Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Hood, report.”

Jason sucked in deep gulps of air, his lungs working overtime as he was just starting to come down from the adrenaline of the last battle, his hands sore as he gripped the handle of his gun.  His body was tense like an overwound spring, still ready to snap at the nearest thing that moved, mind working in overdrive to detect any possible nearby threats.

Working one by one, Jason forced himself to relax, dropping his shoulders from where he had pulled them up to the base of his helmet, breathing through the rush of anxiety and excitement that still throbbed in his veins.  His heart pounded in his chest, thudding against the backside of his ribs like a caged bird.  He took a few deep breaths, condensation building on the inside of his helmet, sweat running down the back of his neck.

He was exhausted, and while he could feel the tenseness in his fingers and shoulders, that was really it.  He could feel the pressure of bruises and the heat of a few cuts strewn across his arms and legs, but he didn’t feel any pain, not unless he really focused to feel all the sensations of his body.

Dying and coming back did that to a body.  It felt like he was looking at the world through an underwater tank, everything muffled, far away, and warped by a million different things.  Heat didn’t feel so warm, and yet cold felt like he had been dropped into the Arctic without clothes on.  Pressure ached, but bruises barely throbbed.  Cuts burned, but they never stung.

Jason had to pay close attention during fights to be aware of his body.  Something throbbed on his side, a dull sort of warmth that could have just been his temperature sensitivity flaring on him.  But in the darkness of the warehouse and the dark layers of his clothes, he didn’t notice anything wrong.

He took another deep breath, the sound of his footsteps echoing against the steel walls as he shifted his weight from foot to foot and made a loose circle to survey the damage.

A tight pang in his left knee told him he must have popped something, although it wasn’t anything that a quick stretch and a long eight-hour nap wouldn’t fix.  He tried to ease some of the weight off his left leg for now.  He didn’t want another repeat of that time it gave out on him when he was trying to get back to his safe house.

“Hood!” Barbara’s voice was sharp and annoyed in his ear, cutting through his internal survey and taking stock of his own body, which felt about as fine as he ever normally did.

“Everything’s golden here,” Jason bit out, his own voice sounding far away and muffled, although it could just be the mask blocking some of his voice.

He stared at the various unconscious bodies around him, strewn in random places around the warehouse he had busted into.  On the floor and slumped against boxes of product and the walls.  Still breathing, but some were wheezing with that telltale sign of broken ribs that would certainly hurt for the next few weeks.

He swallowed thickly, taking each breath manually to slow his racing heart and hopefully clear his head of some of the panic and adrenaline that kept him way too focused on every single thing around him.  Jason blinked and reached up to remove the helmet, sweat causing his hair to stick to his forehead.

“What have you got on your end?” Barbara asked, and Jason could hear her typing away on her keyboard, almost distracted as she probably balanced communication, information, and research for the other boys out on the field.  She clearly didn’t have the time to deal with any of Jason’s messing around tonight.

“Oh, well,” Jason shrugged lightly and, just to be annoying, gave his gun a quick once over since it happened to be the only thing he had in his hands at the moment, “I’m running a little low on bullets in the chamber, but I’ve been thinking about upgrading—”

“Hood—” Barbara interrupted sharply, a heavy sigh crackling in his ears.  Jason couldn’t help but grin, tucking his helmet under his arm.

“About six guys all unconscious,” Hood rolled his eyes and rattled off the numbers and how the fight went down.  They had some guns with them, but didn’t seem to be well-trained in how to use them.  Probably rookies, which meant that this warehouse wasn’t the main act in the show if it was only staffed with a few new guards.  Seemed to be a group of young boys, maybe early to mid twenties.  Jason managed to take down another guy who seemed to be in his forties.  But he didn’t recognize any of them from his gangs.

“What about the storage?” Barbara asked, still typing away, her fingers had barely stopped on the keyboard long enough for her to think about what Jason was saying.

“Haven’t looked yet,” Jason muttered, holstering his gun at his side and beginning to walk over to one of the large crates stacked up on the far side of the room. 

As he took a few steps forward, strangely, Jason felt his vision tunnel, a dark ring creeping up around the edges of his periphery.  He stopped and let out a sharp breath, his fingers going numb for a few seconds.  Something akin to a throbbing pressure flared up his side, although he didn’t feel any pain, even if he tried to focus on it.

It was a strange sensation, like his fingers were on fire, and yet at the same time, all he could feel were pins and needles all the way down his arms.  For a few moments, Jason felt weightless.

When he managed to blink the black spots out of his vision, his ears were ringing, and he didn’t hear Barbara saying his name until she must have been on the third or fourth exhausted “Hood”.

“Gimme a sec,” Jason bit out, strangely out of breath, his lungs seizing in his chest.  He blinked and pressed the heel of his palm against one of his eye sockets, forcing himself to take bigger, deeper breaths.  He couldn’t feel anything over the sensation of his blood pumping through his veins, a rushing sound filling his ears.

“Are you injured?  Status report,” Barbara demanded, her voice leaving no room for argument, already diffusing any sort of complaint Jason could make about her sticking her nose into his business.  Sticking her nose into their business was kind of her entire job description.  As much as Jason loathed that part about working with the others again.

“I’m fine,” Jason insisted, squeezing his hands into fists and flexing his fingers to get some feeling back into his digits, “Just a little worn out.”

Barbara let out a sigh of what sounded like relief, and then there was a small pause in the comms, “I thought you said all the guys were amateurs."  Jason could hear the smile in her voice.  He grit his teeth and huffed.

“Still put up one hell of a fight,” Jason scoffed, forcing one foot in front of the other as he stalked over to one of the crates.  He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, finish his part of the mission, and then get back to his safehouse, where he could sleep off the rest of the night and any scrapes or bruises he may have sustained.

“Of course,” Barbara agreed, although going along with the joke, it seemed like she was back to her serious, no fun act.  Jason liked it when she joked around a little bit on the comms, it made it a little less boring when he didn’t want to talk to anyone but the bare minimum.

Jason dropped his helmet onto the floor near his feet so he could use both hands to pry the cover off one of the crates, shoving it to the side so he could peer into it.  He huffed, leaning against the heavy wooden box, his arms shaking with the effort it took to lift up the lid.  His body felt strangely weak, and again, when he turned his head or tried to take a step, the world seemed to spin around him with a hint of vertigo.

He blinked spots out of his vision and chalked it up to nothing but exhaustion.

Inside the crates, he found lots of bags of some sort of substance.  Drugs, most likely, although Jason couldn’t tell what it was based on appearance alone.  He reached in and picked up one of them, examining the strange colored powder inside.

“Looks like they’ve got some drug smuggling going on down here,” Jason said, chewing on the inside of his mouth as he looked around just to make sure no one else was starting to wake up or cause trouble.  All the guys he had knocked out were still down and unmoving.  Jason sucked in a sharp breath of air as his vision blurred.

“Do you know what it is?” Barbara asked, and Jason heard her start to type again, “A label anywhere, some sort of marking or distinct characteristics?”

Jason rifled around in the crate a little more, bending over the lip of the box in order to dig around deeper.  His heart thudded against his ribs, and the movement caused all the blood to drop from his head so suddenly that his vision almost whited out completely.  He could feel a hot, almost burning sensation on his side, a type of throbbing pressure ricocheting up his ribs and through his stomach.

He groaned and gripped the edge of the crate a little harder, trying not to either topple headfirst into the crate of drugs or collapse right where he stood anyway.  Gritting his teeth, he sucked in deep, desperate gulps of air, and held himself as still as possible to give his body time to adjust and stop trying to get him to collapse in the middle of some criminal drug smuggling operation.

After getting himself under control, Jason rifled around a bit more and came to the conclusion that all of the bags were unmarked and unlabeled, and there didn’t seem to be any sort of distinct markings on the crate either.

“Nothing, I don’t know what they’re smuggling,” Jason said, clicking his tongue in annoyance.  

“I think ‘Wing and the Robins found similar scenes on their end as well,” Barbara explained, and she paused for a moment, the entire comm line going silent.  Jason was only marginally sure that it was because she must have gotten distracted by something, he hoped it wasn’t because his hearing decided to black out for a second.  “Could you grab a sample and swing by the cave so we can run some tests?”

Jason growled lightly under his breath.  He had been hoping to avoid any sort of cave visit tonight, not wanting to deal with the entire chaos that was his family post-mission.  He barely got through their post-patrol routines without wanting to tear his hair out.  He definitely didn’t want to have to sit through Bruce’s whole mission debrief.

Jason saw how bad Bruce was after patrol nowadays.  He couldn’t imagine how much worse it would be after a mission like this.  Jason had specifically requested to be the one to take his part of the mission alone.  He knew that if he had gotten stuck with any of his brothers, they would’ve tried to talk him into checking in at the batcave at the end of the night for whatever reasons they always wanted him to come by.  

Jason could only resist Dick’s bugging for so long.  Tim was bearable, although he had his fair share of guilt tactics he loved to pull out.  And Damian’s attempt to get him to stay just made Jason feel bad for the poor kid, who barely allowed himself to admit he felt fondly for any of the family.

“I can meet with Nightwing on his way there and let him drop it off,” Jason suggested, pulling back from the crate, leaving the lid still cracked open.  He stuffed a few bags of the drugs into his jacket pockets for safekeeping and bent down to pick up his helmet.

Something sharp and uncomfortable throbbed in his stomach that sent him strangely wheezing for breath, his heart pounding in his ears.  Jason braced himself on the edge of the crate, panting heavily with his eyes squeezed shut.  That was odd.  That was an odd sensation.

He felt no pain, and yet he felt something throbbing, warmth radiating from his side, and the sensation of something burning.  Jason looked down at his side, although it was still too dark to see anything.

“Nightwing has already returned, Robin and Red Robin are on their way back to the cave, and their paths should not cross with yours on the way here,” Barbara said simply, her tone implying she knew Jason was going to try to pull something like that, and she had already been prepared for her counterargument.  “It would be faster for you to drop off the sample yourself.”

This time, Jason did audibly growl, kicking a can of something on the ground and watching it skitter a few feet away.

“Are you checking on me last?” Jason accused, although he already knew Barbara had used this trick more than once before.  Check on Jason last in order to corner him into coming back to the Batcave to visit, and so they could make sure he didn’t actually die again in some warehouse explosion.

“Robin happened to contact me at the end of their tasks for tonight, and Nightwing is just returning to the field after his most recent injury, which puts him at a higher priority,” Barbara explained simply, as always giving her plausible deniability.  “So would you stop by the cave to drop off those samples you found?”

Jason grit his teeth, “Fine,” he bit out, frustration bubbling up with every letter of the word.  He swallowed thickly and huffed, shoving his helmet back down onto his head, despite his sweat-soaked bangs still sticking to his forehead.

“Good, make sure to report to Bruce or one of the others when you get there,” Barbara told him, “I’ll be signing off for the night once I ensure you make it back to the cave.”

Jason just sighed. Of course Barbara would be watching his location.  That way, she’d know if he just decided to lie to get her out of his hair.  It was getting late, Barbara probably wanted to get into bed for a few hours of sleep as much as Jason wanted to collapse into his own bed and sleep for as long as his body would let him.  Which could be either four to twelve hours straight.

“Okay,” Jason slid his tongue over his lips and surveyed the warehouse one last time, “Goodnight, Oracle.”

“Goodnight, Hood,” Barbara said, and then the comms went silent.  Jason refused to tune into the other line.  He didn’t want the others to know he was stopping by the cave.  Their anticipation and excitement would only make him regret his decision more.

In the pleasant silence of his helmet, Jason could only hear the sound of his heart pounding in his chest and the rush of cars driving on the highway right by the warehouse.  Jason took a deep breath and let it out slowly, testing all his limbs one last time to make sure everything was still functioning.

He had managed to drop the last of the tension in his forearms and shoulders, which meant that his fingers flexed easily when he squeezed his hands into fists.  His shoulder still tugged a little bit when he tried to move it, but a little ice and a heat pack later would do the trick nicely to loosen it up.

Both feet still had feeling in them, although his ankle clicked a little when he walked, surely the result of an unforeseen sprint earlier.  But nothing seemed too out of place.

Except for his side.

Jason tried to examine his side, although in the lighting of the warehouse, it was difficult to see anything more than the dark folds of his clothes, and nothing on the surface seemed to be wrong.  He prodded at it and felt his vision darken around the edges, something that might have been pain throbbing all the way across his ribs, although all Jason could feel was a tight pressure.  He couldn’t feel pain anymore.  At least not strong enough for him to notice.

Nothing felt too wrong or out of place.  His vision darkened around the edges when he turned around too fast, and each step he took ran the risk of his legs giving out, although Jason had to chalk that up to exhaustion over anything else.  He was exhausted after all.  It had been a long day and an even longer night, so maybe all the stress of the past few days was starting to catch up with him.

The pressure he felt in his side couldn’t have been anything more than a few bruised ribs, or at worst, a few fractured.  It would be annoying to heal, but it wasn’t anything that Jason hadn’t experienced before.  It was fine.  Nothing serious.  Nothing he had to worry about.

Besides, after coming to terms with his pain tolerance, or lack of any feeling of pain at all, Jason had done a lot better at paying attention during battles.  He kept close watch of where each blade and bullet skidded by with near misses or even the occasional hit between the body armor.  He paid attention.  He had to.  Because sometimes, if he didn’t, it was a difference of life and death.

Jason was careful.  He was methodical about it.  He paid attention to where his body was at all times and did his best to take stock of what was going on with it after each fight, like he was doing now.  He just didn’t have the time, safety, or resources to do a full visual exam at the moment.  He’d have to wait to do that until he got back to one of his safe houses. 

He definitely didn’t want the family finding out about his own post-patrol routines.  They didn’t know about his muffled sensations, and Jason would like to keep it that way.  So all his checks and routines would be postponed until he was safely in the lonesome of his own safe house.

In the meantime, Jason figured now was as good a moment as any to take his leave.  All the criminals had been knocked out, tied up, and dealt with.  He had taken a sample of the drugs they were storing here and would be unfortunately taking it back to the Batcave himself for testing.  And he had taken note of any clues that could help further their investigation of this seemingly unknown city-wide drug trade.  So far, none of his neighborhoods have been affected, but Jason knew to be on high alert.

Jason took a deep breath and swallowed thickly, picking his way out of the warehouse almost the same way he came in.  He didn’t climb up and out of any windows or broken skylights this time, but he did go through a door about as close as possible to his method of entry as he could.

He was careful with each step, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, hyperaware of where he was placing his foot and how he was bending his knee.  He knew he must have messed something up in his knee earlier, probably when he had been running, although he couldn’t feel exactly what was wrong just yet.  

His chest rose and fell rapidly with each breath he sucked into his lungs, desperate to get oxygen into his body.  Whatever he was breathing felt like not enough, and he was forced to take deeper and deeper breaths, somehow feeling like he was suffocating while breathing normally.  The warmth of his breath on his face didn’t help, and the condensation that gathered on the inside of his helmet dripped down his chin.

Jason was panting by the time he managed to get out of the warehouse and find where he had left his motorcycle.  His heart was hammering in his chest, and he felt beads of sweat continue to drip down the back of his neck, his entire body tingling with warmth.  He was starting to overheat even though he always seemed to have an issue keeping himself warm.  He blinked black spots out of his eyes and tried to ignore the vertigo, causing his vision to twist.

His fingers were cold and numb, but everything else tingled.  It was a struggle just to get his fingers to curl around the handlebars of his motorcycle.  Jason hissed through his teeth and forced his body to move, despite the tightness in his muscles and the way his joints locked up when he shifted.

Weird.  His body felt weird.  But he’d have to wait until he got back somewhere safe before he could investigate.

To keep himself focused, Jason allowed the rumbling of the engine to wash over him as he kicked it into gear and pulled out of the dingy alley he had parked in.  The wind chilled deep in his bones, and he forced himself to focus on following the white lines of the street rather than the throbbing in his side.

His vision swam around the edges the longer he drove, and it took a lot of effort just to keep his eyes locked on the road.  He couldn’t feel his fingers anymore, and where he knew them to be on the handlebars was replaced with just an odd tingling sensation.  Blood rushed in his ears, his heart thudding against his chest, and although the adrenaline from the fight had worn off, his heart still felt like it was fluttering.

Jason swallowed thickly and squeezed the handlebars harder, forcing himself to take deep breaths despite the tightness in his chest.  Maybe he did have a few broken ribs, which would explain the difficulty breathing.  And everything else could just be chalked up to exhaustion.  His body wasn’t like it used to be, so maybe he overdid it tonight.

Either way, he was fine.  Just needed to get back to the batcave, drop off the drug samples he found, avoid his family, and leave.  Then he’d be fine.

Jason probably should have known the night wouldn’t go that smoothly.

The drive back to the cave passed by in a blur that Jason hardly remembered.  He almost blacked out halfway through and had to pull over to blink spots out of his vision, chest tight and heart fluttering so fast he could barely feel anything else.  He sucked in sharp gasps of air, his helmet resting on his lap to allow himself to breathe in the cold air until he could move again.

Jason pulled off the side of the road, probably a little too soon, shoving his helmet back onto his head and guiding the motorcycle back onto the street.  He was still blinking spots out of his vision, although he had managed to take control back of his hands, and he probably wasn’t at risk of passing out.  He had a small feeling that he would only get worse until he finally sat down to rest, and the quicker he got all of this over with, the better. 

Part of him worried his body would give out on him if he didn’t get this over with.  He definitely didn’t want his family to see him like that.

He’d be fine.  Just needed some time to rest.

And he couldn’t do that until he got through the family socializing.

By the time he pulled into the batcave, the others were starting to wind down.  Bruce was waiting at the computers, cowl off but still in his costume, watching security footage for something or other.  His shoulders were tense, although he breathed easily since they had already gone through their debriefing.

Dick was already completely out of costume, showered, and changed.  His hair was still dripping, and his cheeks had a slight rosy flush.  He was reclined in one of the chairs, leg thrown up on the nearest table to elevate it, an ice pack resting over the top of his ankle.  Everyone else thought he went back to the field way too quickly after his injury, but when did that stop anyone?

He called out a short, “Hey, Jay!” Although it was accented with a long yawn.

Damian and Tim were nowhere to be seen, although Jason could assume they were still getting changed.  Good, that just meant fewer people to try to beg him to stay for conversation, let alone a late dinner or early breakfast.

Jason parked his motorcycle and all but stumbled off it, his knees shaking the moment he tried to stand.  He sucked in a sharp breath, biting his tongue to keep from making any noises as his vision suddenly darkened for a few seconds, his body tingling with an odd, almost weightless sensation.  His side throbbed, and his chest stuttered, senses going out for a second.

“Master Jason?” Alfred was at his side before Jason even knew the man was in the cave.  Jason blinked and forced himself to breathe, thankful that he hadn’t actually blacked out, but he had taken just a bit too long to get himself off his bike.  

Alfred was standing right next to him, one hand slightly extended as if prepared to grab him if he collapsed.  His eyes were pinched with worry, lips pressed into that thin line he always wore when he was trying to calculate something.  Jason quickly straightened and forced his body to work with him as much as it protested, muscles tense, knees weak.

Jason yanked his helmet off and tossed it unceremoniously onto the seat of his motorcycle.  He sucked in a sharp breath and clenched his jaw, managing a few pathetic steps further into the cave and towards Bruce.

“Here,” Jason bit out, aimed at Bruce, his voice strangely hoarse and lacking any of the bite he meant to fill it with, “Where do you want these?” He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out the bags of drugs he had taken from the warehouse.  His fingers were so cold it was hard to get a good grasp around the bags, and when he held them out, he was shaking.

“Allow me,” Alfred offered, taking them from Jason in a swift motion.  Jason took a deep breath and pulled back a little bit, pins and needles rolling down his arms.  Alfred turned on his heel and began to make his way in the direction of the labs, calling over his shoulder at Jason.  “I made some snacks and tea. Let me know if you care for anything.”

“Cool,” Jason chewed on the inside of his mouth, forcing himself to remain standing no matter how badly he wobbled.  His legs felt like they were made of jelly, his body trembling in an odd, weightless sort of way.  “You make me come all this way just to drop off some stupid drugs.”  He had managed to drop off what he needed.  Now he just needed to get out of here before Damian and Tim joined the party.

Jason’s legs shook, and he couldn’t focus on anything other than what was directly in front of him, black spots clouding his periphery.  He swallowed thickly, tongue heavy in his dry mouth.  His side throbbed, and Jason felt the cold of the air make him tremble.

“And to see your lovely family,” Dick flashed Jason a toothy smile, although still tired, “At least stay and have a shower or something, or like a snack.  I can smell you from here.”

Jason shivered, ears ringing.  It took way too much effort just to bite out a response.  “I think you’re smelling yourself.”

Dick’s indignant squawk of offense made the effort worth it.

Forcing himself to look away, Jason took another deep breath, raising one hand behind him in a half wave, “Alright, I’m outta here.”

“Come on, you came all this way, at least hang out for a bit,” Dick begged, moving the ice pack off his ankle so he could hobble to his feet, which was stupid since he was clearly supposed to be resting.  “Damian would be happy to see you.”

Jason clenched his jaw, his heart hammered in his chest in a strange rhythm, blood pumping in his ears.  He shivered and found that all he could feel was the chill of the air around him, goosebumps prickling against his skin.

“I’m sure…” Jason muttered, although everything was starting to sound far away and muffled.  Even the sound of Dick’s uneven footsteps echoing through the cave seemed a million miles away.  Jason tried to focus his eyes on his motorcycle and will his body to move, although he couldn’t.  He was shaking.

He took a step towards his motorcycle and stumbled, legs nearly giving out on him before he managed to catch himself.  His limbs were starting to feel as if they were made of lead, fingers burning with pins and needles.  His side felt hot, although everything else felt so cold.

Distantly, he heard movement.

“Jay?” Dick asked, closer now, but still so far away.  Jason ignored him, thoughts working sluggishly as he tried to make out the world around him.  His vision was starting to blur, and no matter how many times he blinked and tried to focus his eyes, he just kept staring at the same unfocused mess of shapes and colors.

He breathed, although it didn’t seem like he was getting enough oxygen.  

Distantly, Jason remembered stumbling, unable to catch his footing.  His knees hit the ground with a heavy thud that he knew would leave bruises the shade of eggplants, and he heard someone shout, probably Dick, although it was all so far away from him.  His ears were ringing, his vision fading in and out, flashing with shapes and colors.  

“Jay!” Jason felt someone grab at him, a pressure against his side, this time deliberate and curious.  It pulled back.  Jason gasped and sucked in breaths of air that were nowhere near big enough to fill his lungs.

“I thought he said he wasn’t injured?”

Everything after that faded into nothingness.

–

Dick saw Jason wobble, his legs shaking and his chest rising and falling rapidly with each breath of air he tried and struggled to take into his lungs.  He furrowed his eyebrows with worry, his own ankle throbbing in pain every step of the way as he crossed the cave towards Jason.

“Jay?” Dick asked with concern lacing his tone.  Sure, he was trying to get Jason to stay a little longer in the cave, which maybe he didn’t go about the right way.  But Jason was acting off.  He hesitated before he spoke, and something about his voice sounded far off.

And he kept shaking.

Concern and anxiety welled in the center of Dick’s chest, although he couldn’t exactly place what was wrong.  Jason was acting odd.  He always acted odd.  He was Jason.  But this was weird even for him.  He seemed far away and way more exhausted than Dick would’ve expected from the way the night went.

Something was wrong.  Dick felt that deep in his stomach.

But Jason told Barbara he wasn’t hurt.  Barbara had relayed his report to the others and let them know he would be stopping by, so they could expect him.  She would have said something about a possible injury or if he was compromised in any way.  So what was wrong?

Jason turned away from Dick, walking back in the direction of his motorcycle, hands flexing uselessly at his sides.  Jason trembled, knees shaking, and for a moment, he paused, the entire world around him going still.

His jacket was stained with blood.  Dick didn’t think anything of it.  That was normal for Jason.

But then Dick saw his legs give out, and he felt his heart skip a beat.

“Jay!” Dick heard Bruce get up and out of his chair in an instant, and Dick moved faster than he really should have, given his injured foot.  Dick grabbed Jason’s arms, hoisting him back to keep him from hitting his head when he fell. His body was cold.

Dick looped his arm around his back and pressed his hand into his side in order to steady him.  His hand came away wet and warm with blood.  Something in Dick froze, and it took him a few seconds longer than it should have to get back to himself.

“I thought he said he wasn’t injured?” Dick shouted back at Bruce, who was already at their side with concern written all over his features.

Bruce made a noise from the back of his throat and bent down in front of Jason to loop his arms around the man's shoulders, already moving faster than Dick could keep up with, his head spinning.  “He was lying.”

Well, of course he was, thanks, Bruce.  Dick bit down any sort of angry comment, panic lacing his tongue with words that definitely wouldn’t help at the moment.  He just forced himself to move, picking himself up off the floor and helping Bruce carry Jason toward the med bay.

Alfred came running up from the lab upon hearing all the commotion, his sleeves already rolled up and worry flashing in his eyes.  He spotted Bruce and Dick carrying Jason down and went to work immediately, surging past them to prepare supplies.

“What happened?” Alfred asked quickly, as soon as they had gotten Jason up and onto one of the medical cots.  He already wheeled one of the carts over to the bed with supplies rattling against the metal trays.

“Don’t know, he just collapsed,” Dick explained quickly, pawing at Jason’s side for any sort of hint for what happened, each breath catching in his throat, desperate to do something to help.

His finger found itself looped around a hole between the tough parts of his body armor.  A bullet hole that led further into his left side, his black undershirt darkened with blood, making it difficult to see.

Dick sucked in a breath through his teeth, heart dropping to his stomach, “He was shot.”

Alfred nudged Dick to the side, and he jerked away, suddenly realizing he should probably let Alfred do his thing.  He was the one with a lot more professional medical knowledge after all.  Dick swallowed thickly, his hands slick with blood, Jason’s blood.

“And he didn’t say anything,” Alfred muttered under his breath in disapproval, already working to peel away the layers of Jason’s clothes and cut through the fabric he needed to expose the injury.  His hands were steady as they always were, although there was a flash of worry in his eyes.

His side was soaked in blood, a dark shade of murky red, darker than most regular people, although that wasn’t unusual for Jason.  It was oozing sluggishly from a hole in his side, ripped open by some sort of bullet, the flesh torn and sagging away from the injury, which was red and irritated.  It didn’t look bad.  It was hard to tell if the bullet had gone right through or was still stuck inside, but the amount of blood made Dick freeze up.

Why didn’t he say anything?  He told Barbara he wasn’t injured.  Did he just expect himself to deal with it on his own when there were several people already here who could help him?  Was he going to say something about it?  What would have happened if he had left?  Would he have even made it home with an injury like this, especially after losing so much blood already?

Dick’s mouth went dry, and he suddenly found it hard to breathe.

Bruce yanked Dick the rest of the way away from the cot by the arm, breaking Dick out of the spiral he had found himself dropped headfirst into.

“Breathe,” Bruce bit out sharply, placing a hand on the center of Dick’s shoulders, squeezing his arm with his other hand, “He will be alright, we have him.”

Right, yeah.  They have him now.  They have him this time.

He was with them when he collapsed.  They got to him as soon as they feasibly could, given the information they had.  They were all right there to catch him.

Dick allowed Bruce to pull him back from the cot to give Alfred space, and then jumped forward to help where it was needed.  Dick sat across the room, sick to his stomach but too frozen in anxiety to offer his help.

Damian and Tim entered the room as soon as they realized something was going on.  Damian first, and then Tim.  Their matching expressions of worry and horror were enough to get Dick back to his feet, one arm extended in a placating, reassuring gesture.  He tried to corral them back out of the med bay, although neither of them budged.

“What happened?” Damian insisted, trying to peer around Dick.  Tim pushed himself past Dick to get a better look.

“He… He got shot and didn’t say anything,” Dick said, tongue heavy in his mouth as he struggled to explain the situation to the other two.  His voice was steady, although Dick could barely think past the reeling anxiety tumbling through his brain, “And then he collapsed right before he tried to leave.”

“What?” Damian’s eyes went wide. “Why would he hide something like that?” 

Dick bit the inside of his mouth and forced himself to swallow thickly.  His voice didn’t sound real when he spoke, and everything around him seemed to be going by way too fast, and at the same time agonizingly slow.  “I don’t know.”

Tim tried to offer his assistance wherever needed, but was turned away.  Alfred and Bruce had it handled.  It wasn’t too serious an injury, but Jason had let it fester, and the blood loss caused him to collapse.

Dick was pretty sure he had to drag Damian out of the med bay, although he wasn’t so sure exactly how he got both of them out into the hallway, sitting on the floor.  Or if he was the one to drag the other.  When he looked down, his hands were no longer covered in blood, which meant that he must have washed them, although he didn’t remember that.  

Dick put his head between his knees and forced himself to breathe.

Why hadn’t Jason told them he was injured?  Did he still not trust them?  So much so that he would risk his own second life just to avoid telling them he was hurt?

He got shot, and he didn’t say anything.  Dick should have noticed.  He should have noticed something was wrong.  He did notice.  But he wasn’t fast enough to prod at it.  He didn’t think to try harder to get Jason to stay, to get him to open up.  Maybe he was trying too hard.  Jason didn’t say anything.  Jason didn’t tell them.

Jason died, and no one told him.

Dick forced himself to breathe.  He felt Damian next to him, although he couldn’t hear what the kid was doing.  He might have said something, but Dick wasn’t listening.  Dick slid his fingers through his hair and balled his hands into fists around the wavy strands.

Tim was there too.  Although Tim kept bouncing back and forth between the hallway and inside the med bay.  He gave them updates on what was going on, although Dick didn’t remember hearing anything he said.  His words had reassured him nonetheless.

Dick kept his head between his knees and breathed.

–

The next thing Jason remembered was peeling his eyes open to the sight of a white ceiling, the sound of machines buzzing and beeping around him.  His body felt heavy, and yet his head was so light it was hard to really focus his eyes at first.  Everything swam a little bit when he tried to examine the room around him, mouth painfully dry.

He didn’t feel pain, although that was normal for him.  He never felt any pain unless he really focused.  And Jason was having a hard time focusing on anything at all, really.  He didn’t feel much of anything nowadays.  All he felt was cold.

He tried to move, fingers twitching uselessly at his sides.  Pins and needles tingled down his arms, although this time it just felt like his entire body was asleep.  He pulled in a tight breath of air into his lungs, and the dizziness receded a little bit at the nice full breath of clean air.

As his senses started to come back to him, flickers of memory also floated up from the murky sea that was his brain.  He had come back to the batcave after a mission to drop something off.  He had been dizzy all night after the fight, and there had been a sort of throbbing sensation in his side, although Jason hadn’t been able to put his finger on it.

He could still feel that throbbing sensation now, although he wasn’t as dizzy anymore to accompany it, so it must not have been that.  

Jason shut his eyes for a moment to block out the bright lights and followed the next few memories through his brain.  He tried to leave the cave to go home after he had dropped off the bags of drugs, but Dick was talking to him and trying to convince him to stay.  Jason tried to leave anyway, and then he collapsed.

Jason swallowed thickly and really wished he had some water at the moment.  He risked another attempt at opening his eyes, glancing around the room with a little more clarity than before as everything was starting to come back to him.

It took him a few more seconds to realize he was in the med bay of the Batcave.  A surge of dread filled his stomach. Why the hell was he here?  Jason would rather be anywhere else in the city than the Batcave med bay.

So, he collapsed?  He was tired after the fight and needed a little rest anyway.  It wasn’t a big deal, nothing to commit him to hospital and bed rest for.

Jason shifted a little bit, moving his elbows underneath himself to push up a little bit, leaning back against the pillows he was propped up against.  He hissed softly, muscles tense and stiff, resisting his movement.  His body felt weak and worn out, shaky in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time, although his head was thankfully no longer spinning.

“Jason?”

Jason flinched and grimaced.  Okay, even worse.  He was going to try to figure out the situation on his own, hopefully before anyone noticed.  A few key pieces were missing, and Jason was still too groggy to really put anything together.  His thoughts felt like they were wading through a pile of cotton, and just the effort to sit up the minuscule amount he did took a lot of energy.

He definitely didn’t have the energy to deal with one of his family members noticing he was awake.

Jason pulled his gaze across the room to where he saw a familiar mop of black hair hunched in a chair on his phone, one leg brought up to his chest, the other stretched out in front of him.  He was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants with a brace wrapped around his wrist.

Of all the people he expected to be sitting in the room with him waiting for him to wake up, he didn’t expect it to be Tim.  Dick for sure, Bruce maybe, and possibly even Damian.  Definitely not Tim.

There were bags under his eyes, but that wasn’t anything new, and his hair was slightly frizzy and unbrushed.  His owlish eyes went wide as Jason met his gaze, and for a moment neither of them spoke.

“Oh!” Tim blinked as if coming out of a trance, like he had suddenly remembered the entire reason he was here in the first place.

“Hey—” Jason started, but was interrupted by Tim suddenly jumping up to his feet, hurrying towards the closed door to the med bay.  He was going to tell the others he was awake, and then Jason would have to deal with the rest of the family and their stupid concern.  And Jason still didn’t know what was going on.

Panic leapt to Jason’s throat, “Wait, wait, wait!”  He tried to sit up but couldn’t get his arms to cooperate, muscles twitching and spasming with weakness and a sudden tightness in his side.  He hissed through his teeth and fell back against the pillow, the beeping in the room increasing.

Tim mercifully paused at the door, hand already outstretched towards the handle.  He looked back over his shoulder at Jason with wide eyes.

“Yeah?”

“What…” Jason hated having to ask, hated showing this kind of weakness, hated any of them seeing him like this in the first place.  He didn’t need their help, nor did he want it.  And he definitely didn’t want them doting over him for some reason that he didn’t even understand.  “What happened?”

At least of all people, Tim might give him the most straightforward answer without any of the emotional crap behind it.

Tim blinked at him, jaw hanging open slightly as if he couldn’t believe what Jason had just asked him.  The silence was loud, and Jason struggled to breathe in it, his chest tight and body twitching.  The machines beeping around him were starting to drive him crazy.

“What happened?” Tim repeated, tilting his head to the side and taking a measured breath.  He took a few steps in the direction of Jason’s cot, looking him up and down with an unreadable expression.

“Yes,” Jason confirmed, heart hammering wildly in his chest, the beeping matching in time.  He tried to shift, but everything felt heavy and fuzzy.  His side pulled when he moved, and the sensation sent shockwaves of something down his spine, making it hard for him to breathe.

“You got shot,” Tim said simply, and something in his tone seemed annoyed, “And then you collapsed from the blood loss.”

He got shot?  No, that can’t be right.  He was paying attention during the fight.  He would have remembered when he got shot.  He had to pay attention in fights because this is what happened when he lost focus.  But he had been so focused on making sure not to get injured.  There had been nothing wrong.  It didn’t look like anything was wrong earlier.

Jason forced his arms to move, pawing at the thin blanket covering him until he managed to peel it away and reveal the bandages wrapped around his side.  The gauze was stained red, although not soaking through, and they weren’t so tight that it was hard to move.

“Were you planning on telling us that you got shot?” Tim asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot a little impatiently, “Or were you just gonna let yourself collapse in the back of some alley?”

Jason’s tongue felt heavy in his mouth.  He should have been more careful.  He should have been paying attention.

When did he get shot?

His brain was still fuzzy from waking up, and they probably put him on some sort of painkiller, although it wouldn’t have mattered anyway since Jason never felt the pain from the wound.  He tried to replay the fight in his brain, tried to comb through every detail for some place that he left himself open to getting shot.  He had gotten shot at many times, but he thought he had made sure none of them hit.  He would have felt the recoil.

He should have checked before getting on his motorcycle.  He should have paid closer attention.  He shouldn’t have come to the Batcave in the first place.

“Jason?”

Tim was at his side now, hovering uncomfortably next to the medical cot.

“I didn’t think to mention it…” Jason muttered, the lie spilling out half on autopilot.  He didn’t know.  He didn’t feel pain.  He didn’t realize.  

He shivered, and all he felt was cold.

“You didn’t think to mention it…” Tim repeated, clicking his tongue in annoyance, a habit he definitely picked up from spending too much time around Damian.  “That was stupid.”

Jason didn’t really feel like getting lectured by a kid several years younger than him.

“I would’ve handled it,” Jason insisted, forcing himself to take deep, leveled breaths, hoping that his unease and discomfort didn’t show on his face.

“You’re lucky it didn’t hit any vital organs,” Tim insisted, voice strangely level, although definitely pinched in a mix of worry and annoyance.  He gestured loosely with one hand, gaze boring right through Jason.  “And collapsing from blood loss doesn’t seem like handling it.  You couldn’t have at least tried bandaging it?”

Jason grit his teeth and looked away, embarrassment flooding his cheeks.  It did seem pretty stupid when Tim laid it out like that.  And if Jason said he didn’t notice, it would be suspicious. How could someone ignore something like that?  He didn’t want them asking questions.  He didn’t want them to do tests.

He didn’t want them to make a big deal out of it.

“I was… distracted…” Jason insisted, sliding his tongue over his lips, his mouth still feeling painfully dry.

“Uh-huh?” Tim raised an eyebrow, then he heaved a sigh and turned away, making a few steps towards the door before he called over his shoulder, “Okay, well.  I’m telling the others you’re up, Alfred wants to look you over again and make sure you aren’t hiding anything else, and—”

“Nope,” Jason insisted, once again trying to force himself to sit up fully, body protesting the motion with a tight throbbing sensation all over, “Don’t. I’m getting outta here.” 

He didn’t get very far before Tim was back at his side, shoving him back against the pillow by the shoulders.  His hands squeezed against his biceps, pressing him down.

“You just got shot!” Tim hissed through his teeth, “You are supposed to be resting, you are not going to get up and run away to wherever it is you hole yourself up.”  He said that, like he didn’t already know where Jason’s safe houses were.  Some of them at least.  Jason didn’t know if the kid had found the others yet.

“I’m fine,” Jason bit out, shoving Tim’s hands off him with weak arms.

“Sure, and suddenly collapsing from blood loss is fine,” Tim was easily able to keep Jason down, as much as he pushed weakly against his hands, even going dirty enough to bat at his bad wrist.  Tim winced, but barely reacted.

“I’m fine now, I’m good to go, good as new, right?” Jason’s heart was starting to flutter in his chest, discomfort and panic bubbling up in the back of his throat.  He needed to get out of here.  He didn’t know where else he might be injured, and he would much rather find that out himself rather than suddenly collapse again because he was too stupid to check himself closely for injuries.  He couldn’t trust his body anymore.

“No, Alfred needs to look you over,” Tim insisted, squeezing Jason’s shoulders harder when he still squirmed, some of his strength starting to give out.  He was still so exhausted, limbs heavy and uncoordinated, likely from the painkillers that didn’t do anything, “At least let Dick see that you’re okay!”

Jason faltered, “What?”

Tim chewed on the inside of his mouth, thinking hard about what to say next, “You scared him pretty bad when you collapsed.”

Jason clenched his jaw and finally sank further against the pillows.  Of course, Dick was worried.  That was his natural state of being.  He worried about all of them, like it was practically his full-time job.  He worried about them like he was going to get an award for it or something.

But Dick was always a little much when it came to Jason.

He was trying to make up for something that Jason didn’t fully understand.

Jason had collapsed right in front of him.  Dick might have even been the one to catch him, although Jason couldn’t exactly be sure.  His memories were fuzzy, and his brain was still catching up with everything else.

“Okay…” he finally relented, relaxing against Tim’s hold, enough that the boy finally felt confident to let go of him.  “Alfred and Dick, that’s it.  No one else.”  He didn’t want to be here.  He didn’t want anyone else to see him like this.  He couldn’t stand the worried yet uncomfortable looks.  The doting, the concern, the constant badgering.  It was all so overwhelming.

He didn’t mean to scare Dick.  He didn’t mean to scare any of them, actually.  He didn’t even realize he had gotten shot.

The quicker he let Alfred look over him and Dick to do his normal doting, the quicker Jason could get out of here and go back to his safe house to sleep the rest of this injury off.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Tim warned, and then backed away from Jason’s cot, narrowing his eyes at him as if he were searching for any indication that Jason was lying to him.  Jason just looked away and sank further against the pillows he was propped up on. He tried to cross his arms over his chest in annoyance, but couldn’t muster the energy to do so.

So he lay there uselessly, still turning the fight over and over in his head to find where he had messed up.  It must have been somewhere in the middle of the fight when the three original guys called for backup.  One of them must have gotten the jump on him when his back was turned, enough to slip a bullet right through the sides of his body armor where it wasn’t protected.

Jason focused on his breathing, forcing his lungs to expand with each breath of oxygen he pulled down his throat.  He closed his eyes and prodded at the wound in his side with a shaking hand.  He felt nothing but the strange throbbing and warmth that radiated from the wound.

It was disorienting.  It always was.  To know he was injured, to see the blood soaking through the bandages, and then to be unable to feel any of it.  He knew he was injured.  There were probably a lot more bruises that he wasn’t seeing underneath the blanket, sore muscles, bruised ribs, and scraped knees.  But he didn’t feel anything but the tired, uncomfortable throbbing.

His body felt so heavy, and it was difficult to keep himself focused.  Every part of him wanted to go to sleep right here, close his eyes, and allow himself to drift off.  But his brain refused to let him sleep, not right now, not while he was down in the med bay, injured and at the pity of his entire family.  He’d move to one of the chairs in the main part of the cave to sleep in if he had to.

Jason forced his eyes open and twisted his fingers around the sheets, clenching and unclenching his hands to give himself something to focus on.

Alfred entered the room a few minutes later, calm and collected as normal, all business first and emotions later.  He stared right through Jason as he approached his bedside, already pulling a pair of gloves on.

“How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?” Alfred asked simply, pulling the sheet away to poke and prod at the bandages.

Trick question.  Jason hesitated just a bit too long before he responded.

“A little sore…” His voice crackled in the middle, and he tried to clear his throat.  He looked away before Alfred could see the lie.

Alfred made a noise from the back of his throat and continued checking Jason over, shining a light in his eyes and poking him around.  Jason shifted uncomfortably and tried not to squirm away.  Alfred kept one hand on Jason’s wrist when he could, squeezing gently every once in a while as if to comfort him.

“Would you care to enlighten me as to what happened?” Alfred raised an eyebrow and caught Jason’s gaze for a few seconds.

“From what Timmy said, it seems like I collapsed from blood loss.” Jason wet his lips and broke eye contact, watching Alfred unwrap the bandages around his side to replace them.

“You were shot,” Alfred said simply, “Thankfully, it did not hit any of your internal organs, and we were able to successfully remove the bullet.  You should recover with no complications.”

“So why’d you ask me?” Jason huffed, chewing on the inside of his mouth as Alfred pulled the gauze away from the wound.  His skin was pale, but stained red around the hole in his side, which had been stitched up with what was probably Alfred’s handiwork. 

“You informed Miss Gordon that you were uninjured, yes?” Alfred’s expression gave away nothing, although there was a hint of disappointment in his eyes that Jason couldn’t stand to look at.  “And yet you seem to have sustained quite the noticeable injury.”

Jason bit his lip and looked away as Alfred cleaned the stained blood from his skin and reapplied a new set of bandages with an easy motion to his hands.

“Care to explain why?” Alfred prompted simply, not demanding, not angry, but definitely not happy either.  

Jason himself wanted to get angry and pull away, snap that it wasn’t any of their business what he chose to or not to disclose to them.  He would have handled it himself once he got home.  He probably would have handled it a lot quicker if he hadn’t had to come all the way here to deliver some stupid drug samples.

But he couldn’t say any of that to Alfred.  The man said nothing while he allowed Jason to collect his thoughts, but it was enough to get Jason to fold anyway.

“I didn’t realize I was shot,” Jason muttered guiltily, feeling a lot like a child admitting he had broken the family vase.  “I didn’t think I was injured at all when Babs asked.”

Alfred narrowed his eyes slightly as if he didn’t believe Jason.  He hummed.  “Surely you must have noticed somewhere on the way here.  Any pain or discomfort?”

“I thought I just bruised some ribs, nothing bad,” Jason said, clenching his hands into fists around the blanket, “It didn’t feel like anything serious.”

Once the bandages were reapplied to the wound, Alfred pulled back and removed his gloves, looking Jason over with a scrutinizing gaze.

“You gave all of us quite the scare,” Alfred said, turning around to put the supplies he had used away, avoiding looking at Jason, “Master Bruce and Master Richard especially.”

“Yeah, heard Dick got all freaked out,” Jason shifted uncomfortably, “Where is he? I thought Tim was going to go get him?”

“I told him to wait outside until I checked your bandages,” Alfred explained, and well, Jason found that a bit odd.

Since when did any of them need to be shielded from injuries or gore?  Jason was sure that Dick had seen a lot worse than a simple gunshot wound, especially when it came to changing bandages after the wound had already been taken care of.  And Jason was awake and talking, so it wasn’t like he was delusional out of his mind.

There should have been no reason for Dick to have to wait outside while Alfred looked him over.  Maybe not to overwhelm Jason.  But since when did any of them care about overwhelming him with too many people at once?

“He was quite worried about your condition,” Alfred continued, and Jason had a feeling that was the understatement of the century, especially when it came to Dick and being worried.

“I’m sure,” Jason almost scoffed, but he swallowed it down so as to not receive another one of Alfred’s disapproving looks.

“Next time, do not hesitate to inform us of any serious injuries,” Alfred scolded, and Jason found it hard to look him in the eyes. “Any sort of discomfort is important to let us know.  If something feels wrong, you should allow yourself or one of us to check on it.”

“Whatever you say…” Jason avoided looking at Alfred, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment and unease.

Jason didn’t miss the way Alfred didn’t mention anything about hurting or feeling pain.  He remembered the same sort of speech from when he was younger and whenever he stuck around long enough to see his siblings get the same medical treatment.  It was always “Let us know if anything hurts.”

With Alfred, it was hard to tell if Jason was overthinking it or if the old man really had caught on at this point.  He couldn’t help but think there was an air of knowing in his tone.

Fortunately, Jason didn’t have time to dwell on it before Alfred had crossed the room to the door to the med bay.  He stepped out for a few moments, and distantly Jason heard the sound of a one-sided conversation with Alfred’s voice just barely carrying through the walls.

The door opened again, and Jason waited with anticipation bubbling up in the center of his chest that felt a lot like anxiety.  Alfred came back in first, followed by a very skittish-looking Dick.

His eyes were wide, hands clasped tightly in front of himself, bundled up to his chest, wringing his fingers nervously.  Dick’s face was pale, only accented by his eyes, which were red-rimmed and puffy, making his previous tears obvious.  Frizzy black hair fell in front of his forehead, sticking up in various places like he had been running his fingers through it.  

It took a little coaxing from Alfred to push him further into the med bay, skittish and nervous, like a small rabbit.  He swallowed thickly, visibly shaking.

Jason was shocked at the state of his older brother.  He figured Dick would have been a little hung up over the entire situation, but he didn’t expect him to look like he had been sobbing for hours.

Dick’s eyes locked onto Jason, and for a moment, they both froze like a deer in the headlights.  A second passed, and then the relief that suddenly bloomed on Dick’s face was almost tangible enough to grasp.

And then even more tears welled up in the corners of his eyes, forcing Dick to sniffle and quickly swipe his palms across his face, trying to wipe away the bubbling tears.  He stumbled forward a few steps and then far enough to cross the room to reach Jason’s bedside.

“Hey, Dick—” Jason was cut off by a pair of warm arms wrapping around his shoulders, pulling him forward just enough for Dick to lean down and bury his face against his neck.  Dick was cautious of his wound, as little as Jason felt it, but he still pressed down against his chest, pulling Jason tight against him, balling his hands into fists at the back of his neck.

A hiccuping sob wormed its way out of Dick’s throat, causing him to jolt and shiver, his face pressed so tight into Jason’s neck that he didn’t know how he was breathing.  Jason froze, shaking slightly, and unsure of what to do at the present moment.

He settled for raising his arms only slightly, curling his fingers around Dick’s waist, not fully completing the hug, but not leaving it entirely one-sided.

“Don’t do that again,” Dick hissed, his voice wobbling as he tried to stop himself from crying again.  He sniffled and gasped, shaking so hard that Jason was surprised he was able to keep himself upright.  He dug the pads of his fingers into the back of Jason’s shoulders since he didn’t have a shirt for Dick to grab onto instead.  “You could have died.”

“I had it under control,” Jason insisted, clenching his hands tighter around Dick’s shirt. He felt Dick take a shaky breath against his shoulder, “Besides, I had someone to catch me.”

Dick dug his fingers into the back of his neck harder and took a sharp inhale.

“That was your ‘under control’?” Dick gasped out, finally pulling away so he could stare at Jason with wide, disbelieving eyes.  Although it was hard to take him so seriously when his eyes were still puffy with tears and his breathing came out in small, shaky gasps.

Jason avoided eye contact, letting go of Dick and leaning back against the pillows.

“It’s fine, I’m alright now,” Jason insisted, trying to change the subject.  He didn’t really want to go through this entire conversation again.  And he didn’t want to explain anything to Dick.

Dick looked Jason up and down as if he didn’t believe what Jason was saying, as if he wouldn’t fully believe him until he got a good look with his own eyes that Jason was okay.  He didn’t let go of Jason, and his touch tingled against his skin.  All Jason could feel was the pressure as it dug into the bare skin of his shoulders.

“Why didn’t you say something?” Dick asked so quietly that Jason almost didn’t hear it.  Jason chewed on the inside of his mouth and frowned.

“I was going to take care of it,” Jason said, sliding his tongue over his lips, trying to talk around the point, hoping that Dick would leave it at that and not ask too many questions. 

Dick’s gaze bore right through him, eyes narrowed and yet still watery and full of tears.

“Please… Don’t do that again… let us help…” Dick begged, squeezing Jason a bit harder, shaking his shoulders slightly.  “Don’t scare me like that again.”

Jason sucked in a sharp breath through his nose, “No promises.”

The watery sniffle that followed almost made Jason feel bad for being so vague about everything.  Dick pulled one hand away and scrubbed at his face, trying to wipe away the tears that continued to well up in his eyes.

“You should rest,” Dick mumbled, pulling back some, finally dropping his hands from Jason’s shoulders.  He sniffled and continued to paw at his face, “Please? Just for tonight?”

As much as Jason wanted to go back to one of his safe houses, he was exhausted.  He wasn’t sure he would even make it that far by himself with the heaviness that seemed to settle in all his limbs.  His body felt like it was made of lead, and whenever he moved, it tugged on his side in a way that wasn’t necessarily painful, but Jason figured it was probably supposed to be.

He didn’t want to stay.  He never wanted to stay.

But Dick was still staring at him with those watery eyes, hopeful and pleading, desperate for the continued reassurance that his little brother was alright.

It was only because Jason was too exhausted to make it anywhere else himself.

“Okay,” He sighed and deflated some, squeezing his eyes shut to avoid looking at Dick’s expression.  He was sure to be thrilled, and Jason wasn’t sure if he could handle that without folding even more.  “No way I’m gonna spend the night down here, though.”

Dick gave a small watery laugh, “I think that can be taken care of.”

“I’ll prepare your quarters,” Alfred said from his place across the room, the faintest smile twitching underneath his moustache.  He turned and left the room in a swift motion.  Jason let out another breath and shook his head a little bit, allowing the tension to drain from his muscles.

Dick stayed in the med bay with Jason and waited, talking about nothing important, but making sure to keep him company.  Jason leaned back against the pillows, allowing his eyes to slip shut every once in a while when the exhaustion made his eyelids heavy and drooping.

He didn’t hurt.  And his body wasn’t sore.  But Jason felt wrung out like he had been flattened by a truck or steam press.

When Alfred returned, Dick helped Jason up and out of bed with a lot of struggling.  Jason’s body didn’t want to cooperate.  His limbs tingled with pins and needles, and he shivered in the chill of the room, side throbbing uncomfortably.

Somehow, he managed to get out of the cave and into the main part of the mansion, where Dick could help him to his room.  Jason all but collapsed onto the bed, somewhere he hadn’t been in many years, although it was still made the way he liked it, or at least the way he used to like it.  Jason had never been picky with his sleeping situation, and now was no different, but the soft mattress and comfortable sheets felt nice.

“See you at breakfast,” Dick promised, giving Jason’s arm another lingering squeeze before finally pulling away, stepping back from Jason’s bed with what looked like great difficulty.  He wrapped his arms around himself and watched for a few seconds while Jason got comfortable under the covers, eyelids already steadily drooping as sleep threatened to take him.

“G’night,” Jason mumbled into the pillow, neither confirming nor denying he would be at breakfast in the morning.  As soon as he was back up to a functioning level, Jason was getting out of here, but one night of rest in a nice, comfortable bed wouldn’t hurt.

Jason was out before Dick even fully left the room, the exhaustion finally winning over everything else as he finally drifted off into a normal, comfortable sleep.