Getting to the top of the Gotham City Police Department building hadn't been easy. She had to avoid being spotted by anyone while making her way to the stairs, climb what felt like 100 stories, then pick the lock to the roof entrance with nothing but two hairpins she found in her pocket. But somehow, making the decision to flip one little switch felt like a million times harder.

What they had been doing wasn't working. Danny wasn't healing like he should have been. Her limited medical knowledge wasn't helping, and she didn't know what to do to fix it.

She needed help, but she was scared. If she asked for help, she'd have to reveal Danny's secret. And if she did that, he might be killed, or worse, sent to a vivisection table.

And she was probably a wanted criminal by now. If she asked for help, she may be put behind bars for the rest of her life, leaving Danny completely vulnerable. But if she didn't get help, Danny would slowly die, either from infection or bleeding out, and it would all be her fault.

She stood there with her hand on the switch for what seemed like hours, until she heard a small click. She wasn't alone.

She scrambled behind the signal, desperate to hide herself. She scanned the area for an exit, but the only one was right behind the dark shadowy figure slowly moving towards her. She was trapped.

She huddled up into a ball and hid her face in her knees, covering the back of her neck with both hands, waiting for something to happen. But nothing did.

Maybe whoever it was hadn't seen her, she tried to control her breathing, think of an escape plan, anything, but didn't move, didn't uncover her face, didn't do anything that could give her away.

"Are you okay?"

She jumped, startled. It was a gruff voice, deep and calm, and close. She didn't move, didn't breathe, she couldn't even if she wanted to. She was too frozen in fear.

"You're safe, you won't be harmed, breathe." The voice didn't change whatsoever, but it somehow felt softer, more cautious. She started to relax, just a little bit. She gulped a big breath of air and tried to control her breathing. In the nose, out the mouth. She stayed like that for a bit, just focusing on her breathing before she worked up the courage to lift her face up.

A man sat in front of her, close enough that he wouldn't have to yell for her to hear him, but far away enough that she didn't feel trapped.

Half of his face was covered with a mask, and he was covered in black armoured clothing that almost seemed to melt into the shadows. His eyes seemed to widen the smallest amount at seeing her face, but it was so quick that she wasn't sure if she had imagined it or not.

"Are you alright?" He asked again, a bit of concern leaking through the otherwise empty tone. She took a bit to process the words, then nodded slightly.

"Why are you here?" He asked. She opened her mouth to answer, but paused, was this the right answer? Would this work?

"I-" Would he be able to help them? Would he even be willing?

"I need-" Or would he just leave them to rot, or worse, turn them in.

"I-" Did she have a choice? Would he just let her leave without saying anything, or would he force her to talk? And if she refused, would she ever get another chance? Would she ever be able to find someone willing to help her? What if she didn't? What if this was her only chance and by refusing to take it she doomed her brother? What if she let him die? What if she was too scared to do anything and killed him because of it? What if she ruined everything just because she was too scared to admit that-

"I need help."

She hadn't told him much, just that her brother was hurt and she didn't know what to do. He had simply asked where her brother was, climbed down the building with her, helped her into the Batmobile and started driving.

The drive was quiet and uncomfortable, but short. It felt like only a few seconds had passed before the car stopped and she was back at the apartment building.

She opened the car door and stepped out, walked up to the broken window, stepped through, and looked back at the man to signal for him to follow before making her way up the stairs to the third floor, and to room 307.

She pushed the door open and walked through, the man right behind her. He froze for a second upon seeing Danny unconscious on the floor, green blood soaked through his way too big shirt. He kneeled next to Danny and cut the shirt off of him with a small knife from his utility belt to better assess the damage.

"What happened?" He asked, eyes not moving away from Danny. She didn't answer. He sighed and turned his head to her. "If I'm going to help him I need to know the situation."

She hesitated for a second before moving to sit next to Danny, on the opposite side from the man. She didn't want to tell him, to tell anyone, but Danny needed help.

"It was our parents." His face softened. "They're scientists, they study ghosts, and Danny," Her throat clogged up. She didn't feel like she could talk, but she pushed the words out anyway.

"Danny's half ghost. But he, he hasn't turned back human since they did this so I don't really know anymore." She was crying now. Her throat was clogging up again and even though she tried to push through it, it was getting harder and harder to talk.

"They cut him open, I didn't know that they were going to do that, I was only gone for about an hour, but when I came back I couldn't find him and I went into the basement and they were hurting him. And I didn't know what to do or how to stop them so I just-" She tried to keep talking but her voice just kept being cut off by sobs. She could barely see with the tears flooding her eyes, but she pushed through and forced the words out.

"I, I shot them, and I tried to fix him, and I went through the portal to find help but I couldn't find any help and then we were here and I thought he would get better but he isn't and it's all my fault because I left him alone with them like an idiot and I-" She froze as she felt herself being engulfed in a hug.

She couldn't remember the last time she had been hugged like this. Usually it was just quick side hugs from her mother, painfully constricting hugs from her father, or clinging and desperate hugs from Danny. She couldn't remember if she'd ever been comforted like this, and she didn't know how to respond other than to curl up into it and cry.

Author's note:

I somehow forgot I was posting this. This is the last chapter I already have written from when I was writing this back in spring of 2022, but I think I'm gonna continue it from here instead of just leaving it at that.

I mean, I have to add something that utilizes more dc characters so I can earn that Justice League categorization, cause right now it's just Batman and that's kinda boring. I need to get the flash over here sometime.