Sticks and stones

Bruce

"You'll be alright."

Never before had one sentence meant so little to me. Being alright means being content, loved, and happy. But, at that moment, I wasn't and I believed I never would again. For every night I would lie awake, too scared to fall asleep and face the nightmare; No, not nightmares, memories.

A threat…

Two gunshots…

Two thuds as the lifeless bodies of my parents fell to the hard floor…

Silence…

…Then a scream.

I usually wake up after that, still screaming.

"You'll be alright."

Nearly everyone said that to me, that I'd be okay. Yet here I am nearly thirty years later still waking up with a scream or at least a whimper.

"Master Bruce?"

Looking up from my place behind my office desk to find Alfred, the butler, having his head held high and his suit worn to perfection.

"Yes Alfred."

"Master Richard called no more than a few moments ago. He was asking for you, and might I add that he sounded quite urgent…" trailing off, Alfred no longer held his head high instead looking down, suddenly finding his shoes more interesting. This was not normal for the butler.

"Alfred?" I asked getting worried.

"Slade Wilson, Sir" Alfred whispered, looking up to meet my eyes.

"Slade" I growled. When Dick was Robin and still my partner, I would always warn him to stay away from the most dangerous of villains including Joker, Ra's al ghul, and Slade Wilson A.K.A Deathstroke the Terminator. If one of them was causing trouble I would prevent both Dick Grayson and Robin from leaving the Manor until the maniacs were behind bars. He would protest, of course, and I should have known that he wouldn't listen and sneak out anyway to try and help. Every time Slade and I were fighting he would always ask "how's the little bird?" non-stop he would talk about my son as if he were property, which made me sick, and still does.

I never explained to Dick why he would be left behind: that was my first mistake.

My son, thinking I didn't trust him, snuck out after finding out Slade's location on the Batcomputer. Due to what happened I'm certain that that was what Slade had planned.

Slade wanted Robin to find him.