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Bruce Wayne was the first person to notice the Tim shaped hole in Gotham. He had just recently recovered enough for public appearances, and he’d been swarmed with meeting the press and Wayne Enterprises. Tim had taken care of the company for Bruce while he was gone, but Bruce had insisted on taking back the responsibility once he’d recovered enough. Bruce hadn’t wanted to force a seventeen-year-old to do the work of a CEO, but he also knew that of his children, Tim could handle it the best. 

Bruce was suspicious when Tim hadn’t patrolled in a while, but whenever he asked Dick, who was still Batman until Dr. Thompkins gave him the all clear, he just said Tim was fine. Bruce could see hints of guilt in his oldest son’s eyes, but he chalked that up to how Dick had accidentally driven Tim from Gotham while Bruce was missing. The cave was easy enough to sneak into for the original Batman, and the Batcomputer’s security was easy too. Bruce’s credentials hadn’t been removed, so he could just log into the computer. He scrolled through the messages on the computer, trying to find the last time anyone contacted Tim, only to find a message from the watchtower that mentioned Tim. Bruce double clicked the message, and as he read it, his blood froze. Tim had been accused of selling information to the public, and as punishment had his memory erased. 

Bruce feels himself start to cry; his son was accused of something this serious, and if the confirmation message from Dick was real, then none of his family had tried to defend him. The message, and Dick’s reply, were over a month old, which meant Tim was already gone. His son was gone, and none of his friends had thought to talk to him about it. His son had actively hidden this from him. Bruce wonders if anyone else in the family knew, if they all hid this from him. Bruce feels his grief burn in the Tim shaped hole in his chest. It feels oh so similar to how his grief over Jason’s death burned, and for once Bruce was grateful that he hadn’t been cleared to be Batman yet. He knew that if he could, he’d revert back to the version of himself from before Tim became Robin, from when he was grieving Jason. 

Bruce could hear his children entering the cave, but he couldn’t  find it in himself to care. The son who saved him was gone, and at least one of his other children had hidden it from him. He kept staring at the message as Dick and Damian’s voices filtered down from the stairs. Dick was in the middle of explaining that night’s patrol route to Damian when he saw what Bruce was staring at and froze, his voice faltering. “Bruce, what are you looking at?” Bruce can tell that Dick was trying to defuse the situation because his son was using the voice reserved for trying to talk someone down from a ledge. 

“You know exactly what I’m looking at,” Bruce’s voice was low and gravelly. It was a voice full of anger and grief. Bruce turned to see Dick’s face fall while Damian’s looked confused. He watched Dick send Damian back upstairs, watched him cancel patrol for the night as guilt weighed down his oldest child’s shoulders. Bruce felt a little bad, Dick had been under enormous amounts of stress while he was gone, but Bruce needed answers. “Who else knows Dick?” His voice is still low, still filled with fury as he demanded answers from the son in front of him. 

Dick looks away, and Bruce can tell his son is very conflicted. It takes a while for Dick to speak, but eventually he looks up and says,” Just me. I didn't tell anyone else.” Bruce feels his blood boil as he realizes that none of his other children know what’s happened to Tim. He glares at Dick before his son looks at him, tears brimming his eyes as he pleads,” You don’t understand, every lead we found points to Tim having been the leak. I looked into it myself, and so did the others. No one wanted to think Tim would do this, but all the evidence pointed to him. Clark even told me that he didn't deny it when they took him in,”

Bruce grits his teeth and growls,” But you know your brother wouldn’t do that, you know people can be framed,” Bruce watches Dick fall apart, anger and grief overtaking his oldest son as he snaps,” You don’t know what Tim was like after you died. He went off the rails, yes he was right about you still being alive, but he was still unstable. He tried to clone Conner, he worked with Ra’s, and he barely talked to people about the missions and cases he was taking on. Hell he lost his spleen and didn’t tell anyone until he got caught taking antibiotics.”

Dick’s face is red and his chest is heaving when he finishes. Bruce distantly wonders how long Dick had been holding that in. He watches Dick storm off, leaving Bruce alone to wonder where Tim could be. Bruce closes his eyes for a moment before getting up to get some coffee so he can start searching for his son.

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Dick feels his chest tightening as he locks himself in his room. He slides down the door and sobs into his knees. He fucked up and knew it. He should’ve done more, paid better attention during the League meeting about the situation. He’d been too sleep deprived and distracted by the LOA making moves in Gotham and around Damian to realize what he’d agreed to, and by the time he had, it was too late. Tim had been scheduled to have his memory erased the following day and Dick was sent back to Gotham without being able to see Tim. Superman hadn’t let Dick see Tim, and Dick was five minutes from passing out so he didn't fight it. 

Dick could hear someone knocking on his door, calling his name, but he was too tired and upset to respond. His anger had spiked when he screamed at Bruce, deafening a choice that he knew was the wrong one. Eventually whoever is at the door leaves him alone, and Dick manages to drag himself to his bed. Dick buries his face in his bedding, wishing he could fix everything. He cries until his head is pounding and he can’t make anymore tears. He knows his choice, his inaction, led to what was essentially the death of his little brother. Dick blames himself for killing Tim, for this hole in the family that he can’t fix. He knows Bruce probably blames him for what happened to Tim, the others probably will too, the only one who might not hate him after this is Damian, who never really knew Tim anyways. 

His phone buzzes with a text from his friends, from the other heroes who signed off on killing his little brother. Dick wants to throw the phone into the wall or out the window, but he knows his therapist would tell him to take a breath and find another outlet for his anger. Dick feels his rage burning his chest, begging him to give in. He realizes he needs to do something so his rage won’t get out of hand, and in what feels like a single blind he’s sitting on the floor of his shower, shivering as ice cold water rains down from the showerhead. The cold water shocks his system long enough for him to calm down. Once Dick knows he won’t explode at the first thing he sees, he dries off and puts on the most comfortable clothes he owns. 

Dick decides to check his messages while he curls up under his blankets. His lock screen brings fresh tears as the picture of his parents with Tim and him from Haley’s circus stares back at him. Tim’s blue eyes seem to stare into his soul. The Teen Titan’s group chat has been going off for weeks as his friends are trying to see if he’s okay after news broke about Tim. He goes to ignore it again before Wally texts him personally, asking if he needed anything, space included. Dick replied that space would be good for a bit. He claims it to process everything, but it's actually so he can wallow in his grief alone. 

He knows he should reach out to someone. Dick knows that isolating himself wasn’t good, especially since he had major depressive disorder. The room is deathly silent as he curls up with Zitka, pressing the soft fur into his chest. Dick feels a sense of numbness overtake him as the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling stare back at him. He feels disconnected to everything as he starts to dissociate.

Dick is still staring at his ceiling when he hears a disembodied giggle, one that makes his blood run cold. He squeezes his eyes shut and tries to ignore the taunting giggle that sounds just like his little brother when he’d become Robin. Eventually the giggle becomes words, Tim’s voice taunts,” You really messed up didn't you? Maybe the mantle of Robin really is cursed, after all the two people who came after you basically died. Hell you even drove me out of Gotham to pass the curse to a new kid,”

Dick sobs and presses his palms into his eyes, he knows he should call Linda and schedule an appointment if his MDD was bad enough for hallucinations again, but he can’t make himself move as the ghost of his little brother taunts him. Tim’s voice echoes around the room, and Dick is terrified to see what form his mind is giving him. “Open your eyes and face me Big Bird,” Dick can almost feel the breath on his ear and his eyes fly open. Tim’s unmasked face fills Dick’s vision. Dick sobs as he notes the clouded eyes and bloody nose on his little brother’s face. Tim is wearing his original robin suit, green leggings and all. 

Dick falls off his bed and he scrambles to get away from the ghost his mind created to torture him. “Please just leave me alone, Tim I’m sorry, just please go away,” Dick’s voice cracks as he sobs and begs, but Tim stays there, sitting cross legged on his bed with a vacant smile. Dick turns his back and desperately searches for the bottle of Zyprexa that Linda had prescribed when he was hallucinating Jason, but he can’t find it. He curls into a ball and cries as Tim’s voice haunts him.

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Damian had gone to his room when Richard had told him to go back upstairs. He didn’t understand why Richard wouldn’t want him present while he talked to Father, but Damian was not one to argue when it was clear that the tension in the cave couldn’t handle it. So Damian shut himself in his room and sat at his desk to work on a few sketches of his different pets. He had enough reference material that he doesn’t need to seek out the subjects for the sketches.

A few hours pass before someone knocks on his door. Damian responds that the door is unlocked. Father opens the door with a soft but nervous expression, “ Hey buddy, I need to talk to you really quick,” Father’s tone sounded off to Damian, like he had been talking to a small child and not Damian. He nods and Father sits on his bed before gesturing for Damian to join him. Damian cautiously moves to sit next ot his father as he asks,” Father, what is this about? Does it have something to do with why Richard and I are not patrolling tonight?” 

His father’s face grew tight as he nods,” It does, but before I get into that I wanted to ask you about Tim,” Damian scoffs at the idea of talking about the former Robin,” Why, Drake is nothing but a burden to this family, in fact I have not had to interact with him on over a month,” Damian glances at his father's face and notices how it tightens again as something akin to pain flashes in his eyes.

“Damian, the reason why you're not going on patrol tonight is because something happened to Tim,” Father’s voice is tight and hesitant. Damian instantly assumes that Drake must’ve gotten himself seriously hurt to warrant no patrol for Batman and Robin, but Bruce interrupts him before he can ask any questions,” About a month ago someone accused Tim of selling information to the public, after a vote from the Justice League, it was determined that he would have his memories erased,” Damian feels his heart stop, Memory eraser was a punishment that even his grandfather had avoided using on even the most dangerous criminals in the League of Assassins. It was essentially killing a person while leaving the body and soul intact. It was a barbaric punishment that often drove the recipient mad trying to regain what was lost

“Father you must be mistaken, Drake may have been unworthy of being Robin, but even I know that he cares too much about the other heroes to do such a thing, and to receive such an inhumane punishment in return,” Damian shudders as he thinks back to everything he’d done, if the Justice League knew would they too sentence him to a fate like Drake’s. His father must’ve seen more than Damian had wanted him too because he hugs Damian closer and attempts to comfort him. While Father attempts to comfort him, Damian wonders what Richard has to do with this, why he’d reacted so negatively to Father discovering Drake’s fate. 

After a while Damian convinces his father that he needed space to process what had happened to Drake. However, Damian had a plan, He needed to see the meeting noted from Drake, no, Timothy’s sentencing. Damian waits until his father goes into his study that’s not connected to the cave to sneak away. He creeps through the clock entrance and down to the computer that’s still open on the message about Timothy’s fate. He clicks through it to find the link to the meeting notes. Damian skims through the notes until he reaches the voting records. His heart stops and his blood runs cold as he sees that Richard had voted in favor of Tim’s fate. Damian frantically closes the notes and shuts down the computer, his heart pounding as he wonders if Richard, someone Damian had considered a second father at one point, could vote to do the same thing to him. ‘Surely,’ Damian thought,’ I would be more fitting for a fate like this than Timothy. If the League knew everything that I’d done for Grandfather, would they hesitate to do the same to me? Would Baba, no, would Grayson hesitate?’ 

Damian rushes to hide away from this heartbreaking truth, to hide himself from the fear bubbling in his chest. He glances at the wall of Robin suits, staring at his suit that resides next to Timothy’s. He debates changing into it, but his mind whispers that he was not worthy to bear those colors anymore, whispers that maybe he never was. Damian instead grabs his old LOA uniform, it didn’t really fit him like it was supposed to anymore. He’d grown out of it shortly after Grayson had made him Robin. Damian wonders if Grayson stealing the colors from Timothy had been a sign that Damian was not a true Robin. He’s spoken that thought to Grayson once, He’d shut it down by telling Damian that he was a true Robin since Grayson had created the identity and given it to Damian. Damian wonders if that was the truth or a lie he’d been told to placate his mind. His katana sits in the weapons room, leaning against the wall. The callouses on Damian’s hands found their home on the handle of the blade. It felt both right and wrong to be taking it with him. 

Redbird sat in the back corner of the batcave’s garage, waiting for Damian. He was tempted to take his bike, but a different one caught his eye. Timothy’s original Redbird bike, Grayson had forbidden Damian from using it, claiming that Timothy didn’t include enough safety features. He’d later gifted Damian a brand new one, but Damian knew from the different blueprints and yearly vehicle tests that Timothy’s bike far exceeded his own in speed and stealth. The bike sat there in its civilian mode, the once shining black paint had faded to a dull dark greyish color, one Damian could tell would blend in with the Gotham night. The roaring of the engine fills the cave as he races away, leaving the cave deserted as Damian leaves to bring fear to the criminals of Gotham in an attempt to lessen the weight in chest.

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Jason had been reading a book Tim had referenced during their last friendly bout. Jason enjoyed how the kid still went all out during their little sparring matches. He paused to wonder where Tim had been recently, Jason hadn’t seen him around in Gotham, but that didn’t mean much. He’d also hit a rough patch with the rest of the family again because they still thought Jason hated the kid. He hadn’t hated the kid in years, in fact Jason thought they got along pretty well. He talked to the kid every couple of weeks, when he dropped in to make sure the kid was still alive. Tim hadn’t been in the nest when he dropped in yesterday, but Jason chalked it up to Tim hanging out with one of his little friends. 

He’d just gotten comfortable when his phone started ringing, Jason groaned as he picked it up. He pauses as he sees that Bruce is calling him. Bruce never really calls Jason unless it’s an emergency so he picks up with a gruff,” Someone better be dead, bleeding, or on fire B,” Jason can hear the hitch in Bruce’s breathing when he says that and Jason’s blood runs cold,” Bruce, please tell me no one is actually dead, that was a joke,” Bruce takes a shuddering breath before he responds,” Something happened to Tim, That’s why I’m calling you. I know you didn’t get along with him but he was still part of our family, so I figured you’d want to know,” Jason feels the walls shrinking in on himself as he desperately asks,” What happened to the Baby Bird?" 

Jason feels his world come crashing down as Bruce explains everything, from the accusations against Tim to the fact that Jason’s older brother had voted in favor of erasing Tim’s memory. Jason feels his vision go green as he throws his phone across the room. The pit whispers whatever it can to keep Jason angry as he paces like a caged animal. Eventually Jason grabs his gear and storms out to patrol Crime Alley. He needed to blow off some steam, to let the green encroaching on his vision free on the criminals in the Alley. 

His chest was heaving when his vision cleared. He’s standing in the den of a trafficking ring he’d been tracking for months, surrounded by blood and gore. His hand aches as he realizes he’s holding a crowbar and his guns sit untouched in their holsters at his thighs. Blood drips down from his face and hands as Jason grimaces from the feeling. He makes his way home to wash off the blood that he was drenched in. Jason grimaces as he takes off his leather jacket, he could tell it was probably ruined from the blood soaked into the leather. He carefully drops it into an empty laundry basket before he puts the rest of his clothes into a different basket. 

Jason rests his forehead on the shower wall as he lets the hot water run down his back. He stares at the reddish water circling the drain as he just stands there. Warm tears drip down his face as he starts to break down. Jason slides down the shower wall and cries into his hands. Guilt and grief threaten to pull Jason back into the pit of green that he’d just left. He hates how he feels, he knows it's not his fault, but Jason can’t help but feel upset at himself for not saving Tim from his fate. There was now a small Red Robin shaped hole in Jason’s life that he hadn’t noticed until he was told there wouldn’t be a small annoying but endearing punk to fill it again. It takes Jason a few minutes to get up and finish his shower. Once he was clean, at least physically, Jason stumbled to his room and threw on the first clean and comfortable clothes he could find before he collapsed into his bed. Jason falls asleep quickly as more silent tears slip down his face. 

Jason woke up some time later with a headache from crying, an urge to blow something up, and a phone that would not shut up. He growls as he answers,” What the fuck do you want,” Bruce’s voice seemed to grates on his ears as he panically told Jason that Damian had disappeared. Jason runs a hand down his face as he grunts,” I’ll keep an eye out but I’m busy and the demon brat can handle himself for five minutes, especially if he has his sword,” He hangs up without letting Bruce get another word out. Jason chugs a bottle of water from his fridge before throwing on his backup helmet and some boots. He takes his favorite bike, one Tim had tricked out during a rare time when everyone got along. He stops by some seemingly abandoned warehouses to grab three different duffel bags before he speeds off towards Amusement Millie. The old amusement park had sat abandoned since the Joker’s death, and Jason finally knew what to do about it. He spends the next few hours carefully connecting charges across the park before he also sets up a bunch of fireworks, ones he knew Tim would’ve loved. 

He leans back at the edge of the safe zone as he orders a smoothie and pizza. He waits until the pizza guy and just about everyone else in the area is gone before he clicks the detonator. The charges go off in a spectacular fashion before setting off the fireworks. Jason watches them with a cold disinterest. He thought the explosion and fireworks would make him feel better, but it just feels empty without Tim there to jokingly call out scores for the explosions. He leans forwards and puts his head between his knees as a shuddering sob escapes him. Jason wants to scream, to be so angry on Tim’s behalf, but his emotions are too burnt out. Jason knows the anger will come later, after the tears dry up, but he wants the anger now. He wants to have that anger to hide the grief trying to pull him apart. 

The sound of a grapple echoes behind him as someone walks up to him. “Todd, why are you up here sniveling like a coward? I though you hated Timo-, Drake,” Jason notes that Damian seemed to try and hide how he’s wanted to call Tim by his first name,” I thought you did too, until B called me freaked out because you ran away and took Tim’s super dangerous and fast bike,” Damian falters until Jason gestures for Damian to sit next to him. Damian sits on the roof next to the lawn chair Jason’d brought from his apartment. Jason stares at the fireworks going off as he sighs,” I haven’t hated Tim in a while. I don’t think I ever really did. I was just mad at Bruce for letting him go out as Robin,” Damian looks up at the sky too,” I thought I hated Timothy in the beginning, but I realized that it wasn’t hate, I was jealous of how secure he seemed in his place in the family,” Jason glances at Damian and he can see the fear and anxiety the kid is trying to hide,” You know Bruce and Dickface wouldn’t let the League do that to you, right?” Damian looks away,” Timothy was beloved in the family, much more than I am. If Grayson can vote to do that to Timothy, then what chance would I have?” 

Jason sighed and ran his hand through his hair,” Sometimes things get complicated. I’m still pissed at Goldilocks, but I have a feeling there's more to this than we’re seeing. Damian, trust me, Dick would never let anything like that happen to you. Talk to him if you need to, but you need to understand that you’re just as loved in this family as anyone else.” Damian looks down at the ill-fitting LOA garb that he’d chosen to wear as Jason keeps talking about how Damian doesn't belong in the family. Jason pauses when he sees how conflicted Damian was. He sighs and pats the kid’s head,” Go home, hug Dad, or whatever. Just make it back home. This family can’t handle losing another kid so soon,” Jason watches Damian get up and walk away before firing his grappling hook. Jason sighs and texts Bruce,” Found the kid, Talked to him and sent him home. Let me know when the brat gets back,”

Jason leans back in his chair as he watches the last of the fireworks go off. He stares at the dark sky as he considers going home for the first time in years. Sure he’s tried a few times, but he never actually considered going home. He finishes his smoothie and pizza as he closes his eyes for a moment. The warm august air washes over him as he lets a few more tears escape. After a few moments of silence, Jason gets up and packs up his stuff. He stops by his apartment to drop off the bags and chair before he turns around and drives towards Wayne Manor. The anger can come all it wants later, right now what Jason needs is his family, his father.

Chapter Text

Cassandra hummed and she rolled her neck as she watched the sunset from the top of the International Commerce Center. She’d fled to Hong Kong quickly after she made sure Tim was okay and settled back in Gotham when she’d saved him in Paris. She patrols the neon city until dawn breaks over the horizon. Cass makes sure to change back into her civilian clothes before making her way back to the apartment Bruce had leased for her. The second her adrenaline from patrol is gone, she slides down a wall and curls into a ball, tears brimming her eyes. Her chest feels tight as she remembers how she’d almost failed Tim and ran before she could speak to him again. She looks up as her phone buzzes on the counter above her head. Cass shakily grabs the phone and sees that its Bruce calling so she answers it.

“Cass, How are you?” Bruce’s voice has an almost undetectable quiver that sets Cass on edge. Most people wouldn’t have been able to hear it, but Cass had always been able to see or hear things that others would miss. “What’s wrong,” Cass says bluntly, knowing that Bruce had called to give her bad news. “It’s Tim,” Bruce says, and Cass felt her world fall apart as her stomach turned. She listened to Bruce explain everything with distant eyes as she hugged her knees. Once the call was over, tears poured down her face as she crawled into the bathroom and threw up. She stayed there for hours, just sobbing as she felt sick to her stomach with guilt. She kept thinking that maybe if she had been there she could’ve done something, that maybe she could've saved Tim again, but she was too late this time, she hadn't even known Tim was in danger until it was too late and he was gone. 

She didn’t go on patrol that night, or any other night. She spends her week packing and contacting the other vigilantes she’d meet to let them know that she was leaving Hong Kong to return to Gotham. Cass pauses as she grabs a hoodie that Tim had given her before she’d left. She slips it on before she goes back to packing. Cass gets on a redeye flight the next morning as she clutches a backpack with some clothes and other essentials to her chest. Alfred and Bruce are waiting for her at the airport in Gotham when her plane lands. She stays quiet on the drive back to the manor, her chest and throat feeling tight in a way Cass knows will steal her words for a while. She walks silently behind Bruce and Alfred until she spots Damian running towards her. She drops to her knees and pulls him into a tight hug, tucking his head under her chin. Damian clings to her even as they move to sit in the living room. She falls back on ASL whenever someone asks her a question. 

Cass dully notes that Dick is nowhere to be seen, and that no one seems willing to mention him. Bruce had told her what he’d done, and she was pissed at him. She wanted to see him face to face, confront him and force him to face what he’d done. She looks around and watches Jason sitting close to Bruce, fully relaxed, something Cass had never seen. The manor feels quieter when she’s wandering later. The halls feel empty in a way they never had before, even when Tim was gone chasing evidence that Bruce was alive. Cass feels an absence that haunts the manor worse than any ghost possibly could. For once the manor doesn’t feel like home, it feels like something rotted out the good and left only the sad and angry parts behind. She sees bad memories and feelings everywhere she goes. On the surface everyone is getting along, but underneath it was the same mess as before, just hidden behind the unity that's born from tragedy. Cass wants to rip the world apart and demand her baby brother, her twin, back. She wants to scream and cry and say every word she had hidden from Tim, instead she wanders the halls like a ghost. 

Jason and Damian often find her and try to get her to do things with them, they try to get her to do something, anything, to process the grief that is stealing her words and her joy. She lets them bring her to parks, libraries, arcades, restaurants, anywhere they can think of to get her mind off the missing part of the family. However, every place they take her just reminds her of Tim more, the arcade is the same one he took her when she asked what video games were, the restaurants are all ones they used to stop at during patrol, the library is the same one she first met Tim at. Her silence haunts her family almost as much as Tim’s absence. 

Eventually Bruce steps in as he pulls Cass to the side one day. He sits her down and softly explains that it's okay to grieve, but that he can't just let her disappear into her grief, he can’t lose another child so soon after what happened to Tim. Cass nods in understanding as he lets her sit in the quiet of his office, not asking for anything from her like the others. She curls up next to Bruce and lets herself cry silently. Bruce rubs her back to comfort her as she closes her eyes, just letting herself feel for the first time in a while. She cries until her chest stops feeling so tight, until her throat stops feeling like it would steal her words before she could speak them. Her first audible words since he found out about what happened to Tim were,” I miss him, Dad. He was practically my twin,” Bruce pulls her close again as he whispers.” I know kiddo, I know,” He tucks her head under his chin and rubs her back while rocking her slightly. She never felt more secure than she did just then in her father’s arms.

Chapter Text

Stephanie was sitting in her empty dorm room staring at her computer screen, a half finished essay burning at her eyes. She threw herself back on her bed and pressed her palms into her eyes as she groaned. The essay wasn’t anywhere close to due, but she wanted to just get it out of the way. Steph had been ignoring most of her friends and family to focus on her work recently, she’d even retired Spoiler until summer break. Her cursor blinked at her a few more times before she slammed the laptop shut and barely resisted the urge to throw the stupid thing into a wall. 

Steph rolled over and grabbed her phone, scrolling past unread and unanswered messages. She clicked a contact named ‘Boyfriend’ and stared at her last text to him asking if he was okay and wanted to hang out after her midterms. He hadn’t even read it yet. She huffed and closed out the app to start scrolling through TikTok. She doom-scrolls until a knock on her dorm door startles her. Steph groans as she gets up, thinking it's her RA there for a random inspection. She slips a half empty bottle of vodka into a hidden container in her purple fluffy chair before she opens the door. Steph falters as she sees Cass in a tight black sweater and black skinny jeans that make her throat go dry. “Cass,” She breathes as she subconsciously steps forward,” I didn’t know you were back in town, What are you doing here?” 

She ushers Cass into her room, and Cass sits down on her bed,” Came to talk, missed you,” Steph notices how Cass’s voice sounded stilted, something that only really happens when Cass is going through something negative. She sits next to Cass and has to fight back the urge to tuck a strand of hair behind Cass’s ear. Steph quickly looks away and softly asks,” What did you want to talk about?” Cass turns away and quietly says,” Tim.” Steph’s head whips towards her,” Is he okay? He’s been ignoring me recently,” Cass shakes her head and looks down at her hands before she scrunches them into fists. Steph feels her heart drop as she reaches out and gently grabs Cass’s arm,” It’s okay, take your time. What happened to Tim?” 

Cass looks up with tears welling in her eyes,” Gone.” Steph freezes as she registers what Cass said. Her heart pounds as she thinks back to the unread text,” Gone how? Like he went off the grid again? Did someone take him, or?” She can't bring herself to say the last option out loud, can’t bring herself to ask if Tim is dead, if someone took her best friend. Cass nods as she starts to cry, tears well up in Steph’s eyes too as she shakes her head,” No, there’s no way someone killed Tim, he had too many contingency plans in place. Cass you have to be wrong, he can’t be gone, please tell me he isn't gone,” her shaky voice cracks and breaks as she clings to Cass, pleading with any god she can think of that this is a mistake. Cass pulls her into a tight hug, her head tucked under Cass’s chin. She sobs into Cass’s chest, clinging to her tightly. Cass rubs her back and tries to gently soothe her. 

As the tears run out, a cold bubbling anger begins to rise in her chest. Stephanie had never felt anger like this, her anger was normally boiling and explosive but ran out quickly. This felt different, it was cold and detached. It whispered in her ear ways to find and hurt whoever took Tim away from them. It reminded her of the intricate puzzles her father would set up before he deteriorated when she started to foil his plans as Spoiler. It scares her to see something so similar to the villain she swore she was nothing like rising in her chest. She tries to pull back from Cass, but she doesn’t let her. Cass had seen how Steph tensed and slightly curled in oh herself, she could tell what was going through her head, and Cass wouldn’t stand for it. “You good, not like him, never like him,” Cass says sharply, holding Stephanie’s face in her hands.

Tears well up in Steph’s eyes as she stares into Cass’s eyes. Steph wants nothing more than to let Cass take care of her, but something in her chest coils tightly and wants to push Cass away so she can focus on her plan for revenge. The dark feelings in her chest try to pull her into her grief, but like a star in the night, Cass managed to keep Steph afloat as she gently leads her down to a waiting car,” Break now, no argument,” Steph shifts, wanting to argue that she has homework but the way Cass stares at her makes her nod and look down at her hands. The drive to the manor is quiet as Steph thinks about everything she learned. Jason is waiting on the steps of the manor when they arrive. He watches Cass lead Steph up the stairs and follows them. 

They reach a small den that Stephanie recognizes as Tim’s favorite. It had an almost perfect view of the Gotham skyline, and one could see Drake Manor and Janet Drake’s prize rose garden from the windows too. Her breath hitches and the cold anger floods her veins again as Cass and Jason guide her to one of the couches.  She clutches her fists and tries to take deep breaths to calm down before Jason rests a gentle hand on her forearm,” It’s okay to be angry, in fact we’re all mad here. We all want revenge, but we need to be careful. We don’t know who framed Tim, or why him specifically. Until we know that much, we can’t just fly off the handle and go against the Justice League."

Cass nods in agreement and Steph finally sees why Cass had seemed so calm when she’d been telling Stephanie everything,” So what can we do? How to get justice for Tim?” Stephanie’s voice trembled as she turned to look at Jason. Jason sighed and looked down. He opened his mouth to say something before Cass interrupted him,” Prove wrong,” They both turned to look at her before they nod and Jason said,” You’re right Cass. We need to prove that Tim was innocent before we do anything else.” Steph looked around,” Where do we even start? We can’t do this alone, and clearly you two don't want Bruce and Damian in on this.”

Jason and Cass looked at each other before they looked down at the couch, thinking. Everyone sat in silence for a while. Every time someone tries to say something they pause for a moment before shaking their head and looking down again. Several minutes later, Stephanie had an idea,” What if we bring Barbara into this? She could get us into Tim’s system, and there’s no way Tim didn't have some kind of plan to find the real leak. We could continue wherever he left off, and if we find the real leak we can prove Tim’s innocence. Then we’ll get our revenge,”

Chapter Text

Barbara was sitting in her clocktower, sipping on a cup of tea Alfred had taught her to make, when her phone rang. She looks at her phone and pauses when she sees Stephanie’s number appear. It was weird because Steph had told everyone that she’d be going offline for a bit. Babs picked up the phone and put it on speaker as she worked on a case,” What’s up Steph? Didn’t think you’d be calling anyone until winter break,” Barbara had fully turned back to screen as Stephanie started talking,” It’s about Tim, Do you know what happened to him?” That made Babs pause as she thought back to the notification that she’d gotten from Tim’s system a while back, she hadn't thought to check what it’d been at the time because she was busy chasing down a lead on Harley, who’d broken out the Arkham again on the anniversary of the Joker’s death. 

Tears well in her eyes as she pulls up the alert to see the codename for Tim’s framed contingency. She starts typing rapidly as she uses the backdoor in the alert to get into Tim’s system,” I do now, I’m almost in his system, so whatever you need I’ll get it for you,” Her voice is shaking as her hands trembles so bad she almost misses the keys on her keyboard. Guilt bubbles in her chest as she digs through Tim’s system. She lets Stephanie tell her what they need and she compiles everything into an organized file for them. Babs wipes at her tears as she finds Tim’s file on the person who’s been leaking information about the league. It was incomplete, with many files missing or corrupted. She immediately quarantines the files as she finds a virus meant to destroy the file, Babs begins running an anit-virus software to try and save what she can.

She works tirelessly to save the files Tim left behind. As she’s working, her computer pings as Dick sends her files from his Nightwing suit. She pushes it to the side as she focuses on saving Tim’s files. “There’s been a bit of a snag Steph," Babs says as she works on trying to save any files she can. “What snag? Barbie, what's going on?” Jason’s voice comes through the phone as he takes it from Stephanie. “There’s a virus that’s been eating away at Tim’s files. I'm trying to save what I can, but I have no idea what it’s eaten already. Some of these files are gonna be irrecoverable, I’m sorry,” Silence hung in the air for a moment as she kept typing away,” Do your best, call us back when you can,” Stephanie says softly before hanging up.

Hours pass as she works through the night, ignoring the birds of prey and the Bats who chose to patrol as she tries to save what she can. Half of the files were a lost cause, and a quarter were corrupted so bad that there was barely any information left in them. She felt disheartened as she went over what little she could salvage. She emailed what she found to the others, but most of the information was useless. It was mainly some financial records for offshore accounts, but the files that would show who owned the accounts were too corrupted to get any information from. There were some leads to the middle east, but they seemed to be red hearings. Babs forgets to eat actual food while she works on solving this mystery, and eventually someone breaks into her clock tower. She turns, ready to defend herself, only to see Alfred standing there with a disappointed look on his face. “Miss Gordon, I’m afraid the others have become concerned that you’ve been neglecting to properly eat recently,”   

She blushes as she rolls away from her desk,” Look Alfred, I probably should take a small break for food, but I need to keep working. If I can piece together what Tim had before everything went down, then we can prove his innocence,” Alfred glares at her for a bit before she gives in and rolls away from her computer completely after properly shutting it down. She follows Alfred down to the car and lets him help transfer her into the car before he puts her wheelchair in the trunk. She shifts as she buckles up while Alfred climbs into the driver’s seat. 

Once they return to the manor, Alfred helps her get back into her wheelchair. She rolls into the dining room where the rest of the family, minus Dick, were seated around the table. Bruce smiles at her sadly and gestures for her to sit next to him, where Dick would normally sit. She transfers into the chair and smiles back sadly. The two of them had been the closest to Tim in the whole family, especially after the Joker’s death. Bruce pats her shoulder with teary eyes, and as Alfred brings out his Shepherd's pie, which Tim had loved, everyone looks around and silently promises to never forget their brother who had saved the family before they’d ever knew they’d needed saving.

Chapter Text

Alfred had known what had happened to the young Master Timothy without anyone telling him, but he’d still been too late to help the boy. He watched the family he’d painstakingly taken care of for decades fall apart without the boy who’d saved them after the loss of Master Jason. His throat felt tight as he carefully cleaned Master Timothy’s room. The small baubles and trinkets the boy had cherished were handled with the utmost of care, and his bedding was made up to the young master’s preferred standards. Alfred had even taken the time to find those abhorrent drinks Master Timothy liked in order to properly restock the mini fridge in the room. 

The dutiful butler watches Master Bruce and Mistress Cassandra haunt the manor like ghosts, watches young Master Damian spiral, Master Jason rage like he did before he’d returned to the family. Alfred watches his family begin to take the path towards ruin and it breaks his old heart. He cannot allow the Waynes to fall to this tragedy. Alfred knows what he must do, knows that without his interference, this family will allow their grief to swallow them whole. 

He begins with the hardest task, forcing Master Bruce to rest and take care of himself. Master Tim had helped coral Master Bruce’s grief the first time around, and now without him it was even more of a struggle. Master Bruce’s guilt over how he’d treated young Master Timothy in the beginning of their relationship was a powerful force that affected the man’s grief. Alfred used a notebook full of strategies on dealing with Master Bruce’s habits of overworking that was left behind by Master Tim. He turns off the Batcomputer in a way that won't corrupt or interfere with any open files before dragging Master Bruce to the shower block. Master Bruce complained that Alfred was treating him like a child. Alfred paid the complaints no mind, after all he’d been taking care of the Wayne estates for long enough that a few stubborn children would not deter him from performing his duties. 

Once Master Bruce was taken care of Alfred went to Master Richard’s room. He knocked politely before opening the door. The room was an absolute disaster, but that was expected from Master Richard. Alfred, despite his opinions on what Master Richard had done, was still a professional and could put those feelings aside to take care of his family. Alfred frowns when he discovers the empty bottle of Zyprexa under the bed. He remembered refilling that prescription for Master Richard earlier in the month, around the time that the vote against Master Tim had happened because Master Richard had been presenting with the symptoms that normally warned Alfred that Master Richard’s hallucinations were about to return. He pockets the empty bottle, intending to question Master Richard when he returns from his business away from the manor. Alfred knew that Master Richard had scheduled an appointment with Miss Linda, who was a godsend for almost the entire family, but it was not Alfred’s place to judge how long Master Richard stayed away after the sessions were over. After all he would have to return at some point since Master Richard had sold his apartment in Blüdhaven and had yet to  acquire one in Gotham. Alfred returned to cleaning with only a small feeling of something being wrong. He attempted to brush it off as paranoia from years of taking care of Master Bruce and his children, but it refused to leave.

Alfred eventually moved on to cleaning Master Jason’s room. It was mostly pristine, Master Jason had always tried to leave very little work for the old butler. He dusted the bookshelves and cleaned up the few dishes that Master Jason would forget to bring back to the kitchen during late night research sessions. Alfred remade the bed and left a book that he’d found hidden between the dresser and wall on the pillow. Jason stopped by while he cleaned and froze when he saw the book,” I thought that was gone,” Jason’s voice shook as he gently picked up the old book. “It was a gift from Bruce when he adopted me, my mama had a copy in our old apartment. I never found it when I went through her and Willis’s stuff. I was heartbroken until Bruce gave this copy to me,” Alfred hummed and nodded in understanding,” Then I’m glad I could find it for you Master Jason,” Jason smiled and nodded before taking the book and leaving.

Mistress Cassandra’s room was almost immaculate, so Alfred instead turned to finding the young girl to ensure she’d been taking care of herself. She was the hardest of all the children to find due to her ability to slip into the shadows, but Alfred had a knack for finding those who didn't want to be found. Mistress Cassandra was lurking in one of the lesser used den’s, staring out the window at the soft rain. Alfred cleared his throat and the young girl jumped in surprise. A small smirk made its way onto Alfred’s face before he let it fall as he takes in how her shoulders had curled in on themselves. He frowns before he gently guides her to a more populated area of the manor. He leaves Mistress Cassandra in Miss Stephanie’s care while he goes to make the two young ladies some warm drinks. By the time he returns, Mistress Cassandra was curled into Miss Stephanie’s side while some random video about the young ladies’ newest obsession played on the TV. 

With Mistress Cassandra and Miss Stephanie taken care of, Alfred turned to go find Master Damian. The young master was down in the batcave, training himself to exhaustion. It was a familiar sight to the old butler. He let out a heavy sigh before clearing his throat with a single raised eyebrow,” Master Damian, I do believe that your father told you to be done for the night multiple hours ago,” Master Damian startles before he turns around looking sheepish. A faint flush covered the tips of the young master’s ears, he mumbled something about not realizing the time before he rushed past Alfred to the shower block. Alfred shook his head before he started cleaning up the training area. Master Damian walks back sometime later, his head low as he quietly apologizes. Alfred reassures him that everything was fine before he leads the young master back upstairs. 

Once most of the family was taken care of, Alfred grabbed some premade meals and drove to the clocktower. He waits patiently for the elevator before he steps in and presses the button to take him up to the belfry after he enters the appropriate password. Alfred hums to the elevator music  while it slowly goes up. Once Alfred is in the belfry, He quietly puts the food he’d brought with him into Miss Barbara’s fridge. Once the food is taken care of, Alfred turns to put a kettle on the stove to make her some tea. He quietly makes two mugs before taking them over to Miss Barbara at her desk. She looks up and weakly smiles at Alfred before taking the mug. A quiet thanks is passed around before Miss Barbara rolls back from the computer and rolls herself to the small chess table set up in the corner. Alfred gives her a soft smile before he sits down to enjoy some tea and a game of chess with the former batgirl.