I'm Fine (book 2)

Reminiscing

Nightwing pushed through feeling a little woozy from the pain killer he took in order to go to his room and do some research. He sat quietly at his desk, scouring the Internet and news papers for crime scene photos or any kind of sightings of Slade or Tara but no luck. After a few hours, Cyborg knocked on his door but didn't receive an answer. He cracked the door open to see Nightwing hunched over and asleep with his face stuck to his files. Cyborg gently nudged him awake.

"Hey man, are we doing training today?" Cyborg whispered.

"Huh? Uhmm...." Nightwing groaned as he tried to sit up with his stiff back suddenly realizing he was asleep, "What time is it?"

"Like, 2:15.... training started 15 minutes ago..." Cyborg gently suggested.

"Ohhhhhshiiiitt" Nightwing groaned, still groggy. "I'm so sorry!" He shuffled his papers into a pile, trying to organize his thoughts. "How's everyone have they checked in?"

"It was only Beastboy, Bee, and I. Raven's still recovering, Damien is out for obvious reasons, and Starfire is MIA..." Cyborg continued.

"Wait! What do you means she's MIA!?" Nightwing suddenly snapped awake with concern.

"No idea, she left a note saying "out doing the errands" but nobody knows where exactly that was. Cyborg continued as Nightwing struggled to stand up with his aching back.

"Alright, you three go ahead and do training. I'll figure out Starfire." Nightwing started to trudge towards his door but Cyborg stopped him.

"Woah, where are you going gimpy!?" Cyborg interjected. Nightwing tried to protest but Cyborg wasn't having it. The aching pain was growing in his back and he knew what Cyborg was suggesting.

"I need to know she's okay!" Nightwing pleaded desperately.

"She will! She's just running errands!" Cyborg reassured him as he got him to sit on his bed.

Starfire's feet hit the carpet just inside of her open window as her communicator went off with Cyborg's voice. "Star, how soon are you going to be back?" Cyborg called into his arm. She quickly took the small box and hid it in her closet before answering.

"I have arrived right now!" She chirped back into her communicator happily. She stepped out of her bedroom to go eat something for lunch without a second thought.

Cyborg nudged Nightwing's arm with a smirk. "See. I told ya so!" He chuckled as he walked out of the room. Nightwing waited a few minutes after Cyborg had left so he was sure he wasn't coming back before he slipped a pill bottle out of his nightstand. It was the pain killers he swiped from the hospital storage and hid them in an ibuprofen bottle. He dry-swallowed one pill and got up to go to the kitchen.

Raven woke up alone. She knew that meant it was after 2pm since that's when training was today. She rolled onto her side with some mild cramping in her stomach from the medicine but feeling surprisingly good besides that. She threw a cloak on and left to the kitchen.

Bee was sitting out on the sofa with baby Vinny enjoying the downtime since training was canceled. Beastboy was on the other side of the sofa, playing a single player video game with zombies. She noticed that the rest of the team was coming into the kitchen one-by-one. Cyborg was first, followed by Starfire, then Raven, and lastly Nightwing. Nightwing looked a little disheveled as he looked around the room. Bee was concerned since he never missed training or canceled last minute but his disheveled appearance didn't help the cause either.

Nightwing cleared his throat to get everyone's attention from the doorway. "Hey guys, I'm really sorry about missing training today..." he started with his voice a little groggy. "For those that don't know yet, Uhm, I had twin siblings that were adopted by a different family before I went to Bruce and they passed away yesterday..." Nightwing's voice cracked on the word "passed". His eyes started to tear up under his mask as he glanced around at everyone's surprised expressions. "Uhm, it won't happen again." He completed his apology with a shallow breath and turned to go back to his room before anyone could ask him any questions. The room remained silent for a while after. No one quite knew how to react.

Nightwing made it back to his room with no questions or expressed sympathies which he was relieved about. He didn't feel like talking. He pulled out his suitcase from under his bed and pulled out some of his normal, non-uniform clothes to pack it. He pulled out a black suit with a dark grey dress shirts and placed it neatly into the suitcase. The last thing he snuck inside his suitcase was hidden in a balled up pair of socks was his undercover ibuprofen bottle that was filled with heavy duty pain killers. Zipping it shut, he heard a light tap of a knock on his door before Starfire walked in. She silently moved to him without a word, pulled his mask off and gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead before she left his room. She somehow always knew exactly what he needed. Nightwing sat down after the brief encounter with Nightwing and felt a twinge of guilt about the hidden painkillers.

Beastboy went to the hospital wing to visit Damien. He got there and saw Damien nervously twiddling his IV line as he sat there.

"Can you please take this out??" Damien whined to Beastboy when he saw him enter the room.

"I don't like needles either." Beastboy muttered as he sat down since that was the best answer he could offer up on the subject. The two joked around about various video games and the other Titans until the topic got to Nightwing.

"He's not okay..." Damien started with his voice taking a dramatic shift to severity.

"What do you mean?" Beastboy asked shocked by the change in attitude in Damien.

"His back I think? But also before I got here. He's not the same since his motorcycle accident, right? Or is he always so depressing with you guys?" Damien asked. Beastboy didn't have an immediate answer. He sat and thought for a bit before speaking.

"His body has been through a lot this year. It wasn't just an accident. He road over a bomb. He wasn't supposed to live through that. Cyborg did his best to put him back together, he was paralyzed for a while as well... and that's not even considering the mental side of it all." Beastboy said grimly.

"I didn't know it was a bomb!?" Damien confessed with horror.

"Yeah, this last year messed him up real bad...it messed a lot of us up man." Beastboy sounded tired and he spoke.

"What all happened?" Damien said reluctantly.

"Uhhhhm, I got poisoned with a psychoactive drug that we couldn't figure out by my ex-girlfriend so I slowly went insane and got really injured. Nightwing was blown up. Starfire got brainwashed by a homeless ex-superhero. Cyborg and Bee had a miscarriage. Bee got pregnant again and got kidnapped while giving birth... it's just kinda been a shitty year and we've all wanted to quit at least once." Beastboy stated flatly.

"Wow. I don't even know how to comprehend all of that." Damien responded.

"You don't need to. Hopefully it's behind us..." Beastboy trailed off as he got up to leave. "But in short, I know you grew up with Dick Greyson, but I don't know if the kid you knew is still in the man we live with." Beastboy said before walking out of the door.