Work Text:
Jason's head jerked up when he heard the distinct noise of someone picking the lock on his door. He turned his head to look at the door, frowning as he heard whoever was behind his door tinker with the lock. He stood up from his couch, grabbing the gun laying on the table in front of him and walked from the living room to the door, clicking the safety off. Before he could look through the peephole, he lifted the gun to chest height, finger curling around the trigger, ready to pull it. He cursed when he couldn't see anyone. He stood on his tiptoes, peering as far down as he could but he couldn't see anything. Jason stepped half a foot back and curled his hand over the door knob. He flung open the door, his right hand coming up with the gun to point it at... Steph's forehead.
"Wait wait wait! It's me! Steph!" Steph yelled, blue eyes wide as she rushed to stop him from accidentally shooting her. Jason glared at her and she looked up at, a pout on her lips. When he didn't say anything, she broke the silence. "Hi?"
"What are you doing here?"
"Babs kicked me out. She said that I was distracting her too much." There was a brief pause. "Can I come in?" Jason heaved a sigh, taking a step forward to look down the corridor to make sure no one saw what had just transpired. Luckily there wasn't anyone around. He took a step back and tucked the gun into the back of his jeans. He turned around and walked into the apartment. "Hey! Aren't you going to help the crippled?" Steph yelled back at her. Jason stopped and sighed again, closing his eyes and resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. He turned around and moved to her, bending down to pick her up. The tall male threw her over his left shoulder, huffing at the squeal she made and grabbed her crutches. He stood up and walked back into the apartment, kicking the door closed with his right foot.
When he reached the open living room, he threw her onto the one man chair adjacent to the three-man sofa. Jason propped her crutches on the side of her chair and went back to how he had been before she had arrived, sitting on the far left seat of the sofa. In front of him, on the table, was his laptop. Scattered on the glass table were pieces of paper.
"What happened to yer?" He asked, nodding to her purple cast.
"Broken ankle," she pouted and slouched further into the chair. "Got it fighting a mob."
"Poor baby," he told her sarcastically. Now that she was in better lighting, he could see the bruises on her face and neck that she had mostly covered with makeup. She hadn't done anything with her split lip though.
"I know right!" Steph overlooked the sarcasm, throwing her right arm over her eyes. Jason rolled his eyes at her antics and turned back to his laptop. A second later and he heard Steph heave herself up and began to hop towards him.
"Careful!" He called out, arm shooting out to grab her left shoulder as she wobbled precariously and looked like she was about to fall onto him. She flashed him a smile in thanks and turned around so she could fall onto the sofa. Jason let out a grunt as her back landed on his right shoulder. Steph sighed as she laid her broken right ankle on the rest of the sofa. She turned so she could look at Jason's laptop.
"Hey, I know them. They were the ones who I beat up last week. That's the mob that broke my ankle!" She told him as she looked at the page on his laptop closer. She looked up at him. "Have you been investigating them too?"
"Been sellin' to kids," he growled. Steph nodded.
"Everything I have on them is in my bag over there," she told him, gesturing to her bag on the chair. Jason exhaled but got up and snatched the bag from the chair. When he sat back down, Steph immediately wiggled her way back onto him. He opened her bag, ignoring the look she gave him, and took out everything that looked like it had information on the gang he was following. He plugged the USB that had 'Cowl cameras' scrawled onto it into his laptop. When it opened up on the screen, Steph pointed at the one that had the footage of her fighting them, which was also the most recent one. He silently sighed in relief that she hadn't gone out to patrol with her broken ankle.
"Why did you go after them on your own?" Jason asked as he fast forwarded through the footage.
"We got intel saying they were bumping up the dealings ahead of schedule so we had to act quick. Unfortunately, we couldn't get anyone else to be my backup, they were all busy with their own thing or too far away to be of help, so I went after them on my own." Jason got to the bit where she engaged them and let it play out, watching the fight from Steph's point of view. When it ended, he replayed it again, looking at the people in the mob. Half way through the third playing, Steph's stomach rumbled loudly. Jason paused the video to look at her. She blushed at the look he gave her.
"I didn't have breakfast, okay?" She felt Jason stiffen under her back.
"You didn't have breakfast!? Don't you know that's the most important meal of the day?" He asked, getting up off the couch and walked towards the kitchen. Steph watched him with confusion.
"What are you doing?" Jason stuck his head back into the room.
"Makin' yer breakfast, pendejo."
Steph managed to get herself up off the sofa and hobbled her way to the kitchen, leaning on the walls to support her weight. She pulled a chair out and sat herself down as Jason began preparing something for her.
"You like waffles, right?" Steph enthusiastically nodded. Jason laughed at her behaviour, a low rumble in his chest. He turned back to making it and Steph settled down.
"Were you really kicked out?" He asked. Steph blew some of her blonde hair out of her eyes.
"Why would you think otherwise?"
"People who get 'kicked out' don't have everything they've found out about a mob in their bags," he grinned at her. "Or is that just a girl thing?" Steph huffed.
"Okay fine. Babs steered me to you. She knew you were also looking into them and seeing as I was bugging her to no end 'cos I can't go patrol with my ankle, she sent me to you so we could find the mob. Again."
Jason put a plate of waffles in front of her, walking back to the stove to grab some sauces from the cabinet on the left. He placed them next to the plate of waffles and sat down to her right so he could eat a few of them too. When they were all finished, Steph let out a long, happy sigh.
"Thanks," she told Jason. He nodded, standing up to put the dirty plate in the dishwasher. When Steph rose to help him, he held his hand out to her, telling her to stop. Steph sat back down and watch him load the washer and put the sauces away. Once he was done, he helped her up, hunching down so she could fling her arm around his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her get back to the sofa. She sat down, placing her broken ankle on the table in front of her. She pulled her bag onto her lap and grabbed her tablet and a keyboard. She attached them together and placed it on her lap. Jason settled down next to her grabbing his large black laptop and shifting it onto his lap. It was massive, on the right of the enter key it had the numbers 1-9 in a 3 by 3 square, and it was also heavy. He'd had it for several years but compared to Steph's new laptop, tablet... thing, it seemed ancient. Steph saw him glancing at his laptop and hers and laughed.
"Babs gave it to me. My old laptop was too slow for her and didn't have all the programs needed for her to send me information she found so she gave me this one. It's the snazziest piece of tech I own."
"Huh, maybe I should ask for an upgrade."
"Alright, you focus on finding the mob's location and I'll try and ID the perps, see if I can find out any links and maybe their boss. Cool?" Jason nodded and they began on their tasks.
Half an hour later and Steph, having identified most of them, was still unable to find a link between them all. She huffed and dropped her laptop onto the table and stood up. The blonde female stretched her back and arms, smiling at the popping noise. Green eyes watched her as she jumped to where her crutches were. She put them under her armpits and began to make her way around Jason's apartment. Jason watched her over the top of his laptop as she browsed through the room.
"Yeah?"
"Do you really do tech work without listening to music?" Steph asked him. Jason rubbed his eyes before pointing out where his speakers were. She quickly made her way to it, Jason impressed at how fast she was on crutches. He continued to watch her as she browsed through his music collection.
"Ohh, Shakira, nice." Jason huffed as she commented on some of his other music. She turned around to face him. "Sing for me please?"
"No."
"Pleaseeeeeeeeee."
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"Still no."
"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"
"Yes."
"Really?"
"No."
Steph glared at him, doing her best impression of the Batglare. Jason didn't look very impressed.
"Yer gunna hafta work on that," he told her. Steph huffed.
"Pwease. I'm injured. I'm sure it'll help with the pain."
"What pain?"
"Ow, ow, ow. My broken ankle hurts sooo much."
"Will it shut you up?" Steph mimed zipping her lips closed and throwing the key away.
"And you'll sit down and continue working?" Steph nodded. Jason's feet dropped to the floor and he weakly glared at her.
"Fine."
"Thanks Jay!" She smiled at him and turned to flick through his music. He was surprised when it wasn't Shakira or Beyonce that poured out of his speakers. Jason quickly licked his lips and opened his mouth to begin to sing the song she had chosen.
"Beauty queen of only eighteen
She had some trouble with herself
He was always there to help her
She always belonged to someone else." Steph smiled as he began to sing She Will be Loved by Maroon 5.
"I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door
I've had you so many times but somehow I want more
I don't mind spending every day
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved." Steph closed her eyes and smiled, swaying gently to the side as she listened to him sing. Jason was grateful she had closed her eyes so she wouldn't be able to see the blush that was beginning to burn on his cheeks and neck. It wasn't often he granted someone's request to hear him sing.
"Tap on my window, knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful
I know I tend to get so insecure
It doesn't matter anymore
"It's not always rainbows and butterflies
It's compromise that moves us along, yeah
My heart is full and my door's always open
You come anytime you want, yeah." Steph's face changed at that verse, especially at the start. Although they didn't hang out often, Jason did know a bit about her, like how she had given her baby up for adoption and how Black Mask had beaten her almost to death. He began to realise that maybe she just wanted some comfort and company.
"I don't mind spending every day
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
"I know where you hide alone in your car." Her breath hitched as this. She looked down at the floor, her long hair obscuring Jason's view of her.
"Know all of the things that make you who you are
I know that goodbye means nothing at all
Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls.
"Yeah."
"Tap on my window knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful." Jason smiled as Steph joined in with him.
"I don't mind spending every day
Out on your corner in the pouring rain, oh.
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved."
"Yeah, yeah." He softened his voice as the song came to an end.
"I don't mind spending every day
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Please don't try so hard to say goodbye."
Steph moved back to sit next to him on the sofa. He took a good look at her and saw the tears in her eyes. Steph tried to laugh but it came out as weak and watery sounding. One of her hands quickly came up to wipe her eyes as she sniffled and tried not to cry.
"Hey," Jason began softly. "You okay?"
Steph played with a loose thread on her jeans and bit her lip. Jason wrapped his arm around her and pulled the female into his chest. Her shoulders began to move up and down and Jason wrapped his other arm around her, his right over the back of her shoulder to keep her there and his left hand tangled into her hair. He kept her close to him for a while until her sobs died down into big, shuddering gasps and then when had they faded too. He let her break away and scrub her eyes and cheeks. He left arm fell into his lap but he kept his right hand on her shoulder. Jason kept silent, waiting for her to explain herself, if she even wanted to.
"This week's been pretty bad. I broke my ankle, then my mom says she won't be in much this week due to a flu outbreak and finally Babs got annoyed with me and sent me out so she could work. I feel like....." There was a long pause. "I... I gave birth to my child four years ago to this day. I... I just feel like a failure. I broke my ankle on a mission and now I just cried over a song."
"Hey now Steph," Jason squeezed her shoulder. His Crime Alley accent slipped back into his speech as he tried to convince her she wasn't a failure. "Yer many things but yer ain't a failure. Seriously, you've accomplished so much. And yer didn't take any shit from Bruce or anyone else who didn't want you to continue being Spoiler or Batgirl. Even when they all told yer no, you were strong enough to continue doing good things and fighting. It's not a weakness to cry, yer know," Jason huffed and rolled his eyes, a small smile on his lips. "Look at me, speaking cliche, and all that shit. But it's true. There are gunna be days where you feel everything, when you think the world and everyone in it are out to get yer and no one's on yer side. This job, it's stressful. Emotions are gunna run high. Yer just gotta find some me time. You know, relax, take some time off until yer cooled down."
Steph giggled into her hands. Her hands came down and she gave him a wobbly smile. Jason grinned back at her.
"Thank you Jason," she thanked him, suddenly shy. She looked away from him. He just brought his laptop back onto his lap.
"You're welcome Stephy. Now, get back to work." Steph did as she was told and grabbed her own laptop.
Ten minutes later and Animals began to play. Jason groaned and turned to look at a smiling Steph, her eyes glittering mischievously.
"I hate you."