"No luck then?" Alfred said as he watched Jason beat the training dummy rather viciously.
"I can't find the kid. I can't find who left all the information at the hotel and it's driving me crazy! It's been a month and somehow I can't find a ten-year-old named Tim who likes to take pictures or someone who knows an awful lot about me," Jason said as he finished the dummy off with a well-grounded kick. "The Joker is still loose and we aren't any closer to finding him either. It's so frustrating!"
Alfred merely sighed. "The Joker will get caught, you'll find Tim and the mystery man. It will all work out, in the end, Master Jason. Bruce wants to see you upstairs when you're done."
"Thanks, Alfred. I'll shower and be right up. Do you know what's up?" Jason asked as he started to unwrap his hands from the sparring.
"I'll leave it up to him to explain. I would hurry if I were you though he wanted to introduce you to someone," Alfred replied.
Jason washed and hoped Bruce had a lead on something they were searching for. Jason solved most problems with an appropriate response of violence he didn't like puzzles. He didn't have to be a detective, Bruce was better at that. Jason took the stairs two at a time as he ran up them. He found Bruce in the study with a middle-aged man that had boring look about him. Jason almost walked right back out of the study, but before he had the chance Bruce motioned for him to enter. No way the man had a lead on anything they wanted.
"This is Jason, my son I was talking about. He is the one that is around your son's age. My other son Dick is in Bludhaven he works as one of their finest. Jason, this is Jack Drake he is our neighbor. He wanted to reintroduce himself. His wife Janet and he are going to be staying in Gotham a lot more to look after their business," Bruce explained as Jack got up to shake Jason's hand. Jason accepted it and found it was slightly clammy and weak.
"You would get along great with my son, Timothy. He's involved in his student government," Jack said with a fake laugh.
"Sounds like a good kid," Jason replied used to schmoozing by now.
"I'm hoping that you can meet him. Janet and I are hosting a dinner party this weekend and were hoping you could attend. It would be nice if there were kids around Tim's age. You knew how boring these functions can be," Jack said, and yeah Jason knew exactly how boring they could be. Timothy in student government sounded like the life of the party alright. Hopefully, the food at the dinner party would be good at least.
"I'll look forward to meeting him," Jason replied with an eyebrow raised at Bruce who simply nodded and Jason excused himself to do real work like look for the mystery person and Tim.
He got a lead instead on the Joker, he had recently gotten back from somewhere and was last seen in a warehouse by the bay. It was vague and sounded half baked, but it was a lead. Jason ran a hand through his hair and hoped that he could be contained soon whatever it was he was up to couldn't be good. Bruce came down to the cave and Jason showed him the footage that Oracle had sent of the Joker going in and out of the warehouse that backed up the lead.
Bruce clapped him on the back, "I guess we know what we'll be doing tonight. Sorry, about Jack I know you hate to interact with people like him. He dropped in suddenly and insisted on meeting you even though I told him you were busy. Now we have to go to a dinner party on Saturday with the Drakes hosting. I'm sorry."
"I understand even if I don't like it," Jason said as he swiveled in the computer chair.
"Apparently, Tim isn't as well behaved as he wants him to be. He's scoping out potential friends for him after he charged a few thousand dollars to the credit card. You made the list of good influences," Bruce smirked. Jason facepalmed.
"How bad is this kid that they want me to be friends with him? I'm not known for my manners and last month I ran off with your credit card and went out of country I don't think I'm anyone's role model."
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Tim felt smothered with his parents in the house. They noticed the charges on his credit card when the credit card company called to confirm that it was legitimate. Tim had never heard more lectures in his life than these three weeks they had been home. They dropped an announcement that they were staying in Gotham until further notice. They monitored him constantly and asked him where he was going all the time. They didn't buy the excuse that he'd wanted to take pictures of Ethiopia and vowed to get to the bottom of it. That was the most they had ever noticed him in years, but he didn't worry too much about it because they would grow bored of him and go back to their lives like usual. They lowered the amount of his allowance and took the credit card so he got a check every month for his allowance. It wasn't much at all. Tim would have to watch his money and hope that nothing like that happened again or he'd have to do something drastic.
Tim kept his head down and didn't complain as much as he wanted to about his situation. Didn't point out that the only reason they even knew about his trip wasn't that they were good parents but rather he was sloppy and the credit card company called them. He didn't give them both the piece of his mind that he was dying to speak out about for the sake of a semblance of getting along. He still was able to take pictures of Batman and Robin his Dad had grounded him from his Nikon camera believing it to be the only one he had. The Canon wasn't as good for night shots, but he still liked it. Tim waited for it to be late enough in the day to go bat-watching it was too stuffy with his parents in the house breathing down his neck.
He watched as it finally was late enough to venture out into Gotham. Tim packed his essentials his camera, taser, and a few dollars in case he needed to bribe someone. He rode his bike at a breakneck speed to make sure he didn't miss much of the patrol. He blended in with the rest of most Gothamites. He went to a thrift store and bought clothes that if they got ruined wouldn't be missed now that his mother was inspecting him every time he left the house that they knew about. The lady at the store wouldn't take his money and gave an extra hat because it was going to get cold soon. He made sure that the thrift store got the money later even though he was now on a budget.
Tim watched Bruce and Jason move with purpose towards Gotham bay he followed stopping to take a few pictures when the light was right. Bruce and Jason stopped at one of the warehouses and moved to go through the skylight. Tim snapped a picture and got closer, he climbed the ladder to the skylight and watched the chaos below unfold. He saw that the Joker was wielding a crowbar as his henchmen and Harley began to fight in earnest with Batman and Robin. Tim held his breath as he took picture after picture. The angle was completely wrong if he could only get closer and not take so many aerial pictures they would be that much better.
The warehouse had one door and no windows. Tim decided with his two brain cells to climb down on the rope that Batman and Robin had so he could get better shots. He slid down and hid behind crates of whatever the Joker had been up to. He watched as Jason took a painful to the ribs from the crowbar and Batman lash out against the Joker with more force than usual. The pictures were the best he'd gotten in such a long time. Full of action and raw violence Tim kept snapping them emboldened by the nearness.
The fight continued and Tim was so busy taking pictures he didn't notice a henchman coming over to the crate he was hiding behind. Time slowed down as Tim felt the baseball belt make contact with him. His vision went white for a hot second with a shuddering breath Tim struggled to get back up before the henchman could hit him again. He didn't make it past his knees when the bat came down on him again. Bruce and Jason were still struggling with their fight and Tim could handle it. He wouldn't ruin all of his hard work just because of one guy with a bat. It came down on him again, he could feel his ribs breaking. He was so stupid and for that, he was going to die in a warehouse beat to death with a baseball bat. Tim slowly felt for the taser he stuck in his cargo pants and got a grip on it right before he was struck with the bat. Knowing it was now or death he tased the man's ankle.
Tim groaned as he tried to get up. He crawled to where the man was now lying writhing on the cement. Tim tased him again and used the bat as a crutch. He hurt all over. His ribs had to be broken. He clutched his camera close as he moved there was no way he was climbing up the rope and getting out through the skylight. The front doors were closed. Tim slipped and fell his body slamming into a crate. He clutched his ribs the jostling was doing him no favors.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing shallowly. He just needed to find a way out. He probably wouldn't be able to ride his bike back but that's what Uber's for. He could wrap his ribs and take ibuprofen he'd be fine by the time his parents dinner party tomorrow night. Probably.
"- you okay kid?" Someone was talking to him. Didn't they know better than to talk to him? He was invisible.
"Go away," Tim more or less slurred.
"Holy moly, you're Tim!" Jason exclaimed making his head pound even more.
"Yeah, what's it to you, Jason?" Tim said quietly back now trying and failing to stand up. The floor kept moving to meet him if it wasn't for the arm that was keeping him up he would have fallen again.
"Hey, B. I got a kid over here who needs medical attention," Jason shouted and Tim vaguely held back the urge to taser him to be quiet. He was 98.5 percent sure that he had a concussion. He couldn't concentrate; sleep felt like a great idea he wanted to close his eyes and not wake up.
"This is Tim from a month ago," Jason did a funny head shake towards him that's all Tim saw before Bruce Wayne the Batman carefully picked him up the dizziness increased and it went dark all of a sudden.
