Sad Beautiful Tragic | Dick Grayson [ON HOLD}

2

Gotham, New Jersey

Ashley sighed as she dropped the picnic blanket under the tree near the cliff where she would spend most of her time with Roy, Wally, Garth, Donna, and Dick and took in a deep breath before spreading the blanket on the ground evenly and sat down to read while she listened to the crashing of the waves below. Despite the memories that the area held, Ashley was experiencing a rare moment of peace as she read the book in front of her. The steady crashing of waves calmed her as the wind blew softly and Ashley looked over the area with a smile. The memories filled her mind of playing with Garth and Wally while Roy and Donna would sit apart from them until they were done rambunctious was a sweet memory and one Ashley still cherished to this day. Ashley's attention returned to the book after her heart clenched in sadness as she continued to think about Donna. Ashley sighed and stood up, walking over to the cliff and staring down the cliff of the raging waves crashing against the surface, her heart and stomach clenching as the passing thoughts of following her thoughts down to the cold ocean waters and Ashley shook her head despite the temptation to just jump. Ashley took a step back and looked down to notice her hand shaking, so she ran back over to the picnic blanket and picked up her book and blanket before running back to the Manor as the thoughts continued to overwhelm her. Ashley shook the grass out of the blanket as she folded it up and put it back with the outdoor blankets and made her way back inside and accidentally ran into Dick as she wiped tears from her eyes with shaking hands.

"Oh-" Dick said before looking down and seeing Ashley furiously wiping her eyes. "Ash? What's wrong?" Dick asked her, his brows furrowing together as he looked at her in concern.

"Nothing" Ashley told him, her voice void of emotion as she frantically looked for a way away from him.

"That's not what it looks like" Dick said in concern.

"I'm not your problem anymore, you made sure of that. So stop trying to pretend I am" Ashley said harshly, moving past the stunned man and changing course to her room. Ashley didn't look behind her to see if she would've been followed by him but she made sure to slam the behind her for good measure. Ashley sighed behind the closed door and threw her book onto the bed and climbed into her beloved window seat, locking the window and making herself comfortable as she looked over the grounds. Ashley embraced the quiet loneliness as she sat for hours until she watched the sunset and the eeriness of the Gotham night wash over the property like a comforting blanket to her. She got out of her spot by the window and made her way downstairs after her much-needed quiet session. "Dad?" Ashley called out before she heard voices coming from the library and she shrugged, deciding to go see if he had eaten yet.

"You're father and I had better communication when we were fighting this war" Ashley heard her father say through the closed door of the library. Ashley's face contorted in anger at the implication and her fists balled into anger and she barely contained herself while she waited for the inevitable answer of one of her least favorite people in the world. 

"War?" She heard the distinctive voice of Barbara Gordon ask. "You still call it a war?" Barbara asked like she couldn't believe it. Ashley quietly fumed and made her way away from the library as quickly as she made her way into the kitchen against her better judgment. Ashley grabbed her lean cuisine pizza out of the freezer and angrily opened the microwave door and put the offending pizza in and angrily slammed the microwave door before typing the time in on the microwave. Ashley glared at the knife block, her mind racing as she stood in silence, her hands that were still balled into firsts were beginning to bleed from the pressure of her sharp nails on the skin. She unconsciously began rocking back and forth with her heart and mind racing while listening to the sound of her blood dripping on the floor. When the timer sounded let out a sigh of relief and made a disgusted face as she washed the blood off of her hands and scrubbed under her nail and grabbed the bandaids she had hidden in the pantry and covered the spots on her hands until she was sure no blood would get out. She accidentally ripped the door of the microwave off and growled with suppressed anger and betrayal and threw it on the counter before she grabbed the pizza from the appliance and stormed out of the kitchen and began making her way into the foyer to make her way to the garage where she saw Dick standing there with Barbara's coat on his arm and her staring up at him uninterested. "Go back to San Francisco Dick" Barbara told him. Ashley silently agreed but instead of acting on her homicidal thoughts, Ashley stormed out to the garage. Ashley set the pizza in the passenger side of the Hummer she used to be so fond of and quickly climbed in the driver's side before she sped out of the garage, not bothering to care that the Commissioner of the GCPD would be close behind her unless she had decided to try to climb into Dick's newly single pants for the umpteenth time.