Before The Truth

Ch 21

Over the next few days things fell into a sort of routine for Dick. Alfred brought him different broths and watery soups for the first few days, moving to more solid foods when Dick's stomach was able to handle it.

Dick spent the majority of his time in bed, at least for the first week. He avoided Bruce at all costs, feigning sleep whenever Bruce came to check on him. Dick regretted the fight he had had with Bruce, and wanted desperately to apologize and be able to forgive his surrogate father. Dick found that, however much he wanted to be able to move on, he still harbored a seed of resentment towards Bruce. Not necessarily for kicking him out of the manor, that he could understand, but for leaving him with Bane for two weeks.

There wasn't much that Leslie had allowed Dick to do physically. He could walk using crutches, but only with his supportive knee brace on, and even then, he wasn't allowed to go up and especially not down stairs without help.

Even after three weeks Dick still wasn't allowed to walk down the stairs on his own, because of his knee. He was getting restless being cooped up in his room for days on end, so Dick took to wandering through the halls of the upper floor of wayne manor. There were so many unused rooms on this floor, and Dick walked past them, sometimes stopping to take a peek inside one room or another.

One day he found himself standing at the door of the room that had used to belong to Jason Todd, the boy who had replaced him as Robin when he had left to become Nightwing. Dick had been crushed when Jason had died, they hadn't been especially close, but Dick had still viewed Jason as his brother, and he mourned his death for weeks.

Dick hadn't been in his brother's room since he died, and he didn't think Bruce had been either. Dick slowly pushed the door open and was surprised to see that everything that had belonged to Jason was still in the room. There was evidence of Alfred tidying things up here and there, but overall the room seemed almost as if Jason had never left it.

A sudden wave of sadness washed over Dick as he looked over Jason's old room. Bruce had never come to go through all of Jason's possessions. Never taken the time to go through them would be more like it. Dick thought back to the time when Jason had died. Dick had cried for days on end, he had refused to eat or get up and do anything. Bruce on the other hand had just moved on, as if nothing had ever happened. Bruce had cried some, and mourned in his own way, but instead of going through the stages of grief eventually leading to acceptance Bruce had been stuck in denial.

Dick was startled out of his thoughts when he heard a voice behind him saying, "What are you doing in here?"

The voice wasn't harsh, but it surprised Dick who spun around in alarm, almost toppling over in the process. It was Bruce. "I-I... I just... I miss him." Dick stuttered out, voice diminishing to a whisper at the end of his sentence.

"You shouldn't be in here. You should be resting." Bruce said, sending a pointed look towards Dick's trembling knee.

"I'm fine." Dick growled out, trying without success to steady his shaking limb. The truth was, he was suddenly exhausted, both physically and emotionally, but he wasn't going to let Bruce tell him what to do. "I can get around just fine with these crutches Bruce."

Bruce only sighed and walked away, looking over his shoulder to see Dick gritting his teeth and rubbing at his sore leg.

When Bruce had left Dick limped back to his own room and lowered himself gently onto his bed. His injuries were beginning to ache and Dick assumed that the pain meds he had taken earlier had worn off. He glanced at his bedside table to see his phone sitting there. Bruce must have gone to his apartment and gotten it.

Dick picked up the device and powered it on. Its battery was almost full. Sliding up to the home screen Dick saw that he had 32 unread texts and 3 voice messages. When he opened the texting app he saw that all of the text messages except for one were from Barbara Gordon. The one other text was from his phone service, telling him his bill for the next month of service.

The messages from Barbara started out as a simple "Hey, what are you up to?" and went to "DICK! WHERE ARE YOU! IF YOU DON'T ANSWER ME I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN!" This message was about a week old, but it still scared Dick.

"Hey Babs" Dick texted Barbara.

"Dick? Are you alright?" Babs texted back almost immediately.

"I'm ok. Just board to death" Dick replied.

"That's a relief. I made Bruce promise to update me on your condition, but all he sent me was 'found him' on the night he rescued you"

"Heh heh, I guess he is a man of few feelings and few words"

"Don't be too hard on him. He tries his best... for the most part" Babs texted

After a moment of no reply Dick texted, "You should come visit me sometime... now that I'm a bedridden invalid"

Babs was genuinely surprised when she received this text. She hadn't received any update or news on Dick's condition, so she took him at face value and genuinely believed his sarcastic statement. "I'm so sorry Dick. I guess you won't be able to be Nightwing now"

Dick was confused by this statement until he realized Babs must have misunderstood his sarcasm. "I'm not actually bedridden Babs. That was supposed to be a joke" He quickly texted.

"Oh ok. Maybe I'll come over tomorrow and we can play a boardgame or something" Babs replied, before texting, "Well, goodnight! I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Night" was Dick's only reply.

His text conversation with Babs cheered Dick up if only slightly. He quickly got ready for bed, slipping into a pair of comfortable pajamas and climbed under the covers, forgetting to take his pain killers and various other vitamins and medications before going to bed. Dick fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.