Prompt: "The closest doctor is probably hours away from here!"

I'm not diabetic so if I've got anything wrong that's why. I also had to slightly speed up the symptoms just for story purposes

CW NEEDLES

Miss Martian knew she messed up even before the rocks began collapsing behind them. She knew she was in for a very long talk on safety the moment she used a support beam to thwack a monster away. She knew when the team split with her and Robin diving into the left tunnel and the rest diving into the right tunnel that she dug her own grave even deeper. 

As the last pebble fell and sealed her and Robin inside, she quickly glanced to the younger hero to gauge his reaction. He didn't usually blow up when they were on missions. He kept that for the ride back when it was all over and they made it out alive. One look and she knew he was barely keeping it in. His eye twitched slightly and his lips trembled to let out a string of insults but somehow he bottled it up. They stood in silence, Miss Martian unwilling to break it for fear of making it worse. 

"You guys okay?" Robin asked through the mindlink. 

"All accounted for on our side," Kid Flash replied, clearly just as miffed as his friend. 

"We're good."

"Somebody want to tell us what the hell just happened?" Artemis snapped.

"I didn't know it was a support beam," Miss Martian quickly defended. 

"Robin, what are our options?" Aqualad inquired. For now, the martian would be saved the lecture.

The tunnel lit up an artificial blue as Robin checked their coordinates. Luckily, they had been heading to the tunnels to escape in the first place so she hadn't completely ruined their escape plan. He typed in something she couldn't see and sighed. 

"Good news or bad news."

"We've had enough bad news, start with the good," Kid Flash said on their leader's behalf.

"Good news: both tunnels lead out but they're on opposite sides of the island. Our side is closer to the ship. If we just follow them through, we can meet you on your side or vice versa."

"And now the bad," Superboy prompted.

"The mindlink won't last and I've seen better signal in the Bermuda Triangle. We'll enter a dark zone for communication within a mile and only get it back comms wise when we leave."

"How long till we leave the dark zone?"

"Three hours." There was a collective groan. "Could be worse. This could be the sewers."

"Head out. You two will pick us up on the other side," Aqualad ordered although they could all hear the reluctance in his voice. It wasn't like they had an option. They could try and break down the rocks between them but with the already unstable structure they risked a total cave in. It wasn't worth it and if they could still escape then it was better to take the long road on this one. The mindlink went silent but Miss Martian didn't miss the ping of a message on Robin's computer. She stepped a little closer to read it over his shoulder.

'Look after yourself. Tell her if it gets bad,' it read. She frowned but didn't question it. She was already in the bad books and she doubted poking the bear was going to make it any better. 

They started walking,  the others maintaining the silence that had overtaken the mindlink. She suspected Robin would prefer to join it but as nervousness overtook M'gann, she started rambling about whatever came to mind. He didn't add anything more than a nod every now and then.

She felt the presence of her fellow teammates slowly receed until it was only herself and Robin left. It only highlighted how isolated they were and how, even when knowing they wouldn't be able to communicate for hours, they still decided not to speak due to their anger. 

Emotions were a lot less intrusive to sense. They rolled off of people like water off a duck's back and she picked it up easily. It had been overwhelming to feel everyone's annoyance so she was a little glad to have them walk out of range. She wondered if it was just as intrusive as entering their minds without a warning to sense their emotions. It wasn't like she probed them for it and humans often took note of each others emotions through physical signs. 

Robin's emotions were a less clear than the others. She had a similar problem with Batman. She guessed it came from intensive training to make themselves as blank as possible so they maintained the higher ground even when dealing with telepaths. Still, he couldn't be completely blank like Batman. His emotions were certainly murkier like trying to look at the bottom of a pond. She could make out shillouettes but couldn't be sure what she was looking at. Right now, she was looking at what she suspected was annoyance or irritation. Unlike the others, she couldn't feel it being directed at her specifically but she didn't really need to. What else would make him annoyed.

She tried to do what human did and study his appearance It was hard to see with the already pale blue light they were using to guide the way washing him out but he was definitely paler. That didn't give her much on the emotions front. His body seemed to shake despite it not being cold enough to cause chills and there being no small earthquakes happening that she knew of but then again, she was flying. His eyebrows were pinched in what she presumed to be deep thought or annoyance. She rather quickly found she couldn't figure it out and seeing as going into his mind was a big social no no, she didn't have much to go off.

"I'm sorry!" she suddenly proclaimed, her voice echoing off of the walls. She cringed hearing it bounce off the walls and fill the tunnel. 

"M'gann, it's fine," he said, his voice teetering on irritated.

"It's not fine, I know you're mad."

"I'm annoyed, there's a difference." She stared at him unsatified with his answer. He let out a sigh and she assumed if she could see his eyes, he'd be rolling them. "I'm just not thrilled to be walking for hours and then having to pick up the others. I was kinda counting on getting out of here as soon as possible for something but I guess I'm gonna be late. It's fine."

"None of that sounds fine."

"I have a low bar for fine," he teased lightly. She wasn't persuaded. "We all mess up. How should I expect you to know anything about gravity and architecture when you only got here like two months ago?"

"The others seemed mad."

"They're allowed to be," he told her frankly. Then he tilted his head to the side as though reconsidering. "I'm not mad though. I've had worse." She didn't doubt that. The sewers comment felt like it had come from experience. "Don't beat yourself up too hard about it."

"I'll try."

The annoyance was still there. She could feel it hanging in the air and she couldn't understand how even though they spoke about it, she still couldn't figure out where it was directed. She assumed it was about the thing he'd be late for but that didn't make much sense either. 

Robin hadn't said anything about needing to go somewhere after the mission. He didn't make a joke about wrapping this up or mention he had something to do which he'd done before. Maybe it was something he wasn't looking forward to. He didn't divulge much about his personal life but she always overheard him complaining about events he had to go to when it was just him and Wally. 

It could be something to do with school. He attended Gotham Academy which was a pretty prestige school so there were probably a lot of events he had to go to. Then again, Artemis also went there. It might be a club thing but they weren't due back until ten and that seemed a little too late for a school event to begin let alone finish. 

A doctor's appointment made specifically for Robin and not whoever he was outside of work made sense although she would then question why he'd even gone on the mission if it risked being late for something like that. Surely, Black Canary would've let him skip the mission just in case it did run long. He didn't always join them on missions so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary. 

Her last guess was patrol. Unlike most of the team, Robin conducted patrols every night with Batman. The only times he didn't were due to injury or missions that needed him there. Why would he be concerned about being late for that? To her understanding, they didn't end till two in the morning, sometimes later in the holidays. Maybe it was just because he'd get FOMO. 

Her pondering was interrupted by a loud beeping. 

"What's that noise?" M'gann asked, glancing around ready to see some hidden explosives they hadn't noticed before. 

"My alarm. Sorry, I won't be able to turn it off," he answered. He raised his arm to show her it was definitely coming from him. She breathed a sigh of relief but then was left with the question of why he had an alarm and why he couldn't turn it off. She thought about if it was appropriate to ask or if it was even worth it. She quickly found that when she asked Robin questions about anything vaguely about himself she'd be kindly refused an answer. He could see her mentally debating and put her out of her misery. "It's for my insulin. I'm diabetic."

"Oh! In episode three of Hello Megan, there's a character with diabetes. Megan asked why he was able to eat and drink soda in class. He explained it helped with insulin levels because his body doesn't naturally produce enough and she gets super embarrassed and- I'm rambling aren't I?"

"It's fine," he told her. "But yeah, that's what I have. There's a sensor under my skin that connects to the computer and the alarm sounds when my insulin levels get too low." She nodded, appreciating the explanation. Diabetes wasn't a thing on Mars and she only partially understood it when she watched the episode. 

"Okay so what do you do?" she asked, pressing her luck with having her questions actually answered for once.

"Eat something, drink something, inject usually," he explained. Then he rubbed his forehead, stopping at the bridge of his nose to pinch it. She'd seen him do the same motion a few times before and quickly reassed his previous pinched eyebrows. A headache would make sense. It could be a side effect, she guessed. "Unfortunately, I have none of those things right now."

"What?"

"See KF has something similar. His body works super fast and his metabolism is working overtime because of it. It causes his sugar levels to drop suddenly unless he keeps up with meals. He has carb loaded meals at specific times to combat it but sometimes missions get in the way so we share supplies. Of course today is the day when I give him my supplies and don't check my insulin pen," he answered. "Now I'm rambling," he added under his breath. 

"I could produce more insulin for you, right? Like I did with Logan's blood?"

"Not really. We don't have the equipment to collect it and I don't wanna chance getting some side effects we don't know about yet."

"Side effects?"

"Well, you're the first to do a martian blood transfer for a human. Who knows what that'll do to someone," he replied. She winced. "It'll be fine, Miss M. I'm probably overthinking it. Bat training." He let out a sigh. "There's an emergency supply on the ship."

"But we're not even half way through the tunnel right now. Robin, the closest doctor is probably hours away from here! What if we don't get to the ship in time?"

"Then we roll with the punches. I've had it for years before I even had the monitor and I was fine. Don't worry about it."

"Kinda hard not to worry about it with the alarm going off."

"Then why don't you talk about that show you like? It'll take your mind off of it."

Usually talking about Hello Megan kept her from paying attention to those around her. She often found that when she stopped talking, the person in front of her was completely bored and glancing for some way out of the conversation. She'd talked about it enough times in the locker room after cheerleading practice to know that it wasn't a popular show on Earth which explained why it didn't have a second season she desperately wished it did. However, this time she couldn't stop staring at Robin like he was about to explode. 

He was a little unbalanced on his feet, sometimes knocking into the rock wall or tripping over uneven ground. He didn't draw attention to it but she saw it clear as day. The shaking that she now attributed to the low insulin was getting worse. He'd taken to grabbing his forearms to hide his hands but he couldn't hide his whole body was trembling. His eyes hung low as though he were exhausted and if he tried to put any input into the conversation, his words were either jumbled or slurred. 

"Robin," she began nervously. He hummed to show he was listening. "When you said you were gonna be late for something, was it for your insulin?" He nodded jerkily. "And your alarm, it isn't just for when your insulin is low, is it?" A sad smile greeted her and she wished that the light she'd been glad to have previously would go away so she wouldn't see it. "It's for when it gets too low." He nodded again. "What's going to happen?"

"I won't die," he was quick to reassure her but there were a lot of things between not dying and the symptoms she was seeing. "Tunnel vision, muscle weakness, confusion, drowsiness," he listed off, his speech still slurred. She frowned, knowing she wasn't getting the full answer. "Might need help walking soon."

"Wait, hello Megan! It'll be faster if I fly us out, right?" she suggested. He considered it and mentally kicked himself for not thinking of it earlier.

"Yeah but uh," he paused. "You need to put me down if I have a seizure."

"Seizure? You didn't lead with seizure!"

"I've not had one since I was eight," he argued. "And it's kinda hard to think right now." M'gann didn't waste any time scooping him up and flying as fast as she could. It wouldn't make the hours long journey suddenly minutes like it would with Wally but it would certainly cut down on time. "You're strong," he mumbled.

"You're light," she replied, hoping the soft taunt would somehow help. 

It felt like years had passed before they saw the night sky but M'gann didn't slow down to marvel at the stars. She could feel Robin shaking getting harder and whilst she tried to keep up a conversation, he hadn't been talking in the latter half of the tunnel. When she looked down, he was still conscious but he looked tired. She flew to the ship which she hoped would spark something out of the young hero yet he remained quiet in her arms. She summoned a seat for him and gently put him down before holding him by the shoulders to keep his focus. 

"Where's the insulin?" she asked.

"First aid," he answered. She nodded and flew over to where they kept the first aid supplies. It was then that she noticed the boxes of first aid hanging on the wall in a row all had their names on. With their different biologies, it took specialised supplies to handle all their injuries and illnesses. Curiousity made her want to look through the others but she kept focus and grabbed the one with Robin's name. She opened it as she made her way back to him and dug around the various gauze and medicines until she found a tube. She passed it to Robin who shook his head.

"I need you," he told her. He grabbed the box from her, almost dropping it with his coordination dwindling by the minute and pointed to the paper taped to the inside of it. Instructions on how to use an insulin pen, M'gann read. She was never good with needles but that didn't seem to matter much now. 

Step one was to wash her hands. They didn't have time for it and Robin seemed to agree and moved his finger to the steps of actually using the pen. She removed the cap and looked through the small cartridge window to check if the insulin was clear. Thankfully it was. She snatched up an alcohol wipe, ripped the packaging with her teeth and cleaned the rubber stopper. She attached a new needle and primed it then paused.

"Wait, how much do I give you?" she asked.

"Three turns," he replied after a moment too long. She nodded and turned. He grabbed at his shirt sleeve and pulled it up as high as it would go. "Arm." M'gann cleaned the injection site with another alcohol wipe then held her breath as she tightened her grip on the pen.

"Will this hurt?" He shrugged. It definitely would. She inserted the needle, taking care to get it as perfect to 90 degrees as she could and pushed down on the injection button. She counted in her head.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

A small trickle of blood followed as M'gann pulled the needle out and she panickedly grabbed some gauze to wrap around it. She looked at Robin, expecting to see him return to normal but he still seemed as sick as he did before. Did she do it wrong? Were they too late?

"Takes a minute," he explained, seeing her panic in the corner of his eye. He lightly batted her hand away and took off the mess of gauze, replacing it with a cotton ball and a plaster to keep the pressure. "You did good." She didn't feel like it. If she'd never caused the cave in or was at least smart enough to ensure everyone was in the same tunnel then he wouldn't have gotten so bad. "Juice?" She rushed over to the fridge, grabbed a couple of cartons of apple juice then rushed back. "Still holding the needle."

"What do I do with it?" she asked as he struggled to pierce the carton with a straw. 

"In the sharps bin. Bright orange." She studied the room and found the bin, throwing it away immediately. "Should've said just the needle," he added too late. 

"I'm so sorry! I can grab it still!"

"It's fine. B has like a million," he responded. "We should get going."

"To a hospital?"

"To pick up the others. I'm okay." She didn't believe him but she still had the ship start and head to the opposing side of the island. "I'm okay," he insisted.

"That was really scary."

"You did well, M'gann. Don't worry."

When they landed and picked up the rest of the team, Wally ran straight to Robin and gave him a once over. The younger hero slapped away his hands with a laugh. 

"I'm alright. M'gann had it handled."

"She did?"

"I did?"

"Had what handled?" Connor asked.

"I'm diabetic. Had a bit of an insulin issue. It's okay now though," he said. There was a beat of silence.

"Why didn't you say you were diabetic?" Artemis shouted. "That's like a big thing we need to know!"

"Never came up. Did you want me to say 'Hi I'm Robin, nice to meet you. BTW my body can't keep itself alive so I'm diabetic'?" he countered sarcastically. 

"It would've been nice to know," she huffed, flustered.

"What's diabetes?" Connor whispered to Kaldur who just mirrored his confusion.