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"He gets you with his voice," Tim says. Barbara sits beside Bruce. She records, fingers fluttering across her keyboard. Bruce doesn't ask Alfred to stop fiddling with the knobs on the monitor. Instead he focuses on his son. Alive. Lying in front of him. "There's something like you've never heard about it. Deeper than it should be. Deep enough to resonate in your chest."
"He makes you think you need warmth. Need someone else. Him. Makes himself a presence in your life. He takes you in his arms and doesn't let go. You sleep on a bed of flowers and bask. And when you want to forget, he takes it all away."
Bruce knows how addicting that can be.
"It feels like forever."
Tim takes a shaky breath. His chest rattles. Bruce moves closer. But he doesn't touch. Can't.
Barbara does. That's why she's there. One reason. She takes Tim's thin hand (he's lost so much weight in the short time he's been there. He's still muscular, lean, but his cheeks curve in an unnatural way, his veins pop out of his wrists).
"You need to be able to hear him, and he needs a routine. He has a pattern. Every Wednesday he has karaoke night, feeding off the new arrivals who go because they can't not . They sing bubblegum pop. That and trance make it easier. Jazz is your weapon. He also has a wife-April. I-"
For the first time Tim falters.
"Kon knows more about her than I do."
"He's already given his statement," Bruce reassures Tim because it feels like the thing to do.
"You need to throw him. It's the rhythm that keeps him strong." And the tune that Tim now hums absently comes to his mind (la la-la la la-la-la, la la-la l'la-la). Probably a coping mechanism Tim had tried. "And his soldiers-the victims… they'll need a place to recover."
"Already done," Babs says. She squeezes Tim's hand and Tim smiles. His face looks haunted in a way that guts Bruce.
He'll make Hades pay for that. Tim is his son .
"Anything else?"
Babs and Alfred both shoot him looks. Tim understands though. Tim has always understood.
"Be careful. Once you hear him or the whistle of the Underground, you're gone."
Bruce nods.
Tim understands.