Disclaimer: not mine
Chapter 18
Tim lay sprawled on top of Danny, feeling utterly boneless, sated, head almost spinning as he soaked up the ectoplasm and emotions in the air. A hand gently stroked his back and he sighed softly. He knew he should be panting, his heart racing, and he still wasn't used to the lack of those signs of exertion. Ghost sex was…wow. Even his brain felt completely like mush. Danny chuckled and Tim just whined at him. Cold lips pressed to his and Tim opened his eyes, immediately moving to deepen it, body suddenly feeling energised again as the mood shifted.
"Love you," he murmured when the kiss ended, moving to kiss along Danny's jaw and then down his throat, nipping the skin with sharper teeth.
Danny moaned, pulling him impossibly closer, baring his throat. "Tim…"
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Danny knew what last night had been about. Today, they were going back to Gotham. Not that he had any complaints cause he didn't. He loved how bold Tim had become when it came to sex, it was amazing and he kind of whished they'd started doing it earlier, but that would have meant spilling secrets before they were ready. To think, Tim had been so awkward talking about it that day when he'd told Danny it was fine if he never wanted it.
Then again, he'd felt pretty awkward too during that talk but he'd lost that pretty fast once they started getting more physical. And with the shift in Tim now, he figured it was a ghost thing. One part of their dual nature he definitely liked.
Things would change once they returned to Gotham. Could Tim's family and friends accept how death had changed him? He knew it would hit Bruce the hardest, especially since Tim was struggling with his emotions concerning the man. Danny would have to speak to him about it, explain what was going on. For those Tim didn't want to see, for the most part it wouldn't change much. He'd already kicked Dick out of his apartment once and he had no relationship with Damian.
"I did it!" Tim exclaimed, and Danny stood, ready to see.
Tim stepped into view and Danny grinned as he took in his ghostly form…and the new outfit that closely matched his own. Tim did a slow turn for him and Danny laughed, pulling him close to kiss him.
"I'm so proud of you Tim," he whispered. He might not have full control of all his powers, that could take years, but he was learning fast. He had background training to pull on that Danny hadn't, he'd been stuck with trial and error outside of developing a power to save himself or his friends. "Ready?"
"If I say no, I'll never be able to say yes," Tim admitted, leaning against him.
Danny nodded and opened a portal, so much easier to do from this side with endless ectoplasm. He targeted the Nest to keep them out of sight and let Tim adjust in private.
Of course, as soon as he stepped through, he realised it wasn't going to be private, seeing Kon and Jason rushing down. They must have been in the apartment, oops. He turned as Tim stepped through, catching him as he went to his knees, gasping.
"Easy, just breath. I know it's a shock, there's plenty of ectoplasm here, just take a moment to adjust," he soothed. Tim was trembling in his arms, but gradually the gasps slowed as his body adapted to the lower levels. Gotham had high levels but nowhere near what Tim's ghost form was accustomed to.
"Tim?"
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"Tim?" Kon stared at the two, recognising Phantom immediately. But the other…was that really Tim?
Glowing green eyes lifted to meet his and that face, it was Tim. He got shakily to his feet and Kon looked him over, taking in the clothing that reminded him a bit of Danny's Banshee gear, so did Danny's current outfit actually, it seemed he'd ditched the hazmat look. Tim stared at him and then stepped away from Danny and towards him. "Kon?" he whispered, and Kon managed a shaky smile for his best friend.
Before he could do anything else, a cold body slammed into him, clinging on, and Kon brought his arms up around him automatically. There was no heartbeat, no sign of life that Kon could detect, but Tim held on to him tightly, trembling. "It's okay Rob, I've got you," he promised. With the strength Tim was displaying he felt able to hold on tighter than he normally would, but Tim wasn't human anymore.
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Jason watched the reunion, fighting down horror at the sight of Tim with glowing green eyes and bright white hair. It wasn't the same, it wasn't the Pit.
"He's okay."
Jason looked at Danny who'd moved to his side without him noticing. A brief flash of light rings and the younger man was back to human form. "Is he…" he couldn't say it, dreaded getting confirmation that his little brother was dead.
"Like me," Danny answered, and Jason sagged in relief, Danny quickly propping him up.
Tim's life wasn't over, he could still live, grow and change. After all, Danny had been fourteen when he died and he definitely didn't look it. As if he knew they were talking about him, and he probably could hear them now, Tim stepped out of Kon's hold, approaching nervously.
"Hey Timmy," Jason greeted, opening his arms, and then he bit back a shiver as Tim was pressed close. He hugged his little brother, burying his head in soft white hair to hide tears of relief. "Missed you baby bird," he whispered.
"Missed you too," Tim answered.
Jason winced when Tim tightened his grip but stayed quiet, he wasn't in danger of breaking anything. He finally let go and stepped back, putting his hands on Tim's shoulders to look him over. Tim shifted nervously but didn't pull away, letting him look. Up close, the glowing green was different to the Pits and his own eyes, not a toxic green but a bright one. White hair fell to just below his shoulders now since he'd been letting it grown, Jason suspected because he liked the feeling of Danny playing with it. He tugged it gently; it was really soft…too soft for human hair. His skin was cold but not as cold as Danny's, were all ghosts cold since they were dead?
"Like the outfit," he smirked, and Tim shrugged.
"He…he put me in my uniform," he shuddered, and Danny moved closer.
"It's okay Tim, you don't have to talk about it," Danny murmured.
"Well, I never thought the Red Robin look suited you," Jason admitted, causing Tim to stare in surprise. "Got a new name picked out too?"
Tim relaxed and nodded but then mimed zipping his lips and Jason chuckled. Figured. He then looked from Jason to Kon before stepping back, rings splitting over his body, a lot darker than Danny's but the effect was the same. He looked no different to how he had before he died now, other than the clothes that had to be Danny's since they were slightly too big.
"I…uh, I'm not…" he shifted nervously, not making eye contact with either of them.
"Dying changes you," Jason whispered, and Tim jerked a nod. "Everyone in this room has now died Timbers, we all get that. Just…you're not planning on going on a homicide spree against a bunch of mobsters, are you? Putting heads in a bag?" he tried to lighten the mood but Tim winced slightly. "Tim?"
"I, uh…just keep Damian away," he muttered.
Jason looked to Danny in concern.
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"Ghosts are made of emotions," Danny began, explaining to Kon and Jason why Tim would have issues being around certain people now.
Tim wandered away, obviously not wanting to hear it again. Danny kept an eye on him but Tm just wandered around his Nest, running his fingers over various items. Kon followed him, staying close, able to hear Danny anyway.
Danny wanted them to fully understand that Tim's reactions might be a little more extreme as he finished adjusting and stabilising.
"Honestly, Gotham's not the best place to bring him but it's his home. I can handle it fine but Tim…well, don't take it personally if he's a bit snappish for a while. He'll start filtering out the external emotions eventually, but till then they will influence him."
"So definitely keeping him away from the brat," Jason grimaced.
"He's still Tim, he's just got to actually confront his emotions and accept them rather than ignore them. Spending all the time since his death in the Infinite Realms will make the adjustment a bit harder."
Kon slung his arm over Tim's shoulders, pulling him into his side, and Tim looked up at him in surprise but relaxed into the half hug. That was good, the more positive emotions he was exposed to the better given Gotham's atmosphere.
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Bruce picked his phone up even as he kept working. "Bruce Wayne," he answered absently.
"Hey B," the familiar voice called from the speaker, and Bruce froze before looking at the screen to see his sons' name there.
"Tim?"
"It's me," Tim answered. "I'm back."
"Where?" Bruce stood, grabbing his jacket. "I'll come to you," he promised.
"I…" there was something hesitant, and Bruce forced himself to wait, but Tim remained silent.
"Tim, are you still there?" he asked gently, heart in his throat. Was he talking to a ghost? It didn't matter, this was still his son.
"Here," Tim whispered. "I…I can't…"
"Sorry B," Jason's voice came over the phone.
"Jaylad? What's going on? Is Tim alright?"
"He's physically fine," Jason assured him. "He's like Danny now."
And Bruce collapsed back into his chair, eyes closed as he forced himself to breath. Tim…Tim was alive…half-alive, whatever.
"Easy old man, take a deep breath," Jason told him. "He's home, he's different, but he's still Timmy."
"Different?"
"Come on B, you've seen enough people die and come back by now. No one ever comes back the same."
"I don't care if he's come with eight arms, as long as he's alright," Bruce told his son.
Jason snorted and then laughed. "No extra limbs that I've noticed. You've seen Phantom, so you know how shocking the change in looks is. Seeing Tim with green eyes…thankfully they're not the same shade as the Pit." Jason paused, and Bruce heard voices just out of true range of the phone, Jason whispering something back.
"Jason?"
"Everything's fine, Danny and Kon are just taking Timbers upstairs, out of hearing range. He doesn't need to hear this again." There was nothing playful in Jason's voice now, no, he was deadly serious. "No matter what, we keep Tim and Damian apart Bruce. I don't care if Dick insists that they need to spend time together or what. Tim's a baby ghost still, he doesn't have the kind of control Danny does. Damian's hurt him too many times, if they're put together…chances are only one of them's coming back."
Bruce froze, Jason couldn't mean Tim would…yes, he'd arranged Boomerang's death but he hadn't gone through with it. Tim wasn't a killer…
"He's not like I was, B. He's not going to go out and kill people, even ones who deserve it. Damian is a threat to him and he knows it, the kids' tried multiple times to actively kill him and then continued more passive attempts to remove him from the family either through death or by making the situation unbearable. Becoming a ghost…they're literally made of emotions, so Tim's control is kind of shot. He can't hide what he's feeling and if it's strong…well, he pretty much tackled Danny and started putting his hands in places not appropriate for company without even thinking about it. He's being forced to confront his own emotions towards everyone in his life and not just brush them off."
Bruce leant back in his chair, listening. It was a relief to know he wasn't going to have to try and stop Tim from going out and killing. But the idea of one son wanting the other dead…then again, it had been that way for years now, he'd just blinded himself to it, they all had. "So, his reactions to everyone else?"
"Dick and Steph won't be good. Don't think we're at the killing stage with them, though it's hard to tell with Dick. And…he's mad at you even though he doesn't want to be. You were doing good and then you did that test behind their backs. He's still got some lingering issues with that, but he does want to see you. He's okay with me since we've been good for a while and I actually apologised for everything I'd done before working to improve our relationship. That seems to be a big thing, Wonder Girl apologised too and he seems okay with seeing her soon. Babs is good as well. Alfred…honestly that one's tough to tell. He stayed out of things but by not backing Tim at all…he might as well have sided with Dick and Damian. So, I'd say make sure there's a few of us there for their meeting, just to be safe. I don't think Tim would hurt him but he's still working on controlling his new strength."
Bruce winced when Jason admitted Tim was having issues over what he'd done in testing Danny's DNA. Looking back, he knew he should have done it differently, but he couldn't go back and change what he did. Still, Tim wanted to see him anyway. He could yell at him, hit him, whatever he needed so long as still wanted to be Bruce's son he didn't care. The idea that Alfred's lack of support might have ruined their relationship was painful but understandable. By the sounds of it, Stephanie had never apologised for her side of things either. It seemed there was a lot more hurt in the family than he had realised.
"You said they took him upstairs, so he's at his apartment?"
"Yeah, they came to the Nest, set off the alarms by opening a portal right in the main area. He wanted to see you before he called, let me check and see if it's still okay for you to come over. They've been back all of two hours; he might need some more time to adjust. Apparently, there's a big difference in ectoplasm levels between Gotham and the Infinite Realms and the stuff here isn't…nice. So that's not helping him either. Danny said he'll start filtering it in a day or so, his body just needs time to work that out."
"Alright," he agreed, waiting as patiently as he could for Jason to check with them.
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Dick was surprised to see Bruce headed out in normal clothes at such a late hour. "B?" he called, and when he turned, Dick was shocked to see the drying tears. "What is it? Is someone hurt?" Please no, no one else.
But Bruce shocked him by pulling him into a hug. "It's Tim, he's back."
Dick froze but then hugged him back. Tim…Tim was in Gotham? "Is he okay?"
"Adjusting. He called but Jason ended up taking over the call for him. I'm going to see him now."
"Where? I'll come too."
Bruce hesitated, and Dick's heart sank. "Dick…Tim doesn't want to see you, not now. He's a halfa, like Danny, but it's affected his emotions. And while he's not homicidal like Jason was, he's still having trouble. He's officially not allowed near Damian for the foreseeable future and apparently…you're the next highest on the list of people he has anger issues with. I'm sorry son, but we can't risk it. Tim needs time to get used to being back in the living world and to adjust to the changes he's gone through."
Dick nodded numbly, watching Bruce leave. He'd…he'd really messed up, hadn't he? They couldn't let him see his baby bird because they didn't know if he'd try to kill him, how badly had he hurt Tim to cause that kind of reaction? What was he meant to do now?
But Tim was back, he was home where he belonged. And he was still alive, to a point. That was all that mattered. Even if Tim never wanted to see him again, at least the kid would be okay.
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Tim curled into Danny, feeling the weight and warmth of Kon's hand on his back. It was so stupid! He'd thought he could handle the call to Bruce and instead he'd run for it. He could hear his mother admonishing him for his childishness, could hear JJ laughing hysterically, and he clamped his hands over his ears.
"Shh, it's okay Tim, we're here, we've got you," Danny, that was Danny.
Tim pressed even closer to him, focusing on his voice, his heartbeat, even as he blindly reached back to pull Kon closer too.
"Okay Rob, I've got it," Kon murmured, shifting to be pressed against his back. "One Timmy sandwich, no one's going to hurt you. They'd have to get through us first and that's not happening."
Danny gently nudged his head up, meeting his eyes. "It's okay, just listen to us, block everything else out."
They kept talking and slowly, the other two faded away. "Thought…thought I'd be free of him when I died," he admitted shakily.
"JJ?" Danny asked, and he nodded. "If he's getting louder or more frequent, you need to let me know, okay? We might need to head back to the Far Frozen. Sometimes, things like that can manifest with ghosts and I'm guessing you don't want him running around."
Tim shook his head. No! No way did he want JJ to actually physically exist. He was insane, who knew what he'd do…who he'd hurt.
"B'll be here soon," Jason called as he came up. "Everything okay?"
"Getting there," Kon answered. "Just making a Rob sandwich. Wanna join?"
Jason chuckled and flopped on the nearby armchair. "Nah, I'll get Timbit hugs later, he looks comfy."
Tim felt his cheeks warm with embarrassment but also happiness that they weren't pushing him away. Danny kissed the tip of his nose and Tim scrunched it up in response. "Danny…"
"But you're so cute when you blush," Danny teased.
"We used to try and make him blush," Kon admitted. "He was always so serious that any reaction was treated like gold. But blushing was the best cause he's so pale."
"Come on Kon…" he whined.
What was it, tease Tim day? But he also knew why they were doing it and he was grateful. So close to Danny and Kon, he could feel their concern and love, different kinds of love, but still love. He could feel Jason too, not as strongly since he was further away, but still there. He'd never be able to doubt his big brother loved him again, not when he could feel it.
And wrapped up in it, he found himself relaxing, slumping between them as the tension and worry drained away.
"That's it Tim," Danny whispered, kissing his cheek. "We all love you and we're not going anywhere."
"He can really feel it?" Kon asked softly, and Tim felt Danny nod even as he began to drift, things going fuzzy.
A hand stroked through his hair and he nuzzled into Danny.
"Utterly adorable," a nearby voice rumbled, affection and amusement clear.
He was so out of it; he didn't even hear the eventual knock on the door or register Jason getting up to answer it.
"Tim, sweetheart?" a new voice called to him, new emotions too. Worry…fear…love…
Slowly, he forced his eyes open, blinking sluggishly. And then he pushed up, Danny and Kon letting go so he could sit up and look at B…Bruce…Dad… Tim felt the anger and hurt well up, knew his eyes flared for a second but then he threw himself into the arms he'd always known would catch him, and they did.
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Bruce was surprised to see Tim lying limp, squished between Danny and Kon, his eyes closed. Was he alright? Tim looked perfectly human but then again so did Danny. So, he was really a halfa and not a full ghost. They'd said he was, but it was easier to believe with the evidence right in front of him.
He looked at Jason who grinned and leant closer, obviously not wanting to disturb his brother. "They're drowning him in positive emotions. So, try and keep it calm. Ghosts are empathic so keep that in mind."
How did they handle that in a fight? He shook off his questions, walking closer to kneel beside the couch. "Tim, sweetheart?" Could Tim hear him?
But slowly his son stirred, staring at him dazedly before recognition sank in and he sat up, the other two backing off a bit. He froze as Tim's eyes flashed bright green but then he was catching Tim as the boy threw himself from the couch. For a second, he braced for an attack, but no, Tim was clinging to him, shaking. He lifted a hand to rest at the back of his head, the other rubbing his back.
"It's okay Tim, I'm here son," he promised.
"He…he killed me," Tim choked out. "It…it hurt so much…Dad…"
Bruce closed his eyes, hugging him tighter. "He'll never hurt you again Tim," he swore. Whatever it took to keep his children safe, there had to be some way to lock him away, but then he opened his eyes and saw the expression on Danny's face and he knew…Danny had killed Vlad.
TBC…
