More Young Justice Trash

Aquadad

-Written for my good pal, who really needs some content right now.-

"Kaldur?" The boy winced, murmuring, trying to roll over off his stomach. His muscles gave out and he rolled back into place. Aquaman continued forwards, pausing at the boys side. He'd come as quickly as convenient, having received the message that his sidekick had collapsed during the team's mission. He'd known the Bialya mission was a bad idea; they should have gone after them when they hit the twenty-four hour mark. "Kaldur, are you awake?"

The child let out a soft moan, sweat tracing down his face. "...Yes?"

Arthur let out a breath and drew up a chair, leaning over the boy's wriggling body. He lifted Kaldur's arm and dropped it, watching it fall limply at his side. Kaldur didn't respond, only flexing and paddling his feet irritably, as if to keep himself afloat.

"Kaldur, tell me what happened."

The boy just whimpered, brow furrowing. "...no..."

"No?"

"Mmnm." He buried his face into the cot, twisting into a fetal curl. The boy muttered something inaudible into the disposable mattress cover.

"Uhm, Aquaman?" Ms. Martian peeped up from the hallway. "Uh, Batman and Black canary are in, like, the big mission/meeting room. They want to see you."

"Thank you." 

She bowed her head a little as he passed, glancing over at her friend. "Sorry Kaldur." She gently closed the door, following a few feet behind Arthur until they reached the main hall, splitting off there to go... probably sit with the kids.

"What happened?"

"The team was separated from each other." Batman explained, watching a holographic screen showing an empty inbox. "We don't have a mission report yet, Robin is writing it up in Aqualad's... absence. The only thing we know for sure was that memory wiping was involved."

"How long were they separated?"

"We don't know." Dinah shrugged. "The team believes it was between twelve and twenty hours."

"That's not good. Do they know if Kaldur was in the sun?"

"There's no way to know, but he was in a desert with very few covered areas." Bruce said, refreshing impatiently as if Dick hadn't just gotten back an hour ago and was recovering. "They team hooked him up to a gill mask in the bio ship, he's been on drip for about two hours."

"And he's still not awake?"

"He's been fading in and out since they hooked him up." Dinah sighed, jotting through a notebook intently. "I'm assuming he was out when you arrived?"

"Kaldur tried to sit up and talk, but it was too hard for him." Arthur sighed. "Kaldur is too frangible to let this happen again. He's not like the others; His weakness is the environment he's in."

Bruce shot him a look, a 'your kid isn't the only important one' look. He ignored it; Bruce's sidekick wasn't in a hospital bed.

"I'll make a note of that, we can work on making sure his needs are met while working." Dinah assured, even though she only really worked with the kids for six hours a week. Including group training, that was less than one hour per kid, per week!

"Thanks, Canary. I just-- I don't know, having him help in Atlantis, and small scale outings were one thing, but letting him go out for days long missions with no contact in dangerous environments."

"You need to let Aqualad advance and improve without you." Bruce said, still acting as if the conversation was below him. "You can't keep holding his hand."

"I'm not-- It's like sending Robin into Chernobyl? It's dangerous for him, even if he's as efficient as possible, the location is enough to damage him."

Bruce didn't reply for a few seconds, Batman persona not up to code. "Aqualad's the leader of the team. You can't control him anymore. It's his choice."

"You let children hurt themselves if it's their choice?" He snapped, impatient with Bruce's inability to just agree. "They're kids, Bruce. Whether they're on a team, or working independently, or don't want help, you still need to help then; it's your job." Arthur stood, impatiently. "Let me know when the report is ready, I'm going to go sit with Kaldur to make sure he's not scared when he wakes up."

"Here, I need to swab him for sodium intake." Dinah gave a forced smile, joining him. "His IV isn't quite as heavy as ocean water."
Arthur appretiate the company, even if she wasn't actively standing up to Bruce's snappiness, the quiet disapproval was welcome company. "He's just being a jerk because he was trying to track Robin the entire time. He's trying to justify not having control of Dick."

"It's not my sidekick he's loosing control of, it's nothing to concern him." The two of them opened the med bay and stopped in they tracks.

Kaldur was sat up, leaned against the left-back of his bed to make room for his company. "You didn't hurt anyone." He whispered drearily, eyes half lidded, gently rubbing circles on the other boy's back. "It's not your fault she went to save you instead of me. It was a decision that had to be made. We're all alright now. It worked out"

Dinah sighed. "Superboy, you need to leave, Kaldur has to rest."

Kaldur, persistent to protect his friend, kept petting and glancing at the boy nervously. "Please?"

"He'll be alright, Kaldur." Dinah exhaled as patiently as possible, helping Superboy haul himself off the bed, ushering him out. "Go check out that robotic sphere you found. I'll be out in a few minutes."

"I've got it!" He snapped, arm's wrapped defensively around himself (must be out of shirts again); He stalked out, leaving them alone.

"You didn't need to do that." Kaldur said weakly, adjusting to be more comfortable. "Superboy needs reassurance, as team leader..." His voice croaked and gave out.

"You need a drink?"

Kaldur took it, forced to. He drank it as prompted. Arthur sat besides him, watching the boy intently. "Do you feel any better?"

Kaldur didn't look at him, cradling the empty cup. "I am fine."

"Kaldur, I'm gonna need you to look up for me to swab your gills and nasal cannel." Dinah said. "It'll just take a minute."

Kaldur nodded, inhaling the air as deep as he was able and tipping his chin back. His mentor couldn't help admiring how brave he was being in the face of total dehydration. "Once you're well enough to leave the med bay, I'm going to take you back to Sheyris. It'll help you recover."

"Yes, my king."

He waited until Dinah exited to continue. "I don't want you to be injured on missions."

"Yes sir, In future I--"

"Kaldur," He interrupted. "I'm not angry at you. I want you to be safe. Black Canary and I are looking for ways to protect you on missions. I know you want to help your comrades, but first and foremost, we have to be certain their leader is able to lead them. Don't put yourself down or put them so far over yourself that you can't lead them."

"Yes sir."

Arthur smiled, patting his sidekick's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Kaldur."