Jason's hand went to his gun when he felt another presence on the rooftop with him. He turned as he drew his sidearm and pointed it at the Bat-sized shadow behind him, but it wasn't Batman who emerged from the darkness.

"What are you doing here, Replacement? I don't think Daddy Bat would like it very much." Jason still kept the gun trained on Tim's chest. He didn't know why the Pretender was here and he knew with all the armour the Bats wore, his shot wouldn't kill the bird but it would hurt like a motherfucker.

"What Batman doesn't know can't hurt him." Red Robin kept his hands away from his sides, showing Jason that they were empty and he was not going for any weapons, but he didn't go so far as to raise them, like Dicky-bird would have done, he was there to talk then. Jason lowered his gun but didn't holster it. He might still need to shoot his replacement, he'd have to see what he'd come to say first.

"Well, I'm waiting. What are you doing here?"

"You know I don't know why you feel the need to point your gun at us every time one of us comes around. It's not like we're going to arrest you or anything."

"I am breaking the law."

"Yes, but technically, so are we. So if we're not going to turn ourselves in, we can't exactly do anything about you."

"I'm not exactly following Daddy Bat's rules, now, am I?"

"Yes, but you aren't really like the rest of us anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well it's just... you really don't see it do you?"

"Get to the point, Replacement, I don't have all night."

Tim's hands went up to his face and he rubbed his eyes under his mask. He muttered something that Jason wasn't sure he quite heard, but it could have been 'I thought it was obvious.'

"Red, you know I was watching Batman and Robin when it was still Nightwing in the costume. So you know I noticed when it was you in the suit. I saw the difference. You're fighting style is more street thug than acrobat."

"I know I'm not Golden Boy, you don't need to tell me." Jason's voice was lower than it normally was and his gun hand twitched a bit.

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?!" Jason was seriously considering bringing the gun back up.

"I mean that, well,"—Tim took a deep breath—"Batman and I were born with a silver spoon in our mouths. Nightwing isn't really from around here. You're the only one who really grew up here. You know what it's like to truly live in Gotham. You lived in this area for most of your life. You know what it needs. Batman takes care of the major baddies, you take care of the rest. Batman doesn't kill, not because he finds it difficult, but because he would find it too easy. You, Jason, are different. You don't kill because it's easy, you kill because it's the way Gotham works. You know you can't get rid of crime entirely but you came in and took control of it and in order to do that, the crime bosses had to be afraid of you, and they aren't afraid of prison. You had to find another way to scare them, and you did. You found a way to control this crazy city and it's a better place because of it." Jason could hardly believe it. Here was the boy he had nearly killed when he first came back to Gotham telling him he was doing a good job.

"I don't think Batman would agree with you."

"I'm not Batman."

"Why did you come here tonight, Tim?"

"To let you know not everyone in the family is against you. It's because of you that I even thought I had a chance at becoming Robin, and I thought you should know that. If you ever need help, let me know." And with that, Red Robin shot off a grappling line and jumped off the rooftop. Jason couldn't believe what he had just heard and it was a long time before he felt like he could move again. It took a scream from a few alleys over to get him to holster his gun and jump of the roof into the Gotham night.

It took a week, an unexpected visit from Alfred while he was out of his apartment, and the culture section of the Gotham Gazette (which Jason would have never seen if the butler hadn't left it on his counter a long with the cookies he had brought) for Jason to realize that Tim may have had another reason for finding him on that rooftop.