Chapter Text
Tim groaned in discomfort as his eyelids fluttered. What was that supposed to do? Give me a headache? The last thing he could remember was green, and then his eyes had closed. His mouth didn’t taste different than before, so he could assume that he hadn’t been out very long.
The Martian! He looked around himself, but didn’t see the man anywhere. What was his name? S’amm?
Why did he even knock me out? It’s not like I wouldn’t have let him leave.
He heard a call of his superhero alias, making him turn his head. He recoiled slightly at the sight of all of the Bats, plus the Titans all running to him. Bart, of course, reached him first, but he was talking too fast to process. As he finished talking, the boy hugged him, making Tim hiss and shove him off.
Cassie enveloped him in a careful hug. “Tim!"
Steph came from behind, making him tense involuntarily. "How are you even alive?"
Conner came from his left, and then Bart came in from his right, both enthusiastically declaring their gratitude for his continued survival.
When Damian of all people stepped forward awkwardly, Tim freaked. He shoved them off, taking a step back. He pulled his bo from his belt, dropping into a defensive stance. He cried out in frustration when he saw the hurt looks on their faces, "Am I on fear toxin?" Why would I even be afraid of this? That's a stupid idea. "Am I dying?"
Bart stepped forward, talking a mile a minute, but just slow enough to be understandable. "S'amm showed us all your memories! We saw you lose your spleen and fight the Hunter guy and we saw you get mad at Nightwing in the Batcave and get kicked out a window by Ra's Al Ghul! Also your mom sucks, but we already knew that."
It took a moment for Tim to process everything the speedster had just said, but when he did, his mind went static-y. He was pretty sure he was blue-screening. "...What?"
"Oh yeah, and that Pru lady is pretty funny!"
Tim fainted.
When he woke up, he was in his bed in Titans Tower. He jerked awake, almost falling off the side.
He was steadied by a hand on his shoulder, making him jump back far enough to almost go catapulting off the other side. His eyes flew open. He saw Conner on the other side of the bed laughing at him, and Cassie was next to him, looking amused.
"Haha, very funny." He looked around the room, not seeing any signs of anyone else as he rubbed his eyes. "What did I get dosed with?"
Conner rubbed at the back of his neck. "..Nothing."
Nothing? That doesn't make sense. "No seriously, what did I get hit by?"
"A Martian?" Cassie's voice went a bit high at the end.
Tim's eyes widened and he paled. "So Bart was-"
"-telling the truth," she finished helpfully.
Tim fell off the bed.
He bounced back up, looking as if his entire life had fallen apart, " What ?"
"We… ah, we watched some of your memories."
Tim closed his eyes, pinching at his arm. Hard. This is a dream, this is a dream , thisisadream-
He opened his eyes again, seeing Cassie and Conner still standing in front of him. He wanted to scream. "This is not happening." His eyes flicked between the two, looking for any signs that they could be lying.
“Sorry man.” Conner leaned in for a hug slowly, completely encompassing TIm’s smaller frame. He waved in Cassie, and she joined them.
After a minute, Tim breathed out. “Who saw them?”
“Um, us and Bart, obviously.” That isn’t horrible . Well, it is, but I can handle that.
“Obviously.”
“And, uh, the rest of the Bats.” And there was the horrible part.
His voice cracked. “All of them?”
Cassie squeezed his arm comfortingly. “There was Dick, Black Bat, Spoiler, Robin, Batman, and Red Hood. So not all of them.”
Tim wanted to do jazz-hands. And he was pretty sure she could tell. “Yay. Because that’s so much better.”
Conner gave him a serious look. “We can make them leave if you want.”
Tim ran a hand down his face. “If they go all the way back to Gotham, then I’ll get hounded whenever I go back. Well, maybe not by Jason or the brat. But the rest.”
“We’ve all been telling you to move to San Fran.”
Tim gave him a dry look. “And I told you that wasn’t happening.”
“And Ma and Pa would always love to have you stay at the farm, Tim. Her words, not mine.”
“Yes, I know. But just,” he sighed heavily, “can you just not tell them I’m already up?”
Both teenagers gave him a thumbs up, and Cassie left the room. He slipped from Conner’s grasp, and flopped down on the bed. “This is a nightmare .”
“I mean, part of it was pretty funny.”
Tim’s head whipped to him, a question clear in his eyes. “What was it like? What did you all see?”
“Okay, I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty awesome. We woke up in your apartment, or at least we thought we did, but we didn’t see the Bats at first. But right when we did, the TV came on, and that S’amm dude came on it and told us that he knew who we were and that we were in your head.”
Tim nodded, motioning for him to go on.
“And then we kind of teleported into like, a movie room, and there were these holograms of you, but different each time, and then we started watching memories. We-”
Tim cut him off, feeling curious despite himself. "What were the holograms of?"
"I just said, they were you. But different yous."
"You are not even a little bit helpful."
"Hey!" Tim ignored him, texting Bart to come to his room, but without alerting anyone else. The boy appeared a few seconds later, skidding to a stop just short of the bed.
"Hey Tim! What's up?"
"Conner's telling me about it. He said there were holograms…?"
The boy picked up the thread easily. "Oh, yeah! There were seven of them. One for Robin-You, and there was one for Red Robin-You. And then there was one that said Alvin Draper, one that had little-You in a suit- it had your full name," Bart adopted his own version of a posh accent, " Timothy Jackson Drake , and there was Mr. CEO-You, that one said 'Tim Wayne', and then there was one that said Timmy Wayne on the bottom, and it looked like you, but it wasn't all the way right, and one that looked like you when you finish a case and haven't slept in days. It just said 'Tim' on it. That one was cracked. Mr. S'amm said they were masks?"
Tim's face fluttered through a few minor reactions as the boy spoke. "Sounds about right. What next? What'd you see?"
"Your memories!"
Tim rolled his eyes. "I mean , which ones? You have eidetic memory."
"Oh.. In order, we saw you go to the circus when you were really little- you were really cute by the way- and we saw you meet Batman at a party thing for rich people, which was hilarious , uh, we saw you freak out when you figured out who Robin was-" Tim's face grew red. That was one of his starkest memories as a kid.
"You saw-?"
Conner grinned widely. "Dude, I knew you were weird, but you are so much weirder in your head."
"Oh yeah! Can you like, start narrating our fights? It's awesome."
" You heard my thoughts?" The sentence was nearly screeched out as Tim laid down, mindful of his wound, pressing his face into one of his pillows.
"Oh yeah, dude."
"Oh my gosh ." That was so much worse. There would be no end to the teasing. Ever.
"It was great. Like, you are not even half as serious in your head as you are on the outside."
"I hate everything." The sentence was muffled, but he waved a hand, telling Bart to continue.
The boy did, listing off on his fingers. "We saw your birthday, which by the way, again, your parents suck ." Conner nodded his agreement, glaring at the wall.
"Just keep going, Bart."
"Um, what else, oh! We saw you decide to get Grayson as Robin again, and then we saw your parents come home- again, your mom's a jerk- and we saw you meet Spoiler." Tim let out a low whine. Most of those memories were a bit fuzzy, but not that one. That was embarrassing . Bart continued on after giving him a sympathetic pat on the back. "We saw your dad die- sorry by the way-"
"It's fine, Bart. It's been three years. Keep going."
"We saw you meet Damian too. That was awesome - not you getting hurt, of course that sucked- but everyone like, gave him shovel talks. Even Conner. And Black Bat."
Tim grumbled, but couldn't suppress the smile that toyed with his lips at the thought of his friends threatening him. He rolled out of the pillow, looking at his best friend. "Everyone? Like, everyone everyone?" He just couldn't see Bruce or Dick giving Damian a shovel talk. Or Jason for that matter.
"Well, it was me, Bart, Cass Cain, Cass, and Spoiler."
Tim let out the breath he'd been holding. "Yeah, okay, that's who I thought it'd be. Thanks though."
"That's what friends are for, right dude?"
"Yeah, yeah. What else, Bart? They'll come up sooner or later."
"We saw you leave Gotham to find Batman. Like, everyone was cheering when you punched Robin. It was awesome."
Tim looked a mix of pleased and embarrassed. "Jeez, did the Martian have to show you guys everything ?"
"We saw you talking to Cassie, she still feels bad about that by the way- and we saw you fighting Pru and the assassin guys. And the Hunter guy. And we saw you lose your spleen."
" Never do that again. I already knew and it still freaked me out."
Tim whacked his arm. "It's not like I was trying to lose an organ, Conner."
"Yeah, but it still freaked me out. Oh, but the window thing with Ra's was awesome . Except for the you-almost-dying part." Conner gave him a look .
Tim winced. "I'm not… in that place anymore. It was a year ago. I'm better now."
Both boys smiled at him reassuringly.
"That's good and all, but I'm here if you wanna talk."
"Me too!"
He grinned back at them, before sobering. "What else?"
"That's all! Oh, but Mr. S'amm did tell us about you taking down most of the League. The Bats did not know about that."
"Well, yeah, I wasn't just going to tell them. Do you know how long of a lecture I'm going to get for working with Ra's?"
"No, dude, Batman seemed pretty proud of you."
Tim snorted. "Mm-hm, and I'm Catwoman's sidekick. What was Dick like? 'S he pissed or sad or both?"
"He was guilty. And worried."
"Everybody else?"
"Jason thought you were funny. Spoiler says she wants to kill you." Tim blanched. "I still can't read Black Bat, and new-Robin was really quiet." Tim closed his eyes. Damian was going to be at least three times worse now, what with him actually knowing how Tim thought.
Dick would either try as hard as he could to make amends, or ignore the problem and continue on as they had before he left.
Steph… she was going to be mad. Obviously.
Jason, well, Jason was a tossup. They weren't at the point of I'd-kill-you-for-a-nickel anymore, but they were nowhere close to buddy-buddy. Best-case scenario, he had a few laughs, and decided to tag along with the others out of curiosity. Or boredom.
"Is that all?"
"Uh, yeah, that's all of it. I think." Bart left with a wave, and a promise to talk more about it later. Conner left a minute later, leaving Tim to brace himself for the upcoming encounter. He had likely reactions for each of them, and ways to counter, but he still needed a moment to process.
It was a lot.
People had been in his head . It wasn't the first time, not when they used to have Miss Martian on the Titans, but it had never been anything like this. It was so invasive .
It was also kind of cool. Tim hadn't even had names for his masks, at least not most of them. At this point, playing each character was more subconscious than anything.
Timmy Wayne would do it.
Honestly it said a lot that Bart knew Timmy wasn't quite right. It meant a lot.
He wondered what his friends had said to the Bats. Even if they were all watching something, there was no way no conversation had flowed. And by process of elimination, the only thing both groups had in common was, well, him . And heroing, but he doubted they'd talk about that.
So who knows what information the Bats had now.
The Titans didn't know anything too close-to-the-chest. Well, not Conner. Conner knew more about him than anyone else, with Bart as a close second. But both of them knew what was okay to share, and what wasn't.
Tim took a deep breath. And then another. He needed to be completely under control when he went out there. He sat on his bed for a few more minutes until his mind was empty as it would get.
He opened his door cautiously, peeking to the left and right and seeing no one. Chances were, they were in the common room.
He walked into the elevator awkwardly. It was completely silent, normally something that wouldn't bother him, but now it seemed too quiet.
He was let out in the common room, and he watched as everyone went eerily silent and turned to him in perfect synchronization.
He started, "Well, this is-" before he was assaulted with a head full of blonde hair and his ex-girlfriend. "Steph?"
She looked up at him, "I am so, so glad you're alive, but I also want to strangle you. A lot. With my bare hands."
He gave her a nervous laugh befitting of Timmy. "Sorry Steph, but it's not like I was expecting anyone to see my own memories."
"Yes, but you are so, so stupid!"
"Gee, love you too," he added, smirking down at her. Tim let her go, and she stepped away for Dick.
The man enveloped Timmy in one of the tightest hugs he'd ever had. He managed to avoid the area of Tim's torso that was injured, but that was apparently all the courtesy he'd get.
"D-ick, can't breathe," he wheezed. He was let go of, and to his horror, he saw tears in Dick's eyes.
Dick put both hands on his shoulders, looking straight into his little brother's eyes. "Tim, I am so, so sorry for everything . I never should have handled it like that." Timmy reached up, giving him a reassuring, or so he hoped, smile.
"Dick, it's okay. It's been a year. I'm way past all of that. Really." I feel like I'm quoting Let it Go. I'm no Elsa, though. My singing voice sucks.
Dick looked skeptical, but brought him back in for another hug. "Never do that again."
Timmy laughed into his shoulder. "What part?"
"All." Dick squeezed him extra hard for a second, before finally letting go. "We'll talk later?" I'd rather not, but that's not an option right now, apparently.
"Of course, Dick."
Timmy looked up at Bruce, who was standing right in front of him. He gave him a nod, expecting the same, and was surprised- not quite unpleasantly- when his adoptive father swept him up in a tight hug, leaving Tim with his feet a few inches off the ground. He stood there for a second, which forced Tim to awkwardly try to figure out where to place his hands. They fluttered at the man's back for a few moments before he ended up lightly patting Bruce on the back. "...Bruce?"
No answer.
"Bruce? Are you like, compromised or something?" He gestured to Dick, adding, "Just… set me down, and we can get your blood tested."
The voice was muffled, "Let me hug my son, Tim."
Tim was shocked right out of Timmy. He was fairly sure his eyes were so wide that they would pop out of his skull. He shook his head to clear it, and craned his neck so he could get a view of his shoulder. "Oka-ay, Bruce, no worries. We can just… sit here awkwardly, then."
He heard a few laughs, and whipped his head around to give them death-glares, when he saw that Steph had a camera . That was an old digital camera. As in- not connected to the internet. And not hackable. Which meant that he would have to get it himself.
Timmy patted at Bruce's shoulder, "Bruce, please let me down." The older man acquiesced with a quick squeeze reminiscent of his oldest son. Timmy backed away with a quick step. And then two more. He swept Stephanie's legs out from underneath her in a move that she was not expecting, and snatched the camera out of the air. He deleted the video, and snapped a picture of Stephanie on the ground. He tossed the camera to Bart, who disappeared to hide it. "Much better."
Jason snorted. "That right there is the only reason I came out here."
Bruce spoke up, "We need to update your medical records, Tim." Timmy nodded, but had absolutely no intention of doing that.
Damian stepped forward, and Tim's muscles tensed out of habit. "Drake- Timothy- I am sor-"
Tim Wayne interrupted him, "Can we not?"
Bruce held up a hand. "Tim, he needs to do this. It's not optional."
"Once again, I just want to point out how awkward all of this is." Tim waved a hand to the boy, who gave him a dirty look. "Go ahead."
"Fine. Timothy-"
" Please call me Drake again. Please . Timothy is just weird."
"You are making this much harder than it has to be."
"Yeah, yeah I am."
Damian glared at him again, restarting the obviously rehearsed speech. " Drake , I…apologize for trying to kill you."
Steph, who had made her way over to him while he was talking, nudged him. " And? "
"...and for making fun of you." He turned to his father. "Happy now?"
Bruce nodded at him, and Dick gave him a thumbs-up.
Timmy had no clue what to say. ".... It's okay, Damian. No harm done." Cassie cleared her throat, and he added, "Okay, harm done. But it's okay."
Damian nodded at him once, and then walked back over to the couch.
Jason looked him up and down, "I don't know why I ever tried to take you out, kid. You're like a hundred pounds soaking wet."
Timmy folded his arms as his friends laughed. "I'm one-ten, Jason ."
Jason narrowed his eyes. "Whatever, kid." He threw in a terrible rendition of jazz-hands. "Sorry for trying to murder you and all that crap."
Tim shook his head. "Pit Rage is nearly irresistible. It's not your fault I'm a trigger. Besides, you handle it better than I ever could."
Jason raised an eyebrow, before snickering. "Roy always says I just need a Snickers bar."
Tim lowered his head as he laughed, letting his hair cover his expression. Steph had no such discretion. She cackled, adding, "I'm using that forever ."
As she began talking with the second Wayne brother, Cass approached Tim, patting his shoulder. "I am sorry I did not see."
Tim startled, as he hadn't heard her approach. "Cass, what?"
"I thought it was… natural. Not for everyone, but your natural."
Tim gave her a soft smile. "We're good, Cass. We were never not good. And you were right. It is my natural."
She looked sad. "It shouldn't be."
He shrugged. "It is, though."