The Other Wife 9/12: Besieged
Apr. 14th, 2008 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficTitle: Besieged
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Dick/Babs, Donna/Kory, Roy/Dinah, Wally
Word Count: 6,853
Series: The Other Wife
Summary: Dick’s under a lot of pressure these days. And it’s about to get worse.
Month 6
Month 7 – February – Besieged
Ever since the announcement of Starfire’s pregnancy, Gotham was under siege. Rumor, fanned by gossip bloggers, had it that the kid was fathered by perennial paramour Nightwing. To most, Nightwing’s abrupt absence from the public eye had served as confirmation.
The paparazzi were easy enough to foil – you didn’t keep a secret identity, let alone urban legend status, without learning how to outsmart the press – but they were just the tip of the iceberg. The much-theorized psychic membrane of Gotham responded with a slew of childbirth- and BEM-themed supervillains arriving on the scene. They were more bark than bite, thankfully.
The real problem, as it turned out, was the hard-line Tamaranian royalists who decried the “pollution” of the royal bloodline with human DNA. They’d commandeered a Thanagarian battle cruiser and dropped out of hyperspace in Earth orbit. Although Lex Luthor’s defense satellite grid disabled it, the Tamaranians were nonetheless able to launch a raid against Gotham.
Arsenal and the Flash were part of the team beamed down to deal with the crisis. And if Nightwing being MIA for the first few months of Kory’s pregnancy didn’t convince the public that he was the father, the fury with which he fought the Tamaranians did.
“You’ve lost two worlds already,” he was heard to say to one of the royalists. “Come near Koriand’r again and I’ll make it three. See if I don’t.”
It became a pop culture quote. A sound bite of it became an internet meme.
Arsenal and Flash, who were part of the JLA battalion assigned to the disaster, were helping with the clean-up effort.
“Well, he seems to be off in a hurry,” Arsenal said, watching as Nightwing climbed into the Batmobile, stopped three streets down. It sped off, Batman at the wheel.
“A Bat being all secretive? Next thing you know the sky will be blue!”
Flash tapped Arsenal on the shoulder. A pair of looters were robbing an electronics store, carrying plasma TVs out the broken front window and setting them in the bed of their pick-up truck. The wheelman was smoking a clove cigarette that Roy could smell all the way up on their rooftop perch. There was a sawed-off shotgun primed in his lap.
Flash signaled his willingness to take the car, while Arsenal agreed to take the looters. They dropped down and dealt with the situation in short order. As they waited for the police to arrive:
“Yeah, but he’s been more Bat than usual lately,” Roy said, not missing a beat. “I mean, when was the last time he talked to you?”
Wally thought about it. “Probably when he told me cheated on his wife.”
Roy’s mouth hung open. His shock was so obvious that even the Flash noticed.
“…I thought you would know, you and him being besties and everything… I screwed up, didn’t I?”
“How could he… I mean… come on, no, not Nightwing.”
“Everyone makes mistakes. Don’t tell anyone, but I used to be kind of a jerk. From what he told me, Koriand’r basically threw herself at him and he just… kinda… didn’t say no.”
“He told you that?”
Roy was still aghast. Growing up in the Green Arrow household, with Ollie’s numerous infidelities and Dinah’s reactions, has instilled in him a deep, contrary loyalty. He’d sworn to himself that he’d never betray anyone he cared for, even when that care was misplaced (Cheshire sprang to mind). And he’d modeled his loyalty and devotion off of Dick’s good example. Roy, the eternal screw-up; Dick, the good son, the model hero… even as kids, Roy’d had a bit of hero worship going on. He’d seen Batman and Robin as the ideal mentor and student, father and son, and he’d aspired to that in place of the tumultuous relationship he’d had with Ollie. And now it was all coming crashing down. Again.
He’d thought he’d been a cynic before, but apparently he’d had one bit of childish naiveté that the world hadn’t crushed: Dick Grayson was a good man. Even after all the time he’d spent reconciling himself with Ollie, the thought that someone could be a good person and still make a mistake as profound as adultery was a bitter pill to swallow. And yet Wally was spouting it in stride. The thought of the speedster, the quaint Midwestern conservative of Keystone City, being more worldly than him was enough to make him titter madly.
“Yeah,” Wally said. “Came to me for advice. The thought that I’m the one with the stable enough relationship for people to ask me for about marriage is vaguely frightening. But then, I can see how you wouldn’t want to admit to Clark that you cheated on your wife. And if you said that to Scott and Barda, she’d cold-cock you. I guess that would make me the go-to guy for philanders.”
Arsenal grabbed his friend by the neck and shook him. “Dick’s not a philander, okay? He’s just… I mean… we must not have the full story! What if she was a shapeshifter, with pheromones--”
“Thought of it. And Roy?” Flash blurred and was behind him. “Thought you’d know better than to try that with me.”
“Sorry, it’s just…”
“Hey, if you’re angry with Dick, take it up with Dick. Lord knows he could probably use someone to set him straight.”
Roy took off his shooter glasses and rubbed his eyes. “What’d you tell him?”
“Huh?”
“When he told you he cheated on Barbara, what’d you tell him?”
“I told him to tell her.”
“Did he?”
“Don’t know, but I doubt it. Things haven’t gone thermonuclear in my hemisphere, so either she’s taking it well or he’s kept mum.”
Roy shook his head. “I’m going to have to confront him on it. He loves Barbara. I can’t let him throw it all away on some stupid stunt.”
“Right, tell me how that goes.”
“You don’t want to help?”
“Dude, do I look like the kind of guy who is good with emotionally complex interpersonal dynamics? My plan of attack is to stay out of it. Maybe you should think about doing the same.”
“Things could be getting worse.”
“Things could be getting better,” Wally countered.
“Fine. I’ll put a good night’s sleep on it, we’ll talk about it tomorrow. But we cannot just ignore this.”
***
The clean-up ran for a few hours more. Thankfully, the attack and damage was mainly limited to Gotham Square, although that had far-reaching consequences throughout the city. Criminals seized the opportunity, causing the city’s chaos levels to swell to near-riot intensity. Other heroes were called in to deal with the fall-out, which naturally put Bruce in a fine mood. Nightwing wasn’t the best of company to them either, but still it was comforting to both of them to weather the storm with a familiar face at their side.
Roy wasn’t so lucky. Wally’s revelation had stirred up old feelings of distrust for Ollie, prompting him to stay away from the Team Arrow relief effort. Instead, he hung with the Teen Titans as they foiled an attempted pharmacy thief in Saint Vincent Hospital. Afterwards he sated the appetite he’d worked up with a falafel. Dinah found him on a park bench, slurping on a fruit shake.
“Hey, hot stuff. Been looking for you all over town.”
Roy sighed.
“National Guard’s arrived,” Dinah continued, sitting down next to him. “The DEO has politely told us to clear the hell out and let the authorities do their jobs. So, you wanna get a beer?”
“I don’t think alcohol would help at the moment.”
Dinah looked out at the park, the landscape only partially spoiled by a crashed alien attack ship still spewing smoke. “This isn’t one of those ‘too good for this sinful world’ moods, is it?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Yes, but then my disguise is a pair of fishnet stockings and some hair dye, so take that as it comes.”
Roy sighed again, looking up at the sky. The setting sun painted it in shades of gold. “You ever thought someone was one thing and they turned out to… to not live up to your expectations at all?”
“Roy… are you talking about Ra’s Al Ghul?”
“Not like that… been there, done that, had the kid… I mean, like, someone you’ve known for a long time, but then it turns out they can do something you never thought they were capable of, and it twists your entire opinion of them.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“It’s Dick.” Roy kneaded his hands together. “It’s Dick and Barbara. I always thought they had the perfect relationship, but… it’s nothing, I’m being childish about this.”
Dinah had narrowed her eyes at the mention of Barbara and as soon as Roy stopped talking, she put a hand on his arm. “No, tell me.”
Roy tapped his fingers on the bench’s cast-iron armrest until he worked up the courage to say “He cheated on her. He said so to Wally, and Wally told me.”
“Jesus. How long ago was this?”
“Wally said it was with Kory, so probably not that long.”
“I'm assuming Barbara doesn't know?"
“He might have told her. I don’t know, I’m taking it up with him.”
“Whoa.” Dinah leaned back, taking it all in. “You and Dick having a confrontation without fisticuffs. That should be interesting.”
“Who says I ruled out fisticuffs?” He shook his head sadly. “The hell of it is, I’m self-aware enough to know that I’m not all that angry at him. Not on Barbara’s behalf, I barely know her. I just feel like such an idiot for idolizing him all this time and then he turns out…”
“To have feet of clay?”
“Yeah.” Roy glumly set his chin in his hands. “Why can’t I look up to Superman, like a normal person?”
“In your defense, Dick doesn’t wear his underwear on the outside.”
Roy grinned slightly. “Well, not usually.” He put an arm around her. “And said the women who’s wore fishnets for a disturbing portion of her adult life.”
Dinah pulled him into a headlock. "We're getting close to our six-month anniversary. After that, the window on fishnet jokes is shut."
"Yes ma'am. Then we move onto the blonde jokes. The fake blonde jokes."
“Try it. Your daughter asked me if she can dye her hair because, and I quote, blondes have more fun.”
“What’d you tell her?”
“We have to try it out on daddy first.”
“Like hell.”
“Ooh, you’d look good with frosted tips.”
“Cold day in hell, that’s when that’ll happen.”
The tension broken, they fell into the familiar post-fight banter that expanded to included the JSA, who they hitched a ride to Warrior’s with. But Dinah detected a trace of tension underneath Roy’s friendly boisterousness, a sort of moodiness that colored his interaction with her teammates. She squeezed his hand and tried to pay extra attention to him, drawing him out of his shell, while inside she was awash with turmoil. Maybe Roy was thinking of his friend, but it was Dinah who had to think of Barbara.
***
“Hey, beautiful.”
It was Dick’s voice. In the desert of hardened, steely hero voices, the voice of Dick… not Nightwing, Dick Grayson… was an oasis. Barbara took off her headset and pulled its plug out of the speaker port, wanting to bathe in his compassionate voice.
“You sure you got the right number?” she said, lying her head down on her desk, just for a minute…
It’d been a long day. The Tamaranians had attacked mid-morning. Their rout had taken six hours, with clean-up going well into the night. Even if most of the heroes had called it quits at dusk, she continued coordinating Batman’s response during the night time that was their home. She was frazzled and couldn’t remember having felt so scared in recent memory. Not just for herself, but for the strange new family she’d found herself in. Some of the bombardments had rattled the Clocktower and Kory had been on the run for most of the afternoon, playing cat and mouse with her pursuers in the subway system. Thankfully, Donna and Dick had tracked her down before she could be taken prisoner. Once saved, she’d barely been convinced to take refuge in the Watchtower. Only Dick’s invocation of their daughter had convinced her to sit the fight out.
Now, Kory was huddled in a corner of the computer room, her hormonal moodiness swung to wide-eyed fear. A litany of prayers under her breath seemed to calm her, although Barbara was thankful for the comm traffic drowning her voice out. Even Kory’s voice got hard to listen to after a while.
At the sound of Dick saying “What, like I could mistake the sexiest voice in Gotham?”, Kory stood heavily and walked over to the computer.
“Dick, are you… good?” she asked, her voice a sultry come-on. Barbara rolled her eyes. Since Kory had entered her latest stage of pregnancy, the one where it became imperative for the Tamaranian female to find a fellow caregiver for her child and herself, she’d been hitting on everything that moved and a few things which didn’t.
Gamely, Dick ignored her innuendo. “I’m fine, Kory. Barbara, you too?”
“All good on this end. Perimeter security took care of anyone who tried to get in.”
“Glad to hear it. We’ve all been pulling double-duty out here, but Batman’s pretty much insisting that we get some rest before we slip up. It’s quieted down a lot, and almost morning, so I’m inclined to agree with him.”
“We’ll tie a yellow ribbon,” Kory said, with that snap to her voice she got when she thought of the right Earth colloquialism.
“You do that. See you both real soon.”
Barbara shut down the comm line and put the system on stand-by for a moment. She leaned back in her chair, looking at the Gotham incident board (crime board didn’t cover disasters). It was mostly green, with a few persistent red spots flaring. Bat-beacons marked the heroes en route to those locations, a Bat-symbol, a Robin-R, and even a BOP symbol with an Huntress-H over it. They could handle things without her. They had before.
A new red blip popped up, painting Salazar Street crimson. Gas main leak had just turned into a gas main explosion. Barbara uploaded it to Batman, who confirmed her reroute of Batgirl and Robin to deal with it. Never got any easier. Now there was nothing left but the waiting, and maybe someone’s urgent request to tell them how to pick a bicycle lock or something. She already had whatever cameras were nearby the disaster areas cued up.
Kory took a deep enough breath for Barbara to hear and she looked over at the alien. Kory was staring off into space with a vacant expression, her usually expressive eyes as blank as stone. Her mood had swung away from her near-constant arousal yet again.
With an absurd feeling of pity, Barbara reached out and took Kory’s hand. “Hey. Something the matter?”
Barbara felt Kory’s muscles flex slightly under her fingers. “This… all of this…” She gestured to the incident board with the arm Barbara wasn’t clutching. “It’s my fault.”
Despite herself, Barbara chuckled. “Kory, you’ve definitely been living in Gotham too long.”
“This isn’t funny,” Kory said in quiet rebuke. “If it weren’t for me, they wouldn’t have come here.”
Barbara sucked in air. “If it weren’t for Bruce, I could still walk.”
The flesh against Barbara’s hand went cold. Kory looked at her for the first time.
“The Joker hurt me to get to him. To get to my dad. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be in this chair. But I don’t blame them for that. I blame the Joker. Kory, no one can live their life trying to avoid pissing off a psycho. Nobody knows what sets them off. Kory, all you can do is trust that you do more good than the people who hunt you do bad.”
After a pause, Kory put her hand on Barbara’s shoulder. “Thank you for sharing that with me.” Her fingers narrowed, nails digging into Barbara’s sweater. “I just don’t understand how something that seems so right at the time can hurt someone else… in this world, it seems there are so many ways to hurt others without even trying…”
“Yeah, well, it comes naturally.”
“But you… forgive me, yes?” Kory asked, her voice coming out in small gulps of nervousness.
“Kory, I just said there’s nothing to forgive.”
“I don’t care about ‘pissing off’ psychos. I care about pissing off you.” She brushed her hand off Barbara’s shoulder, down to Barbara’s breast where it navigated in tight circles around the nipple. Kory’s voice deepened huskily. “I don’t want to hurt you. I want to make you happy.”
Barbara chanced a look at the incident board. The Bats were almost there. A convenient excuse. She’d always figured herself a solid 2 on the Kinsey Scale… the nights she’s shared with Katarina in college had proved that, and her flirtation with Dinah, although never amounting to much, had gotten her through some lonely nights… but Kory was much more complicated. Hell, she was practically radioactive. She was comfortable keeping Kory at arm’s length, like Dick did, and Kory must’ve been comfortable with Donna. Anything else was just… risky.
She didn’t much like risks. She did like the way Kory’s hand seemed designed to fit around her breast, to cup it and support it and then actually touch it in a way that made Barbara very, very open to risky behavior.
“I want us all to be happy,” Kory said, with a trace of sorrow greatly overshadowed by the inflection she put on happy.
Barbara pushed her hand away. “It doesn’t work that way between us.”
“It could work. All three of us. At once.”
“All three of us being you, me, and Dick… or you, me, and Donna?”
“Donna isn’t involved in this. Don’t you have friends who aren’t friends with each other?”
“This is… a little different.”
“Not where I come from.”
“You know what, Kory?” Barbara said, a sudden flash of anger spiking her words. “We’re not on Tamaran and you’ve lived here long enough to know how things should work.”
“I know how things work.” She crouched down to put her lip at Barbara’s ear, seductively, angrily. “I have a very different opinion on how things should work. I’m a superhero. It’s my mission to change the world.”
“Free love? I think you’ve got the wrong decade to save the world with that.”
“I’m not Diana. I can’t save the whole world… I just want to save mine.” She kissed Barbara’s cheek. “You’re part of my world.”
Kory’s lips were warm and welcoming. “When, uh, when is Donna gonna be by to give you an escort home?”
“She got held up. Do you mind if I spend the night?”
“Hey, go right ahead. It’ll be just like old times.” Barbara turned back to her computer. “The couch still folds out. Want me to help you get it?”
“No, I can manage.”
It was when Kory was moving the coffee table out of the way of the Hideabed that resentment flared up within her, filling her hormone-addled body to the brim. Why should she have to sleep on that lumpy, second-rate bed when there was room enough in the king-sized bed for all three of them?… four of them, she should say, as she rubbed the skin over her precious Mar’i Grayson.
Besides, it wasn’t like Miss Overachiever Barbara Grayson-Gordon was going to be using the bed anytime soon.
***
Dick’s patrol ran late. As a last measure, the Tamaranians had released a scavenger beast that’d been feeding on derelicts. The Bats had only just managed to corral it, with Nightwing spending a goodly amount of time one-on-one with the monster. Bruised and battered, Nightwing got home, stripped off his suit, and took a long hot shower. With some of the healing cream Kord Industries had come out with, his bruises faded to a tawny yellow.
Now numb instead of sore, Dick dried himself, dumped his suit in the hamper, and wrapped a towel around himself. Water dripping from his dark hair, he walked to the bedroom. The only light shone in from outside, and lit up the red hair on the pillow like burnished cold. Seeing his wife was asleep, Dick slipped inside and shut the door quickly, restoring the room to cool darkness. Abandoning the towel to the floor, he eased himself beneath the covers and wiggled, snake-like, across the mattress until he was close enough to feel the warmth coming off Barbara’s body. Not daring to touch her, lest she wake, he put his head against his pillow and contented himself with her scent. God, what a thing to come home to… even if the smell was somewhat muted by his broken nose.
Her back was to him, but he spotted the curve of her breast surface into view as she turned a little toward him, her hand reaching out to settle on his thigh. It stroked the line of his hip, finding it bare of cloth, then moved down until she reached his cock. She grabbed him there and held him, not stroking or squeezing, just gripping steadily. After a moment of her thumb lightly rubbing over his cockhead, making Dick groan and pull a little closer to her, she released him, leaving him stiff as steel.
Knowing it could go no further, Kory explored the silken mass of her stomach, hands running lower and lower over her belly until her sex was found, thrilled. The next time she opened her eyes, in orgasm, she found Dick watching her. Quickly, she turned away, wondering what he’d seen. The darkness might’ve concealed her pregnancy and her wild hair, her face. Then Dick threw an arm over her and pulled her tight. A while later, they lapsed into sleep.
It was another hour before Barbara was tired enough to admit defeat and go to bed. When she got there, she found that Kory had backed herself into Dick until she was lying almost on top of him, one of his muscular arms wrapped around her to dangle against her belly. With sharp force, Barbara wrenched herself out of her chair and into bed. She wound an arm around Dick from behind and let herself drift off into angry dreams. She’d thought Donna’s involvement with Kory would put an end to this transparent ploy. She was too tired to see the way Kory guided Dick’s other hand to her stomach, letting his two hands clasp together so it was as if he were embracing her even tighter.
During the night, Barbara woke, unable to stop images of Dick and Kory coupling from invading her mind. Her hands were subtle and careful as they freed Dick from Kory’s arms, then reached under the sheets. No boxers. She should’ve been angry. Dick’s cock resisted her first few pulls, but then he came awake and saw the Cheshire cat eyes regarding him from across the pillow. His manhood came alive in Barbara’s hand.
“Again?” he said, still shaking the cobwebs from his head. Barbara wondered if he’d been dreaming of her. If he thought he was still dreaming. And most importantly, whether she could outshine the dream with reality.
“Don’t wake Kory,” she whispered before their bodies merged.
***
The next morning, Dick and Kory woke up bright and early. Barbara Grayson-Gordon, less so. The bedsheets were damp with shower water and a little blood, with the result that they were about as foul-smelling as you’d expect. Barbara rolled over and saw a Post-It note on Dick’s pillow. She plucked it.
Babs,
Sorry about the bedsheets. I was going to clean them, but you were still using them. Remind me and I’ll have them spic and span by tonight.
Dick
Barbara crumpled the note up and threw it in the wastebasket. As impossible as it seemed, she missed the little collection of “XOXO” he used to sign next to his name on all his messages to her. She’d always teased him about it being immature… but she preferred immature to the stupor he was in lately when he wasn’t being actively romantic. It was like he was turning a case, some heinous crime, over and over in his head. She didn’t like it.
Stripped down to her undershirt, she splashed water on a few areas, promising her body she’d reward it for its patience with a long bath later. She changed clothes, applied deodorant, and swished mouthwash over her teeth before spitting it out. Her hair had gone frizzy where it wasn’t tangled, but that was something to sort out during the bath. She gave it a quick shake and rolled into the kitchen.
Dick and Kory were having breakfast, Dick with a steaming mug of coffee in his hand, Kory spreading jam over a piece of toast. Barbara took in the sight. Dick spotted her first. Smiling, he grabbed one of her mugs from the cupboard and brought it, along with the coffee pot, to her.
“Hey. You sleep alright? You seemed to be tossing and turning a lot.”
As soon as he’d filled her cup, Barbara rotated it in her hand. Librarians: More Shushin’ For The Pushin’ stared at her from its front. “Just found it hard to get comfortable. Bed seemed a little crowded.”
Kory gave Dick’s back a look that was half-offended, half-turned on. He waited three seconds before responding. “We can afford a bigger one, if it gets to be a problem.”
Very civilly, Barbara took a sip of her coffee. “No. I’m sure it won’t be.”
“Okay then.” Dick sat down at the kitchen table. “So, what’s on the agenda today?”
“Fun, fun, fun. Since Batman sunburns easily, Bruce Wayne will be donning the mask of Corporate Crusader to rebuild the city yet again. Nightwing, standard-issue looter discouragement.”
“What can I do to help?” Kory asked as she put her feet up on Dick’s lap.
Barbara watched. “Well, uh…” Dick casually reached down and began to rub Kory’s feet. And Kory must’ve enjoyed it, because her eyelids closed a fraction and her lips twitched into an honest-to-God self-satisfied smirk. Barbara got the uncomfortably paranoid sensation that it was directed at her.
“I just want to make myself useful,” Kory said, her toes curling lasciviously. Was it just Barbara’s imagination or did the foot behind the one being massaged drift down to rub Dick’s crotch?
“You know how to read a data stream? You could flag files, help me sort through the data stream more efficiently. It’s simple work, usually I let the computer do it, but a pair of actual eyes are always useful.”
“So glad to be of service,” Kory drawled, like her voice was caught in her throat by a paroxysm of sexual pleasure. Even Dick looked at her funny on that one.
Barbara gave him a concentrated stare and Dick read her thoughts. “Hey, Kory, you mind getting me my costume? I left it in the dryer.”
Kory looked, to Barbara’s admittedly petty satisfaction, like she was on the verge of protest. But then she smiled graciously and stood.
“Yes, of course.” Her bare feet went down flat on the floor. “But promise me we’ll finish that foot massage later?”
Dick crossed his heart. Kory floated up to the tips of her toes and blimped her way out of the room, managing to look stately and graceful even then. Feeling clunky next to her… to Kory’s grace, Barbara peddled her wheelchair up to Dick. He was finishing off the crust of Kory’s toast, licking his fingers clean of the grape jelly dripping from it.
“It’s nice that you two are so cozy,” she noted dryly.
Dick gulped, swallowing his toast. “Yeah. It came to me last night. I can’t change what happened between us…” he looked away from Barbara. “If it were up to me, you and I would’ve stayed together. I never would’ve… dallied with her in the first place. But what’s done is done, and we can’t change the past. Well, okay, you can, but it’s much simpler not to. So, I figure as long as all three of us are in this predicament, we might as well make the best of it.”
“And this all occurred to you last night?”
“Yeah.”
“Dick, did you know she was in bed with us? Was she there when you laid down?”
Dick rubbed his head. “I honestly couldn’t tell you. I was on autopilot the moment I set foot in here.
“Dick, I’m your wife.”
“And I love you—“
“Let me finish. I’m your wife and I’m not asking you to stop loving the people in your life. Bruce and Roy and all the rest, they were in your life before I met you and… and if worst comes to worst, they could be in your life after I’m gone.”
Dick’s brow furrowed. “Don’t talk like that.”
“I’m not asking for you to only love me. But I don’t think it’s too much to ask that I come first in your heart. Don’t I deserve that… husband?” She stroked his cheek. “Haven’t we been through so much together? Haven’t we helped each other through so many tough times that you owe me just a fraction more love than all the rest?”
He took her hand and squeezed it within both of his. “Barbara, you have all my heart, without ever asking. Take away anyone else and I’d still be me, a survivor, but without you I’d die. You’ve made my life worth living.” He stood up, looking out the window at the devastated landscape, burned like a bruise by the dawning sun. “You, of all people, should know what it’s like to live out of inertia, getting up in the morning because that’s what you’ve always done… because you don’t have the strength to end it all. But with you, each day is an adventure. And I get up, each morning, to see what the day will bring. And as long as you’re part of it, I’m content.”
Barbara bit her lip. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For doubting you.” She took his hand and tugged on it. Slowly, he fell to his knees before her. “I thought you could be interested in Kory. But she can never give you what I can give you: Me.” Barbara took Dick’s face in her hands and slowly brought it forward until their foreheads were resting together. “You’re so good for me, Dick. You’re not the only reason I get up in the morning, but you are the first.”
She kissed him softly, thrilling at his bodily response. Reluctantly, she pushed him back far enough to end it.
“Save some of that for tonight, hubby. Then I’ll have you all to myself.”
Dick smiled. “I’ll kick Kory out of bed myself.”
Barbara left Dick to it. He downed the rest of his coffee, checking the clock on the microwave. Any minute now, Bruce would be asking why he wasn’t out and about, cleaning up the city with workaholic Tim. Maybe if he got lucky, another part of the clan would fall behind and he’d have an extra fifteen minutes to get things together.
Kory floated back in. He didn’t notice her until she set down. She was wearing a split shoulder top, pink, that dangled down past her protruding belly to serve as a lengthy skirt. His Nightwing suit was in her hands. She pressed it to her face and inhaled its scent before handing it to him. After a moment, she turned around to let him dress unwatched.
“So, what did Barbara want to talk about?”
“Nothing. Just her getting some worrying in.”
“Did she want to know about us?”
Dick zipped up his costume. “There is no us.”
“Is that what you told her?”
“More or less.”
“And what did you say about last night? That you thought it was her?” Kory turned back around. The shirt of Dick’s costume was still open as he pulled on his boots. “Or that you just didn’t care? Even for you, that was a considerable eagerness to be touched…”
Dick put on his mask. “Last night, it was Barbara. You just had a ring-side seat.”
“I’m not fooled, Dick. That was the best sex you’ve had in ages. And one way or another, it was because I was there.” She pressed her hand against his bare chest and ran it down. “I’m sorry I told you your marriage was a mistake. It wasn’t. You love Barbara, and she loves you. Not marrying me… that was the mistake. If you’d rediscovered your… connection to Barbara after we’d wed, I would’ve condoned it. I would’ve been content not with joining in, not even with watching, but just knowing that there was someone else in your life that made you happy. Do you doubt this?”
“No, I don’t doubt that. But you’ve got to understand how it makes Barbara feel for you and I to… it makes her feel like Donna feels.”
“Donna understands the love between you and I, Dick Grayson.”
“That doesn’t mean she likes it. She wants you all to herself. She deserves you all to herself.”
Kory took a deep breath, as if trying to convince herself as much as Dick. “In time, she’ll see the wisdom of Tamaran. If she’s happy with just me, imagine how happy she’ll be with me and you and Barbara!” Her hand danced lower down Dick’s chest. “Imagine how happy you’ll be…”
Dick zipped up his suit, cutting her off. “I don’t do happy.”
***
The rest of the world had moved on, but Donna was still in Gotham. She patrolled with Dick, taking easily to the corbeled rooftops and gothic architecture of Gotham. He remembered the crush he used to have on her back in the Titans. He was showy, true, but her movements were naturally graceful. Not in the way Diana was preternaturally graceful, but in a way that sprung from being human. She’d even incorporated some of his flair for acrobatics into her fighting style after the long sparring sessions they’d undergone. And, after Raven had reformed the team, she’d taken on Kory’s poise. Which made sense, after all… Kory had a lifetime of training in aerial combat. But Dick still saw it as a sign of respect and affection… love, even, not that there’d ever been anything between Robin and Wonder Girl.
Barbara’s voice slipped into his ear. Nightwing listened, then nodded as he said “On it.” His head swiveled to regard Troia. “Some kids found an offline battle-droid on Fleet Street. I’m gonna go try to disarm it before it wakes up. You wanna come along, back me up case it turns into a slugfest?”
“Like you even have to ask.”
They flew.
“So, Kory?”
Dick turned to look at Donna as she easily kept pace with him. “Already told you she was fine.”
“Yes, but… she didn’t come home last night.”
“She stayed in the Clocktower.”
Donna touched down to run alongside him, taking flight only to keep up when he used a grapple. “There’s nothing between you, is there? Not anymore? The blowjob was a mistake.”
Dick paled and almost missed his next swing. Donna caught him and deposited him on the rooftop. Paused, they looked at each other. Then Nightwing gritted his teeth and shut off his comm, hoping Barbara hadn’t been listening in. Not that she ever did unannounced, but with his luck... “Tamaranian battle-droid. We’ll talk later.”
Fleet Street had been hit hard, two building facades crumbled with their rubble blocking the street. Earth movers had been brought in to clean up the mess, but it would be weeks still until traffic could be restored. At the end of the road, Dick could see the traffic cops redirecting traffic. Like rush hour wasn’t congested enough as it was. Nightwing looped a de-cel line around the cornice of a building and rappelled down, landing behind a rough semi-circle of police cars. Donna landed behind him, the impact that of a feather.
Bullock was on the scene. His face fell to see a pair of capes on the scene, but then he gave an almost respectful nod. “Nightwing. Who’s the skirt?”
“Skirts, plural. That’s Rose & Thorn.”
“The… killer?”
“That would be the one.” Dick looked back at Donna. “Don’t listen to the voices, okay? They don’t really want you to skin anyone.”
Donna frowned in disapproval. “I’m Troia.”
“Oh, right, yeah, of course.” Bullock slapped his forehead in recognition. “Troia! Who now?”
“I used to be Wonder Woman?”
“…oh, yeah! The Hippo lady! Aren’t you a little young to be queen of the Amazons?”
Nightwing was already hopping down into a crater. A hole at the bottom led to the subway. Flood-lights circling the pit were pointed down into it, spotlighting a ebony black pod. Taking hold of the lip of the hole, Dick swung himself down next to the pod. He heard another feather-light landing as Donna skirted down into the pit.
“You see what we Bats have to put up with?” Nightwing asked. “And you wonder why the big guy is in such a bad mood all the time.”
Donna’s argent boots hung down into the subway as she sat down. “You can disarm it?”
“Kory taught me while we were on Tamaran. I can do it.” The memory was bittersweet. Seemed like she had always come back a little sadder from that world. “Tell the cops to clear out in case I’m wrong.”
“Good.” Donna passed the word along. “Does Barbara know?”
“No. And I don’t think she’s going to.”
Donna nodded. “I won’t tell. If I had known, I wouldn’t have let you gone through with it. But I didn’t want to know. Sometimes you really have to wonder if Kory’s worth the aggravation. Watching the two of you… right in front of me… pardon me for being melodramatic, but normal people don’t put up with that.”
Dick sucked in air as he opened up the pod’s side. There was a rat’s nest of hydraulic wiring inside. “It didn’t mean anything to me. Kory loves you.”
“Not like she does you. And you lead her on.”
“I have never led her on.” Dick disconnected two wires in rapid sequence.
“She lives in your house, she sleeps in your bed, she’s bearing your child…”
“She insisted on all of those things. I’m just trying to do right by her, and she has not made that easy!”
Donna frowned, true venom dripping from her voice. “Do you know how much it sickens me that the only reason she’s with me is because she can’t have you?”
Dick ripped out another wire. “She’d be with you whether or not she had me. That’s not conjecture, that’s history.”
“Were you jealous?”
Dick spun his head to look at her. “I was 19! I thought it was hot!” He turned back to the pod. “We wouldn’t be the first teenagers to experiment sexually. Tim probably… okay, not going there. But do you think Cassie’s a virgin?”
“Don’t change the subject. And no.”
“The subject is that I’m trying to stop a robot from coming online and wrecking havoc. You’re distracting me by bringing up a dead issue.” His voice went full-on Bat. “Stop it.”
“Do the honorable thing and break it off with Kory.”
“I’ve tried.”
“No, you haven’t.” Donna dropped down beside him. He became aware of her hand resting on her shoulder, and remembered she was his friend too. “I don’t know how you see her… as some kind of flattery, or a safety net in case your on-again with Barbara goes off-again, or even just as nostalgia. Maybe you just honestly don’t want to hurt her. But she has this fantasy of you being a father to her child. You need to put a stop to that.”
“Why? So you can move in?”
“Yes.” She crouched down next to him, watching the sweat bead of his forehead as he worked at the pod’s innards. “Don’t think about what’s best for yourself. Don’t even think about what’s best for Kory. Or me. Think about what’s best for the baby. How do you want her to grow up? In Gotham, shuttled between you and Barbara, then back to Kory?”
“A child needs a father.”
“I’m not saying you can’t be involved. But let’s be honest. Your little girl will always come second to other obligations.”
“And things would be different with you?”
“They were. Terry and I…” Donna paused. “I’m a good mother. And Kory’s the most caring, loving person I know. We’d raise a child you could be proud of. Don’t let false pride stop you from seeing that. This isn’t a cross you have to be bear.”
Dick defused the pod, watching as it powered down. Then he gave her his answer.
Month 7
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Dick/Babs, Donna/Kory, Roy/Dinah, Wally
Word Count: 6,853
Series: The Other Wife
Summary: Dick’s under a lot of pressure these days. And it’s about to get worse.
Month 6
Month 7 – February – Besieged
Ever since the announcement of Starfire’s pregnancy, Gotham was under siege. Rumor, fanned by gossip bloggers, had it that the kid was fathered by perennial paramour Nightwing. To most, Nightwing’s abrupt absence from the public eye had served as confirmation.
The paparazzi were easy enough to foil – you didn’t keep a secret identity, let alone urban legend status, without learning how to outsmart the press – but they were just the tip of the iceberg. The much-theorized psychic membrane of Gotham responded with a slew of childbirth- and BEM-themed supervillains arriving on the scene. They were more bark than bite, thankfully.
The real problem, as it turned out, was the hard-line Tamaranian royalists who decried the “pollution” of the royal bloodline with human DNA. They’d commandeered a Thanagarian battle cruiser and dropped out of hyperspace in Earth orbit. Although Lex Luthor’s defense satellite grid disabled it, the Tamaranians were nonetheless able to launch a raid against Gotham.
Arsenal and the Flash were part of the team beamed down to deal with the crisis. And if Nightwing being MIA for the first few months of Kory’s pregnancy didn’t convince the public that he was the father, the fury with which he fought the Tamaranians did.
“You’ve lost two worlds already,” he was heard to say to one of the royalists. “Come near Koriand’r again and I’ll make it three. See if I don’t.”
It became a pop culture quote. A sound bite of it became an internet meme.
Arsenal and Flash, who were part of the JLA battalion assigned to the disaster, were helping with the clean-up effort.
“Well, he seems to be off in a hurry,” Arsenal said, watching as Nightwing climbed into the Batmobile, stopped three streets down. It sped off, Batman at the wheel.
“A Bat being all secretive? Next thing you know the sky will be blue!”
Flash tapped Arsenal on the shoulder. A pair of looters were robbing an electronics store, carrying plasma TVs out the broken front window and setting them in the bed of their pick-up truck. The wheelman was smoking a clove cigarette that Roy could smell all the way up on their rooftop perch. There was a sawed-off shotgun primed in his lap.
Flash signaled his willingness to take the car, while Arsenal agreed to take the looters. They dropped down and dealt with the situation in short order. As they waited for the police to arrive:
“Yeah, but he’s been more Bat than usual lately,” Roy said, not missing a beat. “I mean, when was the last time he talked to you?”
Wally thought about it. “Probably when he told me cheated on his wife.”
Roy’s mouth hung open. His shock was so obvious that even the Flash noticed.
“…I thought you would know, you and him being besties and everything… I screwed up, didn’t I?”
“How could he… I mean… come on, no, not Nightwing.”
“Everyone makes mistakes. Don’t tell anyone, but I used to be kind of a jerk. From what he told me, Koriand’r basically threw herself at him and he just… kinda… didn’t say no.”
“He told you that?”
Roy was still aghast. Growing up in the Green Arrow household, with Ollie’s numerous infidelities and Dinah’s reactions, has instilled in him a deep, contrary loyalty. He’d sworn to himself that he’d never betray anyone he cared for, even when that care was misplaced (Cheshire sprang to mind). And he’d modeled his loyalty and devotion off of Dick’s good example. Roy, the eternal screw-up; Dick, the good son, the model hero… even as kids, Roy’d had a bit of hero worship going on. He’d seen Batman and Robin as the ideal mentor and student, father and son, and he’d aspired to that in place of the tumultuous relationship he’d had with Ollie. And now it was all coming crashing down. Again.
He’d thought he’d been a cynic before, but apparently he’d had one bit of childish naiveté that the world hadn’t crushed: Dick Grayson was a good man. Even after all the time he’d spent reconciling himself with Ollie, the thought that someone could be a good person and still make a mistake as profound as adultery was a bitter pill to swallow. And yet Wally was spouting it in stride. The thought of the speedster, the quaint Midwestern conservative of Keystone City, being more worldly than him was enough to make him titter madly.
“Yeah,” Wally said. “Came to me for advice. The thought that I’m the one with the stable enough relationship for people to ask me for about marriage is vaguely frightening. But then, I can see how you wouldn’t want to admit to Clark that you cheated on your wife. And if you said that to Scott and Barda, she’d cold-cock you. I guess that would make me the go-to guy for philanders.”
Arsenal grabbed his friend by the neck and shook him. “Dick’s not a philander, okay? He’s just… I mean… we must not have the full story! What if she was a shapeshifter, with pheromones--”
“Thought of it. And Roy?” Flash blurred and was behind him. “Thought you’d know better than to try that with me.”
“Sorry, it’s just…”
“Hey, if you’re angry with Dick, take it up with Dick. Lord knows he could probably use someone to set him straight.”
Roy took off his shooter glasses and rubbed his eyes. “What’d you tell him?”
“Huh?”
“When he told you he cheated on Barbara, what’d you tell him?”
“I told him to tell her.”
“Did he?”
“Don’t know, but I doubt it. Things haven’t gone thermonuclear in my hemisphere, so either she’s taking it well or he’s kept mum.”
Roy shook his head. “I’m going to have to confront him on it. He loves Barbara. I can’t let him throw it all away on some stupid stunt.”
“Right, tell me how that goes.”
“You don’t want to help?”
“Dude, do I look like the kind of guy who is good with emotionally complex interpersonal dynamics? My plan of attack is to stay out of it. Maybe you should think about doing the same.”
“Things could be getting worse.”
“Things could be getting better,” Wally countered.
“Fine. I’ll put a good night’s sleep on it, we’ll talk about it tomorrow. But we cannot just ignore this.”
***
The clean-up ran for a few hours more. Thankfully, the attack and damage was mainly limited to Gotham Square, although that had far-reaching consequences throughout the city. Criminals seized the opportunity, causing the city’s chaos levels to swell to near-riot intensity. Other heroes were called in to deal with the fall-out, which naturally put Bruce in a fine mood. Nightwing wasn’t the best of company to them either, but still it was comforting to both of them to weather the storm with a familiar face at their side.
Roy wasn’t so lucky. Wally’s revelation had stirred up old feelings of distrust for Ollie, prompting him to stay away from the Team Arrow relief effort. Instead, he hung with the Teen Titans as they foiled an attempted pharmacy thief in Saint Vincent Hospital. Afterwards he sated the appetite he’d worked up with a falafel. Dinah found him on a park bench, slurping on a fruit shake.
“Hey, hot stuff. Been looking for you all over town.”
Roy sighed.
“National Guard’s arrived,” Dinah continued, sitting down next to him. “The DEO has politely told us to clear the hell out and let the authorities do their jobs. So, you wanna get a beer?”
“I don’t think alcohol would help at the moment.”
Dinah looked out at the park, the landscape only partially spoiled by a crashed alien attack ship still spewing smoke. “This isn’t one of those ‘too good for this sinful world’ moods, is it?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Yes, but then my disguise is a pair of fishnet stockings and some hair dye, so take that as it comes.”
Roy sighed again, looking up at the sky. The setting sun painted it in shades of gold. “You ever thought someone was one thing and they turned out to… to not live up to your expectations at all?”
“Roy… are you talking about Ra’s Al Ghul?”
“Not like that… been there, done that, had the kid… I mean, like, someone you’ve known for a long time, but then it turns out they can do something you never thought they were capable of, and it twists your entire opinion of them.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“It’s Dick.” Roy kneaded his hands together. “It’s Dick and Barbara. I always thought they had the perfect relationship, but… it’s nothing, I’m being childish about this.”
Dinah had narrowed her eyes at the mention of Barbara and as soon as Roy stopped talking, she put a hand on his arm. “No, tell me.”
Roy tapped his fingers on the bench’s cast-iron armrest until he worked up the courage to say “He cheated on her. He said so to Wally, and Wally told me.”
“Jesus. How long ago was this?”
“Wally said it was with Kory, so probably not that long.”
“I'm assuming Barbara doesn't know?"
“He might have told her. I don’t know, I’m taking it up with him.”
“Whoa.” Dinah leaned back, taking it all in. “You and Dick having a confrontation without fisticuffs. That should be interesting.”
“Who says I ruled out fisticuffs?” He shook his head sadly. “The hell of it is, I’m self-aware enough to know that I’m not all that angry at him. Not on Barbara’s behalf, I barely know her. I just feel like such an idiot for idolizing him all this time and then he turns out…”
“To have feet of clay?”
“Yeah.” Roy glumly set his chin in his hands. “Why can’t I look up to Superman, like a normal person?”
“In your defense, Dick doesn’t wear his underwear on the outside.”
Roy grinned slightly. “Well, not usually.” He put an arm around her. “And said the women who’s wore fishnets for a disturbing portion of her adult life.”
Dinah pulled him into a headlock. "We're getting close to our six-month anniversary. After that, the window on fishnet jokes is shut."
"Yes ma'am. Then we move onto the blonde jokes. The fake blonde jokes."
“Try it. Your daughter asked me if she can dye her hair because, and I quote, blondes have more fun.”
“What’d you tell her?”
“We have to try it out on daddy first.”
“Like hell.”
“Ooh, you’d look good with frosted tips.”
“Cold day in hell, that’s when that’ll happen.”
The tension broken, they fell into the familiar post-fight banter that expanded to included the JSA, who they hitched a ride to Warrior’s with. But Dinah detected a trace of tension underneath Roy’s friendly boisterousness, a sort of moodiness that colored his interaction with her teammates. She squeezed his hand and tried to pay extra attention to him, drawing him out of his shell, while inside she was awash with turmoil. Maybe Roy was thinking of his friend, but it was Dinah who had to think of Barbara.
***
“Hey, beautiful.”
It was Dick’s voice. In the desert of hardened, steely hero voices, the voice of Dick… not Nightwing, Dick Grayson… was an oasis. Barbara took off her headset and pulled its plug out of the speaker port, wanting to bathe in his compassionate voice.
“You sure you got the right number?” she said, lying her head down on her desk, just for a minute…
It’d been a long day. The Tamaranians had attacked mid-morning. Their rout had taken six hours, with clean-up going well into the night. Even if most of the heroes had called it quits at dusk, she continued coordinating Batman’s response during the night time that was their home. She was frazzled and couldn’t remember having felt so scared in recent memory. Not just for herself, but for the strange new family she’d found herself in. Some of the bombardments had rattled the Clocktower and Kory had been on the run for most of the afternoon, playing cat and mouse with her pursuers in the subway system. Thankfully, Donna and Dick had tracked her down before she could be taken prisoner. Once saved, she’d barely been convinced to take refuge in the Watchtower. Only Dick’s invocation of their daughter had convinced her to sit the fight out.
Now, Kory was huddled in a corner of the computer room, her hormonal moodiness swung to wide-eyed fear. A litany of prayers under her breath seemed to calm her, although Barbara was thankful for the comm traffic drowning her voice out. Even Kory’s voice got hard to listen to after a while.
At the sound of Dick saying “What, like I could mistake the sexiest voice in Gotham?”, Kory stood heavily and walked over to the computer.
“Dick, are you… good?” she asked, her voice a sultry come-on. Barbara rolled her eyes. Since Kory had entered her latest stage of pregnancy, the one where it became imperative for the Tamaranian female to find a fellow caregiver for her child and herself, she’d been hitting on everything that moved and a few things which didn’t.
Gamely, Dick ignored her innuendo. “I’m fine, Kory. Barbara, you too?”
“All good on this end. Perimeter security took care of anyone who tried to get in.”
“Glad to hear it. We’ve all been pulling double-duty out here, but Batman’s pretty much insisting that we get some rest before we slip up. It’s quieted down a lot, and almost morning, so I’m inclined to agree with him.”
“We’ll tie a yellow ribbon,” Kory said, with that snap to her voice she got when she thought of the right Earth colloquialism.
“You do that. See you both real soon.”
Barbara shut down the comm line and put the system on stand-by for a moment. She leaned back in her chair, looking at the Gotham incident board (crime board didn’t cover disasters). It was mostly green, with a few persistent red spots flaring. Bat-beacons marked the heroes en route to those locations, a Bat-symbol, a Robin-R, and even a BOP symbol with an Huntress-H over it. They could handle things without her. They had before.
A new red blip popped up, painting Salazar Street crimson. Gas main leak had just turned into a gas main explosion. Barbara uploaded it to Batman, who confirmed her reroute of Batgirl and Robin to deal with it. Never got any easier. Now there was nothing left but the waiting, and maybe someone’s urgent request to tell them how to pick a bicycle lock or something. She already had whatever cameras were nearby the disaster areas cued up.
Kory took a deep enough breath for Barbara to hear and she looked over at the alien. Kory was staring off into space with a vacant expression, her usually expressive eyes as blank as stone. Her mood had swung away from her near-constant arousal yet again.
With an absurd feeling of pity, Barbara reached out and took Kory’s hand. “Hey. Something the matter?”
Barbara felt Kory’s muscles flex slightly under her fingers. “This… all of this…” She gestured to the incident board with the arm Barbara wasn’t clutching. “It’s my fault.”
Despite herself, Barbara chuckled. “Kory, you’ve definitely been living in Gotham too long.”
“This isn’t funny,” Kory said in quiet rebuke. “If it weren’t for me, they wouldn’t have come here.”
Barbara sucked in air. “If it weren’t for Bruce, I could still walk.”
The flesh against Barbara’s hand went cold. Kory looked at her for the first time.
“The Joker hurt me to get to him. To get to my dad. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be in this chair. But I don’t blame them for that. I blame the Joker. Kory, no one can live their life trying to avoid pissing off a psycho. Nobody knows what sets them off. Kory, all you can do is trust that you do more good than the people who hunt you do bad.”
After a pause, Kory put her hand on Barbara’s shoulder. “Thank you for sharing that with me.” Her fingers narrowed, nails digging into Barbara’s sweater. “I just don’t understand how something that seems so right at the time can hurt someone else… in this world, it seems there are so many ways to hurt others without even trying…”
“Yeah, well, it comes naturally.”
“But you… forgive me, yes?” Kory asked, her voice coming out in small gulps of nervousness.
“Kory, I just said there’s nothing to forgive.”
“I don’t care about ‘pissing off’ psychos. I care about pissing off you.” She brushed her hand off Barbara’s shoulder, down to Barbara’s breast where it navigated in tight circles around the nipple. Kory’s voice deepened huskily. “I don’t want to hurt you. I want to make you happy.”
Barbara chanced a look at the incident board. The Bats were almost there. A convenient excuse. She’d always figured herself a solid 2 on the Kinsey Scale… the nights she’s shared with Katarina in college had proved that, and her flirtation with Dinah, although never amounting to much, had gotten her through some lonely nights… but Kory was much more complicated. Hell, she was practically radioactive. She was comfortable keeping Kory at arm’s length, like Dick did, and Kory must’ve been comfortable with Donna. Anything else was just… risky.
She didn’t much like risks. She did like the way Kory’s hand seemed designed to fit around her breast, to cup it and support it and then actually touch it in a way that made Barbara very, very open to risky behavior.
“I want us all to be happy,” Kory said, with a trace of sorrow greatly overshadowed by the inflection she put on happy.
Barbara pushed her hand away. “It doesn’t work that way between us.”
“It could work. All three of us. At once.”
“All three of us being you, me, and Dick… or you, me, and Donna?”
“Donna isn’t involved in this. Don’t you have friends who aren’t friends with each other?”
“This is… a little different.”
“Not where I come from.”
“You know what, Kory?” Barbara said, a sudden flash of anger spiking her words. “We’re not on Tamaran and you’ve lived here long enough to know how things should work.”
“I know how things work.” She crouched down to put her lip at Barbara’s ear, seductively, angrily. “I have a very different opinion on how things should work. I’m a superhero. It’s my mission to change the world.”
“Free love? I think you’ve got the wrong decade to save the world with that.”
“I’m not Diana. I can’t save the whole world… I just want to save mine.” She kissed Barbara’s cheek. “You’re part of my world.”
Kory’s lips were warm and welcoming. “When, uh, when is Donna gonna be by to give you an escort home?”
“She got held up. Do you mind if I spend the night?”
“Hey, go right ahead. It’ll be just like old times.” Barbara turned back to her computer. “The couch still folds out. Want me to help you get it?”
“No, I can manage.”
It was when Kory was moving the coffee table out of the way of the Hideabed that resentment flared up within her, filling her hormone-addled body to the brim. Why should she have to sleep on that lumpy, second-rate bed when there was room enough in the king-sized bed for all three of them?… four of them, she should say, as she rubbed the skin over her precious Mar’i Grayson.
Besides, it wasn’t like Miss Overachiever Barbara Grayson-Gordon was going to be using the bed anytime soon.
***
Dick’s patrol ran late. As a last measure, the Tamaranians had released a scavenger beast that’d been feeding on derelicts. The Bats had only just managed to corral it, with Nightwing spending a goodly amount of time one-on-one with the monster. Bruised and battered, Nightwing got home, stripped off his suit, and took a long hot shower. With some of the healing cream Kord Industries had come out with, his bruises faded to a tawny yellow.
Now numb instead of sore, Dick dried himself, dumped his suit in the hamper, and wrapped a towel around himself. Water dripping from his dark hair, he walked to the bedroom. The only light shone in from outside, and lit up the red hair on the pillow like burnished cold. Seeing his wife was asleep, Dick slipped inside and shut the door quickly, restoring the room to cool darkness. Abandoning the towel to the floor, he eased himself beneath the covers and wiggled, snake-like, across the mattress until he was close enough to feel the warmth coming off Barbara’s body. Not daring to touch her, lest she wake, he put his head against his pillow and contented himself with her scent. God, what a thing to come home to… even if the smell was somewhat muted by his broken nose.
Her back was to him, but he spotted the curve of her breast surface into view as she turned a little toward him, her hand reaching out to settle on his thigh. It stroked the line of his hip, finding it bare of cloth, then moved down until she reached his cock. She grabbed him there and held him, not stroking or squeezing, just gripping steadily. After a moment of her thumb lightly rubbing over his cockhead, making Dick groan and pull a little closer to her, she released him, leaving him stiff as steel.
Knowing it could go no further, Kory explored the silken mass of her stomach, hands running lower and lower over her belly until her sex was found, thrilled. The next time she opened her eyes, in orgasm, she found Dick watching her. Quickly, she turned away, wondering what he’d seen. The darkness might’ve concealed her pregnancy and her wild hair, her face. Then Dick threw an arm over her and pulled her tight. A while later, they lapsed into sleep.
It was another hour before Barbara was tired enough to admit defeat and go to bed. When she got there, she found that Kory had backed herself into Dick until she was lying almost on top of him, one of his muscular arms wrapped around her to dangle against her belly. With sharp force, Barbara wrenched herself out of her chair and into bed. She wound an arm around Dick from behind and let herself drift off into angry dreams. She’d thought Donna’s involvement with Kory would put an end to this transparent ploy. She was too tired to see the way Kory guided Dick’s other hand to her stomach, letting his two hands clasp together so it was as if he were embracing her even tighter.
During the night, Barbara woke, unable to stop images of Dick and Kory coupling from invading her mind. Her hands were subtle and careful as they freed Dick from Kory’s arms, then reached under the sheets. No boxers. She should’ve been angry. Dick’s cock resisted her first few pulls, but then he came awake and saw the Cheshire cat eyes regarding him from across the pillow. His manhood came alive in Barbara’s hand.
“Again?” he said, still shaking the cobwebs from his head. Barbara wondered if he’d been dreaming of her. If he thought he was still dreaming. And most importantly, whether she could outshine the dream with reality.
“Don’t wake Kory,” she whispered before their bodies merged.
***
The next morning, Dick and Kory woke up bright and early. Barbara Grayson-Gordon, less so. The bedsheets were damp with shower water and a little blood, with the result that they were about as foul-smelling as you’d expect. Barbara rolled over and saw a Post-It note on Dick’s pillow. She plucked it.
Sorry about the bedsheets. I was going to clean them, but you were still using them. Remind me and I’ll have them spic and span by tonight.
Dick
Barbara crumpled the note up and threw it in the wastebasket. As impossible as it seemed, she missed the little collection of “XOXO” he used to sign next to his name on all his messages to her. She’d always teased him about it being immature… but she preferred immature to the stupor he was in lately when he wasn’t being actively romantic. It was like he was turning a case, some heinous crime, over and over in his head. She didn’t like it.
Stripped down to her undershirt, she splashed water on a few areas, promising her body she’d reward it for its patience with a long bath later. She changed clothes, applied deodorant, and swished mouthwash over her teeth before spitting it out. Her hair had gone frizzy where it wasn’t tangled, but that was something to sort out during the bath. She gave it a quick shake and rolled into the kitchen.
Dick and Kory were having breakfast, Dick with a steaming mug of coffee in his hand, Kory spreading jam over a piece of toast. Barbara took in the sight. Dick spotted her first. Smiling, he grabbed one of her mugs from the cupboard and brought it, along with the coffee pot, to her.
“Hey. You sleep alright? You seemed to be tossing and turning a lot.”
As soon as he’d filled her cup, Barbara rotated it in her hand. Librarians: More Shushin’ For The Pushin’ stared at her from its front. “Just found it hard to get comfortable. Bed seemed a little crowded.”
Kory gave Dick’s back a look that was half-offended, half-turned on. He waited three seconds before responding. “We can afford a bigger one, if it gets to be a problem.”
Very civilly, Barbara took a sip of her coffee. “No. I’m sure it won’t be.”
“Okay then.” Dick sat down at the kitchen table. “So, what’s on the agenda today?”
“Fun, fun, fun. Since Batman sunburns easily, Bruce Wayne will be donning the mask of Corporate Crusader to rebuild the city yet again. Nightwing, standard-issue looter discouragement.”
“What can I do to help?” Kory asked as she put her feet up on Dick’s lap.
Barbara watched. “Well, uh…” Dick casually reached down and began to rub Kory’s feet. And Kory must’ve enjoyed it, because her eyelids closed a fraction and her lips twitched into an honest-to-God self-satisfied smirk. Barbara got the uncomfortably paranoid sensation that it was directed at her.
“I just want to make myself useful,” Kory said, her toes curling lasciviously. Was it just Barbara’s imagination or did the foot behind the one being massaged drift down to rub Dick’s crotch?
“You know how to read a data stream? You could flag files, help me sort through the data stream more efficiently. It’s simple work, usually I let the computer do it, but a pair of actual eyes are always useful.”
“So glad to be of service,” Kory drawled, like her voice was caught in her throat by a paroxysm of sexual pleasure. Even Dick looked at her funny on that one.
Barbara gave him a concentrated stare and Dick read her thoughts. “Hey, Kory, you mind getting me my costume? I left it in the dryer.”
Kory looked, to Barbara’s admittedly petty satisfaction, like she was on the verge of protest. But then she smiled graciously and stood.
“Yes, of course.” Her bare feet went down flat on the floor. “But promise me we’ll finish that foot massage later?”
Dick crossed his heart. Kory floated up to the tips of her toes and blimped her way out of the room, managing to look stately and graceful even then. Feeling clunky next to her… to Kory’s grace, Barbara peddled her wheelchair up to Dick. He was finishing off the crust of Kory’s toast, licking his fingers clean of the grape jelly dripping from it.
“It’s nice that you two are so cozy,” she noted dryly.
Dick gulped, swallowing his toast. “Yeah. It came to me last night. I can’t change what happened between us…” he looked away from Barbara. “If it were up to me, you and I would’ve stayed together. I never would’ve… dallied with her in the first place. But what’s done is done, and we can’t change the past. Well, okay, you can, but it’s much simpler not to. So, I figure as long as all three of us are in this predicament, we might as well make the best of it.”
“And this all occurred to you last night?”
“Yeah.”
“Dick, did you know she was in bed with us? Was she there when you laid down?”
Dick rubbed his head. “I honestly couldn’t tell you. I was on autopilot the moment I set foot in here.
“Dick, I’m your wife.”
“And I love you—“
“Let me finish. I’m your wife and I’m not asking you to stop loving the people in your life. Bruce and Roy and all the rest, they were in your life before I met you and… and if worst comes to worst, they could be in your life after I’m gone.”
Dick’s brow furrowed. “Don’t talk like that.”
“I’m not asking for you to only love me. But I don’t think it’s too much to ask that I come first in your heart. Don’t I deserve that… husband?” She stroked his cheek. “Haven’t we been through so much together? Haven’t we helped each other through so many tough times that you owe me just a fraction more love than all the rest?”
He took her hand and squeezed it within both of his. “Barbara, you have all my heart, without ever asking. Take away anyone else and I’d still be me, a survivor, but without you I’d die. You’ve made my life worth living.” He stood up, looking out the window at the devastated landscape, burned like a bruise by the dawning sun. “You, of all people, should know what it’s like to live out of inertia, getting up in the morning because that’s what you’ve always done… because you don’t have the strength to end it all. But with you, each day is an adventure. And I get up, each morning, to see what the day will bring. And as long as you’re part of it, I’m content.”
Barbara bit her lip. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For doubting you.” She took his hand and tugged on it. Slowly, he fell to his knees before her. “I thought you could be interested in Kory. But she can never give you what I can give you: Me.” Barbara took Dick’s face in her hands and slowly brought it forward until their foreheads were resting together. “You’re so good for me, Dick. You’re not the only reason I get up in the morning, but you are the first.”
She kissed him softly, thrilling at his bodily response. Reluctantly, she pushed him back far enough to end it.
“Save some of that for tonight, hubby. Then I’ll have you all to myself.”
Dick smiled. “I’ll kick Kory out of bed myself.”
Barbara left Dick to it. He downed the rest of his coffee, checking the clock on the microwave. Any minute now, Bruce would be asking why he wasn’t out and about, cleaning up the city with workaholic Tim. Maybe if he got lucky, another part of the clan would fall behind and he’d have an extra fifteen minutes to get things together.
Kory floated back in. He didn’t notice her until she set down. She was wearing a split shoulder top, pink, that dangled down past her protruding belly to serve as a lengthy skirt. His Nightwing suit was in her hands. She pressed it to her face and inhaled its scent before handing it to him. After a moment, she turned around to let him dress unwatched.
“So, what did Barbara want to talk about?”
“Nothing. Just her getting some worrying in.”
“Did she want to know about us?”
Dick zipped up his costume. “There is no us.”
“Is that what you told her?”
“More or less.”
“And what did you say about last night? That you thought it was her?” Kory turned back around. The shirt of Dick’s costume was still open as he pulled on his boots. “Or that you just didn’t care? Even for you, that was a considerable eagerness to be touched…”
Dick put on his mask. “Last night, it was Barbara. You just had a ring-side seat.”
“I’m not fooled, Dick. That was the best sex you’ve had in ages. And one way or another, it was because I was there.” She pressed her hand against his bare chest and ran it down. “I’m sorry I told you your marriage was a mistake. It wasn’t. You love Barbara, and she loves you. Not marrying me… that was the mistake. If you’d rediscovered your… connection to Barbara after we’d wed, I would’ve condoned it. I would’ve been content not with joining in, not even with watching, but just knowing that there was someone else in your life that made you happy. Do you doubt this?”
“No, I don’t doubt that. But you’ve got to understand how it makes Barbara feel for you and I to… it makes her feel like Donna feels.”
“Donna understands the love between you and I, Dick Grayson.”
“That doesn’t mean she likes it. She wants you all to herself. She deserves you all to herself.”
Kory took a deep breath, as if trying to convince herself as much as Dick. “In time, she’ll see the wisdom of Tamaran. If she’s happy with just me, imagine how happy she’ll be with me and you and Barbara!” Her hand danced lower down Dick’s chest. “Imagine how happy you’ll be…”
Dick zipped up his suit, cutting her off. “I don’t do happy.”
***
The rest of the world had moved on, but Donna was still in Gotham. She patrolled with Dick, taking easily to the corbeled rooftops and gothic architecture of Gotham. He remembered the crush he used to have on her back in the Titans. He was showy, true, but her movements were naturally graceful. Not in the way Diana was preternaturally graceful, but in a way that sprung from being human. She’d even incorporated some of his flair for acrobatics into her fighting style after the long sparring sessions they’d undergone. And, after Raven had reformed the team, she’d taken on Kory’s poise. Which made sense, after all… Kory had a lifetime of training in aerial combat. But Dick still saw it as a sign of respect and affection… love, even, not that there’d ever been anything between Robin and Wonder Girl.
Barbara’s voice slipped into his ear. Nightwing listened, then nodded as he said “On it.” His head swiveled to regard Troia. “Some kids found an offline battle-droid on Fleet Street. I’m gonna go try to disarm it before it wakes up. You wanna come along, back me up case it turns into a slugfest?”
“Like you even have to ask.”
They flew.
“So, Kory?”
Dick turned to look at Donna as she easily kept pace with him. “Already told you she was fine.”
“Yes, but… she didn’t come home last night.”
“She stayed in the Clocktower.”
Donna touched down to run alongside him, taking flight only to keep up when he used a grapple. “There’s nothing between you, is there? Not anymore? The blowjob was a mistake.”
Dick paled and almost missed his next swing. Donna caught him and deposited him on the rooftop. Paused, they looked at each other. Then Nightwing gritted his teeth and shut off his comm, hoping Barbara hadn’t been listening in. Not that she ever did unannounced, but with his luck... “Tamaranian battle-droid. We’ll talk later.”
Fleet Street had been hit hard, two building facades crumbled with their rubble blocking the street. Earth movers had been brought in to clean up the mess, but it would be weeks still until traffic could be restored. At the end of the road, Dick could see the traffic cops redirecting traffic. Like rush hour wasn’t congested enough as it was. Nightwing looped a de-cel line around the cornice of a building and rappelled down, landing behind a rough semi-circle of police cars. Donna landed behind him, the impact that of a feather.
Bullock was on the scene. His face fell to see a pair of capes on the scene, but then he gave an almost respectful nod. “Nightwing. Who’s the skirt?”
“Skirts, plural. That’s Rose & Thorn.”
“The… killer?”
“That would be the one.” Dick looked back at Donna. “Don’t listen to the voices, okay? They don’t really want you to skin anyone.”
Donna frowned in disapproval. “I’m Troia.”
“Oh, right, yeah, of course.” Bullock slapped his forehead in recognition. “Troia! Who now?”
“I used to be Wonder Woman?”
“…oh, yeah! The Hippo lady! Aren’t you a little young to be queen of the Amazons?”
Nightwing was already hopping down into a crater. A hole at the bottom led to the subway. Flood-lights circling the pit were pointed down into it, spotlighting a ebony black pod. Taking hold of the lip of the hole, Dick swung himself down next to the pod. He heard another feather-light landing as Donna skirted down into the pit.
“You see what we Bats have to put up with?” Nightwing asked. “And you wonder why the big guy is in such a bad mood all the time.”
Donna’s argent boots hung down into the subway as she sat down. “You can disarm it?”
“Kory taught me while we were on Tamaran. I can do it.” The memory was bittersweet. Seemed like she had always come back a little sadder from that world. “Tell the cops to clear out in case I’m wrong.”
“Good.” Donna passed the word along. “Does Barbara know?”
“No. And I don’t think she’s going to.”
Donna nodded. “I won’t tell. If I had known, I wouldn’t have let you gone through with it. But I didn’t want to know. Sometimes you really have to wonder if Kory’s worth the aggravation. Watching the two of you… right in front of me… pardon me for being melodramatic, but normal people don’t put up with that.”
Dick sucked in air as he opened up the pod’s side. There was a rat’s nest of hydraulic wiring inside. “It didn’t mean anything to me. Kory loves you.”
“Not like she does you. And you lead her on.”
“I have never led her on.” Dick disconnected two wires in rapid sequence.
“She lives in your house, she sleeps in your bed, she’s bearing your child…”
“She insisted on all of those things. I’m just trying to do right by her, and she has not made that easy!”
Donna frowned, true venom dripping from her voice. “Do you know how much it sickens me that the only reason she’s with me is because she can’t have you?”
Dick ripped out another wire. “She’d be with you whether or not she had me. That’s not conjecture, that’s history.”
“Were you jealous?”
Dick spun his head to look at her. “I was 19! I thought it was hot!” He turned back to the pod. “We wouldn’t be the first teenagers to experiment sexually. Tim probably… okay, not going there. But do you think Cassie’s a virgin?”
“Don’t change the subject. And no.”
“The subject is that I’m trying to stop a robot from coming online and wrecking havoc. You’re distracting me by bringing up a dead issue.” His voice went full-on Bat. “Stop it.”
“Do the honorable thing and break it off with Kory.”
“I’ve tried.”
“No, you haven’t.” Donna dropped down beside him. He became aware of her hand resting on her shoulder, and remembered she was his friend too. “I don’t know how you see her… as some kind of flattery, or a safety net in case your on-again with Barbara goes off-again, or even just as nostalgia. Maybe you just honestly don’t want to hurt her. But she has this fantasy of you being a father to her child. You need to put a stop to that.”
“Why? So you can move in?”
“Yes.” She crouched down next to him, watching the sweat bead of his forehead as he worked at the pod’s innards. “Don’t think about what’s best for yourself. Don’t even think about what’s best for Kory. Or me. Think about what’s best for the baby. How do you want her to grow up? In Gotham, shuttled between you and Barbara, then back to Kory?”
“A child needs a father.”
“I’m not saying you can’t be involved. But let’s be honest. Your little girl will always come second to other obligations.”
“And things would be different with you?”
“They were. Terry and I…” Donna paused. “I’m a good mother. And Kory’s the most caring, loving person I know. We’d raise a child you could be proud of. Don’t let false pride stop you from seeing that. This isn’t a cross you have to be bear.”
Dick defused the pod, watching as it powered down. Then he gave her his answer.
Month 7
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Date: 2008-04-15 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 02:17 pm (UTC)