Fix You

Starting Over

Lawrence took the harness with another smile. "These, Little Girl, are our key to controlling the Justice League."

oOo

"Seven, uh, six, eleven… radian… um, log to the base, uh, twelve? Thirteen? Hmm…." «natural… what's the word? Um, uh… log? Of five… er, no, six… 'a' squared, 'h' squared… Guess I need to learn some Romani math terms. If Romani even has words for math terms. I suppose Gypsies weren't exactly in the calculus-doing business. Lucky them….»

Dick reached up and rubbed his eyes. His vision blurred for a moment and he dropped his head into his hands, willing it to clear again. His calculus teacher had taken pity on him and let him carry on working on the class into the summer so he could still get a credit for it, but that resulted in him spending two to three hours a day on calculus homework over summer vacation.

«Not like I have anything better to do,» Dick sighed.

"Dick."

Dick looked up to see his guardian standing in the doorway, dressed in a pair of workout pants and a black sweater.

«What?»

Bruce sighed. "I want you to come with me."

«Why? For what?»

"English, Dick."

"Sorry." Dick shut his calculus book and stood up. "Why do you want me to go with you?"

"I want to talk to you about something." To a casual observer, Bruce looked completely at ease and relaxed but Dick could tell the man was mildly on edge and maybe even hesitant about whatever it was that he wanted to talk to Dick about.

"What?" Dick asked again, hesitantly approaching Bruce at the door.

"Just follow me," Bruce huffed and led the way out of the room. Bruce led them through the main hallway and past the kitchen and Dick caught a glimpse of some maid (Dick was pretty sure it was Maggie, but they changed on a daily basis and none of them ever seemed keen on introducing themselves to Dick) boiling water over the stove while chopping vegetables. So Alfred wasn't cooking; something was up.

Bruce continued on into the old lounge where the picture of Martha and Thomas Wayne hung on the wall across from the grandfather clock that housed Gotham's biggest secrets. To Dick's surprise, Bruce crossed the room and turned the clocks hands, opening the entrance to the Batcave. Bruce hadn't purposely taken Dick down into the Batcave (or even allowed him down on his own) since his injuries and it sent Dick's mind spinning as to why that was suddenly changing.

Practically melting from curiosity, Dick followed Bruce down the creaky metal steps (Bruce had started taking the elevator whenever possible since Dick's injuries; what was happening that he now took the stairs?), careful not to hop. At the bottom, Bruce led Dick passed the computer and the training centers and into the back changing rooms in the cave. They entered to see Alfred standing at a table, his face absolutely unreadable.

"Now are you going to tell me what we're doing down here?" Dick asked, looking from Bruce to Alfred.

Bruce ran a hand through his hair and went to stand by Alfred. "I've been talking to Lucius," Bruce began, his face adopting a mask of strictly business. "And he's managed to come up with some very promising technology. Alfred and I have been talking as well-"

"Master Bruce has done most of the talking, I assure," Alfred cut in and Bruce shot the butler a look before continuing: "As I was saying, we've both been very impressed with your progress over the past few months and have seen a few videos of your… extracurricular activities and we – I – have decided that maybe I was wrong."