Chapter 7: Homecoming
A/N: I made it long-ish (compared to my other chapters) to make up for my long hiatus. There will be some mistake because again, English is not my first language! This chapter is really different from every other that I've wrote because I acquired a little more experience with writing (still not Stephen King or anything close to) and if you realise, I changed the rating to M because in this chapter there's mature language and in future chapter, there will be some mature subjects (sex scene). There will be another A/N at the end of this chapter (if you make it this far) and PLEASE READ IT IT'S SUPER IMPORTANT ! So here goes nothing, hope you enjoy :)
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° [Listen to Pity Party – Melanie Martinez ] °
Stephanie had always had a hard life; her mother was never around. She would never blame her though: being a single mother and having to work incredible shifts at the hospital to make the ends meet didn't give her mother as much time as she would've liked with her daughter. Of course Stephanie was always saddened to see her mother leaving her in the middle of her bedtime story, but she understood their situation and that she had no power over it. She didn't have the chance to have a normal childhood; between the police barging into their small apartment at 2 in the morning to seize drugs that were covering the restroom floor (thanks to her mother's boyfriends) and her mother coming home drunk after an extremely tiring shift, she never had the chance to know how it felt like to sleep in her bed knowing that both of her parents were sleeping in the bedroom next to hers. If you asked anyone, they would say that Stephanie got her rebellious characteristics from her father Arthur Brown (alias Cluemaster) who was living in Blackgate Penitentiary.
For these reasons, Stephanie was living carelessly: she didn't care about anything school related or life related. That's probably why she got pregnant as a teen. Therefore, it was a surprise, not only for her but also for her mother, to see that she had been accepted in Gotham University in her first choice: medical department. It was either from this or the influence of Tim in her life but she decided to start working to build her future. She was ready to go through all the 12 years of studies required to become a cardiovascular surgeon. At her surprise, she excelled in the medical field (might have been for her years as a vigilante with and without batman). Her first six years could be resumed by her always being in the top 3 of the best students in the program and her average varying in between 92 and 95. Being as smart and devoted as she was got the attention of a lot of her teachers over the years and lead to a proposal : finish her studies in Sierra Leone under the supervision of the Red Cross.
'Seeing such a talent,' her teacher and the Red Cross representative said, 'is so rare. It would be a shame to not make the world take advantage of it'. She was shocked and honored to have been selected, but she was torn in between two decisions: leave her mother alone in Gotham or stay with her. Since she couldn't choose right away, she decided to keep the news to herself. But with everything that was going on with her life, mostly drama related to her double life, Stephanie almost said no to the offer until an incident happened and made her change her mind. Bags in hands, sunglasses on her head and sun cream on, Stephanie left for Africa the very next morning, leaving nothing behind but a simple voicemail to explain her departure to the family.
At first, the camp's phone was always ringing with incoming calls for her, but eventually, as Stephanie stopped giving any signs of life, she received less and less of them until they stopped. It wasn't easy for her to ignore her loved ones, guilt filled her; after all, they were just trying to reach out and to see how she was doing. So, before two operations that she was going to assist, she ran towards the camp's phone. As hard as it was for her, Stephanie took the device and dialed the only number that she remembered even two years away of Gotham: Tim's. Each ring back tones made her breath quicker and her palms sweatier. She only had 10 minutes tops to talk to him. He picked up at the third ring tone with a sleepy voice. She should've considered the jet lag; it was 8:30 AM here, so it should be around 4:30 AM there.
"Hello," he repeated.
"Hey Tim, it's Steph," she said less convinced that she wanted to sound like.
"Oh my god, how are you doing? Are you ok? Why didn't you call us back?"
"I-I… I'm fine and everything is going more than great. And I guess that I just needed some time alone and outside of… 'Everything'."
"You had two years though… Why did you leave us like that," he said with a small voice.
Every fiber in her body froze at that question.
'Why did you leave us like that?'
Did she really want to tell Tim? No, she couldn't. She didn't want to hear the disappointment in his voice, it would kill her. Even though they weren't dating, Stephanie had always felt like she had to be perfect for him because she wanted to prove him that she had change. She didn't want him to think of her as the reckless girl who got pregnant in her teenage years; she wanted him to see her as the girl who worked her ass out of the shitty life she had back then and back there. Telling him why she left would only resolve in breaking this image she worked so hard on. She wouldn't tell him.
"Hey Steph, look you don't have to tell me why you left… I just- I just think you should consider coming back," he continued with his soft voice. Stephanie sighed. He was right. She didn't want to admit it, but her body ached to see her mother. She had so many questions she wanted to ask him: how was everyone doing? How was Barbara progress going? Who was the new batgirl? How was everything going with Sequoia, with him and Cassie, with Cassandra and with Dick? But she couldn't ask him because he would only tell her one thing and she knew it: come back to find out. She shifted the phone's position to make it rest in the crook of her neck while she wiped her sweaty hands on her scrubs trousers and left them in her trousers back pockets.
"I- I can't Tim. At least not now, I just need two more years and then-"
"You know it's not the only reason! You and I know that finishing your studies in Gotham University won't kill you… Look if you really wanted to come back, you'd found a way."
"Tim please, you don't understand. There's nothing I could do there that would help as much as it helps here. Beside you have Leslie and she more qualified than-"
"She's taking her leave," he said, installing at the same time a heavy silence.
"What? Why? I thought she liked helping you guys out. What happened to that?"
"Age happened. She's getting old and she wants to spend less time in a cave and more in her house with her family. Really, no one could blame her. So you being here, in Gotham, where your family and friends are, would help a lot."
"You want me to take her place," she stated surprise in her voice.
"That would be Plan A. Plan B would be letting Alfred stich us up, but you and I know that he doesn't really like it… Would you at least consider it and call me back?"
"Tim, I can't come home now because there's too much going on, but next Friday I could"
"That-That's great Steph," he said with as much relief as if the heaviest burden had been taken off of his shoulders. She laughed a little and took the phone in her hand while she leaned her back on the wall.
"I'm only coming as a Doctor, nothing else. So don't pull any tricks on me okay"
"Of course… You know your mom-," but as he started is sentence the intercoms demanded her in the surgery room.
"Hey Tim, it was nice to talk to you but I need to leave."
"Yeah, of course. Go save the world," he said jokingly.
"Tell everyone that I'm fine and that I can't wait to see them," she said as the intercoms passed the same message again. "And Tim, you're the best," she said before hanging up and running towards the surgery room.
Faithful to her words, Stephanie was walking towards the Jeep in the camp's parking lot with her last small bags in hand the next Friday. It had been a rough week; having to say goodbye to everyone she became friends with since her arrival 2 years ago was hard and heartbreaking. She putted her last bag in the backseat and walked slowly towards the passenger seat. As she looked at the empty main area of the camp, a wave of nostalgia overwhelmed her. She wished they were all there to wave her goodbye, but they were all deeply asleep when she left in the early hours of the morning to begin a 2 hour and a half road trip towards Sierra Leone National Airport. She could feel tears threating to stream down on her rosy cheeks, but she quickly wiped them away with the back of her hand. Now wasn't the time to be sentimental because if she started to cry, she knew she would never stop.
"You okay," Orrel asked her as he put the biggest suitcase Stephanie had in the trunk and closed it. He jumped in the driver's seat and started the engine.
"Yeah I'm- I'm good. I'm just gonna miss it," she said looking outside. "I'm gonna miss them."
Orrel drove silently eyes stared the road as Stephanie looked at the unique landscape offered in front of her. She closed her eyes and lowered her window, putting her arm outside and letting it feel the wind outside. As soon as the first sun rays touched her arm, she pushed her head outside. She deeply inhaled the pungent smell of coconut.
"Do you ever think about Gotham," she asked Orrel.
"Not really. I like my life here, more than in Gotham"
Stephanie looked at him with a puzzled look.
"Here, I can help sick people. Here, I have no chance of being kidnapped by the Joker while I'm in school, getting skinned by Zsasz or being tortured by Black Mask," he said eye focused on the road.
At the last part of his sentence, Stephanie stiffened. He was right, here, she had a safer life. Here, she could live a peaceful life and help ill people. But something was missing, yes she saved lives, but so would she if she lived in Gotham.
"I know what you're thinking. 'Yeah you save life here, but you'd probably save more in Gotham'. You're right. But in Gotham it seems that for every life you save, 5 other die. Here, I feel like I make a real difference, like I really help." He looked at Steph and gave her a sad smile.
Steph sat back on her seat and closed the window. She didn't want to talk. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the cold glass. When she woke up, she was already in front of the airport and Orrel was putting her suitcases on a cart. It took her a while to get the slumber out of her system, but as soon as she did, she grabbed her bags on the backseat. Stephanie robbed her face and yawned.
"Slept well Sleeping Beauty," Orrel questioned as he closed the Jeep's trunk. Stephanie snorted and they walked towards the airport entry.
Saying that Stephanie felt tired was an understatement. Every day, she had to wake up a 5:30 to take a shower and eat, at 6:15 she had to be on a chair in her classroom to continue her studies to become a cardiovascular surgeon, then, at 8:40, she had to assist two surgeries. At 2 o'clock, after the two surgeries, she had to squeeze her lunchtime to be in class at 2:20 and her classes would end at 8 o'clock. This had been her routine ever since she set foot in Sierra Leone. Her last Tuesday hadn't been an exception and since she couldn't assist to her classes today, she had to catch up by reading 80 pages in her medical book in the airplane. Let's be serious, Stephanie could've had easily done so in a calm atmosphere. Only, the atmosphere in the airplane was everything but calm. She didn't know what she thought she would have to face flying economic, but she certainly didn't think she would have to face babies crying, children running around in the aisle and people screaming at the flight attendants. It was her fault in a way. Tim had proposed to take the private jet or even to pay a first class ticket to bring her home, but she said no. She told him that she wanted to pay her ticket herself which lead to her sitting at the last row of the plane. She putted her manual on her lap and reached for a pocket in her bag. She took out her iPod and started to untangled her headphones. She resumed her reading as soon as her music covered the unpleasant noise of her surrounding. It took her about an hour to read, annotate and write notes in her notebook about the 80 pages. As soon as she finished, she let out a heavy sigh and putted her stuff back in her bag. She looked through the small window to see the Atlantic Ocean. It was so calm, she wondered how life down there was, how Arthur could possibly want to leave such a beautiful place to walk among the humans on the ground. She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't realise that her seat neighbour had come back from the washroom. She only realised when she felt her stuff rolling on the ground after his leg had pushed her bag.
"Sorry," he said with a thick accent without offering to help her. Stephanie was already ready to glare at him, but when her eyes laid on him, she was captivated by the black skull tattoo on the side of his neck. She soon realised that she was starring and putted her stuff back in her bag and closed it. The man in question was talking to two other men in what seemed like Russian. She quickly looked at them and saw the same tattoo on their necks. She had already seen the tattoo but she couldn't remember where. One thing she knew for sure was that the tattoo was bad news. During the rest of the flight, she tried to figure out where she had seen it.
At noon, after 6 hours flying, the plane arrived safely in Gotham Airport terminal. Stephanie sat on a chair with her luggage in the waiting room with her headphones on, getting ahead on her reading. When she turned her page, she noticed that her skin was scattered with goose bumps. She was so accustomed with the African climate (which was hot even in December) that she didn't bring the right change of clothes for the North American climate. She was wearing a pair of skinny jeans that she had miraculously found last night, a white Red Cross sweatshirt and a pair of Reebok: she was definitely not wearing the right clothes for a weather that predicted a minimum of -25°C. To keep herself warmed, she pulled the collar of her sweatshirt up to her eyes and resumed her reading session. She felt a hand shake her shoulder and automatically took a headphone out and looked at the person.
"Gosh Steph, you're gonna be deaf if you listen to your music so loud! I was screaming your name for about 10 minutes," Sequoia said taking one of Stephanie's bags. "Aren't you gonna get cold?"
"I didn't bring anything else"
"I could give you my coat if you want to," Sequoia offered.
"No thanks. It's not like we were gonna walk up to the mansion."
Sequoia would've been cold without her thick coat if it wasn't from her origins. As she got up from her seat, she spotted out of the corner of her eye the man that sat next to Steph in the plane murmured something to the other men. She looked at his lips to figure out what he was saying, but she couldn't make out any words he said. Her gaze lingered on his neck. That tattoo, she saw it somewhere.
'A skull, a black skull… Or maybe it's a face. A face that is black… No that's not it. It represent a… a… Black Mask,' she thought.
As soon as she made this realisation, the men reached for something in their travel bags. Stephanie quickly pushed Sequoia behind a row of luggage making Sequoia's cellphone fall a couple of feet away. At the very moment their bodies collided with the ground, gunshots were roaring in the airport. How come she hadn't realised it before?! For god sake, she had been tortured by Black Mask and his men who were all tattooed with the same skull.
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to get out of here alive and in one piece, I would ask you to put your jewelleries on the ground and to lay head on the ground. Of course, if someone tries to call the police… well, let's say it would be the last action they do," the man with the accent said as he took a machine gun's munitio out of his bag.
Stephanie looked down at Sequoia who, by the look in her eyes, wanted to step in. But before she could even make a move to restrain her, a middle-age man intervened.
"Fuck it! I'm outta here," he yelled as he stood up from the ground and headed towards the door.
'Does he want to die,' Stephanie thought.
"Anyone wants to join him," the man with the accent asked. "Okay then." And before anyone could react, he had shot dead the rebel and like gas, panic spread in the crowd, making the crowd get up and run everywhere all the while screaming. Sequoia removed herself from under Stephanie and reached her cell. She quickly dialled 9-1-1 and hung up as soon as she heard a voice at the other end.
Black Mask's men recharged their guns and started to shoot on the roof to calm everyone down. They lurked around the waiting room, collecting the jewelleries for about 15 minutes. The man with the accent, who seemed to be the leader, walked towards the girls as Sequoia hid the device in a pocket of her coat.
"Would you look at that," he said looking at the girls. "I'm sure the boss wouldn't mind having those two to keep him company," he smiled at his accomplice through his yellowed tooth. He took both of their arms and jerked them up. At the very same moment, a black woman came through the window in a bat costume. Batgirl. The hero immediately lunched herself on the other two men when she made eye contact with Stephanie.
"In you fucking dreams," Stephanie said as she punched him straight on his nose. CRACK! Blood started to stream down the leader's nostrils.
"The fuck bitch," he said with one hand clutching his nose and the other firing gunshots towards Steph who dodged them.
Steph quickly pushed Sequoia out of the way and kicked the man where the sun doesn't shine. He cowered and Stephanie took advantage of that moment to give him a strong punch in the jaw and get the gun out of the way. During the frenzy of the moment and probably because of the rush of adrenaline, Steph hadn't realised the pain in her stomach. Everything became blurry, but she could make out one thing : the blood streaming on her sweatshirt. She clutched her stomach before everything went dark.
Stephanie had known better awakenings. Sure, the pain had incredibly diminished, but she still felt sore. She slowly opened her eyes. It took her sometime for her eyes to adjust to the light. She looked around the room she was in: she was laying on a king size bed, the curtains were eggplant and she could vaguely make out a picture of a blond girl and ginger girl. Yep, she was in her room in the manor. She looked beside her and saw a pile of bloodied bandages. She raised her tank top to see how bad the wound was and noticed to her distaste that her wound wasn't even covered.
'I see why Tim asked me to come home,' she said trying to get up to get her first-aid kit in her washroom. She grunted and quickly let go of the idea.
"Slept well Brown," a familiar voice said coming from her washroom. Damian came out of there with the first-aid kit. He had changed since she left. He had grown taller (she estimated that he might be a feet taller than her or so) and more muscular. His caramel chest was covered with bandages.
"I don't know. You tell me. How long was I out," she questioned as she repositioned herself on her bed.
"Two weeks," he said as he raised her top even higher. She could feel her face getting red. He putted gloves on and continued. "The bullets were covered in a chemical substance. Took us a while to figure out what the remedy was," he continued as he took a piece of wet fabric and wiped the blood around the stitched wound. Damian, as concentrated as ever, took a ball of cotton and wetted it with rubbing alcohol. "It's gonna hurt"
"I know that Damian. It's not the first time I get shot," she teased him. She let a little grunt out of her mouth when the liquid came in contact the unhealed stitched wound. After that, Damian putted new bandages over it. Being so close to him made Steph feel bad for everything she putted him through.
"Damian," she started unsure as he began to clean the mess as if she didn't call him. "Damian, please look at me!"
"What is it Brown," he said more annoyed than ever. He sat down next to her.
"I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry you had to go through all of this because of my actions. My behaviour was… unprofessional. I was the adult and-"
"Stop it Brown. Stop blaming yourself for what we both consciously did. It takes two people to have sex, not one. I was fully aware of what I did, of what I wanted and I was 20, not 16. I wasn't underaged. I wanted to. Stop acting as if you took advantage of me. If you think it was a mistake just say it but don't say that you force me into anything because you didn't."
He looked into her deep blue eyes as she looked in his emerald ones. She looked at his lips and they both leaned in. Oh! How she wanted to kiss him! When less than an inch separated their lips, Damian pulled away.
"However, that was then. Things have changed since you left," he said with his normal stern voice as he got up and headed towards the hallway.
"Damian," she said as she hoped he would come back. Out of the blue, he came back with a confused expression.
"Just tell me why. Why did you leave right after we fucked?"
"I… I thought it was for the best-" and as soon as she pronounced these words Damian sighed and left the room.
Stephanie was astonished.
'What the actual fuck just happened?'
She starred at the wall, too surprised to even close her opened mouth.
It might have been a minute or ten, but Stephanie got out of her daydream when she saw Sequoia walked in the room.
"You have an explanation as to why Damian is acting like a prick," she questioned as she laid on the bed, forcing the blonde girl to squirm over.
"Long story… "
"Has Arya come to visit you yet," Sequoia asked all excited.
"I don't- Who's Arya?"
"She Damian girlfriend. I thought he would've-" she suddenly stopped as she saw the reaction Stephanie had to the news. "I mean girlfriend is a pretty strong word. They're more like… close friends…"
"Don't," she said. She didn't want to have her pity. "How is she like?"
Sequoia hesitated a little before she started to describe her. "Well first of all, she'd the daughter of an important businessman in India. She's came in Gotham ever the month after you left. She's tall, like 5'10 tall. Hum, she's an Indian beauty, she's smart, she's nice and she spends most of her time with orphans. She's… I know how much it hurts to hear it but she's good for him. Bruce seems to like her, gosh even Ophelia and Anastasiya like her! She's 25," Sequoia ended with a small sad smile.
"He does have a thing for older women… Gosh she seems perfect! Whatever, I just woke up and I don't have the intention to cry. How's Babs? "
Sequoia and Stephanie both look at each other and started to laugh.
"Well, you certainly didn't lose your humor. Steph, there's this gala next week and I'd like for you to come"
"By gala, do you mean the Wayne winter gala, where Damian and his 'close friend' will be?"
"Yeah, but I'd really want you to come. You don't know how boring it was without you!"
"There's always Dick"
Sequoia glared at her and said "You and I know that these events are more like meetings than anything else and frankly, I've grown tired of hearing Gotham elite talk."
Stephanie laughed harder. "Okay, I'll come."
"Thank you so much! You don't even know how much it means to me"
"Yeah I guess I don't. It's good to be home," Stephanie said to herself.
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A/N: YOU MADE IT! Okay, it wasn't such a long chapter. I'm making another story called Crazy Stupid Love and it's about Sequoia (because YES she is an O/C). I would really like it if you guys could read it when it'll be out. I will post a preview on this story and if you like it, you'll just have to read the rest :) Thank you a lot guys for sticking with me even though I went on this super long hiatus. If you want me to update quicker, you just have to send me a lot of message (inbox or outbox). It'll make me feel bad and I'll HAVE to write (pretty much like what happened with this story). I cannot say if my next update will be next week, but lets hope!