Chapter Text
This sucked. Tim decided. He felt like a kid. Like he had before all of this had happened. No one ever let him make decisions on what he wanted, and that had been the difference between Jason and other adults. Jason may not have let him run the whole show, but Tim had gotten a chance to speak up. To decide.
And now he was gone. He couldn't even help. He knew how scared Jason was of those creatures, even if he hadn't confided in Tim and told him about his nightmares, Tim could see the pure fear on Jason's face as he was surrounded.
"Jason! Please-!" Tim shouted with his hand outstretched. He said something else too, but he couldn't hear it over the rush in his ears after the zeta tube started to whir and his hand turned into materialized pixels right in front of him. He was leaving. And he couldn't decide whether or not to for himself.
Next thing he knew, he was lying on a cold, hard metal floor. He sniffed away snot, and tears- he hadn't even noticed he'd been crying. Sometimes that happened. One moment Tim was fully aware, and the next it was like his mind had taken a 10 minute vacation and forgot to bring his body.
Someone was talking to him. Jason? No. Jason was at the Hall of Justice. Which must mean-
"Son, can you hear me? Are you alright?" A strong, leveled voice asked him. All he saw was a blur of red and blue. Tim let his vision meld together to make a clear image before looking to his side.
"Tim, are you alright?" Superman asked again.
"No! He left me! He was supposed to come with me and he- he didn't let me decide!" Tim shouted. At Superman of all people.
The kryptonian flinched. "Who left you? We need to know Tim."
"Jason! He said he couldn't come with me! He'd been saying it the entire time but I didn't think he was telling the truth!" This time Tim felt the tears before they flowed down his cheeks. "He sent me here alone."
Superman's face fell, but this time he didn't speak. It was then Tim realized other Justice League members were standing there as well.
"Jason brought you here." Batman asked. Or at least Tim thinks it was a question and not a demand. "Jason Todd."
"I- I don't know his last name." Tim answers, glaring something mean at him, small fists at his side. For some reason Batman didn't like Jason. Jason would never say why, but Tim wouldn't stand for that. "He said he knew you, though. And Agent A."
Tim had been watching Batman & Robin for awhile. Taking their photographs. Sometimes he didn't even do that. He liked watching in the shadows and feeling like apart of the group, even if that was his secret and his secret alone. But after all that time, Tim had never seen his expression on Batman's face before.
It looked like a mix of grief and relief at the same time. At his side, further down the line of heroes, Martian Manhunter flinched.
"Where is Jason now." The Batman asked once again.
"We traveled from Gotham to here. After we arrived here, we kind of, got into an argument and I ran away. Jason chased after me but it triggered a building collapse and made so much noise it attracted all the undead in the area." Tim explained, which caused much of the Justice League members to signal pitied expressions at him. "We got to the Hall of Justice, but the horde followed us. Jason set up the zeta tube for me, but while he was making sure I got up, he was bit."
Next to him, Superman ducked his head. A lot of the members wore mournful expressions now. Almost everyone except for Batman.
"It's only been 5 minutes. I'm going to get him."
That got the League's attention. "Br- Batman. You can't. The Hall is swarmed with them and he's surely-"
"We have the cure from the Atlantean scientists. This is the perfect time to see if it works. Get a medbay room ready." Batman said in a grave voice.
"I know that you want to save him, but he's gone-" Superman tried before being cut off.
"I can save him. Move. Now." That tiny bit of inflection must have moved something in Superman's mind. Tim thinks that it moved something in his too. All he heard was pure determination. They both moved out of the way.
"If I'm not back in more than five minutes, shut the zeta tube down."
After that Batman materialized down to Earth. The league got to work on setting things up. Martian Manhunter set up a five minute timer. It was excruciating for Tim to watch the time countdown, but he found he couldn't do anything else, in a literal sense.
Tim had watched the Dark Knight save Gotham, over and over again. Sometimes in a first hand account. He had the pictures to tell the stories, not just his words. If anyone could save Jason, it would be Batman, even if he didn't like Jason for one reason or another.
The timer counted down to one minute and Tim's heart was racing so fast he felt faint.
"It will be alright. You needn't worry so much about him." Martian Manhunter said from beside him. "The Batman will always protect those who reside in his nest."
"Born n' raised in Gotham, The Narrows, kid." Tim suddenly remembered Jason had told him, in a very true Gotham accent. Batman did always protect Gotham residents, no matter where he was.
It didn't even get to seconds before the zeta tube began to whir in succession with the butterflies of hope in Tim's chest, and before him-- stood Batman, and Jason, cradled into his arms. Tim wanted to rush forward and ask many questions, but Batman stormed forward to the supposed medbay before either Martian Manhunter or Tim could say a word.
Later, when Tim would be sat in the "Justice League lounge room for official Justice League members" (Flash's words, not his) with a glass of water and crackers, and band-aids for his cuts. Batman would approach. It was hard to tell under the cowl and endless kevlar armor, but he stood awkwardly- as if he was nervous.
"Jason will be alright. You have my word." He said in a low, still gravely voice, reserved for young children apparently.
Tim gripped the glass of water, real tight. "He said that you didn't like him. But wouldn't tell me why." He blurted out instead of "Thank you, sir."
"I never disliked Jason. I loved him like a son. He...disappeared for a long time and I believed him to be gone. When you two were first able to contact us from the Batcave, I didn't think it would be possible to hear his voice again. He must think that I... abandoned him. I did not. I would never." There was a pause, enough for Tim to think he had never heard Batman speak so much. "Thank you, Tim Drake for bringing my son to me again."
This time, Tim said: "You're welcome, sir."
"Call me Batman."
It was a corny line but it made Tim smile a bit.
----
When Jason opened his eyes, he immediately closed them again. Florescent lights beamed at him, buzzing even behind his eyelids. When he opened them again, it was a less aggressive feeling.
He was in a hospital of some sort, a surprisingly clean on. His heartbeat quietly beeped on a monitor beside him, and there was an IV in his arm, most of the injuries on his arm bandaged.
Then, by his side was Bruce, in the cowl. He was reading.
"You've been out for two days." He said, before Jason could even open his mouth to try and ask. "You and Tim got to the Watchtower. You sent Tim but you didn't come with him. The horde overpowered you and one of the creatures bit you on your forearm." At that, Jason sucked in a breath. He had been bit? Then why was he even here-
"I went back through the zeta tube to grab you. We administered a cure the Atlanteans put together and it worked. You're safe. There's no trace of it in your bloodstream and we'll keep testing it."
Bruce hadn't abandoned him, if anything he'd saved Jason. He didn't know what to say back.
"I don't know how or why you're here, alive, Jason. But I want you to know that I love you, son."