I'm surprised people actually liked this. This is kind of based off of 'Haunted', an episode of Teen Titans. I edited it though, and instead of Slade, we get Zucco. And no girl left sobbing in the rain. Maybe a certain redhead, but no Starfire.
Bruce sighed softly, setting his large hand over the small and delicate fingers of his ward. He didn't hold the boy's hand. He just protected it.
"How long until we know he's okay?" he asked, his voice a tad bit more gravelly than usual.
The doctor before him pushed up his glasses higher on his nose.
"Well sir, it'll take 3 more hours or so for the toxicology screen to come in, and until we know what attacked him, we can't prescribe anything or do any surgeries of a sort. And even when we do know, we have to wait for him to wake up. We need to ask him a few questions," the doctor said, his balding head gleaming in the buzzing light.
Bruce said nothing for a second, either gathering the strength to speak or fighting the urge to shove a batarang up the man's ass for a response like that. When he spoke, it was obvious that he hesitated for the second reason.
"You have nothing to question," Bruce seethed, "We were chasing after an intruder and he got shot with a dart. What other questions could you have?"
His eyes scanned over his ward slowly. Richard's black hair was messy and unfit, just the way that he had always liked it. His eyelids were closed delicately, his blue eyes disco-dancing teasingly beneath them. His lips were still, not a ghost of anything to them. His chest rise and fell a bit too slowly for the Caped Crusader's liking, but the heart monitor showed that he was well alive, but his breathing rate showed that he wasn't waking up any time soon. Bruce forced his fingers around the boy's pale hand, holding it cautiously while leaving his right hand free to shoot the doctor or any intruder that might come in to even attempt to injure his ward.
"Mr. Wayne, I'm not your enemy here. It's just, his file says he's your ward and I figured you wouldn't know all that much about hi-…"
"You figured wrong," Bruce cut him off, swallowing hard. "What do you need to know to save him?"
The doctor pulled up a chart, looking down over his glasses, reading for a moment.
"Any allergies?" he inquired, pulling a pen from his pocket and poising it on the paper.
"Peanuts and barbituric acid," Bruce said calmly without batting an eyelid.
The doctor flinched. "Barbituric acid?"
Bruce nodded, sighing in irritance. "Yes, barbituric acid. Not too long ago, it was used in mild sedation and anesthetics."
The doctor suspiciously nodded. "Alright um… has he had any illnesses lately?"
Bruce thought hard for a moment.
"He caught a small little cold six months ago, but it was just a little cold. He had nothing more than a fever of 100 and a runny nose," he decided.
The doctor jotted that down swiftly, his eyes scanning.
"Has he been taking any medications lately?"
Bruce nodded off the bat before stopping to think of all the names.
"Ibuprofen, Tylenol… a couple different brands of sleeping pills like Benadryl and Nytol and Sominex... and he's been using Skinner's, but other than that, nothing," Bruce decided.
The doctor jotted that down.
"Your boy been having trouble sleeping lately I'm assuming?" the doctor inquired.
"Yeah," Bruce said, "He's been complaining of night terrors and he says that he'll wake up halfway across the room, so I suspect he sleepwalks or sleeprolls."
The doctor's pen flew across the page before he looked up again. "And for the pain medications?"
Bruce knew better than to reveal the truth to a doctor about his ward's identity, which made him so glad that Richard had some hobbies outside of fighting and busting the baddies.
"He's a gymnast. He falls and sprains and gets cut up every other day," Bruce lied with ease.
The doctor had a look of doubt in his eyes though. "But sir, according to his file, he's been in the hospital 246 times this year alone. That's more than gymnastics accidents."
Bruce nodded. There was an explanation to that he could share that wouldn't reveal anything that the doctor didn't know already.
"He's the son of a multimillionaire. There are a lot of people out to get him and when he gets kidnapped, doctors like you misdiagnose him and I have to keep bringing him back until a doctor who knows what they're doing takes a look at him, and after that, I have to continually bring him back for check-ups," Bruce explained.
The doctor still didn't look satisfied. Bruce clenched his right hand into a fist, keeping his left one calm as to not hurt Richard as he slept.
"What? Do you think he cuts himself because he's unhappy living with me? He hasn't touched his skin with a blade in three years and he hasn't taken 'happy pills' for three and a half years! And those weren't my fault! His parents were murdered four years ago! How else do you think he dealt with that? But it was never serious enough for him to go to a hospital!" Bruce thundered at the doubt, causing the doctor to flinch in fear.
The balding man backed up to the door.
"I-I'm going to go wait on the toxicology. If you need anything, just press that little button behind you," he instructed, causing Bruce's hate filled eyes to dart from the doctor to the emergency button.
When his eyes darted back, the doctor was gone and that room's door was slowly closing. Bruce sighed in relief at the near empty room, turning back to Richard.
"I never meant this to happen," he mumbled to himself, realizing how stupid it sounded.
How was he supposed to know that some guy would come to his house and shoot something that would put the boy he eventually planned to adopt into the hospital? From the sounds of it, Richard had landed a few good shots into the attacker, but nothing sounded fatal. Besides, he had searched the woods around his house. There was no body, so unless the light footed zombies from the videogame that Richard had pleaded for were real, the man had survived. But weird enough, there was no blood. That slightly peaked Bruce's interest.
"I… I don't really know what to say," he admitted to deaf ears. "I would've shot after the bastard myself if I had gotten to the door first, but I… I was stupid. But we can't regret the past. It's over and done. Let's just hope the asshole who stabbed you didn't honor his life. And if he did, he better live it up while he can before I kill him."
Bruce tensed up as he saw a small smile creep onto Richard's lips, no matter how little it stayed. Richard's fingers tightened around his, but Bruce couldn't tell if the peaceful boy was returning the affection or if his hands were balling into fists from the dream he was having, but he pretended it was the first option because that thought made him feel better.
"I'll make that sick son of a bitch pay for this," Bruce promised, his eyes cold with murder.
He stopped though when he heard Richard's heart rate triple in speed, going way too fast for even the Boy Wonder. Richard's head turned so he was facing Bruce, but his eyes weren't open. In fact, they were screwed up tight and his throat looked constricted. Bruce could see every vain that ran through it. Richard gasped for hair, his face getting bluer by the second. The raspier his gasps became, the more blood Bruce saw began to fly to Richard's lips, spurting out. It didn't take much encouragement for Bruce to turn around and smack the emergency button as fast as fast as his hand could go. His eyes flew to the door and he prayed with all the might he had in his heart, that someone would make it in time.
Okay, quick question, you guys good with yaoi? Can I pair little Robby with KF, or will you guys get a hair up your ass on the matter? (no offense if you are homophobic, I'm required to ask). Last time I randomly threw some yaoi in a story, I got several boots shoved down my throat on the matter and I don't want that again. I'll take the most popular answer I guess. So, if you don't want yaoi but want to know what Zucco's doing out of Arkham, or wherever he is, tell me. If you don't care, tell me. If you want to yell at me for supporting homosexuals, go get a tick up your sensitives. If you're okay with it, well, good for you. Have a muffin.
So, read and review?
-F.J.