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Bruce was at the computer, fussing about god knows what as he read old files that had been wrapped up a long time ago, year even. Dick and Tim were blind folded, circling each other on the mats as they spared with their bamboo bostaffs. Damian had set up camp near the lab, running through his katas with his blade. Warming up his muscles and meditating in the relatively quiet part of the cave before they left for patrol. Stephanie had perched herself on the couch on the far wall near the stairs, furiously typing away as she tried to finish up her assignment that was due at midnight.
They were in their own little worlds, existing together.
Then, they heard the rumble of a motorcycle engine, coming in fast.
The bike skidded to a stop, sending the few pebbles that littered the floor of the ‘car park’ flying, peppering the other vehicles and motorcycles.
“Does he have to always be so dramatic,” Tim questioned as he dodged a hit from Dick that had been aimed at his left shin, trying to send him sprawling to the ground.
Before Dick could reply, Jason’s scream cut through the cave like a call to arms. “SOMEBODY HELP.”
Everyone ran.
Dick and Tim arrived at the edge of the platform first, Dick leaping over the edge as Tim took the path instead of leaping into the unknown.
Red Hood was still sitting on the bike, the kickstand having been lowered, his arm’s behind his back, holding Arsenal upright the best he could.
“What happened,” Dick asked as he closed the distance. He snaked an arm between the two men, leaning Roy back so Jason could dismount.
The squelch of blood as his pants scraped across the leather of the seat revealed just how much the archer had lost.
“It was supposed to be a simple fucking bust but the assholes somehow got in over their heads and hired Darhk,” Jason rushed out as he spun to help Dick take the mutual teamamte of the bike.
“Lucky shot,” Roy huffed out as they hauled him up, wrapping his arms around the shoulders of the birds. Roy was pale, his lips ghosting towards blue as his eyes fluttered, trying to close against his will. The path ahead was clear, the others having dispersed, run ahead to begin prepping the medbay and defrosting the blood transfusion.
“You’re a fucking idiot,” Jasonn chastized, the insult sounding harsh as his came through the helmets voice mod.
“Yeah, but you love me” Arsenal coughed out as they carried him along. He was trying his best to walk with them, but his feet wouldn’t keep up. Whenever he would move one of his legs forward to try and take some of his weight he would just stumble. Their pace was too fast for his mind to keep pace and by the time he seemed to end the stumble his feet were dragging behind him again.
“If you weren’t dying on your own I would kill you myself,” Jason retorted as they rotated sideways to fit through the entrance to the medbay.
Roy stopped trying to help, he was visibly just dead weight as his head hung forward, his legs dragging behind them as they brought him to a cot and laid him down.
The move like a swarm, silent as they all fill their roles they know need to be completed. Tim is warming up the blood transfusion as he begins running calculations for drug and IV fluid doses. Steph and Bruce are cutting away the Arsenal suit as Damian preps his arm for an IV. Dick begins attaching the monitoring equipment for vitals.
And Jason…Jason is standing near Roy's head. One hand keeping firm pressure on the wound in his abdomen that won't stop bleeding. Staring at Roy's half lidded eyes like he just broke something invaluable.
No one talked.
They didn’t need to.
0o0o0
Roy was still asleep. He has more color to his skin, his freckles beginning to dance back into existence, but he was still pale. The sedatives were still working their magic, slowly weeding their way out of his system as he had only been out of surgery for about 20 minutes.
Jason was sitting in the chair beside his cot. Silently watching the rise and fall of his chest.
Dick was leaning against the door frame, watching the two of them. Everyone else had gone out for patrol. Dick only hung back because he knew Roy the best, he could also tell Jason was beating himself up over it.
He had been waiting for Jason to realize there was someone else in the room with them. Either he hadn’t noticed, or he hadn’t cared.
“You should hit the showers,” Dick suggested from his spot in the doorway.
Jason just shook his head, his leg bouncing with anxiety that was trying to find a release.
Quiet.
Too quiet for Jason.
“Jay…” Dick began as he uncrossed his arms and stood up straight. “I can watch him for a bit, you should go wash off.” Even though he didn’t need to, he tacked on “you’re covered in blood.”
Jason’s eyes wandered down to his uniform, as if he had to check to see if Dick was lying to him.
“It was supposed to be a quick in and out…” Jason whispered. His helmet had been abandoned at his feet, without the modulator he sounded ashamed. His hands shaking as he clenched his jaw, as if the words had forced their way out of him without his approval.
He sounded like a kid.
“No one means to get hurt,” Dick began, not knowing what else to say.
“No shit, Dickhead,” Jason bit out over his shoulder.
The room fell silent. Dick didn’t know how to comfort Jason, they were family…but they weren’t close.
Jason turned back to Roy’s sleeping form before repeating “fuck, fuck, fuck fuck, fuck.” Each word gaining in volume as he leaned forward, holding his head in his hands and gasping his hair.
Dick stood still, knowing Jason wasn’t too keen on physical comfort.
Jason gave his hair a tug before he dropped his hands. His arms resting on his knees as he stared at the floor and whispered, “he took the hit for me. Darhk was aiming at my side, I didn’t see him. Roy…Roy shoved me outta the way.”
0o0o0
Jason’s hair was close to dry. The two Robins sat, watching over the archer as he slept the fitless sleep of the medically drugged. Jason had stolen some of Bruce’s sweats and an old T-shirt of Dick’s that had been stretched out from years of wear.
Jason glanced at the clock mounted on the wall before muttering, “shit,” quietly to himself.
Dick paused the tv show they had been watching on one of the spare laptops as Jason stood. “What’s wrong,” Dick questioned as he watched his younger brother begin to put his cleaned leather jacket back on.
“I, um,” Jason stumbled, looking for the right words. “I have to leave,” he settled on.
Dick raised an eyebrow in confusion before repeating, “you have to leave.”
“Yeah, I got…” Jason paused, his eyes drifting over to Roy in the bed, sleeping peacefully. “I have a prior commitment,” he sheepishly explained as he looked everywhere but at Dick.
“Jay,” Dick spoke like he was approaching a momma bear with cubs. “You can’t just run away from your problems forever. Roy’s not gonna be mad he’s in a hospital bed and you're not, trust me. This isn’t the fir—”
“I’m not fuckin’ running,” Jason exploded at him. “I got a thing, so fuck off.”
0o0o0
“He actually bolted,” Tim questioned as he emerged from the locker room. Steam still fuming from his skin from the shower as he entered the medbay.
Dick just shrugged, “I guess,” as he stood rolling his shoulders and cracking his back as he gave his post of watchman over to the younger vigilante. “I’ll be back in like 20 mins.”
Tim hummed as Steph flopped onto the cot beside Roy, offering quiet companionship before they left for their classes at Gotham University in a few hours. It’s not like they were going to get to sleep anyways.
“RECOGNIZE – B12 RED HOOD AND GUEST TO BATCAVE,” the Zeta beam sounded before Dick could exit the medbay. Everyone’s attention was piqued, wondering where he had gone and why he had chosen to zeta back to the cave rather than take the bike he had left on.
“Uhhh, jay,” Dick questioned as he was the first to lay eyes on the newcomer.
“What,” the other two could hear as Jason neared.
Dick stepped backwards, back into the medbay so Jason could enter.
As Jason entered, the two in the room realized why Dick had stuttered in his quest to go get a snack. Jason was still dressed in civics, granted now in a different pair of pants, likely because he had driven his bike out of the cave and hadn’t cleaned the blood off of the seat before his departure.
However, now in one hand he held a pink My Little Pony backpack and in his other arm sat a little girl with long, straight black hair hugging his neck as she was still half asleep in her PJ’s.
“Can I sleep with Daddy,” Lian questioned. Her words were muffled from how she was pressed into Jason’s neck.
“Daddy has boo-boos right now,” Jason explained quietly as he entered the room further. “You can sleep on me or with Uncle Dick. How does that sound,” Jason asked quietly as he set her backpack down near the chair he was planning on living in until Roy was free to leave the medbay.
Lian didn’t answer verbally, just cuddled further into his neck.
“Sounds like you're trying to hog her again, sweetheart,” Roy slurred out as his eyes remained closed.
Lian instantly perked up, twisting in Jason’s grip and reaching her arms out to her father.
Jason approached his cot as Roy opened his eyes, forcibly blinking away the sleep as the three bats in the room watched quietly.
Lian held out her arms, trying to dive onto her father but being stopped by Jason’s hold, causing her to pout.
Roy reached up, smoothing her hair that hadn't been brushed yet out of her face. “Why don’t you go with Uncle Dick and sleep a little more, baby. You can skip school today while JayJay and I talk about what we are gonna do later.”
Lian pouted but agreed, leaning back into Jason’s hold. Dick walked towards them, meeting them in the middle to accept the sleepy little girl as the clock reached 6:14AM.
Dick nodded curtly at Jason before leaving the room, heading towards the stairs to bring the child into the morning light of the Manor above.
The two other birds in the medbay began to pack up their things as they were relieved from their post. Maybe they would be able to get some sleep after all.
Before they left the medbay, Roy’s voice carried over to their ears.
“Hey handsome,” Roy smirked with a voice that sounded like the action hurt.
“I hate you,” Jason immediately scolded.
“Aw, you still mad I got stabbed instead of you,” Roy teased as Steph grabbed Tim’s arm, pulling his out of eyesight so they could listen in on the two’s conversation.
“I had to go to fucking Star and deal with Ollie at the crack ass of dawn while your fat ass slept.”
There was silence for a moment. Steph risked it, peeking her head around the corner she saw Roy fisting Jason’s leather jacket.
Jason leaned forward, quietly kissing the red head. As they parted, Jason stayed close, hovering above his partner as they kept their foreheads together.
“I’m sorry I scared you, babe.”
Jason smirked, both of their eyes closed as Tim leaned around the corner as well. “I thought you didn’t like to get impaled?”
Roy huffed a laugh before instantly regretting it. The motion pulling at his stitches and making him wince. “Think you can squeeze in here with me, love,” Roy asked as Jason ran his hand through Roy’s tangled hair. The messy bun now resembles the clump of a rat's nest rather than hair.
“I think we can manage,” Jason replied before kissing him one last time.