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The circus was full of life. Sound and color in every direction and people, so many people. Laughter filled the air as children ran through the makeshift streets of food vendors. The gruff voices of men joked with their friends as they tested their skills at the game stalls. Ladies in their best outfits gossiping with their neighbors as they waited to hear their fortunes told. The circus teamed with life in a vibrant ever changing tapestry of color.
The Graysons flew about the awed crowds in a riot of beautiful colors. Blues and golds on his mother and father's new costumes. His aunts, uncles, and cousins in the familiar red, green and gold. Dick was right in the middle of it, his own uniform shining in the traditional colors of his family. Alive with a vibrancy that shone through in everything he did.
Then his world darkened. His family was murdered and he was torn from the only home he knew. The social worker ripped him from the arms of Gretta the fortune teller and forced him into the back of a police car. His red, green and golds were traded for the drab grays of the detention center coveralls. Only to be brought out when he took to the streets to hunt down his family's murderer. Then he was saved by the dark and colorless bat of Gotham.
The manor was a relic of the past. A memorial to the deaths of Martha and Thomas Wayne. It was bigger than the big-top and the two side tents put together and it only held two people, well three now.
Dick didn’t like it here. It was dark and depressing… and lonely. It was, however, better than the detention center. Dick rattled like a ghost in the mausoleum of a house where everything was dark and somber. He wandered through another empty hallway and opened a doorway to one of the more formal living rooms.
There were drop cloths over most of the furniture and a fine layer of dust had settled around the place. Seeing as Batman was paranoid, the only staff allowed was Alfred. Which meant most of the seldom used rooms had all been shut away. Curious Dick decided to look around. He pulled back the heavy curtains and let some light in.
It didn’t look much better in the daylight, he was just about to leave when he saw the dance of colored lights across the carpet. The bunting that was supposed to wrap around the crystal chandelier hadn’t been secured very well leaving the delicate crystals exposed to gather dust. Now they were doing their original job of catching light and bouncing it around the room.
It was the first thing that felt like home, like the circus. Light and colors dance merrily across the tarped furniture. It was almost like the reverse of one of Pop Haly’s tents.
Dick wanted more lights but half the chandelier was still covered. With a practiced eye he looked at his surroundings. A foothold there, a jump from there… Within moments he had pulled himself up the antique fireplace across a bookshelf and monkey-bared the wooden beams until he was perched on the beam above the light fixture.
He shimmed down the chain holding it and gingerly stepped on one of the arms. The gentle clink of crystals surrounded him as the fixture started swaying with his weight. He reached out and teased the cloth bindings from the ornate arms allowing the covering to float gently to the floor.
The gentle sway felt like home, felt like being high in the air on the trapeze. Slowly Dick lowered himself to sit across several of the arms. He looked down at the ground and pretended he was back home in the circus. The lights dancing on the canvas were all the spectators that came to see him and his parents.
He rocked gently back and forth swinging as he remembered. The sun had set while he had been lost in thought. The lights had faded leaving once again just a dusty old fashioned room that had been standing empty for decades.
A door slammed in the distance sounding sharp and loud too like the snapping of a line and then the deafening thud of bodies as they fell from the sky. The red rug on the floor looked like blood spilled over sand.
He didn’t notice the tears streaming down his cheeks as his thoughts about his family turned from fond remembrance to their final moments. He didn’t realize he was shaking, and trembling in the chandelier setting all the crystals to rattling.
He was too scared to move. He didn’t want to fall. He didn’t want to die.
“Alfred, I’ve found him. Get a ladder. The tallest one we have.” A voice sounded slightly panicked as they shouted.
“Hey chum, can you come down from there?” The voice sounded much gentler as he called up to his lost ward.
Dick held tight to the chain and continued to sob, calling out for his mom, and dad. For anyone to save him. He didn’t want to fall.
“Oh dear, How did he even get up there?” Another voice asked.
“I don’t know, I think he’s having flashbacks to that night Alfred.”
“The poor dear, better get him down and then we can help pull him out of it.”
“Chum, Hey Chum. Can you let go of the chain for me?” The voice was a lot closer.
“NO!” Dick screamed and sobbed, “I don’t want to die.”
“Dick. It's okay I won’t let you fall, just reach out for my hand and we can get down.” The voice kept up a steady stream of encouragement and gentle pleas for Dick to come down from the chandelier. “Come on Dick I’ve got you.”
Eventually the boy came back to himself enough that he recognized Bruce’s voice.
“Bruce? B?” Dick blinked a few times and looked
“Hey Dick are you back with me, can you come down now?”
Dick practically flew into Bruce's arms. The little boy sobbed in his arms as the man held him tightly reassuring him. They stayed there wobbling slightly at the top of the ladder long enough for Bruce to calm Dick enough that he could carry the child back down to the ground.
The two older men chased away the visions of death with coco lots of blankets and movies. Dick leaned into Bruce’s strong arms as the man gently ran his fingers through his hair. He had slumped over onto his chest halfway through the movie, exhaustion hitting him hard.
The last thing he heard before he drifted off into sleep was a fervent promise.
“I will always be there to catch you when you fall, chum. Always.”