Dick Grayson one shots

I just want to be normal

Threats P2 is coming everyone... but for now we have this :)

Dick didn't feel like he belonged in Bruce's family. Every day there was more to remind him of how different he was, how weird he was.

He didn't want to have to tell Bruce every time he was unsettled, every time something felt just a bit too much like the court. And some part of him thought he shouldn't have to. Bruce was supposed to be the world's greatest detective. How could he not know? How could he not see?

Besides. He hated the pity almost as much as he hated the flashbacks. Every time he had to remind someone something was triggering he felt like even more of a burden.

So for the most part he simply suffered in silence, some part of him believing that this was some sort of deserved punishment.

The only one who seemed to care was Barbara Gordon, hence, the reason Dick was currently curled up on her fire escape, tapping Morse code on the window pane and hoping she was home.

The window finally opened, the sound of soft music tickling Dick's barely there conscious.

Babs gently helped Dick inside, sitting him down on her bed and dimming the lights. "You hurt your head?" She asked quietly, brushing her fingers through his hair and feeling for any sticky patches of blood.

Dick whimpered when she touched the place where his head had slammed into the wall earlier that night.

"I'm going to go get something to clean that up," Babs said. "Is the music too loud?"

Dick nodded minutely, his enhanced hearing combined with a likely concussion making the world a blur of too bright and too loud, everything seeming to trigger his heightened senses.

The music stopped, the lights dimming even more as Babs walked back into the room with a rag wet with water, knowing the smell of alcohol would send Dick spiraling into a flashback with his mind in its current fragile state. With his advanced healing he probably wouldn't need it anyway.

Dick's eyelids drooped, his head bobbing as he tried and failed to keep himself awake.

His veins burned with electrum, his mind replaying flashes of memories every so often, times that same burn had filled his veins... none of them good.

Babs brought him some baggy clothes to change into, leaving him to change with the invitation to stay as long as he'd like.

Dick stared at the clothes for a while, the pounding in his head fading moment by moment.

"Nightwing," Bruce's voice buzzed in his ear, the volume of the communication device eroding his already shaky composure.

"Yeah?" He replied, pressing a finger to the device.

"Where are you?" The man growled.

"I..." Dick began, never getting to finish.

"There's a shooting in your patrol section. Take care of it," Bruce said.

Dick let out a shaky sigh, wishing he could stay in the warm quiet of Babs' apartment and sleep away the residual anxiety that always accompanied his sensory overloads.

Alas... there were lives on the line.

—

Too loud.

Too bright.

Too many smells.

Too much too much too much...

Dick was slumped over the handlebars of his motorcycle, hoping the autopilot would be enough to get him back to the cave safely. He could feel the bullet lodged in his chest, the skin long since closed over the top of it.

The cave was just as bad as the city had been.

Dick could hear the leathery wings of the bats as they brushed against each other, their squeaks and shrieks coupled with the sound of the river far far below and the sounds of his siblings squabbling reaching a tsunamic level in his overstimulated mind.

Everything was too much. The noise, the steril smell coming from the med bay, the too bright lights everywhere.

Bruce's voice was swallowed in the muddied swirl of noise as he asked for a report.

"Bullet," Dick managed to croak out, pointing to the spot his pain radiated from, his body trembling slightly as he got off his bike.

Time seemed to jump forward, and Dick found himself lying on a cold operating table, the top half of his uniform stripped away.

He flinched violently when Bruce pressed a needle into his arm, trying to give him some sort of sedation before he removed the bullet.

Dick shifted, whimpering quietly and bringing his hands up to cover his ears from all the sound.

Too much.

"Hold still," Bruce grumbled, swabbing the area on Dick's chest he'd have to cut.

Dick's breath caught in his throat, his body freezing. He could practically feel restraints on his arms and legs, holding him down as he was experimented on... as the court pumped poison into his veins and turned him into their talon.

Static fuzzed in Dick's mind as the talon part of his brain shut it all down. Too much...

—

Dick's body relaxed slightly when something soft came to rest over his eyes, dimming the bright bright lights of the cave.

Headphones were slipped over his ears, blocking most of the noise.

A soft blanket was placed over his shivering body, a familiar hand grasping his own.

Dick's body and mind finally seemed to fit back together, the rest of the tension draining from his body.

"Babs?" He mumbled, barely able to hear himself because of the headphones.

"I'm here," she said, just loud enough for him to hear, squeezing his hand in her own.

A small smile slipped onto Dick's face, his mind and body finally relaxing.

Babs sighed softly, turning to glare in the direction Bruce had gone. She was going to give him a piece of her mind. Surely he would know by now that everything in the cave seemed to trigger the ex talon. He'd mentioned to her time after time how he hated the med bay, specifically mentioning the horrible flashbacks he got when he had to get IVs.

Bruce, however just didn't seem to care.

—

Dick awoke on his soft bed, Babs' hand clasped in his own. The mask had been taken off, the room darkened by the nearly closed window blinds, a peaceful quiet filling the room.

"How are you feeling?" Babs asked, keeping her voice soft and low.

Dick's face scrunched up slightly, a fragile sob clawing its way free from his throat. "I just want to be normal," he mumbled.

Babs was quiet for a moment before she gently turned Dick's face so he'd look at her. "Normal is boring boy wonder. The world needs you just as you are," she said.

Dick took a shaky breath, squeezing her hand in his own. "Y-you really think so?" He asked.

"I know so," Babs replied, smoothing Dick's unruly curls from his forehead and pressing a kiss just above his eyebrow.

Dick smiled, his eyes drifting closed once again, the feeling of warmth and safety enough to lull him back into a peaceful slumber.