Work Text:
A Matter of Memory
From the moment Dick opened his eyes he knew something was wrong. Sure he was in his own bed, and all of his joints seemed to be moving the way they were supposed to but he just knew. He tried to think back, but most of the previous evening had been a blur.
He had been out on patrol; he had stopped some kind of…something from robbing one of the pawn shops on Washington. The person – he wasn’t sure because he felt like their shape had been constantly changing, had threatened him. He sat up in bed trying to remember what they had said. He’d lose something? Someone? It was still a mess in his brain, but he knew he had a history exam today and that if he didn’t get out of bed soon, Alfred would be on his case, and no matter how bad last night was, Alfred was pretty strict about being to school on time.
He sprinted through his usually morning routine, his uniform tie still dangling around his neck when he made it into the kitchen. Here too, everything seemed normal. Bruce was sitting at the table, coffee in hand as he skimmed the morning paper. Alfred was at the counter, a plate of fruit in his hand.
“Water first, Master Richard,” the older man chided when Dick reached for the coffee pot. “You are sixteen years old, I will not have you developing an irreversible caffeine dependency before you obtain your license.” Dick smiled sheepishly as he took the offered water glass and immediately began gulping it down.
He and Bruce shared a quick look, both of them silently agreeing to not tell Alfred just how much coffee Dick drank on a regular basis.
“Hey, uh, anything strange happen since last night?” he asked, now free to fill up his coffee mug.
“Be more specific,” Bruce said, an eyebrow raised in concern. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah, no I am,” Dick told them hastily. “I mean I know that robbery on Washington was a little weird. I can’t remember exactly what the perp said, but something just feels off.” He tried not to squirm as both Alfred and Bruce eyed him carefully.
“I’ll look into it,” Bruce said finally, apparently satisfied there was no immediate damage or danger to be had.
Dick thanked him before wolfing down the rest of his coffee and snagging a pair of apples from the basket, despite the obviously displeased sigh from Alfred.
The drive into school was uneventful, Bruce asked him a few more clarifying questions before he let him out of the car, with an added promise to track anything he noticed during the day. Dick tried to pretend that everything was fine, but the sense of discomfort only grew as made his way through the halls. He knew he was missing something. Almost like he was missing someone.
He was so lost in his own head that he nearly walked straight into the girl in front of him. She had her back to him, her long red hair trailing down her back in a single braid.
“Oops, sorry about that. I didn’t see you there,” he laughed, slipping easily into the role of charmer. The last thing he needed today was some Gotham Academy girl mad at him on top of everything else.
The girl spun to face him, her face erupting into a smile that took his breath away.
“Oh thank God,” she said. “I’ve been texting you for an hour! After how weird last night was, I was starting to get worried.” She wrapped her arms around him, and Dick Grayson’s mind stuttered to a stop. The girl smelled like cinnamon and coffee, and the way she tucked herself against his shoulder made him feel like she had done it a thousand times before. His body responded without a thought, his hands moving on their own to the small of her back, and a part of him was dying to lift her up until the tips of her toes only just scraped the ground. But he didn’t. Because that would be weird.
Dick had to work to keep the smile on his face as he pulled away. But there was something about it, she must not have liked, because hers fell, her eyebrows knitting together in concern.
“Dick?” she asked, her head tilting to the side in the most adorable way. “What’s wrong?” The sound of her voice made Dick feel like he’d been sucker punched and he knew what he was going to say next was probably going to make it worse, but he couldn’t help it.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” he said, dropping his hands from her and pulling back to see her fully. “But do I know you?”
“No…” the girl whispered, her eyes searching his, trying to find something Dick just didn’t have to offer. He stood awkwardly as her eyes started to water. His hands itched to reach for her, but he refused to let them and stubbornly shoved them into his pockets instead.
When the warning bell rang for first block rang, and the girl in front of him still hadn’t moved, Dick felt like he had to say something.
“Look, uh… I didn’t catch your name?”
“Barbara,” she said, still so quiet that he had to lean in to hear her in the noisy hallway. “Barbara Gordon.”
“Oh!” Dick smiled, happy for something to finally be familiar. “You’re Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, right?” Apparently that had been the wrong thing to say; she looked like he had slapped her.
“Uh…yeah. The Commissioner’s daughter. That’s me.” She was smiling again, but she still looked like she was going to cry.
“Well, it was nice to meet you,” Dick told her honestly. “That was the best hug I’ve had in awhile.” He groaned inwardly knowing that had been one of the most awkward things to ever come out of his mouth. But the blush that colored her freckled cheeks made the embarrassment almost worth it. She looked so cute it made his heart race. A part of him longed to stay and talk with her, to figure out why she looked so sad and what he could do to make it better, but he did have that history exam to get to.
When she didn’t say anything, he gave her another one of his most charming smiles. “I’ll catch you around Barbara Gordon.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Good luck with your test today. Remember to read all the directions, okay?”
Dick nodded and waved as he moved down the hall, her oddly specific advice leaving him unsettled. As he started to sprint towards Dr. Addington’s history class, he tried to remember if he’d mentioned he had a test to catch.
-*--*-
The second bell rang through the now nearly deserted hallway, shattering the stillness that had fallen over Barbara Gordon’s mind.
No. Absolutely not. There was no way she was just going to roll over and accept that her very best friend of more than six years just didn’t know who she was. She was Barbara Gordon and she refused to accept this complete and utter horseshit.
Before anyone could stop her, she picked up her backpack from where she had dropped it when she’d thrown her arms around Dick. She marched past the security desk without so much as a glance in the officer’s direction and made for the front door. For the first time, in her life, Barbara was going to be skipping school. She figured she better make it worth it.
She spent the first two hours of her morning investigating the scene of last night’s attempted robbery. If the clerk at the pawnshop was concerned about an unaccompanied minor in a Gotham Academy school uniform, he didn’t let on. He let her wander his shop undisturbed for as long as she liked, only once asking if there was anything in particular she was looking for. And since she couldn’t tell him she was looking for clues, Barbara had smiled at him as innocently as she could and assured him that she was just browsing.
After finding nothing, Barbara made her way to her one of the millions of coffee shops in Gotham. She ordered the largest coffee they had, and made her way into the back, pulling her laptop from her bag. Carefully, she reviewed the events of the last night in an objective way.
She and Robin had been listening to the police scanners for something to do since Batman had sent them off on their own for the night. When they had heard about the robbery in progress on Washington Street, they’d raced each other to the scene. She had beaten him by about twelve seconds, but she suspected it was because he’d let her. Batgirl was fast, but she was still getting used to the rooftops of Gotham City.
When they’d gotten there, someone was already on their way out, their whole form wrapped in shadows, an old necklace the only thing Barbara could remember about them. It had been made of… Barbara shook her head, trying to remember. It had been black with blue and red stones and something about it had been incredibly unsettling.
The fight had been pretty standard – Batgirl and Robin had worked well together, Batgirl taking the lead so that Robin could sneak up behind the figure and get them pinned to the ground. She had only been hit once, the perp raking their hand through her hair once, making Barbara consider wearing a ponytail or at least carrying one with her on her next patrol.
Robin had wrestled them to the ground, rolling on the concrete for about twenty seconds before he was able to get them pinned with a pair of cuffs on their wrists.
The two of them had left their standard note for the police, the robber screaming something about memories being precious the whole time. But the two of them had laughed it off making their way back up to the rooftops. And then Barbara had gone home, finished up her homework and gone to bed.
She had woken up this morning with a feeling of unease and it had gotten worse when Dick hadn’t answered any of the texts she had sent. But Barbara had just chalked it up to him being anxious about his history test he probably hadn’t studied for.
When she had hugged him, his arms pressing her tightly into his chest, she had been so sure that all of her worry had been for nothing. But the look on his face when he had pulled away had been all wrong.
Barbara let her head thunk down on the table in front of her, her braid slipping in over her shoulder, the loose strands tickling her nose. She moved her fingers thoughtlessly to comb it back, a few strands getting caught in her bracelet, ripping from her scalp painfully. Her hair.
She suddenly felt like she was being thrown back into last night, a spectator instead of a participant in the action. Barbara focused in on the hands of the shadowy thief, watching as they twisted strands of her hair into the necklace they wore. Now that was a lead she could do something about.
Fingers flying, Barbara pulled up the GCPD website, effortlessly bypassing the security systems to get her into the database. She found the case files that were created last night and quickly found the one she was looking for. The necklace had been checked into evidence, but it hadn’t yet been examined. The owner of the pawnshop had verified that it had been the only thing stolen, and he was scheduled to get it back once the investigation was complete.
Barbara squinted at the pictures on her screen, bringing up the photo software her dad definitely didn’t know was installed on her laptop. She zoomed the image in as much as she could, her eyes finding exactly what she was expecting. Wound into the chain were a few strands of hair, so small they’d be missed unless they were what you were looking for. While she couldn’t tell from the picture, Barbara would be willing to bet anything those hairs would match the ones currently caught in her bracelet. Now all she had to do was break into the evidence room.
---
There were plenty of reasons Barbara should not have been crouched down in front of the security code panel in the basement of the GCPD. She had already remotely hacked the security cameras to loop, so she wasn’t worried about getting caught, not really. It wasn’t like her being in the building would be out of place either, but this wasn’t anywhere near her usual realm of existence, and her dad would be absolutely furious when he found out she wasn’t at school. But a memory she had never wanted kept her down in the shadows, fingers clipping over the keys of her new code breaker.
Over and over again she could hear Dick’s anxious apology, the look of confusion in his blue eyes that made her want to puke. He hadn’t known who she was. For a second, she had almost thought he was kidding, but she knew he would never do that to her. Dick Grayson was a flirt and a punk but he wasn’t mean. Not like that. Not to her.
Barbara wasn’t completely sure what she was doing, but she knew that it had to work. She had done what research she could and discovered the necklace was some kind magical conduit attached to memories. Different sources had claimed that it had different powers, and they’d all been a little fuzzy on the how, but it didn’t matter. She would not allow six years of friendship buried in the back of her best friend’s subconscious. This would work.
The door in front of her clicked open and Barbara spared only a quick glance around her before rushing inside. The lights flickered on as soon as she crossed the threshold. In her first bit of luck, the box that she needed sat clearly labeled on the table before her.
Barbara rubbed her gloved hands together and got to work. She pulled the necklace from its bag, fingers trailing over the hair stuck down by the pendent. At least two of hers and a shorter black hair were tangled together, knotted and twisted around. The symbolism was a little too on the nose for Barbara’s liking. She really didn’t want to think about how tightly woven hers and Dick’s lives had become. It was messy and complicated and it made her stomach knot itself more tightly than the hairs in the necklace. They were definitely thoughts better left for another time; at least one where her friend recognized her as more than just the Police Commissioner’s daughter.
With a heavy sigh, she lay the necklace down on the counter and pulled the scrap of paper from the pocket of her cardigan. Not that she really needed it. She had already memorized the quick lines she had found online.
“This better work,” she whispered, placing her palms one over the other, the pendent pressing into her skin through the gloves:
“Remember, remember,
The thing that you treasure.
The hope that you hold dear.
Remember, remember,
That which cannot be measured,
When their heart is near.”
Barbara held her breath waiting for something to feel different, but nothing did. Doing her best not to cry, she pulled her hands back from the necklace, pleased at least to see that the strands of hair had broken free, even if they were still tangled up in each other. She glanced down at her watch, if she hurried, she could still make it back for the last block. She wondered bitterly if Dick would even notice if she didn’t make it to their shared English class.
-*--*-
Dick was going to be sick. The sandwich he’d had for lunch sat like a rock in his stomach. And he’d eaten alone too; that had felt incredibly wrong. He wondered if he should call Bruce. This wasn’t normal; this feeling of absolutely emptiness that had settled into his chest after he’d left the girl, Barbara in the hallway. He was sure he had absolutely bombed the test, even though he had made sure to read the directions. There was just nothing he could have done to focus on anything but her. The fact that it made his headache made him more stubborn than anything.
He had looked for her red braid throughout the rest of the day. Her very existence would have been in doubt if not for the teacher in his study hall asking him where she was. Dick had only been able to shrug in response.
His hand reached into his pocket, nervously thumbing his phone. Dick wanted to go home, felt like he needed to, if only so he could spend a few uninterrupted hours stalking Barbara Gordon on the Internet. His phone hadn’t had enough power to do much digging. The basic stuff came up, mostly connected to her father, but Dick wanted to know about her, and he hadn’t been able to find so much as an Instagram post. And everyone at Gotham Academy had an Instagram.
With a frustrated sigh, he pulled his phone back out again, letting his thumbs tick through another Internet search as he walked towards his final class of the day.
“Sorry,” he murmured, tilting his shoulders to avoid knocking into the person next to him.
“It’s fine,” she whispered, her voice piercing through his mind.
Dick’s head snapped up, his eyes drawn to her. Her hair was messier than it had been that morning, and he could tell that she had been upset – even though she had hidden it well. Barbara Gordon.
For the second time that day, Dick felt like he’d gone toe to toe with Bane, but this time, instead of impenetrable fog, the hit felt like it was clearing his senses.
Dick’s hand shot out for her, his fingers finding her wrist, scraping against the bracelet he’d given her for her last birthday, the little robin charm pressed itself into his skin.
“Babs,” he rasped, her name like a spell as it left his lips. He felt her flip his grip around, pulling him both towards her and towards the wall so they would be out of the thrum of moving students.
“It worked?” she demanded, the hope in her eyes a palpable thing. “You know me?”
Dick nodded, not trusting himself to speak, as he pulled back into his chest for the longest hug he thought he could get away with. He knew she hated these kinds of hugs in school, because they always led to gossip, but right now he couldn’t bring himself to care. She was here, and she was real, and every single memory he had of her felt like it was rushing back at him all at once, threatening to drown in in its intensity, the feeling of her shaking in his arms the only thing keeping him afloat.
“I’m sorry,” he said, pleading his forgiveness into the top of her head. “I am so sorry, Babs. I have no idea what happened.”
“I do,” she laughed, her voice muffled in his shirt. “But it’s going to take me a little while to explain.”
He tried to pull away from her, but she refused to let him go. “Okay, okay,” he whispered, his fingers twisting into the bottom of her braid. “What you’d say we ditch this last class, and you can take as much time as you need to explain it to me?”
She finally broke the hug, her smile sheepish when he caught it. “Well, I’ve already missed my other three classes today, what’s one more?”
Dick couldn’t stop the bark of laughter that tore through his chest. He reached down to grab her backpack from the floor, his fingers wrapping in hers, refusing to let go. Any story good enough to Miss Perfect Attendance missing a full day of classes was absolutely one he’d be willing to take the grounding for it when they got caught. He was pretty sure almost anything involving Babs would always be worth it.