Chapter Text
The ceiling had a crack in it.
It started where the ceiling and wall met and continued until one of the light fixtures. He had been staring at it for a concerningly long time. It had been light out, last time he looked out the window and now it’s dark out.
He should care. He should worry about how quickly he let the time slip through his fingers. He should get up but…but instead he pulled out another cigarette.
Tim was tired. So. Very. Tired.
If my mother saw me now she would have a hissy fit, Tim contemplates. Over the motels’ less than stellar state, and the fact he’s in a motel and that he’s lying on its dingy floor smoking cigarettes.
He stubbed the cigarette out with probably more force than needed.
He blinked. He hadn't wanted to do that. He wasn't finished.
So unbecoming Timothy, she would say, letting your emotions dictate your moves. She would have clicked her tongue disapprovingly and then walked away. Not once looking back.
Ugh. Just thinking about her got heat to build up behind his eyes. You’d think after all that crying earlier he would have been spent but this week just kept on surprising him.
He dragged himself into a sitting position. A hiss escaping him when he accidentally jostled his torso. The white bandages on his torso rapidly began to turn red.
“Shit,” he mumbled.
He must have reopened one of his stitches—well he’s not really surprised they were a rush job, he really wasn’t trying to stay any longer there with them.
Propping himself against the rickety beds’ frame. He let out a shaky exhale. Inhaling through his nose and exhaling out his mouth. Again and again. Again and again.
Something that Bruce would guide him through just after his parents' accident.
He hated the reminder of him. Of them.
That's what happens when you dedicate almost half your life to them. What a waste. You were such a–
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
He left out a final exhale shakily, he bit his lip to try and stop the tremble in them, but that only seemed to make the tremors move to his other parts of his body.
His hands were shaking now. And he couldn't get them to stop.
His breaths were becoming more erratic.
He inhaled. Exhaled. Inhal–what was he kidding.
The breathing wasn't helping. He still felt like he was suffocating. The air was entering his body but it felt like no matter how deep the breath it still wouldn't enter his lungs.
He fumbled with his pockets and pulled out the box and a light. Lighting the cig took longer than Tim would admit but his hands were just not co operating.
He inhaled and finally felt like he could breathe.
As he puffed out the smoke he watched as it climbed toward the ceiling before dissipating. His hands still shook but significantly less.
Another few drags got the shaking to finally stop.
He slumped back down until he was yet again staring at the crack.
God, Tim hated these things. He stared at the cig in his hand for a long time before he pulled it back down to his lips.
But they reminded him of his father and he'll take that sliver of comfort.
Well would he consider the reminder of Jack Drake a comfort, he muses. The man was hardly a good father and an even worse husband but-
Another drag cuts that line of thought.
. . . . . .
Now if you're wondering what Tim Drake, CEO of Wayne Enterprise and vigilante Red Robin is doing in a motel on its floor smoking cigarettes, well you're in the same boat as him. Tim has not fucking idea how his life went to shit in the last few weeks.
________________________________
Monday 7: 31am
Tim opened bleary eyes to the screeching of his alarm and cursed his very existence. Why, you ask?
Because he had spent all night finishing up the Hamburg case and called a night all but 3 hours ago. Which would have been fine if he had gone to bed then. Which he did not do. Because patrol had been a bitch which meant he had to spend an extra hour and a half tending to his wounds.
He managed to climb into bed an hour ago. And now he has to get up and go to work. He was running on fumes and was sore all over. Which wouldn't usually be a problem. He's worked through worse but today was going to be grueling. He has six meetings today—six meetings. One with none other than Lex Luther.
So yeah Tim felt like today was going to be shit.
He stayed in bed longer than he was supposed to because now he was rushing to get out the door. Dressing himself as quickly as possible, he definitely strained a few sore muscles. Stopping in front of the bathroom mirror Tim could say he looked like shit. Which is fitting as he feels like shit and that this day was shit and that he wanted to crawl back into bed and eat his leftover takeout and watch stupid reality TV sh-no Tim if start thinking like that you may never leave the house.
He splashed some water on his face in an attempt to wake himself up and wash away the last of his hopes in staying home. Tim covered up the bruises and eye bags as best as he could but he could still see the exhaustion in his eyes. Gelling back his hair he looked up into his reflection and saw her. He looked so much like her that it hurt sometimes. It was all he ever heard at those galas he was forced to attend.
“Oh my! Timothy you are just the spitting image of Janet .”
“You look just like your mother when she was your age.”
“Wow! How time flies, you’ve grown so much. I could have mistaken you for your mother .”
“You know you look just like her .”
He had grown used to the comments, he had been hearing them before he could walk. Before they would make him beam with pride but now they just stung and left a hollow pit in his stomach.
He stayed like that for a while. Seemingly lost in his reflection. Lost in the eyes that used to look down at him with so much love. Lost at the sight of lips that would send him little smiles during the long business meetings.
Tim ached.
He looked away from the mirror. He didn’t feel like Timothy Drake-Wayne, CEO of Wayne Enterprises. He felt like a little boy playing dress up.
Tim blinked. Where did all of that come from?
Doesn’t matter, enough with the pity party. He was wasting time just standing here—he needed to get going.
Shrugging on his suit jacket Tim made his way toward the door.
“I guess I'll get breakfast at the office”, Tim sighed.
It was only when he was on the lobby floor he realized he forgot his briefcase. The one with his very necessary notes for his meetings.
Ugh.
Now he had to go all the way back up to his apartment because he had to live on the highest floor.
That’s fine. It’s fine. He’s fine.
His eye was so not twitching right now.
Entering the door of WE Tim instantly was blessed with the blast of the AC. Greeting the front desk he beelined for the elevator. He had only 25 minutes before his first appointment and Tam would berate him–well not really berate but give him the look, a skill in which all the fox family members perfected due to dealing with the Wayne's bullshit.
Exiting the elevator he threw a quick wave to Tam who responded with a tap on her wristwatch and a raised eyebrow.
He sent an apologetic smile over his shoulder as he opened his office doors. Tim let out a long suffering sigh as he sunk down into his chair. Today was going to be a long day.
_______________________________
Monday 6:17pm
Tim dragged a hand down his face. Slumping back in his chair, he sighed. Today had been…something.
He had only been allowed 5 minutes in his office before Tam came in with some documents that he needed to review for his first meeting of the day. Then he had to go into that boardroom and sit through that meeting. A meeting that really could have been an email.
The stupid meeting had been an agonizing hour long. Tim swore that every minute spent trying to have a civil conversation with those stuck up dinosaurs he lost a year of his life.
That meeting had left him with a lot of paperwork because nobody could be bothered to fill out the proper forms. So between prepping for his next torture session—sorry appointment he had to clear out all that backed up paperwork.
Then Tam had carded him off to his next appointment. That one had been worth his time at least. It was about this new program Wayne Enterprises was implementing for the public schools of Gotham.
It was an internship program that allowed the kids that usually wouldn't have a chance or a choice when it came to their future to join one of the Wayne Enterprises Youth programs that usually are only available to the schools that can pay the fees, which unsurprisingly isn't a lot.
The Youth programs introduced the students to a number of possible careers which then allows the kids to see a possible future that doesn't involve crime. Which is a future that sadly most Gothamites followed.
That meeting had been fine, possibly the highlight of his day if you don't include lunch. Which he thankfully had after that appointment.
Unfortunately he had the annual financial review. Which is arguably the worst part of his day. Even with his next appointment being with Luthor.
The annual financial review is one of the worst things he has to do and he had only done it once before. He had to be stuffed in a room with the shareholders of the company while they constantly talked over him and tried to convince him to give over his shares. They used overly complicated vocabulary in an attempt to make him feel dumb and always tried to pull something over him. Like he wouldn't notice how 500k went unaccounted for in the new budget. He was trained by The Batman and Janet Drake. He knows how to run a business. And when someone is trying to pull the wool over his eyes.
He also knows they wouldn't have even dared to try this with Bruce. God, he wished Bruce would just take the job back. He was done dealing with these assholes but Bruce had never quit, sure he complained about having to go to the office over his morning coffee while Tim had laughed at him but he never quit.
He’d be damned before he lets Bruce down. Besides, this job is only temporary. Bruce is going to come back and then he’ll have to sit through the financial review and Mr. Emerson bragging about whatever new thing he bought. Any day now.
_______________________________
Luckily his next meeting was a Zoom call so he didn't have to leave his office. Unluckily it was with Lex Luthor. He tried not to let his eye twitch when Luthor had offered to buy out Wayne Enterprises. Again.
Over my dead body, Luthor.
His last two meetings had been regarding the partnership with Astor Inc. The first one being about hashing out the final agreements outlining the terms of the collaboration with Astor Inc. It had surprisingly had minimal disputes and the representatives from Astor Inc. had also been remarkably competent. Which is not everyday in Gotham.
His last and final meeting had been with the marketing department on how to promote the partnership. Astor Inc. had been big on good promotion which makes sense with it being a new business and all.
Astor Inc. or the next Wayne Enterprises as the press called it, was a new company that had been climbing up the ranks for the last 4 years. It was quite impressive but equally suspicious. Usually Tim would just do a quick investigation on the company's founder and its assets but his little investigation yielded very strange results. There was this project they were working on, one that when he questioned the representatives had been very tight lipped about.
Of course they could have been wary of competitors but this had felt different. He had a feeling and by being trained under The Batman for long enough Tim knew to trust this feeling.
Tim sighed. Just another thing to be added to his never ending to do list.
He had then spent the last hour filling out the last bit of forms for the Youth programs. He was signing his approval on one before he heard a knock on his door. It couldn't be anyone else but Tam because they would have had to set an appointment with his secretary and Tam wouldn't have just let someone knock on his door.
"Come in."
She had a Wayne Tech tablet in her hand and a stack of documents in the other.
"Here's the papers from marketing you asked for."
"Thanks Tam."
"You don't sound too thankful."
"I can only be so thankful for more paperwork."
She smiled at that.
"Marcus Joel requested an appointment for tomorrow."
Tim groaned,"You know I don't wanna see him. He's borderline psycho—wait no he is."
"Yeah, well he's your 11am tomorrow," she smiled.
Tam took too much pleasure out of his misery.
"Any thing else on the schedule?"
" On Thursday, you have that trip to Star Labs, Friday you don't have to come in. All your meetings are online and all the work could be done remotely."
"Tam you're an angel."
"Don't I know it."
"Wait what about the quarterly budget check. I thought that was on Friday. "
"Did you even check your email today, it got moved up to Tuesday."
"Ah OK. Wait before you go could you take this to finance."
“Yeah, I'll have Greg take it but before i forget the Wayne Tech Summit,” Tam said without looking up from her tablet, “It’s in a week.”
She looked up at the lack of Tim’s response and frowned.
“You forgot, didn't you.”
“No,” Tim retorted, “It just—just slipped my mind. That’s all.”
She sighed.
“Tim, you can’t keep on doing this.”
“ It’s one meeting, Tam, I'm sor–
“Not that Tim. You can’t keep on doing this to yourself. You’re running yourself into the ground.”
“No I'm–”
“Yes you are Tim. You basically crawl into the office every morning, down a pack of Zestis before 10am, walk around here looking like a zombie and then run off into the night and do whatever you Bats do.”
She seemed to be waiting for a response but Tim didn’t give one.
“It’s not healthy. I’m worried about you. You need a break.”
“Tam…”
“You need a break.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?,” she demanded, “Is it because of Bruce because i swear i will–”
“No, not that–I just–I just can’t,” Tim sighed.
"If you don't put your pride to the side—"
"I'm not being—"
"Well then ask for some help! Stop acting like it's going to kill you!"
"I don't need help. I have it covered. I know exactly when I have reached my limit and—"
"Bullshit! You look 5 seconds from dropping dead on your feet. I'm worried about you. "
"Well i don't need you to be!"
"For someone so smart you can be an idiot sometimes."
"What," Tim blurted.
"You're not listening to me Tim,"She vented. " You'd think someone in your profession would be able to listen," She sighed,"You're running yourself into the ground. And it's not OK—no matter how might try to rationalize it."
Tim glared at her and she returned it. A silence fell over them before Tim spoke up again.
"Take those papers finance."
Tam pursed her lips. She shot him a hard look before plopping herself down on one of the chairs in front of the desk.
"I'm not leaving until you do something."
"Do what?"
"Ask for a break!" She exploded, " I'm this close to getting you a union. You're overworked—"
"But not underpaid."
"We both know you don't need the money," Tam said unimpressed.
"Yeah well," he shrugged.
"Tim."
"Tam."
She sighed and looked at him, her anger replaced with determination.
"Just ask Tim even Bruce couldn't do it all. You know the amount of times he's asked my father to step in for him."
"You’re not letting this go, are you?"
She shook her head.
Tim sighed, "I don't—it's just that—"
"Bruce would have just carried on until he crashed. Yeah, well contrary to your belief you're not him. And you're still a kid."
"You're acting like you're not only 2 years older than me."
"Hush boy, the adult is speaking. Just because you feel like you have do it doesn't mean that you should."
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Yes yes I know, hypocritical coming from me but for your information I'm only hear to look out for you and Dad because you both teeter the line we it comes to overdoing it."
Tam let out a huff before she continued.
"I'm not saying quit just yet because i know you won't but take a step back and catch yourself before you fall."
"OK."
"I care ab—wait what."
"What were you expecting more fight?" Tim asked.
"Definitely. You must be more tired that I thought."
"Gee thanks."
A moment of silence passed.
"Well, go on," Tam prompted.
"What?" Tim sputtered," You want me to do it now."
"If you don't do it now, next thing I know two months are gonna pass and your still gonna be coming in here looking more miserable than inmates on death row."
"Wow. Tam thanks for that image you painted just there," Tim deadpanned. " Do i really look that miserable?," he questioned.
"Yes."
"No hesitation. Wow. OK."
Tim reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He had a number of texts from Bart and a long voice note from Stephanie. Probably her complaining about that one guy in her class. But he scrolled all past that until he got to his contact. His thumb hovered over it for a moment before he clicked it.
It rung for a couple of seconds before it picked up.
“Hey Bruce, can we talk?”