Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up, guys! It's been an extremely busy week :o( Just one more chapter after this one!
"What the hell is taking them so long?" Wally grumbled, glancing at the digital clock hanging on the opposite wall, his knee bouncing wildly with nerves.
His question was met with silence from his team mates. Yes, he was aware that he'd asked the same thing a million times already, but he was just frustrated that they still hadn't heard anything! And when Wally was frustrated, he talked. A lot. And asked stupid questions.
Artemis, Kaldur and Conner had arrived at Mount Justice about a half hour after Wally and M'gann had with Robin. Before the bio-ship's hatch had even fully opened, Batman had swooped in and taken Robin from Wally's arms, stalking down to the medical bay with a swish of his cape. They hadn't seen him since.
The five of them were currently sitting outside the examination room where Batman had disappeared through the doors with a gasping and struggling Robin in his arms, waiting for word on their teammate. The first few minutes after their arrival Wally had been distracted by Black Canary, who had taken one look at him and ordered him into another examination room. She'd poked and prodded him mercilessly before she was finally satisfied he wasn't dying or otherwise critically injured. Any other time he would've milked whatever injuries he had, no matter how minor, but this time he'd just wanted to get the hell back to the other room to find out what was going on with Rob.
Disappointed that there had been no news on Robin upon his return, he'd sat down across from M'gann and settled in to wait.
Now, Wally leaned his back against the wall and cast his eyes at the ceiling. It had been forty-five minutes since Black Canary had joined Batman and Red Tornado in the examination room. An hour since Robin had been taken away and they'd last heard anything. He was seriously starting to freak out. Which is why he jumped a mile when Kaldur put a hand on his knee, finally stilling its nervous bouncing.
"Wally, it will be all right," Kaldur said softly.
"You don't know that," Wally practically snapped.
"No, I do not," Kaldur conceded. "But I do know Robin."
"He's right," Artemis added. She was beside M'gann, her arms crossed in front of her chest. For a moment she looked like she wanted to say more, but then she closed her mouth and looked away.
"Robin's tough," Conner grunted instead, and Wally glanced up in surprise at where the other boy was sitting on M'gann's other side. Compared to Conner, Robin was a twig that could easily be snapped in two. The fact that Superboy was basically acknowledging that Robin was tougher than he looked was testament to how truly badass Robin was.
"I know," Wally replied belatedly, very briefly locking gazes with M'gann. She was the only one of his teammates who truly understood how serious the situation was; how far gone Robin had been. She'd heard and seen how he'd screamed and struggled and begged to die; she realized that the Robin they knew might be gone.
But they both kept quiet. Giving voice to their fears might make them come true. Wally wasn't superstitious or anything, but, well, Robin could use all the help he could get right now and he wasn't about to jinx anything.
It wasn't until a short while later that it occurred to Wally that he'd been so worried about Robin that he hadn't even thought to ask what had happened with Knyazev. He turned to Kaldur, who was still sitting beside him. "Tell me you guys kicked that Russian dude's butt."
Kaldur gave him a grim smile. "We did. I doubt he will be able to walk any time soon. He is being transported to Belle Reve as we speak, pending further police or League investigation."
"Good," Wally said, though the answer didn't give him much satisfaction. And it wouldn't, until he knew Rob was going to be okay. Damn it, why hadn't they heard anything yet?!
When the doors to the examination room finally opened, they all surged up out of their seats. Wally swallowed hard as he looked up at Batman's serious face.
Rob, if you're dead, I swear I'm gonna kick your ass! Please, please, please be okay!
oOo
Dick Grayson slowly became aware that he ached. Everywhere. When he shifted, his muscles screamed in protest and his chest felt like it was on fire whenever he took a breath. God, even his eyeballs hurt!
What happened? He lay quietly for a minute, trying to get a handle on his surroundings. He was lying on something soft, the air smelled like antiseptic, and there was a steady beeping sound to his right that was familiar. A heart monitor? Was he in a hospital?
He tried to open his eyes, but found that they were covered with something cool and sticky that was effectively keeping them closed. If he was in a hospital, then- why was he blindfolded? When he tried to raise a hand to his eyes, something dug into his wrist, pinning his arm to something cold – metal? His other wrist and both his ankles turned out to be similarly restrained. Panic flared. Why was he tied down?! What was going on? Had he been kidnapped? But if he was in some sort of medical facility… Was he- was he being experimented on? Oh God, what if they were trying to clone him? Why couldn't he remember anything?
"Whoa, hey, shhh, calm down, it's okay, you're okay."
…Wally?
He jumped when warm fingers brushed his hand, but immediately turned his palm up and clung to them. The fingers squeezed back reassuringly.
"Wally—" Dick paused and frowned at how thin and hoarse his voice sounded. "W-what's going on? Where are we?"
"We're at Mount Justice, in the med bay."
Dick sagged in relief. No cloning. Thank. God. "What- what's wrong with me?"
"You've got a couple of broken ribs, and quite a few bumps and bruises, but you're okay. Oh, and your eyes! Don't worry, they're fine. They just put some ointment and drops in them and covered them up to try and get the irritation down a little."
"Oh. And…why am I in these things?" Dick asked, wiggling his wrists a little.
"Well, uh…Scarecrow's gas made you go a little- crazy."
Scarecrow! And- that Russian dude, Dick remembered suddenly. I got fear-gassed. Right. Why was his mind so fuzzy? And- he'd gone crazy? It must've gotten really bad if they'd had to put him in restraints! He swallowed. "Did I- did I hurt anyone?"
"No, no, you didn't. But you were doing a pretty good job of hurting yourself."
"Oh."
"But since you sound like you've got your head back on fairly straight again, I guess I can take the restraints off now."
"Are you allowed to do that?"
"Probably not, but I kinda hate seeing you in those things and I doubt they're very comfortable, no matter how padded they are, so I don't really care. Just don't go getting another hallucination or something, okay?"
"Okay," Dick said, waiting quietly for Wally to start undoing the straps.
"Uh, Rob?"
"Yeah?"
"Could I just get my hand back for a minute? I kinda need both of 'em to untie you."
"Huh?" Wally's fingers wiggled in his hand. "Oh!" He let go immediately, feeling heat rise into his cheeks. "Sorry."
"Nooooo problem."
Wally had the restraints off in less than two seconds and Dick breathed a sigh of relief, happy to be able to move around a little, despite the various aches his body kept reminding him of. Finding a slightly more comfortable position to lie in, he yawned. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but now that the adrenaline his initial panic had shot through his body was wearing off, he was beginning to feel sleep pulling at him. But he needed to know more.
"What about you?" he asked his friend, who - judging by the creak of a chair - had sat down beside him again.
"What about me?"
"You okay?"
"Pshh, I'm fine. That Knyazev guy's got nothing on me. Just bruises and a mild concussion. Nothing big."
"Team?"
"Yup, also fine. They kicked the Russian dude's ass for you. Superboy was pissed, and I mean really pissed. Even more so than usual. I think he must've been worried about you or something."
"'M okay," Dick responded automatically.
"Well, you are now, but-."
"Is-is Batman around?"
"Wow, those drugs are really making you play mental leap-frog, aren't they? Okay, uh…no, Batman's not around. He uh…he went Scarecrow-hunting, I guess," Wally replied, and Dick wondered vaguely about the hesitant note in his voice. "He was here when we brought you in though. Sat with you for a while until I told him about Scarecrow and he took off."
"Oh." The fact that Bruce wasn't there bothered him a little, though he wasn't sure why. Scarecrow had to be stopped; innocent people needed to be saved. He knew all that. "Wha's the time?" he slurred, trying to stifle another yawn. God, he was tired.
"It's ah…three a.m."
"Three-?" he tried to rouse himself enough to tell Wally off for hanging around so late, to go home and get some rest, but he was too tired to even speak properly anymore. "K-KF… go…home…"
Wally said something in reply; Dick's brain was too tired to make sense of it. He fought to stay awake – there was so much more he wanted to know! – but his body was heavy, his mind was shutting down and after a few seconds he had no choice but to surrender to sleep.
oOo
Wally yawned and attempted to stretch the kinks from his back. They really needed to start bugging Black Canary for more comfortable chairs in the recovery rooms, like, lounge chairs or something.
After rolling his shoulders a few times, he sighed and slouched back into the chair beside Robin's bed. The younger boy was still asleep – passed out – whatever; he hadn't woken up since the first time Wally had spoken with him, which was six hours ago, but Red Tornado had assured him it was only due to the amount of antidote and sedatives running through his system.
The steady beeping of the heart monitor Robin was hooked up to was reassuring, and Wally no longer found himself keeping an ear out for irregularities as he had in the beginning. When Batman had finally exited the examination room hours ago, he had told them that Robin had suffered a heart attack – which had totally scared the crap out of Wally – but that Red Tornado had managed to get his heart going again. Robin would pull through. At least, physically. They'd had no way of knowing Robin's state of mind until he woke up.
Now that it had been established that the younger boy's mind was still intact, the only real concern was how badly the hallucinations had affected him emotionally. J'onn had said there was a good chance Robin wouldn't even remember them, and Wally fervently hoped that would be the case; his best friend's screams still rang in his own ears, and he could only imagine the terrors his friend had suffered through in his mind.
Wally rested his chin in his hand and studied the other boy's face. A large bruise had blossomed across his right cheek bone, and a smaller but darker bruise had formed on the left side of his jaw. A thin cut marred the skin of his forehead, trailing down to his temple and disappearing beneath the bandages around his eyes.
The only good thing about those bandages was that they ensured that Robin's secret identity was kept safe, so there was no need for those ridiculous shades. Okay, so they usually looked pretty cool and suave on the younger boy, but wearing shades inside, especially in a poorly lit cave, was definitely pushing it.
The door creaked and Wally turned to see M'gann poking her head inside. Wally smiled at her. "Hey beautiful," he said quietly. As she slipped into the room and sat down in the chair beside him, he did a double-take. "Wow, you didn't get much sleep either, huh?" he blurted.
M'gann blushed and Wally almost gave in to the urge to slap himself. Smooth, Wall-man, smooth. "Sorry, I uh didn't mean-"
"It's okay, Wally," M'gann interrupted. "I couldn't stop thinking about Robin- about, you know… I've just never seen him like that."
"Neither have I," he replied, looking back at Robin's pale face.
"How is he?"
"He seems to be doing okay. Kinda wish he'd wake up again though."
"He's been out all this time?"
"Yeah. Tornado says it's nothing to worry about, but…"
M'gann nodded. "It's hard not to."
They sat in silence for a while. Eventually, Wally found himself unable to suppress a jaw-splitting yawn that made his eyes water.
"Wally, you're tired," M'gann observed.
"I'm fine."
"You've been here all night. Why don't you go home for a little while?"
"Because I want someone to be here when Rob wakes up again, seeing as Bats isn't around right now."
"Well, Conner and I can sit with Robin until you get back. And Kaldur and Artemis said they'd be by later, too."
"Nah, I'm good."
"Wally, Robin's our teammate too, you know. We care about him as much as you do."
Wally doubted that, given that Rob was, you know, his best friend, but he appreciated the sentiment. Still, he'd only left Robin's side long enough to take a shower, change into civvies and grab a snack or two, and he had to admit the events of the previous night were catching up to him; although most of his cuts and bruises were already well on their way to healing, he had a killer headache and his muscles were achingly stiff. Plus, his stomach had been growling at him – loudly – for the past three hours.
He glanced at M'gann, who was watching Robin. "Well…" he began hesitantly, and made up his mind when M'gann looked back at him and gave him her pretty smile. "Okay, but I'll just be gone for two hours, tops. I'll just take a powernap, get something to eat, say hi to my folks and come straight back."
"Don't worry. He won't be alone when he wakes up, Wally, I promise."
"Thanks, babe," Wally said, beaming at her and giving her a quick peck on the cheek, before zipping out of the room.
oOo
The next time Dick awoke, he was able to open his eyes, though they felt kind of sticky. It was a little disconcerting to realize that somebody had apparently removed the bandages from his eyes while he'd been sleeping and he hadn't even noticed. Someone could've smothered him with a pillow and he would've just snoozed through it.
The room was dark, save for a thin ray of light a small window above the door was filtering in from the hallway. He turned his head to the side and found Wally sprawled in a chair beside his bed, snoring softly.
Dick licked his lips and swallowed with difficulty; his throat felt so dry it hurt. Someone had considerately left him a glass of water on the bedside cabinet, but when he tried to lift his arm to reach for it, he found it was too heavy to move.
"Wally," he croaked. Right, like Wally's ever gonna be able to hear that, he thought, frowning at himself. He swallowed again and tried to clear his throat. "Wally," he repeated, his voice coming out only marginally louder than the first time and Wally still showed no signs of waking. Great.
But just when Dick was beginning to think he was going to have to throw something at Wally's head to get his attention, Wally jolted awake.
"Uh?" he said, jerking upright. His eyes immediately went to the bed, and lit up when he saw Dick looking back at him. "Oh, hey, you're awake!" he observed, quickly dragging his chair closer and flicking on a small light by the bed. "How're you feeling?"
"Water," Dick managed to say, his voice still barely above a whisper.
"What-? Oh!" Wally grabbed the glass from the table, spilling some of the liquid onto the floor in his enthusiasm. He held the glass out for him, and with a monumental effort Dick managed to accept the glass and take a few sips from the straw.
"How are you feeling?" Wally repeated, returning the glass to the cabinet when Dick indicated he'd had enough.
"Better," Dick replied, pleased that his voice sounded slightly less husky now. "Just a little- I dunno, lethargic, I guess. Tired." He shifted, trying to get more comfortable, and grimaced when his ribs protested. Loudly. "Ouch. Ugh, how many ribs did I break anyway?"
"Three. Most of the rest of 'em are just bruised. J'onn said you're lucky; something about your ribs being more flexible because you're young. Otherwise you probably would've had a bag of splinters for a chest right now."
"That's- a very disturbing image, Wally, thanks." He paused to regard Wally's rather rumpled appearance. "Dude, how long have you been sitting here?"
"Coupla hours."
"Couple hours? Walls, every time I wake up, you're right there. You look bushed. Did you go home at all?"
"I did!"
"And how long ago was that?"
"Uh…a few hours?"
"How many hours?"
"I dunno…two?"
Dick raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Okay, okay, four."
Wally was a terrible liar.
"All right, fine! Six hours, okay?"
"Dude! Six hours?! Not that I don't appreciate you keeping me company and stuff, because I really do, but- what's with the constant vigil?"
"Well, uh…" Wally fidgeted and avoided Dick's gaze, "it's- it's not every day your best friend begs you to kill him, you know?"
Robin winced. "I did that? I'm- sorry. That- that must've been really hard."
"Dude, not your fault," Wally replied, his voice unusually quiet. "But, yeah, it's really not something I ever want to experience again, so I just kinda want to make sure you're, you know, really okay. Because no matter how hard it was for me to watch you like that, it must've been pretty spectacularly terrifying for you to make you act like that."
It was Dick's turn to look away. "I- dunno. I guess it was, but I don't really remember much," he said. "The last thing I remember is dropping down into that subway tunnel with you. It's all really fuzzy after that." It was mostly true; there'd been flashes of feelings, emotions - none of them happy ones - but they were so hazy that it was hard to pin down anything specific.
"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Wally said, relief shining on his face. "I mean, I'm glad you don't remember all that stuff that almost made you- uh, lose your mind."
"Sorry you had to see me like that though."
"Like I said, not your fault. Just- don't ever do that to me again, okay? I-" He paused, hesitating. "I used to think there couldn't be anything worse than death, you know? But watching you- scream and writhe like that, trapped in your own mind-"
Dick felt a blush creep up his neck. He knew he'd gone a little crazy, but hearing that he'd literally been screaming made him feel both embarrassed and a little stunned. He understood now why his throat felt so raw and his voice was so raspy.
"-it's kinda made me realize that sometimes death might actually be preferable to the alternative," Wally said, and Dick looked at him just in time to watch him shiver a little. "I mean, when I- when I saw you like that, for a second I- I honestly thought you'd be better off dead."
Wally's hunched shoulders, bowed head and fidgeting hands screamed 'guilt trip'. Dick needed to nip this in the bud right now.
"Walls, look at me. Please?" he added when Wally didn't immediately comply. "I'm okay," he said, once his friend had raised his head to meet his gaze. "A little banged up, but you know I've had worse. I'm really sorry you had to see me like that; I seriously don't think I could've stood it to see you like that, so don't feel bad about whatever you were thinking or feeling at the time. I think- I think I would've preferred to die too if those hallucinations became never-ending. But they did end and the important thing here is that we're both okay."
Wally's smile was slow but genuine. "You're right."
"Duh. Have I ever been wrong?"
"Once or twice?"
"About things that mattered?"
Wally stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I guess not."
"See? Now, could you hand me that glass again? All that talking's made my throat hurt."
After taking a few more sips, Dick cleared his throat. "Have- have you heard anything from Batman?"
Wally's expression turned sympathetic. "Sorry, dude. As far as I know he hasn't checked in. But he's not very likely to inform me of his comings and goings anyway. I'm sure he called Canary or Tornado for an update on you."
Dick leaned back against his pillows, a heavy weight settling in his stomach. Why hadn't Bruce come to see him? Had he done something wrong? "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure he did," he replied, going for cheerful. It sounded horribly fake.
"He'll be back soon, Dick," Wally tried to reassure him. "I know he's being a bit of a jerk right now- well, he is!" he added when Dick opened his mouth to protest. Then he paused, an uneasy look on his face, and quickly glanced back over his shoulder as if to check that Batman wasn't standing right behind him. "But he cares about you."
Dick nodded silently and closed his eyes. He knew Bruce cared about him, but- why hadn't he at least called or something? Was he- was he mad that Dick had gotten himself captured?
He cracked an eye open. "Wally, go home. Get some sleep, okay? I'm fine right here."
"Nah, I'm good."
"Wally, really. I'm fine. I'm gonna catch some z's and you need to get some rest, too. Besides, it kinda creeps me out a little when people watch me sleep."
"You sure?"
"Yes!"
"Okay. But I'll be back soon."
Dick nodded and closed his eyes again. He was tired. "Thanks, Walls," he murmured.
"No problem. See you later."
Dick listened as the door opened and closed, but- something was off. "Wally, I know you're still here," he said without opening his eyes.
There was no answer.
"Dude, seriously, if you're gonna learn how to do stealth, you have got to stop breathing so loudly."
"Aw man!"
Dick smiled, his eyes still closed. "Dude, go. Home. I'm not going anywhere."
"Fine, fine. Catch you later, Rob."
This time, Wally really did leave.