Chapter: 10
"There you go Dick, just lay back and rest." Tim said, laying a barely wet, warm towel on his overly warm forehead.
"Drake you imbecile! It needs to be cold water!" Damien harshly swiped the rag off of Dick and drenched it in ice cold water, then literally dropped it back onto the acrobat's face sopping wet.
"At least I didn't drown him!" Tim swatted the towel off of the sick bird's face. Clouded blue eyes were uncovered as a semi-conscious Dick Grayson tried to dislodge the water from his lungs.
Due to a long battle with Mr. Freeze which ended with Nightwing at the bottom of Gotham's Harbor for Batman to rescue. Though he had made it out of the fight relatively unharmed, the young vigilante still managed to contract both a sinus infection as well as pneumonia. Now he was forced to stick to bed rest with Damien and Tim "taking care" of him. Bruce was called to a three hour business meeting earlier and the boys insisted that they were to take care of him instead of Alfred. Being in his weakened state added with his usual big-brother nature, Dick accepted his siblings' request.
Boy was he regretting his decision. It wasn't even an hour since Bruce had left and his brothers…well they were failing miserably. Now Dick would never say that to their faces, even if it were true, because he wasn't that kind of person. He was the supportive, always there, understanding, reliable, kind, caring, shoulder to cry on. And happy-go-lucky attitude elder brother…no matter how tired and sickly he felt at the moment.
"Don't bother him Drake! He obviously is trying to get more sleep to escape from your incompetence." Damien hissed, efficiently clearing the clouds out of Dick's eyes.
"No. I'm fine. Honest." Dick winced at the sound of his own stuffy and hoarse voice; it wasn't really doing much to help his case.
"I got it! I'll bring you some food, be right back." Tim exclaimed as he head Dick's stomach churn and assumed it was out of hunger. Damien shortly followed him out, intent on feeding his elder brother proper nourishment himself.
Dick leaned back onto the pillows once again, he might as well get a couple more minutes of much needed slumber before they returned.
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The smell of pizza and soup hit his senses and stirred him back to consciousness. The acrobat rubbed at his eyes and sat up to see a tray of said food pop up onto his lap.
"Um, I appreciate all that you both are doing, but I don't think that pizza is good with clam chowder let alone a sick person." Dick sniffled out. Unintentionally sparking another argument.
"I told you so Drake!" Damien hissed at the third Robin.
"Shut up Damien! Dick doesn't like crackers anyways!" Tim bit back, a heated blush crawling up his neck. As the arguments continued it also escalated in volume, to the point where Dick felt as if his brain would melt out of his ears, the acrobat gave up on trying to eat and instead curled into the fetal position in a vain attempt to block out the noise. This continued for three more minutes before he couldn't take it anymore and literally crawled out of the room undetected. Yes, he Nightwing crawled. It was necessary to escape. Dick let his two brothers argue and put on suitable clothes for the outdoors, and left unnoticed on his motorcycle.
The cold fall wind whipped across his cheeks, despite it being the middle of the day, it was still fairly cold out. His red ride whipped around the familiar route until he reached his desired destination way out of civilization's way. Maybe here he could get some rest.
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It was an hour later when the two arguing boys finally noticed their elder brother's absence.
"Where could he have gone!?" Tim asked hysterically. He and Damien were searching the mansion for their missing member.
"This is all your fault Drake!" Damien hissed out, returning from the roof empty handed was taking its toll on his patience. Tim however was not letting their fighting interrupt their search and just ignored the youngest. It was times like these that he hated that Dick was raised a Bat. It just made it that much harder to find him. He had to find him before Bruce got back. This was going to be a long night.
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A lethargic knock on his door caught the teen's attention. Grabbing a gun on the way, he took firm silent steps towards the door. Clicking off the safety the teen looked cautiously through the peak hole, sighing once he saw who it was. Setting the gun against the table near the door undid all of the locks and swung open the door.
"What are you doing here Dick-wad?" he asked. Dick sent a strained smile up at him before falling forwards fainting. The teen scrambled to catch the elder before he could hit the floor. The young man was unconscious and a layer of cold sweat beaded his brow. "Of course you're sick, it just had to be me!" the door was kicked closed as Dick was dragged inside. Why him?
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"I STILL CAN'T FIND HIM!" Tim was in the verge of tearing out his own hair in frustration. Why was it so hard to find a single person!? Because the person is your elder brother and a Bat, of course it'd be hard to find him when he didn't want to be found, his subconscious argued back. Great, he was becoming schizophrenic. Dick's disappearance was getting to him. Damien had left long ago to search Gotham for their missing bird, his missing motorcycle and tire track indicated he left long ago. Alfred had of course known where Dick was, but had refused to give them any information. Insisting that it was their fault that he was gone so they could go through the effort in finding him. A groan of frustration exited the poor hacker, this was not going well.
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Blue eyes cracked open once again ad Dick reentered the world of the living. Disorientated senses took in his surroundings. He was in a some-what familiar apartment, on a really worn out couch.
"I see that you're finally awake. What were you thinking? Coming here in your condition, you must be crazy!" a teen walked out of the bathroom, recently finished with a quick shower, he had a towel tossed across his shoulders, his dark hair was still dripping.
"I'm fine." Dick mumbled out as he attempted to sit up, though it must've been too fast because his vision swarmed and he suddenly found himself in the arms of the teen. "Thanks Jason." He said as the rouge helped settle him back onto the couch.
"Why aren't you at the manor having Alfred taking care of you?" Jason Todd. The second Robin. Currently Red Hood. He had moved out of the house three months ago as a way to "show his independence".
"The bro's were making too much noise." Dick whispered, his own way to spare his throat, and snuggled back into the couch. He still wasn't feeling great and sleep was the best thing for a sick body, right?
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The manor's doorbell had Tim running towards the door in hope. The overly large door swung open with a creak and Tim almost fainted on the spot. Jason stood there, with an unconscious dick slung over his shoulder like a sack of rice.
"I heard that a certain bird flew away from its perch. Could you have been looking for a particular someone?" Jason asked, leaning down to eyelevel with Tim and poked him between his eye brows. The third one recoiled from the jab and rubbed at it.
"You have our thanks for finding him, but you can leave now Todd." Damien hissed, easily taking the unconscious Dick from the rouge's shoulder and dragged the limp body up the stairs and out of sight.
Jason watched them until they turned the corner, "you guys really suck at taking care of sick people." He scoffed out before going to crash on the living room couch, and for once, Tim had nothing to retaliate with it because frankly it was true.
A/N: this was requested by Shiary, so thank him/her for it! Hope it was good enough for you, I wrote most of this during school so I hope it's ok. Thanks to Shiary and colerfulldarkness666 for being the only ones to review for last chapter XP. I don't own Batman! REVIEW PLEASE!