AN: I am so so so very sorry this took so long to come out! I just finished school for the year so I had so many exams to complete and just no time to write, but good news is I'm on holidays now so I'll have all the time in the world to write, so enjoy! And please review!
I woke with a start, sitting upright in my bed, memories flooded through me and my fists balled up in anger at my own cowardice. I had shot people before, sure, the first few times it had been difficult but after a while, like Jason, I usually didn't care because the criminals were scum and would cause more harm if they were alive. But not with Two-Face. I had frozen, I had let my mask of confidence slip for a moment and I had lost my cool. It was disgusting. Maybe it was because I faced the man whom had driven me, my reason for living, to kill him, to make him pay and it had occurred to me that after he was dead I would be lost with no path to follow. And that terrified me.
I looked at the door to the lounge and shook my head; I didn't want to face Jason right now, not after I'd looked so weak in front of him. I noticed that I was still wearing my costume, except my mask and cape which lay on my desk nearby, after I quickly but them on I silently opened my window and walked onto the fire escape, letting the cool night air hit my face, I frowned, either I had only slept a short time or far too long. I climbed onto the roof of the apartment the night sky was clear though there were no stars; there were never any stars in Gotham city.
Although my legs felt heavy I began to run across the rooftops, trying to clear my head, my hair whipped in the cool night air however not even this could remove that horrible feelings that were going through my head. Anger. Shame. Regret. I felt overwhelmed. I ran until I my legs were burning and I had to stop. I leant down trying to catch my breath. After a few minutes the burning sensation in my lungs left me and I stood there staring out over crime alley. The noise of sirens was loud in my ears and I sighed and continued to run until I spotted a particularly shady man hanging around an alley way. I managed to get a good look at his face and pulled out my mobile flicking through images. Just as I thought, I found his image there for one of the wanted criminals that had been last spotted in this area, looking at his record he had committed countless rapes and a few murders. Anger bubbled up within myself to see this man freely walking around no doubt waiting for his next victim.
I stealthily made my way to the ground behind him, standing in the shadows. The man wore a huge trench coat; he was flipping a small pocket knife around in his right hand, oblivious to my presence. He had quite a large build and without the harsh training I had received there would be no possible way for me to take him down. I could feel my emotions getting the better of me, I should have had more self-control. I snuck up behind him and kicked his legs in a spot which instantly sent him sprawling to the ground, swearing as he went. I kicked him in the chest winding him in one smooth motion I had him pinned down with my gun to his temple. His eyes had widened with surprised but to his credit he regained his composure rather quickly and glared at me.
"Your one of those fucking masked vigilante types; you don't scare me I know for a fact that your code prevents you from killing me." He growled and then spat at my face, fury was bursting in my chest.
"Pity I work with the Red Hood. No rules apply where I come from, nothing to protect scum like you." I said through clenched teeth, pressing the gun harder into his temple. A look of realisation flickered in the man's eyes followed by panic. Surprising me he lashed out with the knife still in his hand, the knife went through my shoulder and I cried out, pulling back. He used this opportunity to push me off him and start running. I bit my lip, fighting through the pain that clouded my mind and raised the gun in my hand to his fleeing figure. Without blinking I pulled the trigger.
The sound of the gun firing drowned out the sirens in the city; he died instantly, a clean kill. I was on my knees doubling over in pain from the knife sticking out of my shoulder. I yanked the blade out quickly, crying out as it was removed and pressed my hand against the wound, applying pressure. Luckily enough it didn't hit anything important, namely my lung, there was no way I was going to have another collapsed lung again, not fun. Definitely not fun.
"Seriously Midnight? What the hell is this mess?" I heard a familiar voice call to me in a harsh tone and I turned towards a short figure standing in the shadows, his hood up. Damian Wayne stood in front of me, a scowl on his face as he approached me. He pushed my hand out of the way examining my wound, he removed a bandage from his utility belt and put it on me, his fingers moved fast with precision, he'd done this a thousand times before.
"It's going to need stiches so I'd get back to Todd as soon as you can." He said dismissively as I stood up, grimacing at the pain shooting through my shoulder. I looked at back at Damian who was staring at the body at the edge of the alley with disgust in his eyes. He didn't like the fact I killed him but I wasn't going to bring it up and start a fight with the boy who helped me.
I frowned, "Crap, I don't want Jason to know I went out, he's going to kill me if I go back like this." I grimaced at the thought of him giving me a lecture on my carelessness. Damian looked at me for a moment, examining me and then seemingly coming to a conclusion he said;
"Well do you think you can at least get to the roof cause I don't want to stick around in this alleyway with that" he muttered pointing his finger towards the body behind me. I nodded and used my grappling hook to quickly get up to the rooftop where Damian was waiting, pulling several items from his utility belt, including a needle and thread.
"Tell me the truth…do I just suck at this job?" I muttered as he applied pain killers with a syringe and removed his gloves before started to sew up my wound. I saw Damian roll his eyes at me and he was silent for a while as he concentrated on the needle and thread, I felt the tugging at my skin and tried to ignore it. Finally he said;
"I'll deny it if you ever tell anyone I said this but you're skilled Violet, you're good at this… its just you haven't seemed to have much luck, I mean having to face the Joker on one of your first missions? That's rough…Father gets super strict when he is loose, it's hard to even convince him to let me go out on patrol." His brow furrowed in annoyance at this, even though Damian was physically a child, he had the mental state of an adult and as such he detested being treated as a child.
"Thanks" I muttered quietly as he tied off the thread, Damian looked at me, analysing me for a moment before saying;
"Tt, You'll never get better than me though, that's just impossible." And with that he disappeared into the darkness. I stood there for a moment staring after him. Did the demon child seriously just encourage me or was I just high off pain meds. I gave a short bark of laughter before making my way back to Jason's apartment block. The sun was beginning to rise on the horizon and I hurried my pace, I hated being out in my costume during daylight hours, it made me feel vulnerable; there was hardly any darkness for cover.
Finally I made it back to the apartment; I climbed silently through my window just as the pain medication wore off and my shoulder started throbbing again. I tossed my mask and guns on my table and removed my cape. I took off my torn black t-shirt and threw it aside, happy that I had plenty of shirts to replace it and put on a dark green shirt and shorts. I quickly did my hair up into a messy bun before walking into the lounge.
Tim was fast asleep on the couch, his hair tousled from sleep, he looked quite peaceful, I quietly walked past Jason's bedroom door which was open. Jason was already up doing push ups as he did practically every morning. I stood in the doorway, admiring his perfectly sculpted bare chest. When he noticed me, he stood up and came over.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, frowning with concern his hand reach up to gently hold my chin, "You look really pale." I realised that all the overwhelming emotions that had filled me earlier were gone, my early morning adventure had left me clear headed.
"Fine actually, a little pissed at myself but other than that, totally fine." Jason nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer. He understood, he knew that last thing I wanted to do was talk about the previous night and so he let me be. Jason, I knew had a lot that he kept hidden from me, memories of pain and anguish but I knew that if I probed him for answers then it would only cause him pain.
"Don't worry, those moment…they happen to the best of us." He said encouragingly and I nodded and leaned up, kissing him lightly on the lips. I forced a small smile before we walked to the kitchen and Jason decided to cook us some breakfast so I sat at the table to keep him company. I started flipping my knife around in my hand but stopped after a moment as it made me all too aware of the sharp pain shooting threw my shoulder.
"So where are Roy and Kori?" I asked curiously, noticing their absence from the apartment, it seemed that it was only Tim, Jason and I here.
"Around Gotham, somewhere, I didn't want them staying here, they tend to get a little loud when left in a bedroom alone together." My eyes widened in surprised and I felt my cheeks go red and Jason laughed at me.
"Shut up!" I yelled playfully, finally breaking into a smile, I was being stupid getting embarrassed at that and then Jason stopped laughing and stared at me, studying me. "What?" I asked sceptically.
"That's the first time I've seen you genuinely smile in a while is all." He said softly moving over to where I sat and placed a plate of breakfast in front of me before gently grabbing my chin and kissing me, his lips were soft and I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer. It seemed like we were the only too people in the world. Suddenly I heard a cough break the silence and I broke away from Jason and turned around to see Tim standing in the doorway awkwardly.
"Morning." He grumbled, leaning on the doorframe, not seeming comfortable enough in the presence of Jason to sit down and lower his guard. Jason glared at him before adding;
"You'll be leaving soon?" He posed it as a question but Tim knew it was more of a statement so he nodded in response, avoiding both of us with his eye contact. For some reason I felt guilty for kissing Jason in front of him but I pushed that feeling aside.
"So soon? But you just woke up." I said to Tim, ignoring a look that Jason shot my way and Tim finally looked over at me.
"I have to. I have my own missions to attend to so I'll be go-"he stopped suddenly and stared at me, a concerned frown appearing on his face. "is that blood?" he asked, pointing to my shoulder.
"Shit" I said involuntarily, realising blood has seeped through my shirt and before I could do anything he had walked forward and pulled my shirt down from the collar to see the wound and he grimaced.
"Vee that's freshly stitched. What the hell happened?" demanded Tim as Jason came over to stand next to him.
"I went for a walk?" I tried but they both scowled at me so I continued, "and there happened to be a bad man with a knife?" Jason slapped his palm on his forehead.
"For gods sake Violet, you went out alone? You know you shouldn't do that and of course you went and got hurt, again! When the hell were you going to tell me about this?" he barked, annoyance filling his voice but there was also a hint of concern. For some weird reason I felt rather defensive so I shot back;
"You're not my parent Jase, you can't tell me what to do! I felt like crap when I woke up so I went for a run and did something stupid so shut up and get over it." I could feel my earlier emotions take hold of me again and I was angry both at Jason and myself.
"Guys-" Tim tried to interject but we both yelled in unison;
"Shut up Tim!" and he raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything. Jason looked back at me, his arms folded.
"I may not be your parent but I'm in charge of you so you need to listen to me." He said to me sternly and I felt annoyance go threw me.
"Yea you're right! You're not my parent because they're both dead! I watched them die right in front of me when Two-Face murdered them before burning their corpses!" I yelled, my voice cracked halfway through the sentence and I saw Jason's face slacken and sadness flicker through his eyes. Tim also reached for my shoulder but I shook him away. I stormed over to the couch, sitting down, putting my hands on my face, trying to control the emotions that threatened to overwhelm me. I heard Tim and Jason arguing from the kitchen but I didn't catch what they were saying.
Finally Tim came in and knelt near me and said in a gentle tone, "Violet, I really hate to say this but Jason is right, you need to be careful when you go out, it's all too easy to slip up and die, so many already have. But you-" He paused when an urgent buzzing noise came from his belt, "one sec," he said as he pulled out a communicator and his face darkened.
"What is it?" I asked, never having seen him look quite this concerned.
"Jason!" He called and Jason sauntered into the room, "I think we're going to need your help" he said, not taking his eyes away from the device, "There's been a mass break-out at Arkham, all the top security convicts have escaped.
There was a moment of silence before I finally piped up; "Well no better way to get our emotions out than to beat up some baddies." Jason looked at me for a moment and shook his head, laughing softly.
"Fine. Let's go." The Red Hood said finally.