Doctor Leslie rushed into the room. "Why didn't anyone call me when he awoke?"
Neither Batman nor Nightwing spoke. They stood mere feet away from the bed in which their fallen partner laid. The two of them watched Doctor Leslie check Tim's vitals.
After a short while she turned to them. "He seems to be okay. I think the excitement or stress, whichever was going on in here, simply overwhelmed him. When he wakes up again please, come and get me." Doctor Leslie exited the room leaving Batman and Nightwing alone with the unconscious Timothy Drake.
Batman looked from the bed to Nightwing. "Stay with him. If anything changes contact me." Before Nightwing had a chance to respond Batman was gone.
Nightwing sat in the chair next to Tim's bed loathing himself. "I couldn't save her, and now I brought this upon you. Then the whole fight with Batman in front of you, ugh, am I completely useless? I bet you the Bat thinks I am. I spent so long trying to prove myself to him, no to myself, only to fail miserably. You called it The Joker's fault, but would he have been able to get to you if I would have been better at my job? Do I even have the right to be out there? I avenged my parents deaths, Bats said he has everything under control with this, and I've spent years getting justice for those who couldn't get it for themselves. So, do I have a right to be out there? Do I have a reason? I expect Batman is heading to the cave right now to come up with a fantastic way to say Nightwing you are no longer needed. The worst part is he most likely thinks I was being careless, and who knows, he might be right, but damn it if he would have just said. No, there's no point. I did what I did, what came to pass passed, and there's nothing I can do about that. It's just, why do my mistakes always affect the ones around me more than they affect me? I'm sorry, Timmy. I've said that a lot today, but I am. None of this would have happened if I just, what's the point?" Nightwing spoke softly to the unconscious boy lying in front of him. He wanted Tim to wake up and simply give him all of the answers that he was searching for. Nightwing probably wouldn't believe Tim telling him it wasn't his fault, but it would have felt better to have someone disagree with the things his mind was telling him. The silence was like a knife cutting into his flesh.
Tim awoke a few hours later. He looked to one side and gave a small grin to the sleeping Nightwing slowly sliding off of the hard wood chair. "NW, you might want to wake up before you, never mind, too late." Tim trailed off as Nightwing hit the floor with a thud and a groan.
"You couldn't wake me up before that happened?" Nightwing raised himself to a standing position and rubbed the back of his head.
Tim put his hands up in the air defensively. "I tried man, but you were already on the floor."
Nightwing headed for the door. "Yeah, yeah, I got to go get Doctor Leslie now that you're awake. Then I get the pleasure of contacting the Bat."
"Um, Dick, can we leave Bats out of this for awhile?" Tim spoke in soft earnest voice.
Nightwing spun on his heels. "Yeah, Timmy, I think we can do that for right now." He then left the room to find Doctor Leslie.
Doctor Leslie examined Tim briefly. "I want to keep you here for awhile; after all, you're lucky you're not in a comma or worse."
Tim instantaneously refused to stay any longer, which both confused and surprised both Doctor Leslie and Nightwing. Nightwing stepped closer to Tim. "You know she only wants to make sure you are okay, right?"
Tim stared at him with a glare that would make the Bat proud. "I'm fine, and I refuse to stay any longer." Before either one of them could retort Tim was out of the bed and getting dressed in his bloody and torn Robin costume.
Doctor Leslie was clearly not happy with Tim's decision. "I can't force you to stay against your will, but I must advise you to do so for your own good."
Tim placed the mask over his eyes and with it his entire demeanor changed. "Listen, lady, I'm leaving."
Doctor Leslie knew there was no way to stop him. "In that case, as a doctor, I am inclined to tell you to stay out of stressful situations, try to get as much rest as possible, keep those bandages clean, change them twice a day, and quit your night job until your head is healed."
Robin nodded and left through the window. Swiftly Nightwing followed him. Nightwing and Robin were flying through the air, hopping from rooftop to rooftop in the same manner they were when this entire thing had started. "You know Batman is going to kill us now, right? I was suppose to contact him when you woke up. Now you are gallivanting around town with a head injury, and you know it's going to be my fault. It always turns out to be my fault."
Robin was picking up speed and now moving at a faster pace. "Yeah, well I need to get home before my dad kills me. I will deal with Batman later. Believe or not an angry Jack Drake is worse than an angry Bat. When I saw you at the coffee shop and told you I didn't want to go home to an empty house I sort of lied. True I didn't want to go home, but that wasn't because it was empty."
Nightwing was following a few feet behind Robin. "Let me guess, your dad wanted to have a chat that you just weren't ready for at the time, and now your dad is going to kill you for not showing up, not calling, and just being an all around deviant kid."
Robin stopped on the next rooftop and waited for Nightwing to catch up. "Um, that pretty much sums it up. So, I guess this is where we part ways."
Robin made a move to leave but Nightwing held him back. "Maybe I should go with you to your dad's. I think it will look better if you tell him you got mugged, and I happen to be with you to take you to the doctor after you were shot. At least better than I was mugged got shot got myself to the doctor and I'm fine dad nothing to worry about."
Robin looked down at the ground. "I was planning to just avoid the whole thing and sneak into my room." Upon seeing Nightwing's look of disbelief he picked up his head and flashed a large smile. "I was kidding, come on, not even the Bat could get away with that."
The two of them headed to Tim's dad's house. They arrived in their street clothes. Tim turned to Dick. "I don't want to knock, you knock."
"Timmy, you're the guy's son, you knock."
Tim looked at him pleadingly. "But my head, you knock."
Begrudgingly Dick rolled his eyes and knocked on the door. When Jack Drake answered the door Dick was holding Tim up hoping that sympathy would make this conversation go easier. Jack helped Dick get Tim inside. The two of them sat him down in a soft cushioned chair. Before Jack could even ask what happened Dick had sat down in a chair next to Tim's and was giving Jack their version of the story.
"I think Tim is very lucky that you were there. Thank you for taking him to that Doctor and thank you for bringing him home safely." Jack stood up, walked over to Dick, and shook his hand.
Dick stood as well. "I'm just glad I was there, otherwise, who knows what would have happened. Well, I'm happy I could get him home alright, but I have to go. Is it okay if I stop by tomorrow to check on him?"
Jack led Dick to the door. "I would be disappointed if you didn't."
Dick left the Drake residence. Before long, Nightwing was jumping across rooftops heading to the Batcave to have a very long talk with Batman, a talk Nightwing knew he was not going to enjoy.
