Belonged Here All Along, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 2 (rough draft)
Bruce marched into the room next door. "Dick, get up."
Dick mumbled and curled deeper into his pillow.
"Dick, get up. We have a situation."
Dick rolled over and squinted at him. " 't kinda sit'tion?" he grunted.
"Right now, I don't know if it's a security breach or if we're in an alternate universe or some other emergency I haven't thought of, but whatever it is, it's serious." Leaving Dick to drag himself out of bed, Bruce headed across the hall and knocked loudly before throwing open the door. "Jason, get up."
"What?" Jason yelled, bouncing upright even as he squinted at Bruce through sleep-muddled eyes.
"I need you and Dick to come down with me to the kitchen immediately and tell me if you know anything about this person."
Bruce led the way downstairs with Dick and Jason muttering complaints as they trailed after him. Maybe they had an explanation for the strange boy's appearance, some stupid youthful adventure that they had neglected to inform Bruce about.
In the kitchen, Alfred was still working and the boy was picking at a plate of eggs and bacon. They stopped their conversation about socioeconomic accent comparisons in order to look at Bruce and the older boys.
"Good morning," the mysterious child said with a slightly uncertain smile. "Alfred said he'd make pancakes, but I told him I don't need any unless you guys want some."
"Who the f- Who the heck are you?" Jason demanded.
The boy looked so hurt that Bruce felt a wild impulse to comfort him. "I told you that isn't funny, Jason."
"I'm not making a joke," Jason snapped. "Bruce, who is he?"
"I was hoping you'd know," Bruce murmured. He looked at Dick, but Dick was frowning at the boy in puzzlement. So that meant Bruce's entire family had no idea what sort of situation this was.
"Dad! Come on, I'm Tim! Your son! You grounded Jason for picking on me but now you're doing it, too!"
"I'm sorry, Tim," Bruce said quickly, frustrated that finally having a name for the boy didn't help anything. He didn't know anyone relevant named Tim. "I'm just...in a strange mood today, patrol was tough. I think I will take the day off."
"Wait," Dick said, "wait. Your son, Bruce? Since when?!"
"Keep breakfast warm for us, Alfred," Bruce said, herding his actual sons back up the hallway. "I need to have a talk with the boys about being kind to younger siblings." Then he had to sternly whisper "Cave," to stop Jason from resisting.
Once the three of them were locked in the Batcave, the boys demanded explanations and Bruce waved his hands in an effort to quiet them. "I don't know. Alfred found the boy when he came down to the kitchen this morning. According to the cameras, the boy somehow arrived here in the Batmobile without my noticing and claimed the bedroom next to yours, Dick, but that's all I know. I have no idea why he's acting like part of the family or how he found out who we are. At this point, I'm not ruling out extreme possibilities, such as him being a shapeshifter or either him or us having been unknowingly pulled into an alternate universe."
Both boys looked a little stunned. "Some kid just appeared," Jason repeated.
"Dick," Bruce said, "will you call Zatanna while I run facial recognition?"
"Yeah," Dick said faintly.
While the two of them worked, Jason watched the security footage, frowning. Then Bruce gave a more detailed description of his first interaction with Tim and the state of the guest room / Tim's bedroom. The three Bats agreed to play along for now and left the facial recognition software running when they went back upstairs.
"You guys are gonna be late for school," Tim pointed out when they trooped back into the kitchen.
"Bruce said we can skip today," Jason said, grabbing a plate and starting to load it up with food. Bruce glared, since he had said no such thing, but Jason looked back defiantly and added, "I won't have enough time to study for my science test if I don't." Bruce sighed and silently acquiesced, starting to fill a plate for himself. It wouldn't be fair to send the boys to school with a mystery and potential threat like this looming back at home.
"So, Timmy," Dick said, pouring himself a bowl of cereal, "B took you out on patrol last night, huh?"
"Yup. I didn't really get any good pictures this time, but that's okay. The one from last week of Batman and Robin swinging past the moon was good enough to make up for a few dud nights."
The Bats exchanged glances, then Dick ventured, "Can I see it again? It really was cool."
"Yeah, after breakfast," Tim said nonchalantly, taking another bite.
"Got any plans after that?" Jason asked.
"Uh, school, duh."
Bruce considered that. If the boy was supposedly enrolled in school under Bruce's guardianship, there would be a record of that. "So I have to drive one of you into town after all?"
Tim gave him an injured look. "Dad, come on. Your jokes today suck more than usual."
All three vigilantes looked at him in confusion.
"But speaking of school," Tim went on, "you checked my math book yesterday, right, Dad?"
Bruce remembered the stack of workbooks on the desk in the boy's room. Was he homeschooled, then? "Er, no, sorry, Tim. I'll do that while you're working on a different subject."
" 'Kay."
Throughout breakfast, they continued the conversation carefully, fishing for clues as subtly as they could. Unfortunately, the most significant thing they learned wasn't much and didn't even come from the conversation; it was simply that Tim had a small appetite, scraping at least three-quarters of his meal into the trash can before putting his plate in the sink. Bruce didn't think that a couple of pieces of fruit, half a bowl of dry cereal, and a few bites of egg were enough for a teenage boy to get by on, but there were more important things to worry about for now.
Since Tim had finished eating first, he went to fetch his laptop; Jason hopped up to accompany the boy and keep an eye on him. When they got back, everyone gathered around the computer and watched Tim start clicking on photos in a folder labeled 'Keepers.'
They were beautiful. Some of them were gorgeous scenery shots, but over half of them were pictures of Batman, Robin, and Nightwing. There were photos of the vigilantes examining evidence, hanging out on rooftops, and consulting with Gordon. Bruce was alarmed to see how many of the pictures were of fighting - Tim had to have been dangerously close to have gotten some of those shots. Either Bruce hadn't noticed a child in danger or he'd allowed his possibly-untrained son way too close to combat situations.
"Ooohh, that is a nice one," Dick breathed when Tim finally pulled up the photo he'd mentioned at breakfast. The photographer had somehow managed to catch Batman and Robin in mid-flight, gorgeously silhouetted against the full moon.
"I just used fast shutter speed," Tim said, grinning and red-faced as he kept his eyes firmly on the screen. "And you guys happened to be in cool poses at the same time, that was all you."
"It's really good," Jason said grudgingly. "Good job, Tim, I guess."
"Tha-" Tim started to whisper, then cleared his throat and said more strongly, "Thanks, Jason."
"Well," Bruce finally said, "you'd better get to work, Tim. Bring your things here to the kitchen so Alfred can help you if you have any questions." He didn't want to leave the unexplained kid unsupervised in the manor. "Dick, Jay, come with me; just because you're not going to school today doesn't mean you get to slack off."
Leaving Tim under Alfred's watchful eye, the vigilantes returned to the cave and eagerly consulted the facial recognition program, which had results for them.
"Who the heck is Timothy Jackson Drake?" Jason commented.
"Drake," Bruce said thoughtfully, then started typing.
"Our next door neighbors?" Dick said in confusion as he watched the screen.
"Jack and Janet," Bruce murmured. "I think they have a son..."
It didn't take much work to pull up all the information. The Drakes did, indeed have a son named Timothy who was a perfect physical match for the Tim who'd appeared in Wayne Manor.
"So is our Tim really Timothy Drake, or is he an impostor?" Dick mused.
"That's the question," Bruce agreed absently, still skimming through the material.
"Just one question?" Jason snorted. "How about why he's pretending to be a Wayne instead of a Drake? Is he even pretending? And, hey, how about why do these attendance records show that Tim's been going to school at Gotham Academy the entire time his parents have been on the other side of the planet?"
"I need to research this some more," Bruce said.
They all kept busy for the next couple of hours, but then Dick tired of staring at a computer screen and went back upstairs. Jason soon trailed after him and Bruce was left alone to continue piecing together an increasingly concerning picture of the Drake family.
o.o.o
"Let's hang out with him," Dick said in the elevator.
"What? No!"
"Come on, Jay, Bruce let us off from school! Let's do something fun."
"I'm not gonna hang out with some creep who's pretending to be my brother," Jason said hotly. "And I really do have a test to study for. If I do it now, then I won't have to miss patrol."
"Jaaay. It's like field research! If we spend time with him, he might drop more hints about what's going on, you know?"
Jason sighed. "Fine, one hour. But then I'm gonna go study."
"Yes!" Dick cheered.
They made their way to the kitchen, where Tim was writing in a workbook at the table and Alfred was puttering around, keeping busy as he guarded the boy.
Dick dragged a chair right next to Tim, plopped down into it, and slung his arm over the back of Tim's chair. Tim froze and looked at him like a deer in headlights.
"Hi, Timmy!" Dick chirped.
"Hi, Dickie," the boy replied with a nervous smile.
"Bruce kicked us out of the cave, so Jay and I, your awesome big brothers, decided to rescue you from school and do something fun."
Tim's eyes darted toward Alfred. "Is it allowed?"
Alfred said blandly, "As I am not your parent, I have no obligation to dictate your activities."
Dick pushed aside the surge of amused indignation. Alfred had no problem laying down the law for him and Jason and even Bruce, but Dick recognized the statement for what it was: Alfred agreeing to let him and Jason conduct their little investigation.
"Yeah, see?" Jason said, the complicated expression on his face indicating that he'd reached the same conclusion. "Come on, let's go outside and kick a ball around or something."
They went to the back yard and dragged out a tub of sports equipment. The older boys soon discovered that Tim wasn't particularly athletic, but he was quick and coordinated. They all spent a while playing three-way soccer, then a form of volleyball with no net, then badminton. Tim didn't seem to be familiar with the basics of the first two games, but he followed instructions and clearly did his best to perform well. When Dick frequently outmaneuvered him, he seemed admiring rather than resentful, and he didn't make a sound of complaint when Jason accidentally shoved him too hard and he got up from the ground with a fresh scrape on his arm.
"Crap," Jason said. Dick was interested to see that his brother seemed to have forgotten to be suspicious of the kid in favor of being alarmed that he'd hurt a smaller child. "Come on, Dick, we gotta fix him."
"I'm okay," Tim protested, "I've had worse," but that just made Dick as determined as Jason was to get the child's injury treated.
They bundled him inside and to the nearest bathroom, where Dick sat him down and fussed over him as Jason got out the first aid kit. "This is going to sting," Jason warned as he prepared to disinfect the scrape.
"I know, Jason," Tim said. At the sting of antiseptic, he swallowed but didn't flinch or make a peep. Dick rubbed the boy's back to comfort him, slightly bothered that Tim seemed a little too brave about getting medical treatment. Even Jason had a hard time mustering up enough trust to hold still sometimes, and Dick tended to whine like a little kid as a strategy for distracting himself from the pain. Tim just meekly took it, though.
Once Tim was bandaged, the older boys decided to watch a movie. They tried to get Tim to pick the movie, but he refused, laughingly at first. When they insisted, he started getting more and more distressed until Dick finally gave up and chose Lilo & Stitch. Jason tried to keep an eye on Tim as they watched, and was interested to note that the boy teared up a couple of times, surreptitiously wiping his eyes before Dick noticed. Whatever game Tim was playing, it was a point in his favor that he seemed to be genuinely moved by the concepts of abandonment and loneliness.
After the movie, while they were still horseplaying on the couch as they tried to agree on what to do next, Bruce wandered in, saying, "Ah, here they are." He wasn't alone.
"Hi, Zee!" Dick called waving. Zatanna smiled and nodded back.
TBC
A/N: I felt too uncomfortable with the rest of the scene and cut it out. Zatanna has lunch with the Waynes; she and Dick and Jason make most of the conversation; "Tim remained pretty quiet throughout the meal, but he looked happy as he kept his eyes on whoever was speaking"; after the meal, Zatanna tells Bruce that Tim is devoid of both internal and external magic.