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“This is it, Batgirl, I don’t think I can make it.”
Cass sighed and dragged Steph into her lap by the stupid purple cape, all tattered now. “Save the theatrics…help on the way,” she said in her usual clipped tones. Sometimes even now her speech was like she was pulling sentences out of a box, using them, and then locking them up again.
Steph grinned up at her, teeth covered in blood–mostly hers– and flopped dramatically back against Cass’ lap, the back of a gloved hand laying delicately against her forehead. “Oh detestable maw, oh womb of death,” she cried dramatically.
Cass grit her teeth and applied more pressure to the stab wound bleeding sluggishly on Steph’s side. It had missed vital organs, and wasn’t spewing blood, nor was it in any correct location for an arterial hit. The part of Cass that would always be an assassin disparaged the would-be villain for such a pitiful hit, but then, Stephanie was nothing if not a moving target. Anyway, the D-list wannabe would cause no further trouble, because as soon as Batgirl had seen red on Spoiler’s costume, she’d…well…seen red. The man was alive, but badly concussed and would need urgent medical attention, which Oracle had already informed emergency services of.
“Extraction ETA three minutes,” said Oracle buzzed over both their comms.
“Beloved Oracle, I simply shan’t make it that long…oh… death! Gorged with dearest morsel of the earth.”
“It is less funny when you’ve faked your death for real…stop squirming.”
“That’s what she said,” Cass said. “I’m only a little stabbed. Just the tip.” Steph winked and Cass huffed out a breath.
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“What? That’s what she said? You said stop squirming.”
“Why…why would she say…stop squirming?”
“Duh, as she’s putting the strap in,” Stephanie grinned some more, utterly unrepentant and unafraid, face mask pulled below her chin. She was so alive, and so fragile. So completely convinced she was fine as her blood seeped around Cassandra’s gloved fingers.
“I hate you.”
“Nah,” Steph smiled. “Close though.” Then she coughed a little.
“I’m packing…”
“Yeah you are!”
“...your wound.” Cass finished. The application of sterile gauze would stabilize her for transport, at least a little. Unfortunately this would mean packing gauze into the wound itself. Stab wounds were always ripe for infection due to the puncture structure and lack of through-and-through. Cass always had supplies on her utility belt, as did Steph. Her hands did not shake as she stripped them of her bloodied gloves and found new, sterile gloves and sterile gauze packs.
“Gonna…hurt,” she said in warning.
“It’s okay baby, I like a little pain,” Stephanie said, although Cass saw the way she clenched her fists in preparation. Even now, like this, the damn idiot was still joking. Still calling her baby, but only teasing…only ever teasing. She never meant it.
Cass began to pack the wound.
“Oh yeah baby, deeper,” Steph bit out through gritted teeth.”
“No jokes…don’t call me baby.” Please call me baby, I want to be your baby. But Stephanie Brown was, against all odds, sunshine and jokes, even when she was having an extremely painful wound poked at, and Cassandra had been meant only to cause pain.
“Not even a little,” Steph pouted around a grimace. “I could try something else, sweetie pie, angel, princess. I can call you gorgeous.”
It was too much, that final, tantalizing sentence, as Cass taped the final gauze pad over the wound, it quickly soaking with blood. Gorgeous. Ever since she’d stopped being an assassin her iron-clad self control had slowly waned.
“Hey, that one got a reaction, promise I won’t call you baby anymore, gorgeous.”
Cass bent over the blonde in her lap, dragging the cowl of the Batgirl suit off her head and glaring down at Stephanie, who was apparently utterly unrepentant. One blood covered hand gripped the back of Steph’s purple Spoiler hood, the other grabbed her kevlar-wrapped shoulder, and Cass hauled her into a kiss.
It tasted like blood and the peppermint chapstick Steph bought around Christmas and hoarded all through the year.
A gentle groan left Steph’s lips and Cass pulled away, horrified. She had acted impulsively and hurt her injured friend even further, not to mention the boundaries crossed.
Oh, nevermind. That was not the body language of someone who was hurt. Steph looked thrilled, a blush painted across her cheeks, visible even in the dim light. In the distance Cass heard the sound of the Batmobile, it would be at their location in seconds, the Batcave would be ready for them with medical equipment but…
But Stephanie’s strong hands had grabbed the neck of the Batgirl suit and were hauling Cassandra back in for a kiss that wiped her mind like she was a sleeper agent. Just one word from Steph could activate her, she knew.
“ Gorgeous ,” Steph murmured against her lips.
A cough came through the comms. Babs sounded absolutely delighted, even when she sarcastically said, “It may have escaped your notice, Spoiler, Batgirl, but extraction has arrived.
Fuck it. Fine.
Stephanie was taller and broader than her, but Cass knew all about leverage. Then again, she also trained relentlessly. She didn’t even need leverage, she just scooped Steph up, bridal style, extricating herself from perfectly red lips even as her blonde charge wound arms around her neck like an octopus.
“Medical assistance…then talk.”
“Anything for you, sexy,” Steph sighed. “Do I get kisses if I’m a good girl?”
Internally, Cass groaned. She was simply not this strong. Who was?
Laying Stephanie down across the back seat of the Batmobile felt terrifyingly intimate. Even more so because Steph simply didn’t let her go, so she crouched in the footwell as Steph shamelessly pulled her in for another kiss.
“Um,” said Tim, audibly horrified. “Bruce was updating the–Steph can you please stop kissing my sister for like thirty seconds and someone close the damn door?”
Cass slammed the car door and looked at Tim, eyebrow raised. He drove away like an F1 driver. “Bruce was updating the self-driving function, so you have a chauffeur. Which means please keep it PG thirteen back there.”
“Last I checked you aren’t thirteen,” Steph griped.
“No, but you’re my sort-of-ex and my sort-of-sister and none of us want me to be part of this.”
“Fair enough,” Steph sighed. “I’ve waited years, I guess I can manage ten minutes.”
“An hour…” Cass countered, even as her head rang with years? “Hour at least…need medical attention.”
“Fuckin’ fine,” Steph sighed. “But I’ve been wanting to smooch you basically since we met.”
“Wasn’t I…trying to kill you…for some of that?”
“Yeah? And?”
Tim coughed from the driver seat, drifting around a turn that would send a lesser car with a lesser driver into a fiery crash. “And weren’t we kind of, ya know, on again?”
“As if you weren’t making eyes at Conner Kent, rich boy.”
Tim shrugged, apparently unhurt and unbothered, simply extricating himself from the situation.
“I guess what I’m trying to say, Cassie,” Steph said, using the nickname that Cass let only her get away with. “Is that I’ve been flirting with you for ages, hoping you’d get the hint. What finally did it?” She wrapped a hand around Cass’s wrist, not gripping, just holding.
“Gorgeous.”
“I know you are but what am… oh, that was all it took? I should have called you gorgeous like a year ago.”
Cass bit the pillow of Steph’s lower lip, that stupid motormouth was always taunting her and now she was allowed to taste. A hand found its way into silken blonde hair, the effect only a little ruined by the mud and blood in it. Cass chased all traces of peppermint and blood from Stephanie’s mouth, finding the elusive taste that was just her, hearing her breathy little gasps as Cass barely gave her a moment to breathe.
She registered the familiar series of turns that brought the Batmobile into the Batcave, but only pulled away when Alfred was actually opening the door of the car to lift Stephanie, protesting childishly, away to the medical bay.
Bruce walked over, looking very tired. He’d cracked some ribs recently and they were, as a family, holding him hostage until they healed. He had on Superman pajama pants, a gag gift from Jason that he’d not seemed to catch on was a gag.
“I guess congratulations are in order,” he said, over his mug of coffee, handing her one as well.
“...what?”
“You and Steph.”
“You could tell?”
“World’s best detective, remember? Your mouth is covered in blood, as are Steph’s teeth, and unless you’re both actually turning into vampires…”
Ah. Cass sipped her coffee.
“Also I heard you over the comms.
Right.
“For what it’s worth, I think you two are great together,” Bruce said.
Barbara spun her chair around, pulling back from the Batcomputer. “Yeah, brooding bat-themed brunette and a sunny hero in a brighter colored outfit, really has a certain vibe to it, ya know.” Babs glanced pointedly at Bruce’s pants.
“You’ve been awake too long, Oracle,” Bruce sniffed, walking away stiffly, and, Cass could tell, not just because of his ribs. The tips of his ears were pink.
“Do you really…” Cass began, unsure if she could articulate what she was asking.
“Yes. It’ll be hard as hell, but yeah, you two can do it.”
Cool. Good .
“But you two can't, ya know, do it, until that stab wound has healed.”
“Barbara!”