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Jason didn’t have enough words to describe his irritation with his brother at the moment. Dick had called him asking for backup on a case and he’d gone along because he thought the two of them were on good terms in the moment. They had both been fighting with Bruce enough that shouting matches erupted through the cave and they’d stormed away to stay in their own respective safe houses instead of at the manor and anywhere the bat would be watching over them. It was par for the course, the pattern of nearly every Robin. Be raised under the Batman and learn skills from him, seek him out for comfort and find out the hard way that Bruce doesn’t believe in it. he did for others out in the field. The victims would get compassion from the masked vigilante of Gotham but his own kids? No, that was asking too much.
He knew he just needed time to cool off. He was being unfair, if he thought about it. He’d been mulling the fight over in his head and he knew that he’d been potentially overreacting for some of what happened but at the same time, he wanted to make sure Bruce knew exactly how serious he was with what he was saying. he needed his point to come across. He needed him to know that they weren’t little scared Robins anymore clinging to the edge of his cape to keep themselves safe. They weren’t running to him with all of their problems. They had all grown to be heroes in their own rights and they didn’t need Batman looking over their shoulders.
Jason knew what it meant for Dick to ask him for help.
That same argument between Batman and his Golden Boy that shook everything in the cave. Dick was loud when he wanted to be. The echoes of his voice had gone up the stairs the entire way to the clock entrance to the cave. It was bad enough that Jason had spotted the two youngest birds eyeing one another trying to figure out what eggshells they needed to avoid for the coming weeks.
Bruce had told him and Dick both that if they were so ready to be on their own they could do that. The threat that he wouldn’t come hung between them. The threat both of them knew was a lie. Bruce would always come for them, even if he didn’t make it in time. They’d never gone without him being there to protect them regardless of if they wanted him to be there or not. It was the way things worked. It was the pattern of the Batman and his Robins. They fought. They argued. they called each other horrible and a thousand other things they should never say to each other and they walked out. They turned their back and they told the other not to bother anymore and then something would happen and they would still show up. It would come with lectures and probably more fighting but all of them knew better than to leave someone without help in this line of work.
They would be mad at each other, that didn’t mean they wanted one of them to die.
Even though Jason was contemplating tracking his brother back down and tearing him a new one for leaving him behind.
Dick had been working the case of a child trafficking ring for the last three weeks. He’d talked about it before to the entire family but they’d agreed to let it be his case unless he needed something. the phone call that came earlier in the night had been whispered while Dick was perched on the ledge of a roof tracking his targets. He’d told him that there were too many people involved and too many hostages for him to safely get them all out unhamred. He needed another person to help him distract and save the kids until police could come collect them and keep them safe as they were taken back to their homes. He’d agreed. Child trafficking was sensitive for nearly all of the bats. They’d seen too much too young and it killed all of them knowing that these kids were forced to see horrors that young too. the people who did it were monsters. They were the ones that made Jason regret moving to rubber bullets the most.
They were the ones he wished he could just wipe from the face of the earth.
He’d gone to his brother. They’d met on that same roof and Dick outlined everything about the case he needed to know. If they’d called in Bruce it would have been fight after fight and they wouldn’t have gotten what they really needed for the mission. They would have saved the kids, sure, but the case would have been taken out of their hands and it would be worse for everyone. it was better this way. He and Dick worked well with each other. They had the most experience with what they were doing on cases like these. They were used to looking out for the kids and pulling them out. Dick even showed him candy he had tucked into his suit as a way to keep some of the kids calm if they were healthy enough to take it.
Entering the warehouse had been easy enough. Easy for two Robins who had grown under this life and easy for two boys who had been troublemakers enough as kids to be responsible for more than a few of Bruce’s gray hairs.
They’d decided on the roof that Jason was going to be the one targeting the traffickers themselves. Nightwing was a more familiar face and often times a kinder one. He was better for keeping the kids calm and quiet while they made their way out. he had better skills with handling them than Jason did. Nightwing didn’t run the risk of carrying a kid and them grabbing his gun either. He would be safer for them.
Jason volunteered for the role. He knew that Dick had been missing Damian since he’d left the manor. He knew that the both of them had been upset having to stop being Batman and Robin in their own rights. It upset them not getting to be close with one another anymore, especially with the fighting happening with Bruce. Dick needed something to fill that hole. If saving these kids and being the one to lead them out could do that, Jason was more than happy shooting the bastards who kidnapped them.
The mission started out normally for the two of them. They made their moves in tandem with all the practice of years of working beside one another. Dick vanished away to get to the kids and get them out. He’d take them to the back alley where they could be safe and wait for the police to come get them. They would stay, of course, in part to watch over the criminals and ensure no one escaped but also to protect the victims in case someone else got any bright ideas.
Jason didn’t mind the fight. What he cared about was working his way through the bastards and hearing his comm beep in his ear.
“One on your side escaped. I’m going after him. Finish your fight and meet me on the start roof when you’re finished.”
It was Dick’s mission. It was his case he’d been working on this whole time. Jason was just here to be backup and a distraction. They were meant to be helping each other and now Dick was dumping the entirety of the case on him. Finish fighting all the criminals. Finish saving all the kids. Wait for the police. Make sure no one left the scene until police could take it over. It wasn’t that Jason couldn’t handle it, it was the fact that he shouldn’t have to.
The longer he fought the more his anger grew. The more his frustration boiled over until he was hitting thugs harder than what was probably necessary. He didn’t care. Their teeth were going to be least of their issues in prison.
By the time he made it up to the roof he was ready with a lecture on his lips. Jason was acutely aware of the fact that he would then be doing exactly what Bruce would be doing and what the both of them were trying to avoid. He knew that, but at the same time he wanted to know what the hell was going on with Dick. It wasn’t like him to bail on one of his missions. It wasn’t like he was catching the one perp and then coming back in to finish the job. He’d chased a guy and decided to wait everything else out from out there. He’d left him with all the rest of the work.
Jason expected to see one of the thugs he’d scoped laying unconscious and ziptied. He hadn’t expected for the roof to be empty and the stink of blood to rush him like a slap to the face. In seconds Jason’s gun was in his hand.
“Wing?”
“Over here.”
Jason followed his voice to round the corner. Part of him expected to see the thug dead. Dick was enough of a bleeding heart that he would have seen a criminal escaping with a major wound and tried to help them. He expected to find a criminal there and his brother mourning that he couldn’t do anything to stop it.
He didn’t expect to find Dick sitting half slumped against a run down AC unit with blood puddling all around him.
Jason froze the moment he saw him. His eyes went wide beneath his mask and all Dick could do was give him a lopsided smile.
“Hey Little Wing.”
“What happened?”
“Got shot.”
He’d been with the kids. None of them had said anything about Nightwing being shot. None of them were hurt. He didn’t even see blood spray or splatter on any of them. If Dick had been shot in that area then surely someone would have said something. it wasn’t like kids were notorious for keeping secrets especially in high stress situations. They didn’t say a word about this which meant that either it didn’t happen inside or they didn’t see it happen.
Jason knelt at Dick’s side. He was careful when moving Dick’s hand from the wound and put his own pressure the moment he saw blood spurting up from it. With a glance up at his brother’s face, he reached around to his back to feel for an exit wound.
There wasn’t one.
“It’s still in me.”
“I’m trying to figure out if that’s good or bad for us right now.”
Dick tried to laugh only to be cut off by the pain.
“Alright, hang on, we’re gonna figure this out.”
“Tell Dami—”
“You’re not giving me a goodbye speech.”
“I lost too much blood.”
Jason could see it too. Dick was showing all the signs of shock while he was sitting here. The bullet hole in his side wasn’t showing any signs of stopping anytime soon and it was all time Dick didn’t have.
“We’re going to get you patched up.”
“Bruce blames himself.” Dick ignored him. “With the fight I—”
“Stop wasting your breath.”
“I need someone to tell them.”
“Tell them yourself. I’m not your messenger.”
“But you’re here.”
“So because I’m convenient I have to be your death herald? No thanks.”
Dick huffed and Jason say the flecks of red that splattered lightly over his lips.
“I’m being serious.” There was so much pain in his voice. “I love you guys and—”
“I said no, Dick.”
“Please?”
“Don’t be stupid.”
Dick laughed with blood staining his teeth. it wasn’t until then that Jason wondered if the reason Bruce preferred masks over the eyes was for reasons like this. If they needed to spit out blood or have something force fed to them, they wouldn’t give up their identities to do it. They could still be safe even if they were dying.
“You’re fine. This is nothing. We’ll patch you up and you’ll be back to annoying everyone and arguing with Bruce in no time.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
“You’re talking like one.”
He was talking like he was going to die. He was talking like he might already be dead. He was talking like there wasn’t enough time to get him to help when everyone in their damned family died and came back to life like it was just another Wednesday. They all knew what death felt like by now. They knew how much their bodies could take and then they knew what limits could be pushed at beyond that. It was just the way things worked. They were all stubborn and pedantic and observant of everything. Bruce had raised them all to be strategists. He’d taught them how to fight and how to care for themselves. How to get a realistic assessment of their health out on the field so they would know when to call in help.
Jason was Dick’s help.
He wasn’t helping.
“Do me a favor,” Dick choked. “Don’t let B say any bullshit at my funeral, yeah?”
“You’re not getting a funeral.”
Dick laughed.
“You gonna leave me here?”
His voice came out more strained by the moment. Jason saw the candy Dick had brought with him for the kids. He didn't deserve to be in this situation. He didn't deserve to believe he was dying. Not here. Not like this.
“You’re not getting one because you’re not dying. Now shut up and let me work.”
They all carried bandages on them by this point. It would be stupid not to with how much violence had been increasing over the years. They were improving on their skills but their enemies were too and the longer they were out on the streets the more people learned their moves and how to predict them and combat them. He had bandages but it wasn’t enough to wrap the wound on its own and stop his brother from bleeding out up here. Dick already looked like he was barely keeping himself awake. There wasn’t time for them to fight with bandage rolls and timings to a doctor who would treat him without exposing his identify. If they could get back to the safehouse Jason could do it himself. He wasn’t sure Dick would actually want him to do something like that but if it was what kept him alive then the idiot wasn’t going to get a say in the matter.
Jason knew death. He didn’t want anyone in his family to have to go through that too.
“I have to pack the wound. it’s going to hurt.”
The bullet was still inside. There wasn’t an exit wound so packing it like this held the risk of him pushing it in deeper and hurting him worse. If it had broken into shards and right now failed to strike into something that would kill him in moments, Jason ran the risk of ruining all of that. It was either he pack the wound and risk the damage being worse and killing Dick in seconds, or he wrap the wound and count miracles and blessings and luck that Dick didn’t bleed to death before he could fish the bullet out and stitch him closed.
They were detectives. They didn’t believe in miracles.
Jason looked up to Dick’s face and found him watching close through the lenses of his domino. He waited only long enough for Dick to nod before he was steeling himself and pushing the material into the wound. For his credit, Dick didn’t scream. Years of training and experiences with wounds and pain and fear and torture beyond most people’s comprehension prepared all of them for dealing with things like this. Even then they weren’t jaded like most people thought. They still felt the pain. They still nursed their aches and bruises, they still complained like humans, the feeling didn’t go away and they were never really quite used to it. They were only used to dealing with it. When the world gave them no other choice to be brave it didn’t matter that they were scared. They could be stronger than their fears. They could be stronger than their body.
“I know.” Jason worked quickly. Dick’s blood soaked over his gloves and he bit a swear off when he listened to his breathing shunt sharply as he pushed in. “You okay?”
“No.”
Dick’s voice was tight but Jason couldn’t help the smile that gave him.
“Yeah, I know. But you’re going to be.”
There was enough bandaging material to wrap it around his waist a few times and keep the packing in place while they got him moved. it wasn’t the best patch job but it would hold until he could do something better with cleaner materials. Beggars couldn’t be choosers and while Jason wasn’t quite ready to beg, he also couldn’t afford to choose.
Dick was breathing heavy by the time they were done. He’d turned white enough he could have put a sheet ghost to shame and Jason reached to feel his pulse the moment he realized his eyes were closed beneath the mask.
“Dick? Hey.”
One sharp breath and Dick was moving. Tensions high and body ready for a fight that wasn’t here. Jason caught his fist easily.
“It’s okay. You’re okay. It’s just me.”
“Jay?…”
“You passed out on me there. Time to go home. Let’s go.”
Confusion was normal with shock. With the amount of blood Dick had lost it was honestly a miracle he hadn’t blacked out on him before this point.
“I need you to keep talking to me while we go, okay?”
“Talking’s…a lot of work…right now, Jay.”
“I know.” He pulled Dick’s arm over his shoulders and began moving them up. “I’ve got some questions for you though.”
Dick’s response cut into a moan as they pulled to their feet. It took him a few moments to find his beneath him. Most of his weight was being held by Jason but he didn’t care.
“Did you actually chase a thug out here? Or did he not exist?”
He had a feeling he knew already. The lack of another person out here gave him that much. Dick was good at what he did. He wasn’t the golden boy without reason and he wasn’t the standard of all Robins without cause. All of them knew how to work through injuries. This wasn’t the first time they’d been shot and it wasn’t going to be the last. it came with the job. Bruce had taught them how to work their way through it. How to ignore the pain and focus on the mission at hand so they would be able to save whoever it was that needed to be saved.
Dick wasn’t answering him.
“Hey Dickhead.”
His head was hanging. He hummed at him.
“Tell me what happened. How did you get shot?”
“Trafficker jumped me.”
“He jumped you.”
“Silencer on….on his gun…Kids didn’t see it…I knocked him out and tried….I tried to get them out but I….The blood I….”
“You were losing too much.”
It was easy to put together. All of them had their soft spot for kids and Dick knew the reason he was going into their cages to get them out and to safety was for the goal to keep them calm. If they saw their hero showing up to them soaked with blood they were going to panic. If he touched them and his blood got on them from his suit they were going to be terrified.
They needed to know to run to the heroes in the future. He understood why Dick made the call he did.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?”
“The mission—”
“You’re not Batman anymore. The mission doesn’t matter.”
Dick didn’t even need to try to answer. Jason already knew what was going to come out of his mouth. He knew the lecture he’d get that the mission mattered more. it was a fault in all of them. They didn’t care about themselves, they just cared about who they could protect. If there were innocent people who needed to get out, every single one of them would put themselves in harms way to make sure the innocents escaped. There were kids in there who still needed saved. There were traffickers who still needed to be caught and restrained and held for the police so they could be charged in the way they deserved.
If Dick had told him he was hurt Jason would have called the police in to get the kids and gotten him out. He would have told Dick that the people can still be saved and he wouldn’t have to risk losing his life.
But his brother was an idiot.
“Keep talking.”
Silence was his only greeting. Jason didn’t allow himself to stop. He gripped Dick’s wrist harder and felt for his pulse there. His heart was still beating. He was still trying to walk even if it wasn’t really working.
“Don’t make me talk, you’ll hear things you don’t want to.”
He didn’t know how to keep the fear out of his voice when watching someone he cared about die.
“I’m not going to let you die. Let me get that straight right now. You’re not dying.”
Dick was heavy against him. They weren’t too far from the nearest safehouse. He just had to hope it was stocked with everything they needed or else he was going to have to call in Alfred for help and he’d like to avoid that for everyone’s sake if he could.
“Your bird is going to be so pissed if you die. Don’t do that to him. He can’t handle it.”
Jason couldn’t be the one to go to their youngest brother and tell him his Batman was dead.
“You’re going to be fine.”
He had to be.
“You hear me? You’re fine.”
Dick groaned beside him and Jason felt the half hysterical laugh tear its way out of his chest.
“That’s right. You’re fine. Now you’re with me. We’re almost there.”
“Jay?…”
Dick’s voice was too weak.
“I’ve got you. Just a little more.”
“Thank you..”
He swallowed the rush of emotions that threatened to strangle him.
“Yeah.”
The safehouse was just across the the alley.
“Anytime.”
It wouldn’t take them long.
“It’s what brother’s are for.”