Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Roy blearily opened his eyes to see his husband lying next to him on his phone.

This wasn’t an uncommon site, so much so that Roy took a few moments to realise what was wrong.

They weren't in their bedroom.

“Jay.”

He tried to say more, to ask if the younger man knew where they were and if he was okay.

But his tongue felt too heavy to lift up.

“Morning, you hungry?”

Roy furrowed his brow.

Did his husband not care that they were in a different place?

“I’ll go cook some breakfast, maybe the kids will be awake by now.”

As he was talking, Jason absently started petting at Roy’s hair.

Meanwhile Roy was caught up on something he’d just said.

Kids, plural.

Lian was as much Jason’s kid as she was his, but she was the only child either of them had.

Unless Roy had missed something.

Had Jason got his own Lian?

In the time Roy was contemplating this, Jason had gotten up and gone out the door, presumably to cook breakfast.

What was happening?

Jason wasn’t usually like this.

Roy pulled himself out of bed and wandered through after his husband.

Sure enough, Jay was in the kitchen, frying up some eggs and bacon.

It was very domestic, and Roy would have thought it sweet if not for the fact that this wasn’t their kitchen.

Roy had no idea where they were.

“Jay, where are we?”

Jason turned around, looking at him in confusion.

“At home? Are you okay?”

Roy blinked at him.

He wasn’t the one acting as though nothing was wrong.

“We’re in a different house!”

Jason turned down the stove to let the food simmer, before walking over to Roy and pulling him into a kiss.

A kiss which Roy reciprocated.

“Babe, why don’t you go upstairs and check on Lian.”

“O-okay.”

Roy left the kitchen in a slight daze, not used to such affection from his love.

Jason preferred to show his love in other ways, and wasn’t a very affectionate husband.

Not that Roy was complaining, just confused about the sudden tactileness.

As he got into the hallway, he suddenly realised that he had no idea where his daughter was.

He knew where Lian’s room was in his and Jason’s house, but this wasn’t their house.

He wandered upstairs and started opening doors in the order that he found them. The first door was a bathroom (and a very nice one at that) and the second door opened to a very familiar face.

“Roy? What’s going on?”

Roy could only stare at the face of Tim Drake, someone who he didn’t know outside of being his husband’s little brother.

“I’ve no idea, Jason’s down in the kitchen and acting weird. I’m looking for Lian, who is apparently upstairs.”

Tim’s brow furrowed, and Roy could practically see the gears turning in his head.

“I’ll go talk to Jason and see what I can figure out, you get Lian and meet us downstairs.”

Roy nodded and they went their separate ways.

-

Tim was a detective first and foremost, and that part of his brain was what started cataloguing all the clues he could gather from the house as he walked through it.

He noticed the decor, noting that it was something Jason would put in a house.

He noticed the lack of windows, meaning there was one less viable escape route.

And when he got to the kitchen, he noticed the differences between this Jason and his own.

All this before he had coffee.

This Jason had a scar on his temple, it was small but it wasn’t something their Jason had.

This Jason had darker hair.

This Jason had a glint in his eyes that Tim hadn’t seen since Titans Tower.

This wasn’t their Jason.

“Morning Timbo, coffee?”

Tim cautiously took the offering from Jason’s hands.

He inspected it carefully, dipping his finger in to check the consistency and taking a very small sip to taste for any drugs.

He couldn’t find any evidence of tampering, so decided just to drink it.

Besides, it wasn’t like Jason couldn’t just force it down his throat if he really wanted to.

“Thanks, who are you?”

“Hilarious Timmy, go get some plates would you, food’s almost done.”

Tim rolled his eyes, no matter who this ‘Jason’ was he certainly had the act down well.

Jason was just as bossy, and just as sarcastic.

Deciding to play along for now, Tim went and grabbed the plates before setting them on the table.

As he was setting them down, Roy walked in holding Lian.

“Morning princess, did you sleep well?”

Jason wandered over and pressed a kiss into Lian’s hair, who giggled and leaned forward to pull him into a hug before not so subtlety whispering into his ear;

“Daddy’s upset, we need to cheer him up!”

Tim had to bite back a smile at the sheer adorableness of it.

A quick glance proved Roy to be equally charmed.

Jason took Lian out of Roy’s arms, causing the redhead to tense up as his daughter was handled by the ‘Jason’ that had kidnapped them.

Tim didn’t blame him, but still shook his head when Roy moved forward to snatch his daughter back.

They needed to play along for now and figure out what this ‘Jason’ wanted.

Luckily, the archer picked up on this and stood back, but his fists were still clenched and Tim knew that the second ‘Jason’ so much as looked at Lian funny Roy would attack.

For now though, ‘Jason’ just put Lian down in her highchair and went to get the cooked breakfast.

Roy sat next to her, and Tim noticed him doing a quick injury check under the guise of hugging her.

Tim sat at her other side, meaning Jason would have to sit between him and Roy.

He ignored the grateful smile Roy shot him.

They had to get through breakfast, then they could figure out what to do next.

Chapter Text

Jason smiled at his family, so happy to have them back.

The past was the past, but now his husband, daughter and brother were back.

He could finally rest easy.

After breakfast, he should get to know this new Roy.

It would be good to finally spend some quality time with him again.

It would also be good to spend time with Tim and Lian, but his little genius had already started to put things together, and giving him a chance to look around and see that everything was better here would be good for him.

Besides, it’s not like he’d try anything while he was watching Lian.

Tim had seated himself next to the girl, very intentionally.

Jason knew that he was trying to protect her, but he’d never hurt his baby girl.

That was okay though, they needed some time to adjust.

Roy was giving him suspicious glances, but he wasn't worried.

Everything would work out just fine, he had everything he needed after all.

-

After eating, ‘Jason’ told Tim to watch Lian while he dragged Roy towards their bedroom.

Tim was concerned about him, but he knew that Roy’s priority was protecting Lian.

For now, Tim would make sure that the kid was safe.

It was the least he could do for the man that made his Jason so happy.

“Why are they acting like that?”

Tim was startled out of his thoughts by the subject of them.

“What do you mean?”

Lian cocked her head to the side, and resembled a bird.

“They’re upset. Daddy is angry and Papa is sad, but the sadness is going away.”

It was easy to forget how observant kids are.

“Your dad’s just had a disagreement, I’m sure they’ll get over it.”

Tim wasn’t good with children, but he was a good liar.

“I hope so, I hate it when they’re sad. Maybe we could help cheer them up.”

Tim smiled, it was very sweet.

“That’s a nice idea, how about we make a plan to make them happy again.”

The two of them started planning out ways to cheer up Lian’s dads, though Tim wasn’t sure that he wanted to do anything for ‘Jason’.

That didn’t matter though, right now he had a little girl to keep distracted and happy.

So, he helped her think up patterns and colours that she could use to make them a picture, and helped her look for art supplies.

He wasn’t sure if ‘Jason’ would be okay with them without asking, but Tim figured he could take the blame and it would be a good way to test what he was like when angry.

Lian also wanted to get them chocolate, since that always cheered her up, but Tim vetoed that plan as he wasn’t sure if ‘Jason’ had any and didn’t want to risk leaving the house.

She settled for just a drawing and got to work, meanwhile Tim started noting more things about the room.

There wasn’t much to note though, it looked like a pretty standard safe house.

But if it was, in fact, a standard safe house, did it have the same technology?

If so, Tim could easily hack it and get them out.

-

Roy, despite what some claim, was not stupid.

Sure, he wasn’t the smartest member of either the titans or the outlaws.

But he wasn’t stupid.

So when he got back down stairs and saw Tim’s face, he was able to piece together that they weren’t in their dimension.

Lian didn’t seem to pick up on anything though, and Roy didn’t want to risk causing a scene with her in the room.

So he just sat down and ate breakfast, shooting a grateful smile at Tim when he took the seat on Lian’s other side.

After breakfast, ‘Jason’ told Tim to watch Lian and took Roy’s hand.

Roy knew what ‘Jason’ wanted as he dragged him along to the bedroom.

He wasn’t sure he could cope with it, his husband was always so considerate in the bedroom.

If someone wearing Jason’s face did that…

Roy wasn’t sure he’d be able to bear seeing his husband again.

This could ruin his marriage.

But he had to press on.

It was for his daughter, who knew what ‘Jason’ would do if he refused him.

But he could hate this with everything he had from the safety of his mind.

‘Jason’ dragged him into the room and pushed him against the bed.

There was no escaping this, someone wearing his husbands face was going to rape him.

Roy didn’t know how he’d even begin to move past this.

How could he ever be intimate with his Jason again after this?

As ‘Jason’ started to touch him, he couldn’t stop himself from shaking.

At least he hadn’t started crying.

‘Jason’ suddenly stopped right as he was pulling Roy’s shirt off.

Roy wasn’t sure what to do while the man that had kidnapped them was frozen over him.

“You okay?” He hesitantly asked, hoping to keep ‘Jason’s’ attention on him and away from his daughter.

‘Jason’ reached out and stroked over a patch of skin just above his heart.

It was one of the few places that wasn’t particularly scarred, just a small white line from Cheshire catching him with a poisoned nail.

It wasn’t fun, but it was only a paralytic that wore off after an hour.

Could ‘Jason’ be concerned about it?

Surely not, he’d already gone past far worse scars to get to this one.

Maybe…

Maybe this dimension did have a Roy.

Or used to.

Maybe, in this dimension Roy died.

That would explain quite a few things.

Like the reason they were here in the first place.

“Beautiful”

Roy jumped slightly at the sudden break of silence.

‘Jason’ looked like he hadn’t meant to say that, and before Roy could think of a response ‘Jason’ was kissing him again.

But this time, something was different.

There was a desperation to this kiss that hadn’t been present previously.

Roy wondered if the mask would slip.

But when ‘Jason’ pulled back, he was back to looking like nothing was wrong.

So Roy ignored it for now, he needed to have a conversation with Tim so they could formulate a plan.

On the one hand, this conversation would be better with Lian as Roy didn’t want to leave her alone with ‘Jason’.

On the other hand, Lian couldn’t lie to Jason to save her life, who’s to say she’d be able to lie to this version of him?

That dilemma is what he focused on as ‘Jason’ pushed him backwards.

Chapter Text

This will be deleted later, but basically you know how I said I injured myself in the last chapter? Well it got infected. And I, like Tim Drake, happen to have a compromised immune system. So…. Yea I ended up in the hospital. That wasn’t fun but I got out and should be okay now (mostly). I’ve already got most of the next chapter written so it should replace this soon.

Also, thank you for all the nice comments, I really appreciate them.

Here’s the first scene:

Bruce was enjoying a rare quiet moment in the cave.

Dick had taken Damian to Bludhaven for a few days.

Tim was working with Jason on a case, and while his zombie son was spending more time with him nowadays they still left each other alone most of the time.

Bruce was happy with what he could get.

The girls were in Hong Kong for a birds of prey mission.

Duke was upstairs studying for a test.

Azrael and Batwing were covering patrol, and there hadn’t been much happening.

The Justice League didn’t need him for anything.

The Outsiders weren’t currently doing anything.

All and all, it was very peaceful.

But Bruce knew that soon enough something had to go wrong and disturb his peace.

So he’d enjoy this while it lasted.

And, shockingly, it didn’t last long.

Jason tore into the cave, eyes glowing brighter than Bruce had seen in years.

There was no Tim in sight, so Bruce sent a quick message to him to make sure he was okay.

He didn’t think Jason would have hurt his brother, but given their history…

Bruce couldn’t rule anything out.

However, it was more likely that something happened to Tim on patrol (although Bruce had thought that they weren’t going out tonight ?) and Jason was getting overprotective.

“Jason? What happened?”

Bruce watched as his son walked to the batcomputer and started punching in commands, completely ignoring him.

So he was in one of those moods.

Bruce decided to just let him do his thing until he was ready to talk, it was often the best strategy with his children.

So while Jason was doing his thing, Bruce turned back to the blood tests he’d been doing, finally getting round to analysing the blood found at a crime scene nearly three nights ago.

It had only been a minor robbery, and aside from a small cut no one had gotten hurt.

In all likelihood, the blood belonged to the employee that had been working at the time, so analysing it had fallen to the bottom of the priority list.

But it was still worth doing, just in case a suspect was found.

If it did result in any evidence, Bruce would send it to his eldest.

Dick had been complaining about a string of robberies in Bludhaven, it was unlikely that it was connected, but it was always better to check.

If they were connected it would be better to know as soon as possible.

Bruce was trying to reach out and include his children more.

Before he could get much further with his contemplation, Jason let out a yell of rage.

“What’s wrong?”

Sometimes he did need to just come out and ask.

“Tim disappeared.”

And sometimes he actually got an answer.

“What do you mean ‘disappeared’?”

“I mean, one moment he’s sitting on my sofa complaining about my inability to make good coffee, the next he’s gone - vanished without a trace.”

Bruce turned and pulled up Zatanna’s contact.

It definitely sounded like magic was involved, in which case she could hopefully provide more details.

He sent her a message, and immediately got a response.

She was dealing with something else, but would be there soon.

He sent an alert to Azrael and Batwing, letting them know to be on the lookout for any strange disappearances and for Tim.

In the meantime, Jason was getting angrier by the minute. The last thing Bruce needed was his son falling into a pit episode.

So began his task of coaxing his undead child up into the manor and hoping he wouldn’t disturb Duke.

They would find Tim, and as soon as he stopped Jason from doing something stupid the two of them could join the search.