Chapter 56

  Rachel woke up at 4:30AM and realized that Kara wasn’t in bed anymore, it took a few seconds for her to register the sound of Kara retching in the bathroom, Rachel jumped out of bed and rushed into the bathroom, hitting the switch as she entered, Kara was kneeling in front of the toilet with her head over the bowl,

  “Are you okay?” Rachel asked, ”What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t feel good, everything hurts” Kara answered, before dry heaving,

  “I’ll go get Barbara, she’ll know what’s wrong” Rachel said, the smell of vomit was beginning to assault her nose, she rushed out as it began making her feeling ill.

  Rachel returned a few minutes later with Barbara right behind her, Kara was no longer over the toilet and had slumped back against the small cabinet under the sink, her head tipped back and clutching her gut tightly, tears streaming down her face.

  “Kara, what’s wrong?” Barbara asked, leaning down beside her,

  “Everything hurts, I feel really sick , I haven’t been feeling well since that whistling started” Barbara gave Rachel a confused look, but she just shrugged,

  “What whistle?” Barbara asked, returning her attention back to Kara,

  “You don’t hear that shrill noise?” Barbara shook her head, she carefully placed a hand against Kara’s forehead to find it ice cold,

  “When did this start?” She asked,

  “I don’t know, when I woke up” Barbara looked over her shoulder to Rachel,

  “Go get the noise cancelling headset off my desk” She instructed, Rachel nodded and left the room, Barbara used a thumb to wipe a tear off Kara’s cheek,”We’ll see what we can do about the noise, while Rachel gets those we’re gonna get you into a warm bath, okay?” She asked, nudging her shoulder a little,“Yeah” Kara nodded,

  “Dr. Thompkins is coming by tomorrow to checkup on Artemis, I’ll get her to check you out first, I’ll call her tonight if we can’t get this under control” Barbara started the bath.

  After the bath Kara’s body temperature was back to normal and there were able to dull the noise, which seemed to reduce the rest of her symptoms, an hour later she was resting in the infirmary, and an hour after that Barbara and DIck were standing on the helipad 45 floors above the street, at 6:40AM the Batwing touched down and Batman climbed out,

  “What are you doing here?” Barbara asked,

  “I need to talk to Kara” Bruce answered,

  “She’s not feeling well” Dick explained, Bruce grunted,

  “I thought as much, which makes it more important that I speak with her” He said, Dick and Barbara shared a glance,

  “Okay, we’ll take you to her,” Barbara said, heading back towards the elevator.

  Kara was curled up on the bed with Rachel sitting in a chair nearby softly rubbing her back, Bruce entered the room behind Dick and Barbara, Dick saw him glance at Rachel for a brief second before looking away and avoiding her completely,for that second Dick saw a flash of something in his eye, then Dick noticed Rachel’s reaction, the last time Bruce and Rachel had been in the same place was at Wayne Manor months before, Bruce had been furious as Alfred was unloading Rachel from the car, Dick had assumed she was unconscious and therefore unaware, though he was now less sure as he watched Rachel shake while seemingly unable to take her eyes off Bruce.

  Bruce pulled back his cowl,“Kara” He said, his voice low, Kara looked up,

  “What are you doing here?” She asked,

  “I need to take you somewhere” He answered,“Where?” Kara she asked,

  “Something Kal-El wanted you to have” Bruce said,”It began emitting a signal a couple hours ago and I was finally able to pinpoint it,”

  “Okay” Kara agreed, Barbara helped her onto the edge of the bed,

  “You sure you’ll be alright?” Barbara asked, Kara nodded,

  “I trust him” Dick noticed Rachel’s face change to a look of rejection,

  “Okay” Barbara nodded, a few moments later Kara was in the back seat of the Batwing.

  Once the plane was gone Dick and Barbara went back down to the hallway outside her room,

  “I sent Rachel to bed” Dick said,

  “Hopefully she can grab a few hours of sleep before morning” Barbara agreed,

  “I think you should talk to her tomorrow” Dick suggested,

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  “About what?” Barbara asked,

  “She didn’t react well when Bruce was in the room, I want make sure she’s okay” Dick answered, Barbara’s brow furrowed,

  “I think it would probably be better if you talked with her about that” She responded, Dick shook his head,

  “She won’t want to talk to me, you’re a girl, she’ll feel more comfortable talking to you” Barbara smiled,

  “Are you serious? Dick, you literally carried her out of captivity, then you were the first person to comfort her when she woke up, you don't think she worships you?” Dick stared at her, struggling to come up with a response, clearly the thought had never crossed his mind, “We all respect you, but I think Rachel would follow you off a cliff,” They stood silently for a minute until Barbara spoke again,

  “I’m tired, I’m gonna take the medication for my ear, can you get me a glass of water?” Dick nodded, he retrieved a glass from the kitchen and returned to her room, Barbara tossed back a palm full of pills.

  They stripped off their clothes and climbed into bed, Dick lay on his back and Barbara crawled on to top of him, her head resting against his chest, he felt her take 3 slow, intentional breaths and almost instantly fall asleep, lightly snoring, Dick laid awake letting his mind wander, he could feel every point of contact between their naked bodies, he could feel her body, simultaneously hard and soft, her cheek pressed against his chest, contrasting her her jawline and checkbone, her arms raised above her head, her strong, smooth forearms rested on his shoulders, her small, delicate breasts pressed softly into his ribcage, her own ribcage, and rigid, muscular stomach lay across his stomach, her pelvis trapping his member between their warm bodies, her legs weaved in and out of line with his.

  For a while Dick admired the natural curves of her body, tracing the many scars that marked her body with the tips of his fingers, her warm breath against his skin, the feeling of her silky hair across his chest and shoulders and pelvis, eventually his mind found its way back to the night he had pulled Rachel from the underground lab in Star City, he remembered wrapping her up and carrying her, she had felt small, helpless, fragile, he couldn’t help comparing the girl crying into his chest as he assured her everything would be okay, with the girl who just days earlier had been battling aliens, he spent hours bouncing between thoughts, his mind racing, until Barbara woke up again and helped him clear his mind.

  On the same day, at 7:30AM, in Florida, VIncent Doll sat behind his desk, completely unaware he was about to die, in the outer office he had 2 bodyguards stationed, 1 was currently a single pace from the double doors to the office, while the other had taken the armchair directly to the right of the door.

  The doors to the outer office burst open and a girl wearing a black gi charged in, the standing guard went to draw his pistol but was cut off when a small, circular, spiked disk struck his neck, blood immediately began spurting from the ruptured vein, the second guard shot out of the chair, he jerked his gun from its holster, all while putting himself between the assassin and the doors, he brought his pistol up but never got a chance to fire, the girl pushed off the ground, flying past his outstretched arm, she pressed her knee together and they collided with the guards neck, he was shoved backwards and landed hard on the carpeted floor, a second after his body hit the ground his larynx were crushed, his jugular vein and carotid arteries split, and the blood vessels burst, he died instantly, the assassin stood and retrieved the guards weapon.

  Vincent hadn’t been immediately concerned, he heard the doors outside fly open but convinced himself that there were many reasons for someone to be rushing in, perhaps a young, new guard was looking to make a good impression by being early for their shift, or maybe 1 of the on duty guards had ordered food and the delivery driver was running late, this reasoning meant that he was still sitting behind his desk when the doors burst open, and before he knew what was happening the assassin was standing on top of his desk, the sleek metal barrel of a handgun pointed directly at his face.

  Past the barrel was the long, lanky arm of a teenager who hadn’t quite grown into her limbs yet, the sleeves and legs of her gi were tied tightly around her thin wrists and ankles, she wore padded shoes meant to dampen her steps, and black gloves, she had a hood on that concealed most of her face, aside from a slit that was narrow enough to hide her face without restricting her sight in any meaningful way.

  She squatted down on the desk, keeping the gun trained on him,

  “Mr. Vincent Doll, we need to talk” Her voice was muffled by the hood, and it was clear she was intentionally deepening her voice, but Vincent could still understand what she had said, and could even detect a faint Russian accent,

  “Who are you” Vincent demanded, outraged,

  “Not the way this works, Mr. Vincent” she fired a bullet into his thigh before returning aim at his face, “You’ve been very naughty, leaking to Treasury from what we hear, did you really think that was gonna work? Get yourself a cushy plea deal, well, now you’re gonna tell me everything you told them…”

  Her intimidation was interrupted by the buzz of her phone,

  “Damnit” She muttered, she kept the gun trained on Vincent as she used her left hand to fish a cheap phone from a hidden pocket in her gi, she checked the screen and her eyes flashed with irritation, she pulled her hood off and long, dirty, blonde hair fell free, she flipped the phone open and put it to her ear,

  “What do you want, William? I’m busy” The foreboding assassin was gone in an instant, replaced with a teenage girl basically throwing a fit over having to answer a phone call.

  “It’s me baby girl” Slade’s voice was calm over the speaker,

  “Slade, aren’t you supposed to be locked up for another month?” She asked, her voice much higher than it had been a moment earlier,

  “Plans changed, we need to talk” Slade responded, Tara glanced at Vincent,

  “Yeah, I’m kinda in the middle of something right now” She answered,

  “I want to talk to you in person anyway” Tara watched Vincent’s hand inch its way toward 1 of the desk’s drawers,

  “Well, you’re gonna be waiting awhile, cause, I’m spending the rest of the week on the beach” She said, Slade sighed,

  “Plans changed” Was all he said, Tara stomped her foot on the wooden desk,

  “No, no, that’s not fair, you said I could, I already bought a bikini” She whined,

  “Plans change, I don’t care to have you hanging out half naked on a beach anyway, toss the bikini and get back here, asap” Slade instructed, his tone stern.

  There was a loud bang and VIncent began wailing, his fingers had just made contact with the drawer handle when Tara had pulled the trigger,

  “Shut the fuck up, I’m on the phone you stupid asshole” She screamed,

  “Tara, control your temper” Slade scolded, Tara looked like she wanted to scream but instead she let out several frustrated huffs,

  “Fine, Vincent, please stop whining because I shot your balls off because you were being stupid” Tara said, in a mocking tone, before returning the phone to her ear, “This isn’t fair, you let Rose wear a bikini, you don’t even know if it’s that revealing” She pouted,

  “Rose’s mother lets her wear a bikini, that’s not my choice, nor is it important right now, this is the 1” Tara glanced around, and put the phone closer to her ear,

  “Really, you mean it?” She asked, quietly, her voice soft and expecting,

  “I promise.”