Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim’s emptiness was like an ocean with no bottom. A void with no end. His loneliness defined him, its all he was. The Drake heir trapped in an endless mansion, straddling the line of invisibility and ever present. “Oh. We will try to make it to your birthday yes. The 8th right?” That’s the message Jack Drake left for him after Tim foolishly tried to remind him of the date. It was an idiotic move on Tim’s part, he should have used more tact and suggested something more subtle. Perhaps a work dinner or a press conference. At least whenever his parents forget the day to sleeping pills and a bootle of booze he will be able to sneak out. He sighed, clicking off his phone and watching the green bubble with his father’s words disappear to the black screen. It was almost time to do his nightly bat-stalking and he needed to double check his routes.

The metal creaked like a old familiar song under his feet, the worn pipes bound together by rusted screws. This was his favorite spot, patrol route 5T as he named it. There was always good lighting and action shots that actually came through instead of a blurry mess of motion. He settled further into his twisted nest of metal, awaiting the distinct sound of young laughter and heavy boots.

“Woah B! Looks like a real doozy! Let’s hope you guys are hungry cause I’m about to send you a knuckle sandwich!!” A ringing voice said, the echoes of giggles traveling down the ally.

“Robin, careful.” The growl of The Bat came later, fond exasperation present in his voice. Tim wasn’t sure why it made his chest feel tight.

He shifted his finger when the duo came into view with a flash of color and leather. Robin punched a guy and the face then used his momentum to kick a man in the stomach.

Snap

Batman grabbed some big goons arm and twisted.

Snap

Robin hopped on the shoulders of a lackey and shoved her down.

Snap

Batman ushers Robin over into his cape for a quick check up and embrace.

Snap

He wasn’t sure why his throat felt so tight, or why his heart hurt so he ignored it. It’s probably just the cold. He will be fine. Anyway the next route is 3E so he needs to scramble if he wants to make it on time.

He packs up his stuff doing a mental checklist of tasks while his fingers hastily shove in S2D cards. Once his backpack was secured on his back he scampered down the fire escape. Usually he would take the roofs but he was tired and didn’t want to risk it. The Gotham lights flicker where he walks, sending shiver down his back. The walls of the alley curve in him and he hunkers down further, the jeers of drunk men echos down the street coming closer and closer. A pang of sharp fear rips through him when they come into view, large bulky men wearing distinct black face masks, a skull printed into the fabric. Black Mask goons. Shit.

He sprints to the nearest corner and drops to his knees, quickly hiding his backpack and camera behind a dumpster. His mom would kill him if he broke his camera. Or died.

“Alright boys, just that crack trade on 6th then we good for the night eh!” One of the taller goons said, clapping another man on the back.

Crap, a drug trade? If he was caught he was definitely a goner but on the other hand lots of people are going to suffer from black masks monopoly on drugs. He grabbed his camera and prayed to a god he wasn’t sure he believed in that he wouldn’t get caught.

“Boss said warehouse behind 7th dipshit!.” The woman with the matted red hair snapped as he held down the record button.

“Woah calm sweet cheeks, I’m just talking-“

“Talk quieter you waste of an orgasm.” The 3 goons loudly slurred various details about the impending drug trade later tonight. He somehow needed to get these to Batman.

Turns out hacking into the bat-computer was actually terribly difficult. Tim had managed to drop of the sound file in the case work tab but he wasn’t sure if they would check it on time. This would be beyond risky and could go terribly wrong. He sends a direct message to the bat-computers notifications. Immediately Tim slams the his phone down and breathes out. They probably haven’t seen it yet, it was just sent- *ding* crap.

“Who are you. -O”

Tim was done for, but he still needed to help. What did his dad always say “I didn’t get to where I am today by being a quitter.” Something like that. He began typing out a response before settling on an answer.

“Crow.”

Chapter Text

Tim has been the Bats informant for 6 months. Somehow he has evaded all of their questions and Oracles tracking which he finds to be a major accomplishment. Right now he needed to transfer some files to the bat-computer about some movements Black Mask had been making. He cracked his knuckles and leaned back in his desk chair, it was 3:00am and he really should go to bed at some point-

“Crow. Find Penguin. -B”

The order came from B, so he definitely needed to hurry. Out of all of the bats he was the hardest to work with simply due to his lack of faith in Tim. Oh well. He closed his previous tab and switched to the cams he had installed in the less than favorable parts of town. Sure enough Penguin pops up in an ally close to Old Gotham, which he heard was being occupied by Scarecrow. This could be bad, if the two of them start working together Gotham would be toast.

“old gotham. The ally behind saint francis’s church. -Crow”

He types out, hoping that B could put a stop to this before it got out of hand. His parents were coming home soon so he really should get some rest. Mother will be angry if he doesn’t look presettable for whatever social gathering he would be dragged to next. Pushing up off his desk, he cracks his knuckles again and wanders off to bed.

He dives under the covers and pulls his blankets up to his chin. If he focuses hard enough he can pretend like he’s getting a hug from his dad. Tim turns to the side again, glancing at the picture he keeps on his nightstand. Jack and Janet Drake, wide grins on their faces, clutching an old vase like it’s precious. Sometimes he wishes he was that vase, something flashy and visible. Something that had everyone’s attention and interest. Something that deserved to be held. He shoved that thought down, his parents were…okay. He’s not dumb, he knows it’s not normal to leave a kid alone for months on end but really it wasn’t that bad. He has a lot of freedom and obscene amounts of money. Kids in Park Row have it 10x worse so who was he to complain that he missed his parents. He curled up and fell into a fitful sleep.

The incessant ringing woke him up, his phone buzzed for what he believed was the 80th time. He groaned and grabbed his device, rubbing at his eyes he checked his notifications.

“Crow! I jst learned tht my mom wasn’t my bio mom. Can you look into the name Sheila Haywood for me? -R”

“Crow are you there? -R”

“Do you need help? -R”

Tim sighs and types out with blurry eyes a quick response and glances at his clock. 5:00am, far too early to be functioning. He groans again and pushed himself to sit up, pushing his knuckles forward till they cracked. The homework he abandoned a few days ago fluttered about, the loud shuffle of papers in the silent room finally gave him the push to turn on the light. He immediately shut his eyes at the bright assault on his senses, hissing like a vampire. Just as he was about to pull up his laptop to start researching for Jason a wailing siren echoed through the entire city. His blood ran cold. Arkham Breach. Tim ripped open his device and opened two tabs. He starts with the breakout, immediately messaging B for details. Next was finding Sheila Haywood.

After 20 minutes of silent panic he gets a message from B and from Robin.

“It’s Joker. Do not go out tonight. -B”

And

“The stupid clown is out and we don’t know where he is. B says he’s probably going to lay low.”

Alright, that made his feel a lot worse, but it was fine. No one noticed Tim Drake and The Clown Prince Of Crime had no reason to change that. Mother always said “you are invisible Timothy, it is one of your best qualities.” At the time it stung but he does see her logic. He is able to go anywhere because no one noticed he was there in the first place. After searching through endless fluff about Shelia he finally found a personal account. Shelia_HW43, she posted pictures of charities and landscape pictures. He reverse image searched a picture of the charity and learned it was in Ethiopia. The date read 4 hours ago so she was likely still there. He felt compelled to hack into her private accounts and truly get a concrete answer but he doubted that Jason would appreciate him doing so. He sent the file to Robin with a final tap of his keyboard.

“Thank you C, you won’t hear from me for a bit. -R”

“where are you going? -Crow”

“To find my mom. Don’t tell B, he already said no. -R”

“Or dickhead, he said it was a bad idea but he doesn’t know what it’s like, you know? -R”

“I will send you coordinates to her last known location. -Crow”

“Thanks C-bird! You’re the best! -J”

Tim sighed and looked around his room. Scattered homework assignments he needed to get done, a school project due next Thursday, and the printed draft of an email he meant to send to his parents. Overall not great options. He looked at his clock reading 6:23am. He had school in an hour so there was no use in going back to bed if he just had to wake up again. Tim groaned for the 8th time this night…morning? Whatever. Robin was going to Ethiopia and- oh crap The freaking Joker was out. There was something to do. He immediately got to work, scanning cameras all across Gotham with the occasional help from Oracle and yet no sign of him.

All of them were starting to get freaked out, it wasn’t like Joker to lay low and wait unless he had a good reason. So Tim went with that, tracing his movements via accounts created by his girlfriend Harley Quinn. She knew what she was doing but not enough to throw him. Every account had the same pattern of opening, gaining a seemingly random amount of money, then closing. Almost like a high risk monopoly board where people keep landing on your property. Huh, maybe that’s it? It’s not really his style but blackmail could be a possibility. Tim kept pulling at the thread until he found another account opened 4 hours ago. Harley went with the name Kendra Lee Winters for this round and was transferring money with an account named S.HayWood. Tim frowned at the account name. Surely not, this must be a mistake, but the sinking feeling in his chest wouldn’t move so he continued searching. 900$. Every month. All traced back to Shelia Haywood. His alarm for school rang pulling him out of his stupor. Jason, Jason had went to go find his mom. If Joker was out then…his fingers shook. It would be his fault, if anything happened to Jason it would be his fault. With his heart in his throat he frantically typed out a message for Bruce.

“B, is Jason with you? -Crow”

“How do you know his name. -B”

“It doesn’t matter! Is Jason with you? This is really important -C”

“No he is not. What happened. -B”

“This is hard to explain but he texted me this morning about some lady named Shelia Haywood and how his mom wasn’t his bio mom. -C”

“Then I found her location and you sent it to Jason and he told me he was going to find her and I thought I was doing a good thing and I’m sorry -C”

“But I think Joker has eyes on Robin. -Crow”

“Crow. Send me his location. Now. -Batman”

Chapter Text

Batman had been gone for 3 days. Nightwing was off world. Robin was missing. Oracle was searching. Tim was alone.

Tim rubbed his eyes and leaned back, his chair making the usual noise in protest. He had been sporadically napping while trying to hold down Gotham. The GCPD were alright but there were so many corrupt people and half the time they didn’t even listen to him. There was so much work, he didn’t know how Batman did it. A case in the east end, a drug bust in 30, it was too much. He couldn’t handle this he- he had too. Another tip popped up on his screen and he went back to work.

“Robbery of precious jewels from the Art and History Museum of Gotham, 1 person, no injuries -SK”

SK? Usually tips either put anonymous or nothing at all. The burglary had Catwoman written all over it considering the high security and lack of a team so the GCPD wouldn’t be able to do anything. Not with how good she is. He frowned and tapped his fingers across his table, this SK person said no injuries so even though jewels were stolen it would be low priority. Tim had never researched much on Catwoman, she tended to avoid injuring civilians and stole from the wealthy. Out of all rouges she was definitely one of the safer ones. He pulled up B’s files around Catwoman, surprised at the sheer lack of information. There was maybe 6 files all from years ago and rarely updated. Strange. Tim clicked the first file he could see, reading through while directing the police to an upcoming drug bust. The oldest file was scarce, barely enough to be considered a debrief. He kept scrolling, the info was dry and quite frankly lacking in depth. General run downs of interactions and maybe a few chases but overall she was barely in the system. The last file dated 4 years ago read over a brief encounter and a chase. Just as Tim was about to shut the tab he saw in tiny font at the very end of the page Selina Kyle. SK? Was Catwoman the date Mr. Wayne had been seen with- no ew not thinking about that no. If Catwoman was Ms. Kyle than why did she call a report on herself? She sent it directly to him and clearly stated the location. Perhaps a trap? But Ms. Kyle had worked with B before and has been seen with him in and out of costume so reasonably she would have no reason to betray him. Maybe she was attempting to figure out where B is? Then why wouldn’t she contact him herself? He groaned and flopped his head into his hand. Life sucks. The smart to do would be to gather more info but he was tired and if he had to keep sitting on his bed in the dark he was going to scream.

This was definitely a terrible idea but if he could stalk the bats then he could probably stalk Catwoman right? How hard could it be. He pulled on his familiar black attire, snatched his camera and disappeared into the night. Tim started an alarm on his watch, it was 3:42 am so he had 2 hours. 2 hours to gather as much info on the most notorious thief in the city. He slid outside his window and dropped to the floor, the jolt to his ankles as his starting point he sprinted into the night. No one noticed the little Drake boy disappear straight into the darkness.

Tim hated this route, the roofs were crumbling and there were never any good vantage points but he managed. He walked across a cracked concrete roof, hopping every other step to avoid glass or holes. This path was objectively the quickest but he was out in the open a lot and he always felt like there was someone watching him. He shoved the feeling down, he was 10 not 4, he could handle a bit of paranoia. The gleaming building of the Art and History Center came into view, the old building catching the light of the moon. Nothing seemed amiss, no cop cars or broken windows. Tim grabbed his camera and started to zoom in on various spots, looking for a stray cat. Soon enough he finds a woman leaning against a balcony on the east side of the building. She was twirling what seemed to be a pearl necklace in her hands and staring off into the distance. He put down his camera and began his slow path to get closer. Not exactly sure but it will probably be fine.

As it turns out this build was incredibly hard to navigate without setting off any alarms, while he knew he was talented Tim did not trust himself to pull of a Catwoman worthy feat so he had to keep going in circles. He finally reached the roof above the balcony and quickly crouched and pulled his hood over his hair. Ms. Kyle was still looking out into the distance, still seeming to zone out. Strange. Maybe she was waiting for someone? He grabbed his camera and took silent pictures of her posture, the necklace, and even the surrounding area, but he for some reason couldn’t come up with a logical conclusion. He can wait another 20 minutes before he should start heading back. Dang he was tired. When was the last time he had more than an hour of sleep at a time. A nap sounds so nice- he felt his eyes droop, maybe pausing would do him good- before he knew it his had slipped and his camera clattered against the ground. Oh freak-

“Hello. You must be the infamous Crow. You can come out now.” Ms. Kyle purred, spinning the necklace before grabbing the pearls and delicately placing them in her pocket

Tim stiffened, she was definitely waiting for him specifically. He debated answering before giving in.

“You called for me. Why?” This was the first time he spoke to someone as Crow, usually he just messaged or refused to speak. When he started as an informant he decided to try and be as ambiguous as possible but he never really had to put it into practice like this before.

Ms. Kyle straightened and a strange look flickered on her face, her red lips opening in something akin to surprise. She looked around, clearly searching for his hiding spot. Tim dropped down from the upper balcony, she must have been really off her game if he was able to get the drop on her.

“I believe I asked a question Ms. Kyle.” Better play his cards now, he needed this to be done quickly.

She quickly recovered and leaned back against the rails sizing him up. Her eyes flicked from his dark coat and mask before frowning.

“Indeed you did. I need to know what happened to Batman. Where is he? I was told you were his best informant.” She clearly was attempting to be collected but her rushed tone and flighty demeanor gave her away. She was worried about B. Interesting.

“He is currently dealing with a situation out of Gotham.” Tim answered blankly, posture perfect like his mom taught him. The faster he leaned what her motive was the faster he could get back to handling Gotham.

“What situation? He has been missing for 3 days now and there have been no accounts of injuries! Every other bat was okay! He just vanished! He didn’t even call me..!” She ranted, slowly pacing the balcony. Ms. Kyle was closer to B than he originally expected. Perhaps there was more to this than meets the eye.

“One that cannot be disclosed by me. I assure you Batman will contact you as soon as possible.” Just as he finished his watch buzzed, another GCPD team needing guidance. He clenched his jaw. He had school today he needed help.

Ms. Kyle pursed her lips and gave him a cold stare.

“Crow, this is as close to begging as I’m going to get. Please tell me where Bru-Batman is. Please.” Tim had an idea, a very bad idea but it could work.

“If I tell you what I know about B, will you help me hold down Gotham?” His voice cracked on the last word, dang he was tired.

Ms. Kyle immediately nodded, offering what she knew about the rouges and the rich farts who were dabbling deeper than white collar crime. He thanked her and gave her a summary about the last three days. She said she needed to leave soon after but thanked him profusely. She must have been tired too.

He slid his camera back into his case and started the walk back to Drake manor with 4 minutes to spare if he took the fast route. He was passing through the rooftops of Park Row when he got the notification.

“Jason has been found. -B”

Tim felt the air rush out of his lungs, he couldn’t tell if it was relief or fear. Relived that Robin had been found, fear of how. He couldn’t go on if Robin was gone. It would be his fault, it would always be his fault.

He breathed in and hurried back to the manor. He hauled himself up to his window and practically dove for his computer. No new updates on reports and the GCPD seemed to be following directions. B was likely still in Ethiopia, helping Jason. He could do this, just a few more days of random naps and endless stress. He could do this.

Just as Tim was typing out his response to B he heard the unmistakable slam of the front door. He froze, it couldn’t be them, they shouldn’t be back until the 19th and it was…the 19th. Freak. He clamored out of his suit? Jacket? If they saw him wearing something so “unsightly” they’d have his hide. Then click of heels and dress shoes echoed through the house and he quickly shut his laptop and shoved it under his pillow and dove under the covers.

His parents were home.