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The Birthday Present	By : Kip Category: DC Verse Comics > Batman Views: 8478 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Batman series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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"Come on, Sandy, you have to eat!" Bruce had sworn to himself that no matter how trying it got, he would be patient; but today was testing him to the limits. "Just swallow it… that's all you have to do. Come on, you like porridge. Alfred made it specially for you…"
Icy blue eyes looked back at him from under scrunched brows.
"Okay, you don’t want it." Bruce sighed. "I get the picture. Then you have to starve…" Under other circumstances the ploy might have worked; but unfortunately today they had company.
"Bruce!" Wally simply stared at him. Being hungry was just about the worst thing that the speedster could imagine, and that showed on his face. Unfortunately it also showed as he caught on. "Oh, right, you don’t mean it."
"Wally." Bruce turned and glared daggers at him. "I was trying reverse psychology." He glowered. "But since you've made that impossible, if you think that you can do any better you are more than welcome to try… but I'm warning you now, swallow one single mouthful of this yourself and I will personally turn you inside out. Do we understand each other?"
"Uh, sure…" Wally didn’t sound sure: he sounded terrified. "Just don’t sit there watching, huh?"
"Are you saying that my being here will put him off?" Bruce wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed at the suggestion, or to worry that it might be true. The only thing he was certain of - was that his temper was getting very frayed.
"I'm saying that it'll put ME off." Wally was honest, if not tactful.
"Okay," The younger man was treated to the full wattage Bat-glare, with extra frosting, "I'm going; but you'd better show some results," Bruce warned.

"I didn’t swallow any… okay!" Wally said tartly, emerging from the room with as much dignity as he could manage. Apparently Bruce found the sight of Wally, partly coated in porridge, entertaining enough to persuade the normally brusque man to give Wally a little bit of leeway.
"You can use the shower in the next room." Bruce offered. "I'll have Alfred wash your clothes, and find you something to wear while they're drying."
Wally eyed him suspiciously. "And what are you going to do?"
Bruce sat back in the chair. "Honestly?" He put the book he had been unsuccessfully trying to read, to one side. "I don’t know." He looked more miserable than Wally had ever seen him, and that was saying something considering the events of the past few weeks.
"I thought it would start to get better once Sandy woke up." He confessed softly. "One minute he's almost normal, the next he's like a little kid again."
"Oh man! Don’t stress yourself like this, Bruce! Things are getting better, it's just taking time." Wally had a sudden thought. "Hey, I've got an idea!"
It was a measure of how thoroughly disheartened Bruce was, that he didn’t even raise an eyebrow, let alone offer a pithy retort.
"We're calling in the big guns!" Wally told him. He remembered something. "Just as soon as I go wash this porridge out of my ear…"

"You called Diana?" Bruce couldn’t believe it. "You called DIANA?" He repeated.
"A bit louder, I don’t think they heard you in China!" Wally hissed. He played his trump card. "Hey, you want Sandy to eat or not?"
"Well, of course we do; but …" Kal was there too and as dubious as Bruce, if a lot more polite about it. "You really think Diana can do it?"
"If she told you to do something, wouldn’t you do it?" Wally asked him.
"Good point." Kal agreed. "But Sandy wouldn’t do it with Moira or I coaxing him, or you trying to trick him, even Bruce couldn’t bul... er, pressure him into it, so what makes you think Wonder Woman can do any better?"
"He's too comfortable with us, and he knows that none of us would hurt him." Wally explained. "You're big, Kal; but Sandy knows you're a marshmallow, and he knows Bruce too well to be scared of him at all."
"I never thought I'd say it; but Wally's right." Bruce glanced at the door.
"That I'm a marshmallow?" Kal inflicted a long and rather flinty stare on the pair of them. "Oh thanks SO much guys! So what else have you two been saying, huh?"

"Kal! No one's been talking about you." Bruce promised.
"But we will if you don’t shut up." Wally warned cheekily. "And Kal? Stop pouting."
"I don’t pout." Kal was still a little put out; and pouting.
"Kal, Wally's just winding you up." Bruce reassured him, determinedly ignoring the evidence. "Poor Sandy, I just hope being stuck in a room with Diana doesn’t traumatise him."
"You don’t think she'd do anything to hurt him?" Wally was getting nervous now. This had been his idea after all.
"Not on purpose, no," Kal was quite sure of that, "Diana can be a bit fierce though."
"Oh wonderful! She's fierce, and super-powered, and we just handed Sandy over to her! Fierce! Coming from someone who knows that he's invulnerable, that gives me such confidence!" Bruce slumped back in the chair. "Wally, why did you even think of Diana for this anyway?"
"You're kidding? After the way she handled things when Mordred tried to take over the World?"
"She just browbeat everyone into doing what she told them!" There was more than a hint of the Bat in among Bruce's mellower tones.
"Exactly…" Wally said smugly. "And they did it too. Even you…"
"Oh shit … I am starting to have a really BAD feeling about this…" Bruce sat up straight again, "Kal! What's happening in there?"
Kal narrowed his eyes and sneaked a look. "Oh." He said. "Oh!"

"Hi Sandy, I'm Diana." The warrior woman watched the man in the bed to see how he responded. Unsure of me; but not actually frightened… Good.
"You don’t know me; but I used to come and sit with you sometimes while Bruce was out." She explained. "I've come to see if I can help you."
There was something in the pale blue eyes that the amazon couldn’t quite decipher; a flicker of emotion.
But what is it that he's feeling? And why won't he co-operate with his usual carers?
Sandy sat there, watching her intently.
Diana picked up the spoon and tried a taste of what was in the bowl. Some sort of cooked cereal, soft and pleasantly warm, sweetened with a little syrup…
"Not bad." She decided aloud. "You want some?" She held it out to him.
The blond tilted his head and looked at her as if he couldn’t quite decide.
Well, he's not started throwing anything yet. Mind you, he doesn’t have anything TO throw…
Settling herself on the side of the bed, Diana waited.
No obvious signs of distress.
As she lifted the spoon closer to his mouth, Diana noted how Sandy's eyes avidly tracked her every movement. She thought it over: how did anyone know how much he remembered or understood, anyway? What if they were wrong about Sandy’s mental state and the only problem was that he couldn’t communicate what he knew?
He can grip things, and Wally says that his co-ordination's not that bad. So why not?
"Here." She handed him the bowl. "Careful, it's a bit hot."
Looking surprised, Sandy accepted it.
"You'll need this too." Diana told him, holding out a clean spoon. He blinked at her; but wrapped his fingers around the handle.
"It probably won't taste as nice once it gets cold." Diana suggested. The expression that flickered in the wide eyes told her everything she needed to know. "Well, go on then! What are you waiting for?" She smiled sweetly. "You don’t expect me to spoon feed you, do you?"
For a moment she wondered if she had totally misinterpreted the situation? Would her defensive bracelets deflect hot porridge as easily as bullets?
Let’s hope we don’t have to find out...

Sandy regarded her with wide eyes for a moment, and then gripping the spoon just a little awkwardly, scooped a dollop of porridge up and stuck it in his mouth experimentally, watching her as he did so. Mouth full, he hesitated, as if unsure of the next step.
"You have to swallow it." Diana reminded him. "Swallow…" She tapped one finger very delicately against his throat. Instinctively, Sandy gulped. For a second he tensed, obviously nervous at feeling something sliding down inside his throat after weeks of intravenous feeding. Distracted, he hastily looked down at his stomach.
"It'll get easier as you get used to it again." Diana promised, "Better than being hungry, eh?"
Licking his lips, Sandy seemed to think that over. Then raising the spoon, he tried again.
Bruce was right, he learns quickly. Or should that be 're-learns'?
"Nice?" Diana wasn’t expecting actual words; but even so her question was answered in full as the blond continued scooping up porridge until at last he had emptied the bowl.

"Only the pattern left, and you can't eat that." Diana told him, smiling, taking it away from his unresisting fingers. Sandy smiled back, looking just the faintest bit sleepy. A damp cloth took care of the few spilled spots.
"You can come in now…" Diana said aloud, knowing that the three other 'boys' wouldn’t be far away. Wherever he was, Kal would be listening in anyway, he wouldn’t be able to resist. Besides, it was common knowledge among the women on the station that Bruce had this entire house wired for sound and vision, which was why the amazon had always made a point of never attending to any calls of nature whilst at the mansion.
You just never know… Men can be very strange … Diana thought to herself, hearing someone approaching along the corridor. And Bruce is odder than most … cute; but very definitely odd…
"You did it!" Wally blurted, slipping in through the partly open door.
"No." Diana gave him a small smile. "Sandy did it… He's not a baby you know …"
"Sleeping like one, though…" Wally pointed to where Sandy was already drowsing.
"Well, it's hard work keeping up with all of you." Diana eyed her charge fondly.

Bruce was down in the gym, working doggedly through one of his exercise regimes, relieved that Diana had managed to pull off the breakthrough they needed, when his eye caught a movement off to one side.
My stalker? Here? But how? The door never opened and there’s nowhere to hide in here. The unseen observations had gradually evolved into something more substantial, so gradually that Bruce couldn’t pinpoint the first time he had realised that he was actually seeing something there with him; but for several days now, he had been increasingly aware of something, or someone silently dogging his footsteps.
Something's there… definitely. Never more than half-seen, only a flicker of movement then gone, whatever or whoever it was left no tracks, made no sound, and even the house sensors hadn't captured anything; but Bruce's senses were too well-trained for him to doubt them.
How did anyone get in here without using the door?
Great, bats weren’t enough, now he had ghosts…
Getting bolder too… This evening Bruce was practising twilight manoeuvres with the lights turned down low, leaving more than half of the room in near darkness. Was that having an impact on his visitor?
If it is some sort of spectre, could it feel able to get in close tonight because I've got so many of the lights turned off?
Though Bruce couldn’t see how having a few less light bulbs should matter?

Another flicker at the very edge of his vision drew his attention. Gone so fast that many people might have dismissed it as a trick of vision; but not the Bat.
Does it think I don’t see it? Or doesn’t it care if I do? Where another man might have been nervous, Bruce was intrigued...
Then again, what if it isn't actually intending to hide at all? What if there's some other reason why I haven't seen it properly yet… Perhaps I'm being a bit hasty in attributing sinister motives where there might not be any?
"I know you're there watching me." He said quietly, keeping his voice neutral. "I might not mind you being here, if I could see you as well." There was a slight shift just to his left as the deeper shadows twitched suggestively.
"Why don’t you come closer?" Bruce suggested, deliberately focussing his eyes to the front, and not believing for a second that the invitation would be actually be accepted. As he watched incredulously, only peripherally aware of what was happening off to the side of the room, the image within the mirror rippled.
No wonder I couldn’t find it whenever I looked before… it's INSIDE the mirror! Very slowly, Bruce turned his head, gazing directly across the room. As his eyes adjusted to the lower level of light, he could see that the shadows inside the glass had taken on a very definite form.
Good God!

"Sandy…" Bruce breathed. In the dim lighting the reflection of the mirrored room was almost black, the image of the figure itself little more than suggestion; lighter slivers here and there implying curves, patches of darker shade inferring hollows. Even so, there was no mistaking that body shape…
Bruce gazed at his visitor, scarcely daring to breathe. "But you're upstairs asleep … you can't be here… or in there."
Stepping right up to the edge of the glass, the blurred figure continued to regard him silently.
In the dimness, Bruce thought he might just be able to distinguish the glitter of eyes watching him from under the shaggy fringe. "How are you doing that?" He demanded.
There's nothing to cast the reflection – but it's there anyway…
The figure made no reply.
Growing bolder, Bruce took a step closer, "Hhmm… remarkably stable for a mirage." Approaching the curious apparition he could make out the faintest hint of something moving lazily within the form. Particles?
Like smoke and mirrors … or starlight on still water. The word that his mother had told him once came darting to the front of his mind.
A moonshadow… Just as moonlight did not have the properties of true sunlight; but was only a reflection of it, this was a reflection of the true Sandy.
It may only be a sort of reflection; but it's quite a lot more defined than might be expected. As if it's really in there… Even though there's nothing out here to cause it. Edging closer still Bruce realised that if he squinted he could almost make out features on the half-concealed face.
"You're not hurting Sandy are you… by being in there like that?" He worried.
The posture of the moonshadow changed to one of derision.
It heard me – and reacted!

"So you think that's ridiculous, do you?" Bruce asked it. "Well, maybe I'm being a bit hasty? Each time he's exercised this talent Sandy's gotten a bit better, so perhaps you'll be good for him too? You look enough like him."
The creature, if that was the word for it, turned its attention elsewhere. Stretching with casual ease it strolled to the very front of the pane and stood confidently, looking over Bruce's head and across the room into the opposing mirror, as if seeking itself in there.
Bruce had a mental flash of that distant day when he and Sandy had sparred so nearly disastrously…
It IS looking at itself… Just the same way Sandy was staring at his own reflection! Was there a connection between the two events?
"What are you?" Bruce asked, wondering if anything would happen if the reflection of him were to touch that of the stranger?
Nothing of course! It's not real. At least my reflection isn't… What the?
Apparently his uncanny visitor had decided that their brief audience was over. With a sudden turn of speed, the moonshadow spun around, heading away along the panels, the departing back rapidly mingling with the infinity of reflections lurking within the looking glass world.
It moved so damned fast! Bruce hurried over to the glass and peered in, half-dreading, half-expecting to see that not-quite-there face still looking back from somewhere within the mirror-scape; but there was only his own reflection. The moonshadow was gone.
Sandy! Abandoning his routine, Bruce sped off to check on his friend.
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The Birthday Present