Chapter Text
Jason felt like a ton of bricks had been dropped on top of him. His body ached all over and his limbs felt heavy. His eyelids were glued shut, and he tried to peel them open, only to shut them immediately at the harsh white light that greeted him. He groaned and turned his face away from the light, but was stopped by something pressed solidly against his side.
He blinked one eye open and was met with a messy mop of dark hair. He blinked again, squinting as he slowly let his eyes adjust.
He was in the medbay. Why the hell was he in the medbay?
The pain that slowly throbbed through his leg sent the memories of the night before rushing back to him.
Fuck, that had been a massive failure. Hopefully, B wouldn’t bitch about it too much. He’d stopped the shipment, hadn’t he?
His gaze slid around the room, half expecting to see the grumpy bat himself, but there was no sign of the old man.
But he certainly wasn’t alone. Instead, he found three sleeping heads of dark hair piled around his bed holding down his limbs. No wonder his body felt so heavy.
Damian was curled up against his side while Tim was laid out over his legs, a tablet off and discarded in front of him. Jason huffed. He wouldn’t be surprised if the kid had fallen asleep working.
Dick was slumped over the side of the bed, clinging to his arm, his head resting between Jason’s side and his arm. It looked incredibly uncomfortable.
Jason attempted to free his arm from Dick’s grasp without disturbing him, but he latched onto Jason like a vice. He tried to free himself again, this time jostling Dick awake in the process.
Dick yawned and blinked blearily up at him, “Jay?”
“Hey, Dickhead.”
Dick lept up suddenly, wrapping his arms around Jason’s neck in a hug, “You’re awake!” He pulled back to beam at him as the other two boys stirred awake at the commotion.
Tim sat up first, mindlessly reaching for his tablet before processing what was happening around him. He stared blankly at Jason and Dick for a minute before reality registered on his face, “Oh thank god you’re awake. Dick’s been insufferable.”
“Grayson has been nothing but civil, Drake. You, on the other hand, nearly had a heart attack when we found Todd and have been ceaselessly looking into the perpetrators since.”
Tim threw his pillow at Damian who intercepted it with ease and tossed it back at him.
“Says the gremlin who hasn’t left his side in nearly 12 hours,” Tim chucked the pillow back again.
Dick grabbed the pillow out of the air before the fight could escalate. Jason was only a little disappointed.
“Alright, you two. We were all worried about him. Now settle down before you make him pass out again.”
Jason laughed at that, groaning as he attempted to sit up, “How long was I out?”
“About 14 hours since we picked you up. You lost a lot of blood, not to mention getting washed out to sea.”
Jason huffed, “Don’t remind me.”
He flexed his hands, his muscles stiff. Everything hurt and he felt like shit. Better than being dead.
Which he probably would have been, if it weren’t for the three knuckleheads crowding around his cot.
He tried to pull himself into a sitting position, making it about a quarter of the way before exhaustion caused his arms to give out.
“Hey now, little wing. Just rest. You got pretty messed up. You’ve already started to develop symptoms of walking pneumonia, and you had a lot of water in your lungs, so try not to wear yourself out, ok?” Dick had placed a hand on his forehead, fiddling with the IV drip that fed into Jason’s arm.
Jason grunted but didn’t protest, the heavy weight of exhaustion, and his brothers, holding him down.
Jason shifted so that Damian could stay pinned to his side without crushing his arm, which opened up a spot on his other side that Tim filled without hesitation, curling against Jason with the tablet in his hand as if it was the most normal thing he could possibly be doing.
Dick had left the room for a moment, only to return with his arms full of extra blankets and pillows. He dumped them at Jason’s feet before lower the bedrails on one side and pushing another cot right up against Jason’s.
“Alright, scoot!” Dick lept onto the second cot, pulling the extra blankets around his brothers, and handing Tim and Damian each a pillow before throwing his arms and legs across almost all of them, as if he could cocoon himself around all of his brothers, despite the fact that Jason alone was bigger than him.
Jason was too tired to protest, instead giving into the comforting weight of his family, pressed against him on all sides. It didn’t take long for the warmth to lull him to sleep.