Chapter 1:
That time when Red Robin ruins her couch
...
When Dr. Althia Solman came to Gatham with her five year old son Josiah six months ago from New York she never expected any of this to happen. She of course expected something to happen, this was afterall Gotham of all places, but honestly meeting one of the vigilantes of the night was not really what she had had in mind. Regular people would have tried to avoid getting caught up with Gotham's nightlife, regular people would have avoided Gotham at all cost honestly.
But no one ever said that she was a regular person. When Althia decided that Gotham was where she wanted to accept a job offer everyone in her family had protested. Their reactions had made sense, had been expected, but she took the job anyway. Because what they didn't know was that they were the reason she wanted to leave New York in the first place. Not because she hated them, not because she didn't want to be around them anymore.
Mostly it was because she needed to prove to herself that she could in fact be her own person. That she could be okay without them after everything she'd gone through. She needed this for herself. More than anything she needed this for her son.
Needed to shield him from prying eyes that lingered in New York. From people who knew her unfortunate darkness and judged her for her own humanity. Althia wouldn't raise her child under constant pressure and scrutiny to be perfect. She wasn't perfect. She was just trying to put the past behind her. Being in New York made doing that almost impossible, there were plenty of people who wanted to see her fail.
Althia wouldn't give them the satisfaction. So she took a job in another city and moved her tiny family of two despite what her family said and wanted. Thankfully her half brother had understood her reasonings and offered to help move them.
She smiled thinking about her dorky half brother, the memory of him rolling his eyes when he saw she barely brought anything from New York to Gotham. This was a fresh start, they didn't need artifacts of the past lingering in their new life. Giving her a well ment hard time about the fresh start before leaving her in Gotham with next to nothing. Althia was grateful for his understanding. Grateful that he still had her back.
Although she really didn't appreciate his current snark he was giving her over the phone. Which she supposed brought her back to the current problem. She had not been expecting anything like this to happen.
"So… what are you going to do when he wakes up?" Her brother's question pulled her away from staring at the incapacited and blood covered body laying on her couch. Althia wasn't sure what exactly she was supposed to do.
Other than continuing to heal this poor man. Which was why he was laying on her couch to begin with. She'd originally found him outside on the fire escape collapsed in the pouring rain. The mask on his face and R on his chest indicated towards Gotham vigilante vs villain so she had been inclined not to leave him out in the cold and wet covered in blood.
"Well I pulled a bullet out of his leg and then stitched it up while he was unconscious so I'll probably have to explain that first." Althia's eyes are glued to the boy's body watching the rise and fall of his chest closely. She didn't know why he ended up on her fire escape or what he had been up to to warrant such appearances but she honestly didn't care.
Everyone had their own secrets. Her only job now was making sure her impromptu patient didn't die on her watch.
"Maybe see if he had a phone on him, you could text one of his friends or something to come get him. Don't do anything stupid Alle, do Nico and I need to come?" She rolled her eyes, pressing the phone into her ear and she used her shoulder to hold it in place so she could try to wake the kid.
"Please I don't do anything stupid willingly. You and Nico can stay your butts frimley in New York. Thank you for talking me down, I am fine. I love you Will, I'll call in the morning. Bye." The call ended and she threw the phone across the room at the armchair it landed with a soft thud.
Gently she tried nudging the boy awake. He was probably less of a boy and more of an older teen but in her honest opinion only children played dress up and tried to be superheroes. He starts to stir and she wisely sits back. She watches as he shoots up in alarm before groaning and falling back.
"What the crap… Why do I feel like I got hit by a bus? Where am I?" She is sure his question is mostly rhetorical but she clears her throat causing him to look straight at her.
"I'm pretty sure you fell down the fire escape or at least landed there. And you were definitely shot. I'm Dr. Solman, I work at Gotham General, this is my apartment." Althia gives every piece of information she thinks will calm him or at least cause him not to lash out at her thinking she's going to hurt him or something.
This poor kid groaned. Rubbing his hand over his face. "Fuckig Hood." He cursed this time forcing himself to sit up, he took another look around including taking in his own injuries.
"I will buy you a new couch. Thank you for stitching me up I guess, and not removing my mask." She smiled kindly at him. The thought had never crossed her mind.
"No problem little bird. How do your injuries feel? I have pain killers in my office. I could go get for you if you need them, and please try to keep your voice down. My son is sleeping down the hall." He takes a moment to process that leaning back into the couch, there wasn't a single part of him that wanted to move. His head started to spin. Painkillers sounded nice but he needed to figure out how the hell he was supposed to get back to base now. Honestly he was very doubtful that he could either stand or grapple on his own currently.
Red Robin wasn't having an exactly pleasant night it seemed. His stupid predecessor had shot him and he'd ended up on some random person's fire escape. At least she seemed nice, she wasn't from Gotham either. New York possibly but the accent wasn't quite right. Dr. Solman… he'd heard that name before… well he'd seen it in the news technically, a Doctor from out of state coming to Gotham to work in the general hospital.
But that hadn't been the interesting thing about the article. No it was the fact that half of what she was being paid she'd been donating to different shelters and children's homes in the alley. It had been all the media was talking about, this random doctor giving back to a city she'd just moved to. That and the fact that she was the youngest female doctor to date. Early twenties, apparently she was a prodigy in the medical field.
Gotham social circles were currently losing their shit over her.
Well she seemed like an actually genuine human. At least from the little interaction they had thus far seemed to point in that direction. Red Robin was still feeling a little woozy, so he wasn't going to trust his deduction yet. Must be the blood lost.
"Do you have anyone to call? A partner or something? You're welcome to stay but I'm sure you'd be more comfortable in your own home and bed." She questioned sounding like a very concerned mother. Yeah she was a genuine person. He could see it in her eyes the way she looked at him.
There wasn't a single trace of malicious intent hidden in their gaze.
"Uhhh… yeah" he patted himself down only to discovered his stupid communicater was missing. Fuck.
"I have a landline if you want to use that, or my cell phone. I don't mind" She gets up from the position she'd been sitting in across from him on the floor walking over to grab her phone.
He accepts easily when she holds it out to him. Smiles as she speaks. "I'm going to go change so you can talk in peace. Be right back." Red Robin watches as she walks away waiting for the sound of shutting doors before typing O's extension. He sends her a quick text and then deletes the message. Oracle's hacking skills would do the rest of the hard work. Since he really couldn't be bothered right now.
So he just sat there quietly, head leaned against the back of the couch. He supposed this all could have been worse. Red Robin only looked up when he heard metal creaking outside the window. It was Nightwing. Cool.
Althia walked back into the living area just in time she wordlessly unlocked the window to let the new vigilante in after a nod from her patient. She said absolutely nothing. Asked zero questions. Wordlessly she let them go back into the night shaking her head as they disappeared in the dark.
Gods she hoped that poor kid would be okay. She reminded herself that she had done all she could and then decided that she would go to bed. Work started early in the morning and she was already going to be rising with the dawn to do something about her couch.
Shame too, since she really liked that piece of furniture.
XOXOX
I have no idea where this has come from except the fact that I can't sleep at night so I make up stories. Don't know why I typed this one out but we will see what happens. This will probably end up like my other Batman fic Before Dawn with it being less linear storyline and more random snapshots. Somehow I feel like that is the best for me when it comes to creating Batman fanfics.
The character in this story I have known for a long time, I made her up years ago when my insomnia was really bad so I know every detail about her. Her story is a slight cross over with the PJO books but only because she's a demigod and really nothing else. Althia is a BATMAN oc. I created her for this world, for the darkness of Gotham. For Jason Todd. Because I love him and he needs more love. So yeah this will be Jason/oc.
This will be crossposted on my AO3 account under the same author and story name, so yeah.
Updates will be sporadic because I am a wife, mom and college student. I will do my best!
Anyway I hope you like it!
Thank you for reading!
Sincerely, La'Rae