Tim lay on one of the cots in the Med Bay, staring at the ceiling and readjusting the ice pack on his head every once in a while. He got tossed against a tree during the last mission, but that wasn't what bothered him. What bothered him was how the mission turned out.
It was supposed to be a simple mission to retrieve information about why Lex Luther was suddenly interested in the wellbeing of the people in Nebraska who just suffered through a devastating tornado; he never did anything for the benefit of others and there had to be a hidden agenda somewhere.
But his squad got caught just as they were about to find out what it was. Nobody got too hurt – he actually got the worse injury – but it was failure. Now they know that the League is looking into it and they'll be more careful. It'll be hard to prevent whatever plan they had because of his mistakes.
"Robin?" Tim turned his head to the door, seeing the blonde demigoddess standing there. She came inside, staring at his ice pack. "Does it hurt?"
He sat up on the cot as Cassie dragged a chair to his side. He shook his head, immediately regretting it when the room wouldn't stop spinning. He focused on the couple of Cassie's regarding him with concern as he spoke. "No."
She bit her lip, thinking through her next sentence carefully. "Are…are you okay? You were kinda bummed out the whole ride back."
"Yeah. I'm perfect." Even he didn't buy it; the feebleness in his voice betrayed him before he could cover it up.
Cassie took the hand that wasn't busy in hers and gave a supportive squeeze. Smiling kindly she tried her best to look in his eyes. "C'mon, tell me. Bottling it up never helps."
Heaving a sigh he let his other hand drop, ice pack already melted anyway. After a while he collected his thoughts enough to give a response that wouldn't label him as a baby. "I messed up."
"Everyone messes up every once in a while. You don't have to beat yourself up."
"No, but I was the leader. I wasn't allowed to mess up. I had to make sure everything went according to plan and I didn't. Maybe if, maybe if I sent in Blue earlier than everything would be okay."
"Robin, stop," Cassie said firmly. "Just because you're the leader doesn't mean you can't slip up a few times. And missions never go exactly as planned, you know that. Things like this happen all the time. We adapt and continue. Just like Canary always preaches."
"Batman," Tim answered, head tilted down as his mouth tilted up. "Batman always says that."
Cassie rolled her eyes. "Fine, but you get it right? Your leadership skills is not defined by one mission gone a bit bad. And hey, you got us out of there good enough. No deaths, major injuries, or explosions. I say that it was pretty successful."
Tim squeezed her hand back and smiled at her. "Thanks Cass."
Smiling back she got up and kissed his cheek. "No prob, Rob."