Jason slept on the office couch. The old warehouse creaked and groaned through-out the night, so he slept in fits and awakened in a start, constantly. Each shift of his weight aggravated his injuries: the ribs, the wrists, the knees, his hip. He'd wake-up, thoughts racing, reaching for the pistol wedged under his pillow. Then hear the familiar echoing moans of the old steel and brick building, long abandoned, and knew he was alone. The sensors he had put out hadn't gone off. So, eager to avoid the demons his thoughts could conjure, Jason slipped back asleep to deal with the horrors his nightmares came up with instead. The ones where the Joker beat him with the crowbar, since the son of a bitch yet (emphasis: yet) lived, were particularly mean.
Like, c'mon, that's just low.
But then in the small hours of the morning, nearly exactly twenty-four hours since Jason got blown-up (again), he woke-up. Suddenly and acutely awake. Dragged out of sleep by adrenaline, he wedged his arm under him and pulled the gun, leveraging it onto the intruder. He stood, tall and dark, and out of place in the dusty, cleaned-out office, next to an empty and broken filing cabinet. No mask, which was infinitely fucking worse.
Yesterday, Bruce fucking dog walked him when he decided he was done with their fight. Now, he was hurt and exhausted. Bruce talked about fighting. Yeah right, Jason's best bet was diving out the window. Which, frankly, didn't sound appealing right now.
"I don't know how a man as smart as you can be so god damn stupid!" Jason cursed, he had to lower the gun. Holding it up hurt his arms and ribs too much. He wheezed and staggered to his feet, as if he had any fight left in him. Instead, he just felt the wet pull of the worst of his injuries opening to the center left of his spinal column. "We talked plenty yesterday. I don't know how either of us could have been anymore clear."