Saving Grace: a Batman fanfiction

Chapter 11

Dick finally decided to check the security tape of The Kiss because Barbara wouldn’t shut up about it and Grace was acting weird. 

His stomach clenched when he grabbed her face on the screen almost violently. 

And he had to replay what happened next about three times because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Grace’s arms, wrapping around his broad back, leaning into his touch, kissing him back.

Babs was right, after all.. He felt a pang of empathy for the younger girl, anticipating her humiliation when he confronted her about it.

Because he had to confront her about it. It was the decent thing to do. 

“Grace,” he said a few days later. He was lying down on his bed and she was reading Persuasion on his couch. Their normal routine.

“Yeah?” she replied tensely, sticking a finger on her page and turning to him. “What?”

“You know what happened, that day,” he began carefully, “with the aphrodisiac?” She cringed, averting her eyes from him.

“Yeah.”

“You know I was drugged, right?” 

“Yeah.”

“When I kissed you-- it was because I was drugged. It was an uncontrollable urge. If it wasn’t you it would’ve been, I don’t know, whoever I passed on the street.”

“I know.” Her answers were short, clipped, and she was blushing a little. She did that a lot, come to think of it. His heart sank.

“I-- I watched the security tape of it,” he said uncertainly.

“Pervert,” she snapped, flushing red. 

She picked up her book and put it on her lap. “Hey,” he said, changing tactics, because at this point they both knew he knew what she’d done. There was no point fixating on it further. “I know I’m pretty cool and awesome, but I’m a little old for you, don’t you think?”

Grace shot him a look of disbelief and he quickly spoke again so that she didn’t have to answer his question. “Look, you’re cute and funny and sweet and awesome and I care about you a lot, but I have a girlfriend and you’re-- you’re just too young for me. I can’t think about you that way. I’m sorry if I ever gave you the wrong impression.”

And then she was looking up at him, eyes deeply hurt. She couldn’t believe he was implying that any of their previous interactions were anything indecent. She couldn’t believe he would shit on their relationship like that. 

“Of course you didn’t,” she said, scrambling up from his couch, flushing deeply. “It was just-- I was just startled and--”

“You didn’t act very startled in the tape,” said Dick gently. “You didn’t even know I was drugged. You thought-- you thought I would do that. Of my own will.” 

“I was confused,” she insisted, on her feet. And she was confused. Confused from the day she met him, she must have been, to have fallen for him so hard. “And you didn’t have to tell Barbara and Steph, you know,” she hissed, making her way to the door. “That was mean.”

She sounded childish, she knew, saying that, but it was true, it was how she felt. It was meant for him to do that to her. It was the truth. 

She left his room before giving him a chance to reply.

But on her way to her room, she passed Bruce’s and she heard him on the phone, talking in a low voice.

“One more month, I said. Do you even have a different foster home set up for her? Or are you just returning her to the orphanage?”

She wondered dumbly for a second who he was talking about before stopping in her tracks. “I know that my reputation won’t get much better, Kate, but-- God, see, now this is a mess. I told you I didn’t want another kid.” 

And then she was running, running down the familiar stairs, bursting out of the manor, tears running down her cheeks, because Bruce didn’t want her and he never had. 

She didn’t hear him chasing her but she knew from experience that he was-- ironic, a little bit. She didn’t stop this time to catch her breath. Just kept running, and running, and running, and--

“Grace, stop.” God damn, why didn’t Bruce sound even a little out of breath? Fuck him. She would never stop. 

But then she tripped on a root and fell hard to the ground, scraping her forearms and chin.

He was behind her, picking her up off the ground, but she strained against his iron arms.

“LET ME GO!” 

He was surprised by her shout, must have been, because his grip loosened and Grace broke free. 

“Grace, I don’t know what you heard--”

“You don’t want me, you never did, you just wanted your reputation to get better! You’re sick! You’re sick and you’re a liar, you’re a liar!” Grace shouted, tears streaming down her cheeks and making her vision blurry.

“No; Grace, let me explain--” Bruce said, expression almost pained (but not, not pained, because he didn’t care about her anyway, she thought).

“I hate you and I never want to see you again,” she sobbed, knowing how childish she sounded.  And turned and ran a few steps before smacking into another body-- please, not Dick, she prayed, but it was only Jason, staring at Bruce with a hard expression.

“Go home, Bruce,” he said in a steely voice, but Bruce didn’t move. 

“Grace--”

“Go away,” she managed between hiccups, and repeated it until he finally did. Then Jason grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her with him onto his motorbike, and they zoomed away, away from all the pain.