-In which Hugo Strange makes a compelling argument-

On Saturday, Bruce was at a trades convention-- one which didn't want a preteen underfoot-- and Dick was left at home.

He didn't mind being at home on a rainy November afternoon, but the silence of the place started to get to him so badly he left his room, seeking human contact

Alfred was patching some costume repairs at the kitchen table, Dick settled nearby to work on his essay, both half-listening to the drone of the radio drama that was playing on Alfred's station of choice.  Even down here it was painfully, unforgivingly, boring. 

Dick refreshed the tab again, as if expecting something else. He sighed, sitting up. "Alfred, you keep Bruce's journal, right? Does ha have any breaks coming up?"

"I'll have to check." Alfred said, which Dick was pretty sure was just a gentle 'no'.

"It's just..." Dick gestured loosely, feeling a little silly even saying it, "I do so much and the only times he's around, he's too in-character to listen to me."

"I know, Master Dick, I've spoken with him about it."

Dick looked up. "You didn't... what did he-- I hope it didn't sound like I was..." He sighed, mortified that Bruce knew how much Dick wanted his attention. It wasn't cool to admire your guardian like that. "Thanks, Alfred."

"Well, with Master Bruce at the convention until eight pm, so the Robin might get to spread his wings, as it were."

"You're right." Dick sighed, closing his laptop. He did have something he needed to do while Bruce was busy.

"Back again?"

"We need to talk." Dick sat, flipping open the meal slot.

"That we do."

"The other day you said that batman bends rules for the greater good."

"I did say that." Strange confirmed.

"But Batman catches criminals all the time, it evens out."

Strange almost smiled. "You really admire him."

Dick suddenly found himself all flustered. "What would you know about it?"

"A great deal more than you would think." Hugo stood, pacing his cell-like room. "Picture, if you will, a baby bird, who's yet to fly, sees a bat flutter past one night. Excited by this, the baby bird dives from the nest-- not yet knowing how to catch itself."

"I don't understand."

"Boy Wonder, you are falling. The heroic life is taking its toll on you."

"No, no... it's just a slump." Dick insisted. "It's just been a couple bad nights."

"Are these the same 'bad nights' that the batman wouldn't give you attention?" He chuckled. "It wasn't hard to put together, Boy Wonder, you adore the bat but what time does he have for you? I can fix that, if you'd like." He finished.

"What?" Dick asked.

"Think, I can get you all the attention you want, the bat's full focus, all you have to do is do what batman does best: bend the rules for the greater good."

"What do you mean?"

"You're not ready to hear just yet," Strange said. 

"Yes I am, what is it?" Dick demanded, curiosity stealing over him.

"Let's go back to your conditioning, I'll tell you when you're ready." He stood to pace his room again. "Now, I want you to remember that baby bird we talked about. Let us say it fell and broke its wing. In nature, well, who's to say what would happen to it, but now imagine a man is able to find that bird and nurse it back to health. By the time it's grown it will be fully healed and ready to fly like the bat had. How would you describe someone who takes care of the bird like that?"

"Kind?" Dick said, unsurely. "Caring?"

"Good job," Strange agreed. "How clever you are." He knelt down in front of the meal slot. "I have a proposition to make you, as someone whom you yourself describe as caring,"

"What?" Dick demanded.

"What I promised before, the bat's attention." Strange replied. "It's simple. I can't do much good while I'm locked here."

"You can't do much harm, either."

"You need to realize," the doctor said, his voice level and gentle. "I never tried to cause harm, I was just bending the rules of my practice to cause the best outcome."

"The best outcome for you, you mean."

"Batman's best outcome was not the best outcome for any of this rogue's gallery he's taken responsibility for. Everything, even the greater good, harms someone. I just do what I think is right," he said. "Just like Batman."

Dick returned home before Bruce got back, he sat in the batcomputer's chair, legs dangling from the seat.

Strange had made a compelling argument, and he was angry that it was so hard to shut down. He wanted to ignore it all, to never go back to Hugo Strange's domain and pretend it hadn't happened, but he couldn't. Strange was right, how was one person doing what they think is right any worse than another person who did what they thought was right, if people got hurt either way. He kept trying to shut the idea down: Batman was different, Batman was right, but the thought continued to fester in his mind.

"Good, you're in costume." Bruce's voice called from the elevator as he stepped out and into the cave.

"Yeah."

"Great, let's get going." Bruce said.

"Actually..." Dick slid off the chair, his bones felt heavy and his stomach continued to churn uneasily. "I don't feel so good. I think I'll stay at home with Alfred tonight."

"As you like." Bruce said, not seeming to care whether he came of not.

"I, like, I feel kinda sick." Dick continued, hoping Batman would catch the drift and express concern. 

"Then you should stay home and rest up." Bruce said.

"Yeah." Dick trudged to the elevator. "See you later."

-Thanks for all the love on my last chapter, I really needed that. A lot of the time I need comments to inspire me to keep writing :)-