Archive of Our Own ^beta

Green…

Green..

Green.

That’s all Jason remembers when he comes to. 

He’s blinking away trying, trying to understand where he is. Why is he so high up?

Oh. 

Oh. 

He’s in Titan Tower, right. What was he doing here? Why was it cold? And the smell of blood?

Jason gave himself a second for his eyes to adjust. He was in a room that looked like it should be a kitchen? It was hard to tell with all the blood. Whose blood was that? Jason turned to his right to see one of the windows had been smashed completely open. Explains the cold.

A noise behind him pulled him out of his assessment. 

He turned, trying to pin the noise down. A slow step forward, and another.

There.

To your left. 

Jason turns to see a foot, sticking out from behind what he is sure is a counter top. Huh, he’s sure feet aren’t meant to bend that way.

The owner of the foot groaned. Jason took a couple of slow steps forward until he was able to see round the top of the counter top.

His breath stopped for a second. That was a child. A literal child. That looked half dead. Did Jason do this? No, he wouldn’t hurt a child, would he? 

The kid, who couldn’t be older than in his teens, shifted a little, turning his face towards Jason. 

Oh. Oh. He knew that face. He’s sure of it, wasn’t this the kid that lived in the manor next to the Wayne’s? What was his name again? Tom? Tim? Yeah, Tim Drake. He remembered him from the Gala’s he had to attend while he was living at the Manor with Bruce. Nope. Don’t think about him. There’s a kid that needs your attention right now. 

Jason had to remember what he was doing, he had to remember what happened here that a child got hurt. Slowly the pieces fell into place. He had come to the tower to give Ba- B a lesson on no more dead robins. Okay, that explains why he’s in the tower. 

He had managed to get into the tower because the Old Man apparently never got rid of his codes. He remembered he had to fight a few teens to get up to the room. And then he tried to sneak into towards the kid, Tim, and attack him?

Oh no, what had Jason done? He went after a kid to prove a point. A KID!

He’s sure they know he’s here now. Jason had to get the kid away. No way was he letting them see his replacement like this. 
At that moment, he realised the kid’s breathing had become shallow. He needed to leave now before it got worse. 

Jason walked over to the side of the body, trying to be careful about the injuries. Which there were a lot of. He really didn’t hold back on him. Shaking his head, he could drown in his guilt later. Kid first. Guilt tomorrow.

One arm went under Tim’s legs, as carefully as possible, and the other trying to avoid any injuries around his chest and arms. 

Once he stood up, he realised how light this kid was, and small. Why was he so small?

His feet moved without thinking about it. Straight towards the broken open window. It was their only way out that didn’t risk getting caught by everyone. 

Jason tried to figure out how he was meant to use his grapple while he was holding the kid this way. He was going to have to hold him a different way if he wanted to get down the safer way.
Moving the kid was way too easy, god he really was too small. 

After finally getting a good grip on the kid, Tim, he really needed to stop calling him kid. He grabbed his grappling and made his way out the window. 

Jason finally got back to the safe house he had. Avoiding all the cameras he knew about. No one seemed to have followed them. Though, he was sure they would know by now that he had taken Tim. He may have hacked the tower to go into shut down mode, but he couldn’t be sure he had avoided every camera. 

Slowly, he placed Tim on the bed he had. It wasn’t manor standard, but it wasn’t the worst. 

Jason had to take a breather before going to grab his medical supplies. The safe house he brought them too had the most medical supplies he would need. Hopefully enough, with the amount of injuries he could see. 

This was going to be a long night. 

He moved away from the bed to get everything he needed. Grabbing everything from their little spots from around the place, he didn’t like having everything in one place. 

Once he was back at the side of the bed, he realised the kid needed some clothes for afterwards. No way was he going to put him back in the now broken robin suit. Jason would just have to grab some of his clothes afterwards. He needed to focus on the injuries first.

After stripping the suit off Tim, he did a once over. Bruised ribs, possibly 2 or 3 broken ribs, a broken ankle and a sprain on the other, dislocated shoulder, a head wound that would need a couple of stitches, same with the one on his leg, though that one probably needed more, bruising forming around the neck, and lastly, his knuckles were covered in blood, possibly cracked and bleeding. He wouldn’t know until he started cleaning them. 

Jason started with the shoulder. Closing his eyes, a silent apology for the pain about to come. Once he opened them again, he placed his hands on the right spots, counting down from three to stop the green coming into his vision, pushing the shoulder back into place. 

The kid barely moved or made a sound, that wasn’t good. 

He needed to work quickly, moving on the open wounds. Head first, he got about 5 stitches just about the eyebrow. Leg next, that one needed 10. Jason had to add some butterfly stitches to another cut on the same leg, it wasn’t shallow enough for anything else. 

Next was putting the kid's ankle back into place. Jason’s hands were starting to shake. Having to count back from 100 so he wouldn’t mess this up anymore. Snapping it back into place got a small movement from Tim. 

60…

59…

58…

He managed to put the cast on without his hands starting to shake again. Moving onto the next ankle, putting some gel on it to help with the swelling, and wrapping it up with way too much care for someone who was the reason he was even doing this in the first place. 

Lastly the knuckles, Jason walked to get some warm water and antiseptic wipes. Staring at the water as it turned to the right water. He couldn’t wrap his head around this. Jason had let the stupid green take over and hurt a kid just to prove what? That he was just as bad as the criminals in Arkham? That kids didn’t deserve to be forced into this life? That they couldn’t handle it? 

Nothing he could do was going to fix this. Helping bandaging him up was a step in the right direction, but it wouldn’t change anything. Not really. It was the least he could do right now. 

Walking back to the bed, grabbing a cloth, he started wiping the blood away. There was so much blood all over the kid that shouldn’t be there in the first place. 

He could slowly see a few cuts the more he wiped away. Once he had gotten the blood off his hands, he started wrapping them both. He was going to have to put an IV in the kids arm soon. 

Once Jason had finished, he took a step back to really look at him. There were so many injuries for such a small kid. Which he couldn’t get over how small he really was. Was Jason ever this small? He couldn’t have been, he knew living on the streets made him small for his age, but he really couldn’t have been this small at this age. What was B even doing for the kid not to look healthy. No way he could be letting a kid like this fight crime, right?

Jason pulled a chair in from the other room. He was going to have to keep an eye on Tim for the next couple of days. 

The first time Tim woke, it had been about 6 hours since he brought him back, 4 and a half since he finished bandaging him up. The kid was just babbling about reports or something. The words weren’t really intelligible.

Jason only managed to get him back to sleep once he started running his fingers through the kid’s hair. 

The second time, Jason had decided to take a nap, he wouldn’t have been able to stay awake the whole time if he wanted to be somewhat at his best when the kid woke up fully. 

He snapped out of his nap at about hour 8, since they got back to screaming. Tim was slightly thrashing side to side on the bed, screaming, babbling, begging, pleading. 

Jason shot out of his chair in an instant. Trying to calm the kid down. He needed to rest before he made his injuries worse. 

Running a hand through the kids hair again, it seemed to get him to stop moving. But his words became more clear. 

Tim was begging. Begging for someone to stay, anyone to stay. 

And if that didn’t break Jason’s heart slightly. The desperation when his voice turned to a whisper, “Mom, please.” Sure did. 

Jason started humming at that moment, for himself or Tim. He didn’t know. 

The third time the kid woke, Jason had just gotten back from getting food, they were hitting hour 12. 

He heard the groan from the bed, slight movement of what he could tell was the kids eyes getting used to its surroundings. 

Once Tim’s eyes landed on Jason standing in the doorway, they widened so wide that Jason was sure they might fall out. 

They both stood, staring at each other for a minute. Jason had come up with a few ways to go about this. Though he would probably need the kid a bit more awake before he did that. So staring seemed like the best idea right now. 

That was until the kid decided to speak.

“Am I dead?”

Huh?

Jason’s pretty sure he nearly dropped the food. That was not what should have been the first thing out of the kid's mouth.

“Jason?” 

He snapped back, staring at the kid. Tim was still expecting an answer from him. 

Clearing his throat, “No you’re not dead. You’re injured and I patched you up the best I could.”

All he got in response was a hum. 

Wait… the kid knew his name?

“Why don’t you go back to sleep, and I’ll wake you in 2 hours for food.” was all he could get out for now. 

The poor kid just nodded and closed his eyes. 

Once his chest evened out, Jason let go of the breath he was holding. He carefully moved towards the chair, placing the kid’s food to the side. If he didn’t have an appetite to eat a minute ago, he definitely didn’t have one now. 

This was way too many feelings in one go. 

Guilt.

Anger.

Anxiety.

Sadness.

Discomfort. 

The final time Tim woke up, Jason had just gotten ready to warm the food up for the kid.

“Huh” 

Jason turned to see Tim’s eyes on him. Curiosity filled his eyes.

“So I wasn’t dreaming about you being with me earlier?” Tim said not taking his eyes off Jason’s face.

“Erm,” Come on Jason it's not that difficult, “No. I’ve been here the whole time. Was just about to sort your food out.” 

When he didn’t get an answer, he walked backwards out the room. He should not be this nervous around the kid. 

When he walked back in, food in hand, the kid’s eyes apparently hadn’t moved from the door. This time they looked more calculating than last time. 

“I just got you a burger from the place down the street,” Why was he so nervous?

Tim just stared at him, eyes narrowing. 

Why was that scary? The kid couldn’t do anything in the state he’s in right now. 

A few minutes passed, Jason stood by the door, food still in hand, and Tim’s eyes still hadn’t left his face yet. Clearly searching for something. 

“Was it the pit?” Is the first thing spoken. Tim's eyes were still on him. Waiting for him to answer.

He wasn’t sure how he was meant to answer this? Does he answer this? The kid knew his name, knew he had died.

Jason looks down at the food, debating if he should try to reroute the conversation elsewhere or just let the kid have this one question. 

He tries to go for the latter, “No, I dug myself out my grave.” He looked up to see the kid still staring with the same look. Jason takes a step forward, “Here’s some food, you’ve been asleep for about 14 hours and I’m sure you didn’t eat before you were injured, so just eat it."

Tim slowly sits up, eyes still not moving. It was making Jason nervous. He’s sure the kid hasn’t blinked once during this conversation. 

He reaches for the food, and makes a noise of pain. Right, dislocated shoulder.

Jason moves closer, small steps. He’s not sure if it’s for the kid’s benefit or his. Slowly reaching out with the food.

“Thanks,” Tim said once the food was finally in his hands. Why does the kid sound so unsure? 

“Just eat and drink, kid.” 

They both sat in silence. Tim was still staring at Jason like he was a puzzle to solve. It was actually making the older teen uncomfortable.

It went on like this for a while, Tim eating, staring, not blinking. While Jason tried to figure out what the fuck he was going to or say.

After five minutes the silence was broken.

"You were my hero."

Jason's head snapped towards Tim. The kids eyes still hadn't left him.

"Well, Dick was my first robin. I met him at the circus. Gave me a really nice hug. Probably my only hug that month." Say what now? "And so I watched him that day. It was a good day, up until his parents died. Then I was sent to so many boarding schools and that wasn't fun. Until I convinced my parents that I was old enough to stay home alone at 9. Which is how I figured out-"

Honestly, Jason wasn't listening fully. His brain was still stuck on so many little things. Because this kid was no older then 15.

Jason had almost killed a kid to prove a point to B.
He realised the kid was still talking when he caught the were words, "So I guess you were my hero and why I felt like I had to be Robin"

Yeah, he had to stop this kid from talking. "Okay kid, slow down a little okay?"

He watched the kid look like a kicked puppy and than immediantly school it and look like he wasn't effected by what Jason had just said. Okay maybe that wasn't what he should have said.

"Look that's a lot to take in when I've had a few hours sleep. And I have so many concerning questions about everything you just said. So let's start from the beginning." He extended his hand towards Tim's non injured arm. "I'm Jason."

Confusion and maybe a bit of excitement crossed the kids face for a second before a response came. "Hi Jason, I'm Tim."

Tim and Jason spent a few hours talking before going back to sleep.

Jason then dropped the kid off near Wayne Manor the next morning, sighting that there was no way he was going any closer.

He felt bad that he couldn't get the kid closer but his vision was slowly going green even at the distance he was at.

Tim said he had walked further with worse. But that didn't calm him down at all.

There wasn't much to do, so he went back to his safe house, a different one this time, and took what he believed was a well needed sleep. And to hopefully forget about this whole situation.

Tim, on the other hand, was ready to do some deep diving on what he could find on Jason and how to get that man back to the house.