Hurt/Comfort – "Screen"
Dick held his breath. He waited, as the seconds dragged on, turning into minutes, hours, but he didn't move from his place.
Bruce's chair was comfy, he wouldn't have wanted to move anyway, but now he had to stay by the BatComputer, as he had dubbed it many years ago.
So he waited.
He knew he could re-route any signals so that they'd be intercepted before they reached it and transferred to his glove, so he could move, but he didn't. He knew he should've answered Alfred when he came to check up on him. He knew he could call Wally for support, or Roy, or the entire team and the League, but he didn't. He just sat there, eyes glued to the screen, willing it to give him some ethereal sign his partner -his father- was okay.
He would've jumped out of his comfy seat, donned his cape and cowl and been out searching the streets of Gotham within seconds of receiving the message had it not been for both his broken leg and fractured forearm, the result of a fight gone wrong with Two-Face, and Alfred.
Whatever the Joker had planned, he wouldn't actually kill Batman, would he? Wouldn't he miss his nemesis, or something? That didn't mean he wouldn't hurt Batman, though.
Although he was almost positive at least someone in the League heard or seen Joker's message, he wanted to check, to know what was going on, to help if he could.
He finally moved, reaching for the screen's controls, he pulled up a map displaying all of the League and team members' locations. The team were, as expected, all at the mountain, their red dots clustered at Happy Harbor.
Some of the League weren't on the lateral map, probably at the Watchtower, but many were. One or two were in their various cities, but several were in Gotham. Robin sighed in relief as he zoomed in. They were spread out, obviously searching the city, one of the signals was moving much faster than the others, and he knew Flash was here. Another would hover in one place, then shoot to a position a few blocks away and hover there, till it sped to the next one. Robin smiled at Superman's search method: using his x-ray vision would make things a lot easier. The other dots just slowly made their way around Gotham, making them indistinguishable.
Robin frowned, frustrated, as he watched. The Leaguers were looking in all the wrong places! They didn't know Gotham like Batman and Robin did, and they were wasting time.
He stared at the screen, desperately willing the dots to converge and find Batman, when a voice pulled him from his thoughts.
"Master Richard, are you alright?" Dick turned his head slightly to Alfred standing with a tray full of cookies, presumably for him.
"He- I- They- They're doing it all wrong!" Dick spluttered angrily, gesturing at the Dots on the screen, "Batman's in trouble and they're wasting time looking in the stupidest places! They're meant to save him, not leave him with- with-" Hot, angry tears threatened to spill over and Robin buried his face in his hands.
"It's my fault: if I hadn't been so stupid last night I'd be out there with him and Joker wouldn't have him."
Alfred, cookies aside, enveloped the boy in a hug he so desperately needed right now.
"Master Dick, you shouldn't blame yourself. Had you been with him, I believe he would've spent more time worrying about you than concentrating on the task at hand. Master Clark and the others will find him, no matter how long it takes, he'll be alright."
Dick nodded slowly, still in Alfred's embrace. The butler and the boy sat for a while like that, the screen staring blankly back at them, taunting them with the scattered dots.
Then they waited, eyes glued to the screen, staring at the red dots that were moving like a colony of ants around Gotham. They waited, for the League, for Joker, for Batman. They waited for a sign, for anything, to appear on that screen.
(A/N) I recently went on a challenge spree after discovering the forum, so this is the first of many drabbles to come (hopefully), and writing this has been really fun!
For anyone who's reading my other story, Hidden Angel, I'm really sorry about my lack of updates, but I was stuck for ideas for AGES, but the next five chapters are in the works.
Review please!
~SakuraTenshi~