WARNING! The beginning of the chapter has some DARK and sort of GRAPHIC scenes. If the thematic of this story is a sensitive topic for you, I suggest you skip these parts.
The characters' opinions do not reflect my own
"Do the two of you not get along?" Cassidy asked as she finished checking the drugs they put Jason in
"It's complicated." The brothers answered with a synchrony worthy of identic twins
Cassidy nodded and settled herself on the edge of Jason's bed. She rattled her brain, trying to come up with something to talk that wouldn't end in an awkward silence, but couldn't come up with anything. She stood up and stretched her back.
"I'm going to go get me some tea. Do you want some as well?" She asked Jason's brother
"Uh, some coffee would be nice. Black, please." The doctor nodded and walked to the door
"Hey, what about me?!" Jason asked indignantly "Bring me water!" He demanded before she was out the room
"No." She said as she closed the door
"Why not?" Jason's brother asked him
"They think I might go into surgery." Jason sighed "This is so stupid." He turned to face the other occupant of the room "What're you gonna do?"
"Nothing. For now, at least. How long has it been since you were diagnosed?"
"Last week."
"Were you planning on telling us?" Jason barked out a dry laugh
"I was planning on disappearing and you people never knowing I died."
"You're not going to die."
"Oh, really?! Why's that? You've had the cure of cancer with you this whole time? Not that it would be any surprise to me! The great Tim Drake, the one guy that's more intelligent than the Batman himself! Face the facts, kid, this isn't some freaking cold, this is cancer! It's my body deciding I'm not worthy of living and killing itself from the inside out!" As he yelled at Tim, Jason's hand kept twisting the fabric of the hospital gown in his stomach "Stop telling me your pretty, cliché bullshit and go fu…" He grunted and forced down the liquid that came up his throat, but mentally groaned at the metallic taste, that was not a good sign
"Hey, Jason! What's wrong?!" Tim jumped out of his chair and was at his brother's side in an instant
"Go… away…" he grunted and blacked out, not before spilling his stomach's contents, which consisted mostly of blood
Tim stepped out of the way of the vomit, his eyes widening when he saw the red.
"Jason! Wake up! Come on!" He shook his brother vigorously, panicking when he didn't make any move. He sprinted to the hallway "HELP! Someone!"
A male doctor came rushing to him, he looked like he was already heading to the room even before Tim screamed for help. The doctor didn't even spare him a glance, already working on his patient. Tim got out of the room, he felt his blood pressure dropping to a point he would be the next one needing medical care if he stood in that room any longer. He saw through a fuzzy mind that the woman he came with –the annoying part of his brain reminded him her name was Cassidy, but he couldn't care less about that- rushing to the room, working with the other doctor. Soon enough, a team of three nurses came into the room, not long after he saw his brother being taken away from the room on a stretcher. He knew he had to go after them, but even with an IQ of 142, his brain couldn't find where his legs were, much less figure out how they work. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and saw Cassidy was telling him something, but his ears were ringing, he couldn't make out a single word she said. He held up his hand, telling her to stop talking. She frowned, but then nodded and rushed off somewhere. Less than a minute later, she came back, short breathed, with a can of Coke on her hands. She opened the can and held it up to his lips. He shook his head, he wasn't going to put this poison on his body, as he liked to call the sweet beverage. The woman stood firm, the can positioned on his lips, Tim saw he had no other choice than to drink the stupid thing. After about ten minutes, Tim rested his head on the wall behind him, glad his mind was clearing up. The woman checked something in his eyes, and the trembling on his hands, and seemed pleased with herself.
"Can you hear me now?" She asked quietly. Tim nodded "Your sugar level dropped, that's why I forced the soda on you." 'That makes sense.', Tim thought
"Where did they take Jason?" Cassidy wasn't sure she should tell him anything just yet, but the look on his eyes told her he was going to turn this hospital upside down until he found his brother. She put a hand on his shoulder as he was getting up, a silent order for him to calm down
"He's being prepared to go into surgery as we speak."
"Is it because I'm here?" The doctor took a few moments to understand what he meant
"Oh, no, no. I mean, him getting agitated might have made things worse than they were, but the bleeding on his abdomen was getting worse anyway."
"I should've gone away when he first told me to." She sighed and sat down on the plastic chair beside him. She cursed at how hard the thing was, considering how much money this hospital makes, one would consider they would invest a little more on chairs. She took off her heels, making a silent promise to throw the damn things on her fireplace in retaliation to the many blisters the shoes made on her feet that day. She sighed again and tried to relax on the chair, closing her eyes as she did so.
"You know, I'm well familiar with having people dear to me dealing with cancer." She opened one eye after she spoke after a few minutes, checking if she wasn't talking to herself. Satisfied that Tim was still there, she went on "When I was a kid, my dad got diagnosed with lung cancer. I was really small, like eight years or so, so I didn't get to accompany much of his battle with cancer. But I still remember how hard it was for my mom, to get up at five to go to work, get home at three and rush to the hospital so she could take care of my dad, then come home at one in the morning and sleep a couple of hours and then do it all over again. I lost the count of how many times I saw either my mom or my sister crying over what was going on with our family, but they never left my dad's side. Eight years old me couldn't understand why they didn't. That is, until they took me to see him, I think it was about a month before he died, and I saw how happy my dad was at seeing me. My mom was sleeping on the chair beside him, and the doctor had called my sister outside to talk to her about some medical bullshit, so it was basically just me and dad. I was terrified to go near him, that man didn't look at all like my dad. He smiled at me, and told me that my mom and my sis would talk to him the entire time they stayed with him, they would tell him about me, they would gossip about the neighbors, tell him that my aunt's cat got pregnant again and didn't know what to do of the kittens. I remember that I wanted to ask him how he was doing, if he was hurting somewhere, but I didn't get the chance to touch on those subjects, since my dad rambled and rambled. I might've got that from him, because, I'm making you listen to this pointless conversation that's probably boring you out of your mind." She chuckled quietly when Tim didn't make any move to tell her she wasn't boring him "My point is, you need to stay by your brother's side. Even when he yells and screams at you to go away, when he throws things at you and calls you every bad name you can think of. He needs you, he needs someone to be there with him. " Then, she added as an afterthought "Just take his gun away, so he doesn't kill you."
"Those are rubber bullets." Tim replied chuckling
"Really?!"
"Yeah. He shoots us with those things every chance he gets." Cassidy hummed quietly in response, and for the first time that day, there was confortable silence around her
They stayed like that for a few minutes before Tim stood up and straightened himself
"When are visiting hours done?" He asked the doctor
"For patients like Jason, family can visit at any hour." Tim nodded
"Good. I'm going to go home and take a shower before coming back. Do you want a ride home?" Cassidy nodded. Never before in her whole life had she wanted to be home as much as she did then. She pondered whether to put her heels back on, but decided not to. She jumped up from the chair and offered a hand for Tim. Deep inside, Tim felt somewhat offended that someone was offering him help to get up from a chair, but he still took her hand, not wanting to be rude.
The comfortable silence accompanied the pair on their ride home, only being cut by Cassidy telling him the directions to her apartment. They hummed together the lyrics to the songs that played on the radio, neither noticing they were doing it, since they were focusing on their own thoughts. Once they reached Cassidy's, they quickly bid each other goodbye, Tim waited for her to go inside before driving off. He got to his apartment and showered in record time, gathered his laptop and cell phone before going out again.
He quickly dropped by Jason's to check if there was anything he needed to do there, and frowned as he saw the lights on. He knew it wasn't a burglary, seeing as burglars usually don't light the place they're robbing up. That meant it was either Dick or Bruce, seeing as Alfred was too busy keeping track of an injured Damian. He really hoped it was Dick, even with all his annoyingness.
He quickly made up a reasonable explanation to why he was at Jason's and that also explained the apartment owner's absence. He kept his face natural as he jogged up the stairs. He face palmed as he opened the front door to find Dick crouching on the ground, his shoes on his hand as he pressed them on the wall, right under the windows. He had attacked all other windows Tim could see, the only ones left were the one Dick was working on and the one on the kitchen over the sink (because there was no space to leave footprints on it).
"Wow, you really go out of your way to annoy Jason." He commented. Dick didn't jump of surprise, because of course he knew Tim was there. Dick turned to face him and shot him a mischievous smile
"Yup!" He smiled as if it was a compliment "But he deserves it this time." Tim raised a brow, wondering what Dick meant "He filled my Nightwing suit with itching powder, and swapped my batons for rubber ones. It was sooo annoying to have the goons laugh at the squeaking sound the batons made when I hit them, and I had to use my old uniform, the 'disco' one, remember? Man, why did I thought that was a cool look back then?" Tim laughed nervously. It was actually him and Damian that had done this prank on Dick in retaliation for him eating all of Alfred's cookies. He decided he would let Jason take the fall for this one
"So, to pay him back you're putting footprints on his walls?"
"Not just that, my dear Timbo. Look on the kitchen!" Tim looked to the kitchen and made a face at Dick that said 'I can see it from here, and there's nothing especial.' "Nooo, I mean look on the kitchen, not at the kitchen!" Tim sighed and walked to the kitchen before opening one of the cupboards. A lot of cans of soda of all different flavors came crashing at him, and Tim was sort of glad it was him that opened it and not Jason. Inside his head, he was feeling as though Jason had suddenly become a too fragile creature, as if anything could break him now
"Now you're going to have to redo this, you know?" Dick waved him dismissively
"Nah, I've got the other spaces covered."
"Did you do it everywhere on the kitchen?"
"Yup!" Dick was so proud of himself
"I don't think I've ever witnessed such a huge waste of energy and time."
"Well, let's see if you can keep saying that once you see the other things I did!" Tim groaned as Dick pulled him to Jason's bathroom. It was a downright mess. The toilet was clogged, the floor was a wet mess, with an army of squeaking duck toys that had fell off of the bathtub, which was overflowing with the annoying toys, and there was the word 'REVENGE!' written on the walls with toothpaste, along Nightwing's signature bird. "So? What do you think? Genius, huh?" Dick wasn't the best prankster. His pranks were usually childish and not that much creative. They were more annoying than funny. But his eyes were gleaming so brightly Tim didn't have the heart to tell him off
"You sure worked hard." He gave him an awkward laugh. How come Dick managed to do this much in the less than five hours since Tim had been there this afternoon? This should take a whole day to be done
"Yeah! And, the best part, I put itching powder on his bed sheets, his underwear, and his Red Hood uniform! But, since I'm not heartless enough to let him patrol on an itching suit, I left him my first Robin uniform, completely remodeled to fit a man his size!" Dick cackled manically "I'm going to be sitting right there-" he pointed to the old couch "-with my feet on the coffee table-" one of Jason's biggest pet peeves "- as I watch him suffer in revenge for what he did to me!" Tim winced. Dick was really mad about the prank. He was so glad he thought it was Jason. Tim could make the apartment go back to its original state before Jason was discharged from the hospital
"Well, too bad for you, Jason won't be in town for a while." Dick's face fell so hard one might think his puppy died or something
"Wait, what?! No! Why?!"
"He didn't tell me."
"Aww, man!" Dick pouted and threw himself on the old couch. The thing finally crashed, right in the middle where Dick had thrown all his weight on. Tim blanched and Dick lifted both arms in celebration "Yaaass! I finally broke it!"
"What're you celebrating for?! You know how much Jason loves this couch! He'll kill you! And me! And maybe go into a rampage and kill another dozen people before Bruce catches him!"
"Nah, he won't care that much once I buy him a new one!" Dick got up and watched his artwork "We made a bet that if I managed to break this junk I could buy him a new one and he had to take it. Man, I've been trying to break this thing for months!" He nudged the couch with his foot and the thing fell apart even further
"That doesn't matter, you idiot! This couch was like a security blanket or something for him! I would go into hiding if I was you!" Tim turned the couch upside down and checked if he could fix it. The thing was so disgusting he felt shivers running down his spine, even touching the wood sent down a small rain of wood powder and dust. He decided facing Jason's wrath was more worth it than touching this couch even one more time. He felt his blood running cold at the thought that he sat on the thing so many times before
"Great." He pointed a finger at Dick "You're going to go and buy a new couch first thing tomorrow, hear me?! We need to fix this before Jason comes back."
"Why're you so pissy about this?" Dick asked cocking his head to the side. Tim cussed softly and ditched his original story, going for a new one that suited the occasion better. He sighed softly, getting into character
"He blackmailed me into watching his place while he was away. He knew you would try something because of the prank he pulled on you. If he finds the place like this he'll…" he waited a few moments, acting as if he held his tongue right on time "Nevermind."
"What?" Dick smiled curiously, his interest piqued
"Oh, I'm not going to tell you."
"Aw, come on! Tell me!"
"No!"
"You know I'll find out one way or another! Come on! Tell me!" Dick kept nudging Tim with his fingertips
"Goddammit, you're annoying! Go away! Okay, okay! I'll tell you! Just get away from me!" Dick backed down two steps, but still hovered around Tim, wiggling his fingers in a way that made Tim want to punch him "He got his hands on an old video from the batcave from when I had just became Robin and I had put on the Batsuit and was messing around with it until Alfred found me and scolded me." Tim's face got really red, not because he was that good of an actor (which he was), but because he was really revealing one of his biggest blackmail material, something Bruce used on him when he wanted Tim to do something he doesn't want to. Tim was pretty sure Jason has that video too, but he hasn't used that one on him yet.
Dick's face got a blank, shocked expression, his mouth was open and he had to remind himself to close it. He quickly straightened himself up and turned to the door. Before he turned around, Tim could see Dick was biting the inside of his lip to keep from laughing out
"I remembered I have something to do." He said in a fake monotonous voice and sprinted to the door. Tim quickly launched himself at Dick, in a half-baked attempt at stopping him
"Wait! Dick! Don't you dare!" He ran after him down the stairs, and when he got outside Dick was already inside his own car, bringing the silver Tesla to life. Tim banged on the window and tried opening the door, already knowing it would be locked "You tell the demon and I'll murder you!" he gave Dick the bird as the man put his head outside his window and shouted at him 'Bye Timmy, love you!'
Tim sighed tiredly. It might have cost his dignity, but at least one of the biggest problems was taken care of, for a while
Yay! Congrats to rpglady76 and Princess Of Flames for figuring out who the brother was!
