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Cass kept an eye on him that night, cuddling him, though they didn’t talk much. In the morning, Dick checked his vitals again, and he was stable and his cortisol was good now, even after not taking the medication for 24 hours. Dick messaged Leslie vaguely that he was stable without the medicine now after a visit from Percy; not putting anything about Percy’s powers in text, but enough for her to read between the lines.
Dick did explain to Cass that Percy had pulled out some sort of toxic substance from around Dick’s liver, which they suspected was some combination of the Atlantean aphrodisiac and him maybe having ingested something from the Tamaranean alcohol. Cass offered to bring it to Tim for chemical analysis to follow up on and Dick agreed. Cass made sure Dick ate a decent breakfast and then looked very assessingly at Dick’s body language before deciding he was emotionally stable as well and that he would be okay on his own for a bit, though Cass promised to return for dinner time.
Dick got dressed and went down to the Gym at the youth center. Apparently school hadn’t started for the kids quite yet, so it was still fairly busy and active. He checked the schedule, both gymnastics and figure skating had lessons right now. Dick went to the weight room and did some weight training. Then he got a small healthy snack from the cafeteria before going to do some cardio training, using the bike and then the treadmill. After feeling some level of ill for the last week, it was nice to get back into the swing of exercising properly. He was only human, he did have to work to maintain his strength and speed.
Then he went to one of the dance studios which was currently empty and set out a yoga mat, going through his advanced yoga routine. Annette the dance instructor happened upon him as she arrived early to set up for her next class. Dick asked her to take some pictures of him in yoga poses; he was wearing his branded Under Armour clothes and stuff. He thanked her for taking the photos as he finished up his routine and then he sent the pictures to Rachel, his PR Agent, to touch-up or whatever with a vague note to say something about being back in the gym, doing some yoga to wind down from a workout. Rachel replied immediately, saying it was a good idea for him to post about a workout with his branded clothes and she would draft options for him; he told her to go ahead and post whatever she thought best from that.
Dick got a protein shake from one of the vending machines they had there, checking the label to confirm it was the same as what he was used to; though, he wasn’t too worried, they wouldn’t stock anything there that had performance enhancing stuff. Dick drank the shake as he went back up to his apartment next door. He immediately went in and took a shower, changing into fresh casual clothes.
He checked the time on his phone, it was around 4pm. He saw a message from Tim, saying he would stop by for dinner instead of Cass and they could discuss things about the sample. Dick replied with a thumbs up; then Tim gave Dick 3 options for takeout for Dinner and Dick chose the healthier option of Chinese takeout: rice, vegetables, and chicken or other lean protein was a good healthy meal for an athlete.
Tim came over and they chatted lightly as they ate. Then Tim got to business, explaining to Dick that the toxin was primarily from the Tamaranean alcohol, one of the flavor enhancers they used that was slightly poisonous to humans, but that it had bonded weirdly to the Atlantean aphrodisiac, creating a new toxin. Tim was still investigating the mechanism, but preliminary results indicated it was suppressing cortisol production from his adrenal glands by burning through cholesterol before it could be used. Dick recommended that Tim communicate his final results to Leslie, and Tim agreed.
“So, Percy just waltzes in and fixes everything, eh?” Tim asked.
“He does that,” Dick agreed neutrally.
“What state were you in that he went straight to trying to diagnose and heal you?” Tim asked faux-neutrally.
“Stomach ulcers from mixing meds with alcohol, forgot about that being a concern. Everything says not to drink with meds but they never explain the severity so guess I underestimated it,” Dick admitted.
“Seems like drinking alcohol has been getting you into trouble, eh? Why’d you drink the Tamaranean alcohol in the first place, I thought y’all were careful about avoiding mix-ups?” Tim asked.
“I….they were fussing that I had too much to drink early on after never have I ever, and when my buzz started wearing off, I wanted to get more drunk, efficiently. Knew Tamaranean alcohol was more dense alcoholically but didn’t know it could have other toxins; I switched my shot glass with Garth’s, he was doing the diluted mix of Tamaranean and normal alcohol, so it wasn’t a full dose, and was just a shot,” Dick confessed. It annoyed him that it wrecked so much havoc.
“Normally you would be fine and your liver would process that much of it after a day or two, it just reacted weirdly with the aphrodisiac. Since Kory is the one person who obtains Tamaranean alcohol, I feel it’s best to communicate this issue to her to be aware of,” Tim advised.
“Fine, you can tell her, but maybe indicate I accidentally mixed up the shotglasses rather than doing it on purpose,” Dick requested.
“Sure, I can do that. You don’t want to tell her yourself?” Tim asked.
“Don’t want to deal with her fussing over me….and I’m better at communicating in person than over text,” Dick expressed.
“But you’re good now, yeah? You’ll be safe if I leave you here for the night?” Tim asked.
“I should probably go on patrol, now that I feel better,” Dick considered, “Had a good workout today with no symptoms, so I’m solid.”
“I’ll patrol with you then, Nightwing and Robin,” Tim suggested.
“Yeah, I suppose that’ll work. Oh, I was also thinking, like, about the 4 teens we’re responsible for?” Dick brought up.
“What about it?” Tim asked.
“Just, we travel a lot for competitions and stuff, we aren’t very available. And I guess I just….don’t feel like I’m in the best shape to be responsible for other people like that in any capacity, and I’m worried about them getting too clingy and getting wrapped up in our family’s bullshit. I was thinking maybe Roy would be better as a sponsor since he’s already consistently here since he’s caring for Lian and all,” Dick replied.
“What’s this really about?” Tim pressed.
“Saturday night I came home a bit intoxicated, ran into the kids. One of them was scared of me when he realized I was drunk. I feel like I’m….just not a great influence right now,” Dick replied.
“You could stop drinking,” Tim pointed out, “Probably be better for you if you did.”
“I don’t want to,” Dick admitted honestly, “Besides, the whole rich celebrity party boy thing is my cover these days, someone has to keep up Brucie’s old schtick.”
Tim was quiet for a moment before looking directly at Dick as he spoke, “Dick, be honest with me, do you have a drinking problem?”
“No,” Dick replied immediately, “I could stop if I wanted to, and it’s not like I drink all the time, mostly just on weekends or whatever, when I want to have a fun night and destress a bit.”
“Okay, but maybe keep an eye on it so it doesn’t develop into alcoholism, okay? And I’m here to help, if you need me. I helped Bruce when he was alcoholic after Jason’s death, I can help you too, if it becomes a problem and you need help, okay?” Tim offered.
“You were so young, helping him shouldn’t have been your burden then, I’m sorry,” Dick replied.
“It’s okay, I volunteered and…well, I know, but B and I have talked about it, he’s apologized, it’s okay, not the focus right now. Did you hear what I said that you should reach out to me if you need help, if this becomes a problem?” Tim said.
“Yeah, I understand,” Dick agreed, already knowing he had no interest in seeking help unless he reached a point of needing to be hospitalized or something. He just wanted to occasionally drown his sorrows in peace, okay?
“I can step up as the primary contact for the kids,” Tim offered.
“You’re so busy, college and WE, and you don’t even live here,” Dick pointed out.
“I can easily arrange any logistical needs they have. I suppose having Roy as a more direct contact makes sense, if you think he’d actually be available,” Tim reasoned.
“He’ll at least be here and be able to respond to anything truly urgent, and he has more childcare experience than the rest of us. Is…Jason still helping as a sponsor, now that he’s back?” Dick asked.
“He’s not opposed to staying on the paperwork, but he’s generally stepped back from duties with the center in general, now that we have someone hired for a lot of the more admin stuff. Jason indicated that he….worries about leaving Percy to his own devices for too long, and also he’ll have a busier semester with classes, so he’s stepping back a bit,” Tim explained.
“I can talk to Roy, convince him to sponsor the kids and stuff, I’ll refer him to you to handle the paperwork,” Dick said.
“Okay. I’ve got some things to do and need to grab my stuff, but I’ll meet you at the nest in 2 hours, if you still want to patrol together?” Tim offered.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Dick agreed.
“Don’t forget you’re supposed to leave with Damian on Wednesday for his competition,” Tim pointed out.
“Noted,” Dick agreed.