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“I don't care if you're fresh out of school. They're damn lucky to get you,” Gordon said, and Dick blinked, surprised by the praise. He hadn't thought the commissioner liked him much, not since the year “abroad” and the paparazzi pictures and the rumors about him and Babs. These days, with Jason gone, Dick didn't much like himself. He smiled, he went out as Nightwing, and he pretended he was fine, but nothing was fine after Jason died, and they all knew it.
“Um, thank you, sir,” Dick said, swallowing awkwardly. He glanced toward Babs, wondering if she'd somehow put her dad up to this. Would the commissioner have even gone along with it? He might have understood if the guy was saying all this to Nightwing, since he knew that despite the fact that his alter ego unsettled the other man at times, the commissioner did have some grudging respect for what Nightwing did.
For Dick Grayson?
Not so much.
“He's right,” Babs said, smiling fondly at her dad. “Though I think you're crazy, wanting to jump right into being a police officer as soon as you finished school.”
Dick shrugged. He knew what she really meant—she was not the only one unhappy with his decision to keep on as Nightwing and join the police force. None of them liked the idea much. He and Wally kept fighting about it, but then Wally and Artemis just might be quitting hero work for college, and he was biased, even if he wouldn't admit it.
“I want to do something useful with my life, you know,” Dick said, getting an eye roll from her. He smiled. “Okay, fine, so I've heard these stories about badge bunnies—”
“Excuse me?” Gordon asked. “What did you just say?”
“Relax, Jim. He's not really interested in the girls,” Bruce assured him. “If that was all it was, I think we'd have all have talked him out of this by now, but we haven't yet, so it's more important to him than he wants to admit.”
Dick gave Bruce a halfhearted smile. He knew there were people who'd expected him to fall back in as Robin and Bruce's partner after Jason died, and he'd thought about it. A lot. He'd even tried a couple times, but he knew now that Blüdhaven was his city and where he wanted to be, where he should be. They might not see that now, but they would.
“To Officer Dick Grayson,” Babs said, lifting up her glass.
“He's not an officer yet,” her father reminded her.
“So?” Babs said, not bothered for a moment. “He will be.”