thegoshdarn | (no subject)

(no subject)

It's not an interesting event. Boring as hell, actually, and Tim might have spent the last hour or so trying not to let her attention glaze over entirely, but being here is one of the occupational hazards of being Bruce's adopted child. At least she has years' worth of practice from being the Drake daughter to call upon in her hour of need. (Several hours, technically, and she might be counting down the minutes until she can reasonably leave.)

And then it's... It feels almost like someone smashed her arm with a sledgehammer. There's noise and sensation and pressure but nothing quite connects, even when she looks down at her arm and sees she's bleeding through her stupidly expensive dress. For a second, she thinks - should've worn the Robin suit, and she turns to Bruce, ready to say something stupid about the cost-benefit analysis of high fashion versus body armor if she could only get her voice to work.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"...Oh."

You should. Not we should. He wants to send her away, and that. That probably makes sense. It's not like she can contribute much like this.

That's..." She can't quite bring herself to say she agrees with it.

"That's, unfortunately, the best option I can come up with to keep you safe," he said, grimly. Then he had a rare moment of near emotional competence and honesty: "I can not lose another child, Thea, and I'm not going to." No matter what. Losing Jason had very nearly been the end of him. He really didn't think he could survive that again.

If nothing else, it interrupts the justification train going on in her head that is coming to mostly terrible conclusions.

"You're not going to lose me." Beat. "But I don't really want to go to Switzerland." Away from him and Alfred and her life.

"I don't particularly want you to, either, but if that's what it takes to keep both you and Alfred out of harm's way while I resolve this, we're both going to have to live with it."

"Or I could help."

Two heads are better than one, etc.

"You can help from a location where you can't be shot."

"I could help from here."

Where she won't be shot. Probably.

"Where you got shot."

No.

"I didn't get shot in the Manor."

Just saying.

"And as long as you stay in the Manor, that is fine. You can not stay here indefinitely, even if I vet your physical therapists and bring them to you."

"So you'd rather send me to another continent."

"Than risk you being shot by some lunatic who hates me? Yes."

"Fine."

It's not like she has much choice, does she?

No, she doesn't. "You'd rather be shot again?"

"Those aren't the only two choices."

"Add the word risk to my previous statement and they damned well are."

"You could add the word risk to pretty much anything and make a true statement. That doesn't mean it's likely."

"And in some situations unlikely is good enough. It isn't in this one."

"Fine."

As a teenage girl, it is her right and duty to exercise the occasional huff and end of conversation that is not going anywhere she likes.

"Good." And as an adult he has the right and duty to pretend not to notice the huff. "Now that that's settled have you spoken to your friend about your homework yet?"

"No."

She's had other things on her mind, Bruce. "Since I'm apparently going to Switzerland, I don't think it matters anymore."

"You're going to Switzerland if I haven't ended this before you're ready for therapy, and you're not staying there forever. It matters, even if you intend to enroll there. Get the work."

"Fine. I'll talk to him."

Is this conversation over yet?

"Good. Thank you."

It is now.

So the thing about training your daughter in fighting crime is that (a) she develops a fairly high pain tolerance that means she can start going off the painkillers earlier than usual and (b) it is remarkably difficult to keep her on the sidelines when she doesn't want to be. She's already started sneaking into the Batcomputer's mainframe and is currently multitasking digging through information on various cases (including hers) and sorting through a couple albums of photographs she's taken over the years. It's amazing what you can do even with the use of only one arm.