"Tim, please Tim, wake up…" a male voice says as Tim hears something beeping in the background, and Tim wearily opens up his eyes to see the Alarm Clock that reads 6:30.
"Tim, please turn it off…" Jubilee moans as Tim he struggles to get his groggy hand on the right switch to turn off the alarm clock. He finally does so and then sits up to rub his eyes.
"Don't worry about the kids, it's my turn to take them in today…and *Yawn* make sure to grab those circus tickets today…" Jubilee says as she starts to fall back asleep.
Tim's eyes drooped. He didn't sleep well last night, and hoo-boy did he feel the effects of it.
Tim begrudgingly stands up, heads into the bathroom and turns on the bath. Then pulling a tab to start the showerhead, Tim started taking off his clothes and stared into the mirror.
He looked at his face to see if he needed to shave, and there were a few whiskers, but nothing that you could notice. Seeing the steam in the mirror, Tim takes off his pant pajamas, as that was all he was wearing and hopped into the shower.
Immediately, Tim started to feel better.
"There's nothing like a hot shower to start the day…" Tim thinks as he takes out a shampoo bottle and starts washing his hair.
After rinsing his hair a bit and then sticking his head into the water stream, Tim then adds conditioner to his hair and rubs it into his hair.
After he then washes it out, he turns off the shower and gets out of the bathtub.
Tim grabs a towel from the linen closet and dries himself. Tim almost slaps himself for forgetting his work clothes but it doesn't really matter, as Jubes and the girls are asleep.
Tim strolls out, and opens up his closet door and finds the suit that Jubilee picked out this last Saturday. Tim laughs a little bit thinking how it was last Saturday when he arrived here, and already it feels normal.
Tim quickly puts it on and adjusts his tie in their drawer mirror.
Tim looks at Jubilee, blows her a kiss, and walks out of the room.
Walking down the hall, Tim passes his girl's door and stops. Tim pokes his head in, to see both Stephanie and Suzie snug in their beds. Tim quietly creeps in and gives them both a kiss on their foreheads.
Tim then proceeds to the family room, and then out of the door.
Tim sees his Capri next to Jubilee's Focus, and he wonders why neither of them parked their cars in the garage.
Tim would open the garage door to find out, but that would wake the kids, so he just decides to wait till later.
"Besides, I don't know what time I need to get to work by…" Tim thinks as he gets into his car and backs it out of the driveway.
Soon, Tim is on the road and he's tuning into Kent's station.
Journey's 'Wheel in the Sky' starts playing, and this makes some of the tension building up within Tim about what'll happen when he gets to work disappear.
"Oh, the wheel in the sky keeps on turning…" Tim sings to himself as he turns on the highway.
The song continues on, and then AC/DC's "Shook Me All Night Long" started playing as Tim continued on towards work.
Tim pulled onto Franklin Boulevard and headed towards the Drake/Wayne building.
Tim drove past the building and headed to where, at least in the 'real world' the Wayne Enterprises parking lot was.
Sure enough, it was still there, although owned by 'Drake/Wayne'. Tim pulled in and was surprised to see his own parking space in the front.
But then Tim remembers that he is C.E.O. of Drake/Wayne, so it's natural.
Tim walks to a corridor to the right of his car that leads into the main floor of the Drake/Wayne building.
As Tim walks through a glass door, a security guard looks over to Tim and smiles.
"Morning Mister Drake!" The guard said and it startled Tim.
"Morning… Mister… uh," Tim struggled as he quickly looked for the man's badge and then said, "Mister Mooney. How are you doing today?" Tim said as he walked up to Officer Mooney's post.
"I'm doing just fine today, Mister Drake. I'll activate your personal elevator for ya…" The guard said as Tim saw an elevator in the back of a row full of elevator's behind Officer Mooney clicks on.
"Thanks!" Tim says as he waves good-bye to Officer Mooney and he headed to his private elevator.
Tim enters and notices a key-card insert slot. Tim reaches into his wallet and notices a special card that reads, "Timothy Drake: Drake/Wayne C.E.O." on it. He takes it out, slides it into the slot, and then hits the number '51' which has a star by it, as Tim thinks that's probably his office.
The elevator starts moving and Tim just thinks about this. He controls what probably is one of the leading technological businesses in the world, and yet he hasn't a clue as to run that sort of thing.
Not like he ever talked to his Dad or heaven forbid, Bruce about running a company…
And before Tim notices it, it reaches Floor 51 and the door opens.
Tim walks down a short hallway, which leads to a single door. Tim opens it to find a small room, where one black-haired man is sitting.
Tim looks hard at him, and then recognizes who it is.
"Jason?" Tim said in a startled voice, as he finds it weird to see that an older Jason Todd of all people is his secretary…
"Hello Tim! Just so you know, the board meeting has been postponed till 11:30, so you've got about 5 and a half hours till then."
"Uh, thanks Jason." Tim says as he walks past his desk and opens the double doors.
Tim looks into his expansive office, which is lined with old movie posters, a poster for the 'Flying Graysons' act, an expansive table with a Gateway computer on it, it's own fax machine, scanner, and printer. He looks straight ahead from where he is at, to see another set of doors, which probably lead into the conference room.
Tim looks behind his desk to see the back wall is nothing but a large pane of glass, and Tim walks up to it to look down to the people below, who resemble insects more than people.
Tim twirls his leather chair around and sits down. He has at least 5 hours to himself, and with a computer in front of him, undoubtedly with Internet access, he has a chance to finally look into the history of this 'world'.
So, Tim takes off his business coat, flops it on the side of the desk, opens up Internet Explorer and starts exploring.
As time slowly ticks away, Tim learns the history of this planet virtually mimics the 'real world', like World Wars still happened, certain things like the Salem Witch Trials, the Red Scare, and even some Celebrity suicides happened here.
The funny thing is, around the time of Bruce's birth, these things started heading on the wayside. They still happened, but not with the intensity of the 'real world', and at the very least, no one was harmed. Tim continued to search, and when he was born, the world actually started to improve.
"So it looks like the focal points of change on this world was the birth of Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake." Tim thinks as he then heads up a movie page and starts reading reviews.
And pretty much all the reviews for certain movies are the same, except they don't apply to movies that have been 'released' in this world.
"But then, why would the world be made better, but movies remain the same?"
"Perhaps I can answer that." An old voice says from behind Tim, as Tim twirls his chair around to see Benny standing there.
"For goodness sakes Benny, next time, knock on the door, no sudden appearances."
"Heh, I thought you of all people would appreciate a tactic like that." Benny said with a sly smile.
"*Sigh* I guess I deserved that remark. But, would you mind telling me more about this world?"
"Certainly. I wouldn't want your meeting with the executives compromised because you were bothered by the history of this world." Benny said as he walked around Tim's desk to the front.
"You see, in order to make a perfect world, I had to figure out how to make it perfect, but make it relatable. If I truly made it 'perfect' it would be so disorienting to your senses that the world would be incomprehensible. So, first I had to make it familiar. That's why most of the world history is the same, it gives you something to relate too, something utterly familiar. And when Bruce was born, that's when I started making changes, as he's important to you, and if I made your life perfect, it would only be fair to make his life perfect as well, as he's responsible for how you are now. And from then on in, I made sure all those important to you, and the general populace of Earth, now know great lives. But still, I had to make it relatable, which is why there is still a bit of… misery, for lack of a better word, left in the world, to make it somewhat comfortable for everyone. And I only changed things that truly affect welfare, like wars, famines, plagues, which is why certain things remain the same, like movies. No reason to tamper with them, as it takes someone special to get worked up about a movie…"
"Hmm… well, thank you Benny." Tim said as Benny started walking towards the conference room.
"One last thing Tim. To pick up the Circus Tickets, you just need to go to the Gotham Convention Center, which is where Haly's Circus is performing. The tickets are for tonight, 7:00, but you can pick them up when you, Jubilee and the kids head out there tonight. Oh, and Jubes forgot to mention, today's your turn to pick up the kids at Pre-School." Benny said as he entered the Conference Room and slammed the door behind him.
"Hey, wait! *Tim rushes to the Conference Room doors* What do you mean by the Circus and the kids?" Tim asks as he throws open the doors to only see a long table and about 10 empty chairs. A look of irritation fills Tim's face as his right eyebrow twitches.
"I hope this doesn't become a frequent routine of Benny's, as I'm already getting sick of it…" Tim thinks to himself as he walks back to his desk.
Tim looks at his computer's clock and notices that it is 11:30 and if almost on cue…
"*Bzzt* Tim, Bruce and the Executives are here for the board meeting, sir."
"Send them in." Tim says as he quickly puts on his jacket and sees everyone enter.
"Hello Tim, how are you doing?" Bruce asks as Tim looks at this version of Bruce for the first time. His hair was all but gray and Bruce had a thick beard on him.
"Um, I'm doing pretty good. How was your weekend?" Tim asked as he looked over at the other executives, and he didn't recognize a lick of them.
"Oh, it was great. Kathy and I spent some good down time and Helena come to visit us. I'm surprised my daughter still hasn't found herself a guy. If you weren't attached I'd say you were perfect for her."
"I'm flattered you'd say that, and I'll make sure NOT to tell Jubilee about it." Tim said with a wink. Bruce just laughed at it, as Tim then said,
"Let's head into the boardroom, gentlemen." And the six gentlemen, including Bruce, followed Tim into the boardroom.
Tim sat at the head of the table, Bruce at his right side, and the other five scattered around the table.
"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Tim said as Bruce spoke up, saying…
"We just really need to go over our fiscal earnings, which David will handle, the products we will push this year, which Andrew will handle, and our relations with certain customers in companies we've been contracted too, among other things."
"Well, let's get on with it then." Tim said as the meeting started.
Luckily, for most of the meeting, Tim was not asked any questions by any of the members, as they were just stating the obvious. This allowed Tim to observe their hand gestures, their mannerisms, their way of speaking, in order to better his own appearance when it came time for him to answer in front of them.
That time came when board member Ryan, who had brown hair and blue eyes, stood up to show different ways to increase our profits for the upcoming fiscal year.
"So, in closing, we could do option 1 and try to push for more army contracts, which would definitely boost up our earnings, but with our stance of only doing non-combative projects, we may not come up with any contracts as the army isn't that interesting in non-lethal weaponry. We could do option 2 and try to increase our stock values. While that would boost up our earnings, the problem is that the stock market is so volatile, going up and then going down and then going up again, we could just end up having the same value as when we started, or even worse, have our stock value go down. Our third option is to try to push our wetware A.I. software to gaming consoles, in the hope that they'll take it to boost up the Artificial Intelligence levels of their games. This could work with Nintendo and Sony coming out with new gaming consoles, but they might not want to take outside software. It also depends on how the system does, if it doesn't sell well, then we don't make a profit. Which seems to be the best, Tim?"
"Well…" Tim said, hoping to buy some time. He really didn't feel comfortable making a decision, because if he picked one that caused problems for the company, he could get ousted from his position. But then again, could it be that any decision he'd make be the right one in order to maintain the balance of his 'perfect' life? That could be the case, but just in case…
"Bruce, I have a feeling that Wetware is our best option, but I would like a second opinion. What do you think is our best option?"
"Personally, I'm torn between Military and Wetware. I do think if we show some of our non-combative weaponry, we could win support with the army. But, seeing as how many people play video games and my own daughter loves them as well as your own, I think we could get more consumer attention with the gaming system. When they learn that Drake/Wayne Enterprises helped create their favorite system, they'll come to us for our other products. But ultimately, it's your decision Tim."
"Then I say we go with Wetware. Ryan, call up the biggest video game companies and tell them we're interested in lending our technology for their systems."
"Will do, Tim."
"And with that, our meeting is adjourned." Tim says as the Executives leave and Tim shakes Bruce's hand.
"See you at the next meeting Bruce."
"Same here Tim. Give me a call sometime, our families need to have dinner again." Bruce says as he walks out of Tim's office.
Tim lets out a sigh of relief as he slumps into his chair.
"I'm glad that's over with." Tim thinks as he looks at his watch to see that it's 1:20. Just then, he gets a call on his phone. Tim picks it up and recognizes the voice.
"Heya Tim!" Kent O'Connel says, as Tim scrambles to remember that name, as he isn't known as Kon-El here in this world.
"Hey… Kent. What are you calling me for, I thought you would still be busy entertaining the masses of Gotham?"
"Nah, finished the morning set and I've got the rest of the week off. Howabout grabbing some grub with me before I go home and waste my week off with Tana?"
"Tana? She's alive?" Tim thinks to himself, as he remembered the sorrow Kon felt in the real world about her death. "Um, that would be great. Where do you want to meet?"
"Howabout Bill and Ruth's on the corner of where you work?"
"Okay, I'll see you there in a little bit!" Tim said as he hung up the phone. Since the meeting was the only thing he had to attend to today, Tim decides that he can leave early. Tim turns off his computer and heads out of the door, where he looks at Jason.
"Hey Jason, I'm going off to lunch, and I'm probably just going to head home after that. What are you working on right now?"
"Oh, I'm just updating some files."
"Well, when you're done with that, you can leave early. Just make sure to file that you worked the whole day, as I wouldn't want you to get paid less on my account."
"Thank you, sir!" Jason said with glee as Tim waved goodbye and headed towards his personal elevator.
While riding down the elevator, Tim reflects on what he experienced so far in this day. And really, it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. It wasn't the experience Tim dreaded that kept him awake for most of the night last night. Oh sure, Tim still needs a better grasp of handling a business, but it wasn't quite the dreadful experience that his mind made it out to be. He could get used to this.
Tim laughed to himself, that seemed to be the nature of this world, first something that unsettles him, then he gets used to it, then something else unsettles him, then he gets used to that, and so on and so on.
But, is seems like now, he finally has a grip on this perfect world that he's been rewarded with.
After leaving the front entrance of Drake/Wayne, Tim sees the Bill and Ruth restaurant on the opposite side of the street on the left side of where he was standing. So Tim walked to the left to the intersection and then crossed the street.
Tim entered the restaurant to see an older Kon-El will his long black hair tied in a ponytail, with a goatee growing on his chin, standing by the menu. Kon waved at Tim, and Tim headed over to Kon… er, Kent as he's known here.
"Hey Tim-o! How are you doing today?" Kent says as Tim smiles and says,
"Pretty good… *Slaps Kent on the head* and now I'm having a great day!"
"What was that for?" Kent says as he rubs his head.
"That's for last Friday. Trust me, it's better off that I slapped you, 'cause if I told Jubilee that I saw you today and didn't slap you, well let's just say that Jubes would've had both of our heads on a platter…"
"Aw, come on Tim, that stuff wasn't that strong!"
"Well, you didn't see me Saturday morning…" Tim says as Kent began to laugh.
"I bet that rum that Bart and I put in your coke really did a number on you, didn't it?"
"And if you two ever do that again, I'll really do a number on you, which is infinitely less than what Jubilee will do to you…" Tim says as Kent laughs again when a female cook comes up to the counter.
"What will you guys have?"
"Hmm… I'll have a Philly Steak Sandwich with a large order of fries and a large drink." Kent says as Tim replies,
"I'll just have a Gyros special, thanks."
"Well, your total will be $11.75 and your number 132." So Tim and Kent take out their wallets and split lunch.
Tim and Kent grab their cups and walk over to the Soda Machine and Kent fills his up with Mountain Dew while Tim fills up his with Pepsi.
They take a seat in the left corner of the Bill & Ruth's, right near the hallway that leads to the bathrooms.
"That reminds me Tim, Bart and I are going up to Bowl-O-Rama this Wednesday, and we were wondering if you'd like to join us."
"Oh, I don't know, not with what you pulled last time…"
"Don't be such a sourpuss, its not often I get to do something on Wednesday. It'll be fun, and they have Karaoke."
"No, I remember the last time you got me up on one of those things…"
"Look, will you just think on it for a day or so, please?" Kent says as the cook calls up their number, so the boys go up and get their lunch.
They sit back down, and begin to eat.
"So… uh, how's Tana doing?" Tim asks as he takes a bite out of his Gyros.
"She's doing really well. Her job as anchorwoman for Fox Affiliate WKX here is going great and… well, uh, everything is just going great."
"Come on, something's going on, I can tell by the way you stuttered and the flushed look on your face when you finished your sentence." Tim said with a smirk, at times training with Bruce does have certain benefits.
"Aww, I was hoping not to screw up as I wanted to keep it a secret… but ah, we… I mean, Tana… is expecting."
"Congratulations! That's wonderful news!"
"Well, I hope so. I'm just worried that the hellish hours Tana and I work will affect our child. I work most of the day, almost every day, and Tana is at the Station helping things out there, I'm just worried we won't have enough time for the child." Kent said as he sighed and held his head down low.
And Tim was moved. It wasn't often in the 'real' world he'd see Kon-El open up like that, and *gasp* admit he had flaws. And even though Tim knew this world was perfect and that Kon and Tana's child would turn out fine, Kon himself didn't know that and still acted like any ordinary human being in this situation.
"Look, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I… We had that same doubt when Steph and Suzie came along. I'm sure when you and Tana announce your having a baby, both of your employers will understand. And as long as you don't put stuff into your boy or girl's drink, I think you'll do fine as a Father." Tim said as Kent looked up with a gleam in his eye and smiled.
"Thanks, bud." Kent said as he and Tim continued their meal until they finished it. They picked up their plates, walked over to the trash bins, threw away their trash, and deposited their trays.
Tim and Kent walked out of Bill and Ruth's and Kent patted him on the shoulder.
"Thanks for sharing your lunch time, Tim, it was fun!" Kent says as he begins to turn away to head home.
"Hey, Kent! I will join you guys this Wednesday, okay?"
"Great! Just meet us there around 7:00, okay?"
"Okay!" Tim said as he worked his way back to Wayne/Drake Enterprises.
Tim walked into the parking garage where his car is at, unlocked it, and entered inside.
"Benny said I needed to pick the kids up from Pre-School today and we could pick up the tickets for Haly's circus at the Convention Center. Since it's about 2:00, I guess it's about time for me to pick them up…" Tim thought as he realized that he didn't know where the pre-school was at! Tim almost got frantic when he remembered that if he had a day-timer or something, he probably had the address in there.
But, he didn't bring a briefcase with him.
"No, that couldn't be possible, but anything has happened so far…"
Tim looks into his glove compartment to find nothing. Tim also looks in the side pockets of his car, but nothing. Finally, Tim scrounges around the back of the car with his right hand, and grasps onto something. Tim brings it forward to find that it's his briefcase. Tim unlocks it, and just as he figured, there's a day-timer inside.
"I don't know if I should be creeped out by the fact that the briefcase likely wasn't there a few minutes ago or that I'm starting to like this aspect of the world…" Tim thinks as he looks inside and under the 'addresses' portion of the day-timer there's an address for a School called 'The Scott Memorial School for Youngsters'. Tim wonders if the Scott in the title is for Alan Scott, former Green Lantern of WW2 who operated in Gotham City.
The school is on the corner of Peabody and Sherman, which Tim saw Peabody street near his suburb. Tim lays back in his chair, starts the car and revs out of garage.
Tim wonders what time the girls usually get out by, but he figures that it'll probably be around 2:30, 3:00 since that was about the time he got out…
Tim keeps driving along and listens to the radio. As he drives up onto the interstate, he lazily looks outside his left side, staring out into the fabricated, yet perfect, world. Before Tim realizes it, he's in his neighborhood and coming up on Peabody street. Tim takes a right, as he's not quite sure what direction to go in order to hit Sherman street, so he just takes that direction and prays it's close by.
Tim's prayers are answered as he drives up to the light, and he sees the School on the left side of the street. He quickly gets into the left hand turn lane, and when the light turns green and he gets the green arrow, Tim turns left and then onto Sherman street and takes a right into the school.
As Tim pulls up, he looks at his car clock and sees that it just now turned 2:30. And if almost on cue, the outside school bell rings and kids rush out of the front doors like floodwater and Tim sees his oldest daughter Steph leading her younger sister Suzie out of the school and they spot Tim's car parked by the curb. As they get near the Capri Suzie yell's shotgun and so Steph gets into the car first and into the back seat, while Suzie sets up in front.
"You girls ready to head on home?"
"Yep!" Suzie says with a smile as he older sister says nothing. As Tim starts the car up, he looks into his rearview mirror, getting a good look at Steph's face, and it was downright distraught.
"Hey Steph, is something wrong?"
"NOTHING'S wrong." Steph says forcefully. And even though Tim's not been a father long, he can tell that when you say 'nothings wrong' like that, something definitely is wrong.
"Come on, who are you trying to kid? Just tell me what's wrong."
"It's more of a 'mom' problem than a 'dad' problem."
"Well, I'm gonna keep bugging you until you tell me…" Tim says and his eldest daughter sighs.
"This girl in my class… she… she said I was ugly and fat today. I don't know why she did it, but she kept repeating it and wouldn't stop." Steph said as Tim frowned. At least when you're a guy, when someone gets in a fight with you, it's mostly exterior damage that takes place, even when it's verbal. It's stuff most guys shrug off after a day or so. But man, when women fight, they don't go for the exterior, they always seem to aim for the heart. A mental cut from a woman is far, far worse than a mental cut from a guy… and Tim could see the affects already taking place with the way Steph's arms were wrapped around her torso.
"Hey, don't let what one girl says to you affect you that much… yeah, it may have been awful, but from what I hear most bullies say stuff like that to others to make themselves feel better. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you're better looking than her and she was just saying it to put you down."
"Really?"
"Really, really. Besides, what do the opinions of one girl matter? It's how you see yourself. And from my viewpoint, I see a beauty."
"You're just saying that because you're my daddy…"
"That might be true, but it's still what I believe. And besides, your gonna cheer up whether you want to or not, because if you girls don't remember, tonight's the night we're headed towards… Haly's Circus!"
"Really? The Circus is tonight?" Steph said as her head poked up and her disposition brightened.
"Yep. So make sure you get all of your homework done before we go, so you can get maximum enjoyment without having to worry about finishing your homework."
"Cool! And daddy, will you turn on the CD player and put it on CD 5? I wanna listen to Michael's Don't Stop till He Gets Enough."
"Suzie, that's 'Don't Stop till You Get Enough'. And yeah, we can listen to it." Tim says as he turns on the CD player and that switches CD's till it reaches CD#5, History. It starts up and Tim skips tracks till he hits track 13, the song Suzie wants.
And as it starts with Michael talking, Suzie starts swaying left to right slowly and then starts swaying faster when the beat picks up. Tim smiles at this and inevitably starts doing it as well. Steph is just smiling in the backseat.
When it gets to the chorus, Suzie starts trying to sing like Michael, which results in a high squeaky voice, which is offset even more because she doesn't quite know the words…
"Keep on, blah, blah, blah, don't stop till you get enough… keep on, blah, blah, blah, don't stop till you get enough…" and Tim can't help but laugh at this.
This just makes Suzie try harder, which results in Tim laughing harder and Steph breaks out in laughter too, unable to hold the laughter in anymore.
Soon enough the gang arrives home and they get out of the car. Suzie walks up to the door, reciting the lines she doesn't have quite right with her sister and father walking behind her wearing huge grins.
Tim unlocks the door and as the girls rush in, Tim says,
"Remember girls, do your homework immediately, ok?" and Tim doesn't really hear a reply, but he assumes the girl's will get right to work. Tim walks into his bedroom and changes out of his suit into a red, blue and green long-sleeved shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Tim lays down on his bed and let's out a bit of a yawn.
"It's been an interesting day so far…" Tim thinks as he looks at the clock and sees that he has about 3 hours to kill. Tim rolls onto his back and looks at the ceiling and inevitably, Tim's eyes start to droop, and then he falls asleep.
As he's sleeping, various images pop into his mind. Tim sees himself as Robin sitting alongside Jubilee in what seems to be a dorm room. Various scenes replay after that, finding out that battles are supposed to be taking place to decide if his reality or her reality is to be destroyed, visiting the Danger Grotto, and eventually in Venice, Italy. More images pop into his head, one that shows them kissing on a rooftop, but it seems so sad. Why is it sad? Why does it feel like they're never going to see each other again? It's isn't fair! It simply isn't fair!
And as Jubilee walks into the bedroom, she sees Tim rolling around on the covers, seemingly in distress. She reaches over and starts to jostle Tim awake and hears him mumbling, "fair… it simply isn't fair…" and finally she says, "Tim, you need to wake up…" and Tim opens his eyes to find himself back in the bedroom again.
"Oh Jubes, *yawns* you're home! What… what time is it?"
"It's 6:00 Tim. How long were you asleep?" She says which startles Tim.
"Um, quite a bit it seems…" Tim says as he wipes away some drool from his mouth. Jubilee walks into the bedroom and begins to change out of her work clothes into the one's she's going to wear to the Circus.
"So, did you get the tickets?"
"No Jubes, we can get them at the door, I figured it would be easier that way." Tim says as Jubilee walks out wearing a long-sleeve shirt that said 'California' on it and washed jeans.
"Well, we better leave then. I'll drive us there, Tim."
"Fine by me." Tim said as he and Jubilee exit the bedroom, signal the kids that it's time to go and then pile into Jubilee's Focus.
"Whose ready to go to the Circus?"
"I am Mom, I am!" Suzie says with excitement as 'Mom' starts the car and begins their journey to the circus.
As they're driving, Tim begins to realize something.
"Haly's Circus… isn't that the circus where the Flying Graysons performed?" Tim thought as he suddenly sat up in his seat.
"It is! Jeez, why didn't I remember that sooner?!?" Tim said as he began to get excited.
If this is a perfect world, then as Bruce's life was fixed, so would Dick's life! His parents never died, and thus Dick would never leave the circus to be with Bruce. It also eased one of Tim's more painful memories, where he saw Dick's parents die on TV.
And before Tim knew it, they had arrived at the Convention Center. Tim was so excited to see what Dick was like now, that he even beat Suzie getting out of the car.
Once his family was out of the car, Tim moved like Greased Lightning to the Ticket Stands. Tim got in line for the pre-bought Tickets and in little time, four tickets were in his hand.
Giving one to each of his family, the entered the stadium.
"Jubilee, would you mind getting the food? I want to find our seats…" Tim said, as Jubilee didn't wholly agree with the idea, but she nodded her head in agreement.
Tim leads Steph and Suzie to their seats, which were on the left side of the stadium, in row BD, seats 1 through 4. Jubilee appeared 5 minutes later, her hands full with drinks, a bag of popcorn and two sticks of cotton candy.
Tim couldn't wait for the show to start and soon enough, it did.
All the usual things were on first… the clowns, animals, daredevils and such… but then, it got into the part Tim was dying to see…
"And now for you supreme pleasure, we are proud to introduce our most startling act, an act known the world over… the Flying Graysons!" the Announcer says as four people are flashed with spotlights.
"On the right are the original members of the Flying Graysons, John and Mary, still flying high after all of these years! And on the left is their son Richard and his wife, Kory Anders!" and Tim's eyes focused on Kory. She had brown hair and a seemingly Asian complexion, but Tim recognized this altered version instantly.
"Kory… Kory Anders? Koriand'r? But… but… I thought that Tim and Barbara…" Tim said underneath his breath.
"Did you say something, Tim?"
"Uh, no." Tim said. He just couldn't believe it. In a perfect world, a perfect world, Dick loved Kory more than Babs? Well, that first love always remains…
And for the rest of the show, Tim watched the amazing acrobatics of the Flying Graysons, and the affection Dick and Kory showed each other during breaks.
Even after the show was finished and the Drakes were heading back towards the car, Tim's jaw was still slightly agape. Never in a million years did he expect them to be together. But still, in that light he never would've expected Jubilee to be his perfect wife, but it still baffles him.
The car ride seemed like a blur to Tim, whose mind was now exploring tangents about this world and its affects on the people Tim care for.
Even as he helps his children get ready for bed, he can't help what other strange little surprises are awaiting him when he meets more people he recognizes. And even as Tim climbs into bed with his wife Jubilee, he can't but wonder why, oh why, whenever he gets used to this world, it throws him another curveball that he's gotta try to adjust too.
"Hopefully tomorrow will go smoother…" Tim says as yanks the chain for their bedroom night and he lays his head down on the pillow.
To Be Continued!