"Do you have to go?" Selina Kyle- just recently, Selina Wayne- sighed, looking across the room at her husband. She already knew the answer. Bruce pulled the gloves of his Batman suit over his hands and then looked up at her, his cape tight around his neck. The hem of the heavy bulletproof fabric had begun to fray and tear with age. She watched him, and a small sigh escaped her lips.
She got out of the bed and began getting dressed. Zipping her jacket over her chest, she turned and then jumped when Bruce was right behind her. "I hate it when you do that," she breathed, laughing for a moment. She looked up into his eyes, the icy color of the sky through a frosted windowpane in winter. He leaned down and kissed her slowly, gently; he savored it for as long as he could before breaking away. Selina's hand rested on his chest, and she looked down. "That twenty-four hours went so fast, I..." She sighed quietly again and laid her forehead against his chest. "I don't want it to be over."
"I know." Bruce ran his thumb along her cheek. "I don't want to go either."
"It's not like we have a choice, though," she sighed, knowing those would be his next words. He nodded.
"But that doesn't make it any easier." He kissed her forehead. "Make sure you stay safe. Don't do anything reckless," he warned.
"When have you ever known me to be careful?" she purred, stroking the streaks of gray in his jet black hair just above his ear.
"Never," Bruce smiled a little, "that's why I worry so much."
"Well the feeling is mutual," Selina looked down, crossing her arms.
"I'm always careful." Bruce lifted her chin. "Except when you don't want me to be," he amended with a smirk. She laughed a little, but she couldn't hide her worry or her sadness. Selina had been off for months now, depressed; and it pained Bruce to know that there was little to nothing he could do about it.
"Hey," his hand cupped her chin, "we've worried like this every goodbye, but we've always come back all right."
"I know," she breathed. For a moment her eyes lingered, locked with his, and then she reached up and brought his lips to hers, pulling his hair as she closed her eyes tight and kissed him with everything she had. She kissed him until she felt lightheaded, and had to move away to breathe, and then she was kissing him again. Her lips pressed to his, she burst into tears. "Don't leave me," she begged, her hand balling into a fist in his hair as she cried. Bruce pulled her close.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled, stroking her hair. "I'm so sorry."
Selina dropped her head onto his chest, grabbing hold of his cape and pulling him closer. It took her a minute to control herself again, and she wiped the tears away from her face, not looking up at him. Their spacious, luxurious bedroom was quiet as she remained still for a long time. They lived in the penthouse at the top of Wayne Tower, and it had already been well furnished with a massive, king sized bed, silk sheets, and a spacious closet. Floor to ceiling panoramic windows made up the outer wall, looking out over the city. "I- I m-miss makeup," Selina whispered, laughing a bit, trying to lighten the mood after her outburst. "I miss eyeliner and mascara and- and getting red on your lips when we kissed," she smiled a little, touching his lips as she finally met his eyes again. There was shame in hers, shame that she couldn't be stronger for him, and she looked away again.
"I love you with or without it," Bruce told her. "You're beautiful no matter what. Selina," he gently nudged her chin so she'd look at him, "everything is going to be okay."
You always say that, she thought, but she smiled. "Okay. I love you, Bruce. Just… come back." She couldn't bring herself to say 'come home'. This wasn't a home. As she took his hand and they walked out of the bedroom towards the elevator in the living room, she stepped closer to him, wrapping her other hand around his arm. Dick met them when the elevator doors opened with a smile. They got onto the elevator and Bruce pressed the button.
"Morning, Captain," he quipped, looking exhausted, but relieved to finally be able to rest. "Things went well last shift. There was a fire, no one was hurt, it got put out pretty quick. Candle tipped over. Cassandra moved the family to another home and we got it sorted out. Otherwise, nothing to report. Nothing out of the ordinary," he smiled again.
"Good. How many civilians are trying to enter the city?"
"We have a group of about nine; they say they trekked here from Metropolis. I didn't ask anything more, figured you'd want to assess them more than that and… I didn't ask about Superman," he looked at Bruce carefully.
Bruce nodded. "I hope they all pass quarantine. How's the Arkham situation?"
"Solid. No one's left Uptown Gotham. The Arkham City doors are open for the 'residents' to move about, if they want. Mostly for scavenging. They hardly ever leave, though. Infected and Inmates. From what I hear the Joker drove most of the Infected to Arkham Island."
"Good. We'll keep all patrols steady." He smiled gently. "Get some rest."
"I'm going to go see Babs first, but gladly," Dick smiled in return, giving Selina a hug as the elevator doors opened into the garage level below the building and Selina and Bruce left him alone in the elevator.
"Be careful," Selina whispered, looking up at Bruce. He nodded curtly.
"You too. Come home safe."
Selina glanced around the garage and then gave him a quick kiss. He had appearances to keep up, and they were on the clock.
"Love you," she whispered.
"Love you too," Bruce took her hand for a moment, and then let it go. He watched her join the Supply Run team by the trucks before walking towards the Batmobile.
He made his way down to the labs, and walked in right in the middle of a fight. Tim was pacing the floor while Barbara sat in a swivel chair, arguing with him. Dick cut them both off.
"Whoa, hey, guys. What's going on here?"
Tim and Barbara looked at each other.
"Nothing," she finally said. "A lot of 'sciency-stuff,' don't worry about it, Nightwing." He watched Tim walk back to his desk slowly, and he bit his lip.
"It didn't look like nothing, Batgirl."
"It's fine," she assured him. "We were just… having a discussion."
Dick watched her for a moment and then sighed, shaking his head. "Come on, Batgirl. You don't have to lie to me." Her eyes flashed.
"Then how about you don't lie to me. I know it's a lot worse than you've been telling me. The Infected." She crossed her arms. "Lying to me about how bad they get can't help us cure them." Her anger deflated. "We can't help them when they get that bad. There'd be no way to bring back someone who's been Infected too long. Their body is… too dead." She ran her hand through her hair. "I know you want to help them, but some of them are too far gone."
"Telling you won't make it any better, either," Dick said sternly. "It's not going to make a cure come any faster, and it's not going to help you if you get stressed and try to rush things." He watched her carefully for a moment, and then pulled her out of her chair, lacing his fingers with hers. "Can you leave? I mean... Can we... Do you have to stay here?"
"I don't know..." Barbara glanced at her desk. "I should really finish up these samples."
"That's all right." Dick smiled a little and kissed her cheek gently. Barbara couldn't help but smile; it was so comforting. "Do what you need to to save the world, Batgirl." He smoothed her red waves over her shoulder and walked away towards Tim's corner of the room, knocking on the desk. "Tim. Are you okay?" he asked, when he saw his brother sitting with his head in his hands, his elbows planted on a table littered with torn up and crumpled paper.
"Don't call me Tim. We can't use our civilian names, you know that."
"Red Robin. You look like you need a break," Dick said sternly, watching him.
"I'm fine." He rubbed his eyes behind his mask. "I need to keep working."
"You'll be no use to anyone if you die from exhaustion," Dick insisted, and he grabbed Tim's arm to haul him out of his chair. "I'm asking for an hour of your time. An hour where you just unwind for a bit. Okay?"
"Okay, okay." Tim stretched. "One hour."
"Good." Dick took his jacket off, laying it over Tim's chair before they walked through the labs and out into the hallway. Dick led his brother to the elevator, and they got on; he pressed the button for the floor where the small employee cafeteria had been, now holding food rations for the people who lived in Wayne Tower, mostly heroes and scientists. Dick leaned against the elevator wall. "How are you and Stephanie?" he asked, nudging Tim's boot with his to get his attention.
"Okay I guess." He shrugged. "I've been pretty busy."
"Yeah, I know, because I always see Steph. Sans you." Dick sat up as the elevator doors opened. He and Tim stepped out and walked to the cafeteria in silence, their boots clicking on the dirty linoleum floor. They made their way to the kitchen where the cabinets were filled with food rations, and Dick opened one. Rummaging around, he laughed. "So it looks like... Military food or junk food, what would you like? I think there are some fresh vegetables from the gardens in the park... What'll ya have, Master Drake?" he asked, digging out two styrofoam plates.
"Military," Tim said distractedly. "I could use the protein."
"But..." Dick held up a bag of chips. "Alright, fine, you eat your stuff I'll eat mine." He gave Tim a plate with the bag of food on it, and then tossed him a water bottle. Tucking his bag of chips under his arm, he opened a can of soda. "You know, it's things like this we thought we wouldn't have the luxury of. Sweets and junk food. But it's really the only stuff to survive." He chuckled. "People used to complain about packaging. Now we're able to feed the city off of cans and bags and tubs of things that will never go bad because it's fossilized in layers of plastic and cardboard."
"If only we could find a way to power the city on Twinkies," Tim laughed.
"We could burn them," Dick pondered, smiling, glad to hear Tim laugh.
"I'll get the best scientific minds on it." Tim gathered up his food, and they headed for a table. Dick sat down beside him.
"You really are doing amazing, you and Babs. Considering how little you have to work with... I'm proud of you. So is everyone else."
"Proud but disappointed," Tim corrected. "Everyone thought we'd have a cure by now."
"Regardless. You make me proud. Your progress. I wouldn't be able to do it, and I'm impressed. So is Damian." Dick tried to reassure him, shoving a handful of chips in his mouth.
"And Damian must be impressed at all costs?" Tim forked a piece of food into his mouth as he rolled his eyes.
"He is. Come on, Tim, you still holding a grudge? It's been ages. He doesn't hate you anymore," Dick laughed.
"Hey, I never hated the little demon. Although it is nice not having to worry about getting a knife in my back while I sleep." Tim twisted the cap off of the bottle of water and took a swig.
"Remember the first time you met? God, he was a hateful, jealous little thing..." Dick glanced at Tim and smiled.
"At least he didn't want to kill you!" Tim laughed. "He liked you; I was a target."
"Well you were kind of a dick to him, too. And not in my sense of the word," he laughed, taking a drink of his soda. The building was silent outside of the cafeteria and outside of their conversation.
"Because he threatened me!" Tim defended.
"True. But he did grow up in the League of Assassins. I mean when you finally did snap and fight back, you nearly killed him, so I guess it's good that you didn't settle your differences when you met. He never would have come back." Dick smirked, elbowing Tim. He laughed.
They talked for a while longer, lazily munching on the food once they'd had their fill. After a few minutes of silence, Dick glanced at Tim. "So how are you and Stephanie? Really," he watched him earnestly, finishing his soda.
"We're fine."
Dick looked at him quizzically. "Really? So you're-"
"Help! Help, somebody- where's Dick?!" A voice shouted in the hall.
Dick and Tim looked at each other, abandoning their food and hurrying out into the hall, just as Kate reached the door of the cafeteria. She panted, her scarlet hair falling out of the braid over her shoulder. Her aged and worn batsuit was covered in blood, splashed across the scarlet bat on her chest, and it's color seemed to make her light skin paler. Dick's face turned stone-cold, and he wordlessly followed her back the way she came and down the stairs, breaking into a run as they neared the doors to the infirmary. He caught the doorjamb with one hand and rushed into the room full of cubicles; the desks and computers and office supplies that had once been used by the work force of Wayne Enterprises had since been replaced with a cot and a chair and a shelf of blankets and medical supplies in each small space, converted into a makeshift hospital with cubicles as rooms.
Kate led them down the center row of cubicles, breaking into a run again as they came nearer to the sound of screams in one of the little rooms. Dick's heart nearly stopped at the sound. He knew the owner of the awful screaming.
Dick hurried into the cubicle where two doctors held Selina down to the cot, while another rushed back to the bed with more medical supplies. She was covered in blood, her hair matted down to her face with it. Dick turned to Kate.
"Go comm Batman. Immediately."
He stepped closer to Selina and began examining her for other wounds, trying not to panic at the bite mark on her shoulder.
"You, start cleaning her up," Dick ordered. "You, dress these wounds-" he cut away her shirt, jagged claw marks raked deep into her side- "and bandage them as quickly as you can. Make sure you clean them thoroughly." He worked quickly, unfortunately all too skilled at the job by now. "Red Robin, go get Catwoman's blood from the store freezer."
"Nightwing, that procedure's never been tested. Batgirl and I aren't even-"
"-now!" he barked, and Red Robin disappeared as Kate came back into the cubicle.
"He's on his way."
"What happened!?" Dick demanded, helping the doctor beside him; he held Selina down as he poured antiseptic on her side, and she screamed in pain again. Her back arched against the agony, and Dick planted his forearm across her shoulders, holding her down.
"We were two miles out of the city, on the mainland, and there were too many of them- we lost two officers, and- I had to get her out of there-"
"-When?" Dick looked up at her. They'd seen the process before. They knew how it progressed. And how quickly they had to act.
"Thirty, maybe forty minutes," Kate responded quickly.
Mentally going over the math in his head, Dick bit his lip. He'd seen it too many times now, too many lives lost. Half an hour or so after bitten, the victim would be fine, but then the pain kicked in. The agony as one's body dies in fast-forward. Eventually the victim blacked out. Pain tolerance only went so high, and when they finally were unconscious, that was the window.
An hour to save them or kill them. After that…
Selina went still.
After that, it's too late, Dick thought as Tim returned with the case marked with Selina's name, and they got to work.
Months ago, Barbara and Tim and the team of scientists searching for a cure had found a potential breakthrough. This mutated pathogen- turning people into zombies- mainly traveled in the bloodstream, breaking down the body until there was nothing left. Tim had hypothesized- in a window of time before the virus completely destroyed the brain- a full body exchange transfusion could potentially save a bite victim. Replacing all of the infected blood in the body with clean blood. After his theory came about, the members of the Batfamily began stockpiling their own blood- should the situation ever arise where they needed it, and so far, with gunshots and other major wounds, they had. It had never been used for something like this, however, and it had never been tested.
If it didn't work, she'd be dead anyway.
Dick knelt beside Selina as another one of the medical staff came back into the room with an IV pump and a few other things that they had salvaged from the hospital in Midtown Gotham. Dick pressed the needle into her arm and taped it in place, and then pulled the cot out so the doctor could get at her other arm to begin removing the infected blood as the clean flowed in. The other two medical staff worked with him, and Dick turned back to Tim, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"It'll work," he said quietly, watching him in earnest. Kate looked paler than usual, watching Selina on the cot.
"I'm sorry, I-"
"-there's nothing to apologize for. These things happen. All we can do is wait," he said calmly, and Kate continued to stare at Selina.
"I can't lose her like this. Not like Alfred, not like Mags…" she whispered, and Dick pulled her into his arms.
"You won't," he assured her, though he was having trouble believing it himself. "Go get some rest, Kate. Tim, I'll let you know what happens."
"And if it doesn't work?"
"Then I'll handle it."
Tim stared at him, his older brother's face cool and composed as he was breaking away inside. He nodded slowly. "I'll be in the lab."
Catching his arm, Dick pulled him back. "You'll be in your room."
"Nightwing, I-"
"Batgirl," Dick pressed his comm. "Red Robin is going to go get some rest. You can handle things, right?"
"Yeah, Nightwing, I've got it. Tell him to actually sleep this time. I heard the alarms go off, what's happening?"
"Tell you later." Dick switched his comm off again, and then gestured for Tim to go. He left as he was told to, and Bruce came through the far doors only moments later, his cape flowing behind him as he walked quickly down the center aisle. Nightwing walked to meet him.
"What happened?" Bruce demanded.
"Catwoman and Batwoman were attacked on supply run. Bruce, Selina got bitten," Dick told him quietly. Bruce froze for a second.
"Where is she?" He pushed past Dick.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Dick caught Bruce's arm, but then released it at the look of fury that he received. "I don't think you should see her like this." Bruce ignored him. He stormed forward until he saw Selina. His steps faltered. She was still unconscious, the exchange transfusion half complete, her bare torso covered with a sheet as a woman used a wet rag to try to clean some of the blood away from her face.
"We're testing Tim's theory. If we remove the Infected blood, maybe she can still be saved," Dick said quietly, standing just beside his father's shoulder.
"Maybe," Bruce repeated. He ran a hand across his face. "I shouldn't have let her out on patrol today. I should've-" he choked off. Dick's eyebrows knit.
"It wasn't your fault. These things happen, you couldn't have predicted it, and you couldn't have made her stay home." The corner of Dick's lips pulled up in a smile, and he put a hand on Bruce's shoulder.
"But she wanted me to stay home with her," he mumbled and stepped away. He walked over to Selina's cot, and the doctors shuffled around him as he stroked her hair.
"And she knew you couldn't, either," Dick said quietly. "We all know the risks, and we all know our duties. She knew what you both had to do, and she knew that you couldn't stay. There was nothing you could do."
"That doesn't make it any better," Bruce whispered. "That I couldn't have avoided this, this whole mess, the Infection, all the deaths, her attack, it doesn't make it any better." The doctor by her side stood up and took his cracked glasses off, rubbing the lenses on his coat.
"Her blood is running clean, though we don't know the extent of the damage the virus already wrought. All we can do now is wait." He looked between Dick and Bruce, and Dick nodded.
"Thanks, Mark," he said quietly, and the doctor looked down at her.
"She should wake up soon, we hope. If she wakes up at all." Bruce didn't acknowledge him.
"Dick, can you make sure someone covers my patrol?"
"Of course," Dick said quietly, nodding.
"Let the scouting missions know that if this is successful, we'll need hospital supplies for blood donations."
"Bruce, this is… That's a lot to take on. We only have the one hospital…" he trailed off at the sight of Bruce's face. Dick nodded curtly. "I'll get on that. Anything else?"
"Yes." Bruce reached for Selina's hand, running his thumb across her wedding band. "Catwoman mentioned wanting makeup. Spoiler suggested that having some for the civilians would help boost a lot of morale among the women and was going to see what she could find while scouting. Can you check on the progress of that?"
Dick smiled a little, putting his hands in his pockets. "Sure thing. Catwoman will like that."
"Thank you." Bruce didn't look at him, instead he brushed a lock of hair behind Selina's ear. Dick watched him quietly for a moment, and then turned around, leaving Bruce alone with her. He went slowly down the rows of cubicles. He prayed that Selina would be alright, though they'd never found something that could stop the virus completely. He sighed slowly and pressed his comm.
"Nightwing to Batwoman. You and Spoiler were scheduled for patrol tomorrow. Would you like a third member in your party or do you think you can handle it?"
"We have a couple GCPD officers who are going to come out with us, so we'll be set," Steph told him. "Make sure the big guy takes it easy."
"Don't worry. I think that's covered," Dick said quietly. "And Spoiler- Bats said that you mentioned something about makeup for the citizens, and he thinks Selina will want some if she wakes up. Think you could raid a Hy Vee, see what you can find? We can distribute it to the citizens when you return."
"Sure thing Bossman. Now enjoy your day off."
"I will, thanks. Be careful. And Red Hood, Robin- you too. Stay safe. Let's not repeat what just happened, we don't even know if we can save her yet. So don't do anything stupid." He switched his comm off, knowing they'd heard. As he walked into the lab, Dick noticed that there was hardly anyone there. He watched Barbara dance in her seat a bit, humming a song, before she noticed him standing there and jumped. He wordlessly pulled a chair up beside her desk and pulled his blood splattered gloves off. "Selina got bit. We tried the blood exchange transfusion theory that Tim coined- all we can do now is hope it works."
"Oh my gosh," Barbara gasped. "Did they get all the Infected blood out? Did the transfusion go smoothly? Is she okay? Where's Bruce?"
"Bruce is with her. Everything went smoothly, and they said her blood was running clean- I just hope that it worked before any major damage was done." Dick sighed sadly and put his head down on her desk. "This is hard, being Batman."
"You're doing it well," Barbara assured him. She put a hand on his shoulder.
"I could do a lot better if you would tell me exactly what we're up against." He turned his head on her desk to look up at her. Making sure there was no one else in the room, Dick took his mask off and rubbed his eyes, reddened and tired looking. "You promise me every time I come in here that you will tell me what this is, the details, the science of it all, and you never do. I'm left thinking of these people as zombies rather than disease victims."
Barbara sighed. "They are disease victims, but so are you. We all are, and not in that 'it affects all of us' bullshit. We're all disease victims." She grabbed Dick's arm. "We're all Infected. The disease runs through everyone's veins. Yours, mine, Bruce's." She absentmindedly traced one of his veins in his hand. "You die, you become like them. They bite you, you become like them. But it doesn't matter. We're all Infected anyway. Even if we kill every last 'zombie,' every time someone dies, or gets hurt or sick even, we'd have to worry. So I guess considering them zombies doesn't matter. They are zombies. We're all Infected, but we're not like them. And if we're not careful, we could be."
Dick stared at her in shock. "I… Have you told anyone else this?" He sat back in the chair, running his hands through his hair as he let out a slow sigh. "That's… terrifying, Barbara, have you kept that to yourself this whole time?" He again fixed her with a worried stare, lines forming on his forehead and between his knit brows. His pale eyes looked so tired.
"We all know in here." She glanced around the quiet lab. "Bruce knows. But what good does it do to tell everyone? All it would do is cause panic." She sighed and rubbed her temples. "Why do you think you still have to patrol for the Infected even though we've gotten the outbreak under control again and again… and again?" She looked up at him seriously. "Because the 'healthy' people are Infected too. The people with no immunity were the first ones to develop symptoms. When they bit someone was- we thought- the only way to spread the disease. But..." She trailed off. "Come here."
Barbara grabbed Dick's hand and pulled him up, dragging him across the lab. She went to a computer and typed at the keyboard. Two video recordings from a microscope were brought up.
"This is fully Infected blood… and this is a completely healthy person's blood from before the outbreak." The healthy person's blood looked like the textbook example of red blood cells. The zombie's was black, and swollen, and still. Barbara typed some more into the keyboard. "And this is all of us." The next microscopic image was of lethargic and swollen red blood cells. "It's taken over our systems, and the white blood cells have a hard time recognizing it as hostile once it's entered our bloodstream. We're just neutral carriers. If you get bitten..." She played a video of someone injecting a needle full of Infected blood into the blood that was already showing signs. The sped up recording showed the red blood quickly being overwhelmed and swelling. "You turn. No matter what."
"Yeah, contact with an Infected's bodily fluid is bad. So saliva or blood," Dick nodded, crossing his arms.
"But," she pulled up two more videos, "the real problem is when two symptomless people share blood. Or fluids." She played both videos simultaneously. The videos showed two different samples of partially Infected blood were injected with another sample of partially Infected blood. Dick couldn't see any change in the first video, but in the second one, he watched as the blood turned black.
"When one of them bites you, chances are you get Infected with its saliva." Barbara sighed. "Or blood. Whatever. It always overrides a non Infected system. We've run all sorts of tests with every bodily fluid we could think of, and the 'healthy' people are the ones Infecting each other now. When you come into contact with someone, you may or may not be Infected by them." Everyone had varying levels of immunity to the disease. Those with no tolerance, were the first to go, and those with some resistance to the Infection were all that was left. They had yet to find a human with full immunity to help create a vaccine; they were all hosts to the Infection. "It's getting less and less likely, but we're still Infecting each other." There were less people to Infect, and those left had higher levels of tolerance to the disease. It was Darwinism sped up, but without a cure, it wouldn't matter in the end. She knew Dick; he would argue the people had the right to know something like that, so she quickly continued on. "We would have made this public, but can you imagine the panic? Physical contact can turn you. Everyone would go mad. And sometimes it doesn't even matter. We've had samples in here just change. Fully Infect themselves. We know that happens when a person dies of natural causes or otherwise, or even just gets sick, but we haven't quite figured it out. We're just," she sighed in frustration, "we're stuck."
"Barbara, you're right." Dick took her hands. "We can't tell people this... But what are they expected to do when grandpa finally croaks and he turns? They're infecting each other practically with a touch. …a kiss." Dick stroked her cheek. "They're going to find out. We just... We need to figure out what to say. They can't be kept in the dark completely, that can't be how this works." Dick looked down, some of his dark hair falling over his shoulder. He turned her hands over in his. As if he'd needed anything more to stress himself out. You can handle it, he assured himself. You have to handle it... But he was suddenly terrified. If anyone could turn at any time... He glanced at his gloves, bloodied, on the desk. "...Selina? Could she still...?"
"The most dangerous thing would be to give her clean, healthy blood. The initial contact with the Infection is the most dangerous… clearly." They both remembered the chaos of the first days of the Infection. They wouldn't dare inject her with clean, Infectionless blood. No matter how hard they tried, she'd be reintroduced to the disease somehow, and she'd run the risk of full Infection at initial contact. "The blood she was transfused with she would have given when she was already… 'Infected' or contagious like the rest of us. We just have to hope it doesn't react badly and stays," she glanced at the partially Infected cells still up on the screen, "not exactly healthy, but that her blood doesn't react. That's all we can do."
Dick bit his lip and looked down. He leaned against the desk and ran his hands through his hair, taking a deep breath. "So what do we do? Is there any way... I mean suddenly the need for a cure is a lot more urgent, Babs," Dick whispered, not looking up as he stared at his boots.
"You think I don't know that?" She looked around. "You think we don't know that?"
"I know you know that, I just meant-" Dick tried to speak, but she talked over him.
"You think we don't know how unfair it is to have to lie to a person's family about how they could have possibly come into contact with an Infected instead of telling them it was them? It was them trying to enjoy what little life they had that turned them or that we just don't know-"
"-That's why we need a cure, Barbara, but you can't just-"
"-I know, okay!? I know we need a cure, and we're trying." She stormed over to a fridge holding samples. "We have samples from the original sources, and nothing! Their physiology is too different. Even Superman's. We're trying. We've been trying for a whole year, and we're still not any closer."
"Barbara!" Dick snapped angrily, and then his voice and his face softened, yet the creases between his eyebrows remained. He crossed to her and took her face in his hands. His blue eyes met hers, nearly the same color, and he sighed slowly. "Babs. Breathe, okay? Listen to me. I know you're trying. These things take time and effort and work." Dick closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers. "I didn't mean to make you feel rushed. I just meant... We have work to do. We can do this."
"Can we?" She leaned back to look into his eyes. "Can we really, Dick?"
"Hey." He smiled, and for a brief moment, he looked like the goofy kid she'd first met in a mask and a gold cape. The Robin that she'd come to know. "If you lose faith in you, don't lose faith in me. I'm here to help. I'm not going to let you down," Dick whispered with another smile, stroking her cheek. "I won't let you throw in the towel."
"I know, I know." Barbara looked down, putting her hand over his.
"Good." He kissed her head and pulled her close, holding her for a moment before stepping back and taking her hand. "Now will you please take a break?"
"Didn't we just talk about how important it is for me to keep working?" she asked with a small smile.
"Not if you keep running yourself into the ground like this," he pointed out. "Come on. Come lie down for an hour or two with me. Isn't that incentive enough?" He chuckled, wrapping an arm over her shoulders. "Rest your eyes, get some sleep, clear your head." As they walked past her desk, he picked up his mask.
"Usually your proposals for lying down for an hour don't involve me getting some sleep," Barbara pointed out, rolling her eyes.
"Well I've been awake for three days. I mean I'm all for that, sure, but..." He shrugged, guiding her out of the lab. "I'm also exhausted."
"Are we counting coffee as a good night's sleep?" she asked. "If so then I'm still doing pretty good." Dick laughed again.
"You probably get more sleep than me, able to stay here every day. Must be nice. We're definitely taking a nap," he concluded, getting on the elevator. They got out a few floors from the top of the building, where executive offices had been converted to bedroom spaces, and Dick opened his door for her, closing it behind him. He barely gave himself time to take his jacket and his utility belt off before he immediately flopped down onto the bed face first, his dark hair dumping over the pillows as he sighed happily.
"You haven't cleaned a bit," she mumbled. "Still as messy as always." She snaked her way under the covers and wrapped herself in them as she buried her face in a pillow. Dick laughed quietly and looked up at her, getting under the covers. In an instant he had let down his guard, and in his face she could see how much he truly hid every day; his exhaustion, his pain, his sadness- Dick sighed quietly and closed his eyes.
"My favorite part of the week," he yawned. Barbara reached over and pushed his face.
"Go to sleep, Boy Wonder."
He laughed, some of his dark hair falling over his face as he reached for her and pulled her close, gently taking her cowl off before burying his face in her hair. "You too, Batgirl."