Fic: A Match Made in Heaven, Chapter Six
Okey-dokey, last chapter and then the epilogue and then I'm finally done!! :-)
Title: A Match Made in Heaven
Rating: Still G.
Characters: Dick Grayson/Robin, Roy Harper/Speedy, Donna Troy/Wonder Girl, Wally West/Kid Flash, Aqualad/Garth, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Disclaimer: See Prologue.
Synopsis: See Prologue.
-
Commissioner James Gordon of the Gotham City Police Department was having a very bad day. Two-Face had broken out of Arkham (though, happily, Batman had already recaptured him), Mr. Freeze had just taken two more captives who now had only twenty-five minutes to live before they froze to death inside their icy prison, and Bruce Wayne had been nagging him almost non-stop about when his ward would be freed. Not to mention the fact that he wasn’t allowed to drink on the job. A little hard whiskey would go a long way about now.
And as if matters couldn’t get worse, Oliver Queen seemed to be heading towards him that very moment. And he had Bruce with him. Usually, the young billionaire was a good friend of Gordon’s, but right now Gordon would like nothing better than for Freeze to come randomly charging out of the bushes and encase the man’s head in ice until this whole thing was over.
As Bruce came to a stop beside him, Gordon held up a hand to forestall whatever idiotic question the man had thought up this time.
“I don’t know anything, Bruce,” the Commissioner informed him bluntly. “Now please, go sit down somewhere and try to relax. I promise to get word to you the minute we have any new information.”
As luck would have it, that was the exact moment one of his sergeants came running up to him, yelling his name.
And he had a certain junior speedster with him.
“Kid Flash?” Gordon asked in confusion. He’d seen the Kid a few times before, but last time he checked, Mr. Freeze hadn’t been anywhere near Central City. “What brings you here?”
“Official business, sir!” the young red-head replied happily, saluting the Commissioner. “I came to file a police report!”
“…Report?”
“Yeah! Me and the Teen Titans just-OWW!!”
A sizable rock fell from the tree above them and onto Kid Flash.
Kid Flash scowled up at the tree in annoyance, only to be greeted by a similar scowl coming from the person hiding in the aforementioned tree. And suddenly Kid Flash realized that that rock hadn’t ‘fallen’ at all.
Aggravated, the boy was determined to go on as if nothing had happened.
“Anyway, me and the Teen Titans just-AGH!”
This time, an entire avalanche of snow was shaken from the tree branches and onto the Flash’s sidekick. He very nearly fell over at the sudden impact.
Before any of the four men he was talking to could make inquiries or sarcastic remarks, Kid Flash glowered up at the tree and screamed at it, “ALRIGHT! Me and the Teen Titans AND BATGIRL just took care of Freeze and found the reagent!! You happy now?!”
The tree didn’t respond, but Bruce Wayne sure did.
“What? How long ago?”
“‘Bout five minutes or so, I guess.”
“Where’s the reagent now?” Ollie added.
“Wonder Girl has it, and she’s already started defrosting the guys. Hope you don’t mind…”
“Mind?!”
Gordon, the sergeant, Bruce and Ollie all made a mad dash for the lake, beating Kid Flash for about half a second before he realized what was happening and almost instantly caught up.
“How far along are they?” Gordon demanded. They were now only a few yards away from ‘the spot’. Wonder Girl was dousing the rapidly-melting ice with the reagent as policemen, reporters and spectators watched from a safe distance. Aqualad was standing next to the Amazon, and he waved at Kid Flash as soon as he noticed him.
“I dunno,” the Kid answered Gordon’s question with a shrug. “It seems like things are moving along pretty quickly.”
“Does she know what she’s doing?” Bruce demanded, pointing at Wonder Girl.
“I guess so…”
“You guess so!”
“Well, I’m sorry if we didn’t have the time to flip through Freeze Guns for Dummies before coming out here to save your kids’ lives.”
“Yeah. Lighten up, Bruce,” Ollie grumbled, elbowing the perturbed billionaire in the ribs. Bruce glared at the both of them and crossed his arms in irritation as the commissioner looked around in mild confusion.
“I don’t see Robin or Speedy anywhere,” Gordon commented. “I should think that Robin, at least, would be around somewhere…”
“I’m sure he is. Somewhere. You know how he’s all secretive and stuff,” Kid Flash smoothly replied without pause. “And Speedy’s, um, got a bit of a cold at the moment…”
“Ah.”
The four men (and Kid Flash) turned their attention back to Wonder Girl. The teenage princess was spraying the last of the curing reagent on what was left of the ice. Yet even as she finished up and the chemicals became nothing but a colorful puddle on the ground, neither Dick nor Roy moved a muscle.
Everyone waited for breathless seconds, waited to see if the reagent had worked or if two of the country’s richest and youngest heirs were gone for good.
Bruce strained his eyes, trying to determine if either boy was moving.
Aqualad bit his lip nervously.
Wonder Girl, puzzled by the lack of reaction from her friends, slowly approached them and reached up to touch Roy’s cheek.
Right before her trembling fingers made contact, Roy and Dick burst into hacking coughs.
Cameras flashed, people cheered, and paramedics rushed forward with blankets and oxygen masks for the now-shivering patients.
“Yay! They’re alive!!” Kid Flash cheered, excitedly throwing his arms around the nearest person (which happened to be the unsuspecting and thoroughly shocked police sergeant) in a celebratory hug. Gordon, Wayne and Queen all ignored the speedster’s jubilation and hurried forward to check on the two boys.
“Good work, Wonder Girl!” the commissioner exclaimed, heartily shaking hands with the beaming Amazon and the Atlantean standing beside her.
“Thank you, sir!” she happily replied.
Bruce and Ollie, meanwhile, had followed their boys to the ambulance that had been waiting for them not too far away. There were two paramedics currently on the scene-one was checking Roy over while the other was administering oxygen to Dick, who had yet to stop coughing for more than half a second. Bruce and Ollie stood close by but not close enough to get in the way.
“Do you think they’ll be okay?” Ollie asked hesitantly.
“If they’re anything like the other victims, they’ll be back to normal in a few days.”
“…Are… Are you smiling?”
“Does it look like I’m smiling?”
“…Yeah…”
Bruce didn’t bother answering that. The paramedic working on Dick had just waved him over, and he didn’t want to wait any longer than was necessary to find out if his ward was truly okay.
As Bruce squatted beside the boy, Dick offered him a weak grin.
“Hey, Bruce, what took you so long?” he queried, his voice soft but strong.
“I’ve checked him over as thoroughly as I can here, Mr. Wayne,” the paramedic explained as Bruce placed a hand on the back of Dick’s neck. The boy was still wet and cold, despite the blanket now wrapped about him. “He seems to be fine, for the most part. His vitals are a bit slow, but that’s to be expected. It would probably be wise to keep him at the hospital under observation until tonight, though. Just to be safe.”
“Of course. I was hoping you’d suggest that.”
“Aw, man…” Dick mumbled.
Concurrently, less than five feet away, Ollie was having a similar conversation with the paramedic who had examined Roy. And Roy was having a similar reaction to the idea of observation.
“I’m fine now, Ollie. I don’t need to go to-”
“I’ll decide that, troublemaker. You’re going to the hospital.”
“I’ll just go see if Tom is ready, then,” the paramedic said, indicating his partner.
As soon as the two paramedics were busy talking, Ollie turned to Roy and said quietly, “Hey, kid, uh… just outta curiosity… what was it like being in that ice cube for so long?”
“Cold,” Roy answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Well, yeah, I figured that, but could you… you know… see or hear anything through there…?”
“I could see you alright-you were a little fuzzy, but not too bad. The ice kinda muffled your speech, though…”
Ollie let out a sigh of relief.
“Oh. I see…” the millionaire began, barely able to control his smile.
Roy smiled, too, and finished his sentence:
“…so it’s a good thing Grayson taught me how to read lips, isn’t it?”
The smile slipped off Ollie’s face, which was now considerably paler than it had been before. Roy tried to keep his grin up, but it was kind of hard after seeing his guardian’s reaction to that little revelation.
“Why are you so ashamed to admit that you like me? Am I that horrible?”
“No! I mean, you’re not that bad… you have your moments…”
“Please stop praising me. You’re making me blush.”
It took Ollie a moment or two to catch on to the sarcasm, but when he did, all he managed was a sheepish laugh. Roy just kind of rolled his eyes and smirked.
“I mean it, though,” the man went on. “You… you’re okay.”
“How can you tell? You haven’t spent one consecutive week at home since Christmas.”
“Well don’t worry, kid, you’n me will have plenty of catching-up time real soon.”
“Really?” Roy asked, trying to sound skeptical but coming off as hopeful more than anything else.
“Of course,” Ollie confirmed. “At the hospital.”
Roy threw the oxygen mask at Ollie’s head. Ollie laughed again, but the paramedic wasn’t quite as happy.
“We’re ready to go now, Mr. Queen,” the paramedic informed them, carefully picking up the mask.
Roy reluctantly got to his feet. He glanced to his left and saw that Dick was also on his feet, clinging tightly to his blanket the same way Roy was. Then he looked back to make sure Ollie was still with him, only to discover that his guardian had moved away to make a phone call and that Wonder Girl had taken his place. Considering what Ollie had just said to him, this wasn’t an entirely unwelcome change.
“Uh, hey…” Roy said uncertainly. Surely Donna could see that he was in civilian clothes and she was not? Why was she approaching him as if he was in his Speedy get-up?
“You’re Roy Harper, right?” the raven-haired girl inquired.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Roy agreed, catching on quickly. Clearly Donna was up to something here… “I understand thank yous are in order-from what I’ve been told, you’re the one who got us out of that icy tombstone over there.”
The Amazon smiled at him and went on, “It was my pleasure, Mr. Harper. I just wanted to make sure you were alright and didn’t need any further assistance.”
“That’s very considerate of you, Wonder Girl. But I think everything’s okay now, thanks to you.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Donna’s smile was wider than ever as she walked away. So was Roy’s. Donna still liked him! Yahoo!
Now there was just the little matter of receiving payment from Wonder Boy-imagine! He was going to get the R-Cycle for ten days… the R-Cycle! Speedy and Wonder Girl would be going out on the town every night for the next ten days and-
POW!!
Dick’s fist exploded in Roy’s face, sending the red-head crashing to the ground in shocked (and pained) surprise.
Ollie, the paramedics, the civilians, the photographers and every other person within hearing distance turned to stare at them in shock.
And no one was more shocked than Roy Harper.
“Hey, what was that for?!” Roy demanded hotly.
“Don’t play innocent with me! I saw the way you were looking at Wonder Girl just now!” Dick shot back, eyes blazing with anger.
“Huh? What’s the matter with you?”
“You like her, don’t you?! How could you do something like this? After all we’ve been through!” Dick went on in an obnoxiously loud tone, making sure that everybody in the entire neighborhood could hear him. Roy considered getting to his feet, but with Dick currently either drunk or insane, he figured it was best to stay down and plead for his life.
“But she was just-”
“Well if that’s the way you feel, then go ask her out! See if I care!” Dick concluded in his best martyr voice. He gave Roy a quick kick in the ribs before crawling into the back of the ambulance…
…and switching on his comm link.
“Hey, Bruce? Good news. Roy and I have officially, er… ‘called it quits’.”
“Not a moment too soon. I’ll meet you at the hospital in a minute.”
--
Bruce clicked the comm link back off. He continued to stare off into the distance, not directly acknowledging the presence in the tree he was standing next to.
“You hear that?” Bruce said quietly.
The tree branches shook a little, as if in answer.
“Looks like that’s the end of it, then.”
There was a faint thump from high up in the tree.
“Trying to kill Wally was a bit excessive, though.”
“Gotta get credit where credit’s due, big guy,” the tree replied.
THE END
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Yay! \(^.^)/