Seven years, it had taken seven years of work to get to where he was.
Time that could have been spent on other things. Watching his siblings come an go from party's and clubs, listening to their stories of nights out that they hardly remembered. All the while he'd sat in his room studying, staying with his parents well past the time they'd all moved out. How smug he'd felt, him the smart one , the one who'd make something of himself one day, not like those idiots who were wasting their lives.
The young doctor sat at his desk, his desk in his office. He'd felt something that could have been pride when he'd first set up. What did it matte that no one would hire such an inexperienced doctor right off the bat, he'd start up his own office, no reason to work at that understaffed, filthy hospital. He was a genius, everyone had known it, even those teachers who deliberately gave him a harder time because of it.
To bad for him the only place he could get his own office was in this filthy crime ridden city that would have done anything for people that weren't high school drop outs. He'd heard there was a free clinic elsewhere in the city, and with the amount of medicine that had disappeared in the last week he .was starting to feel like he was running one too.
Wouldn't that just make his parents the proudest, their son the philanthropist - he let out a disgusted snort.
On a little desk in the corner of his tidy office a coffee machine beeped. The doctor got up to pour himself some and sank back into his chair with a greatfull sigh. It was only for a few years after all, it couldn't possibly be worse than medical school.
He swore when a loud thumping startled him into spilling hot coffee over his clean shirt. Just his luck that in this city of idiots no one could read a 'closed' sign. He glared out his open office door at the locked one that was just visible. The frantic knocking continued and he resolved to ignore it. They'd go away eventually.
The doctor sipped on his coffee and wondered why he didn't go to law school instead, then remembered that being a lawyer involved dealing even more with people that being a doctor did. The knocking stopped and he placed the empty mug aside to finish off his paper work.
Water dripped onto the pages and he groaned, now he had a leaking ceiling as well, perfect. He lifted the mug again and made to go back to the coffee machine only to find that corner of his office occupied, and some thug in a leather jacket pouring himself a mug.
"Wonderful." The doctor bemusedly reached for the button that would call security.
"Uh uh." The man waved one finger and it was too easy to tell he was grinning under that helmet. "Wouldn't do that."
The doctor crossed his arms and sighed at the gun that was shoved in front of his face. "This is the third time." He groaned. "Will I survive it?"
The other man just laughed and shoved a bag over the doctors head. "Doc, you do what I say an' you won't have problems here for a long time."
That was only mildly reassuring.
Jason tucked his hood under his arm have his safe house a quick look over before taking the bag off the doctors head. "And there was light." He said with a smirk.
The doctors eyes wandered around the small apartment, lingering for a few minutes on each of the weapons Jason had purposely left laying around. He straitened his stained shirt and raked a hand through his damp blonde hair before turning to the vigilante and adjusting his glasses.
"I don't suppose your friend has a cold." Doc said.
Jason snorted and led him to the room where the replacement was tucked nice and cozy in his bed, walking carefully so he didn't limp. It wasn't him that needed a doctor. Kid had better be damn appreciative of all the effort it had taken to keep him alive.
The doctor looked the kid over without so much as a frown on his expressionless face, guy was probably a blast at parties.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Doc asked.
"Lot of crazies in this city." Jason said. "Should've figured that for yourself by now."
The look the doctor shot him let Jason know that he'd figured if he hadn't know already, he did now.
"More specifically, it would help if you told me what exactly the crazy did. I'll also need supplies that someone like you would have a hard time getting hold of." The doctor said.
"Yeah whatever, give me a list and I'll get on it."
Two days later Jason dropped what had probably been the most disagreeable, non-homicidal doctor in the world back at his little doctor's office. He also had a little talk with some of the gang leaders in the area about keeping their members away from said doctors office, probably doing them a favour too. He almost felt sorry for anyone who tried to steal from the place.
Back home the kid was sleeping peacefully as anyone. Jason gave him a quick look over to make sure there was no sign of infection cropping up. Bringing back that doctor was something he wanted to prevent at all costs, all that coffee had been expensive.
Satisfied that his coffee was safe for the time being, Jason went back to his small living room and opened up a window, the apartment was stuffy after being closed off for so long. He flopped onto his lumpy sofa and clicked in the TV for some background noise while he slept. The scum in the streets would 'forget' some of his rules if he didn't show up to remind them.
He also needed more money, asshole doctor...
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuck" Jason groaned and reloaded. The first time he goes out in weeks and they find him out in the first few hours.
Talia's little joy flipped onto the roof and got a bullet to his chest, knocking him into Goldie's waiting arms.
Nigtwing shot Red Hood a look that promised pain, or would have if anyone in this family could do anything right. Hood aimed a few shots at his predecessor's legs for the effort though.
Nightwing dodged and set the little Robin down behind a block of concrete, then came at the Hood with a vengeance.
Jason didn't have time to be dealing with Batman's little stooges, he needed to get back in case his houseguest woke up and set off one of the traps scattered around the apartment.
"Don't you have something else you should be doing?" Jason said. His guns were empty now, no chance to reload.
He had only a moment to dodge the powerful kick Nightwing sent his way.
"What did you do to him Hood?" Nightwing asked almost hitting Hood with an escrima stick. He could feel the tingle of electricity in his skin, he knew that would have hurt, how high had Nightwing tuned up he voltage on those things?
"You'll have to be more specific, I've been busy these few days. Shouldn't you be too? Last I checked there was a homicidal circus-freak runnin' round." Hood caught a battarang just before it would have embedded itself in his body armor. "I didn't mean you, brat, but shouldn't you be in bed?"
"Todd I will not..." Robin began.
"Quiet Robin, let me handle this." Nightwing said holding up a hand.
To Hood's surprise the kid growled but stayed put, giving him time to reload.
Nightwing moved closer to the other vigilante and and a volley of shots fired at him. He dodged all but one, which grazed his thigh.
Hood leaped for the next building, landing awkwardly on a patch of gravel, what was that even doing on the roof? Normally he would have been able to recover from that pretty quick, but the fall aggravated his bruised ribs, he let out a surprised cry and fought against the instinctual urge to put pressure on the wound.
Before he could move he got a kick in the chest courtesy of Nightwing. Even Goldie heard the crack that followed. It was all Jason could do to keep standing upright. Crap, he'd known going out would be a bad idea. He fired a few shots and backed up, one hand gripping his ribs.
Shaking off the fog dragging itself over his mind. Nightwing was calling up Batman.
"Call him in and you'll never see little Timmy again." Jason said, carefully raising his gun again.
"Tell me where he is and I won't." Nightwing said.
"You think Ima just hand the kid back to you so you can put him in that things path again?" Hood said. "Not on your life Goldie."
"Jason just..." Nightwing stepped forward, hands raised non threateningly.
"Don't." Jason fired off a warning shot, stopping the hero in his tracks. "When I know that clown isn't gonna swoop in with a bomb and finish the kid off you can have the him back, not a minute before."
"So he's alive?" Nightwing looked pathetically hopeful right then.
"For now." Jason said. "If I can help it he'll stay that way. After what that filth did I can't promise my replacement will stay that way."
"Does he need anything?" Nightwing asked. "God, Jason does he need a hospital?"
"I took care if it." Jason said. He heard a thrumming in the distance, the batplane, ofcourse they'd tried to distract him long enough for it to get there. He emptied the last of his bullets into Nightwing's kevlar protected chest. " Shoulda known I couldn't trust you to keep quiet." He said throwing a smoke grenade mixed with a strong sedative. "Better catch that clown Dickie-Bird. Maybe you'll see your 'little brother' before he's gone."
Like hell he'd trust the bats with the kid, couldn't even trust them to keep their mouths shut. He moved quickly to get away before Batman was done fussing over his golden boy and his brat.