Spyral-ing
"Dick?"
Dick startled at Tim's shout and spun around, wincing as the abrupt motion pulled at his stitches. He’d come to Tim’s to hide. The apartment was supposed to be empty.
"Dick! You're—what—"
"Tim. You're supposed to be with the Titans."
"I—I came home, there's no way I could stay away after Alfred called and told me...Dick, he told me you were—he was crying.Alfred, Dick. I know he wasn't lying. What's going on?"
Dick limped over to the couch and sank down. The plush cushions did nothing to ease the pain in his bruised back.
"I...Bruce says I have to—he needs me to go undercover. He says it's better if everyone thinks I'm dead."
"You faked your death? You let us believe you died! How could you do that? Since when do you let Bruce tell you what to do?"
"I didn't. I didn't fake it. Bruce...when I woke up he'd already let everyone believe I was still dead, I..."
"Still?"
"It was real." His voice was barely above a whisper. "Lex killed me." He could still taste the pill, bitter on his tongue. "Bruce brought me back."
Tim ran a hand through his hair and dropped down next to Dick, the bounce of the cushions jostled his wounds and he couldn't hold back a hiss.
"How did this happen?" Tim asked, gesturing at Dick's wounds. Dick didn’t like the suspicion in his voice. Always the detective.
He thought about lying. They all knew about Bruce's temper, knew he was prone to lashing out sometimes, but he'd never been physical with the younger boys. Tim and Damian had never seen that side of him.
Jason and Dick had.
Bruce had never laid a hand on Dick when he was a kid. It wasn't until Dick was nearing what would be the end of his Robin days that it got heated enough that Bruce first struck him. He'd do it twice more before Dick left the Manor for good.
He'd hit Dick once more when Jason was Robin. Dick fought back that time.
"Don't you ever let him see you like this, Bruce. Jason has already been cursed with one abusive father, he doesn't need another. Don't you dare ruin this new life for him. Let him have his magic."
Dick didn't have any evidence, but he always had his suspicions about what kind of argument Jason and Bruce had over Felipe Garzonas that drove Jason to Ethiopia. He didn't want to know.
And they’d all seen what Bruce had done to Jason after Penguin.
"Bruce and I argued," he told Tim. “I just wanted to go home. I didn't want to stay dead."
"You argued," Tim said blankly. "An argument that ended with you hurt. Badly. And only, what, a few hours after you died? Is Bruce in a similar state, Dick?"
Dick didn't answer.
"I didn’t think so.”
“Tim, can we just—I don’t want to talk about this. I’m going undercover. I don’t have a choice. Can I just…stay here. For a while before I go?”
Tim wrapped an arm around Dick, slowly and careful of his injuries. Dick leaned into him.
“Yeah. Yeah, as long as you want, Dick.”