Mask of Glass

Ch 16

Dick was awoken the next morning by a knock on the door, followed by Alfred's voice calling, "Master Dick, there is someone here to see you."

"Tell them I'll be down in like 15 minutes." Dick called sleepily.

Dick groaned as he crawled out of bed. Despite having taken a nap the night before he was still tired. He took a 5 minute shower before getting dressed, combing his hair, and brushing his teeth. 'If they're going to come when I'm still asleep they better expect for me to take my sweet time getting ready for the day before I come down.' Dick thought as he opened his door and headed down the hall with Ace at his side.

Bruce was standing at the door, chatting leisurely with a reporter. There was a cameraman with him, along with Babs and Commissioner Gordon. 'What's all this?' Dick thought to himself when he saw the small group gathered at the door.

"Hello." Dick said sheepishly as he approached the door. Both the commissioner and the reporters had the reaction to seeing his eyes that he had expected. They all stared at Dick in wonder.

"So what's all this about Bruce?" Dick asked, shooting a questioning look at the billionaire who had obviously known about this, seeing as he normally wouldn't even be awake at this time.

"I thought it was about time we told the world about your rescue from your kidnappers, and expose their elaborate scheme to fake your death." Bruce said.

Dick wondered how that man could keep such a straight face even while blatantly lying to 3 of the 4 people standing at the door.

"Why don't you all come in and we can answer all of your questions." Bruce said, leading everyone to a sitting room where they all sat for a moment before the reporter started asking questions.

"So Mr. Grayson. Do you have anything to say about the people who kidnapped you? The ones who call themselves 'The Court'.

'Of course Bruce wouldn't specifically mention that it was the Court of Owls. Everyone thinks they're just an old wives tale.' Dick thought to himself, planning out his answer carefully as to not give anything away about what had actually happened. "I really don't like to talk about it... It was horrible. Whenever I think about it I get horrible flashbacks..." Dick lowered his gaze, trying to hide the tears that filled his eyes. Alas, it didn't work. The reporters spotted his tears and looked at each other for a moment before the one holding the camera cleared his throat and asked, "Did they do that to your eyes?"

The first reported glared at the second, sending him a look that said, 'I'm the reporter, you're the cameraman... I ask the questions.' It seemed to work, because the cameraman backed down, shifting his gaze awkwardly to the carpet.

"Yes..." The reporter continued. "If I understand correctly, your eyes were blue before. Did this group who took you turn them gold?"

"Steve. I don't know if you should be asking such personal questions to someone clearly suffering from PTSD." Commissioner Gordon cut in.

"It's ok." Dick said in a small voice. He was shaking a bit, trying to fend off the inevitable panic attack that came when he thought too much about the court. "T-they did do this to my eyes." Dick answered.

"Did they do anything to them besides change the color?" Steve asked.

"It made them really sensitive to bright light." Dick replied, looking up at Steve. At that moment, the cameraman flipped open the flash on his camera and snapped a picture. The bright light caused Dick to cry out, covering his burning eyes.

Dick shot to his feet and stumbled into Bruce who had also stood up. Bruce grabbed Dick's shoulders and held his son steady as he started hyperventilating.