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To wolfclaw1098 – Thanks for your review! You'll find out the answer to those questions in this chapter. Hope you like it!
To Isa Ceballos – Thanks for your review! I'm glad you like it! Yeah, poor Dick. I'm pretty mean to him in this story. Hope you like this chapter!
Enjoy!
The bioship shook under Roy's feet hard enough that it almost knocked him off balance. On the medical bed in front of him, Dick whimpered painfully, the movement clearly having jostled his injuries. He could barely hear it though with an alarm of some kind going off.
Wally, standing on Dick's other side, immediately grabbed his hand and placed his other hand on the younger teenager's forehead, trying to soothe him. Roy placed his own palm on Dick's shoulder and grabbed Dick's free hand before shushing him a little and turning his attention back to the matter at hand. He needed to check Dick's injuries but couldn't with how badly the ship was shaking.
"What happened?" Roy demanded, looking over at the door to the chairs where the others were while Wally tried harder to keep Dick calm.
"Deathstroke hit the engine!" M'gann yelled back at them as the ship shook again.
"How bad is that?" Roy asked, his attention turning back to Dick, who was starting to groan painfully again. Why couldn't he just stay asleep? Hadn't he been through enough by now?
As he felt the ship starting floating downwards, the Martian said, "We need to land. The ship can't fly like this."
"We land and Deathstroke will find us!" Conner suddenly chimed in loudly.
"No, she can camouflage us so we won't be discovered." M'gann informed them. She must've sensed their unease because she quickly added, "We'll be alright."
"How long will it take?" Roy barely registered Kaldur's question. His entire focus was on trying to keep Dick calm and it wasn't going well. Instead of passing out, Dick seemed to becoming more and more aware with every second.
"A few hours." M'gann answered.
"Can Robin last that long?" Kaldur then asked, coming to stand in the doorway, looking over at where the speedster and archer stood, surrounding their injured teammate.
"He's in rough shape but I don't think he's in any danger." Wally informed them, still holding onto Dick's hand tightly. "We just need to keep him stable."
"Okay. We'll stay here until the ship is ready to go." Kaldur decided, even though none of them had a choice in the matter. They had no other way to get to the Watchtower and nowhere else to go.
Though the others didn't like it, they nodded in agreement and ship changed shape around them. The walls closed in, making their little sanctuary only about 15 by 15 feet. The wall between the medbay and control room completely vanished. The chairs, tables and display screens disappeared into the floor, leaving the place empty except for them. Even the bed that the young, injured hero was lying on started sinking into the ground until he was just lying on a mattress with the pillow under his head and blanket folded up by his feet. And the medical supplies they had gotten out were now on the floor instead of a table. Once the changes stopped, Wally and Roy both knelt down beside Dick and started to look him over.
The clothes he was wearing were tattered but not that bloodied. However, they all knew that there were definitely more injuries underneath. Wally looked at Dick and saw that his eyes were closed but he still seemed tense, like he was still in pain. He lifted his head to see Roy already staring at him. As soon as they made eye contact, Roy nodded at the supplies behind Wally, silently telling him to bring them closer. Quickly understanding what he wanted, Wally did what he was told.
"How's he doing?" Kaldur asked, kneeling down beside the youngest team member and Roy. He wasn't sure if Robin was even still awake, and he somewhat hoped he wasn't. If he was asleep, then at least he was getting a reprieve from the pain he was no doubt in.
"Not too bad, but we haven't fully checked all of his injuries yet." Roy told him, glancing over at the Atlantean for a second before turning his gaze back to Robin and gently grabbed the bottom hem of his shirt, Wally grabbing it on the other side.
Apparently hearing that, and feeling both Roy and Wally trying to move his shirt so they could examine him, Robin opened his eyes and mumbled, "I'm okay."
"We just need to check to make sure there isn't anything serious, so bear with us." Wally responded, giving his best friend's shoulder a comforting squeeze. The speedster wasn't sure if Dick understood him, but he didn't voice any objections, which he, Roy and Kaldur took as permission to continue.
Lifting the shirt up to his chin, the three older heroes all winced at the sight of his ribcage and chest. It was obvious that he had several ribs broken that they would need to wrap. However, when they got him back to the Watchtower, he would definitely need them x-rayed. Being as gentle as possible, Roy and Kaldur lifted Dick so he was sitting up, doing their best to ignore the quiet pained noises escaping his mouth. When he was upright and they pushed up the rest of his shirt though, they got a clear look at his back.
There were several scrapes and bruises across his shoulder blades and spine. From what they could tell, the scrapes were old and mostly healed but they looked like it had to have been very painful. M'gann, Artemis and Conner, who were standing off to the side so not to crowd them or get in the way, winced at the sight. Wally rubbed some antibacterial cream over the cuts despite how healed they were, then started wrapping his ribs. They then laid him back down when the leader of the team noticed something.
"What's this?" Kaldur asked, pointing at the bandage above Robin's left hip.
Robin immediately put his hand over the area and said, "It's nothing. It's fine."
"Dude, we need to check it, to be safe." Wally told him, trying to calm him down but his words seemed to have the opposite effect.
"No, don't. Leave it alone. Please." Robin begged, his blue eyes suddenly filling with tears.
"Hey, look at me." Roy said, placing a hand on the teenager's cheek and turned his head to face him. Heart clenching at the fear and pain in his little brother's eyes, Roy whispered, "It's okay Robbie. It's okay. Just trust us."
It took about a minute, but Dick slowly nodded his head. The archer could tell that Dick still didn't like this, however they needed to make sure that he was okay. Roy gave a Wally and Kaldur a nod before giving his focus back at the acrobat. He kept running his hand through Dick's black locks, trying to keep him calm. It seemed to be working for the most part. Roy just hoped he would stay calm while they worked on taking care of him. They still needed to check his arms and legs for any other kind of injuries he might have.
"Oh my G*d." Roy heard Wally mumble, causing him to look down and see a burn, a brand on Dick's abdomen. A large S, representing Slade's name no doubt. Before he could stop himself, he hissed, "That a**hole. I'm going to kill him."
"Roy." Kaldur chastised, even though he didn't put that much heat into it. If he was being honest, he felt the same way as Roy did. However, now was not the time to think about revenge. They needed to focus on helping their teammate and get him to safety.
Now curious as to what was going on, Conner, M'gann and Artemis came over as the clone asked, "What is it?"
Before Roy could tell them, could keep them coming over, they were already there looking at the wound they had uncovered. He knew that Dick didn't want them to see and he didn't blame him. If he was in Dick's position, he wouldn't have want them to know the fact that he had been branded. It didn't matter that it wasn't his fault, it had to make Dick feel ashamed or embarrassed. And right now, as injured as he was, he probably wasn't in the right state of mind to deal with it. All Roy could do was keep him calm.
"Oh," M'gann breathed in shock. Seeing the horror on his friends' faces, Dick turned his head to the side as the tears started running down his cheeks. Shame filled his entire body to the point that he barely felt them clean and re-bandage the injury.
"Hey, it's okay Robbie." Wally tried to comfort his best friend when he saw that he was starting to cry. Running a hand through Dick's hair, he gently wiped the tears away as Roy and Kaldur finally finished up.
When they did, and Robin showed no signs of actually calming down, M'gann headed over to the medical supplies and grabbed a syringe filled with a clear liquid. Turning back to Robin, she said, "I'm going to give you something to help you sleep, okay?"
"Want to go home." The young hero mumbled, voice extremely hoarse
"I know man, and we'll get you home as soon as we can, promise." The speedster assured him.
"Go to sleep Robin." Artemis told him, rubbing his knee comfortingly. Conner also came closer into Robin's line of sight and added, "We'll keep you safe."
Dick blinked at them, but nodded and closed his eyes. Wally brought up a hand rubbed his face, letting out a deep breath then looked over at the others.
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They waited until they were sure Dick was asleep before Roy, Kaldur and Wally continued checking him over for more injuries. They found that he had a broken ankle that they set and put in a splint. He also had a few broken toes, but they could only wrap those. There wasn't any toe splints with the medical supplies. Then, they found Dick's kneecap was broken and they wrapped that as well as best as they could. They also figured that he had a concussion from all the bruises on his face, but there wasn't much they could do about except for keeping an ice pack on them. M'gann had questioned if they should let him sleep with a concussion, but they didn't think they could keep him awake with how injured he was and with the painkillers they gave him. All they could do now was monitor him.
When they finished, Conner came to stand right where the door had been before it blended into the wall. Using his hearing, he did his best to make sure that Deathstroke, or any other threat, wasn't getting too close to them. Thankfully, he didn't hear anything, but he couldn't hear much over the wind. So he stayed put.
As he did that, the others stayed around Robin, waiting for any possible change. For the time being, he seemed to be doing alright. Still sleeping which was slightly concerning, but he made noises whenever they shook him a little, which meant he most likely hadn't fallen in a coma or anything. However, as the time passed, he started to look worse than he did before. The bruises that Slade left on him were turning from a dark red and light purple to an almost black colour. It was awful.
Suddenly, Wally noticed Dick looked a little more agitated than before. He was starting to twitch. It made him wonder if the sedative they gave him was wearing off. They had been stuck here for about three hours, though it felt a lot longer. How long did those sedatives last? Apparently, not long because he saw Dick open his eyes.
"Rob? You awake?" the speedster asked, causing Robin to turn his head in his direction.
"Wh's going on?" Dick slurred, his eyes blinking slowly. It was the clear the drug was still somewhat in his system but was definitely wearing off.
"Um, we had to land. The bioship took some damage and couldn't fly until she healed." M'gann explained, getting the boy's attention.
Robin stared at her for a few seconds, trying to understand what she was saying. Though he didn't really, he trusted his friends. So he closed his eyes, wanting to go back to sleep, when he suddenly thought of his captor and shot upright in panic, and said, "Deathstroke,"
"Isn't anywhere nearby. We're safe. He's not going to get you." Roy interrupted him while Kaldur gently pushed him back down on the mattress.
Artemis was suddenly leaning over Dick, her hand running through his hair. Dick instinctively closed his eyes at the comfort. Her nimble, calloused fingers soothing his pounding head. He could feel his body start to relax a little, but not all the way. He was too sore. If he couldn't go home yet, he wanted to go back to sleep. The nightmare that had taken over his life wasn't fully over just yet. It wouldn't be until he was home again, so the next best thing was to just sleep.
"How are you feeling? You in any pain?" M'gann questioned, eyeing the painkillers and sedatives off to the side before looking at Robin, who had now opened his eyes again.
"A little." Robin quietly admitted, avoiding the alien's gaze.
Giving him a sympathetic smile, M'gann filled a clean needle with a painkiller and said, "Here you go. This should help."
Robin didn't seem that aware of what she meant or what she was doing until the needle pierced his arm. He blinked at her and nodded, then closed his blue eyes that still seemed fairly bright despite how exhausted he was. When she first saw his eyes, she was a little surprised to see that they were blue. From what she knew of humans, people with dark hair seemed more likely to have dark eyes, like brown. Then again, she was still learning about humans and their different ethnic groups. There was so much variety, and the blue eyes seemed to suit the young hero very well. Just like Artemis's blonde hair suited her despite her darker skin tone.
Within five minutes, Robin's breathing evened out and he fell asleep. It made the Martian a little sad to see. She had missed the young hero a lot over the last month, and so did the others, especially Wally, but sleep was the best thing they could do for him right now. Until the bioship finishing fixing herself, they couldn't get him the help he needed. At least when he was asleep, he wasn't in any pain. And she kept close watch for any sign of nightmares. So far that hadn't seemed to be a problem, but if it did, she would quickly use her telekinesis to not only end it, but ensure that he had a peaceful sleep.
"Is he going to be okay?" Conner asked, coming to stand over the group.
"Yeah, he will be. He's healed from worse than this." Wally assured him, then looked down at Dick and whispered, "Physically anyways."
Wally had seen Dick injured before. While they were teammates and before then. Though in none of those times was it has bad as it was now, he did know of the time his best friend was nearly beaten to death by Two-Face. It came up one night when they were having a sleep over and Dick had a nightmare, caused by the sight of Wally's old baseball bat in his closet. The redhead was horrified by what had happened to him. He was still extremely new to the superhero business and wasn't fully aware of how serious the risks were, especially to humans. It was a bit sobering.
The heroes that were awake started to get settled again, preparing to keep waiting when the lights, that had been dim ever since the ship landed, suddenly became brighter and loud, clanging noises filled the air.
"What's going on?" Roy demanded as he grabbed his bow. Did Deathstroke somehow find them? Was he attacking them? What was the ship doing?
Before the archer got an answer, the ship shifted around them and changed back to how it normally looked. The chairs grew from the floor, along with the flight controls. And the mattress Dick was sleeping on, suddenly rose from the floor, turning into a proper medical cot. Even the place where their supplies were was lifted from the ground so it was on a table.
Excitedly, M'gann rushed to the pilot's seat as she said, "The ship's healed. We can head home now."
"Then let's go." Artemis told them, heading over to her own seat.
While the others did the same, Wally turned back to Dick's unconscious form and whispered, "It's going to be okay Rob, we're going home. We're taking you home now."