Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bruce loved his children.

They were the lights of his life, really. Every single one of them. And while he loved being an involved father, there were certain things he never wanted to know about his kids.

This was definitely one of them.

Bruce regarded the nearly empty box condoms in his hand like it was a murder weapon. He and Tim had been working on a quarterly presentation together for WE, and his son had told Bruce the flash drive they needed was in his righthand desk drawer.

Tim had been wrong. There was no flash drive in his righthand drawer. Only trauma.

He was in shock. Logically, he knew Tim was an adult – almost twenty – and therefore perfectly capable of having responsible, consensual sex. But at the same time, this was Tim – his sweet, virginal baby boy.

Though, if the number of condoms missing from the box was of any indication, that was clearly no longer the case. Bruce wanted to throw up.

“B, did you find it?”

He started panicking. If Tim came up to his room and saw him holding the box of condoms, Bruce would simply stop breathing. He quickly shoved the horrible box back into the hellscape from whence it came and opened the lefthand desk drawer. There, he found the flash drive he’d come for.

“Yes, Tim,” he called, using his training to keep his voice steady. “I’ll be right there."

As he made his way back to his office, the Dark Knight felt the pull of a new mission. He needed to make sure that the individual with whom Tim was using condoms deserved his sweet boy. And in order to determine that, he needed a name.

The World’s Greatest Detective had no choice but to investigate.

Step One: Initial Interrogation

“So, Tim, how are things going? I feel like we haven’t gotten to catch up in a while.”

Bruce had bought the two of them lunch from Tim’s favorite sandwich place and invited his son to eat with him in his office. Maybe the boy would come clean when prodded. It would certainly help Bruce sleep better at night. He was just so worried, and why shouldn’t he be? Tim had never hidden a significant other before (though the condoms were certainly a new development). Why now? What made this one demand the need for secrecy? Was he or she a super villain? Was Tim being blackmailed or manipulated? The whole situation had his hackles rising.

Tim cocked an eyebrow. “We literally see each other everyday. I live in your house.”

“But when’s the last time we talked about things outside of work? I’m interested in your personal life, too, you know. For instance, have you gone on any dates recently?”

“Eh, not really. Been busy, y’know?”

Bruce’s eye twitched. The thing he hadn’t accounted for when deciding to do things The Clark Way and “just ask” was the fact that Tim lied. A lot. And the boy was frustratingly good at it, too – by far the best of all of his children. There was not a single tell in his tone or body language to suggest deception. If Bruce hadn’t found the condoms himself, he wouldn’t have questioned it.

It only stoked the flames of his determination.

He decided to keep pressing. “You’re allowed to have a personal life outside of WE and the night shift, Tim. I would happily support any woman – or man – you decided to bring home. Granted they were safe and treated you with the respect you deserve, of course.”

Tim narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, I know that, but since when are you so interested in my dating life?”

Since I was traumatized by your desk drawer, Bruce screamed internally. But he didn’t dare say that out loud. He needed to de-escalate things before Tim got suspicious. “We can change the subject if you want. I was just curious.”

Tim may have been the best liar in the family, but Bruce didn’t miss the slight sag of relief in his son’s shoulders.

It was time to change tactics.

Step Two: Gather Evidence

“Master Bruce, you may not hack your son’s phone records just because you wish to know whom he’s romantically involved with.”

“But Alfred–”

“He is an adult, Sir. What he does and with whom he does it is none of your concern.”

“But what if it’s someone dangerous, like a supervillain?”

“Then you of all people would have no room to judge.”

Bruce groaned and shut his laptop in defeat.

Step Three: Interview Witnesses

Bruce decided his next step would be to ask Cass. His daughter saw everything. So if anyone had information on Tim’s mysterious lover, it would be her.

He found her stretching. For her birthday a few years ago, he’d had one of the spare rooms converted into a ballet studio. It was by far her favorite place in the entire Manor.

“Sorry to interrupt, Cass, but may I ask you a quick question?”

His daughter glanced up at him. “You’re concerned about something.”

“More like someone,” he clarified with a sigh. “Has Tim mentioned anyone he’s dating recently? I have reason to believe he’s in a relationship, but he won’t tell me. I just want to make sure whoever it is has his best interests at heart.”

Cass’s face broke out in a wide grin. “Yes, I know, but I won’t tell. I promised not to.”

“He told you?” Bruce asked, a little hurt. Why would Tim openly tell his sister but lie to his face?

His daughter stood up to meet him, grabbing her father’s hand. “Don’t be upset. I found out on accident. Tim wants privacy, so we should give it to him. He’ll tell everyone when he’s ready.”

“But how do we know this individual is good for him? And that he’s safe?”

“Trust me,” Cass said, her smile growing fiendish, “Tim is safe.”

He raised an eyebrow at his daughter. “You approve?”

She nodded. “I do. You will, too.”

The weight of the world slipped from Bruce’s shoulders. If Cass approved of Tim’s mystery person, then they probably weren’t a supervillain.

“Thank you, Cass. That helps me a lot.”

“Good. Now stop snooping.”

He winced. She was right, of course. Perhaps he had gotten a bit… overzealous (out of concern, of course, but still). Now that he knew Tim was safe, there was no further need to pry.

“I won’t look into it anymore,” he promised. He could stop. He could respect his children’s privacy, despite what Jason claimed.

Next time, however, Tim was retrieving his own damn flash drive.

“God, Steph, I missed you.”

The blonde giggled as she straddled Tim’s lap. “You’ve seen me everyday this week, silly.”

Tim buried his face in his girlfriend’s neck and started sucking at her pulse point. “Please tell me you realize patrol doesn’t count,” he mumbled against her skin.

They hadn’t so much as held hands in days. Tim hated having to act distant in public, but they’d both agreed to keep their relationship a secret from everyone, at least for a while. There was just so much history between the two of them that they wanted time to figure things out before the rest of the Bats knew. Except for Cass, who had shown up with a stab wound at Steph’s apartment one night and caught the two of them in bed together (which had been traumatic for everyone involved).

Steph pushed him away long enough to take off her shirt. “Well, good things come to those who wait. Condom?”

“In my left desk drawer,” he replied eagerly. God, how did ever think they were better off as platonic?

The blonde climbed off of him and plodded over to his desk. As she did so, he ogled her body shamelessly. He just couldn’t help it. His girlfriend was so freaking hot.

“Uh, babe, they’re not in here.”

He sat straight up, snapped out of his trance. “They’re not?”

“Wait,” she said, opening the drawer on the right side. “I found ‘em. Crisis averted.”

Tim’s heart stopped. Crisis was not averted. Crisis was very much still present. He could have sworn he’d put the condoms in the left side. Because he’d put his flash drive in the right side and had triple checked that they weren’t in the same drawer.

So if the condoms had been in the righthand drawer, then when he’d sent Bruce to retrieve the flash drive a few days ago…

“Fucking shit!”

Chapter Text

Getting a call from Gotham General was never a good thing.

Bruce’s heart raced as he rushed through the doors of the ER. He’d gotten the message while getting ready to leave WE for the evening:

“Hi, my name is Amanda, and I work at the ER at Gotham General. I was calling to tell you that your son, Timothy Drake-Wayne, has just been brought in by EMS. He’s conscious and stable right now, but he was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle.”

Conscious and stable, he kept reminding himself. He could handle conscious and stable. As long as Tim was going to be okay, they could handle the rest.

Upon reaching the front desk, the clerk led him back immediately and introduced him to the nurse he’d spoken to on the phone. There were, after all, perks of owning most of the hospitals in Gotham.

“The worst of it is his left leg,” she – Amanda, she’d mentioned her name was – explained as she showed him to his son’s room. “He’s got a compound femur fracture and displaced fractures of his tibia and fibula. He’ll need surgery to repair the damage. Other than that, it’s mostly bumps and bruises. He’s very lucky he was wearing his helmet and leathers. It could have been much worse. We’ve already transitioned him out of the trauma bay and into a regular room while he waits for surgery.”

“Thank you so much,” Bruce said with relief. “Do you know when his surgery will be?”

“With his asplenia, an open fracture is considered very urgent. Pre-op should take him back within the next hour. In the meantime, the ortho resident just finished putting his femur in external fixation and splinting his lower leg, and we’ve given him IV antibiotics to prevent infection. He’s also on a lot of pain medication, including a regional nerve block that will give sustained relief until he gets to the OR.”

Good. Bruce knew from experience that femur fractures were incredibly painful.

When they entered the room, Bruce could immediately tell that his son was high as a kite. He looked up at them with a glazed-over, dreamy look on his face.

“Hey…I know you,” he mumbled upon seeing them. “You’re my dad.”

“We gave him some sedation before they did the nerve block and immobilization,” Amanda explained with a knowing smile. “He’s still a bit out of it.”

Bruce nodded in understanding as he approached his son. “Hey, buddy, how are you feeling?”

Tim’s lower leg was splinted and propped up on a foam wedge. The metal, cage-like pins and screws of the external fixator stuck out of the skin of his thigh, surrounded by sterile, white gauze. “Iss not so bad,” he slurred. Then, he looked to the nurse. “Hey, did you call my girlfriend?”

Wait… girlfriend?

Bruce hadn’t heard head nor tail of Tim’s significant other since the Incident. He’d promised Cass he wouldn’t pry, and no further evidence had presented itself naturally. Was it really going to take Tim breaking his leg for him to meet her?

The nurse nodded. “We did. She said she was on her way. I’ll go check and see if she’s here yet.”

So he was going to meet her. Bruce shouldn’t be excited about it, given the circumstances, but he couldn’t help it. He pulled up a chair by his son’s stretcher and grabbed his hand. “So, I’m finally going to meet this mystery girl you’ve been pretending doesn’t exist?”

Tim rolled his eyes. “You’ve already met her. Like, a bunch.”

Bruce cocked an eyebrow. “Have I?”

Before he could prod for more answers, the glass door slid open once again, giving Bruce the solution to the entire puzzle.

“Stephanie?”

In hindsight, it made perfect sense. He should have thought of it before. Stephanie Brown was Tim’s person. They always managed to find their way back to each other.

The blonde froze at the sight of Bruce before quickly refocusing her attention on her boyfriend. She rushed forward and took a seat on the opposite side. “Tim, sweetheart, are you okay?”

“M fine, Steph,” he promised, grabbing her hand. “See, Dad? Told you that you’d met my girlfriend before.”

Bruce couldn’t help but smile. He was just so relieved, mostly that Tim was okay, and also that his girlfriend turned out to be someone he actually liked (and wouldn’t have to maintain secret identities with). “You sure did, Son.”

“This isn’t quite how I expected us to get outed,” Steph said with a fond sigh, “but I won’t lie and say I’m not a little relieved. Sneaking around behind the back of the World’s Greatest Detective is exhausting. I’m honestly surprised we lasted as long as we did.”

“How long, exactly, have you been back together?” Bruce asked, eyebrow cocked. The Incident had only been about a month ago.

“Six wonderful months,” Tim replied, grinning widely, “and Cass didn’t find out for an entire week!”

That was… actually impressive. Bruce would have been proud, had he not been so hurt. “Why on Earth were you so adamant on keeping it a secret? I was afraid Tim was being blackmailed or dating a supervillian! Did you really think I wouldn’t approve?”

“We just some wanted time to ourselves before letting everyone else know,” Steph explained, “in case we decided we were better off as friends after all.”

“Which we’re not,” Tim asserted. “I like being your boyfriend way more. We get to have so much se–”

His girlfriend slammed her hand over his mouth to prevent him from finishing that horrible sentence. “Okay, I think someone’s had way too much morphine.”

“It was fentanyl, actually,” Tim corrected, his voice muffled underneath her palm.

The reasoning made sense. With how close knit the family was (and with how much they struggled with boundaries), Bruce could see how they would be concerned about having too much pressure put on their new relationship. “Well, while I wish I could have found out under better circumstances, I will say that I am very happy for you both.”

“Thanks, B,” Steph smiled. She dropped her hand from Tim’s face and brushed his hair out of his eyes. “We’re happy, too.”

Tim laid back on his pillow, his eyelids drooping. It seemed like all the drugs were finally catching up to him. “Yeah, I’m definitely gonna marry this girl one day…”

His girlfriend’s eyes went comically wide. “What?”

But Tim was already asleep.

For everyone’s sake, Bruce decided he was going to forget he ever heard that part. There was only so much his aging heart could take.

Tim woke up in a very crowded hospital room.

That was the first thing he noticed. His entire family was seated around him, with Bruce and Stephanie on either side of his head.

The second thing he noticed was that his leg hurt.

A deep, throbbing pain encompassed his senses, sharpening with the tiniest of movements. The offending limb was propped up on a mountain of pillows. His calf was surrounded by a fiberglass splint with only the top of his foot poking out while his thigh was covered loosely in an ACE wrap. His knee was fixed in place by a soft immobilizer.

“Good morning, Sunshine,” his girlfriend greeted, temporarily pulling his thoughts away from his leg. She was running her fingers up and down his arm. It felt really nice – like a glowing beacon in the dark sea of agony.

“H-hey,” he managed to force out. Then, his thigh muscles spasmed, causing a jolt of lightning to run up and down his leg. He bit his lip with a wince.

Bruce frowned. “Here, bud, press this button. You’re on a PCA pump.”

Tim gratefully took the remote from his father. He was desperate for any kind of relief. “Th-thanks. What time is it?”

“A little after midnight,” Dick supplied. “You got out of surgery a couple of hours ago.”

That explained why he was so groggy. He remembered the accident and getting to the ER, but from there it was mostly fragments. Bruce had been there, and so had Steph. And now, Steph was openly fretting over him and stroking his arm.

It was clear that his secret relationship was no longer a secret.

He met eyes with his girlfriend. “Guess you told ‘em, huh?”

Steph laughed. “Oh, no, sweetheart. You did. First, Bruce found out while you were still in the ER, high as a kite from opioids. Then, when you got back from surgery, you were telling anyone who would listen about us. It was really cute, actually.”

Tim’s cheeks reddened. He didn’t remember any of that. “Tell me you’re lying.”

“Oh, she’s telling the truth truth, alright,” Jason gushed with a shit-eating grin. “You were singing like a true songbird. You were all like ‘oh, my girlfriend is so pretty’ and ‘Stephanie is my one true love. I’m gonna be with her forever’. I gotta say, anesthesia really brings the romantic out in you, Timmers.”

“It was quite embarrassing for you, honestly,” Damian added.

“Not embarrassing,” Cass corrected. “Sweet.”

“Kill me now,” Tim groaned. He was never going to live this down.

“It’s not so bad, baby,” Steph soothed, pushing his bangs out of his face. “I, for one, am glad it’s out in the open.”

Now that he thought about it, Tim was, too. He was done with hiding – he wanted every person on the planet to know how in love he was Stephanie Brown.

Though, apparently, he’d already expressed that.

“I’m glad, too,” he decided with a contented sigh. The fresh dose of opioids from the PCA was already hitting his system, blunting the sharp pain into a tolerable, dull ache. At least now that everything was out in the open, Stephanie could remain by his side throughout his recovery without being questioned. The thought of always having his girlfriend there to support him gave him almost as much comfort as the Dilaudid did.

Almost.