Off the Deep End

Depths

"Dick, hey, bro, I'm here, what's up?"

Dick dropped his hands and took a deep breath, he leaned back and sniffled, "Alex, oh my god I can't do this."

"hey, what do you mean? What happened?"

Dick swallowed and held his hand over his mouth.

"Artemis is dead," he said.

Alex blinked, "okay."

"I don't know what to do."

Alex nodded, "okay, bro, take a deep breath."

Dick did just that, it hiccupped down his throat and he sobbed again.

"I know this is hard."

Dick laughed and it turned into a sob again, "hard?"

"but it's okay, this is okay, cry, scream, turn yourself inside out. You can't fight your feelings."

Dick felt something bubbling up in his throat, probably another sob. He took a deep breath, hands turning to fists. He bit down on his knuckle to hold back the scream as he sobbed. He didn't know how long for.

"Dick."

He collapsed again, head in his arms resting against his knees.

"Dick."

He sobbed and then clenched his teeth against the emotions bubbling up.

"Richard."

He looked up.

"take a breath. I'm here. Do you want to talk?"

He let out every piece of air inside him. nodded. Then shook his head.

"okay, that's alright, I'm here."

He could hear in her voice how much she wanted to hug him.

He dropped his head in his hands again, taking deep breaths.

"it was Kaldur."

Alex was silent.

"what?" she said, voice small and quiet.

"Kaldur. He... killed her... he stabbed her right in- the chest, and," he took a deep breath, "Alex, I can't- I can't, I don't... I can't do this," he took a deep breath, "I can't."

"Dick, just... have a shower."

He nodded.

"take off your gear, have a shower, drink some water," she said these things slow and slightly lower than her usual speaking volume, "take some sleeping pills, conk yourself out. Maybe have a drink beforehand."

He nodded.

"and just... try to avoid Kaldur till you're ready."

Dick nodded, "okay."

"okay?"

"yeah."

"alright, I'm here, okay?"

Dick nodded.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Alex gave him a sad smile, "You'll be able to come home soon, okay? And we can hug and I'll stock up on your favourite junk food and we can play video games and binge some movies and forget about how sucky life is, okay?"

Dick laughed slightly and it once more turned into an edged sob, "okay."

"hey."

He looked up.