Dark Nights In Gotham City (Book 1)

Chapter 28: Leader

Ding dong.......

That weird, someone is at the door. We usually don't get many visitors. Who could it be?

Alfred walks up to the door and opens it slowly.

"Miss Gordon, what a pleasure to see you've come back"

Barbara comes in and Alfred closes the door. When we hear that Barbara is here Tim and I run to greet her.

"Babs!" We say.

"Hey, I've missed you so much"

"We missed you too"

Then from the corner of my eye I see Dick behind the wall, then he walks towards Barbara slowly.

"Hey Dick" Barbara smiles.

Dick looks sad, he doesn't say it but I can see it in his eyes.

"Hey Babs" he half smiles, leans down and hugs Barbara. "I'm glad you're back"

"It's good to be back" she says.

"I'll see guys later, I got some things to do" he goes up the stairs and walks into his room.

"Is he okay?" Barbara asks, her eyes full of concern.

"I'm sure master Grayson is fine. Now miss Gordon if you can join us, we were about to have lunch" says Alfred.

I start walking towards my room making sure nobody notices I'm gone.

Tim turns...

"Victoria?" She's good at disappearing like Batman. Where is she?"

"Don't worry Tim, I'm sure she's coming" Barbara smiles at him.

I'm really worried about Dick, I know he's not okay and I want to help him so I go to his room and knock on his door.

"Who is it?" He asks.

"It's Victoria"

"Oh come in, is everything okay?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing"

"Yeah, I'm okay"

"Richard, you don't have to hide it, I know you're not okay, you look sad"

"It's nothing really, don't worry"

"It's okay if you don't want yo tell me but if you need someone to talk too I'm here" I walk towards the door but he calls me.

"Okay fine, it's about Barbara, we used to be partners, and it's hard for me what happened" his eyes look sad, and then a tear runs down his cheek. I lean close to him and hug him tightly, he hugs me back and cries. I feel his tears falling on my shirt.

"It's hard for me too, I can imagine it's worse for you, but hey we have to be strong for her"

"I'm trying but I feel like this is my fault"

"How is this your fault?"

"I should have visit her earlier, maybe this wouldn't have happened"

"We can't change what happened. We need to focus on helping Barbara, we have to be strong for her"

"You're right, thanks by the way"

"No problem. I think they are waiting for us"

He half smiles. It breaks my heart to see Richard like this, blaming himself for what happened to Barbara, I don't know how to convince him that it wasn't his fault..... actually it was mine........

I focused to much on training and getting better, I learned new moves and skills, The League of Shadows even trained me......

I was too focused on proving myself to Batman, show him what I'm capable of.

I forgot about everything else.

Barbara left because of me, what happened was my fault.......

RICHARD'S P.O.V

I must admit did feel really bad, but somehow talking to Victoria made me feel better. I really love her right now for doing this, for trying to make everything better, for being here for me.

We walk to the dinning room where everyone is waiting for us. We didn't take that long did we?

Victoria is walking in front of me and I can't help but to smile.

Now that Barbara has become The Oracle, we need a new leader to help when we separate in missions. I'm sure Victoria is ready to be a leader so I have to tell Bruce.

All of us sit quietly at the table.....

When we finish eating I decide to talk to Bruce.

"Hey Bruce, can we talk?"

"Sure Dick, is everything okay?"

"Yeah it's just that now that Barbara is Oracle maybe Victoria can be a leader too"

"I don't know Dick"

"Bruce she is ready"

"I'll tell her, let's see if she accepts"

If she accepts? What is that supposed to mean? Does Bruce know something I don't about Victoria?

I decide to push those thoughts aside and go to the Bat-cave to train. Tim and Victoria will be joining us soon.......

Bruce and I start by combat training, then Tim and Victoria come in....

"Victoria" says Bruce "can we talk?"

"Sure"

They walk towards the computer and Bruce asks her if she wants to be leader, she nods but she looks worried, I can see it in her eyes. I want to be there for here just like she is there for me......

VICTORIA'S P.O.V

Bruce just asked me if I wanted to a leader in some missions.

I said yes but I'm not sure, I have to think about it.

I can't focus during training, there are a lot of things going on my mind, specially Thalia Al Ghul's words: "You were born to be a leader".

I've heard that from one of my teachers when I was in first grade, but how? What does it mean?

During combat I get hit and fall to the ground. Bruce, Richard and Tim look at me.

"You okay?" Says Bruce.

"Yeah I'm fine, I'm taking a break"

As I walk out the door I hear Bruce and Richard talking.

"Is she okay? She looks distracted" says Richard.

"I'll go check, don't worry" says Bruce.

I go to my room and sit on the bed, my head in my hands, and a tear tries to come out.

Then I hear a knock on my door..... I look up and see Bruce looks really worried.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine" I say.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah"

"You were out of focus in training."

"I'm sorry, don't worry about it"

"Look I know I'm not the perfect guardian but you can still tell me what troubles you"

He sits down next to me.

"Okay, it's just all my life people have being telling me I'm a leader, if I did something everyone would do it, but I'm not sure I'm capable of leading a team"

"You remember the night I told you stay?"

"Which one? You've done it several times" I manage to make him smile.

"When you came as Midnight for the first time, you were on the roof telling Dick what was going on and what to do, to me you are capable of leading the team"

"Thank you"

I hug him tightly and he hugs me back.

To me he is like my father, but I don't know if he sees me as he's daughter, so I'm keeping the thought to myself......