Work Text:
“You need a vacation.” Tim glanced up from his computer to see Tam standing in the doorway of his office with her arms crossed.
“Mhm.” He looked back to the document he was working on.
“I’m serious, Tim. You’re overworking yourself. You need a vacation.” Tim stopped his typing and turned his attention towards Tam.
“I quite literally do not have the time to take a vacation.”
“I’ve rescheduled all of your meetings and deadlines for the next week. Your schedule is free and I’ve already booked a flight to Fiji. you’ll be staying at a resort.” She walked forward and closed his laptop, and then picked it up and tucked it under her arm. “Your flight leaves in three hours. Go pack a bag.”
“Tam-” He tried to grab back his laptop but she twisted away so he couldn’t, “I can’t just leave! What about my night activities?”
“All of your open cases have been forwarded to Oracle. Go pack, Tim, I’ll be picking you up and dropping you off at the airport. And leave your phone behind, you’re not doing any work while you’re gone.”
“Forwarded- Tam how did you get access to my cases?” Tam walked away. “Tam? Tam!”
+
“Guys?” Oracle’s voice appeared on the comm’s. “I just got a message with all of Red Robin’s open case files asking for them to be looked after. Has anyone heard anything from him?”
“What?” Asked Nightwing, worry in his voice. “He sent in his cases?”
“Replacement did it willingly?” Chimed in Red Hood. “The same kid with chronic overworking disease?”
“Yeah.” Confirmed Oracle. “No explanation, no additional information, nothing. I tried calling but it keeps sending me to voicemail.”
“He’s not picking up for me either.” Said Nightwing. “I’m swinging by his apartment now.”
“Tt. While I don’t see why it’s a big deal, I agree that it’s… abnormal for him to do this.” Said Robin, reluctantly. “I will inform father of this development.”
“He’s not in his apartment.” Said Nightwing. “I think we need to call a meeting. Back to the cave, everyone.”
+
“Luggage?”
“Check.”
“Boarding pass?”
“Check.”
“Passport?”
“Check.”
“Good attitude?”
“Don’t push it.” Tim huffed. Tam just smiled.
“Relax and have fun. This is for your own good.”
“I’m being sent away against my will, Tam. I’m going to have so many things to do when I get back.”
“And you can worry about it when you’re back. It’s only for a week, Tim. Enjoy it.” He shot her a look. “Time to go through security. I’ll pick you up in a week, Tim, and you better have a tan next time I see you!”
Tim just flipped her off.
+
“His phone and laptop were on his desk when I checked his apartment.” Dick dumped the armful of electronics onto the table. “His Red Robin suit was still on the floor too. He wasn’t expecting to go anywhere.”
“And yet he sent his open case files to Oracle?” Bruce had a small frown on his face. “We’re missing something. It’s not like Tim to hand off work like that.”
“That’s what I’m saying!” Jason threw his hands up. “Do you think the kid got nabbed in his civvies and the case thing was some sort of contingency plan for if he didn’t log into his computer for a certain amount of time?’
“That would be the most obvious explanation.” Bruce was pacing.
“Tt. Of course Drake managed to get taken as a civilian.” Damian had his arms crossed. “Useless.”
“Dami,” Dick warned, “Now’s not the time. Tim might be in trouble.”
“Dick is right. Spoiler, Signal, and Black Bat, you’re all assigned to Red Robin’s cases while he’s gone.” The three of them nodded and made their way to the computer to start looking them over. “Oracle, see if you can track him. Hood and Robin, pick up patrol schedules. Nightwing and I will start poking around to see if we can find a trail.” Bruce hesitated. “Everyone be careful. We don’t know how dangerous the people who took him are.” Everyone split to start working on what they were assigned.
“Don’t worry, B, we’ll find him.” Dick placed a hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “He’s strong. He’ll be okay.”
+
Tim was actually having a great time.
Sure, he was against the idea of taking an impromptu vacation (and was still a little uneasy at the idea that he was gone and not getting anything done), but he had to admit that he was feeling a lot better than normal. He couldn’t remember the last time he was able to just sit down and relax . He had been eating well, getting sleep, and hanging out on the beach. He had even started taking on a bit of a tan, which was a welcome difference from his perpetual pasty and exhausted complexion.
He had made friends with the guy behind the counter of the bar on the beach, who had even commented on how much more rested he had looked over the past few days as opposed to when he had arrived.
“You don’t look like you’re about to fall over anymore.”
“Don’t feel like it, either.” Tim had responded.
He’d even caught up on books he had wanted to read and shows he had wanted to watch. And, with nothing better to do, he had taken to exploring museums and other historical sights that Fiji had to offer.
He was having fun .
+
Tim had been MIA for six days.
There was no trace of him. No ransom notes, no sightings on cameras, no whispers of capture in the criminal spaces.
Nothing .
Nobody was sure what to do anymore.
“You’re sure his civilian beacon hasn’t gone off?” Bruce was panicking internally.
“Negative.” Replied Barbara. “It’s like he’s vanished. Whoever took him covered their tracks. I haven’t been able to find any leads.”
“None of your contacts have heard anything either, Hood?”
“Nope.” Jason crossed his arms. “It wasn’t anything gang or rogue related or I would have heard something by now.”
“I have his apartment bugged in case someone decides to go back for anything else.” Babs was typing on her computer. “The second something so much as moves in there I’ll get an alert and send whoever’s closest to check it out. Until then there’s not much else I can do.” She sighed. “I’ll keep an eye on things, but I’m at a dead end.”
Bruce sighed.
“We’ll go back to regular patrols but keep looking. People are starting to question why we haven’t been seen around.”
Bruce just hoped that wherever Tim was, he was still okay.
+
“Nice tan, loser.” True to her word, Tam was at the airport waiting for him when he got back.
He flipped her off.
“It’s not going to last long in this god forsaken city.” Tam laughed at him and took his luggage.
“How was the trip?”
“Honestly?” He looked at her. “It was really good. I’ve never felt more relaxed. I’ve also never spent more time by the ocean than I have this week.”
“Told you that you needed a vacation.” He laughed as he got into her car.
“Alright, I admit that I was wearing myself a bit thin. The vacation was a good thing, and Fiji was really interesting. Did you know that they have their own set of mythology there? I went to a lecture at the museum where they were talking about their god Degei, who is the creator of the Fijian world-”
Tam smiled to herself as Tim started rambling about Cibaciba and Drakulu. He was a lot happier and more at ease than when she had sent him.
It was good.
+
“Something tripped the motion sensor in Tim’s apartment and you’re the closest, Nightwing.” Dick heard Oracle through his comm and immediately changed course to head towards the apartment. “Mind swinging by and checking it out?”
“Already on it,” He replied, “Any other info?”
“As far as I can tell it’s only one person, but be careful. We don’t want them to get you too.”
“Got it. I’ll let you know if I need backup.” He heard her click off, and started to scale the side to the building, stopping at the window and quietly slipping it open, silently pulling himself inside. After shutting it, he quietly made his way through the rooms, pausing when he saw movement. He readied himself to attack when-
“Dick? What are you doing here?”
Tim.
It was Tim.
“Tim?” Tim shot him a weird look.
“What do you need? Why are you in my apartment?” Dick darted forward and grabbed him.
“We don’t have time. We have to get you to the cave.”
“The cave? Dick, what’s goi- put me down!” Dick had thrown him over his shoulder and made his way towards one of the cars that Tim had at his place.
“We’ll talk once we’re at the cave.”
Tim just leaned his head back and sighed.
+
“Tim.” The first thing that happened to Tim when he walked into the cave was Bruce pulling him into a hug. “You’re okay. Thank god.”
“Uh, B?” Tim was uncomfortably trying to remove himself. “Are you okay? What’s going on? Dick didn’t explain anything to me and I don’t have enough time to get suited up.” Before he could get a response from Bruce, he was pulled out of the hug into a new one with Cass and Steph. “Guys? Is everything okay?”
“You’re okay.” Steph pulled back, looking at him.
“Yeah? Guys you’re starting to freak me out.” He saw Jason, Damian, and Duke walk in out of the corner of his eye. “Seriously, what’s going on? Why is everyone here?”
“You were missing for a week!” Dick pulled him into a crushing hug of his own. “We didn’t know where you were or if you were okay!”
“Tt. Told you we didn’t need to look for him. He turned back up on his own.” Dick pulled back to look at Tim again.
“I was so scare- do you have a tan?” Dick looked baffled.
“Uh, yeah? But that doesn’t matter right now, what’s the emergency? You guys are acting weird.”
“What’s the emergency? You were missing for a week!” Dick pulled him into another hug. “We were so worried!”
“Missing? What do you mean I was missing?” Bruce looked at him in concern.
“Did you hit your head? Do you remember where you’ve been? The date?” Tim pried himself out of Dick’s grasp.
“I don’t have memory loss, I’ve been in Fiji for my vacation. What is going on with you guys?”
A beat.
“What the fuck do you mean you’ve been in Fiji.” Jason crossed his arms.
“Tam sent me on vacation because she thinks I’ve been overworking myself? So I’ve been in Fiji? She told me that she sent you guys my cases for the week? I figured you guys would be fine with it considering you’re always telling me to take a break.”
“So you mean to tell me,” Started Jason, “That while we’ve been running around trying to find you because we thought you had been kidnapped, that you have just been chilling on a beach in Fiji? What the fuck, Timbo. You couldn’t have answered your phone?”
“Tam banned me from bringing electronics so I wouldn’t work. Wait, did you guys not get the list of cases I was working on for the week?”
“We got the cases, but we thought that it was some fucked up contingency plan of yours to forward your work when you go MIA. All it said was “Please look after these for me while I’m gone”.”
“Yeah, gone on vacation.”
“I’m leaving. I have shit to do.” Tim watched Jason go and turned towards everyone else, who was staring at him with various pained looks on their faces.
“What?”
“Tim,” Bruised pinched the bridge of his nose. “Next time you leave, tell someone .”
“At this rate, I don’t think I can ever leave for another vacation again if this is how you guys react.” Is what he responded with.
“ Tim .”
“Fine. I’ll shoot a text next time or something. Hey, have you guys ever heard about Murimuria? In Fijian mythology-”
He was hit with a wall of groans, but he saw the smiles everyone was trying to hide.
It was good to be back, even if he had accidentally sent the rest of his family into a panic while he was gone.