Chapter Text
If I tug this thread will all my defences come undone?
If I lose this stone will all my enemies find a way in?
But the only way up is through.
So through I must walk
Sergeant Hess stood blocking his view. That was fine. Dick didn’t need to see. He didn’t really want to. He had been riding with Tom for four months. It seemed both incredibly long and short all at once. They had joked, shouted at each other and been in tight scraps together. None of that made it any easier, but Dick couldn’t stand by and not do anything. If there was one crime that would irrationally affect him it was racketeering .
There was an odd commotion in the bullpen. Dick knew what it was. They were arresting Tom. IA was arresting him. Dick clasped his hands together in his lap to stop them from shaking. He had known what was going to happen. As soon as he made the report it he knew it was over.
Dick felt sick. He hadn’t thought it would be this… upsetting. Tom was dirty. He’s dirty . But that didn’t stop it from hurting, just a bit. It was never easy. As Nightwing he had teammates —partners— betray him before, but this felt different. This wasn’t impersonal , there was no mask. Curry had looked into his eyes. He hadn’t known Richard Grayson or Nightwing. He had known Dick.
The sound was cut off sharply as Sergeant Hess closed the door of his office with a click. Dick felt his body relax slightly as the noise dissipated. He still couldn’t see into the bullpen. He wondered if the officers were huddled together or if they were too fearful of being overheard by IA.
“Grayson?”
Dick’s head snapped up. “Yeah, Sarge?”
“You… you did the right thing. It’s not going to be easy. This isn’t the city for straight laces, but you did the right thing. Redhorn might not like it, but the Captain and I have you back. Okay?” Hess wasn’t a big man, not compared to men Dick had fought next to, but he was a force to recon with.
Redhorn was a hurtle he wasn’t ready to face alone--not as Dick Grayson at least. Nightwing could rip him in half-- but Dick was still working on finding what he was willing to do as himself. It was an odd line to walk, vigilante and police officer. One outside the law fighting for justice and the other working within to clean house. It seemed like a simple plan-- now though-- Dick wondered if he could balance it.
“I appreciate that sir.” And he did. Dick hadn’t known—couldn’t have predicted how hard this was going to be. But this was what he had signed on to. He was here to clean up the department, it just so happened he started with his own training officer.
“You're going to be off for the next couple days. It’s just until IA finishes verifying your statement.”
Dick nodded, he wanted this to stick. He would do everything by the book. “Sir, If you need me to stick around for--”
“No. Dick, you need to go home. Go back to Gotham see the folks. Just let this cool down.”
Dick stilled. Hess must not have ever read his file. “It’s fine. I’ve not got any-- I’m okay to stay really.”
Hess sighed. “Look I didn’t tell you this, but IA isn’t sending you home. I am. Okay. You don’t want to be here for a couple days. Let the dust settle.”
Dick bit his lip. “I thought my statement was confidential.”
“It is.” Hess clapped him on the shoulder and sat down on the edge of his desk. “Having you ‘investigated,’” Hess moved his hands to make air quotes, “will keep the others off your back. Keep you protected. Grayson, Redhorn has ears everywhere you need to be careful who you piss off.”
“What do you mean?”
Hess looked at him sadly. “Look Grayson, I like you okay. So I’m gonna give it to you straight.”
Dick shifted uncomfortably, his belt and equipment dug into his hip.
“You’ve just kicked a hornet’s nest. Cap and I have been looking at this for years. The department is a tangled web of three networks. Redhorn has the biggest hold over the BPD, but the Twins have a good hold over some beat cops and maybe some of vice, and there are a couple others who have their hat in the ring too.”
Dick schooled his face into a slightly puzzled expression. He knew all of this.
“Tom was just-- well as far as Cap and I are aware he wasn’t linked to any of the networks. Which is good for you. You start pulling at a piece of web... and well you don’t know what spider is going to come for you. Do you follow?”
“Yeah, but your saying I didn’t pull the web.” Dick’s mind was spinning.
“No, but you’ve made everyone wonder, just who’s making a move. Is it Redhorn, the Twins this Nightwing that’s shown up over the last few months? This is going to make everyone close ranks.”
“So am I in danger?” Dick narrowed his eyes.
“Not if we handle this right.” Hess said slowly. “Go home, let me run you through IA as if it was an outside tip. Let me handle this.”
Dick sucked in his bottom lip thinking. He had prepared for this. He knew that it would happen. But suddenly he missed his mask. He missed the separation it gave him from this world. Maybe Bruce had-- No . Dick clenched his fist digging his nails into his palm. Bruce. Batman. Didn’t know anything. That had been a hellish conversation.
If Dick had thought Bruce’s reaction to Nightwing was bad, then his reaction to Dick joining BPD was something else entirely.
“Clark, I have a shift on Saturday. I can’t come by until maybe Tuesday.” Dick spun around in Superman’s chair on Watchtower as Clark floated above him dusting the corners of the ceiling.
“That’s fine. Lois just misses you. How is your Training Officer? Do you like him?”
“I don’t know.” Dick shrugged. “I’ve only just been assigned to him. I swear he acts like the academy didn’t teach me anything--not that I learned anything there.” Dick laughed and pushed off from the meeting table to spin faster.
“Dick you’ve literally been working in law enforcement since you were nine . I don’t think that you can fairly judge the Police Academy.”
“Well, I was top of the class.” Dick was too focused on spinning to see him.
Clark however, dropped his feather duster. “Bruce.”
Dick’s heart lurched. He stuck out a leg, catching the edge of the table bringing his spinning to an abrupt halt. He forced back a wince as his shin smacked the wood hard.
“What brings you up here? I thought you weren’t on duty until Thursday.” Clark asked evenly.
Dick almost laughed. Thought . Yeah right. Clark kept a schedule pinned to the refrigerator, noting when Bruce would or wouldn’t be at Watchtower-- for Dick of course. But he never said anything about it to him. He simply left it where Dick would see. Nightwing planned his visits accordingly.
“What class?” Batman looked as if he was swaying slightly. But Dick chalked that up to the fact the room was still spinning from his time pretending to be a top. “The police academy?”
Bruce was looking at him, his mouth slightly agape. Dick just stared at him in horror.
“You're in the police?” He asked again when Dick didn’t respond.
“Errr…” Dick didn’t know what to say. He’d only spoken with Batman a handful of times in the past nine months. All of them had been case related and filled with an undefinable tension. “I… well.”
Clark landed lightly between them. “Bruce, did you need something?”
to anyone else Clark would have sounded jovial but Dick and Bruce both knew that he was being rather cold towards the man.
“What… Di--Nightwing. Are you going undercover?” He pushed past Clark so that he could see Dick again. Bruce sounded almost breathless. His whole body was shaking.
“Umm. No.” Dick felt like the floor had dropped out from under him. “I--”
Clark interrupted after a quick glance a Dick. “He graduated last week. Top of the Bludhaven Police Academy.”
Bruce it turned out was swaying. Because Clark suddenly darted forward, gripping one of the Dark Knight’s arms.
“Get off!” Bruce spat through gritted teeth, shaking his arm out of Superman’s grip.
Clark recoiled as if burned. “Bruce, he’s doing--”
Bruce turned away from Clark, his eyes boring into Dick’s. “Police? You really joined the police?”
Suddenly Dick felt all too aware of the fact he was still curled up in Superman’s chair. He scrambled to stand.
“Yeah. I did.” Dick hoped his voice came out evenly. He hated how much he wanted to hide. How much he wanted to apologize. No . This was what he wanted to do . He wanted to show Bruce how much he had lost when he fired Robin. He wanted to do better than Batman ever could. He would fight from the inside and out, in a way that Batman never had.
Batman stood mouth flapping as if he was fighting to say something.
“Bruce, he’s really good.” Clark said softly.
Batman’s mouth snapped shut, and he turned to glare at Clark. Whatever silent conversation they seemed to be having, Dick could only guess. After a moment, Bruce spun on his heels and with the swish of a cape, he was gone. Dick sank back into Clark’s chair and watched him go. Yeah that was worse than he imagined. Batman might have begun to acknowledge Nightwing, but now… Dick hated how devastated he felt. He hated that one look from Bruce made his insides feel like they had been scoped out and thrown in a blender.
“Dick?” Clark asked gently. “You okay?”
“Yeah. yeah… I’m just--” Dick leaned back, closed his eyes and swore.
“He’ll get used to the idea, it was just a sho--”
“Don’t.” Dick couldn’t not today. “Please don’t, Clark.”
“Okay...” Clark must have moved, his voice was much closer than before.
Dick couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes.
“Bring your laundry with you on Tuesday, will you? Lois is constantly asking if you have clean clothes. I swear she thinks I can tell all the way from Metropolis if you’ve done your laundry.”
“Grayson, you got all that?” Hess snapped his fingers in front of Dick’s face with a frown.
“Huh? Yeah.” Dick smirked sheepishly. “Go home lay low. Got it.”
“Don’t worry just get out of here for a couple days.” Hess moved away from him towards the door.
“Sarge?” Dick stood up adjusting his belt. “Thank you… for everything.” Dick didn’t know what he would do if Hess and the Captain decided to throw him to the dogs. But then Dick always seemed to find allies in even the most unlikely places.
“No problem. It’s my job to look out for you, Rookie.” Hess pushed the door open and the sounds of the bullpen flooded the room.
Dick walked slowly to the locker room. His head was spinning still. He had taken down a dirty cop, not as Robin or Nightwing, but as himself . It was odd. It felt liberating. Sure he couldn’t crow about it, but he didn’t have a mask to sever him from his work. He changed hurriedly, packed his belt safely in a lock case and dashed to his car.
With his gun and gear locked safely in the glove-box he pulled out his cell.
Lois answered on the third ring. “Lane speaking.”
Dick could hear the click clack of keys as she continued to type. “Hey. I umm have a couple days off ....” Dick suddenly wasn’t sure why he had called.
“Dick?” Lois stopped typing. “I thought you weren’t off until Thursday/Friday this week? Why the shift change?”
“Oh um… well-- off the record--” Dick smirked, as Lois huffed into the phone. “I turned in a dirty cop so I am laying low for a couple days. But --on the record-- I’m under investigation from IA because my TO was anonymously proven to be involved in racketeering.”
Lois whistled. “That is some heavy stuff. Can you come for dinner then? I was thinking of ordering Italian.”
Dick turned the key in the ignition. “Um, I was going to be pretty busy after sunset tonight.” Dick was still trying to figure out how much he could allow himself to say on an open line. He always had a nagging voice at the back of his mind-- that sounded just like Bruce-- telling him he needed to never say anything incriminating on an unsecured line. Wally called it his batparanoia.
“Clark can drop by and get you if that helps. He’s not working tonight.” Lois said quickly. “He’ll drop you back too.”
“I don’t--”
“Dick, I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ll say it again. You are not inconveniencing us. We like having you. Honest.” Lois was typing again. “Look I’ve got to submit in an hour, so Clark will pick you up then and we’ll eat.” She hung up before he could protest.
Dick found himself sitting in his apartment with the window open waiting for Clark. He felt antsy. He wanted company but he also was itching to call and cancel. Maybe it was that he wanted different company. He wanted to be around someone who wasn’t even an option. As much as he loved Clark and Lois, there were somethings he didn’t know how to explain to them. He didn’t know how to tell them about this anger he felt. He knew Clark would be scared if he told him. He thought maybe Lois would listen, but she wouldn’t understand it.
Dick could call Wally or Kory and they would listen too. But there was something he wanted that he knew they couldn’t give. He wanted someone who shared this same pain to tell him he was justified-- that he was allowed to be this angry. He wanted Bruce . Dick pulled out his phone and scrolled down to ‘B’. His thumb hovered over the number.
A sharp rapping on his window caused Dick to drop his phone. “Dick, you here?”
Dick stood up, his ears turning red. “Hey, Clark. How was the flight over?”
Clark slumped dramatically on Dick’s sofa, leaning against him. “Just terrible, I almost flew into a flock of geese. They chased me half a mile after.” Clark peaked over at Dick after a long silence. “What’s wrong kiddo? I mean... that was funny.”
“I turned my TO in today.”
Clark sat up faster than Dick’s eyes could follow. “What? What did he do?”
“He was…” Dick pinched the bridge of his nose. “He was making people pay him for answering calls.”
Clark tilted his head in confusion. “So...He was dirty?”
“Yeah. I noticed a couple of months ago when we answered a domestic, the wife looked really shifty around Curry. Turns out he had a reputation on our beat. He would only book people if you paid him. I finally got it caught on my body cam last week. Sarge is making me take a couple days off now. Just ‘til the heat dies down.” Dick glanced at Clark wondering if he would get it. How sick it made him feel. How he wanted nothing more than to fling himself into a bloody fist fight.
“Wow. I can’t believe he did that. Good for you turning him in.” Clark’s smile was too bright.
Dick blinked and forced his face into a natural expression. “Yeah.” he couldn’t help the upsetting turn his stomach made. “Yeah.”
Clark slapped his knees and stood up. “Should we get going?”
Dick glanced down at his phone still lying on the floor. Snatching it up he followed Clark over to the window. “Sure. Italian sounds good.”