Chapter Text
Jason caught Dick rubbing back and forth just under his collarbones, hoodie fabric wrinkling under the pressure. When he glanced up and caught Jason’s eye he stopped abruptly.
“I’m fine.” Dick said in response to Jason’s silent, ever-present, question. There was a wry, exasperated, tone to his voice, as if it was a stupid thing to ask, as if he didn’t die less than a week ago. “Really, Jason.”
“I didn’t say anything.” Jason turned his gaze back to where he was filling Dick’s car up with gas. He wondered who Dick was trying to convince.
They’d been homewards bound for a bit now, ever since Jason managed to get Dick released from the hospital.
He sometimes debated if that had been the right move, but Dick would have broken out himself if Jason didn’t help him. In the end it was probably inevitable that they’d end up pulled over on the sides of country roads with Dick curled out the side door and coughing like his lungs wanted to crawl out of his body.
Dick meandered closer, and leaned against the side of the car.
“We ready to go?” Dick asked, flashing a smile. “I think Haley’s done exploring.”
“Sure.” Jason didn’t point out that Haley’s ‘exploring’ hadn’t gone more than a foot away from Dick at any given moment. She’d been clinging to Dick like a burr since they’d reunited after the hospital, whining and barking urgently whenever he so much as had to go in to use the restroom.
There was a lot of stuff they talked about now that they didn’t before. This wasn’t one worth bringing up, not yet at least, not while Jason’s heart rate racketed up in his chest whenever Dick left his sight.
“You sure you don’t need me to drive?” Dick pressed as Jason grabbed the driver’s side door.
Jason scoffed. “With your leg? In your dreams. Get some rest.”
Dick rolled his eyes. “All I’ve been doing recently is getting rest.”
That wasn’t exactly true. Dick was obnoxiously mobile even with his injured leg, Jason would probably have to hogtie him if he wanted to prevent Dick from wandering off like an unruly toddler.
“Good.” Jason retorted, dropping down into the drivers seat before Dick could complain any more. “You need it.”
“What I need.” Dick flopped down into the passenger’s seat. Haley hopped up instantly into his lap. “Is a cup of coffee.”
“I need coffee. You definitely do not need coffee.” Jason turned the radio up as he started up the car. The longer the drive home lasted, the more one or the other of them was stabbing at the radio to change the channel. Soon enough, all they’d be listening to would be static.
“Haley, lick my hand if you think I deserve coffee.” Dick stuck out his hand in front of her snout, which she playfully bit at.
“That’s cheating and you know it. Haley, lick Dick’s hand if he should get more rest.”
“Nooo.” Dick bemoaned dramatically. He snatched his hand away instantly, and Haley chased it.
Jason turned the radio up a little more, if nothing else to dissuade conversation. It wasn’t that he didn’t like talking to his brother, but talking meant Dick wasn’t resting, and also continually aggravated the lingering hoarse rasp in his voice.
Jason hated that rasp, like nails on a chalkboard, undercutting the lingering joy that he got to hear Dick’s voice again at all.
Jason resisted the urge to reach towards the radio again. He was just fidgeting at that point, and he’d deafen them both if he didn’t chill the fuck out.
Jason gripped the wheel, and focused on the road ahead. On the old fashioned country music coming from the radio, on Dick laughing at Haley twisting around to bite her own tail.
He didn’t hear a gunshot, or a splash, or Haley yipping in that high pitched, desperate, tone that he’d never heard before that moment.
Everything was like Dick had said: fine.
***
Haley pressed her nose against the side of his hand, and Dick forced it to loosen so she could slip her head under his hand.
Other than that, every fiber of his being was focused on coughing.
Jason had pulled over, even though Dick had tried to gesture that he didn’t have to, so Dick was half curled out the open passenger side door.
Jason didn’t say anything and he’d turned off the car too, so it was just pure silence except for Dick’s strangled inwards breaths, and the punctuating hoarse coughs. Dick hated the silence, like everything in the world was an audience to his pathetic struggle with his own body.
Haley whined quietly, settling her chin on his leg.
Dick breathed in shakily, a respite as the burning itch in his chest was finally beginning to ease slowly away.
“Sorry.” He mumbled. It wasn’t really a necessary apology, but it was the only thing Dick could think to say to break the sudden silence.
“It’s fine.” Jason replied immediately, in the unmistakable ‘it’s not actually fine’ voice. Dick didn’t call him on it, it was a mutual favor they’d been doing each other over the last few days, letting the lie sit between them no matter how many times either of them said it.
As the coughs finally eased away properly, just leaving Dick’s chest feeling the same type of tight it had felt since he woke up in the hospital, he leaned forwards and spat into the grass on the side of the road. He hadn’t really needed to, not having brought much of anything up, but it felt almost satisfying — like he was spiting the world for thinking it had gotten the best of him.
“It’s a normal side effect.” Dick bullshitted. He didn’t know if it was or not, it seemed to stand to reason that it would be. “The doctors said there didn’t seem to be any significant damage to my lungs.”
Dick paused, running his tongue over the top of his mouth. It almost tasted salty. “I’m lucky.”
“Like hell you are.” Jason scoffed. “Lucky people don’t die in their twenties.”
“Like you said, I was barely dead.” Dick swung his legs back into the car and slammed the door shut. Haley started next to him. “And I’m alive now, so thats what matters.”
A brief pause, and then the car rumbled to life again, alongside a country song about some cheating bastard.
“Right.” Jason said finally. “You’re right.”
Dick didn’t feel right, but he had to be.
He was alive and everything was fine.