Chapter Text
Barbara’s phone rang again. Well, technically, it didn’t ring, it vibrated. But, she was still in the middle of class and she had a strict no answering policy while she was teaching. If she expected her students to respect the no phone rule, then she had to abide by it as well.
In her line of work (and not the associate professor work), there were exceptions to that policy. The fact that the call made it past the ‘Do not disturb” function in the first place meant the caller had been on the ‘allowed’ list. Her heart always beat a little faster when a call came through while she was teaching. Her father and Bruce (well, more likely Alfred) knew not to contact her while teaching unless there was an emergency. The ‘kids’ weren’t always so considerate, but if she didn’t respond to a non-emergency text after a minute or so, they usually remembered she actually had a day job and might not be available for their every beck and call during daylight hours. Of course, there were exceptions even to this, and today Dick was the most grievous offender. After the sixth text and third call, she was seriously considering taking him off the ‘allowed’ call list. His first text had told her it wasn’t an emergency.
Hey Babs. In town for the evening. You free?
After that, it wasn’t hard to ignore the rest of his texts and calls. If only they weren’t accompanied by that annoying buzzing the vibrating phone made against her desk. As the fourth call spilled into voicemail, she resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she finished her lecture. Technically, there was still a few minutes left of class, but she had finished the material she’d planned to cover and a quick survey of the students told her that they had absorbed about as much data as they could cope with for the afternoon.
“Any questions?” Barbara knew the answer to her own question when the only reaction from the class was the snapping shut of laptops and the stowing of tablets in backpacks. Only Stephanie Brown’s hand shot in the air waving like it was an emergency. Barbara shot her a withering glare, though softened it with a smirk. Barbara began to shut down her own laptop, cancelling the slide still projected on the screen in the front of the room. “All right then. Remember your proposals are due Friday night by 11:59 pm. After that, they will be considered late. Don’t forget, I will be checking time stamps. Since there’s no questions, you are dismissed.”
Though there was a chorus of groans at the reminder of their homework, it didn’t stop the class from chatting to one another about evening plans and weekend trips as they exited the room. Eager for dinner or parties (or whatever students did on a weekday nights when their second career wasn’t being a Gotham vigilante), they left class without giving teacher a second thought. She sighed a little wistfully, wishing someone appreciated the effort she put into her lessons. A new text pinged on her phone. Stephanie.
Be kind teach, my nights are packed. ;)
Babs smiled at the text and tapped out her own response.
So are mine. Ask Tim for help.
When only the two of them were left in the room, Stephanie galloped down the steps of the lecture hall and headed straight for Barbara. “You didn’t let me ask my question.”
“The calls were from Dick.” Babs had stowed her belongings in her backpack except for her phone and headed towards her office with Stephanie in tow.
Steph pouted playfully. “You really are an ora—“
“Steph.” She said her friend’s name with almost as much menace as their mutual mentor might.
“What?! I’m talking about an orange, obviously. Whatever else could I mean?” Steph never lost the bounce in her step, letting the whole conversation roll off her. “Though really, what does Dick want? I mean, I can’t believe no one else noticed your phone ringing like a bazillion times. If it was an emergency...”
Babs scrolled through the text messages as they walked. Stephanie read over her shoulder.
Hey Babs. In town for the evening. You free?
Babs....you alive? Special offer one night only...
Babs, I’m bored. And hungry. Dinner?
Babs?
Please.
I’m beginning to think you’re ignoring me on purpose...
When Barbara sighed, Stephanie giggled. Babs elbowed her in the shoulder. “All right, I’ll head out. You on patrol tonight?”
“Yes.” Babs dialled Dick’s number without bothering to listen to the voice mails he left. His phone started to ring. It was the fifth text that bothered her.
“Then I’ll see on the rooftops. I’m going to see if Tim’s in town.” She gave Barbara a mock salute and headed back down the hallway in the opposite direction.
As she turned the corner down the hallway that led to the professors’ offices, Babs pulled the phone away from her ear. While it continued to ring through the speaker, a familiar ringtone also echoed from farther up the hall.
She’d noticed him, of course, but hadn’t put two and two together until she heard the ringtone. On first glance, she’d mistaken him for a student. He sat against the wall, his knees pulled up to his chest and his elbows resting on his knees. His face was buried in his arms so all she saw was the top of his dark hair. From his even breathing, she recognized he’d fallen into a light sleep, though as soon as she approached, he was fully awake. His hands scrambled for the weapons he was not carrying—though if she had meant to attack, he was more than capable at defending himself, even without weapons. He turned his face towards her and smiled one of his lopsided grins. The smile was off, it didn’t reflect in his eyes. She only caught on because she’d known him for so long. Reading his smiles was like reading Bruce’s scowls. Over the years, she’d become proficient in both.
“Hey Babs.”
“Dick Grayson, what are you doing here?” She turned to the office door and began unlocking it. If she faced him, she’d be forced to admit that she was actually glad to see him, but she was also still annoyed with him for his impatient series of calls during class.
Pushing himself into a standing position, Dick winced slightly as he put weight on his foot. “I thought about breaking in, but there seemed to be a steady stream of students passing by when I got here, so I figured I better wait in the hall.”
She held the door for him while gathered his backpack and helmet and limped into the office. By the time the door closed behind her, he’d dropped his gear beside her desk. Once her bag had joined his, he wrapped her in a bear hug. “Mmm, Babs its so good to see you. I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too.” For a moment, she allowed herself to melt into his hug, until a ping of regret tore at her heart and she forced herself to pull back, just a little. He was like this with everyone he loved. His dad, his brothers, his friends. How many times had they gone through this dance?
Sensing the subtle changes in the way she held herself, Dick dropped the hug and flopped into the chair on the ‘student’ side of her desk. She sat in her chair and began sorting through assignments and notes, separating what needed to be dealt with tonight and what could wait.
“All right, Dick, enough goofing around. What are you doing in Gotham? I thought Bludhaven was keeping you busy?”
“What do you think? Bats, of course.” When he sighed, he sighed with his whole body.
“We’ve been working on a case, a supply run between Gotham and Bludhaven. Drugs from here, guns from there. Anyways, we were stuck, so B insisted I drive on out so we can go over it together. Then, while I’m on the road, apparently he figures out the missing pieces and doesn’t tell me until I arrive.”
She nodded. She’d been helping out with the case too. Gothamized drugs were a hot item in the black market of other cities. With Bludhaven being so close, they often were the first ones to feel the effects of a new push. The biggest hold up in the case so far was, which version of Gotamized drugs were they dealing with? “Joker or Scarecrow?”
He shook his head. “Neither. Bane.”
She cringed. This wouldn’t be pretty. The fights were always more brutal when Venom was involved. “Okay. Why are you here in my office and not back at the Manor prepping for patrol?”
“He benched me.” Dick plucked a pen from her desk and began disassembling it. He fussed with it until he managed to break the shaft, dripping ink all over his fingers and onto his pants. “He said was going to patrol with Damian tonight.”
Babs closed her eyes and counted to ten. She knew he was pissed, it’s why he was making her play twenty questions rather than tell her outright what was bothering him. Also, she’d know him for too long not to know that he was more angry with himself than he was at Bruce for making him come to Gotham then benching him. Grabbing the wastebasket, she moved around the desk so they were now on the same side and perched on the edge. She shoved the basket at him. “Let me see it.”
“The pen?” Placing the bin on the floor, he dropped the pen. Wiping his hands on his pants, he smeared the black ink into his black jeans.
“Your ankle.”
He didn’t protest as he straightened in the chair and placed his right foot in her lap. She loosened his shoe and peeled down his sock. His ankle was wrapped in an ace bandage. It wasn’t Alfred’s work, so Dick had probably done it himself. Usually he was better at this.
Dick groaned as she unwrapped the bandage. With knowing fingers, she prodded his injury, watching his face for reactions. A micro-flinch of the eye. Lips pulled into a thin line that shifted into a yawn. Why did he think he had to hide from her? Even if he had managed to hide the pain from his face, between the swelling and the slight colouration, he wasn’t fooling her. It was sprained. Not terribly, but he needed to rest it. “Have you taken anything for it?”
“Nah, I was driving.” With a jerk of his head, he gestured at his helmet alongside his backpack. Motorcycle. He’d probably aggravated it further on the drive over.
Gently removing his foot from her lap, she placed it on the edge of her desk. He scooted forward so it would rest more comfortably there. She headed for the closet in the back of the room and dug through its contents for a moment before finding what she was looking for.
“How’d you hurt your ankle?” In one hand she carried a first aid kit. The same kit that was in every bathroom at the Manor and a simplified version of the ones Dick and Babs kept stocked in their respective apartments. In her other hand she balanced a pair of crutches.
He exhaled a long harsh breath that blew the hair away from his face. Taking the first aid kit from her, he began digging through its contents for the painkiller he knew from experience would help. “I landed on my ankle wrong last night. I didn’t think too much of it, until I got home...”
Babs nodded. He didn’t need to elaborate. They’d all done it. Between the protective gear and the adrenaline, small injuries sometimes were forgotten until the night was over and they peeled out of their gear. It usually meant a minor injury becoming exacerbated. They both knew this was why Bruce had benched him. With Dick’s penchant for acrobatics and disuse of the grappling line while on patrol, the weak ankle put him at risk for further injury. More severe injury.
Once he’d found the painkillers he wanted, he tapped out the dosage he would need and swallowed them dry. Sitting on the edge of her desk, she re-wrapped his ankle.
“I have plans,” Babs said without preamble. “For this evening, I mean.”
“Oh.” His face fell and his shoulders sagged. With Damian on patrol with Bruce and his other brothers more often than not off on their own missions, it meant Dick would be left to fend for himself. “Well, it was a thought.”
“I said I had plans, I didn’t say you weren’t invited.” She smiled at him, enjoying the chance to tease him.
“Oh?” He perked up, his whole body responding to his every emotion.
“Yeah, there’s a traveling exhibit at the museum I’ve been wanting to see before it leaves this weekend. Things have been crazy here and tonight’s the only time I’ve been able to clear my schedule enough to go see it. Want to come?” She tossed him an instant cold compress, then handed him the crutches.
He accepted the crutches, awkwardly using them to keep the weight off his injured ankle. Despite the injury, his devastatingly charming grin was back. This time, it reached his eyes. “Thanks Babs. I’d love to.”