Chapter Text
“I’m telling you, I think something’s wrong with Nightwing.”
Jason gripped the handlebars of his motorbike tightly and tried to stop his reply from sounding too forced. “And I’m telling you, you’re overreacting.”
“Hood, you didn’t see him,” Tim replied insistently over the comms. “He stepped off that building like it was nothing. I’ve never seen him look like that before.”
“Red Robin, we all step off buildings like it’s nothing,” Jason said flatly, trying to ignore the way his stomach turned. “That’s kind of in the job description.”
“Stop being deliberately obtuse,” Tim snapped. “Do you think I’d be worried over nothing? The look in his eyes… It’s like he wasn’t there at all. I’ve been trying to call him and he’s not answering.”
For a second, a confession weighed on the tip of Jason’s tongue. He wanted to tell Tim that he’d been worrying about Dick since he’d seen him last night. That he’d been trying to figure out what to do all day. That there was a goddamn reason that Jason had been trying to get Dick to go home in the first place. He even wanted to confess that he’d called Dick four times himself in the last five minutes to no avail. But he didn’t say any of it. Fool as he was, he’d promised Dick he wouldn’t tell anyone anything, and he wouldn’t break a promise to his brother.
“Red Robin, he’s fine,” Jason said with as much conviction as he could muster. “He just had a rough call last night and is being typically melodramatic. He’ll lick his wounds tonight and will be right back to his usual annoying self tomorrow.”
Tim let out an angry huff of breath. “I can’t believe this,” he muttered.
“Can’t believe what?” Jason snapped.
“I can’t believe that after all the work we’ve done to try and make you feel like a part of the family again, you can’t even find a single shred of human decency and help Nightwing out when he so clearly needs it,” Tim’s anger resonates through the comms and Jason grits his teeth. “But since you obviously don’t care, I guess it’s up to me to find out what’s wrong.”
“Wait, don’t-” Jason’s reply was cut off by Tim’s own comm switching off. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Jason fought the urge to slam his hand down on his motorbike’s handlebars in frustration.
“Well, that went well,” Barbara’s far-too-casual tone lilted lightly through the comm. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”
“I can’t talk about it, Oracle,” Jason gritted his teeth. “But you could do me a favour.”
“And what’s that?”
“You could reroute that asshole away from Nightwing’s apartment,” Jason said. “I’ll go find him myself.”
“Calling him an ‘asshole’ is a little over-the-top,” Barbara said. “Especially considering he’s just as worried as you are.”
“Oracle, please.” Jason tried to ignore the faint note of pleading in his voice.
Barbara sighed. “Fine, I’ll do it. But are you sure you want to keep Red Robin away from this? ‘Wing’s been acting strangely for a couple of days now.”
“I promised him,” Jason said quietly. “I’m not gonna pull in anyone else until I really need to.”
“Okay,” Barbara said. “But you’d better keep me in the loop.”
“As much as I can,” Jason agreed. He cut off his comms and immediately turned his bike into a screeching u-turn away from the financial district and towards Dick’s apartment instead. His bike hydroplaned dangerously on the waterlogged street, but Jason wrestled it under control. He barely noticed the roar of the wind and rain as he sped through Gotham.
The closer he got to Dick’s building, the worse the feeling in the pit of his stomach grew. As much as he’d played off Tim’s fears, the sound of Tim’s panicked shout when Dick stepped off the side of the building was still rattling in his head. More than anyone else in the family, Dick was built for the air. Each twist, turn and somersault looked as effortlessly natural as if he’d simply broken out into a casual jog. If Tim had thought Dick’s fall had looked unsafe, it had definitely been unsafe.
Jason leant into the bike as he rounded a corner just a little too quickly. He wasn’t far from Dick’s apartment now, so he turned into an alleyway and screeched to a halt. It would be slower going via the rooftops, but it wouldn’t exactly be inconspicuous to enter Dick’s building via the front door in his Red Hood getup.
He grappled his way onto the nearby roof and freeran over the next few buildings swiftly. He wasn’t quite as fast as Dick would have been, but it was a respectable pace, Jason thought to himself. The second that Jason reached Dick’s rooftop, he felt his stomach drop again. The rooftop door was wide open and Dick’s duffle bag of civilian clothes were strewn across the entrance.
“Fuck,” Jason swore under his breath. As all good vigilantes were, Dick was fastidious about the systems he’d created to keep his identity a secret. The only reason he’d have disregarded it was either if someone had discovered that system, or if he wasn’t in his right mind. Jason wasn’t entirely sure which option he preferred at that moment.
Jason stalked down the stairs and managed to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw Dick’s apartment door was closed and intact. He knocked brusquely and leaned his ear to the door to listen out for the sounds of movement. He managed to wait thirty seconds before his impatience got the better of him and he cracked out his lock-picking kit.
A few moments later, Jason swung the door open. “Dick, are you here?”
Silence was his only reply. Jason’s stomach twisted once again. “Dick?” He stalked through the apartment quickly, scanning over each room. “Dick, are you here?”
Each room was empty - messy and dishevelled, but empty. Jason’s eyes flitted over the screwed up comforter on the floor in Dick’s bedroom, the still-damp raincoat dropped carelessly on the coffee table, the running shoes scattered in the middle of the hallway as if someone had tripped over them. Dick wasn’t exactly known as the tidiest man, but this didn’t look like his normal level of clutter. This looked like the aftermath of someone who wasn’t entirely aware of what they’d been doing.
When Jason saw the Nightwing suit lying crumpled in a puddle on the bathroom floor, his heart dropped. He lifted his hand shakily to his comm.
“Oracle,” he said quietly.
“What do you need?” Barbara’s reply was instant.
“We need to find him,” Jason said. “But we can’t tell the others.”
“Hood, I understand not telling Batman, but Red Robin could help.”
“I promised him I wouldn’t say anything,” Jason gritted out. “He could be fine, and I’d have broken his trust for nothing.”
“You don’t think he’s fine,” Barbara pointed out quietly.
Jason gave a ragged sigh. “No, I don’t,” he said. “But we can find him ourselves.”
Barbara was silent for a beat. “Okay,” she said reluctantly. “Where do you think he might have gone?”
“God, I don’t know,” Jason groaned as he shut Dick’s apartment door behind him. “Where does he usually go when he’s upset?”
“He doesn’t usually get upset,” Barbara said. “Not in a place where anyone would see, anyway.”
“Great,” Jason rolled his eyes as he jogged up the stairs to Dick’s roof. “It’s nice to know that Mr Touchy-Feely is incapable of taking his own advice, but that doesn’t exactly help us figure out where he’s gone,” he said with more anger than he’d intended.
“Don’t snap at me,” Barbara said flatly. “I’m not the one who left him alone last night after I specifically told you to look after him.”
Jason bit back the anger surging bitterly on his tongue as a thought occurred to him. “Wait, maybe that’s where he’s gone. Where’s that guy that he dealt with yesterday being held?”
“The one who killed that woman?” Barbara asked. Jason could hear the clatter of her fingers whirling over her keyboard. “He’s not been processed yet. He’s still in booking at the GCPD headquarters.”
“He was pretty messed up from yesterday,” Jason thought out loud as he grappled off Dick’s rooftop. “Do you think he could have gone there?”
Barbara hummed thoughtfully. “Perhaps,” she said. “But why? And how would he even get in there?”
Jason sighed. “I don’t know, but I don’t think he’s exactly in his right mind at the moment. Maybe he’s looking for some type of revenge”
“Okay, here’s what I think we should do,” Barbara said decisively. “I’ve just scanned all the cameras at the GCPD for the past hour, but they’re not flagging anyone that looks like him so far. You go down there, sit on a nearby rooftop and keep an eye out for him.”
“Okay, what are you gonna do?” Jason asked as he landed on the rooftop next to the alley where he’d left his bike.
“I’m going to try and cover our other bases, in case that’s not where he’s going. I’ll start running facial recognition on all the public cameras I’ve got access to across the city,” Barbara said. “But it’s going to take a long time without any more information to try and narrow it down. I might not get a match for hours.”
Jason grappled down the alleyway and landed on the ground with a soft thud. “Hopefully I’ll find him before then,” he said. “Thanks, Oracle.”
“Don’t mention it, Hood,” Barbara signed off.
Jason mounted his bike and turned the engine on, feeling it roar to life beneath him. As he sped towards the GCPD, he tried his hardest not to think about what Dick could be doing right now - or what he was planning. But, despite his best efforts, visions of his brother dropping from the ceiling and landing softly in the man’s cell filled Jason’s head.
Dick was the best of them, Jason told himself. He’d never take another life. He wouldn’t even be tempted. No matter how far over the edge he’d been pushed.
By the time Jason had stationed himself on the rooftop of the building opposite the GCPD, he’d almost managed to convince himself that this was all going to be one giant misunderstanding. Dick was going to call him any minute and explain that he’d dropped his comm, and he’d lost his phone, and he hadn’t realised that he’d accidentally left his duffle bag of civvies on his rooftop. Yep, that sounds convincing, Jason thought to himself scathingly as he crouched next to the edge of the roof.
"Oracle, any word?” Jason asked, just to distract himself from the flurry of thoughts pounding in his skull.
“Sorry Hood, I’ve got nothing yet,” Barbara replied. “Even with my software, it’s going to take at least eight hours to sift through the footage.”
“Fuck,” Jason groaned. He propped his head on his hands and sat in silence as the rain crashed around him. He could hear Barbara breathing over the comms and he wished that the sound made him feel a little less alone. “Do you think he’s okay?” He asked quietly.
Barbara hesitated. “It’s Nightwing,” she said. “He’s always okay.”
“Yeah,” Jason said hollowly. “I guess that’s true.”
“We’re gonna find him, Hood,” Barbara said.
Jason nodded. “Yeah, we will.”
The next few hours were excruciating. Even aside from the constant barrage of wind and rain that buffeted him on the unprotected rooftop, Jason’s eyes burned from staring so intently at the street below. Every now and then Barbara checked in, always with the same disappointed tone that told him that she hadn’t found him yet. The pit in Jason’s stomach grew with each passing minute. He began to wonder whether he should pull Tim into this as well. What good was keeping his promise to Dick if it meant putting him in danger? Having another pair of eyes on the street would be useful. One of them could stay at the GCPD, while the other roamed all of Dick’s known haunts.
Jason was just about to press the comm when it flickered to life.
“Red Hood,” Jason knew straight away from her tone that Barbara had news - and that it wasn’t good news.
“What’s wrong?” He asked. “Where is he?”
“I’ve got a lock on his location from about two hours ago,” Barbara said.
Jason stood on the rooftop and clutched his grapple. “Where do I need to go?”
“He was at a club downtown,” Barbara said.
“A club?” Jason was confused for a second, before feeling relief spill over him. “So he’s just blowing off some steam? That’s great.”
“No, I don’t think it is,” Barbara’s tone grew more clipped and uncertain. “Hood, he doesn’t look right.”
“What do you mean?” Jason’s relief turned sour in his mouth. “What’s wrong?”
“He was at Inferno,” Barbara said. “And I don’t think he’s in his right mind.”
“What are you trying to say, Oracle?” Jason asked, frustrated at Barbara’s obliqueness.
“What do you want me to say, Hood?” Barbara snapped. “That I’ve just watched my ex-boyfriend get with at least three different people in the space of an hour - and that doesn’t count what might have happened out of sight of the cameras? That I’ve seen him pay someone sketchy for a small packet of something that looks even sketchier? That I’ve tried to follow his path as he left the club, but he’s dropped out of range of any cameras and I can’t find him?”
“Shit,” Jason jumped from the building and grappled down to his bike. “What the fuck, Oracle. Has he ever done anything like this before?”
Barbara breathed shakily down the comms. “Not that I know of,” she said. “But I’m starting to think we don’t actually know Dick very well.”
“Okay, send me the coordinates for the club,” Jason said as he mounted his bike. “I’ll go down and see if I can find anyone who knows where he went.”
“They should be with you now,” Barbara said as Jason’s HUD in his helmet flickered to life. “Keep me updated, Hood.”
“Will do, Oracle.” Jason signed off and leaned forward to turn his bike on. His stomach fluttered nervously as he sped out of the alleyway, but Jason just gripped the handlebars tighter and tried not to notice. He’d never exactly thought that Dick was as pure as the driven snow, but he just couldn’t reconcile what he knew of his brother with Barbara’s words. Surely she’d mistaken Dick for someone else, Jason thought to himself as the street lights blurred into one liquid stream.
Despite his breakneck speeds, it took Jason longer than he would have liked to get to Inferno . As he pulled into the alleyway across the street, he realised that he recognised the club’s exterior, even if he hadn’t known it by name. It had been owned by one of his lieutenants when he’d been running Gotham’s drug trade. A lieutenant that Jason had fired with extreme prejudice when he caught him breaking his no-selling-to-kids rule. Jason hadn’t visited the club since, but it didn’t look like it had become any less scummy over the past couple of years.
After making sure that he was ducked sufficiently out of sight, Jason pulled off his Red Hood helmet and the domino mask he wore underneath. He fastened his jacket so that the Bat logo was hidden and pulled the collar up to try to prevent errant raindrops trickling down the back of his neck as he crossed the street.
Seeing as it was past 3AM, the line to get into the club was almost non-existent, with more people stumbling out the doors than piling in. The bouncer waved Jason in without a second glance and Jason stalked inside, weaving through the people with barely contained frustration. The music was obnoxiously loud and Jason remembered how little he’d always enjoyed visiting Dave, his old lieutenant. He couldn’t understand the appeal of being able to feel the bassline thudding through the floor. As he spied the bar, Jason pushed through the thickening crowd, ignoring the dirty looks that followed.
Squeezing past two women, Jason finally reached the bar. He flagged down the bartender with a wave.
“What can I get ya?” The bartender shouted over the loud thumping music.
Jason held out his phone and showed the man a picture of Dick. “Have you seen this guy?” he shouted back.
The bartender rolled his eyes. “I’m just here to serve drinks, dude.”
“Please,” Jason leaned over the bar and shoved the phone closer to the bartender. “I think he’s in danger.”
The bartender gave a visible sigh and leaned closer to look. Jason watched as a spark of reluctant recognition flickered in the man’s eyes. “Yeah, I remember him,” the man said.
“Do you know where he went?” Jason shouted over the music.
The man shook his head and Jason’s stomach dropped again. “But you can ask that guy,” the bartender pointed across the bar to a blonde, heavily-muscled man who was leaning against a pillar, nursing a drink and watching the dance floor with a leer.
Jason slid a twenty onto the bar. “Thank you,” he shouted in relief. The bartender pocketed the cash and shrugged, turning to the patron next to Jason.
Jason fought his way back through the crowd surrounding the bar and strode through the tightly-packed dance floor until he reached the blonde man the bartender had pointed out.
“Hey,” Jason shouted over the music.
The man surveyed him suspiciously. “What?”
Jason held out his phone again. “Have you seen this guy?”
The man peered at the phone and his expression immediately changed from guarded suspicion to smug satisfaction. “I’ve done a bit more than ‘see’ him,” he laughed loudly.
Jason felt a bubble of rage curl in his stomach, but he pushed it down. “What do you mean?” He said measuredly.
The man looked him over. “A guy with a mouth like that can do better than you,” he leaned closer and sneered. “That’s probably why half the guys in here have fucked it.”
Before he knew what he was doing, Jason had knocked the drink out of the man’s hand and had pushed him up against the pillar he’d been leaning on. “That’s my brother, you sicko,” he hissed into the man’s ear. “And unless you want me to permanently rearrange all the teeth in your mouth, I’d shut the fuck up.”
The man held up his hands, “alright, sorry, sorry,” he shifted against the pillar. “I was just being an asshole, man, I didn’t know he was your brother.”
Jason shoved the man against the pillar again roughly. “Too right you’re an asshole,” he snapped. “But you can still redeem yourself. Where did he go?”
The man shrugged. “I don’t know man, I saw him hours ago.”
Jason grunted in frustration and gripped the man’s collar tighter.
“Seriously, I’m telling the truth,” the man said. “The last I saw of him, he was dancing with a group of kids.”
“Where are they then?” Jason asked.
“They already left,” the man said. “I’m sorry, dude.”
Jason let the man go and turned back into the crowd. “Fuck!” he shouted into the music, making the group of girls next to him jump and give him a nasty look. Figuring he might as well try, Jason brought out his phone. “Have you guys seen this man?” The girls collectively shook their heads and shuffled away from him.
Jason chewed his lip in a rare display of nerves as he tried to figure out what to do next. His thoughts raced unproductively as he attempted to think logically. Should he call Oracle and update her? Or should he keep attempting to find people here who might know where Dick had gone? Or maybe he should get back to the bike and circle the neighbourhood?
Jason found himself frozen in a state of indecision that felt foreign to him. He took a breath and made a decision. He found Babs’ number and sent her a text.
Found someone who remembers Dick, but he doesn’t know where he went. I’m gonna stay here for 15 more mins and try to see if anyone else saw him. Don’t have high hopes, but don’t know what else to do.
Jason watched the Delivered receipt turn to Read before the typing bubble popped up. He didn’t have to wait long for Barbara’s reply.
Understood. Still crunching footage here. Will let you know if I find anything.
Jason closed his texts and brought up the picture of Dick again. He’d never have told him, but it was actually one of his favourites, taken last year on Christmas Eve. Dick had been busy helping Damian wrap his Christmas present for Bruce.
Despite the fact that Damian had been a part of the family for a few years now, he clearly still found holidays difficult. Jason could only tell because his sanctimonious speeches grew even more annoying than usual, but rather than join everyone else in rolling their eyes, Dick only smiled brighter at Damian’s tirades.
When Damian had begun to espouse the uselessness of wrapping paper and the vapid nature of whoever needed their gifts to be hidden under a disguise of garish, cartoon designs, Dick had been the only one to hear the kid’s plea for help. He’d pulled on a headband with a pair of ridiculously large antlers and had sat with Damian, asking him how exactly he wanted the wrapping paper folded. Jason had watched the scene with bemused horror, unable to understand how Dick was happy to let the kid berate him into doing his wrapping for him. It was only at the end, when Damian had ducked his head and given Dick a small, shy smile, that Jason understood what Dick had instinctively known.
On a whim, Jason had pulled out his phone before he’d known what he was doing. “Hey, Dick,” he’d called out. Dick had looked at Jason with a lop-sided grin, his reindeer antlers falling at a jaunty angle and his arm wrapped around a scowling Damian.
It felt surreal to remember that memory now, Jason thought to himself. He clutched his phone tightly as the dancing crowd moved around him. Taking a breath, he steeled himself and tapped on the shoulder of the nearest person.
The next ten minutes passed by in an overwhelming blur of flashing lights, thumping music and the same shaken head response to every time Jason asked the question, “have you seen this guy?”. Jason could feel a headache developing behind his eyes, but he ignored it steadfastly. He caught the eye of a blonde woman and stalked up to her. “Hey, have you-”
The woman looked at the phone and interrupted Jason. “Yeah, I’ve seen him,” she said. “He was acting kinda weird.”
Jason’s heart jumped. “Really?” He asked. “What happened?”
“I think he was on something heavy,” the woman replied, her eyes stuck to Jason’s screen. “He was super out of it.” She paused and her eyes flicked up to Jason’s face. “I think some people here may have taken advantage of that.”
Jason chewed his lip. “Did you see where he went?” He asked.
The woman shook her head. “I’m sorry, honey. I saw him leave a couple of hours ago, but he went alone and I never talked to him, so I don’t know where he was planning on going.”
Jason felt himself visibly deflate. The woman’s lips twisted sympathetically. “I’m sorry, honey,” she repeated. “I’m sure he just went home.”
“Yeah,” Jason said hollowly. There probably wasn’t a good way to explain to the woman that Babs would have set up a perimeter alert on Dick’s apartment door that would alert them if Dick made it home. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks for your help.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t help more,” the woman said, patting Jason’s arm before turning back to her friends.
Jason ran a hand through his still-damp hair and sighed raggedly. There was probably little point in sticking around here any longer, he decided. He opened his texts and typed out another message to Barbara.
No dice here. Gonna get back to the bike and patrol the nearby streets.
Barbara sent her reply almost instantaneously.
No news here either. Sounds like a good plan.
Jason made his way back through the crowd until he found the stairs leading back up to the entrance. He trudged up the stairs defeatedly until the thudding bass was slowly replaced by the crash of the storm outside. He paused in the doorway, looking out into the howling melee. The rain was so fierce that it was falling sideways, sending trash cans skittering down the street and crashing into the road. The wind roared through the street, pushing Jason back even as he was sheltered in the club’s entrance. Was Dick caught in the storm, Jason wondered. His vision blurred unexpectedly and his breath stuttered in his chest. He blinked furiously and stepped out into the rain, jogging across the street.
He’d just entered the alleyway when he felt his phone begin to vibrate in his pocket.
He pulled the phone out and felt his heart clutch in his chest when he saw Dick’s name as the caller ID. Jason scrambled to answer the phone.
“Dick, where are you?” Jason said quickly. “Are you okay?”
For a second there was nothing but the howl of the wind on the other end of the line. Jason’s heart pounded painfully in his chest and he clutched the phone tighter. And then, a single word breathed through the line.
“Jay?”