Saving Grace: a Batman fanfiction

Chapter 17

    Grace had thrown up twice.
   
    She wasn’t sure if it was because of all of the rolling and slamming she was doing in the trunk, or if it was because of her concussion.

    She came to understand that when you’re sliding around in your own vomit it doesn’t really matter why you vomited. Just that you want to get out, and as soon as possible.

    “Hey!” she cried weakly, fresh tears following old tracks down her cheeks. If she had to guess, she’d say it had been thirty minutes since she first found herself in the trunk. She wasn’t expecting her shout to do anything; mainly because she’d been shouting for the last thirty minutes and the driver hadn’t responded.

    But then, by the grace of God, the car screeched to a halt and the engine died.

    For a minute, Grace was relieved. Then, she remembered that she had somehow been kidnapped and stuffed in the back of the trunk, and at least when the car was moving she knew she wasn’t about to be murdered and dumped in a ditch.

    Footsteps neared the trunk and Grace drew herself into a corner, wrapping her arms around her legs. Be brave, she reminded herself.

    When the door to the trunk was ripped open, Grace was expected to see a thug. A drug dealer, a trafficker, maybe. A somewhat normal person.

    Not a supervillain.

    And certainly not Harley Quinn.

    She stood there, swathed in light. She might look like an angel, thought Grace from inside the dark trunk, if it weren’t for the club in her hand and the deranged look in her eye.
   
    “Heya, Kitty-Kat,” she said, voice high and screechy. Her eye makeup was badly smeared and her yellow-blonde hair was falling out of her two pigtails. In short, she was terrifying. Grace didn’t respond, in shock and unsure. “C’mon, Kitty-Kat, I’m not going to hurt you! I just wanna be friends!”

*****

    Dick woke up before Barbara.
   
    She was lying on his chest, arms around his waist.

    He basked there for a second, just lying with his girlfriend and the vague echoing sounds of the city of Bludhaven. After a few minutes, he gently slid out from underneath her-- he would make something she liked for breakfast, he decided. Eggs and bacon.

    That’s when he got a call from Jason.

    He didn’t pick up calls from Jason, and Jason never called more than once a day. So when Jason called three times in a row, Dick got worried and picked up the fourth.
   
    “Jaybird?” He said unsurely into the phone. “Everything okay?”

    “Do you have her?” Jason’s voice was ragged, breathing heavy. “Do you have Grace, Dick? I know Tim called you last night. Are you with her?”

    “What?” Dick cracked an egg onto the griddle, grabbing butter from the fridge. “What are you talking about? I haven’t seen Grace since… since she left. You know that.”

    “She’s gone.” Jason’s voice was immediately hard, steely.

    “I know you think it was my fault, Jason,” said Dick, squeezing a stick of butter in his large hand. “And I’m sorry that you feel that way, and I know I--”
   
    “Shut the fuck up,” Jason hissed. “She’s gone. She’s actually gone, gone. That’s what the lady at the group home said.”
   
    “She ran off?” Dick set the butter down on the counter, concerned. “Why? Because of the mugging?”

    “You’re so god damn stupid,” Jason shouted, and Dick pulled the phone away from his ear, eardrum ringing, desperately turning down the volume at the sound of his little brother’s shout. “She was taken from the group home, Dick. She was hauled off by the owner of the place-- the one that steals funds from the group home and does dirty business deals.”