Chapter 25: Sick Day

Usually, Danny shut his alarm off by the third or fourth ring, which was acceptable enough for Harley to ignore and stay sleeping. Today, however, the infernal blaring noise had been going off for five whole minutes, which was four and a half minutes too long in her opinion. This was cruel and unusual torture to her ears, and she was pretty sure that was internationally illegal (at least, in spirit it was).

She knew Ivy wasn't going to get up and deal with it anytime soon – the woman could sleep through a grenade, something that Harley knew from experience – so she took it upon herself to go and shut it off… and if she wasn't able to, she could always chuck his phone out the window. That'd work.

It was strange, too. Danny was typically the morning person in the apartment. That wasn't to say she and Ivy and Selina weren't up to join him for breakfast sometimes, but that was typically after a night out on the town. The three of them would just stay up until he left for the day and then sleep until late afternoon.

All of her confusion was allayed when Harley opened Danny's door and peeked in his room. She could see he was shivering in his sleep even under his thick comforter and the floor next to his bed had a pile of used tissues. His breathing was interrupted by sniffles and coughs every few moments, and she was pretty sure she could hear a slight wheeze.

Danny was sick.

Her first task was to walk over to his nightstand and click the "stop" button that was conveniently accessible from his lock screen before fetching extra blankets from the couch to cover him some more and leaving a glass of water within his reach. With that, Harley began a hunt for cold medicine in every cabinet and closet. She figured there had to be some somewhere, seeing as Danny was still very much 100% human.

Fifteen minutes later, she had found three first-aid kits (one each labeled for the three of them Gotham girls), a year's worth of Emergen-C, a thermometer, and two more tissue boxes. It wasn't perfect, but it was a good enough find that Harley wouldn't need to leave immediately to find a pharmacy.

By this hour of the morning, Selina had returned from her nightly shenanigans. It was hard to keep track whether she was working with or against the big bad Bats, and by the sly smile on her face as she strolled into the kitchen didn't help clear it up either.

"Harley?" Selina's expression was clouded with confusion as she caught sight of the blonde clutching the medical supplies to her chest. "Is something wrong? You're not usually up at seven in the morning."

"The doctor is in!" Harley proclaimed with an excited grin. "All that med school training is gonna come in handy now!" As she brushed by Selina on her way back to Danny's room, Harley was able to see the usually impeccable thief had smudged lipstick. That meant she was likely to be in a good mood, which meant Harley could get her to go fetch some more sick day necessities. "Glad to see you had a successful night, Kitty, but could ya go get some Tylenol, a fuzzy blanket, an iced Chai latte– no-ice-extra-milk-double-espresso-shot– and the biggest pack of tissues you can find? Danny's sick as a dog. Thanks!"

"What's the latte for?" Selina called after her– the fact that she hadn't questioned the rest meant she'd be on her way to the store shortly.

Harley shrugged– a terrible habit for that moment as she almost dropped everything she was holding. "Like ya said, I ain't used to being up this early: I need some caffeine!"

Despite Gotham being such a major metropolis, it was ridiculous how often Selina seemed to run into someone she knew. Seeing as most of the people she regularly interacted with were supers (whether they be superhero, supervillain, or super pain-in-her-ass), it was understandable that she would see them the most. What she didn't understand was why Damian Wayne was at a Rite-Aid at 7:15am in downtown Gotham.

Of course, it wasn't like Damian was there openly, because otherwise the whole world would know the Wayne heir was out and about and he'd be hounded by paparazzi and fangirls alike. He had a black baseball cap on and the hoodie of his gray sweater on top of that as well, which may have seemed openly suspicious, but it did the job of shading his face from most curious glances.

"Early robin gets the worm, or something like that?" Selina suggested as she took the spot behind him in line. The store was busier than normal, but that seemed to be a side effect of the flu season hitting Gotham.

Damian shot her a glare over his shoulder, angling himself slightly towards her as he responded. "Hilarious. What are you doing here?"

With one hand holding a basket full of medicine and tissues, Selina used her free arm to gesture at the activity around them. "Same as everyone else."

"Didn't know your two Gotham ladies could get sick."

"I've never thought about that," Selina replied in a surprised tone after she paused to think. "But no, it's Danny."

"Oooo, what about Danny?" Selina could see Damian visibly sigh as a blue haired girl exited an aisle and simultaneously handed him a full shopping basket and propped her arm on top of his head, using him as an armrest.

Now everything made more sense to Selina– Batman had mentioned last night how not all of the kids were able to patrol, and seeing Damian and Harper Row out shopping meant that they were probably the two lucky ones to not be sick.

"Harper darling, how nice to see you!" Selina reached out and pat her cheek softly, causing the girl to stick her tongue out in response. Harper was one of the newer members of the Batfamily and Selina enjoyed the sassy teenager's quips immensely.

"Hey, Auntie S," Harper replied, steadfastly ignoring Damian's angry whisper of she's not our aunt! "The rest of the crew is sick, so Grandpa A sent us out for some more stuff." (It was a routine for the Batkids to refer to Alfred as grandad when the public ear was listening as it was safer).

Oh dear. "I'll be over later this evening to bring over some leftover tomato soup for you all. I was planning on making a large batch once Danny woke up." In reality, Ivy was going to be the one making the soup. While Selina wasn't a terrible cook herself, Ivy just had a way with plants. "Now, do you mind if I cut ahead of you? I've still got a terribly complicated latte to pick up."

Harley had coaxed some water and ibuprofen into Danny by the time Selina got back, and while his fever was still over 100 degrees, it had gone down just a bit. With Selina now sleeping after her night out and Ivy still slumbering because she was not a morning person, Harley settled herself in the living room with her latte and the cozy new blanket Selina had found and she resumed her Game of Thrones binge.

Maybe Danny would be recovered by the time she finished the last four seasons…

By the end of season 5, Ivy and Selina were both awake and busy turning the kitchen into a Campbell's soup factory. Harley had never seen so much tomato soup in her life and was honestly amazed at how quickly the other two had done it (at least, once they had agreed on the best seasoning). Danny stayed sleeping this whole time.

By the end of season 6, Harper Row had stayed to watch an episode before Selina and the girl with brilliant blue hair (really, Harley was envious) had taken more than half of the soup to Wayne Manor (since apparently most of the Batkids were sick too), and Ivy had received a thank-you text from Alfred on Selina's phone. Harley had checked on Danny after every episode, and at 20 hours in he was starting to show some color again. His appetite was returning (he ate two and a half bowls of soup) but his fever was still lingering.

By the end of season 7, Harley was still awake at eight in the morning and was able to greet Ivy from her night out– something to do with raiding a climate change denier's warehouse full of illegally imported animals. She might not have been awake enough to understand the full story but she was still supportive of Ivy. Harley checked on Danny one more time (yup, he was still breathing) before going to bed herself. Selina had gone to bed at a normal hour, so she'd be able to keep an eye on him all day.

By the start of season 8, Harley had slept a full nine hours and woke up to find Danny sitting on the couch (he was still wrapped in a blanket, but this was worlds of improvement from the previous day). His fever was close to breaking, he was eating crackers, and his sarcasm was back, so Harley knew he'd be back to normal in a day or so. With plain popcorn for him, extra buttered popcorn for her, and a bowl of tomato soup for them both (they had enough left over for at least a week), the two of them sat down to watch the final eight hours of the show.

By the end of season 8, both of them had agreed to re-watch Breaking Bad next, Danny's fever had broken, and a get well soon card signed by the Batkids (while Damian had not signed it, there was a stick figure with his name on it) had been sneakily left on the apartment's doormat and was now taped to Danny's fridge.

Due to popular demand, there is a poll on my profile right now asking if any of you would like to see The Villain Wrangler cross-posted to a site called SpaceBattles. If you have strong feelings one way or another about that, please go vote!

This chapter was inspired by a prompt Tamuril2 left in the reviews! This was also inspired by everyone on my campus currently being sick and wanting to have a try with the Siren's POV. Hope y'all enjoyed this deviation from Danny's normal routine and thanks for reading as always :)