Mask of Glass

Ch 27

Bruce awoke to the sound of one of Dick's monitors beeping. 'That's not good... right?' Bruce thought to himself.

Alfred ran into the room with a panicked look on his face.

'Definitely not good.' Bruce decided.

Dick's lips were blue, and he didn't look to be breathing.

Alfred rushed back out of the room, returning seconds later with a ventilator and an intubation tube.

Bruce lifted Damian out of the way and Alfred quickly got to work placing the tube and inflating the small bubble near the end to keep it in place.

Once Alfred checked to make sure the tube was placed correctly he connected it to the ventilator machine and Dick's chest soon began to rise and fall as oxygen was pumped into his lungs by the machine.

Alfred taped the intubation tube down next to Dick's mouth to keep it from getting jostled.

Damian had been startled out of his sleep, but was now nestled comfortably in Bruce's arms, not having any idea what was going on.

"I don't think he has very much more time Master Bruce." Alfred whispered, not wanting to wake any of the boys, who had slept through everything.

Bruce sighed and a small tear traced its way down his cheek. "I know Alfred. I know."

Alfred left the room with a grim look on his face. He'd been staying at the watchtower in a spare room just in case Dick needed him in some way.

When Alfred was gone, Bruce sat down, cradling Damian against his chest and soon falling back asleep to the rhythmic beep of machines.

—

Damian awoke to the buzzing of someone's phone. He was confused at first. He woke up in Bruce's arms, but he was sure he'd gone to sleep next to Dick.

He glanced over at the hospital bed and immediately noticed the tube coming out of Dick's mouth and leading to another machine. One that hadn't been there when he had gone to sleep. 'Something must have happened during the night.' Damian concluded.

The phone buzzed again. It was Bruce's phone, and Damian shook his father's shoulder lightly to wake him.

Bruce opened his eyes with a small hum.

"Your phone is ringing." Damian pointed out.

Bruce yawned and set Damian on the ground before picking up his phone and answering the incoming call.

"Hello?" Bruce spoke into the phone.

Barry Allen spoke from the other end of the phone. "Hey Bruce." He sounded very tired, but there was also a twinge of excitement in his voice.

"Barry." Bruce replied, wishing the other man would just get to the point.

"We found something." Barry said, excitement growing.

Bruce walked out into the hall, not wanting any of his sons to get any unrealistic hopes. Even so, he found himself getting just a bit excited. "The cure?" He whispered, heart thumping rapidly in his chest.

"Not exactly." Barry replied.

Bruce's heart sank. "Oh." He said, disappointment filling him.

Barry let out an exasperated sigh. "Just get down here Bruce, you'll see what I mean." He paused for a moment before adding, "Oh, and when you come bring another vial of Dick's blood. See you in a bit." Barry said, ending the call.

Bruce was confused, but then again, Barry did that to everyone sometimes.

Damian peeked out of the room. "What was that all about?" He asked.

"I don't really know." Bruce said, running his hand through his hair before turning and walking to Alfred's temporary room.

Alfred opened the door and looked at Bruce with tired eyes. "Yes Master Bruce?" He asked.

"Barry said he needs me to head over to Star, and he wants me to bring more blood samples from Dick with me." Bruce said with a sigh.

"Alright Sir, I shall get some for you." Alfred said politely, retying the fabric belt on his robe before leading the way back to Dick's room.

Alfred quickly took the blood he needed, filling a few small vials and handing them to Bruce.

Bruce thanked him before rushing to the zeta tubes and typing in the code for Star Labs.

—

Bruce stepped out through the zeta tube into Star Labs. Barry zipped over to him and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him off into the building. Luckily not at super speed.

Barry slowed to a stop and grabbed the vials of blood, handing them off to someone Bruce didn't know the name of.

"Ok Bruce. So I know I told you we don't exactly have a cure, but we have developed a new filter that we think will be able to filter the electrum completely out of his blood." Barry said, leading Bruce over to a microscope that had a slide preloaded in it.

Bruce peered into the microscope and saw blood cells that were mixed with some other substance. "What's this?" He asked, looking back at Barry.

"So that's what the blood looks like after it's been filtered in a normal hemodialysis machine. That other stuff that you see is the electrum. The regular filter will take out a bit of the electrum, but it isn't strong enough to get everything." Barry switched the slide before continuing. "We were spending all of our time trying to find a chemical way to get rid of the electrum, but that was mostly just dead end after dead end. This however, is a small sample of the blood that we cleaned in our new machine with our new filter."

Bruce peered into the microscope, twisting the knobs on the side to move the view. All he could see was normal red blood cells. Bruce was nearly speechless as he stared at Barry with his mouth hanging open. "Is... Is this real?" He finally managed to say.

Barry smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. "Yes Bruce. We all thought it would be a good idea to test the filter one more time before we used it on Dick, just to make sure it would work."

Bruce was by no means a hugger, so to say Barry was surprised when he found himself wrapped in a hug would be an understatement. "Thank you so much." Bruce whispered.

"I know you would do it for any of us too." Barry said, patting Bruce awkwardly on the back.

Bruce stepped back and cleared his throat. "So if the second test comes back clear will we need to bring him here to use it, or will we be able to take it to the watchtower." Bruce asked.

"I believe it would be best to bring him here since the machine is rather large." Barry said before hastily adding, "If that would be ok."

"That should be fine." Bruce said. "So, can I see this machine?"

"Of course." Barry said, leading Bruce into another room where Dick's blood was slowly flowing through a large machine. It looked a lot more complicated than the dialysis machine they had Dick hooked up to at the watchtower.

There was a small amount of blood that had already been filtered waiting in a collection container at the side of the machine.

Barry quickly ran it over to another smaller machine and poured it into a small hole in the top of the machine. The machine ran for a few seconds before printing out a small list. An analysis of the blood.

Bruce smiled as Barry showed him the results. 'No electrum detected.' Was typed across the top in bold black letters.

They had finally found a way to save Dick.