Legend

Cleaned up

Alfred materialized, relieving Bruce of his briefcase and offering drinks, returning with a tray of coffee cups. The men found seats. "He got away," Bruce said tensely, and I shook my head.

"That's on me. I should have double-checked, or at least kicked his head a few times," I said apologetically. "I allowed myself to be distracted by J."

"Understandable," Bucky said, nodding at me. "But we'll do some work on priorities and threat assessment. Did you two check out ok?"

"Yeah," I said. "And we have a tissue accelerator with the wand so J can heal faster." I gave him a side eye. "Do you think you have to mention this to Mom and Dad, Uncle Bucky?" Beside me, J tried to give a winning smile. It came off kind of gruesome instead, and I nudged him with my elbow. Tony chortled.

"They're your parents," Bucky temporized.

"We weren't planning on bringing it up," I said bluntly. "There wasn't a commotion in the train station, and the news will probably have a note that the train was stopped and a passenger removed. That in itself isn't terribly newsworthy in this city."

"I have independent insurance, so they won't be getting a bill for the dentist," J chimed in.

"Yeah, I meant to tell you I'll pay for that," I said, turning toward my brother. "You wouldn't need to use it if you hadn't been caught up in my mess." J protested, but I pointed out that anything involving a dentist was expensive and he had to pay tuition for summer session still.

"The city has a fund for civilians hurt by supervillain activity," Tony said. "Hash it out on your own time." I decided not to argue; if J applied to the fund, I'd just donate the amount to the fund. Then Bruce had J and me tell our stories again for the group.  They were silent awhile as they turned this information over in their minds.

"Those recordings he had from your previous encounter are locked up in Commissioner Gordon's office," Bruce told me. "There was concern about the nature of the recordings and the fact that almost anybody can be bribed if the bribe is right."

"That's good news. I really don't want the Joker to see that, especially the ending. I suppose it's a bit much to hope that an EMP goes off outside his office," I said morosely.

"Yes," Bruce said firmly.

"You never know what might happen in the next alien invasion," Tony said practically. Bruce scowled at him and Bucky just looked at me. I was suddenly starting to feel better about the next Kree/Skrull invasion attempt.

After that, there wasn't much more to say. I still felt bad that I'd let the Joker get away. Bruce invited Tony and Bucky to dinner, but Tony had a date and Bucky wanted to get home. During dinner, Bruce and Damian took the lead, chatting with J, getting to know him. Since J didn't know about Damian or Bruce's alter egos, they had to invent a story about why Bruce arrived with Bucky and Tony. As usual, the cover story was as thin as possible; he encountered them as they pulled up to the mansion. We chatted in the library after dinner, then Bruce and Damian needed to do some work they'd brought home, so J and I took the dog out for a tour of the immediate environs.

"I can't tell you how sorry I am that you got caught up in my mess," I told J as I threw a stick for Hestia.

"I had no idea visiting you was going to be so exciting," he said lightly. "If there's a next time, though, don't worry about me unless I'm bleeding out. Put that asshole back in a coma." I saluted. After we wandered back in, Alfred handed me the portable accelerator (that he'd brought up from the bat cave) and I used the wand on the stitches in his cheek; it looked a lot better once I was done.