#i only went there to ask if i can skip next thesis lab and to show him the spectra i worked on over the weekend

[chemblrish]

My thesis supervisor: I've been thinking about something you said last week - that you aren't sure if you're going to do a master's degree. I believe you mean you're considering moving to another city?

Me: ...no. I'm not sure if I'm going to do a master's at all.

Him: why not?

Me: I worry it'll be too hard for me.

Him: [gives me a long look] Do you hear yourself?

[everybodyscupoftea]

chemistry

isaac lahey x reader

isaac needs help in chemistry and you need help in english - the beginning

this is for isaac anon and the few people that wanted this. i’m just dabbling here, so let me know if you guys want more! (i did quite a bit of Research for this and i have ideas)

also let me know, i left it vague, but if i expand i’m probably going to add in scott, stiles, allison, and lydia. would you guys like to keep it supernatural or do full au where they’re just normal college students?

You noticed the boy in your Intro to Academic Writing course, but you didn’t really focus on him, mostly due to freshman year stress, until he sat down next to you in General Chemistry. Stepping into the classroom you’d felt at ease, science was your jam, but the really cute boy put you back on edge. You felt hyperaware of him, his scent, kind of cinnamon-y, fall-esque.

He tapped his fingers on his notebook, and you couldn’t help but notice he wrote in green pen. You glanced every so often to see him doodling in the corner of the page instead of taking notes on the intro lesson on the scientific method that your professor was doing.

The boy rested his chin on his hand and his fingers went from tapping on the notebook to his jaw and you shook your head, trying to focus back on the professor who was talking about your lab groups.

“The people at your table are in your group. Lab is on Wednesday nights, I won’t be the instructor, you’ll have a TA, but you can email me or come to my office hours if you have any questions about what’s going on. I’ll see you all on Thursday.”

You started to pack your stuff and the boy turned to you with a crooked grin, “I’m Isaac.”

Shaking his hand, you introduced yourself and he stood, waiting for you to finish packing your stuff. You zipped your booksack, “You’re in my English class, right?” you asked, faking as if you didn’t notice him as soon as you stepped into the door.

He nodded, “Yeah, with Dr. Terranova.”

“He seems,” you trailed off, looking for the right word, “interesting.”

Isaac grinned, “You mean overwhelmingly picky for an English 101 professor?”

“That’s a great way to put it,” you told him, laughing.

The two of you walked out the door and down the hall together. Isaac shifted his booksack on his shoulders a little and asked, “Do you have any more classes today?”

“Calculus,” you told him and he grimaced.

“Fuck that.”

“You?”

He nodded, “Spanish.”

Unfortunately for you, the buildings were on opposite ends of campus, so you paused just outside the door to the chemistry building. Isaac paused too and smiled, “See you tomorrow night?”

“See you tomorrow, Isaac.”

-

Your lab group was made up of two boys and two girls. Isaac, Andrew, Abigail, and you. Out of the group, you were the only STEM major, and the only one who actually liked chemistry. Isaac patted your shoulder, “Well, that officially makes you team captain then.”

“Thank god,” Abigail added, “I’m an advertising major, my brain noped out of the sciences years ago.”

The other guy, Andrew, said, “I took Chem 2 in high school and didn’t pass the AP exam, chemistry and I have beef.”

You snorted and said, “Cool, well, I’ll try and lead us to the promised land.” They seemed to like that.

-

Your group was really smart, everyone was picking up the labs really easily and you were thrilled, especially when the teacher stood in front of the class after the first test review. She clapped her hands once, “Okay, the lab group with the highest combined test average gets five bonus points added to their test scores. This is me trying to get you guys familiar with study groups, especially if you’re going to be in STEM, which I know some of you are. Study groups got me through school.”

Unfortunately, everyone in your lab group already had stuff going on, so you couldn’t study with them. Fortunately, the test was on intro stuff like the scientific method, conversions, and balancing equations, and your group hadn’t had any issues in any of the lab work, so you weren’t worried.

But when you got the test back, you realized, maybe you should’ve been. Isaac got his handed back first and actually laughed when he looked at the grade. Before you could ask, the professor set yours down on the desk and you started flipping through it, frowning at the little points you’d had taken off for careless mistakes.

“Fuck,” you muttered, “should’ve gotten at least a 97.”

“Wow, can’t believe you fucked it up for the whole group,” Isaac sarcastically responded, nudging you with his elbow, before sliding his test on top of yours. He nudged you again, “As you can see, I’m carrying the team,” and he motioned toward the D written in bright red at the top of his paper.

Your mouth dropped open and you picked the test up, flipping through to see what he’d missed. Eyebrows furrowed, you looked over at him, “You should tell her you accidentally skipped the back page.”

“Oh, it wasn’t an accident, I just didn’t know how to do it.”

“Well,” you stuttered, “it was the same stuff we did in the last lab activity.”

Isaac nodded, “Yes it is, and I didn’t understand it then either.”

“I thought,” you paused, mind racing, “I thought we all did?”

He grinned at you, “Some of us aren’t science brains, my friend.”

“What are you?” you asked as the class started to pack up.

With a soft smile, he threw his booksack over his shoulder, “I’m a literature major.”

-

You didn’t mean to think about it as much as you did, but when 2 a.m. rolled around and you were at your most impulsive you couldn’t stop yourself from sending out a text.

Hey, do you maybe want to meet up and study sometime?

After hitting send you could’ve slammed your head into a wall. You locked your phone and put your head in your hands, “God damnit.” And then your phone dinged.

I’d love that, love to have a STEM genius in my corner.

Your cheeks heated as you read it and your mind raced with your heart. It was beating harder and part of you couldn’t even believe he’d said yes. Taking a breath to steady yourself, you responded.

Idk about genius but I’m not half bad at chem

He responded, even faster than the first time and you grinned, unable to stop it from overtaking your face.

I may not know much about the scientific method or whatever, but all evidence suggests otherwise, genius

-

The next test wasn’t for a few weeks, but Isaac wanted to start studying earlier. He suggested meeting at a coffee shop called The Beanery. Coffee shops weren’t really your jam, you liked the silence of the fourth floor of the library. Go early, get a table, put in head phones, and go to work. But, you were open to try Isaac’s suggestion.

It was brightly lit when you walked in, and he was already there, at a table in the corner, laptop out. Books were spread across the tabletop, and he already had two empty mugs on the table in front of him, leg bouncing as he aimlessly chewed on a pen.

Shaking yourself out of staring, you walked to the counter to order. Isaac smiled up at you when you made it to the table with your coffee.

“Welcome,” he told you, moving some of his books out of the way. Sitting up straighter, Isaac glanced around, “What do you think about this place?”

“It’s nice, definitely a change of pace from my norm.”

“Where’s that then?”

“Library, fourth floor.”

“Quiet up there, huh?”

“Yeah, but I listen to some music for background.”

“I like coffee shops,” Isaac said, closing his laptop, “the vibes are nice and my clothes always smell like coffee afterward which is a fun bonus.”

At his comment, you looked down at his clothes. You were a little surprised to see that he was dressed just like during the week: jeans, a nicer t-shirt, and a cardigan. You’d wondered, deep down, if he dressed nicer for class, but it didn’t seem the case. Isaac cleared his throat and your eyes snapped to his face, ears burning when you saw him staring at you in amusement.

Coughing quietly, you reached for your booksack, “So, chemistry. Do you understand what we’ve been going over?”

“I know they’re called Bohr models but I don’t know anything else about them.”

“Right, so,” you paused a minute, trying to figure out where to start, “it’s a way to draw an atom and it’s kind of like a planet.”

Isaac leaned forward through your explanation, resting most of his weight on his elbows, and tapped the green pen against his lower lip. Every so often he’d ask a question, shift a little and write something down in his notebook by whatever he’d scribbled in class. His questions were shockingly insightful, and you eagerly answered them all.

By the time you’d gotten through the basics of thermodynamics, he’d added a whole page of notes, and you could tell he was starting to lose interest. Shutting your notebook, you told him, earnestly, “I hope this helped a little.”

“I promise,” he looked you straight in the eye, “it makes sense. This all looked like a foreign language before we met up.”

“Good,” you nodded, “this is my jam.”

“Keep on spreading it,” he joked and you couldn’t help but laugh.

“Well,” you admitted, “you may not be good at chem but you’d kick my ass into next week in English.”

“How’s your paper going?” Isaac asked, leaning back and crossing his arms, looking genuinely interested.

“It’s…going.”

He snorted, “That doesn’t sound promising.”

“Yeah neither does my thesis.”

“Do you have your laptop?”

“Yeah.”

“Let me have a look,” he suggested.

Pulling up the word doc, you passed your laptop over, staring down at your hands, twiddling your thumbs, a little nervously, as he read through your rough draft.

“What did Dr. Terranova have to say in your conference?” he asked, pushing your laptop away.

You sighed, “He was less than complimentary.”

Isaac laughed, “It’s not that bad, but it could use some polishing. I can help of course.”

Relief washed over you and you felt a weight off your shoulders, “That would be incredible actually.”

“There, now we’re even. You tutor me in chemistry and I’ll make sure you pass English, starting with this rough, and emphasis on rough, draft.”

Reaching across the table, you shoved at his hand, “Be gentle.”

“I’m going to get another chai,” he said, standing to stretch a bit, “and you pick out what sentence exactly you think is your thesis. We’ll start there.”

Biting your lip to conceal a grin, you nodded, waking your laptop back up.

[selelunars]

(1/2) Scariest Roller Coaster Ride.

Here is a big TMI: all roller coaster rides are scary. I think the only ride I can stand is "Alap Alap" which equals to kiddie's ride, but my legs have become too long for me to ride it comfortably. Sad. 

But what I am going to call as "scariest roller coaster ride" is not the literal one. I know we tend to say that life is like a roller coaster ride--sometimes you're going up slowly, then on the next second you sliding down with a speed you never imagine of. However, the past two months really feel like a period where I am sitting on an endless ride, constantly going up and down. The difference with the regular roller coaster? I have no idea when it is going to end. (Spoiler: thank god it already ended now!)

Truthfully, I think the ride started when I entered the final year of university with two final assignments on my way. The end of 2019 was really crazy, as well as beginning of 2020, when I feel like I only came home to take a quick bath and sleep. It was a period when I was drained physically and mentally, with the crazy class schedules, insane amount of workload, and the hours I spend outside that leaves me with so little personal space to charge myself. But that is going to be a story for another day. 

Skipping through the timeline, we all know that Corona pretty much ruined 2020 for all of us--especially for third and final year students. Some people have to postpone their internship, some people can't even continue their final assignments and could only be waiting patiently for miracle to happen. I was the second type of person. As my final assignment required me to do a laboratory activity, being at home was a total let down for me--I was mad that I had to postpone everything after struggling with lots of things, yet I know that I could not do anything about it, not even asking my lecturer because it would be pointless to ask about things no one sure about the answer. We were constantly given a false hope as when would the school be open again. Sucks. 

This crazy ride started when last July, my friend and I gathered courage to ask our lecturer in charge of our final assignment after seeing some of our friends got a "replacement" for their final assignment. At that point we didn't expect anything, we just thought that it was best to have the initiative to ask about the matter first. Because if there was any chance of doing something, we really would do it in a heartbeat. I think it was the peak of our desperation after knowing that we really couldn't went to the lab in July after getting a tiny bit of hope about it, while our super tight rundown said that we HAD to start gathering data on first week of July if we want to make it to September cut-out.  

 My lecturers proposed that we changed our method in doing research to do a literature study. At that announcement, I was like: "YES MAYBE I GOT A CHANCE." Moreover, on the first glance, doing literature study might seem slightly more simple than doing an overnight stay in laboratory ONLY for one data. So right after the said proposal, I started to gather up some papers that could be useful.

It turned out gathering papers were not as easy as I thought it would be, given that we had very specific requirement for the papers to meet our objective. Like, when I thought this paper gave the end-product that was similar to what I wanted to talk about, they didn't use the procedure that fit my thesis and vice versa. It was like doing treasure hunts but make it on steroid, judging how I feel like I turned googled upside down while doing this first batch of papers-hunting. On first week, we only managed to gather less than 20 papers, which I only contributed in half of those amount while feeling like I've read hundreds or so. I mean, just imagine--back then, I spent hours in front of my laptop to see that by the end of the day, only one paper fit the "requirement" we had.

When we started put the data from the table into words and paragraphs, that was when the real struggle begun in this literature-study-in-the-making. At that point, we weren't even sure how would we present the data--were we going to do statiscics? if yes, what were we going to test? So we just started to put the explanations of the data and phenomenons we read on the papers. But here was the thin: you couldn't just compare what happened in paper A to what happened in paper B as the experiments weren't done in same conditions. So the best we could do was trying to find a reason why certain phenomenon happened.

That, too, was a huge struggle. 

When you analyze your own data, you could think of lots of reasons why the experiment didn't turn the way you planned based on your experience. Even more, you could just blame your own inadequancy in doing the experiments or managing the data. But when you did a literature study, it felt as if all the questions and weird phenomenon had to have an EXACT and more detailed answer as it was something that has been researched before. It was a struggle too, because published papers were different from a full report--published papers only cover the main point of the research without telling the reason why such result was obtained. So this part of the research became another batch of treasure hunting. Aha. 

For weeks, we had tried to think about how we could make a statistical analysis possible with the data that was super varied.  On the same time, the lectures had begun for underclass so naturally our advisors get busy--and we were lost. Luckily, miracle happened when my friend found a method that could fit literature study without burning our brains in process. Oh, here was one funny thing, have you ever thought of discussing with your thesis advisor in the middle of the night? I never, but it truly happened to me! I was not ones who stay up late a lot, so it was real struggle but also blessings because we know that there weren't lots lecturers that were as dedicated as mine are. Just in the right time when we found a method, they approved the one we wanted to use as well as giving input on how we could possibly compare the data we have without risking the comparison being invalid.

With the new light and spirit, everything went smoothly as we now had clear direction on what we were going to do with our thesis. 

But of course, just like a roller coaster, the calm phase didn't stay for a long time. I remember it vividly, right on the first day of September, my lecturers suddenly texted us that the deadline for final thesis defense is on 10th so we had to submit our report at 6th the latest. At that point, we were really surprised, considering that our final report was only 80-85% from being done and we were scared that there would be lots of things we had to revise. I think it was safe to say that the next two-three days we were like mad robot trying to meet deadline. I didn't even want to think about the time I spent typing and correcting--what I remember was at some point, reading about fats made me nauseous. HAHA. 

Long story short, we have managed to DRAMATICALLY make it before the deadline. And yes, there were lots of last minute revision but I am not going to talk about it. Wink wonk. Our final defense happened on 9th and I swear that I started getting stomach cramps on the night before from being too nervous. The good thing about online seminars was, when you were the one presenting it to the audience, all you saw on your screen was your presentations--not the one who were in charge to examine you. I thought it was what made me a bit calm when practicing. I just thought it like this: "take it as if you are shooting for something and you only have one shot in doing so!" But on the same time, it was stressing since I was the one presenting, I couldn't have a cheat-sheet on my laptop HAHAHA. 

I tried to make some cheat notes on post its, but I ended up memorizing everything. It wasn't hard, as I've read those words non stop for the past few months. It turned out that my biggest struggle didn't come from me failing to memorize things. It went smoothly and I maintained to keep calm throughout the presentation until I see my camera sensor went off. YES. My internet decided to fail me on important date despite my effort to use the best one available at home. It was really embarrassing especially since it happened during the time I was pointing out something. But other than that, it went smoothly to the point my lecturer even complimented our composure, which was a big accomplishment to me since during practice I was known to talk a beat to fast than I supposed to.

Another compliment that I remember clearly came from my examiner, who first appreciated us for reading 100+ papers during the process of this thesis. He appreciated our effort for making this truly a "proper way" to replace the lab and took the literature study seriously. I think it was one of the highlight since we were pretty nervous that the examiner would find a literature study unamusing. 

I never talk about this out loud, but before my thesis defense, I had lots of issues regarding my confidence and my social skill. I asked myself, "would everyone even notice that I passed huge stone tomorrow?" after seeing the amount of support people give to my friends through social media, knowing I was (am) not the most sociable and communicative person on earth. It somehow made me worried that I might be the only one happy during a faithful day. I thought about telling people too, but I had this knack of being invisible that I would rather stay silent than knowing no one hear my voice.

However, the world told me otherwise. Even since the night before my presentation, people told me good luck and even asked whether they could watch my defense--those whom I thought don't care about me turned out to be the one handing me big amount of support. Some friends gave me encouragement through texts, some even sent me small treats to celebrate the happy days.  I was really happy--the word was even understatement on how I feel. It wasn't the treats that made me happy--it was the support and the fact they cared enough about me to sent me an encouraging messages.

 It turned out that there were more people who cared about me. All I had to do was to be more appreciative of those who care and love me instead of trying to fit with someone who I wanted to be with--who clearly didn't want me in return. I told myself that I should be grateful of people in my life while stop comparing how many friends to I have with the others. This was not a competition and I should stop putting people's life as the standard of feeling happy. That was not healthy at all.  

You too, in case no one told you anything today, you have done well and you are loved by many. 

Ah, do you think the ride ended after my final defense? Sadly, it isn't. But it would be too long if I make this into a oneshot. So I guess, this cliffhanger would work for now. Until then! Let's say... we just finished going down and currently going slowly while making our way up.

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

The Worst of Days

So this is for the Batfam Content War. I wasn’t sure if it was an angst war too or not so have some mild angst thrown in at the end. Also available here on my ao3. Words: 2,785 Rated: PG (Canon Typical Violence & Mild Language) Gen

Steph was having a crappy day. No, the word crappy hardly even began to describe how truly awful her day was going. Which was really, really unfair because by the bat-clan’s standards the day was just beginning. And it sucked.

She’d spent most of the night before finishing a ten-page paper while Damian crashed on her couch and Cass watched truly terrible reality shows in her living room. Then she had to hand in the paper but naturally the train was delayed because it was Gotham and the freaking Condiment King decided to get his ass handed to him again. Thank god Cass and Damian had slept over and handled it or else she would be even later to her eight am.

From there she had to track down her advisor to sign a form okaying Steph’s thesis being sent to a conference. By the time she finally managed to corner the professor she had to run to lab, only to get kicked out because she’d stupidly worn sandals due to the earlier morning rush.

Thankfully Francisco was letting her copy his notes at lunch but that just meant she had to sit with Jordanna. Ugh. Steph swore that whatever supreme beings dictated her life just really had it out for her. After an hour enduring snide remarks and sneers Steph gathered her books and headed for the library, because being a college student and superhero left her bank account drained so she had to make money somehow.

Steph waved to her boss as she tossed her things into the cubby below the desk. Grabbing a cart that the last student worker had just loaded with books she made her way into the stacks. She made it all of five feet before groaning. The stinking freshman had given her the cart that always pulled to the left like some defunct grocery store buggy.

Jogging across campus to her last class of the day Steph felt her phone buzz. She fished it out of her coat pocket, furrowing her brow at the screen. “What,” she demanded in greeting.

“Um, hi Steph. Nice to hear from you too?” Tim said sarcastically from the other end of the line.

Steph paused, running a hand through her hair as she examined the science complex in front of her. “Sorry, it’s just not my day and I’m really not in the mood for whatever bull you might be calling about and I’ve got a class and…” Steph trailed off, tipping her head back and closing her eyes.

“I’m really sorry Steph and I didn’t mean to make it worse.” Steph could hear the wince in Tim’s voice, the reluctance to state what he was calling about.

“It’s whatever Timmers. So what’s up?” She hiked her backpack higher on her shoulder and made her way into the building. She was early for the lecture but really didn’t know how long it would take for her to get Tim to just spit whatever it was out. Her best bet was to sit in the hall so she could hang up and slip in when she saw the professor coming.

“Well Jason somehow got a cat,” Tim started but Steph interrupted with a strangled “what?!” before he could say anything else. “Yeah… I think it’s from Damian? Anyway, not the point, he asked Cass to watch it while he was on a mission but she left this morning with Dick for some acrobatic camp or something and asked me to just feed it but I can’t because I’m on my way to the Tower for a Titans mission. Can you just feed the darn thing tonight when you’re on patrol?”

Steph shook her head as she tried to wrap her mind around all that Tim was saying. “Ok. I didn’t actually follow all that but I’m pretty sure the point is I need to feed Jason’s cat tonight?”

“Um, yeah, pretty much,” Tim sounded sheepish and just a little guilty.

“Ok, sure. I’m partnered up with the Baby Bat near there anyway, I’ll just make him help,” she sighed, waving to a passing friend.

She heard Tim release a breath that she hadn’t realized he was holding. “Thanks Steph. I promise to make it up to you.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever,” Steph rolled her eyes at the boy on the phone. “Ok, I really have to go to class. Bye Tim.”

“Bye Steph! I owe you!”

She hung up and sighed, going to collapse into the crappy desk next to the girl she had taken bio with just as the professor walked in. Walked in and announced a pop quiz. Steph raised her eyes to the ceiling and prayed that the universe take pity on her by having Apokolips invade so she could leave. No such luck.

Steph had just made it to the train station when she felt her phone buzz again. This time it was a text from Bruce calling her to the Manor. She grumbled at the screen and shoved the phone back into her pocket. Turning to head back out of the station Steph went to hail a cab, Alfred would be more than willing to pay the fare out to Bristol for her.

She was indeed greeted by Alfred at the door who paid for her cab before ushering her inside. Just as she had gotten out of the taxi it had started to pour. Darn Gotham weather. The ten feet from the car to the Manor’s front door had Steph drenched. She stood dripping in the marble tile of the foyer while Alfred pulled fluffy emergency towels for them from the coat closet, likely intended for days like this.

Steph wrapped it around herself and began to wring out her blonde hair. It was at this point that Damian choose to stomp down the staircase. “You look like a drowned rat, Brown,” he sneered.

“And you look like an angry little kitten. ‘Specially with your hair sticking up like that. Take a cat nap?” Steph shot back with a grin. Giving Alfred the now damp towel she thanked him and headed toward the study, Damian trailing behind her. She spun the clock hands, causing the hidden door in the grandfather clock to swing open. Steph paused before descending into the cave. “Do you know what your dad wants?”

Damian looked back at her, his nose scrunching briefly before he gave a forcefully nonchalant shrug. “I do not know what Father would want with someone so incompetent as yourself,” he sniffed.

Steph just rolled her eyes. “Gee Dames, thanks,” she said and began the descent. Even now as Batgirl, someone not only accepted but welcomed here, she got a rush walking down the dark stairwell. Her heart pounded as she caught sight of the dinosaur and the giant penny, her eyes catching just for a second on the memorial cases before skipping immediately to the huge computer screen and the man who stood there.

“Stephanie,” Bruce called out, turning as she and Damian walked towards him. “I have already informed Oracle but I wished to speak with you in person. There is an emergency that requires Justice League attention and as such I will be leaving to attend to it momentarily. You and Damian shall be patrolling together tonight. Batwoman, Batwing, and some of the Birds of Prey will be patrolling as well. I have mapped out routes for you, Oracle is ultimately in charge although Damian you are to defer to Stephanie.”

With that Bruce turned on his heel and was teleported to the Watchtower. Damian turned to her with a glare, the effect was quite cute rather than menacing. “I will not be deferring to your judgment tonight nor any other, Fatgirl,” Damian spat at her. Like his father had just done he turned on his heel and marched deeper into the cave. Likely to cut the heads off practice dummies with his katanna.

Steph slouched and tilted her head up to the ceiling. She gave a strangled cry that culminated in a whiny “Why?!” The bats didn’t answer and merely fluttered away. She sighed and headed back towards the stairs, she’d much rather spend the hours before patrol studying and lounging around in the manor rather than dealing with the pissed off child assassin. He’d come around eventually.

Now though Steph was positive that her day was cursed. Wholly, truly, irreversibly cursed. And everything up until that point had simply been the opening act. She and Damian had gone on patrol, much to Damian’s continued displeasure. They had only been out about an hour when it happened.

“Batgirl, I need you and Robin to swing by the Narrows. I’ve got a report of an armed robbery in progress and you’re the closest.”

“You got it O!” Steph chirped back as she and Damian adjusted their course to the address that Oracle had uploaded to their masks displays. Perching on the roof of the apartment building across the street they could see into the small deli. Sure enough a guy in a ski mask was holding a pistol in the face of a very frightened clerk and waving a pillow case in his other hand.

“-tt- How cliché,” Damian mumbled.

“I know right?” Steph couldn’t keep the slight chuckle from her voice. “Ok, so here’s the plan-” Before she could say another word Damian was already gone from her side, swinging towards the store front and using the momentum to kick in the windows. Glass shattered and the gunman whirled. Steph heard two shots before she was moving. Line fired, hair and cape flying behind her as she practically free fell towards the street.

She swung in through the same window Damian had, glass crunching under her feet as she landed. Both the would-be robber and Damian were nowhere in sight though. Steph pulled some batarangs from her belt and inched forward. She peered behind the counter as she passed, the shaking clerk peering back. She lifted a finger to her lips and motioned that he stayed put before Steph turned her attention back to the threat at hand. From somewhere behind the rows of snacks she heard another gunshot ring out. And another. Then a thud.

Steph jumped onto the counter, turning to launch herself over the displays. She tackled the gunman from behind, knocking the weapon from his grip. She pulled his hands together behind his back and set off one of the goop-a-rangs in her hand, it was faster than grabbing her cuffs. Steph then turned her attention on the small red, green, yellow, and black figure that laid in front of the milk display. She could already see more red pooling beneath him and his green gloves were stained with it from where he pressed against his side.

“Robin!” Steph gasped and rushed to him. He grumbled a bit and some of her worry lessened but Steph still went about checking his pulse before radioing Oracle. “Robin was shot in the side. I- I don’t know how bad it is but there’s a lot of blood. He’s breathing and has been applying pressure so that’s a good sign…” Steph trialed off in her ramblings as she felt the panic in her rise.

“It’s going to be ok Batgirl. I’m sending Penny-One in the Batmobile to pick you up and escort you immediately to the clinic. In the meantime, I need to you to check the wound for the bullet, just like we’ve trained.”

Steph nodded and gulped, it didn’t matter if she gave Barbara a verbal reply or not, the older woman was more than likely already hacked into the security cameras. She’d done the same thing a thousand times it felt like, on herself and other members of the so-called family. But never Damian. Never Damian. He was so young and small and there was so much blood and he was always to strong and fierce and now he was biting his lip to keep from whimpering and Steph was worried.

She moved his hands from his side. “This might hurt,” she whispered, pulling the small flashlight from her belt. She clicked it on and used it to examine the wound as she gently felt for a bullet. Sure enough it was still there, not deep but it’d made a mess of the Robin suit and Damian. She relayed her findings to Oracle before applying pressure again.

Steph turned to glare at the robber who was still face down on the tile, his hands encased in her trademark goo. “I hope you’re happy. This is why crime doesn’t pay dipshit,” she snarled. He winced and Steph returned her attention to Damian. “It’s gonna be ok Robin. You’ll be fine,” she whispered.

Damian seemed to roll his eyes. “I know,” was all the retort he managed though and that concerned Steph even more than the bullet wound or the blood loss.

“Ride’s here,” Oracle told them.

Steph moved to scoop Damian up and carry him to the waiting Batmobile. “This might hurt,” she warned him before lifting him bridal style. Damian winced and Steph was surprised at how light the kiddo was. “And you,” she addressed the robber one last time. “Don’t move till the police come or I will personally come back to kick your ass.”

Steph took slight satisfaction in the way he winced before rushing from the deli. Damian was like her little brother, annoying but lovable. She couldn’t stand the fact that he had gotten so badly injured on her watch. The Batmobile was idling by the curb with its passenger door open. She slid Damian onto the back seat before settling herself in the front and closing the door. She positioned herself so she could keep pressure on the wound as Alfred took off.

They got to the clinic in no time, Leslie immediately taking Damian to remove the bullet and stitch him up. Maybe even give him some blood since Steph guessed that about half of his own was spread between the deli and the Batmobile’s backseat.

“Please do not beat yourself up over this, Miss Stephanie,” Alfred sat in the plastic chair next to hers.

She took the towel he offered and began wiping off her gloves. “But I was supposed to watch him and this happened. What am I going to say to Bruce? What’s Bruce going to say to me?”

“I’m sure Master Bruce will understand and, loathe as I am to say it, Master Damian has been in much worse shape before.”

Steph sighed, leaning her head against the wall. “Y’know what Alfred, today has been utter shit.”

The butler chuckled at that. “Well Miss Stephanie I feel confident in saying that it can only go upward from this point.”

She looked at him out of the corner of her and raised a brow. “Don’t jinx it Alf.”

The two sat like that in the clinic’s small waiting room for what felt like ages before Leslie finally came out. “He’s going to be ok, but no patrol for two weeks or he’ll pull his stiches.” Both nodded and Steph jumped to follow her back into the small room she reserved for vigilante visits. Damian was sitting on the table kicking his feet, a white bandage poking out of the hole in his now ruined Robin tunic.

He raised his head and met Steph’s eyes. “I apologize for my actions and any worry I may have put you through as a result of them. That was immature and impulsive. I will be sure to inform Father that my injury was entirely my own fault.” He ended with a stiff nod.

Steph gave the kid a soft smile. “That’s ok Dami, I just want you to be ok. Ok?” He nodded and Steph went to hug him before being stopped with a sharp glare from Dr. Thompkins. “So I’m apparently supposed to feed Jason’s cat? Wanna come with and then we can go back to the Manor and continue your Disney education?”

Damian considered this before giving her a small smile. “I think I would enjoy that very much, thank you.”

Steph grinned. “Hey Alfred, think we can borrow the Batmobile for a quick trip? We’ll pick you up on the way back to the cave.”

“As long as you drive Miss Brown, that shouldn’t be a problem. I doubt Master Jason’s cat requires my attention as well,” he said with a smile.

Damian slid to the ground and grumbled something about driving the Batmobile and Steph couldn’t resist the urge to ruffle his hair. He swatted half-heartedly at her hands. Steph just smiled, terrible days really did only ever last for so long.