Chapter Text
“Could you at least try to be nice?” Dick said as Jason not so nicely pulled him back up off the floor. Jason had been dragging Dick’s ass through this warehouse for 10 minutes now, and he wasn’t being so kind about it. Dick, on the other hand, was bleeding out of his abdomen and currently found the situation to be humorous. Then again, he wasn’t the one lugging around his brother.
“You’re still breathing. That’s me being fucking nice, asshole.” Dick was silent for a moment and Jason thought he might have hurt the guy's feelings, but Dick kept talking a second later.
“Do you even know how to get out of here?” Dick asked, gesturing around. “I think we went down this hallway 5 minutes ago.” Dick heard Jason make an unamused grunt under the helmet, but he continued walking.
“Maybe if I wasn’t carrying all this dead weight around, I would be able to find an exit faster.” Jason said as they rounded the corner.
“Dead weight? I’m not-” Dick let out a small grunt as Jason accidentally jostled him too much. He took a deep breath, steadying himself. “-Not dead yet.” Dick continued, this time sounding a lot quieter. Jason spared a glance at him and started walking more swiftly.
“Fuck!” Jason yelled as they got to another dead end. Dick stopped counting two dead ends ago. “I gotta put you down. I gotta think.” Jason said as he helped Dick lean against the wall. Once Jason was sure Dick wasn’t going to fall over, he turned around and started pacing. Dick watched him for a moment, before deciding this could take a while.
Dick held his hand tighter on his stomach and started sinking to the ground. Jason was muttering under his breath as he paced back and forth, finally turning back to Dick.
“I thought I left you standing?” Jason said, walking over towards Dick helplessly, but he made no move to help Dick stand back up.
“I like it down here.” Dick said, gesturing to the ground. “All my friends are here.” Dick picked up a rock and looked up at Jason, smiling.
“I’m glad you find this funny, cause I sure as hell don’t.” Jason continued his pacing.
“Should I take out the map of this place? Would that help? I wrote it down somewhere.” Dick moved around with his good hand, pretending to be checking his pockets for the map.
“You had a map this whole fucking time-” Jason turned around to yell at Dick before realizing the guy had been joking. “Oh, funny guy, huh.” Jason said, shaking his head. He didn't know why he fell for that. He was desperate to get out of here.
“I don’t actually have a map.” Dick said, matter of factly, sending Jason a lopsided smile.
“I know that. Comms are down. I don’t want to walk if we don’t have to, but that’s looking like our only option.” Jason said, as he sat on the opposite wall, facing Dick. He tried to get a good look at Dick, who had his eyes closed and his head leaned back against the wall.
“You don’t like carrying me?” Dick asked, making a pout face, but not opening his eyes.
“Oh sure, you’re not heavy or anything.” Jason remarked. Though, it wasn’t completely true. Dick was fairly light. Sure in comparison to Tim or Damian, he was heavy, but Jason had to drag his fair share of people around and Dick doesn’t make the top 10 for heaviest. And anyway, Dick has had to drag Jason back from countless things, and he weighs more. Whatever. It was annoying dragging anyone around.
Dick just gave a soft chuckle in response. Jason could tell he was losing him. Dick was talking less and less.
“Here are our options.” Jason said, watching as Dick seemed to straighten up a bit. When anything sounding even remotely like orders were being said, they all had a tendency to be more alert. Jason didn’t have time to think about how fucked up that was.”I can drag you back up and we can make our way aimlessly through these hallways again, never finding an exit and you dying of blood loss." Dick made a face. “Or you can stay here and I’ll run ahead, covering more ground.”
“Sounds like you already know.” Dick said, putting more pressure on the wound and opening his eyes to watch as blood spilled through his fingers. Jason hated that Dick was right, but he knew this was the better choice. He just hated leaving Dick here by himself. There hadn’t been anyone else in the building soon after Jason spooked them off, but he couldn’t be sure.
Jason got up and walked over to Dick, crouching down in front of him. “I’ll be fast.” Jason said, trying to avoid Dick’s gaze. “Let me see.” Jason moved his hands to where Dick’s was. The bandage Jason had applied when he first got here was soaked through. Jason reached into his belt and took out another piece of gauze, putting it on top of the wet one and then covering it again with Dick’s hand.
Jason could tell Dick was fading. His grip on his abdomen wasn’t as strong as it could have been and his eyes kept flitting. Jason stood and stared at Dick a second before considering.
“Here.” Jason said as he held out one of his guns to Dick. To Dick’s credit, he just sort of scrunched his eyebrows up at Jason.
“Don’t look at me like that. You don’t have your sticks and you’re in no position to be fighting.” Dick just tilted his head to the side like a puppy. If Jason weren’t so worried right now he might have found it entertaining that he had gotten Dick to be at a loss for words.
“I’m not saying kill anyone.” Jason manually began to put the gun into Dick’s unoccupied hand. “I’m just saying I would feel better knowing you had this.” Dick stared idly at his hand holding the gun.
“Can’t wait to talk about this at family dinner.” Dick said, as his fingers loosely gripped the gun. Jason could tell Dick didn’t want to be holding it, but at least he was entertaining him. "You have to believe me, he made me do it!" Dick joked. Jason was glad he was still coherent.
“Don’t even. Bruce will kill me.” Jason muttered, standing up again. “I’ll be back.” He said as he started walking down the hallway, sparing a few glances back towards Dick as he went. Jason hoped Dick wouldn’t remember all of this tomorrow. But he really was worried. He was leaving an injured man alone. He was leaving his injured brother alone. Bruce was going to kill him. Or Tim, or Damian. Alfred might understand.
He had been jogging for about 7 minutes now, tracking each path he took in his head. He saw a door he hadn’t seen before and pushed. A warm wave of air blew across his face as the night greeted him. He could see his bike in the distance. “Hell yeah.” Jason muttered under his breath.
Then he heard the gunshot.