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It started with a scratchy throat. Tim wouldn’t even consider it sore as far as he was concerned. Sore throats meant it hurt to swallow or talk, and currently both of those things just felt a little bizarre. So, other than a cup of tea and a spoonful of honey after patrol he didn’t bother with it.
That was until the next morning, when it hurt to swallow and everything protested for him to stay in bed. He had work to do today though, so he fought his way out of the covers to the bottle of Advil in the drawer of his nightstand. He downed it with the glass of water he left out from the night before. Then also proceeded to finish off the glass, because even though it hurt to swallow the slightly-colder-than-room temperature water was nice.
After another ten minutes of debating whether or not it was worth it to leave his bed he made his way to the kitchen. Thankfully he didn’t need to go into WE until later today, so he took his time grabbing some of the throat tea that Alfred recommended a while back. That, along with two spoonfuls of honey and two shot glasses of water, was enough to fight off the pain for now. At least it didn’t feel like his throat was attacking him every time he so much as thought of doing anything.
Since he was already up, courtesy of his stupid throat, Tim decided to head into work early. After making himself a breakfast of reheated pasta and garlic bread he changed out of his Superman pajamas and into something a little more suitable for WE’s CEO. Then it was off.
Work was surprisingly short. Originally he hadn’t had many plans for the day, just wanting to review some papers and attend a short meeting to keep track of their products. So when those were over he decided to head home. Apparently his throat was bad enough that when he tried to say good morning to the secretary her expression clearly conveyed her shock. She had supported him going home early.
His apartment was surprisingly cold when he got home, so he grabbed his laptop and decided to work in his bedroom instead of on the cold counter. At least blankets and sheets would help keep him a little warmer.
After a couple hours and his sore throat starting to return he texted Babs to let her know that he wouldn’t be going on patrol tonight. She sent him a thumbs up back, so with that he made some more tea, ate some more honey, and had another glass of lemon water. Then he went back to sleep. Maybe some extra sleep would help him recover faster.
Though that didn’t end up working. Tim found himself awake with a dripping nose at 5:00am. He blew his nose, grabbed a glass of water, and then forced himself back to sleep.
Waking up two hours later didn’t end up being any better. In fact, it was worse. He was still cold, he couldn’t breathe through his nose at all, and it almost felt like his bones ached. Tim wasn’t able to make tea that morning, spending way longer than necessary in the shower. At least in there the steam made it so that he could breathe a little bit. He barely finished his bagel before rushing out of his apartment, praying that the traffic wouldn’t end up being that bad.
Of course the day he was sick he had all day meetings with everyone in the world he could possibly think of. He spent at least six hours straight watching presentations and giving them, then discussing the presentations. At lunch he got a coffee, black, hoping that it would clear away some of the brain fog.
It didn’t.
After a couple tissues in a ten minute break between meetings his secretary found her way into his office. “Mister-”
“Please, it’s Tim.” He cringed at how nasally he sounded in that sentence alone.
“Well, Tim, I’ve been hearing that you’re not doing too well today, and I agree just by looking at you. How long is your next meeting scheduled for?”
It was an audit. Which meant at least an hour and a half, and at most three. It was his last meeting of the day to make sure that the flexibility wouldn’t interrupt anything. “An hour and a half to three hours. It depends on how many changes the auditor suggests.”
“May I suggest that you take a little extra time before your next meeting? Push it off by five or ten minutes. You look a little pale.”
Tim felt fine. Well, he was recovering from being sick so obviously he wasn’t fully fine, but he would be fine for the audit.
Though…
“Okay.” The look she was giving him did not leave much room for debate.
“Thank you. Take care of yourself.” And with that he was alone again in his office.
In the end he ended up delaying it by 15 minutes, just to give himself a little time to get his thoughts together. No one seemed to mind when he did finally show up, which was good. By the end several notes were taken and a report would be written up within a couple days.
Once he got home he popped a few antihistamines before sliding into his Red Robin suit and making his way to the rooftop. He didn’t end up patrolling for long. His legs were aching after barely an hour, and he didn’t want to push it too hard. Especially since he had plans with Steph and Cass tomorrow. Just to be safe, he took his temperature when he got home. 96.7º F. He was fine.
The next morning he was the opposite of fine. If he thought his bones ached the night before they were one thousand times worse now. His legs felt like cement, poured into his bedsheets. He still couldn’t breathe through his nose, but from breathing through his mouth all night his tongue felt dry and his throat had started to hurt again.
But he had promised Steph and Cass that they would finish up this case today. So, whether he liked it or not, he shivered his way out of bed and into the kitchen. His clothes stuck to his skin from sweat. Tim had to resist the urge to find more clothes to stop the cold sweat from pouring down his limbs.
It was still dark outside, meaning he was up way earlier than he needed to be, but Tim wasn’t sure he’d be able to fall back to sleep if he wanted to. His whole body felt awful, and wasting away on his bed was not helping. He settled for honey, tea, lemon water, antihistamines, and advil. Maybe it was a little ridiculous to use them all, but he needed to be out in the field today. Just hopefully they wouldn’t be out there too long.
For the couple hours until Steph woke up he did a little bit of WE work. Not as much as he had hoped though, his body and brain weren’t responding correctly. Everything felt a little bit hazy, and he kept having to check back before making notes because he forgot something.
Once the text for them all to meet up was sent, Tim changed into his Red Robin suit. With a groan he climbed out his window, bristling against the downright freezing air, and went to the meet-up spot. By the time he got there the other two were already standing there. Cass waved hello while Steph ran up to him and gave him a quick side-hug. “Red! What took you so long? Finally getting old or something.”
“Hah. Hah.” He responded dryly, praying that he could keep the nasally-ness out of his voice for the next couple of hours. At least everything had kicked in by now, so his bones didn’t quite ache anymore. “I just didn’t get a lot of sleep.”
“No surprise for you.”
“Yeah, well. It is what it is.” He shrugged, turning towards Cass. He didn’t like the way her full face mask seemed to be staring into his soul. Shit, body language. He turned away from her, repressing a shiver. “So, Spoiler, what’s the plan?”
And Steph was off, chatting a mile a minute about the group she planned to take down today. Tim caught maybe every fifth word. Not ideal, but it was enough for him to figure out the plan. Cass would go in through the roof, Steph would take the East side, and Tim would take the West side. If all went according to plan this should corner the main guy in his office allowing them to get any necessary information from him.
“You going?” Cass asked Tim, snapping him out of the haze.
“Who? Me?” Of course it was you, dipshit. “Oh yeah, of course!”
Steph turned around from where she had been looking out towards their goal. “Is he going? Orphan, what’s he hiding?”
“Sick.” She said simply.
Tim wished the rooftop would swallow him up right there. “It’s just a cold. I’ll be fine guys, really.” Even through the face mask he was sure that Cass was raising her eyebrow at him right now. “I planned to go back home and rest after we finished this anyways.”
Steph eyed him carefully. “You better. With your-”
“My spleen. I know. Contrary to popular belief I do know some of my limits.” Tim snapped, before pausing. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped.” He sighed, massaging his brow with his fingers. He looked back up at Steph and Cass. “Can we just get this over with?”
Steph gave him one last glance before turning around again. “Yeah. If you need anything don’t hesitate to reach out on comms. I spaced us out so that it was easier, but I could probably do this alone if needed. We’re more than capable of this.”
Tim nodded, and took off behind them.
Thankfully the plan ended up being even easier than originally anticipated. Although some of the men were trained, none of them were a match for any of the bats. Even while slower than normal, and coughing more than he probably should be, he took out his group of guys. Then between Cass and Steph’s interrogation and his hacking skills they got more than enough data to not only incriminate the group they’d gotten today, but find a few of their other locations.
Tim didn’t get to go along for that though. The places were unarmed, and the two girls didn’t even give him a minute to consider going. His instructions were to ‘return straight home or I will sneak glitter into your suit.’ Heading Steph’s warning he went home.
He barely made it out of his suit before he fell onto his bed. The mission had taken more out of him than he’d expected, leaving him exhausted. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep.
The first time he woke up he could barely breathe. His bones ached all throughout his body, and even though he was under his blankets he couldn’t stop shivering. The sheets were sweaty and gross, but he felt so lethargic. Tim let out a weak cough, curling into himself a little in hopes that he could warm up a little more.
The second time he woke up nothing even felt real anymore. He was detached from his aching body, and not even the scratch of his throat could ground him. Tim didn’t know how long he floated before falling back to sleep.
The third time he woke up he heard a voice. Muffled and far away, but a voice nonetheless. “Tim? Shit. Babs, call Alfred. Tim’s white as a ghost.”
Tim wasn’t sure if he’d fallen asleep between the third and fourth time he could sort-of process his surroundings. All he knew was that now he was moving. Being carried? Something. It didn’t really matter. “Tim? Timothy?” Who? Oh that was him. He cracked an eye open, a blurry figure looking down at him. “Stay awake for me. We’ve got to get you back to the manor.” That was so hard though, and sleeping sounded wonderful right about now.
“...fever of 102.7º F. It’s starting to go down.”
Tim awoke cold. Not cold in the sense of chills threatening to send him shivering through the floorboards. Just cold, like one may be when they step outside of a warm building into a cool evening. He also wasn’t sweating anymore, and the sheets around him were dry and cozy.
That was odd.
Tim forced his eyes open, taking in the area around him. Oh. It was his bedroom in the manor. When had he gotten here? It took a minute for his faded and blurry memories to filter in, but he remembered being carried out of his apartment. This must have been where they were carrying him.
His moment of reprieve was interrupted by a coughing fit that almost made him wish he was dead to the world again. At least then this wouldn’t make his head pound and leave him dry gagging. The door banged open once he finished, and a rather tired-looking Steph was staring at his awake figure. “Alf! Tim’s awake!”
Why did Steph need to be so loud? He could feel his heartbeat in his skull. Tim squeezed his eyes shut, willing his head to return to normal. “Steph, quiet down,” he croaked. Wow his mouth was dry.
Then Alfred and Cass were standing in the door next to Steph. “Master Timothy.” A glass of water was placed next to him, and Tim quickly drank it. That was at least partly better.
“Hey, Alfred. How long was I out?”
“The entire weekend into Monday, sir.” Oh. Maybe it had been worse than he thought. “May I suggest that next time you have a fever you call one of us before it gets this bad.”
“I didn’t- Okay a fever makes sense.”
Steph’s jaw fell open. “Timmy, you were shivering and sweating like crazy. How did you not know you had a fever?”
Tim bit his lip, debating what response would get him the least beratement. “I forgot?” That was not the right answer judging by all three of their expressions. “When I last took my temperature it was 97.6. I was okay.”
“Well clearly it got worse! You should have told us how bad you were feeling on Saturday!”
Tim looked down into his lap, avoiding eye contact. Steph’s ability to make him feel incredibly guilty in the course of around one sentence was uncanny. “I’m sorry.”
The room stayed silent for a minute before Alfred set into motion. “Miss Cass, if you could accompany Miss Stephanie to get some of the soup I made and heat it up for Tim here that would be helpful. Grab some saltines and another glass of water as well.”
Cass saluted Alfred and grabbed Steph’s wrist before she could protest. “Now, Master Timothy, let’s take your temperature.” Tim nodded. “Lift up your arm?” Tim almost protested that he could do it himself before Alfred’s expression silenced him. He let Alfred stick the thermometer into his armpit until it beeped. “Ninety-nine. Still a little warm, but overall much better. Once you get some food in you should start recovering faster.”
Tim nodded. “Bed rest for the rest of the day into tomorrow. Preferably having one of us, whether that be the two young misses, Bruce, Duke, or myself, with you to make sure you don’t start getting worse again.” He frowned, but Tim knew better than to argue with what Alfred said. “I think I hear our soup-collectors coming back. I will leave you three to your own devices. Steph knows when you should take another dose of the medicine.”
With that Alfred walked out and Cass walked through the doorway grinning. “Soup!” She exclaimed, holding two bowls. She handed one to Tim and then sat next to him with her own bowl. “Steph has spoons.”
“Thanks, Cass.”
“I come bearing gifts! By which I mean a third bowl of soup for myself, spoons, saltines, and water. Do not ask how I didn’t drop anything, I’m not fully sure!” Steph sat down on Tim’s other side and distributed the spoons between them. She placed the glass of water on the bedside table and put the saltines in between her and Tim. “Now, how about some movies?”
“Oh this is gonna be awful.” Tim groaned, holding the soup bowl in his hands and letting the warmth spread. Cass gently punched his shoulder, and he turned to see her grinning.
“Don’t get sick then.” Cass said, and Steph agreed next to him. Steph grabbed the remote and turned on Tim’s TV before switching over to Netflix. It didn’t take long for her to find something that Tim coincidentally was not a huge fan of.
“Sorry for getting sick and not asking for help.” He conceded.
“That was all it took. Now you can pick the third movie!”
“The third one!?” Tim exclaimed, jaw dropping at Steph’s statement.
“Duh. Cass gets to pick the second one.”
He groaned as the two girls laughed at the intro scene. At least the soup was warm and Cass and Steph were there.