Bruce: 37

Dick: 19

Lilly: 16

Barbara: 16

Wally: 20

Robin Leaves the Nest Pt. 2

"You're just going to let him walk out of here?" I asked Bruce as the two of us stared at the garage door.

"You heard him, I'm not his father." Bruce said, dropping his hand from my shoulder. I heard footsteps as he started walking away.

"Bruce!" I called out, chasing after him. "Dad." I said afterwards figuring that was a more appropriate word for the moment. "He didn't mean that. You know he didn't. He's just upset, once he has time to clear his head...if you just give him a chance to explain..."

"Lillian, if I've taught you and your brother anything, I always thought it was that life doesn't give out second chances. All we have is the here and now; because your whole world, everything that you think is real, can disappear in an instant. A single word, a single sentence, will change someone else's perspective of you forever. If I never taught Dick that basic lesson, then I really am not a father to him." Bruce's face was expressionless. There was nothing, not even a tilt in his eyebrows. Just a dark storm brewing in his eyes. I knew then that Bruce Wayne was gone, he'd retreated and let The Batman take over. I didn't know what to say, but I had to say something before we lost Bruce to The Batman for good.

"Dad I..."

"Batman will be going out on patrol alone tonight." Bruce said suddenly, but not surprisingly. "Batgirl will not be need in the cave at all tonight."

"So now I'm benched too?" I raised my eyebrows. "You know what, that's fine." I was mad too. Not mad that I couldn't go on patrol, there would always be more nights for that. I was mad that he'd basically egged Dick on about leaving and that he would rather pretend that it didn't happen than talk about it. I was mad that Dick was gone. I was mad that I was stuck in the middle of their mess. I was mad that Bruce never talked about how he was feeling nor did he want to hear about how we were feeling. The more I stood there and thought about it, the more I began to understand why Dick was leaving. "I've got plans tonight anyway." I hissed. "I'll be at Wally's or Barbs or something. I'll tell Alfred once I decide so you'll know where I am." Ignoring whatever it was that Bruce mumbled under his breath, I walked away. I ran up the stairs clutching Eleanor to my chest as I did. Safe inside my room, I threw myself onto my bed and wept.

It felt like hours had passed before Alfred came and knocked on my bedroom door.

"Miss Wayne?" He asked opening the door slowly.

"You can come in Alfred." I told him in a raspy voice as I sat up on my bed. Alfred placed a tray down in front of me before sitting on the bed himself. I The tray he'd brought contained a large bowl of chocolate ice cream drowned in hot fudge, a steaming mug of hot cocoa, a box of tissues, and a small plate containing three or four double chocolate chip cookies.

"A young lady once told me that chocolate could heal anything." Alfred said as he held out a spoon to me. I laughed through my tears. It was me who told Alfred that. Barbara and I were ten or eleven and we'd spent an entire Saturday watching romance movies on TV. For a month afterwards we work convinced that chocolate could fix anything. Broken leg from skiing? Hot Chocolate. Sun burn from the beach? Chocolate Ice Cream. Chocolate fixed everything. "Now, I am not expert about such things as I am not a doctor myself, but your grandfather was a doctor." Alfred smiled as he remembered something far off that I wasn't even alive to remember. "The elder Master Wayne, would come home from particularly stressful days at work and ask for a large bowl of chocolate ice cream. Much like this one. On days when board meetings at the company did go quite as he'd hoped, you're grandfather would ask me to swap out his nightly coffee for a hot cocoa. So, I think that on some level, chocolate must have healing powers."

"What do you think my Grandfather would think of what happened tonight?" I asked taking in a spoonful of ice cream.

"I'm not quite sure." Alfred said, thinking back. "I don't recall ever hearing Thomas Wayne raise his voice to anyone. It just wasn't his nature. Of course, if Thomas Wayne were in our lives today, we most likely wouldn't have Master Dick. Possibly not even yourself. Master Bruce wouldn't have grown into the same person. He wouldn't have ever met Miss Kyle, and perhaps wouldn't have adopted the orphaned circus boy either. The trick Miss Lilly, if I may says so, it not to look at what could have been, but rather what is. We do not have Thomas Wayne alive, but we do have Master Bruce, and Master Dick and yourself. It is more important to connect with the living than to guess about the dead. Now you finish your snack." He said rising to his feet. "And don't worry about dishes. Simply leave the tray outside your door when you're finished and I'll come by for it later. If you need anything else, well you know how to find me." Alfred exited the room and shut the door softly behind him.

By the time Alfred had come by with my late night snack I had pretty much cried myself dry. But I wiped my face with a tissue all the same before setting the box by my nightstand. I had a feeling I would be needing them often in the coming weeks. I finished my ice cream and hot chocolate before finding my phone and dialing Wally's number.

"Hi Lilly." Wally greeted, most likely after reading my name on his caller ID. "I just got off the phone with Dick. He's still pretty upset, he asked if he could stay here with us, but Aunt Iris has the flu. So it's probably a good thing you didn't come over anyway. She got really sick like overnight. Barry keeps threatening to quarantine her...Anyway Dick can't come stay with us because of that. Plus, I think Barry's a tad bit afraid of the B-man anyway. Doesn't want to incur his wrath by harboring the fugitive."

"He's not a fugitive!" I exclaimed. "That's my brother you're talking about and you're best friend! You're supposed to be on his side!"

"I am!" Wally insisted. "But I mean, did he really tell Bruce that he wasn't his dad? That's kind of a low blow isn't it?"

"Yeah, especially coming from Dick." I agreed. "Bruce is taking that part harder than anything. But wait, if Dick's not staying with you, where is he going to go?"

"He didn't say." I could tell from Wally's tone of voice that he was telling the truth, not that I thought he would lie to me anyway.

"Well maybe I should give Barbara a call, just to see if he's mentioned anything to her yet." I said.

"You can try it." Wally told me. "But if he's not telling me where he's going and he's not telling you or Alfred, I highly doubt he's going to tell Barb."

"You're probably right. But I've got to know where he is. I want to make sure he's somewhere safe."

"I'm sure he is Lil. Dick's not stupid. He'll call you, just be patient. "

"Yeah, I'll try." I said. "I'll let you know if I find anything else out."

"Alright. Good night Lil." We hung up the phone and I immediately dialed Barbara.

"Hello?"

"Barb? It's Lilly."

"Oh hey Lilly. I thought you were at Wally's tonight. Everything okay?"

"Depends on your definition of okay." I said as I began explaining everything that had happened since Wally had picked me up at school.

"Oh I...wow Lil, I don't even know what to say." She paused trying to collect her thoughts. "He hasn't mentioned anything to me. He probably doesn't want my dad to know anything just yet. You know how he feels about Bruce."

"I didn't even think of that. I'm worried about him, if he's not at Wally's and he can't stay with you, where is he going to go?"

"I'm sure he'll find someplace to stay. Lots of people like Dick." Barbara sounded confident.

"I'm going to keep calling around, see if anyone else knows anything. Oh, and Barbara if you could do me a huge favor...when Dick does call you to let you know what's going on, please don't tell him that you've already talked to me."

"Secret's safe with me Lilly. He won't know a thing." She promised before I hung up the phone. I started chomping on one of the double chocolate chip cookies as I debated who to call next. Luckily I didn't have to wait long as my phone began to chirp away. Hoping it was Dick, I answered right away, not checking the caller ID.

"Lil?" The person on the other end of the phone was speaking quietly, but I knew the voice well.

"Conner. Hey." I said trying to sound friendly.

"Hey, look I just wanted to let you know that Dick is here with me and Clark at our apartment. He seems really upset about something, and I just thought that you might want to know that he's here and that he's safe."

"He is? Oh thank god. Thank you Conner."

"Is everything Alright Lil? Dick's not in any kind of trouble is he?"

"He just had a fight with Bruce that's all, but I've been worried about him because he couldn't stay with Barry and Wally and he couldn't stay with Barbara. If he's with you and Clark he's safe."

"He'll be fine here. I'll watch out for him and Clark won't let him do anything stupid. I'm sure he'll just be couch surfing here for a few days and then he'll be back home."

"Thanks Conner. I've got to go for now, I want to let Al know about Dick. Just let us know if anything changes."

"I will. He's going to be fine. I'll talk to you soon. After I hung up the phone with Conner, I gathered my dirty dishes and brought them down to the kitchen. I had expected to find Alfred there, it seemed he was always in the kitchen. Alfred did have rooms of his own, an attached apartment off the back of the house. I left the dishes in the sink and headed towards the back of the house. I stopped when I reached a pair of wooden double doors. After knocking on the doors that led to Alfred's apartment I waited for the butler to answer. It wasn't long before one of the doors swung open.

"Miss Wayne?" I understood his surprise. As a general rule Dick, Bruce and I never bothered Alfred once he'd gone to his private space of the house.

"Hi Alfred." I said awkwardly. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to let you know that Conner's just called me. He says Dick is staying with him and Clark. So he's somewhere safe."

"Thank heavens." Alfred smiled.