A Basket Full of Bats

You Suck

Richard's people as of the last chapter:

Bruce - Feed me, Pet me (The smell of milk has Dickie confused into thinking Bruce is two people.)

Nurses - Wipe me Poke me

Helena - Near me Squirm

Jason - Grabby

Catwoman  - Warm Dancing Shadow 

Dickie was just starting to eat on his own. It was a long slow process because he took frequent breaks to catch his breath and he wasn't very good at sucking.

Damian thought the word play was amusing. Unfortunately infants weren't developed enough to appreciate being insulted. Catwoman was at the mansion today so Damian had the night off of the milk run. It was happening fairly regularly lately. As much as the milk run had seemed a chore Damian seemed to be missing it because he'd come home from patrol and just stand staring at the baby seemingly at a loss. Today, with stiff restrained formality, he'd asked Bruce to feed him. Bruce watched perplexed as Damian pulled off his shirt and tucked Richard carefully against his warm chest supporting his head carefully and offering the bottle to him.

Juxtaposed with the unusual gentleness was a steady stream of soft spoken insults. "Richard how pathetic are you? You're a baby. You're supposed to suck. Babies suck," cooed Damian.

Of course instead of looking insulted, Richard made doe eyes at his big brother and tried to hold onto his thumb. He stopped to take a breather and looked around.

"Richard pay attention to your meal and stop looking all over the room. Foolish infant. You suck how difficult is it?" murmured Damian softly. "Stop dribbling milk all over the place, infantile slob."

Damian sighed in disappointment when Richard, who'd swallowed too much air because he kept unlatching from the bottle because he needed to breath; burped and as a consequence spit up most of his feed, then sobbed because he was hungry. "You are completely incompetent at sucking, you disgusting mess."

Bruce supervised nearly every feeding, rarely letting others assist in the task. Bruce went to take tiny Richard and clean him up fully expecting revulsion from Damian. To his surprise Damian glared at him; cleaning up his baby brother himself and gently burping him. Bruce had no idea what to make of Damian's strange relationship with Richard. Damian has always had a strong dislike for weakness of any kind.

"Don't feed him again yet. He won't keep it. Just give him his pacifier for now, but first he needs to be weighed to see how much he managed to keep down," explained Bruce. "There's a log by the scale."

"How can he be weighted accurately enough to measure so small a quantity of milk while attached to medical support devices?" inquired Damian.

"I'll show you," answered Bruce. "And Damian, don't tell Jason I let you feed him. It is too delicate a task for Jason but all he'll hear is that someone else got to feed him and he didn't."

Damian looked up surprised to hear the Batman this is an order tone in the nursery. He nodded in acknowledgement.

Catwoman visited the house quite a bit now. Her milk production was terrible. She was taking medication to increase it and she seemed to produce slightly more if Richard suckled on one side while she was pumping on the other. Bruce made sure no one outside of the family saw her.

To Bruce it looked like Catwoman hadn't been sleeping. She looked grey, jittery and sad. The baby weight that has softened her features had disappeared. Bruce phoned Leslie asking her about Selina because it was worrying. Leslie didn't have anything reassuring to say, in fact she recommended he keep a close eye on her because not only had the loss of her Helena no doubt been devastating but giving up Richard was also a blow and the hormones of childbirth often left a woman vulnerable to depression even when everything went right.

Bruce tried to comfort her in the quiet of the night but was rebuffed. Their relationship had involved passion but not intimacy. They didn't, couldn't talk to each other about some thing like feelings. The passion had been thoroughly doused at the moment by trial and tragedy. They were awkward around each other and had trouble talking about anything more serious than pass the salt please.

Selina and Carrie talked sometimes about real stuff. They never talked about Richard or Helena but they talked about other things. Bruce was glad for it. Carrie and Selina both needed something he had no idea how to provide.

Terry had recovered from the ARC-X disaster. The nights at Wayne manor were probably busier than the days. Bruce and Terry were working together more. Bruce wondered if Gotham had noticed there face behind the cowl kept changing. He tried to get out for a short time each night to keep his contacts and stay on top of things but most nights it was still Terry rather than Bruce. Richard was still tagged with a failure to thrive. He just wouldn't gain weight properly.

"Stephanie," whispered Catwoman in the dark of the night.

Stephanie blinked and groaned trying to sit up. "Okay, you'll have to wait for a washroom break whatever you want. I'm due in 10 days. If you wake me up at night, I always have to pee."

Their whispered conversation was sharp and confrontational. It woke Bruce.

"...What about me screams upright and moral? Even if you were to give birth at this very moment, your baby would be considered full term. There is no reason to believe it won't be healthy. Richard hasn't even reached two pounds of body mass. He's still on the CPAP. He is just barely developed enough to suckle. Your giving your baby it's best chance at life. I'm asking you ..."

"What's going on?" demanded Bruce.

Neither Stephanie nor Selina answered.

Stephanie didn't sleep for the rest of the night. In the morning she went to Tim. "Tim, I've got some questions..."

About three days later when the house was quiet, the kids were at school, Bruce had gone into the office, Alfred was doing housework and Terry was still sleeping, Stephanie when down to Richard's room and asked the nurse to hold him. He could be held for a little while if you held him skin to skin. Everyone had been quite excited about it. Stephanie had never held him. The monitor wires were still there but the only tube left was for the CPAP. They should call it a nose snorkle with extra straps thought Stephanie. It really didn't look comfortable. He was warm. He snuggled right into her and well,... the first thing he did was wiggle down and start sucking on her bra. Stephanie froze in terror. Richard's little hand was pawing at her desperately and he started to whimper. Stephanie called the nurse to take him and put him back in his bed. She did up her shirt and fled. I smell like milk she reminded herself. He doesn't know any better. Stephanie found herself having to breath lightly through a few contractions. Her bra was damp where she's started leaking milk.