DickDami Monthly Prompt: Going to the Doctor

The dark green carpet of the waiting room was lined with white walls, dotted with red, plush chairs, and spotted with oversized pots holding fake trees. All in all, it terrified Damian.

“Pennyworth, the folder.”

The folder was promptly placed in his waiting hand and he clutched it to his chest like a shield, refusing to take a step further until Dick gently pushed him forward so he could enter the clinic.

Arm remaining around Damian’s stiff shoulders, Dick guided him to a chair in the far corner. “Why don’t you go ahead and review the practitioner’s stats while I check you in,” he suggested calmly.

“Don’t you dare patronize me, Grayson. I’ll—”

“Chop my balls off. Slit my throat. Carve my heart out with a spoon…” Dick listed off from memory as he headed over to the receptionist.

“Don’t forget throw you in a pit of needles that will give you the bubonic plague, sir,” Alfred put in helpfully as he remained standing next to the younger charge.

Dick turned and sent the butler a pleading look. “Don’t remind him of his more creative ideas.”

“Sorry.” Alfred didn’t sound the slightest bit apologetic. “I was rather fond of that particular rant myself,” he admitted quietly, leaning towards Damian while keeping his eyes forward.

Damian’s lips curled up in a smirk. “Pennyworth, I think I’m starting to like you.” He looked down at the folder that was now in his lap, edges starting to crinkle under his tight-fisted grip. “Here. You may hold the folder. I already have all the information memorized.”

Damian’s gaze wandered over to the woman Dick was talking to. Virginia Torrance, age forty-two. Had a husband, Harold, and three kids, ages sixteen, twelve, and ten. Never went to college. The file gave him nothing to blackmail her with, but her children made easy targets for threats.

“Explain to me again why we can’t simply pay off one of my father’s private doctors to write a note to my school?” Damian demanded as Dick returned with a clipboard and various forms that needed to be filled out.

“Damian, it’s just a flu shot. The doctor has no reason to try and drug you,” Dick responded blandly he started writing in various answers on the topmost page.

“You don’t know that!” Damian hissed, hand reaching out for the folder once more so he could wave it in Dick’s face. “Just because he doesn’t work for my grandfather doesn’t mean he’s not part of some other equally deadly faction. Like the Council of Spiders. Or Scarecrow. You could be sending me to be injected with some timed-release fear toxin!”

“You’ve received serums to every known strain of fear toxin,” Dick said distractedly. “Would you be interested in having a physical examination done today as well?”

“Over my dead body,” Damian bit out. “What if it’s a new strain?”

Dick’s eyebrows rose as he checked off the ‘no’ box. “You’ll be fine.”

Slumping back in his seat, Damian petulantly crossed his arms. “Why couldn’t we just have Pennyworth administer the shot?”

“You flatter me, sir,” Alfred stated dryly.

“Because a bit of normalcy will do you good.” Dick flipped to the next page. “Help you relate better with your classmates.”

“This isn’t normalcy, this is plebeian.”

Damian was jostled as Dick heartily gave him a pat on the shoulder before moving his hand up to tousle his hair, causing Damian to grit his teeth.

“Then welcome to the plebeian life, my friend.”

Damian decided then that he obviously allowed Dick far too much leniency.