Chapter Text
Tim, Seventeen
“I can't believe that Bruce still has this!”
“I cannot believe that Father ever let you have that.”
“That means you don't want to try it out?”
“Tt. If you can handle an unreasonably fast skateboard, I have no doubt that I will manage.”
“You're sure, Damian? You're a natural but you've only had few weeks of lessons.”
“Quite sure, Timothy. As I suspected from Father's general practices, the prototype should be quite serviceable even if it does not have the cosmetic advantages of the final version.”
“Well, okay, but I'm trying out the prototype. I already know that the final Redboard works so you should try that one first.”
Tim, Twelve
“That's her.” Barbara points to the paused screen. The restaurant's alley surveillance camera had only caught a glimpse of a shadow-like figure but the rumors and size suggest that they've found the right person.
“It has to be Cassandra!” Stephanie agrees. “Can you show that bit at the end again? It looks a little like a camera glitch but I don't think she climbed up the ladder to vanish – yes, there! There's a frame where she pulls herself up after she jumped. No one could make a leap like that without a lot of training.”
“I think it's her.” Tim reaches for the letter from Cass that he's been saving. She has a letter for her younger self, too. He hasn't opened it so he can only wonder what she could have left for a girl who doesn't know how to talk or read.
“We're moving out immediately,” Bruce says. “Tim and Stephanie, you're with me. Wheels up in ten so don't be late. Barbara, if you can keep an eye on all cameras in that area, we'll appreciate anything else you can give us. Dick and Jason are in Blüdhaven this week. They can cover Gotham if needed but we should be back soon. Damian, stay home with Alfred. You're still too young for this mission.”
“On it, Bruce,” Barbara promises. “I'm happy to camp out in the Cave until we find her.”
“Don't leave without me!” Stephanie yells as she runs for the lockers.
Tim looks at the video one more time before he turns to Damian. Damian looks distinctly annoyed that Bruce has been holding firm to the 'no patrolling before you're twelve' rule. It's probably worse because Cassandra is already sixteen. She can patrol as soon as Bruce agrees that she's ready.
Damian thins his lips and turns away.
“Maybe you could help Alfred get a room ready for her?” Tim suggests.
“Pennyworth has been making minor changes to that room for two months. There is very little to do.”
“Maybe make sure Titus is ready, then,” Tim says. “It'll be a big change for him and I don't know what Cassandra thinks about dogs. She likes them when she's older but I didn't think to ask her if that was always the case.”
“Hm.” Damian's sour expression doesn't waver. That's the first time that mentioning Titus hasn't cheered Damian up since they found the right breeder. Even though Damian and Tim agreed that Damian would choose whatever puppy appealed to him the most, and that they would only do a DNA test out of curiosity and to help Damian gain experience in the laboratory... neither had been surprised that Damian picked Titus with the choice of the full litter.
“I'm sorry, Damian,” Tim says. “I'll send you updates, okay?”
Damian turns away again. “You should get ready, Timothy. I would not want you to miss the departure time.”
Maybe Tim can distract Damian later with setting up ideas for beginner projects if Cassandra wants to try any art techniques. Tim tried his best, though, and even Damian admits that Tim will be late if he keeps trying. Tim runs for the lockers with the goal of beating his personal best time for getting changed. None of them want to lose track of Cass.
Tim, Seventeen
Bruce sighs. “After all the time I spent hoping that the two of you would get along...”
Tim has two scrapes and a very mild burn. Damian is completely unharmed from the unexpected group of motorcyclists that thought that Tim and Damian's street race through a mostly-abandoned stretch of road was open to all comers even though only Tim and Damian had unreasonably fast skateboards. Damian is completely safe because Tim and Damian had been sensible enough to ask if Kon and Jon were available to judge the race. Tim and Kon had both been sure that Tim would land the last kickturn until it was almost too late.
“You still had the skateboard in the equipment locker, Bruce.”
“An oversight that both of you will help me correct.”
Tim and Damian exchange a glance. Usually, most of the equipment locker is organized in a way that only Bruce can fully understand. It had taken Tim nearly an hour to find the Redboard when he knew exactly what he was looking for. With both of them helping, it should be easy enough to find anything one of them wants to see again later.
“Of course, Father.”
“Sure, Bruce.”
Bruce sighs again.
Tim, Twelve
Finding Cassandra in an unfamiliar city with a maze of alleys is hard. Convincing her to come with them is harder since none of them want to force her to come with them. Stephanie gets the closest but Cassandra is still cautious.
Tim brought the letter from older-Cass along. The fourth time Cassandra almost runs away, he opens the letter to find a stack of photographs.
He holds the first one out toward Cassandra and she stops.
The picture shows older-Cassandra smiling and looking completely at ease, sprawled over a couch with her legs draped over Bruce's lap.
Cassandra moves forward slowly. When Tim lets her take the picture, she studies it and then looks at the next one in his hand. She looks over several pictures of her older self looking happy and relaxed, mostly with Bruce, and then she looks at Bruce.
Cassandra links her hands behind her back, photographs still clenched in one of her hands, and nods to Bruce.
Tim keeps an eye on her as they all walk back to the Batplane. Cassandra seems fine. She even relaxes out of the hands-behind-the-back pose after the first block with a cautious glance at Bruce. When Bruce looks completely relaxed, she slowly relaxes further. By the time they get to the plane, she heads up the ramp right after Bruce.
Bruce stops dead in the middle of the plane and bristles with anger just as quickly as he drops out of a combat stance.
“Damian.”
Damian, caught halfway out of the supply closet, freezes.
So does Cassandra.
Tim stays back. If he needs to say something, he will, but Bruce looks a lot more tired than angry.
Bruce breaks the silence. “If you wanted to provide support in a civilian role, you could have helped from the Batcave or we could have made an arrangement to have someone accompany you on the plane. I did not know that you had stowed away on the plane. If there had been an emergency where we needed to evacuate, I would not have known to look for you.”
Damian wilts. “I apologize, Father.”
“You are grounded for the weekend,” Bruce says. “I'm sure that the Kents can reschedule. Jonathan can still visit if his parents agree but you are not leaving the Manor. We'll talk about safety protocols and acceptable bargaining later.”
Damian peers up at him cautiously before nodding. “I understand, Father.”
Cassandra eases forward slightly. She peers up at Bruce and then looks over to Damian before she smiles. When Damian steps back to one of the groupings of three seats and takes the seat on the edge, Cassandra sits in the middle. When Stephanie moves forward hopefully, Cassandra nods decisively and smiles when Stephanie takes the seat on her other side.
Tim gets to help co-pilot, again, and by the time they get back to the Batcave, Stephanie and Damian are convinced that Cassandra wants to understand them when they talk.
“We'll have to help her,” Bruce warns. “I'll also ask for advice so that we have the best idea possible about what Cassandra wants.”
Cassandra doesn't understand the words but she seems calm enough as she hesitantly follows them up out of the Batcave. Tim was happy to stay out of Stephanie and Alfred and Damian's intense discussions about calming color palettes and the best ideas for furniture and how to arrange it. When Cassandra sees the comfortable room in shades of light blue and lavender, she smiles again, and seems happy enough to plop on the bed once Stephanie pantomimes that it's for her.
By the time they reach the day when older-Tim told them to raid Cadmus Labs, Cassandra might even be ready to come along.
Tim, Seventeen
Tim looks dubiously at the bowl of various powders. Jason had brought out a scale just as accurate as the one Tim would use in the Batcave to measure out the flour and the cocoa powder. Tim still isn't sure how someone is meant to sift the powders neatly or why Tim went through all the trouble to weigh things accurately before making a mess of the counters and disrupting the ratio of ingredients but Jason looks pleased enough.
“I just stir this?”
“Exactly,” Jason says. “We'll get to the wet ingredients next. Once we mix it all together, it'll look a lot more normal.”
After Jason let Tim and Stephanie join Operation Fire Drill, Black Mask is back in prison again. Even better, Jason had found some trace evidence in a warehouse that had made it easy for Tim to track down just how a couple officials were trying to hide the bribe money. Somehow, that had turned into Tim learning how to make brownies instead of just eating them.
After the ingredients are all mixed together, the result does look reassuringly like brownie batter. Tim has never thought that much about how much to mix things together before adding something else. Jason doesn't even look at the recipe. When Tim checks it, though, Jason is always working in the right order.
Tim gets to scrape the batter into the pan. He isn't even nervous that making a mess with the batter will result in anything more than maybe some teasing and washing the mixing bowls out to try again. Jason had been pretty open about how talking to someone had helped him get his own thoughts in order. Tim wasn't so sure that it would work but it had all seemed so much clearer when someone else gently repeated what he'd just said.
Tim had felt like he belonged when he was Robin. He had a place in the Wayne family and he had a place with the Teen Titans. When Stephanie was Robin, she seemed to be a part of the family, and she and Bruce had been so distant after he dismissed her from Robin. Tim had regained Robin and his place in the Wayne family all at once. Getting replaced as Robin had made Tim think that Damian would be the new priority in everything, not just that role.
Tim still isn't sure how to explain the fake uncle but at least he has the rest of the week to think about it.
“Lost in thought?”
“The therapist that your therapist mentioned has been really good,” Tim says. “I felt like I could only belong as Robin but I think I'm doing alright on my own. I mean, I did lose an organ the last time I did a big solo mission, but that's the kind of thing that Brandon says that I need to tell people so that they can work with me more effectively instead of hiding it so that they won't think I'm incompetent.”
Jason drops the whisk. “You lost an organ?”
Tim eyes the specks of batter that launched all over the counter. Maybe he could have phrased that a little more gently but he didn't want to make it something serious and important. He had hoped Jason would take it in stride and move on.
“Tim,” Jason half-growls. “Which organ, when, who, and do I need to put myself on Bruce's bad side again?”
For a wonder, Tim doesn't even think that Jason is a threat to him. Maybe to his dignity, though, because if Jason starts hovering over Red Robin some of the criminals are definitely going to mock him.
Delaying won't help anymore, though, so Tim gives in to Jason's inevitable over-protective instincts. “My spleen, while I was a little too excited about finding evidence about Bruce's trip through time and forgot to watch my surroundings, some assassin that's already dealt with, and it's all probably fine. I mean, Ra's possibly has my spleen in a jar, but he didn't order the attack,” Tim adds quickly when he can almost see Jason planning flight vectors. “It was the Court of Spiders and we dealt with them. I woke up next to a Lazarus Pit and for a second I thought Ra's had put me in there.”
“You should never be that close to one of those, Tim.”
“I saw what it did to Cass,” Tim replies simply. “She told me what it did to Mrs. Fries and I saw how hard it was for her to come back. I didn't know you before but I heard all the stories.”
Jason looks at him intently. “You're pretty close with Cass and Stephanie. Dick, too. I don't suppose you've told one of them and they've been very protective of your history?”
Tim's a good liar but usually he has more time to prepare and he doesn't have to rely on someone who would rat him out in a heartbeat when Jason mentioned a missing spleen.
Jason holds up his phone. “Want me to break the news?” he offered. “You can tell them if you want but if you've gone this long without mentioning the part where you don't have a spleen because of... trauma?”
“You could say that,” Tim agrees wryly. “Stab wound.”
Jason raises a brow slightly. “Got it. If you want to tell people on your terms, that's okay, but we should at least know what to do if you get injured or sick. I know Bruce and Leslie talk about not having a spleen in their 'how to deal with immunocompromised toxin victims' guidelines.”
“Leslie's been helping me out,” Tim admits. “I don't want to make thing bad when everyone else finds out. We were all mad about Stephanie but Leslie said that she couldn't make me tell anybody and she wouldn't tell anyone until I was ready.”
“If you want me to tell them, everybody will be so happy that you're talking to me that they're guaranteed to give you less of a hard time. I can mostly make Stephanie back off.”
“Mostly?” Tim asks, smiling.
“Mostly,” Jason confirms cheerfully. “That's the best I can offer.”
Tim thinks it over. He'd have to come up with the words and the right time to say them. If he told everyone in person, there would be way too much chance of all of the sad emotions coming out right away. If Jason puts it in the group text, though...
“Siblings first?” Tim suggests.
“Done,” Jason says. He focuses on his phone for a minute and types so quickly that Tim can't trace the letters. When he finishes, he looks at Tim. “You're sure?”
“I'm sure,” Tim agrees.
Jason hits send. Tim's phone buzzes once. Tim pulls his phone out of his pocket and waits. Less than fifteen seconds later, his phone starts vibrating with text notifications and doesn't stop. Ten seconds after that, his phone changes vibration patterns to signal a phone call.
“Ugh,” Tim says. “I probably deserve this but ugh. Bruce is probably going to go nuts about antibiotics and be the biggest mother hen when I get scratched on patrol.”
“I'll go tell Bruce if you want,” Jason offers. “Gives you time to go tell Alfred.”
Tim thinks over Alfred's carefully-concealed hurt if he hears it from anyone else including the many siblings on their way. Plus, if Jason is the one to tell Bruce, then Bruce will be happy that Jason is talking to him and at the proof that Jason and Tim were talking.
“Thank you. I think it'd help if Bruce heard from you first.” Tim sets a timer on his phone to give him a couple minutes to make it to the oven. “We've even got a time limit because Alfred would never want something to burn in his oven.”
“Alfred's probably still fussing over the rose garden. Good luck, Tim.”
“Thanks, Jason.”
“Any time.”
Tim, Twelve
“Do you think that he's doing okay, Bruce? My older self, I mean.”
“I think he was ready to change things, Tim. I imagine that he came up with a few ways to improve his own world after looking out for all of us.”
Tim, Seventeen
Tim still isn't sure how Jason's to-the-point text about Tim lacking a spleen ended in a pool party but he isn't complaining. Alfred had listened intently when Tim stumbled through an explanation. He'd been very pleased with Tim's promise to update his medical record and additional medications before he went on patrol again. By the time Tim and Alfred had left the rose garden to check on the brownies, everyone else had started getting ready for time at Wayne Manor's massive outdoor swimming pool.
Everyone but Bruce and Tim is already in the pool. Stephanie did tease Tim about secret-keeping a little but Jason almost immediately distracted her by saying that Dick wanted a rematch for the diving competition since only little Tim had seen that.
Tim stays dry and claps for the best dives. When Bruce gets a couple whiteboards and markers out from under his pool chair, he and Tim both write scores to hold up after each dive. Bruce grades each dive like he's practicing to be a judge at the Olympics. Tim gives everything except Jason's cannonball jump into the deep end a 10. Even Damian's much simpler dives all get 10s because he's put in a lot of work to be able to do a clean somersault on a dive. When Jason sputters at the 0, Tim shrugs and calls that he was judging a diving competition. Jason grumbles and protests and tries to hide a smile.
With the diving competition over, Tim eats another brownie and waits for Bruce to put his thoughts together.
“I think we all got out of the habit of telling each other things,” Bruce says finally. “Some important, some that didn't seem to be important.”
“I had that habit before I ever met you,” Tim admits. “I'm working on it, though.”
Bruce half-smiles. “I am, too.”
“We all are,” Tim says. “I think we'll get there, Dad.”
Bruce's 'I am trying to not make it a big deal even though one of my kids actually called me Dad' face shouldn't be that distinct. Maybe Tim should call him that a little more often and see how many repetitions it takes until his dad stops being so surprised.
“Coming in the water any time soon, Tim?” Stephanie calls.
Tim smiles. She had waited for Bruce to compose himself before yelling. “Sure, I'll swim for a while.”
Without thinking about it, Tim stands up and takes off his t-shirt.
Bruce stares at Tim's abdomen. His expression flickers briefly from worry to rage to a familiar state of barely-controlled anger. “I see,” Bruce says evenly. “Which surgeon might I credit for intervening?”
Behind Tim, the splashing in the pool stops.
“I'm not actually sure,” Tim admits. “I woke up next to a Lazarus Pit and Ra's let me think I'd gone in for a few seconds.”
“Ra's.” Bruce's voice is very even.
“Ra's,” Tim agrees. “He ordered the surgery, not that attack.”
The pool is still oddly silent when Tim turns around.
Stephanie's jaw drops. Jason's eyes narrow. One of Dick's hands moves like he's twirling one of his escrima sticks. Damian looks thoughtful on the surface but his shoulders are tight with fury. Barbara looks calm only to someone who has never seen Oracle on the warpath.
Cassandra looks ready to charge out of the pool and not bother changing out of her bathing suit to ruin somebody's day.
Before Tim can decide what to say, Jason edges closer to Cassandra and murmurs something that only she can hear. Cassandra listens and then takes a moment to think over what he said.
Cassandra doesn't take long to decide. “Bruce, we talked about making sure that no one ever goes in a Lazarus Pit again. They're dangerous and a threat and the price is terrible. I am willing to make it a family trip but I'm ready to move forward on that with or without anyone else.”
“I'm in,” Jason says firmly.
“I will not stay behind,” Damian warns.
Dick, Stephanie, and Barbara look at each other. “We're both in,” Dick says.
Tim doesn't end up getting into the pool. Everyone ends up heading down to the Batcave still in their bathing suits. Most of them drip onto the floor as they huddle around the central computer to plot the destruction of every single Lazarus Pit. Based on the file's editing notes, Bruce started a list years ago. Cassandra started adding to it a little before Jason did. Damian's made changes, too, and he seems to know a few that no one else had.
Tim hadn't known that Bruce was working on a way to nullify the effects of Lazarus Pits. Cassandra and Jason and Damian have more right to know, though, so Tim reads through the background on a side console while everyone else talks about how quickly they would need to move to get the most work done before Ra's discovered what they were doing. Once Tim has a good idea about how long the process might take, it's much easier to contribute to the argument that doubles as a planning session.
Tim's family expresses love in strange ways but he doesn't mind. It makes it easier for them to understand what it's still easier for him to not say.