"D-dad... I don't feel so good..." Dick admitted, sneezing slightly. Bruce felt the boy's forehead- he was definitely hot.
"You're warm. What hurts, Dick?" Bruce asked, kneeling down so he was eye level with the pale boy.
"My throat and my head." Dick said without hesitation. He broke into a wet coughing fit, and Bruce gathered the sick boy into his arms, carrying him up to his room. He put the thermometer in the boy's mouth and waited for it to beep, getting out the children's tylenol and reading the dosage before pouring it for Dick.
The thermometer beeped- 101.9*. Definitely a fever.
"I want you to rest for the night, alright, Dick?"
Dick nodded, taking his tylenol gratefully before leaning back. Suddenly he sat up.
"What about Sparrow? S-she can't go on patrol without me to watch her..."
Bruce was already thinking of that. "Don't worry, Dick, I'll take care of it. Now rest." Bruce ordered, placing a wet wash cloth on the boy's forehead before leaving.
Sparrow was already getting her costume on, excited, as she always was, for the night's patrol. Bruce didn't know what he was going to do or say to her. He didn't want her out on patrol with only him- he always trusted Dick as an extra set of eyes, and with him sick he certainly didn't want Sparrow out in patrol... she was too young, too inexperienced...
"Hey Tati, I'm ready." Sparrow said, looking excited. Batman looked at the computer- it was beeping- and answered Commissioner Gordon's call.
"Yes, commissioner?"
"The Joker's broken out of Arkham."
"Got it. Batman out." he killed the communication and turned t Sparrow.
"Stay behind."
"What?" Sparrow looked crestfallen, but Batman brushed it off, He didn't have time for this.
"Dick is sick, Joker's just broken out... I can't have you come tonight. I'm sorry, Sparrow."
She turned and ran away, probably heading off to cry, and Batman sighed. He'd try and make amends later...
He got into the Bat mobile and sped out of the Bat cave, parking the vehicle in its normal place behind an old warehouse. Snow dotted the ground, and Batman was glad his thermal uniform protected him from the mid-January cold. He stood to go, on high alert for any funny business (no pun intended) from the Joker.
As soon as he'd scaled a fire escape the trunk of the bat mobile popped open, and Sparrow dusted herself off, closing the trunk before vaulting onto the fire escape and silently shadowing her father. There was no way she trusted Bruce to patrol by himself- he could get hurt, and he might need her... She'd already lost one set of parents, and there was no way she was going to lose Bruce.
Batman, incredibly, didn't notice his littlest protégé, so intent was he on finding the Joker. Still, he saw a small mugging going down and jumped down to help. That was when Sparrow saw the other thugs approaching from an alley to ambush her father. She jumped to head them off, but they saw her shadow, and a gun went off.
She screamed- it was the first time she'd been shot- but the bullet hit the Kevlar, and she recovered herself quick enough to dodge another bullet, racing out of the alley, away from Batman, hoping to draw them away.
"Come on! She's wounded. Let's finish her." One of the men audibly said, and the raced after her. Sparrow ducked a punch and took one man down, fight fueled by the pure terror of being killed and the thought of Bruce having to find her body...
Trick streamers suddenly exploded around them, startling her enough that she jumped back like a frightened cat, unding up on her butt in the snow.
"It's the Joker! Let's go!" the men dropped their guns and fled in terror, and Sparrow, still scared, snatched a pistol from the ground and backed against a door, using the doorway as a slight alcove, breathing heavy and fear clouding all rational thought...
BREAK
Bruce, meanwhile, had heard his daughter's scream and the shot and put two and two together. His baby was here, possibly wounded, with the Joker running around Gotham...
"She's wounded. Let's finish her."
He heard the words and something primitive within him ignited. He threw a man off him with such force he smacked into the wall with an audible crack, before snarling at the remainder of the thugs and slamming into one who'd tried to rush him. Five men. He could down them, get to Sparrow- she just had to hang on for him.
BREAK
Snow swirled around outside the alcove, and Sparrow fingered the gun, terrified, waiting. The snow was like stardust, swirling in stark contrast to the dark night and suddenly the man himself was revealed, pasty white face and red lips with green hair...
"Stay back!" she yelled, fingering the gun.
"Relax. I won't hurt you, see...?" the Joker said, voice sticky sweet. She remembered the time she'd spent with the madman as Scarlet Grayson, how in a moment he'd snapped and tried to kill her, and shuddered.
"You can keep the gun. I came here to see you. You must be pretty special to Bats if he wanted to keep you from me."
"D-don't come any closer..." Sparrow said, teeth chattering and tears of fear starting to fall.
"Aww kid, don't cry. I hate crying. I like laughs. That's my goal in life, to make the bat laugh..." he pulled out a rubber ducky and set it beside her.
She was about to shoot him when he squeezed it, and it squeaked.
"It isn't booby trapped, kid. Now, I just wanted to tell you all that before Batsy plants any convoluted theories in your head." the Joker pulled off his purple suit coat and draped it around his shoulders.
"Have a good night, kid.". He gave her that blood red smile, throwing his head back and laughing, before he turned and left, disappearing in the swirling snow.
"Sparrow!" Batman tore through the alley and snatched up his little bird. "Are you hurt?" she shook her head, clinging to her father and remaining completely unaware that she was still wrapped in the Joker's coat.
But even now, as she felt incredibly sick from being in the cold too long and Bruce scolded her about how reckless she'd been, but mainly he was only just grateful she was alright. Why Joker hadn't slit her throat on the spot, he didn't know.
But even as Sparrow laid in bed, wrapped in blankets in an attempt to ward off the chills, she found herself wondering- could the Joker be saved?