Anonymous asked: "Please... please just wake up. We-I need you."
"You can save him, right?" Damian demands the moment Father walks back into the Cave. Richard is lying on his side on the medical cot, face pale, eyes closed, and breathing labored. Pennyworth works over Richard's wound, but his face is grim. Hurt had said twelve hours until permanent damage, and it's already been far longer than Damian would have hoped.
But with Father back, maybe they have a chance. A chance to save Richard from the fate Hurt hoped to give him.
Father frowns. "I've called the top neurosurgeon in the world, and she's on her way. She'll save Dick."
He doesn't sound convinced, and if Damian hadn't been so focused on the sudden hitch in Richard's breathing, he would have called his Father out on it. As it is, though, Richard's face tenses in pain, and then Pennyworth and Father are both bursting into action taking vitals, attaching needles monitors.
And Damian? Well, he can only sit here and watch as his Batman slowly dies right in front of his eyes. He hopes that neurosurgeon gets here soon. He will not let Richard die. Not on his watch.
Damian's tucked into the corner of the sofa in Father's study feeling more than a bit out of place. They don't live in the manor anymore, and it's rare that they even set foot in the place, let alone his Father's study. Damian feels like an intruder, like an extra shoe without a match, and it's an odd feeling Damian's not sure how to deal with.
What he does know, however, is that he'd much rather be at the penthouse, where things are familiar and he feels like he belongs.
That's the other thing that's been bothering him.
Is that Damian in a Robin costume?
His father hadn't trusted him before he'd been lost to time. It had been Richard who had taken him in and given him a second chance. Who had trusted him and given him a home without Damian realizing it before now. He'd felt comfortable with Richard. Maybe even happy.
But with Richard unconscious and his father back? Everything is almost back to the way that it been before Father had left.
Almost.
Damian is different, though. He's not the same assassin who had come to Gotham looking for a chance to know his father and understand his crusade. He's the Robin to Richard's Batman. And now without Richard, who is he supposed to be.
His father doesn't trust him. That much is obvious. And Damian doesn't know how to feel like the world makes sense again. He doesn't know his father. Not enough to trust him like he trusts Richard, and it's putting Damian on edge. If only Richard could just wake up and get better. If only Damian had prevented Richard from getting shot in the first place.
Maybe things wouldn't feel so out of place.
"Master Damian?" Pennyworth says, calling Damian's attention back to the present world. He looks grim, but his expression isn't tinged with grief. Not like when he would talk about Father with Richard before. Damian thinks it's safe to assume that for the moment, Richard is alive. "Master Bruce wishes to see you."
Damian doesn't move. "Did Father say what he wants?"
"I think he wants to hear about your adventures," Pennyworth tells him, a sad smile on his face. "Seeing as Master Dick is still in surgery, he's not able to give a summary as to how the two of you came to be Batman and Robin."
"I see," says Damian. He still doesn't move.
"Should I tell him you're sleeping then?" Pennyworth wonders, understanding dawning in his eyes, and if it's possibly, his expression grows even sadder.
Damian nods. "Yes. Tell Father I'm resting. I will talk to him later."
Later. When he doesn't feel so out of place.
"Get out!" Damian shouts before he can stop himself, stomping into his brother's bedroom. That expression on Father's face is infuriating. He's gripping Richard's hand gently, like just holding it will break the strongest man Damian has ever known. But it won't. Richard isn't dead. He's not dying. And Damian can't stop the rage from slipping through the cracks and directing it onto his Father. "Leave him!"
"Master Damian," Pennyworth chastises from the doorway that Damian had just come through, but he still sounds impossibly sad and Damian doesn't have the time for pity.
Father lets Richard's hand slip through his fingers and he stands up from the chair next to Richard's bedside. He looks like he's at a damn funeral and Damian is having none of it.
"Damian," Father greets, but there's a frown on his face. "You're awake."
"Get. Out." Damian's voice is pure venom. He's angry. "Quit looking at him as if he's about to slip away and die like a weakling and leave. Now."
Father stares at him for a moment and Damian meets his gaze evenly. He won't back down. This is Richard Grayson, and if Father believes that Richard is going to die when they both know the surgery had gone well and Richard is expected to make a full recovery, then Damian will do his best to keep his father's despair away from Richard's hope.
"I'll be back in a few hours," Father says, and then he's gone. It's just Damian and Pennyworth and Richard, and Damian deflates and collapses in Father's abandoned chair.
"I'll fetch your sketchbook," Pennyworth says, and then he's gone, too.
And Damian takes in the moment of quiet. Where only Richard's deep breaths seem to pierce the silence, and it's enough to keep Damian satisfied that he's right. That Richard is alive and on his way to recovery. The only thing is—
"Please," Damian whispers into the air. "Please wake up, Richard. We—" Damian cuts himself off, though. Because it may be we, as in him and Father and Pennyworth, but Damian still feels too out of place without Richard awake and here by his side to see we as anything more than him and Richard. Batman and Robin. "I need you, Richard. Please."
But Richard doesn't wake up, and Damian sighs, leans back in the chair, and thinks that if Richard can endure getting shot in the head, Damian can suffer through the time it takes until Richard awakens.
After all, he's Robin. If he can handle Pyg, Hurt, and the Joker, he can handle feeling out of place in his own family. He's done it before and he can do it again.
Just until Richard's awake.