That night, Lance had fixed pot roast for the two kids under his wing. He brought their plates to the table and smiled as they dug in. Carrie and Tim so far have gotten along great together after Carrie got past Tim's anxiety ridden shell. It was adorable really. For a moment, he wonders how hard it would be to keep Tim. Probably way more trouble than Lance could take right now. Either way, Lance sat across the table as he stared at the two on the other side.
"And then, Ms. Steele taught us how to suck an egg through a bottle!" Carrie explains as she eats. Tim nodded his head in thought.
"It's a very simple, but practical way to teach physics. I approve of her methods." Tim says, and Lance really can see how he thought Draper was a grown man. Tim had a pretty advanced vocabulary for someone his age. Lance smiles as he watches the two. Carrie talking about things she learned and Tim expressing either joy or sorrow at the public education system.
"I really am having a hard time grasping what fractions are though." Carrie says suddenly, and looking far too sad for Lance to bear. The way Tim instantly looks determined makes Lance realize he wasn't the only one bothered.
"Carrie, after we eat, I'll explain how fractions work in a way you can understand, I promise." He says, trying to keep an air of reformed dignity about him. Carrie just turns and faces him from where she sat, an expression of thinly hidden awe on her face.
"You'd really help me?" She asks, and Tim smiles.
"Sure! I can definitely be a better teacher than whatever sub optimal one was hired by a public school board." Tim says with confidence. Carrie quickly hugs him, careful to not knock his arm around. Tim freezes up, only barely able to return the hug just as Carrie pulls away.
Was he fucking touch starved too? Lance takes a deep breath. It's fine. It's all going to be fine.
"Thank you so much!" Carrie exclaims as she digs back into her food, eating slightly faster than before. Lance just watches his two ki- charges. This is... Nice.
(...)
All nice things have to come to an end. He needed to head out and patrol. He's not done much of that the past few months, focusing on making sure he'd be able to get custody of Carrie. But, during the few patrols he did do, he heard word that Two-Face was gearing up for a big deal. A deal that should be going down sometime tonight. He'd almost forgotten with how busy he'd been lately... He grabs the keys to his new(ish) Subaru and walks over to Tim and Carrie, who are both engrossed in math on one of the couches in the living room. He kneels down next to the kids.
"Hey, look, there's something big happening tonight and I need to stop it." He says softly. Tim and Carrie both look up from Carrie's book. The latter child gets her own determined look.
"I remember what you said! I won't leave here without you." Tim looks over to Carrie and nods.
"I'll make sure she's in bed at ten. I promise Mr. Bruner." Lance smiles softly.
"Call me Lance, Tim. Thanks. Stay safe kids. Love you." He says, and watched as both kids' eyes lit up at the simple words. Carrie reached forward and hugged him tightly, her arms going around his neck. He squeezes her with his own arms before standing up.
"Left overs are in the oven in case either of you get hungry. Emergency numbers are posted on the fridge." Lance says, and then nods to Carrie.
"Carrie has a tracker. Make sure to show it to Tim." The little girl nods fiercely, and Lance gives one small nod himself before he walks over to the front door and reluctantly leaves hi - the children behind.
(...)
He got to the Asylum in just under ten minutes, suited himself up and then headed for Dixon Docks. The little information he'd gotten had said that whatever deal Two-Face had planned was going down there. Lance was ready to tangle with what was probably going to be his first major fight as the Arkham Knight. He had plenty of bullets, shurikens, smoke bombs and even a few Batarangs. Lance was prepared for a fight. It's just too bad, that so was Dent...
(...)
Lance found himself hiding in the shadows inside of one of the many warehouses in Dixon. A few goons were moving boxes out of a truck, Dent himself standing close by. The scarred man lights up a cigarette, and inhales the addictive substance.
"So how much do we got? Is it all here?" Dent asks one of the goons. Huh, it's Bill. Go figure. Bill wipes his hands down.
"Well boss, we got seven boxes, each one has about ten AR-15s. Was that what you ordered?" Bill asks, and Lance curses silently under his breath. Seventy fucking assault rifles? This is bad. Dent nods his head approvingly though.
"Looks like I got what I paid for." Dent throws his cigarette on the ground and stomps on it. He then turns around and whistles. All seven of his goons stop moving boxes and turn to him.
"That armored Bat should be here anytime. You all know the plan." He says, and Lance frowns. Was... Did Dent purposely leak the deal? A small glint catches his eye, and Lance drops down to the ground just in time to miss the bullet that landed in - no, past the wall behind him. The shot came from outside. Lance grits his teeth. That had better not be who he thinks it is.
Dent almost jumps at the Arkham Knight's entrance, but quickly smiles.
"Well I was hoping I'd only have to pay Lawton for one bullet... But I can manage." He says, and Lance clenches his fists. Of course it's Deadshot. He takes a quick note of all the windows in the area. He'll have to avoid them. Dent then growls.
"You idiots! Are you waiting for an open invitation! Kill the bastard!" He screams. For a half a second, no one moves.
Suddenly, the goons start firing at him. He unholsters his own pistol and starts aiming for the guns, running around to try to stop himself from being an easy target. He gets four shots off and disarms three goons before another bullet rips through the wall and manages to hit his shoulder. It doesn't penatrate the Promethium, but it does manage to make him drop his gun.
Lawton had thermal vision. Fucking hell. Lance rushes the remaining goons. He punches the first one in the chest as hard as he can, sending the man falling backwards. Two more goons rush him with knives. He grabs the closer man on his left, and throws him at the man on his right. Oh, it was Bill. Oof. The guy is gonna feel that in the morning. Another goon starts shooting, and Lance does a forward somersault just in time for another bullet to come in through the wall, just barely hitting Lance in the foot. The bullet goes through the weaker armor, but thankfully doesn't penatrate his foot.
It's the small mercies.
As soon as Lance lands from the somersault, he throws a shuriken at the goon shooting him. That's four down, three to go. Four if he includes Dent. Two more men, taking cover behind the truck start shooting with the ARs. The bullets bounce off of the armor, but Lance still feels the impact a good bit. It's not a pleasant feeling. He throws down a smoke bomb and starts to rush the goons, before he falls to the floor, throwing two more shurikens. One lands in the first goons leg, and the other manages to hit the other guy in the hand.
Another bullet is fired, but miraculously, due to Lance's quick fall, Lawton missed completely. Deadshot never misses. He imagines the man has to be pretty angry now that two bullets didn't hit him. He briefly wonders how many bullets Dent can afford, but figures he can do the math later. He stands back up and surveys the area as he keeps moving. The last guard and Dent are gone.
The truck starts up, and the pedal is apparently slammed forward. Lance barely avoids the speeding vehicle, but another bullet comes through and hits the spot where his shoulder and arm connect. It's where his armor is the weakest. There's no Depleted Promethium there, and the Liquid Kevlar by itself wasn't able to hold back one of Deadshot's bullets. It pierces the skin.
"Fuck!" He growls out, as he holds his wound. The truck makes a turn in the large warehouse, and Lance can see Dent behind the wheel. He can barely make out Two-Face's manic grin as the truck starts heading straight for him. Boxes and guns strewn about go flying through the air as the truck hits them. Lance forces his body to move, the nearest door his goal.
He doesn't know if he can make it.
Every step he takes is a few feet closer that Dent gets. He doesn't think the truck could easily go through the warehouse, but he can't take that risk. Each foot closer he gets, it's like time slows down. By some absolute miracle, be makes it to the door and rushes through it, not bothering to look back. A few moments later, when no truck is barreling after him, Lance realizes he's safe.
That's when another gunshot rings through the air. The bullet strikes perfectly in his back. The Promethium protects him, but the impact makes him fall down. Just because the suit is strong and sturdy, it doesn't mean Lance is. The Arkham Knight whips his head around. He can see the buidling he's sure the bullets have been coming from. He scrambles to his feet, rushing as fast as his injury will allow him.
There's a sewer entrance a half a block away. He'll go down there, get to the Asylum and patch himself up. He turns the corner and sees the manhole. He doesn't see the bullet that manages to catch his hand as he turns. Like the bullet aimed at his foot, this one breaks through the armor. Unlike that bullet though, this one breaks through into his skin and passes clean through. Lance curses in pain as he keeps moving, and retreats into the sewers.
He falls off the ladder and lands on the ground with a thud. Lance almost stays there. His shoulder is bleeding badly and his right hand is in... Bad shape. But he needs to go. Lance has to reach the Court's tunnel systems before he can be safe. He needs to reach the Asylum before he bleeds out. He stands up slowly, getting a feel for what he can do, and starts walking. Lance manages to make it a half a mile, opens up one of the tunnel entrances... And blacks out as he steps foot in the Court's underground maze.
(...)
Tim was sitting next to Carrie. Outwardly, he was calm and collected. After all, he had to take care of the younger girl. Inwardly, he was worried. Extremely worried about Lance. After Lance disappeared, the Waynes were absolutely devastated. He could see it in the way that Nightwing barely joked. Or the way that Batman had become more distant. More violent. Jason becoming Robin helped, but... It wasn't the same. And then Robin died. And Nightwing and Batgirl. And then Batman was finally killed by the Joker. At least the clown had to take himself out to do it.
The point Tim is trying to make, is that he's worried. Lance is the last Bat and he doesn't want anything bad to happen to him. To that end, as soon as Lance had left, Tim had done two things, all on his cellphone. Firstly, he had every camera that he'd had access to, ping him at the sight of the Arkham Knight. It was a fairly advanced system he coded himself once he first heard rumors of the new vigilante.
The second thing he'd done was get into Lance's systems. The security he had in the Court of Owl's underground was impressive. Cameras covered all of the entrances (noticeably only the inside. So Tim didn't get caught by one of those) and they also had a connection to the main computer system, so that anytime one of the doors were opened, Lance could be notified. And in this case, Tim too, would know when Lance got back safely.
Tim checked his phone every so often while helping Carrie with fractions. The redhead was surprisingly smart when she concentrated hard enough, and Tim was consistently impressed by her intelligence and ingenuity, both from the math and from the stories she'd been telling him about her time on the streets. Carrie was nice. A bit much for Tim, but still nice. He was explaining math as his camera system pinged the Arkham Knight as he traveled silently through Somerset.
For a good half hour, no more cameras seemed to catch sight of Lance. So, Tim took to chatting with Carrie some more. The girl was definitely easy to talk to. Even if she did push Tim to his limit of dealing with people, he was glad to be around her.
"Did I tell you about the two ducks I met?" She asked, and Time frowned.
"Ducks?" He parrots back. Carrie nods her head quickly.
"Yeah! Quacky Chan and Duck Norris! They're really nice." She says, and Tim nearly chokes on laughter. Which really isn't a good precedent for conversation. What would his parents say if they saw that?
"That's um, very nice?" He says, caught off guard by how badly he's been thrown off his game. He's always been good at talking to people! That was his thing. His parents taught him well. How does Carrie constantly throw him off track? The girl tilts her head in thought, but before she could say anything, one of the underground entrances were activated. How did he know? Well he used a specific notification sound for it. Tim grabs his phone and checks the live camera. He sees Lance shakily walk through the hidden entrance... And then he collapses as the wall slides back down.
A gasp behind him makes him whip his head around. Carrie is looking at his phone, a look of horror on her face. Tim turns back to his phone. Lance is going to stand back up any second now. He's only a... Mile from the Asylum. Lance is going to stand back up, head for the base and get himself patched up. He knows the man will. He was Robin, he's not going to die.
Thirty seconds later, when Lance barely shows signs of stirring, Carrie grabs Tim by the shoulders. The young boy whines softly when his arm is moved, but Carrie stares into Tim's eyes, unbothered.
"Tim. Do you know where that is?" She asks, her voice serious. Tim nods.
"Yeah that's uh, that's a hidden tunnel around Somerset. He's not far - well not that far - from the Asylum." Carrie nods her head in confirmation. She takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes.
"That doctor that he knows at the clinic, do you have her number?" At this, Tim pulls up Dr. Leslie's personal cell number. She gave it to him for emergencies. Carrie scrunched up her face, and then nodded her head, seemingly to herself.
"Ok... Ok, call her and tell her to meet me at the hidden entrance thingy. I can run and be there fast!" She says, and before Tim even has time to tell her how bad of an idea that is, she rushes off to the front door. She's gone before Tim can raise his good hand. As the door slams, Tim immediately turns back to his phone, and calls Leslie. He's glad Carrie had her phone in her pocket, otherwise she'd be lost.
(...)
Carrie ran. As fast as she possibly could, she ran. She didn't think about how she felt as she saw Lance laying there, not moving in his suit. She didn't think about how cold it was and how badly she wanted a jacket. She didn't think about the tears that were falling as she pushed her body to its limits. The first manhole she saw, she jumped into. Only once she was in the sewers did she stop running. She called Tim. He answered near immediately.
"Carrie! It's too dangerous to just leave like that!" Tim says, and she huffs loudly.
"I know! Of course I know that, but Lance..." She says softly. She was ready to argue, but she needed to get to Lance right now. She sighs quietly.
"Tim, where do I go? I'm in the sewers right now." Tim doesn't say anything. Not for nearly a whole minute. She can hear him doing something though, so she waits. She bounces on her feet, on edge. Carrie won't be better, not until she reaches Lance. Finally, Tim speaks.
"Ok so I have your postion and I need you to go forward and then turn on the first left." Carrie said a soft thanks, and then ran according to Tim's directions. Like this, she made her way through the sewers until she got to one of the secret entrances. She was about to try and figure out where to touch when the door opened automatically. She gasped.
"Tim! The door just opened! Is it... Is it broke?" She asks, and Tim seems to choke.
"No, no. I uh, opened it remotely for you." He says, and Carrie's eyes go wide.
"That's really useful!" She says, and then realizes that she didn't need to come out here at all. If Tim could have just called the doctor and did what he did for Carrie, she wouldn't have had to leave the house and break Lance's ONE rule. (Bedtime didn't count, it was a stupid rule!) She shakes her head. It doesn't matter if she wasn't needed. Carrie wants to help Lance. Wants to pay him back for all the kind things he's done. She rushes into the tunnels.
(...)
Lance comes to a few times. The first time he's aware he's hurt. He knows he needs to move, but he just... The floor is so comfortable. The next time, he's stirred by someone next to him. He knows he needs to move. Needs to get up, because whoever is close by, the aren't friendly.
The third time he comes to, he notices that he's being moved. Someone is on his left and his right. Whoever is on his left is much shorter than the person on the right. He shakes his head, trying to focus.
"Wus gon' on?" He says, and the people helping him move, to their credit, don't stop.
"Lance? Can you hear me?" He must be hallucinating, because there's no way the doc is next to him. He stops moving for a moment, and turns his head... Holy shit, it IS the doc. Leslie scowls at him, and he chuckles.
"You're my guardian angel." He says. Leslie laughs as she guides him down the tunnels, more of his mind (and his pain) becoming clearer.
"No, not exactly. The kids are." Lance realizes exactly who is at his left side. He looks down to see Carrie, her gaze on the tunnel, all her effort into helping him move. He'd use his hand to touch her head if it wasn't numb. Lance just chuckles.
"Thanks Carrie. I love you kiddo." Lance says, watching as her gaze just barely looks up, before returning back to the tunnel. Lance watches a camera as he and his helpers pass by it. He gets the strangest feeling Tim is on it. Lance gives a lazy, mock salute as the room to the Asylum opens up, and he's escorted inside. Leslie and Carrie help him to the nearest table, and Lance pushes himself off of them as he undos the latches around his chest and arms, making them fall back and releasing part of his body. Lance sighs heavily as he lifts his legs and gets out of the suit, Leslie and Carrie coming over to help him.
"That shoulder is in bad shape Bruner." Leslie says, and oof. He made her mad if she's busting out the last name. He laughs.
"Ain't got nothing on my hand! Pretty sure it's numb." He says, as he raises his arm and tries to move his fingers with practically no success. A small gasp makes him remember that Carrie is here. Leslie grabs Lance by the good shoulder.
"Where's all of the medical equipment at?"
(...)
Lance sat in a chair as Leslie dug the bullet out of his shoulder. He didn't have any of the good painkillers sadly, so he definitely felt it. She also put stitches in his hand. Thankfully there was no nerve damage. She also stitched up his shoulder once she was done digging around in it. Leslie looked hopping mad. She was definitely going to yell at him. But, as she put his medical supplies away, she sighs in front of him.
"Nothing I say to you would stick at this point." She says, and Lance drops his head.
"Real sorry doc." He says lamely. She glares at him. Lance winches.
"I don't want to see you dead after just getting you back." Leslie then turns her head, and after a moment, puts her hands in her pockets.
"I'd say more, but the words I'm going to give to you aren't ones children should hear." She says, and then gives Lance one more pointed look.
"I expect you to immediately call me if you're injured again. I don't want to have a child giving me news that you're unconscious in a secret tunnel." Lance gives her the best grin he can, and salutes her.
"I absolutely promise doc. Seriously." Lance says, and then laughs.
"I mean it doc. Thanks. I don't know what I'd do without you." Leslie rolls her eyes as she heads for the entrance of the Asylum, the wall sliding up on its own.
"Thank the kids." Is all she says as she leaves. Once she's gone, and the entrance slides back down, Lance looks at Carrie. All this time, the young girl remained mostly silent as Leslie worked on him. She also didn't say a word as she helped him move through the underground. Lance bit his lips. He wasn't sure what to say.
"On one hand, you left the house without me." Lance says jokingly.
"On the other hand, you did help save my life, so I guess there's no harm done." He says, a small smile on his face. Carrie just stares at him for a few moments, before rushing him. She throws her arms around his side and absolutely sobs into his shirt. Its like a switch was flicked, and Lance immediately hugs her with his good arm tightly. She was a child. She was nine and she'd already lost her parents, was forced to live out on the street, and the one person, the ONE person who had been a constant, good presence in her life, nearly died.
Lance felt sick.
"Hey, hey Carrie, it's all good now ok? I'm alright." He says soothingly. Carrie takes her face away from his shirt and stares up at him, still sobbing.
"No! It's not alright! It's not ok! You... You could have died!" She's back in his shirt now, and Lance tries to rub her back.
"But I didn't did I? You and Tim saved me?" He asks, still unsure of everything. Carrie nods against his chest.
"Tim, he... He had you on his phone. We saw you fall." Lance raised an eyebrow. Tim got into his security systems? Now that he thinks about it, the door slid up and down for Leslie a bit ago. Huh... Tim was managing to impress him more and more. Joey would love the kid.
"I'm sorry, you two shouldn't have had to see that." He says, and Carrie aggressively shakes her head.
"If we didn't, then you'd be, you'd be dead! Then who would take care of us!?" She says, her tears still going strong. Lance smiles sadly.
"Yeah but... This is what I have to do Carrie. It's dangerous but... There's no one else that can help the city." Lance says, and internally he scoffs. The first major fight and he'd lost spectacularly. Hopefully Dent lost a good chunk of those guns in the fray. Carrie takes a deep breath, and looks up at Lance. Looks right into his eyes.
"You don't have to do it alone! Me and Tim can help!" Now Lance outwardly scoffs.
"No way in hell am I letting you two out into the city to fight crime." Lance says, and looks at Carrie right back, meeting her gaze head on.
"This life, it... No one should have to go through this Carrie. No one." Carrie keeps her eyes locked right straight into Lance's own. He feels like she's looking into his soul. She grips his shirt tightly.
"Then why not stop? Why not stay home?" Lance smiles down at her, and rubs her head softly.
"Someone has to try to help Gotham. There's not going to be any help from anyone else... So someone's got to." Lance briefly wonders what the hell the Justice League is doing. You'd think they'd spare a few heroes for the city.
Whatever.
Carrie's face turns to one of determination. She takes a deep breath, and then sighs.
"Then let me help. Let me be your back up." She says, and Lance shakes his head.
"I can't do that. I can't let you get yourself hurt or worse Carrie. I... I can't." Carrie hugs Lance again, and then says, in the softest voice he's ever heard...
"I can't let you die either... Please let... let me help daddy." Carrie stiffens as soon as the words leave her mouth. Lance does too. His eyes start to water, and he chokes up. How... How could he not see it? It's not just his feelings at stake. Not just his own worries in danger of coming true. Carrie... He hugs her back, and then sighs.
"You're getting a year and a half of training." He says, and Carrie looks up at him, eyes wide. He keeps his face as neutral as he can.
"You're learning how to grapple before you set a foot out in Gotham ready to fight. You're also getting muscle on you. And you're going to be at least 5'5. And-" Carrie hugs him again, and Lance stops himself. They can talk about it later.
Right now, he needs to get his daughter in bed.