An Unwelcomed Visitor? [Bruce]

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

There was only one way he was going to get in. There was no way he wanted to get caught coming through the front door. Sure, Alfred would have probably been glad to see him back. But Dick needed to get a hold of a few things in the Batcave his new systems were missing. Sure Alfred would have probably warned him that Bruce would care for him coming for what he was there for, but Alfred would have understood. Though, Dick wouldn't want to put Alfred in a bad position if there was anything seriously wrong with him coming back to get some information from the batcomputer to improve his systems.

So instead of taking the door to the Manor, Dick would take the back door to the batcave. He didn't want it to seem like he was crawling back to join again. He just wanted to slip in and out as quick as he could. Even if there was high security in the cave, he would probably make it out of there before Bruce would get back. He had seen the bat signal go off a while ago, so chances were, the Bat was out.

Dick knew every hidden entrance to the cave and was easily able to get there on his motorcycle. He had been out patrol before he had finally decided to get the information he needed. It was easy enough for him to get in. He slowed his motorcycle as he enter as to not have a screeching stop. He was still in his Nightwing suit as he parked the bike, kicking it onto his kick stand.

Dick removed his helmet and looked around the place. Of course nothing has changed from when he had last been there. He could still remember the heated argument he and Bruce had had there. He grimaced at the thought of it again. The last thing he wanted was to have a run in with Bruce again so soon. He had played it on the down low and keep his space from Bruce since then.

Hopping off his motorcycle, he placed his helmet on the handle bar of the bike. He removed his eye mask, he didn't need it there. He looked around and started to walk toward the main computer. As he walked toward the main system setting. He walked past the cases where all the suits were housed. He stopped for a moment. Remembering the decision he had made. There lit up in the case sat the old costume he had worn. But never again would he go back to it.

Dick clenched his hands into fists has he jerked his head to look straight on again. He wasn't there to recall old times. He only had come for one thing. This wasn't a social visit or a walk on memory lane.

Once standing before the main computer, Dick typed in a few things to get through the system. As soon as he was in, he pulled out a flash drive from one of the gullets. He plugged it into the port on one of the systems. Dick continued to type away at the computer. It didn't take him long to find what he wanted. He pulled up the files and started the download on the flash drive. Dick leaned forward, his hands supporting him up against the desk.

All he had to do now was just wait for the system to download the information he needed. So far so good. He hadn't run into any one. By the looks of it, he might just be able to slip out of there without as much of hello to anyone. Sure they would know he had been there. But that wasn't something he was concerned about. He had other things to worry about.

[bats]

Murder. It seemed like the only thing that Bruce ever dealt with nowadays. Murder. That's how it started of course, and maybe he'd never gotten away from murder, and it was just now that he was noticing it all. Despite all the research and the investigation, he didn't know what drove people to murder. He couldn't get his head around that frame of mind.

As soon as the Batsignal lit up, Bruce was almost immediately at the GCPD roof meeting with Gordon. He was expecting the usual, some costumed idiot thinking that he'd be the one and only to outsmart the great Batman, before being humiliated and defeated. But no, he was greeted by news of a murder, seemingly a simple murder.

Gordon had theorized that it was potentially gang-related, but in Gotham, anything's likely. The facts: Female; Mid 20s; Two gunshots to the chest. Bruce had scouted out her apartment where she was found and took some samples from the scene, including a bullet to return to the Batcave.

As the near-silent engines of the Batmobile died down, he leapt from the seat and made his way up the stairs, his cape trailing behind him as he reached the upper deck where the computer bank lay. It was there that he saw a figure at the computer, downloading something according to the screen. It took a moment for the figure to click, and once he realised, a part of him was shocked that he didn't recognise him. However, that was soon replaced by his usual attitude, as he stared at Dick at the computer.

"What're you doing here?" Bruce growled, no hint of friendliness in his voice.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Dick could hear the sound of the batmobile pulling in. Great, just what he needed. He didn't have a chance to try and avoid him at this point. He wasn't leaving with out the programs. He stared intensely at the computer screen. Squinting at the text on the screen, trying to stay focus on what he had came for, but the steady fall of footsteps coming up the stair toward the main deck echoed through out the cave.

He could see the dark figure coming up the steps from the corner of his eye. Not even turning to give him acknowledgment of his presents, Dick continued to read through the systems files that quickly flashed onto the large screen making sure everything was running smoothly.

"Didn't know this place had visiting hours set," Dick said smugly. He knew he was probably not on Bruce good side at the time, but hey who's to tell him when he can drop by. Still now looking over in Bruce's direction, Dick was more interested in still getting finished and out of there.

Dick only seemed to return the same cold welcome Bruce had just given him. If Bruce wanted to play it that way, then fine by him. He wasn't afraid of Bruce. He knew what he could be like. After all those years, Dick knew Bruce too well at times. As Robin, Dick had always tried not to cross the lines set by Bruce at first, but as time went on it got harder and harder to follow within them. And now, Dick knew he was stepping over them.

"I'm just getting a few things," Dick said flatly, only letting Bruce know half the reason for him being there. He still did not make contact by looking in his direction. Dick figured by now Bruce had notice that the system had been hacked by an outside computer. It paid to have Babs around to get some of the computer stuff he had been after. But there were just a few things that had escaped his grasp from the outside systems.

[bats]

He'd admit it, Bruce wasn't happy how things were with him and Dick, it was by no means his ideal. They'd been working together for years, and for it to be like this was never how he imagined things to end. For two best friends to be so on edge didn't feel right.

However, Dick made his choices and Bruce made his, and so that was the way it was going to be. Bruce was a single-minded man, was unlikely to change his mind, especially not anytime soon. He stared coldly at Dick, not pulling down his mask, acting almost as if Dick was a stranger.

"Didn't know this place had visiting hours set," Dick said in his usual upbeat attitude.

"I didn't realise I invited you," Bruce replied bluntly, walking over towards him.

"I'm just getting a few things," Dick explained, but that wasn't going to deter Bruce.

"I don't want you here," Bruce told him, no emotion in his words. Dick being there brought up memories, and living in the past neither helped. He seemed rude, angry and cruel, but that was how Bruce was, especially to somebody who'd wasted his trust.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

"Well that makes two of us," Dick replied just as coldly as Bruce was treating him to his comment about not wanting him there. It was hard to image what all they had gone through and to end up like this. But it had been Dick choice to leave. He couldn't stand being watched like a hawk. He had grown out of the role of Robin and things changed. It had been his choice to leave. Though, Bruce's attitude definitely felt to him that Bruce seemed to treat him like any of the other new vigilantes that came into Gotham to help out.

Dick would never admit it out loud, but he really hadn't like where he had gotten himself with Bruce. It just felt so weird, but Dick had done what he had needed to, to finally be calling his own shots. There had always been things Dick and Bruce never met eye to eye on, and after going on his own and being a leader, those things had only stood out more and more to Dick. There were many ways Dick blamed Bruce for how things had turned out. The guy just seemed to push everyone away.

Before all of this went down, Dick had acted out a bit reckless at times. And he knew letting Tim Drake in on the secret of Batman and Robin had just driven that stake into the ground further. Dick wasn't fully to blame for that, the kid had done his own investigating and had gotten into the cave himself. Though, dick could have done more than let the kid hack the computer system. There had been a few things it seemed that Dick had done in spite of Batman at time while being Robin. But now, Dick was on his own.

If there was one thing he didn't like, it was that Babs was caught in the middle of this all. It just made it harder to get through this all. And he couldn't stand being compared to Batman by the crooks in Gotham either. Nightwing was a new name out there, but the more familiar villains to Batman and Robin had recognized the Boy Wonder had changed his appearance quite a bit.

The computer continued to download the information to the flash drive. Dick straightened up and turned his gaze to Bruce. Or better yet, the Batman, by the way he was not even removing his cowl. His blue eyes glared at him as icy and cold has the two were making the situation. After all those years of looking up to the guy, Dick was almost has his height level, even through he still stood a few inches shorter than Bruce. Though with how bold he was being, he presented himself with more confidence to stand his ground against Bruce. If anyone else had been there, they probably would have backed off because the tension in the room only continued to grow.

"I have a right to get some of the things I helped with," he stated. Even though some of the stuff he had been download were some other top secret files he had known about and needed for further research programs on his own computer systems he was still creating at his place. Dick could be just as stubborn as Bruce, maybe even more so.

[bats]

"Well that makes two of us."

Dick didn't do cold, Bruce knew that. He'd known Dick throughout his teenage life, and he was always happy, cheerful, funny. Not cold. It wasn't like him. But maybe it was now? Had he changed since he'd left Bruce? Had Bruce pushed him away? Had he made Dick into a darker person just by being around him? No, not in Bruce's mind. He wasn't in the wrong. He hadn't acted in anyway that he wouldn't normally, and it was just Dick pushing things.

"I have a right to get some of the things I helped with."

Bruce's jaw flexed and his eyes narrowed as Dick said this, trying to put the blame back on Bruce. He didn't have that right. Dick dug himself a hole, and it wasn't Bruce's fault just because he didn't drag him back out. Dick made his choice. Dick in fact made several choices, choices that were rash and unnecessary, and caused more problems than they solved, if they solved any whatsoever. Dick never acted so childish when he was younger, but he was acting ridiculous now.

"You lost that right when you left. You lost it when you threw back everything I gave you into my face. You lost it when you gave away the most important secret to a child," Bruce clarified, a heat of anger lining his voice.

"I hope you're getting the message."

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Dick stood there and took it for a moment, only narrowing his eyes as well and looking directly at Bruce's. There was no longer that some what look of kindness to them what so ever toward him. Just what made Bruce so anger with him, he wasn't truly sure. There were many things that could go into the equation. Dick knew that.

"I understand perfectly clear," Dick said at first. No trace of defeat in his eyes though. It was one thing to blame him for letting the kid look around the batcave. But to blame him for Tim getting in, Dick had nothing to do with that.

Dick turned his attention completely away from the computer, full attention on Bruce now. "You can blame me for him looking around, but I wasn't the one who let him in. He knew before he came here what he was after," Dick said. "But leave Tim out of this! He has nothing to do with the matter!" Dick didn't want to shift the blame. What was done was done. What he and Babs had let happen, happen. The kid was smart and only proved that by getting into the Manor and the batcave. He had done his own work and had only sought to find the answers. Dick had taken the full fall for it to protect Babs and Tim. They didn't need the trouble. Dick was used to it, he could take it.

"I may not see things the way you do, but I know why I gave up what I did," Dick stated. It was noticeable that he was getting more upset rather than angry over what he was saying out now even with trying to hold it back. "The signs were there," he started in on how things had played out with his actions. "But everything seemed to play out just the way things were. Things changed," he said. If Bruce saw it as him throwing everything back in his face, there was nothing Dick could do about that.

"Something was bound to happen sooner or later. You think you can control things from happening," he said, his words getting more heated. Not in anger, but annoyance. "I knew what I was doing. I did what I had to. Do you really think I intended for things to...," Dick caught himself before he could finish that sentence, his gaze turned away. Dick mentally cured himself for letting that get out. He only felt that Bruce would see that as weakness. When what it really was, was the regret for how things had come to be. A sentence that would truly tell how he felt about this whole thing. How he had not intended for things to be the way they were. Which was more along the lines of how things had gone down between them. Dick wasn't going to crack in this fight. "The rules were there, but I seemed to be the only one following them," he said trying to cover up his tracks a bit on the statement he had almost said.

He turned his attention to the computer for a second. The files were all there and loaded. He quickly disconnected the flash drive and placed in in one of the gullets compartments.

Letting the silence come over them. Dick's argument was falling short a the moment. His mind was on other things beside what he was doing. This was the last thing he had planned to have to deal with. Everything just seemed to be piling against him. Though Dick could be blamed for the way he kept things quiet, like even now about the poison that was surging through his blood. What Bruce failed to see was that this was turning to be more than just a blame game. If he really knew Dick, he'd see that something was off and it wasn't just over what had happened between them. Even with how secretive he was.