A Long Way to Run With No Legs (Deathstroke)

[The Triplets]

It was raining heavily outside, and a thunder storm was slowly closing in on Gotham. It was almost midnight, and the hospital was quiet. There had been quiet a fuzz for the last couple of day, since one of the famous two Triplets, Illona Lynch, had been hospitalized. It had been all over the news, and journalist had been trying to get a picture and a scoop. The hospital had been trying to keep the little girl alive, and see if they could safe her lost legs, and in general get her back in health. And lastly her sisters had made a lot of fuss, well mostly the one that talked. She had been all over the nurses, which had been quiet troublesome, since she also had been hurt, and was rambling a lot of gibberish. But in the end they had managed to quiet her down, and had sent her home with their butler. The quiet of the three sisters, had stayed at the hospital, despite not liking being there, but she had refused to leave her sister. She was now sleeping with her head on her arms, which was resting on the bed.

Illona was drifting in and out of sleep, and couldn’t really make a lot of sense of this whole mess. It seems like just a minute ago that she had been standing in the bank. But now no matter how many times she tried to close her eyes and wake up, she still found herself in this damned bed. And all she could do was staying here, since she couldn’t move her legs at all. She desperately wanted to get out, and just see something other than these hospital walls. She was tired of staying still, she was tired of all the fuss, and being told what to do and what not. All she wanted to do was getting out in the rain, and feel everything that was beyond that window she was starring helplessly at.
She looked at her sister, and weakly brushed a hand over her head, and smiled pitifully. Illona looked weak and sickly. She was pale and the she didn’t look like she had slept much. She almost looked like a normal girl as she was. All small and fragile like a twig. Not that the hospital was helping, since every minute made her feel like she was getting suffocated and slowly driving her insane. She felt so helpless… She felt dead.

[Deathstroke]

Slade walked silently through the rain, his long coat keeping his suit dry, though his hair fared considerably worse, becoming matted and slicked down by the torrents of rain descending from the sky. He was in his usual civilian attire consisting of a smart looking business suit with a red tie covered by his trenchcoat. In his right hand however he carried a bunch of flowers, they were quite unique and Slase had spent a dear amount of time and money on finding them, not that either was an object to him. They were dark, very dark, blue, they looked almost like black tulips. Slade had a feeling that if these girls were going to like any kind of flowers then it would have to be these. Glancing up at the hospital doors he went up the steps and walked inside, his shoes despite being sodden like the rest of his clothes made no other sound than a slight clack as he stepped on the floor.

It didn't take long to locate the girl's room, it was the one with several concerned family members trying to get into an unoccupied room. Slade, rather than get caught up in the mayhem of the reporters trying to barge their way into the room, made a detour around to a nearby window. Once he was sure that he was out of sight of the hospital staff and anyone who might try to follow him he eased open the window and slipped out onto a small ledge, easing himself gently along it once he had slid the window shut behind him. Once he was past the blockade of bodies it was no real difficulty to slide open the next window and stroll casually along through the hospital as if he owned it. Nobody questioned him, not with his naturally confident and powerful stride, of course even without that how would he have gotten past the security if he didn't belong there?

Slade found the room and took a quick peek in through the window, it was dark inside, clearly to help the girl, what was her name…? Illona, sleep, probably her sister too, he remembered something about the third sister being taken away, back home. The room was still dimly illuminated, enough to see the girls, one sleeping on the bed and the other lying there silently and mostly completely still, apart from the occasional bout of movement where she was clearly trying to move her legs. Despite himself, Slade felt a twinge of both guilt and sadness, he couldn't pin why but it was there… it hadn't been his fault, that he knew. So why the guilt? Was it Rose? Did they really remind him of her that much?

Either way like a true predator he waited until it looked like both the girls had fallen asleep before he cracked the door open, sliding into the room without a sound, the way a man can only achieve with years of both practice and experience under his belt. He moved over to the bed, silently and with such a smooth grace that it looked almost like he was gliding across the floor. Were it not for his face which was very much alive and healthy he might have been mistaken for a Spectre. He stared down at the girls in turn, first at Lidian and then up at Illona… she was a long way from the girl screaming blue murder (almost literally) that he had first seen at the bank. He glanced over at the vase, it appeared that nobody had seen fit to give her any flowers to begin with, so he picked up the empty vase and carries it over to the sink, filling it with water before placing the flowers in it and setting it gently on the table beside the girl. Slade knew he should have left there and then but he stayed a while, just to watch them silently as they slept, again feeling that slight tugging in his heart.

[The Triplets]

The sleep was more like an empty darkness, it would be sad to call it sleeping. It wasn’t much to gain from, but it was needed, and the only occupation available so late at night, actually in general. Perhaps that was why she woke, when her sister twisted and tightened her hand around hers which she had found in her sleep.
She turned towards her sister, gently stroking her other hand over her head, hushing gently at her.
”Shh Lia… I am right here, the monsters can’t get you” she said in the gentlest, caring voice possible. Like a mother laying her child to sleep. She was the mother of the family in some ways, since they didn’t have a mother anymore. They barely had a dad either. No one in their family really cared about them since they were either too busy or to money hungry. So the triplets only had each other… and their butler John.

Liadain clamed by the words and once again slept soundly. Illona stayed awake, starring at her sister and brushing her hair, unaware that the two girls were not the only ones in the room. She just watched over her sister, with the water slowly building up in her eyes, just as the sadness and pain inside her. And then the first tear fell, and then followed the quiet sobs and the sniffling.
”Why can’t you safe me…” she whispered in a broken voice, filled with all the loneliness that had been filling her up. But suddenly she stopped crying and became dead silent.
Something was not right… It smelled like rain in here, or something wet, but the window wasn’t open, the door was on the other hand.
”Are you here to kill me?” she asked quietly, still lying so she was looking at her sister, her back turning towards the intruder.