Prompts

comfort | bedside vigil | “You can rest now.”

Chapter 31: a light at the end of the tunnel

It gets better. 

Not all at once. Some days are hard. Some days Dick forgets where he is. He turns a corner and suddenly he’s back on the Watchtower, trapped, alone. He tries to run. He tries to get out, or he tries to find his way back to his cell, or he finds a blind corner and hides. Sometimes he makes it outside, feels the grass under his feet, and remembers. Sometimes he hides for hours. Sometimes he stays hidden until someone else finds him. 

Everyone is patient with him. Even Bruce. Sometimes it makes Dick laugh, how careful they are. We’ve all been through so much shit, he wants to say, and hurt each other, so many times, and this is where you draw the line? 

Sometimes it makes him cry. 

It gets better. Not all at once, but he has good days too. Some days he works out with Damian and spars with Cass and spends hours on the phone with Barbara. She stays on the line, even after they stop talking, after Dick runs out of words. She tells him what she’s doing, what his siblings are up to, in the city—news from the outside world. He sits on the phone and listens. 

Jason never comes back. He stays out of Gotham, far away from the rest of them, traveling the world with Roy and Kory. Sometimes Dick wakes up to a text from an unknown number. 

still alive. if you see something on the news don’t worry about it.

still alive. mexico city is nice this time of year. roy says hello. 

you better not pull any stupid bullshit while i’m not there

if bruce tries anything just tell me and i’ll kill him

still alive. roy says hello. kory sends her love. 

Dick saves all of them. 

It gets better. Some days are bad, but some aren’t. Some days Dick sits down in the family room and dozes off in front of Tim’s favorite detective show. 

He doesn’t fall asleep, exactly. There’s too much noise—Tim’s rapid-fire typing, the low hum of dialogue and sound effects. Damian announces his presence with a snide comment about Tim’s taste in media, and then the two of them are sniping back and forth without much heat. A lithe, warm body slots in next to Dick on the couch. 

“Just me,” Cass says, before Dick even opens his eyes. He leans toward her. She cuddles up to his side. 

“Richard,” Damian says, “tell Timothy he’s wrong.” 

“About what?” Dick says, still without opening his eyes. 

Cass pats his shoulder. “Robins arguing,” she says. “Go back to sleep.”

“Damian thinks the doctor did it,” Tim says. “He has no evidence—”

“I told you the evidence!”

“It’s not the doctor,” Dick says. As it happens, he can end this argument right now. “It’s the step-son. He went in the doctor’s bag and switched the meds while she was distracted talking to the agent.”

Tim and Damian immediately erupt in protest. 

“Dick! Spoilers!”

“I did not ask for your help solving the case—”

“We’ve talked about this!”

Dick cracks his eyes open to smirk at them. He sees Tim, curled up on the loveseat, Damian sitting at the table behind the couch—and Bruce, on the other side of the room, asleep in an armchair. 

Maybe he freezes. The next thing he knows is Cass’s hand on his shoulder. 

“Dick,” she says. He takes a breath. 

“Yeah,” he murmurs. “I’m here.”

Bruce is asleep. He looks younger in his sleep, less burdened, the way he has since Dick has known him. He has his head back, and he grips the arms of the chair, like he only meant to sit for a moment. 

“Okay?” Cass says. 

“Yes,” Dick says. 

He lays his head down on her shoulder. Cass makes a happy hum and leans into him. 

“Good job,” she says. “About the show.”

Dick smiles. “I’ve seen it before.” 

Cass snorts. Damian stops arguing with Tim to ask what’s so funny, and then Tim tells him to shut up so he can hear the TV, and Damian tells him there’s no point anyway now that the mystery is solved, unless Tim watches this trash for the acting, and on they go. 

Dick closes his eyes. He relaxes into the soft couch, the warmth of Cass next to him, the steady patter of voices. Safe, he thinks. You’re safe. And he believes it. 

Surrounded by his family, Dick falls asleep.

Original Author's Note

And that is, finally, a wrap on this one. Thank you to every who commented or bookmarked or left kudos, and a big thank you to everyone who stuck around after I burned myself out and went AWOL for three months. This may not be my best work, but I'm really glad to finally finish it. I hope you've all enjoyed the ride, as stressful and torturous as it was. I know I did.