Gifts From the Sea, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl

Batfam Bingo 2019: AU: Zoo

Chapter 9 - Seeking Shelter (rough draft 2)

The minute they reached land, Bruce marched off the boat, silently pushing past everyone who tried to speak to him. He got into Amanda's car and she drove him up the road until they could be reasonably sure they hadn't been followed, then carefully doubled back to get to the marina where Bruce had already had his yacht sent up. Since he was taking a leave of absence and would probably quit working at ABAZ soon, he bid Amanda an emotional goodbye and sailed out into the dark sea.

He spent three days drifting around the area where he'd last seen Dick, a hydrophone in the water constantly playing the mer's favorite music. Bruce spent hours prowling around the boat or working intently on his computer, remembering to eat only because Alfred had taken to calling him regularly to remind him.

It was just past 7:00 p.m. on the fourth evening when Bruce heard a sound that made his heart wrench.

"...B...B...!"

He ran to the lower deck. He was incredibly happy and relieved to see his boy, but horrified at the sight of the half-healed scratches on the mer's shoulders and neck. "Dickie!" The deck on that part of the boat was too high above the water for him to reach. "Dick, go down that way! Over there, Dick; I can't reach you here!"

He ran, hearing Dick sob in devastation behind him. "DICKIE! HERE!" he screamed, yanking the gate open. "I'M RIGHT HERE, DICKIE, SWIM TO ME! SWIM TO ME, CHUM, I'M RIGHT HERE!"

His heart pounded because it took longer than it should have, but Dick finally came slowly approaching. Bruce stretched out his arm as far as he could, Dick tentatively reached, and as soon as their fingers touched, Bruce seized the boy's hand, dragged him close, and hauled him onto the deck and into his arms.

Dick wept and shivered, and Bruce looked in horror at the bedraggled and missing scales on the child's tail, the cuts on his back, and the way his ribs showed deeply through his thin skin. Even the mer's slimy protective layer seemed to be more dry than usual; flakes would soon form on any unsubmerged flesh. "My God, Dickie, oh my God, here, let's get you to, come on, I'm here, Dickie, I'm here, hey, ssshh, it's all right..."

Once Dick was lying exhausted in a tub of saltwater, he continued to keen softly and refused to let go of Bruce. "Come on, chum, I've got to get you something to eat, you're skin and bone." He eventually had to pull the boy out of the tub, make a sling for him out of an oiled bedsheet, carry him on his back to the cold storage room, take him back to the tub, and hold the fish to his lips.

Dick nibbled, sniffling and gripping Bruce's sleeve. "It's okay, Dickie. Everything's okay now. No more zoo, no more cameras, no more effing bosses telling us what we're not allowed to do, now it's just you and me. Just you and me, chum; you're safe. You're safe, Dickie."

Dick stared at him with his liquid sapphire eyes and continued to nibble listlessly. He was still clutching Bruce tightly when he fell asleep.

o.o.o

The mer remained mute in all three languages for a day and a half. Bruce got closer to the mainland but then anchored offshore, hoping that dedicating himself to caring for the child would help Dick recover enough to give his input on any plans. Bruce diligently fed him, treated his wounds, and spent hours simply cuddling with him on the deck, where Dick lay in his arms and gazed out at the water.

At last, Dick tugged on Bruce's shirt and signed, "Hurt. Sad. Angry."

"I'm so sorry, chum. I'm so sorry they threw you in the deep end before you were ready."

"Hungry. Very hungry; rocks hurt me, animals hurt me, mer hurt me, ocean hurt me, everyone hurts me, alone and scared and hungry and hurt, where is B, where is B...?!"

Tears were stinging Bruce's eyes as he hugged his child, and Dick was trembling as he hid his face in Bruce's shirt and clutched him tight.

A little later, when they had both calmed down and were eating, Bruce said, "Dick, we can't stay here forever. I need to go to Mother and Father's house, and then I want to take you to our private island. We'll be safe there, Dick, we can live there forever if you want, we'll be right by the ocean but there's a house, too. What do you think?"

Dick started to cry.

"Dick?! What is it, what's wrong?"

"Don't leave me..."

"Never, Dickie, I will never leave you again."

"Little mer in B's cage, I will die."

"Dickie...Dickie, chum, there are no more cages, you're free, you're safe now, I will never let anyone hurt you again..."

Dick soon grew listless and unresponsive. He didn't react when Bruce put him in a hooded sweater and big sunglasses and gloves, wrapping his tail in oiled plastic and then bundling him in a wheelchair with blankets.

"Dickie, we need to practice. You have to pretend to be human, all right? Don't look at anyone or speak to anyone or touch anyone. We need to buy some supplies and then drive to my parents' home, do you understand?"

There was no response at first, but Dick started to look around when Bruce paid one of the marina workers to drive them to the nearest car rental agency.

"B, not the bad place! Not the bad place!" Dick cried in mer language.

"Human language only!" Bruce signed hastily, glancing at the curious driver. "Hah, you sound just like a dolphin, Dickie! He really loves whales and dolphins," he chatted to the driver.

"Scary Face will punish fish who says human words," Dick signed hesitantly.

"Scary Face is not here. We are pretending! Pretend to be human. The people here do not know you're a mer."

"My kid loves dolphins, too," the driver remarked. "Sails out to watch 'em all the time; why, last weekend, she saw a little baby, showed us the video..."

Bruce smiled and nodded, patting Dick to soothe him and hopefully keep him quiet.

Renting a car wasn't difficult. Bruce had a harder time keeping Dick from trying to touch and play with everything he could get his hands on.

"Oh, he can keep that," the agent chuckled when Bruce attempted to wrestle a magazine out of Dick's grip. "We replace 'em all the time, anyway."

Dick pulled off his sunglasses to get a better look at the colors; Bruce hastily pushed them back on. "Remember we have to protect your eyes, chum," he said desperately, angling himself away from the agent to sign, "Take sunglasses off in the car; keep them on when people are watching!"

"P'etty," Dick remarked, peering at a full-page ad featuring a beautiful woman.

Bruce was relieved when they were closed into the privacy of their own car. Dick did not like being separated from his favorite person, even by a few inches: he kept loudly vocalizing and grabbing at the back of Bruce's neck. Bruce had to pull over and move the boy into the front passenger seat, where Dick, happier now, proceeded to make a mess of his disguise.

"All right, but you're going to have to put everything back on again when we get to the hotel."

It turned out to be a motel, since it occurred to Bruce that a cheaper place would probably be less scrutinizing than the upscale establishments he was used to.

He bundled the mer back into his getup and the wheelchair, checked in at the front desk without incident, and was thankfully not followed by any bellhops (he wasn't sure the place even employed a bellhop) when he took his fish child and their luggage down the outdoor corridor to their room. He had specifically requested one out of sight of the pool, since Dick would not be able to swim in his disguise and Bruce didn't want to have to deny him. "Well, this is it."

Dick looked warily around the room. Bruce wheeled him to the bathroom and cleaned the tub with vinegar, filled it up, dumped a ton of salt into it, then extracted the boy from his disguise and set him into the water.

Dick looked at him. His "Are you kidding me?" expression needed no translation.

"I know it is very small and cramped, Dick, but we are traveling in secret, so this is the best I can do right now. There is a much bigger pool at my parents' house, and then when we go to the beach house, it will have its own pool and also the ocean."

Dick vocalized and thrashed to express his displeasure, soaking the tiny bathroom in less than a minute. Bruce sighed deeply and gathered towels in readiness to mop up.

Once Dick had finished his tantrum and Bruce had cleaned up, they ate a silent meal together, then watched the Disney animated version of The Little Mermaid on Bruce's phone. The mer trilled curiously and pulled the device closer. "Pretty red hair mer! I like it!"

"You like redheads, huh," Bruce remarked.

When Dick dozed off in the tub, Bruce made a nest for himself out of bedding on the thin carpet just outside the bathroom. He set his alarm for an early start time and went to sleep.

o.o.o

In the morning, Bruce debated whether it was worth trying to take a shower when he knew Dick would not want to be separated from him. The last time he had showered had been on the boat while Dick had been taking a nap, so he felt pretty grungy by now.

He set the mer on the blanket nest with a wet towel over his tail and made sure he had a phone to keep him occupied, but Dick still didn't like being separated from his human even by a thin shower curtain. He screeched and whined and then crawled over to start pulling at the curtain. Bruce washed as quickly as he could and shut the water off at the same moment the entire curtain rod came down.

Dick stared in shock, and Bruce whirled away, groping for a towel.

"...B make babies?" Dick asked in total bewilderment.

"No, I- We don't- It's not the same-" Bruce was so not ready to have The Talk with his fish child right now. "Humans have to hide our genitals with clothes," was the best he could manage, wrapping the towel around his waist.

"What is 'gettals'?"

"I- Our- baby-making things. Mer can hide them in their flesh, but humans can't, so we wear clothes."

Dick looked down at himself and started poking at his own nearly-invisible slit. Bruce was even less ready for that than for The Talk, so he scooped the boy into his arms and said wildly, "I think it's time for breakfast!"

"Fooood~!" Dick cheered, thankfully distracted.

TBC

A/N: Hydrophones are usually used for listening and recording sound underwater rather than projecting it, but apparently a few can project, and also, this is Comic Book World with its abundance of plot-convenient technology, so. X''D