Jason most certainly did not glare at the brightly coloured array of fruits and vegetables in front of him. Healthy food, the doctor had told him. Had to feed the kid something healthy, and no the plethora of vitamins Jason swallowed down with his pizza wasn't the same. Seeing as how the vitamins kept Jason as healthy as he'd ever been eating Alfred's health food at the manor, he was tempted to ignore the advice.
He thought of the kid laying pale and week in his safe house. Not having to sift through rotten vegetables for something that wouldn't circle back round o being alive wasn't worth the risk. The Red Hood shifted his cap and shopping basket then went to work. All he had to do was find enough to make some soup, it just had to be edible, not like he was gonna eat it himself.
Once he'd salvage enough from the only store close enough to risk the trip he moved over to the checkout. As he stood behind some guy that was acting way to skittish Jason turned his attention to the little muted TV in the corner, really hoping the guy wouldn't try anything. After his fight with Dick and his little demon all jason wanted to do was swallow a bottle of pain pills and fall asleep on his couch. He wouldn't have ten able to enjoy any kind of work.
Even with no sound on the TV he could read lips well enough to know what the pretty news reporter was saying.
Batman and Robin had apprehended The Joker, and this time before he'd been able to start anything else. Not that it meant he hadn't gotten to anyone unlucky enough to come across him. Jason frowned down at the basket of vegetables in his hand and wondered if he should bother getting them.
He turned the same time the punk in front if him pulled out a gun. Jason groaned and grabbed the gun out of the guys hand, pistol whipped him, then pocketed the weapon. As the guy crumpled to the dirty floor Jason looked back up at the TV. He froze.
As he watched, The Joker made a run for it, one of the man that had been guarding him was on the ground with a red stain blossoming across his chest. Guns fired and The Joker went down, laughing all the while.
For a moment Jason though that someone had finally thought to out the clown down, but The Jokers body shook with laughter even as his straitjacket was tightened and he was dragged inside.
"Tranq darts." Jason said in disgust. He slammed his basket on the counter, feeling only a little amused at startling the clerk. "Paper."
Hr made his way back to the safe house accompanied by the sound of police sirens in the distance.
The first thing he did when he walked through the door was give the kid his next dose dose on antibiotics. Tim groaned, turning away a bit. Jason bent over to brush aside some of the dark hairs plastered to the kids forehead and let out a soft chuckle.
Yeah, the kid would probably make a beeline for the shower as soon as he woke up., he was probably a little neat freak. Jason's replacement was already showing signs that he'd be waking up soon. It was thankfully past the point that Jason was worried the kid would die in his sleep at least. At the rate he was going the kid would probably be in running along rooftops again within a month even without being fully healed. He was a strong one.
Jason had been strong too when he'd been Robin, physically even more so than the kid despite his smaller size. The Joker hadn't had any problems taking him out either.
If he'd been able to make his way back to Bruce after he'd crawled out of his own grave he ha no doubt The Joker would have out every effort into getting hold of him first chance he got. Jason moved to put the food away and placed a hand over his ribs. Even with all his extra training The Joker had still gotten the drop on him again. He'd called Bruce a hypocrite, but how much more of one was he himself, sending the kid back when he knew what would happen?
He stopped putting vegetables away and began chopping them up instead. Just being alive made the kid a special target. As soon as The Joker got out - and he would get out - and heard that Red Robin was still sprinting across the Gotham skyline there was no question as to where he'd and up again.
Imagining The Jokers head under his knife made short work of the vegetables. Jason was left to work off the rest of his pent up energy checking over his equipment while he watched the news, wishing he could go out and shoot something instead.
He had a lot of work to do.
Tim was very confused, the kind of confusion that came with being hit over the head really hard, then being drugged into oblivion.
He was laying on a soft bed, but was too sticky and stiff to be comfortable, he could tell he'd been laying there for a while.
Opening his eyed and trying to drag the cottony feeling into a little corner of his mind he took in his surroundings. This wasn't the hospital, or any room he'd ever been on before. The only furnishings were the bed, a huge closet and a tiny little table next to the bed with a glass of water on it. That wasn't counting all the medical equipment squeezed into he tiny space.
He followed the rube of the IV stuck in his arm. Morphine. Groggily sitting up he removed the needle. One of his hands was half covered by a cast on his wrist, he scrubbed the other over his numb face and through his greasy hair. Yeah, he felt pretty gross. Waking up in an unfamiliar room was uncomfortable, but nothing new, the missing mask was still an unwelcome surprise. He wasn't restrained in any way, and the door was cracked open enough that he could see a bathroom just across.
He didn't trust the glass of water next to him, so he stumbled over to the bathrooms sink, letting the water run for a bit before taking a drink and splashing some on his face. Looking up he saw a face so bruised it almost didn't look like him staring back. It didn't take much to remember what had happened to make his body ache the way it was even through the morphine.
The Jokers face popped up and Tim shuddered, he'd almost been another suit in the Batcave. It would have been nice to think that Dick and Bruce had rescued him, but he knew all their safe houses.
Despite his body's painful protesting he began dragging himself in the direction of the news report he could hear down the short hall, using the wall for support.
There was no decoration of any kind on the walls, nothing to give him an idea on what course to take. The little he remembered about the end of his time with The Joker didn't really make sense.
He'd meant to just peak around the corner, but his leg gave out and he tumbled to the ground, instinctively trying to catch himself on his definitely broken wrist. Pain shot all the way up to his shoulders, worse it made him cry out right as he landed right at the feet of a surprised looking Jason Todd holding a gun.
Jason stood and Tim tried to scramble back from the huge, threatening figure. The Red Hood opened his mouth as if to say something, but shut it and turned around to gather up the weapons littering the area around the couch. When everything pointy and explosive was inside a nondescript duffle bag Jason turned back to Tim.
"Relax kid, if I were gonna hurt you you wouldn't be here right now." Tim flinched when Jason cake closer, but his predecessor just helped Tim to his feet and guided the boy to the sofa. "You hungry?" Jason asked, setting the TV remote in Tim's uninjured hand.
Tim, too dumbfounded to do anything else just squeezed the remote, glad to have something solid solid in his hand.
Jason shrugged and disappeared through another hallway, coming back a few minutes later with a bowl in one hand and a saucer in the other. He set both down next to Tim, then backed away.
"Eat that, right." Jason said.
Tim hurriedly nodded and pulled the food into his lap, soup and crackers. Jason smirked and gave a little mid when Tim began nibbling on a cracker, then went back the way Tim had come in.
The food cleared a enough of the fogginess in Tim's mind that he knew it was probably drugged, but he didn't want to antagonize Jason by refusing to eat. At least it tasted okay.
He hears clinking metal, then Jason walked past and left the apartment through a door just across from the sofa, shooting Tim a quick glance over his shoulder on his way out.
When he was reasonably sure Jason wasn't about to barge back in he pulled himself up from the sofa and looked for an escape route. Unsurprisingly the windows and front door were all locked, so were all the cupboards, and with locks Tim had neither the tools more dexterity to open. The only price of Technology aside from the stove was the TV and he knew he wouldn't be able to turn into anything he could use to send out a signal with before Jason came back in.
Tim sank back into the sofa and desperately flipped though the news channels, almst getting dizzy with relief when he found that The Joker was locked back in Arkham.
It took a few minutes for the adrenaline to wear off, but when it did fatigue crashed into him like The Jokers... the batmobile, it crashed into him like the batmobile.
Deciding the harm was already done, Tim finished off the soup and began absentmindedly flipping through TV channels. It took hours for him to fall asleep.