Nightwing: Heartache

Part 23: Night Duty

August 20th, 2:30am

Los Angeles

Willa couldn't sleep. She turned over, again, frustrated with her body for not letting her sleep. She was tired, exhausted even, but for the past week, she was barely getting sleep at night. If she was lucky, she could squeeze in a few naps on set, but here, alone in this house, nothing. All she could do was think. She replayed the day, her to-do list, her schedule. And if she did manage to sleep, bad dreams always woke her up.

Jesus, this movie was messing with her head more than she anticipated; more than she would like to admit. Spending unending minutes, hours, days, filming this stupid love story was...hard. Today, she played a scene with Ryder, and it was fun. When he said one line, 'you're not worried about me, are you Bec?' she swore she saw Dick's face instead of his. It was so real, the past blurring into the present. It was so out of the blue, the feeling of warmth it brought.

She groaned and dragged herself out of bed, throwing on a sweatshirt and going to the bathroom. She had been awake so long she had to pee again.

Well, now she was thirsty.

She rubbed her eyes and walked out of her bedroom to the kitchen... where she practically screamed at the shadow figure in her dining room, near the window.

It was only a fraction of a second later when she recognized the figure's shoulders, his stance, his hair. Her fear turned to anger. "What the hell are you doing?" She demanded.

To his credit, Dick looked embarrassed. He ran a hand through his hair, unable to meet her eyes. "You're awake," was all he said.

Willa crossed her arms. "You're in my house. Why are you in my house?!"

He didn't seem to know what to say. He just looked around. She stalked towards him, "you have no right, you hear me Grayson? No. right," she poked his chest for emphasis, "to come to my house in the middle of the night. Do you have no regard for my privacy?"

"Willa, I'm sorry-"

She rolled her eyes, "oh, you're sorry, well no worries then, it's totally normal for an ex-boyfriend to break in while I'm sleeping," she replied sarcastically, "oh, right, no, that's stalking!"

Dick pinched the bridge of his nose, "I'm sorry, Willa," his voice was quiet, "I was just going to be here two minutes, you wouldn't even know."

"Dick, that's still incredibly invasive."

"I know," he pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and walked a few steps away from her, "I know, I know. God, I'm sorry. I just..."

"Just what?"

"I needed to double check the security system," Dick said after a pause, "I needed to make sure it still worked, needed to figure out how to make it better."

"Dick, it's fine." She startled a bit at the flash in his eyes.

"Fine isn't good enough," he snapped.

What was going on with him? Willa thought. She just groaned, "we've been over this, it's working fine. My security is fine, I'm fine-"

"Why are you so insistent on refusing help?"

And that was the crux of it all. He fixed his blue eyes on her, holding her in place. It seemed like all the air had been sucked out of the air. Now it was Willa who looked away. "Because you're overreacting," she said, but  it sounded false even to her own ears.

"You don't believe that," she heard Dick say, but she was studying the plants outside on her window sill. "You know I wouldn't do all this over nothing." She glanced back to see him gesture to the room around. He meant the increased security, the superhero bodyguards. "I wouldn't put you through this over nothing."