Chapter Text
It wasn’t supposed to be a serious job, was the problem.
See, it all started when Jason first came to Gotham. Although he would have rebuked such a claim back then, at that time he had, possibly, maybe, not been the most mentally stable or clearheaded. So when he saw posters up in Crime Alley advertising a low-level marketing job at Wayne Enterprises, rather than thinking that’s a terrible idea, under no circumstances should I take a job where I will have to expose my face on a daily basis, he thought oh, another way to fuck with Bruce?
So yes, he took the job. And yes, he did sign up for it under his real name.
…Alright, he didn't really have any defence for the latter. He hadn’t really been thinking at the time, but it wasn’t as if Jason or Todd were particularly rare names, and as mentioned, it wasn’t supposed to be a serious job.
Name aside though, applying to the position actually wasn’t the worst idea he’d ever had. A job at Wayne Enterprises would give Jason access to both sides of Bruce’s life and allow him to learn exclusive details about the man’s schedule, right? Maybe he could sneak around the building and walk past Bruce a few times in the middle of the day, drive him a bit crazy with imagined hallucinations of his dead failure?
Not really, as it turned out. Apparently, Bruce barely even worked here anymore, instead having foisted off the CEO job to Jason’s replacement. Unfortunately, by the time Jason figured out that little tidbit, he’d already been given a permanent position at the company, and he figured he should probably stay just in case it was helpful anyway.
As a result, by night, he was the Red Hood; ruler of Crime Alley, merciless towards those he viewed as immoral, ruthlessly protective of his territory. And during the day, he was just… Jason, that guy in marketing who was rumoured to be the next candidate for promotion despite having just been hired.
And although Jason didn’t want to admit it to himself, the job was actually good for him. It… really hadn’t been sustainable, putting all of his energy towards trying to control Crime Alley. In comparison, it was actually kind of nice to return each day to the low-stakes environment of the Wayne Enterprises marketing department during the day, taking part in meetings that weren’t strategizing about the next raid they’d need to do on Black Mask, exchanging small talk with his coworkers in the break room.
Talia had told Jason he needed to strike fast and hard, but once he got a taste of a slower lifestyle, it was… strangely comfortable. Sure, he wasn’t progressing on his plans to terrorize Bruce quite as fast as he had been expecting, but Jason was still whipping Crime Alley into order in record time, and that didn’t count for nothing.
…He also, admittedly, just felt proud of himself for doing so well at his new job. What would his asshole high school classmates say if they saw him now, huh? Jason hadn’t even finished his diploma, and here he was getting a promotion only a few months after getting his first official job. (And yes, he had lied on his resume, extensively; but to be honest, the fact that he was doing so well anyway just proved that credentials didn’t really matter in the first place. Not like they could judge anyway when their CEO was apparently a high school dropout too).
In any case, maybe the world wouldn’t end if his plans with the Bats waited just a bit longer…
Tim squinted down at the name in front of him, unsure if he was imagining things. But no; no matter how many times he reread the form, the name of the person being recommended for a management position in the marketing department continued to be Jason Peter Todd .
Tam’s head popped up from behind her own laptop, as if she could sense that Tim was slacking off. “Problem?”
Tim didn’t answer, continuing to stare down at those three innocuous words. Immediately able to tell that she wasn’t going to get a response, Tam got up without a word and circled Tim’s desk, peering down at the stack of forms in front of him.
“Ah,” Tam said, her own eyebrows rising when she saw the name. She frowned and tapped one of her nails on the desk. “Okay. Do you think we should f-?”
“I’m giving him the promotion,” Tim cut her off.
Tam’s raised eyebrows furrowed together incredulously, and she turned to stare at Tim. “….Give the promotion to the person using Bruce’s dead son’s name?”
“Yes,” Tim said, signing the paper as he did. He looked up at Tam in return once he was done, a grim smile on his face. “Managers are required to attend the monthly board meetings. I want to watch whoever this is try and get away with that.”
Either in blessing of Tim’s plan or just because she knew she wasn’t going to change Tim’s mind, Tam just nodded. “Alright. Should I schedule a disciplinary meeting with you for just after the board meeting?”
Tim thought that over for a second and nodded. “Yes, that sounds good. …Thank you, Tam.”
“You’d be lost without me,” Tam informed him, and moved back to her own laptop.
Tim didn’t argue. It was, after all, true.
“Bruce, you need to be there for the meeting.”
Bruce frowned at Tim over the top of his computer. “Are you sure, Tim? Wayne Enterprises has been running fine without my help.”
Tim resisted the urge to grind his teeth together, and instead settled on an unimpressed glower. “Do you know how much the department heads complain when you don’t show up? And didn’t you used to go into the office daily? These meetings are once a month, Bruce”
“Well…” Bruce was still frowning lightly. “Yes, I suppose so.”
“And whether or not you’re the CEO, you’re still the primary shareholder…”
Bruce finally, finally relented, sighing deeply. “Alright, Tim, I’ll come to the meeting.”
Unfortunately, Bruce agreeing to attend the meeting apparently didn’t translate to him actually being awake for it. Tim resisted the urge to rub at his temples (not even that bad of a habit, except that because of his age Tim needed to act ten times more professionally than a normal person would in order to be taken seriously) when he noticed the man passed out a few chairs down. Yes, last night had been a long one, but it had been long for Tim too! Tim had just been smart enough to chug an energy drink just before the meeting started, whereas Bruce apparently had not.
Annoyingly - or fortunately, honestly, as glaring at the side of Bruce’s head was probably not the most professional thing for him to be doing either - he was distracted from his train of thought by the head of IT coming to ask a few questions (and seeming surprised when Tim was actually capable of answering them). He finished only a few minutes before the meeting was set to start, meaning that it was with only four or so minutes left that Tim remembered the Jason Peter Todd problem.
Luckily, these meetings had assigned seats, so Tim knew exactly where to look. "Jason"’s seat was right next to the head of the marketing department, a woman who was due to retire within a year; although, apparently, he wasn’t here yet. Cutting it real close, apparently. Maybe he knew he was about to get caught and wasn’t going to show up at all.
The meeting was set to start at 11:00, and at 10:58, everyone started to shush each other and quiet down. “Jason” wasn’t the only one running late; a few other people rushed in during that last minute, quietly greeting each other and taking their places. By the end of the minute though, there was only one empty seat at the table.
The clock turned to 10:59.
The final attendee of the meeting sauntered in.
And that.
That was actually Jason Peter Todd.
Okay, he looked older and much less scrawny than he’d been when Tim had last seen him, but Tim knew the Bats. He had even, if one took Steph’s read of the situation, been fanatically obsessed with them. He didn’t keep a photo by his bedside of an old family portrait of Alfred, Bruce, Dick, and Jason and look at it every night before going to sleep to not be able to recognize Jason Peter Todd within a second of seeing his face.
And Jason knew it, apparently. As soon as he sat down, his gaze first went to Bruce, still sound asleep, and then straight to Tim. And then he grinned.
The clock turned to 11:00.
“Alright, looks like we’re ready to start, then,” the meeting chair started cheerfully, blissfully unaware of Tim’s internal meltdown. “So, as per usual, we’re going to start by going over the minutes of last month’s meeting and making sure every department has reached their goals for this month. Zoe?”
“Thanks, Rashmi. So, last meeting we discussed…”
Tim stopped listening to Zoe. He could review the minutes after the meeting was over. For now, he alternated between glaring at Jason, who seemed to be pretending to act like a totally normal employee now, and Bruce, for both making it so that Tim could be in this situation, and then leaving him alone in it. He wasn't even sure how much time passed, even though it was probably a lot, because he was so focused on glaring daggers into the side of Bruce's skull.
“...And I think that about wraps things up! Anything to add, Mr. Drake?”
Tim snapped back into the meeting, aware that he honestly hadn’t been paying attention to a single word. “No, thank you, Rashmi, that should be everything,” he said in his most polite and authoritative voice.
“Wonderful. Well, everyone, make sure to communicate everything we discussed today with your team members. Have a good rest of your workdays!”
Jason gave one last smug grin just as he followed his department head out of the room. Tim was once again stuck answering questions (this time he admittedly was somewhat bullshitting his way through some of them), so he couldn’t even do anything about it.
And of course, Bruce woke up not a minute later.
As the last few attendees drifted out of the room, Bruce smiled at Tim as if nothing had happened at all. He faltered when he saw the absolutely murderous expression on Tim’s face, though. “Tim, is something wrong…?”
Tim considered telling Bruce that his long-lost son was alive. But first off, Jason clearly didn’t want Bruce to know that he was alive, and second… Bruce had just left Tim to the piranhas for three hours. That meeting had been three hours, and he had slept through the entire thing.
He could figure it out for himself.
“Nothing,” Tim said, making an effort to leave the irritation out of his voice, and left the room before he could say something rash.
In any case, he still had that disciplinary meeting with Jason planned right after everyone’s lunch hour. He… wasn’t really sure what he was going to say anymore (the many angry proclamations about how terrible of a person “Jason” was for stealing the name of a dead child that Tim had idly brainstormed weren’t exactly usable now), but he was sure going to say something.
Tam, who had long ago negotiated not having to attend the monthly board meetings considering she had far better things to do with her time, met Tim just inside his office. She frowned when she saw the expression on his face. “Tim? Did something happen in the meeting?”
“...I might not fire that employee I’m meeting in an hour after all.”
She looked a bit baffled again. “You mean the one who stole the name of your dead brother?”
Tim gave her a weak smile. “About that…”
This was Gotham, where batshit insane stuff happened on a daily basis, so it only took her a few seconds to figure it out. “You mean that actually is…?”
“That actually is Jason Peter Todd, yeah.”
“...And you didn’t know he was alive again.”
“I don’t think anybody does,” Tim said. “Especially because Bruce was asleep through the entire company meeting." He paused - even though Tam was his employee, not Bruce's, it was probably still best not to openly complain about him more than he had to, even though she understood. "In any case, I’m still going to be meeting Jason after lunch, right?”
“Yes, Tim,” Tam said slowly, “unless he doesn’t show up, of course. But the meeting is still booked.”
“Good.” Tim pressed his lips together into a thin line. One hour. Just one hour, and he would get to the bottom of this entire situation.