**WARNING: THIS CHAPTER INCLUDES A SCENE THAT COULD BE TRIGGERING FOR SOME READERS, THERE WILL BE A WARNING BEFORE THE SCENE, READER'S DISGRESSION ADVISED. TRIGGER WARNING: SA**

GSOG Chapter 28

Monday, January 17th. Dick is waiting outside the school for Barbara to arrive, but she doesn't seem to be coming today either. He pulls out his phone, texting her.

D: Still not feeling well?

He waits for her reply,

Babs: No, everything still hurts…

D: I'm sorry… Do you need anything? I can ask Mel to bring you something.

Babs: No, I'll be ok, just kind of riding it out.

D: Ok. I hope you get to feeling better soon.

He puts his phone away and starts for the main school doors, going inside. As he wanders the halls to get to his locker, he feels a hand grab him and pull him into an alcove, pinning him to a wall. He winces a bit, his ribs being hit just right.

"Hola, querido (Hello, Darling (Spanish)." A voice says. Dick looks up, seeing an upperclassman holding him.

"Cat…" He trails off.

"I heard you got yourself a boyfriend." She says. "What about your little girlfriend, Gordon?"

"Barbara and I never dated." Dick states calmly, though he's a little tense with her hold. He doesn't know why, but something about her makes him feel really uneasy.

"Just admit you're a little slut, gypsy boy." She coos, stroking his cheek with the back of her hand. He tenses at her touch.

"Stop." He states firmly with a slight hint of panic in his tone, wriggling under her hold, but he can't put too much strength into it, he can't blow his cover. What's the normal amount of strength for an underweight and under-height fourteen year old?

"Your little toys aren't here to play, making you all mine today." She says, running her hand along his jaw, trailing it down his neck. He finally manages to push her off and step back, breathing a bit heavily in panic.

"I said stop!" He shouts, his shoulders trembling a bit. Why is he so terrified of her…? She's just some girl, someone he's seen at galas and things that Bruce holds as she's a ward of a rich man herself. She goes out of her way to flirt with him, moreso when Barbara isn't around. She rarely approaches him at school, but then again, Barbara is almost always at school…

The commotion has brought the attention of several students, seeing Catalina step out from the alcove.

"Mi querido (my darling), come back!" She says, arms wide open. "Nothing can hold you back anymore."

"I have a boyfriend!" Dick snaps. "Just leave me alone already!" He's trying to stop his shaking. A hand comes to his shoulder. Catalina stops. Dick looks up to see who it was. Bette…?

"Walk away, Flores." Bette warns. Another hand comes to his shoulder. Artemis…

"Regardless of his relationship status, he told you to leave him alone, so you can back the fuck off before I make you." Artemis warns. Catalina hmphs and walks away. Dick lowers his head, closing his eyes, still trembling a bit. "Dick?"

"I'm ok… She just…" Dick takes a deep breath. "She likes to flirt and touch me, more when Babs isn't here. Something about it makes me really uncomfortable… Something about her…"

"You should tell someone, this could get worse if you don't." Bette suggests.

"No… They probably wouldn't believe me, not without substantial proof, I'm a guy after all..." Dick mentions. He breaks from them, continuing on to his locker. Artemis and Bette nod at each other, walking in the other direction. Dick goes to first period and the day is going normally until he hears the front phone ring. The teacher stops her lecture and walks over to answer it.

"Yes?" She answers. "Ok, I'll send him down… Bye." She hangs up, Dick's heart sinks immediately, especially when the teacher turns her attention to him. "You've been called to the front office. Head there now." She orders. Dick nods. A number of students oooh like usual, as if he's in some sort of trouble. He of course does as told, heading to the office. When he enters, he sees the vice principal and the school councilor there, seeming to be waiting for him. He's lead into the VP's office.

"Have a seat, Mr. Grayson." He tells him. Dick does as told, sitting, making sure his posture is perfect. He is representing the Wayne family after all. "We understand you had been harassed by one of your peers before class started this morning." Dick isn't able to really hide his shock. "We would like your side of the story." Can he really tell…? He's a guy, so… would it really be taken seriously? It should! It definitely should! But will it…?

"You can tell us, Richard." The councilor states, Dick looks at them. "I know it can be hard, but if anything did happen, we want to know about it." He turns his head back forward, facing his gaze toward the floor.

"I… Don't want to get anyone in trouble." Dick says. "I probably just overreacted, it's no big deal…"

"This is a matter that can't be taken lightly. Any information you provide could be vital in proper justice being carried out." The Vice Principal says. Dick looks up at him again.

"It's clear that something happened." The Councilor says. "More than a few different witnesses came forward with the same story." He glances at the councilor before lowering his head again, his left fist clenching, he can't really clench the other. "This could get worse if we don't take action now, and we can only take action if you tell us in your own words what happened."

"Ok..." He answers. "Her name is Catalina Flores. She um... She saw my friend Barbara wasn't at school today and pulled me aside, kind of pinned me to the wall. She found out I have a boyfriend, so… I don't know what her end goal was but she was caressing my cheek, and my jaw, then my neck and I really didn't like it, so I got away from her, told her to leave me alone." Dick explains finally.

"Did she?" The Councilor asks.

"Sort of…" Dick admits. "A couple of other students came up to help me, Artemis Crock and Bette Kane."

"How often does she do this?" The VP asks.

"Only really when Barbara isn't around, which isn't often." He answers. "It happens more at the parties Bruce holds." The councilor's eyes seemingly scan over his body, his shoulders are slightly trembling, his left hand is clenched tight.

"You're… not ok." The councilor says, noticing he's gotten a little pale. "She really scares you… What all has she done?" Dick unclenches his fist and starts fidgeting a bit, obnoxious anxiety habit that Alfred hasn't been able to fully train out of him.

"She can be a little touchy, but she hasn't gone very far. I don't know why I feel so scared around her specifically, I mean, I've had a number of people make unwanted advances toward me, kind of comes with the territory of being the son of a rich playboy." Dick explains, he stops fidgeting for a moment, hands sort of freezing in place. "But, something about her sends off all the wrong feelings." He shivers a bit, bringing his arms up, hugging himself. "I-I just don't know… But I tend to trust my gut."

"We'll investigate this matter further." The VP says. "Is there anything else you would like to mention? Anything you want to talk about?" Dick shakes his head. "Do you need to take the rest of the day?"

"No, I missed enough school as is, I shouldn't…" Dick answers.

"It really isn't a problem. Your mental health matters, and it's clear this has shaken you up a bit." The Councilor says. "We already called Mr. Wayne, in case you weren't willing to open up to us." Dick's eyes widen and he looks up at them, looking from one to the other.

"You didn't have to do that, he was supposed to have a meeting this morning…" Dick states.

"He should know of issues that occur at this school, he is one of our main benefactors and you're his son." The VP reasons. Dick closes his eyes, angry that he's causing problems. He shouldn't have reacted like he did… There's a knock on the door. "Come in." The door opens, Bruce of course entering the room.

"I came as quickly as I could. What's going on?" He asks, worry evident in his voice.

"There was another student making unwanted advances towards Richard, sir." The councilor explains to him. "Apparently this isn't the first time this has happened."

"What…?" Bruce questions, voice going deep, it was clear he was angry. Dick tenses. Noticing this, Bruce forces himself to relax, stepping up beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder gently. "Are you ok?" Dick looks up at him, the look in his eyes sort of answer his question. Bruce looks at the two members of staff. "What's going to be done about this?"

"Well, we're going to investigate further into this matter." The VP says. "We can keep you up to date on the progress and tell you when we have an outcome." Bruce nods, content with that for now.

"Come on." Bruce says, helping Dick to his feet. "Do you need to grab anything before we leave?"

"Yea, I left my books in the classroom. My coat's in my locker." Dick answers.

"Ok. I'll wait here, unless you'd rather I stay by you." Bruce offers.

"No, I'll be fine." Dick says. He leaves the office and heads down the halls to his classroom. He's lost in his mind as he heads there, going over every action, anything he could have done differently. Maybe he should have gone another way, or maybe- As he rounds the corner, a hand grabs his arm, throwing him off to the side. He stumbles with a soft shout, barely staying on his feet. A door shuts and there's the clicking sound of a lock. He turns around immediately, seeing Catalina in front of him. His eyes widen, tensing up immediately.

****Trigger warning for SA****

"Hello again." She says, smiling so sickeningly sweet. He backs away from her as she starts to approach. "Now, now, mi querido. No need to be so afraid. I simply want to hold you, to feel your body against mine. We were destined for each other, my love!" He thinks of how to get away from her, being backed into the corner by the teacher's desk, it's a currently unoccupied classroom. God he wishes he were Robin right now… But, he is a known acrobat… Maybe if he could just…

He jumps up, grabbing the teacher's desk and sliding along the top, it knocks a bunch of papers and writing tools to the ground, but that doesn't matter right now. He lands on the other side of the desk and books it to the door. She's quick to turn, running after him. She grabs him up before he can get it unlocked, placing a hand on his mouth as he shouts, an arm around his waist, pulling him back. He struggles against her, making her fall back, but she wraps her legs around his torso, pinning his body against hers. He's trying to pry her legs off him, but it's hard to do when your most dominant hand is casted. Still though… He manages to press and hold a button that's on his watch.

"Now, now, my pretty gypsy boy…" She whispers in his ear, making him tense up, her voice giving all the wrong chills through his body. "We can have so much fun…" He continues to wriggle around and fight to break free. With her free hand, she works on untying his tie. All there is is muffled shouts from him that doesn't alert anybody. She manages to pull the tie off, and removes her hand, allowing Dick to breathe in deep finally as her hand was also blocking his nostrils. In that reprieve, she takes the tie and wraps it over his mouth as a gag, tying it off tight, causing him to wince.

Back at the office, Bruce has this knot in his stomach, he can't exactly understand why. Something doesn't feel right... Then, he feels a buzzing on his wrist, he looks at his watch, seeing little dots and dashes-

. . .
_ _ _
. . .

-that appear, morse for SOS, in blue colored font.

"I'm being paged, just a moment." Bruce says, taking out his phone and pretending to answer it. "This is Bruce Wayne." He steps out of the office. "Oh, Mr. Sullivan, yes, we are almost done with that project you asked for." He explains into the nothing as he walks out of earshot. He then puts his phone away and then taps on his watch, following a tracker that's on his boy.

He rounds the corner, seeing the door and seeing movement in the dark through the window. The door is locked, he can tell that right now… He kneels down, flicking out a hidden lockpicking tool from his glove, even though these aren't the Bat-Gloves from his suit, he still has this mechanism in all his gloves, for instances where he needs to pick a lock. Like now. He opens the door and flips on the light. Bruce takes in the entire scene in the split second it takes for reactions to occur.

Catalina has her legs down against Dick's, forcing his apart, his tie was being used as a gag, one hand is gripping his hair which pulls his head to the side while she was seemingly kissing and biting into his neck, her other hand was… exploring… his more personal area. His blazer was cast aside while his button up was undone and to his elbows, and she was… grinding, for lack of a better word… upon his rear… And… moaning… While Dick's eyes were shut tight, trying to keep her from undoing his pants, and failing, his belt and the button was already undone. His face is tearstained, grimacing, muffled whimpers escaping his throat.

"Get off of him!" Bruce snaps, loudly. Catalina does as told, moving her legs and unhanding him. Dick immediately scrambles up and to Bruce, hugging him tight. Bruce places his arms around him protectively. "What is the matter with you!?" She stands up, not having any excuse. What Bruce saw, thankfully she hadn't done anything more than that… yet… And now, teachers are coming out of their classrooms to see the commotion, students peeking out due to curiosity. Dick is hysterically sobbing, struggling to get a good breath as a massive panic attack is taking him over. Bruce has worked the knot loose and let the tie fall to the ground, holding the small, trembling child.

He gasps as he sobs, breathing in sharply, hiding his face in Bruce's abdomen. He coughs heavily, almost gagging, like he's about to throw up. He clutches to Bruce's suit-jacket like a vice.

"Shh, I've got you, baby. I've got you..." Bruce says softly, stroking his hair gently. He'd take Dick outside, but he doesn't want to risk Catalina escaping, so he blocks the door with his large stature.

****END SA SCENE****

Bruce's booming voice alerted Artemis, recognizing it. She perks up, most other students have heard it too and the teacher goes to investigate, ordering the students to stay put. Artemis doesn't listen, getting up and bolting out of the room, pushing past her teacher and running down the hall, seeing more and more teachers, students and even security now approaching all one place. She pushes past the crowds and finds Bruce, and more importantly, she finds Dick clutching to him, sobbing, barely able to catch his breath. His hair is all messed up, his shirt is half way down his arms and his pants have been undone. Artemis sees red, stepping past Bruce and Dick and going straight for Catalina.

"You bitch!" She growls, punching her in the face so hard there's a satisfying crunch under her fist, causing the elder to scream, the force of it knocks her down to the floor, holding her nose. "What the fuck is wrong with you!" Before Artemis can unleash all her Crock rage, security grab her and hold her back. Another two hoist Catalina up as she sobs and bleeds. Artemis kicks up and forward, hitting her in center mass, knocking the wind out of her. The security guards fight harder to hold Artemis back, keeping them apart. "He's just a kid, you mother fucking bitch!"

"Artemis, stand down!" Bruce orders, almost in his Batman voice. She does as told, but glares torturous death at this thing that calls herself a woman… Bette had made her way as well, seeing her friend having bolted halfway across the school, she was concerned. She then sees the young Freshman sobbing in Bruce Wayne's arms, clothes half undone and sobbing. Marks are appearing on his skin… She can instantly piece together what happened.

"Oh my god…" She mutters. She steps over slowly, placing a hand gently on Dick's shoulder, he flinches, tensing up at anyone else's touch that's not Bruce's. She immediately retracts her hand. Bruce pulls Dick aside to allow the security guards to take Artemis and Catalina out of the room. Artemis still looks enraged, Bette's never seen her so angry and it sort of scares her, but she'll stand by her best friend. Catalina is being brought out, face bloody and she was seemingly biting back tears. A teacher approaches Bruce quickly.

"I called down to the office, they're making a call for emergency services." The teacher explains.

"Thank you..." Bruce says softly. Dick's breathing has started to regulate, but small sobs and hiccups slip out every now and then.

"The poor boy... He's such a sweetheart!" The teacher says. Bruce nods in agreement.

"C-Can... I... get dressed in my gym clothes...?" Dick asks softly.

"Soon. I want to get pictures for evidence first." Bruce states softly. Dick nods a little, eyes have remained tightly closed.

"Students and staff!" The intercom comes to life with the principal's voice. "We will be entering a soft lockdown. All students and staff are to stay in their classrooms at this time, teachers, lock all doors, if the bell rings, please disregard. Again, we will be entering a soft lockdown." Teachers and security are ushering students back into their classrooms, even Bette has to go back to hers. She shoots Artemis a supportive but worried look as she walks by.

Police arrive quickly, as do paramedics. Seeing the lights and hearing the sirens, Melinda, who had been waiting in the car, climbs out and sees them rush in. Her eyes widen and she wants to go in to see what happened, but she waits, not wanting to get in the way. Once they're inside, police approach the scene.

"What happened here?" Commissioner Gordon asks, he heard of something terrible happening at the school he sends his daughter to, he took the case immediately.

"She," Bruce gestures toward Catalina, "s*xually assaulted my son..." Bruce answers, his tone is deep and quiet. "I want to press charges." Gordon gives the order for Catalina to be arrested. Paramedics come through, Bruce lifts Dick up to place him on the gurney.

"No... No! Don't!" Dick cries out, he clutches tighter to Bruce's suit jacket, there's a ripping out as parts of it are trying to separate. Bruce stops trying to move him, just holds him as he shakes in his arms.

"You need to let the paramedics see you." Bruce says softly. A couple other officers are taking photos of the scene, inside the room as it was.

"I press charges!" A voice shouts. Catalina fusses and kicks while being read her rights, which leads to her being placed in handcuffs. She's now being constantly guarded as she's also considered a flight risk. "She assaulted me!" An officer makes the girl sit on another stretcher that's been brought in and paramedics take a look at her definitely broken nose. One of them feels around and then pops it back into place, causing her to scream, "Puta (bitch! (Spanish)!" They then work on stopping the bleeding.

Artemis is also being seen by a paramedic for her hand, which is bruised, so they don't have to do much, just suggest she ices it, nothing seems broken surprisingly. Artemis is subsequentially arrested due to Catalina's charge on her, but she wasn't put in handcuffs as she was not as volatile in her actions, or considered a flight risk. She's being brought out of the school now.

Dick at least agrees to pictures being taken of the bruising on his neck and the scratches on his chest and belly, all while Bruce holds him up bridal. This is how paramedics check on his injuries as well which thankfully he's not too injured, the scratches are mostly just agitated skin, but no skin is broken. She did leave marks on his neck, which has been disinfected and bandaged. He won't let anyone touch his chest though, so they can't apply any ointment.

"I won't force any details out of you, Dick, but if you're willing to talk, I'll listen." Jim says softly. Dick nods a little. Jim takes out a recording device and places it up toward Dick so it can pick up his voice.

****Trigger Warning, Explanation of SA****

"I-I was going to my classroom to get my things..." Dick explains, his voice is so quiet. "I was about to go home because she a-already made a move on me this morning and it freaked me out... So Dad was going to take me home... I didn't see her hiding around the corner and she grabbed me... threw me into the classroom... I tried to fight back, get out, but I wasn't... strong enough... nd..." His breathing starts becoming more shaky and panicked. He stops himself, swallowing a bit of saliva that's in his mouth. "She grabbed me... S-Started touching me and undressing me... sh-she gagged me, and started licking my ear and kissing my neck and I couldn't stop her!" He starts crying again. "I couldn't stop her..." He tries to choke back the sobs, but ultimately fails. "I feel so sick and violated and gross and I-I can't get her voice out of my head! H-Her moaning and whispering in my ear of all the things she wanted to do to me..." More sobs come out as fresh tears slide down his cheeks. "I just want to be left alone! Is that too much to ask!?" Bruce brings one of his arms up, holding Dick's head to him.

****End of Description****

"Shh, everything will be ok, baby..." Bruce says softly. "I'm here, she can't get you..." Jim stops recording, figuring that's all he's going to get, which is definitely quite a statement.

"I wanna go home..." Dick cries softly. "I just wanna go home..." He takes a shaky breath in.

"We'll go home... I'll call Selina, ok?" Bruce offers.

"O-Ok..." His voice breaks a little, sounding so much like a scared little kid. It's moments like these that really drives home just how young the Boy Wonder really is, a bit cliche, but still, it's accurate...

"I'm proud of you, for being willing to open up about this." Jim states. "I may contact you with further questions, but right now, you're free to go. Do you want me to let Barbara know of this?"

"She's not feeling well... I-I don't want to bother her..." Dick mumbles.

"Alright." He agrees. Bruce starts walking Dick out, first heading to the locker rooms so Dick can get dressed in his gym uniform like he wanted. He just wants out of these clothes. He doesn't care if he dresses in front of Bruce. Bruce takes off his suit jacket and places it over Dick's shoulders to keep him warm as they head outside. Paramedics have already filed out, there's a couple of police cars left, but one of those belongs to Jim and whoever he rode with. The cars that held Artemis and Catalina are long gone. Once outside, Melinda looks up, her eyes widen when she sees how pale and small Dick looks. His cheeks all puffy from tears, and he looks utterly exhausted.

"Oh my god, what happened? Is he ok?!" Melinda asks, worried to death for her baby brother.

"Not right now…" Bruce admits. Dick is still trembling, his hand gripping to Bruce's suit-jacket as if it were a weighted blanket over his shoulders. He takes a sharp breath in as he fights back more sobs. "We're headed home." Melinda nods and is prepared to climb in the back, but Dick opts for it, so he can just curl in and let the smell of Bruce's cologne left on his jacket sooth him. It's a pleasant pine-woodsy smell, similar to the cologne his father used to wear.