A/N: While Dick is attending to his annual trip to the circus, Tim disobeys and follows him, getting into major trouble on two fronts. Without realizing, by revealing that Tim is his biological brother, Dick has placed Tim in grave danger from a source they have dealt with before. Will Dick be the last Flying Grayson, again?
A Circus Boy Returns Home
Part 8: In Trouble with Big Brother
The roustabout found Dick Grayson working on his routine for the upcoming afternoon show.
"Grayson!"
Dick looked down to see the roustabout shouting up at him. This was one of the roustabouts that Dick wasn't familiar with. "What is it?"
"Haly wants you!"
Dick Grayson swung down, landing in the net in the practice tent. He grabbed the edge of the of the net and did a somersault off the edge and he landed on the floor of the tent. He walked out of the tent and over to the wagon office and entered. He halted when he saw Tim sitting on a chair.
"Tim? What are you doing here?"
Tim looked at his brother sheepishly. "Um . . . hi."
Dick crossed his arms. "I left you in Gotham for good reason, Tim. You disobeyed me."
"I had to come," Tim tried to explain.
"I don't want to hear any excuses," Dick argued. "Obviously, I can't send you back, nor can I let you just wander around."
"Dick, please, let me explain."
"You can explain later. Right now, you need a lesson obedience."
"Dick, you're being unreasonable."
"Don't tell me I'm being unreasonable," Dick shouted. "I'm your guardian, and you disobeyed me. I told you to stay put. There's too much going on here for me to keep an eye on you, and I did that to keep you safe after what happened."
Tim sighed. Dick wasn't going to listen to him right now. His shoulders slumped. He didn't know if this was an act for others to hear or whether Dick was really pissed at him for leaving Gotham.
"Come on. You're here now, so I'm putting you to work."
Dick led Tim from Pop Haly's wagon and took him to the area where the roustabouts hung about. A few were smoking. "Aren't you guys supposed to be preparing for this afternoon's performance?"
"Huh . . . Yes, sir," one of the roustabouts said, and soon moved off to do whatever job he was supposed to do. "We're on our break. Mr. Gregson . . . "
A couple other roustabouts glared at the young man. "Who are you to tell us what to do? You're not the owner."
"I happen to be the godson of Pop, Haly," Dick announced, which was true. "And if you don't get to work, you just might find yourself without a job. You're to put this young rapscallion to work. Make sure he keeps out of trouble."
Tim's heart sank. Why was Dick behaving like this, acting like he was some disobedient child? He didn't really disobey Dick, he only came to tell him about Barbara, that something was wrong, that she was acting strange. He tried to call Dick at least a dozen times. He left message after message, but there had been no return call, so he decided to come in person. Tim had no intention of staying. He was going to return home, but something had gotten Dick riled up. Had it been the robbery at the box office? He wasn't going to get a chance to ask him.
Tim was put to work on several different projects, and jobs. One was relieving a carnival worker at his booth so he could eat a meal. Another was selling tickets for the performance. A third job was making sure the porta johns had toilet paper and hand sanitizer. His final job almost made him cry. He had to clean up the stands from the performance. There were empty food and drink containers, along with items that had been lost during the performance that had to be sent to lost and found. Among them there were coins and dollar bills that had fallen from people's pockets. It would have been difficult for people to claim that, but it could be placed in a fund for charity.
Tim noticed there was another person helping to clean up. He observed the person pocketed small items, which Tim suspected was either money or lost items like the ones he found. Those were supposed to go into the canvas bag that was draped over his shoulder. The garbage was placed in a trash bag. Should he report the person? He didn't want to end up in more trouble. Once he cleaned his section, Tim took the bag of trash to a dumpster and tossed it. Then he looked for the lost and found and handed over his canvas bag. It was dumped into a bin and the canvas bag was given back to him.
"Is the big top cleaned up?" a roustabout said behind him.
"Almost," Tim said. "Another person was cleaning one of the other sections.
"Get back to work," the roustabout stated.
"What about dinner?" Tim asked.
"You'll eat when you're done, after the second performance."
Each performance lasted for almost three hours. Pop Haly made sure that people got their money's worth. As the performance went on, Tim paused to watch, but he was soon being rousted to continue working. After the second performance, Tim was alone cleaning under the bleachers. This was a lot faster with two people.
'More like four," Tim thought. There were three sections of seating in the Big Top, and this time, Tim was cleaning all of them. Once again, he found items that were lost by attendees as he cleaned up all kinds of things, some of which wasn't very pleasant. In that section, the seats were going to have to be wiped down. Even so, he did his duty and once he was done, he took the bag that he collected items to the lost and found, but on the way, Tim was waylaid by a few people who didn't belong in the circus. They weren't roustabouts.
"Look what we have here," one of the guys said.
"I bet he's the one who stole our money," the other stated. "Gypsy trash."
"Hand over the bag," the third stated.
"I don't want an argument," Tim said. "If you've lost something, go to the lost and found. The circus is closed."
Tim really didn't know the schedule, but he figured once the performance was over the Midway would have closed down as well, and it was way after midnight for anyone to be running around at this hour.
"Lookie here, the pipsqueak has a mouth on him," the first guy said. "Do you know who I am?"
"No, and I don't care." Tim turned his back. He just wanted to head to the lost and found and then head to his car to sleep.
The guy rushed Tim and grabbed him by his collar. "No one talks to me like that."
Tim was quick to ram the blunt end of the pole he was using to pick up litter into the man's abdomen between his ribs. The man let go of his grip and fell on the ground gasping.
"I don't steal," Tim said. "If you've lost items, they will be at the lost and found. I'm hungry, and you three are keeping me from my expected meal."
The other two didn't expect the teen to fight back. They thought they could scare the boy into revealing what they wanted, but this one wasn't going to scare easily.
"We'll be back," the first said, as he was picked up by his companions.
Tim gave out a sigh and headed to the lost and found tent, but there was no one there. He placed what was in his canvas bag into the bins. He had disposed of the trash earlier. Now it was time to eat, but when he went to the cafeteria tent, he found that it was empty of people and there was no food to be had.
'Why did I listen to that roustabout,' Tim thought. 'I haven't eaten since yesterday's lunch. Might as well go find my car and go get some sleep since I don't know where Dick's wagon is anyway.'
Tim headed back to his car. He grabbed his backpack from the front and climbed into the back seat. He didn't have a blanket to cover himself, but at least he could use his backpack as a pillow. Tim turned to face the back of the seat and closed his eyes. He wasn't aware that someone had been watching him with large owl-like eyes. If he had, he might have tried to find out who was watching him. Instead he settled into the seat, placed his backpack under his head, and fell asleep.
Continues with Part 9