Batgirl Rises

Chapter 2 - Deja Vu

"She just passed out! What else could I do?"

"You couldn't have caught her? She hit her head on the grates and now she'll forever have the 'Gotham City Watertower Honeycomb Grates' imprinted into her skull!"

My eyes flutter open.  The sun has set, and all I see is the night sky and the stars that float above. The darkness seems like a neverending void with tiny lightbulbs dangling in its eternity. 

"Miss Gordon!" Nightwing rushes to kneel next to me. " Are you feeling alright?" He places a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

My neck feels like it could concave on itself any minute. I open my mouth, but not knowing what to say I close it.

Nightwing places a hand behind my neck, holding my head still and keeping mine from moving around. His hand runs through my hair so that he can locate my wound. My eyes begin to flutter close, but my attention is drawn back to him calling my name.

How does he even know my name? And why does it sound so sexy when he says it?

"Barbra.." His voice is a mere whisper but in a moment all my focus is on him.

"How do you know my name?" My voice comes out as a harsh whisper, barely audible to even myself.

"It was on your ID." His eyes shift to my wound as he states this.

"Umm, should we get her home?" Robin, dawdling in the back asks.

Nightwing clears his throat."I'll get her back. You go check in with the boss."

Robin nods before zipping off back towards the precinct. Nightwing places a hand under my legs and lifts me up, pushing my bangs out of my face. I glance back up at him to find his eyes lingering on my face. His gorgeous, bright blue eyes. His gorgeous, sparkling blue eyes.

He pulls me close to his stomach, which makes it particularly hard to look at his chiseled face. I close my eyes and allow my muscles to un-tense. My arms wrap around his muscular body.

His mouth lowers to my ear. Slowly, he whispers, "Keep your eyes open, honey. I want to make sure I'm not losing you."

Honey sends shivers down my spine.

As calmly as I can through the pain and the sexiness of his voice, I respond, "Don't worry. I have no plans to go anywhere else."

 We soar through the air. I cling to his clothing, tucking my head against this chest. His muscles tighten, and he pulls me even closer. Eventually, we slow and he stops at my balcony, within a few seconds he pops open the lock and walk me to my bedroom. He sets me down and returns in a minute with a wet towel.

He sits next to me and dabs my forehead, I flinch and he stops.

"It's fine."

He continues.

"Do you tend for all the girls you save?'

"Only the pretty ones."

I bite my lip and take a deep breath. Nightwing removes the cloth and places it on my nightstand.

"Sleep on your back so that you don't bother your wound. I'll come by tomorrow to check on you."

"Oh... okay."

The thought of him visiting again made my heart beat a thousand times faster.

The next day is hard. All day the only thing I can think about is Nightwing's arms holding me and how I wish he had stayed with me that night.

In the morning I head to the hospital to sit with Dad. He doesn't wake up, but the doctors say that he is in a stable condition. I watch the news while I am with him. It depicts a video of Batman and Joker fighting within the police station. Joker gets away, of course.

"Barbara?"

My eyes drifted from the television and to the mellifluous voice. Before me stood the rich club owner, Selina Kyle. I hadn't seen her in at least a year due to our differing lives.

"Selina! What are you doing here?" I ran towards her and hugged her tight. My chin digs into the faux fur wrapped around her neck.

"I wanted to come check up on you and your Paps. I heard about it in the news and I knew that this was more important than anything else on my agenda today-"

"Babs-" Grayson announced as he rumbled into the room. He stopped as soon as he saw Selina standing before me. Selina turns around to find him standing there with a box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses in his hands. She grins and takes them out of his hands and hands them to me.

"Well, I should let you two have some time together. Call me, okay?" She lightly squeezes my bicep before sauntering away.

I take a deep breath. Now that we were alone I had time to look him over. His black hair was ruffled and longer than I remembered. He was dressed in joggers and his "Gotham University" gymnastics sweatshirt. "I haven't seen you in a long time. You never answered any of my-"

"I know, I'm sorry. I got them all." In his puppy dog eyes, I could tell he was genuinely sorry. 

All my feelings of sadness, hurt, aching in my sides from the previous night, and from missing my best friend rose within me. I tackled his side, wrapping my arms around his waist. Dick exhaled once he realized I wasn't mad at him. His thumb traced circles on my back as he hugged me back.

"I'm so sorry for leaving you." He murmured in my ear. "It won't happen again."

After we finally release, I find him staring at me. 

"What?" I inquire.

"You just look so much older." He responds.

His eyes meet mine and they seem to smile.

Staring into his eyes, a wave of Deja Vu runs over me.