Chapter Text
“Thanks for taking me out for lunch, Tam. Life’s been pretty crazy recently, I’ve barely gotten any time to relax.” Tim sighed, taking another bite of his sandwich.
“Somebody has to make sure there’s enough meat on those bones, especially with all your nighttime activity.” Tam said while swiping a fry off of Tim’s plate.
“Hey! You said you didn’t want any fries, so you don't get any of mine.” He shot a mock glare at her, she just rolled her eyes and took another fry. “We both know you’re not going to do anything to stop me.”
Tim decided that he wouldn’t win if he argued against that. So he picked up a fry and threw it at her, she let out an exaggerated gasp. “I can’t believe you would do that, I thought we were friends.”
Tam flicked the fry off her shirt, catching a glance at her watch. “Oh shit we better rush, lunch break is almost over.”
Tim groaned before swallowing the last bite of his sandwich and rushing her out to his car.
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Technically Tim’s shift was already over, but he has so much paperwork left to sign and if he goes home he’ll just be getting ready for patrol. So of course the reasonable thing to do is stay late and finish his paperwork, unfortunately ever since he and Tam became roommates they’ve been carpooling and he knows Tam wouldn’t be alright with staying an extra hour and a half. Then again… Maybe she would if he asked nicely enough?
Tim tapped his pen against the table while he mulled over how to convince Tam.
“I can tell you’re planning something, Tim. What is it?” He whipped his head around to see Tam standing with her arms crossed in the doorway. Her eyes wandered to the piles of paper on his desk. “If you're about to ask me to stay here longer, the answer is no. We can come in early tomorrow and I’ll help you with it if you want, but I am not staying here any longer than necessary.”
“Okay, okay, I won’t make you stay any longer.” Tim relented, starting to pack up his things.
“And you don’t have to help me in the morning if you don’t want to. It's not hard work, it just takes a while, so I'll be able to complete it tomorrow without too much trouble.”
“Alright, now hurry up before the office ghosts make us their next victims.”
“Please don’t tell me that that is an actual office rumor,” Tim sighed, “This is the least haunted place in all of Gotham.” If it actually was a rumor then it was definitely Kevins fault, he’s constantly talking about paranormal podcasts.
Tim shook his head, slinging his computer bag over his shoulder. “Let’s leave before you try to convince me that the mice are possessed.”
“To be fair, most rats in Gotham do seem pretty possessed. Do you think that there’s a supervillain that's like half rat, half human?”
“Judging by the fact that Killer Croc exists? Probably.” Tim chuckled and turned off his office lights.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gotham at night had its own kind of charm, if you ignored the occasional mugger or runaway rogue. Red Robin vaulted over a ledge, scanning the area for trouble. It had been a relatively quiet night, just a couple of bank robberies and two murders. Usually, that wasn’t a good sign. Nights like this made the rogues think they could catch the Bats off guard.
A loud wail interrupted his thoughts; it sounded like it came from a small child, without a second thought Tim immediately changed courses to reach the cry.
Leaping down to the pavement he was able to make out the small picnic-like basket that the noise came from. As he stepped towards the basket, Tim was finally able to see what the source of the sound was, a child- no a baby. They looked to be around 2 or 3 months old, cradled in a soft baby blue blanket.
God, how could people be so cruel as to leave such a young infant alone in an alleyway? They’d obviously cared for the kid since they left it with a soft, clean blanket, yet they didn’t leave the baby at an orphanage or even at someone's doorstep. There wasn’t even a note attached, what could have possibly happened to this poor kid's parents?
Crap. Tim had been so carried away in his thoughts, he’d forgotten to check on the kid. He quickly scanned the baby. Luckily, no immediate signs of injury. He let out a breath of relief he hadn’t even realized he was holding.
Tim pulls out a pacifier that Bruce insisted all Bats have incase of an “infant based emergency” and gently puts it into the baby’s mouth. It was his first (and probably last) time using it.
Carefully, he picked up the basket and tried his best to avoid jostling the kid. Hopefully Tam doesn’t mind having a little unexpected visitor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tam woke up to the noise of her apartment window opening. It was probably Tim, but usually he did come home this late.
"Hello?" She walked out of her room into the living room.
"Oh sorry, did I wake you up?" Tim looked a little startled. There was something large being hidden behind his back.
"Nah it's fine. What are you hiding?"
"Oh uhm..."
"