Gifts From the Sea, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl

Batfam Bingo 2019: AU: Zoo

Chapter 6 - Currents (rough draft 2)

Bruce started lining his sleeping bag with plastic so that Dick could cuddle with him every night. Bruce was also very glad that his parents were billionaires, because it meant he could afford hiring a college kid to housesit his apartment and bring him meals and clean clothes every day. He basically lived at ABAZ, with his sympathetic coworkers helping to conceal this fact from Ryan and the others who disliked him. On his alleged days off when it was too risky to be in the employee areas, he wandered the park in street clothes and tried not to give in to the accusing Puppy Eyes Dick fixed him with during each tour in the designated mer display hours.

It was a lot harder to play with Dick in the habitat, and the office was marginally more comfortable to camp out in than the space behind the habitat's decorative vegetation was, so Bruce started carrying Dick back and forth between the display area and the calf's behind-the-scenes pool every day. Dick soon grew very comfortable with this, and Amanda once sent Bruce a video she'd snatched of Dick cheerfully chittering and signing in Bruce's arms as his tail wagged in enthusiasm.

Dick's T-shirt collection was also growing. Amanda and the others had started a contest, bringing garments as gifts to Dick and earning a point for every day he chose one of the shirts they'd given him to wear. Bruce was still far in the lead with his star shirt, but an awful standard blue, sky blue, and gold monstrosity from Amanda was in second place - everyone had caught on quickly that the mer favored shiny, colorful, or novel styles best.

Management had forbidden the use of ASL and conversational English toward Dick after investigators came to investigate abuse claims. The investigators had spent some time behind closed doors with Ryan and Judy, then proclaimed ABAZ innocent of any wrongdoing in their report. Even so, human language was declared 'detrimental to the mer's mental development,' and many guests were frustrated at being immediately shut down whenever they tried to sign at the mer.

Bruce only dared to continue teaching Dick ASL and English in secret, mostly at night. During the day, they kept most of their communication confined to mer language, their signs muted. Management didn't seem to have a problem with the vocal part of it, and the silver lining was that Bruce got a lot more practice in. Eventually, Dick even stopped laughing at his attempts to click and whistle like a mer.

Dick's fame and his display hours increased. Eventually, select researchers were allowed to study the calf; many more visited the park as guests and observed what they could from the public side of the tank.

"Would you consider him to be an animal?" one of them asked Bruce as the kids were taking a few minutes to press against the tank and take pictures of Dick. The mer was being cooperative today, swimming slowly to show off his shining scales and delicate fins.

"I...I'm not qualified to...answer that." Bruce honestly didn't know how he would answer the question. It suddenly occurred to him that he could ask the mer himself.

"Do you think his intelligence is equal to that of a human?"

"I have no idea what his intellectual limits are, but he is pretty smart."

"What are some examples of his intellectual capacity?" the woman asked intently, no longer bothering to hide her notepad.

"He...I'm not sure I'm- allowed to answer that, but... Well, he understands new tasks pretty quickly, if I explain it right. Whether he actually performs or not is another matter, but he usually knows what we want him to do."

"Could you give any specific examples?"

"Well, like... If he needs to be groomed, we'll say 'Time for grooming' and point at the mat, and he'll hop out of the pool and lie on it so we can go over his tail. Or if we tell him to pose for a picture, he really does pose, just like a human child would. If he doesn't feel like doing it at the moment, we can- you can just- tell. It's not that he's confused, he knows perfectly well what we want and he just doesn't want to do it."

"What about counting? Or finding things, or identifying colors or pictures? Have you tested him on any of that?"

"Sometimes, yes. He's almost as good at those tasks as a human equivalent would be."

"Music?"

"We've played all sorts of stuff for him. He seems to like boy bands a lot, and he really likes circus and calliope music."

The woman's eager questioning was interrupted by a couple of the kids getting into a tussle, and Bruce realized he was running late and needed to get started with the next group.

o.o.o

"Dick," Bruce asked that night, after doing his best to explain the difference between humans and animals, "are you an animal? Yes or no?"

Dick looked at him for a while. "Why?" he finally asked.

"Human beings think that mer are animals, but I want to know if you think you are an animal."

"...No animal," Dick finally signed.

"Are you a human being?"

"NO," was the immediate reply.

"Okay," Bruce said softly, stroking the calf to soothe him. "It's okay. I was just curious." He didn't bother to ask whether Dick saw himself as a person or not, because the answer was already obvious.

o.o.o

A documentary called Siren Song was released, about the controversy of keeping mer and other marine mammals in captivity. A long segment featured the tragic incident where Dick's parents had been killed, followed by a shorter segment on Dick himself. Bruce had been sent a copy of the film by the producer he'd spoken to, and watched it on his phone late at night with Dick curled up against his side.

He tried to skip over the scene when he thought it was coming, but didn't skip far enough, and Dick clawed at his hands when the calf caught a glimpse of his parents. "Dick," Bruce warned, "this scene is very sad and scary. You will watch your mom and dad die. There will be blood. It will be sad and scary."

"I want Mom and Dad."

"They are dead. This video will show your mom and dad hurting and dying. Do you understand?"

"Mom and Dad dead."

"You will watch them die."

Tears were streaming down Dick's face. "Yes."

Thankfully, the actual footage didn't include the most graphic parts. Bruce still held Dick close as the sequence played, and backed it up when the calf wanted to see it again, commentary and interviews and all.

"Mom and Dad dead. People kill them."

"Dick," Bruce asked softly, "why did your mom and dad attack the humans?" It was pretty easy to guess, even without knowing mer language, and now that he did, he was startled to realize he recognized a bit of what the adult mer had said in their final moments. Whenever he got some time alone, he wanted to watch the raw, leaked footage again and see how much he could understand.

"Dad must get out. GET OUT. Must be free or die. Humans hurt him. Mom protects her- Teach me."

"Her mate? Her husband? 'Mate' is who she has babies with. 'Husband' is who she has babies with and loves and stays with forever."

"Husband. People hurt Dad. Mom says 'DO NOT HURT HUSBAND' and protects him. She is weak, they kill her. Dad is weak, they kill him. Baby me is alone."

After a long time, Bruce murmured, "I wish I could help you. I wish I could make it better for you. But I am weak, too, and I can't protect you."

"...You...have good hugs. And good T-shirts. You are nice, I like you."

"I like you, too, Dick. ...I love you. Very much. I love you."

The calf looked at him with his liquid sapphire eyes. "Boose."

"Yes?"

"Pu' me in water. Good water. There. Real water."

"It...Dick...if I take you away and put you in the ocean...they will put me in jail. They will lock me up in a small room, and I can't...get out." He swallowed, struck cold by the irony.

"B. I am in small room. I can't get out."

Bruce swallowed as he stared at the ceiling, holding this precious child in his arms, trying to accustom himself to the idea of setting Dick free and probably being arrested for theft of a creature worth millions of dollars.

Dick relaxed. "Boose, ssshhh. Okay. Okay, Boose, sssshhh. I stay in small room, not you. Come play with me in small room. ...Why do you cry?! I am confused!"

o.o.o

Siren Song caused a public outcry. Although Sandy's Ocean World got the brunt of it, ABAZ and other companies in the industry were affected, too. Letters and phone calls poured in; social media was on fire; celebrities and politicians spoke out against holding mer in captivity.

Bruce was startled to come back to Dick's pool after a shower and find a stranger crouched on the edge, signing to a wary Dick who was hovering out of arm's reach.

"May I see your visitor's badge, please?" Bruce asked at once.

The man startled and straightened up, but then smiled charmingly and quickly flashed a badge of some sort. It didn't look like any sort of badge associated with ABAZ.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Bruce said firmly.

"Do mind answering a few questions first?" the man asked without missing a beat.

Bruce moved far away from him and held out his arms; Dick immediately rushed to him. "There are cameras filming us right this moment. I can't be seen talking to you. I need to take Dick to his habitat, and then I'll be escorting you out." He stood up with the clingy, nervous mer in his arms.

"Oh, sure, that's fine, that's fine."

"Boose," Dick whispered, "he save me? He huht me?"

"I don't know, Dick," Bruce whispered back. "Even if he wants to help you, he might hurt you by accident. How did he get in?" Dick pointed at the inner fence. "He climbed over the fence?"

"Tea'cch me."

"That thing is a fence. 'Climb' means to pull yourself on something that is higher than you. Did he climb the fence?"

"Yes."

"What are you telling him?" the man asked keenly as they headed toward the mer habitat. "How come you're not signing?"

"We don't use sign language anymore, because we've found that it puts his development at risk," Bruce said mechanically. "I'm not telling him anything, I'm just, you know." He smiled awkwardly. "He's like my baby." He looked at Dick and tried to coo. "Aren't you, little guy? Aren't you my sweet, sweet baby? Yes you are. Yes you are."

The corner of Dick's mouth was quirking in amusement, and he crooned at Bruce in mer speech, "The big baby wants to be loved? Ooohh, yes, I love you, big baby, your little baby lo~ves you."

Now it was Bruce who was trying not to laugh. He loved this silly kid so much.

"Why does he wear clothes if he's just an animal?" the man wanted to know.

"Er..." Flustered by the stranger and the potential risks to both Dick and to his job, Bruce had completely forgotten to remove the mer's shirt. "He likes shiny things, so sometimes we give him shiny things like...this T-shirt to play with when he's not on display." He reached the employee entrance to the habitat and turned around. "You can't come in here."

The man raised his phone instead of answering, at the same moment Dick put his arms around Bruce's neck. Bruce recognized the precursor to having his photo taken, but didn't have time to actually react. When he saw the picture later, it was of him scowling hard as he clutched Dick protectively, the T-shirt-clad calf embracing him and kissing his jaw. The photo would soon go viral, partially as fodder for both the pro- and anti-captivity movements, but also just because the general public seemed to find it adorable.

For now, though, Bruce growled, "Stay back." He struggled to get the door unlocked with his arms full of mer, and it was Dick who actually pushed it open for him. As soon as Bruce stepped inside, he nudged the door shut with his butt. He got the calf in the water and then called security.

"Boose?"

"You're okay, chum. Everything's okay."

Dick touched his palm to Bruce's chest, feeling his elevated heart rate. "Boose scared."

"I- No- ...Maybe."

"Bad man?"

"I don't know. I don't know, Dick. I'm pretty sure he wanted to help you, but people who try to help when they don't know what they're doing, sometimes they make it worse. I- I was scared you might get hurt. I'm scared I might lose my job and be locked away from you. I-"

He heard the door start to open behind him. Without turning around, he made a sharp, businesslike gesture and commanded, "Arms up."

"No," Dick replied in mer language, though more out of mischief than rebellion. He liked seeing Bruce squirm whenever the man was caught between his bosses' desires and his own.

"Arms up."

"I'm keeping this pretty thing~" Dick trilled, and dove backward into the water, splashing Bruce with his tail on the way.

"What happened?" Ryan demanded, and Bruce turned to see him standing there with Mark.

"He climbed the fence, then followed me when I tried to get Dick away from him. I called security as soon as my hands were free."

"What did you tell him? Did you tell him anything?" Ryan asked sharply.

"I was trying to get rid of him. I was distracted trying to keep Dick safe, but I did my best."

Bruce stood there and let Ryan rant at him for a while, then, when he realized the man was just getting angrier, started apologizing a lot, pretending to be upset and contrite. That did calm Ryan down, and the man coldly demanded that Bruce get Dick's shirt off, since clothing animals in the display habitats was forbidden.

"All right." Bruce turned to the water, where a distressed-looking Dick was watching from a distance. "Dick! Come!"

"Make bad him go away first!" Dick chittered in mer language.

Bruce, trying not to let on how much he understood, made a show of studying the situation, then told Ryan, "I think he's afraid of you. Could you move back, please?"

Ryan moved forward instead, right up to the edge of the pool. "DICK! COME!" he bellowed.

The calf gasped fearfully and dove.

"I'll get some fish," Mark offered.

"No," Ryan snapped. "It looks as though Richard has not earned his next meal. He goes on half-rations until he becomes more compliant."

Bruce felt a rush of indignant heat surge through his body, but managed to keep his mouth shut until Ryan had stormed out of the habitat. Then he sat down on the edge of the pool, trembling a little with suppressed rage.

"Bruce," Mark said quietly after a moment, "seriously. Did you tell him anything?"

"No," Bruce snapped.

"Did he see you talking to Dick?"

"Not really. I was...baby-talking at Dick for a minute, just...messing around, but no. I didn't sign or converse. I didn't cooperate with whoever that was, either. You can check the cameras."

Dick slowly approached, looking worried. "Safe?" he chirped anxiously, "Not-safe?"

Bruce sighed and said wearily, "Arms up."

"I want to keep it!"

Bruce shifted his shoulders a bit to block his hands from Mark and signed as small as he could, "Later." He was pretty sure Mark wouldn't turn him in for breaking the rules as long as he wasn't actually hurting anything, but he knew that betrayals sometimes happened and didn't want to risk it.

"I want to keep it," Dick pouted, but finally raised his arms and allowed the shirt to be pulled off.

"Dickie," Mark murmured, kneeling and reaching out slowly. Dick shied away and grasped Bruce's pant leg, but allowed Mark's fingers to run through his hair and scratch gently at his scalp as if he was a kitten. "We care about you. We just want to keep you safe, okay?"

Dick patted his own chest and looked indignant.

"I know you like your T-shirts, buddy, but it's showtime now. You can have it back tonight, all right?"

Dick squeaked plaintively and opened his mouth to ask for food.

Mark winced. "Sorry, kiddo. I mean-" He looked at Dick for a long moment. "...Kiddo." He slowly caressed the calf's hair again, staring at him. Dick stared back with his best Puppy Eyes, probably not sure what was expected of him but knowing he couldn't go wrong with his signature heart-melting expression. "There was no reason to cut back his food," Mark suddenly hissed, and stormed out.

"He mad at me?" Dick signed anxiously.

"He is guilty, and mad at himself," Bruce explained. "Go swim; I have to play tour guide now."

"Everyone look at small pretty prisoner," Dick signed sourly.

Bruce sighed deeply and kissed the top of his head, then headed out to his assignment.

TBC