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It started off a normal night. It should have been a normal night.
Dinner was the casual affair it usually is. Alfred's experienced cooking flooding the table, how he was able to keep up with the appetite of a family of superheroes was beyond most’s comprehension. Regardless, the manor’s residences could always account on a full stomach before patrol, and tonight was no different. Cassandra ate around her family’s playful bickering, and went down to the cave to suit up. She counted and stored away her gear, said her goodbyes and good lucks, before grappling into the night. Like she did every night.
The wind billows against her hood as Orphan flies through the streets of Gotham. Oracle’s voice comes to life in her ear, giving direction to the various members on patrol tonight. They spread out, Bruce and Damian to the east side investigating a drug deal that was rumored to be happening. Dick is on a stakeout, following a lead on a case he’s been quiet about recently. Steph and Tim are researching a murder case from the previous night. Duke is taking a well deserved rest. Jason is on his own agenda as usual. All was as it should be, they were a well oiled machine working to keep the city safe. She lets the comfortable sounds in her comm lull her into a rhythm of work, and passes the evening quickly.
Cassandra was getting ready to call it a night. She had stopped two muggings, walked a group of drunk girls home, and helped a man find his dog. Nothing particularly difficult but meaningful to each person nonetheless. She was doing one last lap around her section of the city when she noticed two hooded figures walking into a late night corner store. The alarm bells start ringing in her head, right before she pushes off the roof she’s on and lands soundlessly on the road below. She follows the men into the sparsely populated store, and loses them between the rows of shelves. A gasp at the back corner tells her where to go, and as she rounds the corner display she sees one person with a gun drawn, whispering in hurried tones to the cashier, and another with his head on a swivel.
He spots her first and fires a shot in her direction, she easily dodges it and before he can think to try another she has the gun knocked out of his hand and his body on the floor unconscious. The other man pivots at the sounds and also tries and fails to make a mark on her. Cass moves closer to get into range and sees his eyes flicker to the side a moment before he starts to turn. She quickly changes directions and propels herself over the counter as the shot rings out bringing the cashier down to the hard tile with her. She gets to her feet and reaches for a bottle of liquor on the fallen shelf that soon shatters against its target’s head following him down to scatter along the floor.
“Call the police” she says to the frightened last man standing, before rushing out the door, the bell ringing tauntingly behind her.
Cassandra lands uncharacteristically rough on the roof top above, before deciding she can’t go any further. She knows the wound is fatal from the amount of blood leaking from her gut, even if she called for help now she’d be gone before anything significant could be done. She is going to die here, and that terrifies her more than she ever thought it would.
She leans against an electrical box and slowly slumps to the ground. The slightest hints of light blue start spilling out from the east, giving the beginning tastes of a new day. If she's going to bleed out, here’s not a bad spot. A final watch over the city that stole her heart, the people she’s learned to call home. It’s quiet, unusually serene for her bustling city. She rests in the peace before the crowds wake up, before the businessmen in their fancy suits head to their fancy towers. Before the bakeries and coffee houses open. Before every individual complex life adds more complexity to their stories. Stories they would get to continue. For a moment she feels a pang of jealousy, before she lets it go with her next laboured breath. No point in wasting time on things that can’t be changed. Instead she turns back to her memories. The first time she fell asleep on Bruce's chest and woke up feeling safer than she could ever remember. The reading lessons with Babs where she was shown more patience than she thought was possible. The feel of Steph's hair in her face while they snuggle on the couch. The prank wars and movie nights with her brothers. Alfred’s late night hot chocolates and grandfatherly advice. She loves her family so much. That’s the hardest part of this, not the death that has surprised her in the intense fear it’s evoked. But leaving the people she’s come to love more than life, may be the hardest thing she’s ever had to do. She wishes she told them more. She hopes they know how much they mean to her, and regrets that she didn’t get the chance to show it.
The comm sitting snuggly in her ear rings, pulling her out of her trance.
“Orphan, you’ve been still for a while. Are you okay?” a pause.
“Orphan come in.”
It takes her a minute to recognize Barbra’s voice, and even longer to comprehend what she said.
“I love you” Cass whispers
“What? I-I love you too, are you okay?” Oracle responds with a hurried concern.
“I love you all” She says as a tear trails down her cheek. “Tell them please”
“Cassan-” Babs starts before Cass tears her com out and lets it drop into the growing pool of blood surrounding her. She said what she needed too and anything more would just make it hurt worse. They can’t save her, so it’s no use dragging it out.
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Jason is checking out the robbery at the corner store that he thinks might have been connected to a chain of events he's been following, when he gets a call from Oracle. He picks up from the edge of the crime scene, and before he can inquire about the reason for this surprise, he gets interrupted.
“Hood, Orphan is on the roof of the building next to you, she’s unresponsive. Check on her please and update me as soon as you know something.” Oracle rushes almost too fast to be distinguishable. But Jason doesn’t need any more prompting, he gives her an affirmative before hanging up moving to the alley to scale the side of the building. He immediately notices a form pressed against an electrical box in the center of the roof and rushes over to her side.
“Cass?” He asks, taking note of the pool of crimson she sits in.
“Jay…” She looks up at him through hooded eyes. He kneels and starts to put pressure on the wound in her abdomen.
“Shit! We need to call for help, hold on.” He uses his free hand to roughly feel around for his phone. Her hand stills on his wrist, and she drags his eyes to meet hers. She gives a small shake of her head and dread settles in his chest.
“No…” a tear now joins the puddle of liquid, a drop of clear in a sea of red.
“You can’t… It won’t.” She begins “Stay with me.” she pleads
Understanding dawns on him. She is going to die, and nothing can be done. Rather than spend her last moments being rushed to a hospital, and stuck with needles only to die anyways. She wants to spend her last moments here, in peace with the rising sun, with him. If the only thing he can do is offer her this comfort, who is he to deny her?
“Okay” he rasps.
Jason moves to sit on the ground, sliding her forward gently before settling in behind her and pulling her to his chest.
“I got you” he pulls her hood down and starts to stroke her hair. “You did good. I’m so proud of you Cass.” A few more tears silently rest in her hair. “You can rest, I got you.”
“Thank you” She puts all of her sincerity into these words, and Jay can hear every meaning in them. Thank you for being here. For letting me be. For being my family.
“No problem, what are brothers for” He tries for nonchalance, fails but neither acknowledges it.
“I love you, you know that?” she asks the most obvious thing in the world.
“Yeah. Yeah, I love you too.” he presses a kiss into her hair.
The sun is now just visible above the horizon, painting the sky various shades of pink and backgrounding the Gotham skyline.
“It’s really pretty here,” Cassandra speaks for the last time.
“It is.” But he isn’t looking at the sky. He tries to commit her to his memory and hopes that will be enough. “It really is.”
They sit in silence for a moment, two siblings desperately fighting against time. And when Cassandra’s head lolls back against Jason’s shoulder, who could blame the sounds that come next.