Chapter 2: Reality

Batman's gloved fingers wandered meticulously over the many different keys of the large Batcomputer. The events around Trigon were just half an hour ago, but Bruce knew that he could not waste any time. He had left for the Batcave with Robin immediately, also to avoid the other Justice League members. After all, they had stopped him from doing anything.

While Bruce knew it was only for his own protection, he still didn't want to see any of them at the moment. His only focus now was on getting Dick out of the other dimension.

He refused to give up on his foster son just like that. There had to be a solution, something to get him out of there!

Robin sat on a staircase and tried to find a solution as well. Grayson that idiot had no right to die without his permission. With his laptop Damian was going through all the files about interdimensional travel, wormholes and anything else that might be of some use.

Alfred was just coming down the stairs with a small tablet on which Two Hot Cups were placed, when Batman's fingers slowly paused. Resigned, the Bat leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. Robin noticed this:

"What's wrong father?"

Briefly, Bruce took a breath before dejectedly replying: "It's not possible."

Surprised, Damian raised his eyebrows: "What's not possible?"

"Getting him out of there."

Batman paused before continuing: "I went through all the possibilities, but it's like Raven said. You need a strong energy source, on the other side, to help stabilize the portal. I've scanned the dimension Dick is in right now over hundreds of times for such an energy source, yet there hasn't been even one hit. Trigon wiped them all out."

Disbelief came over Damian's face: "Are you saying you're giving up on him?!"

Thinking, Bruce looked at his son before standing up and turning to Alfred: "Alfred I want you to watch Damian while I'm gone."

Perplexed, the butler asked: "Sir, are you going out?"

"I need to talk to someone."

"You're leaving now? Are you serious?!" loudly Damian protested as his father sat down in the Batmobile: "Grayson is somewhere in hell right now fighting for his life. And you're disappearing just like that?!"

"I'm getting a third opinion on this case. Right now I can't find a results here. You can't come with me this time. This is something I have to do on my own."

Stunned, Damian watched as the roof of the Batmobile closed and his father drove away. In frustration and anger about this, the boy yelled out and smashed his expensive laptop onto the floor. Individual keys and fragments, of the now broken computer, scattered several meters around him. Damian angrily crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Master Damian, if I may give you some advice ..."

"You may not!" Snappishly, the boy interrupted the worried butler. Alfred knew that Damian and Dick enjoyed a special relationship, even if the little boy's pride would never openly admit it. He could well understand the boy's tenseness.

Still, the old butler was surprised at the childlike voice with which Damian now made a demand:

"Alfred, please go."

Sadly, he looked down at the boy before disappearing into the manor with a: "Yes Master".

Damian remained sitting on the stairs for a while before he got up and went to the Batcomputer.

He would not give up.

Hours later, Damian was on his way to the kitchen. He was just going to make himself something to eat and then immediately go back to his room looking for answers. Alfred had blocked his access to the Batcomputer so he should sleep. Of course Damian was furious, but fortunately he still had a computer in his room.

Was anyone here even trying to help Grayson?

Damian was walking down the main hallway when he heard voices in his father's study. Quietly, he crept to the slightly open door to listen.

"Luther is one of the smartest minds in the world. I've gone through all the possibilities with him, but we always came up with the same result Alfred. No connection can be made." Damian heard how lost his father's voice sounded and he didn't like it.

"Master Bruce you have tried everything. Master Dick knew how dangerous this work was. You are not to blame."

"A job I put on him." Resigned, his father looked at his watch: "It's been 8 hours since he got sucked in there. That means over a month in this other world. There is no water or plants in that dimension. In short nothing to survive on."

Powerless, the exhausted man slumped into the chair and put a hand over his tired face:

"He was probably dead in minutes before we could even begin the search."

Alfred sounded glum: "Master Bruce you should lie down. I will inform Master Damian about this."

"It's all right Alfred. I'll do that in the morning. He should hear it from me. Also should Tim and Jason. Let him sleep for now. Sleep is something we could all need at times like these."

"If you say so sir."

Shocked, Damian turned away from the door and quietly strolled on into the kitchen. He grabbed a sandwich from the large refrigerator, walked around the large kitchen island, and then sat down on a chair from the other side. Damian began to eat. Without being mentally in the actual time he stared toward the stove.

"Grayson what are you doing?"

Damian was just entering the kitchen when he saw the big jerk putting some ingredients into a bowl.

"Well what does it look like? I'm cooking."

Confused, the shorter one wrinkled his nose: "You're cooking? You do realize we have a butler, right?"

Dick just rolled his eyes: "There are some things even Alfred can't cook properly."

Damian now raised an eyebrow: "Which are?"

Grinning, Dick stirred around in the bowl: "Pancakes."

"What are pancakes?"

His counterpart paused in surprise his movement and looked at him as if he had just asked about the existence of numbers.

"What do you mean, you don't know what pancakes are?!"

Damian just shrugged: "When I lived with my mom, we usually had the same thing. Rice or something like that. Food is just there to nourish the body. I'm not very interested in culinary things."

Dick's features slipped: "Wow...that's really...sad."

Serenely, the smaller one countered: "What's so great about these pancakes anyway, if even Alfred fails at them?"

Dick was now grinning back at him again: "I cook them with heart."

Disgusted, Damian screwed up his face before the taller one registered why. Dick burst out laughing:

"Not the heart you think. I mean this." The black haired man placed a hand on his chest and looked down at the dough. A warm smile graced his face:

"I cook them with my family in mind. The recipe came from my mom. She always made the world's best pancakes for me and my dad. While I can't come close to her pancakes, I have to say I'm pretty good at it already."

"-tt- you really are a lost cause Grayson." Dick laughed at him while he put the first one in the pan.

"You should try them first and then criticize me. Come on, you only came to the kitchen because you're hungry, after all."

Again Damian hunched his shoulders. Well, at least at this point he was right.

The boy sat down on one of the chairs at the spacious kitchen island and waited patiently until both of them each had one of those pancakes on their plates. Dick leaned against the kitchen counter behind the island while he began to eat. Critically, Damian eyed the steaming dish. To him, it looked more like a soggy paper plate than something to eat. And Grayson's silly face, waiting in anticipation for his first bite, made him doubt whether he should really eat it.

"Come on, eat. I put extra syrup and blueberries on yours."

Damian just frowned. He hesitantly began to cut up this soft stuff and then shoved one of the pieces into his mouth. To his surprise, it was really delicious. A delicious sweet taste, which he had never experienced before, spread inside his mouth. There was simply nothing like this in his previous home. He let it melt on his tongue.

"From the puzzled look on your face, I'm assuming you must like my dish."

Grayson grinned like a horse as Damian registered that this idiot was still in this room too. Regaining his control, he cleared his throat:

"I'm just surprised I'm still alive. That's all."

The smaller one shoved another piece into his mouth.

Dick smiled at him:

"Still, you keep eating."

"It's quite passable."

Dick chuckled briefly in delight at this feedback before adding:

"Pancakes just always taste best when you enjoy them with your family."

Damian did not understand what this dreamer wanted to say now again with it, but he let it be. So they sat quietly in the large kitchen and ate their pancakes.

When Damian had finished his sandwich, he rose from the kitchen island and wanted to go to his room. On his way however he stopped in front of one of the many doors his body passed. Briefly, he pondered before the boy entered the room. The bedroom was generously laid out, with its blue elements here and there hinting at who it belonged to. A bed with a nightstand, a dresser and a dressing room across from the bathroom. That was all it had.

Damian stopped in front of the dresser which had many photos on it. Grayson with Cori. Grayson with Tim. The old Teen Titans, as well as the new ones. A framed drawing by Damian picturing Grayson and titled "Hopeless Idiot."

He picked up one of the pictures and looked at it more closely.

"Hey little D, check this out. Tim pimped my phone a little bit. You can take super sharp pictures with it now."

Damian was laying under the Batmobile, working on making the thrusters go even faster, when this idiot showed up:

"Congratulations Grayson, you'll now be able to take more pictures of nature and bother me less at work."

Dick approached him: "Let's take a picture. I don't have one with you yet."

Damian's only response to that was: "Get lost Grayson."

However, the latter was not so easily fobbed off. Instead, he pulled the little one out from under the machine on his rolling board and looked at him in surprise.

Then he started to grin diabolically: "This will be a great photo."

Damian protested loudly as the taller one wiped around his face with his stupid noodle-fingers: "Arg, Grayson stop...let me go! Arg...I'll make a eunuch out of you if you don't stop right now!"

At this threat, Dick paused for a moment before raising his index finger seriously:

"One photo and I'll leave you alone for a week."

Exasperated, Damian narrowed his eyes and then raised another finger in response: "Two weeks, but only one photo."

Dick grinned like a horse. He happily pressed the little one against him and raised his cell phone, "Say cheese!"

Damian's fingers slid over the picture, which showed him and Grayson, cheeks pressed close together. Because of the oil stains Dick had purposefully smudged at the time, it looked like someone had put cat makeup on him specifically for this photo.

The corners of Damian's mouth slid upward.

Unlike Dick, who had put on his widest smile, he just looked like Five Days of Bad Weather, while he was resisting the forced closeness.

Damian put the picture back.

As if he was in a trance, he went to the separate dressing room and picked out one of Dick's sweaters. He smelled the piece of fabric briefly before sitting down in a corner behind the large double bed and buried his face in it.

He just didn't want to believe it. Everything, his father, his calculations and time told him so. But he just didn't want to believe it.

Quietly, Damian began to sob into the familiar sweater.

Why did that damn idiot had to let go! Maybe the pipe would have held long enough. Then he wouldn't be...

Damian pressed his face even tighter into the piece of fabric as more and more tears soaked it. He hated Dick for making him feel this way right now. These new emotions, which he didn't know, hurt more than any broken bone, any wound he had ever taken.

He couldn't just take this. It was so much worse.

For a long time after, Damian sat unnoticed in the corner, crying into Dicks sweater, until eventually the tears drove him to sleep and he could finally rest.