A Perfect World…
By Kator
Note: I do not own any of main characters in this story, DC & Marvel do. I'm just doing this for fun and for the enjoyment of others, I'm not making a profit from it.
Robin leaps onto the roof and rolls along the floor. He has a batarang in his left hand, as he survey's the rooftop.
No one else is on the roof. Robin carefully slinks towards a window casing. Robin peeks through the dusty pane to see five men walking around the old factory, each one of them packing a sub-machine gun.
His eye's catches those of an old, gray haired, green eyed old man.
"Bzzzt… Robin, how does it look? Can you see the hostage?"
"I see all of them. The hostage is in the middle of the room. One is standing guard by the hostage and the others are patrolling one side of the factory. Should be a piece of cake."
"Good. Enter through the rooftop window. I'll enter through one of the windows on the ground level. Batman out."
And with the communication cut, Robin opened the window he was staring down through. He carefully tied a rope around one of the hinges of the window and carefully rappels down to the rafters.
Robin carefully walks along them, keeping his balance. Robin then stops to look down. He sees Batman entering in through one of the windows on the East Side. Batman looks up to Robin and gives him a sign. Robin just nods and works his way to a rafter that takes him to the building's West Side.
Robin ties another rope and then rappels down to the ground. He hugs the side of some old abandoned machinery when he comes near one of the kidnappers. Robin carefully peeks his head around the corner of the machinery to see the kidnapper (who has red hair, wearing a brown t-shirt and sweatpants) rubbing his neck. Robin then spins around the corner and karate-chops him in the back of the head, taking him out of the fight. Robin quickly reaches into his utility belt and brings out handcuffs. After handcuffing the would be kidnapper to the rusty piece of machinery and kicking the gun away he continues on to see the south side.
Robin takes a peek and notices that the thug guarding the south side is standing in the line of sight of the thug guarding the hostage. As Robin continues to look around, he sees Batman's shadow taking down a guard on North Side. That's when he sees that the thug guarding the hostage is beginning to look in Robin's general direction.
Robin ducks back down and decides that Batman is probably going to head down and get the one guarding the hostage. So, if Robin plays it right, he'll take out the thug guarding the south side just as Batman takes out that thug.
Robin slowly moves in-between the machinery littered across the south side, inching closer and closer towards the thug (who as Robin gets closer notices has blonde hair, wearing a leather jacket and slashed jeans). The guy turns and sees Robin coming towards him. He hastily presses his trigger-finger and shoots bullets at Robin.
Robin vaults on top of a printing press on his left side, cursing himself for being seen. As the thug tries to readjust his aim, Robin leaps into the air and dropkicks him.
With this thug out cold, Robin turns to see if Batman had taken out the last thug as he figured, or if the guy was about to do something to the hostage due to Robin being found out.
To his surprise, he saw no one there. Instead, the hostage started to shake his head and his eyes had darted to the left.
Robin heard some feet shuffling behind him and as he turned around, he saw something heading for his head.
*WHAM*
When Tim opened his eyes again, he saw a ceiling fan above him and a white ceiling.
"Oooooh…. Where am I?" Tim thinks to himself as he sits himself up. He notices that he's in somebody's bed. He looks down at his chest to see he doesn't have a shirt on.
As he's looking down at the sheets, he notices that it has a yellow flower pattern all over it.
"This definitely isn't my dorm room or Bruce's house…" Tim says softly as he looks over to the left to see some legs shifting underneath the covers.
Tim turns his head over to see a black haired 30-something Chinese American tossing and turning on her side of the bed. As her head faces Tim's again, she slowly opens her eyes to reveal that they are blue.
"Morning, honey. How'd you sleep?"
"Wha… what do you mean? Who are you? How'd I get here?!?" Tim said as he literally leapt out of the bed. The woman looked at him strangely as she got out of bed wearing a pink t-shirt.
"Tim, it's too early to be playing games. I'm 'Jubilee' or Jubilation Lee Drake, your lawfully wedded wife! I told you not to go out last night with the guys, but did you listen to me, noooo…" She said trying to stifle a yawn.
"What are you talking about, I'm not… not…" Tim said as his voice trailed off. His eyes focused in on a mirror attached to a drawer sitting on the other side of the room.
He slowly walked over the mirror; his faced filled with horror. For the reflection in the mirror was his… but not of a 16 year old, but a 34 year old.
"This… this can't be happening!" Tim said as he averted his eyes and brought his right hand to cover them up.
"Babe! Are you all right?" Jubilee yelled as she ran up to him.
"What… what's happening to me… what's going on…" Tim said as he started to babble.
"Tim, look at me. Just look at me." Jubilee said as she brought up her hands and cupped his face.
"Those damn guys must've put something into your drink. I don't know what your seeing, but I'm here to take care of you, just as I promised I would when we said our vows." She said as Tim stared into her eyes. As he looked at Jubilee, it brought back memories of her… wearing a yellow trench-coat and some type of red uniform with yellow boots… with something coming out of her hands…
"Ju… Jubilee?" Tim said as the fear dropped from his face as he recognized her.
"God Tim, you had me worried there for a moment! Don't do that to me again." She said as she pressed her lips up against him and they kissed.
Tim still wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't fight the kiss. Somehow… for some strange reason it seemed right…
And as Jubilee started to become more passionate with the kiss, their bedroom door suddenly opened up and two girls romped into the room.
"Mommy and Daddy are up!" the older of the two girls squealed as Tim broke off the kiss. He was naturally taken aback to have this girl call him Daddy. He looked at the girls and they looked so similar. They both had black hair and blue eyes, just like their parents. Although the older one had the complexion of her mother while having some of the facial characteristics of her father. This was quite the opposite of the younger one whose complexion had hardly or any Asian traits although her face looked more like her mother.
"Dangit Stephanie, how many times have I told you to knock before entering a room?"
"Sorry mommy, but we're hungry. Suzie and I were hoping that maybe you make us pancakes…" Stephanie said with a little bit of a pout. Suzie mimicked her older sister.
"Alright, alright. I'll go make breakfast, now just go and watch your cartoons." And with the confirmation of pancakes for breakfast, both girls ran out of the room faster than the Flash.
"Ugh, I was hoping to have a little time to ourselves before the munchkins woke up and you had to go to work, but I guess not. I can't believe that you have to work today since you're supposed to have the weekend off but what do I know…"
Tim trying his best to play along until he found out what was going on, replied…
"Maybe I can just skip work today?"
"Oh yeah, like the CEO of Drake/Wayne Enterprises skipping a board meeting is possible."
"Drake/Wayne?" Tim thought to himself as Jubilee opened up the door to the closet and brought out some clothes for herself and brought out a suit for him.
"Here you go, the Georgio Armani suit. I'm sure that will turn some heads on that boardroom floor." She said as she took her clothes and began to get dressed.
As Jubilee started to take off her t-shirt and Tim saw no sign of a bra, he quickly picked up the suit and headed towards the bathroom.
He quickly closed and locked the door. At this point, Tim started to stare at himself in the mirror again. He ran his fingers down the curves of his now developed face.
"Okay Tim, keep calm. I don't know what's happening, but it seems I've aged some 18 years, have a wife I somewhat remember and 2 kids. All that and I'm a CEO. I'll just play along and check out whatever leads I can…" and Tim started to put on the suit.
Tim put on the blue dress shirt first and then the black dress pants. After attaching a brown belt, he tied his striped tie around his neck. Tim put on a pair of black socks and then he grabbed the black dress coat, putting it on.
He couldn't help but look at the mirror. Tim posed for a little bit and thought to himself,
"Hm, not bad."
Tim strolled out of the bathroom back into the bedroom where Jubilee had finished gotten dressed. She had a blue long sleeve shirt that had the FBI symbol and a caption reading "You don't know me" on it. She was wearing blue sweatpants.
"Growl, whenever I see you in one of these suits, I remember why I married you. Well, that and also when I see you naked." Jubes said with a naughty smile on her face.
"I guess I married a wild one…" Tim thought to himself as he followed her out of the bedroom down a narrow corridor to the living room.
Stephanie and Suzie were both sitting in front of the TV watching some spandex superheroes beating up a very badly costumed monster.
"Daddy!" Little Suzie yelled as she got up from the blue carpet and ran towards Tim. Instinctively, he picked her up and held her within his arms.
"Daddy, will you watch 'Power Rangers: Omniversal Champions' with me?" and Tim just replied…
"Sorry Honey, but I have to work today." And as her face saddened, Tim's heart sunk. He didn't understand why he was feeling as bad as he was, since this couldn't be real, but to see her face turn from happy to sad was like having the Joker stab him, only ten times worse.
"Don't worry Suzie, I'll be home before you'll know it." He said as he gave her a little kiss on the cheek.
"Howabout one for me?" Jubilee said as rubbed up against him.
"Oh, alright…" Tim said mockingly as he kissed Jubilee on the lips. He then put Suzie down.
"Well, I'm going!" Tim said as he headed for the door only to be interrupted…
"What do you mean? Haven't you forgotten your car is in the shop? Benny is coming to take you to work today…" and as Jubilee said that she thought…
"Man, whatever they gave him must've been REALLY strong…"
"Oh… I… um," Tim was stuttering as he was trying to think of an explanation when the doorbell rung.
"Saved by the Doorbell…" Tim thought to himself as he opened up the door to see the old man who Tim was trying to save last night.
Before Tim could even think anything, Jubilee rang out with…
"Good morning, Benny! How are you?"
"Oh, as fine as I can be. I just need to drop your husband off at work and then I can start on my day."
"Good. Oh and Benny, Tim went out with the guys last night and they drugged him. So do me a favor since Tim most likely won't do anything about it, but if you see them smack them upside the head for me!"
"I will Mrs. Drake. Well, Tim? Are you ready to go?" He said as he looked up at him.
"Uh… sure. I'll see you later, gang!" Tim said with a fake smile as he stepped out the door.
"Bye, Daddy!" both of his girls yelled at him as he shut the door behind him.
As Benny headed towards his car, a 2016 Ford Escort, Tim's eyes followed him suspiciously. Tim got into the car and looked around to see that he was living in the Suburb's. And his house was just 1 story with some brickwork on the house and anything wood was painted white.
Benny pulled out of the driveway and he started driving out of the Suburb into Gotham City.
It was here that Tim decided to find out what was going on.
"Ok, I don't know who you are, but you're the same old man that I saw last night and who I tried to save from those thugs. It's no coincidence that you're here. Tell me what's going on!" Tim yelled.
"Calm down, my young friend. No reason to get upset. I do have the answers to your questions and I will answer them." Benny said as he turned a corner to get onto the interstate.
"Alright, I'll calm down. But I want answers."
"I guess it's best to start with the beginning. I'm not from your world. I'm an omnipotent being that travels from world to world, becoming like the dominant species of the planet to learn more about them. On your world, I took this form. As I was traveling through 'your' Gotham City, those thugs that failed to rob that liquor store took me hostage as to keep the police off their backs. I did nothing, as this was an excellent chance to learn more about humans. I saw you and your partner take down those thugs, when the one guarding me came from behind and smacked you with his machine gun. I felt sorry for you and after learning of all the hardships you've taken in your life to protect those who have no protectors, I decided to reward you."
"Reward me?"
"Yes. This entire world around you, I've created. I took all the negative aspects of your life and turned them positive. Same for those around you. As I looked into your mind, I brought to life everything you've always wanted… children of your own, a clean and safe Gotham, a steady job, and a loving wife."
"But who is Jubilee, my supposed wife?"
"What do you mean?"
"I've never met her before now!"
"Oh, I see what you mean. You have meet her before. It's just that due to some cosmic force, those memories have become repressed. I saw that the love you had for her was stronger than that of any other girl in your subconscious, so she is the one I picked."
Tim was shocked. He almost couldn't believe what he was hearing. A perfect world? It was too good to be true.
"Thank you, but I want to go back please." And with that sentence, Benny turned a corner and hit the brakes.
"Tim, while I understand that this is a bit overwhelming and you want to go back to what you're used to, I implore you to at least stay in this world for 1 week. See, smell, experience the world I created for you before giving it all up. Please. If by then you are dissatisfied with this world, I will send you back."
Tim just looks Benny in the eye and as he thinks about all this being has done, he replies…
"Okay. But just one week."
"Thank you. I think you'll find this world acceptable."
"So what now?"
"I'm going to take you back home."
"But-but don't I have a board meeting to go to?"
"I created this world. Looks like one of the members is going to have the brilliant idea to cancel the meeting." And as Tim looks at Benny funny, a cell phone hiding in his pant pocket starts ringing.
Tim digs into his right pocket, brings out the phone and says,
"Hello, Tim Drake speaking."
"Hi Tim, its Bruce. Listen, I know we had a board meeting today, but it's Saturday and it's so beautiful, why don't we have it Monday?"
"Sure, sure. Fine with me."
"Great! See you Monday then!" Bruce said as he cut off the connection. Benny just looked at Tim and said,
"Told ya."
By this time, Benny had turned the car around and started to drive back to Tim's house.
Tim meanwhile was startled by his talk with Bruce. Benny did say this was a perfect world and not only is his life perfect… but so would those around him.
The thing that kept eating at Tim was the fact that he's seen Bruce's playboy act many times before… and while it's a great act, there's a little twang in his voice where you can tell he's faking. You can hear that he's impatient with playing the socialite and wants to get into the costume. Tim didn't hear it in this voice.
To have Bruce be happy playing the Socialite kinda creeped Tim out a bit.
But before Tim could think about it longer, he saw that Benny was parking the car in his house. He also noticed a white mini-van parked in the driveway. Tim exits Benny's car and looks at the white mini-van wondering whom it belongs too.
"Well, here ya go. One little bit of advice before I head off to do other things… while you live out a week here, just be yourself. The life you're now living is crafted around who YOU are. No need to try to pretend to be anyone else."
"Uh… okay…" Tim says as he closes the door. Benny waves at him as he puts the car into reverse, heads out of the driveway and drives off.
"Well, might as well get started with my week." Tim thinks to himself as he heads up the walkway and opens the door.
"Honey, you're home early!" Jubilee says as she looks up from the kitchen countertop to see Tim walking in through the door.
"Well Jubes, Bruce called to cancel the meeting and I… I…" Tim's voice trailed off as he noticed who was sitting on the couch with his two daughters.
He recognized his father Jack Drake, abliet with graying hair and wrinkles on his face… but when he saw the woman he almost went into shock.
"Is something the matter, Tim?" Janet Drake said as tears started forming in her son's eyes.
"Mom?" Tim said as he stared at her. Her face was substantially older, and her brown hair had all but turned to silver, but there could be no denying that this woman sitting on his couch was his birth mother.
"Tim, are you alright?" Janet said as she stood up and took a few steps towards him.
"MOM!!!" Tim literally screamed as he ran towards her and threw his hands around her.
Janet was surprised by her grown son's behavior, but her maternal nature kicked in and she hugged her son back.
"Oh god, I can't believe it! You're alive! You're really alive!"
"Daddy's acting silly again…" Suzie giggled as Janet said,
"Of course I'm alive, I've still got a few years left on the clock." And it was here that Tim snapped back to reality.
"Damnit, got too emotional. Better not raise any suspicions…" Tim thought to himself as he pulled himself away from his mother's embrace. He quickly glanced around to see shock and disbelief on his wife and his father's faces.
"Are you feeling better now?"
"Y-yeah. Sorry about that mom, it's just that last night I had a horrible dream… it had someone called the Obeah Man kidnapping you and Dad. You both were poisoned… Dad became paralyzed and you… you died. I guess the dream had a more powerful effect on me than I thought…"
"It's quite all right honey, it's just a bad dream. I'm here for you."
And in the meantime, Jack had gotten up from the couch and walked over to Jubilee.
"Is this what Tim's been doing lately?"
"Yep. Don't worry, hopefully that drug is about out of his system."
"So… uh, why'd you two decide to visit?"
"Well it's been awhile since we've seen our Grand-Children, so we were hoping that they could stay with us for the weekend if you don't mind." Janet said as walked back to the couch and rubbed the head of Steph who was continuing to watch 'Voltron: Defender of the Universe' with her younger sister.
"Well, that's fine with me."
"Me too!" Jubilee said without a moment's hesitation.
"Alrighty then. We'll leave as soon as the girls finish watching Voltron."
"Well, if that's the case, I'm gonna go take a bath." Tim said as he stretched a bit. He then said, "I guess we'll see sometime tomorrow then, Mom and Dad."
Tim walked past the coach and smiled at his two girls.
"You two behave yourselves around your Grand-Parents, alright?"
"Of course we will!" Steph said as looked at her father for a few moments then her eyes transfixed themselves back onto the TV.
Tim calmly walked down the main hall of the house to the main bedroom. As he did, he took the time to stare at a few pictures adjourning the walls. One of them was a wedding picture of Tim and Jubilee walking back from the Altar as man and wife, and another one was of Tim holding Suzie as a baby within his arms, with Stephanie standing on his right, grasping his leg.
And another one had both girls standing besides Mickey Mouse at Disney World.
Tim couldn't help but smile at that one since both girls were just so happy to be standing besides a sweaty guy in a costume.
As he walked into the bedroom, he headed for the main cabinet and pulled out a pair of jean shorts and then walked to the closet to grab a white T-shirt.
He laid those on the bed and then quickly stripped down to his skivvies. Hurriedly, he picked them back up and hastened to the bathroom where he locked the door behind him.
Tim started to turn on the hot water and noticed sitting on the edge of the tub was a Sharper Image CD Shower Companion. He looked to see a CD entitled "Tim's Favorites" sitting in there, so then he started it up, because there's nothing better than listening to good music while taking a hot bath.
The first song was Brewster & Shipley's "One Toke Over The Line".
"Oh yeah, a great song to start off with…" Tim thought as he took off the only remaining piece of clothing and hopped into the bath.
The water was still pouring in and Tim relished the feeling of it, something familiar in this strange world.
The water started getting a bit too hot, so Tim turned on the cold water a bit so that he wouldn't get scalded, then only to turn the cold water off to let the temperature rise again.
When Areosmith's "Sweet Emotion" started playing, he turned off the water.
Tim just soaked in the water, bobbing his head to the beat of the song and swaying his toes.
He did this for a few moments until he heard a knock on the door.
"Uh… yes?"
"Tim, I'm heading out to the store, need a few things for what I'm going to cook for dinner tonight. I'll be back in a few, okay?"
"Okay!" and Tim was elated. This was exactly what he needed. With everyone out of the house, he could finally look around and hopefully find out more about his 'family'.
Tim waited for a few minutes to hear when Jubilee left, and when he heard the Garage Door opening, he figured it was time to get started.
He pulled the tub's plug and got out of the bath. He very quickly dried himself off and turned the CD player off.
Tim got dressed and headed out of the bathroom, through the master bedroom and walked all the way back to the living room.
Tim just took his time and walked around, looking at all of the plants, pictures and furniture, getting a feel for the room.
Tim then walked over to a bookcase, sitting next to a countertop that separated the kitchen from the living room.
As he looked through the rows upon rows of books, he noticed a Wedding Album.
Taking it, he looked at the first picture, which was the same one that was hanging in the hallway.
He spied one with Jubilee standing with all of her bridesmaids. A couple he didn't recognize, but he was downright shocked when he noticed that Stephanie Brown and Suzie aka Secret were bridesmaids.
"Hoo-boy, I wasn't expecting THAT one…" Tim thought to himself as he continued through the book.
He saw one where an older Japanese man was walking Jubilee down the altar.
"I guess that's my Father-in-Law…" Tim said as he saw a picture of his own Mother and Father congratulating him.
After turning another page, he saw one where he and Jubilee both holding a knife, takes the first cut out of their massive wedding cake.
The very next picture has Jubilee putting a piece of cake in his mouth which he has wide open. Tim laughs at his because he looks kinda ridiculous with his mouth open up that wide...
And after that, he closes the book and puts it back on his shelf.
Tim then took out a book entitled "Our Babies".
Upon opening the first page, he saw the birth certificate of Stephanie, which had her full name of "Stephanie Lynn Drake".
"So, she was born on January 4, 2010. Hm, I must've been around 25 then…" and he saw a couple of pictures of Jubilee still laying in bed after the delivery holding little Steph as well as some pictures of himself holding her.
After flipping through a couple of more pages, he saw the birth certificate for Suzie, listed as "Suzanne Lee Drake". This had her listed as being born in 2012.
Tim slowly read through the book, looking at all the pictures of his children as each picture shows them growing from babies into adorable little girls.
Tim closes this book, puts it back into the bookcase, then stands up and heads towards the refrigerator.
As Tim rummages through it, he comes across a few cans of Coke on the 3rd shelf, and he takes one.
Tim closes the refrigerator door and heads to the television set. The television is sitting on a stand, which directly below it has a 2-sided door. Tim opens one half of it to see that within is where they keep their videos. So, he opens it up completely and rummages through it all.
Most of them are regular videos, like the Wedding Singer, or Disney videos like Aladdin, or some homemade tapes his daughters have started making like a complete recorded collection of Power Rangers: Omniversal Guardians, but then Tim comes across one that reads "Family Outing".
So Tim turns on the TV and pops the tape into the VCR. He puts his Coca-Cola on the glass top table sitting in front of the couch.
When the TV turns on, it's on Channel 5, Fox. It's in the middle of a commercial, one that sends Tim reeling. A brown-haired, brown-eyed individual appears in front of a row of cars, which Tim immediately recognizes.
"Do you need a new car? If you do, or if you're been thinking about it, why don't you come down here and visit Bart Allen, the man who can get you a car faster than lightning strikes!" to which Tim starts laughing hysterically at.
"I... I DON'T BELIEVE IT! I knew Bart was fast… but I never imagined him to be a fast talker! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Tim bellowed as Bart continued on with his sales pitch, which ended with…
"Remember, all you have to do is visit me, Bart Allen, at the Ford Car Lot in Gotham City, and I'll have you… *Points to the screen as thunder roars* in a car faster than lightning!" and as the Ford commercial fades away, Tim is literally rolling on the couch.
"Ah-heh, I wonder if I know Bart in this world…" Tim thinks as he regains some composure. Tim locates the remote, which is sitting on the couch right beside him, and turns on the VCR. The TV screen gets blurry, so Tim clicks it to channel 3, where the tape begins.
The screen frazzles a bit, and then the screen comes into focus, with Tim standing beside a grill, in what seems to be a park.
"Hold it right there buster, I've got you on camera!"
"Oh no!" Tim says in mock shock as he holds both of his hands up, with his right hand covered with a mitt, holding a spatula.
"What's the charge?" Tim asks as the voice says,
"For neglecting your wife and two children!"
"Aww Jubes, I'm sorry. What's the punishment?"
"You must take over the camera while I take over cooking chores! Unless it's prepared by me, it isn't worth eating!"
"Hey!" Tim says in mock resentment as he continues with, "I'm a great cook and you know it!" so Jubilee exchanges the cam-recorder with Tim as she takes his mitt and spatula.
"Yeah, but that's only a matter of opinion." She says with a sly smile as she flips one of the hamburgers on the grill over.
Tim, with cam-recorder in hand, walks over to his two girls, who are running around freely, wading through the numerous trees of the park.
"Heya ladies! Got anything you want to say to future generations who could potentially watch this tape in the future?"
"YEAH!" Steph says, whose noticeably younger than she is now, "This is really fun! Although it would be more fun it we had a…"
"Doggy." Suzie says as she runs up to her younger sister.
"Well, you have to wait a while for that one…" Tim says as the girls start running around the park again, with little Suzie holding her arms out pretending she's an airplane.
On the couch, Tim smiles at this when he suddenly hears the door crack open.
Not fully comfortable with this house and the 'unique' situation he's in, Tim instinctively leaps over the couch and gets into a defensive position.
That's until he sees that it's his 'wife' Jubilee with groceries in her left hand. Then Tim quickly makes it look like he's stretching.
"Um, hey babe! Need help?"
"Yeah, I do. They're in the trunk!"
"Okie-doke…" Tim says as he calmly walks out of the door and looks at Jubilee's 4-door Ford Focus.
"Practical." Tim thinks as he strolls up to the back of the car and looks into the trunk to see 3 paper bags and 2 plastic ones.
That's when Jubilee comes from behind and slaps his back.
"Come on babe, pick up the pace!"
"Yea-yeah." Tim says as he grabs two of the paper bags and one plastic one. Jubilee picks up the rest and closes the trunk.
As Tim puts the groceries on top of the kitchen countertop, he looks to see Jubilee close the front door.
"Looks like you've got quite a haul here." Tim said with a little grin.
"Yeah, but you know how it is, you go out for 3 things and you end up with 3 million things…" Jubilee says as she starts unpacking one of the plastic bags, taking out some broccoli, meat, and a basket of cottage cheese.
"Say, why are you watching that old home movie, Tim?"
"Oh, I just wanted to watch something that I knew I'd enjoy."
"Yeah, that was a great outing."
"Say, what are we having for supper?" Tim says as he brings out a liter of Hawaiian Punch and some packets of Kool Aid.
"One of your favorites… Beef and Broccoli."
"Beef and Broccoli? Hmm… can't remember if I've ever had that. But if this is a perfect world, it has to be something good…" Tim thinks as he finishes unloading all of his bags to see that Jubilee is done also.
"I thought I should make it since this is the first time we've been alone for quite a while…" Jubilee says as Tim starting thinking of stuff to try to change the subject when he remembers what he saw on TV.
"Say, honey, when do you think I'll get my car back?"
"Don't worry honey, while I'm still not happy with him, Bart will call us when his mechanics get your Capri working right again."
"Ah, so I do know him after all…" Tim thinks with a sly smile, which Jubilee sees but doesn't quite understand why he's smiling.
Tim and Jubilee finish putting away the groceries and Jubilee gets a chopping block out and starts slicing up the meat she bought at the store.
"Tim, be a dear and slice up the Broccoli for me?" she asks and Tim quietly complies.
A few silent minutes pass as they are cutting up the respective ingredients when Tim still wondering exactly how 'his' life became like this, asks…
"Say Jubes, will you recount for me exactly how we met?"
"Huh? Why?" She asked, wondering if he was still being 'affected' by what was put into his drink.
"Just because it gives me an excuse to listen to your voice." Tim says as he smiles and looks at her now blushing face.
"Um… well, you should remember, but anywise… we originally met at college in California. I remember you got a business scholarship there, since you had all A's here in Gotham. I think you mentioned wanting to go there since California was still the major home of the Dot Com's and you wanted to see if you could succeed there before taking over Drake Industries when your father retired. I got there because I lived in California.
We met in the Library. I remember that you had your faced crammed in some technological book, while I had just picked out some magazine from the racks because this was my break period and I had nothing better to do. I saw you sitting there and thought you were incredibly cute. I think it was partially because my old boyfriend, Everett, had just broken up with me and the fact that I am a Ibit/I impulsive that I flopped my magazines down at your table and introduced myself. And that, as they say, was all it took." And Tim let out a quiet laugh, as he could almost see what happened. Jubilee just plopped her books down, said I'm Jubilation Lee, and sat herself down. He could see himself saying that he was Tim Drake, and although he should've continued reading that book, continued to talk with the captivating female.
"Anything you want my oh-so-beautiful voice say?"
"Actually, yes. Is this enough broccoli?" and Jubilee's face did a double take 'cause she was expecting him to ask about another facet of their past.
"Yeah, that's enough. I can take it from here, Tim." Jubilee says as Tim notices that the TV has gone blank since the tape has reached its end.
So Tim strolls along over to the VCR and rewinds it. As it's rewinding, Tim sits on the couch, cracks open his soda, and starts flipping through the channels.
"Hey, turn it onto the Weather Channel, I'd like to see what the weather's gonna be like!" Jubilee shouted from the kitchen as Tim nods his head.
Tim flips it to the Weather Channel, and as he waits for the local weather to come up, he finds himself strangely enjoying this setup.
No homework, no worrying if he's gonna come home in a body-bag anymore, no more trying to live up to Bruce's ideals, and definitely not having to organize his time between School, his superhero activities, and Young Justice.
Plus the fact that he's got two adorable kids, a wife who is really beginning to grow on him, and what seems to be a great job.
Yep, it's easy to say that Tim is beginning to enjoy this world.
Just then Tim is snapped out of his thoughts by…
"It's now time for your local forecast…"
"Okay, here's the local forecast!"
"Read it back to me, Tim!"
"Okay… *Looks at the weather data now on the screen* It's around 80 degrees right now, blah, blah, blah, going to be around 78 tomorrow with a 60% chance of rain…"
"Good, that means we'll have an actual reason to stay inside!"
"And for the rest of the week, it'll be around the 80's, partially cloudy."
"Great! Glad to hear it's not going to as hot as this week. You can watch whatever Tim, dinner should be ready in about 30 minutes."
"Alright." Tim said as he surfed the channels. He came across the Comedy Channel, which was showing re-runs of the Drew Carey Version of "Whose Line is This Anyway?".
"Awesome, I love this show…" Tim thinks as the antics of Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Wayne Brady, Colin Machre keep him entertained for the half hour needed to finish the Beef and Broccoli.
30 minutes later…
"Okay honey, dinner's ready!" Jubilee said as Tim was wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
"Oh lord, I love that hoe-down bit about the Village People… 'I'm a Macho Man…' Bwa-ha-ha!" Tim laughs as gets up from the couch and heads for the kitchen.
"Here you go!" Jubilee says as she hands him his plate. Tim looks at it and takes a sniff of it.
The aroma of it immediately made Tim's stomach crave the food.
"Smells wonderful. As usual." Tim said, as to not arouse suspicions.
"Just wait till you taste it!" and almost true to Jubilee's words, Tim LITERALLY couldn't wait to taste it. He noticed that the room adjuring the kitchen was the dining room. So, as fast as Tim could, he got down to the table and had a bite of both the beef and the broccoli.
"You must've been hungry Tim, I've never seen you run to the table like that."
"Mmmmm… this is wonderful. Just what I needed." Tim thinks as he scoops more of it into his mouth.
As he's doing so, he wonders… is the beef and broccoli good because Jubilee is that good of a cook, or is it because since this world is 'perfect' that the food would taste perfect as well? That a fast-food hamburger would taste as good as a home grilled hamburger just because this world is perfect and everything is supposed to be perfect?
Tim puts it out of his mind, as he's hungry and this stuff tastes great regardless of whether or not this world 'makes' it good.
As they continue eating dinner, Tim thinks that a husband and wife would talk about stuff, so Tim decides to ask about more facets of 'his' life here.
"Jubilee, would you mind telling me of when I proposed to you? And before you ask, it's just because I want something lovely to listen too while I eat!" Tim says as Jubilee smiles at him.
"Sure. We had been dating for a couple of years now, and we both were 21. I remember you had taken me to this posh restaurant, called Lemuria. I still remember it, you were sweating bullets the entire time and shaking. I had figured you were up to something, but I couldn't figure out quite what. I was never good at figuring out what you were up too. Like the time I thought you were going to propose to me on Valentines Day, but it was you were just nervous at giving me my Valentines Day present. We had just finished dessert, when you got up out of your seat and kneeled before me. Remember what you asked me?" Jubilee asked as Tim started getting nervous.
How could he possibly answer that? He has no idea what 'this' Tim had said! But then, it's as if it comes to him…
"Jubes, I realize that we've been dating for a little over 3 years now, but I've really enjoyed the times we've had together. In… in fact I've enjoyed it so much, that I'd like it to continue forevermore. I guess what I'm trying to say is… would you… marry me?" Tim said outloud with a flustered face, as if he was asking Jubilee to marry him all over again.
"That's it exactly! Even down to the facial expression! So, what did I say in return?" she said jokingly.
"No, I'd never want to marry someone like you!"
"What?"
"Just kidding, just kidding!" Tim said as he laughed. Jubilee didn't it find it funny, wondering if he was still feeling the affects of the drug. As he was laughing, the proposal scene played out in his head, as did many other scenes, like Tim's first date with Jubilee, when they both went to go see Phantom of the Opera at the San Francisco playhouse, and many other scenes. It was almost if the life of this Tim Drake was being written into his mind, for future reference.
By now, they had finished eating dinner and Tim was full.
"Do you mind if I put in a movie? I need something to take my mind off of the fact that I ate WAY too much…"
"Sure, go right ahead."
So Tim heads back to the TV and starts sorting through all of the movies they own.
Then Tim came upon probably one of his favorite movies of ALL time…
"YES! Let's watch this!" Tim says as he pulls out 'Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail'.
"Oh well, he's had a rough day, might as well…" Jubilee thinks to herself as she plops herself on the couch right beside her ecstatic husband. As Tim starts the movie, he puts his right arm around her and she lays her head on his shoulder.
About a hour and a half to maybe 2 hours later…
"'Tis but a scratch. A scratch!?! I've taken your bleeding arm off!" Tim repeats as he then starts laughing while walking down the hall to the master bedroom.
"Well, I'm bushed for tonight. I believe it's time for bed." Tim thinks to himself as he takes off his shirt and pants, getting into his pajamas.
Jubilee walks in and closes the door behind her.
The slamming of the door makes Tim jump a bit and he starts blushing when he remembers that he's sharing a bed.
"Jubes, I just going to get into bed, when you're ready to go to sleep, make sure to turn off the light…" Tim says as he tries walking past her only to have her grab his left arm.
"Uh-uh, pretty boy. You aren't getting off that easily. There's a reason why I wanted the kids out of the house today." And with that statement Tim started blushing.
It's not like he hasn't had the offer before, but this is different from all the other times. For all intents 'n purposes, he's married. There's nothing wrong with it, especially since he really did 'like' Jubilee. But, even though this 'Tim' has already had the pleasure, Tim really never has, so at heart he's still a virgin. So the whole idea is still unsettling to him and kinda scares him.
"Well, uh, I'm sorry Jubes, I'm just not in the mood right now." Tim said, trying to lie with a straight face.
"Let's see if this changes your mind." Jubilee says as she kisses him.
It feels so good, that Tim can't fight it. Jubilee pushes Tim down onto the bed and light chain and turns the lights out.
Later on in the night,
Tim sleeps contently. How could he not when this world is seemingly perfect?
Even so, Tim starts to toss and turn, as he hears something within his head…
"How is he?"
"Not very good. I can't figure out what's wrong with him. What should we do, sir?"
"Leave that to me. I'll take care of it."
To Be Continued.