He was in trouble. It was preposterous for him to make such a mediocre mistake. It was unacceptable for him to screw things up in such a way. He didn't want to admit it, but maybe his father was right – not that he would ever say it out loud – the patrol plus the training and school mixed together was too much for him. Waking up at seven am to go to school and be up until four am battling crime, five days a week. After a few months of such an exhausting routine with so little rest, his body was finally showing the tiredness accumulated. Even though he usually slept until late in the weekends, it was not enough to compensate for the hours of sleep lost during the rest of the week. His father tried to restrict his time as Robin, so he could concentrate on school and have enough time to rest, but Damian had persuaded him into a deal. If he demonstrated he was able to balance both identities – hero and student – Bruce would allow him a free pass. Damian was able to keep perfect grades with a minimum effort, but the time he spent in school was the time he should be using to relax, heal and train.

Damian looked at the digital clock on his nightstand, the blue numbers advising him he should go to bed soon – four am, one more sleepless night.

In his bathroom, green eyes strained to scan the newly wound, with no success. It was on the lower part of his back, in a place he had to squirm himself in front of the mirror to see. A wave of burning pain traveled through his back as Damian tried to examine it again. The boy did his usual trade sound of irritation as he bent over the sink, waiting for the pain to subdue. When it did, Damian looked up, and staring back was his reflection. His frown deepened with the sigh of usual olive skin now a pale hue coated with sweat, black circles framed emerald orbs, and black hair damp and messy.

Dissatisfied with his complexion, the boy decided to do his body a favor and sleep, he was sure the next morning he would wake up feeling much better and he rarely was wrong. He could count the times it happened with the fingers from one hand and he proud himself with such accomplishment. However, the list was about to increase to his great displeasure. The next morning he woke up feeling much worse than last night. Every time he tried to move, pain emerged from his wound scattering over his whole back through invisible roots, each time reaching deeper into his body. Biting back a grunt, Damian stood still balancing his options.

I should just stay home resting, instead of wasting precious time on that useless place they call school.

He was tempted to follow his judgment, however, in doing so it would only complicate his situation. If he skipped school, his father would be informed about it and demand to know why leading to the discovery of his wound, which ended with patrol restriction only to the weekends and holidays.

He stayed put for a few more minutes, then stood up very slowly trying to ignore the pain with all his strength and took a bath. The warm water felt like fire in his wound; a thread of blood painted the floor white tiles of the shower like a red river following its course. Overnight, the nasty cut had become a vivid red of swollen skin mixed with dry blood. The warm water had dissolved the thin layer of cloth that covered the wound. There was not much he could do, the cut he received was in a zone difficult to reach, and every time he moved, the muscles of his back stretched, precluding the wound from closing on its own. He pondered asking Alfred for assistance, but that implied his father be informed and that was out of the question. With a soft grunt, Damian patched the injury the best he could and went to school.

The car trip was, to say the least, uncomfortable; the soft seat did nothing to appease the pain and the jolt produced by the car was torture. He was thankful his father did not have work so early that day, it would be difficult to hide it from the man if they shared the car ride. After all, nothing escaped Bruce's sharp watch.

When he finally arrived at the classroom, the first thing he did was finding a comfortable position, maintaining his back relaxed but away from the back of the chair. He glanced around the room half-filled with students. At the door emerged the only person in the class that was worthy of his interest – maybe. He was still deciding if the girl was indeed worthy or not. Her name was Lea Silver, and there was something different about her, but no matter how much he thought, he could not put his finger on it. There was something strange about her too. The first time he noticed was two days ago, when the girl arrived at the class and was passing by between some desks to get to her seat next to him, to his great displeasure, he preferred to be alone. One of the kids sited close by, decided to put his leg out to make the blind girl fall. At that moment, he detected how the girl's foot made a larger movement, making a small and discreet swing rather than a normal step forward, and instead of tripping on the leg, she gave it a good kick. The boy howled in pain getting everyone's attention. Lea faked a concerned look but it was clear to everyone that her reaction wasn't sincere.

"I'm sorry was that your leg?! You must have long legs… you should be more careful not to put them in other's way."

That induced the laugh in the whole room and the boy, now red on the face, and probably on the leg too, made his way out of the room too embarrassed to remain there.

No one put much thought into that event except him. Her kicking the other boy's leg was not an accident. Therefore, from that day on, he decided to keep an eye on her. He withdraws the idea of her not being blind soon after, since no one could keep such a farce the entire time, she needed to be an exceptional actress for that, and he didn't think she was. She behaved as a blind person would, she tripped on chairs or the stairs and had one of her hands constantly glued to a wall or other surface to help her keep her north. Surprisingly she always knew the way around the academy and soon he found out it was thanks to a GPS. Maybe the school gave it to her? It was something he needed to investigate later on. Regarding all things, she looked like a normal blind person, except from that one incident. How did she know the boy's leg was there? Thinking better about it, he never saw her bumping against people. In addition, she looked at others straight up, as if she could see them.

Perhaps he was getting paranoid, the constant contact with danger and abnormal situations led him to suspect and question everyone and everything, or there was the possibility of him just being bored and needed something or in this case, someone to distract him.

He didn't know many things about the girl. He hadn't heard her talking with anyone about herself and he noted she was always alone and didn't socialize with the rest of the class unless necessary, probably because they had shut her out the moment Camille Hudson marked her. He knew Lea was from England, or at least lived there for a long period, enough for her to get a slight British accent. He discovered she avoided crowded places and didn't go anywhere without her laptop.

She is most likely hiding something in it.

Lea sited next to him and took her laptop out of the bag. He observed by the corner of his eyes as she organized some notes; after a while, he lost interest, his thoughts averting again to the pain on his back and how the day was far from ending.

Everything was going fine until PE, Physical fucking Education. How he forgot about PE was beyond him. First, the terrible mistake during the patrol, now forgetting his school schedule, he must be really tired for all this to happen in less than twenty-four hours. For now, there was nothing he could do except prevent from doing excessive efforts and making sure, no one noticed. When the bell announcing the end of the classes echoed through the academy walls, he was the first to stand up and go to the locker room. Today he needed privacy to change so other students didn't see his wound. Damian cast an apprehensive look towards the standard white t-shirt.

"Tt" If I start to bleed through the bandages everyone is going to notice…

When he finished changing into PE clothes the other boys started arriving. He walked off, not wanting to hear stupid talks about whatever things boys his age liked. The sunlight hit his eyes obfuscating his vision for a second, he blinked and the dark dots around his sight disappeared. The boy waited outside in a moment of peaceful silence before his classmates began filling the yard and his torment started.

A whistle penetrated his ears and Damian cursed under his breath as the PE teacher, a short, burly man with a huge calve head currently shining from the dim sun penetrating through the grey mantle, yelled for them to run with more energy and enthusiasm. The air was cold and humid and Damian felt his breath scrap his throat like sandpaper on its way out. His shirt was sticking to his back, he was not sure if it was sweat or blood, he hoped for the first option. Even with the constant pain from each and every movement of his body, he was still the first one to arrive at the finish line, which gave him a little time to recover his breath under a tree near the tracks. However, at the moment he reached under the green shade, dizziness claimed his body as white flashed through his eyes. Damian bent forward, his right shoulder scratched against the rough surface of the tree as his body leaned over for support. Nausea filled his mouth and he grounded himself not to vomit there. Closing his eyes, he tried to calm his mind by breading in and out slowly and deeply, relishing in the cold breeze that caressed his face and neck. He craved the relaxing sensation from minutes ago when he was all alone with silence involving him; there he could let the mask fall and be free to breathe and feel like crap. As Damian Wayne, he had a reputation to maintain and he could not afford to crash it now, not over such a stupid reason as a wound – no, a mistake. A mistake he vowed not to repeat.

A sensation of being watched struck his acute senses. Emerald orbs regarded the surroundings, checking for unwanted viewers, not finding one. Instead, a certain blind girl catches his interest, as she was running with no problems in the middle of the other students. His eyes closed into small fissures, green darkening from suspicion and curiosity. How does she know the way? Moreover, how hasn't she bump into others yet?

"Hey, Wayne! Come here!" The teacher yelled, ending his break too soon.

Taking one last deep breath, Damian imposed on himself a perfect posture even when his back cried out in pain, a perfect appearance even when all he wanted was to lay down and sleep. He walked slowly, taking his time with leisure steps towards the teacher. As he arrived near the man, the whistle marked the end of the race, the last student joined the rest at the finished line, panting for air as the effort of the run excided his stamina.

"Wayne go to the infirmary."

Damian did not move, his eyes pierced the bald man with a scrutinizing icy glare that made the teacher look away in daunt.

"Why?" Does he know…?

"You were called there, I don't know why."

"Tt." Useless.

With a last glare towards the man, Damian exited the training grounds. He pondered about ignoring the call and search for a nice and quiet place to rest but the possibility of the school contact his house to inform the bad conduct was enough to make him abandon the idea. Now, any negative notification from the academy was an invitation to the waning of Robin.

Entering the old building, he tried recalling where the infirmary was. He was sure it was somewhere on the second floor but did not know precisely where not needing to go there until today. Taking a chance, he turned towards the west hall. He walked by many classrooms and offices until he saw a white door with big red letters in the upper case on it spelling 'infirmary'.

Remembering the good manners Alfred pour into him, he knocked two times at the wood surface. The answer was immediate.

"Come in."

He opened the door, only to wish he never did. Inside, was a woman in a white coat he immediately recognized as the one he saved a week ago. Damian's mind began working around the situation. Why was he here? Why did she call him? Did she know something? No, that's impossible.

The woman was looking at him, teal eyes observing him methodically. He did not like how her intense stare made him feel anxious.

"Why was my presence requested?"

She ignored his question. "I'm the new nurse, my name is Alice Silver. It's nice to meet you…" Her hand moved in his direction, in a gesture for him to finish her sentence.

"Why am I here?" He insisted, the thin strings of his patience approaching a straining point.

To his increasing irritation, Alice smiled. She was amused by his reactions.

"Why do people come to the infirmary?" She answered with a question of her own.

He glared showing he did not enjoy the present situation or her attitude for the matter. So she answered in a serious tone.

"You're here because you're hurt."

Silence.

Damian did not know what the woman was scamming nonetheless, he wasn't in the mood or condition to handle it. Therefore, he turned to leave.

"I know you are in pain and you are trying to hide it, however, the Principal will find out if you don't let me do my job."

Damian glared severely. Did she have a death wish? Did she know whom she was threatening? Most people left him alone after a glared or two of his. Despite his age, he was still an assassin although he did not practice it now, in respect of his father's ideals and beliefs. The teachers were no exception, they usually stepped back or looked away in fear and distress. Their behave was also related to his stature. They were probably dreading over the complaints he would transmit to Bruce Wayne if they contradicted his wishes. Stupid, little-minded people. As if he would disturb his father over something so insignificant and useless as the school. He was only here because his father truly wanted him to be, the man believed it was a good and profitable experience indispensable to his life. However, despite his disagreement on the subject, here he was, wasting his precious time 'playing school life'.

"Don't you know who am I?" He asked coldly.

"No, you didn't introduce yourself."

"I'm Damian Wayne." He stated, expecting his name to be the key to end the present situation.

"Nice to meet you, Damian. Now, tell me where you are hurt?" Alice said, her features not changing even after hearing his name.

Emerald pools became slightly wide and round as the boy's expression became one of surprise, before he quickly recomposed himself, his frown in place one more time. She discarded the name Wayne as if it was just another normal surname.

"This is ridiculous."

"Will you show me where it hurts or do I need to inform the Principal?" Alice sighed at the need to threaten the boy about calling the Principal. He was being extremely difficult.

Feeling the defeat crashing over his ego, Damian made sure his displeasure was well conveyed as he glared at her with all his heart, eyes an electrifying green that changed between different hues, a manifestation of his anger. Pain erupted from his back while his muscles stretched and flexed, pulling the skin, breaking and tearing the stiffed area, aggravating the wound with the simple motion of taking his t-shirt off. The ache was too much for him to control and it ended in overturning his irritation. His features writhed with the throbbing and a hiss escaped his lips despite his efforts to conceal all trace of weakness. Damian let his t-shirt fall into the ground, with his bandages in view, he focused on studying her reaction. Her eyes become sharper, as her features turned serious, all the playful she had shown before replaced by a small frown.

Damian went to remove the gauze when slightly paler hands stopped his darker ones. The boy looked up, a black eyebrow arching up in a quiet inquiry.

"I'll do it." The woman did not look up at him, her vision glued to the white fabric. Her slender fingers come slowly as if she was insecure, but the moment they made contact with the gauze, her movements become precise and smooth, her touch gentle.

As the fabric was unrolled in front of him, Damian noticed bloodstains. Looking at his t-shirt with more attention he saw small red marks tainting the white cloth. The last section of the bandage come into view and Damian tensed, prepared for the sting that was sure to come with the pull of the piece of fabric that was pasted to the wound by dried blood. However, Alice ceased to unroll it and asked him to turn around. With his back towards her and enable to keep an eye on what she was doing, Damian began to feel vulnerable. He closed his eyes and tried to visualize in his mind her movements and actions based on what he was feeling. There was a gentle and steady pull beside the pressure and he felt the fabric unstick from the cut. It didn't last more than one minute but it felt longer, as gradually the gauze stretched and torn his reddish and wounded flesh, despite Alice efforts to unstick it instead of ripping it off. With a final tug, the wound was free from the bandage and Damian exhaled deeply in relief. The boy waited as silence consumed the room.

"What happened?" Alice asked, after a few minutes of quietness.

"I fell from a tree and cut myself in some branches." During the short time Damian removed his t-shirt until the bandage was off, he had formed a story to vindicate his wound, with his father remaining in the dark as the outcome. He could not claim someone had done it, it means he was attacked, probably an investigation would occur and in the end, his father would be informed. Reveling the truth was not an option. Therefore, he had come with an idea, it wasn´t good but he hoped it was sufficient.

"You're lying." She stated right away.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Damian tried to defend himself. He turned around and glared at the woman, daring her to call off his bluff.

"Yes! Even a bloody idiot can tell this cut was made by a knife or some kind of sharp blade!" Alice puffed out, losing her temper, her perfect english faltering as she became more aggravated. She took a moment to calm down before continuing. "Who did this to you? Do you have problems at home?"

"What!? No!" He said offended by her assumptions.

"Then who did this?"

Damian stayed quiet, refusing to say more. It seemed like each time he opened his mouth it made the situation worse.

"I need to report this to Principal Phillips."

Irritation took over Damian's mind as he tried to think about something, anything. He disliked it, but the only solution was to try to play the part of a distressed child. If that didn't work, nothing would.

"It was a stupid mistake." He looked away crossing his arms over his chest, frown still heavily in place, the words rolling out from his mouth with difficulty. "I… I just do not want my father to find out about this. I don't want to be… grounded." I cannot believe I just say that, what a joke.

Alice crossed her arms and looked straight at him. Her teal stare was so intense it was starting to make him uncomfortable. It was as if she was looking right through him, scrutinizing his mind and rummaging between his thoughts to find the truth behind his words. Nonetheless, he tried to return the stare.

After a while, Alice closed her eyes and released a deep breath. Making a gesture towards the adjacent room, she told him to sit down on one of the beds and went to open one of the cabinets. She rummages for a few supplies and spread them over a table near the bed. The sound of water running flooded the silence, as she cleaned her hands and put on a pair of disposable gloves, the blue material snapping loudly against her wrists. Taking a seat beside the bed, she used a sterile gauze to gently press on the wound for a few minutes until the bleeding stopped.

"It's deeper than I thought, but you don't need stitches."

Damian didn't respond, for what he could see in the mirror last night and the pain he was enduring, he had already guessed that. From the past ten years of his life, he had received a fair share of injuries, he knew by the pain branded on his skin how serious or not the damage inflicted was.

"I'm obligated to inform your guardian of this incident so he can decide the medical procedure he wants to choose. Normally it would be going to the hospital."

"You can't!" Damian hastily said.

"If I don't I will be in trouble."

"Why don't you do it? I'm sure you're capable of such a simple procedure as to treat a wound."

"Of course I can. But that's not the point." Alice sighed. Keeping her calm, she remembered the difficult patients she had handled back when she worked at the hospital. This was nothing compared to those times, yet dealing with a child was never easy. "Let's say I do it, and your parents find out or you talk about it to a friend and this reaches the ears of an adult, I would be fired and could be arrested for acting on a minor without the consent of the responsible guardian. Do you understand?"

"I understand your concerns, but if you aren't going to help me then let's just pretend you didn't see anything and this meeting never occur." Damian intended to get up, but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"That's not an option either." Letting go of him, she crossed her arms and she continued. "Your attitude gives me reasons to believe this wound has something to do with your family. If you have problems at home, you need to talk to me or someone else, so you can receive help. You don't need to be afraid-"

"I'm not afraid of anything! This conversation is over and if you report this to someone I will deny everything." Grabbing his t-shirt he went to leave.

"Fine, don't go! I will do it but just this once… but I want you to come here every day to change the bandage and if I ever catch you hurt again I will report it." She could report to the Principal, but if she did that, she would lose the little trust the boy had in her. Besides accusing one of the most powerful men in the city of violence against his son, when the wound could have been the result of a fight with other children or some other reason far away from the household, wasn't a smart thing to do. For now, she was going to treat the cut and keep an eye on the kid and if she found out he's hurt again, then she would notify Principal Phillips and the authorities.

"Deal." Damian smirked victoriously.

Alice returned her attention to the wound. When she was done disinfecting it, she patched him up with a new bandage firmly wrapped around his torso.

"How did you know I was injured?" Damian asked observing her cleaning the workspace.

"I was watching your class and noticed you were acting strange… like you were in pain and then I saw something red on the back of your shirt, blood."

"So you were contemplating children… what a creep. Maybe I should be the one denunciating you to the Principal or the police."

"W-what!? No!" Her face went pale with his accusation. "I was just checking on my niece! I was worried about her."

"Your niece?"

"Yes, Lea Silver."

With a scrutinizing glare, he observed her features. Hmm… I see the similarities. They both hand identical round-shaped eyes with the same teal hue and similar small upturned nose. And the same surname, I should have made the connection.

"Is she doing well… I mean is she getting along with you and the rest of the class?"

The question surprised him. He wasn't expecting it and he didn't know how to respond. As far as he knew, Lea Silver didn't have friends, she was always alone typing on her laptop. The girl was quiet and reserved, she didn't seem to have any interest in getting along with the other kids.

"Tt, shouldn't you be asking her that?"

"A-ah yes, you're right… it's just… never mind. I will pass you a note for skipping class so don't worry about that. Try to rest." She said, a strained smile forming on her face.

Damian nodded and waited until Alice closed the door, leaving him alone in the white room. Sleep came fast, yet he didn't surrender to its touch right away. There was a thought buzzing around inside his head since the moment he entered the infirmary, an annoying and distracting feeling. After a few minutes, exhaustion finally seized his body and mind, and Damian was forced to close his eyes and rest for the first time in a while. During those couple of hours, he dreamed about the night he saved Silver from some lowlife tugs and the reprimand his father gave him for letting her ran away with a stab wound on her leg.

Alice frowned deeply as she put away, at least for now, her concerns about her niece's school life and thought about the boy resting on the adjacent room. What she just did was incredibly stupid, yet she didn't believe it was the wrong choice. With a deep sigh, she started spinning her chair, her mind lost as she recalled a few situations that happened when she was working in the hospital. She wasn't new to abuse victims. She had encountered more than she would like in the Emergency Department, two of them had been children. It was always hard to deal with such sensitive and dangerous situations. Most of the time, the victims were so traumatized and scared that they resisted and declined any kind of help, and it was extremely hard to approach them and gain their trust. Fear of being punished or betraying their families haunted and controlled them. But Alice wasn't sure if the boy, if Damian, was being abused at home. His reaction to her question about his family situation wasn't one of terror or panic, he almost seemed insulted by her insinuation.

Maybe he's suffering from abuse here, at school…

She would keep an eye on the boy, and if something like this ever happened again, she would call the authorities. But for now, seeing how aloof Damian was, she needed to show him she was on his side.

Hello! Finally, I was able to post a new chapter. I hope you liked it!

Until next time,

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