Catgirl: Young Justice BOOK 2 (COMPLETE)

CHAPTER 33

|Wayne Manor
|December 4 2013, 23:24

"Katherine?" Jason looked over his shoulder at her for some help.

She said she'd help him with theory but all she'd been doing was getting high with painkillers.

Even if she was prescribed them by her doctor, she definitely picked her times to follow their orders.

"Mmh?" She lifted her head from his pillow, "Here. Present. W'sup?"

Jason groaned and hit his head off the thick textbook he was reading.

Batman told him he'd not be able to move on with training until he'd finished reading it.

He should've finished reading it 3 days ago.

"Katherine, I need help with this. Get a grip, please..." Jason whined, on the verge of breaking down over naming the 10 main causes of committing crimes.

He lifted his head from his desk to look around for a bathroom, but it just so happened that this room was the only one without an en-suite.

Just his luck.

"Katherine, please." He almost begged, getting up from his desk to go over to her, "If I don't complete this criminology degree by Friday, Bruce'll hold me back."

Katherine moaned, groggily telling him to, "Open..balcony doors."

"What?" Jason looked at her, a little worried, putting a hand to her forehead to make sure she wasn't having a bad reaction to the morphine, "You didn't overdose, did you?"

He knew all too well using morphine was a dangerous game.

"No, your tutor's here." She mumbled into the pillow she'd been spooning, "Got you a tutor."

"Tutor?" Jason warily went to the curtains hiding the balcony doors, hesitant to open them.

He didn't know who was behind them and was afraid to find out.

Actually, no, he had a feeling he did know, but he didn't want it to be confirmed.

"C'mon." Katherine yawned, "I can't babysit you for much longer. I'm tired."

"Fine." Jason clenched his jaw and unlocked the door, quickly going back to his desk, so he'd not have to look him in the eye.

Jason tensed as the balcony doors opened and the cold winter air breezed into the room, making him shiver. He kept his eyes down on the textbook, his hands forming into fists under the desk.

He heard the doors close, but didn't dare look at his tutor until he heard him sit on the bed by Katherine.

"She's ok, right?" Jason softened a little, glancing over at them for a response, "Dick?"

Dick got up from the bed and made his way over to the desk Jason was at, pointing down at the textbook before lightly laughing, "I remember getting stuck on the exact question. Answer's B.) though, technically."

"Technically?" Jason raised a brow up at him.

"Yeah, technically." Dick explained, "Criminology tends to list 10 main reasons for crime, but criminology is the study of criminals, not supervillains."

"Aren't they the same thing?" Jason didn't know why he sounded so stupid saying that out loud.

"Yeah." Dick's laugh faded as he looked back over at Katherine, "You'd think so, wouldn't you?"

**********

Jason had given up with his essay after writing his name, the title, and the date.

Dick seemed to have long given up with tutoring him too, as he'd found his way back to Katherine. He was happily replacing the pillow she was previously spooning, the both of them sound asleep.

Jason felt uncomfortable being around them- for some reason, he even felt angry, but before he could even think about it he'd already stormed out.

He made it as far as the end of the hallway before walking straight into someone, falling back onto the floor.

"You need to be more aware of your surroundings."

Shit.

"I thought you were on patrol with Batgirl." Jason quickly got to his feet, brushing himself down.

"I was." Bruce towered over Jason, making him even more tense than he already was, knowing that Batman was just metres away from his ex-sidekick.

"What brings you back so early then?" Jason asked, trying not to come across as suspicious.

"When I checked the cameras in The Batcave you weren't there. I wanted to-"

"To make sure I'd not ran off?" Jason finished, trying not to take the lack of trust personally, "If you really wanna know why I'm not sparring with Katherine, it's cause she called time out. I did what you said and tired her out. She's sleeping in my room."

That wasn't all true, but wasn't all false either.

Katherine did call time out, and she was asleep.

Bruce didn't need to know all the details.

"I'm here to make sure you were keeping up with your studies."

"I know. I got it. I'm doing theory instead." Jason struggled not to snap on him now, "And I'm already behind. I know. I just- I just need to take a quick break, ok? You're making me do a 4 year criminology degree in less than a week. It's hard."

"That's why I'm here." Bruce explained, "To help you. I thought you'd given up."

"Really?" Jason was surprised by this.

From the short time he'd know Bruce he'd always just expected Jason to know things.

Not once had he actually tried to help him- not without hurting him one way or another.

But still, he couldn't help right now. He couldn't go anywhere near that room until at least Dick had left- and Katherine wasn't drugged up on morphine.

"Well Katherine's already helping me." Jason diverted his eyes to the side, feeling the suspicious look Bruce was giving him anyway.

"I thought you said Katherine was-"

"Asleep, yes." Jason continued to avoid eye contact, "I'm nearly done anyway. I'm no quitter."

Bruce nodded, seemingly accepting that reply. Little did he know both Katherine and Dick were already 'helping' with the theory.

"I'm going out for some air then finishing. I'll have my essay handed in by Friday, just like you asked." Jason said, walking around Bruce before he became suspicious again.

Thankfully, Bruce followed instead of going past- or god forbid inside Jason's room.

Now all Jason had to do was keep it that way.

Word Count: 1022