Hello readers! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter up. To be honest, this one was a challenge and I've struggled with it. I was actually debating on whether I should even post it, but I figured I needed to finish up this series. This, I believe, will be the last chapter of Batgirl's Thrills. I think I've reached all I can do here, but I am toying around with the idea of doing one-offs or a small mini-series with BatgirlxRedHood or BatgirlxBatman that follows the timeline/story I've created here. But I'm not quite sure yet. Also WARNING! This chapter actually does not contain any explicit sexy sexy times, so if that's what you're here to read and enjoy I apologize. I tried to fit one in, but it just wasn't working. That's why I think I'm ready for a new perspective with a new story :) I really hope you've enjoyed reading Batgirl's Thrills x
EDIT: I totally lied. Now that I've had the night to think about it, I think I have one more chapter in me to wrap things up. Stay tuned!
—
"Ow, Tim, that's my foot!"
"Sorry — I can't see anything."
"Why are you the only one with nightvision, Batman?"
"I gave you all goggles. It's not my fault if you left them in the cave. Now quiet."
"Like we don't have enough stuff to carry..."
"I have mine."
"Good for you."
"Ow! Grayson!"
"Well, don't walk so slow!"
"Everyone — quiet!"
You would think with more of us there we would be more efficient. But first and foremost I think we'd all prefer to work alone.
"Seriously, guys, haven't you heard of something called stealth?" Red Hood said over the communicator.
We'd been walking for almost 30 minutes now in a maze of tunnels and pipes underneath Gotham. We were getting antsy and I couldn't help but feel this whole thing was a trap. Or a wild goose chase.
"We should split up," Dick said. "I'm not picking up any heat signatures apart from the odd rat. Once one of us finds him we'll radio in." Batman considered it for a moment.
"Fine," he said. "But we need to go in groups. We can't risk one of us getting a chip implanted without the rest knowing."
Batman turned around and considered his teams.
"Nightwing, Robin, Red Robin… head east. Batgirl and I will continue forward." Despite everything, my heart skipped a beat. But then I thought about what he said back in the cave: "Just stay safe out there." Was he babysitting me? I looked up at his enigmatic face, which, like usual, revealed nothing. I put my hands on my hips, displeased with being coddled.
We split up, everyone more alert now that the conditions were changing. I walked right behind Batman in silence. The only sounds were the soft sloshing of water beneath our boots, the odd drip reverberating through the tunnels, and the scurry of rat feet — that I didn't want to think about.
It was almost meditative though, the eerie silence, the anticipation. I always prefer a more open setting, naturally: more places to hide, areas to work off of, room to play. But here, in the dark, my senses were hyper aware as I became Batman's shadow. Yes, I had to admit I felt a level of comfort knowing he was there to have my back, but I had to remember I was there to have his too. Despite all of our differences, I had to believe we were equals. That was extremely difficult most of the time. But I must say, now I can just think about the clocktower. Up there, we were on the same level. An even playing field.
Oh that night… the sounds he made. The way he held my face. How he pushed me to my knees. How he entered me… the feeling of his weight on top of me, the full feeling of him inside me. Every fiber of my being knew we could never be anything more than what we were now. Still, I couldn't help but remember his dark chocolate brown eyes — warm and kind, wise and experienced, gazing into mine. I almost stopped short.
Subconsciously, I reached my hand out to his billowing cape before me. I let the fabric run through my fingers softly. I felt myself bite my lip. I thought I could go unnoticed, but that was such a naive thought when it came to Bruce. I jerked my hand back when I saw him look back at me slightly over his shoulder. I felt my cheeks begin to burn — but then I saw his small half-smile smirk. I smiled back, embarrassed before turning away.
It was getting dark in the tunnel now as we moved right, then left, then right again. The industrial lights in here were much more dim and flickering ominously.
Suddenly, I saw a flash of yellow dart perpendicular from us, from one tunnel to the next.
"What was that?" I whispered. As a force of habit I leaned back towards the shadows only to grip the concrete wall behind me. Nowhere to hide. I saw Batman adjust something on his cowl lenses.
"There are people ahead. At least thirty. Looks like they're in a large open chamber. Nightwing: converge on my coordinates."
"Gotcha," Dick said.
"Ready?" Batman said, turning to me.
"So ready," I said, itching to finally see some action. We ran towards a large round opening on the right and down a narrow rickety metal staircase. We followed it onto a large concrete stage with a grand sewer waterfall against one wall. This sight alone would have been impressive enough, if it weren't for the large crowd of blond women who all at once turned to look at us.
"Batman!" A voice echoed through the chamber. "It certainly did take you long enough to find us. My darlings and I have been waiting oh so long." Up on the metal bridge that crossed over the waterfall stood the Mad Hatter.
He was a small man with tufts of white hair poking on either side of his large green and purple top hat with a white card jutting out the side. He wore large checkerboard pants and a purple jacket with oversize lapels. But I wasn't looking at him — I observed the blonde women curiously who just stared blankly at us, their eyes dead. They were all ages, some young pre-teens, others pushing seventy years old.
"Who are these women, Hatter?" I yelled, my teeth grinding in anger. If he even touched any of them...
"Oh dear me, oh my, who is that now?" He sang leaning over the railing to get a good look at me. "Why it's Batgirl! You know, you would make a tremendous blonde, I daresay —"
"—WHO ARE THEY?" Batman roared beside me.
"Why, don't you recognize her, Batman?" He said, jumping down to a secondary concrete landing. "It is my love, my life, my Alice." He jumped down to our level and grabbed a young blonde woman, around my age, around the waist. He brought a hand to her cheek as she looked off into space, emotionless.
"You should know, you were the one who stole her from me," he spat, suddenly harsh, as he glared at Batman behind me. "But you cannot keep us apart, we are one, we are two, we are three, four, five, free!" He passed from one woman to the next, waltzing with them around the floor, the waterfall and flood lights behind him giving the scene a twisted romantic mood. I stared at him bewildered.
"He's gone nuts," Jason muttered into our communicators. I twisted around to face away from the Mad Hatter.
"Red Hood, where are you?" I whispered, a finger against my ear.
"I go where I am needed most, babe," he said. I rolled my eyes, growling.
"We're five minutes away from you two," Nightwing said on the line.
I turned back to the Hatter and saw him giving a final bow to a young girl, not yet 13. I felt sick.
"Hatter, that is not Alice. None of these women are Alice!" I yelled harshly across the room. He turned to me with a strange fire in his milky pale blue eyes. I wanted to look away… every inch of me wanted to escape his perverse gaze — his wrinkled eyes with deep crevices and dried yellow gunk crusting its edges — but I held my ground.
"She may not be my Alice, but she is Alice. They are all Alice. You can be my Alice, too, just bring your pretty hair over here…" He reached out a bony hand towards my hair. Before I could strike him in any way, quick as lightning, Batman reached out a hand and roughly pulled him up by the collar.
"Don't touch her," he growled between his teeth before he slammed Hatter into the wall behind us. He just laughed uproariously and started babbling:
"And so he sees
These pretty trees
Are crumpets made for tea!
Oh family
How I want thee
Now Alice, come to me!"
I just watched him, hands on my hips, when suddenly a force from behind struck me so hard I catapulted into the wall in front of me. I fell back onto my bottom before pulling myself up swiftly, my head woozy from the impact.
The young "Alice" who was around my age stood at the ready to strike again.
"What?" I looked over at the Hatter who had escaped Bruce's grip as he tried to fight off his own mob of blonde attackers. "What did you do to them!?"
"They do what they must for the man they love!" He called over the noise. "They were lost souls — runaways, children, students, mothers, elderly, all abandoned! But I saw them for who they really were… Alice. They were ALICE!"
"You're — crazy!" I yelled as my attacker lunged for me again. I dodged, then brought up my arms to block her onslaught of attacks. I couldn't hurt her. They were innocent victims here — probably all kidnapped. I glanced over at Bruce, who was also struggling to fend off multiple attackers without actually harming them in any way.
"AH! The rest of the family has arrived!" As I wrestled my girl to the ground, trying to pin her securely, I saw Nightwing, Red Robin and Robin enter the scene with looks of bewilderment on their faces.
"Alices! Attack the undeserving family," The Hatter called from his bridge above the waterfall. "Bring them to me."
The mob of blondes flooded us against the wall. I kept seeing Bruce reach for his knock-out gas in his belt before being overcome by the women who, through the Mad Hatter's mind control influence, fought like experienced fighters. We each blocked and evaded to our greatest skill, but we couldn't play defense forever.
Three women threw themselves on Nightwing's — and then Red Robin's — backs, and they each attempted to flip them off without inflicting any excess damage.
"Be careful! Any one of them could be carrying microchips. All they have to do is touch you and you're done for," Jason yelled over our communicators.
But he didn't have much reason to worry. We were being manhandled at this point, so if they wanted us microchipped it was going to happen. But no one did. They simply restrained our hands and pushed us to our knees in front of the Mad Hatter on his pedestal in front of the sewer waterfall.
"Ugh, get off me lady!" Damian yelled before whipping his blade at a middle-aged woman who was attempting to push him down. The strike grazed her cheek leaving a bloody welt as she fell back onto the ground.
"Robin!" I called after him.
"What else am I supposed to do! I can't stop him without hurting some of them!" He whined right before another attacker knocked the blade out of his hand and pushed him to the ground.
"Quiet, little bird!" Mad Hatter screeched from his perch. He began to pace the length of the bridge, muttering to himself. He pushed the hat off his head, revealing a shiny bald spot.
"Don't worry bats… I didn't lure you here to kill you myself." Jason scoffed in our communicators. "My Alice is not dead, so why should I want you dead? What I do want is for you all to feel helpless. Helpless to your innermost, deepest, darkest, most twisted desires." He grinned his yellow teeth at us.
"They all said I was sick. They said I was perverted!"
"Yeah," Damian muttered. "They still do."
" — But we all have these… "inappropriate" wants, apparently like my deep, devoted affection for Alice. Even within families. Families like yours!" He yelled, pointing at Batman. What was he talking about? Was he talking about sexual things? Why was everyone in Gotham so obsessed with sex?! I glanced at Nightwing incredulously. He just shrugged, as baffled as I was.
"Now, these needs and wants are so deep rooted within your consciousness, you might not even know what they are. But we'll know. We'll all know… And then, only then, will I allow death. But not by my hand… Oh, no." He grinned widely, popping the hat back on his head. "Girls?"
I twisted my neck around to see a blonde woman walking towards each of us with a chip clutched between her fingers.
"Time to go!" Red Robin called before sweeping his surrounding women to the ground and leaping away.
"Scatter!" Batman called out before popping the trigger off a can of knockout gas. I quickly put my small gas mask over my nose and mouth and grappled up to a small concrete opening near the ceiling. As I perched there to survey the scene, I could see Batman tackling Mad Hatter to the ground. I smiled to myself. Hatter really never stood a chance.
"Batgirl!" I heard Dick call over the communicator in my ear. "I could use a hand over here. I'm down a couple tunnels from the chamber."
"Copy, Nightwing. I'll follow your coordinates." I slid down the shaft into the original chamber Batman and I were in before we found our way into the chamber.
My heart was pounding from the excitement of it all as I ran down an empty tunnel, the water splashing lightly underneath my feet. A few more corners to turn before I reached Nightwing… man, how did he get all the way down here so fast? I tried to remember the specific hold I could press into the shoulder to knock someone unconscious… I had to get these girls and women home safe, and not with a giant bruise on their forehead. I mean, they'd have to say Batgirl gave it to them...
"—Nightwing!" I stopped short as I turned a bend and almost ran straight into Dick. "What happened? Where are the girls?"
"I managed to lose them," he said with an odd crooked grin on his face.
"Great, let's get going then. The others might need our help rounding up the rest," I said turning away to head back.
He grabbed my arm tight.
"Hold on," he said before positioning me against the wall.
"Hey — what are you doing?"
"I wanna talk, let's talk," he said, spinning his escrima sticks before placing them in their holster on his back. "We need to have a discussion about us, Babs. I'm not going to be led on by you again then dropped the next day." I stared at him incredulously with wide eyes.
"I don't have nearly enough time to tell you how wrong you are about that in every way. We have to go Dick, come on—" I said, starting to jog back the other way. He grabbed me with both hands now and slammed me against the wall.
"Wha— Ouch!" I yelled as my head hit solid concrete. Why was he being so rough with me? Did our infidelity in the car actually push him over the edge? A wave of guilt washed over me as I looked at his tense and pinched face. Despite anything that Jason might say, Dick wasn't a cheater. Now thanks to me, I might have broken him.
"Just stay, Batgirl!" He shouted. I couldn't help it — I actually shrunk back a little. This roughness didn't sound like Dick… it actually reminded me of Jason. A man who had lost all inhibitions.
He held me desperately, his hair falling over his eyes.
"I'm not going to let you go, Babs. And I'm not going to let anyone else touch you. Not Jason, not Bruce —" My heart palpitated in shock. But he continued his list quickly: "not Tim, or Damian, or anyone… Anyone!" I could feel my arms bruising underneath his grip.
"Nightwing," I said calmly, attempting to reason with him as a fellow crime-fighter and friend, not just a past lover. "You're talking crazy. Tim and Damian are just kids. Everything is fine, and everything between you and I is going to be fine. Let go of me now…" I said. As he stared into my eyes unblinking I had more than half a mind to alert the others. If I could touch a finger to my communicator they could listen in… but Dick held me so tight.
Suddenly, he let me go. He dropped his arms and took a step back, rubbing his eyes with one hand. I watched him cautiously, waiting to see what he would do.
"Are you okay now?" I said, holding my arms up slightly as if dealing with an unstable person… which I was. He looked at me curiously, his face changing from one in anguish to cool complacency.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He smiled his cocky Dick Grayson smile and looked at me like I was crazy. "Howww are you?"
"I… I'm good… Thanks," I said awkwardly as I studied him closely. He just looked back at me with a half grin, seemingly back to normal.
"Alright… Let's get going then," I said again, and for the third time I turned to walk away. Then —
"Hold up a sec, BG," he said, stepping in front of me, blocking my path. I looked up at him as he towered over me. For some reason he seemed excessively large and domineering. I felt my fists clench tightly. I'd faced enough enemies in my day to know when someone was a threat.
"I'm going to tell you what I want, and then you're going to do it… okay?" He said slowly and arrogantly. "You never listen to me, and it's time you did." I felt my internal temperature skyrocket in absolute rage.
"What the FUCK are you talking ab—" Suddenly he reached out and grabbed me, smashing his lips against mine roughly. He forced his tongue into my mouth and held my head in place by my hair with a death grip. I struggled to escape his hold.
"Get off me!" I managed to grunt out as we grappled with one another.
"Barbara, come on," he said, snaking an arm down my backside to grip my bottom and crotch tightly from behind. Despite the obvious danger, I felt my body respond to his aggressive touch at my most sensitive spot. I collapsed slightly against his chest. He used the opportunity to twist his other hand around my hair and pull back so I had to look up at him. I gritted my teeth in both complete fury and unwanted arousal.
"Why does Jason get all the fun? Let's fuck like we never did back then," he said in a strange raspy voice, his white teeth glistening as his lips twisted into a perverse grin. It couldn't have been clearer that Dick was implanted with a chip. He would never talk to me — or handle me — like this. I was so caught up in trying to decipher the trouble I caused by kissing him on the way here, that I totally neglected to read the so obvious signs of mind control. And it makes complete sense that this would be his darkest desire. While we were dating our sex wasn't particularly rough or sexy or imaginative after the first few weeks. Now he knows Jason and I get dirty and he wants in. Under different circumstances I could have entertained the idea. But here and now… I'd had enough.
With my arms completely free, I punched Dick in the stomach, twice in the face then kicked him down so he collapsed roughly on the floor. I knew I wasn't going to get lucky like that again now that he was no longer distracted. I swiftly put a finger to my communicator. And the first name to push through my lips surprised me —
"Jason! I —" I turned to check in on Dick when a hard punch landed straight on the side of my face. The force drove me to the floor, and I already felt blood pooling in my mouth. My ears rang and vision struggled to stabilize.
"Batgirl, what's up? We're almost done in here. We've had to find a bunch of the girls who were just meandering through the sewers, but —" Jason babbled on. I spit the blood out of my mouth.
"JASON, stop! I need some help," I said, lifting my stomach out of the grimy pool of water I was currently soaking in. I suddenly felt Dick's heavy body straddle mine, locking me to the ground. He pushed my head against the floor, and I struggled to breathe air as I was half submerged in water.
"Errgh!" I growled in protest.
"What's going on?" Jason asked, way too casually. "I see Nightwing's with you, can that loser not hold his own anymore? Heh heh…" I felt Dick fumble with my belt, trying to get it off and pull my pants down. I felt my face burn and heart jump in panic. Oh my god, was he trying to have sex with me?
"Ahh! JASON, get over here!" I screamed, my voice cracking in panic. I struggled against Dick's hands and body weight. My belt released and fell into the water. Dick picked it up and threw it far down the tunnel.
"That's enough, Barbara," he rasped evilly, close to my ear. "I already told you before, we're going to do what I want for once. No more runaround."
"I'm on my way, Barbie," Jason said with extreme urgency and seriousness in his voice now. He heard Dick. He knew something was very, very wrong. "Hold him off for me, okay?" He said. Jason's voice quelled the rising panic in my chest. Of course, I didn't want to get hurt or molested any longer, but I didn't want Dick to wake up from this nightmare and realize he had done something to me… something he would sorely, sorely regret.
With his head so close to mine, I saw my opening. I jerked my head back and clonked his cranium with mine.
"Argh!" He yelled as I shoved him off of me and righted my costume the best I could. I swiped the sewer water off my face. As Dick returned to his feet I arranged myself into a ready fighting stance. I didn't want to do this. But to save Nightwing, I'd have to destroy him. I punched my fists together and they illuminated with electric power. Dick gave me a taunting smile as he spinned his escrima sticks off his back.
"Looks like you've got a new toy. Let's see if you've had enough time to train with them. You know, the addition of electricity adds a new weight. Could throw you off your fighting style. Just a warning," he shrugged before his sticks ignited in a bright blue sizzle.
"Dick, come on, you gotta get out of this," I said, mostly to myself. Dick just smiled and lunged at me. I blocked his sticks with my gauntlets, over and over as he attacked with vengeance. I'd sparred with Dick countless times. I knew his moves and all his tricks. But this Dick wasn't fighting like mine usually did. The flair, the acrobatics, the spins and techniques were all gone. All that was left was a brutish Nightwing with only one sole purpose: to hurt me. And, I guess according to Mad Hatter, then kill me.
In this enclosed space there was nowhere to go but forward and backward. I swung a flurry of kicks at him until he grabbed one and twisted his torso around to hit the side of my face with his stick. The shocking blow made impact with my skull. I felt my eyes go into a daze, completely unaware of his follow-up attack as he now heaved both sticks to hit me again — one on the head, the other on my shoulder. The force twisted me into the wall, and I collapsed onto the ground jittering with aftershock. I blinked my eyes in shock as I saw blood pooling into the sewer water my hands were submerged in. What was happening? I couldn't lay a finger on him!
I saw his shadow tower over me right before he began kicking me hard, landing blows on my side and stomach, one after the other. I grunted in pain and nausea as I swallowed down bile and blood before I had to spit it out again.
He grabbed me by the collar and lifted me up easily to look me straight in the face.
"Even all bloodied and bruised, you still look beautiful," he said in a strange distant voice. I could barely see him. I knew I was losing it. He leaned down and kissed me, my blood smearing over his face. As he pulled away, he looked even more demented than ever. With an animalistic growl, I shoved him away from me and swung an electrified punch into his face — I screamed out in pain as I jostled my ribs. He had definitely broken a few when he kicked me. Before I even had time to right myself up again, a stick swung in the opposite direction I was leaning catapulted me the other way. Immediately I could feel myself blacking out. Where was this power coming from? How could it have gone so wrong? Although I knew I was fighting Dick, everything that made Dick who he was, was long gone.
"Sometimes you have to destroy the one you love to get the closure you want," he said standing over me. I could see him raising a stick up above me, as if to stab me through the gut, when suddenly — a mass of red and brown tackled Nightwing to the ground.
"Nightwing! What are you doing?" Red Hood yelled. The two wrestled on the ground grunting and groaning as one tried to best the other.
"I… love… her..!" Dick struggled out through Jason's grip. Jason was always the best, apart from Batman, in ground attacks. He had the body type to overpower any one of us easily.
"Then why are you trying to kill her?!" Jason shouted. He had Dick in a chokehold, trying to make him go unconscious. I watched dumbly from the ground, blinking a combination of sweat, blood, and sewer water out of my eyes.
"I… don't… know!" Dick gasped. Using his flexibility to his advantage, he brought his knees up to hit Red Hood in the face and escape the hold. As the two faced each other a couple paces away, Nightwing wiped water out of his eyes.
"You stole her from me! You knew I never stopped loving her!" Dick screamed, seemingly reverting to his former desperate personality.
"I didn't do shit. Believe it or not, Barbara has a mind of her own," Jason drawled.
"Grrrrah!" Nightwing lunged at Red Hood and the two fell into a grapple again.
I attempted to lift myself up, but the world was twisting beneath me. Black dots speckled my vision. Determined to stay useful, I willed my body up onto my legs just in time to see Red Hood take out a gun and, before I could process any faster, release the trigger on Dick.
"Noooo!" I screamed, an ocean sound roaring in my ears. I collapsed at the same time as Dick, and we both crashed to the earth with a splash of water. I heard Jason's feet sprint towards me before collapsing to his knees. He scooped me up into his arms as tears rolled down my cheeks freely.
"Barbie, Barbie," Jason whispered to me, as he cradled my head gently. "It's okay, it was only a tranquilizer gun. Dick is sleeping safely and we'll get that chip out. Alright? You just stay awake now." I coughed up another bout of blood that was trapped in the back of my throat. I tried to lean up, but my broken ribs instead had me crying out in alarm and pain. Jason helped me lean up slightly and he wiped the blood dripping down my chin and down my forehead.
"Shit. I should have come sooner. I'm sorry, Barbie. I'm sorry. You're going to be okay, I promise." I just stared at him bleakly as his red helmet went in and out of focus. I could feel my consciousness slipping further and further away as the pain of Dick's attacks started to grow as any adrenaline protection ebbed away. I woozily reached a hand out to touch Red Hood's helmet. He quickly pressed a release and his mask slide back to reveal his face. His handsome, troubled, worried, face. I lightly touched my fingers to his cheek. He clasped my hand and pressed it firmly to his face. As I looked into his green eyes, I saw something I hadn't seen from Jason since his death. It was unmistakable. It was fear. I felt one last tear roll down my cheek before I felt my eyes begin to close.
"Stay awake! You need to stay awake — please!" Jason pleaded loudly. But I just felt so tired. I needed to sleep.
"Oh my god. What happened?" I heard Tim say over Red Hood's shoulder.
"What happened to Nightwing?" Damian said, alarmed as he went to his big brother's side.
"We need to get her out of here. Now. Back to the cave," Batman's normally even voice was spiked with alarm.
I finally let go, the last words I would hear for a while trailing into silence:
"Alfred. We're on our way back. Batgirl is heavily injured. Set up the…—"
"Barbara," Jason whispered close to my ear. "Stay with me. Please… stay…"
—
I woke up with my head pounding. A deep, deep-rooted pounding that made me never want to open my eyes again. But to demand more painkillers I needed to open my eyes. Then I realized there were people talking around me.
"I'd never seen Batman so shaken. At least not since Jason, of course."
"I asked Father why he was so worried. I mean, I knew she would be okay, but he wouldn't say anything."
"Don't call him Father to me, that freaks me out."
"But he is my father…"
"I know, but still… Barbara! You're awake!"
I opened my eyes to see Tim and Damian at the foot of my bed dressed in their normal clothes. We were in the Batcave on the medical floor — I could hear my heart monitor beeping… combined with another heart monitor slightly off-sync from mine. I turned my head (and winced in pain) to see Dick on the bed adjacent from mine. He was fast asleep with a couple cuts and bruises on his face. I could see where I had punched him.
"What in the world happened? Why does my head hurt so bad?" I asked bringing a hand to my head. I could feel various bandages and wrappings around my face and skull. I tried to sit up and gasped. "And my side!"
"You've got three broken ribs, a broken nose, five stitches on your cheek there, and a concussion. Nice line up. Looks like Nightwing kicked your ass," Tim said smartly. I brought a hand to my nose. Yup, there was a brace there.
"That wasn't Nightwing! It was someone else. It was like a whole new fighter. And I couldn't hurt Dick. I – I didn't want to I guess. Deep down. I don't know what happened." I pressed my face into my hands. Dick and Tim glanced at each other.
"I was just kidding, Barbara. I'm sorry. Dick is fine; we got the microchip out of his neck and managed to get them out of all the girls as well. Batman is working with your dad right now to find out where they came from and bring them back to their homes."
"Dick is okay?" I looked over at him. Admittedly, I was in much worse shape than he looked right now.
"He woke up real quick after we took the chip out," Damian said, walking closer to the head of my bed. "Apparently, he doesn't remember anything. Nothing since one of the Alices planted him with a chip after the knockout gas went off."
"He doesn't remember… anything?" I asked. Damian shook his head. I was almost relieved. I thought of all things, this could have potentially ruined our friendship, let alone anything else. But now it was only a memory for me, and me alone. Though now that I thought about it, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about that.
Suddenly I felt a small hand on my arm. I looked up to see Damian standing over me, his cheeks slightly pink.
"I'm glad you're okay," he said in his gruff voice, looking away from me. I smiled. These moments were so rare with this deadly rascal. I felt a warm feeling fill my heart — the first time in a long time.
"Thank you, Damian."
"Me too!" Tim said stepping next to Damian. "We need you here. It's not a team without you." I smiled, suddenly emotional. Maybe it was the drugs.
"Oh, and he's been here with you the whole time… about 24 hours now," Tim stepped aside to reveal Jason who was fast asleep in a chair, his head lolled to his chest and his arms crossed before him with his jacket hood hovering over his eyes. I could see an untouched lunch sitting on the floor by his feet, no doubt brought my Alfred.
"We'll leave you two," Tim said with a wink. Oh geez. The two trailed out, but not before Damian gave Jason's chair a kick and he snorted awake.
"Hey!" Jason yelled after him before he saw me sitting up in my bed. "Barbie!" He jumped up to his feet and strode the three paces it took to get to my bedside. "How are you? Do you feel okay?"
I watched him as his eyes darted around my body as if checking for anything new or out of the ordinary. I found this behavior extremely odd.
"I'm okay. Are you?" I said with a small chuckle. But instead of his usual quip or insult, he just chuckled lightly back and ran a hand through his black and white hair. I raised an eyebrow before I found it hurt too much and kept my face neutral. I could see a thick five o'clock shadow coming in and his usual bags under his eyes darker than normal.
"Why did you stay here? You know Alfred and the boys would have kept an eye on me." He didn't answer. He just looked at me, his green eyes piercing. We sat there in the silence, and I could feel my breathing start to speed up as the air grew oddly significant. Finally, he spoke.
"I realized… when I heard you — and saw you… in the sewer," his eyes darted down and away from me. "I might… really care for you, Barbie." I could have sworn my heart stopped had I not had a beeping heart monitor behind me. "I have a feeling I've kinda known for a while. And the way I dealt with it was to continue to be an asshole," he said with a small scoff. "But I knew I had to tell you now before you almost die again," he said with a half smile, and he finally looked up into my eyes.
My mind went completely blank as I struggled to process this information. My thinking had already felt sluggish and weak since I'd woken up. And now I had a bombshell to deal with. I just looked at him with a dumb look on my face, my mouth slightly and stupidly agape.
He didn't seem to really notice. After a moment's hesitation, he reached out his hands and clasped either side of my face gently. He leaned down towards me, the tip of his hair tickling my forehead.
"I need you, Barbie," he whispered. "For so many reasons. I couldn't… I can't even think about life without you now. Really."
"What's happened to you?" I said softly, half-joking, half-not. He thought about it for a second.
"I don't know."
Then he brought his mouth down on mine softly, minding the cut on my lip. He kissed me in a way he never had before. It was tender, soft, yet passionate. It left me speechless. I felt my hand reach out to hold his cheek as we kissed. It felt reactionary. I wasn't thinking — just reacting.
"What's going on?" I heard Dick mumble beside me. I broke the kiss and whirled my head around (ouch) to see Dick watching us from his bed.
"Barbara. Dick." Silently from the shadows emerged Batman — Bruce. Jason dropped his hands from my face and stepped away, embarrassed. Suddenly, he wasn't in much of a bragging mood in front of them like yesterday. Not when he laid himself out there on the line like he just did. I could see in his eyes he was wondering if they had heard anything he had said to me.
And once again, here I was, caught in the middle of the three men in my life. For what felt like the hundredth time in a matter of weeks, I felt my cheeks begin to burn. We all looked at Batman. He approached my bed with purpose.
"We need to talk."