25 Days of Batfam

Day 6

A/N: Last oneshot taking place at the winter lodge. Enjoy, and please review! 

The batfamily had spent their second to last day at the lodge skiing.  Because of their training, they happened to be naturally good at skiing, except for Jason, who chose to snowboard instead.  They had fun racing each other down the mountain several times.

"Ha ha, you're too slow to beat me, Goldie," Jason said to Dick, grinning. For someone who'd never snowboarded before, he put on an impressive show.

Dick returned the grin. "Sure I can."  He narrowed his eyes and went even faster on his skis. They were one of the Black diamond hills, meaning it was very hard. That is-unless you were secretly a vigilante.

Tim, who was behind Dick and Jason, widened his eyes as he noticed how fast Dick was going now. Because the hill was so steep, one wrong move, and Dick could get injured if he fell.

"Dick, slow down!" Tim called out. But his voice was only lost in the loud howling of the wind.

"What? Tim, did you say something?" Dick called out loudly. He turned his head for a split second to find Tim, and that was all it took for him to fall.

As Dick's head turned back around, he realized that he was about to hit a tree, and there wasn't any time to stop it. Less than a second later, he rammed into the tree, hard.

"Dick!" Tim and Jason called out at the same time as they saw their older brother collapse to the ground, clearly unconscious. They could make out a small trickle of blood coming from his forehead. The dark red clashed with the snow.

"Jason, we have to stop and help him!" Tim yelled over.

Jason shook his head, the panic evident in his face. "We can't."  As he said that, Tim tried to turn over to Dick, but because of the steepness of the hill and how fast he was going, he wasn't able to.

Tim and Jason hated to leave Dick there alone, knowing he probably had one heck of a concussion right now, but they knew what they had to do. Concentrating hard, and without speaking another word, the two of them finished the ski run they were on. Once they exited it and stopped, they looked around frantically to find Bruce, who had already beat them down the hill with Damian. To be fair, they had a slight head start.

"Bruce!" Tim shouted, taking his skis off and running over to the older man.

"Tim?" Bruce glanced at Jason. "Where's Dick? He didn't stop to take a picture again, did he?"

"No! He got distracted and hit a tree and now he's unconscious and-"

Bruce's expression suddenly became serious, like it always did when one of his sons got hurt. He would wreak vengeance upon the tree that did this to him.

"Tim, slow down.  How close is Dick to the bottom of the run?"

"I don't know... About half a mile?"

"Okay. You and Jason stay here with Damian. I'll be right back."

Tim nodded, though he hated having to just stand here while Dick was out there alone and hurt.

When Bruce left, Damian stared up at Tim, glaring at him.  "Grayson's hurt? What did you to to him Drake?!"

Tim's eyes flashed furiously. "ME? I didn't do anything! He hit a tree!"

"-tt- Probably because *you* distracted him."

"Hey! I did not-"

"Shut up, both of you," Jason demanded. "You're not going to help Dick by arguing."

The two younger boys glared at each other again, but went silent. After a minute, Damian shook his head.  "It's just like Grayson to get injured doing something as normal as skiing. He can go on patrol and be fine, but ski down a mountain and he ends up with a concussion..."

Tim waved his hands in the air like a lunatic. "Is this some sort of joke to you Damian?! Dick is hurt!!! And we don't know how badly!!"

"How dare you! I care about Dick more than any of you others!" Damian's cheeks flushed slightly red at the admission.

Tim opened his mouth -about to yell at Damian again- but then Jason intervened again.
"SHUT UP!!!" he yelled. Around them, several other skiers and snowboarders looked at them in slight annoyance and confusion. Jason just glared at them, and they backed off.

"-tt- whatever," Damian mumbled. He and Tim sat down in the snow.

They waited for what felt like hours, until Bruce finally came back.  He still wore a worried expression, but he looked calmer somehow. As soon as the boys saw him coming, they all stood up eagerly.

"Is Dick-" Jason started.

"Dick is fine... For the most part..." Bruce told them.  "He's at the ski lodge's medical bay right now.  They know he has a concussion, but they can't be sure of how bad it is until he wakes up. But other than that, he's relatively okay."

Tim let out a sigh of relief. "Can we go see him then?" he asked. Bruce nodded and led them to the ski lodge. Inside, they went to the small med room that they had there. On one of the two beds that was in their, Dick was laying down, still as a rock. Tim didn't like how pale he looked. Then again, he was just out in the cold for a while...

Tim walked over to Dick, Damian and Jason trailing behind him. He pressed his lips together. Somehow, he felt responsible for what had happened. If he hadn't said anything to Dick, he wouldn't have turned around and got distracted and crashed into that stupid tree...

"Grayson?" Damian asked, still worried for his older brother/father figure. He was staring at the white bandage wrapped around Dick's forehead.

As Damian said that, Dick stirred, and then a groan was heard. 

"Dick?" Tim asked quietly.

Dick managed to open his eyes, though only halfway. "Urgh...Wha...Where 'm I?" he mumbled.

Tim exhaled, glad Dick could at least talk somewhat normally. That was a good sign.  "Dick, can you hear me?" Tim asked him.

Dick stared at Tim for about a minute, as if concentrating really hard. Tim was worried he wouldn't answer, but then, "T...Tim?"

Tim managed a weak smile. "Yeah, it's me. How do you feel?"

Dick tried to sit up, but failed. He screwed his eyes shut. "Hurts..." he managed to say.

Jason smirked. "Yeah, that would be from smacking into a tree. You have a hard head, Goldie.  You're lucky you only ended up with a concussion."

"Shut up," Dick mumbled in reply.

Jason chuckled. "Now now, don't be rude."

There was silence for a brief moment, but then Tim spoke up again. "Dick, I'm sorry...If I hadn't distracted you, you wouldn't be in this mess right now..."

Dick cracked a half smile. "'S okay Timmy.  I've had worse."

Tim smiled for real this time.  Dick was being his ever-so-forgiving self again.  It was a part of him that Tim loved dearly, and he knew everyone else did as well.

"I know you have. Maybe next year we shouldn't go to a ski lodge though. It'll just end poorly again."

Dick laughed, though it was still weak sounding. "Agreed."