Archive of Our Own ^beta

Tim was conflicted.

He should be enjoying himself. He, Steph, and Cass were staking out a haberdashery suspected to be a front for Mad Hatter. They’d been there for two hours with no sign of Tetch or his lackeys, which meant the stakeout had quickly turned into a hangout. They’d gotten some chili dogs, turned on some (quiet) music, and were talking about everything under the sun – from Stephanie’s classes, to Cass’s upcoming audition for her ballet school’s winter production of The Nutcracker, to the latest in superhero gossip. Normally, he would have considered it a great night. He loved spending time with his girls.

Except his stump was killing him.

Sitting for extended periods of time while wearing his prosthetic always aggravated his residual limb. Normally, if he was going to be in a car for this long, he would have removed his leg. But he had to be ready to run after Mad Hatter at a moment’s notice, so he’d kept it on. Now, he was facing the consequences.

“So then obviously I told this guy ‘no,’” Stephanie continued. She’d been telling the story of this guy in her MCAT prep class who kept asking her out. Tim forced himself to ignore the throbbing pain in his stump and listen. “Not to sound shallow, but he is so not my type. And above that, he’s a jerk. He keeps insinuating that I just want to go to medical school so I can marry a doctor and be a trophy wife. Like that would make me want to go out with him!”

“Gross,” Cass said, wrinkling her nose.

“Yeah, sounds like a real jackass,” Tim added. “Do you want me to hack into his email account and subscribe him to a bunch of gay porn sites?”

That got Stephanie to laugh, which made Tim feel a little bit better. “As much as I would love that, I can handle him. Thanks for the offer, though. I’ll let you know if I change my mind. Now it’s your turn to spill. How are things with Mr. Abs of Steel?”

A smile spread across his face. “Good. Like really, really good.”

“Oooh. I want details. You haven’t gotten the chance to tell me about your anniversary trip. How was Europe?”

“Amazing,” Tim confirmed happily, using the good memories to distract himself from the pain. “We did this two-week train tour that started in Istanbul and went all throughout Romania and Hungary. We saw all of the Transylvanian castles. It was awesome.”

Cass giggled. “Sounds romantic.”

“Oh trust me, it was. I rented out the other three suites in our car so we could be as, um, romantic as we wanted.”

Steph sighed dramatically. “God, I am so single. I want someone to take me on European train adventures with lots of sex.”

Cass made a gagging noise.

They kept talking. Though, Tim found himself contributing less and less to the conversation. His stump was getting harder to ignore. He kept shifting his weight back and forth in his seat (why oh why had he volunteered to drive?), but it didn’t help.

“Tim, are you okay?” Steph questioned.

He forced himself to nod. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little restless. We’ve been out here for hours.”

His sister narrowed his eyes at him. “You’re in pain,” she realized.

Dammit. Of course Cass would notice.

“It’s nothing,” he quickly reassured. “I’m just stiff from sitting for so long.”

“Is it your stump that’s bothering you?” Stephanie questioned.

Tim let out a frustrated groan. “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s just that sitting down wearing my prosthetic for too long is uncomfortable.”

Okay, so maybe “uncomfortable” was way too tame of a word. His stump was very inflamed, so “agonizing” seemed much more appropriate. But he didn’t want this to become a Thing™, especially when Tetch could show up at any moment.

Besides, he didn’t want them to think he couldn’t handle a stakeout – it was the least physically demanding part of their job. If they couldn’t trust him to sit in a car for a few hours, how were they supposed to trust him with the bigger stuff?

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier? We could have –”

“There he is,” Cass interrupted, pointing to the store’s entrance.

He let out a breath of relief. Saved by the villain.

“Don’t think this is over,” Steph warned as they got out of the car. “We will be talking about your whole ‘suffer in silence’ habit later.”

Tim sighed and extended his bo staff. He was so not looking forward to that conversation.

The mission was a success. Mad Hatter was, as they had suspected, using the haberdashery as a new base of operations (which, come on). The three of them, after delivering the appropriate ass-kicking, turned him and his lackeys over to GCPD for processing before calling it a night.

“I’ll drive,” Steph offered as they got back to the car. “Why don’t you get into the backseat and take your leg off?”

The fight had made his stump even worse. It took all of Tim’s strength to walk without limping. So he gratefully took the out and tossed Spoiler the keys. “Okay. Thanks, Steph.”

Once inside the car, he took off his left boot and unzipped the pant leg up to his thigh. He then unclipped his belt and released the vacuum suspension on his socket. The leg came off easily after that, and Tim almost cried in relief when his stump was freed.

“How’s it looking?” Steph said, turning around to face him. “Let me see.”

Tim peeled off the silicone liner and winced. “Oh yeah, we’re really angry.”

The residual limb was red and swollen. There wasn’t any blisters or breaks in the skin that he could feel (small victories), but it really fucking hurt.

“Shit, that looks horrible,” Steph grimaced. She dug into her belt then held her hand out. “Here’s a cold pack. Do you have a shrinker sock with you?”

He shook his head but accepted the icepack gratefully. “Red Robin is not an amputee, so I don’t keep anything on me. I’ll take care of it when we get back to the Cave.”

“You should have said something,” Cass said accusingly as they drove away from their stakeout spot.

Tim sighed. “I know. I just didn’t want to complicate the mission. Getting out to stretch intermittently could have given us away. And my leg takes a minute to get on and off, so I didn’t want to risk having it off when we needed to move. There was no reason to say anything since nothing could be done about it.”

Stephanie looked at him disapprovingly through the rearview mirror. “We would have figured something out, Tim.”

He felt tears of frustration build behind his eyes. “I’m sorry, okay? I just felt stupid getting hurt from just sitting here. Like it’s literally the easiest assignment in the world. I can handle swinging over buildings all day, but if I sit down for too long? I’m a fucking wreck. It’s pathetic.”

Cass unbuckled her seatbelt and turned around. “I’m coming back there.”

“Cass, we’re in a moving vehicle. Don’t–”

“Too late,” his sister said. She climbed into the backseat and buckled herself into the middle. She then wrapped her arm around him and pulled him towards her. “You needed me, so I’m here. You were…”

“Spiraling,” Steph finished. She, being the responsible driver she was, seemed to have no issue with what had just occurred.

“I’m fine,” Tim argued, though his voice cracked at the end.

Cass kissed the top of his head. “You’re not, and that’s okay.”

“It’s been almost a year. I shouldn’t still be making a big deal out of this.”

“Tim, your stump is still maturing,” Steph reminded. “It’s going to get sore. And if you know that certain things, like sitting in a car for too long, cause you pain, then you need to voice that. We could’ve adjusted our plans and still completed the mission.”

Tim sniffled. “I’m just so tired of everyone having to accommodate me.”

“I understand,” Cass soothed. “Sometimes, my words fail. Other people have to fill in the blanks. But I am getting better. You will, too.”

Steph smiled. “She’s right. Remember when you took me out for pizza the day you tried on your prosthetic for the first time? You couldn’t believe how hard it was to just stand up. You said you didn’t know how you were ever going to fight again. But look at you now, Tim. You’ve come so far. You’re out there kicking ass and doing things 99% of people with two legs could never do.”

She had a point, of course. Tim remembered vividly how difficult working with his prosthetic had been at first. He had every reason to be proud of all the progress he had made. He didn’t understand why he let something like this bother him so much. Clearly, neither Steph nor Cass thought him any less capable of fighting crime after hearing about his pain.

“You’re right,” he relented. “I’m letting my own insecurities cloud my judgement.”

“You should talk to Charlotte about that at your next appointment.”

Tim smiled softly at the suggestion. Stephanie had always been super supportive about him seeing a therapist (just as everyone else had been). “Sure, I’ll do that.”

“Good. Lecture is officially over, then. How’s the stump? Is the cold helping at all?”

He lifted the icepack and kneaded his stump with his fingertips. He inhaled sharply at the pain the motion caused. “We’re still very angry,” he admitted.

“We will help you,” Cass promised. “Make you feel better.”

He nodded. At least the Cave wasn’t too much farther.

An hour later, Tim was freshly showered and dressed in his pjs. Alfred escorted him to his bedroom and helped him put on his shrinker sock. The compression felt heavenly on his swollen stump. After that, Tim got into his bed and allowed Alfred to fuss over him some more. The butler slid a pillow underneath Tim’s hip and draped icepacks over the inflamed little limb.

“You ought to keep your stump elevated for the time being,” the butler instructed. “I will come back in twenty minutes to remove the icepacks. Do you need anything  in the meantime, Master Timothy?”

“I think I’m good for now, Alfred. Thank you.”

“Very well. Let me know if you need anything at all.”

As Alfred left, Steph and Cass came into his room and climbed into his bed.

“How are you feeling?” Steph asked.

“A little better,” he replied truthfully. Compression and ice were magical things. As were NSAIDs.

“And your head?” Cass checked.

Tim smiled softly at his sister. “That’s feeling better, too. Thanks for being there for me tonight, guys. It means a lot.”

“That’s what we’re here for,” Steph assured. “Besides, you would do the same for us.”

He would. In a heartbeat. Because if one thing was for certain, it was that Tim loved his girls.