The Birds Who Smile, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl

Chapter 22.2 (rough draft 2)

Even though there wasn't much crime happening in Gotham on this particular night, patrol was...difficult. Batman couldn't stay still for too long, or he'd start feeling so bad that he was strongly tempted to go home and sleep. He forgot that he wasn't feeling well when he was fighting or otherwise active, but he wasn't in peak condition, so he kept taking hits he should have been able to avoid, and grappling felt...dangerous.

"-in, B!" someone shouted.

Batman blinked. He was crouching on a rooftop, which he knew he'd been doing, but the moon had moved, so he'd probably been in this position for a lot longer than it felt like. "What is it?" he growled into his comm.

"Are you okay?" Duke asked warily.

"Yes. I was busy," Batman lied. "What is it?"

"Just that someone's going around vandalizing shelters and new buildings. Probably two people. Not a big deal, but you weren't answering."

"I'll take care of it." It was a slow night, he actually had time for vandals.

"No need!" Flash's cheery voice burst in with a crackle. "Vandals now secured and waiting for police."

"Hmm." Batman got to his feet. It was more difficult and painful and took a lot more time than it should have. He really had been crouching there for too long. "If nothing noteworthy happens in the next ten minutes, I'll be heading back."

"Cool," Flash said. "I think Nightwing and I'll-"

"No," Nightwing interrupted peevishly. "I'm staying out until dawn. After all, I've got TIME now."

Batman was immediately concerned, but he knew from past experience that trying to talk to Dick when he was in a mood like this, when they weren't face to face and had an audience, would not end well. All he dared to voice was an entirely different concern. "If you're sleeping in late, who's on bird duty tomorrow?"

That prompted a flurry of frustrated cursing from Nightwing.

"I will, I will," Spoiler said soothingly. "I'm turning in for the night, fellas. Birds will be taken care of, Nightwing."

"I will ensure they have everything they need," Damian added magnanimously.

"Yeah, good luck!" Nightwing's voice was full of bitterness. "Should be easy for you. You guys have nothing to lose."

More static. "You know what, I think Nightwing's comm is on the fritz," Flash said firmly, with Nightwing's "Gimme back my comm!" very faint in the background. "We'll check back in with you guys when it's a little more functional, okay?"

"Take care of him, Flash," Batman murmured. Then he turned and headed for home.

In the cave, he found that Duke had gone upstairs to bed, and Maya was asleep on a cot. John was asleep as well, sprawled under the computer at Damian's feet with his head pillowed on Titus and his blanket kicked aside. His face was flushed and there was sweat on his brow, but Bruce couldn't check on him because Peter, lounging across his brother and playing a video game before Batman arrived, hissed when he got too close.

"Give John some more water when he wakes up, Damian," Bruce sighed. "And cover him up if he looks like he's getting cold."

"Yes, Father, I know," Damian said in mild annoyance.

Bruce, too exhausted to change out of his suit, went to the farthest screen to work on his post-patrol report. Stephanie soon arrived and filled the cave with chatter for a while. "Stephanie," Bruce asked after her shower, "will you please check on Tim and Jack before you take the other children to bed?"

"Sure thing, Bruce." She went to Tim's room first, since he was alone. She found his room pitch dark except for the glow of a computer screen reflecting off his face. He cringed like a vampire when she flipped the light on.

"Oww, Steph..." He was sprawled across the bed on his stomach, pillows propping up his chest so that he could type more comfortably.

"You shouldn't work on the computer in the dark."

"Too much trouble to go turn on the light."

"There are two lamps in reach of your bed, dummy."

He didn't have an answer to that other than a vague, "Uh huh."

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine, except for these." He briefly waved his feet in the air, then rested them back on the pillows he'd been using to elevate them.

"Are you hungry?"

He paused. Then he looked annoyed. "Well, I wasn't until you brought it up."

"You're supposed to eat when you're hungry, not avoid food until you're not hungry anymore!"

"I'm busy! I missed work, I missed patrol- Steph?" She had climbed onto the bed and sat on his back. "What are you-? Mmph!"

She held his face down in the bedding until he started to struggle, then let out a muffled screech at his impulsive move to brace his injured feet for leverage. He gasped when she let his face up just enough for air.

"Repeat after me: I, Timothy Jackson Drake..."

"Oh, come on, Steph-" His face was forced back into the bed, and he groaned in frustration.

"I, Timothy Jackson Drake," she prompted relentlessly when she let him up again.

"*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* I, Timothy Jackson Drake."

"Do solemnly swear."

"You know I could throw you off if I really wanted to."

"DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR."

"Do solemnly swear," he sing-songed mockingly.

"To meet my responsibilities."

"To meet my responsibilities?" He sounded slightly curious now.

"By taking care of my body."

Another deep sigh. "By taking care of my freaking body."

"So that I will be physically able to continue keeping safe aaaaallll the people in Gotham and the world who are relying on me, instead of collapsing from exhaustion and malnutrition because I insisted on being an obsessive idiot instead."

"...Okay, fine, Stephanie, I'll eat."

"And sleep."

"I've been sleeping all day!"

"Fine, but you'll eat everything I bring you."

"Yes, yes, fine."

She leaned down to smack a kiss on his cheek. "Good boy."

"Patronizing little-" He tackled her when she started to climb off him, and they wrestled a bit until he accidentally clunked his head against his laptop.

"Oh no, Tim, your head-?!"

"My computer!"

"Glad to see your priorities are in order," she said dryly. She climbed off the bed for real this time, leaving him to check over his laptop like an overprotective mother whose kid had just fallen on the playground.

Stephanie eventually delivered some leftovers to Tim's room, turned on the bedside lamps so she could switch off the overhead light in case he fell asleep later, then went to the birds' room. Cassandra, curled up on the bed, seemed more deeply asleep than usual, her brow furrowed a little. Beside her, Jack lay propped on pillows and was lethargically tapping at a chess game on someone's tablet. He was losing, but not badly. As soon as Stephanie came in, he signed anxiously, "Brothers?"

"Everyone safe," she reassured him. She felt his forehead, which was still warm.

"Thirsty," he signed pathetically.

"I bring water, sweet baby." She did so, and also offered him some food that she had brought for him along with Tim's portion. Jack picked at it, seeming more interested in snuggling against her. Stephanie helped him eat and stroked his back and hair until he drifted off to sleep, then she dropped a light kiss on his head and went back down to the cave.

Damian and Peter were the only ones awake. Bruce had fallen asleep in his chair, his mouth slightly open, and Stephanie would have thought the sight comical if he didn't look so unhappy even in his sleep. Also...Bruce had fallen asleep at the computer. Which she knew he did sometimes, but not while surrounded by children and definitely not when he'd had an hours-long nap earlier in the evening.

Damian waved to get her attention, then signed, "Help me move him to bed." He pointed to the medbay.

The fact that Bruce didn't wake up when a teenage girl and a kid in a wheelchair somehow manhandled him onto a stretcher was also weird. 'He's sick, too,' Stephanie realized, 'just like everyone else. Idiot, we didn't even need you on patrol tonight, why didn't you just go to bed in your actual bed instead of heading straight for your Bat getup?!'

'Because he's Batman,' in the more negative sense of the phrase, was the obvious answer to that, so she didn't bother thinking about it anymore. Once Bruce was in the medbay, Damian removed his left gauntlet and started hooking him up to an IV line - 'Should have just stuck one in Tim, too; not like my nagging's going to make him do any better next time,' - and Stephanie went to coax Peter upstairs with her. He wouldn't leave John, even when she tried to reassure him that she'd come back for his brother, so she shrugged and worked to lift the unconscious nine-year-old. John whimpered and fussed, cracked open his eyes, looked around, and hissed at the unconscious Bruce, but then miserably allowed Stephanie and Peter to help him upstairs.

She went to the children's room and got them into bed beside their smallest brother. John touched his forehead to Jack's and exhaled softly in relief. Peter, looking pleased, patted the younger boy a little harder than he should have, but fortunately, Jack didn't wake.

Stephanie tried and failed to feed John (Peter was the one who gobbled it up in the end), though she did manage to get him to take a few sips of water. She laid a hesitant hand on Cassandra's shoulder, and had to shake a little to rouse her friend. Cass blinked up at her sleepily, and Stephanie leaned close to speak in a low voice. "Can you watch Johnny for a few hours? Make sure he doesn't hurt himself?"

Cass yawned and sat up. "I protect," she murmured.

"Okay. I'm gonna sleep as much as I can until morning; I've got babysitting duty tomorrow."

"Steph rest. I love you."

"Love you, too, Cassie." Stephanie kissed her friend's cheek and then took a blanket and pillow over to the divan across the room. The bed was big enough to include her, but it would have been uncomfortable with three kids and a teenager already on it, and it was probably better not to join in the pile of sick, anyway. 'Not that I haven't already been exposed to whatever Bat-germs are going around the house.' She fell asleep quickly, as did Peter.

Cassandra moved around to John. "Precious, you worry me."

"...Soul-tired."

"Body-tired, too," she noted.

He looked at her for a long time, low and weary. "...You protect us."

"Yes yes yes."

"I sleep...we safe...?"

"Yes. I love you."

"...Tired." He didn't sleep, but he looked at the book she brought to him. She said nothing with her voice, but they paged through the pictures together.

"Confident, home, busy," she guessed. "Danger, I-will-not; I choose a sturdier path."

"Away," John signed longingly at the next page, then mixed body language with his ASL. "Go out, far beyond to freedom..."

"Strange, unexpected friends/help."

"Strange, threatening, I don't care, I want it," John insisted, frowning rebelliously at the book.

"Lift up, fly fun/beauty..."

"I fly farthest highest, ME."

"Oh no, come back, don't leave me! Help!"

"Find your way through, careful, keep going..."

John liked the book enough that when it finally closed, his spirits seemed to be a little lighter. "Tell me you love me," he asked Cassandra, nestling into her.

"I love your whole self, every part of you. I love you so much my heart bleeds with it. You're my precious small one that I protect..."

TBC