Challenge Fic: Someone Else's Son
Title: Someone Else’s Son
Author:
comicshopgrl
Claim: General DCU
Characters\Pairing: Aquaman, Batman
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1291
Prompt: Atonement (T12; P58); Understanding (T07; P20)
Continuity: About three years after Death in the Family and about ten years after the death of Aquaman’s son.
Summary: Aquaman tracks a group of pirates to the Gotham docks on a very bad day.
Disclaimer: DC owns’em.
Author’s notes\Warnings: March 31st, according to the DCU Calendar, is the birthday of Arthur Curry Jr, Aquaman’s son. I meant to post this yesterday but I didn’t finish it because I am the slowest writer ever.
Even as bone gave way under his fists, Aquaman knew that he wasn’t going to feel any better.
His opponent collapsed at his feet and three more thugs came out of hiding swinging tire irons. Smiling grimly, he let the first swing connect, enjoying the flash of pain across his upper arm. It was such a relief to feel something other than rage that he drew the fight out blocking the wildly thrown punches and kicks instead of returning blows of his own.
He had followed these men from the burning wreckage of yacht. They were making a swift getaway when he had arrived on scene. Instead of immediately pursuing, Aquaman had checked for survivors. Inside the cabin were the bodies of a man and woman lying face down in a spreading pool of their own blood. The room was in shambles from the robbery and the scuffle the victims had put up. In the corner, covered in hastily thrown blankets, had been an empty bassinet. A frantic search of the boat didn’t reveal the body of any infant. Either the tiny body had been pitched overboard or the child had been taken by the pirates. He had pursued and now on the docks in Gotham, the robbers were at the mercy of the sea king.
It brought him some grim satisfaction to throw himself into the fight wholeheartedly as a swarm of heavily armed men ran from their boat to help their friends. Breaking bones and bruising the flesh of villains was fast becoming a yearly ritual for him. It almost helped him forget that in a perfect world he would have been celebrating.
The crack of gunfire and sharp sting of a bullet grazing his thigh brought Arthur back to his senses. He fell to one knee as his wounded leg gave way. The number of opponents facing him had doubled and they were heavily armed with knives and automatic guns. The leader, a tall swarthy man, smirked as the hero clutched his leg.
“Kill him,” he ordered in heavily accented English.
The men raised their guns to fire and for moment Aquaman felt a terrible hope. He closed his eyes.
“Aquaman!”
Batman’s deep timbre roused him from his fog and, opening his eyes, he watched the Caped Crusader disarm the gang with ruthless efficiency. By the time he managed to stand, all of the pirates were lying unconscious on the rough wood of the docks except for the leader.
“Talk!” Batman growled, hoisting the man up off of his feet. He hauled the babbling criminal to dangle over the edge of pier where the dark water of Gotham Harbor beat against the pylons far below them.
“Don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me. I’ll tell you whatever you want!”
“Where’s the child?” Aquaman demanded as he limped over to stand behind Batman’s shoulder.
“What kid? I know nothing about a kid,” the man sobbed as his feet kicked helplessly in the air.
“You’re lying!” Aquaman roared, his fist lashing out to hit a nearby crate. It exploded with a satisfying boom and the pirate’s bowels let go.
“Child?” Batman demanded, turning to look at Aquaman. He dropped his captive who fell into a quivering heap at his feet.
“I followed them from the wreckage of a yacht. I found the bodies of a man and woman. There was a crib but no baby. This scum,” he emphasized with a swift kick to the man’s ribs, “did something with the child and I want to know what!”
The pirate sobbed once more before his eyes rolled up and he fainted dead away.
“We won’t get anything else from him now,” Batman said. Taking a small flashlight from his utility belt, he began to board the boat. “Are you coming?”
Aquaman hesitated. Looking down at the man, he wanted nothing more than to drive his foot into the criminal’s face until there was nothing left. He wanted to take each of the men he had fought tonight and beat them until he was satisfied. The image was so tantalizing that he had the pirate captain lifted off the ground and his hook at his throat before he was fully aware of his actions.
“It won’t help.” Batman didn’t raise his voice; he didn’t have to. Instead, it held a quiet understanding that struck the sea king more fully than a fist would.
Aquaman stared blindly at the unconscious criminal in his grip. He was so damned tired. Dropping the man, he rubbed his good hand over his face. Ten years was a long time to be angry but he didn’t know any other way to feel. All he could do was go on until someone got a lucky shot in. So stepping over the bodies, he joined Batman into the darkness.
The hold of the pirates’ ship was ruthlessly organized. Crates were stacked according to size and contents. Batman lifted the top of one crate and peered inside. High powered rifles gleamed dully as the light passed over them.
“Gun smugglers, murderers, kidnappers. We should have finished them off,” Aquaman groused.
Batman didn’t reply but kept moving through the cargo hold. As he inspected another crate, Aquaman moved deeper into the ship. Darkness wasn’t an obstacle for him. Light never made it to the depths of the ocean and his people had adapted to it long ago.
A rat skittered by his foot and Aquaman grimaced. Disgusting land dwelling creatures. There was a cluster of them scratching at a container a few feet in front of him. They were working themselves into a frenzy of scratching and biting as the wood started the give way. When the first rat broke through, a high pitched mewling erupted from inside.
It took him a second to process what was happening before he started swiping at the rodents, throwing them clear of the crate. Wrenching at the lid, he pitched it aside. One black rat hissed at him, baring its teeth as it dug its claws into the belly of a tiny baby boy.
With a curse, he hurled the creature away from the baby, narrowly missing Batman. The baby stared at Aquaman with big blue eyes before bursting into loud wails. Picking up the infant, Aquaman began to instinctively rock him and hum. Wails turned to hiccupy sobs as the sea king gently rubbed the baby’s back.
“Daniel Mays, age four months,” Batman read off of a palm sized monitor. “His parents were Elliott and Helen Mays. They owned a thriving chain of jewelry stores in the Gotham and Metropolis area. They were reported missing last night by Helen’s sister after their yacht failed to dock as scheduled.”
“He’s an orphan,” Aquaman murmured as he continued to shift from one foot to another. Both men were silent as the baby continued to whimper.
It was dawn by the time the police came and rounded up the battered smugglers. Aquaman reluctantly turned the sleeping baby over to a young policewoman, brushing his fingers over the soft blonde curls as he did. He watched as she secured the child in a car seat and drove out of sight. It was some time after the police left before he could speak.
“He would have been eleven today.” Aquaman turned his head, not quite making eye contact with his companion. “I couldn’t save him.”
“No,” Batman agreed. “But you saved someone else’s son tonight. He would have been proud.”
“It’s not the same. It’s not fair.”
“It’s not but it’s all we have. That will have to be enough.” He hesitated before placing a hand on the other man’s shoulder. Aquaman shrugged it off and Batman walked away, leaving him alone with the sea and his memories.