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thejusticelounge2014-03-25 03:24 pm
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2014-03-25 03:24 pm
under the skin
"…Clark was bashed about pretty badly, Steph’s got some kind of gag reflex problem and a messed up shoulder and I’ve got a scratched up leg that could probably do with you taking a look, Bruce."
Bruce nods to the outside, looking to Kate. Candy stands, following after. “It’s not too bad. Ollie wanted me to check with you, so. Best to listen to the man who survived on an island on his own.”
Bruce leads the way into the bungalow, closing the door on Oliver and Connor and heading to the other bedroom. It is spotless, uninhabited. Bruce nods towards the bed. “Take a seat and pull your pant leg up,” he instructs.
Candy settles, pulling her trousers up to show a bandage on her leg, dark copper seeping through the sterile while.
Bruce looks down at the bandage, assessing it, before he begins to gather what he needs: metal kidney bowl, saline rinse, gauze, scissors, suturing supplies. He looks to Kate, moving the chair from the small beside table to where she is, taking a seat. Bruce speaks quietly, as he removes the bandages, doing his best not to pull at the skin too badly. “Do you want any anesthetic?”
Candy shakes her head. “I’m good. I didn’t think it needed stitches, but I’ll leave judgement to you.”
Bruce pulls the bandages off and exhales a breath of laughter. “You’re right.” He nods, and picking up the tweezers and gauze, wraps the tip of the metal tool in cotton. He bends low, to the wound, his brow knitting, and begins to clean, before he stops to gather up a syringe and gloves. “It isn’t healing well. Does it hurt?” He glances up at Kate.
Bruce dons the gloves, and sits back down, lifting Kate’s leg and placing it on his knee, so he can begin the process of debriding the wound with saline: it isn’t a pleasant experience.
Candy hisses, shaking her head. “It’s. Well, not as bad as a knife in the ribs, but it’s slowing me down for sure.”
Bruce nods again, moving the syringe across the wound and stopping when he strikes something solid inside of her wound. He frowns, looking up at Kate, the dark blue of his eyes darker. “There’s something in the wound.”
Candy frowns. “I cleaned it out. There was nothing there.” Candy leans forward to try to see. “What is it?”
Bruce brings the edge of the syringe tip to the object, the clicking of the metal against it indicating that whatever it is, it’s hard. “I’m not sure.” Bruce shifts again, stretching over the back of the chair, going for a clean pair of tweezers. He is instantly in a familiar mode, detective mode, and he scoots forward, holding Kate’s ankle gingerly in his hand as he brings the tweezers down, against the open mouth of the wound. “It’s hard.. Kate, I need to remove whatever it is for it to heal.”
Candy fists a hand in the bedsheets as she grimaces, nodding. “Yeah. Get it out. Probably need stitches after, huh?” She grits her teeth, forcing her leg to still.
Bruce nods but doesn’t say anything else. He presses the tweezers inside, glancing up at Kate before pushing it in deep enough to make the wound bubble up crimson: the fresh blood burbles over and Bruce holds his breath, moving the tweezers inside with dexterity. But, after a moment, he grits out: “Whatever it is, it’s deep.” His gaze flitters up to Kate’s face, “..breathe deeply.” Candy nods, breathing in slow and deep, mind drifting to Diana to pull her away from the pain.
Bruce sets his teeth a bit: the front and bottom row clench together lightly, as he pushes the tweezer heads in deep. They are slanted, that assists him, but whatever it is that is inside of her leg, was planted deep. Bruce lifts the saline with the hand that had been around Kate’s ankle, pulling the tweezers away to clean the blood off, before he pushes back in. He shakes his head once, making a half-grunted noise of frustration, before he pushes them back in. After another agonizing moment, he declares: “Alright, let me just..” His hands are steady, and it’s obvious then: he has been doing his very best to make sure that this is the least painful he can make it for her.
A pained noise escapes her as she clenches her teeth tight, eyes screwed shut. “Just get it out.”
Bruce pulls whatever it is—the blood covers it too much for Bruce to tell what it is immediately— out of Kate’s leg, dropping it in the kidney bowl. He sets the tweezers down on the drop cloth he’d been using, his gloved fingers gripping the thing and brings the saline to wash the foreign object of blood. Turning it over in his grasp as he rinses it, his throat works, Adam’s apple bobbing sharply as he swallows, his color going pale.
Mia sits next to Ollie and stares at Connor as well and the power of their stare will totally wake him up. Soon.
Oliver has been slumped in one of the club chairs, dragged up next to Connor’s bed. It takes a few moments before he realizes that Mia is sitting next to him now, and he reaches over to clap his hand lightly to the base of her neck, rubbing the knobs at the top of her spine. “How’s it going, honeybunch,” he says, but it’s not so much a real question as a random thing to say.
”We have no vegan food.” she responds glancing over at Oliver giving a small shrug. “I’ve looked. I mean I’m not 100 percent sure but you know… Like nothing beyond fruits and vegetables I guess. But we don’t really have vegetables yet.”
"We have enough. We’ve got tinned vegetables and baking stuff, and there’s some kosher food I think will be vegan. If it really gets dire I can wash out some flour dough and make gluten for him. And Mar’i can help us with foraging for fresh food." He laughs, slightly. "I’ve been making up menus while I’ve been sitting here, can you tell?"
Mia leans back in her seat and crosses her legs. “Well no -good- vegan food.”
"It would be unfair for Connor to eat better than the rest of his family."
Mia smiles and laughs a little. Oliver muses, “Although we don’t have any hummus. Isn’t that what vegans normally subsist on? An all-hummus diet? He’ll have to settle for rice stir-fried with grass and corn flakes.”
"Hummus and tofu."
Candy reaches for a piece of gauze to stem the blood, looking worriedly at him. “The hell is it, Bruce?”
Bruce opens his mouth and rasps: “Juvenile inci—” He corrects himself, licking his lips, swallowing again. “Juvenile lateral incisor.” He blinks and holds it up, to show Kate: a tooth, tiny and small, a child’s milk tooth, in the man’s massive, gloved hand. The root is still attached. Bruce drops it in the kidney bowl, the little thing making a high, tinny noise.
Candy blinks at the kidney bowl, swallowing. “I was scratched. With. Fingers. Hands. What. //What//.”
Bruce swallows, bringing the tweezers back to the wound, brushing it over the wound and then, a soft, quiet noise slips from his throat: it isn’t articulated through teeth and tongue. “Kate, there’s—”
Candy swallows. “Bruce. Talk.”
Bruce looks over at the room where Ollie has shouted. He looks to Kate, and her leg, unsure if his exultation is from joy or something being wrong. He brings the shaded cobalt of his gaze back to the redhead’s. “There’s something else in your leg, Kate.”
Candy runs her hand through her hair. “Get it out.”
Connor ‘s eyes do little more then flicker but he doesn’t open them. He lays on the bed that he was on, unsure of how he got there or where he was. He remembered being at The Ashram but he didn’t have to open his eyes to know he wasn’t there anymore. And he doesn’t have to hear the voices next to him but he does. He opens his eyes and takes a deep gasping breath like he had just emerged from water looking over at the other two blond figures in the room. “Mia?” He sits up like he was just waking up from a nights sleep, “Dad? What’s going on?”
Oliver looks over, then starts, violently, lurching forward in his chair. “Connor?” he says, then again, volume escalated. “CONNOR!”
Mia jumps when Connor sits up in his bed almost out of no where. “Connor!”
Oliver starts checking Connor all over, as if his waking up might suddenly have opened non-existent wounds. “Are you all right, son? You feel okay?”
Connor eyes widen a bit when his dad lunges forward and jerks back a little so he doesn’t accidentally knock their heads together but is complacent under his check-up. “I’m… confused. Where am I?”
Mia manages to wiggle between Connor and Ollie enough to throw her arms around him in a hug and pulls away with a small grin. “You’re at Cachement.”
Oliver gives up on checking and hugs Connor once Mia moves away, smoothing his hand down the back of his blond head. “The explanation for that’ll just make you more confused, to be honest.” He sits back, finally, fingers trailing as if he doesn’t want to break contact just yet. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
Connor wonders if that’s supposed to be some sort of in joke or references he doesn’t understand and just looks more confused. Then looks over Mia’s head at Oliver thinking for a moment, “I remember meditating back at the Ashram. Did something happen was I attacked?” He glances down at the cuts on his arm, though they aren’t severe enough to have been from a very serious attack.
Mia sits down back in her seat smiling because though it might seem mean she’s just happy that Connor is here. Oliver takes a deep breath. “We’re … kind of stuck here,” he admits. “A bunch of us, from the League. Some kinda blackout happened and when we woke we were all here, in beautiful downtown Cachement.” He grimaces. “You’ll get accustomed to seeing the logo everywhere. Whatever this town is, it was owned and run by the Cache group, whatever that is. Plus as you can tell from our stunning ensembles, nothing here is from later than the 70s.”
"You’ll look great in 70s clothes though."
Yeah, that did confuse Connor more. “You don’t know what happened? How long have you guys been here?” He hadn’t heard about anyone missing.
Oliver considers. “Almost a week now.” Connor guesses that maybe that wasn’t long enough to worry anyone yet. A week was hardly anything for league members to go off the radar. He frowns a little. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to react to this…”
Mia snorts, “Join the club.” Oliver pats Connor’s knee. “Try not to think about it too hard. That’s what I’m doing.”
Bruce grits his teeth and nods, setting his hand back to work, rooting around inside the wound. He pulls out another small object and it lands in the dish with a gentle clink. Then, his tweezers returning, he makes another soft noise, digging deeper. Across his brow, a fine sheen of sweat erupts over the man’s brow.
Candy winces, tears pricking unwelcomed at her eyes. “G-d. More?”
Bruce lift his gloved hand to his teeth and pulls the glove he had been using off with them. He drops it into the pile of used gauze, and brings his bare hand down to grip Kate’s ankle, squeezing lightly. “Just hold still,” his voice is low, and strained. It doesn’t make sense. That doesn’t make sense. But he continues to pull the teeth, root and all, the soft -plink- -plink- -plink- the only sound in the room. His hand goes tight on her ankle. Impossible.
Candy starts wishing she’s agreed to the anesthetic, cheeks wet and lip bloody from her teeth, biting down on it. “How many?”
Bruce grits his teeth, jaw flaring, and he half-whispers, half-croaks: “Almost a full top jaw.” Bruce brings his hand to his mouth, rubbing at his jaw before he brings it back to Kate’s leg. “Just.. Let me..” He pushes the tweezers back in, and this time, whatever he grabs, it tugs inside the wound.
Candy yells out, almost a scream. “Holy /fuck/ Bruce!”
Connor looks around the bungalow then nods his head. “Is it just our family?” He asks and resists the urge to ask is dad what he did this time, though it’s on the tip of his tongue and probably all over his face.
Oliver looks up, frowning, in the direction of the other room. “Oh yeah,” he says vaguely to Connor, missing his son’s look, “this bungalow’s sort of the medical bay. I better go see what the hell’s going on…”
Bruce grits his teeth and growls: “It’s almost done.” And he continues to pull, his hand flying from her ankle when he sees what he is pulling out of her: a molar, wrapped in a tendril of hair, long and red, identical to Kate’s particular hue, curling as it slips from inside the woman, clean of blood. Fresh smelling, like a particular brand of shampoo.
Mia laughs at Connor then grimaces as the noise from the other room happen. “Obviously not. Tons of people are here. Kyle’s here. He’s crazy now though.”
Candy pants for breath, coughing a sob. “Oh my G-d, what the /fuck/.”
Connor nods his head, “All right. I’ll be fine here.” He says over at Oliver then looks at Mia, “What?”
Oliver pats Connor’s knee again, getting up and going to the door of the room across the hall. “Bruce? Kane? You okay in there?” He knocks and then opens the door just in time to see a long lock of red hair being pulled from the woman’s pale, gaping open leg.
Bruce checks the wound quickly, not caring too much about how badly it hurts, and shakes his head, stating quickly: “It’s done, it’s done, Kate.” He begins to set about cleaning the wound, glancing over at Ollie, his face still a bit pale.
Mia her head bobs in a nod, “Yeah. He’s crazy. He keeps ranting about us not being real. He thinks we’re trying to kill him or something. And babbling about something him Mar’i and Bruce did or something. And he THREW his ring into the forest! He just tore it off and threw it! He’s nuts!” she shrugs her shoulders, “But he found you though so that’s good, and Zatanna too.”
Oliver gapes at the sight in front of him. “Kate,” he says, hoarsely. “You spoiled her nice new rattle.”
Candy is even paler than usual, if that’s humanly possible. Her eyes roll back and she passes out, the last thing through her mind before the darkness being one of disappointment in herself, that she couldn’t weather the… strange wound clear-up. Bruce snaps his eyes to Oliver, and when Kate passes out, Bruce calls into the other room: “Mia!”
Oliver shakes out of it, when Kane slumps over, and tells Bruce in a loud rush, “Connor woke up, Bruce! He’s up!”
Mia makes an angry noise and glares then looks at Connor, “I’ll be right back.” She says and comes into the room angrily because just because he’s batman doesn’t mean he can boss everyone around and he’s lucky it’s probably important. “What?”
Connor watches Mia as she excitedly tells him what’s going on in an whirlwind then she leaves the room and he just sits there even more confused about everything then he had been when he woke up. Why would Kyle have thrown his ring into a forest? Why did Mia think he was crazy now? Who was Mar’i? Why was he here? What was going on. He slumped down a bit feeling a headache coming on.
Bruce gestures to the small arsenal of supplies on the other end of the room. “I need the smelling salts from the cart, get her head elevated and get him out of here,” Bruce lists, the last bit more forceful than necessary. He doesn’t stop cleaning Kate’s wound, making sure to use her unconscious state to thoroughly clean—and check again, just to be sure—and debride the area. He sutures it closed, applying a bandage and wraps it thoroughly.
Oliver stares at Bruce, slightly hurt, but turns and goes back to Connor’s room without protest. He smiles big at his son, sitting back down again. “I know it all seems like a lot of craziness,” he says. “And it kinda is. But you’ll acclimate to it in no time, you’ll see.”
Mia glares more, “Please?” She mutters as she does what he says getting pillows under Kate’s head and handing Bruce the smelling salts, “-You’re welcome.-“
Connor shakes his head a little, “Why would Kyle throw his ring into the forest? What’s really going on here, dad? This can’t be just some camp we all happened to end up in. Who is in the other room screaming? What has happened to them?”
Bruce utterly ignores Mia, taking the smelling salts from her, arranging Kate on the mattress. He snaps the smelling salts, placing them under her nose and waving them a bit. His hand lifts, going to smooth back Kate’s hair, frowning at the clamminess of her forehead.
Candy blinks, woozily looking up. “Rattle. Spoiled. Spoiled the rattle, Bruce.”
Mia glares at the back of Bruce’s head until Kate wakes up and looks up at her blinking a few times.
Oliver frowns. “Kyle did what now?” he says, but Connor can tell from the flat, resigned look on his face that although his father hadn’t heard anything about this incident, the nature of it doesn’t surprise him. He shakes his head at Connor’s questions. “None of us know yet what’s going on, kiddo. And there’s probably some new people for you to meet — the woman in the other room, she’s Bruce Wayne’s cousin. Kate Kane. My Kate, Kate Spencer, she’s —” he stops, swallows, “she’s missing. She vanished a couple days after we got here.”
Bruce looks down at his cousin, shaking his head. “It’s alright, Kate.. Just.. ” He trails off, moving around her to begin cleaning up, disposing of bloodied gauze and tools. He lifts the kidney bowl, almost grimacing when the teeth roll inside, rattling. He looks down at them, unsure of what to do with them.
"Mia said that he threw his ring into the forest." Why would he do that? But he takes it that Oliver has no more idea that had happened then he had. He raises his eyebrows. "So, Kate was here, and now she’s gone? And I wasn’t here, but now I am."
Candy tries to sit up, stomach rolling. Kate leans over the side of the bed, throwing up over the floor and Bruce and Mia’s feet. “Oh, g-d.”
"Whoa." Mia steps back out of the way of the vomit and moves around it pulling out her water bottle and handing it over to her, "Here. Drink some of this."
Bruce also steps back, moving to get the rubbish pail in front of Kate, catching a majority of the fluid. He hands the bowl to Mia. Mia wrinkles her nose at the bowl and glares up at Bruce taking it. “I actually hate you. And I’m not being cute I mean I literally hate you.”
Oliver laughs unsteadily. “That’s about the long and short of it, yeah.” He leans forward, compulsively pressing the back of his hand to Connor’s forehead. “You seem okay. We’ve kept you hydrated and stuff since we found you—” he gestures to the IV bags at Connor’s bedside, “—and apart from those scratches on your arm, there’s nothing else. D’you remember something scratching you?”
Candy sips on the water, peering up at Mia. “Huh. You sound like me a couple years ago.”
Connor shakes his head, “Not really. But I know I didn’t have them while I was at Ashram?”
Oliver sighs, pushing Connor’s short, wheat-coloured hair back from his dark forehead. “Well, I guess that’s one more piece of the puzzle, then.” He let his hand drop and smiles wryly at Connor. “I’m sorry I can’t give you better answers,” he says. “But like I was saying to Mia — there’s some comfort in us being here all together, hey?”
Mia snorts, “Did he hand you a bowl full of children’s teeth too?” She glares over at him resisting the urge to point out her name was Robin. But she didn’t.
Candy snorts, sipping more of the water. “No, but he did almost get me beaten up before I became Batwoman. Kinda wish he hadn’t, might not be here if it weren’t for that. G-d. How many fucking teeth?”
Bruce ignores Mia some more, moving his hand to take back the bowl of teeth. He brings his hand to Kate’s forehead again, smoothing her hair back; his touch is gentle, strangely enough, and he moves away from Kate, around Mia, gathering up something to clean up what vomit was on the ground. “Twelve.”
Mia laughs a little and rolls her eyes, “such an ass.” she mutters it but it’s loud enough for everyone to hear because he is an ass. And him ignoring her isn’t making him seem like less of one but she’s happy to be rid of the bowl and crosses her arms petulantly knowing why Damian can get an attitude with adults sometimes if he has to put up with this. “Are you alright?” She asks looking down at Kate dropping her arms to her sides again. “What the hell is with the teeth what happened?”
Candy shakes her head. “I. They were just in my leg. I. After the attack the other night. Leg wasn’t healing right, Ollie chivvied me to Bruce, he. Found all those.” She frowns. “Eight less milk teeth than there’re meant to be. Twenty in a kid’s mouth.”
Mia purses her lips together and seals them tightly around her own teeth, “That is the freakiest shit… what the hell? Did one of those things bite you? Or… were you just scratched?”
Candy shakes her head again. “Scratched me. Four marks, see?” She said, reaching for the old bandage, showing the four smears of blood. “I dreamed about Diana doing it.”
Connor shrugs his shoulders, “Yes, that is true.” He gives his dad a small smile, “I’m happy to see you again. Even… with these circumstances.”
Oliver feels his chest warm up, the knot in it loosening up and relaxing when Connor offers that little smile. “You look just like Moonday when you smile like that,” he says. “I’m happy as hell to see you too, kiddo. We all are. I missed you like crazy.”
Mia scrunches her face up, “then where the hell did the teeth come from?” She shakes her head, “Everyone seems to be having weird dreams or something… I haven’t been sleeping well enough for any strange dreams though.”
Candy shrugs. “I don’t know where they came from. I. uh. I’m not sure I’l be able to put weight on this yet. Feels like a chunk of muscle’s been torn out.”
Bruce cleans up while the women speak to each other, speaking to Kate: “Take a moment before you get back up,” then, to Mia, meeting her eye: “..thank you.” He reaches, as if to pat her shoulder, but then.. doesn’t. He drops his hand and picks up the bowl, moving from the room and the bungalow. Bruce takes a deep breath when he steps outside, the bowl of teeth still in his hand. He doesn’t dare look down at them, looking around at the camp as he regains composure. He nearly shuts his eyes against the setting sun, exhaling through clenched teeth.
Connor gives Oliver a sort of good natured grimace before nodding. “I miss you guys as well.” He leans back on the headboard. “What’s going on with Kyle? Why did Mia say he was crazy?” he’s concerned of course, Kyle was one of his closest friends after all.
Oliver gives a derisive snort before he can stop himself. “It’s because he IS fucking crazy,” he says, and then it creeps back into his awareness that Connor’s fond of Kyle and might be pretty damn alarmed by this callousness. “Uh, he’s a little … he’s a little delusional. But he’s safe, and we’re taking good care of him. You can go see him later, he’s up in the medical bunker, the Raven Terminal. He’ll be glad to—” Ollie trails off, coughing, and covers, “He’s the one who found you. Him and Zatanna.”
Connor his eyebrows knit together a little bit at his fathers tone but his face relaxes a little after a moment, “I’ll go see him. Tomorrow perhaps. Maybe I’ll have my head wraped around all this by then.” Connor gives a little nod of his head, “That’s what Mia said. So, who all is here? Us, Kyle, Zatanna, Batman -and- woman. Mia said someone about someone named Mar’i?”
"Well, would you look at that." Mia says when Bruce thanks her, "You’re welcome." She responds politely then looks at Kate. "Do you… want anything? More water, or food or something?" Candy hums softly. "Just want to sleep. Think you could help me to my bungalow?"
Mia nods, “Yeah, sure. If you don’t want to stay in here.” She says with a smile and starts helping Kate off the bed. “You’re bungalow isn’t far is it?” Candy leans as little on Mia as she can bear, feeling dizzy. “It’s just a couple along. Thanks, Mia.”
"It’s no problem. You can lean on me more if you need, y’know, archer. I’m stronger then I look. And I can drag Ollie’s ass around so…" Puts her arm around her and starts out of the bungalow heading towards Kate’s.
Candy huffs a breath. “Sorry. It’s not a… Thinking you’re not strong thing. Just feeling a little… Weak. Don’t like that feeling.”
Mia shakes her head, “Ah. No. it’s fine. I get it.” she makes a motion with her hand. “I’ll find you a walking stick type thing for tomorrow that you can use, ok? If you want me to. I’ll leave it in your bungalow.”
Candy smiles softly at her. “Thanks. That sounds good.”
"Awesome." Mia opens the door for her and helps her inside to her bed. "Here you are. And you can keep that water, I’ll just get a new bottle no big deal."
Candy smiles at her, pulling the cover over her and shifting to get her leg comfortable, the sharp pain dulling to an ache. “Thank you, Mia. Really. Anytime you need a hand, you know where I am.”
Mia grins and “No prob. And you too. I apparently come whenever anyone calls me no matter what.” she says and rolls her eyes in amused way before making her way out of Kate’s bungalow and back to Connor and Ollie.
Oliver counts people off on his fingers. “All us Arrows, Kyle, Zee and Clark, Bruce, Kane, Dick, Steph and Cass, Zach Zatara, Damian and Helen Jordan, J’onn and Jason Blood, and, yeah — Mar’i Grayson. You won’t know her. She’s from the future.” Ollie grins and wiggles his fingers at Connor, /spooky/.
Connor is kind enough to humor his father with a small laugh at his last gesture, and nods his head. “All right.” He finally gives Oliver a once over, then looks around the room, “What /is/ with all the 70s decor? Have we traveled back in time?”
Oliver shrugs. “I think this town was built and inhabited during that era. But it’s not … quite right here, Connor. The food and medicine is all still good, it’s not actually from the 70s. And there’s some things that seem more modern. Basically, not much is as it seems.” He rubs the side of his face, suddenly looking tired himself. “But hey, I made us some bows! That’ll be good.”
Connor pauses a moment and nods slowly, “As long as we have bows.” he says in a flat teasing sort of voice. “Can I have something to drink?” The IV was working fine, he guessed but his mouth was way too dry and his throat was starting to hurt.
"Oh! Of course, kiddo." Ollie shifts and pours Connor a paper cup of a weak fruit punch from the jug on the nightstand. "There y’go. We don’t have a whole lot in the way of fresh around here, but hopefully what with having woods around, we can find some fruit and stuff for you."
"Hey!" Mia says bouncing back into her chair. "Have you two figured anything out yet?"
"I’m sure I’ll be fine." Connor says taking the juice and sipping it looking over at Mia as she enters giving her a smile. "Nothing we can tell you."
Oliver nods. “It’s a pretty big secret. Although Connor’s a blabbermouth and can be bribed with tofu.”
"I haven’t seen any tofu here," Mia says, and Connor serenely replies, "Then I guess you won’t find out."
Bruce nods to the outside, looking to Kate. Candy stands, following after. “It’s not too bad. Ollie wanted me to check with you, so. Best to listen to the man who survived on an island on his own.”
Bruce leads the way into the bungalow, closing the door on Oliver and Connor and heading to the other bedroom. It is spotless, uninhabited. Bruce nods towards the bed. “Take a seat and pull your pant leg up,” he instructs.
Candy settles, pulling her trousers up to show a bandage on her leg, dark copper seeping through the sterile while.
Bruce looks down at the bandage, assessing it, before he begins to gather what he needs: metal kidney bowl, saline rinse, gauze, scissors, suturing supplies. He looks to Kate, moving the chair from the small beside table to where she is, taking a seat. Bruce speaks quietly, as he removes the bandages, doing his best not to pull at the skin too badly. “Do you want any anesthetic?”
Candy shakes her head. “I’m good. I didn’t think it needed stitches, but I’ll leave judgement to you.”
Bruce pulls the bandages off and exhales a breath of laughter. “You’re right.” He nods, and picking up the tweezers and gauze, wraps the tip of the metal tool in cotton. He bends low, to the wound, his brow knitting, and begins to clean, before he stops to gather up a syringe and gloves. “It isn’t healing well. Does it hurt?” He glances up at Kate.
Bruce dons the gloves, and sits back down, lifting Kate’s leg and placing it on his knee, so he can begin the process of debriding the wound with saline: it isn’t a pleasant experience.
Candy hisses, shaking her head. “It’s. Well, not as bad as a knife in the ribs, but it’s slowing me down for sure.”
Bruce nods again, moving the syringe across the wound and stopping when he strikes something solid inside of her wound. He frowns, looking up at Kate, the dark blue of his eyes darker. “There’s something in the wound.”
Candy frowns. “I cleaned it out. There was nothing there.” Candy leans forward to try to see. “What is it?”
Bruce brings the edge of the syringe tip to the object, the clicking of the metal against it indicating that whatever it is, it’s hard. “I’m not sure.” Bruce shifts again, stretching over the back of the chair, going for a clean pair of tweezers. He is instantly in a familiar mode, detective mode, and he scoots forward, holding Kate’s ankle gingerly in his hand as he brings the tweezers down, against the open mouth of the wound. “It’s hard.. Kate, I need to remove whatever it is for it to heal.”
Candy fists a hand in the bedsheets as she grimaces, nodding. “Yeah. Get it out. Probably need stitches after, huh?” She grits her teeth, forcing her leg to still.
Bruce nods but doesn’t say anything else. He presses the tweezers inside, glancing up at Kate before pushing it in deep enough to make the wound bubble up crimson: the fresh blood burbles over and Bruce holds his breath, moving the tweezers inside with dexterity. But, after a moment, he grits out: “Whatever it is, it’s deep.” His gaze flitters up to Kate’s face, “..breathe deeply.” Candy nods, breathing in slow and deep, mind drifting to Diana to pull her away from the pain.
Bruce sets his teeth a bit: the front and bottom row clench together lightly, as he pushes the tweezer heads in deep. They are slanted, that assists him, but whatever it is that is inside of her leg, was planted deep. Bruce lifts the saline with the hand that had been around Kate’s ankle, pulling the tweezers away to clean the blood off, before he pushes back in. He shakes his head once, making a half-grunted noise of frustration, before he pushes them back in. After another agonizing moment, he declares: “Alright, let me just..” His hands are steady, and it’s obvious then: he has been doing his very best to make sure that this is the least painful he can make it for her.
A pained noise escapes her as she clenches her teeth tight, eyes screwed shut. “Just get it out.”
Bruce pulls whatever it is—the blood covers it too much for Bruce to tell what it is immediately— out of Kate’s leg, dropping it in the kidney bowl. He sets the tweezers down on the drop cloth he’d been using, his gloved fingers gripping the thing and brings the saline to wash the foreign object of blood. Turning it over in his grasp as he rinses it, his throat works, Adam’s apple bobbing sharply as he swallows, his color going pale.
Mia sits next to Ollie and stares at Connor as well and the power of their stare will totally wake him up. Soon.
Oliver has been slumped in one of the club chairs, dragged up next to Connor’s bed. It takes a few moments before he realizes that Mia is sitting next to him now, and he reaches over to clap his hand lightly to the base of her neck, rubbing the knobs at the top of her spine. “How’s it going, honeybunch,” he says, but it’s not so much a real question as a random thing to say.
”We have no vegan food.” she responds glancing over at Oliver giving a small shrug. “I’ve looked. I mean I’m not 100 percent sure but you know… Like nothing beyond fruits and vegetables I guess. But we don’t really have vegetables yet.”
"We have enough. We’ve got tinned vegetables and baking stuff, and there’s some kosher food I think will be vegan. If it really gets dire I can wash out some flour dough and make gluten for him. And Mar’i can help us with foraging for fresh food." He laughs, slightly. "I’ve been making up menus while I’ve been sitting here, can you tell?"
Mia leans back in her seat and crosses her legs. “Well no -good- vegan food.”
"It would be unfair for Connor to eat better than the rest of his family."
Mia smiles and laughs a little. Oliver muses, “Although we don’t have any hummus. Isn’t that what vegans normally subsist on? An all-hummus diet? He’ll have to settle for rice stir-fried with grass and corn flakes.”
"Hummus and tofu."
Candy reaches for a piece of gauze to stem the blood, looking worriedly at him. “The hell is it, Bruce?”
Bruce opens his mouth and rasps: “Juvenile inci—” He corrects himself, licking his lips, swallowing again. “Juvenile lateral incisor.” He blinks and holds it up, to show Kate: a tooth, tiny and small, a child’s milk tooth, in the man’s massive, gloved hand. The root is still attached. Bruce drops it in the kidney bowl, the little thing making a high, tinny noise.
Candy blinks at the kidney bowl, swallowing. “I was scratched. With. Fingers. Hands. What. //What//.”
Bruce swallows, bringing the tweezers back to the wound, brushing it over the wound and then, a soft, quiet noise slips from his throat: it isn’t articulated through teeth and tongue. “Kate, there’s—”
Candy swallows. “Bruce. Talk.”
Bruce looks over at the room where Ollie has shouted. He looks to Kate, and her leg, unsure if his exultation is from joy or something being wrong. He brings the shaded cobalt of his gaze back to the redhead’s. “There’s something else in your leg, Kate.”
Candy runs her hand through her hair. “Get it out.”
Connor ‘s eyes do little more then flicker but he doesn’t open them. He lays on the bed that he was on, unsure of how he got there or where he was. He remembered being at The Ashram but he didn’t have to open his eyes to know he wasn’t there anymore. And he doesn’t have to hear the voices next to him but he does. He opens his eyes and takes a deep gasping breath like he had just emerged from water looking over at the other two blond figures in the room. “Mia?” He sits up like he was just waking up from a nights sleep, “Dad? What’s going on?”
Oliver looks over, then starts, violently, lurching forward in his chair. “Connor?” he says, then again, volume escalated. “CONNOR!”
Mia jumps when Connor sits up in his bed almost out of no where. “Connor!”
Oliver starts checking Connor all over, as if his waking up might suddenly have opened non-existent wounds. “Are you all right, son? You feel okay?”
Connor eyes widen a bit when his dad lunges forward and jerks back a little so he doesn’t accidentally knock their heads together but is complacent under his check-up. “I’m… confused. Where am I?”
Mia manages to wiggle between Connor and Ollie enough to throw her arms around him in a hug and pulls away with a small grin. “You’re at Cachement.”
Oliver gives up on checking and hugs Connor once Mia moves away, smoothing his hand down the back of his blond head. “The explanation for that’ll just make you more confused, to be honest.” He sits back, finally, fingers trailing as if he doesn’t want to break contact just yet. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
Connor wonders if that’s supposed to be some sort of in joke or references he doesn’t understand and just looks more confused. Then looks over Mia’s head at Oliver thinking for a moment, “I remember meditating back at the Ashram. Did something happen was I attacked?” He glances down at the cuts on his arm, though they aren’t severe enough to have been from a very serious attack.
Mia sits down back in her seat smiling because though it might seem mean she’s just happy that Connor is here. Oliver takes a deep breath. “We’re … kind of stuck here,” he admits. “A bunch of us, from the League. Some kinda blackout happened and when we woke we were all here, in beautiful downtown Cachement.” He grimaces. “You’ll get accustomed to seeing the logo everywhere. Whatever this town is, it was owned and run by the Cache group, whatever that is. Plus as you can tell from our stunning ensembles, nothing here is from later than the 70s.”
"You’ll look great in 70s clothes though."
Yeah, that did confuse Connor more. “You don’t know what happened? How long have you guys been here?” He hadn’t heard about anyone missing.
Oliver considers. “Almost a week now.” Connor guesses that maybe that wasn’t long enough to worry anyone yet. A week was hardly anything for league members to go off the radar. He frowns a little. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to react to this…”
Mia snorts, “Join the club.” Oliver pats Connor’s knee. “Try not to think about it too hard. That’s what I’m doing.”
Bruce grits his teeth and nods, setting his hand back to work, rooting around inside the wound. He pulls out another small object and it lands in the dish with a gentle clink. Then, his tweezers returning, he makes another soft noise, digging deeper. Across his brow, a fine sheen of sweat erupts over the man’s brow.
Candy winces, tears pricking unwelcomed at her eyes. “G-d. More?”
Bruce lift his gloved hand to his teeth and pulls the glove he had been using off with them. He drops it into the pile of used gauze, and brings his bare hand down to grip Kate’s ankle, squeezing lightly. “Just hold still,” his voice is low, and strained. It doesn’t make sense. That doesn’t make sense. But he continues to pull the teeth, root and all, the soft -plink- -plink- -plink- the only sound in the room. His hand goes tight on her ankle. Impossible.
Candy starts wishing she’s agreed to the anesthetic, cheeks wet and lip bloody from her teeth, biting down on it. “How many?”
Bruce grits his teeth, jaw flaring, and he half-whispers, half-croaks: “Almost a full top jaw.” Bruce brings his hand to his mouth, rubbing at his jaw before he brings it back to Kate’s leg. “Just.. Let me..” He pushes the tweezers back in, and this time, whatever he grabs, it tugs inside the wound.
Candy yells out, almost a scream. “Holy /fuck/ Bruce!”
Connor looks around the bungalow then nods his head. “Is it just our family?” He asks and resists the urge to ask is dad what he did this time, though it’s on the tip of his tongue and probably all over his face.
Oliver looks up, frowning, in the direction of the other room. “Oh yeah,” he says vaguely to Connor, missing his son’s look, “this bungalow’s sort of the medical bay. I better go see what the hell’s going on…”
Bruce grits his teeth and growls: “It’s almost done.” And he continues to pull, his hand flying from her ankle when he sees what he is pulling out of her: a molar, wrapped in a tendril of hair, long and red, identical to Kate’s particular hue, curling as it slips from inside the woman, clean of blood. Fresh smelling, like a particular brand of shampoo.
Mia laughs at Connor then grimaces as the noise from the other room happen. “Obviously not. Tons of people are here. Kyle’s here. He’s crazy now though.”
Candy pants for breath, coughing a sob. “Oh my G-d, what the /fuck/.”
Connor nods his head, “All right. I’ll be fine here.” He says over at Oliver then looks at Mia, “What?”
Oliver pats Connor’s knee again, getting up and going to the door of the room across the hall. “Bruce? Kane? You okay in there?” He knocks and then opens the door just in time to see a long lock of red hair being pulled from the woman’s pale, gaping open leg.
Bruce checks the wound quickly, not caring too much about how badly it hurts, and shakes his head, stating quickly: “It’s done, it’s done, Kate.” He begins to set about cleaning the wound, glancing over at Ollie, his face still a bit pale.
Mia her head bobs in a nod, “Yeah. He’s crazy. He keeps ranting about us not being real. He thinks we’re trying to kill him or something. And babbling about something him Mar’i and Bruce did or something. And he THREW his ring into the forest! He just tore it off and threw it! He’s nuts!” she shrugs her shoulders, “But he found you though so that’s good, and Zatanna too.”
Oliver gapes at the sight in front of him. “Kate,” he says, hoarsely. “You spoiled her nice new rattle.”
Candy is even paler than usual, if that’s humanly possible. Her eyes roll back and she passes out, the last thing through her mind before the darkness being one of disappointment in herself, that she couldn’t weather the… strange wound clear-up. Bruce snaps his eyes to Oliver, and when Kate passes out, Bruce calls into the other room: “Mia!”
Oliver shakes out of it, when Kane slumps over, and tells Bruce in a loud rush, “Connor woke up, Bruce! He’s up!”
Mia makes an angry noise and glares then looks at Connor, “I’ll be right back.” She says and comes into the room angrily because just because he’s batman doesn’t mean he can boss everyone around and he’s lucky it’s probably important. “What?”
Connor watches Mia as she excitedly tells him what’s going on in an whirlwind then she leaves the room and he just sits there even more confused about everything then he had been when he woke up. Why would Kyle have thrown his ring into a forest? Why did Mia think he was crazy now? Who was Mar’i? Why was he here? What was going on. He slumped down a bit feeling a headache coming on.
Bruce gestures to the small arsenal of supplies on the other end of the room. “I need the smelling salts from the cart, get her head elevated and get him out of here,” Bruce lists, the last bit more forceful than necessary. He doesn’t stop cleaning Kate’s wound, making sure to use her unconscious state to thoroughly clean—and check again, just to be sure—and debride the area. He sutures it closed, applying a bandage and wraps it thoroughly.
Oliver stares at Bruce, slightly hurt, but turns and goes back to Connor’s room without protest. He smiles big at his son, sitting back down again. “I know it all seems like a lot of craziness,” he says. “And it kinda is. But you’ll acclimate to it in no time, you’ll see.”
Mia glares more, “Please?” She mutters as she does what he says getting pillows under Kate’s head and handing Bruce the smelling salts, “-You’re welcome.-“
Connor shakes his head a little, “Why would Kyle throw his ring into the forest? What’s really going on here, dad? This can’t be just some camp we all happened to end up in. Who is in the other room screaming? What has happened to them?”
Bruce utterly ignores Mia, taking the smelling salts from her, arranging Kate on the mattress. He snaps the smelling salts, placing them under her nose and waving them a bit. His hand lifts, going to smooth back Kate’s hair, frowning at the clamminess of her forehead.
Candy blinks, woozily looking up. “Rattle. Spoiled. Spoiled the rattle, Bruce.”
Mia glares at the back of Bruce’s head until Kate wakes up and looks up at her blinking a few times.
Oliver frowns. “Kyle did what now?” he says, but Connor can tell from the flat, resigned look on his face that although his father hadn’t heard anything about this incident, the nature of it doesn’t surprise him. He shakes his head at Connor’s questions. “None of us know yet what’s going on, kiddo. And there’s probably some new people for you to meet — the woman in the other room, she’s Bruce Wayne’s cousin. Kate Kane. My Kate, Kate Spencer, she’s —” he stops, swallows, “she’s missing. She vanished a couple days after we got here.”
Bruce looks down at his cousin, shaking his head. “It’s alright, Kate.. Just.. ” He trails off, moving around her to begin cleaning up, disposing of bloodied gauze and tools. He lifts the kidney bowl, almost grimacing when the teeth roll inside, rattling. He looks down at them, unsure of what to do with them.
"Mia said that he threw his ring into the forest." Why would he do that? But he takes it that Oliver has no more idea that had happened then he had. He raises his eyebrows. "So, Kate was here, and now she’s gone? And I wasn’t here, but now I am."
Candy tries to sit up, stomach rolling. Kate leans over the side of the bed, throwing up over the floor and Bruce and Mia’s feet. “Oh, g-d.”
"Whoa." Mia steps back out of the way of the vomit and moves around it pulling out her water bottle and handing it over to her, "Here. Drink some of this."
Bruce also steps back, moving to get the rubbish pail in front of Kate, catching a majority of the fluid. He hands the bowl to Mia. Mia wrinkles her nose at the bowl and glares up at Bruce taking it. “I actually hate you. And I’m not being cute I mean I literally hate you.”
Oliver laughs unsteadily. “That’s about the long and short of it, yeah.” He leans forward, compulsively pressing the back of his hand to Connor’s forehead. “You seem okay. We’ve kept you hydrated and stuff since we found you—” he gestures to the IV bags at Connor’s bedside, “—and apart from those scratches on your arm, there’s nothing else. D’you remember something scratching you?”
Candy sips on the water, peering up at Mia. “Huh. You sound like me a couple years ago.”
Connor shakes his head, “Not really. But I know I didn’t have them while I was at Ashram?”
Oliver sighs, pushing Connor’s short, wheat-coloured hair back from his dark forehead. “Well, I guess that’s one more piece of the puzzle, then.” He let his hand drop and smiles wryly at Connor. “I’m sorry I can’t give you better answers,” he says. “But like I was saying to Mia — there’s some comfort in us being here all together, hey?”
Mia snorts, “Did he hand you a bowl full of children’s teeth too?” She glares over at him resisting the urge to point out her name was Robin. But she didn’t.
Candy snorts, sipping more of the water. “No, but he did almost get me beaten up before I became Batwoman. Kinda wish he hadn’t, might not be here if it weren’t for that. G-d. How many fucking teeth?”
Bruce ignores Mia some more, moving his hand to take back the bowl of teeth. He brings his hand to Kate’s forehead again, smoothing her hair back; his touch is gentle, strangely enough, and he moves away from Kate, around Mia, gathering up something to clean up what vomit was on the ground. “Twelve.”
Mia laughs a little and rolls her eyes, “such an ass.” she mutters it but it’s loud enough for everyone to hear because he is an ass. And him ignoring her isn’t making him seem like less of one but she’s happy to be rid of the bowl and crosses her arms petulantly knowing why Damian can get an attitude with adults sometimes if he has to put up with this. “Are you alright?” She asks looking down at Kate dropping her arms to her sides again. “What the hell is with the teeth what happened?”
Candy shakes her head. “I. They were just in my leg. I. After the attack the other night. Leg wasn’t healing right, Ollie chivvied me to Bruce, he. Found all those.” She frowns. “Eight less milk teeth than there’re meant to be. Twenty in a kid’s mouth.”
Mia purses her lips together and seals them tightly around her own teeth, “That is the freakiest shit… what the hell? Did one of those things bite you? Or… were you just scratched?”
Candy shakes her head again. “Scratched me. Four marks, see?” She said, reaching for the old bandage, showing the four smears of blood. “I dreamed about Diana doing it.”
Connor shrugs his shoulders, “Yes, that is true.” He gives his dad a small smile, “I’m happy to see you again. Even… with these circumstances.”
Oliver feels his chest warm up, the knot in it loosening up and relaxing when Connor offers that little smile. “You look just like Moonday when you smile like that,” he says. “I’m happy as hell to see you too, kiddo. We all are. I missed you like crazy.”
Mia scrunches her face up, “then where the hell did the teeth come from?” She shakes her head, “Everyone seems to be having weird dreams or something… I haven’t been sleeping well enough for any strange dreams though.”
Candy shrugs. “I don’t know where they came from. I. uh. I’m not sure I’l be able to put weight on this yet. Feels like a chunk of muscle’s been torn out.”
Bruce cleans up while the women speak to each other, speaking to Kate: “Take a moment before you get back up,” then, to Mia, meeting her eye: “..thank you.” He reaches, as if to pat her shoulder, but then.. doesn’t. He drops his hand and picks up the bowl, moving from the room and the bungalow. Bruce takes a deep breath when he steps outside, the bowl of teeth still in his hand. He doesn’t dare look down at them, looking around at the camp as he regains composure. He nearly shuts his eyes against the setting sun, exhaling through clenched teeth.
Connor gives Oliver a sort of good natured grimace before nodding. “I miss you guys as well.” He leans back on the headboard. “What’s going on with Kyle? Why did Mia say he was crazy?” he’s concerned of course, Kyle was one of his closest friends after all.
Oliver gives a derisive snort before he can stop himself. “It’s because he IS fucking crazy,” he says, and then it creeps back into his awareness that Connor’s fond of Kyle and might be pretty damn alarmed by this callousness. “Uh, he’s a little … he’s a little delusional. But he’s safe, and we’re taking good care of him. You can go see him later, he’s up in the medical bunker, the Raven Terminal. He’ll be glad to—” Ollie trails off, coughing, and covers, “He’s the one who found you. Him and Zatanna.”
Connor his eyebrows knit together a little bit at his fathers tone but his face relaxes a little after a moment, “I’ll go see him. Tomorrow perhaps. Maybe I’ll have my head wraped around all this by then.” Connor gives a little nod of his head, “That’s what Mia said. So, who all is here? Us, Kyle, Zatanna, Batman -and- woman. Mia said someone about someone named Mar’i?”
"Well, would you look at that." Mia says when Bruce thanks her, "You’re welcome." She responds politely then looks at Kate. "Do you… want anything? More water, or food or something?" Candy hums softly. "Just want to sleep. Think you could help me to my bungalow?"
Mia nods, “Yeah, sure. If you don’t want to stay in here.” She says with a smile and starts helping Kate off the bed. “You’re bungalow isn’t far is it?” Candy leans as little on Mia as she can bear, feeling dizzy. “It’s just a couple along. Thanks, Mia.”
"It’s no problem. You can lean on me more if you need, y’know, archer. I’m stronger then I look. And I can drag Ollie’s ass around so…" Puts her arm around her and starts out of the bungalow heading towards Kate’s.
Candy huffs a breath. “Sorry. It’s not a… Thinking you’re not strong thing. Just feeling a little… Weak. Don’t like that feeling.”
Mia shakes her head, “Ah. No. it’s fine. I get it.” she makes a motion with her hand. “I’ll find you a walking stick type thing for tomorrow that you can use, ok? If you want me to. I’ll leave it in your bungalow.”
Candy smiles softly at her. “Thanks. That sounds good.”
"Awesome." Mia opens the door for her and helps her inside to her bed. "Here you are. And you can keep that water, I’ll just get a new bottle no big deal."
Candy smiles at her, pulling the cover over her and shifting to get her leg comfortable, the sharp pain dulling to an ache. “Thank you, Mia. Really. Anytime you need a hand, you know where I am.”
Mia grins and “No prob. And you too. I apparently come whenever anyone calls me no matter what.” she says and rolls her eyes in amused way before making her way out of Kate’s bungalow and back to Connor and Ollie.
Oliver counts people off on his fingers. “All us Arrows, Kyle, Zee and Clark, Bruce, Kane, Dick, Steph and Cass, Zach Zatara, Damian and Helen Jordan, J’onn and Jason Blood, and, yeah — Mar’i Grayson. You won’t know her. She’s from the future.” Ollie grins and wiggles his fingers at Connor, /spooky/.
Connor is kind enough to humor his father with a small laugh at his last gesture, and nods his head. “All right.” He finally gives Oliver a once over, then looks around the room, “What /is/ with all the 70s decor? Have we traveled back in time?”
Oliver shrugs. “I think this town was built and inhabited during that era. But it’s not … quite right here, Connor. The food and medicine is all still good, it’s not actually from the 70s. And there’s some things that seem more modern. Basically, not much is as it seems.” He rubs the side of his face, suddenly looking tired himself. “But hey, I made us some bows! That’ll be good.”
Connor pauses a moment and nods slowly, “As long as we have bows.” he says in a flat teasing sort of voice. “Can I have something to drink?” The IV was working fine, he guessed but his mouth was way too dry and his throat was starting to hurt.
"Oh! Of course, kiddo." Ollie shifts and pours Connor a paper cup of a weak fruit punch from the jug on the nightstand. "There y’go. We don’t have a whole lot in the way of fresh around here, but hopefully what with having woods around, we can find some fruit and stuff for you."
"Hey!" Mia says bouncing back into her chair. "Have you two figured anything out yet?"
"I’m sure I’ll be fine." Connor says taking the juice and sipping it looking over at Mia as she enters giving her a smile. "Nothing we can tell you."
Oliver nods. “It’s a pretty big secret. Although Connor’s a blabbermouth and can be bribed with tofu.”
"I haven’t seen any tofu here," Mia says, and Connor serenely replies, "Then I guess you won’t find out."