THIS CHAPTER WAS UPDATED AND PROOFREAD FOR TYPOS, GRAMMAR, AND PLOT/TIMELINE ISSUES AS OF 7/17/2020
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It wasn't until a few hours later that Anslee came back into consciousness, a beeping noise sounding every two seconds was the first thing she heard, but it was nothing like the beep her phone emitted. It sounded more like a heart monitor.
As Anslee awoke from her sleep, she couldn't help but feel dazed. Upon barely opening her eyes, she immediately shut them. A bright white light shined in her eyes, making the pounding in her head worsen. A groan escaped the brunette's lips before she opened them once more, attempting to reach up and rub her eyes, but her right arm seemed restrained and ached when she tried to move it. She frowned before fully opening her eyes to gaze down at her body. She was a bit confused upon seeing her arm in a sling across her chest. But the realization of earlier events hit her like a ton of bricks and she remembered why she was in Gotham Regional Hospital in the first place. Anslee reached up with her free hand to run her fingers over where she had been hit in the head. She could feel stitches all in a row about an inch long in length from which she'd been bleeding from earlier.
Anslee sighed to herself, "Nice going, Ans," she sighed to herself before she heard a pair of footsteps enter the room. She looked towards the door to find Rachel followed by Harvey. Rachel immediately raced to her daughter's side and grabbed her hand, giving it a light squeeze.
"Anslee, my god, I'm so relieved you're okay, I thought you were gonna die out there when I got that phone call from you," she breathed out, "I'm so sorry I let you go out there even though I knew it was late, this is all my fault."
Harvey came behind Rachel and placed a hand on her shoulder, giving Anslee a slight smile and speaking, "Rach, calm down she probably just woke up."
"Right, sorry," she sighed, "Are you feeling okay or do you need anything?"
Anslee looked at her mother with tired eyes, "I'm kinda thirsty," her voice was raspy, she hadn't even realized how cotton-mouthed she was, "And my head hurts."
Rachel nodded, "I'll grab the nurse and get you something for your head, yeah?"
"Okay," Anslee nodded, in all honesty she just wanted to go back to sleep, but another thought crossed her mind, "Does dad know?"
"I called him after the nurses confirmed you were gonna be ok, they haven't given us much info about what you sustained. He'll be here soon," Rachel gave her a soft smile.
Anslee groaned once more, "Are you still going to make me go with him this weekend?"
"No if, ands, or buts, it's still your father's weekend and you're still going. If it makes you feel any better he did tell me the weekend was clear so he'll be around the entire time," the mother tried to soften the blow, but she knew it wouldn't matter to Anslee either way.
The teen seemed to sink further into the hospital bed and pouted, "I just want to stay home this weekend, mom, please, I'll be by myself the entire time I'm there completely miserable."
"Anslee, I'm not gonna tell you this again, he's your father and he loves you and he wants to spend time with you, believe me when I say he was extremely concerned when I called him and he's trying his best to be here when he can, you have to give him the benefit of the doubt. You know what he does and you know how time consuming it is," Rachel explained with an exasperated sigh, she knew how much her child resented her father, only because she had felt that sense of abandonment when the truth came out eight years ago. She couldn't help that Batman was a part of his life even after all these years, no matter how much she hated it and wished he would give it up.
The teenager breathed out a small chuckle before she nodded her head, signifying the conversation was over and she wanted to move on, "So can someone please explain to me what happened exactly, it all seems like a blur to me right now."
"Yeah of course," Rachel spoke in a soft tone as she rubbed her thumb over the top of her daughter's hand, "You were attacked, it was about ten minutes after you left the office that you called me, and all I could hear was a lot of rustling and you were whimpering and crying. And then it went silent and I heard you calling out for me," she paused and looked into her daughter's eyes, "And then a voice came through and told me what happened and where you were. Harvey and I left here as fast as we could and when we got there, the cops had already been called and you were being loaded into an ambulance."
"The man, what happened to the man who assaulted me? Did he get away?" The teen asked, almost frantic as she sat up and looked between the two.
Harvey reached down and put a hand on her shoulder, lightly pushing her back down so she'd lay down, "Don't worry about it, Ans, they got him. Your savior helped take care of that."
"My savior-" but she was quick to cut herself off, remembering that she had been saved by the caped crusader, "The Batman, he saved me." She spoke, frowning.
"What's wrong?" Rachel raised an eyebrow.
"I just hate being the damsel in distress...it's fine, just forget about it" she rolled her eyes, mad at herself.
"Ans this isn't your fault, sweetheart," Rachel spoke in the same soft tone.
"Can you please get me something to drink and some sort of painkiller, maybe the doctor so we can see when I can get out of here?" she asked, a pleading look in her eyes even though she ignored Rachel's plea to get her to understand.
Rachel nodded, "Yes of course," she spoke before letting Anslee's hand go and standing up straight. She turned towards the door and walked towards it, followed by Harvey as well.
"Rach, I'm gonna head to the bathroom really quick, I'll meet you back here." Harvey stated. Rachel gave him a nod before they exited the room, only to find Bruce as he was beginning to walk in.
"Bruce?" Rachel asked, while Harvey stopped, exchanging a nod with the billionaire before walking off to find the bathroom. Bruce turned back to Rachel.
"He seems to be in a hurry," the man smirked.
"Bathroom," she spoke, "What took you so long?" She questioned him, crossing her arms over her chest.
Bruce looked around for a second before he began to talk Batman business, "Crane's still doing drug trades with his toxin, people are complaining that it's not giving them the buzz they had bargained for, so I had to shut that down, hopefully I've got Crane apprehended for a while. Then there was the robbery at Gotham National Bank, this guy-"
"The Joker, I know," Rachel cut him off. Bruce raised an eyebrow before he began to speak again.
"Well, I gave Jim marked bills to be tracked for their use and location. Turns out a bunch of detectives have been buying drugs on the street with the bills, I found them deposited into the safe, aka the money of the mob bosses that are in Gotham. I've tried to get here as fast as I could after I saved her, believe me, I had her on my mind all night while I was taking care of things," he spoke, a look of concern actually gleamed in his eyes, something Rachel had never seen before.
"She's beating herself up about it, thinks that it's her fault and thinks she could've handled it herself instead of being saved," Rachel sighed, looking at the ground in frustration.
"What? Why would she think that? There was no way that was her fault, she couldn't have prevented that," Bruce spoke agitatedly as he looked past Rachel's shoulder to see into the room.
"She's acting just like you, she's too damn stubborn and refuses to let the blame fall on anyone but herself. She doesn't like to play damsel in distress, because another thing she inherited from you, she's so independent, she refuses to ask for help until she honest to god needs it, she will do all in her power to not ask for help when she needs it," Rachel explained looking up at Bruce, hurt evident in her eyes.
"Rachel if I hadn't interfered she would have died out there tonight," Bruce spoke crossing his arms.
"You don't think I know that? You don't think that it doesn't hurt me to see her blame herself for something that wasn't her fault at all," She asked him, her tone changing.
"Of course I'm not saying that, I'm just saying I'd rather see her in there minorly injured rather than see her sprawled on the pavement dead. I understand she didn't want to be in that position in the first place, but this could have been so much worse," Bruce spoke as he placed his hands on her shoulders.
Rachel looked up at him and nodded before she took his hands from her shoulders and stepped back, "I told Anslee I'd find her some painkillers and the doctor, you can go on in there if you want, she's awake."
"I will, in a second," he answered before Rachel turned to find the doctor. Bruce sighed to himself knowing she wouldn't be the most excited to see him when he walked into the room. He knew she'd probably be even more disdained if he told her he was the one who saved her. More than anything Bruce wanted to be the one who swooped in and saved her whenever she needed it, he wanted to be the dad she lacked for the first nine years of her life, wanted to be the one to comfort her after a nightmare and mend her broken hearts after a break up with some stupid teenage boy. But he lost that, he never was able to establish a stable connection with Anslee even after eight years. In a way his double life ruined an aspect of his life.. If only Rachel would let him tell her he was The Batman, then maybe she'd understand why he was gone so often. But he shook off that small aching feeling before entering the room, a soft smile on his face.
Once entering, he took a second to gaze at the teenager in the hospital bed, she looked exhausted and frustrated, he'd never seen her defeated. Rather he's seen her with her head up like she could face anything, but he didn't see that spark in her, and it was understandable why.
"I'm sorry I'm late, you know how things can be at the office," Bruce finally chimed in, breaking her from her gaze into her lap, whether she was acting like she hadn't seen him or not.
Anslee was quick to look him up and down before she replied, "It's whatever," she replied plainly.
He nodded, "Fair enough," he started before he took a seat next to her to really examine the damage that man had done to her, "Nasty gash there on your forehead, that must hurt," he commented as he looked at the bruising that was forming around it.
"Yeah, my head hurts pretty bad," Anslee sighed, lying her head back on her pillow, the attitude ridden tone had left, rather a soft one graced her lips as if he wasn't even worth her energy to act like she wasn't amused he was there.
Bruce was hesitant to reach out and grab her hand the way Rachel had earlier. He was surprised when she didn't pull away from his soft grip he had on her hand, seemingly cold in his opinion, "I'm sorry this happened to you, Ans, I really am," he spoke in a soft tone in return.
The brunette stayed quiet, her mind raced a million different directions. At the same time, she wanted to burst into tears just out of sheer pain and emotional hurt and yell and scream because of how angry she was at the whole situation in general. She knew if she spoke it would happen so she was careful to keep quiet, despite Bruce wanting her to just say something to him, just one thing was all.
Bruce mentally sighed, knowing he wouldn't get her to budge. As they sat in silence, Bruce wanting to bring up the weekend even though he knew he'd receive a huff about it and an eye roll, he decided to keep quiet and leave it alone. It had seemed like a few minutes before Rachel came back in, the doctor and Harvey trailing behind her. Anslee and Bruce both sat up once seeing the doctor with a clipboard in his hands.
"Hello, Anslee, it's good to see you're awake. We were afraid you might've sustained a concussion and that much sleep could be dangerous. But your stitches seem to be setting nicely, and x-rays from your arm came back. We thought you may have dislocated your shoulder from impact with a brick wall from what we were told, but you only bruised it. It'll be purple the first couple of days along with the scratches from scraping against the wall. It will also hurt to extend it above your head or completely out, so just be aware of possible pain. You also do not have to wear the sling, we only gave it to you for precaution, if it were something more serious we wouldn't want you sleeping on it, it may not be pleasant to do so even now. And you may get headaches here and there, normal pain medications are ok with that, mom and dad," he spoke glancing around the room at the adults, "make sure to keep her on limited movement, no running or serious exercising for the next few weeks, just try to take it easy. I'll prescribe you some pain killers just in case things get too unbearable, but other than that the standard stuff should get you through it. Lastly I wouldn't recommend driving either for a little while," The man explained with a smile.
Anslee let out a sigh of relief, she knew things could have been worse than they already are, "Thank you, doctor, when can I be discharged?" she asked, eager to get out of the place.
"Within the next half hour, I'll sign the release papers and I'll have the nurses help you out of here," he replied looking over his clipboard and looking back at Anslee, "You're welcome to take off the sling and then change back into the clothes you came here in, forgive us, we needed to change you into a gown to get the x-rays."
She nodded, "Thank you," She smiled. Once he left, she was quick to sit up and take the sling off, earning a gasp from Rachel.
"Anslee be careful," she spoke as she made her way towards her daughter to help her.
Anslee shook her head, "Mom, I'm fine, I promise, I'm gonna go change into my clothes in the bathroom and I'll be out, can you please hand them to me?" she asked, a serious look in her eyes.
Bruce stared at the girl, he understood what Rachel meant when she said she was stubborn, Bruce would have been the same way. Rachel sighed and picked up a bag containing Anslee's clothes and handed them to her, "Thank you," The brunette spoke before turning to go into the bathroom to change her clothes.
Once the door shut, Bruce looked over at Rachel, "I can see how that can get annoyed," he sighed, fighting with himself on whether to tell her the next thing or not. He finally said it, "And Ans doesn't have to come over this weekend if she really doesn't want to after all this, I understand if she wants to stay home and be comfortable."
Rachel sighed in return, "No, she's coming over no matter what, I already told her that, you deserve the time to spend with her and you need it," she replied in a genuine tone, "Plus we have a case this weekend, and I don't want to leave her home alone in her condition. But iif you're going to leave, even just for a little bit, at least have Alfred keep an eye on her," Rachel begged as she looked at the man, knowing he had a tendency to leave their child when she was with him.
"I promise I'm keeping work to a minimum even though we're packed tight on things to do, I won't leave her alone too much," Bruce gave somewhat of a reassuring smile before he turned to Harvey, "So, Harv why don't you tell me about this case?"'
Once Anslee made it into the bathroom she set the bag containing her clothes on the ground and sighed to herself. The brunette went up to the sink and leaned over the marble edge and gazed into the mirror to take in the features of what looked like a stranger. The bags under her eyes were new, and the stitches on the right side of her forehead weren't looking too familiar either. She was quick as well to slip the hospital gown off to gaze at the bruising that had begun to form where she hit her shoulder. She winced upon trying to move it, as a sharp pain went down her back. The girl hunched over the sink again as her eyes watered. She had refused to cry in front of the three adults out there, but she even told herself then that she needed to suck it up.
"Save the tears for your pillow, Ans," she told herself as she wiped her eyes and took one last look in the mirror. She first pulled on her leggings, knowing that'd be less of a struggle to put on because of the pain when she extended her shoulder. She then took a good two minutes to slip her t-shirt on, the amount of carefulness she needed was a bit ridiculous to her. Once fully clothed she took another look at herself in the mirror before exiting the bathroom, the empty bag in hand. All eyes were on her, watching her like a hawk as if she were about to collapse or something. She pretended not to notice and sat back on the edge of the hospital bed.
Anslee looked over at Rachel, "Hey mom, can you please give me those pain meds?" She asked. Rachel had nearly forgotten the pain meds in the first place.
"Yes, sorry," she spoke, turning to the counter behind her where two cups sat. One dixie cup contained two pain pills while another larger plastic one had water. Rachel picked them both up and walked to her daughter, holding them out for the teen to take.
At that point Anslee had been over it, waiting to wake up, waiting for Bruce, waiting to leave, waiting to forget this. She took the cups from her mother's hands, "Thank you," she spoke quickly before tipping her head back, throwing the pills in the back of her throat and chugging the cup of water in a matter of seconds.
"Rachel, I'm going to go start the car, it's getting cold out there and I don't want you two to freeze out there," Harvey spoke as he got up from his seat and breaking the awkward silence in the room, he approached Rachel, kissing her head, before giving Anslee a smile.
"Thanks, Harv," Ans chimed in as she watched him near the door.
"I'll see you guys in the car." He said before exiting the room.
Bruce watched the interaction and he couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy hit him in the chest. He sighed, getting up and nearing the door, "I'll be right back," He spoke as he followed after Harvey.
He began to follow at a close pace before he called out, "Hey Harvey."
Harvey stopped walking and turned around to look at Bruce, he could tell something was off with the man considering his tone of voice and the way his fists were balled up, "Bruce?" he acknowledged.
"I just wanted to tell you that I hope you're treating Rachel with the utmost respect, and Anslee even more than that, it may not seem like it and you may not think it, but that teenager in there is my world, and if she ever feels mistreated-"
"Bruce, I cherish Rachel, and Anslee is a fine young lady, whom I enjoy the presence of. I understand where you're coming from, the whole overprotective dad thing dealing with the boyfriend, you've got nothing to worry about," Harvey cut him off, crossing his arms over his chest with a small smirk.
Bruce stayed silent, looking at Harvey with a serious look in his eyes, but less than a second later a chuckle escaped his lips, "You're right, what have I got to worry about?"
Harvey chuckled in return, giving Bruce a nod, before he turned and continued to the entrance of the hospital. The brunette man stood there for a second, processing what Harvey had said. Here and there he felt anger out of pure jealousy, thinking that he was losing his own child to a man she's only known for a few months. Let alone the fact she'd only really known Bruce for eight years, but still. He shook his head before he turned back to the room. Upon returning, he found Anslee and Rachel standing outside the room. Bruce raised an eyebrow.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"Doctor signed the release forms and gave me the prescriptions. They insisted that Anslee be wheeled down to the entrance of the building, but she's persistent on walking despite them saying she still may be a little hopped up on the anesthetic they gave her." Rachel answered, glancing at the girl who was leaning against the wall next to her mother, avoiding her gaze so she wouldn't get scolded further.
"Anslee Grace," Bruce spoke in a somewhat stern tone, scolding the seventeen year old as well.
She looked up and met her father's gaze with the same dark brown eyes that possessed his face, it was evident she wasn't intimidated in the slightest by either of them, and she wouldn't cower under his gaze, "I refuse to have something completely useless aid me when I'm perfectly capable of walking, you both act like I'm gonna try and drive myself or something," she groaned.
Rachel knew better than anyone at that moment it was best not to argue back with the teen, it was only because she was tired and probably needed to get to sleep, the last time she'd checked her phone it was almost three AM, "You're going home and straight to bed," Rachel told her, ignoring the hissy fit she could tell the teen was internally having.
"Not arguing with that," she spoke before she began to walk past her parents and towards the entrance of the facility.
Bruce exchanged glances with Rachel before he watched her sigh, he could tell the woman was agitated, "I swear I don't know how much longer I can handle her like this."
Bruce watched Rachel carefully, hesitating before he reached out and pulled her into his arms into more of a reassuring embrace, "I promise I'll try and make some progress with her this weekend, I'll make an effort with building something with her and help her get a new mindset on things."
Rachel stayed quiet in his arms before she nodded and pulled away as if nothing had happened, "I better get her home, she's exhausted and so am I and Harvey. I can only imagine what you're feeling. Go home and get some rest, I'll bring her over around eleven thirty, goodnight Bruce."
Bruce nodded, he actually in all honesty wanted to catch up to Anslee and put her in the same embrace he had Rachel in and tell her he loved her. Sure, he always had, but never really showed it. He always figured that distancing himself would be the best to keep her safe, but now he wanted to keep her at arms length to shelter and protect her when need be. The man sighed to himself before pulling out his cellphone and dialing a number. He put the device to his ear and spoke, "I'm on my way home, Alfred."