Yep... can't stop from making them long... longish...
Also there's some Russian in this chapter... and it probably sucks just a bit... so to anyone who knows Russian please don't come for my head, I just barely started learning it
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It all started with a bad feeling, as most things related to Young Justice missions did.
Dick was accustomed to the sense of dread that often preceded the team's missions, but this was the first time he'd actually done anything about it. This time he'd decided to tag along.
The mission had been going well, making Dick question why he'd even decided to come along in the first place, but as per usual the mission quickly took a turn for the worst.
The team found themselves in a dilapidated old building that seemed to sag tiredly as if it could collapse at any moment.
They looked around for a moment, not seeing any indication of the supposed weapons stash that they had been looking for.
Dick was about to call it quits and bring the team back home when he heard a quiet gasp.
The team turned to see a man with a strange-looking gun pressed into the small of Tim's back.
Dick stepped forward, and the man stepped back, wrapping an arm around Tim's neck.
Before they could blink Bart had sped forward and pulled Tim free from the man's grasp.
The man growled and opened fire on the group of heroes.
"Look out!" Dick shouted, shoving Ma'gann out of the way of a blast. He cried out as he was hit by the beam.
"Nightwing," Ma'gann called, steadying Dick as he stumbled for a moment.
"Ugh... I... I'm fine," Dick said, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it. He opened his eyes to see that the man with the gun had made his escape. "L-lets go back to the cave."
The team nodded, making their way out of the building.
Tim made sure to keep close to his older brother, and he was glad he did when the elder suddenly collapsed on the way back to the bioship.
—
Dick's eyes blinked open and he took in his surroundings with a look of confusion. "Where... where am I?" He mumbled.
"You're in the cave's med bay," Tim said, squeezing Dick's hand tightly.
"What happened?" Dick said, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed.
"Woah! Lay back down," Tim said, pushing on Dick's shoulder.
"I'm fine," Dick said, shrugging Tim's hand off.
"You literally just collapsed on the way back to the bioship," Tim said, folding his arms over his chest stubbornly.
Dick rolled his eyes. "I feel fine Timmy," he said again.
Tim grumbled. "Well at least go home and rest then," he said.
Dick chuckled. "Fine," he agreed.
"I'm not joking," Tim said. "I will come to Haven and shoot you with a tranquilizer."
"Alright alright," Dick said. "I'll go home and rest." He stood up, making sure not to sway or stumble as not to give Tim any reason to get on his case again.
"Call if you need anything!" Tim shouted as Dick walked towards the zeta tubes.
Dick waved, shaking his head as he entered the zeta tube.
—
Two days later Dick woke up in the middle of the night. His chest was tight and his body shook with fevered shivers. He fell out of his bed and lay on the floor for a moment, trying to get his vision to stop swirling.
Pain exploded for a moment behind Dick's eyes and he whimpered, curling up and grabbing his head.
"Help," he whispered, hoping that someone would somehow know to come check on him.
Dick must've blacked out for a bit, because when he next opened his eyes his body was stiff and one arm was numb from the lack of blood flow. He felt around on his nightstand for a moment before grabbing his phone.
The phone glowed, making Dick's head throb when he looked at it. He stared at the bright screen for a moment, having forgotten what he was going to do with it.
A strong wave of nausea rolled over Dick and he dragged himself towards the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before pink-tinged bile spilled from his mouth.
Dick's eyesight blurred, and he closed his eyes for a moment, waking up on the floor a few moments later. He pulled himself up to a standing position, leaning heavily against the wall as sweat poured down his brow.
"Should call Bruce," Dick mumbled, stumbling into his apartment's living room. He pulled out his phone and drunkenly selected the calling app, opening it and selecting the most recently called number.
"Star 24 hour Pizza, what can I get for you?" A man on the other end of the line asked.
Dick's brow furrowed. He was ordering pizza? Of course he was. "Can I get a small cheese pizza," he said.
"Yep. Anything else?" The man asked.
Dick thought for a moment, suddenly remembering that he hated plain cheese pizzas. "Can I have pepperoni on it?" He asked.
"So... a small pepperoni pizza?"
"Yesssssss," Dick mumbled.
"Uhh... ok. Do you want to pay for that now or when it's delivered?" The man asked.
Dick squeezed his eyes shut, momentarily forgetting about the phone call he was currently on.
"Sir. Now or later?" The man asked again.
Dick's eyes blinked open. "Now," he replied, not quite sure what the man on the other end of the phone was talking about.
"Great. I can take your card number whenever you're ready," the man said.
Dick tilted his head to the side, his eyes half lidded. Why did they need his card number? And which card were they talking about? "Uh, I think one is a good number," he said.
The man sighed. "Your credit card number sir."
"Oh," Dick replied, giving the man his card information.
"Your pizza should be ready in 20-30 minutes. Can I get an address for this delivery?"
Delivery? Was there a special package coming or something? Dick gave his address, his mind clouded with a haze of confusion. "Jus have em come inside when they get here," Dick slurred.
"I'll make sure to pass that on to the person delivering the pizza. Have a good day sir."
The phone call ended, and Dick's phone slipped out of his hand, clattering to the floor. Pain spiked through Dick's abdomen and he doubled over, gasping as the room started spinning again.
Dick fought to keep his eyes open for a moment before he gave in to unconsciousness and collapsed to the ground.
—
Jason adjusted his Star Pizza cap with one hand, looking at his watch. Who on Earth would order a pizza at 5 in the morning? He sighed and knocked on the door, waiting a few seconds before opening it and entering the apartment as the customer had requested.
The apartment was dark, and Jason waited a moment for his eyes to adjust before walking into the house, looking for a good place to set the pizza. He happened to glance into the living room and was startled to see a figure laying on the floor.
"Uhh hey... you alright in there?" Jason called, flipping the light on. His breath faltered when he saw who the man on the floor was. "Bluebird?" Jason whispered, flipping Dick onto his back.
Dick stirred slightly. "Nice poop deck," he mumbled.
Jason blinked in confusion. "What?" He asked.
"Ya know... I like you... cuz you know how to make witty puns about cheese," Dick mumbled, his head lulling.
"Right," Jason mumbled. Dick was clearly out of it.
"Pooooooooooop deck," Dick sung, sitting up for a moment before flopping back down onto his back.
Jason pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't just leave Dick here to deal with whatever was going on... but he needed to finish his shift.
"Prancing spleen... young and keen only 17," Dick sung, completely butchering the lyrics to what Jason guessed must've been ABBA's Dancing Queen.
Jason rolled his eyes, deciding that Dick would be fine on his own for a few hours.
After walking around the house to make sure Dick hadn't left anything going that could be potentially dangerous Jason carried Dick back to his bed, wrapping him tightly in blankets and closing his door almost all the way.
—
Jason headed back to Dick's apartment immediately after he was done with his shift. Like before, he knocked before walking in.
The pizza he'd delivered earlier was still sitting out on the counter, and Jason took a moment to slide it into the fridge before he headed back to Dick's bedroom to check on him.
Dick was still wrapped up in blankets just like Jason had left him, except now his forehead was covered with a light sheen of sweat.
Jason gently shook Dick's shoulder, hoping he'd wake up and be more coherent than before.
Two slivers of blue peered up at Jason. "Это джасон?" Dick mumbled.
"Uhh..." Jason said. That definitely wasn't English... Dick had most certainly been speaking in English when he'd left...
"Джасон," Dick said, squirming until he got one arm free from the blanket burrito and reaching towards his brother.
Jason gently took Dick's hand in his own... it sounded like Dick was saying his name in whatever language he'd decided to switch to.
"Dickie... can you understand me?" Jason asked.
"Да," Dick said with a nod.
"Okay..." Jason said, pacing around the room. "How are you feeling?" He asked.
"Плохое," Dick replied, his breath catching as a wave of pain washed over him.
"Ok... that was a bad idea... how about we stick to yes or no questions," Jason said. He was pretty sure that Dick was speaking Russian, and he was fairly confident that he could recognize the word for yes and no.
Dick nodded weakly, his eyes dropping closed for a few moments before he forced them open again.
"Do you know how this happened?" Jason asked.
"Нет," Dick mumbled, going silent for a moment before sitting up slightly. "Да... да я знаю."
"Uhhh is that a yes?"
"Да," Dick mumbled, falling back onto the pillows, his eyes dropping closed again.
"Hey," Jason said, shaking Dick's shoulder.
Dick's eyes opened again, but this time he couldn't seem to see Jason even though he was right in front of him.
"Где собака?" Dick asked, looking around the room.
"Dick," Jason said, shaking Dick's shoulder.
"Рюкзак... рюкзак... сумка?" Dick mumbled, coughing hard into his hand.
Flecks of blood were left on Dick's hand when he relaxed onto the bed.
Jason rested the back of his hand on Dick's sweaty forehead, quickly withdrawing it and swearing under his breath. He needed to get Dick to Alfred for some help as soon as possible.
—
Jason sped towards the manor, not particularly caring at the moment that Bruce had wasn't exactly on good terms with him.
Dick mumbled delirious nonsense in Russian in the back seat, his sentences interrupted periodically by wet coughs.
Jason had just begun to see Wayne manor in the distance when he heard the sound of the seatbelt behind him pulling tight. The Russian gibberish came to an abrupt stop.
"Grayson?" Jason called, bringing the car to an stop at the side of the road.
Dick hung limp in his seatbelt, blood dripping from his lips.
Jason paled. He unbuckled Dick's seatbelt, catching him when he slumped forward and laying him back on the seat. "No... no no no no no... Dickie stay with me," he begged.
Dick's face was pale and his barely moved with each wisp of a breath.
"Stay with me," Jason repeated, rushing back to the driver's seat and starting the car.
—
"Help!" Jason shouted as he ran into the manor with Dick's limp body in his arms.
Alfred was there nearly immediately, rushing Jason down to the Batcave and hastily connecting medical instruments that Jason knew nothing about.
Thundering footsteps preceded the arrival of Bruce and Tim.
"What's going on?" Bruce demanded, running over to Alfred.
"He's crashing," Alfred said, working frantically to get an IV catheter in Dick's arm, a beeping alarm going off, notifying that Dick's blood pressure was much too low.
Bruce took over placing the catheter and Alfred immediately moved on to other tasks.
"He needs fluids on the IV line. We've got to get his blood pressure up," Alfred instructed Bruce.
Tim and Jason stood back, not knowing what to do. They were, after all, only trained in the basics of first aid.
Dick looked small on the large bed, wires and tubes connecting him to fluids, oxygen, and monitors.
Tim was staring at his brother's barely rising chest when he remembered their mission and the blast Dick had been hit with. He immediately ran to the computer and pulled up his mask video footage, finding the weapon and freezing the frame. "Bruce," he called. "I think I know the problem."
Bruce ran over to the computer. He took one look at the gun and seemed to age 5 years. "I know that gun... Dick was shot with it?"
Tim nodded.
Bruce swore. "We need to leave... now."
—
Jason was sitting at Dick's bedside when Bruce came back with the same gun Tim had pulled up a picture of.
The gun was flecked with blood, which Jason decided not to ask about.
Bruce swept his cape behind him and flipped a switch on the gun before firing it at Dick's chest.
A green light shot from the gun and seemed to absorb into Dick's body, but other than that nothing happened.
"He'll probably sleep for another few hours... you all can go upstairs. I'll wait down here with him," he said, glancing awkwardly at Jason.
"I'll stay with him," Jason said, giving Bruce a look that just begged him to challenge what he was saying.
Bruce sighed. "Fine," he said, reluctantly leading the other family members back up to the manor.
—
It was only about 30 minutes later when Dick's bright blue eyes blinked open.
As soon as Jason saw that Dick was awake, tears of relief filled his eyes and he jumped out of his chair, hugging Dick tightly to his chest.
"You're so lucky it was me delivering that pizza you little butt," Jason said, releasing Dick from his tight hug to simply hold him at arm's length and stare into his eyes.
After a few moments Jason realized he was leaning forward. "I could kiss you right now..." he mumbled.
Dick smiled, closing his eyes. "Then do it," he replied.
Jason needed no further invitation, pressing his lips against Dick's... he was kissing golden boy... he was actually kissing Dick Grayson...
Dick smiled into the kiss, breaking apart for a moment. "You have no idea how long I've wanted you to do that," he said.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to ask," Jason said.
Dick smiled, grabbing the front of Jason's shirt and pulling him down for another kiss.