Chapter 14
Dick’s POV.
I hadn’t slept at all last night. I just sat in my room thinking about all the things that could be wrong with me. What if I had some sort of disease and I would only have a day to live? What if they had to amputate part of my body off? What if Bruce found out what was wrong with me and gave me back to the orphanage?
All these thoughts began to make my head hurt. I got up and walked towards the door.
Maybe it isn’t locked. Maybe Bruce realised what he did was wrong and unlocked the door. My mind began to wonder once more.
To my luck, the door opened with no trouble. Oh thank God! I was starving and I had to go to the doctor’s appointment after, and I had to ask Alfred if he could drive me, because, you know…
I can’t drive……..
I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, on the table there was different plates of food, bacon, pancakes, toast….. I sat down and began to pile my plate high with food, if you didn’t know me, you would mistake me for Wally.
“Master Richard, would I please advise you to eat a little slower” Alfred said.
Oh, I was so hungry, I didn’t even realised how fast I was eating.
“Thanks Alfred, could you please do me a favour?” I asked.
“Of course Master Richard, what can I do for you?”
“Well, I was wondering, If you could drive me to the doctors after breakfast?” I said “Sir, I don’t recall making a doctors appointment for you, and if I were to make an appointment for you, you wouldn’t need it because you are perfectly healthy.”
“Yes I understand Alfred, but I made a appointment for myself because I notice some stuff about me” I said
“Mast Richard, if this is about your body changing, I suggest you talk to Master Bruce about this,”
“NO! Alfred, I’m not talking about those changes I’m talking about something else, I can only tell you once I know what it is.” I replied coolly.
Besides, I already knew about that stuff.
“Of course Mast Richard, I will be in the car waiting.” Alfred replied and then walked off.
I finished my breakfast got changed and went to go meet Alfred in the car.
“Sir, I will be waiting in the car for you, and when you get back, we can have a little talk about why you made the appointment.” I nodded my head and walked into the clinic and sat down on a chair.
I waited anxiously until my name was called out. The clinic was basically empty beside the receptionist, me, and a little girl and mum sitting next to each with the mother reading her a book. I wish how my mum used to do that to me.
“Richard Grayson” someone called out. I looked up and walked towards the lady holding the clip bored.
“Doctor Arnold is in the door down the hall.” And she walked off.
Some receptionist.
I walked to the door and knocked.
“Come in!” someone yelled, I’m assuming Doctor Arnold said that.
I walked in and saw him sitting on a chair. “Please, take a seat Richard” he said
“Please, call me Dick” I replied and sat down on the chair.
“Now what seems to be the problem today Dick” “Well, over the past couple months, I notice that I have been seriously sleep deprived. Everytime I sleep, I have nightmares or visions of my parents death, so I end up waking up again a couple minutes after I have fallen asleep.”
I didn’t want to tell him that I also kept on seeing Bruce beat me, so I didn’t tell him.
“Is their something wrong with me? Am I not normal?” I began to tell him about what I had been experiencing in the past few months.
Doctor Arnold began to type what I had described to him into the compute that was sitting on the desk. “Richa-Dick, I meant to say Dick. It seem as though you have got insomnia.” Doctor Arnold said.
“What is that?” I questioned.
“It’s where, something so traumatising has happened, to the point that you have seen it happen so many times, it’s been implanted in your head, it’s like facing your fear every time you close your eyes. I’m sorry Dick, there is no cure for it, you can only hope that it goes away.”
I can’t believe it.
I have insomnia.
What are Bruce and Alfred going to think? What’s going to happen if I can’t sleep for the rest of my life?
“Thank you Doctor” I said, and I walked out of the clinic into the car that Alfred had drove me in.
“Master Richard, how did the appointment go?” Alfred said while backing out of the car park and driving me home.
“Not good Alfred, not good.” I said, while wiping away some tears that had managed to slip out.
“Master Richard, what is wrong? You can always talk to me.” Alfred’s soothing voice said.
“Okay, but you promise not to tell Bruce what is wrong with me?” I asked.
“I can only keep a secret for so long” was Alfred’s reply.
But that’s okay, I trusted Alfred to not tell Bruce something if I wasn’t comfortable with him knowing.
“Well, over the past few months, I have been having trouble sleeping, every time I would close my eyes, I would get flashbacks of my parent’s death, nightmares and some other stuff that I wold rather you not know. So I made an appointment cause I thought something was wrong, and it turns out that I have insomnia” I began to cry, tears rushing out from my eyes, I tried to stop them, but I couldn’t.
“Master Richard, I can assure you, I would never think of you differently. And as for you having insomnia, nothing bad is going to happen. Master Bruce would never think of you differently.” Alfred said while he parked the car in the garage.
“Please, Alfred! You can’t tell him! If he knows that a child in his ward had insomnia, he would send me back to the orphanage!” I pleaded already not to Bruce about this.
“Very well Master Richard, I will try my best to keep it a secret.” Alfred said while giving me a look of pity.
I gave him a silent thank you and walked into the manor. I walked up the stairs and into my room, only to be confronted by Bruce Wayne himself.
“Dick! What is the meaning of this! Why did Doctor Arnold call me 10 minutes ago telling me that you had made an appointment and that you had been diagnosed with insomnia!” Bruce yelled.
I guess there was no point in hiding it anymore, he already knew.
“It’s true, I said” I suddenly became interested in my shoes all of a sudden.
“I have been diagnosed with insomnia.” I said.
“WHAT! I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT SOMEONE IN MY WARD HAS BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH INSOMNIA! THIS IS SO HUMILIATING! THIS IS GOING TO MAKE THE PAPERS! NO! Not if I get rid of the source.” Bruce said, yelling the first part and then quietly whispering the second part to himself, yet I still heard what he said.
He was going to get rid of me. I knew it! He was going to send me back to the orphanage where all the others kids would bully me because Bruce Wayne decided to give me back to the orphanage.
“Yeah, I’ll get rid of the source” Bruce said once more.
He stood up and said, well more like yelled to me,
“You have 10 minutes to pack everything you need into this backpack including your Robin suit! No one will know about this, when around the team and Justice League, we will act normal and pretend we still like each other. NOW GRAB YOUR STUFF AND MEET ME OUTSIDE INFRONT OF THE FRONT DOOR!”
What is he going to do to me? Is he going to kill me? No, he wouldn’t, he said to pack my bags and meet him at the front door, so he was most likely going to give me away to the orphanage. I quickly opened my closet, pack my clothes and grabbed a 50 dollar bill. I placed my Robin suit on (Without the cape, the cape was put into my bag) and then place my civilian clothes on top along with a jumper, cause after all winter was coming. I walked down the stairs and went to the front door where Bruce was standing.
“Goodbye Dick. I no longer want a troubled boy in my ward, it was hard enough looking after you when you were normal, but when you have been diagnosed with insomnia, I can’t do it. It’s too much trouble. So goodbye, you know the rules” and with that, Bruce pushed outside onto the veranda and slammed the door in my face.
That’s it?!
He was making me a homeless person.
He kick me out just because he found out that I had Insomnia. Shit, I forgot my uniform for school! What am I going to do now? I guess I’ll just have to buy another set of clothes for ‘Gotham Academy” But how? I only have $50, and I can’t even buy me a hat from the school.