Chapter Text
The first week of waiting was the hardest, in Tim’s opinion.
Tim spent the rest of the day in Drake Manor after being more or less rejected by his father’s former best friend. He finished off his homework, having to dumb down everything and purposely answer the questions wrong so no one realised how smart he was. And if he cried several times in frustration and hurt from being rejected and not acknowledged by the man who was his hero? Well, it’s not like anyone is ever around to confirm it happened.
The rest of the week was spent in mind numbing slow motion. School was dull as always. He has several people who he calls his friends but all of them like Tim Drake, not him. Not the real him. The smarter him that likes photography and art and who wants to help Gotham and those who are less fortunate. His friends like the him that skateboards and is quiet and not too smart.
Tim does like his friends, don’t get him wrong. Ives is one of his best friends and hanging out with all his friends was great. Tim just wished he could be Tim. The real Tim.
The week dragged on and on. Each day passing slower than the last. The repetitive nature of his daily routine almost suffocating him at times.
He told himself he would give Bruce a month to do something but it was not easy going back to the empty Drake Manor and pretending that everything was normal when the sting of rejection and disappointment was still a stabbing pain in his chest.
No amount of planning can ever account for the pain it feels to be ignored and dismissed by your hero. While the older man had not been in his caped persona, Bruce Wayne was very much still the Batman and the hero that Tim adores. Or used to adore. Seeing the man in person and up close made Tim realise just how depressed and changed he was from Jason Todd’s death. And how much the older man had stopped caring about himself and others. Remembering the curt dismissal and lack of interest in what Tim had to say left him with a clench jaw and eyes narrowed.
Bruce Wayne used to be a man that cared. One who would listen and hear someone out completely. He did not dismiss people without at least trying to hear them out. He has seen Bruce at his best. Seen the caring man go out of his way to help people in the grandest and smallest ways he could. Before his father became Two-Face, Tim remembered how Batman would stand tall in his father’s study, helping whatever case Harvey and Jim were working on. After his father became Two-Face and Tim had started taking photos of Batman and Robin, Tim got a firsthand look at how gentle the tall, imposing man could be.
Maybe that was where Tim went wrong. He had seen Bruce Wayne at his best but Jason Todd’s death changed the older man and not for the better. Jason Todd’s changed everything. Batman has been in a downward spiral since the older teens death and everyone was feeling the pain from Bruce’s mourning.
Tim’s heart went out to Bruce, it did. To lose a son like he had would have been a painful and horrible experience. But Bruce was taking out his pain on everyone else. And he did not seem to care about what happens to the people he beat in his anger and grief. There were at least five different occasions that one of Batman’s victims would have died from the beatings they were given if Tim had not called an Ambulance for them. It was those five occasions that Internal Affairs were investigating Jim Gordon for.
Tim had the names, ages, the list of injuries and the dates that they were brought into the hospital for those five victims. Depending on what happens at the end of the month long wait Tim was forcing himself through, will determine what he would do with that information. To Tim’s knowledge, the matter was still very much hushed in the media and police force. Internal Affairs may be investigating Jim’s relationship with Batman and the several injured victims, but no one wants to have it known that Batman may be going rogue or violent.
As a founding member of the Justice League, Batman had some leeway in terms of property damage and beating people up. But that leeway only goes so far and if the police are forced to have to go after Batman because of his brutal and mostly unnecessary beatings of small time criminals, then it could leave the entire superhero community at risk. Which you know isn’t a good thing in this day and age with alien invasions happening every three to four months and supervillains with cliché and melomaniac plans to take over the city/world are a common place.
Heroes are needed and are beloved. And despite the way he is acting in recent times, Batman is still counted as Gotham’s beloved Hero.
Which is why Tim really hopes that plan two could be delayed as much as possible. Because plan two was going to be a shit show for everyone involved and while Tim really does want to help his dad out, he also does not want to end up on the bad side of the Justice League. Well, Tim Drake doesn’t want to end up on the bad side of the Justice League. Whatever name Tim takes up if he initiates plan two wouldn’t mind being on the bad side of the Justice League it gets Tim what he wants.
If that makes any sense at all. Does anything make sense? What was he doing with his life? Does he really want to go through all of this? Would it be a better idea to take Dick’s advice and just let it all go and forget that Harvey Dent is his true father?
Tim shook his head and drew himself out of his thoughts completely. It was past midnight and he had been streaming these thoughts through his head for the past several hours. He could not go out Batman spotting because he did not want the odd chance of Batman actually catching him to ruin his plans. And if he was to be honest with himself, Tim was slightly pissed off at the older man and did not want to be near him at all.
Sighing, Tim looked out the window and at the large tree that stood beside it. He had climbed that tree so many times over the years. It was his way in and out of the Manor whenever he went out with his camera. He liked that tree. What he did not like was the eyes watching him from it.
Ever since he had gone to Wayne Manor, Nightwing has stopped by his place and has just watched him through the window. Tim pretends that he cannot see the vigilante and most normal people would never be able to tell there was someone there. But then most normal people haven’t spent the past several years following vigilantes in the dark. Tim knows full well what to look for when spotting vigilantes who want to stay hidden. He would not have gotten some of his best shots if he had not learnt how to find people in the shadows.
He looked at the vague shape of Nightwing sitting in his tree before turning over and putting his back to the older man. He was not sure if this was Dick’s way of checking up on him or if the older man was making sure that Tim didn’t do anything reckless because Bruce had turned him away. It was slightly irritating yes, but Tim did not mind it too much. He had already hidden the photos he had taken of Batman and Robin in his old Dungeons and Dragons sets that were in the bottom of his closet. He had placed a handful of general porn magazines in the box where the photos used to be. So even if Nightwing broke in and searched his room, which Tim was sure he probably did seeing as the two boxes under his bed had been shifted slightly to the left, there wasn’t going to be much for the vigilante to see.
Still, Tim would prefer if the older man was not staring holes into his head at night. Or if he could actually tell if there had been small hidden cameras and or mics placed in his house. While he did not really think that he would warrant that much attention, the paranoia of the Batman was something that was well noted and known.
Tim closed his eyes and pushed away all his thoughts. Tomorrow was Monday and he had school early in the morning. Mrs Mac would be coming at seven am to pick him up and drop him off at school. He had his martial arts class in the afternoon after school was done and he needed to drop by the library after his class to use the computers for some of his school work. He had a very long day ahead of him and Tim needed his rest. Creepy vigilante outside his window or no creepy vigilante outside his window, Tim needed to go to sleep.
Bruce Wayne has three more weeks to do something with what Tim had told him. Three weeks. It may seem long but with how busy his days are going to be in the meantime? The three weeks will pass in no time and then Tim would look into initiating plan two.