The Birds of Prey: Nightwing (Batman Fanfic)

Chapter 9: Birds and Bats

Bruce Wayne's P.O.V

I stand in the shower and let the hot water run down my back, scolding my skin. The heat helps with my pain both physical and mental. I watch the water flow over the scarred skin of my forearms and I turn off the shower, towel off and throw on a pair of sweatpants, socks, and trainers for my daily workout. As I make my way out of my bedroom and towards the gym my phone goes off in my pocket, I take a quick glance at the screen before I answer. It's Barbara.

"Barbara?" I ask.

"Hi Bruce..." Her voice shakes slightly and she sounds desperately worried "I need you to come down to the Batcave, Tim is here. He knows about Richard. I told him. I'm sorry. I told him everything. I'm sorry."

 My heart misses a beat and guilt tears at my insides. I don't even answer but hang up my phone instead. I jog towards towards one of the libraries, a grand piano sits by the window and I press down on three discordant notes which parts one of the book cases to reveal a cage-like elevator and I step into it. I pulled at a lever to my left and it descends me into the darkness, the wind pulls through my hair and I hear the wings of bat flutter close by, I can't help the goosebumps that arise on my skin at the simple noise but I shake my head and prepare myself for what I will find below.

I step out onto the wet ground and jog down down a dark corridor which leads to the main section of the batcave. I emerge from the corridor and climb a small set of metal stairs which leads to the computers which I suspect is where Barbara is. I am correct and I see her turned away from me and sitting in front of Tim who leans against the desk with his head stooped, his knuckles white as he clutches at the desk and visibly shaking.

I slow down my pace and observe him more closely, he is still wearing his Robin suit but the hood is pulled down to reveal his face, from what I could see from this angle he is still wearing his mask. But, as I look at the boy before , my chest tightens. I had allowed Tim to leave and explore his own strengths when he left over two months ago. I had noticed the signs from when I had mentored Richard and Jason, he became more distant and more angry as he got older and I could sense his need to step out and become his own man. I can admit it to myself that I was scared, ever since the disaster with Richard  and the loss of Jason.I had always kept my pupils on a tight leash. If something were to happen to them, that responsibility and guilt would rest on my shoulders after all, I had given them the means of their own destruction by leading them into a life of vigilantism. I'd already suffered through this after Jason was murdered, the pain from that loss constricts my lungs causing a heavy sinking feeling to settle on my chest.They are my children: Richard, Barbara, Tim and Damien and I need to protect them.

Tim looks up as I stand just behind Barbara who turns around to look up at me but I ignore her, I just focus on Tim. I almost recoil from the look of anger in his eyes, he had never looked at me in this way. He wouldn't dare when he was younger but now I can see how much he has grown.

"Why wouldn't you tell me?" He spits at me, leaning away from the table and moving to stand straight in front of me, he's almost a foot shorter than me but doesn't fail to look me in the eye. I start to speak but he cuts over me.

"Never mind. Forget that I asked! Forget I'm not here, wouldn't make a damn difference! Richard is like a brother to me and you thought that I wouldn't care to know that he was beaten bloody, thrown from a building and you couldn't recover a body! Even when you gathered evidence that he was still alive you didn't decide to stop and thin 'Hey, you know who might  want to know? Oh I don't know, maybe Tim!' , You've even had a chance to have a chit chat with Pamela Isely but not me? You let me go away for a couple months, what was it? Did you just want to get me out of the way so you could work by yourself? Didn't you trust me enough  to keep me in the loop?"