Chapter 11
AN Enjoy. :)
I turn around, wide eyed, like everyone else on my team, as a red figure drops from the ceiling, a smaller figure beside him.
"Arsenal" I murmur, in greeting as well as shock.
He ignores me, instead pushing Lian towards me and away from the guns now pointed his way.
"Put the guns down" he growls, standing protectively in front of me and Lian, who as soon as he nods at her, sprints towards me.
"Uncle Tim!" she exclaims, throwing herself into me, hugging me with a passion rivaling Dick's
"Hey honey" I murmur, my voice cracking as I hug her close to me, tears continuing to stream down my face, the shaking slowly subsiding as my niece hugs me tightly.
"Put the guns down" I tell them, looking up at them with wide eyes as they don't listen to what Roy says.
"What, why?" Tony asks, annoyed and a lot confused.
"Because you will have a lot bigger problems on your hands if you even think about shooting either of them" I tell him, slowly gaining control of my body.
They all slowly comply, looking towards me, concern now radiating off of them as they catch sight of my frazzled appearance, my wet cheeks and still shaking form, the blood that i've got dripping from my palms, which i'm holding away from Lian, so as not to get blood on her.
"What the fuck Tim?" Tony asks, eloquent as always.
"Nothing, i'm fine, it's fine" I mutter, looking away from them and locking eyes with Roy, who turns to look at me, his eyes full of concern and disbelief.
"Leave" he barks towards the rest of the room, and as Gibbs opens his mouth to retort, I hold up my hand, halting his words and nodding, letting them know that it's alright to leave me with them.
When they've all filed out of the room, Roy makes his way over to where Tony had been standing and pulls his cellphone out from behind a burned bookshelf, the phone is on and had already called Gibbs, meaning that they could have listened to anything that was said, but Roy simply ducks outside, tossing the phone before striding towards me, Lian backing up a few steps as her father approaches.
"Why are you here Tim? Why did you let them go on like that? You should have seen yourself, you looked like you were going to break any second." he asks, concern radiating off of him as he drags me into a tight hug, holding on for a moment before he lets go, staying within reaching distance.
"I just, I thought I would be okay. I didn't know we were coming here, I didn't know Tony knew that whole story, I didn't know what to do. I just, I didn't know" I tell him softly, tears threatening as I attempt to push them down, not wanting to look weak in front of them.
"Jesus Tim, you can't, you can't let things like that happen, you need to know your limits and just, christ, make something up. Tell them you forgot something in the car, you need to take a piss, anything. We've been up in the rafters since you got here, we were waiting for you to do something, but you just stood there and took it. Why?" he asks, and although I know he didn't mean to upset me with anything he said, he's too much like Jason to realise when he's said something that could be construed as bad.
"I didn't let them do anything! I was trying to get myself under control, I didn't fucking know, Roy, I didn't know that he was going to go off like that, I didn't know that he even knew that, I didn't know that we were coming here, that I wouldn't be able to get myself under control." I growl, my temper flaring as an alternative outlet to the emotional buildup.
"I didn't, I didn't mean it like that Tim, you know I didn't mean it like that" he says
"Damn, I guess me and Jason were a lot more alike than we liked to admit" he mutters under his breath, and I know that he didn't mean for me to hear it, but I guess he forgot that Bat's hear everything.
"You guys were two peas in a pod" I tell him, my chest tightening as pain flashes across his face.
I sometimes forget the impact that the rest of my family had on the people around them, that the pain is still so raw, not only for me, but for them too, that all these years later, that Roy still calls Jason's phone sometimes, just to hear the voicemail, which I know, because I set up a system to alert me when someone calls any of their phones, and sometimes it simply slams through me, how much their closest friends still call, whenever they are having a tough time, that they still want to hear their long-gone-friends voices.
Clark still calls Bruce's phone when he's nervous about missions, and he leaves messages, there are thousands of them, of Clark telling Bruce all the things that could go wrong, and how he wishes that he was there with his paranoia and plans.
When Wally calls Dick's phone to tell 'him' things, that's how I knew he was going to propose to Artemis, how he calls to ramble and ask what he thinks, or when he calls just to hear Dick's voice and hangs up.
When Bab's calls and talks, about everything. She tells him about Noah, how he's doing, how he looks more and more like him every day, his blue eyes and black hair showing off his heritage. She tells him when she's having a bad day, and she asks him what to do when she doesn't know herself, although she doesn't ever receive an answer.
When Roy calls Jason's phone, asking for advice about what to do with Lian, or telling him about things going on in his life, anything really, that he would talk to Jason about, he talked to his voicemail.
I know that they all go to their graves, among many other, less close friends, but they can't hear their voices at their graves, and since me and Damian refused to disconnect their numbers after they died, their voicemails became a secondary place for their closest friends, and us, to feel close to them again.
"Come on Tim, you shouldn't be here" Roy says, reaching out to take hold of my arm, gently pulling me along with him, Lian on my other side as they tow me out of the building.
When we reach the team, who are all waiting in various stages of worry outside the car, Lian takes my hand, seemingly not caring about the blood still dripping as Roy takes a few steps closer to them.
"You do not come back here with him, if I even think you are going to bring him here, I will show up and personally kick your asses all the way back to where you came from. He is family, and if I find out that he got hurt on your watch, i'll rip your lungs out through your nose." Roy threatens, and while usually a threat like that would be taken lightly, coming in a growled voice from Roy, who I know means every word he's saying, it's concerning.
Gibbs straightens, looking like he's going to face off with Roy, but seemingly thinking better of it as he catches sight of me holding hands with Lian, steps back and nods his head in understanding.
Roy nods back, striding back towards me. Lian once again let's go as he approaches, wiping her hand on her pants and stepping to the side, he threads his hand through the back of my hair, looking me in the eyes "Please take care of yourself Timmers" he says, pulling my head to his shoulder in a brief hug before he lets go, giving Lian room to hug me as well, a sad sort of smile on her face as she looks up at me, reaching up and booping me gently on the nose before she takes her father's hand and follows him into the shadows, disappearing as quickly as they had appeared.
The old nickname sends pangs of homesickness through my body as I remember all the times Jason called me Timmers, after he stopped calling me 'replacement' that is.
"What. the. Fuck. Tim?" Tony asks, a question he has uttered more times than I can count.
"I know a few people in the vigilante game, they are good people though, no matter what anyone else says, they are good people" I tell him, and although I can tell everyone is bursting with questions, I simply get in the car, moving over to the window seat and buckling in, closing my eyes as I rest my overheated forehead against the cool glass.
AN Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh? Lemme know what you think. :)