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Steph was on a couch in the manor, stuffing her face full of chocolate with a rice pack on her stomach when an emergency alert on her phone went off. She groaned.
“ Please don’t need me ,” she whispered as she answered it.
“All hands on deck,” Bruce said through the speaker. “Robin, Nightwing and Red Hood need assistance. Intel they gathered was… incorrect, and they need help from everyone. Get to their location as fast as you can. Oracle will fill you in on the rest. Batman, out.”
Stephanie groaned again as a cramp punched through her. Thank god it’s not one of my worse days , she thought. With the diligence only a vigilante on their period could have, she stood up and went to the Batcave to get dressed, tapping a positive response button, telling everyone to expect her soon.
~~~
Grappling through the sky, Steph was slightly upset she didn’t feel like how the women in Tampax commercials always looked.
Be you. Do what you always want to, even on your period. Hashtag Like A Girl.
Yeah, right.
When she got there (much slower than she had hoped), she observed before diving in. On her way, O had briefed her on what was going on, but it was no less surprising to see around thirty thugs when there were supposed to be three or four. Because it was late at night, Duke wasn’t around, and so there would’ve been about five or six thugs for each of the fam. Granted, some were already taken out, but it must’ve been chaos for Hood, Wing and Robin before anyone else got there.
Steph glanced over everyone to see who might need the most help.
Jumping down to Tim, she said, “‘Sup, Red. Late night? Your reaction time is slower than usual.”
“Slower, my ass. Look how long it took you to get here.” He smirked.
No matter how slow he might’ve been, or how much Steph’s cramps were killing her, just her being there turned the tide quickly. The team was still super outnumbered, but at least no one would die while they waited for the police to arrive. Because everyone had already had a sort of rhythm, Steph was jumping around to whoever called for her help (which was never Batman, as expected).
“SB, c’mere!”
“I may require assistance, Spoiler.”
“Hey, Miss Purple, over here.”
(“There’s three others here who actually have colors in their name, Jason,” she muttered.)
There was witty banter between the team, but then sometimes Steph would go silent before snapping at someone. And then back with the banter a minute later, not even acknowledging the random anger. No one knew what was going on, but it wasn’t really important enough to give time and energy to in the moment.
At some point during the fight, a particularly brutal cramp distracted Steph for a second, and a thug punched her in the gut. But outside pressure on cramps? That’s an ideal situation, so she was just fine—maybe bruised, but fine. Only, the punch had enough force behind it to knock her over, and everyone saw it. One thought raced through all their minds (except Cass). She’s hurt.
She got up, and the battle continued the same, but the team called less for Spoiler’s help and instead slightly crowded her, because something was clearly wrong.
~~~
The fight ended pretty quickly once the police force got there. There were less a third of the thugs left, and the ones still up didn’t want to take their chances with SWAT shields and guns.
The team regrouped, and Hood, Nightwing and Robin reported how this started to the Commissioner.
Batman stood in Steph’s way to get back to the Cave and then back upstairs with her chocolate and Supernatural binge session.
“‘Scuse me, B.”
“Spoiler, report.”
“What?” Steph faltered. “Batman, I’m fine. If anything, check on Red there, he’s tired AF and hasn’t slept in days.”
“Spoiler, I won’t ask again. I saw you fall to a punch that should’ve been nothing. Report.”
“Man, you can look me up and down and see that I’m just fine. I just want to get back home and eat some chocolate.”
In Steph’s brain, there was a battle. Logic Brain said to just tell Bruce what was going on and why she got distracted and fell. It would make everything easier. But Emotional, Hormonal Brain said that she shouldn’t have to defend herself, and that he should just trust her. Naturally, with her hormones all whacked out because of her period, that side clearly won. That battle inside was now showing outside, but instead of Logic Brain, it was Batman that Emotional Brain was fighting against.
“If you want to go home on your own, and not be dragged to the Batmobile, you’ll tell me what’s wrong right now.”
“Tt.” Damian. “Just listen to Batman, Spoiler, you’re making something out of nothing here, and it’s making us have to stick around.”
How dare he. “Stay out of this, Robin,” Steph said, jaw tense. “Leave if you want, but this is none of your business.”
Batman looked over Steph’s shoulder and said, “Hood, will you just take her to the car? If she’s going to be so stubborn about it.” He looked at her and put a hand on her shoulder. “We just want to be sure you’re okay and not hurt.”
Anger boiled inside of Steph and she threw her hands up in the air. “You asked me to report, and I literally did! I told you, I’m fine!! Why can’t you just trust what I say? When I say I’m fine, I’m fine!! I’m just tired and hurting and want to go home!”
She hadn’t meant to say that. She also hadn’t meant to let tears fall.
Shit. Now it really looks like I got hurt, enough to cry, too. Goddammit.
Around her and Batman, everyone stood in a circle. There was Hood, Robin, Red, Nightwing, Gordon (even the Commissioner, wow) and… Cass. Cass .
Sobs hiccuped out of her mouth while she ran over to Cass. She crouched down, trying to put pressure on her abdomen with her legs, but nothing was working. She tried to cry quietly, she really did, but her cramps were coming full force now that her adrenaline was gone. And that punch really did hurt, now that she could feel the bruise.
Cass held her gently and looked up at Gordon. “Commissioner. Chocolate.”
Gordon’s eyes widened in surprise that she knew he had chocolate on him, but he obliged her, and handed her a piece.
“A kiss,” she showed Steph while kissing Steph’s head through her own mask and her girlfriend’s hood.
Steph laughed wetly, and took the Hershey’s Kiss out of Cass’s hand. “I can’t eat it right now, with the mask and stuff.” She chuckled, and Cass did too.
“Okay. Supernatural?” Cass offered.
“Oh, yeah. And more chocolate and a rice pack.” Steph settled her breath. “Help me up?” she asked, laughing.
Cass helped her up and she said, “Thanks, Orphan,” before dusting herself off and turning to Bruce.
The whole crowd (the five boys and Gordon) looked a little bit afraid of the two girls. Except for the commissioner, they were all wondering what the hell that was. (Having a daughter for twenty plus years helps with knowing what the hell that was).
“Batman,” Steph said, “I’m sorry for how I reacted just then. I am okay in regards to the battle we just had. I did get punched in the gut, and have a bruise, but nothing is wrong, and it isn’t even a bad bruise. I’m sorry that I didn’t just say that outright, and I’m sorry for delaying everyone getting home.” She smiled, and then said, “I’ll see you back at the Cave, unless you’re too slow and I’m already watching Supernatural, in which case, you probably won’t see me until tomorrow night. Bye!”
Cass took her by the arm, and they skipped off to an alley before shooting their grapples and flying up out of sight.
The boys were left dumbfounded.
“Gordon,” Batman started, “what was that?”
Gordon just laughed. “Might as well tell you now.” He wrapped his arm around Batman’s shoulder and started walking off with him. “You see, when girls reach a certain age, from 9-12, they start something called their period, and what that is…”
Bruce looked back at his sons in desperation, his eyes screaming “ help me .”
Jason was busting a gut, Tim was already grappling away, and Dick was casually chatting with Damian (because he was confused too, but Dick is much kinder than the commish is).
~~~
When Bruce finally got home, he went into the theater room and saw Stephanie and Cassandra asleep on top of each other, the screen asking, “Are you still watching?” There were KitKat wrappers everywhere, and a forgotten rice pack on the floor.
No matter how cute this was, Steph was definitely benched until her cycle was over. And maybe Cass would be benched too, just to be able to stay with her.
Bruce just sighed and went to bed.