The Birds Who Smile, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 20.1 (rough draft 2)
Only three of Batman's allies had been able to answer his call for help, but it was enough. While Clayface took care of the bio-bombs that had been planted around the city, Azrael held off Poison Ivy long enough for Batman to rescue Red Robin and then finish the fight. By the time they all reached Batwoman, she'd already taken down Two-Face and was getting Orphan and Robin - Damian might be wearing a Batsuit, but Bruce had never once stopped thinking of the boy as his Robin - out of their chains.
"Thank you," Batman told them all, heartily sincere despite his gruff tone.
"It was nice to be around friends again," Basil said, gently cradling Orphan's head. She shifted at his touch, barely conscious. "We ought to get the team back together."
"I won't discourage it," Batman said, lifting Damian in his arms, "but I've got a full plate right now, and I don't often go out in uniform anymore. I probably won't be much use to you if the team reconvenes."
"You'll look after her?" Basil asked, carrying Orphan to the Batmobile in Batman's wake.
"Of course."
The drive home was quiet, despite all the people in the car. Cassandra and Damian had both been sedated so they could rest easier; Tim was propped limply in the front passenger seat, still giggling occasionally, dried tears crusting his face and pollen dusting his uniform. Most of his boots had been burned away - Batman had been lucky to get to him before any significant damage had been done to his feet. They were red and slightly swollen from the monster plant's digestive enzymes, but would heal.
"Dad," Tim whispered hoarsely.
"You're all right, son."
"Hee. Okay."
Batman stabbed at a comm button on the car's dashboard. "Signal," he growled, "Clayface could have really used your help locating the bombs." Halfway through the mission, Duke had suddenly bowed out, giving a flimsy excuse in a strained voice that Batman hadn't had time to puzzle out.
"Are you done?" Duke asked immediately, still in that slightly high-pitched, almost panicked tone. "Are you on your way back? How are Red Robin and the others?"
"They're fine. What happened?" Batman demanded.
"Uhhh, ummm, so, I didn't know how to get the tracker program onto my phone, and I've been looking ever since I called you, I swear I've been looking, Batman, it's just...the grounds are so huge, and I have no freaking clue if I'm even going the right way in the dark-"
"WHAT HAPPENED."
"...The birds," Duke said in a small voice. "I didn't- The tracker alarm thing went off, I headed for the last place it detected them, but it's so DARK and I can't find them-"
"THE BIRDS LEFT THE HOUSE AGAIN?" Batman demanded, his panic turning instantly to fury, which was easier for him to feel. It had been bad enough when the children had left the house the first time, but now that they thought they were fleeing their abuser...
Duke's voice was nearly a sob. "I'm sorry, I've been looking, I swear I-"
Batman floored the accelerator. He stabbed Duke's commline off, unable to bear his voice anymore, and immediately called his eldest son. "NIGHTWING."
"I'm on the edge of town, B-"
"The mission's over; GET TO THE CAVE."
"What happened?!"
"JUST DO IT."
When he was close enough to home, he called Duke again, trying and mostly failing to calm his voice. "I need you in the cave. All three of them are hurt, and Orphan and Robin need to be treated as soon as possible." He had been training Duke in first aid. The boy was still an emergency-only beginner at doing medical stitches, but he could at least get Damian and Cassandra as safe and comfortable as possible until Bruce was able to treat them more thoroughly.
Duke's voice sounded thick and subdued. "All right."
"I'm sorry for losing my temper," Bruce said impatiently. He could tell, in the back of his mind, that his lingering anger made the apology meaningless, but he couldn't stop his panic about the birds' safety. Too many of his children had been hurt tonight; if anything happened to the little ones, he would never-
There was the cave entrance. He roared inside, remembered in time to come to a comparatively slow stop for the sake of his injured passengers, leaped out of the car, and was furious to find the cave empty. "NIGHTWING!" he bellowed.
"I'm still halfway across town, B! What the hell is going on?!"
"Three of your siblings are injured, and the children are missing somewhere on the grounds. I need you HERE."
Nightwing swore. "I'm coming as fast as I can. You'd better not be yelling at anyone else the way you're yelling at me."
Bruce snapped off the line without answering and tried to force his arms to be gentle as he started lifting his children out of the Batmobile and carrying them to the medbay.
Duke arrived on a powerbike, which he instantly dismounted, but he slowed hesitantly when he approached Bruce.
"Cassandra and Damian were tortured," Bruce said shortly, laying Tim down on a medical table. "Get them ready for treatment. Don't use any medication on any of them without permission, they all already have drugs in their systems."
"Okay," Duke said shakily.
"Jackie's scared," Tim said in a giggly whimper.
Bruce brushed a palm over his hair to calm him. "Nightwing will be here in a minute, he's going to bring them back." There was no way he himself could wait, he fully intended to locate the children and make sure they were safely contained, but they were certainly going to be too frightened to allow him to approach or touch them. He would need someone they trusted to convey them home.
"B-Bruce," Tim persisted, breathing hard as he struggled to speak without laughing, "he's...reeeeaaally scared...hurry, gotta save the babies, before they...something...before they- Ha ha, time's running out~, tick-tock!"
Suddenly terrified of what Tim might be sensing through some kind of link with his frightened young counterpart, Bruce raced for the nearest vehicle suitable for traveling through the trees of Wayne Manor, only remembering when he was outside the cave that he was still dressed as Batman. 'I wasn't going to touch them, anyway. I just have to find them, make sure they're safe...keep them safe until Nightwing comes..."
He was concerned to see the little dots of the children's trackers close to a 30-foot cliff, and Bruce cursed himself for not thinking to show Duke how to get a copy of the tracking program from the Batcomputer. He hadn't been expecting the children's safety to depend so heavily on Duke. 'He's only seventeen, I shouldn't be giving him that sort of responsibility at all, the birds are MY children, anything that happens to them is my fault, oh God please let them be safe...'
Hurry. Time's running out seemed to echo in his ears over and over again. Hurry! Hurry! Stop him before he-!
There they were, tiny figures in the dark. They were shouting and crowing and signing sharply, arguing, but the minute they saw him, they scattered. Peter took off into the trees; John seized his smallest brother and tried to drag him along, but Jack screamed and resisted. Bruce halted at once and dismounted, shoving back his cowl, hurrying to head them off. "Boys, stop, I won't hurt you, I won't touch you, just please-"
Jack looked to be in an agony of terror, frantically resisting his brother's grip but also straining away from Bruce.
"HURRY!" [chirp-chirp] shrieked.
[warble] couldn't. He couldn't. Not down there, not that way, [warble] was even more afraid of the deep darkness than he was of Master-who-wasn't-Smiling-yet. "Noooo!" he howled.
[chirp-chirp] couldn't. No time left. They had to run now, or Master would catch them, and if [warble] refused to come, [chirp-chirp] would have to jump alone. He was going to die either way, with a collar around his neck or flying into his parents' arms, and he needed to die free. He had to let go.
Bruce fell to his knees in front of Jack, who'd been abandoned by both brothers and was now staring at him, paralyzed with terror. "Jack, it's all right, I would never hurt you, I'm not angry, I-" Something made him look up. John-
John had not run off to the side like Peter had. John was heading straight for the cliff's edge. John was-
"JOHN, NO!"
Bruce launched forward. He didn't know what inhuman surge of power managed to carry him fast enough to reach, but somehow, by some miracle, he managed to close his fingers on the child's shirt just as he leaped off the edge.
He yanked back, falling hard to the ground as John tumbled back against him. Bruce's feet were slipping over the edge, he scrabbled to get more of his body onto safe ground but John was fighting him, the boy was going to tip them over again-
"MMAMMAAAAA!" John's arms reached desperately for the cliff's edge, his screams full of horror and despair. "MAMMAAAAA...!"
With one arm locked around the boy, Bruce clawed them away from the edge until they were far enough that John's struggles wouldn't send them plummeting. His breaths were coming hard and fast with residual panic.
"M-Mammaaa...!" The child kept wailing for his mother, straining to break free, but Bruce couldn't let go of him even if he'd wanted to. He knelt there in the dirt, hunched over as if using his body as a shield would be any use in keeping John safe, holding the boy probably much too tightly now that they were out of immediate danger. His other palm was pressed flat against his son's chest, drinking in the sense of his heartbeat pounding alive, alive, alive, alive...!
Then John started having a panic attack, and he had to let go. "John- Johnny, please-"
John was fighting for breath, trembling violently, no longer struggling because he seemed to have lost control of his stiff limbs. Bruce, positioning himself between the boy and the cliff's edge, tried to keep his touch light. "Johnny, breathe. Draw it in and hold it, no one's going to hurt you-"
"You're safe, baby bird."
Relief hit Bruce so hard it was almost a shock. He practically wrenched himself away from John and watched, stiff with relief and pain and longing, as Dick knelt beside his young counterpart. The young man looked deathly tired, his Nightwing uniform battered and torn across the chest as if by claws or fangs, but he was here. Peter and Jack clung to him, pulling at him frantically as they stared at Bruce with huge, terrified eyes.
"Look at me, Dickiebird. You're safe."
"M-M-Mamma," John choked out. "Mmamma..."
"She's gone, Dickie. It's not time to see her yet. Someday, when you're very old, but not now, Johnny, not yet. Johnny, look at me, Mom would cry if she saw you trying to jump."
After a long time, John had calmed enough to remember how to sign. "Neck, Laugh, meat, pain..."
"No, Johnny. We're going to go home."
"Ddi'ckkie," Jack whimpered, "Bba'ttmman...hhe Bba'ttmman...!"
"I know, Jackie. It's okay. Batman and Bruce and Daddy are all the same person. He will never hurt you."
Jack sobbed, burying his face in Dick's shoulder. Peter began to crow.
"It's okay, baby birds, I swear it's okay, you're safe, I promise I will keep you safe. Do you understand me? I promise. I would die before I let anyone, anyone hurt you, and Bruce would, too."
"Yes, you die," Peter agreed, his sharp teeth bared in a snarl.
Dick, after asking after Damian and the others, finally managed to get the birds headed for the house. Bruce took a different route, not wanting the children to be distressed by the sight of him following them. In the cave, as soon as he confirmed that all three of their trackers were still together with Dick's, he went straight for the medbay.
Tim, looking like crap, was drawing something on his tablet, breaking out into the occasional hysterical giggle. Duke was sponging dried blood off of Cassandra with slightly shaking hands. He jumped when Bruce came striding in. "Did you...find them...?"
"Yes," Bruce snapped. "They're fine." Without another word, he got to work patching up Damian and then Cassandra, with Duke jumping to his every instruction. Afterward, he ordered, "We're done. Go to bed," and Duke disappeared like the Bat he was training to become.
Bruce brought medicine and bandages over to the last occupied med table and started tending to Tim's feet. Tim, who'd lain back down in exhaustion and was now crying quietly, lifted his head. "It huuuurts..."
"I know. This will numb it in a minute."
"My feet hurt 'cause Ivy's plant ate me. My heart hurts 'cause Jackie's dead as a doornail."
"No. The birds are safe with Dick."
"Safe with-! HA HA HA HA HA, you said 'dick'...!" He fought to catch his breath. "Jackie- He's scared of the dark, Bruce, but they pushed him!"
"No one pushed Jack. He is safe with your brother."
"Do you hear that?! Do you hear that?!" Tim cried some more as Bruce finished wrapping one foot and shifted to start bandaging the other. "Haaaa... You know, Bruce, I'm glad we're not dead."
"Yes."
"Your kids die a lot, yanno."
"..."
"Maybe I'da come back, like Jay-jay and Dami... You know something, Bruce? You know what?"
"Mm."
"It's a secret."
"All right."
" 'Cause I didn't like it. It was yucky. It's yucky, 'cause she's a bad guy. Only people I like are allowed."
Bruce paused. "Did Ivy do something else to you, Tim?"
He giggled coyly and turned his head away.
"Tim, did she try to kiss you?"
The next burst of giggles had a sobbing quality to them. Alarmed, Bruce abandoned his task to check Tim's face, but though there was some green smeared across his mouth, it looked as if the standard protective coating on his lips had done its job. And anyway, if Ivy had used a lethal toxin, Tim would be long dead by now.
Still, it was a highly unpleasant violation to be kissed against one's will. "I'm sorry she did that to you, Tim," he murmured.
"I didn't like it..."
"Tim?"
"Yes, Daddy?" He giggled again.
"Earlier tonight, was that the first time you've ever felt an internal connection to Jack?" Stupid to ask when Tim wasn't in his right mind, but Bruce would much rather have this to think about than...other things.
"Think so- HA HA HA HA HA! Why is eeeeverything so funny~?"
"I'm sure it will wear off by morning."
"*gaaaasp* Cock-a-doodle-damn, I got work in the morning!"
"No, you don't," Bruce said firmly. "I'm going to work tomorrow." He didn't think he'd be able to face his betrayed, terrified birds for a whole day, anyway; might as well be useful while he was making himself scarce. "You will stay off these feet for at least two days and rest."
"Like, like last time! I want Star Trek, I want Star Trek, Daddy!"
"Yes, all right, soon. We need to get you out of your uniform first, though, unless you want to stay down here tonight."
"No, no, no, no, not in the dark, not in the dark, not in the-!"
"Yes, yes, all right. It's all right, Tim, I've got you." Tim was asleep by the time Bruce carried him to his room. Bruce still set up a Star Trek marathon for him on a tablet, then left to take the boy's injured siblings to their own beds.
Then Bruce hesitated. He stared at his phone for a long time, where four tracker dots were clustered together in Dick's room. He finally decided to call first.
"Hey," Dick answered wearily.
"Should I...stay away for a while?"
Dick sounded almost as uncertain as Bruce did. "Maybe...stop by and see how it goes?"
"...All right."
TBC