I am eternally grateful to Leradomi for doing a great effort with beta-reading and helping me making this chapter better.

Dick woke up to the sound of soft knocking. He sat and stared at the door with worry not wanting it to be Bruce. When the door opened, a hesitant looking Tim entered and smiled gently "Hey," he said walking to the bed and sitting on it "so uh… how are you now?"

Dick nodded and Tim looked down "I'm… I'm sorry you had to go through this, but you're ok now," he looked at him smiling "You see, we're here for you. At these times, you may think that you're alone, but you're not alone. We care for you Dick. We care for you and we love you so much," he carefully wrapped his arms around Dick in a gentle hug "Talk to me. Tell me how you're feeling. Tell me how much it hurts and what I should do to help."

"He's fine," Damian entered and glared at Tim "Seriously Drake. Don't give him the delusion that he's not ok. He's very alive and very ok," he looked at Dick "Right Grayson?" Damian asked.

Dick smiled softly and nodded.

"Leave Drake," growled Damian "He won't be talking to you. I know he won't. So save us the time and leave. There are some important things Grayson and I needs to discuss."

"Why you little-"

"Boys!" Dick interrupted their fight then looked at Tim. "I'll talk to you later. Ok? And… thank you. I really appreciate your care."

Tim was angry. How could Dick choose Damian over him? It was he that tried to comfort him and listen to him! It was he who was ready to try and not let what he saw on the video affect him so it won't affect Dick.

"Tim." Dick called his name softly.

Tim glared at Damian then looked at Dick with a hurt expression. "Fine," he said "I'll leave you for a bit. Just for a bit. Then I'll be back," he left the room and Dick sighed.

"Don't mind him Grayson. He's being a drama queen," said Damian.

"Stop it Damian. I don't want to see you two fight. At least not now."

Damian stared at him. His eyes looked sad. As if there was so much he wanted to say but couldn't. "Grayson?" Dick looked at him with a smile, too obvious that it was forced "Does it hurt you that we know what happened to you? Or that it happened?"

"Dami… what happened to me was complicated."

"No it wasn't!" Damian insisted "You see, if you live where I was born, your family would have committed an honor killing and hid your body. They would have blamed you because you shamed the family with this, regardless if you were consenting or not. But you don't live there. You live here. And you have a family that is ready to do anything for you Grayson. Don't think of that lightly. Think, Grayson, think! Had you been through other circumstances, things would have been worse. But they aren't. I'm not saying it's not bad. But it's physical assault." He smiled "And at least, you can't get pregnant, so you can move on."

Dick stared at Damian. His attempt to comfort him was horrible. Hell it was worse than horrible, but he tried. And it made him think of what kind of culture society had in Damian's home. "Damian," he said gently"A victim shouldn't pay for the assault's fault."

"Then don't do this to yourself." he hugged Dick "I'm just glad you're back. This is the most important thing to me. Anything else can be fixed. Just, I'm happy you're here."

Dick wrapped his arms around Damian and sighed, then the door opened and Tim entered. The younger boy looked relieved when he saw Dick and Damian snuggling to each other. He smiled when Dick reached for him with one arm inviting him to the hug and he ran to them hugging Dick tightly. For once, Damian didn't try to push him away.

"Thank you." Dick whispered "I love you both… so much."

When Bruce entered the room, he saw Damian and Tim sleeping on the bed and Dick sitting, his hand caressing Tim's hair while he looked at Damian with love filled eyes.

"Can you leave them for a moment?" Bruce whispered and Dick's shoulder rose, but he still nodded and followed Bruce outside "I need to talk to you about what happened," Bruce sighed when Dick still didn't say anything.

Once they were in the mansion's library, Bruce sat on one of the chairs and stared at Dick "Sit." he told him when Dick kept standing and sighed, not knowing how to start this "Are you ok?"

Dick nodded.

"Do you remember what happened to you while you were with Luthor?" asked Bruce and Dick nodded again "And when you were in prison?" Another nod "All of it? Even when you were captured?" Dick nodded, looking down. "Tell me."

When Bruce said that, Dick's shoulders rose in tension, his eyes grew wide and he bit his lower lip as his hands fisted on his sides. Signs indicated to Bruce that the subject made Dick feel nervous, perhaps scared even. He did not fail to notice the way Dick's thighs were pressed against each other and the slight quick breaths Dick took.

"What happened when they captured you?"

Dick cleared his throat nervously and opened his mouth to speak. When words failed to leave his lips, he closed his eyes tightly shut and inhaled nervously "I-"he whispered "T-they…" he shook his head and Bruce sighed.

"Where did they take you at first?"

"F-first… they took me to an office… interroga-gated me. Ask-asked me about the identities."

"Sit down Dick. You need to sit down." When Dick obeyed he continued, "You didn't tell them," it was a statement, but it got Dick panicking even more.

"No. I'd die before I do that," he said quickly and Bruce nodded.

"And they didn't like that. So what happened after that?"

Dick looked down, his hands on his lap "They took me to the dungeons," his voice was small, barely audible, "Before I lost my memory, I was… stubborn with them. It made them furious."

"Did they touch you? Before you lost your memory?"

Dick kept looking down, he closed his eyes shut and bit his lower lip hard. Tears started streaming down his face and he whispered, "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry."

Bruce stared at Dick as he silently cried. He walked to him and wrapped his arms around the younger one gently, trying to ignore how tense Dick had become when he touched him

"Shh" he kissed Dick's head "It's ok. Don't apologize. It's not your fault."

"I know it's not… but somehow… it still feels that… that what happened… was shameful. I-" he clutched Bruce's shirt and buried his face in it, "I'm sorry I let you down."

"Dick... Dick look at me!" Bruce gripped his chin and looked into his eyes, "You were brave. Do you understand? I've seen it. There were many of them, and you survived that. You are brave and strong. Don't you ever say that you let us down. Understand?"

It made Dick feel a bit better. It really did. Hearing this from Bruce of all people made him think that maybe… maybe things, as Damian said, aren't as bad he thinks them to be, that he's not trapped anymore. He can survive this. He has to, for his brothers, and for Bruce.

Suddenly, he remembered something, "Clark," he said and Bruce nodded to him.

"He's ok. He helped me find you."

"I hurt him bad," he confessed feeling guilty.

"Not so bad." Bruce smiled, "Just a bit. He will live," he sighed when Dick just nodded, "Can you smile for me Dick?"

Dick just stared at him for a bit then looked down.

"Somehow, in front of you, I can't hide it. I can't smile knowing it'll be fake."

"Why does it have to be fake?"

"Because I still feel like I let you down, because… it still hurt."

Bruce kissed Dick's forehead, "You always found a way to smile through tears. You can do it. It doesn't have to be now. But I expect it to be soon."

Dick nodded. Expected. So was this an order? Did Bruce wish for him to smile? Or wanted him to smile? Because to him, both were very different.

Bruce got up and left him alone in the room thinking. Was Bruce angry at him and trying not to show it? Was he disgusted? Was everything really over?

And although sun rays shined through the curtains inside the room, Dick still felt that it was too dark to see anything.

"Some things are easy to find. With no effort, you just pick them up, but the way they shine makes you want to keep them. Just watching the glow of these things makes you happy, and then, you will start to believe that what you found is actually yours. It never crosses your mind how important they are to someone else. Someone who had lost this beautiful thing and is suffering to find it".

Luthor glared at Superman as he spoke. So now he couldn't even sit in the backyard of the house?

"If I didn't hated you, I'd have invited you to drink some tea," he said sipping some of his drink "Why are you here, Superman? You had what you wanted. This round is your victory."

"Round Luthor? You don't want to start a war. Not with Batman. He will defeat you no matter how smart you think you are".

"Is that a promise? Or a prophecy? Or is it a threat?" Luthor glared at him.

"It's what I think," Superman answered, "Batman sent me something. After Nightwing was insured to be safe, he went to check on where he was found. He told me about Luke, your servant."

"That was a sad accident indeed."

Superman hands turned into fists "Accident?"

"Yes," said Luthor, "He was a good servant. I sent my condolences to his family along with some money to help them keep on with their lives."

"What about the video tape? Batman has a video of Nightwing being brutally tortured and raped in prison. If this got out of hand-"

"Will Batman really spread a video of his side kick being raped?" Luthor laughed, "Face it Superman… I'm coming out of this clean. Even if the video was spread... you think that would hurt me? But wait… what a horrible thing happened to the young poor lad. It saddens me that those soldiers are working in the prison of my country. And if Death Stroke hadn't killed them, I would have ordered to kill them myself. And I assure you ladies and gentlemen, there's absolutely no order from me, or any President in American history that even hints that they should use torture in prisons. And if anything on the matter happened again, I will see to it myself that this officer is punished," he smiled "Nice speech, yeah? People will love it. Well… it was no lie actually. I didn't order his torture. I saved him from it."

"Be careful Luthor. You're playing a very dangerous game. Batman will not let you go."

"No? What can he do? I see the Superman himself standing in front of me and doing nothing. What can Batman do?"

"I'll leave the answer to him," Superman started walking away.

"You know I changed my mind, you can come and have a cup of tea".

Luthor laughed when Superman disappeared as soon as he said that. He wondered if he went to see Batman and tell him of the challenge, which Clark actually did.

He went directly to Bruce telling him about his encounter with Lex Luthor. About his challenge and how he believed he owned Dick.

"Criminals live in a delusional state to convince themselves that they own what they stole." Bruce mumbled "So they won't feel guilty. So they can control what they took."

"How's Dick?" Clark asked staring at Bruce who was looking at pictures of Luthor on the screen of the cave as he spoke.

"In shock." answered Bruce, "I tried talking to him… but these things take time."

"Not to mention that you're the worst when it comes to words," Clark cleared his throat when Bruce glared at him "I find that adorable." He added immediately as if it would help.

"Very funny," Bruce sighed and sat on the chair, "What should I do?"

"Fill the gap in his heart. He needs your love."

Bruce nodded, "But first," he stood and placed the mask on his head, "I will get Luthor."

"I'll go with you," they both turned and saw Dick walking inside the cave, "Let me go with you."

"No." Bruce answered.

"Please!"

"No!" Bruce said impatiently, "You will go upstairs and rest."

Dick shook his head angrily, "I deserve to have my revenge."

"IT'S NOT ABOUT REVENGE!"

"THEN WHAT?"

"JUSTICE!" Bruce growled and Dick bit his lower lip.

Clark sighed and held Bruce's shoulder, "Let him come with you."

"He has no suit."

"I can wear anything," Dick interfered.

"I said no," Bruce told him then looked at Clark, "I'm not changing my mind," he went inside his batmobile and left the cave.

"He's worried about you Dick. When you meet Luthor. What should you do?" Clark looked at him, "What would you have done?"

"Dami… he told me something… he said that… that in some places… the victim is the one blamed."

"We're not blaming you Dick," said Clark, "We never did, and never will. What happened to you isn't your fault. Don't let anyone make you believe that. Even if it was Damian."

"He… didn't blame me. He just told me. And… I don't know… it made me… scared? Hurt? I don't know."

Clark smiled softly at him, "You know Dick? Your eyes tell me that you don't sleep. Allow me to ask Alfred to prepare something for you to drink and help you sleep. Is warm milk ok?" Dick looked down and nodded then Clark knelt down so that he was looking at Dick's eyes, "I swear Dick… Luthor will pay for what he did to you."

"The problem is..." he shook his head, "I want him to pay. It's the logical thing to think…. But deep inside… there's something inside me that wants to be back with him… when he used to hold me and say nice things to me. Maybe it's Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe it's a feeling that no one but him will fall in love with me, this broken man. But I want to close my eyes and forget I remembered everything and run back to him."

"Dick."

"I won't do it… I can't…. it's not in me to humiliate myself this way… it's just a desire," he flinched when Clark touched his shoulders trying to comfort him, "I need to go rest… you're right. I didn't sleep," he ran upstairs, "You don't have to bother with the warm milk. I'll be ok." as he walked away, Clark watched his back with aching heart, even though Dick tried to hide it…

But he actually was broken. And he feared that he was beyond repair.