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Catwoman was Tim's favourite villain. She was the least likely to cause harm to civilians or infrastructure. She hadn't traumatised anybody in the family. She was witty and quick and had shown Tim how to do one of her moves once.
She was not a kind or caring teacher, but she was an efficient one. Tim learned faster from her than ever before, and for a while was considering joining her temporarily to learn all he could from her before returning to Bruce, but Bruce had not liked that idea at all, and had organised a family movie night immediately afterwards, for some reason. Tim got to pick the movie.
And cats loved her, which was usually a good sign.
Tim had noticed her hanging around one particular cat shelter quite a lot, and had looked into it further. Turns out it had been receiving regular donations of exorbitant amounts of money, with seemingly little to no justification. Tim had found that the shelter was run by a woman named Selina Kyle, and that Catwoman had been the one donating ridiculous amounts of money to its upkeep. Batman, the world's greatest detective, was Tim's mentor (and father!!!!!!), and Tim had put all of the training and tutelage that Bruce had imparted on him to use in this case. And he had figured out that Selina Kyle was Catwoman's sugarbaby.
Good for her.
All this said, Tim was pretty happy that he was fighting Catwoman, as happy as Tim could be when surrounded by artefacts in glass cases. A bit of a touchy subject for him. Not that Catwoman knew that, so Tim couldn't hold that against her.
Tim's family were very aware that the museum would not be in his Top 10 Favourite Places to Fight Villains, known as the T1FPFV among the Bat-Kids. Tim had tried to tell Dick that you don't shorten numbers to just their first digits in acronyms, but was unable to come up with an accurate response as to how numbers were actually meant to be dealt with in acronyms. Anyways, his family knew how museums got to him and so were being extra careful to check in on him.
Such as when Catwoman used her whip to pull one of Jay's legs out from underneath him, which tipped him backwards off of the balcony, causing him to fall a whole story, slamming into the marble floors, right by where Tim was standing. Jay landed on his back, in a way that would surely have hospitalised a regular human (regular meaning either not a vigilante or not made of stone, in this case). Jay turned to Tim and wheezed out "You feeling ok there, buddy? Need to head outside for a breather? We can handle it here."
It was sweet that they cared, but Tim could manage. Barely. But he could. And he would. So long as nothing else happened to throw him off.
Tim helped Jay up, and grappled up to help Dick in his fight. Jason seemed like he would be staying down for a minute or two to catch his breath, and Bruce and Damian were off dealing with the Riddler, who Catwoman had, for some baffling reason, decided to team up with.
Dick and Tim flowed together like water, each movement predicted and accounted for by the other. It was surely beautiful to behold, and thrilling to experience. Tim would kick upwards while Dick aimed to sweep Catwoman's legs out from underneath her, twisting his body to dodge Tim's retracting leg. Batman had trained them well, but this cohesion was born of many many hours spent on the mats together; "classic brotherly bonding" as Jason put it. Who knew that the easiest way to bond with your brothers was to all have an interest in crime fighting?
The fight was going incredibly well up until it wasn't. Catwoman was nothing if not elusive and landing a hit on her was proving to be more than Tim and Dick could manage. The reverse, however?
Well, Tim became very well acquainted with the heel of Catwoman's boot as it slammed into his forehead hard enough Tim actually heard a cracking noise. He would need to break into the emergency stores to fix that ASAP. As if all this wasn't enough, Tim followed his brother's footsteps, and fell from the balcony. However he did not land on the marble, but rather into a display case.
Tim was certainly not bloody happy to be back inside a display case. However, smashing it through (even with his body) was surprisingly cathartic. When Tim landed he could hear wood splintering noises, and felt crumbling behind him. He had definitely just ruined a priceless artefact. Hopefully nothing irreplaceable. Although, technically anything is irreplaceable, based on the fact that everything is inherently unique, and anything old enough to be in the... wait, what part of the museum is this?
Tim sat up and looked around. Urns with carved jackal, falcon and alligator heads stare back at him, along with an entire wall of (incredibly well preserved) hieroglyphs. Ancient Egypt then, cool. Tim lay back down, far too worn out to be of any good in the fight now, unless it seriously escalated. He would get up if Mr. Freeze showed up, but nobody lower on the Bat-Villain Threat Index (Bat-VTI) (it had apparently just been called the VTI prior to Dick's adoption) could convince you to move your behind.
The broken remains of whatever he was lying on was actually really comfortable. Tim might have to ask if it could be brought home, for him to sleep on, or maybe even just rest on for movie night. Dick likes to cuddle during movie nights, so he would have to join. Well, and Jason couldn't be left out. And then obviously Bruce would have to join. Tim was going to need a whole truckload of whatever the hell he was lying on. He would have to figure out the logistics of that later, right now he just... needed... a... nap...
---
Tim awoke in the Batmobile as it tore around a bend, tires screeching. This was probably the fastest he had ever seen the Batmobile go. God whatever emergency B needed to get to was probably really really serious. Tim should probably get up and help. He didn't.
---
He was just so sleepy. Surely he could be woken up when they reach their destination?
---
Awake again. Tim had the feeling that he had been drifting in and out for a while. There were loud voices which kept him up this time.
"Timmers, we are going to need you to hold on for just a bit longer. I'm driving as fast as I can."
"Hey, Baby Bird, you're going to be ok, ok? Not much left 'til the cave. B, what's wrong with him?"
"Seems like he is just unconscious, but he keeps regaining consciousness and losing it again, which is highly irregular. No apparent physical damage, and he isn't responding to any of our emergency food stores.
"C'mon TimTam, wake up and stay up. Alfred is going to kill me for the sheer number of laws I have broken, but getting you to the cave safely is more important, and will have the added benefit of distracting Alfred,"
Tim tried to stay awake, for their benefit, but couldn't do more than twitch a hand before he was pulled under again.
---
Tim was definitely in the cave now, and definitely on one of the medical bay beds. He was still tired, but he decided to force himself awake to figure out what had happened.
He opened his eyes.
Alfred was straightening up the bedsheets on another bed. They were almost certainly perfect already, but Alfred dealt with stress by fixing things, and when there was nothing to fix, he would "fix" anything he saw. Tim was sure that everything that could possibly be neatened in the medbay was already in pristine order.
Jason was pacing, and his mouth was moving, but no words forthcoming. One time you asked what he was saying and he responded that he just needed to think of something, sometimes he recited poems, mouthed song lyrics, and sometimes he prayed silently, although Tim only figured that one out when he got good at reading lips.
Dick had even more energy to burn than Jason, and Tim couldn't see him, only hear the sounds of a training dummy being utterly annihilated. He trusts that he will be called should anything happen.
Damian was performing kata within the medbay, still not quite trusting that his family would be ok if they were out of his sight. He was also possibly practising his kata as some sort of guarantee that this wouldn't happen again, in the 'if I am perfect and strong, I can protect my family, and if my family is injured it must be from my own failure' sort of way.
Bruce was brooding. Big surprise there. He was sitting next to Tim's bed looking off into the distance, his hands perfectly placed to grab onto tims own, but still an inch was left between them. Tim closed the distance.
Immediately Bruce snapped to attention, which caused a chain reaction of Alfred rushing off to the emergency mementos supply, and Jason calling for Dick who came rushing in.
Bruce gripped Tim's hand, "Tim, report. How are you feeling?"
"Tired, I could honestly go back to sleep-"
"No, not yet, we need to get you some food so you can heal whatever is wrong. You don't outwardly seem injured so it must be internal," Alfred handed over a ceramic mug, custom made to say 'World's Best Butler', Tim took it, but he wasn't feeling hungry.
"Dad, I don't think I can eat right now,"
Bruce looked torn between a delighted shock, and deep concern, but concern won out.
"Come on, just a little snack, please? It will help you, I promise."
Tim had never thought he would trust somebody enough to believe a promise, but he definitely did trust his family. He felt the mug, and all the memories and love and sentimentality inside of it, and he pulled that inside of him.
It didn't work. The mug tumbled from his hands, and the last thing he heard before losing consciousness was shattering ceramic.
---
Tim awoke again feeling a lot closer to normal, still feeling tired and sluggish, but a more normal post-patrol amount, if that patrol had involved fighting Killer Croc and also Ivy. So, not good per se but definitely better than before.
He opened his eyes and sat up. Dick was asleep in a cot next to him, above the sheets, like he had not intended on falling asleep, Damain curled up beside him and Bruce was exactly where he had been last time Tim woke up. He was also still brooding.
Tim endured the questioning of how he was feeling and another examination to make sure he was definitely for sure uninjured, then the same again when the commotion woke Dick up, and for a third time when Jason and Alfred joined. Damian was still asleep, he must have really overdone it on the kata.
When everybody (sans Damian) was assured he was fine, and definitely did not need anything to eat, he was finally told what had gone down in his absence.
Catwoman had surrendered when she found out how injured Tim was, a thief and a villain she may be, but she was not there to genuinely hurt people. Bruce and Damian had solved Riddler's riddles, but he had gotten away when they heard Jason panicking over the comms.
Tim had been unconscious in the display case (Tim still shuddered to think about being back in one of those, even briefly), but had woken up when shaken or called, but immediately fell asleep afterwards. He was rushed to the Batmobile, then to the Batcave, and the rest is history. Dick had snickered at the museum pun he had managed to sneak in there, but Tim seemed like the only one who appreciated it. He gave Dick a fist bump.
Nobody knew why Tim had been like that.
"I don't feel injured in any way, just sleepy and lethargic and Definitely Not Hungry.
Jason had squinted at that, pulling a nearby tablet onto his lap, before his eyes widened and he brought a new article up on the large screen of the medbay.
It was a news article on the museum heist. Riddler and Catwoman working together, Riddler escaped while Catwoman was apprehended. Everything that was attempted to be stolen was recovered, however a completely separate exhibit was lost in the mayhem. Apparently a sarcophagus was broken into and a mummy was stolen from inside. A strange yet heinous crime, to steal a dead body from its resting place.
Dick spoke up: "Well, that ancient Egyptian mummy's true resting place wasn't actually a museum in Gotham, so it's just being stolen from robbers. Wait, who the hell stole a mummy while the entire Bat-Clan was inside that museum?"
Jason was still staring directly at Tim, and surely enough, everybody else did too.
It would explain why he had felt so lethargic, and how his wounds had healed before anybody else had gotten to him.
Jason reached out and put a hand on Tim's shoulder.
"Tim, did you eat a mummy?!"