Redoing this because I saw this picture by BaraNoKage on deviantart. And for DickBabs Execute week.
Why does this song fit them so perfectly? ("Kiss it all better" by He Is We)
Flashbacks in italics.

All It Is Is A Memory

Chapter 1

Stay With Me Until I Fall Asleep

Sixteen year old Dick lays on his bed. Never ending tears running down his cheeks.

A lot can change in a day. Dick has known this since he lost his parents at the age of eight.

Twenty-four hours ago his life was close to perfect. His recent mission with the team had been successful. And when he got back to the Batcave, his girlfriend of one year, Barbara Gordon, suggested they go out on patrol together. He had agreed and soon they found themselves fighting with the Joker.

Dick puts his pillow over his head as the memories come rushing painfully back to him. Just as they had done the months after his parents' death.

Joker stands there with that stupid red grin on his face. The gun in his hand still smoking. This time it isn't the ones that just have a flag with the word 'BANG' on it. It's real.

The Joker lets out a sadistic laugh. He tosses the gun away and turns to walk out of the building.

Blood pours from the wound in Barbara's stomach. Her face is full of pain and deathly white. Her hands grip her mid section as Dick holds her from behind and gently lowers her to the ground.

"Kiss it all better. I'm not ready to go. It's not your fault, you didn't know. You didn't know."

Her voice still echoes in his mind. It's worse than any nightmare that Scarecrow could create. But this time, Dick can't wake up. He's trapped inside a swirling pool of guilt and anger and sadness. Batman can't make an antidote for this. He's stuck there with no way out.

She clings to her sides and the only warmth in her hands comes from the blood pooling over them. Dick rips of her cape and ties it around her tightly.

"Everything will be alright."

His voice sounds like he's trying to convince himself more than Barbara. 'Please stay with me Babs' he thinks.

"You've got to go after him, Dick," Barbara tells him. "I'll be fine." She coughs up blood.

Joker laughs again in the background as he sees Barbara try to move her lips.

He tries to tell her he's not going to leave her, but then he sees the gun.

If his eyes could have been seen at that moment, people would have sworn that the kid had no soul. All the rage he had felt at Zucco came back to him. But it was now directed at the Joker. That man, no monster, had hurt the bat family countless times and murdered countless numbers people. Now was the time for revenge.

His clear blue eyes look like an intense, burning fire.

"Joker's gonna pay."

His voice takes on a dark heartlessness that he has never used before. He lays Barbara fully on the ground. She could not hear his words. Which was just has well, for that would have caused her even more shock.

He walks over and picks up the gun. Bruce hates guns, but that's just another rule that Dick plans to break tonight.

"Joker!" He cries at the green haired villain. The man turns around and smiles at him.

"Aw, poor birdie," he clown mocks. "Did I shoot your girlfriend?" He lets out another laugh. He then notices the gun in Dick's hands and where it's pointing. Barbara lays unconscious two meters behind Dick. The Joker stands twenty meters in front of him. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You know Basty doesn't like you playing with guns," Joker says with a shake of his head. Joker turns to leave, not believing Dick would ever use a gun.

Her voice still haunts him. He wishes he could hear her say something, anything, but that. But now, he may never hear her speak again. She lost so much blood.

He's locked himself away again. If Barbara doesn't make it, he might not come out this time. There are only so many times one's heart can die before it is lost forever.

Barbara is in a coma. One she may never come out of. It could take twenty-five days, or twenty-five years. But she's not with him. She's not there to tease him. To go on patrol with him. To kiss him.

His finger tightens around the trigger and another shot is heard. The Joker cries out in shock as he falls to the ground. His blood pools around him. Dick tosses the gun pass the dying man. He walks over to Barbara's form and the tears start to spill over.

"Babs, wake up please." Dick had already hit his emergency transmitter. Bruce would be there soon.

About two minutes later, Dick hears sirens and the sound of the Batmobile pulling up outside the building.

He hadn't managed to wake Barbara up. Bruce rushes in. "No," Bruce's voice is full with concern for the girl in Dick's arms. He runs over and kneels at Barbara's side, trying to access the damage. "What happened?" Bruce asks and he binds the wound further.

"Joker," is Dick's one word answer. "I'm sorry Bruce. He had a gun." Tears are pouring rapidly down his cheeks.

"Dick, it's not your fault," Bruce doesn't even bother to call him by the other name. "Where is he now? Do you know?" Bruce asked, hoping he could catch him and beat the crap out of him for doing this to the young girl he considered like a niece to him.

"Behind you," Dick whispers. "I'm sorry Bruce," he says again.

Bruce finishes with Barbara and turns around slowly. He spots the Joker lying in a lake of his own blood. "Dick?" he asks slowly, not wanting to believe his little bird had done this.

"I'm sorry Bruce," Dick apologizes again.

This memory plays over and over inside of his head. Barbara had regained consciousness after she was taken to the ambulance. Dick and her father had both gotten in the back; the paramedics were up front. She spoke briefly to her dad and then to Dick. Before she slipped into the coma she had said, "I love you, Dad." Her voice failed her as she tried to say the last of it, but Dick read her lips. 'I love you, Dick' she had meant to say.

The press gets wind that Barbara was in a motorcycle wreck and slipped into a coma. Bruce Wayne paid for her to be moved to a better facility. She is moved to the Justice League's medical bay. Her father sits by her side once a week for the whole day.

Artemis was helping Dick cope because she had been friends with Barbara in school and felt the loss as well.

It is also announced that the Joker had been found dead. No cause of death is given.

No one but Bruce knows what Dick had done. Somehow James Gordon hasn't found out and Bruce sees no reason to tell him. They never talk about it. Dick now has a new secret to keep from his team.

'Robin' has become more violent, more like 'Batman'. Eventually, Bruce has to make him quit. If Dick went on like he was any longer, he may have gotten someone else killed. A new boy takes up the mantel.

A lot can change in a day.

...

It has been five years. Barbara is still in her coma and Dick has started his new life as 'Nightwing'. Yet he, like Barbara's father, still find one day out of the week to sit with her.

As those five years pass, Dick finds it harder and harder to remember exactly what Barbara sounded like when she was yelling at him or teasing him.

Twenty-one year old Dick lays on his apartment bed. Never ending tears running down his cheeks.

"Stay with me, Babs," he whispers.

Why won't she wake up? Is it because he's a murderer?

It took five years but the full truth finally hits him.

He is a murderer.

He's no better than the Joker or any other scum he fights every night.

"Babs, I'm sorry, but I need you. Please come back," Dick whispers into his pillow.

Beep-Beep-Beep

Dick picks up the phone.

"Dick," Bruce's voice says, "I've got some news." He pauses for a moment. "It's about Barbara..."

Hope you like it and review. I redoing both endings because I realized I completely forgot Jason. X(