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“…-ightwing? Nightwing! Nightwing come in!” Jason heard over the comms.
“What’s going on with dickface, O? Did he get himself blown up again?” Jason asked.
“No names in the field, Hood.” It was only then Jason realized that he was on the line with everybody, “N got hit with some Fear Toxin about two minutes ago, and he hasn’t responded. He’s on the roof of the intergang warehouse at 520 Kane Street. Hood, you’re closest to his location, can you check on him?”
Jason sighed, “Yeah, sure, I’ll take a look. ETA is five minutes.”
---
When Jason got to the roof of the warehouse, he realized why O was so worried. Dick was on the ground, writhing, muttering random nonsense that Jason couldn’t hear.
Jason started walking towards Dick, taking slow steps. He knew how to deal with civilians when they got hit with the toxin, but this wasn’t a regular civilian, this was his brother.
He was just a few steps away from being able to administer the antidote when Dick finally looked up at him.
Except he wasn’t really looking at him.
He was looking through Jason, as if seeing a ghost.
“No... no... please... I don’t want it… get off, please…” Dick started fighting an invisible attacker, making it near impossible for Jason to get close.
“Hey, I’m not going to do anything to you, Nightwing. It’s me, Red Hood. Come on, snap out of it!” Jason looked around, seeing if anyone was near that could see him, “O, ETA on anyone else?”
“B is the closest, and he’s twenty minutes away at minimum.” O told him.
Jason sighed, “Alright.”
“No… no! Please!” Dick started screaming and thrashing. He was hyperventilating, not getting any air.
Jason made a split-second decision to take off his helmet, “Dick it’s me! Calm down!” He grabbed Dick’s arms, trying to get him to look him in the eye.
“No no no no! No, please!” Dick kept muttering, never looking up, and, although he wasn’t thrashing anymore, he was still very tense in Jason’s arms. He almost looked… resigned?
“Look at me, it’s Jason. Your brother!” Dick finally looked up, and there was the barest hint of recognition.
“J-Jason?”
“Yeah, Dickhead, it’s me, let’s get out of here.” Jason breathed a sigh of relief.
“No… You can’t be here! She’s going to find you; I can’t let her find you. Not you. Not my baby brother. No, please!” Jason could tell he was starting to lose Dick again, so he quickly injected him with the antidote.
Dick’s eyes started fluttering closed, and he finally relaxed into Jason’s hold. But, before he gave in to the darkness, he managed to say, “No cave… No B… Please, Jason…” Before finally succumbing.
Jason let out another sigh of relief, but then he realized what Dick had said. No cave? Where the hell am I supposed to take him?
“O, he’s out. I’m going to take him to my apartment, make sure he’s okay before gallivanting back to Blud,” Jason told Oracle over the comms.
“Okay, I’ll let everyone else know. And Jason?”
“Yeah?” Jason grunted out, picking Dick up and making his way over to his motorcycle.
“Tell us how he is when he wakes up. Everyone’s been super worried about him. He’s had a lot of shit on his plate recently, what with everything that happened with Blockbuster and all that.”
“Wait, what? What’s been going on with Blockbuster?” Jason was confused; he thought Dick was doing fine, ignoring everyone, and having a blast on his own.
“You don’t know?” Oracle asked incredulously, as if he should know.
“Should I?” He gave voice to the thought.
There was a silence on the other end, “Just… You’ll have to ask N about it, yourself.” There was another pause on the line, “Look, just make sure you tell us how he is. I have to go; Red Robin just ran into Killer Croc, and he needs backup. Make sure he’s okay!” She went off the line, leaving Jason to his thoughts.
Uh… Okay?
---
What was going on with Blockbuster? If Dick needed help, why didn’t he just ask? Never mind, stupid question. Jason thought on the way to his apartment. Luckily, it was only a fifteen-minute drive from the warehouse to the apartment. The tricky part was making an unconscious Dick stay upright on his motorcycle.
When he finally parked, he carried Dick up the fire-escape into his living room in a firemen carry then dumped him on the couch. Dick may be lean, but he barely had any fat on his body. Being a vigilante that’s as athletic as Nightwing required a lot of muscle, even if it wasn’t visible.
After that was done, he took off his domino mask and set it on the kitchen table. While his Chinese leftovers were in the microwave, probably getting some sort of disease from how dirty his microwave is, he got his laptop out and started doing some research.
‘Nightwing and Blockbuster Bludhaven’
Hundreds of articles appeared when he hit search. He clicked on the first one, which was an article from the Bludhaven newspaper.
Blockbuster’s Reign of Terror is Over!
Roland Desmond, also known as Blockbuster, who has been terrorizing the city for weeks is finally dead! Authorities say he was shot, although officials are not revealing who did the deed. But our investigators have found security camera footage from the building showing that it was the new vigilante, Tarantula. She’s been seen with our very own Nightwing recently. The people of Bludhaven can be grateful to Tarantula for killing this tyrant. After blowing up apartment buildings, and the mass killings, people are finally safe to walk in the streets again.
Ha! As if people are ever safe to walk in the streets of Blud, Jason thought, amused.
Could this ‘Tarantula’ be the she Dick was referring to? Why was he so afraid of her? It seems like they were close, from all the pictures the article had linked.
Jason picked up his phone and checked the time. It was three in the morning. Yeah, Tim is still up. He dialed Tim’s number, never having saved it to his phone, just memorizing the number. He liked to pretend he was a scammer and spam Tim’s phone, he thought it was hilarious, although Tim would disagree.
“What?” Tim asked, grumpily.
“Yeesh, I haven’t even said anything, Replacement. You hate me that much?” He asked, rhetorically, while keeping his voice down so he wouldn’t wake Dick. The guy had under-eye bags that had their own bags. “Anyway, I need some information about what happened in Blud between Dick and this Roland Desmond guy, codename Blockbuster.”
“Uhhh… Okay. Why are you digging into this? Any reason?” Jason could hear him typing in the background.
“I want to learn more about my fearless, daring older brother, of course!” Jason says in the most sarcastic way he can.
“Yeah, okay, I’ll send you everything I find. Good night.”
“Night, Timbalina.
Sure enough, ten minutes later his email is flooding with everything Tim can find in the Batcomputer.
Jason started going through the information and couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Jesus, Dick, why didn’t you tell anyone…” He muttered to himself.
The next time Jason looked at the clock, it was five in the morning; he realized he should probably go to sleep before he started to look like a certain little brother of his. Besides Dick shouldn’t wake for another few hours, a result of not only a combination of the antidote working its way through his system, but also the fact that his body so desperately needs the rest.
So, Jason went to sleep, only to be awoken by the sound of someone ransacking his fridge.
Jason burst into the kitchen to find Dick grabbing some milk out of his fridge, presumably for the bowl of Fruit Loops sitting on the counter that were beyond expired.
“Hey, Jason,” Dick said without looking at him, “Not that I don’t love spending time with you, but what am I doing here?”
Jason creeped slowly into the kitchen, trying not to make any sudden movements. “You got hit with some fear toxin, started spouting nonsense, the usual. You told me before you passed out from the antidote that you didn’t want to go back to the Cave; I took you here, instead.”
Dick was quiet again, going back to eating his Fruit Loops. Jason might not have been around Dick a lot recently, but that he knew that Dick being quiet was a bit out of character. Dick, at least before, was a bundle of energy around his brothers; he was loud, energetic, and very tactic, always wanting hugs or putting his arm around their backs. Maybe it was just because he’s spent so long in Bludhaven on his own.
But, somehow, Jason didn’t think that was the reason.
Earlier, Dick had recoiled beneath his touch, however miniscule the flinch was, it was there.
Jason walked up to the chair Dick was sat in and put his arm around Dick’s back. There it is! That minute flinch that other people wouldn’t notice but meant everything to Jason.
What happened to you, Dickie?
“So… How’s Blud?” Jason asked, inwardly cringing at how awkward he was acting.
Dick paused for a moment, as if processing the question, “Busy…” He finally said. He then went back to give his bowl of cereal his full attention.
“I heard about Blockbuster.”
There was a loud clatter, as Dick’s spoon hit the counter. He was frozen in his seat, other than the trembling that Jason could feel from his arm that was still wrapped around Dick.
“Dick? Dickiebird? You alright?”
Dick took a minute to respond, finally snapping out of his reverie, “What,” Dick ran his hands down his face, shaking Jason’s arm off and twirling in the high-top chair to fully face Jason, abandoning his cereal, “What, exactly, did you hear about Blockbuster?” Dick asked with a tremor in his voice.
“I’m sorry about that building. I know it must’ve been hard for all those civilians to die. And I’m sorry you lost your job. But, if you ask me, you’ve got enough on your plate already. Maybe it’s a good thing that you lost your job. By the way, where’ve you been staying? Wasn’t it the building you lived in that blew up? And who is that Tarantula girl? The tabloids say you teamed up with her?” Maybe it was because he was tired, but Dick wasn’t even trying to mask his emotions; Jason could see him tense up at the mention of Tarantula from a mile away.
Dick froze up again, his eyes gaining a glassy, faraway look, and he started hyperventilating.
Wow, twice in one night. Trying to go for a record?
Jason put his hands on Dick’s shoulders, trying to get him to calm down, but that only seemed to make it worse, “No... NO! Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! Please, Cat, please…” Dick threw Jason’s hands from his shoulders and jumped off the chair, onto the floor.
“Okay, okay, I won’t touch you, Dickie. Can you tell me where you are right now?”
“Cat, please, no…”
“Who’s ‘Cat’? Dick?” Jason sighed, “What are five things you can see?”
Dick finally snapped out of his panic attack, just a bit, “Uhhh… Concrete, you?”
“Take your time. We’re in my apartment right now, Dick. The floor is made of wood, there’s no concrete. Try again, Dickie.” Jason soothed. Contrary to popular belief, this is, or was, one of the aspects of being a vigilante that he’s good at.
Dick’s breathing slowed down a bit more, “You… the tile.”
“That’s good, keep going.”
“The counter… your jacket… the carpet.”
“That’s great, Dickie. How about four things you can hear?”
“Your voice… the fan… police sirens… the fabric of my costume…” Dick finally started taking deep breaths, and slumped into Jason, wanting a hug, but he was too tired to put his arms around him.
“You’re okay, Dick, I got you.” Jason understood what Dick wanted and started rubbing his back up and down.
They stayed like that for Jason doesn’t know how long. When Jason looks down at Dick, he’s fast asleep, chin against Jason’s chest. He’s sure it’s uncomfortable for Dick, but Jason doesn’t think Dick really cares. When was the last time Dick had come to someone for help? Jason couldn’t remember.
---
The next morning Jason woke up with a crick in his neck from leaning against the wall and a pleasant weight against his chest.
All the memories from last night come rushing back to him. Bludhaven, Dick’s panic attack, Cat. Jason looks at the clock on his TV (which he can see in the living room), and it reads eleven in the morning. Jason’s not surprised that Dick hasn’t woken up, he seemed exhausted, and after all the emotional turmoil last night? It makes sense that he’s still asleep.
Jason takes the time that Dick is still asleep to try and work up a script in his mind of what he’s going to say to Dick. Obviously, all of this is a sensitive topic.
Jason checks his phone (it was in his pocket), and he sees that he has a new message from Tim.
From: Replacement
Hey, I found security cam footage from the building that Blockbuster was shot at, directly after Tarantula shot him. It’s disgusting. Be prepared
[video.mp3]
Jason made sure Dick was still soundly asleep (by tapping his shoulder, if he wasn’t exhausted, he would’ve woken up at that, he was trained by the Bat after all), and clicked on the video.
He saw Dick tumble through a roof access door and fall to his knees. He was in shock. While the video was terrible quality, he could still see how terrible Dick looked. He wasn’t moving, barely looked like he was breathing.
The girl, Tarantula, came out of the door behind him. Jason saw green when she laid him down on the concrete, telling him it would be alright.
Jason stopped the video and harshly put his phone down. He couldn’t watch anymore, otherwise he was going to hurt someone, and the only someone in the vicinity right now was Dick.
It took a few minutes, but when he finally calmed down, he saw Dick looking at him, finally awake, “Hey sleepy head. How do you feel?”
“It’s my fault. I should’ve stopped her.” Dick said, vacantly.
Before Jason could reply Dick kept going, “I should’ve never let her shoot Blockbuster. I shouldn’t’ve let her get on top of me- I should’ve kicked her off, or- or something. It’s my fault.”
Jason saw green. Again. “Dick, you listen to me, and you listen well, none of that was your fault. That was all her- that- that vile woman.”
“But- “
Jason tightened his grip on his brother as he interrupted him, “Would you say the same thing if it was me or Tim? Or Damian?”
Dick looked up at him in horror and shook his head adamantly.
“So why on Earth would you say that about yourself? Do you see the double standard you set for yourself? You don’t need to be perfect; we all have our issues. We just want you to be our brother, Dickie.” Dick stayed silent, processing all of that.
Jason picked Dick up and set him on the couch before saying, “I’ll be right back. I’ve got some… errands to run.”
“Don’t kill her, Jason.”
“What! She deserves it! She’s a rapist! She hurt you, and you’re just going to let her get away with it?”
“Don’t kill her, Jason.” Dick repeated, this time pleading.
“Fine.” Jason grabbed his leather jacket and red mask and stormed out, slamming the door. He didn’t understand how Dick could care for her, after everything she put him through.
He found his phone in his pocket (although he can’t remember ever putting it back in there), and called Tim.
“Hey, Replacement. I need the address of Catalina Flores.”
“I already found it. Meet you there, tonight?”
“Yeah. Oh, and Tim? Bring some extra batarangs.”