Anjo

29

| Broken |

The pleadful screams and sobs could still be heard in the hallway as Batman and Wally tended to the broken acrobat. The team could only listen in dismay as they fought the angered and saddened emotions coursing through them.

It wasn't long until the distant robotic voice could be heard announcing the arrival of a new worried face. Light breathes slipping past his lips as he looked around in alarm. Freezing slightly once Dicks screams met his ears. "What happened?" He asked quickly, looking to all for an answer.

"We aren't sure." Kaldur admitted, briefly meeting the teens eyes. "We just found him like this.."

"No one was with him?" He asked, blue-green eyes shooting a hard glare at them. "You left him alone?!" He snapped furiously.

"We thought it would be okay." M'gann started, but flinched once he yelled over her.

"Okay?! Do you have any idea what had happened to him?! All of you were there and were fucking aware of how badly Joker had hurt him! And you thought he'd just get over it like that?!" He ran a hand through his hair roughly as he paced. "How fucking oblivious do you have to be to understand he isn't okay?!" The hiss of the door grabbed everyone's attention, Batman walking out.

Only a glimpse of the acrobat could be seen as he clung tightly to the speedster before the door closed. "Jason. Enough." Batman stated. Most took note of the small bit of blood on his gloves while Jason breathed deeply, glaring at the floor.

"Is he okay?" Artemis took the courage of asking.

Batman remained quiet a moment. "He broke his arm again. The bone pierced through skin when he hit it on the ground." He admitted, but his mood got darker as he added. "But I'm more worried about him mentally."

Jason clicked his tongue as he marched off, exiting the Mountain.

He didn't stray too far from the zeta beam, his back leaned against a wall as he silently watched the smoke trickle and disappear into the air. The cigarette meeting his lips once more as he took another long puff. If one looked closely enough, you could see blood trickling from his knuckles, gashes and cuts covering his fist as the blood continued to drip down his arm.

He didn't even pay the zeta beam any mind as someone exited it, just keeping his gaze locked on the smoke.

He didn't even yell when it was plucked from his fingers and flicked away by Batman. "I thought you quit?" The Dark Knight asked, looking at him with a frown. He took Jaosns injured hand in his own, not even bothering to make a comment on it as he reached into his belt and pulled out some gauze and bandages.

"I did." He admitted, his brows knitting together in distress. "But I just needed it this time."

"He'll be okay." Batman sighed. "Just not right now." The Dark Knight watched the few tears trickle from Jason's eyes and drip from his chin as he clenched his teeth in anger. "He needs time." They continued, as they finished wrapping up their hand. "And help."

Jason nodded, not even denying the embrace the other gave him as he released his pent up stress into the nook of their shoulder. Arms wrapped tightly around Batmans neck as his good hand gripped a handful of the dark cape. "I want to help. I want to help him so bad. But I don't know what to do." He sobbed.

"None of us do." Batman admitted. "I think Joker may have reminded him of something painful in his past.. But I don't know what that would be.." He tightened his grip around the other as they sobbed a bit more. "But right now, let's get you cleaned up."

Wally looked at his lover sadly as they laid their head on his shoulder, soft snores slipping past the Acrobats lips as they used their only good hand to hold his. They were both laid down in Dicks temporary bed, he finally getting the other to fall asleep.

"It's too dangerous for me to be here."

He sighed sadly, running his thumb over the Acrobats hand. His mind thinking back to when Dick had told him about his dark past and about her. He was painfully aware of the others guilt on the matter. Even though it had happened over four years ago.. He rembered it clearly. How he had found his lover curled in on himself a few months after getting together, having awoken from another nightmare. Muttering a string of incoherent words to himself, he was quick to flinch away from his touch screaming for him to 'not touch him'.

It took him hours to calm him down and hours more to get him to tell him what happened. At first Dick was reluctant, but slowly told him the story of his days as Robin and of his partner Batgirl.

"She had found me during one of my patrols." He could remeber the acrobat saying. "I thought she was Batman for a moment- scared the hell out of me." He recalled the others empty laugh and distant look they had as they continued explaining.

"We were both inexperienced, so thought it would be better to work together. It was like that for roughly a year. And we were great- or that's what I thought at the time. But we were just lucky is all."

Wally glanced back at the Acrobats sleeping face for a moment as those past memories continued to replay in his mind.

"There was a woman.. she was surrounded by a group of guys. They were only a handful of thugs, nothing we couldn't handle before." Wally recalled the tears that trickled from Dicks eyes at the time. " But we both got stupid. I didn't check to see if one of the guys were knocked out before checking on the woman. He pulled a gun on me and before I could think, he fired."  It was around here Wally could remeber the others voice cracking so painfully when he admitted, "She jumped in the way and- and the bullet pierced her chest. And she just.. fell. Right into my arms."

Wally closed his eyes sadly once those words the other said so long ago echoed in his mind. The true reason he refuses all the hero's requests to team up with them.. "And I promised her- my partner- that everything was okay. That she would be fine and she just- just like that she just.. died. Because of me.. she's gone."

- To Be Continued -