Ever since my gallbladder surgery last weekend, I keep thinking about a fic where Tim has to have the same thing done. But the surgeon isn't one in a private hospital who won't ask questions about why his patient is covered in so many scars and admits to already having had a splenectomy too. There are many scars that have clearly been neatly stitched up while others have a wide scatter pattern almost like gunshot wounds. He voices his thoughts to the OR nurse who in turn reaches out to the hospital social worker.
Before Tim is even fully awake, there's a case opened up. All of this is happening outside of Gotham (maybe in San Francisco while Tim is with the Titans) so that's why it takes longer for Babs to learn what's going on and for Bruce to arrive and attempt damage control. It turns into a mess and he isn't allowed to see Tim at all, who's just blearily waking up and trying to keep fluids down, maybe asking for help to do a few laps around the unit to help shake the anesthesia. He's not so out of it though that he doesn't notice the hospital security guard trailing him and the nice RN who's holding his arm while he's got a death grip on his IV pole.
It's only that night when he's sleeping (he'd had a round of vomiting around dinner time that moved his release to the next morning) that Dick sneaks into the room and wakes Tim up to tell him what's going on. The fact Tim is an emancipated minor means nothing right now since clearly, some of his scars are old and faded from the passage of time.
Tim is honestly tired and uncomfortable and just wants to go back to sleep, but Dick is insistent that he repeat back Bruce's plan. He does and is finally allowed to return to his rest.
When he wakes up the next morning during the RN's rounds, he asks if he'll be allowed to leave today. She tells him that if he can keep his breakfast down, then yes. There is no medical reason to keep him in the hospital for longer. But while he's trying to eat the gloop that's trying to pass as oatmeal, the social worker enters, along with hospital security. Tim is well-aware of the fact his legal emancipation means they can't detain him nor does he have to be released into the care of his family. He doesn't want to be coddled to death in Gotham anyway, so he pulls a fast one once he's alone again and takes advantage of Kon's super hearing to send a message through him.
A couple hours later, Jason arrives at the hospital under one of his better fake IDs and Tim is released into his care. Jason finds this whole thing hilarious and is helping mostly because he loves it when Tim and Bruce are at odds with each other. Says it makes Tim seem more human and less like a robot.
Meanwhile, Bruce is tearing his hair out because he's being stymied at every turn while trying to see his son and has brought out the big guns in the form of his lawyers. He's not arrested per se, but he's being strongly encouraged not to leave the state while an investigation into Tim's medical background ensues. Of course, he's also wondering exactly why Tim didn't follow along with the plan Dick said he'd laid out to him. Dick is clueless as to why, but he has his suspicions that he doesn't voice. He'd been seventeen and rebellious once, so it doesn't take the World's Greatest Detective to figure out Tim is exercising his independence.
Of all the places, Jason takes Tim back to Gotham and sets up shop in Tim's apartment at the old theater to keep an eye on him. Tim is young and healthy, so his recovery will be quick, but he's also a Bat, which means he's prone to pushing his luck sooner than he should. There are arguments, bickering, and one time Jason has to physically carry Tim out of his Nest while the younger man protests loudly that he was only going to work for a couple of hours. Jason wonders why the hell he signed up for this because Tim is a handful, but he's also having a blast circumventing him, so he might as well stay for as long as he's having fun (come on, I had to put in a JayTim twist here eventually).
Blah blah blah, Bruce is eventually back in Gotham and he's Not Happy with how things turned out in California. He actually hadn't known about Tim's splenectomy until Dick told him about it (why wasn't it in Tim's file, Dick???), so he needs to have Words with his third son. When he goes to Tim's apartment, he's surprised to find Jason is there and looks rather comfortable being there too. He decides to question it later since Tim is alive and well, and bitching from the living room that he's bored and it's been two hours since he was allowed to have his tablet, so would Jason please give it back to him? (Jason has hidden it at the back of the top of the fridge where Tim can't reach or easily climb to given his current circumstances.)
It's all nicely domestic and warms Bruce's heart to see them getting along. He tries to talk to Tim about what happened, who just shrugs and says he didn't feel like going to the manor to be coddled to death and benched until kingdom come. Bruce then tries asking him about the missing spleen and when the story comes out, he's seeing red. Excusing himself, he sets off to find Ra's's current location and make his life a miserable living hell for a while.
More blah blah blah and by the time Jason leaves Tim's apartment, a few weeks have passed. Tim isn't patrolling yet, but he's back in his Nest and offering tech and IT support to Jason during his own patrols and cases. They're working together, which is nice. Team Red is how the others start calling them.
You guys can figure out your own ending. ;)
