It felt like a second, maybe two, before his eyes slowly opened. But they felt like weights, heavy weights weighing his eyes to lower until they were fully closed again. He screwed his eyes shut and laid as still as he could muster.
Then he heard something- someone.
"Ha - ha - ha!" It seemed far away and not very important, and he wanted nothing more than to slip further down into nothingness, but then he heard someone else.
"Yeah! Go Batm-" Nightwing didn't hear the end of that sentence as his consciousness left him again.
The next time he awoke was with a sudden gasp of pain and his head tried to move up. He tried moving his limbs, but soon realized that he was still trapped under vines and leaves.
Slowly, he looked over at the swift movement to his left.
How long has this been going on? He questioned himself, a loss of time enveloping him. Confused, Dick ventured his eyes further and looked to his right.
"Con...nor." He whispered out, soon realizing his voice was hoarse and his throat was sore and dry.
Superboy (AKA Connor) was laying unmoving on the floor. He was unconscious, Nightwing soon realized.
Finally, Dick looked down and blinked, eyeing blearily at the pool of blood gathering around his left leg.
A sound in front of him snapped him out of his blurry thoughts and he dragged his head up to see Bruce tying Poison Ivy up.
When did that happen?
He soon realized he was sweating and he sucked in a painful breath, resting his strained neck against the floor.
After a second he heard footsteps and then Impulse yelled a 'whoop' as if he had won.
"Yeah! Run away, and don't come back!" Impulse shouted with a tone telling whoever he was talking to that he meant it.
Then Nightwing heard more, different, light footsteps rush over to him.
"Damn it." He heard Bruce whisper, barely hanging onto consciousness again.
"Too much blood!" Impulse blurted out as if he was watching a horror movie.
"If you can't handle it, then go help Superboy!" Batman snapped, gesturing to the limp boy to the right of Nightwing.
"Alright, hey!" Bruce whispered softly after Impulse had sped off to help the other teammate.
"Stay awake kiddo." He whispered, reaching over the vines to check the boy's pulse. Letting out a relieved breath, he sat back and took out a pocket-knife from one of his pouches on his belt.
Nightwing sucked in another pained breath, like a wheezy gasp, when Bruce gently cut off the vine from around his throat. He wrapped a hand around Dick's head and held his head up with one hand while the other did the rest of the work. He slowly cut the rest of the vines and very carefully cut off the one beside the deep cut. It seemed like the vine was holding the cut in one exact position, so if he just so as jostled it, he could accidentally cause the cut to open further.
"A-ah." Nightwing sucked in a sharp gasp when Batman wrapped a cloth to keep the cut from bleeding out any further.
"I'm sorry, come on." Bruce picked him up bridal style and made sure his head wasn't lolling back off of his upper arm, letting him lean forward and rest his head on Bruce's shoulder armor.
"You got him?" Batman asked cautiously, watching as Impulse who, by the way, was like a foot or two shorter than the hero he was trying to move.
"Yeah," the speedster paused, wrapping his arms around the older boy, "Let's go. Race ya!" And with that, Impulse was off, bolting out the door and gone in a tiny flash.
Bruce sighed, but was more concerned about his own adopted son.
"Rich- Dick? Wake up bud. We're almost home, you gotta stay with me." He whispered, ever so slightly moving the teen around.
"Mh..meh.." Was the only response he got and it gave him much more to worry about.
Batman sped walked to the Batmobile and couldn't help but break the speed limit as he sped back to the Bat-cave.
He parked the pitch black car and picked his partner up, bringing Nightwing up the stairs with careful arms.
Nightwing felt his head loll back and his mouth opened, a small moan coming out. He grit his teeth together in pain, sucking in a deep breath, or trying too.
"It's alright, bud. We're almost there, we're almost there. Alfred will take good care of you. He always does, remember that? ..remember that?" His 'dad's words faded, and faded. He couldn't quite tell when or how, but he had passed out at some point, because he woke up to a man making sounds on one side of him and Bruce on the other side, rambling lamely about something.
"He'll be alright, sir." Another, older voice muttered reassuringly, yet, hasty. He had cut off Bruce in the middle of whatever his rant was about, causing him to look down at Dick.
Eyes opened a slight bit, Nightwing blinked drowsily. He breathed slowly, not having the strength to mutter a word or open his eyes further.
"Hey, bud." Bruce said softly, surprise flashing in his eyes, but also..relief. "You gave us a good scare there, kid." He added, as if trying to lighten the darkened mood.
Nightwing breathed out a small smile, but sucked in a breathy wheezing once again for the second time that day- that Nightwing knew of at least. He suddenly burst into a fit of unruly, painful coughs.
Bruce launched forward and held the back of his head with one hand, the other going to take hold of the young hero's hand in hopes of reassurance and comfort.
The coughing slowly subsided. Nightwing opened his eyes slowly and cleared his throat slightly, taking hold of Bruces hand. He finally couldn't help the sleep that took of him, exhaustion and pain taking the best of him and his eyes slipped shut.
'Beep.'
His eyes snapped open. The small sound filling his head with a migraine bigger than ever. He coughed slightly, but stopped himself before he could get into a huge fit.
Dick looked around the room dreamily, confused.
What happened?
"You happened, bro."
Nightwing's eyes averted to the bathroom at the far right of the room. His head whipping around to look at his teammate.
Nightwing couldn't help but smile at his friend. His best friend.
"Wally." He whispered, tears seeming to gather in his eyes, or it at least felt that way.
Wally smiled widely, stepping quickly up to the bed with his shoes clapping against the floor. He rushed forward and grabbed Dick's outstretched hand, pulling him closer a bit and wrapping his arms around his best friend. Dick smiled softly, wrapping his arms around Wally's neck and back, head coming to rest on his shoulder.
"I can't believe- how? What happened?" Dick asked with wide eyes, pulling away after Wally pat his back and gently patting his knee, careful to avoid the large cut covering half of his thigh.
Wally stepped back with a shrug, hands now in pockets, "Can't say. Bruce didn't tell me much of anything, really. He had Alfred call me and as soon as I heard that you got hurt, I zipped right over. Dude, it's been six hours since I arrived. I'm so glad you're awake." He smiled again, but he immediately went serious when the door opened behind him, clicking as it went.
"Richard Grayson, you will never scare me like this ever again, you hear me?" A girl sped into the room almost as quick as the Flash, instantly at the opposite side of the bed of Wally.
Dick grinned sleepily, wrapping his arms around her when she launched herself forward to hug him.
"Barb, I can't promise anything."
Obviously, that wasn't the answer the female hero wanted and she automatically frowned with disapproval, but with relief shining through.
The next person to follow after Barbara was just as worried as the two friends combined, maybe even more. Bruce stepped past Wally and joined Dick at the top of the bed.
Dick glanced at Barbara and Wally in hopes they got his hint, luckily they did, and stepped out of the room, whispering things to each other as they did so.
"I'm glad you're awake." The man spoke with concern, looming over and to the right of him with worried eyes.
Dick looked up at him with an adorable smile, scrunching up his face and whispering to his 'dad.'
"I knew you'd save me."
The man seemed to fill up with emotion for only a moment before the Bat shook his head and made a gesture of patting his adopted son on the arm in way of comfort, trying to ignore the childlike face the boy made.
Dick used the hand that was patting his arm to grab and pull his father into an embrace of love and fear combined. He tightened his arms around Bruce, trying to hint that he wanted a hug, he needed one. And that apparently got Bruce, because the man instantly broke and hugged his boy fiercely, rubbing his back in reassurance.
"I did. You're alright now. You're alright."