Chapter Text
Tim had a plan. Like all of his plans, it was a great plan, and like many of his plans this one was ready to be put into motion quickly. Within two days of his father’s death, Operation Don’t Let Bruce Adopt Tim Out Of Obligation was officially a go (a shorter name was still being workshopped).
Like many schemes, this one’s success hinged on a little bit of luck, and that was in the timing. Bruce was off planet at the same time his father finally flatlined out of his years-long coma. Alfred was ill—not severe enough to be worrying but unpleasant enough to keep him abed all of that morning, ensuring that Tim was the one who received the call from the hospital and then later from the lawyer. Dick was planning to come over from Bludhaven on the weekend, but Tim planned to have made himself scarce around the manor by then. Had anyone been around to notice any suspicious behavior during the immediate period of what should have been Tim’s grief of losing a parent, he did have contingencies, but it was nice not to have to remotely engineer some sort of mysterious new case to distract Batman and Nightwing, or to play up the tears and ask for ‘alone time’ to get Alfred off his back.
Another aspect of the Operation’s success was Tim’s meticulous planning. It’s not like he hadn’t seen this coming, ok? After Jack Drake had been comatose for a month or so with no immediate signs of improvement, Tim had grown tired of vague answers from medical professionals and took it upon himself to become an expert on Jack’s condition. After spending hours upon hours poring over medical journals and neurology textbooks and unpublished clinical trial data and even hacking into Jack’s hospital records just to interpret the results himself in case the doctors had missed anything, he’d come out on the other end with the only reasonable conclusion: his father was alive in only the strictest sense of that word, and when the situation finally changed it would not be for the better. So! After a week or so of letting that sink in and grieving in private, he did the only logical thing and started preparations for that inevitable after.
He knew Bruce well enough by now to understand that a Robin without any legal guardian meant immediate adoption. And it wouldn’t be because Bruce wanted to be Tim’s dad or anything like that; no, it would be because Tim had shoved himself into Batman’s world and made himself a liability, and liabilities needed to be protected. But Tim could protect himself just fine, and he just couldn’t let an official adoption happen. It would be an insult to Jason’s memory and to the whole Wayne family’s grief to make any ties between him and them permanent and legally binding. He refused to take advantage of the situation like that to live out some creepy, stalkerish daydream of becoming Tim Wayne. No, he had more self control than that.
First was the matter of falsifying his father’s Will. Getting into the lawyer’s system in order to change the digital copy to suit his purposes was child’s play. Switching out the physical copy with a convincing forgery so that they matched was a little harder, but when did the need for a little late night breaking and entering stop a Robin? Never, was the answer. In just a few short weeks after he accepted his status as a de facto orphan, he was all set to become the legal responsibility of one “Eddie Drake” in the very likely event of his father’s untimely passing.
Next was establishing a good story for why Bruce would have never heard of Tim’s long lost relative. He decided that Eddie would be Jack’s significantly younger paternal half brother, who’d been kept away from the family in an attempt to preserve his grandparent’s rocky marriage. The historic stigma of divorce and out of wedlock children combined with Tim’s family’s well known old fashioned views should be enough for Bruce to accept that without question. But why would Jack leave his only son in the care of an unwanted brother he barely knew? Well, it was here that Tim had to call upon some previously underutilized skills of creative writing. It took awhile, but eventually there was a lengthy and well documented email correspondence that spanned back a decade, starting with an awkward attempt by a guilty adult Jack to reach out to his estranged younger brother after their father’s passing, and progressing into an intermittent but warm exchange as the two brothers filled each other in on their progressing lives.
And Eddie turned out to be cool. He graduated from a nondescript boarding school a year early and skipped going to college because he had better things to do with his time. Jack felt bad about poor little Eddie being left out of their father’s Will, so he had offered to split the inheritance, and with the money Jack sent, Eddie decided to become a free spirit without worrying about something as mundane as employment. He climbed mountains and crossed oceans on a whim. Eddie spent years backpacking his way through Europe and Asia, and connected with Jack through the history of some of the Drake’s dig sites. Whenever Tim decided the record of a dig was too spotty to contradict the narrative, Eddie even popped in to visit the adventurous couple, and eventually started including teasing remarks for Jack to pass along to his favorite big-sister-in-law Janet as their relationship grew too. Eddie always asked Jack for updates on Tim, which Jack readily and fondly supplied. Jack occasionally invited Eddie to Gotham for a visit, but Eddie always had an excuse for staying away.
Towards the end of the correspondence, Jack started to push the issue, and Eddie ended up admitting that he was scared to get too close, too used to being part of their family, because he had been keeping a secret—he was bisexual. Jack had a hard time reconciling that idea with his upbringing, but because he loved his brother and wanted him to feel welcome, he and Janet both sought out resources and educated themselves on LGBTQ+ issues. Jack and Eddie worked through the hurt and came out on the other end stronger than ever. Eddie agreed to swing by Gotham the next time they were home in order to catch up and be introduced to Tim, but alas. Janet never made it home after that, and Jack’s return was only physical. Poor Eddie had to learn of the events on the news and sent out a stilted conciliatory email to his grieving nephew Tim. A tragic end to the story of the estranged brothers Drake.
Tim may have gotten a little bit carried away with backstory, and some of Eddie’s adventures may have bordered on the edge of wish fulfillment, but he didn’t think Bruce or maybe Barbara would decide to read more than a few of the emails to verify the history if they were at all suspicious, so it was probably ok. Once the story was set, there was the simple task of establishing a fake legal identity that Tim constructed in one afternoon, and finally there was only one thing left to do: cast his Eddie.
Finding the perfect actor proved to be the biggest challenge. It had to be someone who was desperate enough for work to do something as objectively unethical as pretending to be the legal guardian of an orphaned fifteen year old while also not being the sort of creep who would get too enthusiastic about getting technical legal power over a teenage boy. It wasn’t like Tim was worried about his physical safety, since he had all of his Robin training and could defend himself in a pinch, but he couldn’t risk having to get rid of “Uncle Eddie” since it wasn’t like he could just recast once he started the charade. Bruce would notice if his uncle suddenly turned into a different person. Batman might only have a distant, professional relationship with Tim, but he wasn’t dumb.
He kept an eye on the names and faces that moved in and out of Gotham City’s unemployment office, reading over resumes and stalking social media profiles to find his perfect mark. A couple of times, he even brushed off his old Gotham-City-Stalker routine to observe a promising candidate in person. It had to be someone who could play a believable twenty four; a passing resemblance to Jack and Tim was a plus, but not required. Any prior acting experience sent a candidate towards the top of Tim’s list, any past connection to one of Gotham’s Rogues or too serious a felony charge sent them down to the bottom. And also, it had to be someone that Tim thought could really get the Eddie character, who could bring his cool uncle to life and do him justice. His meticulous selection process ended up working against him in the end, however, because before Tim had locked in his uncle, Jack Drake’s failing body finally followed his mind.
That sent Tim into a scramble. The lawyer assigned to his father’s estate couldn’t find any contact information for Eddie, and upon reading that Jack had left his son, a townhouse property, and a large sum of money to this mysterious half brother, she had reached out to Tim asking if he could reach his uncle and put them in touch. Tim had promised they’d hear from Eddie within two days, which meant he had to find a proper Eddie immediately. See, he couldn’t finish up the fake ID and Passport until he had a picture, which wouldn’t be possible until he had an Eddie to take a picture of. And before the lawyer would surrender the townhouse keys and bank account access, she’d need to see Eddie Drake’s photo IDs along with a living, breathing man there to match. Not that Tim needed legal permission to get into either of those things, but having it above board would be best for standing up to any of Batman’s scrutiny.
Alfred was dozing, so Tim taped a note to his bedroom door informing him about the hospital calling with the news and saying he was going to take a walk to gather his thoughts. Then he jogged to the nearest bus stop and began his journey into the heart of Gotham. He had an idea of where he could find his current top candidate.
Ewan Hartley, a twenty five year old ex-theater major and college dropout who was on the verge of losing his apartment after being laid off from a department store six months ago, had an interview for an open position at one of the docks that afternoon. Everyone knew that in Gotham working at the docks was basically a guarantee of getting roped into a Rogue’s schemes sooner or later, either as a participant or unfortunate casualty, so Tim hoped that his unorthodox acting job offer would be seen as a well timed boon. What he had not anticipated was that he’d arrive at the docks with his please-be-my-fake-Uncle speech all polished and ready to go, only for Hartley to be a no show. The sheer nerve, and after sweet and caring Janice at the unemployment office had called in a favor from her ex-boyfriend, the harbormaster's cousin, to get him that interview, too! It wasn’t like he had any other prospects—he’d pissed off the management at McDonalds. McDonalds!
Tim was leaving the area of the docks in a huff and trying to figure out the best way to track down Hartley when he spotted him. Across the street in casual conversation with a well-known drug dealer, looking larger, older, and far more alive than anyone had last seen him, was none other than Jason. Fucking. Todd. He appeared to have filled out a lot, now carrying a build similar to Bruce’s, and he’d given himself a little white streak in his curly black hair, but to someone who’d dedicated a not insignificant portion of his early teen years to photographing the second Robin, that jawline was unmistakable.
Operation Find Uncle Eddie was temporarily put on hold; Operation Stalk Jason Todd Who Either Faked His Death For Some Reason Or Was Resurrected And Is Back In Gotham But Didn’t Tell Anyone suddenly took precedence. Over the course of the afternoon and into the evening hours, Tim learned a few things. Jason appeared to be squatting in a condemned building. Jason didn’t seem to have a lot of money, but he had a lot of weapons stashed away in said condemned building. Jason was clearly up to something, and it involved several of Gotham’s gangs, but Tim hadn’t gotten close enough to any conversations to figure out exactly what. And based on the look of anger and disgust on his face when a little boy wearing a homemade Robin costume ran into him on the sidewalk, he had some lingering issues with his own history as a crimefighter in this city. Which, fair enough. He’d either died or almost died while Robin, which had to have been traumatic, and Tim knew his relationship with Bruce had been getting strained to begin with even before all of that. Some amount of lingering angst was to be expected.
But come on. Jason was Robin, the real one, the one Batman had wanted, the one Bruce called his son. Whatever issues Jason still had could be worked through. After all, he’d already overcome the hardest obstacle in the way of his reconciliation with Bruce (being dead). Perhaps all he needed was a push in the right direction… and perhaps Tim just needed to… to pivot in his Uncle Eddie plans, and kill two birds with one stone.
Before he could really decide if the new plan was doomed to fail or not, Jason made the decision for him. As twilight faded into darkness, Jason ducked into an alleyway, and Tim hurried to avoid losing him in case he went up a fire escape and disappeared on the rooftops, cause Robin and all. As soon as he peeked his head around the corner, he was unceremoniously yanked by the front of his shirt into the shadowy alleyway and shoved against a brick wall with the blade of a knife settling under his chin.
“Why the fuck is a rich little snot like you running around Crime Alley after me all night? Are you a moron? Got some kinda death wish?” he snarled. It took all of Tim’s self control not to grin, because his childhood hero was standing in front of him and was absolutely real and alive. Instead, he went for a look of pitiful fear.
“Are… aren’t you Ewan Hartley?” he stuttered out, adding a quaver to his voice for effect.
Jason stared down at him. “…What?”
Tim cleared his throat. “Um. I'm looking for Mr. Hartley ‘cause I need a good actor, and I heard he used to do plays at Gotham U. Some guy pointed you out and told me you were him. Was he wrong?”
Jason’s eyes narrowed, but he lowered his knife and took a step back. “You got bad info. My name’s Peter Smith. Hartley got mugged last night, and it was pretty bad. He’s in the hospital.”
Tim’s small cry distress was genuine, because Hartley had still been his plan B. “Oh no! Is he going to be ok? Do you think he’ll be out soon?”
Jason scoffed. “Do I look like a fucking nurse? I have no idea. Sorry, kid, you’re probably gonna have to find someone else for your little… Shakespeare in the car park skit or whatever you’re up to.”
Tim’s responding look of crushed anguish was convincing enough for Jason to do a double take, which was good, because he didn’t want to escalate to fake tears until absolutely necessary.
“You’re being really weird, kid, and I don’t have time for this tonight. Why don’t you scurry on home to Bri—to wherever the hell you came from.”
“I just… Mr. Hartley was my only hope,” Tim said, trying to make his voice sound like he was choking back sobs. “I can’t reach my uncle and if I don’t—if I can’t get someone else to sign the papers for me, I—” and this next part was the riskiest part, so he tensed his muscles in case a quick getaway was necessary—“I’m going to end up adopted by Bruce Wayne.”
Jason reeled back like he’d been punched in the face. “What? ”
Tim quickly pressed on with his frenzied explanation to prevent Jason from getting another word in, or from running away. “I know he will try, and probably succeed if my uncle doesn’t show up soon, and I can’t let that happen—it’s been fine being fostered by him while my dad’s been in a coma, but my dad died this morning, and now I’m a black haired, blue eyed orphan. Mr. Wayne has an addiction you see, an adoption addiction, and as someone who cares about his well-being, I simply can’t stand by and be an enabler. I’m legally supposed to go to my Uncle Eddie’s care, but Eddie is somewhere in a remote jungle and sooner or later Mr. Wayne will cite abandonment and push for permanent custody, I just know it, and—”
“Kid, this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Jason interrupted, crossing his arms and scowling at Tim. “There’s no such thing as an ‘adoption addiction’… but whatever your real reasons are, I can respect not wanting to get pulled into being some rich fuck’s latest charity case when you have any other option, so despite my best judgement, I’m willing to let this little stalker bit slide.”
“Oh, thank you, Mr. Smith! So you’ll help me?” Tim said brightly.
Jason frowned. “I never said that.”
Tim turned up the pleading notes in his voice and widened his eyes into the ‘pitiful’ zone. “Please? Listen, I have it all worked out, I can get fake IDs for you by eight o’clock tomorrow morning, and I’d even let you stay in Eddie’s townhouse with me and use his bank account for a while. All you’d have to do is sign a few documents under Eddie’s name, and just sort of be around sometimes as an adult human person. Surely you could manage that?”
Jason kept staring at him incredulously, so Tim decided to raise the stakes and pull on Jason’s instincts as a hero, because Tim was sure they were still in there somewhere. “I mean, if, if you don’t want to, or can’t, I totally understand. Do you know of anyone else who might be looking for a cushy job? I’m sure there are plenty of people around here who would be happy for a nice place to stay and guaranteed meals in exchange for filling in as my legal guardian for awhile—”
“Fuck! No! Don’t do that—shit, kid, are you serious? You’re just going to invite some random stranger from Crime Alley to come live with you? Alone? Do you have any idea just how much of a bad idea that is?”
Tim couldn’t help but roll his eyes. He knew there were some risks of course, but it wasn’t that bad of an idea. “I have a bunch of self defense training, I can handle myself.” And his bedroom door in the townhouse had several locks inside the door as well as some other more inventive security measures, so really, he wasn’t concerned about anything like that.
Jason shook his head and swore a few times under his breath before he took a deep breath and scowled at Tim again. “How temporary are we talking?”
“Uh.” Tim blinked. He’d been prepared for at least five more minutes of acting pitiful and pleading his case. But... victory? He’d take it. “A month, maybe? Eddie won’t be out of reach forever.” If he needed more than that to convince Jason to go back to Bruce, well. He was an expert in inventing reasons for a parental figure’s continued absence.
“…And where’s this townhouse? I’m not moving out to goddam Bristol.”
“It’s in the Village,” Tim said quickly. “It’s pretty nice. Two bed, two and a half bath, we wouldn’t even have to share. I’ll cover groceries and utilities and everything—I mean. Eddie will. It’s his money, he just lets me use it.”
“Right.” Jason was silent for a long moment, and Tim held his breath until finally Jason threw his head back and groaned. “Fine. I’ll… help. Just for a bit, to make sure you don’t end up dead in a ditch somewhere, because that’s exactly where this little stunt should lead you. You said you’re making fakes? You’ll need my photo.”
Tim brightened. “Yeah! We can pop on over to the high school, there’s a plain wall there and night security is pretty lax—”
“No need.” Jason pulled a wallet from his pockets and rifled around until he pulled out a small headshot that was clearly intended for making his own fake IDs. He raised an eyebrow at Tim, as if inviting a challenge to why he had such a thing handy, but Tim just took it and pursed his lips.
“Do you have any more, with a different outfit and possibly hairstyle? I was going to make a passport and a driver's license, and it looks suspicious if they’re the same.”
Jason closed his eyes and breathed out loudly through his nose before shaking his head. “If you’re so good at forgery, doctor it.”
Tim frowned. “Fine, I’ll manage. Do you have a pen or something? I can write down the address of the lawyer’s office. There’s a coffee shop across the street we can meet at.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Just tell me where it is.” Tim told him, and he nodded. “I know it. I’ll be there. See you tomorrow, I guess—hey, you never told me your name.”
“Tim. Tim Drake. And starting tomorrow, Mr. Smith, you’ll become Eddie Drake. Sound good?”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Whatever. When do I move in?”
“Officially, tomorrow, probably. We’ll say you got into town late tonight and after we connect tomorrow morning, we’ll go do the official paperwork with the lawyer. Of course if you need a few days to get your stuff together, no one would question it if Eddie has to head back to where he was before this for a few days to wrap up his business. You should probably be back for my dad’s funeral, for appearances sake. I mean he is your pretend brother.”
Jason raised an eyebrow. “When’s the funeral?”
Tim shrugged one shoulder. “Not sure, haven’t planned it yet. It can be whatever works for you.”
“How accommodating,” Jason said dryly. “But I probably shouldn't go anyway. Bruce Wayne is your foster dad right now, right? I’m sure he’ll want to be there. And I won’t get into detail, but I’ve met him a few times before and if he sees me… he’ll know I’m not your Uncle Eddie. I’m not willing to risk it.”
Tim furrowed his brow. “Bruce didn’t even like my dad, why would he want to come?” Bruce had been at his mom’s funeral without necessarily liking her, sure, but that was because Tim had been too overwhelmed by the suddenness of the accident to figure out how to plan a funeral and Bruce had taken pity on him and stepped in to make arrangements. It only made sense that he be there to ensure everything ran smoothly at the event he’d planned. Yes, Tim had also appreciated his steady presence beside him during it all, but that was just a bonus, and one Tim did not expect to receive again. “If you’re worried about it, I’ll stipulate that it’s family only, and that’ll be that. He was in a coma for so long that anyone who actually wanted to say goodbye has already gone to his bedside and made peace with it. Including me. This is mostly going to be for appearances.”
Jason was staring at him again, for a really long time. Finally he took another step back and shook his head. “Whatever. If you can guarantee that Wayne won’t be there, I’ll try to make it. Real Uncle Eddie had better provide the cash for a funeral suit though, I don’t have anything appropriate.”
“Oh, of course! Anything you want, I’m happy to get. I mean, within reason. Uncle Eddie probably can’t afford like… a luxury yacht. But he’s been very smart with his investments and the house is all paid off, so we should have enough to be comfortable.”
“Rich little moron,” Jason muttered while he shook his head again. “Fine. I have shit to do tonight still, so we can talk more tomorrow. Coffee’s on real Eddie too.” Without another word, he turned and left, disappearing down the street into the night.
Tim leaned back against the wall and grinned. This… this was amazing. Ok, yes, his long term Uncle Eddie plan needed to be scrapped, because it wasn’t like having Jason Todd cast as his fake uncle was sustainable for over two years like he’d originally been aiming for. He could keep Bruce, Dick, and Alfred off their backs for some time, but he knew they were bound to find out eventually. But that was actually ok, because as long as he was able to convince Jason he should reconcile with Bruce before then, he would be a success. Bruce wouldn’t have to adopt Tim so that Batman could keep his Robin, because he’d have the real Robin back, and his real son. Yes, Tim himself would be left to his fate in Gotham’s foster care system, but he was confident he would survive. He wouldn’t be Robin anymore by then, but he’d still know enough to watch out for himself, even disappear if necessary. A financially independent and absolutely eighteen-year-old Alvin Draper could move to Bludhaven; maybe Dick would even want to hang out sometimes. It would be… it would be good. Yes. It would be good. He’d miss being Robin and living with the Waynes, but they weren’t his. Those things were for Jason, he’d never deluded himself into thinking otherwise.
And if something bitter rose in his throat at the thought of taking off Robin’s mask for good and bidding one final farewell to Bruce… he pushed it down. No one would ever know that he’d gone and gotten himself emotionally attached, that was his burden to bear, not theirs. Anyway, he had work to do.
Operation Hire Jason To Play Uncle Eddie And Convince Him To Reunite With Bruce And Go Back To Being Robin While Avoiding Foster Care For As Long As Possible was officially a go!
…He’d workshop a shorter name on the way back to Wayne Manor.