Chapter Text
Tim shifted uncomfortably as Bruce stared down at him. Jason stood a safe distance away from the two. He acted interested in some of Bruce’s display cases but Tim knew the older was listening in on the conversation.
“Fine I’ll start. Why did you disobey me after I gave a direct order to wait?”
Tim straightened. “People are going to get hurt if we wait Bruce. Innocent people. Joker’s not going to send an invitation telling us when and where he’s going to kill people. We need to go and find him first!”
“Because that worked so well tonight.” Bruce’s face still showed no expression and it was pissing Tim off for no reason at all.
Bruce continued, “You found out nothing new and Damian could have been killed. You all could have been killed.”
Tim stiffened. So this is what it was about. “You don’t need to protect us all the time Bruce. You trained us we can protect ourselves.”
“Not against him.”
“Then help us.”
Bruce turned without another word and walked out of the cave.
“I’ll take that as a no?” Jason had come back over from his hiding spot.
“This isn’t like him at all Jason. Something’s wrong, we need to figure out what it is.” Tim opened up the list of safe houses on the computer again.
“Well duh Drake. But we’ll have to figure that out later. Where’s the next safe house?”
“You know it will take weeks to search all of these, right? And not to mention that he may not even be in any of them at all.” Tim struggled to think of a way to simplify the list. Organize it or even make it smaller if possible.
“Well several of these are near major metropolises right? Just look at the camera footage and do a face scan. If there’s nothing there we can cross out those safe houses.” Jason spent a few minutes finding the footage of street cameras near the areas.
Jason’s idea wasn’t perfect. Way to many ways someone like Joker could slip past something as simple as a traffic cam, but at the moment his brother’s idea had shortened the list to 10 places.
“These 10 either don’t have cameras or there one or two suspicious looking people around.” Jason explained while eliminating the other places from the list.
“Suspicious looking?”
“Ah you know. Trench coat and hat covering the face.” Jason mimicked some of the men dressed like that. However his voice was laced with sarcasm. “There was something off about some of them that’s all.”
Tim heard footsteps and saw Dick walking up to them. He had changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt. And although Dick smiled at them Tim could see the worry in his eyes, his brother was still concerned for Damian.
“How is he?” Jason asked.
“Alfred said he’ll survive. He’s going to have some scars though. Last time I saw him he was sleeping.” Dick ran his hands through his hair. Tim didn’t see the need for serious concern. They all got their fair share of scars throughout the years. It came with the job.
“Any progress with the list?”
Jason typed some things into the computer that organized the information they needed.
“Yeah actually. These 10 places were either unseen by cameras or had suspicious people around them. Based on how far away they are we can search all of them within the next week.” Jason explained again.
“Good. We can start tomorrow night. I assume B isn’t going to be helping us?” Both boys nodded. There would be no help from their mentor. “Hm. Great. Get some sleep you two.”
Tim was no stranger to all nighters. He had pulled many during his days as Robin and barely slept now with his role as Red Robin. Jason had retired shortly after Dick had left. He also told Tim to get some sleep.
Tim sipped his coffee and turned back to the computer in front of him. He had at least changed so his costume was no longer an inconvenience. Jason and Dick may be able to put Bruce’s strange behavior behind them but Tim couldn’t. He was a detective he knew when something was wrong.
Tim opened up all the recent cases that Bruce had filled out.
Riddler, Two Face, Killer Moth… Nothing strange had happened in the past few weeks. Bruce hadn’t fought any mind control people really so that wasn’t a cause either. Ivy could have poisoned him but she was locked up in Arkem.
Could Bruce possibly be so concerned over them that he had to endanger others lives? That wasn’t like him. So there has to be something else. Tim continued searching.
Tim was in the middle of reading a small crime case when an alarm went off on the computer. He jumped slightly and looked at what the alarm said.
“Wake Up.” Oh. It was just Bruce’s morning alarm. But that means Tim had spent all night awake and had found nothing to explain Bruce’s odd behavior.
6AM. Tim was out of coffee and decided this was a better time to go upstairs.
“I’ll be at meetings all day today so Alfred you’ll have to check on Damian. The rest of you, stay at the manor.” Bruce was talking about later tonight. Tim had downed his second cup of coffee and his adoptive father left the manor.
“Jason still not up?” Tim questioned Dick.
He shook his head and yawned. “I should’ve slept in to.” Tim nodded in false agreement. Despite his lack of sleep his head was spinning with possibilities for the two major problems he had.
Joker had yet to make a move or if he had they had yet to hear about it. And Bruce still had not changed his mind about helping them.
“Go sleep Tim.” Dick had sat down across from Tim. He stared at his brother.
“I’m not tired.”
“Lies. You never came upstairs, which means you were up all night working. Plus you’re on your fourth cup of coffee. Go sleep. Ill tell you the second something happens okay?” Dick took Tim’s coffee cup from him.
“Fine.” Tim walked to his bedroom and flopped down on the bed. He figured he could just use his laptop to do more research but the second his head hit the pillow he realized how tired he actually was.
Tim’s dreams were all in the same place. The old jailhouse where Joker had tortured him for weeks. He could here the laugh that used to make him sick to his stomach. He could almost feel the pokes and prods of the things Joker used on him.
Oh come on Little Birdie, why won’t you sing for me?
Tim’s eyes shot open and he sat up. He quickly scanned the room. It was still his, he was still in the manor. Tim could feel his neck lined with cold sweat and the blankets were a jumbled mess.
He hadn’t had nightmares this bad since he was first rescued by Bruce. Then he would scream and kick in his sleep. Tim had thought he had control over those images. Tim looked at the bedside clock. 4PM. Dick had let him sleep for almost 10 hours. 10 hours to long.
He made his way downstairs. The sweet smell of Alfred’s cooking surrounded him and he followed the scent to his three brothers relaxing in the kitchen with a plate of freshly baked cookies in the middle of them.
Damian’s leg was bandaged but it didn’t seem to be bothering him as much as Tim had expected. Jason and Dick were arguing about some game character or something else unimportant.
“You look like shit Drake.”
“Thanks Jason. You look fabulous too.” Tim grabbed one of the cookies. He noticed his brothers were staring at him; waiting for an explanation.
“Couldn’t sleep.” Tim assumed Dick would have some clue of what happened the others would believe what he had said.
“How about some dinner and then you boys can continue your, project.”