"Does Rachel know?" I asked after we only sat there in silent for a good few seconds.
Dick shifted his sitting position to face me more.
"That's what I have been trying to tell you," Dick said. "She doesn't."
As expected. Still made me anxious, though. That must've shown in my face because Dick frowned.
"She's a kid who tells everybody everything," Dick reasoned.
I lifted a shoulder weakly.
"What do you tell her about these?" I asked, gesturing his injuries.
"I don't," Dick said. "And I'm worried if I have to tell her that one day. If I have to tell her that the world isn't as nice as it seems to be."
I didn't know what to say.
"Look, Rome, I'm sorry. What happened that night isn't supposed to happen. I was drunk," Dick continued.
"I figured," I nodded. "I won't tell anyone anything."
"Yeah, thanks," Dick said.
"I'm sorry I made you lie to her like that," I said.
"It's for her," Dick shrugged. "Even though she'll have to see how it's not going to be so nice anymore soon."
"I'm so sorry," I said again.
"Don't be. You have good intention and you stick to your own moral," Dick smiled weakly. "In fact, I really wanna thank you for treating her like that. Maybe I should've raised her the way you treated her."
"The promise thing is great," I commented. "But, don't thank me. She's your daughter. She makes me treat her that way."
"Seriously. No woman ever treat her like that. I mean, not from their heart. They... tend to be nice to her so I'll be nice to them. Which isn't wrong at all, but... you know, you're nice to her because of her not because... of me and certainly not because of anything at all," Dick said. "That's what I see."
"Yeah," I nodded.
"Cool. No more hard feelings, alright?" Dick concluded.
"No hard feelings at all," I smiled.
"Awesome," Dick smirked.
For a while Dick and I just sit there.
"Do you want to know what Rachel made Bruce do?" Dick asked with a mischievous look.
"What?" I asked back.
"She made him donate a hundred thousand dollar for the corals," Dick chuckled.
"What? Really?" I voiced, a little more excited.
"Yeah. She just learned about coral bleaching and she picked at Bruce to stop 'buying' kids and help the corals," Dick answered.
"Oh, my God," I chuckled. "How did she take it?"
"The coral bleaching?" Dick made sure.
I hummed in confirmation.
"Well, she's upset for the first hour. Then, she sort of brought herself up and lectured everybody about it," Dick proudly said.
"Wow," I hummed. "From mermaids to rays to marine conservation. She's a fast learner."
"You did that. God, I wish I was the one who got her into these," Dick breathed.
"I should've been more careful," I laughed a little.
"Not at all," Dick sighed.
I sighed, too, feeling a little better now.
"So, how is Mr. Jackson?" Dick asked.
Mr. Jackson...
"He's processing his will and inheritance before it's too late. He's been...," my eyeballs and nose felt like they'd been stabbed with needles and the water inside my eyeballs seemed to leak, puling along a ball to my throat. I removed my glasses. The next words I said came out cracking. "He's not getting better."
Dick scooted closer and put an arm around my shoulders.
"A lot of us want him to get better so he doesn't have to feel so awful all the time. He just doesn't want to get treatment, he wants to live the rest of his life to the fullest, but, what he does to himself made his condition worse," I sobbed. "He smokes and smokes and it makes him suffer and suffer and suffer."
After that, I might've cried for a bit.
"I'm so sorry," Dick said.
Hearing how close his voice sounded, I realized that Dick hadn't only wrapped his arm around my shoulders, but, all around me. Also, I had been wrapping my arms around him. As well as I had been pressing my cheek on his shoulder.
Oh, no. How awkward.
"It's alright," Dick added.
Dick didn't sound awkward at all and that got me relaxed. In fact, his voice sounded soothing that I gave in and just let myself slouched like that.
***
I woke up the next morning, tucked in my bed in the most comfortable position that I didn't want to get up and reach for my phone to turn off my alarm. However, I did.
Firstly, I grabbed my glasses which happened to be sitting next to my phone. Turning off my alarm after that, I noticed something being laid next to my phone. A note.
Wait...
I fell asleep on Nightwing's shoulder. God. How embarrassing. On a side note, I must be real tired and I was, not going to lie.
The note said:
Good morning. Have a nice day, Miss Holmes
A drawing of a man's genitalia with winky face, followed by the word 'Grayson' appeared underneath it. A smile curled up my face.
Today would be a good day.
***
Going back from work, I felt good. Work felt good.
Mrs. Lin finally won a poker game after years of not winning. Miss Hansen actually behaved for once despite being very suspicious and I bet that she got herself involved in a weed contraband into her room. Mr. Jackson didn't smoke at all, which I suspected that he lost a bet with Miss Hansen and had to give away his cigarettes, including the good stuff. My gut told me that Miss Hansen and the gang actually cared about the other seniors, including Mr. Jackson. Finally, Mr. Leigh, got interviewed by high school students after his photo with Jason Todd dancing blew up the internet. It sounded like they were trying to raise awareness of the LGBTQ+ community in their school by telling stories from queer seniors. More overly, another couple of seniors joined the interview and shared the story of their love lives when they were young queer teenagers.
However, once I got to the street of my neighborhood, the eerie vibe returned. Now, I could conclude that someone got arrested. That suspicion got confirmed when I saw one of my neighbors being dragged from his house and into a car. The officer around him wore a vest with a big bright D. E. A. written on it.
Asia and Vienna really shouldn't grow up in this neighborhood.
I tried not staring all the way to the scene. Though, my curiosity killed my manner because once I got off my Uber and was about to get into my house, I turned back towards the scene.
There, a tall and lean man with blue eyes, fluffy amazing hair, and magnificent eyebrows had his gaze on me. A smile painted on his lips. I smiled back, opening my palm to him. He nodded as a response.
My head tilted aside, gesturing my door, my face expressed something that he hopefully catch as me telling him that I would be getting in. Looked like he did because he nodded. To that, I walked into the house and got greeted right away by Brooklyn from behind the door.
"I saw what you did," Brooklyn said with a sinister look, her grin slowly grew. "Let's bet this week's laundry job that he's going to knock on this door within the next hour."
"Brooklyn, what?" I blinked.
"It was him, isn't it? The one who snuck in last night? I heard you talking," Brooklyn accused.
"You're crazy," I snorted, totally entertained.
Walking pass my sister, I headed straight to my room.
"If he's going to steal you from me, he's going to have to deal with me," Brooklyn sang.
"Not gonna happen," I chanted.
Proceeding to my evening, I brought some pajamas to the bathroom before I showered. Shower was so great. The water was warm enough for me to comfortably washing my hair.
Since noon, one of my favourite songs had been replaying over and over again in my head. That, I started singing in the shower in repeat. Also as I walked out of the bathroom and into my room.
I was just throwing my dirty clothes into the laundry basket in my bedroom before going down to wherever Brooklyn had been calling me from, the kitchen.
"Oh, I gotta see you dancing on the...," my light singing stopped once I saw Brooklyn... with a guest... named Dick Grayson.
Well, agent Grayson at the moment. He had himself seated on the stool by the counter Brooklyn had herself washing the baby bottles.
"Um...," I hummed.
Why?
"Why'd you stop singing?" Dick asked.
"Because... I'm embarrassed?" I answered.
"You were literally screaming in the bathroom," Brooklyn pointed out.
"Because I don't expect us to have a guest," I whined.
"Well, it's unplanned," Dick shrugged.
"Aren't you supposed to be working?" I asked.
"I just did that," Dick said, his head gestured to the direction where the scene took place. "I wasn't important there, but, they could use a little supervisor."
Brooklyn gave me a look. I half glared at her as I made my way closer to Dick.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" I asked.
"I mean, I saw you from across the street. Figured I'd say hi," Dick answered.
Wow. That flattered me.
"Well, sir, you met my sistur, Brooklyn," I introduced.
"Yeah, we met twice before this, right?" Dick asked Brooklyn.
"Oh," Brooklyn said, as surprised as I was that he remembered. "Right."
Probably the babies were surprised, too, because one of them cried. I was about to get them when Brooklyn told me that she would get the girls.
Now, I got myself left with the guest. Exchanging awkward smiles.
"So, I'm not here to say hi," Dick admitted.
"No? Why, then?" I asked.
"I... can't ask anything more from you, but, um... Rachel had been asking to go see you in the nursing home and it's not even been three days, so... is it okay if I steal you for a couple hours, then, I'll return you right back here?" Dick rambled.