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Tim takes a deep breath, running his hands down his face, his sharp elbows aching with how hard he was pressing them into the desk in front of him.
It had been a long day, week, month, and it wasn’t over just yet. There was still so goddamn much to do, and it was getting harder and harder to trust that anyone one else was able to do what he could.
It took forever to convince the damn board members that they should start budgeting for reparations to the Narrows. The affordable housing project, replacing the streetlamps, fixing the roads, sweeping the sidewalks, fixing the old park and getting new play equipment put in.
The moment the numbers went over two thousand dollars, which wasn’t even that much when you looked at the salary of the interns that worked at W.E, they had all balked.
He could force them, but he had an image to maintain, one he needed for them to listen to him on other matters and not go behind his back and start trying to remove him from his spot as acting CEO while ‘Brucie’ recovered from ‘falling from a horse’.
While Bruce recovered from an encounter as Batman with Killer Croc two months ago, one that had had him in a wheelchair, that still had him in crutches.
He’d left the spot of acting CEO to Tim, because he had experience, and Tim had accepted dutifully, because he always has, even if he much rather preferred his position as head of R&D.
Which Damian still got a kick out of, now that their relationship was better and they were actually brothers, saying it was ‘Ironic that RR likes being head of R-and-D’
“Tim? You awake in here bud?”
He groaned, loudly, but looked up from his hands to spot the terror twins of their family standing in the doorway to his, Bruce’s, his office “I hate the board, I really do, they’re all old rich farts who only care about their own interests and not those of Gotham and her citizens”
Cass wrinkled her nose, Jason scrunched his eyebrows, and both stiffened a little.
‘Fucking creepy, why’d we allow them to start calling themselves twins? That just upped the creepy factor. It was a terrible decision’
“What happened?” Jason asked, strolling forward and dropping himself unceremoniously into one of the comfy, leather covered chairs on the other side of the desk, Cass taking the other one, though much more gracefully.
“They didn’t even finish the budgeting of the Narrows Reparation Project, which I had barely convinced them to start doing in the first place, before they balked at barely two thousand, and now they want to back out of it entirely”
“What the fuck? Seriously…? Dude, you’ve gotta be shitting me”
“I wish I was, and y’know I’d force them, but they might start going behind my back, and I really can’t have that”
“I’ll talk to them” Jason said, growling just slightly, his hand reaching for one of the lollipops in the dish on the desk “I’m legally alive, now, and I’m taking over as head of Grandma’s charity foundation, I could-“
“No, Jason, it’s…They’d say you’re too emotionally attached to the situation because of your background, it’s stupid, but it’s...it’s just how they work”
“Then I will” Cass stated softly and briskly, as was her way, straightening in her chair and lifting her chin “I’ll talk to them, I’m supposed to learn how, anyways”
Both boys grinned at Cass, because she really was the best, and Tim nodded “Okay, okay I called a recess, because I needed to gather something from my office-“
“You needed a break from their stupidity” Jason broke in, grinning even wider, his eyes sparkling.
“Yeah, shit they’re so dumb, I can’t wait for their retirement so I can replace them with competent people, but anyways, they should all be there. So, Cass…”
She grinned, and stood in one fluid movement “Let’s go”
Tim nodded, and, with a wave to Jason, the two of them left the office and started walking towards the meeting room, the firm click, click, click of Cassandra Wayne’s heels on the floor of the hallway drawing heads from offices and cubicles alike, and Tim couldn’t help but feel grateful that Bruce was having him show Cass the ropes so that she could take over as CEO one day instead of him.
And it all reminded him of three fundamental things.
Tim Drake-Wayne had Power.
Tim Drake-Wayne had Family.
Tim Drake-Wayne had Networks.