WHO: Dick Grayson & Ned Leeds WHEN: After this WHERE: Apartment 113 WHAT: Dick needs to make some apologies in person. WARNINGS: talk of injuries
Dick was self-aware enough to know that he was an asshole for keeping the charade going but it was a fact of life and it was how he kept people safe; the more separated he kept Dick Grayson separate from Nightwing, the better. Ned brought the sum total up to six, if they were counting Slade Wilson, there who knew of the dual identity and one of those was his brother (it counted, Jason, deal with it).
He knocked on the door to an apartment that had become important to him. And to Jason. The people who lived there were people Dick would protect with his life without a moment of hesitation. Which was really why he’d given himself away at all. He desperately needed Ned to understand the severity of the situation. There was still a fading bruise on his face that the arnica cream hadn’t cleared up completely but Dick was fairly adept at keeping his face turned away just-so or his hair styled to hide bruises that were high up enough. His other injuries were hidden beneath his clothes and as long as he didn’t pull at stitches, he could function just fine since it was already days later.
When the door opened and it was Ned, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief and gave a tight smile. It was a fight to not plaster the usual, easy ‘normal guy’ one on. “I’m sorry. Can we talk?”
Maybe part of Ned’s problem was that he trusted people unless they came with a reason not to, and there seemed to be a lot of people lately who came with disclaimers. Maybe it was bound to happen, that the bad guys would find a way to ruin the mundane paradise they had going on here. It was worse though, when the people he trusted lied to him for no real reason. Was it a big deal that Dick knew more about computers than he let on? No, but it made him feel like an idiot. He’d explained things to Dick that Dick had probably known for a long time, and there was no reason to keep that a secret from him.
Ned had opened the door, mostly because half the apartment was out (Dee and Lyra safely out of the building with Pepper and Morgan, Bruce and Peter making sure everyone else was okay). Ned had basically held himself up in his room to do what he could to help. But both Dick and Peter acted as if he were being reckless or running out trying to be a hero when he wasn’t. Fuck, he could do magic if he needed to, he wasn’t useless.
He nodded at Dick, as a way of greeting. “I’m busy. If you’re hungry, May has leftovers in the fridge.” He didn’t say more than that. Dick could stay or leave, he was annoyed and stressed and didn’t really care at the moment.
Dick took that as the vague invitation that it was and slid past Ned with the lithe grace he usually held back, at least a little. Dick didn't outright act like he was a klutz but there were certain tricks that he had in place to look completely normal and his general movement was one of them.
He paused for a moment, listening, and then looked at Ned again. "Home alone?" Which he had clearly figured out on his own from the lack of noise. Fingers reached up to card through his own hair and a hint of a wince made an appearance. "Look. I know you're busy but I..." Dick trailed off and blew out a breath. "I mean it when I say I don't know why he hasn't killed me yet. He has his own code, sure, but it's usually backed by whomever hired him at the moment. I doubt he's got a contract here but I have also never really dealt with a bored Slade Wilson and that makes me really nervous." He had moved to follow Ned without thinking as he spoke. Dick didn't usually do nerves either. "He's already tested me once since getting here and I just-" Dick shook his head, jaw tight. "I'm worried about the rest of you. He can take every aim and every shot at me. That's normal."
“I get it.” Ned said, a tone of bitterness in her voice, “I’m not a fighting type, and thats why I do what I do here.” He said easily. “I’m in the middle of watching Wilson and Hargreeves and Osborn, and trying my hand at disabling his suit before he can even get it started.”
Maybe in a fit of annoyance, and wanting to prove that he wasn’t just… a guy with a computer, he opened a portal from where they stood to his room, focusing on his computer, so he could at least see if any alerts popped up while they had their chat. There was a set up with three screens, several security cameras streaming as well as a ping map for cell phones. He wasn’t just watching the bad guys, he had his friends on locate too, not wanting what happened to Dee and Stiles to happen again.
“If he wants you dead, than stay the fuck away from him!” Ned argued, and he noted the wince on Dick’s face. “All of you are so ready to jump in front of a bullet without even thinking that you don’t realize the power of the fact these people don’t know who the fuck we are.”
Dick's body went rigid. The magic didn't bother him. He'd taken plenty of magical and technological routes to get from Point A to Point B and he knew all about surveillance as well. No, it was the point Ned thought he was making.
"The only thing we have going for us back home, keeping our loved ones from getting hurt because of us, is our ability to lie through our teeth," Dick said quietly. His tone was deceptively calm because it wasn't Ned he was angry at. "We jump in front of bullets because that's what we do. Kevlar only does so much. Believe me. We want them all to continue to have zero idea who you are but it's a little late for that. He already knows about May, for example. Dangled that in front of me."
He had to move. If he didn't move, he was going to shake apart from the effort of keeping still. Dick began to pace. "All of this is why I play dumb. No one can connect the two dots if they show up at random. But Slade knows me. He's known me since my earlier days and I can't undo that. So I am begging you to leave him alone. Don't try to track him. It's only setting bait you don't want him to take," he pleaded. "And I get it. I do. I have been in the position of wanting to help and believing that I knew best while someone else told me to sit it out. I fought tooth and nail against that. But, Ned, please. This is one you need to sit out. I'll keep getting between him and everyone else and it doesn't matter how much it ends up hurting because I can heal. I'm used to healing. You should see the scars, man. But I can't bounce back from losing more people just because they had the misfortune of knowing me."
“Back home? My best friend completely erased my memory of him from everyone's existence because he thought that it would be better for the rest of us. We couldn’t be used against him or hurt for information if no one remembered him. May had died. MJ had almost gotten hurt. We had thought we were winning and we didn’t.” Ned still remembered Peter’s plan, and how he’d briefly forgotten him–until he’d wound up back here, and everything came flooding back to him. The duality of both lives lived.
“Here is the thing… these people have access to the Network, just like we do. They can see every time that May has invited you to dinner, they have seen all the times we’ve interacted or talked about ordering a pizza and all of the inconsequential stuff that we’ve chatted about. It’s better for us to know what we are getting into, because they already have all the ammunition they need.” And that was a fact, the bad guys had access to all of the things they would need to use things against people. So, there was no use in hiding their connections or their friendships.
“I’m going to do it.” Ned said, it was a fact. Just like when Peter had told him to stop tracking Norman. That was the way that Ned knew how to be useful, and he wasn’t going to be the person who just sat and hid when he needed to. He could portal himself out of a situation if he needed to. He knew there were all sorts of things at the Sanctum they could use. “You think you’re saving people by hiding things and not telling people, but you’re actually giving the people who would use them more power.”
Dick couldn't argue against Peter's decision; he would have done the same. "You aren't making the point you think you are," Dick said softly, imploringly. "He already knows, yeah, and what I need for you to do is leave it alone. Do not give him a reason to look in your direction beyond you already being in the periphery."
Had he had an escrima stick on him, Dick probably would have snapped a well-aimed throw through that portal. He moved and braced his hands on the back of an armchair, breathing slowly. "I have lost too many people. An entire apartment building. Because they knew me. That was it. That was their crime. Kids. Whole families." He looked up. "I'm not giving them more power if they don't know who I am. He's the outlier." Dick straightened. "You're good at what you do. And that's why you need to stop. At least with him. Nothing good will come of it. I've seen the proof of what can happen and that's to people who were better." Dick lifted both hands both in a placating gesture and to forestall an argument. "That isn't a comment against your skills. Do what you need to. Just not him." Dick pulled the collar of his shirt aside to show the still-healing stitch work from the knife Deathstroke had so easily put in him not too many nights ago. "I'm good. He's better. And this is what he does to someone he apparently doesn't want to kill. Stay off his radar, Ned. I am begging you."
“I wont talk to him.” Ned said, but that is all that he said. He would still keep up with him, he would follow him through security cameras and whatever else that he can get his hands on. At this point, he was tempted to track Dick too, if only to make sure the guy stayed alive at this point.
He looked at the injury, “You know that there are people who can fix that up for you. Al. Rapunzel.” To name a few. It didn’t make sense for Dick to be dealing with the injuries if there were ways around it. “I’m not going to sit back any more than you would. Not until these people prove that they can be here in peace, and clearly this guy cant. We aren’t going to let what happened to Dee and Stiles and Kitty happen again because we didn’t stay on top of these people.”
God, it was like arguing with a brand new Robin. Dick let his collar go and absently smoothed out his shirt again. "I'm keeping an eye on him. He's not in the building. Beyond that," he said, voice low as he gave a small shrug. "I am still working on that. Like I said, he's better. If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be found."
Dick scrubbed a hand over his face. "And I know about the healers. Part of the low profile thing. I don't have to explain where the injuries came from. You don't get broken ribs and a knife in the shoulder from tripping." Which-- Dick closed his eyes and let out an annoyed exhale through his nose. Seven people knew. "Can we make a deal?" Dick asked, leveling a look at Ned. "Trust me on this one, don't do anything related to Slade Wilson, and let me handle it. And in return, I'll tell you everything you want to know about me, about where I come from, what I know. I need you to understand how much this terrifies me and I don't make this offer lightly."
“Everyone here is just like you.” Ned said, “There isn’t any reason to hide what you are and get help to make the whole damn thing easier.” Maybe Ned was being stubborn about his whole thing, but so was Dick. “Everyone here has someone that they are running from, everyone here has a villian.” That wasn’t exclusively true, Ned’s villains were just people who went after Peter. “Yours is here, so is Peters, so is Bens. Stiles’s was here. You think you’re protecting people but I dont… I don’t think you are. You’re prolonging your own injuries and shit.”
Ned rubbed his face, he knew that he wasn’t going to stop helping, and he wasn’t going to make that promise, instead he moved on. “Is he the one who killed Jason with a crowbar?”
He wasn't getting it and Dick didn't have it in him to create a larger rift; that was a Bruce move. But even he couldn't hide the way his eyes widened and the particular expression that appeared at the mention of Jason. "No. If he shows up, you're all leaving," Dick whispered as he looked away. "If the Joker shows up, we evacuate the whole city."
Dick looked chilled by the idea. Beyond spooked. "Stay away from Deathstroke, Ned. He's not harmless and he's not against putting a bullet through your brain or anyone else's, for that matter, just to prove a point," he finished with a shake of his head. If Ned continued to refuse, Dick would take matters into his own hands in whatever way was necessary and he would have to deal with that fallout. It wouldn't be the first time, it wouldn't be the last time, and if he ended up having to go it alone? Well. That wouldn't be a first or fourth time. Dick moved to leave but stopped, hesitating. "Stay away from windows," Dick warned, voice low and stressed-sounding. "If a shot is fired and misses, it's just a warning. Hit the lights, get low. See if you can crawl through a portal and get out."
Ned almost regretted the question as the air around Dick changed. He was just trying to know more about them, and the world they came from. It didn't sound great, and he reached his hand forward to touch what he'd had hoped was an uninjured shoulder. Joker. He would file that away.
“I won't go near him, and I won't talk to him on the network.” That was the line that Ned was willing to draw, but he wouldn't just let bad people go around unmonitored. He meant what he said to Jason. They were a team, the whole building was, and Ned was going to do what he could. “If anything dangerous happens, I'll portal to the sanctuary, it's the safest place I know.”
Dick let out a breath. If that was the best he was going to get as far as verbal agreement, he still had the good old fashioned standby of cutting power to the building. He nodded at Ned's already having a safe place to go.
"Jason's story is his to tell," Dick said, voice still quiet. "And I didn't even know he was alive when he showed up here. We've..." The look he gave Ned was as naked as he ever allowed his expressions. "We've been through a lot. I just don't want that to follow us here more than it already has. Be careful." And then Dick simply left. If he didn't leave then, he was going to pull a Bruce and he didn't want that. Not until it was a last resort.