Chapter Text
Predictively, it didn't take long for Tim to become bored after the excitement of the press conference and the meeting with Ra's al Ghul.
He was starting to regret convincing his Fraid that he could handle being alone until they visited and that they didn't need to come with him to his dimension. It had taken him a long time to convince them and they had only let up their overprotective nagging after he reminded them he wasn't going to dismiss Technus from his home and he was taking Fright Knight with him.
Time was… weird in the Realms. He had no doubt that they would come visit like they had insisted they would, but it likely wouldn't happen anytime soon. And in the meantime, he was bored.
So Tim started doing several things in the hopes of alleviating that boredom.
Tim, naturally, focused on his Lair away from Lair first.
He upped the security measures manually instead of having Technus keep an eye on things because however strong —and annoying— Technus was, this was his Haunt.
He had his pride, damn it. He was a protection spirit. He was damn well going to protect his Haunt and protect it well.
Tim, to the surprise of no one, had found himself the type of parent that was enamoured with every move of their baby. Her smiles that showed her toothless gums, her small but strong grip that would grab him and not let go, be it his fingers, clothes or hair (he had made the mistake of leaving his hair down once , he certainly knew better now), the way she trusted him completely with herself…
He wanted to spoil her so much.
And his baby certainly deserved it after the life she had.
He childproofed the loft even as he knew that his daughter was virtually indestructible as a halfa, just like him now that his changing process —that had been painful— was largely done now.
He rearranged the loft to fit the furniture he bought for Lyra and turned the closest room to the master bedroom to a space themed nursery. While he'd love to have his Starlight in his room in her crib forever, she needed a nursery where he could put her things, at least. Another crib, a changing station, a dresser that had too many clothes for a growing baby, a toy basket filled to the brim…
He also set a part of the lounge area for a baby play area when Lyra would get old enough to enjoy it and filled it with fun and educational toys. He was determined. His baby would want nothing in her life. She wouldn't grow up in a too large and silent house or with neglectful parents like her father.
Speaking of Lyra, he would've said she was an angel if he didn't know how real angels were down right assholes.
Taking care of a ghostling was very different from taking care of a mortal baby.
She behaved so well as long as he was in her sensing range (which was quite small as she was still an itty bitty ghostling) and ate without a fuss, sending him love-contentment-delight the whole time.
Communicating certainly was made easier due to their additional senses.
There was no crying unless she couldn't sense him or was trying to make a point, like not liking the temperature of her bath. She was a quiet, easy baby that constantly showed her love towards him by projecting her feelings, which brought tears to his eyes every time.
She even had the fearsome Fright Knight wrapped around her finger, hah!
A hint of displeasure from Lyra was enough for Fright Knight to gather a physical body together and try to soothe her with increasingly comical attempts. It was hysterical to see the fearsome Knight bending backwards for his Princess, who was a small baby that didn't even have teeth yet.
And Fright Knight, both out of duty and boredom, regularly went out to terrorise the rogues of Gotham when he wasn't looming in the shadows of his loft and playing with Lyra.
Scarecrow was his favourite victim as he was especially offended by Scarecrow’s gimmick as the Spirit of Fear, the Knight thought Scarecrow was an amateur.
Tim was amused by it and saw no harm in giving Fright Knight permission to do what he wanted as long as he didn't bring scrutiny over them due to his actions.
And after some thinking, Tim signed up to take his GED’s and took them after briskly paging through study books. He perused through colleges that offered online courses to see if any would interest him and got the results for the GED exam, which was probably sooner than he should've due to his status as a billionaire. He still wasn't decided on what he should study, though.
In the meantime, he worked for his company and churned the patents that he got for the inventions he drew up during his pregnancy by the week. His board of directors were very happy with that one, along with the PR he —and subsequently, Drake Industries— got because of Lyra.
He didn’t really understand why they were happy about the media uproar caused by his press conference, though, and why the Bat Clan insistently tried to reach out to him as civilians.
One would’ve thought the name change from Drake-Wayne to Drake and his daughter only having his last name would’ve made them understand his feelings regarding them but it seemed that they were collectively insistent on being obtuse.
Tim played with the security some more and ignored the Waynes’ increasing attempts to reach out. He was focusing on himself and his baby, he didn't need them to distract him with their nonsense, so he did his best to put them out of his mind.
Taking up photography once again certainly helped on that front.
He made sure to make his cameras ecto-proof first, though. His muse was his Starlight now, after all, it wouldn't do to not be able to capture the evidence of her cuteness or break his equipment due to the ecto he innately radiated.
… Tim still couldn't create portals even if he was a proper halfa once again. He had none of his previous control and his previous strength was returning too slowly for his tastes. He wanted to go around the world and visit interesting places with his daughter!
So he, naturally, forced Fright Knight to portal them first to touristy places and then to increasingly bizarre places like the bermuda triangle or inside of an active volcano (neither Lyra nor him liked that one).
This was all done invisibly, of course. He wasn't going to risk Lyra just to show her around the world.
The only evidence of their travels were the pictures he took since he sometimes posted the discrete ones on his social media after they left the place since he didn't want his movements to be followed.
There was already speculation on the internet about when he had even left Gotham, it really didn't need any more fuel.
As Lyra grew up and hit the nine month mark, it became clear that she was going to look like Tim’s mirror —hah— outside of a few details.
Her dark, thick brows and hooded eyes were a direct copy from his past life as Danny Fenton and her hair already had a poofy look to it just like Tim had before as Danny, instead of his now pin straight hair.
A few, quick non-invasive tests showed that her time in his body hadn’t rewritten her DNA completely like he had expected. There were traces of Danny Fenton in there, too, though it read as ‘unknown’ unless he recalibrated his equipment to process ecto as well.
So, officially, her DNA didn’t look like that of a clone, which was a good thing to know.
All in all, she was an adorable mix of his past and current self.
He quietly snickered to himself. It raised some amusing possibilities for him to use in the future.
A brief glance at the news during a quiet night at home made him remember the presence of the Joker, so he sent Fright Knight on a hunt with a look and promptly forgot about it before he even came back.
Joker wasn't a terribly dangerous foe when you remembered that you had fought several gods by yourself with no backup before but Tim still wanted him neutralised.
(Unknown to Tim or Fright Knight, the Joker falling into an inexplicable coma right in the middle of a heinous plan right after an Arkham breakout caused the Batparanoia™ to shoot up profusely and Gotham as a whole to declare the day a holiday.)
But then Tim got bored bored.
Like a —human— obsession he couldn't get rid off, he went back to solving cases.
He got the cases by taking some unsolved ones from the Police database he hacked. He sent his clone with the solved cases back to the Commissioner, who was quite surprised to see Red Robin in his office after so long, in a new costume to boot.
It was easy enough for Tim to explain that he had been busy with his life out of the mask and had taken the opportunity to change his name and look.
The knowledge of former Red Robin’s return was then spread to the masses in short order, which, naturally, made the Bat Clan reach out to him again.
“Phantom,” Technus crackled at him from the tablet on the coffee table in front of him as he fed Lyra mashed fruits. Once again, he was thankful that his Starlight had finally started on solid food. It was such a relief, he was counting the days until she wouldn't need to nurse so he could change his body already. “Oracle is calling you, should I trash her inferior equipment again?” He asked with dark amusement.
Tim thought about it for a second before refusing the offer. “Put her on hold. I’ll be down once Lyra is done with her food.”
It took only a few minutes for Lyra to finish and settle down for her nap with his aura soothingly blanketing her.
Tim carefully cradled his daughter and took her down to the Nest with him. If he didn't, if he wasn't there with her for at least the first fifteen minutes of her sleep, blanketing her with his love and care, she would wake up to cry her lungs out and make him feel like an asshole.
He wasn't going to risk his baby's sleep just to hear what Oracle wanted.
He snagged an earpiece from a case and put it on before sitting down in front of the computer display. Tim unconsciously adjusted his hold on Lyra to make sure his daughter was comfortable before answering. “Nightingale speaking. What can I do for you, Oracle?”
“Sorry to reach out to you like this but we need help for a case. Can you help?” Oracle asked in a distracted voice backdropped with the clanking of keyboard keys.
He hummed in thought before he gave his assent. “Sure. I can’t promise that I’ll be quick, though. Send it to me.”
“Thanks, Nightingale. Oracle out.”
Give them an inch, and they’ll definitely take a mile.
At first, it was only Oracle contacting him for help on more cases, then Dick on a rare good, relatively sunny day in Gotham where Tim had put on his best American teenager clothes to disguise himself and went out with Lyra in her stroller to visit Robinson Park.
“Hey, baby bird,” Dick greeted him with a tremulous smile from where he was standing on the edge of the picnic cloth Tim was laying on with Lyra dozing on his chest.
Tim had detected him long ago and allowed Dick to come close. By the expression he had, Dick knew it had been deliberate.
“Hey, Dick,” Tim greeted back groggily as he blinked up sleepily at him.
“Not worried about Ivy?” Dick asked curiously.
He hummed as he closed his eyes. “Already talked to her.” Ivy had always had a soft spot for him and children so a five minute talk was enough to assure that he would be safe in her domain. It wasn't that much of a sacrifice for a peaceful afternoon with his daughter. A peaceful afternoon that was now being interrupted.
“That's good,” Dick commented. “Am I interrupting?”
“Not really,” Tim said with a yawn as he carefully made his emotions stay relaxed for Lyra’s benefit and motioned Dick to sit. There was too little sun in Gotham as it was, he didn't need to have it covered by Dick, who was standing there hesitantly. He opened his eyes to send Dick an impassive look. “What do you need?”
“Do I have to need something to come say hi to my brother?” Dick asked sadly as he sat down.
“That’s usually how it goes with anyone in your family, yeah,” Tim remarked wryly. The times where he was asked a simple ‘how are you’ without it being tagged with a question involving their night life could be counted by his fingers.
Tim was beyond the days where he would crave their validation and be disappointed later on when it didn't happen.
He would never chase after their approval ever again.
“I’m sorry we ever made you feel like that,” Dick sighed, followed by a hesitant touch on his leg. “But, Tim… Why do you keep saying your family?”
Out of all the possible questions he thought Dick could've asked him, this wasn’t one of them.
“Well, because I’m not a Wayne?” He asked, exasperated. “I wasn’t a Wayne even when I carried the name, Dick, all of you know this. There’s no need for you to ask me to explain things you already know.”
Tim sent a faintly surprised look at Dick as the acidic taste of sorrow-heartsickness-alarm stuck uncomfortably at the roof of his mouth.
He absentmindedly soothed Lyra as she squirmed in her sleep at the emotions around them and quietly wondered where they were coming from. Dick had never acted like he cared ever much before, after all.
“That… Baby bird, Tim, what made you think that?” Dick asked in a choked voice.
“Oh, don't play dumb, Richard Grayson,” Tim scoffed, now annoyed that his leisure time with his daughter was being interrupted for stupid questions. “Every one of you has told me that I wasn’t a part of your family countless times, both with your words and actions. But you sure acted like I was when it was time to play the blame game and find faults. I’m your coworker at best and I sure am tired of the workplace violence I have to suffer due to your problems,” Tim lectured with a sharp voice even as he continued laying down and soothing Lyra with his aura. He let out a disgruntled breath when his annoyed aggression and Dick’s palpable misery caused Lyra to wake up with a plaintive cry.
Tim rose from where he was laying to sit cross legged so he could rock Lyra to soothe her. “I don’t even have to mention how Bruce trained me or always saw me as lesser than you, lesser than Jason. I was never enough for him. I didn’t expect to be thought of as a son but parenting a grown ass man so he wouldn’t dive into the deep end at fucking thirteen was hard . Alfred always kept himself distant when he wasn’t acting complacent in Bruce’s fucked up training games. Jason? We all know what Jason thinks of me,” he bared his throat pointedly to show the scar on it to a stricken Dick as he ran his hand up and down on his teary daughter’s small back.
“You? You were always busy in your own world and once Damian came in? It was like I didn’t even exist . Damian cut off my grappling line,” he divulged cruelly in an uncharacteristic way of the Tim Drake the man in front of him knew. What was the point of hiding this when he was finally free of the mantle of Robin and no longer sought their approval? “And you took the one thing my grieving mind was taking comfort from me and tried to get me admitted to Arkham. ”
The plants around them rustled menacingly and started reaching for Dick just as he finished his tirade with a snarl.
It looked like Ivy had been keeping an eye on Tim and his… discussion with Dick. He spared the plants a wary look and did his best to blanket Lyra with love to stop her cries even as he felt faintly touched by Ivy’s protection.
His distracted look caused Dick to break his heartbroken staring and turn to take in the dangerous plants that were wriggling towards him.
“I think it’s best if you leave now,” Tim warned in a tired voice.
“Yeah,” Dick said in a choked off voice. “Yeah, I think so too.”
“You heard all that, O?” Dick whispered wetly to the mic on him as he exited the Park and ducked into a back alley discreetly.
“I did,” Oracle affirmed with a voice carefully divested of emotions. “So did everyone else.”
He winced. When he offered to go meet with Tim after Barbara said cameras captured Tim going into Robinson Park, he couldn’t have imagined the results of his eager actions.
The revelation of what Tim really thought of their family was a hard, bitter pill to swallow.
He really didn't want to know what Bruce or others thought.
“That’s one reason to not tell us about his pregnancy, I guess,” Duke commented tentatively and broke the heavy comm silence.
Dick gave a hoarse laugh devoid of any humour. He really loved Duke. “Right?”