat at the dinner table. "How did you sleep last night?"
Dick shrugged. "A few nightmares, a few pleasant dreams. Just the average subconscious of an adolescent boy." Dick took a bite of egg from his breakfast plate. "How did you sleep?" Dick asked with a full mouth.
Alfred smiled. "Swell, sir," he responded. Alfred nodded to the laptop. "Doing some online browsing?"
Dick nodded, turning back to the laptop screen. "Just searching up an old friend from the orphanage. I'm considering visiting her soon, but I dunno…" Dick trailed off.
Alfred eyed Dick for a few moments. He raised an eyebrow. "Do you have an address, son?"
Dick began scanning the page. He looked everywhere but only saw the names of the adoptive parents, Xavier & Linda Foster. Dick entered both names in the search engine & found an address in Gotham. Dick turned to Alfred. "3546 Westin Road," Dick told Alfred.
Alfred stood up. "Grab a coat, Master Grayson, I'm driving you there."
Dick held his hands up. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he cried. "What? Really? Are you sure? I'm supposed to stay here, Al."
Alfred let out a sigh. "This girl, she's special, right?"
Dick hesitated before answering. He wanted to answer properly. "Cheyenne," he started, "she was my only friend at the orphanage. She was all I had. We both felt alone. My parents had died, but her parents had abandoned her. We were both lost & confused. I remember she had asked me about the circus & my time there. I told her about some of my shows & performances. She made me do a few tricks for her. I had ran up a wall, flipping backwards, & continuing with a triple backwards flip. She was amazed." Dick began staring off into space. He could almost see her standing before him, smiling in awe.
"There was a night that it began to rain heavily. It began to thunder. Turns out Cheyenne was afraid of thunder. She didn't realize it until that night. She came into my bed & asked if I could let her sleep with me till the rain stopped. I let her. We fell asleep that way till the morning. They didn't even want to wake us up because we apparently looked so peaceful." Dick smiled at the memory. "We were lost, but we were lost together."
Alfred smiled a large grin. "Young love, Master Grayson. It's something Bruce never let himself feel. I certainly don't blame him, but it is quite a shame. Now you, on the other hand, get the chance to capture that love."
Dick waved Alfred off. "Al, that was, like, maybe 5 years ago. Who's to say she'll even remember me?"
"Who's to say she won't?" Alfred countered. "Wouldn't it bloody burn if she was wondering about you right now, but you would have never found out because you were sitting there bickering with me?"
Dick let out a laugh. "Alright, alright, fine, let me at least finish my breakfast."
Dick walked up the steps of the house. Dick looked back behind him, where Alfred was waiting in the black Lincoln in the driveway. Alfred gave Dick a reassuring look. Dick nodded. Alfred had already risked driving Dick into town. Dick had to take advantage of this opportunity to see Cheyenne.
"This is fucking crazy," Dick mumbled as he approached the front door and knocked.
Dick waited patiently. He felt his heart beat heavily in his chest. What if Cheyenne didn't recognize him? Hell, what if he didn't recognize her? Dick took a deep breath to sooth his thoughts.
Suddenly Dick sensed movement to the left. He turned and noticed a shift in a window in the left of the house. Something had moved the curtains.
"Yes?" said a woman hiding behind a cracked open door. She was middle aged with blonde hair & the slightest hint of grey in her roots. She had stress wrinkles all over her face.
Dick cleared his throat. "Hi, um, my name is Dick Grayson. I'm a friend of your daughter, Cheyenne."
The woman squinted her eyes at Dick. "Beg pardon?" she said.
Dick swallowed. "Uh...my name is-"
"I heard you the first time," the woman said harshly, cutting Dick off. "Did you say you're a friend of Cheyenne?"
Dick slowly nodded, confused. The woman looked back inside and opened the door wider, allowing Dick to walk in.
The woman lead Dick to the living room. As Dick entered, a tall bald older man stood at the window. He wore a scowl & had stress wrinkles of his own. His eyes traced Dick's movement as he approached the couch.
Dick took a seat on the couch across from the man. The woman sat in a recliner to the right of the couch while the man stood up and stared at Dick with his arms crossed.
Dick swallowed. "Xavier & Linda Foster, right?" he asked, clarifying that he had found the right home.
The woman nodded. "Yes, I'm Linda, & this is my husband, Xavier," she said, gesturing to the grump that she was married to.
Dick attempted to smile at him, but Xavier's scowl quickly turned to a snarl. Dick looked away. He noticed a fireplace behind Xavier. There was photos on the mantle. Some with Xavier & Linda together. Some with just Linda. Some with Xavier & some other men. None with a girl. None with Cheyenne.
"You have a lovely home," Dick said, turning to Linda.
Linda managed a smile that had "fake" written all over it. It quickly faded. "So, um, Dick, you said you knew Cheyenne?"
Dick nodded. "Yes, when we were younger."
Linda nodded. "Ah, okay, that explains it," she responded. She turned to her husband. "Honey, can you get me a bottle of my juice? It's by the phone."
Xavier nodded, still frowning, & walked past Dick to the kitchen He continued to glare at him till he was completely gone from sight.
Linda cleared her throat. "Dick, how exactly did you meet Cheyenne?"
Dick raised an eyebrow. "We were at the orphanage together when we were younger."
Linda nodded. "When was the last time you saw her?"
"The day she was adopted," he answered. "She left with her new family, & I remember saying goodbye to her. We were both young still. I assume it was your family she had left with that day."
Linda nodded. "It was, yes." Linda tapped her fingers against her thighs impatiently. Finally, Xavier came back with a bottle. He handed it to Linda, who quickly opened it. As she twisted the cap, her hands shook heavily. She was clearly as nervous as Dick felt.
She took a sip & sighed. "Dick, it was hard for her to grow up here," she admitted. "She was always a bit awkward, & we couldn't put together what it was. She made kids at her school nervous. After a few years, we had to pull her out & home school her. Even then, it didn't turn out the best for her. She was still not connecting with us."
Dick let every word soak in. Every detail of her life was a piece of the puzzle that he wanted to finally fit together. After so long of running, he finally was at a place where he could try to pick up where he left off with her. This family was his only hope of finding her again.
Dick felt a smile slowly wash over his face. "At the orphanage, we always connected. We understood each other. We were young, but we really were best friends. She was never nervous with me. A little bit quirky, sure, but so was I." Dick let out a sigh. "She was great."
"No, she wasn't," Xavier suddenly said. Dick turned to him, eyes wide open. "She was troubled and dangerous."
Dick opened his mouth to speak, but then LInda spoke up. "One night, Xavier & I went out for dinner, leaving Cheyenne alone here. She was 13, I didn't think anything bad would happen."
"When we got home, our power was out," Xavier explained. "The power line had somehow been knocked down. We went to check up on Cheyenne. We walked into her room, & all of her furniture had been...elevated. From nothing. Just floating in thin air. Linda was terrified, she ran downstairs screaming. I tried to make my way to Cheyenne slowly, & a lamp flew to my head and knocked me out."
"It was like a poltergeist," Linda said. "Everything was moving on its own. I was in the kitchen calling 911 when she came down & started screaming & crying. Glasses started breaking & a knife almost flew into me!" Linda brought a shaky hand up to her ear, as if recalling the spot where the knife almost grazed her. "Cheyenne ran that night. Where, we don't know. And quite frankly, I don't give a damn where she is."
"That girl is a monster," Xavier said. "She's pure evil. That night was a sign of true darkness in the world. And the fact that you, a stranger, comes into OUR home & asks us about that THING, it makes me uneasy."
Dick slowly rose his hands up in defense. "I apologize for intruding like this," he started. "You're right. I barged in and began questioning you two about a delicate subject. I shouldn't have come."
As Dick finished his sentence, there was a knock at the door. Dick looked back at the door, then to Linda, who was looking at Xavier. He shook his head and began walking to the door. "You're right, you shouldn't have."
Dick slowly stood up and watched Xavier from his spot. Xavier opened the door to a man in a black jacket & jeans. He looked around 40 something. His shaven head made him look a bit threatening. He stepped inside. "You called about an intruder?" he asked.
"Yes, this boy came in and began to harass my wife & I about my daughter & refuses to leave," Xavier whined, gesturing to Dick.
Dick's hand clenched into a fist. "Wow," he murmured.
The man walked closer to Dick, eyeing him. "Come here, kid," he commanded.
Dick walked slowly around the couch to the man. "Sir, I knocked on their door. These people are lying, I came in only looking for a friend. I-"
"What did you say his name was again?" the man asked Xavier, interrupting Dick.
"Dick something," Xavier answered. "Something with a G."
"Dick Grayson?" the man suggested. Xavier nodded. The man turned back to Dick & removed a pair of handcuffs from behind him. "Dick Grayson, you are under arrest."
"What?" Dick cried. He fought against the man's grip on his wrists, but the man held them tight.
The man turned to Xavier with a grin while snapping the handcuffs on Dick's wrists. "Mr. Foster, you just helped put a Gotham City fugitive into custody."
Xavier nodded slowly with a smug look, feeling impressed.
"You're a fucking asshole," Dick spat at Xavier. "You disown your only daughter & call a cop on me for asking too many questions!"
"She is NOT my daughter!" Xavier yelled back. "Cheyenne was a monster. I hope she's in Hell where she belongs."
Dick began to be pulled away by the cop. Dick fought back, but the cop's grip was stronger. "I'll see YOU in Hell, Foster," Dick hissed before being pulled out of the doorway.
Xavier slammed the door as the cop walked Dick down the steps of the house. Dick looked up & saw Alfred standing next to the Lincoln in fear.
As the cop walked Dick passed the Lincoln toward his own car, Dick turned to Alfred. "Don't tell Bruce."