Bruce: 46

Dick: 27

Lillian: 23

Connor: 23

Jason: 21

Tim: 17

Damian: 11

The Attack of Barbara Gordon

"Lillian? it's Bruce. I need to come home right away." I was standing in the kitchen of the Kent farmhouse in Smallville, when I'd received a phone call from Bruce. I'd been staying with Conner and Kara since the day of Wally's death. About a month had passed and everyone else seemed to be moving on rather well. Everyone except myself. I staggered a bit and reached out for the counter to steady myself.

"Dad, wait. What's wrong? Is it Barry and Iris?" Conner, who'd been reaching to get a box of cereal out of the cupboard, stopped when he'd heard me mention Wally's family.

"No. Mr. and Mrs. Allen are fine. It's Barbara she's been shot." Bruce answered seriously.

"Shot what do you mean shot? Dad is she okay? I'm coming home right now." I hung up the phone and turned to my best friend. "Con..."

"I Know let's go." We raced to the Zetatube in the barn and I began rapidly typing onto the computer. Soon Conner and I were both transported to the Batcave Zetatube.

"Miss Stephanie, Mr. Kent, I was expecting you." Alfred spoke in his always calm tone.

"What happened Alfred? Where's Barbara is she okay?" I tried to act calm but I know my questions were coming out rapidly.

"As I was not there, I think it best to have one of your brothers and Miss Stephanie explain. They are all gathered upstairs." The Butler replied. I practically ran up the stairs with Conner and Alfred following close behind.

"Sister? You're home!?" Damian exclaimed when he saw me in the hallway. His voice was surprised but his expression remained calm. "Have you heard..."

"About Barbara?" I asked softly. "Bruce called me, but no one's told me what's happened."

"Drake will be able to tell you, he was there." Damian said. "The others are gathered in the kitchen." With that he turned and walked away towards the kitchen. I should have known they were gathered there. Whenever we had something important to discuss we always either grouped ourselves in the Cave or the Kitchen. Bruce was sitting in the at the counter island rubbing at his temples in frustration. A cup of cold coffee sat beside him. Tim and Dick were sitting at the small table in the corner; both staring at Dick's cell phone, waiting for it to ring. Stephanie was sitting on one of the stools, biting her lip and staring blankly at the wall. Everyone looked up briefly when they heard Damian, Conner, Alfred and I enter the room. Once they realized it was only us they all turned back to what they were doing. Alfred went behind the counter and started a new pot of coffee, Conner joined Dick and Tim at the table, and Damian hopped up on a stool next to Bruce.

"Is someone going to tell me what's going on?" I asked exasperated.

"Babs was shot last night." Dick told me, his voice noticeably shaken."She was walking home from work and...they just shot her." Poor Dick. I thought. First his best friend, now this.

"It was the Joker." Stephanie said quietly. "He thought that it would get Commissioner Gordon off his back. If Tim and I hadn't found her last night..."

"Is she okay? Can we see her?" Conner asked.

"Technically the information hasn't been released yet. Everything we know is information gained from Red Robin and Batgirl. " Bruce explained. Since I had been taking time off because of Wally's...accident, Stephanie had been filling in as Batgirl temporarily. She said the Batgirl suit was much more comfortable than the Spoiler one. I personally thought she just liked the recognition that went with my suit, but I'd never tell her that. It was an honor to have someone who wanted to be like me. "Dick is Barbara's emergency contact at the hospital, so we're just waiting for him to get a call from them."

"Right, because it would be suspicious for us to show up when they haven't even called her family yet." I nodded. Now understanding why they were all huddled in the kitchen, staring at anything but each other, I forced myself onto a barstool and frowned at Dick's phone. We stayed that way for several more minutes. All that could be heard was light breathing around the room, the sounds of Alfred clinking a spoon in a series of coffee mugs, and those coffee mugs being forced into the hands of all the over eighteen year olds. A coffee I nearly spilled all over myself when Dick's phone began to violently vibrate off the table. Dick didn't answer right away, as if not answering the phone meant that none of this was happening.

"Well, answer it!" Conner grumbled before tapping answer on the screen and forcing the phone into Dick's hand.

"Hel-hello?" Dick managed to stammer out. "Oh, Hello Commissioner..." Realizing it was Barbara's dad and not the hospital, he tried to play it cool so as to not worry Jim Gordon. He wasn't doing a convincing job, but hopefully the commissioner wasn't paying attention to my brother's tone of voice. "No I understand...last time I saw Barbara was when we had lunch together yesterday..." Dick paused to listen to something Gordon was saying. "She called later on in the day, and when she didn't call later on in the night, honestly sir I just thought she was working late..." I could see he was struggling not to tell the Commissioner everything he knew. Barb and her dad were really close, it wasn't like her to go more than a day without talking to him. "You haven't heard from her all day? And she's not at her apartment?...No Sir, I'm at the Manor visiting my family, see my sister just got back into town...Yes Sir. I'll call around and see if anyone knows anything...I'm sorry but I don't think Lilly's spoken to her either. She hasn't talked to any of us recently. Absolutely. Good night Commissioner. Phew." Dick sighed audibly once he hung up with Barbara's Dad. "The Commissioner's worried." Dick explained, placing his phone back on the table.

"And for good reason." Alfred nodded with approval over the rim of his teacup.

"Tt what's taking the hospital so long anyway? It's not like the commissioner's daughter would be difficult to identify." Damian complained.

"She was in pretty bad shape last night." Stephanie squeaked. "Maybe she needed an emergency surgery, or they can find her paperwork with the contact information on it." Damian opened his mouth to say something, probably about negligent workers losing paperwork, when Dick's phone began to buzz again. This time he picked it up immediately.

"Hello?...Yes this is Dick Grayson...I am aware that I am Barbara Gordon's emergency contact. Is she alright?...What do you mean she's been attack?...Shot? Shot with what?...Yes, Yes of course, I'll be right down." Dick jumped to his feet in the same second he ended the call with the hospital. I had to give him credit, he did a good job of sounding surprised when he got the phone call. Maybe it was just how I felt with Wally, things still hadn't sunken in yet. "Well I've gotten the official call, and I'll call Gordon in the car. Lil, you're coming with me. The rest of you, we'll call when we know what's going on alright?" No one argued as Dick and I raced out of the room and into the nearest car.

"I'll call Gordon since you're driving." I said reaching for my phone. Dick didn't respond, his thoughts were focused somewhere else. "Hello? Commissioner, It's Lilly, Lilly Wayne...Yeah, I've only been back in town for a few hours...Well I'm calling because Dick and I were at Bruce's house and he got a phone call from the hospital...Yes it's Barb. We don't really know what happened or how she's doing, but we're on our way to the hospital if you'd like to meet us there...We'll see you soon then."

"We'll see you soon then?" Dick snorted from behind the wheel.

"I'm sorry, how would you have ended a conversation that started with, Hey Commish, know that only child of yours? Yeah she's been shot."

"Good point." Dick said taking an unnecessarily tight corner.

"Dick, she's going to be okay." I said softly.

"You don't know that!" He snapped, slamming his hands on the steering wheel.

"You're right, you're right I don't. But look, if it wasn't her head or her chest, she could be fine! She could walk out of there tonight!" I exclaimed trying to stay positive.

"Or she could end up dead." Dick growled. "Dead like everyone else. Bruce's parents, my parents, Tim's parents, Barbara's mother, your mother, Jason's Parents, Jason...Wal-Wally. Every time someone we know gets hurt, it's a serious possibility that they are going to end up dead...and...and there's only so much of it that I can take!" He roared as we got closer to the hospital.

"Richard," I said his full name, and I said it slowing trying to catch his attention. "Listen to me. Yes. we've known a lot of people who've died over the years, and yeah it has really sucked. When I was a kid, I didn't there was anything more painful than losing my mom, then I found someone that I loved. Someone who knew everything about me and it was great, until he died. I loved Wally more than anything else I have ever loved in my whole life, and now he's gone. It's sucks, believe me I know. But you know what? Wally, my Mom, your parents? They wouldn't want us to feel this way. Wally loved to make people laugh, the last thing he wanted was for us to be miserable. And you know what, if my mom and your parents were still alive, we wouldn't have ever met Bruce. We certainly wouldn't have met each other, and we never would have met Alfred, Tim, Damian, Or Stephanie. Yes, you and Wally would have always been friends, but I'd have never of known him., and you know what, the thought of never knowing him sucks more than knowing him and having him gone. And if I'd never come to live with you and Bruce, you may never have even met Barbara Gordon! None of us would know Jason, because he probably would have gone to jail for stealing hubcaps as a kid or something worse might have happened to him. So yeah, things fee pretty bad right now, but think of how much worse they could be."

"You've been doing a lot of thinking while you were gone haven't you?" Dick asked his voice a mix of sadness and acceptance.

"Yeah, I guess I have." I nodded before getting out of the car. "Come on, let's go see Barb." We met Commissioner Gordon at the Main Entrance to the Hospital. He still outside, frantically running his hands through his hair.

"Oh there you two are!" He sighed with relief at the sight of us. "Now what exactly did they say happened?" He questioned as we entered the building.

"Not much." Dick answered sympathetically. "Only that she'd been shot on her way home from work late last night."

"I told her never to walk home from work when she works that late!" Gordon raved as we neared the receptionist. "She should have called a cab! or me! or you!"

"Can I help you all with something?" The front desk clerk asked taking in Gordon's frantic state.

"Yes," I answered when Dick and Barbara's Dad failed to answer the clerk. "We're here to see Barbara Gordon. He's Dick Grayson," I explained with a nod in my brother's direction. "Dick 's Barbara's emergency contact. I'm sure you know Commissioner Gordon, he's her dad and second contact. Which just leaves me, Lillian Wayne, third emergency contact."

"Let me just make sure that just out with what we have on file, sweetie." The clerk smiled and began to type rhythmically on her keyboard. After a beat or two she looked up at us from the screen. "You are all on here as emergency contacts. She's on the third floor, ICU. Her Doctor is...oh that's strange, her attending physician just changed while I had the file open...It appears Mr. Gordon's new attending is Dr. Thompkins."

"I'm sorry, would that be Dr. Leslie Thompkins?" Dick asked suddenly calm. I understood why, though I doubt the Commissioner did. Leslie Thompkins had been the Wayne family doctor long before Bruce had even been born. She was familiar to us, the comfort food of doctors, if that makes sense.

"Why yes." The clerk smiled. "You know it's unusual, Dr. Thompkins hasn't taken new patients on in years. You friend is very lucky."

"Thank you, Wendy," Dick smiled leaning forward just a bit to read the clerk's name tag. "We'll be going up to the third floor now, have a good afternoon."

"What was all of that about?" The Commissioner asked as we stepped into the elevator.

"Dr. Thompkins is a family friend." I explained. "If ever there was someone who was going to take care of Barbara, it would be her."

"That's her." Dick whispered once we reached the third floor. I followed his gaze to see a redheaded woman on a bed, rolling towards a private room. In some ways the woman in the bed looked like Barb. She had the long red hair, the strong face, but her breathing was shallow and she didn't have that usual sharpness about her. "There's Dr. T." Dick spoke again, this time sounding more relieved.

"Lilly, Dick, Commissioner," Dr. Thompkins greeted us as we neared Barbara's room. "Dick, it says here that you are the emergency contact for Miss Gordon." The Doctor read from the patient file on tablet. "I'm assuming you two are here to visit her as well? Oh good you're both on the emergency list so by law I can disclose Miss Gordon's condition with all of you. Let's go down to my office and talk, it's just down the hall. We'll let Miss Gordon get some rest, she's just coming out of surgery. Then we'll swing by and check on her. Okay?" None of us had anything on the contrary to say, though the Commissioner sure look like he wanted to, so we followed Dr. Thompkins down the hall. Once in her office, we all sat down, ready to hear what the doctor had to say.

"Now, I have some bad news, and I have some good news." She said very seriously, placing the tablet on her desk. "The problem with Miss Gordon's condition is this, when she was shot, she was shot in the spine. As I'm sure you three can figure out, the spine is a tricky place. The good, news is that she was found when she was. The hospital probably neglected to mention this, but Barbara was brought in last night by Batgirl and Red Robin. They saved her life last night, and I wish I could tell them that personally, but as no one knows who they are, you can see the problem there...But I digress. Miss. Gordon is stable for now and we are confident that she will survive this attack. However I do have some earth shattering news, and I am so sorry to be the one to have to tell you this. Due to the location of the bullet wound, and condition Miss Gordon was in when she was found...sigh, Barbara Gordon will never be able to walk again."