"It's good to have you back, son."
Lucius Fox smiled warmly at Tim, shaking the younger man's hand firmly as the rest of the business heads converged for their monthly meeting at Wayne Enterprises. The elderly man waved at some of the other heads before turning back to Tim.
Tim chuckled and adjusted his hold on his silver tablet. "It's good to be back, Lucius."
"I'm glad to hear our joint venture in Toronto went all according to plan. The 6 months seemed just about enough," commented Lucius as they made their way further into the boardroom.
It was a miracle Tim was alive, really.
Tim offered the man a wry smile as they settled into their expensive plush business chairs. After putting up a front of being away for business, Tim spent most of his six months away with Constantine and Cyborg up in the Canadian Rockies freezing his balls off trying to stop a crazy magician trying to destroy half of Canada.
Plus, he still was able to get a JV done in Toronto while nearly loosing an appendage to frostbite in negative 40 weather.
He honestly deserved a fucking promotion.
"Couldn't have gone any better." Tim beamed as one of the New Business heads sat down a few chairs down next to him.
Lucius sent him amused look. "Can't wait to hear it."
"Hah." Tim shook his head and busied himself in booting up his tablet. It felt good to be back on some normal, albeit stressful, work.
While he kept himself with catching up on some emails, a few more business heads entered the room. He stopped sending out an update to his R&D team when he heard the familiar laugh of Dick by the doorway. Looking up and catching sight of his brother, he waved his hand in greeting. Tim didn't expect for Dick to be here – wasn't he busy the Titans?
"Hey, man. Didn't hear you get in at the manor," Dick settled into the seat next to Tim. He leaned back comfortably. A grin settled on his face as he swiveled his chair just a bit.
Tim's brows furrowed a fraction of an inch. Why was Dick acting strangely? Offering a dismissive shrug, Tim looked at his older brother. "Went straight to my place uptown." He paused. "I thought you're in Jump?"
Dick waved his hand and sat up. "Bruce has me over a couple of times a month now as we expand Jump operations." He offered Tim an easy smile and switched on his tablet. "I'll update you later."
Tim nodded and faintly what was going on. His last mission had him in deep cover so he had little knowledge what was going on. If Dick was here then something must be up. He made a mental list of the things he needed to ask Bruce.
Dick cleared his throat as the boardroom door opened again. Tim shot him a bewildered look as the other man sent him a wry smile. Tim heard the familiar voice of Bruce drift through the room as he confidently strode into the room while talking to Lucius.
"Good to have you back, Tim," Bruce smiled and shook Tim's hand, just as Tim and Dick stood up in polite greeting.
Tim nodded. "Glad to be back in warmer climate," he grinned.
Lucius made a face as they all settled around the table, with Bruce at the head of the table. "That cold snap must have been nasty."
Tim made a face. "Honestly thought I might loose a finger."
There was a couple of polite laughs around the table and the last few people trickled into the boardroom. Tim was talking to the head accounting when Dick let out strangled cough. Turning to the older man, he frowned.
"Hey, Rachel,"
Tim wasn't sure who Rachel was, since all he knew was the management team was still the same unless there had been movements he didn't know about. Turning his attention to whoever Justine, head of accounting, just greeted, Tim felt his stomach plummet down into his feet.
What the fuck.
Dressed in a tight high-waist black pencil skirt, black heels, and white long sleeved button down blouse, the Rachel in question stepped into the room talking to the head of tech. Her purple hair stood out in the room, and she smiled at something Francis, head of tech said to her. Turning to acknowledge Justine and a few other colleagues close by, purple eyes briefly landed at the highly amused Richard Grayson and a surprised Tim Drake.
There was a split second look of surprise on her face as purple eyes locked with light blue ones before completely brushing off the moment and giving Bruce a look. Smiling, Rachel strode to the end of the table and shook hands with Bruce and Lucius.
"Hi, Bruce, Lucius. Sorry, I think I came in late."
Bruce waved her off. "You just made it just time." He gestured for her to take a seat next to him.
Rach smiled and nodded. She walked towards the seat, depositing her laptop on the table and saying hi to the colleague next to her.
"Hey, Rachel,"
Dick grinned widely at her from across the table. Rachel gave Dick a pointed look. "Good morning, Richard."
Dick smiled as Rachel stared back at him nonplussed by his amused expression. He coughed again, to probably hide an ill-timed chuckle, when Rachel briefly looked at Tim.
"Tim, this is Rachel Roth, she handles special projects of the foundation," Lucius made the introductions.
Tim jumped slightly in his seat and watched as Rachel calmly stared back at him without bating an eyelash. Why was another Titan here? Standing up, Tim reached over the table and reached to shake her hand.
"Hello, nice to see you again."
Dick chuckled and Rachel looked back at him with slight surprise. Her familiar small hands squeezes his larger ones. Tim felt his stomach drop to the first floor ones he realized his mistake. So much for being a great strategist and detective.
"You two know each other?" Francis looked at Rachel curiously.
"We went to the same university," she supplied smoothly, giving Tim a pointed look. Rachel released Tim's hand and settled back into her seat. "Hello, Tim." She sounded all business.
Dick was about to say something when Bruce thankfully switched on the projector and the morning's agenda flashed on the screen. Tim felt an onslaught of questions race through his mind. He barely heard Bruce announce the start of the meeting. Instead of focusing as a few graphs blew up on screen, Tim unknowingly glanced at Rachel and took in her all too familiar features. She had not changed one bit since he last saw her three years ago.
What was going on?
Rachel caught him staring out of the corner of her eyes and she titled her head just a little bit and turned back to the presentation. As thoughts swarmed his head and a deep desire of trying to understand what the fuck was going practically made him feel unsettled, Tim fiddled with his stylus pen and desperately tried to focus on the business meeting.
But seriously, Tim had to know why was his ex-girlfriend here in Gotham?