--- Tim's POV---
Bruce had me babysitting the city tonight while he and Clark went after Black Mask. He'd been smuggling in guns after the Arkham Wars for the mob bosses. With the Joker and countless others locked up, Falcone and Maroni were once more vying for control. The city as a whole had avoided crime for the last month and a half. My best guess was the absolute carnage of the past year scared everyone into peace for a short time.
I was supposed to be looking for Lex Luthor tonight though. It'd been a day since his disappearance and there had been no call for ransom. Not that he was a particularly wonderful person, but people took notice of his disappearance; important people. That was Clark's original reason for showing up in town but once Bruce caught wind that Sionis was personally attending a weapons exchange with the mob he and Clark left the task to me.
The sky lit up with lightning and thunder shook the building I was currently standing on. Yesterday had been the first time in a while since a storm this violent was in Gotham. A scream cut the city noise a few blocks away; like they were being murdered. I pulled the grapple gun from my belt and hurried to its source.
"Sir." Alfred's voice crackled in my earpiece.
"What've you got Alf?"
"Sir, I do believe a police officer has found Lex Luthor. He is currently two streets away from your position. There's a woman who requires medical attention if-" Alfred hardly ever stopped speaking mid-sentence. I could see police lights flashing on the corner of Fourth and Fifty-Second.
"What is it Alf?"
"The officer just called in for Commissioner Gordon. He claims the girl with Luthor is Katrina." I hit the roof a little harder than I meant to when I landed.
"What?"
I pulled a small pair of binoculars from my belt and tried to look closer. An officer was obscuring my view of the two people sitting near the car. His face was set firmly as he spoke to a gathering crowd of people. A second car pulled up along Fourth Street and the Commissioner rushed out, addressing the crowd as well. I wasn't going to be able to get any decent view from this building. I shot the grapple to the top of the bank on Fifty-Second, perching on the front edge and looking one more time.
It was Katrina.
She was speaking to Gordon, leaning heavily on Lex's arm and chest. He must've carried her here or else taken a shower in blood. Whatever she had been wearing was torn and cut away that it was a miracle it was staying on. All the exposed skin was blood-soaked and bruised so extensively that it couldn't have happened all at once.
"Robin?" Bruce cut my concentration. "What's going on?"
"I've found Luthor." I raised the binoculars again to watch him; he was entirely too calm.
"And?"
"And it looks like he found Kat." The line was quiet for a while. "Gordon's down there with her right now."
"Are you sure it's her, Robin? I know you want it to be, but is it really her?"
"It is, Batman." I ground my teeth down at his question. He wanted it to be her just as badly as I did and I knew it. "She's in really bad shape boss. The ambulance just arrived."
"Do not engage, do you hear me Robin?"
Lifting a hand I tapped the button on the outer side of the earpiece, shutting out any communication from him or Alfred. Kat yelled at one of the paramedics and the sky exploded in light. His partner placed a mask over her and it was mere seconds before her eyes closed. They placed her on a gurney and loaded her, Gordon, and Luthor into the back of the ambulance, heading for Gotham General.
--
The lobby of the hospital was empty when I arrived. That wouldn't last long. I pulled at the collar of the blue polo I changed into, trying to keep it off my neck. The nurse behind the main desk watched me as I approached, wearing a less than friendly expression. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a braid that looked ready to unravel. Her green eyes were dark and tired; she was not glad to have someone in her lobby.
"My name is Tim Drake. I'm here to see Katrina Wayne."
"Young man, I do not have any patients by that name in my-"
"It's okay Mel, he's okay to be here." I looked to my right to find the commissioner sitting on a two-person couch, a small cup of hospital coffee in his hand. There was blood on his shirtsleeve. "Hello Tim."
"Is it her?" I know I must've looked desperate, but it had been so long. "Is it Katrina?"
"Slow down." He motioned to one of the plush chairs across from him. I crossed the space in three strides and sat on the edge of the cushion. "It's her, but she's in really bad shape. Wherever she's been this past year, whoever she was with, they were not kind to her." It was almost robotic the way he lifted the coffee to his mouth, I don't think he was fully aware of his motions.
"Did she say anything about who took her? About where-"
"Tim."
Exhaustion clouded his expression. I hadn't noticed how red the edges of his eyes were, or how his voice started to crack. Gordon cared about Kat too. We sat in silence for a while, the clock on the wall ticking away how much longer we had to wonder if she was okay. Gordon sipped his coffee, staring into space until his phone went off. He pulled an older model Samsung from his pant pocket.
"Jim Gordon. Alright, we'll be there soon. No, no he hasn't shown yet. Yes, let him in when he arrives." He ended the call and slid the phone back into his pocket. "Bruce hasn't answered his phone."
"He's on a business trip, but Alfred's been leaving messages. He told me she was here."
Gordon didn't seem to buy the lame excuse but he didn't question any further. Ever since a near brush with death at the hands of Scarecrow's Fear Toxin Jim had become a little more suspicious of who Batman really was. He never said anything aloud, but the commissioner was pretty much aware of what we did.
"Come on, they just finished questioning Luthor about what happened. We can join them in the waiting room now." We stood and I followed him through a set of swinging doors, letting him navigate the hallways.
"Lex was with her?"
"Yeah, his clothes were soaked with her blood. He carried her from the old shipping docks."
"That's across the city."
"Yeah," Gordon humphed. The way his jaw clenched for a moment was semi comforting. "That's a far haul for her to not have bled out to death."
"She's had some medical accidents before, hasn't she? That could have affected that."
"Maybe. Luthor was too calm for a man to find her like that."
"You think he did that to her?" I frowned up at the older man. He just shrugged in response, pushing another set of doors open.
"I don't know what to think right now. But I do know this is too much of a coincidence for him to not have played a part."
"I agree with the commissioner."
Batman and Superman stood on the other side of the doors Gordon had opened. Neither of them looked super pleased to be here, but that was due to the man standing at the end of the hall with a police officer.
Lex Luthor was no longer in his suit, he now wore loose grey sweatpants and a white crewneck shirt. The officer speaking with him held bags labeled for an evidence locker filled with his clothes. He glanced our way and he nodded in greeting, returning to the police officer's conversation.
"Superman, I haven't seen you here in a while." Gordon shook Clark's hand, nodding in Lex's direction. "Here for him?"
"There were concerns regarding his kidnapping. I see that his discovery has led to another one." Clark was always good about sounding pleasant in situations like this. His smile didn't look forced or sad in the way many people's had the last year.
"Yeah, Katrina Wayne. We tried contacting her godfather but I've been told he's not state-side." He looked pointedly at Bruce with a raised eyebrow; Bruce didn't change his expression.
"I imagine he'll be more than pleased with her return." Clark turned to me and Gordon made introductions.
"This is Wayne's ward, Tim Drake."
"Pleasure." I shook his hand for the public formality but Clark and I were better acquainted than Gordon probably thought. "Do you think you could give her a look? You know, with the X-ray vision and all."
"I'm sure the doctors have already done something of the sort and she is fine."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that."
A man in scrubs and a face mask walked our way with Lex behind him. He looked tired as he pulled off a latex glove one finger at a time. There was a lot of blood on his hands and smock.
"What do you mean?" Bruce's voice was low, visibly straightening Gordon's and the doctor's posture.
"Her body has broken bones and bruising consistent with near daily abuse. The scary thing is the state that she was brought to us in. The majority of her visible wounds were made in the last 24 hours. It seems like they were given short amounts of time to begin to heal before once more opening through forceful means. Now, when you are first attacked, your body tenses up and there can be a great deal of muscular damage. I couldn't see anything like that."
"What does that mean?" For all this calm, Clark's uneasiness was contagious.
"It means that she didn't fight them off, and furthermore, that there wasn't an intense pain response to what she was feeling. She'd been conditioned to what they did, and she has enough long-term damage to provide sufficient evidence to this theory. What they did to her recently was nothing new for her to experience."
The doctor looked between the four older men for some sort of response. Bruce and Clark exchanged glances with one another and Gordon dragged both hands down his face, squeezing his eyes shut as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Lex looked incredibly passive. Satisfied with the silence the doctor turned away and returned to what I assumed to be the room they were operating on Kat in. I couldn't take the silence, the not knowing. It didn't add up.
"How'd you find her?" My anger tore the words from my mouth. Lex stared at me evenly, took a deep breath, and sighed.
"Hanging from cuffs chained to a tall ceiling. She was barely conscious and was too weak to open her eyes, let alone fight anyone off."
"That's not what I meant." My voice rose enough to draw attention from the other people in the hallway. "How did you find her?"
"I was looking for a back way out of the building the men who grabbed me brought me to. She was in one of the rooms I opened up. I'm sure if I hadn't found her you'd be returned a corpse." His voice turned to ice. "I have recounted the ordeal with two separate officers, you can read it when it's announced to the public. If you'll excuse me, I'd like to retire to my hotel. That is, unless the commissioner is going to place me under arrest?"
"Do not leave town Mister Luthor." Gordon's stare leveled with Lex's and they stood there like that for a moment before Lex looked away first. His movements were not rushed as he left us, but he did stop a moment to smile back at me with no kindness.
"I'm sure the Commissioner's told you, but you should feel special young man. She was asking about you quite frantically before arriving here. I think it would be best if you waited for her to wake up."
With that he walked through the door and left me with the police commissioner, the Batman, and Superman. I turned to the oldest of the three and he grimaced in the direction Lex had gone.
"She did?" I could feel Bruce watching me, knowing that he couldn't say anything about my curiosity in such a public place.
"Yes, she was very distressed when the paramedics tried to sedate her. She was.... well... very fearful that you had left the city."
A scream grabbed everyone's attention. Nurses and doctors rushed into a set of double doors down the hall. Gordon visibly paled and I'm sure I must have too. Doctors started yelling orders to the nurses to stay out, stay with their patients. The white lights brightened, a loud hum ringing between them.
"Get down!"
Bruce yelled out a warning and pulled his cape up to shield the commissioner while people down the hall protected patients and fell to the ground. The glass exploded in tiny fragments that were louder than they were harmful. The corridor was plunged into darkness and a few patients began to shout. Nurses ran from room to room to check that the life support machines hadn't malfunctioned or shut down. In all the commotion I slipped away toward what I assumed to be Kat's door. No one else could possibly cause a power outage from screaming.
"Tim? Tim!"
Gordon called out somewhere behind me in the dark but I had to see her. I made it to the double doors and had barely pushed them open when someone grabbed my shoulder and wrenched me away and onto my back. Kat yelled out again and monitors on the walls began to spark and explode. The immovability of the hand holding me to the ground had to mean it was Clark
"Let me go!" I yelled out, trying to pry his hand off of me to no avail.
Everything on the other side of the doors quieted down. Yellow emergency lights flickered to life down the hall, giving everyone a sickly appearance. Clark's jaw looked harsher, hollower, in the unnatural lighting. He was watching the door intently; he was probably watching what was going on inside. One by one his fingers released my shirt and I quickly got to my feet and stumbled through the doors.
"Kat?"
There was blood everywhere. Tubes and wires twisted in the space between Kat and the machines she was hooked to. Two doctors were helping a few nurses strewn on the floor around her, trying to wake them up or sit vertically. Katrina lay on the surgery table calmly.
Whatever she had been wearing in the street had been completely removed from her body. Scars decorated the majority of her abdomen and chest. Wounds deeper than any I had seen Bruce endure in the past few years twisted my stomach; one sat above her left hip and another under her ribs. Bruises colored her legs in ways that reminded me of the pictures I'd seen in class of space. The state of her body was not the most terrifying thing I saw though. Her eyes stared above her like a corpse's; void of life and unblinking.
"Katrina?"
I crossed the room with caution to avoid setting off another of her episodes. But I shouldn't have bothered, she didn't respond when I moved or called to her. When I finally touched the back of her hand her eyes shifted to look at me. I had never seen so little life in anyone's gaze.
It was unsettling.
"Tim?" Her voice was coarse.
"It's okay," I whispered, grabbing her hand and stepping as closely as I could. "I'm here. You're home. You're safe."