Work Text:
Tim
There’s nothing better than the gentle hum of the lab equipment during a late-night lab session in an empty lab. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the few things that can overpower the five cups of coffee I’ve had and lure me to fall asleep.
I’ve been accused of being a nerd multiple times in my life, so I’ll never say it out loud, but the sound of a buzzing microcentrifuge spinning chemical compounds, or the ting of glass beakers settling on the drying rack creates the melody of my favorite lullaby. But in all honesty, I really shouldn’t fall asleep in the lab. For one, I don’t want to be the guy that’s literally asleep on the job. And also, it’s Wayne Tech lab, there’s more than a dozen things that could kill me if my hand nudges them off the table while I’m asleep.
I blink my eyes aggressively to muster enough strength to finish the last tasks for the night. I don’t have Red Robin patrol for the next two days so I can actually catch up on some elusive sleep.
Even in my half-asleep state I can see the reflection of the Red Hood in the row of glass test tubes lined up on the lab bench. He’s wearing his full vigilante suit, but his weapons aren’t drawn so I don’t go into a defensive fighting stance when I swivel around in my chair. I give him a yawn instead.
“Hood?” I ask.
“Tim?” he responds.
There’s a long stretch of ambient lab sounds until Jason gets to his point.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“That’s interesting,” I say as I go back to mixing chemicals, “I know you have a kill-on-site rule if any of the team cross the border of Crime Alley or any of your other territories, but I didn’t think Wayne Tech Labs is considered your territory as well.”
Jason and I get along really well these days, but it still makes me uneasy when I have my back to him.
The sound of him unlatching his helmet causes my shoulders to lower—tension easing a bit—and the reflection of Jason in the test tubes smirks at me, because of course he noticed.
“Look, Tim, I need a favor,” His voice sounds a lot less intimidating without his helmet’s vocal distorter, “I need to go away for a few days in the near future, and I need someone to look after the business.”
“You want to be a temporary Crime Lord?!”
A test tube slips out of my hand and shatters on the floor. It’s a good thing that the entire floor is empty because my question echoes really loudly.
Jason winces, “Well, no. You’d be… um actually, yeah. You wanna do it?”
I pick up the glass shards carefully with my hands.
“Don’t you have an understudy of something?”
“Nah. My old second-in-command was dealing drugs on the side, so I had to turn that asshole to the cops, and his girlfriend was my third-in-command, so things got awkward—you know, it was like a ‘are you ride or die with your boyfriend’ or ‘are you loyal to me’ kind of situation, so that was a thing. Anyway, the only person I trust more than you, is Dick—don’t tell him that—but if I gave the offer to Dickie, he’d turn my criminal enterprise into a bunch of law-abiding boy scouts by the end of the first day.”
I raise an eyebrow, “You know who my father is. This might be just the gentle push I need to become a supervillain. This could be my supervillain origin story.”
Jason leans down, and I assume it’s to help pick up glass, but it’s to look me in the eye. He gives me the most genuine look I’ve seen in my life—and I work with Batman so that’s saying something.
“Neither one of us are like our fathers. And if I thought there was a shred of that insane clown in any part of you, I would have taken you out a long time ago.”
“Thanks. It’s nice to know that I have an accountability buddy.”
“So does that mean you’ll be substitute Crime Lord for a few days?”
I nod as I pick up the last piece of glass.
He clears his throat, “You wanna talk about it over dinner or something? You’ve been a hermit in the lab so I’m sure you haven’t had anything to eat.”
“A business dinner with the Red Hood? If I refuse, you’ll cut off my head and add it to your duffle bag of heads.”
“That’s an urban legend,” Jason says with a laugh, “But no one believes me when I tell them, so who am I to stop the rumors.”
I carry a stack of petri dishes to the walk-in refrigerator. I carefully stack them on the shelf when I hear Jason walk up behind me. I spin on my heel as quick as I can, but the heavy metal door that I propped open is already closing.
I fire a batarang at the space where the door meets the frame, hoping to stop it from completely closing, but it’s too late. The metal projectile bounces off the metal door with a sharp clang.
“No!” I yell, slamming my hands against the door, but I know that it’s useless. The lab fridge has a seal that’s impossible to break from the inside.
“What’s going on?” Jason asks.
“The door locks from the inside,” I say with more of a whine in my voice than I intend.
“Well, that’s dumb. What kind of door does that?”
“There’s flammable material in here. In case of an explosion, it’s a failsafe so the door won’t blow open.”
Jason answers with a sharp inhale and I immediately know where I went wrong. His two triggers are explosions and trapped in a place he can’t escape. And I just pointed out that we’re in a place that has the potential for both.
I try to run a little damage control.
“But an explosion is highly unlikely. In fact, there isn’t anything in here that’s combustible.”
“You’re lying.”
I feel around the edges of the door, looking for cracks that I know won’t be there, “You wouldn’t know if I was.”
Jason holds up a bottle that has the words Caution Explosive on it. “This says explosive. It even has a picture of a fire and a skull.”
“The original substance isn’t in there. It’s just the bottle we use to store it.”
He gives me an eyebrow raise, “You’re telling me that one of the most advanced science labs in the country stores chemicals the same way I store leftover mashed potatoes in an empty butter container? Yeah, I don’t buy it.”
I lean against the pressure sealed door and rub my hand over my face. There are three things that could happen.
Thing one: Jason will freak out and initiate his Pit Madness, killing me in a fury of blind rage.
Thing two: We’ll be trapped overnight, and Jason will get bored enough to kill me in a fury of bored rage
Thing three: I’m not sure, but in some way, I end up dead due to some kind Jason induced rage.
Jason starts to pace while growling, “Fix this, genius.”
I start to problem solve out loud, “The door has an airtight seal, but there’s a vent in the corner by the ceiling to allow for air to flow inside, so we aren’t at risk of suffocation. The vent’s too small to climb through. It also leads to a fan that I couldn’t get past anyway. The last security patrol of the building was two hours ago, so no one is coming to check the lab until first shift tomorrow morning.”
Jason groans, but I continue.
“Communication is disabled so there’s no way to contact anyone on the outside by way of internet or comms. I’m not scheduled for patrol tonight, so the team won’t notice any lack of communication on my end. The interior temperature isn’t cold enough for risk of hyperthermia, so the smart thing would be to conserve energy and wait until the morning for a rescue.”
Jason picks up his helmet—I didn’t notice he brought it in with him—and launches it at the wall, “I’m not just sitting her and doing nothing. I’m not going along with that plan.”
“Staying calm is the best course of action for both of us. I know that being in an enclosed space isn’t ideal, but if we just try to—
“No! If you want to sit on your ass and do nothing, go ahead, but I’m getting us out of here.”
“Jason, there aren’t any weak spots in a structure that’s built to withstand an explosion.”
“Stop saying explosion,” Jason yells, launching a metal rolling cart at the door.
As expected, the door doesn’t even dent, but unexpectedly, the wheel breaks free from the metal cart and ricochets off the control panel on the wall. This causes a loud beep and the vent next to the air vent start to release a white, snowy mist.
I race over to the panel and frantically press the override, but the damage to the keypad is too extensive and my inputs are useless.
I turn around so I can shut my eyes and bang the back of my head against the wall.
“Did I do something wrong?” Jason asks.
I force my eyes open, but I can barely manage more than a painful squint.
“If by ‘something wrong’ you mean, did you accidentally turn on the high cool setting, then yeah, you did that.”
“How bad is that?” he asks with a hint of guilt.
“Well, the samples we store in here will inevitably go out of stability and months of work will be ruined by flash freezing. So that sucks.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Also, there’s a high possibility that we’ll freeze to death.”
“What?! You should have said that part first.”
“It’s alright. I have an untested theory that the Lazarus Pit won’t let you die from violent means again, so really the only downside is that Batman will lose another Robin. At least this time it won’t be his son. It’ll just be you know… me?”
Jason narrows his eyes, “What the fuck? You seriously think Bruce will be casually okay with your death? And for that matter, how could you think I would be okay with you dying? I just told you that I’m giving you the temporary keys to my kingdom. What part of that makes you think I would be okay with you—” He takes a deep breath, to fight off the swelling rage.
The cold mist continues to blast through the vent, and I shiver. I’m wearing a t-shirt under my lab coat and I’m already starting to feel the effects of the dip in temperature.
Jason sighs and takes off his leather jacket, draping it over my shoulders. I try to refuse it, but he shakes his head, “So far, you’re right about your theory. I’m not even that cold.”
The next hour consists of Jason searching the room for anything that can help us escape. I know that it’s fruitless, but I join him, because it gives me something to do rather than pace in a circle. At least I can keep my hands busy. The hands that are wearing Jason’s borrowed gloves.
An hour later, Jason and I have given up on searching for exits. He’s switched to cleaning his weapons, by dismantling them and re-mantling them again.
I’m passing the time by jogging in place to keep my body temperature up. It started as jogging, but it’s turned into bouncing on my toes. I’m teetering between trying to stay warm and being too exhausted to stay awake.
Jason and I haven’t talked in the last two hours, so I break the silence with a joke.
“I could really use some coffee right now. It would be iced coffee, but at least it would keep me awake.”
Jason gives a Bruce-like snort as a response. So much for a two-sided conversation.
Another silent minute passes before I break the silence by collapsing against the rack of chemical bottles.
Jason springs to his feet and catches me before I fall completely to the ground, but now that I’m not jogging or hopping, I realize how much I’m trembling when I’m forced to stay still.
“…ucking answer me! Tim!”
“Sorry. I th-think I blacked out for sec.”
My teeth are chattering so hard, I’m not sure if Jason can understand me.
My body’s trembling so much that Jason grits his teeth, “Hey, stay with me. Can you hear me? Are you—are you having a seizure?”
I shake my head, “Don thin so, m’jus cold.” My words slur as my eyelids start to get really, really heavy.
“No no no,” Jason shakes me harder, “Don’t you dare go to sleep. I’ll hold you against my body to warm you up if I have to. I’m not bluffing. I will absolutely do that if you even think about closing your eyes.”
I laugh and the Joker’s cackle seers through my skull. His laugh is more bone chilling than the arctic temperatures of the fridge that’s slowly draining the life out of me. The laughter goes on like a sadistic taunt and, like waking up from a nightmare, I become completely alert.
Jason notices the change in my demeanor, and he walks me over to the wall. He carefully maneuvers so I’m sitting next to him. I hug my knees to my chest, trying to conserve as much warmth as possible. I’m still trembling, but the cloudy sleepiness has faded.
Neither of us say anything for what feels like forever. Jason’s motionless the whole time, but I cycle from hugging my knees while trembling, to rocking back and forth to try to generate some kind of heat.
I keep one hand wrapped around my knees and lift the other to run my fingers through my hair. I use my teeth to take my glove off and when my fingers thread through my bangs, the snowy crystals that gathered in my hair scatter down around me.
I whimper and lean my head against Jason. His arm wraps around my whole body easily as he pulls me in closer.
“I’m scared, Jay.”
He holds me tighter, “You’re not alone.”
Those were the words that Jason wasn’t able to hear when he was slowly dying under the weight of an entire building.
“I’m sorry no one was there for you,” I say softly. So softly that I’m not sure he hears it.
But then there’s a slight tightening of the grip he has around me and I’m pretty sure he heard.
I start to cry, knowing that I can’t hold out for the rest of the night. I’m too cold. I’m too tired. The lure of sleep keeps trying to tempt me with a final sleep.
As eternal slumber tries to drown me, Jason’s voice cuts through, like a raft in the endless ocean, keeping me afloat.
“There were nights my mom wasn’t able to get the fix she needed, and withdrawal would hit her hard. Those nights, I had to stay awake and make sure to turn her head so she wouldn’t choke on her own vomit. I’d use my fist to pound on her chest to start her heart back up whenever she’d stop breathing. I was really young, so it was hard to stay awake. I had a few books, so I would read them to stay awake. I’d read them so many times that I practically have most of them memorized. So, here’s what we’re doing. You’re gonna listen as I start Storytime. And don’t you even think about falling asleep, cuz there’s a quiz at the end of every chapter. Your nerd ass doesn’t want to fail a quiz, right?”
I shake my head against his chest, and he starts with the first story. It’s the Tale of King Arthur.
I hang onto Jason’s words and only have to be nudged a few times when I start to drift.
At the end of each chapter, he gives me an oral quiz as promised. My lips are frozen and my teeth chatter too much to offer more than whines and mumbles, but Jason patiently waits for my streams of gibberish to end, before saying, “That’s correct. Next question.”
I fight against the hyperthermia and the relentless shivering to get to the end of each chapter so that I can mumble answers that Jason pretends are correct.
This goes on for the rest of the long night and when I whine and motion toward my head, he understands that I’m getting a cold induced migraine and he massages my scalp while continuing the tale.
At some point I mumble along while he’s reading because his voice is getting hoarse from talking for so many consecutive hours.
This becomes the new routine until suddenly he tenses up. I whimper as he lets go of me, leaning me against the wall.
“Stop whining,” he says with a laugh, “Our rescue arrived. Now excuse me while I put on my helmet, so that I can keep my secret identity secret. Is that alright with you?”
I try to say yes as hard as I can, but it comes out as ‘mmgh.’
Jason latches on his helmet and I try to focus my blurry eyes on him. He runs to the door, forcing me to shut my eyes against the swell of dizziness that his quick movement causes.
I can hear him pounding against the door and yelling as loud as his hoarse voice can allow. Thank God the door isn’t soundproof. I hear the latch from the outside click open and I feel my whole-body sag against the wall. I don’t have to be strong anymore. I can go to sleep now. Everything’s going to be okay.
The last thing I hear is Jason yelling my name, his voice distorted by the helmet.
_________________
The warmth of sheets and the weight of my favorite fuzzy blanket are the two perfect things to wake up to. I blink my eyes a few times to orient myself. I’m familiar enough with the Batcave medbay to know it, even through the haziness of coming back to consciousness.
“Jay?”
My lips aren’t frozen so what I’m saying in my head matches what I hear myself say out loud.
There’s rustling next to me, and Jason appears in my field of vision.
“Hey, you’re awake. How do you feel?”
“Um, my hands feel like they’re being ground into a bowl full of glass. I’m guessing that’s from the frostbite?”
“Yeah. Dr. Leslie said that it was it was second degree frostbite. You also had massive hypothermia. You’re gonna feel like crap for a few days, but nothing needs to be amputated.”
If the team doctor says I’m okay, then I guess I have nothing to worry about.
I try to sit up, “Are you alright too, Jay?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t going into shock like your cold ass, but my fingers were starting to get a little numb. I’m not invincible to the cold, but I wasn’t turning into a snowman like you either.” He looks at the floor, “And um, I’m sorry that I made a bad situation worse by activating the rapid cooling system.”
“You can make up for it by finishing the story.” I lay back down, letting my head hit the pillow.
“I will, but I’m done giving you freebies. This time you have to actually get the right answers.”
I close my eyes as Jason starts up right from where he left off.
I eagerly hang onto each word.