Epilogue- Part Two

DISCLAIMER: For once last time, I own nothing and nobody but Nessie and Hallucination.....

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I knocked on the door, suddenly feeling nervous. Would Dick recognize me? Would he be mad at me that I had left, or would he forgive me? And what would he look like? Surely he had changed a little bit. I heard the door unlock on the other side, and then it opened. At first I didn't recognize the man behind the door, but I saw his eyes and knew that it was Dick. He was over six feet tall and more muscular. His hair was a little longer than I remembered it, but it was messy all the same. He was dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans with Converse. Dick studied my face, then blanched. He recognized me.

"Hey," was all I said. He didn't smile or show any expression whatsoever.

"Nessie?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm back," I smiled, and he stood there, just staring at my face. Probably not believing that I was back. Eventually, he smiled back.

"Well. Long time, no see," he stated. "Come inside." He held open the door for me and I stepped inside the apartment. It was much like Selena's, only a little tidier and a little bigger. Still, the resemblance was striking. Dick led me to a small table and I sat down.

"Would you like something to drink or anything?"

"No, I'm fine." He had changed a lot, maturity-wise. Maybe I had, too. Cancer can change people. Dick went and sat down in the chair next to me.

"So. Where have you been?"

"Colorado."

"For five years."

"Yeah." There was silence for awhile. "I met and talked to Tim."

"Really?"

"Yep. He told me that you weren't Robin anymore."

"I go by Nightwing now. Instead of red, yellow, and black, I wear black and blue," he smiled at me, but it was a sad smile. "I've missed you, Vanessa."

"Not as much as I've missed you."

"I find that hard to believe," Dick smirked. He seemed so happy to see me. Little did he know that I had cancer and that I was slowly dying.

"Tim also told me about Jason," I stated, my throat clenching up. I would not cry. Dick looked away, staring into space. It took him a minute to speak again.

"Jason died about a year and a half ago. He went with Batman to go fight Joker. Normally, they would have gotten a little beat up, arrested the Joker, and threw the clown back into Arkham. But...Jason ran ahead. Joker took him to an old warehouse. Beat him up pretty bad, with internal bleeding and everything. But that wasn't all. The psychopath locked Jason in the warehouse, fully aware that the building was set to explode. Batman rushed over there as fast as he could. But he was seconds too late. Then...boom," At that point, tears were silently falling from my eyes. Dick chose that moment to look over at me, and soon his arms were wrapped around me.

"I never should have left. I was stupid," I whispered into Dick's chest after I had composed myself.

"You weren't stupid. If my dad had shown up, I would have gone with him. Although I would have said goodbye to everybody first," Dick said softly. I pushed away from him and stood up.

"Look, I have never been good at saying goodbyes. I couldn't bear to see your heartbroken face when I told you that I was leaving. And I was stupid to just write you a note, I know. But I suck at saying final goodbyes! I'm sorry..." I suddenly said, slightly raising my voice. "That's what makes this so hard." Dick's face changed suddenly, a look of confusion across his face.

"What do you mean? You're not leaving again. You can't," Dick also stood up and walked to one of the rooms. I heard him rummaging around, then he came back out and put a piece of paper on the table. I immediately recognized it, for I had thought about it every day for five years. The letter. "When you got called to the office, I was worried sick. You never came back that day, and I didn't know what was going on. So at the end of the day, I went to my locker to get my things. All of a sudden, a piece of paper falls out. I picked it up. I read it. I read it again. Each time I read it, a piece of me broke into pieces. Soon, I was calling you on your phone, sending you texts, shaking, panicking, trying to find out where you had gone. Little did I know that your phone was in the auditorium still. These past five years killed me...I didn't know if you were even alive or dead. I thought that I was going to spend the rest of my life with you. I loved you. And here you are again, finally coming back, but telling me that you're leaving again. I lost you once. I cannot-WILL not- lose you again." Dick's eyes were shining, a mixture of determination, sadness, anger, fear, and other emotions. Then I started coughing violently. One of my symptoms from lung cancer that I had to deal with. I fell to my knees, my shoulders shaking and my lungs trying to work normally. Finally composing myself, I looked at my hand to see small flecks of blood dotting the skin. This was normal to me, and I just brushed my hand over my jeans and wiped them off.

"I'm sorry. But the reason I came here is to say goodbye for good," Tears were flowing from my eyes as I removed my hat, revealing my hairless head. Dick's eyes grew wide in shock and fear, then he collapsed into a chair, burying his face in his hands. I rushed over to him and knelt down so my face was level with his. "Look at me," I stated, and he did. There were tears in his eyes that had not yet fallen. "I have lung cancer. The doctors told me that I'm on my deathbed right now, and that I only had a short time to live. I had to say the goodbye that I never had the chance to say before. Please don't cry...please..." I was sobbing then, and soon we were wrapped in each other's arms. After what seemed like an hour of doing just that, we composed ourselves.

"Okay. I'll let you go, one last time. Just let me go get something," Dick told me, then got up and went to the same room he went to to get the letter. Good thing I didn't wear any makeup today. I knew that it would just get smeared and smudged if I did. He soon returned, carrying what seemed like a scrapbook of some sort. Dick held it out to me.

"What is this?" I asked, taking it and staring at the cover. In neat writing, it said 'Can a Bird Trust a Cat?', with a drawing of a bird, specifically a Robin, and a cat staring at each other.

"When you left, it tore me apart. So I started a scrapbook of sorts to help me...cope, with you being gone. I want you to have it," Dick explained to me. This was killing me, even more than the cancer already was. Instead of opening it, I hugged him, and we stayed like that for a minute or two before we broke apart.

"I'm sorry that I have to go. But it's better for the both of us if I do," I stated, then kissed him. He kissed me back, one final kiss to end this...relationship of sorts. And I soon walked out of the door, with scrapbook in hand, and to my car. I could see Dick looking at me. He was just standing in the doorway with the door still open, as if not making sense of me leaving again.

I was about to start the car, but I looked at the scrapbook and decided to look at it before I drove off. On the inside cover, I saw that Dick had wrote 'Things end...but memories last forever." I turned the page. And another page. On each page there was a memory that we had shared: a piece of candy corn, a drawing of a black eye, a piece of blue fabric the exact same color of the dress I wore to the Winter Ball. They were all there in one form or another. The second to last page had a little pocket in it, with a note attached. I opened the note first. It read 'Nessie's Christmas present, 9th grade'. That was it. Opening the pocket, I pulled out a ring. A promise ring. He was going to give me a promise ring, and I left before he could. That was what made me start crying. I set it next to me and turned to the last page. Simply written were a few words. 'So, can a bird trust a cat? Yes, I believe so. This bird has. Sincerely, Dick Grayson'.

I closed the book and blotted my eyes. Sighing, I looked over at the faint outline of Richard standing in the doorway. Why was I leaving again? I took my keys out of the ignition and got out of my car, walking towards the apartment door. I had cancer...so what? That wasn't going to stop me from living a happy rest of my life. Even if it was only a month or two.

"I decided to stay, if that's okay with you," I said to Dick. He broke out into a smile and held out his hand.

"Of course it's okay with me," he stated, and I took his hand and went inside. I thought back to the front cover of the scrapbook and what it said. That was an interesting question. Against all odds, a cat and a bird, natural enemies, learned to love and trust each other. And that was the best ending I could ever imagine.

~~FIN~~

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Well, there you have it. All good things must come to an end. Even if it's a bittersweet ending.

The final count of everything for this story:

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THANK YOU ALL SOOOOOO MUCH!!! I am officially whelmed for having such good feedback for this story that it has inspired me to write more stories! I'm going to be out of school for the summer in a couple of days, so I will be writing more Young Justice-related stories this summer. Yay!

Okay, I will be leaving now. But I WILL be back. *cue evil laughter*

Stay whelmed everybody!!

~~The Bat has left the room~~