Siren's Song

Siren's Song
Chapter 5


“TIM!” Nightwing shouted and dove over the cliff after his brother.

“Nightwing!” Batman shouted, ducking the fist flying at his face and punching the goon in the stomach. “Damnit!”

He had no choice but to begin fending off the Siren’s minions. He couldn’t do anything until they were out of the way.

“Cover me!” Green Arrow shouted, and the Batman nodded, hoping Connor knew what he was doing.

Green Arrow secured the end of a steel line to a tree, the other end connected to one of his arrows. He ran over to the cliff and stared down into the darkness below, but saw nothing. Offering a swift prayer up to Buddha, he shot the arrow after his falling friends, then returned to help the Bat.

Batman and Green Arrow fought the twelve men in hand-to-hand combat, taking several blows along the way, but they didn’t seem to notice. At least, not at first. They were fueled by anger and fear, and the strength of their emotions made them seem invincible.

Throughout it all, they cast glances every few seconds towards the edge of the cliff, hoping to see Tim and Nightwing climbing up onto solid ground. After several minutes without a sign, they began to hope for either Tim or Nightwing. Finally, Batman began to lose hope altogether.

Connor saw the despair lurking around Batman’s eyes, saw how his punches were coming slower and with less force, and knew he had to do something, or the man would be lost.

“They will make it!” he shouted, moving closer to the Bat. “The Siren was right about one thing--the three of you are a part of a whole. If they were lost, you would know it. Do not give up on them!”

The blue eyes met his, and Batman gave him a curt nod. He had to believe. He couldn’t let himself give in, and gathering his courage, fought with renewed force. Together, they finished off the last of the Siren’s men, then left the moaning and unconscious figures on the ground as they rushed to the edge.

“Do you see anything?” Connor called.

Batman shook his head while grabbing onto the line Connor had released earlier. “It’s taut.”

Green Arrow met his eyes. “So it’s either caught on something. . .”

“Or someone’s holding onto the other end.”

Connor joined the Bat as they began pulling on the steel line, heaving it up the cliff. Their hearts leapt when they realized the line was moving and hadn’t gotten caught on anything below. Their energy renewed, they continued to pull in silence, eyes eager as they waited for the end to appear.

Finally, a voice reached their ears. “Batman! Connor!”

“Nightwing!” Batman shouted, motioning for Connor to hold the line as he let go and knelt along the edge.

“I could use a hand here!”

Batman hauled the line up a few more feet, then reached down grab Tim from Nightwing’s grasp. He hefted the young man up over the edge while Nightwing, now that he finally had both hands free, dragged himself up the rest of the way. He collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath as he stared dumbly at his arms.

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to move my arms ever again. That kid weighs a fucking ton!”

“But you held on,” Connor said, tears shining in his eyes as he pulled his friend into a hug.

“I wasn’t about to let him go,” Nightwing said as they both looked over at Batman, who was cradling Tim in his arms. The young man continued to remain unresponsive, his eyes staring blankly at his partner and mentor. “Is he. . . is he going to be all right?”

“I assume so,” Batman said, brushing the hair away from Tim’s face. “Just as soon as the Siren’s influence wears off.”

“The Siren!” Connor exclaimed, glancing around them. “Where is she?”

“She escaped in the confusion,” Batman answered. “But don’t worry. We’ll find her.”

There was a note of finality in his voice that sent chills along their spines. The Batman was taking the Siren’s attack against his family personally, and neither Nightwing nor Connor was sure they wanted to be around when their paths crossed again.

A few seconds later, Batman forced his gaze away from Tim and locked onto Nightwing, his eyes flickering with blue flames as he looked at the young man. Reaching across Tim, he grabbed onto Nightwing and pulled him close until their faces were a mere two inches away.

“Don’t you EVER do that again! Do you hear me? Or I swear, I will find a way to clip your wings and keep you grounded forever!”

Nightwing’s eyes flashed with fury and his lips parted to declare his defiance, but had to stop when he found his mouth was filled with Batman’s tongue. He considered fighting him for a few seconds, then decided it wasn’t worth the trouble and gave himself over to the kiss.

“Oh, geez. I think I’m going to be sick. Find a cave, you two!”

The two broke apart at the sound of a weak voice and they looked down to see the grimace on Tim’s face. Laughing, Nightwing grabbed his brother and held him in his arms.

“Damnit, Dick, you’re going to break my ribs!”

“Be lucky I don’t break anything else,” he said in a tearstained voice, clutching onto Tim with all his might while Batman wrapped his arms around them both.

“You do realize I’m chaining you both to the Cave from now on.”

Tim looked up at his partner and grinned. “You do realize you taught us to pick every lock known to man, and then some.”

“I’ll invent a new one,” Batman growled, the warmth and humor in his eyes belying his threat.

Connor sat back, smiling, as he watched the family. He wished for a second that he had his own family near, then scratched that thought. He couldn’t begin to imagine what Ollie would have to say about all this, but he did wish he was back in Star City so he could give his father a hug. In the midst of all his wishful thinking, Connor suddenly found himself being pulled into the Bat Clan’s embrace.

“We wouldn’t be here without you, Connor,” Nightwing said, giving him a grateful kiss. “My hook didn’t catch onto anything, and I thought we were going to fall forever, but then your arrow flashed by and I knew we would make it. Thank you.”

“I’m just glad I could help,” he said with a bashful smile.

“And now you’d like to get back to your Will,” Nightwing said with laughing eyes, and Connor’s smile broadened.

“Yes, please.”

“That’s good enough for me. Any excuse to get off this damn cliff,” Nightwing said, climbing to his feet and helping Connor up, then Tim. Batman was the last to stand, taking Nightwing’s hand when offered, and not protesting when it wasn’t removed.

“Um. . . guys?” Tim said, his mind clearing enough for him to register his surroundings. “Where are we?”

“It’s a long story, little brother,” Nightwing said, ruffling the already tangled hair as they made their way back to the vehicles.



“Alfred, we’re home!”

The four men stepped into the Batcave, expecting to find Alfred waiting for them, but the cavern was silent.

“Alfred?” Tim frowned, looking around them, then a sudden fear filled his eyes as he remember his own kidnapping. “Bruce, you don’t think. . .”

“She didn’t get him,” Bruce said, shaking his head as he emerged from removing his suit. “Alfred would be on alert and he can take care of himself.”

“He didn’t. . . he didn’t go to sleep, did he?” Tim asked, face filling with hurt as he looked at his family. “Without seeing us?”

Dick rolled his eyes, deliberately bumping Tim with his shoulder as he walked by. “Alfred wouldn’t do that. You know he’d never be able to rest until you were safe.”

The console began beeping and Bruce moved to press a key on the keyboard. “Alfred?”

“Master Bruce, you’re home. And Master Tim. . .?”

“I’m fine, Alfred. Where the hell are you?”

Bruce flashed Tim a dirty look, and the young man shrugged.

“I miss him. He’s always waiting with a fresh towel and a mug of hot cocoa. The night’s not complete without him.”

“You are the world’s most spoiled crimefighter ever.”

“I know,” Tim smiled.

“Alfred, where are you?” Bruce asked, turning back to the screen.

“The hospital. I think you should get here as soon as you can, and bring Master Hawke with you.”

All three turned to Connor, whose golden skin had grown pale.

“Is it. . . is Will. . . ?”

“There was some internal bleeding. Mr. Wyatt is currently in surgery.”

“Alfred, we’ll be right there,” Bruce said, ending the connection. He turned to Tim, who had started trembling.

“This is all my fault.”

“Tim, no—”

“If Will dies. . . I’ll be a murderer. I’ll have killed him.”

“He’s not going to die,” Bruce growled, taking Tim into his arms. “And it isn’t your fault. The Siren is to blame for this.”

“But I’m the one who attacked him!”

“You didn’t mean to. You didn’t know what you were doing.”

“And Will does not blame you,” Connor said, placing a hand on Tim’s shoulder. “He could see that there was something wrong and knew you were not yourself.”

“But—”

“No buts,” Dick said, sliding one arm around Bruce and one around his brother. “Will will tell you so himself as soon as we get there.”

“Assuming he’s out of surgery,” Tim said darkly.

“We’ll never know until we get there,” Bruce said, breaking them apart and urging them up the stairs.

Alfred was waiting for them at the hospital, pausing only to catch Tim in a fierce hug before turning to Connor. “They’re still working on him.”

“Do you know what’s wrong?”

“The doctors said it was a ruptured spleen.”

“Oh, god,” Tim gasped. “Is that. . . bad?”

“By the time we got him to the hospital, his spleen had been bleeding out for a little over two hours, so he’d lost a lot of blood and was going into shock. They stabilized him as best they could, then took him into surgery. They’re going to try and mend the rupture, but if it is too large, they will have to remove his spleen entirely.”

Tim shook his head. “They can’t do that! Doesn’t he need his spleen? What is he going to do without it?”

“A person can live without their spleen,” Bruce said, wrapping an arm around Tim’s shoulders. “He’ll be fine.”

“If he makes it through surgery,” the young man muttered.

While Alfred and Bruce were busy consoling Tim, Dick noticed Connor slip away and followed him outside. Sighing, Connor slid against the wall to the ground, Dick sitting down next to him.

“He’s going to be all right,” Dick said.

“I hope so.”

“He is. He has you to live for, and I know him. He won’t let you down.”

“We’ve only known each other a couple of days. A couple of days,” Connor repeated softly, leaning his head back and staring up into the sky, “and I’ve already come so close to losing him. I don’t even know if he has family we should call, anyone who should know where he is, what’s happened to him.”

“He doesn’t,” Dick said, shaking his head. “His mom died when he was young, and his father died two years ago. We’re all he has.”

“But that’s. . . horrible! If it wasn’t for us, he’d have no one!”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, if it wasn’t for us, he wouldn’t be here at all.”

Connor lowered his head and looked at Dick. “How is that supposed to be consoling?”

“You know, I don’t know,” Dick answered with a puzzled shrug. “It just came out. I didn’t know it was supposed to make sense.”

Chuckling, Connor rolled his eyes back towards the heavens. “Is it wrong to think I could love him so quickly in such a small amount of time?”

“No,” Dick smiled, leaning his head against Connor’s shoulder. “Will’s easy to fall in love with.”

“You didn’t.”

“But I would have, if I hadn’t already been in love. Given enough time, I probably would have given up and settled for Will. And I mean ‘settle’ in a good way. In fact, if he had ended up with me, he would be the one who was settling. He could do a lot better than me.”

“Good thing I came along then, huh?” Connor asked, eyes twinkling with amusement, and Dick punched him in the arm.

“Aren’t you monks supposed to be humble?”

“I’ve been spending too much time around my dad. Humility is not in his vocabulary, but speaking of dad, how do you think Will will feel about moving to Star City?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Both men looked up, startled, to see Bruce smiling down at them.

“Will is out of surgery. They did have to remove his spleen, but otherwise, he’s fine. He probably won’t wake up tonight, but Connor, I’ve arranged for you to be allowed to stay with him, if you want.”

Connor jumped to his feet and threw his arms around Bruce before he ran into the hospital. “Thank you!” he called as he disappeared inside.

Bruce smiled after the young man, then turned to look at Dick.

“That was a good thing you did,” Dick said as he stood up, his eyes never leaving Bruce’s as the dark man dismissed his comment with a blink.

“They’re not about to deny anything to one of their largest donors.”

“Still, that you even thought of it--it was very considerate. Both Will and Connor owe you one.”

“They owe me nothing. Besides, I didn’t do it for them.”

Dick searched the blue eyes and noticed how they seemed to grow reluctant to keep his gaze. “Who did you do it for?”

“For me.”

“Oh?”

Bruce took a deep breath, finding the courage to answer. “I couldn’t help thinking that if it was you lying in that bed and someone tried to keep me from seeing you, I’d be afraid of what might happen to whoever stood in my way. Nothing would keep me from being at your side.”

“So you didn’t do it for you. You did it for us.”

Bruce caught himself taking a step backwards as Dick took a step forwards and forced himself to hold his ground. This was it, he realized. This was the moment where he could either accept that he loved and needed Dick as much as Dick loved and needed him, or he could leave and risk losing him forever.

“Us,” he echoed softly.

“Yes,” Dick nodded as he stopped two steps away from Bruce. “Us. Because as much as you try to deny it, there is an us, Bruce. You and I, together. I know we tried it before, and we fucked up so terribly that we probably shouldn’t even be standing here right now, but that was in the past. Despite what you may think, the past can change. Has changed. We’ve changed, Bruce. I’m ready to move forward again. Are you?”

“Dick, what happened today—”

“No.” He narrowed his eyes, his face growing hard. “You will not use today as an excuse to back out now. What happened today will happen again--tomorrow, a month from now, two years from now. It doesn’t matter. You and I being together will not stop it from happening, but you and I being together could keep it from ending in heartache. It’s your choice, Bruce. What do you want? Do you want to fight this battle alone for the next fifty years? Or do you want to end the battle now and be with me?”

Bruce looked at the young man with the brilliant blue eyes who was watching him with a mixture of hope and fear that belied the steel in his voice, and knew that this, right here, was what he wanted. The terror would always be there, lurking in the back of his mind, taunting him with the worry that one night Dick might go out and never return. At least if he accepted Dick into his arms and into his heart, he might actually find the happiness he needed to counter that terror.

“I want you,” he whispered, walking across the two steps that separated them. He reached up to brush the dark hair from Dick’s forehead and Dick caught his hand, pressing it to his cheek. Bruce sighed as the warmth spread from his hand throughout his body. “I want you.”

Dick raised his head, sweeping his tongue over his lips. “Then have me.”

Bruce slid an arm around Dick’s waist and pulled him forward until their bodies were pressed against each other. “You’d better be sure about this.”

“I suppose I should say something about how we can never be sure of anything, but this is the one thing I am sure of.”

“Then I’m glad one of us is sure, because I can’t decide if what I’m feeling is nerves or joy or relief or fear.”

“Probably all of the above.”

“You’re probably right,” Bruce said with the hint of a smile. “Can’t make anything easy, can I?”

“This is easy,” Dick said huskily as he arched his head towards Bruce. “All you have to do is kiss me, and everything else will follow.”

A true smile spread across Bruce’s face and he leaned down to kiss him. When he would have pulled away, Dick reached up to wrap his arms around Bruce’s neck, deepening the kiss. Within seconds, Bruce had Dick smashed against the wall, bodies grinding together, hunting for the necessary friction. When Bruce’s knuckles were scraped practically skinless from the bricks of the building, he’d had enough.

“Home,” he growled, keeping an arm firmly around Dick’s waist as he began dragging him down the sidewalk, both of them walking a bit awkwardly.

“What about—”

“Tim’s not leaving until he has a chance to apologize to Will. Alfred’s not leaving without Tim. Will’s not leaving for several days, and Connor’s not going anywhere without him. They’re fine. Home.”

Dick smiled and raced Bruce to the car.

Half an hour later found them tangled in the sheets of Bruce’s bed, Dick grabbing onto the headboard with one hand, Bruce with the other as his lover thrust into him with long, smooth strokes. His head was thrown back, his skin tingling where Bruce’s mouth met his neck. His legs clutched Bruce by the waist, urging him deeper, faster, harder, but the man would not release his control.

Bruce continued to move surely and slowly inside of Dick, savoring the feel of the tight velvet walls surrounding his cock, of the heat Dick was generating both inside and out. Still not entirely certain this would ever happen again, Bruce wanted to take his time, to memorize every sound, every touch, every taste. He wanted to always know the feel of Dick’s hardness pressed between their stomachs, to hear in his dreams the debauched whimpering alternating with decadent moans as he came into contact with the spot deep inside his lover. He wanted to--

“Damnit, Bruce! I swear to you, I’m not going anywhere! Now, please, hurry!”

Chuckling, Bruce kissed the lips of the glaring young man and relinquished his control. His thrusts became harder, faster, and more irregular as he neared his release.

Dick cried out, his body stiffening as a sticky warmth pooled between them. The tightening of the walls around Bruce pushed him over the edge and he gasped his lover’s name as he came, spilling deep inside of him. Still rocking gently against Dick, the younger man’s arms wrapped around him, nimble fingers caressing his back as they tried to catch their breath. When he would have pulled out, the arms tightened.

“Don’t,” Dick whispered in his ear. “I want you to stay, for a little while longer. I’ve missed feeling you inside of me. Even though I know I’m going to be feeling you inside of me every day after this,” he added, stopping Bruce’s thoughts before they had time to gather. One thing, however, did catch his attention.

“Every day?” Bruce asked, arching an eyebrow, and Dick grinned at him.

“Well, every day until you get too old for this. And then, I don’t know,” he frowned. “Can you take Viagra on a daily basis?”

Bruce’s eyes narrowed and he growled, attacking Dick with hungry kisses until they were both hard and ready for another round.

“Viagra, my ass,” Bruce grumbled though his eyes were shining with triumph as he made Dick come a second time, the young man nearly passing out from the force of his pleasure. Dick laughed, a sated smile on his face as Bruce cleaned them up then snuggled into bed next to him.

“I love you,” Dick murmured sleepily, his eyes already closed, his body completely relaxed.

Bruce looked into peaceful face of his lover and smiled. Kissing Dick’s forehead, he, too, closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.


The end.


(Watch for the sequel, "The Ocean Wept", coming soon!)


[Completed April 11, 2004]