Chapter nine
Bruce watched as Alfred gently smoothed away Tim's hair from his forehead so that he could begin cleaning the boy's grimy face.
"He'll be alright Master Bruce." Alfred assured his charge.
"Why is this man going after Tim?" Bruce questioned the cave. Alfred, used to his former wards sudden bursts of questions when particularly upset, knew the question was not for him. The question rid Bruce of the momentary lethargy caused by the sight of his partner beaten. He straightened, brushed a brief hand over Tim's face and the headed upstairs.
Barbara, Cass and Dick waited him in his study, faces pale with fear and horror. Tim was the least skilled of the field agents physically. But he was still far superior to any common street thug. For him to have been so soundly beaten the stalker must truly be as well trained as any bat.
"Bruce-" Dick began but Bruce turned away from him to Barbara.
"It was my fault." She forestalled him before any storm could break. "I knew he was being followed and I still did not make sure he reached Dick before cutting off the line."
"He was left alone to face this man who seems to have fixated on him." Bruce said in a cold, hollow voice that could not accuse the two who had failed their little brother any more than their own internal voices already were. "I gave explicit instructions to keep him on the com at all times!"
"Bruce you can say nothing to us that we haven't already told ourselves a hundred times." Barbara replied. "We left him alone and there is nothing we can say to that."
"He shouldn't be out there." Bruce said, sinking to a seat.
"Yes he… should." Cass yelled in her halting voice. "Tim… good."
They all turned to look in shock at the girl. She rarely spoke, still struggling to find words that had never been granted to her by her father. For her to speak up to put into their language what she felt was a sure sign that she felt this was important.
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Dick wished that he had the precious bundle that Bruce carried up the stairs ahead of him, but knew that he didn't deserve to hold his little brother after his failure that night. Bruce had chewed them out for nearly an hour after promising not to take Robin away from Tim. Perhaps Bruce felt guilty too. Tim was good, and had taken on cases himself, without asking of course, but they had already known that the mysterious stalker was interested in Tim. He should not have been left alone until that situation was resolved.
It was really early in the morning now, and Alfred had finished patching Tim up. Except for the cracked rib and fingers the rest of Tim's injuries were bruises. He would heal quickly. However Dick wasn't sure how they were going to let Tim go back out as Robin, knowing that this stalker had fixated on him. The man had been nowhere in sight, long gone, even though only five minutes had passed between Dick's realization that Tim was in trouble, and his getting to his little brother. He could have killed Tim easily.
They had prepared one of the bedrooms on the main level, not the one Tim usually stayed in. Barbara had gone home, taking Cass with her.
As they settled Tim into the room the boy blinked awake and gave a little mewl of pain. "It's alright Tim." Bruce promised, watching Dick hang the IV fluid bags on the stand Alfred had placed in the room. Alfred had grabbed a pen light and Tim's face grimaced when it got near him.
The boy fell straight back asleep once the tests were done.
Dick remained by his bedside while Bruce went to clean himself up. When Bruce came upstairs he took over.
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It was well into the morning when Alfred answered the phone and had Tim's school on the other line. They were asking to speak Bruce. Bruce was seated next to his slumbering partner. Tim was sleeping and not passed out, and despite the repeated awakenings due to the concussion, he had rested well.
"Master Bruce, Master Timothy's school is on the telephone." Alfred informed the watching Bat.
A look of horror crossed Bruce's face. They had forgotten all about Tim's school, and his parents. They had not even come up with a cover story for the severe injuries as of yet.
However he was Batman and Batman thought on his feet. He left Alfred with Tim, and went to the hallway to take the phone call. "Bruce Wayne." He informed the caller.
"Mr. Wayne, this is Cindy from Gotham East High School. We have you listed as the contact for Timothy Drake when his parents are out of town. He did not come in today."
Tim's parents were out of town?
"Oh… I am sorry, with what happened I forgot all about school. Tim was mugged last night."
"Oh, I am so sorry! Who did it?"
"We don't know. He's pretty out of it."
"Are his parents back yet?"
"We can't get a hold of them, do you have a number for them?"
She rattled off the number for the Drakes, which Bruce knew would not contact them. Maybe Tim had their contact information. It would only make sense for them to come back when their son was hurt.
Dick, who had fallen into an exhausted sleep after the terror of finding his little brother beaten, had been woken by Bruce's voice in the hall. He poked a head out of his room, tussled and slightly nervous. Perhaps he expected Bruce's anger again. But at the moment all Bruce could feel was exhaustion. Tim's parents were out of town and Tim hadn't told them.
"What's wrong Bruce?" Dick grew panicky at the sight of Bruce's uncharacteristic frustration.
"Tim's parents are out of town."
"Oh." Dick's mouth and eyes widened as he also realized they forgot about the Drakes, and how bad that could have been if the Drakes had found their son missing. "But Tim hasn't been staying here."
"No. He didn't tell us." Bruce sighed and watched the frustration now cross Dick's face. But Tim was resting and hurt. For the moment they could do nothing about their Robin's reluctance to take anything from them.
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Despite several calls to every number Bruce could find, the Drakes were out of contact. He was frustrated by this and by the fact that Tim seemed unsurprised when they told him. Since Tim couldn't talk and explain Bruce heroically refrained from chewing him out for not staying with them. Dick spent half his time blaming himself for failing to pick up the com line, and the other half in Tim's room.
Fortunately this only lasted a day. Tim woke able to talk the second morning, and minutes later the Drakes finally returned Bruce's call. After ascertaining Tim would recover Janet told Bruce to make sure their son used his down time to study and that they would be back in a month. Batman was literally speechless when the phone call ended. Tim wasn't even his son and he would have rushed to Gotham on hearing Tim was mugged.
Tim was surprised only by Bruce's gentleness in telling him.
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Boys who were used to activity made very bad patients. Tim was sitting up with a laptop in front of him, scowling. Dick, who had been staying at the manor since Tim's beating, entered carrying lunch for two and laughed at the frustrated look on the bedridden boy. Tim looked up with delight, the smell of Alfred's homemade chicken noodle soup and French bread making his stomach growl.
"Food!" Tim exclaimed.
Dick set the tray over Tim's lap after removing the lap top that Tim had been typing away on with just his left hand. As he sat down with his own bowl he saw what Tim had been working on and laughed. "You should be taking a break from crime fighting Tim. Even Bruce would be alright if you weren't brushing up on obscure knowledge for a few days. Or is Ras Al Ghul a present threat?"
"Well," Tim said around a mouthful of food, "I was thinking about the side effects of using the Lazarus pits and wondering if there was any way to remove the pit blood without killing the person. Maybe that would improve their sanity."
"Ra's problem is his morality, not his sanity."
"He is a megalomaniac who keeps trying to take over the world, but I know what you mean. But what about others it is used on as a brainwashing technique, or who comes out with all the worst parts of them increased a hundred fold? The price of the healing seems to be a mad mind." Tim pointed out.
"Well, what have you uncovered?"
"I've run just a couple simulations so far. I thought maybe antidepressants would work, but the pit blood just eats them up. Maybe in a living being it would give them a brief moment of sanity, but it would never work long term."
For a few minutes the two were silent as Tim ate and Dick read, and ate. The younger boy was glad he was alive. Bruce and Dick and Alfred, and even Oracle and Batgirl, had been so comfortable and caring. They were furious with the stalker and Bruce had opened Tim's file on the stalker. Fortunately Tim had created two files, one for his knowledge and one to show Bruce that he was working. If he had died the real file would have gone to Bruce eventually. Tim was a little afraid now. He didn't think that the fact that Jason had hurt Tim would affect Bruce, but it seemed that everyone was determined to keep Tim away from the stalker now.
But surely once Bruce knew the truth everything would be alright. Jason was simply mad with grief and the blood of the pit. But until they could fix Jason they should not know. The pain of seeing him so raw and mad should be brief.
"You've got a good grasp of the subject." Dick said thoughtfully.
"Well, I spent the whole morning reading up on it." Tim laughed.
"So you want to remove the pit blood from the victim. Huh." The handsome, lithe young man shook his head. "Victims because they were saved from death."
"They go insane. They lose empathy, remorse…" Tim began and then doubted himself, because after all, Jason had left Tim alive.
"I know. It's just sometimes things aren't as black and white as they should be." Dick muttered, leaning his head into his hands as if it had just gotten too heavy for his neck.
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