Epilogue

The afternoon was bright and clear, the sunlight warming up the air. The couple walked on the well manicured grass, the red haired young woman staying respectfully silent. Her black haired companion carried two bouquets of roses, one red, the other white. As they walked, memories played tricks on his vision as he saw the grave sites with their caskets under an awning. He remembered his feeling that it should have been a dreary, rainy day rather than the clear sunny one it had been.

They stopped at the foot of a set of marked graves. The headstones were simple granite slabs the face polished except where the names and dates had been chiseled into it. John Grayson beloved husband and father and Mary Grayson beloved wife and mother.

Richard noticed that the grounds keepers had removed the wilted stems of the last bouquet of roses from the vases set before the stones, and he stepped forward placing the red roses at his mother's grave the white ones at his fathers, then stepped back and stood silently for a moment. He was jolted out of his thoughts when he felt Starfire take his hand. He looked over at her, and she gave him a small uncertain smile which he returned with a more confident one, then looked back at the headstones feeling a little self-conscious. "Mom, Dad, this is Starfire, the girl I've been telling you about."

Starfire listened as Robin talked, not thinking it strange that he was talking to people who had been dead for almost ten years.

Robin knew that what he was doing would seem strange to anyone who would be watching. Anyone but Starfire and those who had lost either their parents or someone close to them. "We're married now. I wish that you could meet her, and I really wish you could have been at the wedding. That way I'd know what you would think."

"They'd be happy, Richard. Happy for and proud of you, as I am."

Robin turned at the unexpected voice. Unexpected, but not unfamiliar. "What. . . . ?" he began.

"Dick. . . .Richard I'm not very good at expressing myself sometimes, especially how I feel about those I care about," Bruce said.

"So that is where he gets it from," Starfire commented.

Bruce and Robin both chuckled lightly at that.

"You know, Dick, your wife is not only a skilled diplomat, but a excellent tactician," Bruce said as they walked away from the grave site. "When she realized that I wasn't listening to either of you, she went to the one person that had a chance of getting through to me, and convinced him to do just that."

"Alfred?"

Bruce nodded. "She convinced him that neither one of us was looking at the whole picture," he said. "For lack of a better term, you were looking at your relationship with her through rose colored glasses, while all I could see was the danger it put you both into."

"I am relieved to see that our talk over milk and cookies was fruitful," Kori said, then looked over at Richard. "You have a tendency to place me on a pedestal, my love, as I do you, while Mister Wayne sees me as, to use a gossip articles words, a temptress to blind you to danger."

Bruce chuckled at the stunned face that Richard made. "I wouldn't have used quite those words, but the analogy is right. Just so you know, all Alfred did was to convince me to hear you out. To be totally honest it was your parting statement and question to me that turned the tables. How much of that problem with Circe did she tell you?"

"She gave away no secrets. All she told me was that in exchange for Circe turning Diana back from being a pig, you had to surrender some of your dignity," Kori replied. "From what I know of you it was a very dear price."

"And one I'd pay again without a second thought," Bruce said. "You're right, Kori. It doesn't matter if I admit what I may or may not feel for Diana, but it colors my judgment and actions anyway, as did your and Richards on many occasions from what I have seen of your teams reports."

"I understand that I owe you a thank you, Kori," a woman's voice said as they neared where the cars were parked.

"Diana, it is good to see you," Kori said as she trotted over and gave her a hug. "For what do you owe me the thanks?"

"These are for you, Dick," Bruce said tossing a something to him.

"Keys?" Richard asked catching them. "To what?"

"The guest cottage on the manor grounds," Bruce replied. "The last thing I want is a set of teen-aged newlyweds underfoot while I have company."

"I was planning on going to a hotel for a few days, then back to the Tower."

"Sorry, Dick, but you'll be here for at least a week, maybe two," Bruce said tossing a folded newspaper to him. "You and your wife are quite the item for the moment."

"Stunning redhead captures the heart of Gotham's favorite son," Richard read from the headline. Underneath was a picture of he and Kori as they left the airport. "Richard Grayson returns home after a long absence with a new wife in tow, and the question on everyone's mind is who is this gorgeous young woman who has managed to shatter the dreams of the local debutantes," he read. "Oh great."

"What is it, Richard?" Kori asked as she walked over to him.

"This is the gossip column from the Gotham Times," Richard replied. "Remember when the Jump City papers ran those pictures from the high rise fire?"

"I see, so that means that our marriage is well known."

"That's only part of it, Kori," Bruce said. "You'll have three days to yourselves, then there'll a round of charity dinners and events that we'll have to attend."

"We?"

Bruce chuckled slightly at Richards question as he stood next to Diana. "Don't worry, Dick, you're not going to be alone in this," he said. "I'll be officially taking myself off the market, so to speak. I just hope we're both creative enough to explain who Diana and Kori are without giving things away.

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"Alfred is a wonderful cook," Kori said as Richard unlocked the door to the cottage. She and Richard had gone to a Chinese restaurant for lunch, but had been invited by Bruce and Diana to have dinner at the manor. She went to enter the small house when Richard opened the door, but he stopped her and scooped her up into his arms. "What are you doing?"

"It's an old human custom, Kori," Richard replied, carrying her into the house. "The new husband carries his wife across the threshold of their home."

"But this is not our new home. We still live in Titans Tower," she said, then noticed that Richard was blushing slightly as he set her down. "You do know that if any of the others know of this tradition they will ask if you do not perform it when we return, yes?"

"Yeah, well I just didn't want to give them something else to pick on us about," he admitted, then smiled softly as she rolled her eyes at his comment. 'She's been hanging around Raven too much.'

"Richard, they are our friends. The are only teasing, they do not mean the harm," she said, then gave him a questioning look. "Or are you embarrassed about being my husband?"

He took both her hands in his. "Kori, I was deeply honored when you took the Oath with me," he said, then instantly realized that she wouldn't take much teasing on this subject, as she pulled her hands from his and turned away.

"Being honored is not the same as being happy about it, Robin."

Knowing that he had hit a nerve, he quickly made amends. He slid his hands around her waist from behind. "Star, the day we took the Oath made me that happiest man alive." He turned her so she was facing him. "Starfire, I love you. I have since shortly after we met, I was just to stubborn to admit it." He turned away as he went on. "Part of it was that was because of what Bruce taught me, but most of it was because of what happened nine years ago. As I told you once before, when my parents died part of me died too. I didn't want to take the risk of getting that close to someone again."

"But you had to know that I cared for you in that way," Starfire said softly. "If not from my statements to you on the roof of the Wayne Enterprises building, then with what we discussed while we were on that planet."

"I know, Star. I'm only sorry that it took seeing you in that hospital bed, bruised and beaten, to bring me to my senses."

"I remember your concern to cause me no further injury," she said, putting her hands on his shoulders. "and the gentleness of your touch as you held my hand even as I felt your anger as I related what happened." She rested her chin on his shoulder. "I believe then was my first real glimpse of the Richard Grayson beneath the stern, controlled surface of Robin."

Robin turned toward her and they hugged. "So what do you want to do tonight?" he asked. He smiled softly at the look she gave him.

"Robin we are quovanya and on our sivanar," she said, using the Tamaranean words for newlyweds and honeymoon. "If I need to tell you, than someone has replaced the husband I knew three months ago with an impostor."

"Well, we both know that's not possible," he said with a chuckle, taking his crystal from under his shirt. "Although at 6:30 it's a little early."

"To go to the room of bedding, yes, however we do have some time alone at the moment," Starfire said and sat on the couch.

He sat beside her and they kissed. A few moments later Robin was curious as she pulled away from him, and he could feel that something was now bothering her. "What's the matter, Star?"

"Did you mean what you said when you addressed the fleet?" she asked, looking back over her shoulder at him. "That things would be better if I was not a Titan, or your wife?"

He smiled softly he used his crooked index finger to tint her head up so he could see her face. "I said it would be less complicated if you weren't a Titan," he said.

"So it would be better. . . ." she began, but cut off as he placed his index finger against her lips.

"Star, I hope you complicate my life for a very long time," he said, then they kissed.

fin