I needed some "Dick Grayson is Ric Grayson" to help out with this chapter before we even get to the wedding planning. In comes "you're a part of who i am (don't let it be void)" by AO3's Aelig and "A man travels the world in search of what he needs (He returns home to find it)" by SoberFrost from the same place. Parts of them, at least.

Okay, I never read the Ric Grayson stories, just fics, so I hope I'm doing okay.

Lil warning: character deaths, but not of our beloved heroes. Prepare for catharsis. ;D

Title by Lee Wilkinson.

Chapter Six

The Bejewelled Bride

Hard to believe her birthday was coming up.

And it was equally hard to believe she'd become engaged to someone who was now becoming something of a friend after the time she'd spent with him.

The time came to come clean to her mom, too, and Tim helped with keeping her and Crystal in touch.

"Happy birthday, baby," Crystal said through the video link, looking much better than she'd been. She was very likely to get out in the fall. In time for Damian to start school somewhere else away from Gotham. Tim said they were thinking Bludhaven, and that sparked one hell of a conversation, because last time...

They were going to try to reconnect with Dick - Ric, for him - even if he blew up at them again, but Damian deserved better. He was never going to get over the big brother who was more of a father to him than Bruce ever was. The siblings could only do so much, and he was just a KID still. Talia agreed with them on that.

She was going with them when they did because there was a shit ton to talk about. They had given him all the space he needed, but from what they got on his new life, it was a mixed bag, but more bad than good. He had nowhere to go except his cab, but he was also a heavy drinker and gambler, just aimless and numbing the pain to get by. His only real friend and possible interest was the pretty, dark-skinned bartender, Bea Bennett.

And oh, they should have seen this coming.

"You need to get out, Mr. Wayne."

Bruce is here.

She and Dami took to hiding outside, peeking around the corner and watching the scene. Miss Bennett was demanding the rich boy from Gotham leave, but why? Oh, it had to be Dick, that was why. "He's my son, and I want him to come home so I can help him," Bruce insisted, like a spoiled child on the verge of throwing a tantrum.

"He told you that he wanted nothing to do with you after what you did to him, what you've always done to him," Bea snapped. "I don't know the whole story, but I won't ask."

"Why should he stay here as a wanderer with no home and doing this?" Wayne gestured around himself at the gambling table and the bar behind her, which bristled her and caused some customers to glare at the scene and his words.

"Yeah, he deserves better, but not a toxic environment where you want what exists in your brain and not what's in front of you. What he does with his life has nothing to do with you. Why do you want him back? Oh, because it'll make you feel good instead of facing your shitty soul. People like you care only when it suits you. I've dealt with your kind before." Some uninvolved customers grunted their agreement and said the word. "Now get your loaded ass out before I get my shotgun, prince of Gotham or not. Come here again, and I will put it in your face."

Bruce growled at her. "You'll regret threatening me. Just as you're gonna regret depriving him of having a better life than this."

Your money, brain surgery, imprisonment - whatever is at your disposal.

"You heard her. Get out, stalker." That voice...the one she hadn't heard in a long time...there HE was at the bar entrance, and neither she nor Damian had seen him arrive because they were too busy watching the exchange between bartender and unwanted "guest".

"Dick -" The man in the long black coat tried to walk towards him only to stop when Ric barked back.

"It's Ric! I'm not whoever I was to you anymore. I told you before, and I told you -"

"Alfred has taken to heavy drinking."

That caused a tremendous pause in the room and outside with the two partners in crime.

"Pennyworth..." Damian whispered, in horrendous shock as he hadn't been in touch with the butler since being taken away from his father because while the old man was undyingly loyal, he would always choose Bruce. Stephanie didn't trust herself to speak what was on her mind at this time. Alfred...drowning his sorrows while sticking to his master's side like the dog he is. He could have gone back to England, but why am I not surprised? He's got nothing but regrets on his platters.

Half of her felt sorry for Alfred, but the other half didn't, because his inactions had consequences just as much as Bruce's actions.

"And Barbara misses you. Wants to make up for it and reconnect as friends." Bruce was giving extremely low blows to make him come back, and not bothering to mention the rest of them as well as the one he almost killed to kick out. Another not-surprise.

Ric closed his eyes for a moment, inhaling through his nose, and several beats felt like minutes before he finally answered.

"Guilt-tripping me won't work. Barbara sees whoever I was that she loved, and didn't even accept the way I am now. I don't know what love really is, but that's not the way this works," he said icily. Behind him, Bea beamed with pride, hands on her hips. "If I see any of you three again, I'll run you over with my car."

Steph and Damian ducked back into the shadows just in time for the cause loser in black to whirl like a tornado and stomp out like the brat he was, heading straight for his fancy black car and starting the engine, screeching back out into Bludhaven's streets. "Damn, he did it," Steph whispered, sniggering with the boy, but the moment didn't last.

"If you two are done spying, then come out and go away like him."

"How did -?" Damian sputtered as they both stood up at the same time. "How the hell did you know we were out here?"

Unimpressed, Ric scowled at them, one hand on the side of the entrance. "Saw you the moment I arrived. Came here for my usual. Now, if you're both done, you can piss off and get out of here," he growled, lip curling. "Why can't anyone just leave me alone?" Asshole had the nerve to talk to them when they hadn't done anything before or even now, so they weren't going to put up with this.

Damian's watering eyes were enough for her to act first.

"First of all, don't talk to this kid like that," Stephanie snarled, pointing her finger in his face and shocking him.

"We don't want you coming back to Gotham, Grayson," Damian snapped through his tears. "We just want to talk to you and then leave you be to your sorry, miserable existence. Unlike the imbeciles before us."

~o~

"So, how did it go?" Jason asked when she got back to the hotel in Bludhaven they were staying in.

"Swell," Stephanie answered, plopping down into the plush gold and ivory chair. They were in, like, the only nicest place in this city. "Damian's still heartbroken, and so am I, but we're not gonna make him remember stuff he can't, for one."

Stephanie had dealt with a few cases of amnesiac victims when they required medical treatment, did enough reading, so she planned to take things slow with Ric. The Dick Grayson she knew always put his family above the mission, above everything else, and this new him...he'd been all alone this whole time because of two people who tried to force him to be who he was, to recall things he was unable to. Bruce and Barbara should have supported him if they'd known him the longest.

Love wasn't force.

"Took the words outta my mouth, Blondie," Jason grumbled from his position on the bed, Macbeth marked where he left off for this conversation.

"I said if he didn't want to give us a chance, we'd leave him. Dami and I were shocked he actually said yes. Just like we were shocked at how he looked now; his hair was cut to show the place in his skull where he was shot." Jason flinched. "But everything else about him except parts of his personality is just like we know." Steph paused and took a deep breath, the emotions from that moment returning. "He took us both in a hug, ruffled Damian's hair like he used to, and didn't turn us away. He was...he said he was happy to have a family again. And he wished you were here."

He stiffened, sitting up enough to have his back against the cushioned headboard. "What did you tell him?" he asked.

"Just that Bruce didn't love the way you were now, unlike the kid you were, so he kicked your ass for doing stuff he hated. Didn't elaborate, and he said he didn't want to know."

Jason nodded, lips tight. "Good."

"Talia thinks it's a good idea to have you two meet up again and start getting to know each other all over again. If you want to."

~o~

On her birthday, when it finally arrived, there were so many surprises that she cried when all of it was over.

She had a surprise waiting for her in the mountains, away from the estate, but far away from the villages below.

There, bound and gagged - "Your birthday present," Talia told her, "and being the first of three" - were two men who caused her the most pain in her life. She stood over them, and Damian's mother held the sword reserved for swift executions of traitors in hand, the blade gently jabbed into the earth, and both hands on the end of the hilt.

Black Mask was last in a coma induced by the techno-virus Jason had saved the mayor from, but here he was, rejuvenated and was about to be back to his old ways after he got wind of Red Hood's banishment and Batman's hate campaign.

And Cluemaster, her sperm donor.

Both men were prevented from saying anything to her because whatever poison they would have spewed at her wasn't worth shit. Stephanie appreciated that.

"You bastards," she spat at them. "You both ruined my life at so many points, but I'm standing in front of you." Her dark and exquisite bloodlust slowly rose with each moment and word. "Mask, I almost died and had to give up my life for a while, escape and start a future for myself, but I returned to that cesspit because it was the blood in my veins, naturally wanting to protect it from scum like you who just want more to make up for what you never had, and Cluemaster...you don't deserve the title of 'Dad', much less 'Father'. You just blamed everyone but yourself for your problems, like Jason's. You got me and Mom caught up in everything, and you would have continued if I hadn't spoiled you." She smirked with a wink at the same time, making Arthur Brown growl through his gag.

"Having both of your heads on the ground soon is one of the best birthday presents I could only dream of asking."

Talia, with a bright glow in her expression, handed her the sword Steph took great pleasure in accepting. She grasped it with the comfort that Damian shared, and within moments, she cemented the end of two nightmares.

Blood soaked into the mountain soils as heads rolled like bowling balls.

I feel free like a bird in the skies.

Bruce could kiss her ass if he thought to compare her to the man she was getting married to. Part of her wanted to spite the rich shithead with a video of her decapitating her father and almost-killer. But the ones watching from afar were whom she cared about approval and entertainment.

Damian called it honor restored and the start of a new beginning, and two less scum to worry about. And the way Jason looked at her aside from telling her they both got what they deserved, that she deserved to be celebrating the demises of her tormentors by her hand...

Another gift came in the form of the wedding dress Talia had begun to commission for her ever since she accepted the proposal. It was the most beautiful thing Stephanie had ever seen. It was comprised of silver shimmering between dark as storm clouds and light as shades of snow, the sleeveless, scooped bodice etched with diamond-shaped mirror pieces that reflected off the light. The heavy silk skirt was inlaid with lace implanted with more little mirrors. She could partly see her reflection in them! The veil to go with it was a waterfall of all-over lace going past the skirt's ending, and if you looked closer at the ethereal pattern, you'd see that it was composed of baby's breath motifs.

"In our culture, the baby's breath is used as a confection or a garnish, but I understand its meaning in the West. Sweet beauty -" Talia looked at her hard and smirked, making Steph blush a little. "- but also enduring everlasting love. It can refer to platonic and familial, rather than solely romance."

Now, that catch-on was enough to make Stephanie relax. Sadly, there wasn't romance, but she appreciated the gesture, symbolism, and importance all the same.

"Oh, God, this is -" Steph gasped when she beheld the jewelry she - "No, this is too much! It's beautiful, but I..."

"Shush," Talia reprimanded, though she didn't seem offended. "It's customary and a great tradition for a bride." She held up the golden box again, displaying two bangles of golden diamonds around baguette-shaped ones, like natural nuggets around hand-carved ice, and a large necklace collar and forehead piece with backgrounds of diamonds with black ones in crescent moon settings.

A great tradition for a bride.

The longer Stephanie looked at the jewels and the gown, the harder her heart pounded and the tighter her throat clenched.

~o~

"Time we talked about this, huh?"

She couldn't agree more. They needed to start talking about what to do with Gotham, so she and Jason were now in the gardens again.

Jason listed everything off: food, housing costs, education system, employment, addictions and alcoholism, and finally, the orphaned children and the sick foster system. All of that needed improvements based on his career as the Red Hood. Steph was so happy that they were going to give attention to all of that. She piped in and put in a medical center in Park Row, and if they set a good example, other parts of Gotham could get their heads out of their asses and clean their territory up.

"Orphanages that actually take care of the kids' needs and not exploit them," Steph read on the paper she wrote down, "housing at reasonable costs, real work, and stability, not eating scraps off the streets or from the trash bins. With all of this, we might put Wayne Enterprises in second place." She laughed like a madwoman, loving every bit of this without shame.

And all of this without beating to a bloody pulp. It would take time and money, but it was gonna be worth every inch.

"I wonder...why I never thought about this before," he said after a long time, wistfully gazing at her face that entranced her, keeping her focus on him, too. "I could have figured this out back then, but I guess I was just a kid. I thought Bruce tossing money would solve the problem, only for things to more or less be the same or worse. Smart guy, but he didn't know shit about the depths of poverty," he said bitterly. She didn't disagree with that.

Stephanie reached out, bravely taking one of his hands into hers, the expanse big enough to engulf hers. "Yeah, he never got us or our people, Jay," she said softly. "He never got desperation, just avoided the place because his parents were killed there. Being Batman meant sticking to his comfort zones and punching out what reminded him of that one childhood tragedy." Wow, I AM becoming a minor psychologist.

This was gonna work. They were going to make everything count and make it about starting real change at home.

What a hell of a development this was.

When they showed their faces again, their marriage would garner more love from their people. Like a new king taking the throne with his new queen at his side. It was an exciting comparison.

"So, on a lighter note away from Major Asshole..."

She looked up in time to see the sparkle he held in the palm of his hands, gasping at the luminous halo of diamonds and small purplish-red gems around the moissanite. "We go from making our plans for the future, then sneer about you-know-who, and now you properly ask me?" she asked, laughing with him before it was serious.

"Seriously, yes, Steph. So, will you marry me?" Jason asked, managing to get down on one knee when he did, without any serious pain.

In SoberFrost's story I mentioned at the start of the chapter, there are more details put into the plans Jason and Stephanie make for Park Row, and hopefully into the rest of Gotham. There are paragraphs dedicated to each one, but I just simplified it because I couldn't tweak what already existed without plagiarizing by mistake.

Found the symbolism of baby's breath on the website Symbol Sage.

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