Chapter Thirty Four

Under other circumstances, Dick would’ve taken her to the bedroom and hopefully the two of them could finally have had sex. Right now, sex was the furthest thing from either of their minds.

So when the pair emerged over an hour and a half later, their hair and clothes were mussed and messy from having cuddled and, in Dick’s case, silently cried for practically the entire time, rather than for fun reasons.

Still, it meant that when he came out to find a similarly homey scene, albeit more subdued, as before, with the other women doing various thing around the apartment, he didn’t start panicking or breaking down. Instead, he sighed softly, and then pulled the best smile he had available to his face, as the women all turned to look at him.

The best real smile, that is. Which was only a soft and small thing, but it was better than nothing, and…

“...okay, guys, listen. You’re all worried, about me I guess, and I get that nothing I say is actually gonna stop you.” Dick sounded somewhat resigned, but more than that, he was calmly accepting. He looked around, checking their expressions and finding them all in some form of agreement with him.

He carried on. “So, I’m going to try and just… accept it for now? We can be roomies until you’re happy, that’s not too big a deal, really. I… don’t know when, or if, I’ll ever talk about what you all want to know. Not all of it.” He shook his head at the thought of explaining… most of his issues, honestly, to these women.

Still, there was one thing that needed saying. “But, uh, I- You- None of you-” He furrowed his brow unhappily, trying to say this right. “...The Spyral thing. And Bruce. You need to know that- some of it, I mean. The basics. And that I don’t want you to do anything about it to him.”

Expectedly, it was Barbara who immediately raised protest, her temper flaring, “Dick, you can’t just protect him if he-”

“I’m not.” Dick interrupted, calm yet hard and unrelenting. “I’m not, okay? It’s not protecting him, it’s…”

The words caught in his throat. He wanted to say them, or knew he should say them, but he just couldn’t. What right did he have to- His eyes found Harley’s, pleading for help.

She smiled brightly and encouragingly at him, nodded slightly and said, “C’mon Bird-brain, ya got this. Ya know it’s gotta be you tha’ says it, an’ I know ya can-”

“It’s protecting me, Babs.” A hint of vulnerability slipped through in the nickname, as Dick **** himself for one of the first times to set a boundary, and…

Lo and behold. Barbara’s temper doused, her eyes widening, her features softening to that impossibly pretty smile of pride- and she nodded, accepting it. Respecting the boundary.

Dick blinked.

When he went to speak again, there was a lump in his throat from the emotion. When had someone last actually listened when he asked them to follow a boundary? When had he last tried? He couldn’t remember.

“...Thanks, Babs. Uh, all of you, too.” He paused, not quite sure where to go now, and Harley filled the moment.

“Y’all wanna help our ‘Wing? Then ya step one is listening ta’ him when he asks for a boundary. He’s had enough of them bein’ ignored- and no, I don’t know all the deets yet myself, because ah’ know he’ll tell me when he can or wants ta’.”

He found himself smiling at her somehow bouncy subtle admonishment, and then said, “Speaking of, uh, speaking… The basics of what happened, you know, then. I had a bomb on my heartbeat, so Luthor **** me to swallow a pill that stopped my heart, then, before too long had passed, he jabbed me with some adrenaline and I came back.”

Dick steadily pushed past the wincing and upset from the women, who knew it would be something bad but still didn’t enjoy hearing the details. “When me and B got back to the cave, he started talking about Spyral, and how this was an opportunity, yadda yadda, and then we fought until I won. He said I was the only one who could save everyone, and I went to Spyral. Then, I got back, and he never told anyone I didn’t want to go originally, so you all hate me, and-”

“I do not, and have never, hated you, Dick.” Zatanna’s voice cut through his story, and he looked over to find steely determination firmly pointed at him. “If you tell me you think that again- Actually, no, nevermind. It’s happening now. Get used to me telling you that, because it’s replacing ‘hello’ from now on.”

Before he could really process or respond to that, Donna gently interceded, turning the conversation back on track, “Was there anything more you wished to say about this Dick? Or shall we leave it here?”

“Oh, uh, I think that’s- Wait, actually…” He glanced over at Harley for a moment, then grimaced a little. He cautiously looked at Donna, and the other three women. “...There is one thing. If you’re staying here for a while, you’re going to see it, and… better to get it out the way now.”

Ignoring the confused looks and questions, Dick stood up and moved to one side, where they could all see him. Then, he took a deep breath, and pulled off his shirt.

Four of the women went silent, their eyes wide and faces in varying stages of surprise and confusion as they stared at his bare torso. Harley, of course, wolf-whistled appreciatively. “Damnnnn, them’s some nice abs, Dickie!”

Dick half-raised an eyebrow, not understanding and expecting a vastly different response, until he realised he was still facing them. He blushed, which seemed to trigger a release for the other women, as they smirked or looked away…or in Star’s case, continued staring directly at his abs.

He cleared his throat awkwardly, “I, uh, I didn’t mean- I meant this, actually.”

Dick turned around, exposing his back, and receiving several sharp inhales or gasps in response. The scars on his back were mostly the same as the rest of his body, except for the ones prompting the reaction. These were an angry red, thick and raised scar lines, and over a half dozen of them. It was barely shy of looking like mutilation, without context.

Still looking away from them, he found it easier to speak, “...When we fought, in the cave, I broke one of the display cases and landed on the glass. Then, when I went to Spyral, I couldn’t rest it or keep it clean and properly bound. It got infected, pretty bad, so… The scars. I just didn’t want you guys seeing it and freaking out, since you’ve kinda all seen me shirtless before, and you’d know these were new. They’re not fresh or still healing, they’re just… like this now.”

He pulled his shirt back with a slight shudder, and turned to the kitchen with misty eyes that reflected in the tremble of his voice as he said, “Yeah- anyways, how about some lunch then? Or whatever meal it should be, I guess!”

After a moment’s pause, Donna said, “Still lunch, I believe. Though you’re cutting it quite finely.”

Dick breathed a sigh of relief.

—

It’d been a fight and a half to get Babs, Donna, and Kori to let him out on patrol as Nightwing. They’d tried to deny it, offered to go with him, argued for the need to take a break, and more. Eventually, the only thing to actually get them to shut up and let him go was Zatanna cutting in to point out, “You’re trying to make another decision for him. He’s been out as Nightwing for months without support, then with Harley, and he’s fine. Is it really a problem?”

That seemed to work, so he and Harley went out. He was covering the east side, near the docks, whilst she was on his way through the centre on one of his older routes.

Which, upon reflection, was probably for the best, considering it appeared that Red Hood was stalking a warehouse on the docks just over there, and Harley would’ve had to either fight him or call Dick anyway.

He sighed a little, then swung down silently. He was about three steps away from Jason when he raised his voice to announce his presence. “Why do I get the feeling you’re about to ruin my nice and quiet night?”

Jason spun on his heel, leaning his weight back to allow himself space for the pistol that emerged from it’s holster as he turned, pointing the weapon at Dick’s chest on reflex. Then, the other man scoffed with disgust at the sight of Nightwing, and the electronically modulated voice answered, “Fuckin’ shoulda known you’d show.”

Well, at least Jason was still predictable in hating him. Good to see not everyone had gone crazy with suddenly giving a damn. Nightwing quipped back, “Well it is my city, after all. Usually I get a call first before a hero visits.”

“Too fuckin’ bad, Goldie. You’re shit outta luck tonight, and I’m fuckin’ busy. Got a Black Mask op in that warehouse that’s way fuckin’ bigger than I expected, and I gotta work out how to track three vans with one of me. So why don’t you fuck off back to whatever you were doing, and stop-”

Red Hood cut off as a wingding buried into the concrete ledge he was looking over, and the helmet sharply cut from the thrown weapon, to Nightwing. Before he could swear or complain, or whatever, Nightwing interrupted, his voice deadly serious and absolutely intolerant of Jason tonight. “Okay, let’s be clear, because I am not in the mood tonight. Hood, if there’s a rogue operation in my city, I don’t expect a courtesy call, I demand it. So get off your high horse, shut the hell up, and let me call in support.”

To Dick’s astonishment, despite having lost his composure a slight bit, Jason actually did stay silent. Whether that was out of acceptance, shock, or some other reason, it was impossible to tell through the helmet. It was a blessing Jason was so obvious in his emotions most of the time, honestly, since it made up for being unable to read his facial expressions.

Nightwing reached into one of the tiny pockets on his side, and pulled out the little earpiece for Harley that he’d removed earlier for some guaranteed alone time while patrolling. He put it in his ear, and listened to the little noise of connection before speaking. “Nightwing here. You free to swing by the docks?”

After a moment, Harley’s response came through, bouncy as always and putting a smile on his face. “Depends, Nightie, we meetin’ for a makeout sesh, or for boring stuff?”

“Alas, the latter. Got Red Hood here, with a Black Mask op in a warehouse. I’ll catch him up to speed, so he’s chill when you get here. We’re on the factory rooftop two down from the red water tower. Come from city-side though, don’t want to risk tipping them off.”

“Roger roger!” She chirped back, then paused a moment. “...Ya sure he ain’t gonna shoot me, yeah?”

Nightwing pinned a glare at Red Hood as he responded. “He won’t shoot you. I guarantee it. Nightwing out.”

Red Hood rolled his shoulders, and asked, “Who’d you call? Ain’t no heroes in Blud other than you, last I checked.”

“Well, guess your info is outdated, Little Wing.” Dick **** a smile and some cheer into his voice now. “That was my unexpected new ally that’s making an entrance to the hero community, and if you shoot her, I will leak every single one of your safehouse locations to the Batcomputer within the hour. That probably seems like overkill, but it makes sense considering the two of you might have some history-”

Jason groaned, almost a growl of displeasure, and shoved the pistol in his hand into it’s holster. “It’s fuckin’ Harley Quinn, isn’t it? What the fuck you thinking, Dickwad?”

“So you were just bullshitting me earlier, got it.” Dick sighed. “Look, she wanted to help, and she actually did. I checked the records, and tracked her for awhile before letting her, but she’s genuinely gone clean. If you can’t work with her, go home to Gotham and I’ll deal with this.”

Heya! Doc, the author, here. Just throwing in a note to mention a couple things. First off, thanks for reading so far! I hope you're enjoying it. Second, if you are enjoying it, then I've set up a Discord Server you can join! I'll leave a link at the bottom of here, but if it's expired, just send me a PM! Quite barebones right now, but it has channels and links for my other stories that I've made, and I'll be active on there to receive feedback, talk about ideas I have for writing, or whatever I have planned for my stories, art references, etc. I'd love to see you on there! Third, if you really like what I've written, for...some reason, then I have a patreon from my writing on The Gamer, and that'll also be linked on the server!

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