You Do What You Have To - 63

 

"He what?" Robin glared at Falcon and Hawk. "Are you out of your fucking minds? You sent him in, and on top of that you—" his glare became deadly as his look focused in on Hawk, "—let him get captured and tortured."

 

"It wasn't that bad," Hawk protested. "A few stitches, some blood replaced, he'll be fine in no time."

 

Robin sat up, ignoring the pain as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "How the hell could you…?"

 

"He volunteered," Falcon said calmly.

 

"I don't give a damn. You should have known better. He's not trained." Taking a deep breath, again ignoring the agony it cost him, Robin tried to rein in his temper. "You telling me the truth?" he asked, focusing his gaze on Hawk. "It's not bad?"

 

"Well, he'll have a scar on his arm, I suspect, but the EMTs said there was no major damage."

 

"Why didn't he tell me he was going to do this?" Robin growled.

 

"If you were him," Falcon replied, "would you have? I'm sure the last thing he wanted was for you to worry. You need to heal, and if you knew, you would have been up and probably pacing—or worse."

 

Robin scrubbed his hand through his hair. "I…guess you're right. But still… When are they going to release him?"

 

"Let me find out," Hawk said, taking out his phone. When he finished talking to Wren, he said, "They want to keep him until morning but guess what?"

 

"He's being stubborn, like Robin," Falcon responded sardonically.

 

"Yep. You're a bad influence on him, kid," Hawk said, chuckling when Robin flipped him off. "They should be here within the hour."

 

"Good. Then I'll read him the riot act," Robin growled.

 

"For what?" Falcon asked. "Doing the same thing you did? Putting himself in a position where he might get hurt, in order to stop that freaking bitch and her henchman?"

 

"Yeah, because he had no idea what he was getting into."

 

"It makes it better that you did, and you still let Mackenzie get his hands on you—more than once?" Hawk said quietly.

 

"I do what needs to be done. We all do," Robin told him.

 

"What makes Micky any different? He knew the risks when he went in and got Alex out of Tanzer's hell hole. And he was aware that things might not go smoothly dealing with Walker. Even knowing that, he still pushed Walker to get what we needed."

 

"He could have died."

 

Falcon nodded. "Yeah, Robin, he could have. Any one of us could, doing what we do. It's a risk we take."

 

"It wasn't his fight."

 

"Bullshit. It became his fight the second Walker—and Mackenzie—went after him to get the list, and you got him out of there before they could."