Chapter ten
Tim graduated to sitting in a chair the next day. By now he knew he was out of the field for at least a month. With his right hand out of commission he was limited on the things he could do. The ring and pinkie fingers were broken and the swelling from the bruises had just started to go down, so it would be a few days before he got to use the hand at all. Dick seemed happy to wait on him, but Tim was not used to having to be still except when study required it.
Well, he'd needed to catch up on some reports and logs and soon he would be able to perform some experiments with the blood of the pit. He had come up with several promising cocktails, but until he could partially use his right hand he would not be able to perform the needed tests. Dick would probably help, but Tim was concerned he might spark more than the passing interest in Dick, especially if the older boy realized how focused the sidelined Robin was on this matter.
Yes. This looked promising…
A large hand shut the laptop and Tim blinked up at Bruce Wayne in surprise. "I was working!" He protested.
"Yes, but I would like you to take a break. It's okay to rest, Tim. None of us think of you as weak. What happened was not your fault." Bruce said. Tim had to hide a grin at the sight of the biggest workaholic among them saying this.
"It's not bad." The dark haired boy protested. "I like to learn things."
The laptop was set aside. "Alfred says you are well enough to go out for a little bit. I was thinking Dick and I would take you to a movie."
Tim didn't know this part of Bruce. He knew the Bat, he knew Brucie, he knew the oft but rarely shown amused Bruce, the business man Wayne, the dark little boy who hid from the world in the shadows, the grieving father (for Jason), the exasperated father (because of Dick), the sullenly obedient son (for Alfred), but he did not know who sat in front of him. Going to a movie as a get well gesture was out of character. But it sounded so normal. Tim hadn't gone to see a movie with anyone since he was six, the last time a friend had invited him to go with their parents, before Tim was suddenly so much smarter than everyone.
Dick had had movie nights with him while he trained to be Robin, but Bruce had never joined them. What did this mean?
The last time his parents had taken him anywhere had been the circus. After the events of that night Tim had never dared ask to go anywhere again. So what did it mean when his mentor wanted to go to a movie with him and his pretend brother?
"Tim, you look like your trying to solve a mystery." Bruce said.
"I don't understand why." The reply was simple, but Bruce did not understand. Tim knew his mentor's moods but this one. He had become the protégé for Bruce's sake. So he had never thought it was supposed to be mutual, that Bruce would want to help him through the hard parts too.
"Why?"
"The movie. Why? Did I do something?"
For a moment Bruce was silent. He looked, not furiously sad as he was when he thought of Jason, but sad with a bit of delight. As if he saw something wrong, but knew how to fix it.
"What would have you done?"
"Well, I got hurt, so maybe you want me to not be Robin, because I couldn't fight that guy and win. Or maybe Dick is going home and this is a sort of good bye consolation gift. Or maybe Alfred is making you…" Tim was shocked that he could say the last.
His mentor was unsurprised. "This was my idea." He said quietly.
"Ok. But why?"
"Because you're working hard when you should be resting and sometimes a break is needed. You don't seem to realize that you never take a break yourself." Bruce said. "We could go somewhere else if you'd like. A lecture, a museum, a tour."
"The movie sounds fine. Only, Dick can't choose it."
"Agreed." Bruce said, and as if he heard his name Dick entered, carrying a tray with cookies and hot water and the choice of tea or cocoa.
"Alfred said we should have a snack before we go. Where are we going?"
LINE BREAK BRINGING MY BROTHER HOME LINE BREAK
The movie was entertaining although both Bruce and Tim decried several impossibilities as they headed for a restaurant for dinner, much to Dick's annoyance.
"You're supposed to suspend belief for these movies!" Dick informed them, but was met with two pairs of skeptical eyes. "Tim! You've corrupted Bruce! He used to watch movies just fine without picking everything apart!"
"Are you sure he just didn't tell you because you'd find fault with him?" Tim replied.
"Oh." Dick grabbed his chest. "Little brother, you wound me." He continued in the same vein, pointing out that this was supposed to be entertainment, but Tim simply watched him for a long time, passing by the entertainment that made him wonder how dumb the creators thought their viewers were. Bruce was cheerfully arguing his and Tim's point of view as if glad to have someone on his side. (Alfred probably agreed with Dick.) Where did Jason fit in?
When Tim had found a way to rescue Jason, would he still be little brother? It was unlikely. Tim had managed to take Jason's place and rebuild the family that had fallen apart on his death, but it wasn't Tim's place. Why did that hurt Tim? He had never felt this way about his parents' choice of his place in the family and he had no right to the place in this family. He had usurped it because the empty hole was tearing Batman to pieces.
"What mystery have you found now?" Bruce interrupted Tim's thoughts.
"Mystery?" Tim asked as Dick took the lead into the restaurant with Tim sandwiched behind, Bruce's hands guiding Tim through the crowd to keep him from being accidentally injured by the celebrity watchers and the rich who haunted this uppity restaurant. "I was just thinking, wondering if this is really what it's like to have a family- I mean a brother."
He could not see Bruce or Dick's faces and he was grateful, for his own flushed hot at his slip of the tongue. He had really been thinking brother, but then the protective touch of his mentor had added to his thoughts. Did they know that? However they took it he had caused them all to be silent until seated at a private table, away from the crowd.
"My friend Garth has brothers and sisters, but their… family dynamic is not to be used as an average family." Dick commented as the waiter left then with water and dinner rolls. Tim grinned. Atlanteans could not be held up as an average family.
"I don't think it matters how a normal family acts." Bruce spoke up. "I think it's how your family acts that matters. And our family maybe unique, but we've chosen each other."
Our family. He said it as if it included Tim. Did it? And what about when Jason came back?
LINE BREAK BRINGING MY BROTHER HOME LINE BREAK
Tim lay in his bed in the manor. Dick and Bruce had created a room that was strictly for his use and it surprised him. They kept it for him even when he wasn't staying at the manor. He was waiting until he knew Alfred would be in the cave, preparing for Dick and Bruce to return from patrol. Once assured Alfred would not appear for an hour or two he would get out his laptop.
He was quite full after the amazing meal out. Full of food and affection and love.
Jason needed this. Tim had to save him, not just for Bruce and Dick, but for Jason too.
Tim just had to hope that he still had a place in this family, even if it wasn't the same place.
LINE BREAK BRINGING MY BROTHER HOME LINE BREAK
The slender boy stood watching the computer with bated breath, praying that this was the cocktail of drugs that took away the blood of the pit. Nightwing sat perched on the cave wall, watching Tim work, biting his lip and comparing his notes to the computer screen. Tim was barely aware of him, because this was lasting the longest against the blood.
"Tim." Bruce entered the cave's lab. "Tim, your parents are here."
"What?" Tim looked up in surprise. "But they…"
"Apparently they lost my phone number." Bruce said quietly. "You better get up there… What are you working on?"
"Oh, when I was on bed rest I was organizing files and I thought there might be a way to cure the blood of the Lazarus pit. I think this one might hold the key… What is it?" Tim noticed the look of amusement and awe on Bruce's face.
"Well, you appear to be right, but I don't think injecting Ra's will cure him of his world domination plans." Bruce grinned.
"Oh, I know. But he's used it on others, and maybe they need to be saved." Tim pointed out. "And what if he ever tried to use it as a brainwashing technique… bringing someone to the point of death over and over again… can you imagine what that would do to them?"
"A plan for everything. Reminds of someone, but for the life of me I can't figure out who." Dick sang above their heads. "Maybe he's really your clone Bruce. Superman has a clone, why not you?"
"Because I'm not stupid enough to donate a lock of hair to a museum." Bruce answered.
"Well, in his defense, he didn't realize that there was a way to harvest Kryptonian DNA from a piece of hair." Dick pointed out.
"Kon is not a true clone." Tim announced, eyes on the computer screen still. "He's his own person, and he's smarter than Superman in some ways because he has a human side."
"And he's got you teaching him." Dick laughed.
"Well, this looks promising Tim. Let's leave it run while we get you upstairs to your parents before they decide we've kidnapped you."
Tim laughed and followed Bruce from the room as Dick scampered towards the locker room to change into the handsome, odd young man called Dick Grayson.
Upstairs Alfred was serving Jack and Janet Drake some refreshments. As Tim and Bruce drew near the door and heard Janet's imperious tone dismiss the butler, the boy straightened his shoulders, lifted his head and changed before his mentor's eyes, pulling on a mask that had faded in the last month the boy had spent in his mentor's care. Tim became the quiet, serious child who knew his parents will. Bruce flinched at the thought that he wasn't too different from the boy's parents, trying to force his ways on his protégés, and never fully understanding his partners' minds.
"Well, you don't have any marks on your face," was the first thing Janet Drake said to Tim in reference to his 'mugging', obvious relief in her voice. "We don't need you scarred."
Bruce glanced at her in a vacant way that usually concealed his annoyance at Societies inanities. Tim wasn't sure why he was giving Janet that look. Dick chose that moment to dash in.
"Oh, good. I wanted to see Timmy again before he left." Dick gave an air of intrusion that made Tim want to laugh. Neither of his parents really liked Dick. He was too cheery, too unfettered and too wild. But Tim was glad to have him throw a warm arm around Tim's shoulders giving him a hug and ruffling a hand through his hair.
"We always love to have Timmy stay with us." Bruce informed the Drakes in his most vacant voice. "He's very good at chess, and gives Dick a run for his money when they play."
"Well, I heard you discovered Gotham's dark side, Tim." Jack said. "I hope you've learned your lesson and won't go wandering dark alleys at night anymore."
Bruce, Dick and Tim's mouths twitched in amusement. Only the night before Tim had returned to the field as Robin. Dark alleys had been his territory.
"I hope you used your down time well." Janet said.
"I read a lot." Tim offered.
LINE BREAK BRINGING MY BROTHER HOME LINE BREAK
Dick's eyes were serious as he pushed his food around on his plate. Bruce calmly ate his own meal, perfectly aware of his son's dark mood and the reason for it, but refusing to bring it up. Dick had been in Bludhaven most of Tim's Robin Career and he had not seen Tim's family life before.
"So why haven't you done anything about it yet?" Dick finally spoke up.
"Tim refuses to acknowledge the problem. I think he hopes they might change." Bruce answered.
"Bruce, they aren't… abusive, are they?"
"No. Tim would come to us if they were. He's aware of the signs."
"Right." Dick looked relieved. "I still wish we could keep him. He needs us as much as we need him."
"Maybe." Bruce said softly. "Sometimes I'm afraid that we take too much from him, that maybe he can't get the family he wants in his parents because he's too invested in us."
"No. His parents neglected him first. He was so used to being insignificant that he turned it into a shield, one he can use even against you." Dick said. "I think we've given him a purpose."
Oh, Bruce, you are so blind. Tim is terrified to show weakness to you.
What did you think? Use the awesome review feature and let me know!