If she didn't have augmented hearing, she wouldn't have noticed the soft knock on her window.

But she did, and she saw the bloodied hand there, recognized that glove.

"Oh, Ancients."

She knew what she would find, and yet, her eyes watered at the sight of the broken body of her boyfriend bleeding out on the firescape.

He was trying to speak, but he was too out of it to really make sense, even with her enhanced ears. She thought she heard "I love you" but she really didn't want to dwell on that. Processing could happen later.

With her heart on her throat, Jazz picked him up as best as she could and pulled him into her apartment, dropping him on the floor as gently as possible - she had seen the amount of blood and knew there was a wound somewhere.

Indeed, he was… not good. Without a proper check up she couldn't say for sure, but his suit was slashed open on one side of the torso and his left leg. The helmet had been crushed and shattered on the same left side, so something must have hit him on his left. She didn't want to think what could have done this.

Okay.

Deep breaths, Jasmine.

Her mind was briefly transported back to another place, another time; the broken body of her little brother bleeding out in the bathroom, his voice weak as he asked her to sew his back since he couldn't reach. And the time after battle that Danny was knocked out for a few days, paler and breathing quickly, when he was poisoned with an arrow. And the time-

Focus.

She could do this.

First, she ran towards her bathroom for the big first aid kit (that would have everything she needed and more), her mind racing towards the things she had to do.

Back to her living room, Jason hasn't moved an inch. She had to stop and listen carefully to hear his breathing and his heart beating slower and slower.

No time for scissors, she ripped open the suit as if the kevlar reinforcements weren't there, biting her tongue at what she found there. He needed surgery and she didn't have the means, and a blood transfusion, and-

Focus. What could she do now? She had to stop the bleeding.

"I got this." She told him, but Jason had already passed out from blood loss.

She cleaned and stopped the bleeding of the wounds that looked the worst. Jazz didn't have super senses, she couldn't see the reach of the very probable internal bleeding, there was just so much bruising, so she had to find out a way to keep him stable until she carried him to the hospital.

Could he go to the hospital? Jason Todd was dead, after all. She would need to figure it out there.

She kept one ear on his breathing as she put gauze on the cut on the side once it was cleaned, but he didn't even flinch at the pressure. Next, she took care of the one on the leg, which was as horrible as the one on the torso - an entry and exit wound, signaling that something stabbed through it, but no excessive bleeding so no major artery had been nicked. Apart from the muscle damage that would take a while to heal, the cut was pretty clean, so she just sewed it close and hoped for the best.

Jazz stretched her back, she had been curled over him for a while, when she realized-

It was quiet.

He wasn't breathing.

No. No, no, no. No!

She couldn't find his heartbeat, she couldn't-

Jazz heard herself mumble something, but she didn't register what she was saying. She put her fingers on his neck and bit her lips, waiting - there! It was weak and erratic, but still beating.

With the same thought, it dawned on her that he wouldn't make it to a hospital. No matter how fast she ran, how much she desired him to live, he was too weak to make the trip.

She blinked away the tears pooling in her eyes. She couldn't lose him. Not like this. Not when they barely had any time.

Why be the Princess of the Infinite Realms if she couldn't save anybody? Why fight so much if there was nothing she could do to prevent the death of her boyfriend? Because he was dying, right in her living room, there was no doubt.

She wished she could share her healing factor with him. Her liminality would bounce her back from an injury like this, but Jason was-

Jason was liminal. He was just… weird? His blood tasted funny, muddy, but there was ectoplasm in there. Why wasn't he like her? She had her theories, but the winning one was that the ectoplasm in his veins wasn't 'clean' or 'filtered', so it didn't do the body modifications it did on her.

But-

She had some clean and pure ectoplasm on hand, in her fridge. Since she couldn't get her ecto-fix easily like she did back in Amity, Danny got her doses in vials in a secure box she could safely put in the fridge without bringing her food back to life.

She still had one left. She was due her dose soon, but Jason needed it the most and she could always get more.

Barely a second ticked by as she ran to her fridge and brought back the box with the vial, opening it and throwing the box away. The ectoplasm shined in the dark, illuminating her face as she contemplated what she was about to do.

Too much ectoplasm and he would burn from the inside out. Too little and he would die.

She knew how much she could take, but he was unfamiliar territory. She would have to play by ear, literally.

She got this.

Jazz gently removed the helmet and opened the vial with her teeth, angling his head to align his mouth with his throat. He was completely out, he wouldn't be able to swallow properly, so she poured the ectoplasm in her mouth and locked her lips with his. With her free hand, she massaged his throat to help the muscles move down the ectoplasm.

Bit by bit, she forced the substance into his body, hoping she wasn't making the biggest mistake of her life.

Soon she felt him get a bit warmer, so she stopped what she was doing and swallowed what was left of her last vial. It wasn't enough to sustain her, but she would live.

Jason's heart was getting quieter, instead of stronger.

Jazz heard a high pitched whine, realizing it came from herself.

"C'mon, c'mon…"

CPR was a skill she learned early in her life, way before med school. Her First Aid course made her the de facto doctor of Team Phantom until they all had some proper medical training from the yetis.

Measuring her strength was hard as she did the practiced movements at the correct rhythm. She counted as she did every press, she counted every stop, she contained the tears as she breathed into his mouth. Her mind was on overdrive, her awareness kicked into full gear after the dose of pure ectoplasm, no matter how little it was. She thought she heard a pop from the bones bending under her hands, but she kept going, too focused on what she was doing.

She was trying it for the third time, when Jason, finally, came back to her with a gasp. She had given his body enough time to absorb the ectoplasm.

His eyes were wild, glowing green, one of his hands going for her throat probably in self defense. In his weakened estate and with her body having freshly absorbed the ectoplasm, she easily caught his hand and carefully pinned him to the floor.

Still, she leaned back a little to give him space, hoping her eyes had stopped glowing as they usually did after taking her regular dose.

Jason gasped for breath, sitting up on her floor and crawling on his good leg so he could lean on the wall just under the window. His eyes were wild, the green slowly phasing out of his eyes as she looked at her.

"Jazz?" He licked his lips, frowning. "What… What happened?"

She laughed in relief. He was alive, he was okay. They would be okay.

"Hello there, handsome."

He blinked, processing her words. "Wasn't I… dead?"

"For like, half a minute, maybe?" She wanted so hard to approach him and give him a big hug, but she knew that would be a bad call. "You got better. Also, I am trained to do CPR."

He put a hand on his chest, checking he still had everything in place. Jason noticed the bandaged side, carefully lifting the tape to check if the gigantic hole was still there.

Jazz didn't need to look to know the wound would be halfway healed by now. Ectoplasm repaired wounds the quickest just after consuming it, so she could estimate the internal bleeding issue was resolved, the broken or bruised ribs from her hasty CPR were only sore, and the wound looked a few days old already. He needed stitches anyway, so she should get to that.

She heard a noise and her body moved faster than lightning.

Jazz threw her pocket knife (Jason's knife) towards one shadow; and in the same movement picked her trusty staff that hadn't left her side once this madness started, activated it and turned on the electric tip right when it was going to collide with the other shadow.

Batman was an imposing figure crouching on her window, even with the bright end of her staff close enough to the exposed skin of his chin illuminating his scowl. He was glaring at her, but didn't make a move in case she decided to go through the threat of the shock of his life.

Behind her, Jason snorted.

"You have… a fierce protector." Batman's low voice rumbled in the night.

"She's great, isn't she?" Her boyfriend breathed a chuckle, still too weak to do much more.

A scoff made her look back into her apartment, towards where she had thrown her knife, finding the frowning masked face of Robin. He was not amused by what was going on, especially by the knife right next to his neck that was pinning the hood of his cape to the wall.

Robin pulled out the knife, his eyes not leaving hers.

"It's fine, darling. He won't try anything tonight." Jason's voice was a bit stronger now, but for her it was obvious he was trying to speak despite the pain.

How he was sure about that, Jazz didn't know, but trusted his word enough to deactivate the electricity and collapse her staff.

Without waiting for an invitation Batman stepped into her tiny apartment, his presence filling everything like a blanket of darkness in a moonless night. She had never seen him in person, not this close and personal, and her first experience looking at him was…

Jazz was used to Danny. To Fright Knight. To having tea and biscuits with Clockwork. She was used to scary beings whose aura was bigger than life.

Batman was many things, but he still was just a mortal man. She was the Princess of the Underworld.

She nodded at him and went back to her patient, picking up the things she would need to stitch him back together, ignoring the two guests in her house.

"You took a big risk tonight, Hood." Batman approached them, but left her enough space to work comfortably.

"I had to get those civilians out of the building. The bomb-"

"I'm not talking about the fight."

Jazz felt the man's eyes on the back of her head as she removed the gauze and cleaned the wound.

"It's fine, B. She knows about me." By the way he said those words, it was something Jason was happy about. It warmed her chest.

Batman didn't like the fondness in his voice, because his scowl turned darker. "You could have put everyone else in danger."

"She won't tell."

Jazz lifted her eyebrows, a bit annoyed with being talked about when she was right there in front of them, but continued her work on Jason's side and ignored the pissing contest about to happen.

The hostility was worse than when Red Robin was there - Jason was so tense she had to tap his chest a few times to remind him she was trying to sew him back together and she needed him relaxed as much as he could so the stitches didn't turn out wrong.

"Tt." Robin was quiet as he joined them. "Your recklessness and childish attachment to the girl affect everyone, Todd. You shouldn't have told her."

"She guessed it." Jason let his head fall against the wood, a tired smile on his lips. "Beautiful and smart."

"And an unknown-"

"Okay, that's enough." Batman had stepped too close for comfort and Jazz had to do something. She cut the thread after finishing the last stitch and stood up.

She was shorter than the Dark Knight, and even if she was trained in combat and had her trusted staff at hand, she was positive she wouldn't be able to beat him. And that's not taking Robin into consideration.

Danny always said that a big part of his success during ghost fights was the attitude - he always acted as if he could and would beat the ghost's ass. He managed to defeat the previous Ghost King, so there must be some wisdom in his words. Power of belief and all that.

So, taking a page from her brother's book, Jazz straightened her back to make herself look bigger and taller, one hand gripping her staff still in collapsed mode, looking directly at the whiteout lenses of Batman's cowl.

"Jason needs rest and all of this riveting conversation is not helping. I suggest you leave, Batman."

"This is a threat?"

"If you want it to be."

Seconds ticked by. Jazz's fingers played with the button that would make her weapon go into fight mode. She didn't miss Batman's subtle look in her hand's direction.

"Would you fight me for him?"

So he knew she wouldn't win and still tried to frighten her? This man was ridiculous.

"Please, leave." She purposely relaxed her shoulders, in case this really ended in a fight. She didn't want to, but she would do it if she had to.

From what she knew about Batman, he liked being the bigger threat, the bigger big bad in the room. Fear was his shtick, after all. She would unpack this interaction later and write down her observations, but Jason was more important than studying Batman like a bug.

"You don't understand the implications -"

"I understand enough." Jazz lifted the arm with the still collapsed staff. "Leave."

He hummed low, watching her closely. "He comes with us."

She didn't need to look at Jason to know he didn't want to go with Batman. "He stays." She slid one leg to the side, stabilizing her posture into one easier to start an attack. "You leave. Now."

"The Cave has-"

"My boyfriend just died in my arms, Batman." This made him flinch. Interesting. "I very much want him where I can see him."

The Bat and the Princess glared at each other for a moment, until the man made a gesture at Robin and stepped back.

Jazz didn't relax just yet.

"This isn't over." Was all he said before making a flourish with his cape, blocking her vision. The effect of his disappearance would have been great if she couldn't still hear their quiet steps and their heartbeats as they climbed to the roof.

Once they were at a safe distance, she scoffed and completely relaxed. "He likes to have the last word, huh?"

"Oh you have no idea," Jason weakly chuckled from the floor, "and he's the worst about being right. Fucking drama queen."

So they knew each other, as she suspected, and probably went way back like with Nightwing. He was hostile with Batman too, but there was an underlying trust or understanding between them, as if they knew each other so well that they could predict each other's next move.

No, wait. Only Jason gave that impression. Batman had been tense and wary and not only of her, the Unknown, but of Red Hood as well.

More and more pieces of the puzzle that was taking form. It was at the tip of her fingers and she could almost taste the truth, if she chose to pursue it, if she chose to question Jason about his relationship with Batman.

Their eyes met and that thought flew out of the still open window. There was so much love in his blue, so much adoration, that Jazz could only smile and swallow the taste of the ectoplasm still on her tongue, hoping he could forgive her for what she had done to save him.

"Hey," he said, lips curving in a tired but dopey smile, "come here."

She sat on the floor on his good side, close enough to feel his warmth but giving him enough space in case he was injured there too. Jason had other plans, because his right arm circled around her shoulders and pulled her into a sideways hug.

"Thank you." He kissed the crown of her head, breathing in her scent. "I owe you my life."

She bit her lip, glad that he wasn't looking at her face and couldn't see her conflicted expression. She could save him because he was not entirely alive, wasn't entirely human, but he didn't seem to be aware of this fact. There wasn't a way to explain that didn't entail explaining as well how and why she knew, and all that implied.

"It's nothing," she said, erring on the side of caution, "you would have done the same for me."

He hummed in agreement. "Let's hope that day never happens, though."

In the Living Realm? She highly doubted so, but nodded and sighed with him.

"I love you."

This made her jump and move away from his body, turning to look at his face. It was one thing when they both thought he wouldn't make it, but now-

"I love you," he repeated, his gaze unwavering. "You don't need to say it back or anything and this doesn't have to, like, mean something you don't want to. I just…" he sighed, "I almost died for a moment there and I don't know if it could happen again and I didn't want to die without telling you and maybe now that I have another chance I should say it everyday- Please stop me, I'm talking nonsense."

Jazz felt her eyes water. This was such a messed up moment to say those words, but somehow it felt fitting that he confessed freshly back from almost joining Danny's subjects and after she had threatened Batman over his injured body.

She loved him a lot. There was no doubt about that. And yet, she couldn't say it back, not when there was still a part of her she was purposely hiding from him. It's true she had been willing to tell him back at the Batburger, but with the moment gone and after using pure ectoplasm on him without knowing exactly what it would do to his body, Jazz wasn't that confident anymore.

She would tell him, eventually, just… not now. Not like this.

Once he recovered from his injuries, once the scare of dying had passed, she would tell him. To give him a fair chance to take back his words.

For now, Jazz would relish this moment, memorizing the look in his eyes, enjoying the way her heart started beating faster.

Jason laughed at her probably red cheeks, mistaking her silence as her mind shutting down from his confession. She let him think that.

"Can I kiss you?" He said, taking one of her hands in his. He was warm.

Unable to find her voice, Jazz nodded and leaned in so he wouldn't upset his stitches.

The kiss was soft and sweet, a bit cold since Gotham's night air had been coming in from the window the whole time. Jason respected that she still didn't want to kiss deeper than this.

Good. If he had insisted she would have caved in and then not only would he get cut by her sharp teeth, but would also taste the citric ectoplasm still present on her tongue.


Jazz wasn't sure about going to work on Tuesday, but she couldn't afford missing two days in a row. She already had to call in sick on Monday to stay and monitor Jason as he stabilized, preparing food (which she didn't burn but was a bit bland, not that he complained about it) and cleaning the blood before it stained.

As she made her way to the Asylum, she tried to relax her mind and leave behind the constant anxiety she felt while taking care of her boyfriend. She hated hiding things from him, she never wanted to, and watching him be excited about her 'officially' knowing about the vigilante stuff made it hurt more.

He was under a lot of painkillers and spent a good chunk of the day sleeping, but when he was finally awake at the end of the evening, he wanted to talk about it and ask questions about how she figured it out.

She told a partial truth, omitting the whole ectoplasm-in-blood moment where she definitely had proof of it, sharing with him her observations and laughing at how awful he was at hiding secret identities.

They didn't talk about the crime lord elephant in the room, or the bigger and scarier elephant of their interrupted conversation at Batburger the previous day. Maybe he was still waiting for her to come forward? Because she doubted he forgot about it already, he was smart (one does not simply become Gotham's Underworld head honcho, it required some serious smarts) and he had seemed shocked at the whole 'ghost' stuff.

Soon. She would tell him soon. It was unfair that she knew his secrets and she was hiding hers like a coward. With the way he was recovering so fast, between the emergency ectoplasm and her special "Quick Heal" cream, his only remaining wounds were the big ones, and even those looked about a week old.

Tomorrow. She estimated that tomorrow he would be good enough to walk away (or stay!) once she told him what he needed to know.

When she got to her stop, Jazz got off the bus and approached the mostly intact building complex that was Arkham, wondering if her patients were back and if they had changed her schedule too much.

The first thing that stood out to her was how normal everything was, given the chaos of the weekend. Arkham was really used to breakouts and the staff knew what they were doing as they rolled with the punches.

Her schedule was almost the same. Huh.

The only difference now was that some of the less dangerous inmates have been moved to Blackgate to make room for the returned escapees while the reparations of the thrashed floors finished.

Jazz tried to joke about the whole thing and connect with her patients, but only Edward really followed her conversation. They didn't make much progress, he spent the whole assigned hour talking about his foiled plans and the even bigger plans he had for "next time"; but at least he didn't spend the time frowning and pouting and/or insulting her.

It was finally lunch break, and Jazz decided to eat outside instead of the bleak cafeteria. It was cloudy and it was probably going to rain later, but it wasn't uncomfortable to be outside if you had a good jacket.

She blushed when she remembered the feeling of Jason's jacket around her shoulders. She missed his warmth so much. Maybe he was ok enough to cuddle on the sofa and watch a movie once she got back?

She texted him to check, but he didn't answer. He could be still sleeping, she left him conked out on her bed (she insisted, and slept on her sofa), and he needed the rest, so she just left the open question and he would answer when he woke up.

Jazz also set up a reminder to buy snacks and cookies before getting home. No good movie night lacked cookies and snacks.

"Miss Fenton?"

"Doctor Fenton, please." She corrected without looking up, annoyed. Because she was young and a woman, a lot of people made that mistake.

The voice hummed, and that sounded familiar.

She looked away from her phone, blinking at the face of a person she never thought she'd ever meet in person. What kind of business did Bruce Wayne have in Arkham? Sure, he was involved in a lot of charities and stuff, and Wayne Enterprises had a division for almost anything, but Jazz hadn't heard of anything that justified Bruce Wayne in her workplace.

She tried not to go into fight mode, choosing to put her phone in her pocket and stand up from the bench.

"Mr. Wayne," she nodded politely, trying not to show how wary she was. She didn't have many good experiences with rich middle aged men, and even if she was positive this man wasn't a crazy halfa obsessed with adopting Danny and taking the throne from him, it didn't hurt to be prepared for the worst.

The man smiled. "My mistake, doctor."

His body language was deliberately open and relaxed, and for the untrained eye he would be a kind man looking for casual conversation, but she watched and studied people for a living and could see that there was nothing uninterested in their conversation.

Still, she played along. "It's okay. How can I help you? Need directions?"

He was already shaking his head. "I've heard you had some interesting ideas about changing Arkham and I wanted to know more?"

"What did Dylan tell you?"

Dylan, her boss, hated her. He didn't like her since the day she started, and everyone knew it, but since he didn't actually try to bully her she just ignored him. People were entitled to their opinions, and she knew she couldn't please everybody, because that's life.

But the idiot not only rejected her proposals for activities that the inmates would actually like, he also laughed at her and her ideas. "You are too fresh, too new, to understand, Jazzy." She hated the nickname and told him so, but he insisted they were all friends in the Asylum and that formalities weren't needed when it was just them. "Come back when you have acquainted yourself with the real world, ok?"

That she was inexperienced didn't mean she was stupid. She knew what she was doing, she knew how people like the inmates behaved and thought, her plans were solid.

It wasn't difficult to tie Dylan to the obvious embezzlement operation going on, but since she didn't have proof she couldn't take it to the police.

"He told me… interesting things about you."

She arched an eyebrow at Bruce Wayne. "I can imagine what things he said," she rolled her eyes, unamused. "How can I help you?" She repeated.

Bruce tilted his head, as if thinking about something. "I wanted to know about that escape room plan for the Riddler?"

Even if she didn't trust him and this was too good to be true, her eyes lit up. Bruce Wayne, the Prince of Gotham, was filthy rich and very influential. With the support of this man she could do the things she had planned that could really make a difference.

She didn't have to be friends with the man, she didn't need to trust him. She just needed to convince him.

Good thing she always kept her powerpoints in the cloud and synced to her phone.

"Sure thing!"

She spent the rest of her lunch break explaining the escape room plans and what resources she would need and exactly where those would go. She went a bit overboard and explained her theories about The Riddler persona enabling a self-destructive behavior in Edward and that Batman was part of the problem by playing into his fantasies.

Mr. Wayne listened and didn't make many comments, nodding and humming in the correct parts. She feared he was just humoring her, getting ammo to make fun of her later about her "childish fantasies", Dylan's words; but he asked her to elaborate on certain details, showing that he was indeed listening.

Soon, her break was over. She had covered the whole escape room project, but nothing about the others.

"Maybe you can tell me more over coffee when you are done with work?"

It seemed fake that a busy man like had time for coffee with her, a simple doctor, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. She knew she would be consumed with the what ifs.

"Of course, do you have a place in mind?"

His answering smile was kind but his eyes were pure ice. "I'll pick you up, don't worry about it."