Can I?

Chapter 2

Bruce just pulled into the drive and was about to open the door to the house when he heard a gun go off and Dick yell 'no.'

He threw the door open and ran inside. "Dick?" he yelled scared.

When he walked into the living room, he saw a guy turn around with Dick in his arms. Bruce just froze.

"That's far enough, Mr. Wayne," the man warned. He had the gun pointed right at Dick's head.

Bruce held up his hands in a non-threatening way. "What do you want?" His eyes never left the scared face of Dick.

"All I want from you, Wayne, is money, and lots of it."

"Ok, it's yours, as much as you want, just don't hurt him."

"Now don't you try and be brave, or you'll end up like grandpa here."

Bruce finally looked down at Alfred and his eyes went wide when he saw him lying on the ground trying to catch his breath and stop the bleeding from the wound in his stomach. He then looked back at Dick and realized that he had tears going down his cheeks. "No heroic moves, I promise."

"You better not, or you're gonna lose sonny-boy here. Now take me to the stash."

"I don't keep a lot of money here at the house. The most I have is around two thousand. The rest is in the banks."

The man narrowed his eyes and pushed the gun to Dick's head harder, making Dick close his eyes in fear. "Well, then I guess you had better get your checkbook out."

Bruce nodded then slowly moved one hand to his pocket while keeping the other up. "How much?"

The man walked over and motioned for Bruce to sit down. "One hundred million. That should last me for a while, and remember, no funny business." He then gestured toward Alfred with his head. "I don't think grandpa will last very much longer."

Bruce looked to Alfred and saw that he was no longer moving then looked down at his checkbook. "One hundred million, got it." He wrote out the check, signed it, tore it out, and then held it out to the man. "Here, now let him go."

The man grabbed the check with the hand that had the gun in it, looked at it, and then looked back at Bruce. "And you'll guarantee this is good?"

"I promise."

The guy nodded, put the check in his pocket, and then backed up toward the door with Dick still in his arms, the gun going back up to Dick's head. "Good, then I'll just be on my way, and to make sure that I get out, I'm just gonna hold on to him 'til we reach the door."

Bruce followed them to the door, worry still very evident in his face, and when the man opened the door, he threw Dick, causing him to yelp, and ran out the door.

Bruce went straight to Dick's side and they both watched as the man ran. Bruce then looked at Dick. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, but we need to help Alfred," Dick said as Bruce helped him up.

"I know. Go call an ambulance. I'll go and see if I can do anything to help until they get here."

Dick nodded then ran off to call for the ambulance as Bruce ran to Alfred.

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Bruce sat in the waiting room at Gotham General Hospital. It had been over an hour since the ambulance came and took Alfred to the hospital, and he was starting to get worried that Alfred wouldn't make it. Alfred was in very bad shape when the EMTs arrived, in fact, Bruce was doing CPR on him when Dick led them into the room. Alfred had stopped breathing, and when the EMTs took over, it took them a good tow minutes before they finally had to use a portable ventilator to make him breath.