Jason and Tim stared at one another. After their quick bonding time, both men felt awkward in the presence of each other. Now that the professional part was over, they didn't know how to deal with the personal part. Both silently blamed Bruce for that.
"Sooo…" Tim started, not being able to stand awkward silence one second longer. "What's you plan from now on?"
"My plan?"
"Yeah. I mean, you possibly couldn't just expect us to not contact you for as long as you don't contact us and hope for the best." Jason blushed. That was exactly what his plan consisted of "You did!" Tim accused him and Jason's face got a redder tone "Really, Jason? It took me a week to find out, and last week Dick messed up your apartment big time! He came really close to just stumble upon your prescription and then he would find out about everything."
"He what?" Jason hadn't heard about Dick's redecoration on his apartment, only that he had broken his couch.
Tim cursed silently "He um… He pranked your apartment in retaliation to a prank you did to him a while ago." Tim really hoped Jason had indeed done something to Dick so that he could believe it was his own fault. Apparently not, since he just glared harder at Tim.
"Yeah, I did something to him." Tim at least had the decency to look away. He cleared his throat and, forcibly, changed back the subject
"So, do you see my point? If you really want to keep your condition a secret, you should at least change safe houses." 'Preferably to one that had an elevator', he thought to himself
Jason sighed. "Yeah, I really should." 'Victory!', Tim thought to himself, mentally patting himself on the back
"Do you want me to look one up for you?"
Jason shook his head "Nah, I already have one." Tim frowned at him. When Jason and Bruce agreed to work together once again, one of the conditions was that Jason had to tell them where all his safe houses were.
"Jason…" He began to scold him for that, but shook his head, deciding it wasn't worth the headache to argue with Jason Todd "Where is it?"
Jason shook his head once more "Not going to tell you. You could lead the other bats right to it without even noticing it."
"What?! But you agreed to let me help you not even five minutes ago!"
Jason sighed. "I agreed to your condition, I never said anything about your request." Tim wasn't convinced "Lend me your phone." Tim wordlessly got it out. With a few quick swipes, Jason opened the camera app and gave the phone back to Tim. "You'll want to record this." Jason lifted his left hand, since it wasn't hooked to anything "I, Jason Peter Todd, promise to not go out to patrol for as long as I am sick." He lowered his hand "I won't accept your help because I don't need it." He said with a sad smile. "Ask me again when I need it." It didn't go unnoticed by Tim that Jason didn't say 'if', he said 'when'. He nodded at the older man
"So, even if I don't help take care of you, can I still come visit you here?"
"S-Sure." Jason was taken aback that Tim still wanted to see him even after being turned down "Just don't come here too often, I can't stand you that much." Jason was no idiot, he had seen the tiredness on Tim's face and body expression. The guy probably hadn't gotten much sleep in the hard hospital chairs
"Right. No coming here too much. Got it."
After that, conversation flowed naturally between the two men. Once it died down, Jason grabbed the comic books Cassidy had smuggled him from the peds floor. He read quietly as Superman got his ass handed to him by the Batman, and laughed out loud when they hugged after the Batman had freed Superman from his brainwashed state
"Hey, does Bruce know about this shit?" he asked Tim, and when he got no answer he looked to see if he was still there. To his surprise, Tim was still in the room. He had fallen asleep, his head resting awkwardly on the backrest of the armchair to the side of the patient bed. Jason winced in sympathy to the monstrous neck pain he was sure Tim would have to deal later. He looked around the room, and thinking it would be a short walk, he got out of bed. He had forgotten how much walking around after a surgery hurt, but he pushed through the pain. His hand gripping tightly the IV stand, he used it as a cane to help him. It was only after painful, slow, five minutes that he reached the closet on the side of the room, and got out the spare blanket and pillow he knew was there. After figuring out the engineering needed to take the two objects back to his bed, Jason started the painful walk back. He jumped when the door opened and Geller walked in.
"Jason! What are you-" He stopped in the middle of his scolding when his patient waved his arms around, making shushing sounds so he got quiet. He walked to him "What are you doing?" he whispered to Jason
"Taking these back to my bed." He answered simply and Geller took the objects from him before he could protest.
"Here, let me help you." He wrapped Jason's arm around his shoulder and helped support his weight back to the patient bed. As they reached the bed and Geller was about to spread the new blanket on the bed, Jason took it from him and, with a gentleness Geller had thought wasn't possible to find in the man, he wrapped it around his sleeping brother's shoulders. The younger man didn't even move or make a sound, as he was exhausted. Jason then grabbed the extra pillow and fluffed it before putting it behind Tim's head for support. He then sighed and began the arduous process of getting on his bed. It didn't take long at all because Geller helped him, despite Jason's vehement (and frankly, dirty) protests. He looked at Geller and his face got beet reed
"You tell a living soul about this and I'll kill you dead. Capisci?" Despite having helped this same man get on his bed not even a minute ago, the glare and the murderous aura he was receiving from Jason frankly shook Geller's soul to the core. His hand sweating and heart beating too fast for his liking, his congested throat only allowed him to nod his head frankly. He quickly made a dumb excuse and got out (or rather, fled) from the room
I'm back! Yay! Sorry for the short chapter, this one is more of an introduction, really. I want to make a Christmas special for this story. So, I don't think it's that clear on the story, but, in my head, Jason got his diagnosis in early to mid-September. My plan is to update as fast as I can before the 24th of December so I can fit a Christmas Special here in the main story. But, if I don't manage to do that, I'll post it as a separate one-shot! Anyway, I want you guys to vote on the poll on my profile for what do you want the theme of the special to be. I'll close the poll at around the 22nd or the 23rd, so please vote! If you have any headcannon for this story (it doesn't even have to be Christmas-related) please tell me and I'll do my best to make it true!
P.S.: I received a review stating I'm dragging the story too long. I'm sorry if that's how you guys are feeling, but I want to deepen Tim and Jason's relationship for a couple chapters (around three or four), then I'll make things a little worse for Jason than they have to be so that he finally has no other choice than to tell the other bats about his condition. I feel that with Jason, he is really the sort of character that you have to push him to his limits before he gives in
