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His hand was red.
Jason was on his side and his hand was red.
There was some deep part of him that knew it wasn’t meant to be red, that knew that something was wrong even if the rest of him felt a million miles away. He just lay there, watching as a bead of red trailed down his arm as he twisted his hand this way and that. It was almost relaxing, like watching rain on a car window.
His hand was red and that wasn’t supposed to be a good thing, even though he couldn’t quite remember why.
There were sounds, echoing far in the distance. Perhaps he was in a field, maybe even on the Kent’s farm. He liked the farm, even if it was hard to fall asleep without the sound of sirens.
Sirens. There were sirens. Far, far away, but sirens all the same. There were much closer noises, ones that as soon as he realised that they were there sharpened all at once and became an unending roar.
Someone was screaming, fuck, they were screaming so loud and Jason scrambled up, desperate to help whoever it was that was making that horrid sound but he slipped on the glass and blood, his breath leaving him as pain replaced the air in his lungs.
Jason balked, wrapping his bloodied hand around his ribs, and made himself stand anyway.
He wavered, head spinning as he blinked away the last of the blurs. No wonder why he had struggled to get up amongst all the glass, he was in some kind of bus, standing on what had once been a window but was now nothing but a mess of shards and his own blood.
Jason felt his face, confirming that he was not wearing either his helmet or a domino mask even though he knew he would have sensed one or the other by now. Instead, he felt sticky blood on his cheek now and he forced himself to ignore it.
Help, he needed to help.
There were still people screaming, at least three or four, while some of the others were trying to get up too. Jason locked eyes on a young woman that was trying to rise, surging towards her before she could further damage her already trapped leg.
“Hey hey,” He said. “Don’t move, okay?”
“I-I-“
“I know,” Jason said. “I know you’re scared and confused, but it’s going to be alright, okay?”
The poor woman was trembling, following his gaze to where her leg was pinned beneath what had been the seat in front of her. Her breath caught, eyes widening, but Jason squeezed her shoulder hard before she too could start screaming.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Jason promised her.
It looked bad. It looked really fucking bad. Fuck this. Fuck all of this.
“Just try not to move, okay? I’m going to touch your ankle, just to make sure there’s blood flow alright?”
The woman shivered, biting her lip hard, but then nodded.
Jason moved slowly all the same, wiping some of the blood off of his hands on his pant legs even though it wouldn’t make much of a difference. He gave her every chance to flinch away before he checked her pulse in her trapped ankle.
Nothing. Nothing. Noth- There!
“Great job,” Jason said. “Do you think you can hold tight here while I go check on the others?”
“Are you a doctor?” She asked. “You look so young…”
The woman’s voice was shaking as much as she was and in a perfect world Jason wouldn’t want to leave her side just in case she goes into full shock. He forced a chuckle, giving her a trademark Dick Grayson grin that his brother would be jealous of.
“Not quite.” Jason said. “I just like a lot of med dramas.”
And he had trained to be able to quickly assess and give emergency treatment to victims of violent crime since he was a kid, though Jason wasn’t exactly going to bring up the fact that he used to be none other than Robin and now he was the infamous Red Hood.
“I’m Jason, by the way.” He said.
“Abby.” The woman said. “I- I think I’m okay.”
“You’re more than okay Abs,” Jason said. “But if you start feeling dizzy or your foot starts to get numb, call out, okay?”
Abby nodded grimly. She was looking steadier, which was great, but there was going to be absolutely no way for Jason to get her out without any of his gear. He had some knives on his person, sure, but then he was going to have to explain why a random guy on a random upturned bus had knives on him.
Then again, living in Gotham might be explanation enough.
Giving Abby another moment to change her mind about needing him to stay by her side, Jason stood fully up again.
His ribs protested but he refused to let off even a small sigh, not wanting to worry Abby for no reason when it was herself that she needed to worry about. He’d had broken ribs plenty of times before and yet somehow they always hurt like a bitch and this time was no different.
He moved gingerly through the shattered glass towards the back while trying to count how many civilians had been on the bus before whatever the fuck happened happened. He didn’t remember the crash, he didn’t even remember why exactly he was on the bus in the first place.
While it might have been a rogue attack, Jason couldn’t hear any fighting from outside, not amongst the incessant screams from in here.
The driver was still at the very front of the bus, slumped weirdly in a way that Jason couldn’t tell if he was unconscious or dead. Close to the front was a woman with a crying child, and while both seemed mostly okay at a glance he was definitely going to have to check in with them soon. After the mother and son, there was an old man who lay very still on his own unbroken window.
Both the driver and the old man could very well be dead or dying, so while Jason still wanted to help them he had to prioritise those who were in a serious condition but were more likely to survive.
The idea of triaging had never sat right with him, choosing so quickly who was worth even trying to save, but given that the sirens didn’t sound like they were getting any closer he would have to do what he could. What he could do was stabilise those who needed stabilising, and calming those who could be calmed.
Jason stilted.
That old man could still be alive. He could be alive and if Jason chose to tend to other people first, he could very well die.
Jason dug his nails into his palms.
There were other people, scared and hurt people who needed him. But that old man needed him too, as did the driver, and while he knew that he should be prioritising those who were very clearly still alive he couldn’t bear the thought of not even checking if the driver and the old man even had a chance.
Jason turned on his heel, picking his way through the mess of metal and glass and blood towards the front of the bus again, giving a reassuring smile to Abby on the way.
He went first to the driver, partially slumped against his steering wheel while mostly hanging from where his seat belt still remained. Jason reached up, pressing two fingers against the mans neck.
A pulse.
The driver was alive, and with a strong pulse to boot. He was still unconscious and while Jason should probably leave the driver right where he was in case of spinal injury, he refused to let the man just hang there weirdly.
There was still someone screaming, and the young son with his mother was still sobbing, though most of the other screams had quietened which while it let him think a little better, it also concerned Jason.
Screaming meant that while people were in pain or were scared, it also meant that they were conscious and aware, or at least aware of painful stimuli.
Glancing back at Abby and confirming that she wasn’t watching him, Jason retrieved a small knife from the hidden seam in his pants.
“Wait,” A voice called out.
Jason twisted.
There was another woman, young also, though she was not only free from the mess of metal but she was also coming towards him. Her hijab had some blood on it, though if it was her own or someone else’s he wasn’t sure.
“I’ll help you.” She said.
Jason was tempted to refuse, not wanting her to aggravate a possible head injury, but she looked resolute in her wanting to help.
He nodded, positioning himself so that while he would be able to cut the bus drivers seatbelt, both he and the young woman would be able to catch the driver to keep him from getting more hurt than he was already.
Jason grunted from the man’s sudden weight, lowering him to the ground. Jason readjusted the driver until he was in the recovery position just in case he threw up, then looked back up at the woman that had helped him get the man down in the first place.
“Jason.” He said.
“Jasmeet.” The woman said with a smile.
“Wish we met under better circumstances, Jasmeet, but thanks.”
She smiled again, then frowned as she saw the blood on Jason’s hands.
He shoved them into his pockets before standing fully.
“Are you feeling alright?” Jason asked. “Did you hit your head during the-”
Crash? Attack? What was even going on anymore anyway?
Jasmeet’s frown deepened. She raised a hand to her own head, hissing when she touched the fabric of her Hijab.
“You should sit down.” Jason said. Then, before she could argue. “Stay with the driver, let me know as soon as he wakes up or if he gets sick. Can you do that for me?”
Jasmeet blinked and for a moment Jason thought for certain that giving her a task wasn’t enough to keep her in one spot and not moving around. Then, after another long moment, she nodded.
“I will stay,” Jasmeet said. “But it is because the driver needs to be watched, not because I am injured.”
“Absolutely,” Jason said. “Thanks Jasmeet, make sure to call out if you start to feel like shit though. Head injuries can be nasty.”
With Jasmeet staying by the driver, Jason moved on to the old man.
Instantly Jason was concerned because there was an obvious break in the old man’s arm, no doubt from the initial event that had made the bus land on its side. He was still unconscious, though remarkably he was breathing. Unable to do much more for him without any medical supplies, Jason resolved to make a sling for the man if he got a chance later but before the paramedics arrived but right now there were other people he needed to check over.
Jasmeet met his gaze, silently nodding as if accepting the burden of watching over the old man as well.
Jason decided that once they were through all of this shit, he was going to buy not only Jasmeet and Abby, but all of them waffles. Fuck, he wanted waffles. He didn’t even know what time it was and yet now his mouth was watering, craving a meal he wouldn’t be able to get until he got these damn people to safety but now he was so hungry.
With the driver and the old man sorted best they could be right now, Jason approached the mother and her young son. The son’s crying had quietened a little, if only because he was buried in his mothers arms.
“Hey absolute Legend,” Jason said, crouching in front of them. “What’s your name?”
The boy whimpered, pressing harder against his mother. She glided fingers through his hair.
“I’m not scary,” Jason said. “Promise. Hey, is that your Minecraft backpack?”
Green eyes peeked towards Jason, quickly disappearing once more.
“You know,” Jason said. “My brother likes Minecraft, but only to make the most insane sh- stuff. Insane stuff, you could ever imagine. He once made our entire house, just so he could blow it all up.”
The boy mumbled something.
“What was that?”
While the boy stiffened, his mother coaxed him to engage with Jason all the same. Jason gave the mother a warm smile, silently assuring her that she was doing really well to keep her son safe and calm despite everything.
“Did it have a shark tank?” The boy asked quietly.
“Absolutely!” Jason grinned.
It absolutely did not, at least not from what Jason remembered of what Tim showed him.
“Did he blow up the shark?”
Jason glanced at the mother, trying to work out if he would be stoked to find out that the shark and the shark tank got obliterated alongside the rest of the manor or if he would be absolutely devastated.
The mother mouthed something but Jason couldn’t quite catch it, distracted by a sharp cry of pain from further down in the bus.
“Sure sure,” Jason said, trying to work out who had made that horrid sound. “Blew up the shark completely.”
“Awesome!” The boy’s smile was bright, even if he was still holding his Mom tightly.
“So,” Jason said. “What’s your name then? Shark Boy? Sharky? Shark Man?”
The boy giggled.
“No!” He said. “I can’t be Shark Man, I’m just a kid!”
“No?” Jason screwed up his face. “But I could have sworn that you look just like a Shark!”
“No silly!” The boy giggled again. “I look like me!”
“You sure do Kiddo, you sure do. Hey, how about you hang here with Mom and I’ll be back soon? Then you can tell me all about how you’re not Shark Man even though you very clearly look like a Shark?”
The boy smiled brightly and the mother too seemed a little less scared so Jason felt confident to move on once more.
Picking his way through the rubble, Jason couldn’t help but wonder why no one had come to get these people out of here yet, surely it wasn’t that hard to find a bus on its fucking side.
Jason had once again reached Abby, her leg still trapped, who gave him a weak smile.
“How are you holding up?” Jason asked her.
“I’m okay.” Abby whispered.
Jason’s jaw tightened.
He crouched, rechecking the pulse in her ankle. It was still there, thank fuck, but there was now sweat beading on her brow. She was struggling more than she was earlier, but even with the small amount of weapons Jason had on him, there was no way he was going to be able to free her.
“You’re doing great.” Jason said.
“Are you doing okay?” Abby asked.
His ribs fucking hurt and there was new blood on his hands again even though he didn’t know how it had gotten there but he wasn’t going to admit any of that to some random lady, even if she seemed nice.
“I’m fantastic,” Jason said. “If you’re alright, I’m just going to-”
Jason grunted, his lungs suddenly seizing. He balled a fist, slamming it against his side and jolted forward with a cough but at least he could breathe again.
Abby looked horrified, her eyes wide and wet.
“I’m okay.” Jason said quickly. “I, uh, that’s a thing that happens. I’m fine.”
It’s absolutely not a fucking thing that happens, at least not unless he had a blow to the ribs which then again is definitely a thing that happens. He was Jason right now though, not Hood, and it wouldn’t exactly reassure this poor woman to know that the person trying to look after her was an ex crime lord who still had dealings with the underworld.
“But you-“
“I’m fine, promise, see?”
Jason took in an exaggerated breath and while it hurt like a mother fucker, he didn’t let any of it show.
She shouldn’t have to worry about him, not when she could very well lose her leg if she didn’t get out of here and into a hospital soon. And besides, he was Jason fucking Todd, he could deal with a few broken ribs and possibly some other stuff that he didn’t really feel like assessing right now.
Abby seemed unsure, readjusting a little. She hissed, pulling weirdly at her trapped leg.
“We’re gonna get you out of here.” Jason promised her.
“I’m okay.” Abby said.
“You’re really brave, you know that right? Just hold on a little longer and we’ll get you good as new, alright?”
Good as new possibly sans a leg.
Fuck, Jason really hoped that emergency services would just get here already.
“Go,” Abby said.
Jason nodded gratefully and went on to the next occupants of the bus. A few teenagers, scared but mostly unharmed. Jason instructed them to try for the emergency exit at the top of the bus, that was now more like on the side of the bus.
They looked unsure, but when Jason repeated the same instructions again, they nodded and got to work.
“Once it’s open,” Jason said to them. “Get anyone that can move out.”
After getting an affirmative, Jason moved passed a few more people who had managed to calm themselves enough to also start helping out with the injured. He checked in with each of them, making certain that they were okay, before getting ever closer to the back of the bus.
The back of the bus was a mess of half ripped away seating.
Amongst the fabric and metal, Jason saw a shoe poking out. It was small, possibly a teenager or older child. A nice enough brand, though it wasn’t a showy type. The kid was rich, but wasn’t the type of rich to flaunt it needlessly.
That means they were super fucking rich, most likely. What they were doing on a public bus, Jason had no idea. Then again, he also had no idea what he was doing on a public bus.
“Hey Kiddo,” Jason called out.
There was not so much as a twitch in the leg, though there was some blood that he could see dripping down the limb.
Coming closer and kneeling before the mess, Jason’s sides protested from the movement but he ignored it.
“Kid,” He tried again. “Can you hear me?”
No response. Unconscious. Or, as much as Jason hoped otherwise, dead.
Similar to how he had checked on Abby, Jason pressed his fingers against the kid’s ankle. A pulse, though it was quick. Jason frowned, trying to see just how much blood the kid had lost but there was simply too much rubble to really know, and it’s very possible that the kid was losing the blood into their own body.
“Kiddo,” Jason said.
If they went into hypervolumic shock, there wasn’t anything that Jason was going to be able to do about it. The way he saw it, he had two options; Leave the Kid where they were, not risking more bleeding that could be caused by shifting the metal and seating, and risk them waking up in a panic and hurting themselves anyway. Or, Jason could try to remove what rubble he could, see if he can get the Kid free so that he could properly check over their injuries.
There was a groan. Something shifted amongst all the rubble and the groan twisted into a gasp.
“Kid?” Jason called.
The Kid stilled completely once more, either losing consciousness or simply spooked by Jason’s voice.
“Kid, can you hear me?”
There was no response for a long moment, to the point where Jason’s body decided to start yelling at him again. He beat a hand hard against his side, trying to keep as quiet as he could even as pain ripped through his chest, then blinked back the blurs.
“Kid,” Jason rasped. He coughed hard, clearing his throat. “I need to know if you can hear me, there’s been an accident but you’re gonna be just fine.”
He coughed again, then again again because of course he did, and when he finally managed to settle his lungs, he lowered his hand and-
Jason’s hand was red.
Clenching his fist, Jason ignored it completely and focused solely on getting this Kid free.
“Kid,” Jason called out. “I’m going to try to shift some of this shit, just tell me if it hurts too bad and I’ll stop, alright?”
“It would be unwise to move anything. I have been… Compromised.”
The voice was that of a boy, probably no older than twelve or thirteen.
That in and of itself wasn’t that surprising given the shoes he was wearing. What did steal Jason’s breath all over again was the fact that he knew that voice.
“Damian! Hold on, I’m going to get you out!”
“I said no,” Damian’s voice was strained. “There-There’s shrapnel in my…”
The foot kicked out all at once and Damian gave off a barely strangled cry.
Damian breathed hard, no doubt struggling to stay conscious, and Jason may have very well breathed harder. It was one thing for Jason to be covered in blood, it was something else entirely if Damian was trapped. He was just a kid. A pain in the ass of a kid, but he was a kid all the same and he was hurt.
Damian coughed, but it sounded wrong.
“Damian?” Jason called out.
“Hh… Help others.”
“Damian.”
“I can manage… Just… Help others…”
He coughed again, and Jason remembered suddenly why they were on the bus in the first place.
Damian had developed a cough from school and not wanting any of them knowing, or attract their concern, he had attempted to get some cough medicine from himself without using any one of the hundreds they had within the Manor.
The damn brat was never going to get away with it, but Jason still had to give him credit for having the guts to try. Jason had also given him shit when he waited outside the pharmacy for Damian once he came out.
While the look on Damian’s face had been priceless, the perfect scowl interrupted but a hard cough, it hardly seemed funny now that Damian was trapped in twisted metal with an already weak body.
Jason’s hand was red, but so was a small bit of the ground where Damian’s foot was.
Definitely penetrating trauma then, unless there was some kind of leg injury that Jason couldn’t see from here. They needed to get Damian out, now.
“The driver’s waking up!” Someone called.
Jasmeet, Jason realised.
He pursed his lips, not wanting to leave Damian for even a moment. But then when he twisted towards the front of the bus, he saw that the driver wasn’t only awake, he was trying to stand up. The man staggered, his weight nearly crashing into Jasmeet. Considering her possible head injury, she couldn’t risk any additional blows.
“Hey Kid,” Jason said. “You gotta stay awake, you got it?”
There was a pause.
“Really, Todd,” Damian said. “I know what the protocol is. Go.”
Jason still waited a little longer and when Damian gave a rattling cough, his entire body tensed.
“Go.” Damian said again, even weaker than before. “I can handle myself.”
“You know, Dickie’s gonna kill me if you die so let’s not try to be a me 2.0, okay?”
Standing felt wrong.
Jason’s vision had pulsed, his breath catching, but he forced the feeling over both away. The priority was tending to everyone on the bus, Damian especially, if his body wanted to keel over then it could do it later when he didn’t have shit to do.
A step, then another, then Jason was bracing against one of the intact chairs.
He straightened immediately, continuing on.
Jason’s hand was red.
He was on his side and his hand was red.
There were shouts, voices he only dimly recognised.
There was someone touching him. Jason lashed out, hitting flesh hard but there was no shocked cry of even curse. There was nothing at all except a hand on his once more, squeezing tightly.
The bloody hand.
Jason’s hand was red and someone was touching it. He tried to pull away but the hand only shifted so that it was on his wrist instead. Whoever was touching him then moved their other hand towards the blood.
A finger tapped against the palm of his hand.
Jason tried pulling away again but either his body wasn’t listening to him or the stranger was stronger than Jason had expected.
The finger was tapping again.
He stared, vaguely recognising the pattern. The pattern paused for a moment. No. It stopped completely, then started again.
Morse code…
Safe.
It told him he was safe.
“Dick.” Jason croaked.
“It’s me,” Dick said, relief clear in his voice.
While to Jason Dick had only been there for a moment or two, there was a tension Jason suddenly felt through Dick’s hand on his wrist that implied he had been trying to focus Jason for a lot longer.
“You’re good,” Dick said. “We’ve got you now.”
Jason blinked hard.
“Got you…” He echoed. “From what?”
Dick wasn’t Nightwing.
Jason was on his side, his hand covered in red, but they weren’t on a rooftop or at the Manor or… Or anywhere Jason recognised.
There was blue all around him. Not walls, at least not permanent walls. Tarps? There were tarps.
Jason wasn’t on a cot, but on the ground though the ground felt strange. Another tarp.
“Tarp Land.” Jason said.
“Yeah,” Dick chuckled. “There are a lot of tarps, aren’t there?”
“But…”
Jason’s blink was slow, his head fuzzy.
“What’s…”
“There was an accident.” Dick said.
“Accident.” Jason echoed.
Then, sick of just echoing Dick or giving off a vague word or two, he forced himself to focus.
Jason’s hand was red, but Dick was still holding it without any hesi-
“Gloves.” Jason said.
“Yeah, Bud,” Dick said. “I’m wearing gloves.”
“And treating me like a fucking kid.”
Dick’s grin was wicked.
“Yeah, Bud,” Dick said. “Because you can be an absolute kid sometimes.”
“What the hell happened?”
“An accident.”
“If you don’t give me a straight answer right the fuck now, I swear that I will-”
Jason’s voice trailed off, unable to think of a good enough threat. His head really was swimming, his stomach feeling somehow hollow. Oh. Blood loss. Whatever had happened, he’d lost a lot of blood.
Blood.
There had been blood on the ground.
Damian had been trapped and there had been blood on the ground.
He scrambled to sit up but Dick didn’t let him. Jason shoved Dick away, staggering up anyway, managing to rip out the line that he hadn’t even know had been in the crook of it. Not caring about the pain, Jason gave Dick another hard push just to give himself more time.
Shoving through emergency responders, only then realising that Dick was here as a Police Officer, he finally got out of the city of tarps.
There was a mess of metal in front of him, the remains of what had once been a bus. What hadn’t been damaged in the accident had been peeled away during rescue efforts but there were still fire fighters working to get a victim out.
Given that Dick had been by Jason’s side, not Damian’s, Damian must be the one that is still trapped.
“Jason!”
There had been blood on the ground and Jason had left him. He had walked away. It had been to help someone, sure, but that didn’t change the fact that there had been blood on the ground and Damian had been in pain and Jason had walked away.
“Jason, wait,” Dick called again.
Jason stopped, not because Dick had gripped onto his hand and pulled him backwards, but because he had all of a sudden got the distinct feeling that if he was not going to sit down right now, his body was going to do it for him.
Dick’s hand shifted the instant Jason’s knees buckled, guiding him down to the ground instead of just letting him fall.
Jason shrugged him off, then listed to the side.
“You’re hurt,” Dick said. “You need rest.”
“I need to help him.”
“Him?”
“Damian.” Jason snapped. “The fucking kid was bleeding and I walked away.”
“Damia- Wait, that’s Damian at the back of the bus?”
“Yes! So help me the fuck up so I can make sure the damn brat doesn’t die.”
“Jason,” Dick said.
“Fine then,” Jason snarled, going to stand by himself. “I’ll do it my…”
The whole world shifted beneath him and Jason staggered, his ribs screaming at him.
“Jason,” Dick said again. “Look.”
Just as Jason expected Dick to start cursing him out for his stupidity and stubbornness, as if Jason hadn’t learned from the best, Jason realised that Dick was instead looking up and towards the bus.
The rescuers had shifted a little, making space for a spinal board. A spinal board, and a patient.
“Damian!”
Dick barely managed to keep Jason on his feet when he launched forward but instead of forcing him back down onto the ground, Dick wrapped one of Jason’s arms around his shoulder, helping him towards the crowd of rescuers.
The damn kid looked a mess, bandages wrapped around a shard of metal in his abdomen, keeping him in place. Damian was unconscious and on oxygen, but he was breathing. He was breathing.
Fuck, he was breathing.
He was alive.
Jason had walked away but Damian was still alive.
Shoving through firefighters, Jason came to Damian’s side. Jason gripped onto Damian’s hand while Dick was right there all of a sudden, offering shaken explanations that the three of them were brothers.
Dark eyes cracked open, not quite unconscious after all, but they were glazed and unfocused.
The eyes flicked towards Jason, the hand in Jason’s trying to move away from the contact. Jason let go, but held onto it once more when it immediately went for the oxygen mask.
“Nah uh, Kid,” Jason said. “You need that.”
Damian’s glare was weak, but it was a glare all the same. His cough however was anything but weak, his whole body shuddering from the effort.
It made Dick tense up, his eyes blowing wide, no doubt assuming significant lung injury.
“He was already sick,” Jason said quickly. Then, realising that only managed to concern Dick more. “Just a cough. Something from school, the damn brat wanted to go out to get cough syrup.”
“B…” Damian tried, coughing harder.
“Bruce will meet us in the hospital,” Dick assured him.
Damian’s blink was slow, confused. Then he rolled his eyes, though it was clear he didn’t really have the energy to do so right now.
“Blood.” Damian said. “Don’t be…”
He coughed hard, trying to curl up but gasping as he pulled at his wound.
“Don’t be Jason 2.0.” He finally managed. “One is painful enough.”
Jason’s laugh was loud and maybe just a little hysterical.
“Yeah Jay,” Dick chuckled. “We should really get you sitting down. Dami, do you want me to travel with-”
“Go with Todd.” Damian said. “I can manage.”
“Managing is different to preferences, Kid.” Jason said. “I’m fine. Just a little dizzy and, you know, the blood and shit.”
Dick gave him a look.
Jason didn’t exactly know how to interpret the look, but it was definitely a look.
“The blood and shit,” Dick echoed. “You mean multiple broken ribs, a badly relocated shoulder and a shard of glass that was close to severing an artery. Artery, Jason, not vein.”
“Blood and shit.” Jason shrugged.
Pain exploded in his body, pain he hadn’t even registered fully until now hitting him all at once. He really should not have shrugged.
“Okay,” Dick said. “The others are already on the way to the hospital, but I’ll see if we can get you both in the same ambulance.”
The paramedics exchanged looks, one of them already shaking their heads.
Jason ignored all of them, making a beeline for the closest ambulance, the one that had been kept near by for as soon as Damian was freed no doubt. He climbed into it, ignoring how his head spun to do so.
Even sitting down hurt, his body shifting wrong, but Jason didn’t care.
What mattered was that Damian was hurt and he was never going to let the damn kid out of his sight for the next millennia, just to make sure he didn’t try to get himself killed again. Seriously, the brat couldn’t even take a bus without a near death experience, he’d been spending far too much time with Tim.
Soon enough Damian was indeed being brought into the ambulance, though the poor kid’s eyes were screwed shut as if he were in pain. For Damian to be so clearly showing it, it must be bad, but Jason just assured him that he was okay, and that they were going to see Dad soon enough.
Assuring Damian that he had done well, and that Jason was going to be with him every step of the way.
Assuring Damian that no matter what, they were going to get through this together, even if Damian was going to have his public bus privileges revoked forever.