There was a sharp knock at the front door, and Lily, who had been lounging on the couch in her pajamas, couldn't help but frown, it was late at night and she lived in a bad neighbourhood. Fear fueling her actions, she tossed off a pile of dense blankets that she'd been buried under, moving with a practiced ease and familiarity around her old beaten up couch. Roughly pulling on a turtle-neck sweater from where it had been neatly placed on a rickety kitchen chair, and moved towards the door. Pausing a moment to pick up a metal bat that stood in her umbrella holder. There was another impatient knock, this time accompanied by a strained, but recognisable voice, "Lily"!
"I'm coming." Lily called back dropping the bat with relief, hastily running her fingers down the scratched and peeling chipboard, unfastening the numerous locks, which almost seemed to be holding the weathered door from falling off its hinges. A smile spread so wide across Lily's face, that her already split lip reopened, she winced and turned the door handle, practically throwing herself at her oldest and dearest friend, Robin.
There was a moment of confusion, as Lily realised that Robin was not alone, one of his arms extended out to hold up the figure of a heavily slumping man. All the same, his free limb pulled her into a brief but tight embrace, for a moment, his forehead coming down to rest on her shoulders, as if he barely had the energy to keep his head up. Lily's eyes widened, as taking a deep breath in, her sharp senses were filled with a tangy iron smell, and pulling her cheek away from Robin, she realised it came away moist with his blood.
"Robin?", Lily gasped in question. Grunting from the effort of supporting the weight of the other man, Robin asked "Lily, I need your help. We need your help." Without hesitating, Lily whispered "Of course", her eyes widening in stunned surprise.
"Can you?" He asked without needing to clarify, readjusted his hold on the tall man, his free hand reaching out to squeeze lightly on Lily's upper arm. She nodded, as if being shaken out of her daze, and moved around to the other side of the man, picking up his slack, thickly muscled arm, and draped it across her shoulders.
"Is he…" Lily began to ask if the man was unconscious, but a deep groan interrupted and answered her question. Whoever he was, he was still conscious, but it was obvious from the way his legs attempted and failed to keep him standing upright, and the strong odour of blood coming from the man, that he was in a bad way.
Robin and Lily worked together to pull the man over the threshold, and over to her couch, Lily immediately going over to a draw in her kitchen to pull out her extensive first-aid kit, and brought it back around to Robin, who knelt exhausted next to the stranger. Her mind racing ahead of her, she went back into the kitchen, picking up her land line, dialling in 911, but paused before pressing call, as a deep, gravely voice, every word sounding painful, said "Don't. Don't call anyone." The voice was unfamiliar and ruff, and so low that it sounded almost garbled.
Frowning in confusion and dismissal, Lily stated the obvious, "You need help, I'm calling an ambulance" and hit the call button.
This time it was Robin who spoke, his voice sharp with urgency, "No you can't. You can't call anyone." There was a tense pause, Lily uncertain what to do, but repeated "He needs serious help." Robin nodded, "I know, I've already called someone. They're on their way here now."
The phone's dial tone ended, and a recorded female voice answered "Hello this is Gotham's emergency department, do you need Police, Fire or Ambulance." Lily debated her options, sighed, and lowering the phone hung-up. "Now what?" She asked somewhat defensively, her disapproval clear in her voice.
"Now you can help me stop the bleeding." Robin answered, relief evident in his usually soothing voice.
Lily gritted her teeth, but obligingly moved back over to the couch. Kneeling down next to Robin, her hands coming out to feel the man's chest, her eyebrows shot up in surprise, as she felt the hard, sculpted armour covering the man from head to foot. Robin remained silent, gauging her reaction and clearly waiting for her directions. "Right, first things first, we need to get this armour, or whatever it is, off him so that we actually get to his wounds."
Robin nodded, muttering something in agreement under his breath. He moved to unfasten the buckles near the man's upper chest, while Lily clumsily felt along the sides of the mystery man's abdomen, pulling apart a buckle on either side. "Ok" Robin said, his voice returning to its usual tone, as he pulled off the large kevlin breast piece and then leaned across to pull off the abdomen piece as well.
"Can you find me the hand sterilizer, it should be in the kit's front pocket." Lily expectantly asked Robin, her fingers impatiently tapping on her thighs, as she sat back on her legs, chewing her lip. She heard Robin unzip the bag, rummage around for a second, and pull out the container. Without waiting for his question, Lily firmly told him to lather his hands in the stuff, and after he was done, she did the same. Skimming over the man's skin with the palm of her hand, she vaguely noted that the man, whoever he was, was well-built, very well built by the feel of his deltoids, and amended her thoughts, to picturing the man as all muscle and brawn. Her fingers nimbly identified that he had three abrasions, the longest being around the size of a pencil.
"How deep are those cuts?" Lily asked, her voice all control and experience. Robin hesitated with his answer, and Lily clarified, "Can you see any bone, organs or cartilage?"
Robin responding quickly with a "No", adding that he thought that they weren't deep so much as long.
Lily nodded, relieved to hear his answer; shallow cuts she knew that she could deal with, it was a matter of stopping the bleeding, and bringing the edges of the cuts together, but if it had been deeper, he might have had damage to any number of organs, which she was no where near prepared for. Whatever that armour was made of, it had probably taken most of the weapon's impact.
"We need to stop the bleeding, we don't want him going into hypovolemic shock." She said, to herself or Robin she wasn't sure.
Picking up the antibacterial that Robin had earlier placed on the coffee table, her fingers so slick with blood she almost dropped the bottle, she spoke directly to the man collapsed on her couch, "This is gonna burn like hell." Squirting a large portion onto the centre of his chest, she smeared the gel across his chest, not stopping even when he hissed through his teeth, and made a point to rub the liquid into the cut's edges, to try to kill any bacteria left by whatever had stabbed him.
Working quickly, she instructed Robin how to put pressure on the man's injuries to slow the bleeding, as she began taping and stitching the man's wounds together, her hands working back and forth with practiced ease. Robin watched her, his dark brown eyes steadily taking in the determined line of Lily's angular jaw, and felt a small amount of pride well up as he noted her evident skill and calm demeanor. Lily finished placing the last bandage patch on his third cut, and let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in for the last half hour.
Covering her hands once again with the antibacterial, she tiredly asked, "I didn't think to ask before, does he have any other injuries."
"I think he might have" Robin paused in hesitance, then his face changed to a sad, almost rueful look, and then continued "Uhm, one on the back of his head. When he fell I think he might have hit it."
Lily sucked in a breath, knowing that at the very least he might have a concussion, and at the worst brain injuries. "We need to check that his pupils are responsive to light. There should be a torch, possibly in one of my kitchen drawers. I don't know exactly, I don't really use them anymore." Robin stood up and began opening drawers and cupboards in Lily's kitchen.
Lily leant forwards, hands finding the man's wide set shoulders, trailing them up his neck, and said "I'm just going to check your skull and face for any signs of bruising or cuts." Her fingers reached his chin and then faltered, as along the bridge of his cheeks and nose, she felt a stiff material that followed the curve of his head and face. She suddenly understood. Surprised, shocked and confused. The strange armour, the stab wounds and the voice had somehow seemed familiar, a person or story niggling at the back of her mind, just out of reach of her conscious grasp. Then the mask, because that was surely what it was, like the last piece in a jigsaw puzzle, made realization hit like a stack of bricks. Her mouth fell open, and the knowledge of who this man was, what this man was, made her gasp. A cold shiver running up her back, she swallowed, and deciding that however he got there, and whoever he was, no matter how bizarre and incredulous it was, he still might have brain injuries; and no one would be very pleased if they found out that Gotham's vigilante had been made a vegetable because she was in too much shock to prevent anything.
Gingerly sliding her fingers under the graphite, she began to pull the mask off his face, when she yelped in surprise, her shock getting the better of her, as Batman's hand, quick as a whip, had clamped on her hand and with an iron grip stopped her from moving. "I…" She stammered, not knowing the right thing to say, and still wondering at the amount of strength and speed he possessed in those lighting reflexes, amazed that was even possible after whatever beating he'd just taken.
"Don't." He growled for the second time that evening, exhaustion creeping into his voice, even if his grip on her hand never faltered.
Robin had strode into the lounge a torch held in his hand, concerned when he had heard Lily's shout of alarm. He swept his eyes over the situation, and kneeling down next to Lily, growled in a warning tone, "That's not necessary." Reaching up and breaking Batman's now slack grip on Lily.
Lily protectively cradled her arm in her lap, more out of unease than pain, swallowing again, her mouth suddenly dry.
"She was about to take of …" Batman began, in a low, tense voice. Robin cut him off. "I know, and it doesn't matter."
By the hitch in his breath, Lily could tell Batman was about to say something else, but Robin interjected again.
"Lily is blind. She has been for the last 7 years." Robin's voice was dry, without humour.
There was a tense moment of silence, and Lily wished for a moment she could see their warring faces; an unspoken conversation clearly taking place between them.
Batman was the first to speak. "Go ahead." He said calmly. Lily noted that there was no hint of sympathy for her, or embarrassment in his voice, and she was fiercely glad. She hated it when people acted strangely around her; her life was already difficult enough without having to tip-toe around someone else's feelings, about her own problems.
Taking that as a sign of permission, she leant forward again, pulling the mask swiftly off Batman's face, and mocked gasped, saying "So that's who you are." Robin's head swiveled around in surprise, and batman inhaled sharply through his teeth. Lily smirked, and laughter in her voice said, "Relax, I kid. I really am blind." Robin huffed out a small laugh, and she felt rather than heard Batman let out his breath, as it ruffled the loose strands of hair hanging around her face.
Lily smiled to herself, still amused by her own joke, and Robin said, "I can't see any bruising or cuts on his face. He must have hit it at the back." Lily nodded in recognition, and said "Thanks". Moving her hands around to the back of Batman's head, her fingers skimmed over the tips of his ears, and she began moving her fingers through his thick locks, as she combed back and forth, feeling for any protrusions; with or without sight, it was the best way to find and judge the extent of his injury through his abundance of hair.
Lily hummed, and humour returning to her voice again, said "So it's not true then. You don't just wear the mask and cowl to hide your balding head." This time Robin did laugh aloud, as he flickered the torch over Batman's eyes.
Robin spoke abruptly, "I think you have a conscious." He directed his comment to Batman.
Lily was about to speak, but then was interrupted by a smart rap on the door, and she tilted her head to listen. Robin stood up and moved to open the door, an older sounding, english accented man said "Good-evening. I presume then that I have found the correct apartment this time."
"Sure have." Robin answered, "He's on the couch." The two men walked over to the couch, and there must have been some acknowledgement or recognition pass between the three of them that Lily couldn't see, because the older man pulled out something from a bag he had brought in, and said, "'Ere take this. Its for the pain."
Batman began to talk, but the older man spoke over him in an admonishing tone, "If we're going to move you so we can get you home and fix you up proper, we can't have you making any noises cause you're in pain. I don't know how you managed to get him up two flights of stairs in the first place." He said the last part to Robin.
"It wasn't easy, let me tell you." Robin said, leaning heavily against one of the lounge walls.
Lily licked her now dried lips, and tasted blood, her own she hoped, and said, "He's got a conscion, and a nasty bruise on his head, he'll need to be watched to make sure he doesn't go to sleep, so I hope that painkiller doesn't have any sedative effects."
The older man must have looked around in confusion, as if for the first time noticing Lily. Robin supplied, "This is my good friend Lily Thorn. Lily, this is…" he paused, and then said lamely, "My good friends." Lily smiled anyway, and held out a hand in mid-air.
When the older man took her blood sticky hand, it was with a firm warmth and kindness, even though that sounded like a strange things to summarise about a handshake. "It's my pleasure to meet you." He said.
Lily, clearing her throat said, "You should get Batman back to his, well wherever you're going to take him. His blood pressure has probably stabilised now, but his body won't be able to keep that up for very long. He needs some kind of transfusion within the next hour, sooner if possible." Even though Batman probably looked like he was fine, Lily could tell by the way he breathed, or tried not to breath, that he wasn't all right, but was putting on a good show for the other two.
Spurred on by Lily's words, Robin and the older man carefully maneuvered Batman off the couch, and between the two of them, which must have been no easy feet, judging by their grunting and Batman's impressive physique.
Robin cleared his throat, suddenly nervous "Thank you Lily. I'll see you soon." And he and the older man left, moving clumsily down the flight of stair outside Lily's apartment, and into whatever vehicle the older man had arrived in. Lily waited until she heard them leave, before closing the door. She took a deep breath in, and sighed heavily, resting her head on the door frame. That, she thought, was unexpected.