Chapter Text
“No!” The voice argued, his voice cracking from the high range. “Not paw-ible.”
“ ‘Course it is!” He chirped back, “I’ve escaped way scarier places than this before when mom was on her work trips so this’ll be easy peasy.” He shifted his weight to the side, bumping shoulders with the kid next to him, “ ‘N when we get out we’ll get some ice cream together, how’s that sound?”
“Really?”
Really?
R
E
A
L
L
Y?
Bullsh*t. Jason clenched his fist trying to contain his rage at himself.
As far as the eye could see was a dark murky green. It filled his eyes with a stinging sensation and triggered a faint ringing in his ears.
The green encased him.
It sent tingles through his body but he couldn’t focus on that now. There was only one thing he wanted more than anything right now.
To find Tim.
Tim’s body rolling off the metal bridge kept replaying in his mind. He tried to reach out— he tried to save him! But he fell short and instead helplessly watched as Tim missed him entirely, falling straight into the filled container below.
Even if he didn’t miss, who's to say that would even work?
He has been getting extremely weak recently, in fact, Jason thought he may even disappear, but that was silly.
Why would he even disappear? Humans just didn't do that well...actually maybe meta's did they were still mysteries
“Ti-” He attempted to call out before more of the liquid forced its way down his throat.
It hurt. And Jason won’t lie, it made him start to tear up a bit.
Jason swallowed, trying to push out any remnants of the liquid out of his mouth.
He wanted to cough, but would that just make more come into his mouth? Jason didn’t want to risk it.
So he moved on, going back to looking for Tim and ignoring the tightness in his chest.
The bleak green liquid made it difficult to make out anything too far from view so when Jason noticed a darker blob in the water he knew he shouldn’t get too excited.
Though, he did start swimming a bit faster.
As he neared, the blob turned longer and more identifiable.
Tim! His brain excitedly notified. It was him!
Jason kicked faster, eagerly swimming towards his missing friend.
Jason wanted nothing more than to pounce on Tim with a big hug and promise that he’d never leave him again! But, as he started to make out more of Tim’s unconscious body, that excitement fizzled out.
Of course Tim wouldn't be totally okay when he recused him! He was human! How could Jason have forgotten that?
Jason reached out, gently but firmly grabbed hold of Tim’s wrist as he neared pulling him closer. He situated Tim onto his hip and wrapped his arm around the tiny body so that he wouldn't lose the limp body.
It was going to be okay. He reassured himself. It wasn’t like Tim was dead, just unconscious! That was fixable!
At that thought Jason began to swim up, his arms securely wrapped around Tim. He wished he could just phase out of the container with Tim in his arms but, unfortunately, since Tim was human he couldn’t.
As he swam he briefly glanced at Tim’s face, that glance turned into a stare. Tim was so pale he was almost gray and a blue-ishness and started to dust his lips.
Jason nervously sucked in his own lips and began to kick faster.
Hold on Tim you’re gonna be okay.
Jason hugged Tim tighter to his side, his trembling arm making him even more nervous.
How long could people survive without breathing again? Three minutes? That was it right? Surely it hadn’t been that long! Tim should be fine!
Right?
A faint glimmer from above dissipated the darkness, almost turning the liquid into a more of a light green.
Was that…light?
They had to be getting close to the top!
Jason's lungs burned with the same acidic feeling he had felt from the liquid earlier. It felt as if it was eating him away from the inside out.
Come one!
He couldn’t fail now! He had to get Tim to the top!
Jason pushed, clawing at water at this point, desperately trying to get to the top before whatever was happening to him accomplished what it was trying to do. He lifted Tim above him as he broke the surface of the water.
He pushed Tim out of the container and off the side. Before grappling into the side himself and coughing as the green liquid began to pour out of his mouth and splatter on the ground.
“Who are you?” Someone asked, a younger voice— probably Big Jason.
Jason spit out the last remaining remnants and looked up curiously.
Big Jason was staring right through him.
Jason turned looking to see who was behind him, there was no one. At least from what he could see. Maybe they were hiding?
“Who are you?” Big Jason repeated a bit louder and more confrontational this time.
A shriek made the tension rise full force as both of them turned to see who it was.
It was the blonde lady with pigtails from earlier that Jason swore he’d see somewhere at least once before. She wore a black and red jester bodysuit which displayed her every breath— which was pretty rapid actually.
“Oh my gawd!” Twin tail exclaimed before rushing forward to the heap of Tim on the concrete flooring. “He needs CP-ah!” She fused, jabbing her fingers into Tim’s neck.
CP-ah?
Jason floated out of the pool and onto the ground beside her. He couldn’t help but ask, “What’s CP-ah?”
In his surprise, Blondie muttered out an explanation, “He ain’t got no heartbeat, so we gotta try tah start it again.” It was almost as if she could hear him.
She tilted his head back and KISSED HIM!
He moved away a bit appalled, just at the fact they had kissed but the fact she had the audacity to do it in public.
Kissing was only the start to the touching and the groaning and that wasn’t something Jason wanted to see! Especially to his friend!
But…she sounded like she knew what she was doing…
Was the choice really between Tim getting f*cked or dying?
He’d seen it all before but it felt different when it was actually his friend that’d be going through it.
Jason clutched his hands together nervously hovering around them as the lady pulled back.
She adjusted her kneeling position and awkwardly placed her hands over his upper chest. “Two tah thirty, two tah thirty,” She breathed, then, she pressed down her hands caving into his chest.
She repeated the movement again and again with precision and power that you’d believe this was a practiced motion.
It wasn’t like anything Jason had seen before.
“Jay—son-“ Jason looked up a bit startled. Before he could wonder how she knew his name, he remembered the other Jason who was also there and a way more probable answer of who she was talking to. “Mah—mah fhawn!” She said in between pushes.
“Your phone?” Jason repeated in a questioning tone.
“Back—pocket—call.” Blondie explained.
Jason nodded, walking over to her but seeming a bit hesitant to actually grab it.
“Do it!” She snapped.
Jason nervously reached out and fished the phone out of her back pocket. Visibly letting out a held breath after it was fully out.
“Call— mur-gency.” She stated before changing her positioning and bending to kiss him again.
”But! Dad’ll skin me alive if he knows we were out here!” Big Jason protested his knuckles turning white.
Blondie popped up again placing her hands back in the same position, looking even more annoyed than before. “I don’t care if ya dad’ll have ya a*s! This kid’s gonna die if ya don’t call em!” She shouted, arguing back.
Jason looked over at Big Jason warily. He would call them right? Maybe he could…Jason floated over to him gently touching Big Jason’s arm, “Please.” He whispered.
Dick had said that he could feel his touch so maybe Jason could too.
Big Jason’s eyes looked onto his eyes, he looked so scared. He visibly swallowed before slowly lifting up the phone and pressing a few buttons.
“Hello, this is Gotham General Hospital. Would you like to schedule an appointment?” The voice buzzed through the phone.
Jason lifted the phone to his year, “Hi so my brother drowned, n’ we need a ride to the hospital.” Jason said shakily. “Please-!” Jason begged, “I know I know! My Dad, he'll pay for it! No seriously! He will! I’m not a street kid,” He added desperately. “I promise, if- if he doesn’t come then you can hold us there until he does.”
Big Jason waited in silence for a moment before letting out a sigh, “Of course, thank you so much.”
—-
Bruce woke up in a pile of papers on the hard wood of his desk. He slowly got up, still a bit disoriented as he tried to remember what had happened.
Out of nowhere his phone chimed. That must’ve been what woke him up. Bruce picked up the phone accepting the call, it was from an unknown number.
“Hello?” He said with a healthy amount of skepticism of the legitimacy. He was known to get prank calls quite a bit of the time after his number was leaked by a bad secretary a few months back.
He wanted to change it but would Brucie even do that?
“Mr Wayne, this is Gotham General Hospital,” Hospital? That got Bruce’s attention, “and we have reason to believe your children have been admitted here.” The caller explained.
“What?” Bruce gapped, excitement and nervousness pumped through his body as he stood up nearly banging his knees in the process. Barbara and Dick were missing, was it them?
“Yes two of your sons were found in park row, one more significantly injured than the other.”
“Wait wait wait, are you talking about Tim and Jason?” Bruce questioned.
“Yes sir,” The caller responded. “Timothy’s the one who’s actually in our custody right now but since his brothers were there we figured to bring them along.”
“There must be some sort of mistake,” Bruce reasoned, “Jason and Tim should be asleep in their beds.” There was no way Jason and Tim could’ve disappeared when he was asleep. They were smarter than that.
“Sorry, Mr Wayne, I only convey information and you are who they put down as their guardian.”
Bruce knotted his fingers into his hair, pushing it back in the process. It couldn’t ACTUALLY be them could it?
“I’ll…I’ll be down there.” Bruce answered, saying goodbye to the caller before hanging up.
Bruce trailed over to the stairs, looking up into the dark abyss. He slowly began walking up the stairs.
It wasn’t them, Bruce tried to reason, even if Jason had street kid tendencies it didn’t mean Jason would just run away like this.
…when tensions were high and people were missing…
Bruce sped up, pushing the bookcase out of the way as he exited the cave.
“Tim? Jason?” He called, rounding the stair railing. He started sprinting when he got no answer, “Tim! Jason!” He tried again.
“Tim!” He desperately called out as he approached Tim’s room. At this point he didn’t care about the privacy Jason had tried to preach to him about when he slammed open the door and it was, empty. The covers were thrown back and there was a change of pajamas right on his bed untouched.
Sh*t
“Jason!” He yelled down the hallway, “Jason!” He ran down the hallways. Please let them just be sharing a room for tonight! “JASON!” The door was locked his time but it didn’t stay up for too long as Bruce kicked it in.
It was way more of a mess in Jason’s room but still it had no sign of its main occupant.
This was when a new horde of questions bombarded him, if they weren’t at home, why in the world were they in the hospital?!