WARNING: Mental breakdowns, Self-Harm, Blood, Harm, Destruction, Hallucinations, Medicine, IV, Hospital, Fights

Richard spent the next day crying in his room. 

"Dickie? What's the matter honey?" Bruce knocked gently on Dick's door. 

"GO AWAY!" Dick screamed, throwing a pillow at the door. 

"Dickie, I want to help you. But I can't do that if you don't tell me what's wrong." Bruce said. 

"You want to know what's wrong!" Dick swung his door open fast. Tear tracks were on his face with more tears falling down them. His eyes were a big puffy red. "SLADE WAS RIGHT! THAT'S WHAT'S WRONG!" 

He slammed the door in Bruce's face.

That alarmed Bruce. 

"What was Slade right about? Why are you even listening to him, Dick?" Bruce asked, getting over-protective of Dickie. 

"Because he's here. HE'S ALWAYS HERE! He won't SHUT UP!" Richard screamed, crying harder. 

Alfred showed up next to Bruce. 

"Get Black Canary, now! And Martian ManHunter. I don't care where they are, get them here ASAP!" Bruce said harshly in Alfred's ear.

Alfred nodded and ran off to the Batcave.

"Dick, let me in. Please." Bruce said through the door. 

"NO!" Dick screamed, something glass falling to the floor. 

Then Dick was quiet. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Richard watched the vase fall to the floor. 

The flowers that he picked the other day fell in a mess of broken glass, water, and string. 

Dick went quiet as he picked the flowers up. 

Unfortunately, the flowers landed on broken glass which cut Dick.

He put the flowers on his desk and paused to look at the blood that was brought out of the wound. 

Slade stopped talking for a few minutes while the pain stung Dick.

When the pain eventually subsided, Slade was talking again.

Dick grabbed a piece of glass and swiped his right wrist.

Slade was quiet.

The pain was gone all too soon and Slade was talking again. 

Richard dug the shard of glass into his right arm this time, trying to make the pain last longer. 

Only to make Slade shut up longer. 

He needed it.

He needed Slade to be quiet. 

He needed Slade to go away. 

What if Dick went away?

Then Slade would leave too.

This time, Richard dragged the jagged piece of glass down the length of his right arm. 

Silence.

Pure bliss.

Richard quickly dragged the glass down his left arm. 

He was about to pull up his pant legs to get to his legs when the door was kicked down by Black Canary and Martian ManHunter. 

Canary immediately grabbed the piece of glass from him. 

"NO! GIVE IT BACK!" Richard screamed, making grabs for the glass, trying whatever he could to get to it. Even if it meant hurting Black Canary. 

"Sorry, Dickie." Canary said just as Martian ManHunter put his hands around Dick's head. 

Dick froze as he was pulled into unconsciousness. 

His body was caught by J'onn. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"MOVE!" Black Canary screamed as she and J'onn ran an unconscious and bloody Nightwing to the Watch Tower's medical bay. 

Will, the doctor, immediately went to the bed they put him on. (*1)

"What happened?" Will asked, as he took off his stethoscope and listened to Richard's heartbeat.

"He was cutting himself with a piece of glass." Canary said.

Will went to work immediately. 

"We should discuss what is going on if Will does not need us." Martian ManHunter said. 

"You're good to go." Will nodded. 

He had everything handled here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"He was having hallucinations of Slade." J'onn said. 

"What? How is he getting worse?" Canary asked.

"I saw that it started with the outfits. He could hear everyone laughing at him and the other heroes whispering behind his back. That triggered it. He started feeling bad and then Slade started to pop up as a voice, then as a semi-physical being." ManHunter said. 

"So, is this a suicide attempt?" Dinah asked. 

"He did realize that if he was to get rid of Slade, he had to get rid of himself. He only did that because he wanted Slade gone though. I believe it was, even if it wasn't completely all of him. He did try to get rid of himself though." Martian ManHunter said.  

"What do I do? Put him on stronger medicine and put him through more therapy?" Black Canary asked.  

"I believe that would be best. However, I would like to request that I have a day of therapy with him each week. I will be able to delve deeper and see and understand what he has gone through." J'onn said. 

Black Canary nodded, "Alright. I'll tell Bruce."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"J'onn and I both believe it would be best to have Richard take more therapy sessions and to up his dosage in his medicine." Black Canary told Bruce. 

"How often?" Bruce asked. 

"Every other day, with the exception of weekends. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. J'onn will be doing a deep mind therapy on Wednesdays." Dinah said.   

Bruce nodded, "And this will help him?" 

"It should. If not, then we may need to be looking into a different therapy option." Canary said.

"Different therapy option?" Bruce asked wearily. 

"Bruce, maybe he will get the best help in a facility that can offer him the care that I can't." Dinah said. 

"You mean the loony bin. A psychiatric care facility." Bruce said. 

"They could help. More than I could." Dinah said. 

"No. I won't do that to him." Bruce shook his head, "You said yourself, that he needed to control his life. He needed to know that he was safe again." 

"He does need that. But you're the one that apparently hasn't understood that. I heard about you trying to get him to change costumes when he wasn't ready. When you tried to get him to work for your company. Bruce, he needs to figure this all out for himself." Canary said. 

"And a fat load of good that's done! He's now lying in a hospital bed, with his wrists slit open!" Bruce's voice raised. 

"What do you want then? You want to put a padded room in your house where you can keep Richard for the rest of his life? Is that what you want?!" Dinah yelled, "I'm trying to help him so that it doesn't come down to that! And he's going to have bumps over this road! It's inevitable! Slade fucked with his mind more than we originally thought! Bruce, just let us help him!" Black Canary was in near tears. 

Bruce's jaw tightened. 

"Help him. I don't want to have to put him in an institution or padded room." Bruce said. 

"Neither do we. We'll help him Bruce. He WILL get better. It just takes time." Dinah gave a shaky smile. 

*1= Will Quartz is one of my OC's that I've put in the DC Universe because they need a full-time medical doctor in the Medical Bay.