Chap 23- Wildcards
Hello lovelies! I am well aware that I owe you guys about a thousand different apologies for not updating this story sooner. Honestly I definitely gave up on it a little bit and had the worst case of writers block. Plus, my mental health has been trash for the last couple of months and I've had no motivation to really write. Now I'm doing much better and will hopefully be updating this story regularly from now on.
I also have a tumblr account that is just for quick writings for whenever I am feeling frustrated and just need to write something. If you'd like please give it a follow. It will be listed down below. That way when I get blocked on writing for this story, I can still write for other things. Again, I owe you guys a few apologies, but I also want to thank those of you who have reached out, and those who are new for giving my story a follow. It really does mean a lot to me. Enjoy this episode!
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"That's it. Right there," we heard Shayera say over our comms. I groaned and put a hand on my hip, jutting it out slightly.
"No it's not," Lantern said as a retaliation and this time Bats groaned beside me.
"I think I would know," she responded, and I rolled my eyes. This had been going on for the last 10 minutes.
"Oh, really? When did you ever tap into bank records? Do they even have banks in Thanagar?" Lantern asked her
"Back off, I know what I'm doing," she said. I rolled my eyes again and lightly bumped into Bruce.
"Do you think they know?" I asked him.
He turned to me, looking a little confused. "Know what?"
I grinned, "That they like each other." Bruce only shot me an incredulous look but kept his eyes out the front of the jet. "You know," I said, elbowing him in the arm, "they like like each other."
Bruce shook his head, but couldn't help the small grin that formed. "What are you, five?"
I giggled and sat back in my seat, trying not to listen to the conversation Lantern and Shay were having. "No, I'm just observant. I thought the world's greatest detective would have noticed that too."
"Batman, Evie," Shayera interrupted whatever Bruce was going to say next, "We've got the address." She listed an address of a broadcasting company based out of Las Vegas. We suspected that the Joker had bought air time from this specific company, the only problem was we didn't know why. The last thing we needed was for the Joker to be able to use a platform that reached too many people.
"Good. Send it to us. Batman out." Bruce said, switching off his comms and flying the jet faster than before.
"Thanks, guys," I said, also hanging up on my comms. "So what's the plan?" I asked, knowing that if the Joker was involved then this wouldn't be as easy as turning off a few TV's.
"Talk to the owner and make sure that whatever Joker is trying to show doesn't hit the air. Vegas is already full of crazies, we don't need him adding to it." Bruce said, hitting a few switches on the jet's console.
"Fair enough. What if it doesn't work though?" I asked. "Is the League on standby?"
"I gave them a brief explanation of what was going on. Most of them are available, so if we need them they should be here shortly."
I nodded and watched as the bright neon lights of Vegas broke through the cloud cover we had been flying in. I had never been before, but this certainly wasn't how I imagined myself going. This whole thing was odd. Joker usually stuck to Gotham. As far as I knew he had never traveled this far before. What could he possibly have in mind?
The jet landed with a thud and both Bruce and I jumped out, quickly running out of time to break into the offices and make sure that whatever Joker was planning was stopped. We walked across the roof until we found a hatch that would lead us right into the office of the head executive of the broadcasting company. Bats easily broke the lock and jumped down and
landed in the hallway. I followed, with him grabbing my waist and helping me down, and looked around. It seemed as if this entire top floor was one office, made of dark wood and warm colors.
Thankfully there was nobody in the lounge area to have seen us come in, but we could hear talking coming from the other side of the glass doors. We both peered in and saw a man talking on the phone with his feet up on the desk. He hadn't seen us yet, so we both crept across the room, him oblivious to both of us. It wasn't until Bats put his finger on the switch hook, ending the call that he finally noticed the both of us.
He gasped, setting the receiver down and slightly rolling backwards in his chair. "You sold airtime to something called Gwynplaine Entertainment."
The shock had left the man's face followed by anger. "What is this? You can't just sneak in here and-"
Bruce cut him off. "You can't let them have it."
The man stood up and stepped towards Bruce and I, "Look, I don't care who you are, you can't just come in here and-"
I huffed, now tired of him being an idiot. "Gwynplaine Entertainment is the Joker," I said. The man's blue eyes went wide and his already pale skin got even more sickly pale. He glanced over at the clock on the wall, somehow getting even more pale. "He goes on in 15 seconds."
Before he even had the sentence out of his mouth, Bruce had already picked up the receiver of the desk phone and handed it to him. He dialed a number and waited as it rang. "Cut the feed!" He yelled. Whoever was on the other end must have questioned him, because he panicked and then yelled "Just do it, I'll explain later!" He threw down the receiver and we all looked at the clock on the wall as the final few seconds ticked down.
As soon as it hit 6:00 the tv screen on the wall shut down into static. The executive let out a sigh of relief and turned towards both of us. Bats and I kept watching the screens, knowing that this couldn't possibly be that easy. As we watched, slowly all of the screens flickered to show a wildcard joker against a white background.
"Oh no, he must have bought screen time on all the channels," He said weakly.
I looked up at Bruce as the screens continued to change, and he had already gotten ahold of the League, sending them to our location.
The Joker popped up on the screen, pointing a finger at us, "Ah, ah,ah. Don't touch that remote. I know it's heartbreaking to have your favorite shows preempted, but look at what you're getting instead." The camera zoomed out to show multiple balloons in the room he was in, "Me, and a whole truckload of mindless violence and wanton property damage, everything that makes tv great!."
"This doesn't sound good, Batman," I said, glancing out the window at all of the people milling around on the Vegas strip below us.
Joker continued talking through the tv feed, "So stay tuned. You won't believe your eyes," He finished, laughing hysterically.
"The League is on their way. We'll take care of it." He said, also looking out of the window, searching for something that would be out of place. I noticed that the TV executive had slipped out of the room, and I couldn't blame him. I would also want to get out of town as quickly as possible if the Joker was taking over Las Vegas.
Bruce and I left the building and made our way to the rooftop so we could grab the jet in order to meet the League. Bruce had synced our earpieces to the feed, so that we could hear everything he was saying. I was tuning him out for most of it, only catching the usual phrases, like 'big bombs', 'countdown', phrases to induce panic. As we climbed in the jet, I looked down at the road. Instead of the usual people milling about the strip and traffic being normal, people had already begun panicking. Traffic was at a standstill in all directions as people fled the city, and those who weren't in cars were running through traffic. Someone was bound to get hit. I heard Harley giving a traffic update to the Joker, it figures that she would be here.
"We have to find this bomb, fast," I said.
"I know," Bruce said, easing the jet down to an empty parking lot.
"Uh, Harl, sorry to interrupt but I see two of our stars approaching the red carpet," Joker said. Both Bruce and I hopped out of the jet and landed on the pavement. "And he's in black. Always chic. And look at his lovely piece of arm candy, always so blue," Joker continued. I briefly glanced around the empty parking lot, the familiar feeling of being watched creeping up my neck.
My attention was turned to the League's jet as it landed next to ours. "But here come the fashion disasters," Joker quipped in my ear. I rolled my eyes and focused my attention on the rest of the team as they all got off the jet and came over to us. Batman gave them a quick summary of what was going on, and we all split up.
Superman flew up and hovered over the city, looking for the bomb with his X-ray vision. Batman and I began running through an alley looking for any sign of the bomb and trying to get people out of the area. We were searching for a few minutes before Superman got on the comms. "I found it." Bruce and I stopped and started running in the direction that he had gone to.
"Big one," Flash said. He must have rushed to where Superman was.
"You were expecting anything less from the Joker?" Superman asked him.
"Looks like a binary set-up, but I can't tell what chemicals he's-ugh!" Superman didn't finish his sentence as a blast cut through the comm link.
Bruce and I traded looks and ran faster, trying to pick out one of the many casinos that they could be in.
"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight's extra special guest stars making their world debut, the Royal Flush Gang," Joker crowed in our ears.
"Great," I grumbled, "more bad guys." Joker started naming this new group, all of them were named after the cards; Jack, Ten, King, and Queen. We could hear Superman and Flash both fighting this new group by themselves.
"C'mon," Bats said, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards one of the larger casinos. As we got closer we could see the new group surrounding Superman and Flash, an upturned roulette table forgotten about.
"Bats, over there," I said, pointing to the table. We ran towards it, seeing the bomb in a hatch where the table should have been. I could hear Joker in my comms and did my best to drown him out. "You disarm the bomb, I'll cover you," I said, stepping over the hatch.
Two figures approached us, one wearing a white and black suit and one wearing a red and black suit. The one in red had a number 10 on his shirt with a club covering his right eye. This had to be Ten, meaning the other man could either be Jack or King. Either way, I had no idea what powers they had so I braced myself for the fight.
Before either man could say anything a beam of green light pushed them halfway across the casino. Lantern and Shayera flew into the room, and I winced as the Joker's protests erupted in my ear. Just as they flew over me, Superman and Flash had gotten up and ran over to the group of three.
They must have realized how overpowered they were, because before I could even step into the fight they turned and ran to the front of the casino, blowing up the lobby in their haste to run away. "Ah, you're breaking an old man's heart, kids," Joker said. I rolled my eyes and turned around to help Batman. "Face them like I would, if I were there, and if I had super powers."
The smoke settled and Superman, Lantern and Shayera flew after them. I figured they had it handled so I stayed inside. Joker was speaking again, but I have had enough of him. I shut the link off through my comms and gave a small sigh as it was finally quiet.
I hopped over a knocked over blackjack table and slowly approached Bats. "How's it going?" I asked. He shrugged a little before focusing on the wires again. A few minutes passed in silence between us as Bruce worked and I listened to the battle outside. I noticed that Bruce had stilled, a pair of pliers in his hand as he hovered over a wire. "Is that it?" I whispered, kneeling down next to him.
"Do you trust me?" he murmured, just as quietly.
"Always," I said, sparing him a glance. Bats minutely nodded before clipping a wire. A beep rapidly sounded as the timer started flying through its countdown, instead of having minutes we had merely seconds. "Uh-oh," I muttered. The countdown began again, starting at 5 seconds. I looked at Bats, knowing that we didn't have enough time. I grabbed his shoulder and wrenched him back, away from the bomb. Before he could protest I was already standing in front of him, erecting a wall of ice around us. Even if the bomb did go off, it might protect us from the initial blast.
The timer hit zero and we both stumbled from the force of the bomb, but opening my eyes, I saw that the building was still intact. We should have been blown halfway around the world. I stood up and actually looked around, seeing confetti falling around us and a giant blowup jester inflated right where we just were. "Gotcha," Joker's voice called out from the Jester.
Bats and I both stood up and checked each other over. "Are you okay?" I asked him, brushing some confetti from my shoulder. He nodded as he reached up to his earpiece. "We've got trouble, the bomb's a fake," he informed the rest of the League. I could see out of the casino to see the Royal Flush Gang get on their cards and fly off.
"So we just let them go?" Lantern asked, obviously not wanting to turn down a fight.
"For now," Bats answered, "Our first priority is finding the real bomb."
"Just give me a second," Superman said, and judging by the wind whistling past his earpiece he had flown up and above the city to search for them. A few moments passed as we waited for him to find it. "There we go, found it." Another beat passed. "No, wait. There's another one. Two more…three…" Bruce and I looked at eachother, catching onto what the Joker had done. We listened to Superman as he counted. His final count? "Twenty five," He called out, "There are twenty five bombs."
Bruce and I exchanged startled glances. We were very quickly running out of time. Superman started listing off all of the locations as we all tried to mentally list them out with him. "And the last one's on the main floor of the Sphinx Hotel," he finished, landing back down with the rest of the League.
"Split up and take them out, and stay in communication, Let's move!" Bats said. I turned away to start heading towards the west side of the strip, but was stopped as Bats grabbed my arm. "Where are you going?" he asked.
I gestured out the back door, "This way?" I said, ending it in a question, wondering why he was asking.
Bruce was already shaking his head. "You're staying with me," he said.
"No I'm not," I said, gently pulling my arm out of his grasp.
"Eves," he said, but I cut him off with a scoff before he could continue.
"No, don't 'Eves' me. We don't have time or the resources to have us stick together. I'll be fine," I said, already turning around and heading towards the door. When I didn't hear any protest, I glanced back but Bats had already disappeared. He must have managed to find a shadow to disappear into despite being in the brightly lit casino. I felt a tug of guilt pull at my stomach, but I squashed that down. I couldn't be sentimental right now, we had over twenty bombs to diffuse.
I jogged out the door and headed to one of the spots that Superman had seen. I heard Lantern call out saying he had found a dummy bomb. My steps faltered as I realized that he and Superman wouldn't have to worry about disarming the bombs, they could use their powers to see them. The rest of us would have to disarm each one we found ourselves. Great.
Since we all had kept our comms open for continuous communication, we could hear everything that was going on, and it sounded like Bats had found himself in a fight. The Royal Flush Gang must have come back to play. I tuned out his fight, knowing that he could handle himself, as I found my first bomb behind a hotel dumpster. I hesitated before reaching up to my comm link, knowing that Bats was the only one who knew how to disarm it, but he was a little busy. Thankfully, I wasn't the one to break his concentration.
"You'd think these things would just have an off switch," Flash said. I chuckled, knowing that would be too easy. Suddenly the sound of party streamers going off sounded in our ears. "Ah ah ah," Joker said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. The bombs got a motion detector. If you try to move it, it'll blow." I rolled my eyes at Flash. Why would you try to move a bomb? As Joker continued taunting Flash, I slowly removed the hatch on my bomb, looking inside at all the wires.
"Batman, I've got a problem," Flash said. Over the link, we could hear the sounds of a struggle.
"You don't say," Bats said, sounding extremely strained.
"I found a bomb, you've got to talk me through disarming it."
"Yeah, I found one too," I added.
"Alright, remove the lid," he called out.
"Already done," Flash said, and I added mentally, knowing that Bruce didn't like to skip steps.
"Don't skip ahead!" Bruce yelled, proving my point. "Do exactly as I say."
We could tell that Bats had gotten hit again, and Flash asked if he was okay. I just waited patiently, knowing that Bats wasn't going to answer that. "Grasp the red metal collar with both hands. Pull it straight up. It's magnetised so don't let it touch the sides or it'll blow up the whole block."
I did exactly as he said, slowly pulling the piece up and mentally making a note to work on Bruce's social skills in stressful situations.
"Disconnect the following wires in-" he paused as he got hit again and I flinched for him, "-in precisely this order. Blue, yellow and black striped, red, then black." I pulled one of my knife handles from my belt and created a sharp ice blade to begin cutting the wires in the correct order. Flash and I must have finished at the exact same time because as soon as I finished, Flash asked what was next. "You're done. Find another one," Bats said. I nodded to myself and rushed off to find another.
I hopped on a disc and flew up, figuring that I would be able to make it to the next location faster than I would on foot. Just as I started my descent I caught a glimpse of something flying behind me, causing me to dive out of it's way. I rolled and uprighted myself, just as an unlit neon sign flew past me. I looked down and saw Queen standing below me, obviously trying to knock me down. "I don't have time for this," I mumbled before dodging another thing she threw at me as I lowered closer to the ground. I hovered over her, waiting for her to make a move. She only looked up, smirking. Alright then, I guess I'll start.
I flipped off of the board and landed in a crouch, throwing my board at her. She merely dodged out of its way before running at me. When she was close enough, I created a patch of ice, causing her to become unsteady on her feet. I rushed up and threw a punch at her, hitting her side and knocking her off balance.
"Stay down," I said, walking past her, "you have no idea who you've gotten yourselves involved with. Joker will destroy you as soon as you're done being useful." I didn't offer her a backwards glance, which was a mistake. Instinct took over and without even thinking, I created a thick wall behind me. The crack of the ice pierced the air, and I turned around to see two metal spears sticking through the ice, just at chest level.
"I don't need your advice," Queen said, grabbing a metal trash can and warping it into another spear.
I stepped around the wall and created a spear of my own. "Suit yourself," I muttered. We both ran at each other, spears clashing as she aimed a well placed kick at my thigh. I had to hold my spear over myself to keep hers from piercing my skin, and she looked victorious, but just for a moment.
I swept my leg underneath hers which made her sprawl out onto her back. I broke my spear in half and melted it, watching as it went to one of her feet and the opposite hand, and froze both to the pavement. With a flick of my wrist I did the same to her other limbs, and finished when she was laying on her back, unable to move.
I stood over her as she struggled to free herself. She probably would be able to eventually, but it would take some time, hopefully giving us enough time to diffuse the bombs without her interrupting us. I only stared at her for a moment more before turning and walking out of the alley we had been in. Just as I reached the mouth of the alley an explosion shook the ground and I stumbled, catching myself on the brick of the building.
I immediately checked my comms as I watched plumes of black, thick smoke rise into the sky just a few blocks from where I was. "What the hell was that? Is everyone okay?" I yelled, starting to run to make my way over there.
"Lantern, are you okay over there?" Bats called out through the comms. My heart plummeted, knowing that one of my teammates could have been in the explosion. I pushed my legs to run faster as there was silence over the comms. "Lantern, check in!" Bats yelled, and his panic did nothing but spur on my own.
"One of the bombs went off. G.L. Was inside, I'm looking for him," Shayera said, and there was nothing but pure panic in her voice. My steps faltered as I rounded a corner and saw an entire casino had gone up in flames.
"Oh God," I whispered, not seeing how even Lantern could survive that.
"I'm on my way," Flash said.
"No you're not," Bats cut in, "stay with the bomb."
"But-" Flash tried to interrupt before he was cut off again, this time by Shayera finding Lantern.
"It's okay, I'm right here," I told Flash, "I'll make sure they're okay," I said, sprinting to the burning building, putting out small piles of debris as I rushed past. I made it to her and Lantern just as she pulled out her mace and I kneeled down next to them.
"Shay, what are you doing," I asked, looking Lantern over.
"He isn't breathing, I need to restart his heart." She said. I looked at her in horror, but forced myself to push my feelings aside.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked as she sparked up her mace. "It could cause irreversible damage, a shot to the heart like that."
She looked at me and I could see the absolute desperation in her eyes. "I have to be. I won't lose him," she said. I nodded, because I knew exactly what she was feeling. If it were Bruce laying on the ground like that, not even Superman would be able to stop me from doing something.
She took my nod as permission to go ahead, and I shuffled back a little bit, hoping to not get caught up in the electricity. She powered up her mace and placed it right over Lantern's heart, before it enveloped him completely. After a long moment he jerked and yelled as he woke up. Or rather, came back from the brink of death.
I let out a sigh of relief and looked around at the flames that were starting to get closer to us. I quickly put them out, and gave Shayera a moment with Lantern. I finally went back to them as Shayera stood up and picked Lantern up off the ground, and flew off without another word.
"Shay, wait!" I called, but it was too late, she was already far above me.
"I found John. He's in bad shape." She said. I watched her get smaller and smaller in the distance and knew that she wasn't going to be coming back.
"We'll meet at the last bomb, then go after Joker," Bats said. I shook my head, already knowing that wasn't going to happen.
"Bats," I started before getting cut off by Shay.
"Negative, he needs medical attention." She said and I knew she wasn't leaving room for argument.
"Well make it fast, we need to-" but this time, Bats wasn't the one interrupting, he was the one being cut off.
"Hawkgirl out," Shay said and her comm went dead. Even from a few blocks away I could feel Batman's glare at her.
"It's fine," I said, heading out of the rubble and onto the next site. "We only have a few more left, and I'm heading towards one now. Although it would be helpful if you could get rid of your friend, Bats." I said, knowing that he was getting fed up with his fight.
"I'm working on it," He growled. I chuckled as I approached a bomb. I followed the directions that Bats had given out earlier and in a few seconds that bomb was defused.
"I finished another one, how many does that leave?" I asked, glancing at one of the countdown clocks Joker had put up. We had a little over four minutes left.
"Just one," Superman said. "Flash is with it, but I think he's in trouble. It's in the Egyptian themed casino."
"Alright, I'll be there in a minute," I said, and hopped on a board. I was there a few minutes later and slowly walked into the casino, which had been half destroyed. Superman was fighting off both Ten and Jack, and it looked like he had his hands full. Flash was down for the count, so I made my way over to the open panel on the wall.
I crouched down next to it and slowly took the red metal covering off. "Flash, help her diffuse the bomb," Superman yelled, and a second later a whoosh of air told me Flash had finally gotten up.
"Hey there pretty lady," he said.
"Hey, Flash," I said, not taking my eyes off the bomb. I pulled out my knife and set about cutting the wires in the right order, when Joker flashed on the screen in front of us.
"You think you're fast enough to diffuse one of my bombs?" He asked. I ignored him and went to grab one.
"Shut up," Flash yelled, the loud noise making me hover my hand over the wires so I didn't accidentally jump and jostle them.
"What kind of a retort is that?" Joker asked him. "You're not even trying."
I reached in and cut the first wire, then moved onto the second one. "Not the blue one! You'll blow us all to smithereens!" Joker yelled. I ignored him and cut the yellow and black one instead, chanting the order in my head so I wasn't thrown off. I cut the next one until there was only one left. The timer on the bomb had three seconds left as I went to cut the final wire. "Maybe you are as smart as Bat-brains," Joker said, sounding very disappointed. I risked a glance at him, only to see him holding a red button in his hand with a sickening grin on his face. "Or maybe not!" He said and pressed the button just as I started cutting the wire.
One second the bomb was in my hand and the next second there was nothing in front of me. Actually it probably wasn't even a full second, more like half a second. I blinked and sat back as I heard an explosion in the distance and noticed that Flash wasn't next to me. I gave a laugh of disbelief and looked around to see I was by myself.
I stood up and walked outside, seeing Flash and Superman standing together. I ran and hopped on Flash's back, giving him a hug. "You're insane," I laughed, shaking my head. Before he could respond Joker appeared on a television screen above us.
"Let's give a big hand to the Justice League for foiling my bomb plot," He said. I hopped off of Flash's back and the smile dropped from my face. Joker never gives up that easily.
"Guys, something isn't right," I said. "I'm going to go find Batman." But it seemed like neither one of them heard me. I didn't think much of it as I started to double back to the broadcasting building. If Bats was going to be putting a stop to Joker, he would have to do it there.
I could hear Joker on all of the screens, but I tuned him out like I normally do, not really caring to hear what his plan was. Honestly, my only thoughts were on making sure Bats was okay, and helping him stop Joker.
As I weaved through back alleys I did manage to catch snippets of Joker talking, but it wasn't until I heard him say the words "incurably insane" did I stop and actually listen. "I'd like to think it's my magnetic personality, but it's really my little Ace in the hole. Different, they called her. Some even said she was a monster."
I walked out of an alley and looked around to gather my surroundings, when I caught a glance at one of the screens that Joker was broadcasting from. Instead of seeing the Joker, all I saw were two blank, dark eyes, seemingly staring into my soul. I tried to pull my eyes away but I couldn't. I couldn't move, not my feet, or my fingers. There was nothing in my mind except those two eyes. I couldn't even hear what Joker was saying. I just knew he was speaking but I couldn't make out the words.
All of a sudden, the world seemed to be spinning, swirling in and out focus. I thought I lost my footing, but as I looked down, there was only a puddle of water I was standing in. But the more I looked at it, the deeper the puddle went, except it wasn't. I realized that I, myself, was melting. I tried to take a step back but I couldn't. I could only shift the rest of my body around. I screamed as I fell back, and every piece of me that touched the ground slowly melted into the sidewalk. I continued to scream, and just as my back hit the sidewalk, the whole world went dark.
I sat up with a gasp, the world around me blurry once more. "Woah, easy," a gruff voice said and I scuttled back, unable to focus on who it was. "It's okay, it's me." I blinked and Batman came into view, a worrisome look etched into his face.
I quickly looked down and saw all my limbs right where they should be, not a puddle in sight. I sighed and looked at him again. "Are you alright?" He asked, reaching a hand out towards me. I hesitantly nodded before taking his hand.
"What happened?" I asked him, glancing down at my feet once more to make sure they were actually there.
"You passed out after being hypnotized by Ace." Bats explained. "Her power is to send out telepathic wavelengths that make people hallucinate before going insane." My stomach turned. That was an awful lot of power to be in the hands of a kid. "She stopped herself before everyone viewing could get a full dose of it. It's over."
I nodded and started walking alongside Bats and I noticed that the jet was parked down the street. "Is she going to be okay?" I asked, noticing that Bats didn't have her.
Bruce's eyes were soft as he looked at me. "I don't know. The police already took custody of the rest of the Royal Flush Gang. She's MIA for now, but I think she can take care of herself."
We walked in thoughtful silence to the jet. I couldn't tell what Bats was thinking of, but I was thinking of the young girl that seemed to have been used her entire life. When we got to the jet we both climbed in, not having to worry about Superman and Flash getting home. We had only been up in the air for a couple of minutes when Bruce's comm went off.
"Yeah?" He answered.
"It's me," Shayera said.
"How's John?"
"J'onn said it was the shock of the detonation that stopped his heart." Shayera answered.
"Any long term damage?" Bruce asked. I felt like I already knew the answer, especially if Shay was able to calmly talk about it.
"No, he's gonna be fine," She answered, proving me right. Even though I had my suspicion I still relaxed when she said it, and I could see Bruce do the same. "I'll stay with him tonight." She hesitated before adding more. "Batman, about before, I'm sorry. I-" But she was quickly cut off by Bruce, who was already shaking his head.
"No. We never leave a man behind. Besides," he said before glancing at me, "I would have done the same." My heart fluttered at his confession and I tried to suppress my grin. But he was right. I think at this point either one of us would have done the same. Hell, we had in the past.
"Right," Shayera said, and I could hear her smile through the phone. "I'll check in later. And tell Evie I said thanks for her help today." Shayera hung up before either of us could say anything.
After that, the ride back to the manor was quiet. Once we got there, we disembarked from the jet and made our way into our own rooms. I took a quick shower and changed into lounging clothes and made my way down to the library, where Alfred had already laid out two plates of food. At first I questioned why there were two plates but my question was answered a minute later as Bruce waltzed into the room with two glasses of wine in his hands.
He silently handed one to me and, with a gentle hand on the small of my back, led me over to one of the couches. We ate in a comfortable silence, before I broke it. "Bruce, are you okay?" I seemed to have jolted him out of his thoughts because it took him a moment to look at me and nod.
"I'm alright. Just thinking. What about you? You've been quiet since we left Vegas."
I only shook my head. "No, I'm fine. It was just a long day, that's all." Bruce nodded in agreement before pushing our empty plates away and patted the seat next to him. I grinned and moved from my chair to the sofa as we both leaned back and I settled into his side. I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes as my head rose and fell in time with Bruce's breathing.
After a few moments I felt myself begin to doze off and I shifted my weight, only to feel Bruce wince under me. I lifted my head off of his shoulder and peered up at him. "What was that?" I asked.
"What was what?" He answered a little too quickly. I narrowed my eyes and didn't look away.
"You flinched."
"I did not."
I stared at him for another moment before seemingly dropping the topic. "Nothing, nevermind." I laid my head back on his shoulder for approximately five seconds before poking him in the side. He flinched even harder and I quickly scooted away from him. "I knew it!" I said. He only scowled at me and held his side. "How hurt are you?" I asked him, reaching for the hem of his shirt.
He gently swatted my hand away. "It's nothing. Joker got a few good kicks in when I was down, that's all."
Shaking my head I reached around him and pulled up his shirt, revealing the spots on his abdomen that were already turning dark purple. "Oh Bruce. Why didn't you say anything?"
He took my hand and pulled his shirt down. He slowly leaned back and tucked me into his side, and I adjusted myself accordingly. "They're just bruises, it's nothing I haven't handled before."
"But you don't have to handle it by yourself anymore," I mumbled. Bruce didn't say anything and I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I knew how he was when it came to intimacy and trusting people, but I thought we were past this. We had promised each other that no matter what, we would be there for each other. Perhaps we weren't as close as I thought. I snuggled more into his side and tried to push my thoughts away. I placed my hands on his abdomen and slightly covered them in frost, so they were barely ice packs.
Bruce jolted a little as the cold seeped through his shirt, but gave a sigh of relief a few moments later. He pulled me closer to his side, (if that were possible at this point), and wrapped his arm around me and placed a kiss on the top of my head. "Thank you," he muttered into my hair.
I smiled and relaxed even more, my cheeks heating up at the show of intimacy. "You're welcome," I mumbled into his chest. The clock in the corner of the room gently tolled out the early morning hour and I settled myself in for the night. The coolness of my hands, and the gentle beating underneath my cheek were a comfort as my eyes slowly closed and both of our breathings evened out.
The last thing I heard before my dreamless sleep took me away was Bruce whispering, "Evelyn, I think I like like you."