I'll Defend You | BruDick

3

Nearly ten hours after Bruce had flown out of the cave in the bat plane, they received an alert that there was an incoming transmission to the cave. When they reached the bat computer and Wonder Woman’s face appeared on the screen instead of Bruce’s, Dick’s stomach twisted anxiously and then dropped to his feet.

“Where’s Bruce?” Dick demanded immediately, not caring if he seemed like an impatient kid. He needed to know. Something had to be wrong if Bruce wasn’t calling them himself, Dick thought. Or maybe he was helping with clean up.

Alfred rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly and then said, “Miss Prince, how delightful to see you.”

Wonder Woman gave a tired smile and said, “it’s good to see you Alfred, although I wish it were under better circumstances.”

Oh, no.

“Bruce is banged up pretty badly. He took several hard hits to the torso and abdomen, as well as another hit to the temple. He is lucky he was wearing the cowl. Kal says that there is no internal bleeding and is hopeful that he will wake soon with adequate rest. The last I knew is that he was unconscious. Perhaps you could contact Leslie Thompkins and request that she pay Bruce a visit in the Watchtower’s med-bay. I think it would set all of our minds at ease,” she explained.

Dick hated that she could say it all so calmly. His ears were ringing and his head was spinning. Bruce was in the watchtower, away from him, and unconscious!

He could be in a coma, or have memory loss, or be bleeding internally and he didn’t-

“I will give Leslie a call right away, Miss Prince. Thank you for updating us. Please let us know if there are any new developments.”

And how could Alfred be so calm about this? Dick felt like he was about to go into full blown hysterics—screaming, crying, the whole nine yards. This wasn’t okay with him.

Wonder Woman must have replied because then Alfred was cutting the connection and saying, “Master Bruce will be alright, Master Dick. He has a hard head.”

That didn't make him feel any better.

“Why don’t we go upstairs? I need to give Leslie a call and you look as if you should sit down,” Alfred said gently, concerned eyes searching his face.

Dick swallowed hard, past the taste of bile in his mouth, and he managed to murmur, “No, I… I’m okay. I’m just going to wait down here, I think.”

Alfred stood there for another moment, searching his face, and then bowed his head, “if you’re sure. But do sit down. We don’t need you to take a hit on the head as well.”

The moment Alfred disappeared up the stairs and Dick heard the clock close behind him, Dick rushed to the zeta-beam on the lower level of the cave. He popped open the side panel of the control pad and set to work. In less than a minute, he had the zeta-beam hacked and was able to teleport to the watchtower under Batman’s designation.

If the circumstances were less dire he would have been so proud of himself; and he thought that maybe, if Bruce ended up being ok, he would enjoy seeing the look on his face when he told him that he’d managed to hack it under a minute.

Dick had only teleported with Bruce a handful of times, so when he opened his eyes and he was standing in the Watchtower, he had to give himself a moment to breathe deeply so that he wouldn’t be sick all over his feet.

He had never been to the Watchtower before, but he had studied the blueprints hundreds of times and knew where he was going. He didn’t even try to be sneaky about getting to the med-bay, he just ran. Bruce could yell at him for not wearing a mask, later.

As he ran through the halls, he was vaguely aware of some of the heroes that he passed, trying to speak to him or not quite believing their eyes. Exclamations of “hey, kid, what are you doing here?” and “how did a kid get up here?!” and “is that Batman’s kid?” met his ears, but he paid them no mind.

He reached the med-bay, quickly punching in Bruce’s pin and sighing in relief when the door clicked and slid open for him.

The med-bay on the Watchtower didn’t look very different from the one in the cave, except that it was three times the size and was divided into slightly smaller than average cubbies which were separated by curtains resembling those you’d find in a hospital.