Tuesday
6:30 A.M.
The alarm went off, prompting Tim to weakly search for the clock.
"Rasafracking…" Tim cursed as he searched for the clock and eventually turned off the alarm. He rolled over to see that Jubilee wasn't in bed beside him.
Tim moans a bit as he struggles to sit up, when he hears the shower running. Tim stumbles into the bathroom to see Jubilee in the shower, which he is delighted and dismayed to see.
Jubilee is listening to "Tom Jones Greatest Hits" and it's currently on "Sex Bomb". Tim feels the steam on his face, making him wish he was in the shower too, but he decides to wait until it's his turn, so he wanders back to bed, falling on it face-first.
"Ugh, I sooo don't want to go into work today…" Tim thinks as when he almost drifts back into sleep, Jubilee emerges from the bathroom wrapped in towels.
Seeing Tim face-first on the bed makes Jubilee smile, as she says…
"Ah, so you've been waiting for me to get out of the shower, huh?"
"Yep." Tim says, his face buried in the mattress.
"You could've joined me, you know."
"I know, but I wouldn't want to wake the kids." Tim says with a grin as he weakly gets up from bed. He then adds, "Why're you up so early?"
"Couldn't sleep. And since you take in the kids today, I figured I'd just go to work early…" and as Jubilee said this, Tim realized that he didn't really know what her profession was!
"Ah… so, you're planning to put in a few more hours at the office?"
"Yeah, not that'll it'll do much, but I didn't become a Social Worker for the pay." And Tim nods his head at her statement, and for some reason, Jubilee being a social worker fit.
Jubilee began to get out some clothes for work when Tim walked up behind her.
"Since I'm going to take a shower here and you'll be gone by then, will you give me a good-bye kiss?" Tim said as Jubilee turned her head to look at him.
"Sure thing." Jubilee said as Tim kissed her and then began heading to the bathroom.
"Just do me one more favor, please, PLEASE brush your teeth before you kiss me again?" Jubilee said with a smirk as she winked at him.
"Hey, my breath smells good any time of the day!" Tim retorted in jest as he closed the bathroom door behind him. Tim started the water and then turned on the shower.
"Aahhh…" Tim said, as the water refreshed him. Tim spent around 10 minutes in the shower when he decided it was time to get ready for work. Tim wrapped a towel around his waist and walked out into the bedroom to begin searching for what to wear.
Tim pulled out a grey buisness suit, a new pair of underwear, and black socks.
Tim gets dressed and walks out of his bedroom into the hall. Tim walks down the hallway and peeks into his daughters' room and notices that neither of them are in bed. Perplexed, Tim walks out to the living room, where both Suzie and Steph are dressed and ready to go.
"Whoa, looks like I've got a couple of early-birds for children. I remember Mom and Dad having to dynamite my butt out of bed to get me up in the morning…" Tim thought as he then said,
"So, ready for school, you two?"
"Not really…" Steph said as Suzie said,
"No, I'll miss all the great cartoons!"
"Well, trust me girls, it all pays off in the long run. Come on, time to pile into the car…" and so the girls pick up the bookbags, which they then head out of the door and fling themselves into his Capri.
Tim get's into the car and starts it up. Not really wanting to listen to Michael Jackson right now, Tim skipped to the first CD in the list, and the first song to come up was the Talking Heads "Once In a Lifetime".
"Heh, if this isn't the perfect song to describe this world, I don't know what is…" Tim thought as the journey to School and then work began.
About 10 minutes pass, due to traffic, and Tim drives up the main school doors to drop his girls off.
"See you later, Steph, Suzie, try to have a good day at school! Mom'll pick you up later! And Steph…" Tim says as Stephanie stops and looks back towards him, "if anyone gives you trouble today, tell me about it, alright?" Steph merely nods her head at Tim and then she follows her younger sister into School.
Tim revs the engine up, speeding out of the school and back onto the street.
After getting on the highway, Tim wonders about what he's going to have to do today at the office. He prays that it won't be a lot of work, as he'd like to do some other things today instead of sitting behind a desk.
After parking in his reserved space at Drake/Wayne Enterprizes, Tim entered his personal elevator and as he headed upwards, reflected on the people he had encountered so far… and the people he had yet to encounter.
"So I've got Jason Todd as my Secretary, Bart is a car dealer, Kon's a radio personality, Bruce is a tried and true playboy, Dick is married to Kory…" and as he walked out of his personal elevator and passed by Jason to enter his office, Tim wondered…
"I wonder what Barbara Gordan's doing in this perfect world…" and he took his chair. On Tim's desk was a pile of papers, stock reports, files for review, potential buyouts/mergers that he obviously needed to review.
"Time to earn that salary Tim…" he thought, as he buzzed Jason.
"Could you bring me in a cup of coffee, I think I'm gonna need some…"
3 Hours Later…
"Whew! Finally done!" Tim thinks to himself as he slumps into his chair.
Tim looks at the stack of papers he has now looked through, sorted, approved and/or put his John Hancock on.
"Yeesh, I hope everyday isn't filled with paperwork…" Tim thinks as he wonders what else is on his schedule. Tim didn't bring his briefcase with him, but he has a nagging feeling that his daytimer is in the right drawer of his desk. And ever since Tim's come here those nagging feelings have proven correct, and sure enough, when Tim opens up his right drawer, the daytimer is in there.
Tim opens it up to see that all he did have within his daytimer for today was to look over a few files and that was it. Even better, it has tomorrow listed as a day off.
"Woo-hoo!" Tim yells so loud that even Jason hears it.
And since Tim has nothing left to do today, he decides it'll be a good time to head back home.
"Y'know, I have to wonder if everyday I come to work will be like this, where I'll have hardly anything to do and then I'll come home…" Tim thinks as he glides out of his office and towards the elevator.
"I'm heading out Jason, and remember, I have tomorrow off, so don't expect me!"
"I won't sir, see you Thursday then!" Jason said as he waved goodbye.
The elevator couldn't move fast enough for Tim, and when it hit ground level, Tim rushed to his car so fast that it would've made Bart's head spin, if he were still Impulse, that is.
Tim hopped into his car, and just to make sure, he checked his briefcase, which was still in the car. Upon opening it, Tim noticed that it had the same daytimer that he used upstairs a few minutes earlier. It didn't bother Tim any, as he was actually getting used to that aspect of this place. And soon enough, Tim was blasting out of the parking garage and he was on the road.
As Tim was driving, he started thinking about how Benny wanted him to stay here for a week, so that he could at least experience the world… and as he thought about this, Tim was glad he gave it a try.
But as much as he enjoyed it… and as much he was getting used to certain aspects of this world, Tim still didn't know the extent of what this world could handle. In that light, Tim was getting sick of getting comfortable, only to have his world rocked when this world does something he doesn't expect.
And with that thought, Tim got a wicked idea, just to see if it would work. Tim accelerated his car to 100 mph and before he hit any cars, he purposely swerved to hit a light-pole. Tim then jumped out of the car, and it slammed into it with a mighty, *KLANG* with the light-pole smashing into the ground and the front end of his car getting ruined.
People started chattering and clamoring about, looking at the wreckage Tim purposely caused.
"Hey man, are you all right?" a teenager asks as Tim struggles to get up. As Tim is standing, he brushes some dust off of his suit and says…
"I'm fine. I… I think I need to make a phone call…" Tim said as he began walking to the left side of the street towards a local Get-n-Go Gas Station. Tim's body ached a little bit… but he didn't know if it was because of the training that he received from Bruce and the Puma Lama, or rather this world kept him from receiving serious harm. Tim entered the Gas Station where the cashier and the people inside gave him quizzical looks. Tim ignored their glances and entered the bathroom.
Tim locked the door behind him, and turned on the sink and rubbed water on his face. If Tim was correct, the minute he was finished washing his face, his car should be fixed and waiting for him in the parking lot. With that thought, Tim dried his hands and walked out of the Bathroom.
Tim walked by the magazine rack and noticed that none of the patrons of the Station were giving him funny looks anymore. Tim picked up a copy of Entertainment Weekly and looked out of the window to see his Capri parked out front, with the lightpole he slammed into standing like it always had. Tim smiled, walked over to the cashier, picked out a Twix candy bar and put that, along with his magazine on the counter.
"Is that all for you?" the cashier asked, only giving the look employees are trained to give customers, not the look he gave Tim beforehand.
"Yes it is, thanks. Say… I could've sworn that when I pulled up that there was a car accident on the other side of the road. Was I mistaken?"
"I'm pretty sure you're misremembering bud, 'cause if there was an accident, I think I woulda noticed."
"Oh… you're probably right." Tim says as he looks at the register and sees the total amount of $5.25. Tim reaches into his pocket and pulls out a five. Tim knows he didn't bring change, but he decides to check his pockets anyway and a quarter emerges from the depths. Tim cracks a sly smile.
"Here you go, $5.25." Tim says as the cashier scoops up the money and smiles. Tim picks up his purchases and heads out the door. Tim walks to his car and strokes it with his fingers… noticing that there isn't a single ding or scratch.
Getting into the car, Tim opens up his Twix wrapper and starts chewing on the first bar.
"Y'know, I think I could get used to living in this place…" Tim thinks to himself as he cranks the engine. Tim puts the car into reverse, backs out of the parking lot, and then blasts his way onto the road again.
Tim drives 20 miles over the speed limit, as he figures even if he gets pulled over by a cop, something will happen to erase the event or something technicality will happen that'll get him out of paying the ticket. This causes Tim to get home much faster than he would normally, and he strolls inside and puts the briefcase away in the closet.
"I think it's time I check up on some old friends…" Tim thinks as he walks over to the hallway that leads to his bedroom. The door at the very end was Jubilee and his bedroom, the door on the left a little bit down as the girls, the door beside that was the girl's bathroom, and then there was a third door beyond that, which was right beside him.
Tim hadn't seen any computer so far, so he figured this must be their recreation room. So, Tim cracked open the door to find a desk with a computer on top of it, with a scanner and a fax/printer besides it. He also saw a TV, with what seemed to be a new Playtendo game counsel. Tim plomped himself down on the brown leather chair in front of the computer and switched the computer on. As it hummed to life, Tim thought of a couple of the people he wanted to research on the web. After what seemed like eons, the computer finally finished loading and Tim connected onto the web.
About 2 to 3 hours later…
Tim is now on the official Gotham Police Website and the first thing Tim notices is that Gotham's Commissioner is still labeled as Commissioner Gordan, but when he clicks the link with the name on there, he sees that it isn't James Gordan… rather Barbara Gordan.
That doesn't seem that much of a surprise to Tim… Babs always had a sense of doing what's right, and if she never got into the Superhero game… never got shot by the Joker… she probably would've gone into the Police. Now what's surprising to find is who she's married to… which is almost even more mind-blowing than who Dick is married to…
"Bwa-ha-ha! Ted Kord? Babs is married to Ted Kord?!? Well, at least I know Ted's happy…" Tim laughs, as this pairing wouldn't be the first to come to mind, especially with some of Ted's escapades as the Blue Beetle that keep tapping into Tim's consciousness…
Tim looks at the computer screen… smiling at how some of his friends lives have turned out. Tim hasn't been able to find info on all of his friends or teammates on the web, but so far it's been an enlightening experience. Especially in the fact that when he checked his mail, there was no spam in his mailbox nor solicts for activities he'd rather not participate in. Tim even did searches and nothing came up for most of the rather… offensive stuff that usually ends up in his email box.
"A world free of Spam and porno? This place is perfect…" Tim thinks as he shuts off his browser and reclines in his chair. Tim breathes a sigh of relief, as he feels he finally has a grasp of this world. And even better, if he has gotten a grasp of this world, his next three days in this perfect world should be… well, perfect.
Tim looks at the time to see it's around 1:30. Jubilee should be coming home soon with the kids, and Tim wants to be free of anything that'll take away time from being around them. Tim walks out of the computer room and decides to clean up the house… even though it looks lickety-split clean already.
Tim walks into his bedroom first and changes into a pair of blue-jean shorts and a white T-Shirt that reads "Timothyology: The Study of Tim". Then Tim walks out to the family room and begins to put up some movies his daughters have laying about, putting magazines back in little racks that sit beside his blue recliner, as well as putting away used glasses.
Tim checks the dishwasher to see if it's empty and it is. Tim then scours the kitchen looking for where they keep all the cleaning supplies and find them underneath the kitchen sink. Tim takes out some Windex and cleans off the TV as well as the front windows of his house. Then Tim checks three closets before finding the one that held the vacuum cleaner, which was in the closet in the hallway, the fourth one he checked.
Tim then started vacuuming the house, starting with the hallway, entering his bedroom, the girl's room, the computer room, almost making it to the living room before running out of cord. So Tim unplugs then replugs the vaccum into an outlet in the Living Room and continues his vacuuming quest. Tim ends his journey with the vacuum in the Dining Room, which he finishes as he hears a car pull up into the driveway. As Tim picks up the Vacuum and starts putting it away, Jubilee and the girls walk on in.
"Hey, it's my favorite gaggle of girls!" Tim says as Suzie and Steph drop their bookbags by the door and plop theirselves down on the couch.
"Oh my lord, call the medic, my husband is actually cleaning!" Jubilee says in jest as she walks to Tim and gives him a kiss on the cheek.
"Hardy-har-har… how'd your day go?"
"It went pretty good… handled a few cases, but all in all an ordinary day." Jubilee said as Tim put away the Vacuum cleaner and saw the girls start rummaging through the various channels on the TV.
"Hey Steph, how was your day today?"
"It was great Daddy! That girl tried to make fun of me again, but Mrs. Freeman stepped in and helped out!"
"Oh really?" Tim said as Jubilee was signalling Tim to come over to the counter.
"Don't worry about it Tim, I took my lunch break and talked to Cassandra about it, that's why she stepped in."
"Cassandra?" Tim thinks as he says… "How'd you know about it?"
"Steph told me about it yesterday. What, did you really think that my daughter wouldn't tell me about something like that, even if you gave her advice?" Jubilee said as she ruffles Tim's hair.
"I guess I should've known better…" Tim says underneath his breath as he notices his little girls dissatisfied with what's on TV…
"Say, you don't have any homework now, do you?"
"Nuh-uh." Suzie says as Steph shakes her head no.
"Well, why don't we have a 'Lord of the Rings' Trilogy fest!" Tim says as both girls smile brightly. Jubilee groans a little bit, as the day is pretty much gone down the drain, since all three movies are pretty long…
"Then I guess it's decided, we'll watch J.R.R Tolkien's 3 stories!" Tim said as he reached into the drawer and brought out all 3 movies, 'Fellowship of the Ring', 'The Two Towers' and 'The Return of the King'. Jubilee goes to change out of her work clothes when she asks Tim…
"What do you want for supper?"
"Ah, don't worry about it Honey, I'm going to cook something tonight."
"Egads, you must a clone or a pod person, my Tim couldn't clean and then cook dinner in the same day!" Jubilee says with a snicker as Tim reaches towards the couch, grabs a pillow and flings it at Jubes, only to miss.
"Missed me, now you've got to kiss me after I finish changing…"
"Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" Tim says mockingly as he starts 'Fellowship of the Ring' and then sits down inbetween his two daughters and wraps his arms around them…
An Ungodly Amount of Hours Later…
Jubilee and the girl's are watching the final scene in 'The Return of the King' as Tim puts the finishing touches on the bowl of Chili he's been preparing.
"Who's ready for some chili?"
"Me, me, me!" Suzie yells as she races out of living room into the kitchen.
"Here you go, sweetie." Tim says as he hands Suzie a bowl of chili with some cheese sprinkled on top of it.
"You didn't make it too hot, did you?"
"Make it hot? Mwah? How could you ask that? In all honesty, no." Tim says as he hands Jubilee a bowl, Steph a bowl, then scoops up some Chili for himself.
Dinner was a blur for Tim, a malestrom of stories being told of the day, jokes that made him or one of his three girls laugh, or loving gazes from one family member to another.
By the time they got done and dishes were in the sink, the Drake family settled into the recreation room, where all four are playing a multi-player game called Super Sonic Party, where a cast of colorful game characters roll dice to see who can collect the most Chaos Emeralds.
Naturally, Steph and Suzie cleaned house, as they log more hours on this game than either parent. And then, it was time for bed.
Tim and Jubilee tucked their daughters in, then turned out the lights.
"Good night, munchkins."
"Goodnight!" the girls yell as Jubilee closes the door slowly. Jubilee watches Tim stride into the bedroom and begins to get dressed into his pajamas.
"Tim, I've got to ask… did something happen today? You've got more zest in you now than I think you've had your entire life!"
"Nah, nothing really… I just had one of those realizations that life is a gift… and you need to share it with others." Tim says as he hugs Jubilee.
"I thought that was supposed to happen when you 'go over the hill'?" Jubilee said in jest as Tim squeezed her waist.
"Nah… it's just an… epihany."
"I hope you stay this way… *Jubilee gets into bed* when do you think you'll get home tomorrow?"
"I don't know. I can't really answer that because I have tomorrow off." Tim said with a wide smile.
"*Yawns* I wish I could stay home with you tomorrow…" Jubilee says as Tim rubs his chin.
Why can't Jubilee share the day with Tim tomorrow… why can't she just stay home tomorrow? A plan starts formulating in the back of Tim's head and with that, Tim shuts off the light.
To Be Continued…