I hadn't planned for this to happen this soon, but I'll be honest I'm getting really bored with this year, so I'm trying to wrap it up so I can move on to better storylines. I'm really excited to start writing the next major thing that's going to happen. I'll have more time to write with school letting out soon. Anyway, y'all give me some reviews! That's what keeps me excited about writing the story, so the more reviews the more motivated I'll be to write.
Mallory and Peter sprinted the four blocks from the zeta tube to Gotham General Hospital and nearly crashed through the doors because they slid open too slow. When they were in the lobby, Mallory grabbed her brother's arm and pulled him to the desk, ignoring the glare she got from the old woman she pushed in front of.
"Barbara Gordon, where is she?" she demanded.
"Ma'am, you're going to have to wait at the back of the line, like everyone else," the receptionist said sternly.
Mallory slammed her palm down on the desk. "I don't have time for a damned line! She's shot, what floor is she on?"
"Mallory!"
She turned and saw Megan, Gar, and Conner come in from outside.
"Artemis just called. They're on the third floor, come on."
The pyrokinetic nodded and caught up with them at the elevator, the five of them loading onto it. Conner pressed the button ten times before the doors finally closed. "Did she say anything else?" Mallory asked. She'd hung up as soon as she got the hospital name, so she didn't have any details. All she knew was that she'd been shot while she was on a mission with some of the other Bats, and it was bad.
"No, she didn't know anything. She was on her way over. Dick was on comms with her when he got the call."
The doors opened again and the group spilled out into another lobby, Zatanna, Artemis, Raquel, Darius, and Kaldur in a group in the corner. They went to their friends.
"Well?" Megan asked.
Artemis shook her head. "She was brought to surgery as soon as they got her here. The bullet went right through her, they won't know how much damage it did until they get open her up."
"Where are the others?" Conner asked.
"They brought them to the back, but only because her dad vouched for them. That was before we got here," Zatanna told them.
"Well," Kaldur said grimly, "I suppose the only thing we can do is wait."
The group slowly went to the chairs one by one, until eventually they were all sitting around. Roy came a few minutes later, and the team had their hands full with phone calls, telling the younger members not to come and the Leaguers that things were still touch and go, and that they hadn't seen any of the Bats yet. The door to the back swung open then, and Dick came through. His eyes widened when he saw them and he winced and walked over to them.
"Thanks for coming," he said, his voice raspy and flat. There was something off about him, but Mallory couldn't put her finger on what it was.
"Have you heard anything?" Zatanna asked gently.
He shook his head. "She's still in surgery. They said the bullet grazed her spine. She's lucky to still be alive, but," he stopped talking and shut his eyes tight. Roy put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently, and he shut swallowed hard. "They're not giving her good chances. Even if she survives the surgery, she could still have complications."
"How did this happen?" Kaldur asked after a moment.
Dick's eyes snapped open, and Mallory realized that that was what was so off about him. He wasn't sad about what had happened. He was angry, furious. His eyes were full of a hatred that she'd never seen there before. "Joker," he spat. Anger flared up at the name, but it was immediately replaced by fear for Barbara's life. Dick took a step back and looked back at the door distractedly. "I'm going back inside. Do you want to come?"
Kaldur nodded and the group followed him through the swinging doors and down a hall into a second, smaller waiting room. This one didn't have a receptionist in it, and Bruce, Jess, Tim, Alfred, and two strange girls, a blond girl with pale skin and a girl with short black hair and scars covering her face.
"Who are they?" Roy asked.
"That's Stephanie, the girl who filled in as Robin for Tim," Dick said, nodding to the Blond. Mallory remembered some scraps of conversations she'd heard. Tim was dating a new hero, a girl calling herself Spoiler. That must be her.
"And the other one?" Raquel asked.
Dick shook his head. "We're not really clear on that yet," he said vaguely. The group exchanged a look, but they didn't say anything else about it.
They spread out in the small room, some of them being forced to stand or sit on the floor. Peter and Gar went to the corner where Tim and Stephanie were sitting, Kaldur and Megan went to stand with Alfred by the door, Zatanna sat close to the aisle, watching Jess as she paced the room like a caged tiger. The others sat or stood as close to Dick as they could. They all gave Bruce his space, though. He was sitting in the only corner that wasn't inhabited, his elbows on his knees, his face resting on his knuckles, a stony look on his face.
Megan looked around at the people in the room. "Where is Commissioner Gordon?" she asked.
"He is in the recovery room, waiting for the surgery to end," Alfred told her when no one else spoke up.
"They wouldn't let us in. We're not family," Jess added, the last part of her sentence coming out bitter.
Mallory sighed and checked her phone. Barbara had only been in surgery for twenty minutes. They had a long wait ahead of them. She tried to keep herself alert and helpful, but as the hours stretched on, she felt her adrenaline wearing off, leaving her feeling exhausted. Around the hour and a half mark, she drifted off, her head resting on Roy's shoulder.
She woke up with a start, making Roy jump, and she looked around the room frantically for a moment, trying to get her bearings. It all came back to her all at once, and she checked her phone immediately. She'd been asleep for over an hour, which meant Barbara had been in surgery for almost three hours straight. She looked at Roy. "Has there been any word?" she asked. He shook his head, and she winced. That couldn't be good.
She looked around the room. Everyone had settled in, except for Jess, who was still pacing. Dick seemed calmer, though he had his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. She wasn't sure if he was asleep or praying. Darius, Gar, and Peter were gone. She found Megan a few chairs away, leaning on Conner, and stood up stiffly and walked over.
"Where are the boys?" she asked quietly.
"Darius took them to get some food. He thought it would be good for them to have something to do," she replied.
She nodded and went back to her chair to continue to wait. The boys came back with vending machine snacks and waters, family members of other patients came and went, some League members called to ask if there were any updates.
Finally, the door opened and the group spun around, staring at the doctor that came through. "Mr. Gordon asked me to tell you how things turned out," he started.
"Ok?" Jess said, sounding like she was a second away from beating the information out of him.
Zatanna put a hand on her arm. "Sorry," she said. "We're just worried."
The doctor nodded. "I understand. Ms. Gordon made it through the surgery better than expected. She is resting in her room with her father now."
The group let out a collective sigh of relief. Bruce stood. "What's the bad news?" he asked.
The doctor sighed. "The bullet was fired at a very close range, and there was some severe internal damage done. It tore through her left kidney and chipped her spine, grazing her spinal cord. We removed the kidney without a problem and we contained the internal bleeding, but the spine is another situation."
He paused, looking around the large group, and they stared back, irritation building the longer the doctor took to finish the news.
"The location that was damaged houses a good portion of the nerves that feed the lower half of the body, and those nerves were severed. We tried to repair the nerves, but they were too far gone." He came to the end of his speech, but the group just stared at him, not comprehending what he was saying. He sighed and went for a more straightforward approach. "She'll never walk again."
His words were met with a stunned silence as the heroes finally understood what he was saying.
"Are you sure?" Alfred asked, taking the lead for the others.
The doctor nodded. "I'm afraid so. I'm needed back upstairs, but if you have any questions. I can send a nurse down here to go over everything with you." Bruce shook his head, and the doctor nodded. "I'm sorry," he said, then left the room.
No one moved. No one even breathed in the moments following the news. Then a frightening expression came to Dick's face, and he pushed past the stunned group, heading down the hall. The team recovered and exchanged a look before following him out. They caught up with him in the outer waiting room.
"Woah, where are you going?" Roy asked.
"Where do you think?" he asked, glaring over his shoulder.
Artemis stepped in front of him. "This isn't you, Dick. Just take a breath, calm down."
"Get out of my way."
She narrowed her eyes. "No. Wally's not here this time, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you just walk out of here and kill him."
"Artemis, move."
Mallory sidestepped so she was shoulder-to-shoulder with the archer. "Dick, sit down."
He swung out of nowhere, his fist slamming into Artemis's jaw. The room erupted into organized chaos. The archer fell into Mallory at the unexpected force, Zatanna and Darius stepped in front of Raquel, whose baby bump was just beginning to show, and Kaldur and Megan pushed the boys away. The receptionist jumped to her feet, but Megan rushed over to convince her not to call security. Mallory recovered and shoved Dick back hard, and he swung again, at her this time. She was ready, though, and she ducked the punch. Roy and Conner jumped in, and though he struggled a lot and managed to get further than they would have liked, they pinned him quickly. As soon as he was subdued, the anger and hate left his eyes and he sagged in his skin, leaning against Roy, and the older hero pulled him into a hug.
"It's ok, Bud. You don't have to be alright," he told him.
Dick shook his head, finally starting to break. He let his friend guide him into a chair, and the others stood around him, waiting. "How could I have let this happen again?" he choked out.
"This isn't your fault," Conner told him firmly.
"You are not responsible for the actions of that madman," Kaldur agreed, taking the seat on his other side. Dick just shook his head, hiding his face in his hands, his hair hanging loosely off his forehead. Several minutes passed in silence, and the team let him quietly cry, staying with him for moral support and to make sure he didn't try to leave again.
Mallory took a breath and looked at Artemis, who was sitting down now. "You all right?" she asked quietly.
The archer touched the back of her hand to her mouth and it came back with some blood on it. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said.
Mallory nodded. "Come on, you should take care of that. I'll go find you some ice." There was an ice machine down the hall, so she went and filled a bag and brought it to the bathroom where her friend was washing the blood off her mouth. "Here," she said, offering it to her.
Artemis sighed. "Thanks."
Mallory watched as she wrapped the bag in some paper towels and pressed it to the bruise forming on her jaw. "What did you mean?" she asked, looking at the archer through the mirror.
"What?"
"When you said that Wally's not here this time."
Artemis winced. "Um, Mal, I don't know if I should…"
Mallory just kept her eyes on her friend's face, waiting for her to decide to talk. A few long seconds passed, then she sighed.
"Wally didn't find out about Jason from Dick," she said quietly. "Alfred called him. He was scared that Dick was going to do something he'd regret. He left that night, wouldn't listen to anyone. Wally went to track him down, and he found him standing over Joker. He'd beaten him almost to death. Wally said that if he hadn't been there, he would have killed him. He brought Dick back to his apartment, we called you guys, and you know how he was when you got there."
Mallory pressed her lips together, not knowing what to say.
Artemis checked the bruise one more time and took a step back. "Come on, we should go back out there."
The pyrokinetic nodded and followed her out, ready to stay the rest of the night with her friend.
The thing about Dick beating the Joker is actually a thing in the comics, but it was when he thought that Joker had killed Tim. Not really important, just a fun fact. He actually beat him to death (it was premeditated) and then Batman showed up and did CPR and brought him back to life, and then Tim was found. Anyway, please review!