The days blurred together. I left to patrol, it got me back into the old routine. The city was quiet, it seemed. Jason never came with me. He was much different than I was. His time as Batman made him more of the anti-hero. He resented the "knight" role that Bruce and I took up. In a way, he always had.

Anyway, nights I was on my own patrolling the city. I sometimes ran into Bruce and Damian, but we never had much time to sit and chat. It was nice, the silence. It gave me time to think about everything that had happened.

It was a warm night when I was just leaving for patrol. Jason had gone out. I didn't question it. He had his own methods for taking down drug rings and things of that nature. I hadn't asked him about it since waking from the coma. I assumed that he would be killing them. It would just be something to argue about.

I hopped from the room above a few abandoned warehouses below. I followed a man in a dirty trench coat, walking between the two buildings. He seemed to be up to no good as he cautiously looked behind him. I followed him for a few blocks until he walked into an old theater. Mob bosses and gangsters followed him in, shaking hands as if greating old friends.

"Sargent Fredrickson." I heard a familiar voice behind me. "He is undercover."

"Does Bruce let you out in your condition?" I spat at Tim, making sure he knew that I was angry. He may have somehow put Jason's mind at ease, but not mine. He still had a lot of explaining to do.

"If he did, do you think I'd listen?" He stepped out of the shadows, revealing his cowl, so much like Bruce's. "I'm not that damaged."

"It would help your case if you were." I again noticed how small he was. Even if I was lacking body strength, he was just sickly. He was still tall, still had muscle, but he hunched over. He looked scared as I saw his icy blue eyes, they sent a shudder through me before I realized that he was my brother and I should have nothing to fear.

"I know you're mad." He sad putting both hands up. "And you have every right to be."

"Of course I do! Tim what were you thinking?" I shouted at him.

"I had to Dick! Don't you see?" He pleaded with me. "I didn't think it would last that long and I knew that the Joker would go. I knew he would take it as a surrender."

"God Tim, I can't believe what I'm hearing." I said, looking down at him. He didn't even look like the same person I knew those years ago. He seemed so defeated and defenseless.

"I knew what I was doing Dick, he said one for one." He said again.

"So you sacrificed me!"

"No! I knew nothing would happen to you!"

I shook my head, he was wrong. He was imbalanced. Something was severely wrong in his brain to think that I would be okay with this. I paused and let his comment hang in the night air.

"Clearly you didn't." I said, looking him in the eyes. I saw regret and sadness cross into his eyes. He was sorry, I could see. He was tortured and driven mad by this 'one for one' thing. He may have stabbed me in the back, but he was still my brother, and I had to help him.

I jumped from the roof and continued on, leaving him to return to the manor. He wasn't safe enough out, he wasn't healthy enough. He should have been home. It was the guilt that drove him like this now. The guilt of thinking that I would never wake up. He was torturing himself all that time and no one noticed it, or bothered to find out. He was burdened with his guilt.

On returning home, I found Jason in front of the television. He seemed not interested as he smiled at me.

"What are you watching?" I asked, walking to the bedroom to change into my civvies.

"Some drama show. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention", he said before flipping through the channels. He landed on a news station and then met me in the kitchen. "You're home early."

"Nothing new in the city. I guess you didn't find your gang down at the docks?" I handed him a pop tart from the cabinet as I took the other one in the bag.

"Yea."

"I ran into Tim."

"Is he still conscious?" He threw me a warning look over his shoulder as he walked to the other side of the counter.

"Not by any fault of my own." I smiled. "We need to help that kid."

"Does that sound like forgiveness?" He smiled at me, taking a bite of his pop tart.

"I won't ever forgive him, Jason." I sighed. "But he really needs help, I don't know what to do though."

"I am just handed this breaking news from Arkham Asylum, where it appears that the lunatic named 'the Joker' has escaped again." The television said softly. Jason skid to it and knelt down in front of the set, where a blonde woman was reading from a paper in front of her. "We remind all viewers to remain indoors and lock their windows and doors as this man is dangerous and presumed armed."

I dropped the pop tart and ran into the bedroom. I heard Jason flying behind me. He ran directly into the doorframe and I would have laughed, had it been another time. I threw off my shirt and grabbed my costume from the closet. It was practically still warm.

"Are you insane?!" He yelled at me. "You can't go out there!"

"He is going after Tim." I answered, yanking off my pants. "I have to stop him."

Author's Note:
So I am using the pre-new 52 Tim costume here, just a warning in case I get any questions. Please review, it makes me very happy! And happy holidays to everyone!