Chapter four
Tim frowned as he watched the clock hand crawling for the half hour. He had completed the test fifteen minutes ago, but did not draw attention to this fact, for the simple reason that he didn't want anyone to know how easy it was for him. As he returned to pretending to fill in answers he reviewed his theories on the mystery man. The more he grew certain of the man's identity, however impossible, the more he grew concerned about the reason the man would not be open.
"Dressed to the nine's today, Tim?" The teacher asked with a tired smile as he took Tim's paper from his hand.
"Yeah. Supposed to look like a business man already." Tim answered.
"Oh. You are planning to be a business man?"
"I don't have any plans. My parents do." Tim grinned.
A crease formed between the teacher's eyes, but Tim moved on.
In the cafeteria he was confronted by a couple of boys a whole head taller than him, who were inclined to mock his clothes.
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"How ridiculous it is that even in high school clothes make the man." Tim told Bruce as he suited up. Batman had been allowed to leave his room and was working the logistics of the case that night.
"It does help when we need disguises." Bruce pointed out.
"Yeah, but these boys were deliberately ragged. Looked like they were almost homeless with their cut of jeans and ripped shirts. And they aren't poor at all. They walk around like this…" Tim strutted out of the dressing room in boots and pants only, waving his undershirt about like a flag as he displayed the ridiculous strut of his earlier confronters. As with most of his disguises he was able to recreate it so that Bruce had to laugh at the thought of the two ridiculous boys trying to intimidate the boy who spent his nights as Robin.
Tim turned to go back into the dressing room to finish suiting up. Batman's face immediately grew grave.
"Tim, you told me you weren't hurt yesterday." He said in an awful tone.
"I wasn't." Robin turned to his mentor in surprise.
"You've got a bruise on your back." Batman replied.
Tim blinked and tried to glance over his shoulder. He had forgotten about the bruise. Since the nearest mirror was the clean glass of one of the memorial suits he went to use that to get a look at his back. Sure enough there was a dark, almost rectangular bruise below his right shoulder. "Oh, Wow. I never even noticed." He said.
Bruce was glowering. "Did Alfred check you over when you returned?"
"I did not sir. He was not injured as far as I could tell." Alfred answered for them.
"Do you know how you got that?" Bruce demanded.
"No, sir." Tim answered in his crisp, soldier's way that bothered Bruce. "I can't think of any time I got hit there during patrol at all."
"It looks no more than a bruise. Does it hurt?" Alfred examined it closer.
"It didn't until you pointed it out. Now it aches a bit."
"Will it affect your patrol?" Bruce asked, softening his tone, believing Tim.
"No. It's nothing." Tim laughed.
"Alright. But I want you to let Alfred look you over on return. If you can't remember where you are getting bruises from we need to take more care."
"Aye, Aye." Tim saluted and headed back into the dressing room.
As he pulled on the armored shirt he heard Bruce sigh and speak in Alfred to a low tone. "It still surprises him that even something so small could be worth noticing. Do you think he'll take care of himself out there?"
"Not for himself no. I think he will for your sake though. He knows you cannot lose him."
Tim nodded his head in agreement. Bruce would not lose Robin.
He bounded out the dressing room to show himself full of energy and unaffected by the bruise, which really was nothing.
"Tim, promise to be careful." Bruce said earnestly.
"I'm always careful." Tim said with a smile that was reminiscent of the first Robin. He tried to emulate Dick much of the time, though he thought so differently.
"Alright. Get off with you. Let's see how you handle yourself on your own." Bruce laughed. He watched the boy lope away with a fond smile. "Alfred, I can't believe that I feel safer letting him go out on his own in Gotham than I ever did in letting Dick patrol with Clark on occasion."
"Well sir, as Mr. Kent sometimes forgets that you are all mortal, that makes sense to me. Master Timothy knows he is important to you."
Patrol went smooth. Tim returned unhurt, and without having seen the mysterious stalker. He unsuited, Alfred made sure he was unharmed, and the boy went home.
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Sleep did not come. The more Tim considered what he suspected, the more he realized that he could not go to Bruce, not until he knew for sure, not until he had proof. He had once figured out the greatest secret identity in the world with a cheap camera and the simple fact that he wasn't noticeable. Because of that knowledge it was his responsibility to find the truth in this matter as well.
He got up with this purpose in mind, performed his morning routine of stretches and absently dressed in his favored jeans and t-shirt. As he approached the kitchen he heard his parents talking in low voices. They fell silent when he walked in the door and both immediately stared at him with frowns on their faces. He glanced down at his clothes.
"Oh. I forgot." He said.
"Really Tim." Janet said. "Is it so hard to listen to us in this one thing?"
"Mom, no one else dresses like that. Its public school."
"A public school where the society leaders children go." She replied.
"And when I dress like I'm going to a prep school I stand out." He said.
"Timothy, standing out is good. You will be a leader." Jack replied.
"Are you serious?" Tim asked, reaching for a cereal bowl, since it was Mrs. Mac's day off.
"We are only wanting this for your own good." Janet said, taking the bowl out of his hands. "If you cannot act mature, perhaps you should be punished. You can skip breakfast. Go change."
Tim stared at her, shocked. He glanced towards his Dad, but saw there was no help there. Shaken by the punishment he left. It wasn't something they'd done to him before. He wasn't in denial. He knew very well that sometimes they hurt him too much for it to be anything more than abuse. But they'd never refused to feed him.
"Are we doing the right thing, grooming him for this?" Janet's voice followed him out into the hallway.
Jack's answer was too low to be intelligible. Tim climbed the stairs, considering his options. He didn't doubt that Bruce would help him if he asked. But he didn't want to do that. He wanted to make things right with his parents, he wanted them to be a family. So if he dressed as they wanted surely that would be fine. It wasn't like he wasn't going to get picked on at school anyway.
And he wasn't completely alone in the more dressed up area, since most of the teachers and a couple of the more serious minded students, did dress up. It would be alright if he did this. Maybe they might give him some attention then and learn about him, let him talk about his hobbies… maybe this was a good step.
When he got home from school he discovered his parents were gone. So he headed for Wayne Manor in silence, pushing aside the abnormal interest in his person that his parents had and turning to the mysterious stranger. He knew very well that the next step was to get proof. The best way would be to get some DNA from him.
The easiest way to do this… well, the only way to do this that Tim could think of, baring the stalker giving it to him freely, was to fight him. Since Tim had witnessed his skill and knew the man to be at least five years older than him, which meant that he was stronger, not to mention taller, he could not win the fight. But he didn't need to win. He needed to bloody him and then escape.
For a moment Tim considered calling Dick and enlisting him. But since his proof was circumstantial and Dick did not fully know Tim's abilities he might laugh at him, or worse think he was crazy. Besides, he was like Bruce in this matter. Too close to it. No, it was Tim's responsibility.
He went through his exercises, wondering why he felt so tired. Bruce came downstairs, walking much easier than the day before, but forced to rely on a cane still.
"Tim, you're shaking a bit. Did you forget to eat or drink enough today?" Bruce commented.
Tim was startled by the question and then realized that that was why he didn't feel right. He had considered the loss of one meal as no big deal, but had, in his distraction with his knowledge, forgotten that he worked much harder than the average teen. "Oh, right… I think I didn't get breakfast."
"Tim." Bruce shook his head. "What is going on?"
"Oh, I just had an interesting conversation with Mom and Dad. They're kind of focusing on my future a lot all of a sudden. We were talking so much I didn't eat."
"Have more care in the future." Bruce scolded, fetching a sports drink from the well-stocked fridge. He tossed it at Tim. As the boy began to drink Batman walked to the intercom.
"Alfred, could you please bring Tim a sandwich? He seems to have neglected eating enough today."
"Of course Master Bruce. I hope he hasn't made himself sick."
"No I think we caught it in time." Bruce said.
Ten minutes later Tim sat at his computer console typing away as he ate. As he searched his bugs in Black Mask's offices for leads he glanced across the room at Bruce. The Bat was deep in consultation with a couple of the Justice League. Finishing the sandwich off the boy pulled up Bruce's personal files, and opened one.
Keeping his senses primed for any sign that Alfred or Bruce were too close and would see what he was looking at, he scanned the information as quickly as he could. He had known the story before, but not all the particulars. Piecing together the timeline he found several open times were his suspicions could have taken place.
Just as he closed the file his computer let out a small ring and Dick's smiling, masked face popped up on the screen. Tim barely kept from betraying his relief. "Hey Babybird, I heard you had patrol by yourself the last couple nights and did a great job."
"Thanks." Tim said, grinning eagerly.
"Dick?" Bruce's attention was snagged by the voice of his adopted son. He waved away Flash and Wonder Woman and headed over for Tim's station. "You've not checked in for three days!"
"Sorry boss. You were hurt and Babs knew what I was up to."
"Well, I hope you've been taking better care of yourself than Tim has. He's gotten rather careless, missing an injury and then forgetting to eat." Bruce said, but he laid a hand on Tim's shoulder. "Of course he might just be excited of how good a job he's done."
"Really?" Tim looked up. He was glad to see Bruce pass off the little indiscretions in front of Dick. He found it harder to lie to Dick than to Bruce.
"High praise from the master, Robin. Well done. And to own, if I hadn't had a very pressing case, I might have come down. Well, I see that I would just be in the way… so I'll stay here…" Nightwing tried to pull a sad face.
"Well, you could just come for a visit." Tim heroically offered. "Besides, you can help keep Bruce grounded long enough for him to heal."
"Keep your eyes peeled kiddo. I'll be there in a day or two. What is this mystery stalker Oracle told me about?"
"I had not had time to ask you about that, Tim. Have you learned anything more?"
"No. He was following me for a little bit around Black Mask, but I think he was actually looking for you and not me." Tim answered. "However, I've asked a couple street contacts to watch for him. I'll find him."
"So you want to take this one on by yourself?" Bruce and Dick grinned at each other.
Tim, who had feared having to share this case, looked up with more relief than delight. If they let him take charge of this then it would be far easier to conceal his suspicions. Both his mentors laughed at his look of hope.
"Well Robin, I think you can handle it." Bruce answered. "There doesn't seem to be a lot to go on, but what we've noticed seems to indicate someone trying to be a vigilante."
"What about the Black Mask and the arms dealing? Anything new on that end?" Dick inquired.
"Oh, I've just finished going through the tracers I planted there. Nothing important, except what seems to be code that I'll have to break…" Tim replied.
"Send that to me. I'll work on that, since I am still 'grounded'." Bruce answered. "It's probably time you suit up, anyway."
"Right." Tim quickly transferred his files to Bruce's station. "I can't wait to see you Dick."
Mind full of the possibilities that lay before him, Tim dashed off to become the youthful knight in training, Robin.
I enjoy sharing the shenanigans that come out of my head. If you enjoy reading them or have a constructive opinion, please review!