The sound of a gun went off. That's when the fog in his vision started to clear. His crystal blue eyes watched in horror as a bullet flew out of the pistol in his hand hitting his best friend's father in the chest. He watched as the Commissioner stared through his mask into his deep blue eyes while falling to his knees. The son of the dark knight was stunned. The gun fell from his shaking hands. What had he just done. He could hear his best friend calling out to the man now on the ground. He could hear how her voice cracked with each syllable. What did he just do…
Author Note: I hope you guys like this one-shot! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or Batman.
The sound of a gun went off. Everything was in smoke. All the buildings were up in flames. This was the deeper part of Gotham that most people tried to avoid. The cry of a girl calling to her father could barely be discerned. The sound of a thud was heard as the man being called to fell to his knees, in shock staring at the person who shot him. The cry was heard again, as a redheaded young woman ran as fast as her athletic, muscular legs could carry her. The Commissioner's vision started to blur as he fell onto the hard, cold, roughly paved grounds.
"Daddy! Please, god, no!" Barbara Gordon rushed towards the scene and fell to her knees. "Daddy?!" Tears started overflowing from her eyes. She tried to carefully gather the man on the ground into her arms, though she knew it was dangerous to move someone in this situation. The redhead just couldn't help herself. The only daughter stared down at her loving father's stiff figure and watched as blood slowly started soaking through his button down shirt close to his heart. "God please…" Barbara could not control her tears as she tried to figure out a way to help her bleeding father. She clumsily tried to stop the crimson color, but it wouldn't work. Through blurred eyes, the girl placed her forehead on her father's, "please daddy, don't leave…" She could hear the sounds of her own breathing, and the slowing sound of her father's breath.
"Barbara…" Barbara's head shot up as she looked at the man who shot her father. He was stumbling towards her, trying to find the right words to tell her, motioning with his hands.
"No! Stay back!" She yelled harshly towards him. He could see her form shaking from fear and worry. The pair in front of him were back lit by all the flames and explosions going off from all around. This was the first time that he realized how small she actually looked. He stared at the two who were on the ground. His best friend was silently crying, holding on to her father. The circus boy knew the pain of watching a loved one be taken away. He could feel the painful shattering of his heart over and over again.
"Babs, please, I…" Nightwing had managed to get arms length away from the father and daughter. The redhead had make-up cascading down her face left behind by the tears that continued to flow.
"No! You've done enough!" Barbara looked towards her best friend, and weakly pushed his hands away. It's not his fault Barb, you know that.
"Babs…" The girl kept shaking her head, causing the man's sentence to fall. His mind was under someone else's control. It's not on him. Sirens could be heard in the distance, catching their attentions, getting closer by the second. She could hear the sound of her best friend's breathing and him slowly taking steps away from her before they began to disappear, faster, from the scene.
Come on Barb, you know it's not his fault. It was as if she could hear her father's voice in her head. It was her voice of reason.
"But, daddy…?" She whispered as more tears started to seep over. The sirens were getting nearer. While hugging her father and staring at the dark, clouded sky, she counted off three cop cars and an ambulance, with more on the way. They would be there in less than three minutes. The redhead looked down at her father, sniffling, keeping her hand over the bullet wound, and then looked off to where her childhood friend had run off to. The young female felt at a total loss, even with the voice of reason that usually saved her from situations like these.
"Barbara…" It took a second before Barbara realized that the voice wasn't from her mind. The girl being called quickly turned her head to face her father, almost getting whiplash from the motion.
"Daddy…! You're going to be okay, things are going to be alright. The ambulance is almost here…" The distraught redhead knew that every day her father went out, he may not come back.
"Barb…" The girl quieted down from her blathering as she tried to hear her father's lowered, broken voice while attentively looking at the man in her arms.
"I'm here, daddy."
"Barb…" he tried again. "You…" he coughed. Tears started escaping the female's eyes again. "You need to go to him." Barbara weakly furrowed her brows.
"What… what do you mean?" The girl watched as her father tried to say more, but the stress on him was getting to be too much. His eyelids started to droop to a close, but managed to stay open. "Daddy. Come on, daddy. You have to stay awake for just a few more minutes." Somehow Barbara managed to say this without bursting into more tears. "The ambulance is almost here." She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight.
"Control."
Barbara leaned in to hear what else her father was trying to tell her. "Control?"
"Nightwing… Mind… control… Find him…" The ambulance and cop cars pulled in, stopping behind the two on the ground. Paramedics rushed out from the back of the ambulance, grabbing a stretcher.
"Dad, what do you mean find him? How can I…?" The commissioner raised one eyebrow in response. Even in times like these, he can still be a know-it-all father. "And, what about you?" Her father gave a small smile in response. "Daddy…" Barbara's eyes widened, "please! My dad! He's been shot in the chest!" The EMTs rushed towards the two with the wheeled bed rolling behind. Barbara reluctantly let go of her father, as the paramedics lifted him onto the stretcher.
"Sir, I'm going to need you to answer a few questions, can you talk?" The little girl watched as a female paramedic started talking to her father while the medical team started wheeling him away. "Commissioner, can you tell me what's going on?"
"You're his daughter right?" Barbara turned her head away from her father towards another paramedic. She nodded in response, still in shock. "Are you hurt anywhere?" The girl in question shook her head as the paramedic started checking her arms. "Okay, then listen. We are going to take your dad to the Gotham General Hospital, okay?" She nodded her head again.
"Can I go with him?" The redhead asked as she looked at her father being lifted into the back of the ambulance. Before he disappeared completely, Barbara watched as her father mouthed one word to her. Go. It's only two letters. Two simple letters that have a huge meaning behind it.
"Don't worry, I'll take her to the hospital." The paramedic and girl looked to the officer who had just spoken.
"Detective Bullock?" The paramedic nodded and rushed to help his team after being sure that Barbara really was okay.
"Your father told me he would take the day off." Bullock shook his head and rubbed the nape of his neck while looking at the redhead next to him. "Don't worry Barbara, he's a strong man." Go.
Barbara moved her head up and down in acknowledgement, "I know…" The detective gave a small smile and placed a hand on her shoulder. He then moved his hand to the device in his chest pocket.
"Commissioner Gordon has been found. He is wounded, I repeat, he is wounded. Set the parameters out by 20 blocks." The daughter kept her eyes on the disappearing vehicle that her father was in. "We are not going to let whoever did this escape." The static of the walky talky caused Barbara to look at the man giving instructions. The man put one hand in his pocket and motioned with the other. "Did you see anything suspicious while with your father?"
Barbara was quick to answer, "No. I saw my dad go this way, and then I heard the gunshot." The lie was so easy to tell. "But how did you know he was here?"
"We got an anonymous tip," Bullock let out a sigh. "I can't take you to the hospital, but I'll get one of the other officers…"
"No," she cut him off, "it's okay. We took our car here, I'll just drive." Go.
Bullock lifted one eyebrow, "are you sure you can drive in this state?" The girl blinked before responding.
"Yea, I'll be fine, don't worry about me." The officer frowned.
"Okay, but if you need anything, you know how to contact us." Barbara nodded and crossed her arms over her stomach. Bullock was about to say more, but was distracted by another officer over the radio. "Great, I gotta go Barbara, but if you need anything. Let us know. Now get out of here before you get caught up in anymore of this." The distraught redhead didn't say anymore as the cop cars left the vicinity.
Barbara let out a sigh, "it really isn't safe for me to be here like this." She looked off to where the cars had left. "Dad… please be okay."
Don't let him get too far. His mind is still in the clouds, Barb. He needs someone to pull him back down to earth.
We do what we do best, Barb, we save people. I was a little girl when my dad first told me that. It was from one of the first times that I actually got to visit the police department.
Barbara Gordon knew exactly where she would find Richard Grayson. It seemed so obvious to Batgirl, that she wondered if he would actually be there. Her questionable thoughts were answered as she silently landed on the Gotham City Police Department. There, a few feet in front of her, sat the man who had shot her father. Barbara could feel her heart tug as she watched the sulking bird. She watched as he sat there staring at his hands where the vile instrument stood.
Guns. Those small little things could kill in a single motion. Nightwing never thought he would ever hold one, at least not during his night job, especially pointing it at someone he cared for.
"You shouldn't be here."
"Neither should you." Batgirl walked over the empty roof and sat on the ledge beside her childhood friend.
The infamous duo sat in silence. For some reason, on this side of Gotham, it seemed awfully quiet. Of course there were the occasional cop cars and ambulances, but they didn't seem to stand out to the two.
The redhead, still in her bloodied clothes, shivered and crossed her arms over herself as she looked off into the skyline of her birth city. The atmosphere around the couple seemed to drop by the second. The girl turned her head to look at the person next to her. His hair was a complete mess, dry blood was caked across his cheek, and his uniform had been shot at and slashed through. Slowly, Barbara let her head rest on his shoulder.
"Stop."
"Stop what?"
Batgirl inhaled Gotham's air before continuing, "blaming yourself."
"How do you always know what I'm thinking?" Dick let his head fall on top of Barbara's. Silence came back as the man got lost in his self absorbing thoughts. His mind is still in the clouds, Barb. Batgirl placed a hand on Nightwing's leg that was dangling over the edge.
"It wasn't your fault."
"It wasn't my fault…?" He sounded desperate, wishing it was true.
"It wasn't."
"How could you say such a thing? You saw me Babs. You saw me with a gun in my hands pointing towards the commissioner. I shot your dad, Babs. How the hell is that not my fault?" He wanted to shout it to the world, but he felt drained of energy. He needs someone to pull him back down to earth.
Barbara gently placed her hand on Dick's leg to comfort him. "That wasn't you."
"Are you freaking kidding me?" He let out a weak laugh, "you saw the gun in my hand."
The female shook her head against his shoulder. "It may have been your body, but it wasn't your mind. You didn't have the intentions to hurt anyone. I know that. He knows that."
"My body is me, Babs. How could I be so stupid? I should be able to handle mind control."
"Sometimes, the stress of the time is too much." Dick moved his hand to catch Barbara's, and let out a sigh.
"Bruce, is gonna kill me." The two sat in silence again, however it felt much warmer than before. "But, still," the dark haired man let his hair fall in front of his eyes, "I'm so sorry." How could a word like 'sorry' amount to anything. It's just five letters. But then again, how could the two letter word 'go' be so motivational?
Nightwing felt drained from all the events that had just occurred. He wasn't in the mood to do anything. "Babs, why? Why do we do this everyday? Why do we go out, knowing we may not come back?" Dick gave Barbara's hand a gentle squeeze.
"Because it's what we do best Dick. We save people."
"Sounds like something your dad would say." Barbara gave a light chuckle. "Speaking of which," the dark knight's son winced, "how is the commissioner?"
It was the redhead's turn to let out a sigh. "He'll be fine. The doctors said that if he wasn't wearing his bulletproof vest, well, bluntly saying it, he wouldn't be with us."
The female could feel the male nod, before he pulled away from her. "Wait." Barbara gave the man a questioning look, waiting for what he had to say. "You mean your dad did have his bulletproof vest? That he was going to be okay from the start?"
Barbara shrugged, "In times of high risk, especially if it involves someone you care about, we tend to forget about all the little details around. I guess we both forgot, but he usually never leaves the house without it." The female gave a dry laugh, which the former boy wonder joined in, glad that things were looking for the better. After it died down, the girl rested her head along the boy's shoulder again.
"You know what's interesting though?"
"Hmm?"
"Daddy told me to come find Nightwing, as if knowing I would know where he would be."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Makes me wonder if dad actually knows who we are or not."
"It wouldn't surprise me, he is a detective after all." Barbara nodded her head as she looked above the skyline and smoke at the stars.
That's my girl.
Author's Note: Happy Birthday Barbara Gordon! I've been thinking about this one-shot for a while now, and I figured it would be best to post it on her Birthday (well according to the sources I have looked up, it is today). I hope you guys enjoyed it! Let me know what you thought of it!