Chapter Text
Robert was having a normal Tuesday evening when his phone rang. He hoped in was just an unknown number, that way he could ignore it and not have to deal with the trouble of talking to someone. Unfortunately, it was Barbara. He probably shouldn’t just ignore her.
He answered the phone. “Hello?”
“Hey Robert,” Barbara greeted, and her voice sounded like her vocal cords had been grated with a cheese grater.
“You sound like shit,” he said bluntly.
She chuckled. “Yeah, I know. I feel like it too. I think I’m sick.”
“No kidding.”
“Actually, that’s the reason I wanted to talk to you. I need to take some time off to get better. You know how I help all of the bats on their missions?”
That caught Robert off guard a bit. “Yeah, but you usually don’t outright say it like that.” Usually she was pretty paranoid. From the sound of it, so were the rest of the bats.
“I’m in a secure location and I already made sure this call isn’t being listened to or recorded.” That made more sense. She was paranoid as ever after all. Barbara continued, “I figured with your job you have some experience helping heroes out on missions. You can take some time off, right? Would you please cover for me? Just for a few days.”
He didn’t even have to think about his answer. “Absolutely not.”
“Oh come on! Help a friend out.”
“I said no. The Z-Team will eat almost any substitute dispatcher alive, possibly literally if anything happens to Waterboy, and I have no intentions of ever going to Gotham again. Once was more than enough. I’m not covering for you and that’s final.”
Barbara sighed. “I didn’t want to have to do this, but you’ve left me no choice. Does your team know about what happened the night of February 23rd two years ago?”
He blanched. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“I’m desperate here, Robert. I’m sick as hell and you’re the only person I trust to keep them all safe and in line. Under the circumstances I would absolutely dare.”
Robert knew Barbara well enough to know she wasn’t kidding. He sighed deeply. “Three days. I’ll cover for you for three days. After that, I don’t care if you’re still sick, I’m coming back to LA and doing my actual job again.”
“Deal. Thanks. I really appreciate it. I’ll pay for your plane tickets and convince Bruce to let you stay at the manor.”
“I’m not just staying at a hotel?”
“Have you seen the hotels in Gotham?”
He had, actually, and they were incredibly terrible and shady. But they still seemed better than staying with a rich guy he’d never met and at least two ex-assassins. (He still hadn’t really heard what Duke’s deal was and he wasn’t ruling anything out.) Admittedly, the assassin thing didn’t seem like a very big deal now that he’d met the Z-Team, but still. But there was no use arguing if Barbara had her mind made up.
“As long as you’re sure I won’t be intruding,” he ended up saying.
“I’ll book you a flight for tomorrow morning. You can start helping tomorrow night.”
“What are you going to do tonight?”
“Power through it.”
That didn’t sound healthy, but Robert would have to be the world’s biggest hypocrite to comment on it. “Good luck with that.”
“Thanks.”
Barbara quickly explained what he needed to do and how he needed to do it in more detail, then they ended the call. Robert sighed again after she hung up.
It was going to be a long three days.