The roaring sound of a powerful vehicle's approach wakes Galatea up in the middle of the night. Despite the fact that the room she is set up in was intentionally chosen because of its distance from the outside entrance to the Batcave, her sharp senses can still pick up the recognizable sound of the Batmobile. She looks at the time and, seeing how late it is, is able to extrapolate that it is Batman and Robin returning to the manor from the night's patrol. She decides it is best for her to lay and wait, pretending she hadn't heard their approach at all since she is supposed to be none the wiser. But still she worries for their safety, so she listens carefully for evidence of their well-being. After some amount of time quietly waiting, she hears the sound of footsteps on the stairs and then in the hallway outside her door. Two sets of steps echo out, the sound of one following the other, followed by the hushed sounds of Alfred and Dick's voices.
"Master Dick, I insist you let me take a look at that injury."
"I appreciate it Alfred, but there's nothing you can do for a cracked rib; it just needs time to heal."
"Then I insist you stay in bed and get the proper rest so you can heal."
"That's my plan for now, but I'm not letting him go out alone after this guy. If he goes out again, I'm going with him to back him up. And you know Bruce; he's not going to stop until he catches him, especially after this."
Their voices fade away to indiscernible mumblings, but she can still make out the sound of their steps. She can hear the faint sound of the door to Dick's room swinging open and the exchange of a few more words before it closes again. She listens as Alfred passes by her room once more, sighing heavily on his way back down the stairs. Galatea fights the urge to jump out of her bed and check on Dick's condition immediately once Alfred's gone. Her mind whirls with a number of reasonable excuses to give her a reason to go before she is able to calm it down. I'll check on him in the morning, she assures herself. She rolls over on her side and closes her eyes. I just need to find an excuse to see him tomorrow. Ah, I know. With her idea rooted, she focuses on formulating a complete plan in her mind until sleep finds her again.
….
The sound of the birds heralding the dawn wakes Galatea from her fitful slumber. With her plan from the night before still on the forefront of her mind she hurries through her morning routine. She throws the covers off of her, changes into some clothes as quickly as she can manage, and hurries down to the kitchen to enact it as soon as possible. When she does reach the kitchen she finds Alfred already at work in there, cutting up various kinds of fruit at the counter. She offers him a cheery greeting.
"Alfred, good morning!"
Despite his surprise hearing her in his kitchen, he turns and returns her greeting with a polite smile.
"And a fine morning to you Miss Galatea. You seem full of energy today; I trust you slept well."
"I did, thank you. I was actually hoping I might catch you before you finished making breakfast today. Would it be alright if I helped you prepare it this morning?"
"I did promise I'd help you prepare something for Master Dick at some point, didn't I? Now is as good a time as any, I suppose. First grab an apron from over there and then join me here."
Galatea follows his directions to the spare aprons and ties one around her back. Then she gives her hands a thorough washing and moves to his side, offering him a cheery smile. Meanwhile, Alfred prepares a second cutting board next to his while she gets ready to assist.
"Alright, I have successfully equipped an apron! How can I help?"
"We're making chia pudding with fresh fruit and granola. We'll start with the pudding because that takes a little time to set and then we'll work on the granola. Open up those cans of coconut for me, won't you?"
With exquisite dedication, Galatea follows along with Alfred's instructions. They prepare a coconut milk chia pudding, homemade granola, and fresh cut fruit. She does require his direction on the proper knife techniques for the varying types of fruits, but to Alfred's surprise, she handles the knife with unexpected precision. Alfred finds her eager to learn and receptive to his feedback, making her rather easy to teach. Because of this, they manage to prepare everything with an almost practiced efficiency, impressing Alfred. Following his final instructions, they plate the prepared ingredients in the bowls together. A satisfied Galatea clasps her hands in front of her at the sight of the final result of their combined efforts.
"Success! Thank you Alfred!"
Giddy with the thrill of her accomplishment, she wraps her arms around him in a quick embrace. The sudden hug takes him by surprise but before he has a chance to process it she lets him go. She dances over to the bowl and grasps it in her hands, proudly bounding away before he can even respond. Alfred shakes his head and smiles to himself as he watches her go.
Once she makes it to the door of Dick's room, Galatea finds his door unlocked. She turns the knob and swings open the door. With the bowl of food in her hands, she puts on her best smile and happily greets him the way he had done for her before.
"Good morning Dick!"
Her broad smile closes her eyes, but once they reopen they find a surprising sight. Her eyes fall on a half-dressed Dick struggling to pull a clean shirt over his head. Impulsively she spins on her heels to give him some privacy. He catches a look of guilty surprise flash across her face before she turns away from him. Flustered, she nervously stumbles over her words as she tries to apologize.
"Ah, I'm so sorry! Your door was unlocked so I assumed it was okay to come in. I thought you might still be in bed, not, well,"
Her voice trails off, too embarrassed to admit to his state of undress. But after his initial surprise passes, Dick manages to quickly recover, even with the warm blush on his face. He fights through his pain and finishes putting his shirt on before finally turning to face her. In an effort to hide the truth of his injury from her he tries to speak to her as he normally would.
"It's alright. I must have forgotten to lock it on my way in last night. Besides, it looks as though you've brought an apology with you already. Did my eyes deceive me, or did I see you carrying a bowl full of breakfast food?"
"Oh," she cries out in surprise, "right. I did, or rather, I am!"
She starts to turn her head to properly address him and then the sight of his bare, muscular back flashes in her mind. The thought of it makes her flustered and she can feel a heat rising to her face, causing her to abruptly jerk it back away from him. With her face betraying her, she wants to turn around all the less. Dick chuckles at her nervous reaction, but tries to offer her some assurance.
"Gal, you can turn around now."
"R-right," she stammers.
Get it together, Galatea. Don't make a big deal out of it if he's not going to. You're here because you were worried about his injury from last night, remember? She pauses and then sucks her teeth out loud. I got so distracted I nearly forgot. Remembering this, she runs over the image she got of his body when she walked in, this time intentionally. This time she aims to check for any noticeable injuries instead of subconsciously rehashing the same embarrassing experience. After clearing her mind and looking him over in her mind's eye once more, she can clearly identify dark bruises on his ribcage that she missed the first time. She then recalls him wincing in pain as he struggled to lift his arms to get his shirt on. Dick stares back at her in confusion as she processes everything in the solitude of her mind. He approaches her and waves his hand in front of her blank stare, trying to get her attention.
"Hello? Earth to Gal."
Clarity returns to her eyes and she gives an embarrassed smile. Get. It. Together.
"Sorry!"
"Where were you, back in space? Or was the sight of my bare muscles too much for you to handle?"
He flashes her a confident grin and she chuckles in reply.
"I can't lie, that was quite a shock. I wasn't expecting to walk in on you like that."
"And," he asks expectantly.
"And?"
"What did you think? I work pretty hard to stay in this kind of shape."
A heat rises into Galatea's head like the steam in a tea kettle. His question leaves her thunderstruck, causing her eyebrows to knit together in a desperate kind of expression. Suddenly her clear, analytic mind is flooded with a barrage of emotion. The sight of her squirming makes Dick feel a little guilty, but he still can't help laughing at her reaction.
"I'm only teasing, Gal," he confesses. Her eyes go wide at his admission before he continues. "You're pretty easy to get a rise out of, you know that?"
Then her expression crumples to a dissatisfied pout. For a brief moment it looks like she wants to say something back but then she stops herself. Instead, she looks down a bit dejectedly, maintaining her pout before responding to his question.
"Do you want your breakfast, or not?"
"I do, I do," he exclaims through some more chuckling.
Galatea quirks her chin up into the air and carries the food over to his night stand. He continues on as she settles the tray into place.
"I'd ask if you want to share it with me but I know for a fact you've already had a snack this morning."
Her head jerks sideways as she puts down the bowl, with a little more force than intended, to stare daggers at him for his playful jab. His laughter only grows at her dramatic reaction to his teasing. But then it stops abruptly, immediately grabbing Galatea's attention. The moment it does, the animosity in her expression completely dissipates and is replaced with concern. His laughter is cut short by a sudden inhale of breath. His ribs send a sharp pain up through his side, protesting his laughter. Reflexively, his hand moves to the site of the pain and he doubles over, thus thwarting any attempt to try to hide his injury from her. Seeing him topple over in pain, she rushes over to help him, quickly forgetting the irritation she had just felt.
"Dick!"
She gently grabs a hold of his shoulders to offer him support. He looks up at her with a pained smile, finding her face heavy with worry for him. Her round, gray eyes look bigger and sadder than normal, like a wounded puppy's. Something about that look in her eyes makes him feel the need to dispel her worries.
"Talk about side-splitting laughter," he jokes weakly.
His attempt to lighten the mood does not land as well as he hopes; she doesn't even chuckle at his clever remark. Instead, she looks back at him with a tender gaze, laden with the resolve to help him. If anything, his joke may have had the opposite effect, intensifying her concern for him.
"You're hurt," she says quietly, "let me see."
He wants to protest, to dismiss her concerns and give an excuse for her not to look, but he can't. Between the worry in her expression and the soft command in her voice, he can't seem to find the will to fight her. Maybe it's the pain clouding his judgment but he doesn't want to hide this from her, not when she's looking at him like that. Unsure of how he's going to explain a couple of broken ribs, he knows he should argue against her request, but he doesn't want to. Regardless of his misgivings and the upset his injury might cause her, he decides letting her help him seems like the only way he's going to calm her is no hiding it now that she knows he's in pain.
Without saying a word he lifts the side of his shirt up, revealing the deep purple hues of the bruised muscle below the surface of his skin. Her eyes waver as she looks down at it, instantly recognizing the underlying cause of such bruising. She sharply inhales as the sight of it takes her back for a moment, then lets out a slow exhale. Dick watches her expression shift multiple times as she takes it all in, wondering what exactly is going through her mind. He's waiting for her to ask him how this happened and trying to think of an excuse for when she does, but she doesn't. Instead she quietly reaches out her hand and gingerly caresses his side. Dick decides to break the silence.
"It looks worse than it is."
"Are you in pain?"
"Well, it doesn't tickle, that's for sure. It'll get better with time though, so there's no need to worry."
"Hm," she hums thoughtfully.
"Aren't you going to ask me how it happened?"
She slowly shakes her head "no" and then speaks again.
"Do you want me to? I won't press you if you don't want to tell me about it. What matters more to me is that you're hurt and I want to help. Is that okay?"
With a look of bewilderment, he slowly nods "yes" in reply. Once he gives his consent, Galatea's warm gray eyes begin to glow with the color of moonlight and a comforting warmth envelopes his side. It radiates out, sending comforting tingles through his body. The cool of her delicate fingers gliding across his skin is the only sensation he can feel outside of that warmth. Dick finds himself comparing the feeling to the way one feels right before falling asleep in the warmth of the sun. He can imagine himself lying in a field with the sunlight warming his skin, the swaying grasses around gently brushing up against him as he lay there. The sensation only lasts for a few minutes before it fades away entirely, taking his pain with it as it goes. He can't help but look back down at his injury in disbelief. Galatea removes her hand and gives him a gentle smile, her eyes now returned to their normal gray.
"What was that just now? Did you…heal me?"
"Mhm," she hums in affirmation. "I told you I'm a healer, silly. How do you feel? Does it still hurt?"
Cautiously, he tries to stretch the injured muscles to test his level of pain. He finds the movement easy and painless so he tests a more strenuous flex and finds the same result.
"No, not at all. Should it?"
"No, but sometimes it takes the nerves a little longer to catch up to the rest of the body. Sometimes there are 'after images' of pain, if you will. I'm glad you're not in pain."
"Me too. I mean, forget about the pain, that was one of the most comforting sensations I've ever experienced! It felt like taking a sun nap or a warm bubble bath."
She giggles a little at his comparison.
"I've never heard anyone describe it that way before, but it makes me happy to hear you say that. Next time I hope you'll feel comfortable enough to tell me about it instead of suffering through it. Though, I'd much prefer it if you weren't getting injured at all if I'm being honest."
"Me too."
"Another thing we have in common then. So how about that breakfast?"
"Oh right! I nearly forgot all about that! What did you bring me this morning?"
"A coconut chia pudding, complete with homemade granola and fresh cut fruit."
"Ah, the recovery special. Alfred help you make it?"
She blushes a little at his question and then heads towards the nightstand to retrieve the bowl and hide her embarrassment from him.
"Yes, well, I wanted to return the favor. You've made me breakfast so many times; I thought it would be nice to treat you for once."
"Gal you didn't have to do that."
"Well I did, and I would have brought it sooner if I had known you were injured."
"It's kind of an embarrassing thing to admit. But if you insist, next time I'll come straight to your office Nurse Galatea."
"I hope there isn't a next time for the sake of your ribcage, but if it happens again I'd feel better if you did."
With the bowl of breakfast in her hands she makes her way over to his place on the floor, kneeling down to look at him again.
"Do you really not care to know what happened?"
"If you wanted to tell me Dick, you would. I'm not going to ask you to share something you don't feel comfortable sharing with me. However, I am going to ask you to eat this breakfast I worked so hard to prepare for you."
She scoops a spoonful of food up and carries it over to his mouth with a kind, encouraging smile on her face. Dick looks back at her with a start, a blush instantly reddining his cheeks when he realizes what she's doing.
"Uh, Gal?"
"Open wide!"
With wide eyes, Dick complies with her command. His mouth opens without him giving it much thought and she pops the spoon into it. He looks back at her as he chews the mouthful of food, finding her with an expectant, eager look on her face as she waits for his reaction.
"So?" She asks. "How is it? Is it good?"
He swallows and then snickers, before bursting into laughter.
"It's good," he manages.
The expression on her face softens into relief and she lets out a sigh, making him laugh even more.