Tim sighed as he threw himself on Jason's bed. It took him most of the night to clean up Dick's mess. He shuddered as he thought back to the rat skeleton that was inside the old disgusting couch when he went to dismantle it. He turned his head to read the labels of the drugs Jason was taking, since he found them hidden inside one of Jason's boots and hadn't yet figured a better hiding place that wasn't as disgusting.

He took out his laptop from inside his bag on the kitchen counter, and researched about them. He frowned at most of the side effects: dizziness, lack of energy, loss of appetite, seizures. As far as he knew, Jason hadn't yet developed these, but it would be good to keep them in mind in case he started showing these signs, so Tim wouldn't freak out.


He tsked at the hour, it was almost two in the morning, he must've had fallen asleep. He quickly gathered his things and got out of the apartment. Tim used every red traffic light as a small time to gather his thoughts together. He was dreading getting to a decision on the matter, but in the back of his mind he already knew what he was going to do, as stupid as that decision was. He wouldn't have let one of his biggest blackmail videos out in the open if he still had any doubt about what he was going to do.

As soon as he got to the counter to check in on Jason, a doctor approached him. The man looked like he had been waiting for him.

"Mister Drake?" He called out to Tim, who in turn had a careful expression on. It took him a few moments to remember this as the doctor who rushed in to help take care of Jason.

"Yes, it's me." Tim shook the offered hand

"I'm doctor John Geller, I was the surgeon who operated on your brother." That quickly got Tim's attention, who nodded for him to continue. "As you might have already heard, Jason had internal bleeding. Usually, we wait for it to solve on its own, but it wasn't the case with him, so we rushed into surgery. The surgery went well, we located the source of the bleeding, it was a minor tear on an abdominal vein. You'll be able to go see him as soon as he wakes up, if he's willing to have any visitors. If you leave your contact with one of the receptionists, we will call you as soon as he wakes up."

"No, there's no need for that, I'll just wait in the waiting room." Geller nodded

"Also, there's another matter I want to talk to you about. Jason doesn't have anyone listed as his power of attorney, and since legally he doesn't have any bonds to you or your family, all decisions involving his course of treatment for the time he's not conscious or mentally stable will be done by the team of doctors responsible for his treatment. So, you might want to have a talk with him about that matter, see if that's really what he wants, just to be safe."

Tim nodded. "Thank you, I'll talk with him." The doctor then excused himself, saying he had another surgery in a while. Tim slumped in one of the chairs, he was exhausted. He was about to doze off when his cellphone rang. He wanted to cry -36 hours of no sleep do that to a man-, but still, he answered the damn thing.

"It better be worth it." He grumbled to himself and hit the answer button with such force one might have thought the device did something personal to him "Hello." He answered in a gruff voice

"Tim." An even gruffer voice answered back

"What do you want, Bruce?"

"I need your report about Ramona. Where is it?"

"Does it have to be now?" Tim whined

"Yes." Tim huffed and took out his laptop and sent him the report. He heard the beep coming from the Batcomputer that he received the file

"There. Happy now?"

"Satisfied." Tim snorted. When is the man ever happy? "How long since you last slept?"

"About 36 hours." Tim yawned

"You should get some sleep."

He wanted to point out he was about to do so but Bruce got in the way of that, but settled for a "Yeah."

Tim was just about to cut the call when he heard Bruce saying Jason's name

"What did you say? I didn't hear it."

"I asked if you know where Jason is. I can't track him."

"Dick didn't tell you? Jason took off somewhere, left me in charge of his place. Why do you want to find him? You're not expecting a report from Jason, are you?"

Bruce snorted "Of course not. I was just curious, that's all."

"You know, you're allowed to admit you care about him."

"I don't." Came the brisk reply and Bruce cut off the call. Tim flinched. He was so glad Jason didn't listen to this conversation, or he might just go back to his old ways


"… Mr. Drake? Mr. Drake?" Tim jumped from his seat, totally disoriented, scaring the crap out of the poor nurse that woke him up. He figured out where he was, and calmed down a little. He ran a hand down his face, trying to will himself to be awake. He felt he was more tired than before he went to sleep, thanks to the hospital's hard chairs.

"Sorry." The smile he gave the woman was like a growl compared to his usual charming smile, but it still did the trick with her, she seemingly was past the scare he gave her. "Do you need something from me?"

"Yes. Mister Todd is awake, he said you can go see him. I'll show you to the room."

Tim hurriedly gathered his things and followed her to Jason's room. When he got there, the lady doctor from before was also there, sharing a cup of jello with Jason. She stopped laughing when she saw Tim had arrived. She got up from the bedside chair and took the finished jello with her

"You two have a lot to catch up on. I'll leave you two to yourselves." Cassidy quickly greeted Tim and headed to the door, but turned before leaving "Remember what I told you, Jason." She didn't stay long enough for her to hear Jason's reply, she trusted him

"What did she tell you?" Tim thought he must've chosen the worst icebreaker of all times when Jason took a couple minutes to even acknowledge his existence

"She told me to at least listen to what you have to say."

"Okay." Tim groaned as he sat down on the chair, his back protesting at the action

"Wow, you look like crap." Jason commented, and Tim chuckled

"I feel like crap too."

The two of them stayed in silence, none of them wanting to pop the metaphorical balloon and turn the awkward silence into maddening anger

"Okay." Jason announced and tried to prop himself further on the bed, the incision from the surgery not agreeing to the action, but he propped himself up anyway. Tim reached out to help, but Jason stopped him, he could damn well sit up on his damn bed." I'll give you the right to ask me ten questions, to which I'll answer honestly. Then I'll ask you my questions, you'll answer them honestly, and then you'll go out to live your own life and leave me the fuck alone. Those are my terms. Don't like, leave. Got it?" Tim nodded. He liked those terms

"Okay. First question: When did you find out?"

"About a week and a half ago. Next." Tim nodded. It hasn't been that long

"How bad is it?"

"Bad. Like, five years survival rate bad." Tim's guts went cold at that. It was getting too real now. He swallowed some saliva, as if that would help unclog the metaphorical lump that was stuck in his throat. Jason watched his brother's reaction to the time he has left with detached amusement. It made him sadistically satisfied to see the man who took every chance he had to rub it in his face he was better than Jason would ever be in every way possible have such a dumb expression plastered on his face. Another part of him was angry at the thought that Tim was feeling like that because of him, as if he had any thought about Jason that was even remotely positive enough for him to feel his death in such a way. A smaller part of him was happy at the thought that someone would miss him once he was gone.

"Hey." He called Tim out of his musings "Your next question?"

"R-Right… Um… Oh, right!" Tim snapped his fingers as he found his next question "Do you know what caused it? Was it someone you fought while in patrol?" Tim really hoped the answer would be 'Yes'. A maniac criminal was something he could do something about, maybe even revert Jason's situation

"You just asked two questions, you know." Jason commented smirking. Tim rolled his eyes. Of course Jason would be as petty as to pick on that. He didn't mind, though. He was already straining to get out any questions after the shock of how bad Jason's condition was. Tim just nodded, not wanting to spark an argument about that "To answer your question, though, it is genetic. It wasn't because of my cigarettes, or the booze, or even Lazarus pit. Just my fucked up genetics deciding I'm a waste of space." Tim turned his attention to his hands, opening and closing them as he thought of anything to fix this situation. Jason saw right through him "Stop thinking. You can't possibly do anything about this, even if I had gotten this from fighting a madman, there's no way of possibly knowing that it could be fixed then. Besides, my chances of living aren't zero. Cassidy is making her damnest hard to fix me, and I'm doing some research on my own. If I find a match for a bone marrow transplant I might be able to get rid of this thing, so it's just a matter of time." If you take the time limit out of the equation, he added in his head

"That's it!" Tim yelled excitedly as he jumped from the chair. Jason looked at him with an expression that showed he thought Tim had gone out of his mind, but he hadn't said any snarky comment about Tim yet "I'm going to call everyone we know! There's got to be someone that's a match to you! Even if there isn't, we can use all of our resources to find someone that is." Tim was so excited he got out his cellphone and was browsing for Bruce on his contact list, when a remote control hit his hand, making him let go of the device "What are you-" He lost his voice at Jason's hurt and mostly enraged expression

"Don't. You. Dare." Jason said slowly, letting his words sink in deeply on Tim's mind "Don't you dare tell anyone about this."

"Now's not the time for us to tend to your overgrown pride, Jason. You can go back to your tough guy persona once you're healthy again-" Whatever Tim was going to say got lost by the plastic cup Jason threw at him "Stop throwing things at me!"

"You stop kidding yourself! Do you think that any of you people are even remotely genetically close to me?! You call anyone and the only thing that happens are those fake 'I hope you'll get better' and 'It's such a shame something like that happened to you' when all of us know that those people are in fact relieved the liability will be gone. My only chance at getting through this alive is if I track down someone that shares some genetic history with me, even then I'm gonna have a very small chance at convincing that person to donate me some of their bone marrow, 'cause we all know people suck! Grow up, kid! This isn't a movie where my happy ending is just ahead waiting for me, I'm gonna have to build that happy ending myself!"

"That's exactly why I say you should get as much help as you can! Goddamnit, Jason! Are you so stupid you would actually risk dying than to get over yourself and ask for help?!" Tim immediately regretted his choice of words when he saw the hurt on Jason's face. He was going to apologize, but Jason didn't give him the opportunity

"Get out." Where the words he managed to say before his eyes started watering

"Wait, Jason, I'm sorry. It came out wrong."

"Get. Out." Jason's voice was getting choked, as if he was holding back tears

"Come on, I said I'm sorry! I really am!"

"I said GET OUT!" He shouted at Tim, throwing whatever he could reach. A couple tears slipped from his eyes before he angrily swiped them off and forced himself to stop crying. He was looking for more things to throw at Tim when Geller rushed in. He put a hand on Tim's shoulder

"You should go." He said quietly. Tim nodded, grabbed his messenger bag and got out of the room. He heard the doctor's steps behind him, and the instructions he gave to a nurse to help calm Jason down. Tim became relieved when he heard Cassidy's voice. He knew she would help Jason. He was almost at the hospital's entrance when he registered Geller calling out for him. He looked back and stopped walking so the man would be able to catch up with him

"Sorry for making such a scene." He was actually embarrassed for all the shouting that happened

"Oh, it's no trouble at all." The kind smiling doctor told him "Do I see you tomorrow?"

Tim didn't even blink twice before nodding, catching himself on surprise. He actually was thinking this was the end of his part on Jason's drama. There's no way the older man would allow him in after the horrible things he said to him today. 'You need to make up for that.', the sane part of his brain told him, and he agreed to that thought, even though he dreaded seeing Jason the next day.


"Hey." Cassidy said to Jason as she and the nurse entered the room. The nurse went ahead and gathered the things that were thrown by Jason and put them back where they belonged

"Get out." Jason said as he hid his face with his hands

"I figured you'd need a friend when you're upset." Cassidy pretended she didn't hear him as she sat down on the bedside chair "I won't say anything, I'll just be here for you. Ok?"

"Please. I don't want you to see me like this." Jason's voice was shaky and thick with tears that wanted to spill out

"Roy, would you leave us alone, please?" She turned to the nurse, who nodded and got out of the room. Cassidy lifted the heavy chair with some difficulty, and, making sure to make as much noise as possible so Jason knew she was still there, she turned the chair around. She slumped on it and sighed contently as she got herself confortable. "Now I won't see you like that. Can you tell me what happened?" She thought she wouldn't get an answer and had resigned herself to that when the first words came out of Jason

"I don't ask for help." Cassidy nodded, even with the small amount of time she knew Jason she could tell that about him "When I died, I kept hoping for them to come save me, but they never came." Cassidy was a little confused about Jason's words, she didn't know anything about his fake death to make a conclusion out of anything he was telling her, but she kept nodding to show she was still listening to him "When I came back, they threw me out. Disowned me. Tried to end me. They never tried to help me. Why would they now? I've always been a tool for the family, even now. A good soldier, never a son." She could hear him gasping for breath, trying to even out his voice "I'm okay with being on my own. I'm tough. I'm not stupid." Cassidy couldn't make sense of anything Jason was telling her, but it was okay, she didn't have to. She had said she would just sit there, but she couldn't keep her word. She got up from her seat and walked to Jason. He quickly hid his tear stained face and red eyes, but she still caught a glimpse of it. It broke her heart a little. She wrapped her arms around his still muscled form, and rested her chin on his head. He was choking on his sobs, trying to gather himself back in control.

"It's okay. Even if they're not here for you, I am. You're not on your own. I'm here for you." She kept repeating these word like a charm, until his breath was back under control. She didn't let go of him, figuring he should be the one to say when he'd had enough. After long minutes and no move from him, she looked down, and chuckled when she saw he'd fallen back asleep. A glance at his I.V. drip she saw the amount of sedative had been changed a little, presumably by Roy. That explained the pure, raw, honest answers she had gotten from him. She threw the discarded covers back on Jason, and got out of the room before he woke up again.


I'm so sorry for the long hiatus! I've started Law School and my schedule's a crazy mess. It's winter vacation here in Brazil for the next three weeks, so I might upload one or two more chapters before it's time to go back to school. Thank you to anyone who is still with me on this story!