Time:  5:00 PM

Date:  December 17, 2001

 

          “IT DOESN’T WHAT?!” I yelled when the nurse, that I am now leaving, told me the news.

          “Apparently,” she said softly, “Mr. Grayson’s insurance company refuses to take care of the bills of his stay.”

          “Oh, FUCK them, Grayson wouldn’t leave himself open like that!”

          “Well, I’m sorry!  You’ll have to help him find another mode of payment, or else we’ll have to—“

          “Have to what?!  Take him off the life support?!  Oh, believe me, that fucking company is going to be PAYING his bills.”

          I hate insurance companies, by the way.

          I storm to “Bruno” and Cassandra who stand guard at Dick’s door.  (I think they’re friends, heh, they’re playing some sort of silent game that whenever someone passes by, Cass gestures at him or he’ll gesture at her.  I think they’re reading something off of people, or SOMEthing…)  I demand to talk to Bruce.  Cassandra disappears for a moment, and then comes out with Bruce behind her.

          “What is it, Harper?” Bruce asks.

          “Bruce, we need to talk.”

          I finger for him to follow me, away from the guards and the room.  Bruce rolls his eyes and follows.

          “This had better be good.”

          After I’m satisfied with the distance, I turn and look to him.

          “Sorry, I know you want to stay in there with Dick, but this is REALLY important.”

          “What?”

          “Nurse just informed me that Dick’s insurance company has DENIED payment to Dick’s hospital bill.”  He does the traditional eyebrow UP thing, something Dick does all the time.  “They’re *denying* it.”

          Bruce doesn’t say anything.  He just turns and heads away.  I can’t help but smile.  I know that man’s a bastard, and he made Donna cry, but by the time things are said and done, I bet he’s going to be the OWNER of that insurance company!

          Turning, I see Barbara slowly exit the room and Cassandra gets ready to follow her—that was Bruce’s orders—and I wave Cass back and go to take Barbara wherever she wants to go.  She’s tired.  She’s been with Dick non-stop ever since they rescued her from that gang…

          I’m angry.  Not at her.  At Wally.  How DARE he do this?  To her and to Dick!

          You might ask what I’m talking about.

          I explained it to Tim…  Dick’s given up his only real chances for TRUE love for two people.  Myself and Wally.  As teenagers, Garth, Dick, Wally and I adored Donna.  Garth liked her because she was the one person that wasn’t, heh, trying to taint him.  Wally liked her because she was so DAMN innocent and sweet, and who can blame him?  Dick and I liked her because of all of that, and she was so pretty, you know that?  Now she’s not pretty, she’s gorgeous.  (I shouldn’t say that, Roy, I’m with Jesse.)  But she is!  And smart too, funny as hell.

          I was so jealous when Dick would go around her… I almost hit him one time because he was so close to her.  And you know what he did?  He backed off.  I was too BLIND to notice then, but he was backing off because I was his friend, and he didn’t want to hurt me.  Or Donna.  Something like that would’ve torn us apart.  That was the first time he gave up love.

          The second time was with Wally.  Now, he won’t tell anyone this, but the reason he never actually got together with her again after he came from those three years abroad… was because he had a feeling, that’s what he told Garth and myself.  When Wally started getting an obsession for Batgirl, and Barbara got an obsession with Flash, and he was the connecting link between them both, he got a feeling that maybe they were destined to be.  “But you said she’s with Bruce,” Garth reminded.  Dick seethed a bit at the reminder, then told us it was destined.  I see he was right.  That was the second time he gave up TRUE love.

          That’s a friend for you.  A friend who will sacrifice his ALL just to make sure his friends are happy.  Did you know that he saved Dolphin’s life almost at the cost of his own the night before Garth and she were to get married?  Or that when Bobby was killed, and Donna refused to eat or sleep for four days straight, he stayed by her side, not eating or sleeping either…  Just holding onto her and making sure she was okay.  I couldn’t—I would have—but I couldn’t because of Lian.

          Poor Barbara…  I feel so bad for her…  How dare Wally do this to both of them?