Family Ties : A Batfamily Story

Chapter 65

Okay kids, here you go. Another chunk out of my soul for your enjoyment. Seriously though, Enjoy and Savor!!!

POV Jason

Something about Gotham hospitals makes my skin crawl. This could probably be explained by the fact of why I'm even in a hospital - I can't remember one time it was ever a happy experience. Someone was dead or dying. It's enough of a common occurrence to make the bleached white halls feel familiar. Maybe that's why I hate it so much. Gotham hospitals aren't out of some Grey's Anatomy episode. They are unsettling; asylum-like. Every minute or so a scream is heard from somewhere beyond the maze of blue doors and linoleum floors. Doctors and nurses run through the halls like something is running after them and the constant ticking of black and white clocks is enough to drive me insane.

Or maybe it's the simple truth that Robyn's thirty minutes into surgery, and there are no updates. It isn't from lack of asking. Roy and I frisk down any nurse that steps out of the operating room doors. They give as an alarmed look - after all, it is Batman and Nightwing asking them questions at a million miles per hour - but then they all say the same thing; "It's too soon to tell, our doctors are doing everything they can." The voice in the back of my head tells me their everything isn't going to be good enough.

Dick's foot taps nervously on the cold floor. His eyes are glued to the double teal operation room doors like at any moment Robyn might walk out of them. I can smell his fear in the air.

This entire hospital reeks of it.

Roy stands on my other side, refusing to sit down. He paces before stopping in front of the operating room doors and looking inside. He can't see anything, I know he can't. The only thing visible through the small glass porthole window is a blank wall with the words, "OPERATION ROOM 304". It's the only thing I focus on for the first ten minutes Robyn was in there.

Roy showed up shortly after that, followed by Dick, Damian, and Tim. Tim. I couldn't recognize him at first. How long has it been since we have actually looked at each other? A month, maybe longer. It feels like longer, it feels like it's been years. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss him. Every damn day I wake up thinking about him; how much I miss his crystal blue eyes in the morning. His lips the color of pink rose kissing me good morning.

It's the same lips I stared at as he trailed behind Dick into the emergency room. He didn't meet my eyes or acknowledge me as he ran away with Damian to get stitched back together again. Somehow, his lips have lost their pink color.

"I can't believe I let this happen," Roy mumbles crashing down in the seat next to me. His head hangs in his hands as his fingers pull on loose locks of his ginger hair.

"Roy-"

"-No, Jay! This is my fault! I didn't even notice when she left the fucking house!" He pauses, leaning back in the chair. "I should have noticed – checked on her – done something!"

He looks like a wreck; I don't blame him. His green eyes are dulled and frantic. They stare blankly forward and with each blink they seem to get harder and harder to open. His fingers are strained, legs tensed, and teeth biting on the insides of his cheeks. I want to put my hand on his, maybe even get up and hug him, but I don't think it will do him any good. Besides, I don't think I'm in any place to be comforting anyone anymore. I don't think comfort is an option anymore.

So instead I stare forward too. The annoyance of Dick's constant fidgeting is countered by my own fidgeting with the tips of my gloves or the batarangs on my belt. For a multi-million dollar suit, it isn't fuckin' comfortable. I try to occupy myself with thoughts of Lucius and Bruce working on the suit together, maybe even what Bruce's first nights as Batman were like.