Late Night Call
Jason’s safe house is in an old apartment building which has seen better days. It’s a miracle the power and water has not yet been cut off from the entire block, but that’s a close call. Residents who have enough resources to move or have too much fear to stay are long gone. The rest who stay learn how to keep their nose in their own business and never ask what’s going on behind their neighbor’s door. Nobody would make a fuse if they see some strangers coming in and out.
While Jason thinks everything is not so bad, there is no real evil or threat nest in this block. Nothing serious except some junkies or low rank henchmen, but a bad reputation caused by a serial homicides like a couple decades ago and a horrified exterior desperately begging for a fix. Maybe interior too. Jason spent a lot time to do it up and secured the power he needed to power up the computers and security system.
It’s a shame if he needs to burn this one to rid off unwanted attention from Superman, but this is the closest one has all the resources he is going to need to check Bruce out.
The ride to the safe house is uneventful. It’s well past three when they arrive, a time even Bats and Birds will retreat to their cave in regular day. No one is supposed to be out in this odd hour. There are not many lights up neither. Nobody sees them get in.
Once steps into the apartment, safely locks the door and check out no surprise visitor ever dropping by nor touching anything, Jason finally feels the fatigue is catching up with him.
Somehow Bruce doesn’t seem tired or anything. He paces in Jason’s living room and evaluates his surrounding, in a grace only a day dreamer could have.
It’s silly if he doesn’t clutch to the damn baby bump.
Batman and pregnancy are the least two word Jason has ever imaged to be in the same sentence. This is a living hell. Why couldn’t he just stay died.
“Get in, quick.” Jason pulls Bruce to his bedroom and gestures him to sit down on the bed while he digs out a portable medical device from the cabinet. The device could be used to scan internal injuries, bleeding, broken bones and some other similar purposes. It comes handy when Jason is too pissed off to go to the cave for a full body check when he sustains some nasty punches or kicks during fights. Frankly, he is not suicidal and knows how to treat himself despite what common believe currently spread in the manor.
Bruce watches him hooks up the device with the computer and then turns back to him.
“Okay, let’s do this, uhmm. ” Holding the device in one hand, a sudden rash of embarrassment interrupts Jason’s words. To make the device working properly, the cloth shall be removed. It’s not like he never sees Bruce naked, but the sweet Omega-ish scents must throw him off the balance. It’s never been this awkward.
Plus, Jason never sees Bruce this compliant, never, once in his entire life. Somehow this feels so unsettle and so weird. It satisfied a lower part in his Alpha brain to finally succeed his mentor and has him taking his order, and the same time it’s so wrong to his logical mind. “Fuck it, just take the cloth off and show yourself. We need to get over with this.”
Bruce doesn’t follow Jason’s order, which is, oddly comfortable to know something sticks to the routine, but also very inconvenient and frustrating.
“You never make thing easy, huh, old man?” With a little push and pull, and some non-sense grunts from Bruce and whole lot more unnecessary cursing from Jason, Jason is able to scan Bruce for injury.
Good news is, there is no serious hidden injury, only some months old scars and broken bones looks almost healed, most of them are matched with the battle they have gone through before the Christmas. There are some bruise forming on Bruce’s knuckles and sides, all minor ones, seems he is using his body weight to hit something hard. And smalls cuts too. All have stopped bleeding.
Jason highly doubts Bruce spent too much time with the traffic ring he busted tonight. Whoever kept him probably didn’t take him in and treat him so they could sell him, which is too simple and too hilarious. But it’s not like Jason could just ask what’s going on because Bruce just won’t answer. Considering how Jason found Bruce hiding in the dark corner and patiently waiting for his chance to escape, he probably got bruised the meantime.
There is an ugly cut in Bruce’s right biceps, most likely cut by Bruce himself based on the angle, doesn’t need stitches but Jason cleans it anyway and put on proper bandage. Jason has some theories why Bruce stab himself but they are not going to be confirmed by Bruce. Whatever Bruce tried to dig out from himself is gone and has no effect on his well being so Jason doesn’t feel it’s necessary to ask.
There is no trackers or other odd implements planted in Bruce except the ones matched with his medical record, and there is no fitting explanation of the disassociation Bruce currently has. Without a lab there is no way to analyze Bruce’s blood but Jason is sure he is drugged.
No one back in traffic ring has the same symptom as Bruce, indicating he is drugged before he ends up there. Bruce looks functional enough to make an escape plan when he is in trouble but not enough to communicate with others. Jason isn’t sure what effect this new drug tries to achieve. He wonders how himself looks like in Bruce’s current point of view. Probably weird too.
Jason is going to take some blood sample and send it to Tim to analyze. If something this strong could render Batman useless for a long time, whatever the drug is, it’s not wearing down by time from what Jason could see here. Bruce is chill as a cucumber and disassociated like a dream walker, it’s a bad news, but that’s for later, at least there is no immediate bad effect except making Bruce awful quiet.
Right now, Jason is looking at the screen and not sure what’s he is looking at. He doesn’t go to medical school to start with and the League of Assassins doesn’t do degree in obstetrics and gynecology. All Jason knows about pregnancy is from high school health textbook which basically is nothing. The science museum he’s used to go for field trips and extra credits probably gives more idea about how a normal human pregnancy develops because there are models presenting different stages of it, like human Beta/Omega female models.
Beta and Omega females are still the main carriers in modern age. Omega males are rare as Alpha females. Beta males either don’t have the right set of production parts or their uterus are under development to conceive, even they’re carrying, the heath risk and chance for miscarry is much higher than Beta females/Omegas.
But the size of bump looks well past the first trimester, Jason can only hope everything is okay. Bruce seems have recovered from the kryptonite exposure pretty well. He just needs to take a look and to be safe.
Just one look. A quick scan. To calm both of them, well, mainly Jason’s nerves.
“What’s the...?”
Jason stares at the black and white image on the screen, no amount of preparation will make him ready to see this.
“We need to talk to Leslie. Like now.” Jason murmurs. “Is she up right now? Do you think we just go and knock her door she will let us in?”
Jason grabs his own hair with his free hand and takes in a sharp breath. He turns around in a jerk and startles Bruce who is also staring at the screen with a rapt attention he suddenly has despite clearly still not being himself.
Bruce gives him a stern glare, very close to the Batman disapproving one when he thinks Jason is acting out for dumb reasons, which is supposed to instantly piss Jason off.
Jason jerks his head back and stares at the screen. No matter how little knowledge he possesses he knows what he is looking at is beyond normal and certainly not human.
“Shit! How can you stay calm? You know. Yes, you know right? You have known this all the time.” Jason grunts, a strangled noise left his throat is too much like a pathetic whine, making him feeling deeply vulnerable and shameful. “Why don’t you say anything?”
Like sensing the change of air, Bruce murmurs, “it’s alright.”
Bruce looks at the screen, seems enjoying it very much and making Jason being the one acting dramatic.
“How dare you give me that look? This is no fucking way alright!”
Okay, the squirming fetus is kinda of humanoid to start with, but human shouldn’t have a tail, like some lizard. And that’s not the only trail is off.
On second thought, the fetus looks more lizard than human. It still gets the head, the long body, the short limbs, all squeezed together with a long tail curled around the body, hiding.
How could a fetus knows to hide away its inhuman part is beyond Jason but clearly the bastard CAN hear and probably understand human’s words because it squirms and relax like it knows it fails the fucking intimation of a human baby, its little body unravels, chills like it knows Jason is no use to threat it.
Jason honestly doesn’t know what the fuck he is looking at and Bruce is hundred percent not helping.
But one thing for sure, whatever grows in Bruce’s womb, is a damn monster.
He is going to kill Superman. He is fucking kill the alien.
-x-
While Bruce takes a shower, Jason gives his cloths another thorough pat down to avoid any trackers. There is none of it Jason could find, still has no idea how Superman located them back on the road, so he decides to burn all Bruce’s belonging on the rooftop to be safe.
Jason just gets back in time when Bruce steps out of the bathroom, a towel hanging haphazardly around his neck and water dripping from the tip of his hair, seeping into the gray shirt he is currently wearing. The old shirt and sweatpants of Jason hugs loosely around Bruce who is used to be about the same size as Jason, if not bigger. Jason doesn’t need a scale to know the other has lost a good twenty pounds during his disappearance.
Bruce walks on his bare feet and instead of wandering in the apartment again, he makes a bee line to the kitchen. Someone must be hungry. Probably sucks to feed two. Urgh.
Bruce’s used to make P&J when Jason was young and needed a snack while Alfred was unfortunately away. And P&J isn’t proving anything for Bruce’s cooking skills. Jason highly doubts he could make a ten courses meal when he is day dreaming and he doesn’t really need a burning kitchen on top of all the mess he is going through tonight, so he chases him away into living room and back to stove to heat up some canned chicken noodles soup. There are crackers in storage could go along with it.
Bruce doesn’t complain when he is offered food at the kitchen island. Jason puts his bowl of soup on the counter and let Bruce eats alone. He gets out the kitchen and decides to call Dick when Bruce is busy himself eating. There is no fucking privacy when he shares space with Bruce but Jason still prefers he has some pretended one when he makes calls.
He stalks to the far end of the living room to press the button, and it only rings once before picking up. Too fast to be comfortable. Dick probably is alarmingly awake and on his phone right now to pick it up this quick in this unholy hour.
Does anyone in this family actually sleep?
“Hi, Jaybird.” Dick answers, voice’s a little strained. “You good?”
“Peachy.” Jason automatically responses. He pitches his bridge of nose and cuts to the point “Listen, I found Bruce.”
A short silence. “Good. Urgh. I mean, great.” Dick is still at loss of his words. “How’s he?” But he recovers from the shock quickly. “Is he hurt? Injured? Where has he been these days? Why he never contact us or anything? He doesn’t even call Alfred these days and you know how that makes Alfred feel. I couldn’t believe it unless...” To spin into another panic attack. “Hi, Jay. Are you still there? He is not... ”
“No, no. He is alive, if this is what you mean.” Jason must stop this train wreck before it escalates into a real panic attack. Dick sucks in a sharp breathe and murmurs “thanks God” on the other end of the line.
“So...” Dick clears his throat.
“He is alive, losing a couple pounds but there is no bag under his eyes so I bet he has a better sleep in past couple months than the rest of you could ever dare to dream of.”
Jason glances at Bruce. Thinking about that, he does look like having his time of life right now if they can ignore the disassociation and pregnancy part. Oh fuck. Is the disassociation to sedate him to not disturb the pregnancy? The thoughts make Jason want to throw up.
“But there is something wrong with him.”
Jason doesn’t give Dick much time to dwell on this. He rushes through the rest. “He is pregnant. An extraterrestrial one. And the sire is Superman. Confirmed by the alien himself. An exposure to kryptonite could hurt him, or the little fucker inside him, badly. I witnessed it with my own eyes.”
Dick makes a strangled noise, “what the hell?”
“Yeah,” Jason agrees, finally someone is on the same page with him, so refreshing, “what the hell.”