FAULT LINES ━━ titans [REWRITING]

TWENTY FIVE.

The rest of her view fell into focus, and she became aware of the fact she was laying in a bed, stone walls and dark shadows making up the room around her. She saw an IV drip stemming from her hand up to the stand, heard the quickening beep of the heart monitor beside her.

Panic began to take over and she tried to move again, the silhouette at her side became clear, the brown hair and worried eyes of Donna Troy taking its place. Dick Grayson sat quietly in the seat beside her bed, an unreadable expression plastered plain as day across his face.

The whole night came flooding back to her like a bad dream, and she dropped her head back onto the pillow. After a moment, her gaze trailed to Donna.

"Did we win?"

A soft smile spread over her features. "Hell yeah, we did."

Abby let out a sigh of relief, nodding slowly. Her eyes closed for a moment before they rose again. "How did we get out?"

Her hazel gaze drifted downwards and she noticed the thickly wound bandage encasing Donna's torso. Abby's lips parted in surprise. How did they get out alive?

Donna sighed. "By the skin of our teeth. Your blow managed to disorientate Scarecrow enough for Dick to get the upperhand. I finished him off. We... we dragged you and Nora back to the mansion after that."

"... Is— is Nora...?" Abby stuttered out, afraid to ask.

"She'll pull through."

A new voice joined the conversation. Looking to the foot of her bed, Abby saw Bruce Wayne stood ominously, stone-faced.

"Her parents are with her. She reacted badly to the toxin, her recovery may take a while," Bruce continued, making his way around the bed.

Donna slowly stood to her feet, "Can I... is she conscious?"

"Skittish, but yes," Bruce nodded, "She's still unstable. We don't know what Scarecrow's gas made her see."

Donna nodded to him but didn't speak, making her way out the door as fast as she could, heading towards the stairs. Bruce hovered for a moment, before tapping the bed with his hand

"Sneaking out was reckless." Bruce began, and Abigail wasn't quite able to decipher his tone. "But what you did, standing up to Scarecrow, protecting those civilians, that was brave. What you four did took courage. Good job."

He nodded to Dick and Abby before ducking out of the room, and Abby felt a small, proud smile curl up her lips as she dropped her gaze to her lap.

She turned to Dick, after a moment, "Thank you."

He looked over to her in confusion, "What?"

"For staying with me," she clarified, her voice little more than a whisper, "Not just leaving me to wake up alone."

The corners of Dick's lips quirked up. "Course."

Abby's eyes dropped to her lap again and she began fiddling with the intravenous needle nervously. He frowned.

"Stop messing with your IV," he muttered.

"It itches," she mumbled back absentmindedly, but stopped nonetheless.

He let out a quiet laugh, which prompted a faint smile onto her tired face. A moment of silence washed over them, a second of tranquil peace. Then a door slammed open somewhere nearby, and Dinah Lance appeared in the doorway, a melting pot of fury and relief burning on her face.

"Abigail Laurel Lance, you are—," she cut herself off, glaring furiously, "You are grounded — in fact, you're more than grounded, you're... you're — I dont know what you are but you are in deep shit, young lady!"

Abby dropped her face into her undamaged hand, groaning in mortification as her cheeks flushed bright red and she closed her eyes in horror.

Oliver appeared at her elbow, simply solace and concern spread across his features, he made his way past Dinah and to Abby's side, where he pressed a relieved kiss to the top of her head, brushing strands of brown hair from her face.

"We're glad you're okay, Squirt," Ollie sighed, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly.

"Of course we are!" Dinah agreed, her voice still angry, "But you're still so much trouble — what were you thinking? Taking on Scarecrow?! I mean you scared the shit out of us when Dick dragged you in!"

She began pacing at the edge of the bed, before abruptly taking a seat at the end on the edge. She placed a gentle hand on her lower leg.

"Next time you decide taking on a deranged lunatic, who spends his free time wearing a fucking sack over his head, please just... y'know... just let us know, yeah?" she let out an an exasperated huff, sighing in exhaustion, "I need some warning if I'm gonna find you looking half dead."

Abby looked up from her palm, timidly, face still a rosy pink and a look of embarassed horror on it. She offered an impish smile. "But I'm not dead...?"

A half-hearted glare appeared for a moment before Dinah shook her head, "I'm going to have so many grey hairs. This is even worse than the time you gave yourself arsenic poisoning after accidentally eating a contaminated fish in Corto Maltese and we thought you were dying or something because you had green sick for—."

"Dinah!" Abby whined in horror.

Oliver let out a laugh, "And remember when it gave her the s—."

"Okay shut up both of you, oh my God," Abby spluttered humiliation, voice high pitched, "You're so embarrassing!"

A small chuckle came from Dick, still sat in the chair beside her, hand over his mouth to stifle to laughter. She glanced over to him, their eyes meeting, and she felt a smile of her own spread across her face at the sight of his. His grin only widened, and he found himself noticing the small dimples that appeared in her cheeks when she smiled.

It felt like he was seeing her again, for the first time, and his stomach fluttered a little at the feeling of it.

NOTE!
yknow i started this chapter with such a different vision of how it would go — for starters, it would have a lot more parallels to the scene in chapter 7 where abby and dick discuss this bUT I KINDA LIKE IT? i struggled with what villain to use, especially with the circumstances/scenery of the chapter. what did we think of scarecrow?

also whAT DID YOU GUYS THINK IN GENERAL? they may have been soft in this but dickabs start taking on the "pretend they hate one another" vibe soon after