Who: Thomas, Luke, Roger, Audrey, and a guest starring Mockingbird What: In the hospital waiting room Where: Hospital When: During Max's delivery Warnings: None
They’d asked Thomas to wait in a soothing pink waiting room that did absolutely nothing to soothe him. The initial plan was that he stay with Max, and he would have preferred it, but he was absolutely no help. Thomas wasn’t accustomed to caring about anything quite so much, and hours and hours of being absolutely helpless in the face of it was apparently just beyond his capability. Considering he was so pale that it looked like he might pass out at any moment, it was no surprise they gently ushered him back into the waiting room, where a rare clear sky was just outside the long window.
Grim, expressionless, and almost entirely unresponsive, Thomas sat in one of the corner chairs with his back to the wall and focused on just existing to keep himself from worrying himself into actual unconsciousness. The waiting room was private and otherwise empty of anyone but “immediate family” and hospital staff, but Thomas was watching anyone that entered that space with narrowed vision, almost hoping that someone would try to make good on the threat to Corbinian just so he could have something active to do.
Luke had always been out of his depth when it came to Max and the baby, but when it came down to it he was worried about the both of them; and if he was concerned then he could only imagine what kind of state Thomas would be in. It was only right that he be there, even if he couldn’t do a single thing to help. Since he was recognized as falling into the “immediate family” category there were no problems with being allowed into the waiting room, yet his steps were slow and hesitant as though he still wasn’t quite sure if he belonged there.
The only reason Luke spoke at all - an almost too loud “Hey” - was to alert Thomas to his presence as someone familiar rather than a stranger before he dropped into a chair, a little too focused on the view the window offered. He didn’t say anything, since he didn’t know what to say in the first place and Thomas didn’t look like he was in the mood for conversation anyway. Hopefully he was accomplishing something, though, even if he was just sitting there.
Roger arrived a couple minutes after in true fashionably late form. Hospitals were an uncomfortable place to begin with, but people always looked to him to relieve the tension, so he tried to keep his spirits up. He knew Thomas was going to be a wreck until the whole shenanigans were over and the least Roger could do was just be there for him. Hell, he didn’t even take this opportunity to flirt with some nurses. Girls loved a guy who was supportive of his friend, but still free enough to go on a date later that night. Denying himself that was true dedication to friendship. Or brotherhood. Or whatever the hell it was that kept him so loyal.
“Sup.” Roger gave a nod to Luke and then took the closest seat. His first impulse was to ask the nurse all the information he could get out of her for Thomas, but he knew better. He had never seen Thomas this nervous before and figured that any wrong move would just make it worse. The last thing Roger needed was to be kicked out of the waiting room for just trying to help.
They were several hours in, and despite all the preparations and the reassurances that the labor would probably be long and difficult because it was Max’s first child, Thomas didn’t see how hours of protracted agony could not be his fault. The vision only made the feeling of total helplessness worse, and he went on full guard when Luke first approached, and it was a mark of how nervous he was that it was totally obvious. The voice, of reassurance made all that tension collapse, however, and he was so grateful that Luke was there to tell him if something was wrong that he couldn’t speak.
Thomas hadn’t thought to notify anyone until he’d already gotten out of the labor room, but Roger’s voice struck such a note of surprise that he sat upright and stared at him. He and Roger had been--colleagues--for a long time, but never out of a mask. Thomas thought that Roger entirely disapproved of everything he did that wasn’t related to the Bat, and his presence here was a type of approval that Thomas, at the moment, didn’t think he deserved. He wanted badly, however, and actually smiled at the other man’s vague outline. “You know Luke?” he asked, drawing an upright palm in the air in a line connecting the two other men.
Admittedly Luke was a little relieved that Roger showed up, since Thomas could likely use all the support he could get and the fact that he was there despite their multiple arguments meant a lot. The smile made that much obvious, and considering the circumstances that in itself was somehow reassuring.
He glanced at the other man and shrugged before he remembered that Thomas wouldn’t be able to see it. “Kind of. We’ve met,” he added. By this point he was well aware that Roger knew he was Robin, and he also assumed it was no secret that Luke knew he was Nightwing.
Masking the true phone number wasn’t a challenge, not for Mockingbird. So when the call came through to Thomas’ cell phone it registered as a number he knew very well: Max’s. The familiar ring (everyone had a unique, but still boring electric tone ring that Thomas had set for each) made Thomas physically twitch, and he dug the phone out of his pocket.
Once Thomas picked up, there was a slight pause as the software kicked on. The voice was female and robotic, too flat to be a simple voice changer, more fluid than a standard text to voice program would normally generate. “Hello Bat. I hear congratulations will be in order soon.”
Thomas’ expression spasmed. This, on top of his concern for Max, was too much. He went stock still. “Who is this?” He jerked one hand toward Luke and said, in a voice all agony, “Go make sure she’s okay. Now.” ‘She’ was so obviously ‘Max’ that he didn’t even bother elaborating.
“Max is fine,” the voice said on the other end, unperturbed that the command wasn’t directed to her. “As is Amanda. Your little family is safe and sound. And it can always be this way. Nothing ever has to happen to them.” Even if there were attempts to be reassuring, her voice sounded just as uncaring as her words often read in her written messages.
Something new entered Thomas’ voice. It was a dark coolness that comes when you’ve had death come close often enough that your life doesn’t flash before your eyes anymore. “Is this a threat?”
“It doesn’t have to be. It can be nothing. As long as the Bat stays off the streets, then it will always be nothing. No threats to anyone, least of all your children.”
In the same voice, Thomas replied, “This is a threat, then.”
“So the Bat wants to have the city?” The slightest raise in inflection before it drops once more. “Then Thomas Brandon will have nothing.”
“You can’t take away what I have.” Thomas was still, but for the first time his eyes moved to the men watching him, though he made no other sign.
Roger didn’t pay attention to the phone call at first. He was too busy being polite and trying not to think about what a baby delivery really entailed. Then he saw a motion towards Luke from the corner of his eye and heard a drop in Thomas’ voice. No, not this shit. Not now. Oracle had him investigate a man who was threatening masks and from what he could hear from the conversation, it was the same asshole.
Reaching out to grab Thomas’ shoulder, Roger whispered, “Mockingbird.” He didn’t know if the threat’s name was common knowledge between masks by now, but at least this way he could show some solidarity. He then gave a sort of nod. The kind that seemed to encourage his friend to give in to what Mockingbird wanted. At least for now.
Luke didn’t need to ask who was on the other end phone, since it was obvious in Thomas’ tone of voice as well as his actual words. Quinn and Bly had already been threatened by the mysterious Mockingbird, and if their goal was to get the masks off the street then it made sense that they’d all eventually be contacted. The timing couldn’t have been worse - or better, if one looked at it from Mockingbird’s perspective.
Luke was confident enough that Roger could handle the situation while he went and checked on Max just to be sure. The hospital staff assured him she was fine and Audrey was outside the delivery room, so he cautioned her to be especially careful concerning who was around Max without elaborating before returning to the waiting room. “She’s fine,” he said, still wary of whatever was being said over the phone.
"Are you truly willing to test that?" Mockingbird's voice cut in. "Gamble your daughter’s safety against your skills? Especially now.” There was a sound of disapproval, a hitch in static akin to a cluck of the tongue. She hinted at a limitation, though pressed on before she could elaborate. “Luke was taken from you once. Right under your nose, remember? It can just as easily happen again. Why risk either of their lives when all you have to do is hang up the cape?”
"That would not keep them safe. If you know as much as you say you know, you will understand why I would know that." Abruptly, Thomas sat down. It was a heavy movement, though his voice was still steady.
Roger gripped the sides of his chair like he was going to stand up and start looking for this Mockingbird fellow himself. This whole thing felt like an action movie he saw once where the president’s daughter was taken hostage and his cabinet members waited anxiously for a verdict on what to do. Maybe it was a video game. Maybe it was both? He couldn’t focus. “Don’t fight it.” Roger murmured like they were thrown in a room with a snake about to strike. The Bat was going to be out of commission anyway for a week with this whole baby nonsense. Roger, Oracle and the rest could find Mockingbird in that time.
Luke personally had no intention of agreeing to any of Mockingbird’s demands when and if his time came, but it wasn’t as though the Bat was very active at the moment and he wouldn’t be for a good week or so afterward depending on the circumstances. Hopefully by then this Mockingbird could be found and stopped, along with who - if anyone - they worked for. Roger was likely thinking the same thing. So he remained standing and waited, opting to stay quiet. He’d read Bly’s e-mail; Mockingbird wasn’t going to negotiate.
“Maybe not,” Mockingbird conceded. She had her orders, and promising safety wasn’t exactly part of them. “But continuing to wear the cowl will draw targets on their backs. That much I can guarantee. So you can keep your pride, or you can keep your children. It’s up to you.” A quick pause and then nothing but dial tone.
The phone dropped slowly from Thomas’ ear, loose in one palm, and his spine bent even over his knees, gaze low. Roger’s words were one more rock in the avalanche, and they washed past Thomas without him noticing the extra weight. Thomas did not think of himself as out of commission, nor obsolete. He knew he was a target, and he understood that Max was too, but increasingly he realized that Max brought herself danger even more fervently than Thomas did. Whatever the voice on the phone said, it was not Thomas that was solely responsible for Amanda’s safety, nor he that was putting her into danger. It was the same with Luke, who would go his own way come hell or high water. “What do you know about this Mockingbird?” It was hard to tell who he was asking, staring unseeing forward with only the action, not the content, of concealed thoughts visible on his brow.
It wasn’t hard to guess what the conversation had entailed based on Thomas’ current posture and the parts of it Luke had managed to hear. The only solution was to find Mockingbird before any threats could be carried out. “Not much,” he admitted with a glance at Roger. “They know who we are and they’re using our personal lives to threaten us into staying off the streets.” Luke shifted his weight from one foot to the other and sighed. “I know two people have already been contacted, aside from you, but eventually it’ll be all of us.”
Audrey had finally left Max’s room when a few nurses came in to check on her. She assumed that Max would be safe with them, even with her cryptic warning not to leave the hospital alone and Luke’s further warning not to let anyone who shouldn’t be there into the hospital room. She walked out into the waiting room in time to hear Thomas’s question and Luke’s reply.
“Who’s Mockingbird?” Audrey asked. She was exhausted - she’d barely slept, spent most of the last day at the hospital, and was in no mood to be left out of the secret big kids club right this moment. “Does this have anything to do with Max needing watching and me needing an escort home?” She looked to Luke - and there was no way she was going to let that comment about the ‘streets’ or ‘all of us’ slide, even if she let it go for the moment.
“I got the chance to scope out-” Roger was at half whisper when Audrey walked through the doors. He visibly jumped back a little in his chair, having never met the girl. He could see the resemblance between her and Max, but didn’t want to make any assumptions. Either way, he knew that she was keeping this whole masks business out of Audrey’s reach the best she could and Roger had to do his best to respect that. He coughed, shooting the girl a look like she just disturbed an important club meeting.
Thomas focused on taking one thing at a time. He got up as the blur of Audrey approached, now recognizable because he had watched her pass a few hours ago. “Roger. Go find the healer you found. Ask her to come here. I need to be functional now.” Screw risk. He didn’t even think of hiding that particular aspect of the plan from Audrey. “Luke, can you stay with Audrey?” It wasn’t really a question; he was already walking away, moving as if he could see from the memory of the room, a step around Audrey’s voice, a hand brushing the wall, and he was around the corner and heading toward Max.
Luke glanced up sharply when Audrey entered, unable to keep a brief flash of dismay out of his expression at her question. He knew that look too well to think that she was just going to forget what she’d heard, even if she let it go for the time being. “Uh...” He had no idea how to explain Mockingbird without either revealing too much or freaking her out, but he was saved from an immediate response when Thomas got up and started moving. “Okay,” he agreed. despite the fact that he was already rounding the corner; he realized that it would be pointless to even attempt arguing with him. “I’ll stay with her.” That reaffirmation was directed towards Roger, who he assumed would try to find the healer as per Thomas’ request. He knew Audrey wouldn’t let him avoid her questions for much longer, but even a couple of minutes to think up a response would be helpful.
Audrey’s eyebrows shot up at the mention of a healer. “We’re getting a healer?” she asked, but the question was directed to Thomas’s receding back. She turned around again, looking from Luke to Roger. “Friend of the family?” she asked, dry. This whole secret club thing was really starting to grate on her nerves.
“Something like that.” Roger cracked a wary smirk and got to his feet. He had to call Oracle. “Nice meeting you, Audrey, but your sister wouldn’t be happy with me if I spent more than a couple seconds talking to you.” Not that Max was happy with Roger in the first place, but the last thing he needed was for her to worry about him chatting up her little sister. He gave a small nod to Luke in acknowledgment and turned to walk the opposite direction of Thomas so that he could talk to Gwen privately.