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Dick has seen ghosts only once before: when his parents died. He’d screamed first at their bodies, then at their floating ghostly forms. They followed him around for a week before they moved on. He’d found it disturbing while they were there, trying to comfort him with their cold and not-quite-them bodies, but lonely once they left.
He wasn’t sure why he saw their ghosts, or why he’d stopped. He tells himself it’s because they moved on, but he doesn’t actually know. Since those had been the only two ghosts he’d seen, he reasoned that it had something to do with his connection to them, and since most people don’t report seeing ghosts of their dead relatives, he further reasoned that there was something different, maybe even special, about him. Or he’d been crazy. That was, is, a possibility too.
He’s never told anyone else about it, although he has a vague memory of asking Bruce if he ever saw a ghost. He’d said no, and Dick took it as an honest answer and hadn’t brought up the subject again.
Now, with Jason’s ghost standing between the two of them, Dick is tempted to ask again. Instead, Dick holds back his hurt and refrains from using the acid on his tongue. He goes silent, still, trying to rationalize what he’s seeing. Bruce still looks like he wants to hit him while Dick takes his time processing, but he refrains too.
They stare at each other for a long time. Well, Bruce stares at Dick and assumes Dick is staring back, but really, Dick is staring at Jason.
“You can see me,” Jason finally says, and Bruce doesn’t react at all, proving that it’s just Dick who’s seeing this.
“I’m going to pay my respects,” Dick tells Bruce, not bothering to hide his hurt that Bruce held the funeral why Dick was still in space. “No matter how messed up things are between you and me, he was my brother. I loved him too.”
Bruce doesn’t say anything, just turns on his heel and leaves Dick alone. Dick swallows, then whispers to Jason’s ghost, “Can you leave the manor?”
“I think so.”
The two go outside, but not to Jason’s grave. That would be too uncomfortable. Instead, he walks them down to the pond. One time, he and Jason had played soccer by that same pond and somehow one of them kicked the ball into the water, or one of them had failed to kick the ball back before it went in. Either way, Dick had somehow been the one tricked into fetching the ball, and Jason had laughed at him when he came out covered in water and algae. (He’d gotten the ball, though, and his revenge when he’d thrown a strand of algae at Jason. Jason’s high-pitched scream only added to his amusement.)
“How are you?” Dick asks. “Are you okay? I mean, not okay, of course you’re not okay, but.”
“I don’t know,” Jason says. “It’s so messed up. I didn’t even think ghosts were real until now.”
“Can anyone else see you?” Dick asks next.
“Nope,” Jason says, slumping. “It’s been driving me nuts.” Jason looks up at him with big, desperate eyes. “What are we going to do? I can’t just be stuck like this forever.”
“We’ll figure it out. You can stay with me, if you want. So you won’t be alone.” Jason shouldn’t be alone right now, shouldn't ever be alone. (He’d died alone, Dick thinks, scared and alone.)
“You,” Jason starts, then runs a hand through his hair. “How are you not freaked out about this? This is insane! At first, I thought maybe Bruce got hit with some toxin or something, but then no one could see me at the funereal, and I can fly around.”
He can picture it clearly, Jason’s panic, switching into Robin mode to make sense of what was happening. Then the realization, the panic, the grief.
“I’ve seen ghosts before,” Dick says, eventually, not sure what else he can say.
“I don’t want to be a ghost,” Jason whispers. His lips tremble, his arms wrap themselves around his chest.
The first time Dick had seen ghosts, they’d comforted him; now, the roles have switched, and Dick would have to comfort the ghost.