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Fuck my life, is the first thought Tim has after he realizes he just walked into a trap. His second thought is that Jason is the only smart one among them. Smart because he wears a respirator during patrol. The helmet may look stupid but Tim wishes he had one at this moment.
The gas filled the warehouse before he could even think of putting his respirator on.
The last thought he has before he passes out is that this is knockout gas, the good shit, like high end expensive shit.
Tim jerks awake, water splashing over him. Fuck that’s cold.
“Good, he’s awake.” Tim glares at the direction of the voice, not able to make it out. There’s a spotlight over him and the rest of the room is dark. The chair he’s chained too is tilted back and he’s filled with dread. He knows exactly what’s going to happen and he’s not looking forward to it.
“What do you know about the operation at the docks?” The voice asks.
“I ain’t telling you shit.” Tim bites out. Even if he did know something significant he wouldn’t say anything. He knows the operation is something called project B, he knows it's funded by a new player in town. That’s basically all, they just became aware of it yesterday and Tim was following a tip which is how he got led into a trap to begin with.
“Last chance.” The voice says. Tim stays silent, bracing himself for what’s to come. “Suit yourself.” Suddenly there’s a hand on his chin, forcing his mouth open. A cloth covers his face and is immediately drenched in freezing cold water.
Tim struggles in vain, there’s nothing he can do except pray they don’t accidentally kill him. It’s not the worst torture he’s endured, these guys are amateurs compared to Ra’s, the bastard, but it still sucks.
The cloth is dragged off his face and out of his mouth. Tim gasps for breath, lungs spasming. He thinks it’s called bronchospasm. It’s easier to think of it in clinical terms, makes it easier to get through it.
Right as he’s catching his breath his vocal cords spasm. Laryngospasm, basically his vocal cords spasm and temporarily cut off air flow. Doesn’t cause permanent damage but still sucks. Thankfully his captor doesn’t ask him questions yet since he would be unable to speak.
“What do you know about the operation?” The voice eventually asks.
“F-fuck you.” Tim coughs. The remnants of the water they used taste horrible. Probably random Gotham City water, definitely unfiltered. Would it kill them to use distilled water or something less germy? He’s a hundred percent getting sick after this.
He’d most likely get sick even if he wasn’t immunocompromised. But alas he has no spleen, courtesy of the league of assassins’ doctor who took it out after he was stabbed in the middle of the desert. So he’s 100% going to get sick. He gives it 4 to 6 hours before pneumonitis sets in (general inflammation of the lung tissue) and then around 24 hours before it turns into pneumonia.
Hopefully he escapes or gets rescued before either of those things happen and he can get ahold of some antibiotics to prevent it from landing him in the hospital. This next week is gonna suck.
Tim survives two more rounds of water boarding before his interrogators leave. He gets as much water out of his lungs as possible before checking out the chains holding him in place.
And of course, because nothing gets to be easy, they don’t have a lock. They are brute force clasps, which basically mean the two sides are shoved together as hard as possible by someone strong. Bad for holding someone strong since they can easily force it open, good for holding Tim since he’s small.
Not that Tim isn’t strong, he is, just not strong enough. For someone like Bruce or Jason it would be a piece of cake. Hell Jason would probably snap these on accident. Perks of the Lazarus pits, Tim guesses. Ra’s offered to let him use it after the whole getting stabbed in the stomach thing but Tim turned him down.
Tim would like to keep what’s left of his sanity, please and thank you. He has witnessed what the pit does to someone’s psyche first hand, Jason is still struggling with Pit side effects years after his swim in it. And Tim doesn’t want to think about what Ra’s would do to him while he was vulnerable like that.
So basically Tim is stuck. The cuffs are too tight for him to slip, even if he dislocates his thumbs. Guess he just has to wait for someone to rescue him. Jason’s never gonna let him live this down, he’s Red Robin for Christ sake, he should be able to get himself out of situations like this.
An hour or so later he gets another few rounds of waterboarding, which is just lovely. 10 out of 10. Would it hurt them to be more creative?
His interrogators leave again and Tim takes stock of what he knows. He’s pretty sure these guys work for the people behind project B. They have only asked what he knows about the project so he guesses they are trying to figure out what the Bats know so they can get ahead of it.
Kinda stupid if you ask him. The Bats will show up to rescue him and learn more information about it in the process.
Tim is stuck waiting for either one of his family to show up or his interrogators to come back. He thinks through one of the cases the commissioner gave him earlier today to look over since he has nothing better to do.
It was the wife! Tim jerks up. Ha! He can solve cases even while kidnapped. The wife could have easily pulled a switch-a-roo with the housekeeper which would explain why the wife was seen two hours away. All the evidence pointed to the wife but she had an alibi. The housekeeper and the wife look very similar and could easily be mistaken for each other if they switched clothes and changed their hairstyles.
“What are you laughing about?” Tim whips his head to try to catch a glimpse of his interrogator.
“Your mom,” Tim lets his head thud back. The man doesn’t dignify that with a response, just starts his interrogation.
Tim’s lungs are definitely inflamed. He has shortness of breath and a persistent cough now. He feels cold but he can’t tell if that’s because of the freezing water that’s been dumped on him or he’s starting to get a fever, either way it’s not great.
His interrogators have decided to leave him alone for now, which he’s glad for since he thinks he would just straight up die next time they waterboarded him. His lungs are on fire.
His family better come soon or he’s going to murder them in his sleep.
——
The Replacement has been missing for about 8 hours. It took Batman 4 fucking hours to relize he was missing in the first place and tell anyone. It took another two for Jason to finish what he was currently doing and join the search for his dumbass little brother. And finally it took two hours to find the sucker.
Jason kicks the warehouse door open, letting the early morning light flood the dark room. He shoots the two captors, one in the head and the other in the knee, he needs to leave at least one alive to find out how and why they took Red Robin.
Jason makes his way through the warehouse, searching each door. He finds the replacement in the last room, why is it always the last room, why can’t the person they're searching for be in the first room they search?
“Hey Replacement…” Jason trails off as he sees how still the boy is. Tim is chained to a chair which is tipped back against a metal table, with a harsh light directly above him. Jason honestly thinks the boy is dead. Another dead Robin his mind supplies for him.
He’s proven wrong by a harsh wet cough. Jason rushes forward to his side. He gets closer and can hear Tim’s lungs rattle like they are trying to expel something.
“God Tim,” Jason breathes. Tim looks like shit, his eyes are half open, glassy with fever. He’s sweating and shivering and absolutely drenched with water. From the position of the chair and the supplies on the table behind him Jason can easily put together that he was waterboarded.
Jason carefully tips the chair forward so he can get a look at the cuffs. Simple cuffs but something Tim wouldn’t be able to get out of, tight enough to prevent him from slipping out if he dislocated his thumbs but not too tight which would cut off circulation. Jason simply snaps the cuffs.
“Replacement, Tim, you in there?” Jason asks, tapping his face. Tim blinks at him.
“Jay?”
“Yep, here to save your dumbass.” Jason says, pulling his glove off enough to feel Tim’s forehead with the back of his hand. God, how is his fever this bad already?
“Gotta… need…” Tim mutters incoherently. Jason clicks on his comm.
“I found Red, I need med evac.”
“How bad?” Nightwing asks immediately.
“High fever, semi-conscious, muttering but not making any sense. He was fucking waterboarded.” Jason informs them.
“Batmobile will be there in 2.” Oracle says. Jason lifts Tim out of the chair and into his arms. He makes his way out of the room, finding the people he shot.
“I found the people who captured him, one is waiting for interrogation.” Jason says.
“Hood,” Batman growls. Big bat gets pissy when someone breaks his precious no kill rule.
“Hey at least I left one alive.” He points out.
“Jay,” Tim coughs.
“Yeah that’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
“Gotta… antibiotics… sick.” Tim mumbles. Jason snorts.
“Yep, you're as sick as a dog. Don’t worry A will pump you full of meds.” Jason says as the Batmobile pulls up. “Rides here, logging off.” Jason turns his comm off as Batman gets out of the vehicle. Jason ignores him and sets Tim in the backseat and climbing in himself.
“How’s he doing?” Dick asks, sitting in the driver's seat and peeling away from the warehouse at breakneck speeds. Jason pulls his helmet off and chucks it in the passenger seat.
“Asked for antibiotics, actually admitted he’s sick.” Jason grabs one of the med kits, the one specifically for respiratory issues. He checks his temp, clicking his tongue at the result. “Fever at 101.6.” Jason rolls Tim onto his side so he doesn’t choke and slips an oxygen mask over his face.
“How’d it get that bad so fast?” Dick asks, white knuckling the steering wheel.
“Im,” Tim coughs. “Imuno..comp..promised.” He gets out between coughs. Jason’s eyes widen. How the fuck did they not know this? This is very important information. Jason makes eye contact with Dick through the rearview mirror, the man looking just as shocked with the information as he is.
“You’re immunocompromised?” Jason asks, hoping he heard him wrong. Tim nods and mutters something too soft to make out. “How long till we get to the cave?”
“2 more minutes.” Dick says.
“Tim, stay awake.” Jason taps his face when he closes his eyes. Tim grumbles. “Don’t care, stay awake or I will wack you.” Tim opens his eyes again. Tim grabs his sleeve and weakly pulls him closer. Jason leans closer, turning his head so Tim can speak in his ear.
“Case number 3564b.” Tim breathes. Jason furrows his eyebrows. “It, it was the wife. And the, the housekeeper.” Tim says before going into a coughing fit.
“The fuck?”
“What did he say?” Dick asks.
“He said a case number and said the wife did it, along with the housekeeper.” Jason shrugs. Dick doesn’t comment since they pull into the cave. Alfred is waiting there with one of the gurneys from the medbay. Damian is standing nearby with a scowl on his face.
Jason hauls the boy out of the vehicle and sets him on the gurney, bringing along the oxygen he put him on. Jason follows as Alfred takes it to the medbay.
Jason helps Alfred strip the boy from the top up, eyeing an uneven medical scar on his abdomen, one that Jason hasn’t seen before. Alfred sets up a chest x-ray and Jason pulls Damian away and behind a lead sheet.
Alfred sets up an IV while they wait for the x-ray results to load. Dick enters, having changed out of his uniform.
“Wait, this is wrong.” Jason says once the results come up. He points to where there should be a shadow but isn’t. “Dami, what organ should be there?”
“Tt, a spleen.” Jason and Dick share a look.
“That’s why he’s immunocompromised, he’s missing his spleen.” Dick says in shock. Damian clicks his tongue and looks away.
“When the fuck did he lose his spleen?!” Jason yells. Tim stirs on the bed.
“Master Jason, if you can not behave I will ask you to leave.” Jason huffs but listens. Alfred draws blood to test and gives Tim some steroids in gas form to help his lungs.
“Can’t you give him antibiotics? He has pneumonia right?” Dick asks.
“Pneumonia doesn’t develop right away, it usually takes 24 hours. Master Tim’s lungs are very irritated and he has a small amount of water in his lungs. I'm giving him a steroid for the inflammation and a diuretic to help get rid of the excess fluid. It is likely that he will develop pneumonia but antibiotics will not help at the moment.” The room falls silent, save for the monitors hooked up to the boy.
Alfred gets a wet cloth and starts to clear the sweat from his forehead. Dick sits on the edge of the cot and takes over for him. Alfred leaves to go run a blood test.
“I told you to fuck off.” Tim mutters, trying to move his head away from the cool cloth.
“Shh, you’re ok Tim. We’re in the cave.”
“I ain’t telling you shit.” Jason snorts, earning a glare from his older brother. Dick shushes Tim again and Tim falls silent.
Jason decides to go change out of his armor, dragging Damian along to change as well. Damian grumbles but does it anyway.
Bruce is in the medbay when Jason gets back, standing opposite of Dick near Tim’s bed. Bruce has a hand on Tim’s wrist feeling his pulse and is watching the monitor. Paranoid bastard making sure the monitor is counting his pulse right. Jason finds he can’t blame him, especially since he thought the replacement was dead when he first found him.
Dick wets the cloth again and leaves it on Tim’s forehead, hoping that will help with the fever. Jason watches as Dick pulls out a tablet.
“What was the case number he said?” Dick asks.
“3564b” Dick types and pulls it up. “What’s it about?”
“A man was killed in his house the other day, evidence points to the wife but she was a solid alibi.”
“Replacement said it’s the wife, said the housekeeper helped.”
“Tt, Drake doesn’t stop working even when kidnapped.” Damian tuts. Jason rolls his eyes.
“Look at this,” Dick turns the screen towards him. It shows two pictures, both women look similar.
“A switch-a-roo.” Jason snorts. “Timmy solving cases while kidnapped and tortured.” Dick rolls his eyes.
Jason is about to head out when Tim calls his name. Everyone looks at him expectantly and he walks forward. Tim’s eyes are scrunched shut.
“Yeah Replacement?” He says, ignoring the glare Bruce gives him at the nickname.
“Jay’s smart.” Tim mutters. Jason has to hold back a laugh.
“Why’s that?” He asks.
“Stupid helmet has a respirator.” Jason snorts.
“It’s not stupid if it works.” Tim shakes his head, dislodging the cloth from his head.
“Looks stupid.” Dick snorts this time. Jason huffs. Dick returns the cloth to his head. Tim tries to dislodge it again.
“I told you to fuck off.” Tim murmurs. “Get your shitty ass water away from me.” Jason laughs. His laugh is cut short as Tim starts hacking and Dick and Bruce haul him up so he doesn’t choke.
“Oh dear,” Jason looks over to see Alfred entering. Alfred is at Tim’s side in an instant, lowering his oxygen mask and holding a tissue up to catch the phlegm.
Jason makes his escape after Tim is settled again, the medbay feeling too crowded.
——
Tim feels like shit. He guesses he didn’t get antibiotics in time since he has an oxygen mask on and the sheets under him feel like hospital sheets. He’s not looking forward to explaining to the doctors why he has water in his lungs. Maybe he could say he fell into the harbor, but then he’ll have to explain why he was at the harbor.
Tim feels a freezing cold cloth touch his forehead and he shivers.
“Fuck you.” Tim says weakly, earning a chuckle from the person holding the cloth.
“Tim,” He scrunches his face, he knows that voice, at least he thinks he does. “Tim, can you open your eyes?” Tim blinks awake, grumbling at the overhead light. The light gets turned down a bit. Tim turns his head towards where the voice came from and opens his eyes again.
“Bruce,” Did Bruce take him to the hospital? “Hospital?” He asks.
“No, we’re in the cave.” Tim looks around, oh yeah this is the cave. The cloth returns to his forehead.
“Stop it’s cold.” Tim shakes his head.
“You have a high fever.” Bruce tells him.
“Don’t care, I’m cold.” Tim complains. Tim feels the bed for a blanket but he doesn’t find one. “It’s cold.”
“You have a fever of 103,” Tim huffs, that means they won’t give him a blanket. “Try to rest some more, you’ll feel better next time you wake up.” Tim believes him.
Bruce was wrong, he does not feel better. He in fact feels worse. The stupid freezing cloth settles on his forehead again.
“Leave me alone.” Tim says, trying to get away from the cold. He starts coughing, badly. He feels himself getting hauled up to a sitting position and he hacks up a crap ton of phlegm.
“That doesn’t sound good, baby bird.” Tim tries to catch his breath.
“Bruce,” another cough. “Lied,”
“Did he now?” Tim nods.
“Said I’d feel better, I feel like crap.” Tim is settled back on his back, the bed inclined so he can breathe better.
“I’m sorry, baby bird.”
“Dick?”
“Yeah,”
“Kick his ass for me, I’m too tired right now.” Dick chuckles.
“I’ll do that, you just rest.” Tim doesn’t complain about the cloth this time and falls into an easy sleep.
Tim bolts upright, dragging the oxygen mask down so he can spit phlegm up. God that’s a sucky way to wake up. He feels a warm hand rubbing his back.
“You're doing good Master Tim, just try to breathe.” Alfred says.
“I’m trying.” He coughs out.
“That you are.”
Eventually he leans back again, Alfred helping him settle back down. Tim feels a cold cloth touch his abdomen and he flinches.
“Sorry young master.” Alfred apologizes.
“It’s cold.” Tim shivers.
“I know, would you rather be covered in mucus?” Tim shakes his head. “Then it must be done.” After what feels like forever the cloth gets taken away. Another cloth touches his forehead.
“Stop, it’s so cold.” Tim shivers.
“You have a fever of 103.6, it’s spiked again, if we don’t cool you down then we will have to take you to the hospital.”
“No hospital.” Tim murmurs, closing his eyes. This is exhausting. Alfred hums.
Tim continues to hack up a lung, he feels more coherent but physically he feels as sick as a dog. Bruce sits at his side and gives him a breathing treatment, holding the mask up to his face for him. Once Tim catches his breath he glares at Bruce.
“You lied.” Bruce gives him a confused look. “You said I’d feel better,”
“I’m sorry chum.” Tim sends out a weak fist and it glances off the man’s chest dealing no damage. Tim takes stock of his surroundings. He’s still in the cave, in the medbay in nothing but his pants. Bruce switches the mask for a regular oxygen mask, now that the treatment is done.
“How bad did it get?” Tim asks, exhaustion hitting him.
“Fever got up to 103.9, it’s down to 101.2.” Tim nods.
“Can I have a blanket?”
“No,”
“You're a bastard.”
“Ok,” Tim huffs, closing his eyes. “Why didn't you tell anyone you were missing your spleen?”
“Yell at me about it later, let me sleep.” Thankfully Bruce leaves it alone.
“Can I have a blanket now? Or at least a shirt?” Tim asks Alfred. The man checks his temp before replying.
“Your fever broke so I will permit you to have a shirt but if your fever comes back I will not hesitate to take it away.” Tim huffs but accepts that answer. He’s been stuck in the freezing cave with no shirt for days now. Alfred helps him get dressed.
“Thanks Alf,”
“Of course Master Tim. Do you feel up to eating something?” Tim shakes his head. “Very well, we can try something light later.” Tim nods.
“Alfred sent me to bully you into eating.” Dick says and Tim rolls his eyes.
“Do I have to?” Nothing sounds appealing right now.
“Yes, or you will face his wrath.”
“Fine,” Tim sits up. He doesn’t have to bother with the oxygen mask anymore since he’s been upgraded to a nasal cannula. He sips the broth, which actually feels decent on his throat.
“You scared the shit outta us Timmy.” Dick says.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“I know. Next time tell us if you're missing an organ and we’ll be better prepared.” Tim huffs.
“How pissed are you?”
“Oh I’m livid but I’ll let B and Jason handle the lectures. Your punishment is that I get to mother-hen you till you're better.”
“Oh just kill me now,” Dick huffs.
“Dramatic little shit,”
“Like you're much better.” Tim rolls his eyes.
“At least I didn’t solve a case while getting tortured.” Tim whips his head to look at his brother.
“What case?”
“3564b.” Tim furrows his eyebrows, it takes a minute to remember.
“I solved it? It was the wife wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,”
“How’d she do it? She had an alibi.”
“Switch-a-roo with the housekeeper.”
“Ah, a classic.” Dick snorts.
“Damian I know you’re there, you can stop hiding.”
“Tt,” Damian steps out of the shadows.
“What’s up Dami?” The boy scoffs at the nickname.
“How did you lose your spleen?” Tim leans back, he knew he couldn’t run from this conversation forever.
“I got stabbed and my options were splenectomy or take a dip in the pits, pretty obvious what I chose.” Damian narrows his eyes.
“Grandfather doesn’t let just anyone use the pits.”
“Yeah I know, he’s just kinda obsessed with me. He wasn’t very happy with my choice.”
“Tt,” Tim smirks at his younger brother.
“It almost seems like you care.”
“Of course I don’t, how could I care for someone as incompetent as you Drake.” Tim snorts, which sends him into a coughing fit. Damian rushes to his side and rubs his back as he coughs, just like the rest of the family does. As soon as he catches his breath Damian jerks away like he’s been burned.
“I know,” Tim yawns. “You care.”
“Tt,”
“I care about you too, little demon.” Tim says as he falls asleep, missing the shocked look on his brother's face.
This is what he was waiting for. After over a week in the medbay he’s been allowed to move up to his room in the manor. And when he woke up again he finds Jason waiting for him.
“Get on with it then.” Tim says.
“You ABSOLUTE DUMBASS!” Jason starts. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell anyone you were immunocompromised?! You could have died! And then Dami says you said that Ra’s tried to put you in the pit! What they fuck happened?”
Tim goes to explain but coughs instead and can’t stop. Jason is at his side in an instant, grabbing a treatment mask and holding it to his face after hauling him into a sitting position.
“You fucking asshole.” Jason says. “Next time you lose an organ, tell us right away. You’re an idiot for not telling us.” Jason continues to lecture him through his entire coughing fit and even as he’s settled back in bed.
“You scared the shit outta me.” Jason ends his lecture with.
“Sorry.”
It’s been over a week since Tim’s pneumonia cleared up and the family is still being the overprotective bastards they are. Dick was right about his mother-henning and it’s getting insufferable.
“Dick, I swear.” Tim says.
“This is your punishment for not telling us you were missing a spleen. Suck it up.” Dick reminds him.
“I’ve been medically cleared, stop mother-henning me!”
“You’ve been cleared of pneumonia, you are not fully medically cleared.”
“Schematics. Aren’t you needed in Bludhaven?”
“Nope! You’re stuck with me.” Tim presses his hands to his eyes and groans.
Finally, fucking finally, Tim is allowed to go home to his own apartment. Fully medically cleared and all that jazz. He has had enough of the Bats overprotective hovering.
When he starts patrolling again he finds the other Bats butting into his patrol route to check on him. And every time he gets more than a paper cut he’s dragged to the cave to be checked over.
It’s annoying but he guesses it’s karma for hiding a major injury that permanently fucked up his immune system.