A few days later, I'm deciding what I want for dinner when I get a knock on the door and I open it to find a boy about 17 with blue eyes and black hair standing there.
"Hi, I'm Tim Drake-Wayne. My dad is inviting you to come have dinner with us tonight." He says, fidgeting as he speaks. I smile.
"That sounds great, let me get some shoes on." I let him into my messy hotel room and dig for my shoes under my bed.
"You've only been here 3 days…." He says, looking around my room, and I look around too. Clothes are strewn over furniture and the floor, junk food wrappers are everywhere, and the bed is a nest of blankets and electronics. The only thing that is neat is the area I keep my meds.
"So? I wasn't well packed, to begin with, the suitcase kind of exploded when I opened it." I reply, shrugging, grabbing my purse and putting my meds in it as we leave.
He shows me to a sleek black motorcycle that I didn't recognize and hands me a helmet. I zip up the leather jacket I had on, and hike my ruby red skirt up to my thighs, but below my tattoo before swinging a black 'over the knee' sock covered leg over. I'm glad I put on my combat boots. Tim climbs on in front of me after raising an eyebrow at me. "Jason's gonna like you."
"That's good, right?" I ask, wondering who Jason grew up to be, after all, I had a small crush on him when we were younger.
"Depends. Hold on." He replies before speeding off, effectively cutting off conversation for the next 20 minutes. The wind whipped my hair around my head, as I watched the scenery go by, every now and then, Tim would take a sharp turn that made me have to hold on a little tighter but I kept balance, and I never yelled, and we soon make it to the Manor.
The house was in the same state it was in last time I was here, but, now there were two other motorcycles out front. One blue Ninja and one red Harley Davidson.
Tim climbs off the bike and helps me off as the front door opens, and another young man, slightly older than me, comes out. I hand Tim the helmet when he reaches for it, and shake out my hair.
"Good! You came! I'm sure you remember me, Tiff." He greets, pulling me into short a hug I gladly return. I smile, "Yes I do, Dick, I see growing up did wonders for you."
"What do you mean, I always looked as good as this."
"No, I distinctly remember you having a zit right in the middle of your forehead the size of a penny."
Both boys laugh and lead me inside, to the living room, where Bruce and Damian were sitting, while another man about my age in a leather jacket was wrestling with a Great Dane on the floor. The Dane was winning. Damian spots me and nods politely.
"Hello, Tiffany." Bruce greets and Jason looks up at me, shoving the dog off of him.
"Tiff! How are you?" Jason stands walking over to give me a big hug, slightly picking up my 5'5" frame, we were always close when we were young, even keeping in contact with each other for a while. He smelled like leather and old spice.
"I'm good! I start at Arkham tomorrow, so I'm a bit nervous, but as long as we stay on different sides of the glass, I'll be fine. You think if I take everyone cookies, they'll kill me last?" I joked, slightly serious, though. The Wayne's chuckle, and Dick nods.
"Yeah, probably. Harley would love you for about 3 days, the rest would at least consider not killing you if you did."
"I'm going to do it! I'm going to take them cookies! Mr. Alfred, the boys always brag about your cookies, can you help me make them?" I ask, looking over at the elderly man, a slightly pleading look on my face.
"Please, just call me Alfred, young miss, and I would be delighted to help you, but after dinner, though, because dinner is served." We made our way into the dining room, and I kind of waited to sit, until the boys moved to their chairs, but Dick put a hand on my back and guided me to a chair in-between Jason and Damian. There was also a chair in-between Dick and Tim, but it was unset and empty.
"Babs normally sits here, but she isn't in town at the moment. Stephanie, Tim's…..girlfriend this week right? Sits next to him, and our sister Cas, Bruce adopted her about…..4? years ago, sits next to Dami when she's in town." Dick explains when he sees me looking at the empty chairs questionably.
"And there is always a space between Jason and Damian because they will kill each other if we don't have one," Tim says as he takes a bit of the food Alfred has served as they talked. I laugh, but I could tell the statement might be slightly true, just not the killing part. I think.
Jason takes my plate from me and fills it with food, while Damian passes me a basket of roles. I smile at both.
"Thank you. It looks amazing, Alfred." I remark as he moves about the room, filling drinking glasses with water.
"Thank you, Miss Tiffany. I hope it tastes as good as it looks." He replied, making Dick respond saying it always taste amazing. He was right, it tasted delicious, as we ate we made small talk, mainly Tim and Damian asking me questions, some of which Dick and Jason decided their input was needed. It was not, but made for fun conversation anyway.
During dessert, we got onto the topic of relationships.
"So, Tiff, anyone lucky enough to be involved with you?" Dick asked, wiggling his eyebrows weirdly. I laugh at his antics, then answer the question.
"No, not anymore. I was with someone when I before I decided to move here. They weren't really supportive of my decision to work with psychopaths at Arkham. But oh well, I have my life figured out and someone who doesn't support my decisions is not welcomed in it. I mean, they did everything short of threatening me with locking me in the basement when I said I was leaving, and that was the final straw. Looking back, they always were a little controlling, but hey, I can take care of myself, dad didn't make me take self-defense lessons since I could walk for nothing."
"That's kind of extreme. Are you sure they won't try to take you back?" Tim asked, fork halfway raised to his mouth. I just shrugged while Jason snorted, and Dick chuckled.
"Timmy boy, when we were twelve, this chick could kick our butts. I have no doubt that her partner won't be able to take her if she didn't want to go. Besides, she has us now. We will just hunt them down and take her back." Jason replied, having to dodge my fork, only proving his point.
I missed Damian raising an eyebrow at a Bruce, and Bruce's nod back.
The conversation continued for a while, jumping from topic to topic until Alfred told me he was ready to help me bake cookies for the inmates. We all excused ourselves from the table, and I followed Alfred to the kitchen, Jason trailed along behind me. We made small talk and caught up while Alfred helped me measure and mix the cookie dough, then left me with Jason and the final instructions while he took care of other things in the house. Jason just watched Alfred leave, and then he asked the big question.
"So, any luck finding an apartment?" Jason asked as he sat on the counter, eating some of the cookie dough, I slap his hand away.
"No, but I'm working on it. Do you live on your own right? Is your apartment building needing a new tenant?" I reply as I put the batter for the cookies onto cookie sheets.
"I don't know; I'll look into it for you. Thought Bruce would most likely let you stay here."
"Oh no, I couldn't do that. I'll get my own place in a bit. Don't worry about me." I waved him off. He laughed in exasperation.
"If I don't worry about you, who will? Daddy dearest? We both know how that goes, you go into rejection, he's in another country before you are even checked into the hospital." I twirled around, my hands on my hips.
"Low blow there Todd. Speaking of worry, did you know I worried about you when I heard you ran away? Why did you do that anyways? I thought you liked it here and loved Bruce and Dick." He immediately looked enraged, but then deflated into regret.
"I was being stupid during that time. I thought I got some info on my mom, and Bruce didn't want me looking into it, believing it was a trap. It was a trap, and I got hurt and had to spend some time resting. I came home, though. I came home."
I deflated as well and hugged him. "I came to visit once while you were gone, and Bruce and Dick looked so positively devastated that all I could do was allow Dick to cry on me as we watched your favorite movies. Please don't leave your family again."
"I won't." He mumbled into my shoulder, then lifted his head. "Hey, why don't you come live with me. I could use a roommate."
"What?" I gave a startled laugh. "Really?"
"Yeah, why not? Very few people like renting to people who work at Arkham, death rate and all, and then you can keep an eye on me, and my family has you in reaching distance at all times. You know how protective we are of our own."
"Let me think about it, okay? I'll let you know what I decide." I reply, and the buzzer for the cookies goes off. Jason helps me pull them from the oven, and I stop to take my meds, and then he helps me package them as they cool.
"Let's go join everyone in the living room. I bet they are watching a movie." Jason says, pulling me by the arm to the living room as I balance 3 containers of cookies. They weren't watching a movie but the news, apparently there was an Arkham Breakout.
"Well then, guess I won't be needing all these cookies," I say to break the tension building in the room. Dick gave a chuckle.
"Nah, I bet they will all be back in by tomorrow morning, The Batfamily has grown very extensive. Just greet them at the door with the cookies."
"But we should get you back to your hotel so you can get some sleep before you get to meet those crazies tomorrow," Bruce says as he goes to lead me to the door.
"I'll take her. I have to get to work anyways." Jason volunteers, grabbing his keys.
"Oh? Where do you work Jason?" I ask, interested, as I grabbed my purse.
"I work at a bar as a bouncer/bartender when they need me too. The ladies love me you know." We make our way to the door, and the rest of the Wayne family bids me goodnight.
Jason walked me to the red Harley and puts the cookies in the saddlebag, before helping me onto the bike, and settling himself in front of me. I put my hand on his hips, and he speeds off. I rest my head against his back, taking in his smell of leather and old spice again, being able to feign tiredness if he questioned me.
We got back to my hotel quickly and he walked me back up to my room.
"Have a good day tomorrow. Stay safe." He says, and brings me into another hug. I nod.
"You too Jason." And with that, I step into my hotel room and close the door.
What I don't see is Jason standing there a second and then walking quickly down the hallway, hand to his ear. "She's safe. I'm on my way now. Hood out."