Catgirl: Young Justice BOOK 2 (COMPLETE)

CHAPTER 71

TW: Substance Abuse

|Blüdhaven

|February 14 2014, 13:14

Physically, Jason was pretty much back to his usual self. He was still a little stiff from his wound, but Leslie had given the clear to use painkillers in moderation after the catnip had left his system.

"So." Jason continued to joke through the pain, "On a scale of 1-10, how fucked am I when Batman gives me my next drug test?"

This seemed to be how he coped with it all so Dick didn't scold him this time. Instead he shrugged, "At least you'll get away with smoking."

Jason snickered, taking a sip of water as Dick placed a plate of sandwiches on the table.

Mentally, Jason was far from getting back to his usual self.

Katherine had said that Jason loved anything with bread, but right now it looked like the only thing he wanted to consume was green luminous powder.

"I can make you a smoothie if you'd like?" Dick offered.

Jason scoffed, picking up a sandwich. He stared at it for a while before taking a bite, chewing and forcefully swallowing. "See." He smiled victoriously, "I'm-" he stood up, letting out a noise of discomfort and clasping a hand over his mouth. "Gonna be sick-"

"In the toilet!" Dick jolted up, rushing him to the bathroom.

**********

"Uhhhh..." Jason's moan echoed in the toilet bowl, "Heroin's easier than this-"

Dick looked away, covering his mouth as he listened to Jason's violent vomiting.

"Fuck Calico, man." Jason heaved himself to his knees, taking a minute to catch his breath.

Dick hesitantly glanced back at him, frowning when he saw the defeated look on Jason's face.

If he didn't have to watch Jason 24 hours a day, he'd of already retaliated against Calico for all this.

Right now he did have to watch Jason though, and he couldn't let anyone else see him.

Dick had hacked Gotham Academy's system to make it look like he was attending school and told Alfred that he'd pick up Jason after his classes. Batman and Batgirl thought they were training in Blüdhaven, and Katherine agreed it was best they did so away from Gotham.

So far the secret remained so, and everyone believed Jason was in Blüdhaven to get one on one Robin training with his predecessor, to help him better fill the boots he'd been struggling to.

"I think that's all the food and water out my system again." Jason wiped his mouth, wobbly getting back up onto his feet.

Dick took his arm to help him back to the spare room, feeling fatigued just from watching.

"I don't suppose going to Katherine's tonight is a good idea, is it?" Jason sighed as he carefully lay back down in the now fresh bed, "I don't think I'm going."

Dick managed a sympathetic smile. "While I'd usually encourage you spend as much time with her as much as you can, we both know seeing you like this would break her heart."

"Yeah.." Jason closed his eyes, "I can't do that to her. I'm not going."

"You can send her a text though. I'm sure if she was going to reply to anyone it'd be you." Dick smiled, handing him his own phone.

Jason took the phone, laughing.

Dick raised a brow, "Didn't you want to talk to her?"

"If she figures out how to work text-to-speech then sure." Jason put the phone down on the bedside table. "But the less I talk to her right now, the longer I have before she becomes suspicious."

"I suppose." Dick didn't think of that, "You don't want to give the impression you're slacking on your Robin training."

"Hah, is that what you told the old man?" Jason wiped his watery eyes.

"It's worked for everyone so far." Dick stated, going over to the window to crack it open a little again.

Jason let out a longer sigh, followed by another uncomfortable groan as he restrained himself from scratching and shifting.

"Katherine leave any smokes lying around here?" He asked.

"No." Dick lied.

The whole idea of detoxing was to rid the system of all that. He wasn't about to give Jason one addictive chemical to distract him from the withdrawal of another.

"Take a nap and I'll run you another bath. I have an old friend coming over later that's going to help you out with your symptoms."

"Wow, people want to be friends with you for that long?" Jason teased through his gritted teeth.

"He's been where you are right now." Dick ignored the comment, telling Jason, "You might've heard of him. Roy Harper."

Word Count: 768