ɢʜᴏꜱᴛꜱ | ᴅ. ɢʀᴀʏꜱᴏɴ

chapter 21

21. defeat

•—✽—✽—✽—•

five minutes later

PAIGE MONTGOMERY WAS NEVER NOT annoyed. She always found something that would piss her off until she either broke it or got rid of it. She never was one to just walk away from an annoying situation. You know, the whole be the bigger person bullshit was never really her forte.

So it was definitely safe to assume that Paige was annoyed about almost dying. Even death was an inconvenience for her. But she was rather pissed that her death almost came at the hands of her friends. "And this is why I don't trust easily," she coughed, getting up from the ground.

Turning to look at herself in the mirror that stood in the living room, she noticed the red mark that had started to bruise around her throat as well as the stab wound. "I swear the next person who tries to choke me or stab me is getting their fucking hands cut off."

Yeah, she was definitely pissed.

It wasn't unreasonable. A normal person would probably be mad too if their friends tried to kill them. Let's be realistic here — If your friend tried to kill you, that is not your friend. But if they were under some freaky man's control, then maybe they have an excuse. Just a small one.

However, Paige wasn't a saint and she definitely didn't care for excuses. Not to mention she loved to hold grudges over the smallest things, so no one would be hearing the end of this anytime soon.

Looking around, she noticed that everyone had been outside of the house. Her eyes locked onto Gar who had, thankfully, been alive. Next, her gaze shifted over to Dick who had been standing next to Gar and seemed to be back to normal. "Motherfucker, you try to kill me again," Dick heard her say as she approached him angrily, "and I swear to God, I will kill you before you even get the chance to think about killing me— What the fuck is that?"

She pointed towards Trigon's demonic figure after doing a double take to make sure she wasn't seeing things. "That's Trigon," Dick said. "And I'm not gonna kill you."

"Like I said, I'll have you dead before you even think about it." Paige brought her attention back towards Rachel who had just created a large shockwave as she banished her father back to the dimension he had crawled out of.

In the process, she had managed to cause everyone else to snap out of the state they were in as she walked back towards them like nothing had happened. They watched as Dick ran up to her as she pulled him into a hug.

"Are you okay?" Paige finally asked Gar who still had blood on him.

"A couple of broken bones is basically nothing. I'll be fine," he shrugged.

She chuckled to herself at the statement. "I'm glad you're alive."

"Same to you."

"I'm just glad this is over honestly. All I need now is rest...for like a month," Paige said causing Gar to laugh as he nodded his head in agreement.

"And probably a couple of stitches," Gar pointed out, looking down at her hand that had been keeping pressure on her wound.

"Paige," she heard her name called. "Can I talk to you?" Dick asked. Sighing, she nodded before following him into the house and away from everyone else. She followed him into the kitchen where he found a first aid kit that luckily had what he was looking for. He helped her up onto the counter before working on stitching her stab wound. "Look, I'm sorry—"

"Really, I wonder what ever for—"

"I'm serious. I would never hurt you. Ever," he said as an apologetic look covered his face. "I'm sorry that I did and I promise you, it'll never happen again."

Paige wanted to forgive him because she knew it wasn't his fault and that he wasn't able to control what he did. At the same time, she couldn't forgive him because it was him that had practically choked the life out of her. It was him who she was scared of as she ran through that house. Even if he didn't know it, he terrified her. Dick Grayson, the man who she had grown to love after two years, terrified her and she did not want to relive her past.

So now, she was stuck. She had to make a choice even if he wasn't happy with the outcome of it. "I want to forgive you, I really do, but—"

"You can't. I get it."

She sighed, returning the apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I know that whatever happened it wasn't you, but... you really scared me tonight. I don't wanna go through that again, Dick."

"And you won't, believe me."

"I know. It'll take some time to get over but for now, we're good." A small grin crept up onto his face. He was relieved and thankful that for the time being, they were both okay even if she did still hold a grudge. He finished off the stitches, taping gauze on top.

She pulled him into a hug, slinging her arms around his neck. His wrapped carefully around her waist as he stood between her legs. They could feel each other's hearts beating from how close they were to one another. Paige looked at him, her eyes drawing to his lips, his doing the same as their faces inched closer.

"Hey, the police..." Kory said as she opened the door, pausing in place. She looked between the two, a knowing look on her face as they quickly separated. "...are here." She watched as they both nodded before following her outside.

✄ ✄ ✄

"I gotta give it to you, Rach, you really know how to throw a party," Dawn joked as the group got ready to go on their own ways.

"Yeah. Do it again. Love beating Dick's ass," Jason agreed.

"Keep dreaming, bird boy," the man said as he loaded bags into the trunk of the car.

"Nice one. Really inventive."

"I'll be here all week," Dick chuckled.

"Maybe give us a heads-up next time so I can do my own eye makeup. Your demon dad wasn't much for subtlety," Donna said.

"I don't know Donna, I think the I-look-like-I-just-got-punched-in-both-eyes look really suited everyone," Paige smiled.

"Yeah, I kinda like it," Kory agreed, "It was really gothic, you know?"

"Uh...I didn't," Gar mentioned, reminding everybody of how they almost killed him.

Now it was Hanks turn to speak, "Hey, man, again... we're really sorry."

"No, it's cool. Hey, I know it wasn't really you guys. It couldn't have been. Dick was actually kinda funny, in a weird, psycho way," the boy said as Dick came back into view to let them know that we was still listening in on the conversation.

"You guys have fun," Dawn said as her and Rachel hugged goodbye before Hank asked where they would be going next.

"Uh...I don't know. It's a mystery," Dick replied after she asked him.

As they all got ready to leave, Gar yelled "Shotgun!" as him and Rachel raced to the passenger seat.

"Hey, seriously?" Jason muttered realizing he was automatically stuck in the back since they were closer to the car then he was.

"Oh come on, J, it's not that bad," Paige said as she nudged him playfully with her elbow. "You get to party with me in the back." The boy grinned as the two walked over, getting into the car.

After Dick said his final goodbyes, he, Paige, Gar, Rachel, and Jason were off to whatever mystery Dick had planned.