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aealzx · 2 months

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It wasn’t long after the kids had rushed upstairs that Leslie arrived, and Bruce escorted her up to Danny’s room with Jason following them. It would be easier for Leslie to have them all together in the same room, and Bruce knew that his two oldest sons would be the best at handling keeping Jazz calm. She had only just met Bruce that morning, and only briefly, without speaking to each other. He didn't think she would be that comfortable with him yet. So while Leslie started stitching up his sons, having taken some time to get Danny hooked back up to heart and blood pressure monitors, Bruce turned to Damian.

“I’m going to get the collection device. Can you ask Danielle to meet me here? It shouldn’t take long,” Bruce requested, knowing that Danielle was probably roped into trying on clothes with Stephanie, but still wanting to make some progress on one of his self assigned tasks.

“Yes, Father,” Damian agreed easily, heading off to Stephanie’s room with Titus following closely behind.

Bruce left the hallway to Leslie commenting to the others that she had been expecting a lot worse, and made the trip to the Batcave a quick one. The canister had been left on the work table after he’d changed, so it was easy to scoop up and hurry back upstairs. And when he returned Danielle was there, enthusiastically rubbing Titus’ cheeks.

“Who’s a big boy? You’re a big boy,” Danielle cooed, gushing over the dog that was almost the same height as her.

“That’s Titus. And this is Ace,” Damian introduced officially, pleased with Danielle’s treatment of the dogs.

“They’re both your’s?” Danielle asked, reaching over to pet Ace as well when he got close.

“Titus is. Ace belongs to Father,” Damian responded, starting to pet them as well.

“Cool! I have a dog too. Well, he’s actually Danny’s, but he likes me too,” Danielle chimed before noticing Bruce was next to them now. “Oh. What’s up? He said you wanted me.”

“Yes,” Bruce confirmed, gesturing for Danielle to enter the bedroom with the others so that Jazz would be aware of what he was asking Danielle to do. “I had Cass take this on patrol with her, and wanted to see if it was collecting the correct substance. I thought you would be the best to confirm if it is,” he explained, briefly showing Danielle the canister Cass had given him at the parking garage before twisting the device in the middle. Pulling the top away, he revealed the ping pong ball sized glass orb inside, holding still when Danielle looked closer.

Inside the glass was a gently swirling, green liquid that was softly glowing very faintly. It was a lot more pale in color, and thinner in consistency than Danielle was used to. But without the metal barrier she could definitely pick up on the faint, familiar signature. “Oh my gosh, you found some!” she gasped, snatching the bauble from Bruce and holding it up to look at it. “Jazz, they got ecto!” she exclaimed, glancing at Jazz before looking back at the liquid. “Or at least it seems like it. Normally it’s a little… more,” she hummed, swirling the contents a little and scrunching her face slightly.

Jazz seemed stunned, not sure how these people were able to find something that she and her family had spent two months looking for. And what they had found had only been a corrupted version of it. Was this the same?

Without asking Bruce for permission, Danielle placed a finger on the opening of the bottle and tipped it over to get some of the substance on her hand. Rubbing her thumb against it, she noted that it definitely seemed to be ectoplasm, just not as concentrated as she was used to. And when she confirmed that she abruptly took a small swig from the bottle, smacking her tongue at the taste and ignoring the mildly startled expressions from the others. “Yeah, that’s definitely ectoplasm,” Danielle confirmed despite looking at the bottle again in mixed disappointment. “But it’s like… the skim milk version or something. It’s very diluted.”

The analogy made Dick snort softly, but Bruce breathed a small sigh of content. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still progress. “Much better than the Lazarus water though?” Bruce asked, holding his hand out for the bottle to be returned, glad she didn’t drink it all just yet.

“Oh, way better,” Danielle agreed with an enthusiastic nod. “That was more like rotten milk from months ago. With all the chunks and mold.”

This time the analogy made Dick gag a little, and even Bruce grimaced. “I’ll take your word for it considering I’ve never personally tried milk that was that spoiled,” he chuckled, replacing the bottle into the canister to seal it again. “It gives me a better idea on what to work towards. I’ll see if I can modify the next collection device to be able to draw a less diluted strain from the environment. How much do you think we’ll need?”

“Cool,” Danielle grinned, only somewhat excited considering it didn’t seem to be completely ready or useful yet. “Honestly, that was like… half a blueberry all together,” she gestured to the bottle. “I could get that from sitting in a graveyard around here for an hour. So it’s not a lot, but if you can manage to get more, faster, then it’ll probably be good.”

That was a significantly smaller amount than Bruce had been hoping for, but he would accept it. Like Danielle implied, it was still better than nothing. “Thank you. That was all,” he bid, letting Danielle choose to stay or not as he headed further into the bedroom, standing next to Leslie as she was finishing securing the bandage on Dick’s forearm. “How is everyone?”

“Your boys will be fine. Nineteen sutures for Dick, and twenty two for Jason. Just keep the sites clean and dry, like you’re used to,” Leslie reported, turning to face Bruce on the stool that had been provided.

“No signs of a concussion in either of them?” Bruce asked, just to make sure considering the blow Jason had taken to the head.

“Not that I can see,” Laslie confirmed, wordlessly shifting her body towards Danny and following through with the intent when Bruce nodded to allow her to continue her work. “I was hoping to see more improvement in this one compared to last night, but as far as initial vitals tell the variations in readings are within the same parameters. I’ll need to take a full blood sample to run some more comprehensive tests. Did you have something you wanted to try on him?”

It wasn’t a reassuring report, but it also wasn’t one that was unexpected to Bruce for someone who was in a self induced stasis. But something about the phrasing, and the way Leslie had turned Danny’s arm to face palm up and started to feel for a vein while asking if Bruce had anything to test on him made Jazz jump to her feet. “Absolutely not!” she shouted, roughly shoving Leslie away from Danny and standing protectively in front of him.

Bruce was quick to catch Leslie and lift her to her feet before she fell to the ground, quickly taking in Jazz’s reaction as well as what had led to it.

“Jazz?”

“What was that for?”

Dick and Jason’s questions were confused, but Jason was also wary. Neither of them liked the treatment of their doctor, but neither of them were dumb enough to not notice Jazz was reacting out of fear.

“What’s going on?” Danielle’s voice came from the hallway as left petting the dogs in favor of running into the room, placing herself between Jazz and the others and raising her fists slightly just in case. That was until Jazz grabbed her and pulled Danielle behind her as well, raising her arms to block both her siblings from the others.

“I said no,” Jazz emphasized. She was trying to glare at them, but her shaking form was far from intimidating. “If you think, for one second, that I’m going to let you experiment on my brother and sister then you have another thing coming-... W’what…?”

Bruce reacted quickly after his eyes scanned the surroundings, gently pushing Leslie behind him and holding his hand out for Dick and Jason to stay back as well. And as Jazz revealed her concerns that they were trying to experiment on Danny, Bruce took one step back before she finished, causing her to falter.

“...I would never experiment on your family, Jazz,” Bruce assured, keeping his voice more on the gentle side and avoiding trying to deny her assumption. She didn’t need to be told that wasn’t what their intention was. She needed to be assured that it would never happen, regardless of any circumstances surrounding them. “Nor would I allow anyone else to try. It doesn’t matter if he’s not a typical human, he still deserves to be treated like one.”

While Bruce’s words cleared up any confusion Dick and Jason had about the reaction from Jazz, they only served to incite confusion in the girl. She hadn’t expected him to say anything like that. In her mind he would either deny that the blood draw was for experiments, or would openly admit what they intended. Not tell her what she and her siblings and parents had been trying to prove to other people for months now. That ghosts were still human, and deserved to be treated as such.

“...W’what?” Jazz repeated, her defenses faltering.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” Bruce reinforced, slowly lowering to kneel on the floor, allowing Jazz to look down on him instead of him towering over her, keeping his hands visible. Dick and Jason supported the action by backing away more while also keeping their hands visible, giving them plenty of space. When Jazz didn’t vocally respond, Bruce continued. “We won’t take anything from Danny, or Danielle, without clearly stating what it’s intended for, and getting permission first. With Danny being unable to answer, we’ll defer to you for that permission.”

Jazz looked like she wanted to believe Bruce, but was afraid to. Her arms lowered in favor of wrapping around Danielle and carefully holding her close. She found it hard to respond, the words in her mind a jumbled mess. “I’i… I don’t understand. Everyone who knows tries to hurt him. Even our parents did… until they found out it was him.”

That was concerning to hear, but not shocking. “Those people aren’t here,” Bruce assured, shifting his hands to be offered to Jazz instead, palms up. “And you didn’t hurt him. Neither did the others,” he reminded, noting how her breath shuddered as it left while she made the connection in her mind. There were people who wouldn’t hurt ghosts just because they were ghosts. It was going to be okay. “Let’s take a minute to focus on you, okay? Maybe just sit, and take some deep breaths?”

It was only an offer, but Jazz couldn’t keep herself from collapsing to her knees, tears budding in her eyes as she brokenly stared at Bruce. Ever since they had taken her and her family in she had been afraid they were just playing at being nice. Just waiting for a time when they could start researching her siblings. But even though she’d accused them of trying it, they didn’t behave at all like she’d thought they would. It wasn’t fair. How dare he give her the chance to not be in charge for once. Why did he have to tell her it was okay to prioritize herself for the time being? How long had it been since she started telling herself it would be just a little longer and everything would be okay?

As Bruce started to visibly breathe slowly, coaxing her to do the same, Jazz broke into sobs while trying to mimic him. That little bit of familiarity that she knew from studying about how to help calm someone who was panicking was giving her something to latch onto that for once didn't just bring more self doubt and stress.

At this point Dick couldn’t keep himself back any longer, especially if Bruce was only going to sit there. So he quietly, but still audibly, approached the others to kneel near Jazz while Danielle tried to comfort her sister by rubbing her back. “Would you like a hug?” Dick offered, holding his hands out to the over stressed teenager.

“Uh huh,” Jazz accepted with a sob, nodding as she shuffled forward to accept the hug and hiccup into Dick’s shirt, a muffled apology half voiced.

“It’s okay, we understand,” Dick assured, taking over for Danielle and rubbing Jazz’s back while holding her firmly. “There’s been a lot for you to handle. And you did great. You can let us help take care of you now. We’ll keep you all safe.”

“And if you still have doubts, just remember forty one stitches and a piggy back,” Danielle consoled, trying to reinforce Dick’s statement even if it did earn a confused look from both Dick and Jazz.

“...What?” Jazz hiccuped, the confusion stilling her crying just enough to respond.

Danielle just grinned. “Nineteen,” she said, pointing to Dick, “and twenty two,” now to Jason, “makes forty one stitches. And they carried me home, even after getting cut up,” she explained, gaining a rare, warm but huge smile. “That’s more than the Guys in White ever did for either of us.”

Jazz stared at Danielle for a long stretch, finding it hard to comprehend how something so simple was so hard for her to have used as proof before that this family not only wasn’t going to hurt her family, but was going to go out of their way to help them. She felt a little embarrassed now, cheeks burning hot as she turned to smother her face in Dick’s shirt again. “...I’m so sorry,” she apologized again, her tears abating significantly.

Dick could only chuckle lightly, giving her a soft pat on the back, and another rub. “Nothing to be sorry for,” he assured again. “Like I said. We understand.”

And they did. Though Jason had to somewhat marvel at being able to see what it was like to not be on the receiving end of Bruce or Dick’s calming methods.

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Theeeere's like 5 different topics I've been struggling to get organized in my brain which led me to completely rewriting this section maybe 4 times, and actually only half of this part stayed as part of this section while another thing as added and the other half is getting shoved to the next part X'D This was after spending like 6 hours researching dialysis, what systemic meant versus sepsis, blood poisoning, learning that was completely different than poison throughout the bloodstream, also looking up plant toxin chemicals, looking a lot into alkaloids, getting so confused I asked my mom about all this stuff and learned about ricin and umbrella assassinations. @ v @ my brain started to hurt, and I info dumped with my beta reader to try and figure things out and still ended up rewriting everything. X'DD

why all that is relevant will be part of the next parts X'D

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