This is one of the longer ones! And the next chapter may be surprising. I hope it is.
Enjoy and review!
He doesn't want to be here. The last dinner here was awkward and Tim really doesn't want to be near Dick or Damian. He supposes he is still bitter about losing the title of Robin.
Is it bad, he wonders, that Robin was how he defined himself?
But Jason is there. If Tim just doesn't speak much, Jason will talk. But, if Tim didn't talk, he wouldn't get to tell Dick that Bruce is alive. He has even brought a file with the evidence. He supposes that he should talk some.
Alfred frets over him, says he's getting too thin and looks too tired. His skin is too pale and his shoulders seem to be slouching.
Tim loves Alfred.
But Tim just smiles and says he's fine, just too busy.
He is sure Alfred has heard that before from Bruce.
Jason and Damian bicker the whole time. Dick looks at Tim, worriedly, because Tim is staring at Stephanie, who is smiling at him.
When the dinner is over (Tim didn't talk much) he goes up to Dick and says, "I need to tell you something."
Conner and Bart are murmuring about how it is about time he told Dick. There is something in him, Tim thinks, that is slowly being pulled.
"What is it, baby bro?"
Tim holds out the file and says, "The past couple months, I've been hunting Bruce through all the systems I can get into. I've complied evidence that he's alive. Starting with something that I found on my own, in Iraq."
Dick takes the folder, but he looks terribly sad.
"Tim..." He puts the folder on the table. The thing inside Tim is being pulled more. Damian and Jason have started watching. "Tim. Do you want to stay here and rest?"
"Why? We have to... We have to find Bruce."
"Tim, he's gone."
And the thing within him is suddenly pulled taught. It begins fraying at the point of tension.
"You don't believe me, do you?"
Conner looks surprised, then angry. Bart looks incredulous. Stephanie moved toward Tim, as if preparing for comfort. It is a comfort that Tim doesn't want.
"You... you think I've lost it, don't you?"
Dick looks sad. Tim thinks that he has no right to look sad. Tim is still picking up his pieces after losing his mother and father and Steph and Conner and Bart and Bruce. What right does Dick have to be sad?
"I think you need to rest."
Dick reaches to put a hand on his shoulder. Tim moved. "Don't touch me."
Conner suddenly looks worried. Tim backs up further. "Tim, man, maybe you should lie down."
"Shut up," Tim's voice rises and cracks. Dick and Jason and Damian are all looking at one another. Tim thinks he should go home. He has never belonged here.
Dick reaches for him again. And the thing in Tim snaps.
"I said don't touch me." The colors in the room swirl together and his three friends are coming forward. "Get away from me! Stop!"
Damian appears out of nowhere. Tim swings at him, connects with his cheek. But Damian stabs a needle into Tim's bicep and he feels sick and tired.
And he falls over.
He doesn't believe me, how could he not, we're brothers...
He slips into blackness.
He said we're brothers...