Chapter Text
The Flight was a long one. As to be expected, and comfortable as a trip from Glasgow to Gotham could be even with this being the second Layover flight.
Not that he really minded, having been seated alone, something he actually preferred. He hated to think of anyone having to deal with his quiet manner and deep brooding he’d been told wasn’t very fun to look at.
The plane tilts and instinctively Dick looks to the window he’s seated at. Homesick for a place he never dreamed would become home.
Gotham is a maze of glimmering streetlights, lush gardens, and the river glints in the moonlight. It’s like a map of the stars on the earth and where they’re starting to decend Dick spies the Big Four bridge and Wayne clock tower expertly lit.
It looks like Home.
It looks like your mission, His thoughts remind him. You have a mission here.
Other then the lights Dick can spy different colors glimmering from other parts of the city a sight that oddly mimics the circus. He leans back with a faint smile. A thousand lights across peeling brickwork steal beams, glass high rises and stonework.
Gargoyles stand watch on the high rises and cornices and Dick’s got a different thought forming now. He’s imagining them perched over the city guarding it and he sees himself there alongside, keeping them company.
A lonely man with even lonelier company. He thinks and the thought sobers his fantasizing turning him away from the window.
The rustle inside the plane gets louder as people around him being to prepare to land. Putting away books and magazines as the overhead announces that they will be landing soon.
Richard “Dick” Wayne sits back and prepares to step into Gotham for the first time in years.
The Wayne estate Caverns – Gotham
“I see you’ve returned for the Evening.”
Alfred’s crisp voice bounces slightly off large limestone walls and it carries an annoyed echo. Dicks’ lips tighten into a flat line waiting now for the lecture.
3 months.
3 months Dick has been home.
It’s felt longer then the several years Dick took to be here.
He’s not going to be convinced but Alfred is going to try anyways. The Butler didn’t convince his adoptive parents and he’s not going to stop Dick. There was nothing left for Dick to let hold him back anymore.
Alfred begins to walk over but pauses when Dick winces. There’s a twinge in his thigh and his abdomen had loudly announced it’s pain again, reminding dick of the handicaps he got tonight.
“I’ll be fine.” Dick mutters turning away to avoid seeing the look on Alfred's voice and stay positive about all this.
Alfred snorts almost too politely. “I just need some tweezers and antiseptic” Dick fires back calmly.
“Morphine as well I imagine, Those grazes in your thigh as well as the shot you did take are not mere scrapes on the concrete Master dick nor is the glass you embedded in them while gallivanting around.” Alfred enters Dick’s vision from the left and when he looks up Alfred's voice may not have changed but he hates seeing those eyes growing disappointed always.
Alfred retains eye contact for a few seconds maybe more before a tired sigh escapes him and his shoulders lower.
“I shall fetch them for you, stay here in your chair.” Alfred said and Dick nodded.
He watched him go and caught the twitch of a mustache that meant Alfred was holding back another sigh. He started heading up the crudely carved concrete steps and Dick starts to think about the railings he still needs to put in there.
It’s not until Alfred disappears into the loft elevator that the smile appears. Dick’s tired, sore and still injured despite the bleeding slowing down thanks to the gauze pad Dick’s pressing to his abdomen. Despite all this and Alfred's own displeasure Dick’s reminded that he’s still here and so is Alfred. Even though he disproved.
It makes him miss his parents too, not that he dwells on that.
Dick stands up intending not to get stiff and actually make his way to the proper makeshift medical bay he’s got. The chair is an old high backed oak with velvet cushion he’d swiped from the upper library hallways so it’s a decent support to at least get him on his feet.
The bay itself is just a medical cot and a few curtains along with a small cabinet but it’s enough for now.
He begins to limp his way and the pain flares to a solid 11 that has Dick closing his eyes for a few seconds at a time. It takes what feels like forever but Dick makes it to the cot. Then Dick starts to bend intending to sit down. Pain flares hot and hard, Dick sees white creep into his vision, his thigh feels as if it’s been shot all over again.
For a panicked second Dick’s left staring at the ground nearly dizzy and wondering if the bullet shifted onto a nerve ending somewhere and hears the metal creek under his hands.
He still manages to get onto the cot and relaxes enough that the pain eases down to tolerable. By the time Dick gets himself comfortable in a laying position he hears footsteps echo in the cave.
Dick doesn’t look over until Alfred's walking up. He’s got a silver tray in hand and when Dick leans up a bit, albeit painfully, he sees a bottle of antiseptic tweezers and gauze. Everything needed to try and convince Dick to stop.
The last bullet wound didn’t.
Dick nods at him and lays back down folding his hands and letting his mind retreat to take the strain off the pain while Alfred treats him. It’s not until the last stitches are being tied off that Dick thinks to ask.
“Hey, what happened to getting morphine?” Dick asked glancing over where a bullet lay on the silver tray the red color turning dark as the blood clotted and dried.
“It seems I forgot, How will you ever forgive me.” Alfred says dryly turning away with the tray briskly and Dick sighs
I need to get a source of Morphine down here. He thinks only a little disappointing. Especially if Alfred kept doing this.
Dick stands while Alfred is putting away the gauze and other supplies. He doesn’t miss the whisper of an audible tsk from his left when he stretches, feeling his stitches strain.
“Is there something you wanna say Alfie?” Dick glanced over ghost of a smile already perched on his lips as he lifted an eyebrow
“Only that I wish you the best in this foolish endeavor.”
Alfred doesn’t face him and continues to put the items away including the bullet left on the tray. He’s planning on leaving it in there to remind Dick it looks like. Dick guesses he should feel bad especially with the cabinets being included but the bullet wound in his thigh aches too much for him to bother down that line of thought.
“Is dinner made?” Dick sighs limping his way tot he front of the cave, shuffling the notes together spread across the desk and placing them in their file, shoving the chair back in. He’s avoiding the stairs more then really organizing.
“Of course, well balanced meal of Meatloaf and my famous scalloped potatoes” Alfred replies and when Dick turns Alfred is there with a reassuring smile and an outstretched elbow.
Dick takes it with a smile and together they get up the stairs.
He doesn’t settle for the idea at first.
Jason doesn’t really remember much about dad, just happy things of being carted around, getting hotdogs or going to the park once. But he does know him.
Just through a phone.
In years time Jason will probably hate how he acted when his dad came home but for now he doesn’t care.
It’s not like when his dad got pinched by cops. He’s older and protective, especially over mom, and there’s outbursts. Screaming, crying, loud angry outbursts and all Jason seems to be able to say for it all is “You weren’t there!” or “How would you know!”
Willis Todd comes home and Jason hates it. Then he cries, he talks and Willis holds him the whole way and Jason changes as things heal.
The more Jason talks the better things get and for a while things are normal.
Jason’s coming home with a new reading assignment and already excited to talk about it with Mom but dreading actually doing it. These days it seemed like homework barely took any effort and Jason missed school work almost.
Not that he’d admit it, James would narc on him to someone and that’d bring nothing but teachers pet, and book worm! accusations.
The teachers whispered when they thought Jason didn’t look but he wasn’t stupid. He’d learned a long time ago at their old apartments when people were talking about you, the way the two old ladies in 4b did about his Mom living alone. The teachers talked to each other and a few times Jason caught them looking over his tests. It was starting to be weird.
That wasn’t his only worry, his Dad was on his mind too.
Jason felt like he couldn’t talk about it, unless he wanted to worry his mom but his Dad was coming home weird lately. He didn’t want to talk or he was snappy and when he did talk to Jason he was tired.
He never seemed to want to talk about work either but Jason thought working for Wayne Enterprises was really cool! His dad got to fix mechanical stuff all the time at the really big buildings!
Then the black eye happens.
He’s supposed to be in bed.
He’s got a book half shut against the nightstand where he shoved it and the flashlight was stuffed under the pillow. He’s drifting thinking of dogs and snow and suddenly he wakes, like an icy wave dousing him awake.
“-IILIS Todd!”
Jason is still too groggy to understand what’s being said but what is awake knows that’s mom, and somethings wrong. He should go back to bed because it sounds like adults stuff but he’s curious.
So he quietly hopes from the bed and his footsteps feel impossibly loud on the floor but he manageds to open the door without so much as a creak.
“It’s fine!“
That’s his dad answering and Jason’s inched up the hallway focused and entirely too awake now. He peeks around the corner just enough to see into the kitchen.
“It’s fine honey it’ll go away” His dad’s leaning away from where his moms got a cloth dabbling at his dad’s face. “No big deal, gotten worse in bar fights.”
Jason feels frozen. The rags turning red, and his dad’s got the same shade wetly going down the side of his face and it coats part of his eye. His dad’s head moves just slightly enough that Jason’s head whips around the corner as his heart tries to beat hard out of his chest.
Is he breathing too loud?
“Don’t tell me that Willis Jefferson Todd!” His mom’s voice sounds like thunder so close now, and barely under a scathing hiss. “You have got to go to the police or Maybe Wayne could help-”
“Wayne don’t have jurisdiction he’s only been back 3 months and I can’t prove extortion because they’re not sending threats directly.”
his dads voice echoes back and Jason’s thinking about the words and what they mean. Extortion, he doesn’t know that word. It doesn’t sound good
“Well . . well you have to do something Will!” His mom’s voice sounds awful, it’s shaking and Jason covers his mouth at the last second to hide the gasp of air he takes.
“I know. I know honey, I’m trying … let’s clean up I’ll head to Thompkins on the way to work to get this proper fixed. We’re still doing okay, and the acceptees get announced soon so it’s just a waiting game at this point.”
Steps echo loudly and he jolts, before shuffling, half tripping, down the hallway and into his room. His door is hut quiet as possible and Jason tries not to pull the covers down over his head even though he just wants to hide.
Jason pretended as hard as he could feeling like a deer in headlights. This wasn’t like getting caught with a book, they expected that. If they caught him up now, they’d know he heard them.
Footsteps are at his door, and his door creaks from being opened too slow. Jason just breathed, feeling the blood rushing in his ears and his eyes burning from how tightly shut they were.
A second.
Two seconds.
A quiet click and Jason releases the air he was holding staring at the wall as relief washed over him. Replacing that was a acidic wash of worry.
It takes Jason a long time after that to fall asleep.
There isn’t any more black eyes or blood or midnight fights after that. For the next several months things are normal again and Jason almost forgets anything even happened. If not for the feeling of seeing his dad hurt that is.
Jason catches himself watching his dad waiting to see something wrong but nothing happens. So Jason just pushes the worry away and trusts his Dad was right. It’s his Dad right?
His dad went to prison and that was terrifying, so if he said it was fine it’s fine.