lol if Jason did disguise his pad as a sex shop, it would be hilarious if some poor shmuck goes in the one time the lights are on and the door is unlocked to browse the merchandise only to run into Jason in a bathrobe going to lock up for the day/night. "THE FUCK ARE YOU? GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!" *grabs random glocks out of a display basket of bullet vibrators* *le poor bastard is chased out under a hail of gunfire*
hey babe!! 1. how are you doing?? how’s the new company working out?? 2. i just CANNOT get the song “be” by hozier out of my head and the more i think about it the more i realize how well it fits your dr tim AU. just food for thought & a lil song i thought you would enjoy :) love ya!!
Hey babe!
Ah, the new company. Tbh, I really like it. Good culture, positive work environment, kick ass team....
that just got bought by a bigger company.
:O
I'm not shitting you, seriously. This is my life *sigh* but I'm riding the train to the end, so we'll see how things go in a year or so. Until then, I'm learning as much as I can and tryin to learn more about development! So, that's a plus.
On the other side, I just had to listen to this song, you know, and ah... I have two, TWO, Dr. Tim little things in the fic pile that I cannot yet talk about because ah...reasons. Just, smut and angst and acrobatic smut reasons and how my brain pan thinks Tim in this iteration would need to get back on the proverbial horse after the absolute fuckery of Arkham escapees, Fear Gas, and finally facing some of his own trauma in the worst possible way.
(While Dick and Jay watch, helpless to break him out, to fucking save him...)
But yeaaaaaaah. Yeah. I have ah some of the first idea on Google Docs and I'm at a really cute point with Dr. Tim like, making a plan, and calling up Dami because he needs stuff and he can't ask Dick or Jay for it because then the jig would be up, and Dami is totally understanding and just FUCKING RUNS WITH IT.
Gaaaahhhhhh! Such little brother vigilante, I won't let you wear my name unless you have good routes, tools, and a plan to make Grayson and Tood work for it.
But yeah. Yeaaaah, that song will def help babe, thank-you <3
I did not expect people to want more of the thing *shrugs*
Thank-you for the comments on my assholery with cliff hangers @txbookeater, I love you too babe <3. So much love to electra-iphigenie, emjalen, ships-lover, and @chibinightowl for talking up that post.
Based on this thing. Warning for triggering themes. Be aware of good boyfriending, kink negotiations, and mentions of past sexual assault.
Proceed at your own risk
He takes in a breath, blank for a second, his brain catching up.
“Could it possibly be in the bathroom before I get in a nice, hot shower? Followed by a few hours of unconsciousness? That would be really amazing right about now.”
Deflection is an art form, and he really is a master. He shrugs off his bag, gives him an opportunity to turn away, aware of eyes and how he’s dragging ass, feeling off and irritable. His brain doesn’t have to keep moving from one thing to the next, and things are slowing down. A shudder runs like cold fingers down his spine.
“I think I’d rather ya do it right here, Tim,” and there’s no Sweets, Baby, or any other endearments to make this easier on him. Nope.
(It’s fine. Breathe. Just some bruises. They’ve seen worse, had worse. They’re all adults here.)
“Jay, I am tired–”
“You’re looking shaky, a little strung out.” Dick, at least, makes it gentle. “And I saw it already, so we both know. I’d rather see the damage without your shirt in the way.”
“Then, we’re gonna talk ‘bout why ya didn’t tell us right away.”
“Mmhm, we might need to have another talk about the rules when we play.”
“You’re blowing this out of proportion,” he argues gently, rubbing his hands and wrists because his fingers are tingling. “We had a play date, and by the time I was getting...you know, sore, I was already at work, you were on patrol–”
“You didn’t say a word about it to me,” Dick cuts in, “and you absolutely should have. Now, I’m wondering if you really do know your limits, and if I can trust you enough to stop us when you need to.”
“I...I didn’t–”
yes. Yes I did.
It’s as simple as breathing in too sharply, his ears suddenly ringing, and there’s rubber in his mouth, his teeth probably cutting into it, and it hurts. Normally, he’s okay with rough and multiple rounds, loves how they get when they need control, to feel like there’s something in their hands that can’t just be taken away.
He gets it. Loves that their go-to outlet for it...is him.
Even if he can’t come again, it still usually feels amazing, and crazy in his brain because they want him this much. Really, he loves them.
(The bell clenched in his fist is making an indent in his palm. His chest constricts, just like last time, but he can at least gasp through the holes in the gag. So he doesn’t need to drop it. He wants to. It hurts and he wants to, but he doesn’t. He can take it. He’s had worse. This is for them.)
Neither of them noticed it had gone from amazing to uncomfortable to painful, and he didn’t drop the bell. He didn’t tell them to stop, so really, it’s on him isn’t it?
Bile rushes up his throat, bringing him back to the very real present where Dick and Jay are suddenly really close, and he realizes he’s just sitting in Dick’s lap, shaking like a leaf.
His face is wet, his chest hitching.
He doesn’t puke, so that is about a million points.
But, he is absolutely falling the utter fuck apart and that just isn’t conducive to his attempt at coming home to snuggle and pass out in blissful unconsciousness.
(This is his life. Seriously.)
“Shit, shit, shit,” the first attempt to move is right out the window because he’s on octopus hold lockdown.
(On one hand it feels nice to be held. On the other, he can’t escape and it feels restrictive, stifling, terrifying.)
“Hey, hey, Baby. Lookey here. That’s it, that’s good.” Jay is rubbing palms up and down the top of his calves, up to his knees and down to his ankles. He’s talking low and gentle. “I’m going ta the kitchen, n’ getcha some water. Then, we’re gonna talk ‘bout what’s doing, you feel me? If me and Dickie are gonna be able ta take care a’ ya, then we gotta know what’s in yer head.”
He’s breathing too hard, too fast, his hearing spotty at best.
“Ssshhh. You’re having a panic attack, Timmy. You’re hyperventilating, so I need for you to calm down now, okay?”
Then Dick’s chest is under his tingling fingers, and the exaggerated breathing helps him slow it down, take back some of the control over his body.
He doesn’t feel like he’s going to pass out or puke, so the day is looking up.
The absurdity of that thought it the thing that really makes him laugh, the sound hoarse, choked.
“Okay, okay, you’re doing good, Timmy, just stay with me,” and he didn’t notice when Dick started rocking back-and-forth in a soothing motion, or when Jay got back and slid a hand around the nape of his neck.
He’s still shaky as fuck, curled up against Dick’s warmth, and fuck is he cold and wrung out. It feels like a high fever, joints achy, brain foggy, reaction time slow.
“...it’s a fucking drop, Dick. Look at ‘im!”
“I’ve never heard of a delayed response like this.”
“Knew we shoulda waiting ta scene. He went right from bed ta the pressure cooker, Dick.”
“I should have picked up on it when I went to see him.”
“S’all right, least we know what ta do now,” and Jay bends, pulls and lifts him like he isn’t a full grown man, pulling him in tight. “Need ta getcha all warm n’ snuggled, don’t we, Baby?”
Dick is throwing back the covers, but Tim doesn’t want to get in bed, not smelling like antiseptic and and bleach, but being warm, being able to hide his face in the pillow is really appealing.
He nods in Jay’s shoulder and lets just the scrub top be pulled off, leaving him in the nerd shirt underneath. He’s glad for it, already vulnerable, cold, shaky.
A straw to his mouth from no where and water before hands are helping him scoot over gingerly in the middle before flopping down on his good side with two warm vigilantes like bookends. Gentle circles on his back while Dick snakes an arm under his head, pulls him closer.
“All right, that’s better.”
That hand hits a tender spot, and the flinch is automatic. “Sorry, Timmy. Once yer all warm, we’ll lookit how bad, yeah? Gonna lemme see, and it’s gonna be all right. S’ just me n’ Dickie.”
It’s awful because the two wrapped around him is fucking close to perfect and he isn’t feeling as shitty as he was at the ominous picture they made when he first walked in, and yeah, yeah, maybe it was stupid to try hiding it from them. He’s fuzzy about it, but he’s pretty sure that’s a rule somewhere in the Do’s and Don’ts for Playtime talk.
He probably going to get a lecture. Possibly two.
“Sorry,” he finally says, voice stronger because his throat doesn’t feel like raw hamburger anymore. “I...that wasn’t supposed to happen. I don’t know why it was bad, but I’m s–”
“The only thing that would make me angry right now is if you apologize again,” Dick follows it up with scritches to take the sting out of it. “Something triggered you to have a severe drop, Timmy, and if you could tell us what happened, it would help us to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Can you understand that? We need to know so we don’t accidentally hurt you?”
He goes still and his chest hurts just a little.
“I...I should have safeworded out,” it hurts to say, “I sh-should have dropped it, but I thought I could take it, and then things got weird and my brain just, and I thought if I did it would be weak and-and you didn’t need that, and I-I just. I’m sore and it hurt and I didn’t– it’s my fault, okay. I should have because I know that’s a rule somewhere.”
and he keeps babbling on, rambling with his eyes getting hot and his vigilante boyfriends petting him, rocking with him, letting everything just pour out of him without stopping him or pulling away, just–
Dealing with his special brand of insanity.
(Those darn abandonment issues. Golly, some day he won’t feel like his chest is being ripped open viciously with fear they’re going to walk the fuck out of his life and never come back.)
He’s finally talked out, feeling like ass about fucking up their morning.
“Your color is coming back, that’s good.”
“Warmed all up, Dickie. Time ta tell it like it is.”
Well. Shit.
“Yeah, yeah okay,” and he blinks up out of Dick’s chest with his eyes still puffy and his side tender, those blue eyes dark with something hard to interpret.
“I’m not happy you didn’t tell us immediately because we agreed to communicate about these things. D&S can be scarring, and this is just an example of how people get hurt.”
“And I’m going to say this now so you understand how important it is. About the fact you didn’t safeword.” Dick’s chest expands, hitches, “You need to know, you’re not only protecting yourself when you do, but you’re protecting us, too.”
“I don’t–”
“Tim. I’ve been sexually assaulted several times, and you know that. So... knowing I hurt you that way makes me sick inside, okay. Can you– can you understand that?”
“I-I fuck, Dick, I’m–”
“Please don’t say it. No more sorries. But, it’s important you understand Jay and I have our own traumas, so if you, not us, want to keep trying this, we have to navigate more carefully.”
Behind him, Jay’s forehead is nestled in the dip at the base of his neck, and a hard breath whistles down the back of his shirt.
He despairs inside at how Dick and Jay must be feeling, how bad it looked to them that Tim hadn’t come clean, hadn’t safeworded at all. “I fucked up. I won’t do it again, I promise.”
Dick presses a gentle kiss in his hair, and Jay nuzzles against his throat.
He gets more sips of water and eventually a panini and soup. There’s more cuddles and warmth, more talk that sucks the breath out of them all.
His head wraps around the rules differently this time, taking careful note of the way Dick’s expression gets shuddered and Jay goes still. He assures them he still does want playtime sometimes, shoots down the notion he’s only doing it for them, tells them that when his brain is too full and he needs to give up control, he doesn’t want to do it with anyone else but them.
He realizes it’s because somewhere, he knows they’ll take care of him...if he lets them.
Then his shirt comes off so the deep bruises can have Alfred’s magical concoction spread over. His cheeks are pink when he’s laid out on his stomach with the scrub pants tossed off the bed. Soft praise while he’s spread open by gentle hands to make sure he’s not torn. Bruised and sore yeah, but nothing too awful. He gets a pair of Dick’s cut-off sweatpants that still hit him below the knee and one of Jay’s shirts that he practically swims in, but he feels about a million times better just wearing their clothes.
And when they’re careful with him for the next few days, when love making is tender and slow, when touches are easy with his bruises in mind, when everything is verbal and consent is crucial, he make more of an effort to stomp down the urges to push his limits, push himself. He stomps down on those stupid recriminations and uncertainties, tries to remember that these two could be literally anywhere else in the world, and yet, here they are at his side.
He gets to have vigilantes bleeding on his fire escape, and the men under the mask in his bed, in his shower, in his kitchen, in his life.
The next scene he yellows, gets a much needed pause before they continue, and the aftercare is truly a thing of beauty.
How d’you think everyone’s favorite threesome in the Doctor!universe would spent Christmas? Or perhaps just Christmas Eve, if they go to the manor for the big day? -🐉
Aww, hi babe!
Hm, we’re going to talk a minute about Dr!Tim? You know, after a bit of thought, I think Tim’s first Christmas after finding a vigilante on his fire escape bleeding out would have probably started out awful.
Let’s say he’s usually the one to work Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day whenever he could during his time learning under Tony Stark before he started his Residency in Gotham.
He didn’t have Stephanie and Layla or anyone else but Tony, really, so it was fine for him to take shifts so people with families could be off with the ones they loved.
Once he got to Gotham and met back up with Steph and pretty much became Uncle Timmy to Layla, he only took Christmas Eve or Christmas Day off when they weren’t out of town visiting with Steph’s mom. The years Layla’s dad has her, they run the Gauntlet together, and work until they’re sleep-deprived and delirious, laughing at crazy things while they stumble to Steph’s house to pass the fuck out for twelve hours or Tim’s penthouse to binge some boring nature show.
But last year Layla’s dad had her, so this year, his girls are off to Metropolis, waving at him out the back window. Steph offered a place for him, but he knows her mom’s place will be cramped as is, so he just watches them go with his heart in his throat, and no shift at Mercy General to keep him up and moving.
I think he spends Christmas Eve wearing the ugly sweater Layla got him, something crazy playing on Netflix completely un-Christmas related because he doesn’t really have good memories of the holiday, not even from when his parents were alive.
(One year, Mrs. Mac stopped by to check on him and bring him cookies, gave him a hug and a pat on the head before she left to be with her daughter and grandchildren. When he was really young, he can remember laying on his mother’s lap with the tree glowing gently, opening presents with them there, watching and laughing. The next year, they were on a dig somewhere exotic, just like the year after and the year after that until they were just gone, never coming back this time...)
So, he plans to keep himself busy and ignore all the movies and decorations, ignore the warmth and family and togetherness. He’s going to bury himself in research and tech articles, write on one of his articles for a medical journal, maybe hang out in his lab down the hall for a few hours, just let Christmas–
–go on without him.
The knock on his window at three a.m. is jarring, shocking because the city has been silent for hours at this point.
The second round is enough to make him stand up off the couch, wander closer to the window with squished brows, probably bleary eyed from staring at the screen for too long (probably also from those old memories rearing up).
When he moves the curtains, and those whiteouts are right there, he eeps and almost falls on his ass.
The window is nudged up by a gloved hand, Nightwing hanging upside down with a Santa cap somehow staying on his head when he swings in without hesitation.
“Timmy! Are you okay?! Geeze, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think you’d be awake at this time of night.”
“Wazzat, Big Wing? Got Timmers with that old trick?” Hood is right on his heels, calves wrapped around the wrought iron fire escape, the Elf hat probably on the helmet with double-sided sticky tape.
“Wh–?” Wide-eyed, looking from Nightwing to the Red Hood peeking in at him, he’s pretty much at a loss.
“We came to see if you were home! You weren’t working at Mercy tonight.”
“Sides, it’s Christmas, ya feel me, Baby Bird?”
Hood tosses a small sack inside before he’s through the window just that fast, he and Big Wing offering hands down to their sometimes personal physician.
“Oh, I mean, I tried to sign up for a shift, but the Chief of Staff said I couldn’t work another double,” he shrugs and wearily lays his hands in gloved ones, imagining the warmth of palms against his, lets them pull him to his feet.
“Mmhm,” Hood hums as he and N pull their doc to his feet, looks him over critically. “Looks like ya been up long enough,” the free hand thumbs the dark circles under his eyes.
The doctor quirks a brow at them, “well, let me at least make you some coffee before you have to go back out in the cold. Does anyone in the class have any potentially fatal injuries you’d like to tell me about before I have a whole lot of unconscious vigilante on my couch?”
Both vigilantes obligingly hold up their hands and turn in small circles to show off no punctures in the suits or injuries he can see. Nightwing is grinning softly at him and Hood gives him a thumbs up in an all good here.
They follow him to the kitchen, exchanging a glance after his back is turned, wondering where the Christmas Tree is, or decorations, at least. There’s only one sad little construction paper wreath on the end table by the door made by Layla, but that’s...it.
Gauntlets and gloves come off, helmet and holsters on the back of a chair while the coffee perks and Tim moves around his kitchen, talking idly about doing some research before bed, fervently hoping they don’t ask him the hard questions.
But, of course, Tim doesn’t talk much about his past with anyone, not even Ives and Steph, prefers to just keep moving forward instead of looking back. He might be a little more compromised tonight than usual, and pours coffee with a slightly trembling hand.
It might be the night Nightwing and Hood start taking more of a shine to their doctor than they should, considering how close to danger he is just by helping them when the injuries are bad and they’re in a bind. It might be how he obviously has no one to be with on Christmas, how he doesn’t have anyone to celebrate with, to decorate for, to have presents wrapped up, or leftovers from a good dinner in his fridge.
They’re detectives and the story is right there in every inch of the penthouse, in Tim’s awful sweater and pj pants, his slightly red eyes, the way he won’t really meet their eyes when they talk about the quiet night in the city because of the holiday.
They stay with him until dawn, drinking coffee and juice, watching awful fails on YouTube, waiting until Tim’s finally tired enough to pass out on the couch between them.
And dawn is just peeking on the horizon when Nightwing gently carries the doctor to bed, Hood pulling the sheets back, maybe lightly touching Tim’s hair before covering him back up.
The two ease out of the room and close the door behind them.
When Tim wakes up the next night, Christmas Day will be over in a few hours, and he’s grateful because the world can finally go back to normal. Steph and Layla will be back, and the Gauntlet will be waiting for them to try saving Gotham in their own way. Nightwing and Hood will get beat-up fighting the good fight and at least come to him when they need to. Robin will still tt at him, Tony will visit soon to just remind Tim he’s making awful life choices. Lucas will ride his ass about how much he works and Ives will be his safe haven. The world will somehow balance out again.
He won’t get stuck like this next year, just make sure he’s always on the schedule when his people have other places to go.
But when he finally pulls himself out of bed, gets his feet under him to stumble in and try finding something to eat in his kitchen, his gaze falls on something sparkly sitting on his bedside table. Something vaguely square and wrapped in crazy black and yellow paper with little bat signals on them, the ribbons Robin red and green.
He’ll gasp softly, his heart leaping into his throat, blink once, and then blink again.
The package is still there.
He tentatively touch the box with trembling fingertips, pull it against his chest, hold on a little too tightly with his eyes wet and a laugh on his face at the utter absurdity of it.
But damn if it doesn’t give him the strength to get his legs under him, and fucking stand.
(Jay and Dick don’t find out until next year that Tim never opened the present, wanted to keep it just like that since he hadn’t gotten gifts from anyone but Steph, Layla, and Ives in years. It comes out the next year when they drag him to the Manor for a few hours before riding back to the penthouse to meet up with Steph and Layla, when there’s a massive tree decorated with stacks of presents underneath. When his place has lights strung up all around and cut-out snowflakes from Batgirl, when the ornaments are Nightwing blue and Robin red, Jay and Dick drug him to Hobby Lobby to pick out. When the special one with three snowmen labeled Dick, Jay, Tim is right in the middle surrounded by Layla’s nutcracker, Dami’s picture one from school, and Lian’s ballerina. Steph managed to get a few picture of the three of them together wearing Santa hats and the picture is framed on the end table.
When they get home that night, cuddling on the sofa a year later, watching It’s a Wonderful Life and drinking eggnog Alfred sent with them, Jay will ask why he never used the little gift they left him last year. And Tim will get a little pink in the face when he admits he never opened it, he just put it away with his other good memories, not wanting to spoil the magic.
That earns him soft kisses and more cuddles since Dick is literally a cuddle machine, and Jay finds it so easy to fit their little boyfriend under his chin.
They’re on either side of him when he finally brings the box after some digging, and pulls out the bow.
The small device fits in the palm of his hand, easily fits in his doctor’s bag.
“A comm, in case you ever needed to contact us,” Dick tells him with a kiss to his temple.
“We started takin’ a shine ta ya, Baby. Thought ya might use it when we don’t come ta ya, you feel me?”
“Oh,” and he has to clear his throat, his voice a little wavery, his eyes a little hot. “That’s...even back then?”
“Merry Christmas, Timmy,” Dick replies gently in answer, palming the back of his neck.
“Merry Christmas, Sweets,” Jay’s deft fingers move the comm to thread their fingers together and hold on.
“Merry Christmas,” he chokes, face buried in Jay’s neck, squished between them while the lights from the tree glow and the warmth in his chest is so beautifully, perfectly fragile.
So, there was once upon a time this Ask aaaaand then this Ask. Then babe asked how things are going for a certain Dr. Drake, so...you know, it’s really a standard Wednesday when he’s literally caught in the middle of a massive Arkham breakout :D
**
Some day, he’s really going to have to reevaluate his life choices.
Volunteering for rounds at Arkham Asylum is definitely going to be on the list for review.
Sure, at the time, no one else from Mercy General was stepping up to volunteer (honestly, you’d have to be a patient here to willingly step up for this assignment. It’s fine, he’s been called worse).
Sure, he might have gotten friendly with some of the less insanely deranged inmates because really, considering how many times some of them had come through his ER to be patched up after a confrontation with one of the Bats, it was only a matter of time before they knew him by name.
Sure, he actually started to like wandering around the halls, talking with the inmates when they weren’t clutching stab wounds, contusions, and broken everything.
Sure, he might have been doing some side research on MacGregor's Syndrome (just some fun with genetics and incurable diseases), so the guards let him talk with Victor Fries a few times. And though short, their conversations were amazing, giving him a second thought about cryogenics.
Sure, maybe he enjoyed sitting outside Poison Ivy’s cell to ask her questions about her publication on cellular regeneration in plant hybrids.
(He brought her a sad, droopy orchid in thanks. She was actually smiling when he left, so he’s already got a resource when he needs it.)
Sure, he didn’t think it was dangerous enough to mention it to Dick or Jay.
The sounds through the Bluetooth in his ear, the lowly muttered curses from the Red Hood, the muffled boot falls, the rev of a massive engine, all of it is soothing in the fact they’re on the way to help him out here. Ass-kicking vigilantes for the win. But, still.
He’s well aware there’s going to be some conversations about why the hell he’s in Arkham in the first place once this is all over.
None if it makes him feel any better about the current sitch, not when the Joker, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, the Clock King, and Poison Ivy are moving through Arkham Asylum’s cafeteria, looking like a whole lot of shit has hit the proverbial fan in the works.
How do I keep getting myself in these situations? Is the real question here.
But Dr. Drake just focuses on the emergency at hand, fumbling through his doctor’s bag for more gauze with one bloody glove since what he’s pressing against the awkward stab in Jim Newman’s belly is already saturated, and his other hand is in mid-stitch.
He gives a customary glance to where the Mad Hatter is rolling around on the floor after someone took out his face with one of the trays.
The mashed potato mess is going to be such a pain in the ass to clean up later. Tim is pretty sure the perpetrator is one of the Hatter’s previously employed thugs, probably pissed off his 401-K got cancelled when the last heist didn’t really pan out.
Really, bad guys don’t have good medical insurance. Shouldn’t that just be, you know, a requirement?
He stays hiding behind his circle of protectors with the snatch-and-stich, most of whom are still tensely watching the progression of the Rogue Gallery through the general population, probably wondering if even one of those crazy fucks has some kind of mind-altering drug, high-test explosive, or some other painful way to die hiding in their jumpsuits.
Tim tries to make it fast, feels the pressure of the situation just by glancing down at Jim’s terrified eyes rolling back while he gets his side sewn back together without general anesthesia. It probably beats bleeding out all over the floor, but Tim knows that’s little consolation. At least the scar won’t be too bad.
(Probably.)
The guard with the nasal fracture in the circle with them is crouching low, fingering his side arm, looking pretty on the edge of terrified himself at the group of other guards with their hands up, prodded in the back with their own guns by some inmates that have obviously chosen crazy to side with.
Perfect.
They’re probably all going to die.
“Well, well, boys. We have a golden opportunity here,” the Clown Prince of Crime chorts with his sickening smile, makes Tim literally cringe with two more to go.
Even if his hands are shaking and the comm in his ear blanks out because they must be on the way (please, God, let them be on the way), Tim is quiet about it when he presses a fresh gauze pad from the already opened package and tapes that sucker in place without drawing too much attention to himself.
Mike Monohan, an inmate in his circle of protectors, plays a mean game of Uno, and flicks his fist open to a flat hand, the international sign for stay back and shut up.
Staying back and shutting the hell up it is.
“We could have so much fun now that we have the Warden here with us,” the Joker is saying, gesturing to the narrow-eyed Warden thrown down on the floor, right on top that wasted pasta salad.
While the rest of the formerly-fighting, raging inmates are wary and listening, Tim crab-walks back, finger over his mouth aimed at Jim. Sliding his arms under the inmate’s, he slowly, quietly, starts pulling his patient back in short bursts, trying to get them under a table without catching anyone’s eyes.
Dr. Crane has found his mask, is pacing around the frozen inmates and guards with the creepy mask, and the Clock King is standing behind the Joker like some kind of Enforcer.
Dr. Fries is leaning against the wall in his suit, the freeze gun holstered.
Dr. Isley is close to him, the two of them talking low whenever the Joker’s back is turned.
Harvey Dent shoves the Warden down on the floor, gives him a very pointed No moving, or it’s curtains for you.
Shauna Belzer waits serenely behind the Joker, the sock puppet on her hand snickering, eyeing the inmates over his shoulder.
Temple Fugate is tapping his foot impatiently, the glint by his right side is a pocket watch.
The inmate’s face is almost white with the effort to slide under the heavy table, even with Tim to help push him under.
“Fun, boss?” One of the inmates eagerly pushes through the frozen crowd, “is it the kinda fun what might break us outta here?”
“Chucko!” The Clown seems happy to see his previous henchmen, and from his point crouching by the edge of the table, Tim can see that sick smile gets wider. “If you aren’t a sight for sore eyes.”
“Hiya, boss,” the orange-clad henchmen seems just as happy to see the villain, “M’ sorry Mister Joker, but the cops took away my mask.”
“That’s all right, Chucko! The Gotham City Police never did have much of a sense of humor, but we’re all going to have a little fun before we break out of here anyway, huh huh huh.” It’s kind of sick how the Joker pats the henchmen on top the head like a dog, even worse considering the henchmen grins dopily back.
“As long as we stay on our time table,” Fugate interjects, “we have approximately one hour and thirty-seven minutes before the next shift arrives. Less if anyone makes it to the control room and radios for help. The, we will have Police and Special Forces descend upon us. Not to mention the Bat and his brats.”
“Hu-hu-hu, I guess you’ll have to keep an eye on the time, then, won’t you, Tempy?”
The Ventriloquists’ sock scrunches up, “we need to be out of here as soon as possible, Clown. I have a very important person to pick-up out of a locker in the bus station.” Which explains the sock instead of the creepy puppet, Ferdie.
Two-Face sneers at the circle of inmates effectively shielding the shaky doctor from first glance, turns to look at the gathering of other super villains, “I want out of this shit-show, Joker. I don’t get out, you are gonna have a bad fucking time on the inside. Any questions?”
But unruffled as ever, the Clown Prince of Crime just smiles at the group, eyes taking in the terror from half of the inmates, “of course, of course, Harv. We all want out, don’t we? And we’re going to do just that!...After we have play a little game with the Warden and his numbskull guards. Won’t that be worth sticking around?”
A hand tugs at Dr. Drake’s scrubs, and he glances down at the injured inmate, his eyes probably wide and terrified as he feels hearing the Joker talk about shit like games–
(Not fun for the whole family. Really, just your faces getting cut off, no big deal.)
“– gotta get to the infirmary and hide,” Jim hisses up at him, “who knows what they’ll do to ya. All of ‘em are nuts.”
“I can’t just leave,” he whispers back, eyes for the real problems here.
“Doc, there’s nothin’ you can do against these guys. They’re the real deal, and they will straight up murder you. I work for Two-Face, and you don’t wanna dick around with him.”
He’s listening, but his eyes are all for Fugate helping Jervis Tetch to his feet, trying to see if he’d broken his face in the first round of rioting–
And the idea, the plan, on how he could get everyone in this cafeteria out of this alive is right in his brain pan. Risky, but really the only shot he can think of.
“Stay down no matter what,” he tells Jim, pats the inmate’s hand gripping the hem of his scrub top, “I think I’ve got a way out of this.”
His legs shaking, knees knocking, Tim pulls away from Jim’s grip and takes a few steps closer to the inmates hiding him. He pockets the comm in his ear, leaving it on for when his vigilante boyfriends might actually make an appearance.
He takes a deep, trembly breath, watches intently as Fries walks over to look at what is obviously a very broken face.
“He probably has a nasal fracture,” Tim says loudly, cringing internally when everyone, everyone turns and stares right at him. “I’m a doctor. I can help.”
Mike is glaring at him, eyes narrowing in displeasure that he gave himself away, but, you know, thwarting break-out attempts means he needs to be able to move around the baddies.
None of that stops the painful lurch in his chest when that sick grin is absurdly delighted.
“Oh! I guess that answers that question, doesn’t it?” The Joker throws his head back to start laughing.
“What question?” One of the inmates interrupts the maniacal peals of laughter, looking around confused.
The shiny barrel, one of the guard’s side pieces, goes off like a bomb exploding, and the body drops with a hard thud in the sudden silence.
“That’ll teach you. Never ruin the punchline!”
And that sickeningly delighted grin turns on him, the barrel with a whisp of smoke still curling from the barrel.
“And as for you, well, I suppose there is a doctor in the house!” The laughter is loud and manic, echoing off the walls, a cacophony of insanity.
But.
Tim sees Victor Fries straighten noticeably, and hopes that maybe he can play his cards right to avoid getting himself killed.
**
“This is really going to hurt. There might be pain meds in the Infirmary, but I have no idea. I’m not permanent staff here,” he tells Jervis Tetch and Temple Fugate, gloved up at, looking critically at the mess that is currently the Mad Hatter’s face. “We can also check if they have a portable X-Ray because you are seriously going to need it.”
Tim clicks off the penlight and palpates the swollen area gently, “from what I can tell without any secondary evidence to support it, is you have a crack in the maxillary, which is why your eye is almost swollen shut. Yes, the swelling will go down, but cracking a bone this close to your eye could mean shards are going to cause more problems than you would want to deal with if you like being able to see.”
And even if the Mad Hatter is–
One. Scary. Mind-Controlling. Psychopath.
– his squashed face is obviously panicked.
“If you are a doctor as you say, then you will fix it – or you shall pay.”
“Mr. Tetch, I don’t know if Arkham is even equipped to do major surgery. Without the right tools, I could run the risk of permanently blinding you.”
He finally releases the swollen area, completely bullshitting with a straight face and intense eyes (he’s done more complex surgeries in a few back alleys and rooftops, but no one really needs to know those details), pointedly takes the villain’s pulse while glancing at his watch.
“Not to even mention your risk of infection here. Considering the number of organic material that could get into an incision on your face, it’s too much of a risk here at Arkham. There’s a reason why the Warden stopped allowing major surgery on inmates twenty years ago. One of them being nearly impossible to keep a sterile enough room in tact after the many escape attempts.”
Temple Fugate makes a strangled noise he covers up with a cough.
“Next issue is appropriate staffing. You’ve got RN’s, psychiatrists, one other medical doctor. But to be honest with you, Dr. Isley would be the best choice to keep you under during general anesthesia, taking her knowledge of chemicals into account, I mean. But, we run the risk of infection since her current state was caused by a combination of pesticides. That is not enough people to assist during major surgery and monitor your vitals while you’re under. If you code while you’re on my table, I don’t have enough qualified people to bring you back.”
While the Mad Hatter goes pale, blinking his good eye, Tim folds his arms over his chest and gives the villain his most sincere look.
“Your best bet to save vision in that eye is to take two inmates in an Ambulance and have them drop you at the hospital. They can say you got in a fight and the on-call here told them to get you to Gotham General immediately. Their OR has more state-of-the-art equipment than Mercy, and they could reconstruct your ethmoid flawlessly.”
He breaks a disposable ice pack and works it with his gloved hands, gently applies it to the area, and picks up the villain’s limp hand to hold it himself.
Jervis tries to slouch his eyebrows down, but flinches at the pain radiating from his injury, holds the ice pack tighter.
“After all those fights with the Bats, this certainly won’t be my last.” The neuroscientist mutters to himself, “Very well, Doctor, I’ll take my business into the city as you suggest, but don’t think this gets you any immunity from that pest.” And well meaning head nod to the Joker, gun still at his side while the Warden of Arkham is tied to a support pole in the center of the cafeteria.
“Perish the thought,” he closes up his doctor’s bag, giving the villain a wave before going back to where the inmates injured in the dinnertime scuffle were laid out on tables waiting for him. He figures it’s fine because he’s pretty sure he know how to handle that guy.
(Again.)
He leaves Fugate and Tetch to talk out the details, relieved neither of them realizing he dropped the tiny tracking device from his stethoscope in the band of Tetch’s hat when he turned the villain’s face to look closely at his injury.
He’s on his way to his next emergency because Jim is breathing hard and rapidly losing color, surrounded by four other inmates, but the dangerous gangster slash lawyer hovering by Jim’s hand is the real danger, not the muck they call potato salad still painting the walls.
“All right, let me through,” while he’s sliding between Rodney the Hammer (for obvious reasons) and poker-playing macrame enthusiast, Big Earl McCalister (a name from Jay’s life in the Narrows).
He re-gloves, puts his Arkham-specific bag down by Jim’s shoulder and unwinds the steth to check the usuals.
“Doc,” is the deep rasp of Two-Face’s I’m not happy tone. “This is one of my guys, you get me?”
“Read you like a book,” he replies without looking up, checking the skin around his stitches, “none of that changes the fact I don’t have what I need to help him.”
Tim curses softly, eyes going to Jim’s, noting the profuse sweating. The blade went in at least two inches, so they could be looking at intestinal perforation, which he is in no way equipped to handle in the fucking cafeteria of Arkham Asylum. He could possibly do a peritoneal lavage verify fluid out of his bowel is spilling into his abdominal cavity, but the slight swelling and discoloration are sure signs Jim needs laparoscopic surgery.
Now.
“I need you to listen to me,” he starts haltingly, but a hand on his forearm stops Dr. Drake cold.
Like he’s in a horror movie, his eyes go to where Two-Face has leaned over the injured thug on the table, and the ruined side of his face is prominent enough for him to see the excessive scarring.
“Yer gonna tell us what you need to take care of my man here,” is a not-fucking-around kind of dangerous, making Tim suck in a deep, deep breath just to try and keep himself calm.
(They’re on their way. They’re coming for him. They wouldn’t leave him here.)
“He needs an actual hospital with medical staff,” falls out of his mouth firmly, “I don’t have the people or equipment or the surgical staff I need to operate on him here. What I can tell you is that his lower intestines have probably been punctured, and he’s going to die of sepsis shock in less than an hour if we can’t get him into an OR.”
The sickly yellow eye narrows on him, assessing, and the pilfered gun in the gangster's other hand makes a soft click.
“There’s an ambulance here somewhere. Arkham has one for emergencies. Your guys can take it to Gotham General and no one would be the wiser,” Tim shrugs and looks back down at his patient. “As is, you can threaten me all you want, but attempting surgery here, is only going to end up in infection and probably death. I have no supplies of blood, IV fluids, antibiotics, or qualified staff. The nurses and MDs you do have here are good, but not trained at all for major abdominal surgery. There’s no way I can open him up and repair the perforation without killing him.”
And it’s a tense moment when Tim finally looks up at the gangster’s face, his own jaw set
“Then we gotta get ‘im out,” and Two-Face looks down at Jim Newman’s face.
Jim, eyes glassy with pain, reaches out a bloody hand, “ ‘Face?”
“Yeah, yeah. No worries, Jimmy. We’re gonna take care a’ ya.” And in what is an impossible-to-predict move, the burned side of the gangster’s face tries to lift up in a half-smile.
“M-My little Tracey, ‘Face. If I don’t–”
“Hey,” and it’s Tim drawing the sluggish eyes, “we’re going to get you taken care of, right?” And he glances up at Two-Face, swallowing hard, but keeping his gaze steady.
“Yeah,” the mass murderer looks back at him, an assessing something in his bulging eye, “yeah, we are. You, Doc, you gonna tell my man Vinnie what ‘cha need, and he’s gonna get it.”
The hulking thug still in his orange jumpsuit steps up to Jim’s side while Two-Face makes his exit, going straight for the laughing mad man gleefully shoving pies in the Warden’s face.
“Is your real name Vinnie?” Because honestly, his mouth is going to get him every damn time.
The thug just smiles.
Welp, okay then. “I need a gurney to transport him to the ambulance. I’m going to check his wound and re-wrap it.”
He’s already reaching in the bag for more gauze pads, pulling back the layers he’d already applied, checks the skin around the stitches, wishes he had a cuff to get Jim’s systolic pressure but estimates it’s down to 80 and dropping.
All it takes is for Vinnie to nod and two lackeys are scrambling to get down to the infirmary.
“Thought...thought I told ya ta get gone, Doc,” Jim wheezes, gritting his teeth as Tim gentle presses just his fingertips against the slight swell.
“Couldn’t leave you,” he replies without looking away.
After long seconds when he hurriedly pulls a syringe and antibiotic, hoping to give them some time then scrambles for a notepad and pen, scribbles instructions quickly while muttering aloud, “administered augmentin...probable perforation of intestine or bowel…”
He scribbles something at the very bottom and tears the paper off his notepad, slides it in Jim’s jumpsuit pocket.
“Make sure the ER doctors get that. It tells them what I’ve already given you so they don’t mix other antibiotics or painkillers.”
He pointedly ignores the fight breaking out between Two-Face and the Joker, but notices Vinnie turns completely away to watch the proceeding shouting match ending in guns pointed at other another.
“Fuckin’ stand down Clown, or I’m gonna make ya a stain.”
“C’mon Harve! Where’s your sense of humor? Ha ha ha haaa!”
“He’s going to get us out of here you ass!” Crane shoves his creepy mask right in Two-Faces peripheral, something probably dangerous clenched in the fist behind his leg.
“We can get ourselves out,” Belzer replies serenely, “we’ve all done it before after all.”
“That means we need to get going,” Fugate is pulling Tetch along with an arm over his shoulder, the other holding the ice pack against his face. The pocket watch makes an appearance, and Tim tapes fresh gauze pads down, mentally preparing to roll Jim off the table and shove it over if bullets start flying.
(Please, please, please hurry.)
Vinnie seems to get the tension suddenly in the room, milling inmates all freezing in place, eyes for the boatload of crazy in the center of the cafeteria by the salad bar.
“But we were just starting to have some fun!” The Joker almost screams, gesturing wildly with the gun to the hacking Warden.
“As usual,” Dr. Isley sighs, calmly walking in the middle of the two villains in the middle of the showdown, “you aren’t using your brain.”
“C’mon Red! I know you want to get out and visit our little Harl, but we have a golden opportunity here!”
Tim sucks in a hard breath when Dr. Isley’s eyes narrow dangerously, and oh God, oh God, oh God.
His eyes dart to the corner of the salad bar where Dr. Fries is leaning, the goggles over his eyes not showing at all what he’s thinking. But, but, Tim notices the ice gun is not longer in the holster at the side of his leg, instead it’s in hand with the doctor’s finger on the trigger.
A subtle shift, upper body moving because that suit has got to be heavy, and Tim isn’t imagining Dr. Fries is looking right at him around the Joker’s back.
Tim’s eyes shift down to his patient, muscles tightening in preparation for something.
“That’s enough,” is robotic through the suit’s speakers, kind of like Jay’s syths Tim thinks crazily when his heart starts to pick up when the Joker tilts his chin down and narrows his eyes right back at Poison Ivy and Two-Face.
If he wasn’t suddenly terrified about a Rogue Gallery Throw-Down, he would be fanboying right through the mashed potatoes.
“Stay out of it, Freeze Pop,” the Joker’s voice is low and utterly fucking terrifying.
“This accomplishes nothing but waste precious time,” Freeze deadpans, “it gives us less time to get far enough away from the Batman.”
“Oh, that’s easy enough to remedy!” And the Joker straightens, easily lowers the gun, smiling right at Two-Face’s shiny .45. “We just take some hostages along for the ride.”
Because, of fucking course, the Joker’s head swings over to stare him right the fuck down.
“Especially Gotham’s little darling, here! Why my stars and garters! I believe it’s the indomitable Doctor Drake! AH HA HA HA HA HA HAAA!”
And his heart jumps right up into his throat, choking him on his next breath.
Leaning to talk out of the corner of his mouth, the Joker’s eyes are all for the frozen civilian, “He was on the news, Harve, remember? The little do-gooder on the bridge.” The low drop of the Joker’s tone on that word, on bridge, hits Two-Face in the right way, making the gangster’s attention shift.
(Oh shit. This is bad, getting more bad, getting so, so, so bad.)
“That was you?” The other gun falls and Two-Face turns on him while the Joker is doing that cliche steeple-fingers-and-look-insane kind of thing, and that just really makes him want to take a step back. He should probably run, but it’s more likely Two-Face would shoot him in the back if he tried, so he’s got no other choice but to improvise.
With the copper taste in the back of his mouth, with the possibility he’s about to die horribly depending on the level of utter crazy in the room right now, Tim Drake straightens his spine, crosses his shaky arms to hide the fact.
“There were children, Mr. Dent. Children that didn’t deserve to die on a collapsing bridge.”
Jim Newman tenses on the table under him, still going pale, still on a ticking clock, and some of the other inmates are cowering back. The Ventriloquist looks eager to see what happens, her sock puppet whispering in her ear; Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter, and Clock King are looking at him intently, uncomfortably so. Poison Ivy sighs and arches a put-upon brow.
“I patched people up and put them in cars to get off the bridge. Your bombs did what they were supposed to do,” is more accusatory than he feels. “I just tried to keep the victim count down.”
“The other one didn’t go off. You have something ta do with that, Doc?” The question suddenly very, very important to how the next six seconds are going to go.
So Tim calculates what he’s going to say for a split second, “I was being hit with debris and pulling little girls out of cars,” which is true, “I only saw the Batman for a few minutes, and I didn’t have anything to do with another bomb.” Mostly true. B already knew it was Two-Face before Tim ever got a surprise ride on the Batplane courtesy of the blood-loss-and-shock express.
The new train leaving the station is I-might-die-in-Arkham-Asylum.
All Aboard
“Now Harve,” the Joker starts, tisking.
“Shut-up, Clown,” because the glint is the famous coin appearing in Dent’s unblemished hand.
Some crazy instinct makes him step away from the gurney, eyes all for the inevitable flip, hoping, praying his luck is going to hold out long enough to get a message out to the ER staff and stall long enough to keep them here until the vigilantes make a dashing, in-the-nick-of-time entrance, and really just save the day.
(Please please please save the day.)
“Got a fifty-fifty chance, Doc. I’m hoping ya got some extra luck.”
His breath gets caught in his chest at the twing when the coin rolls off Two-Face’s thumb into the air, is hyper-focused in the moment, doesn’t even notice Victor Fries straightening from his slouch to watch the proceedings. Fixes his eyes on the palm of that ruined hand–
–and the arm holding the gun slowly, surely rising.
The coin doesn’t make it back to that hand, gets slapped out of the air instead, and the gangster actually chokes.
“You-you son of a–!”
“Harve, Harve,” and for the first time, Dr. Drake can say he’s seen the Joker actually frowning, miffed that his plan is going sideways, anger simmering under the insanity, but it just goes to show he’s special kind of psychopath when he stretches his neck out to put his face less than an inch from the ruin side of Two-Face’s, and smile.
It’s telling how the Joker doesn’t even flinch at the cold rage across from him.
“He has more potential in the ‘hostage’ category, than the ‘dead’ category, Harve, and we need a nice little nest egg.” One white finger carelessly, comically pushes the barrel of the gun down to the ground with that sickening grin in place. “You and I both know–”
The he-he-he literally makes Tim’s skin crawl.
“–those caped do-gooders roll over for a nice hostage.”
The stare-down is like something you read about– the Joker is intense while Two-Face glares silently back, that yellow eye fixed.
The inmates around the Rogue Gallery are shifting, trying to stay out of the way in case the guns come back into play, and everything Dr. Drake has been trying to do seems to go immediately, irrevocably sideways.
The stand-off is interrupted when one of the inmates hurriedly scoops up the coin and brings it back, holding the scratched surface up, presenting it like a gift.
Two-Face doesn’t bother looking at the inmate, just snatches the coin, eyes narrowing on the Joker’s grin.
“As much as I fucking hate you, Clown, you got a point. We’re gonna need some leverage.”
“Oh, you flatterer. You don’t have to hate so much that I’m right, hu hu hu. Good! Now we can get this show back on the road and execute the Warden, right?”
The childish stomp jars Tim out of panicky brain-freeze, lets him suck in a choking breath at the crazily entertaining back-and-forth, and his knees wobble a little in weakening relief.
(He keeps himself calm by running through the last year of crazy shit he’s gotten his hands into since he’s been dating certain adorable, entertaining, and very, very late, vigilantes. He’s been up against some of these psychopaths, ninjas, and is the go-to guy for every kind of strange alien bacteria Booster Gold could possibly pick-up during his travels.)
Out of his peripheral, he sees Dr. Fries slouch back, head turned and looking at him, utterly unreadable with the goggles and glass dome.
The Ventriloquist, however, is pouting like she’s missing out on a good show. Great. At least someone wants to see him dead in the next few minutes.
“You have approximately forty-five minutes before the next shift will begin showing up for work,” Temple Fugate inserts, “and we need people to drive our Hatter friend to the hospital along with Dent’s right-hand man. It’s a perfect cover to get us through the gates without alerting authorities. Thus, whatever you intend to do, do it now.”
The impatience draws the Scarecrow’s attention, “expediency is preferable, ladies and gentlemen. I still have reserves hidden in Gotham, and I don’t need Bats on me before I get to them.”
“Fantastic!” The Joker laughs loudly, back arched, “then we get to–” and he spins on the heel of his spat, finger out to point at the Warden still tied up in the center of the cafeteria, pie remnants dripping off him.
But the Joker trails off with a “eww,” when the Warden is obviously gasping for air, his lips turning an unnatural shade of blue.
Like his life wasn’t hanging in the balance a few seconds ago, Tim snatches up his bag without looking away from the distressed Warden and takes off around the table while the guys waiting for Vinnie’s signal with the gurney move in to load up Jim Newman.
He skirts around the inmates, and already has his stethoscope in his ears, listening to the sickening sound of arrhythmia.
“He’s going into cardiac arrest!” Tim turns to shout at the gathered criminals, and his eyes slide up to the panicked Warden.
“...heart attack...last year,” the Warden gasps weakly, leaning into the ropes.
The Joker sputters, “I can’t kill him if he’s already dying! Where’s the fun in that?!”
And it’s a terrifying moment when the villain stalks up next to him to glare in the distressed Warden’s face, pointing a finger like he’s berating a naughty child.
“You’d better not shuffle off this mortal coil until I have the perfect joke to send you out!”
Tim ignores the villain fairly vibrating with anger, and keeps calculating, rooting around in his bag for a similar medication to the one he gave Nightwing back when the fear gas almost killed him, one that will help thin the blood and hopefully make sure the Warden survive the night.
He fills the syringe and quickly injects the Warden in the side of the throat, not bothering to waste time untying him to look for a vein.
“This medication is hopefully going to put him back to a normal rhythm,” Tim fills in as Dr. Crane, Dr. Isley, and Dr. Fries join their little pow-wow. “I don’t know any of his history to know if this is going to even work–”
Dr. Fries gets closer to the Warden, goggles seemingly fixed on his face, “do you have a history of arrhythmia, or a family history of heart problems?”
Still gasping for air, the Warden just nods.
“Give me a few details,” the villain demands. “Start with your parents.”
To Tim’s surprise, Dr. Isley and Dr. Crane listen intently to the Warden’s details about his family medical history while Tim keeps two fingers on the Warden’s pulse and listens closely, hoping the uneven pitter-patter evens out to at least under 100 beats per minute.
“I doubt they have an echocardiogram here,” Crane snarks to Isley when the Warden is gasping and Fries turns to a random inmate, demanding water and aspirin immediately.
“Of course not,” Dr. Isley sighs with a shake of her head, “anything more involved than a bandage is too much for these nitwits to handle.”
Multitasking like a boss, Tim looks at the biologist, psychologist, and geneticist over his shoulder, “there’s not even an electrocardiogram here to monitor his sinus rhythm. There might be defibs in the infirmary if we hit worst case scenario–”
“Those were removed the last time we broke out,” Scarecrow shrugs nonchalantly. “I think someone used it on a guard.”
Ivy steps up, fingers moving in a gimmie motion until Tim hands over his stethoscope. “It’s still faster than 100 per minute. What was that you injected? Beta blockers?”
“Yes, Dr. Isley,” he accepts his stethoscope back, not mentioning how there was a little more than just Beta blockers in that syringe.
“Good,” and she turns back to her fellow non-medical doctors that seem to have opinions on treatments. “If they get him to Gotham General in time, they can perform–”
“For now, we must get him down and elevate his feet. The staff can take necessary measures from there,” Fries is already behind the Warden, untying the ropes. “It will give them time to escape without impeding treatment.”
“Agreed,” Crane and Isley turn together and very pointedly stalk toward the mass of inmates still standing around the cafeteria waiting for how this little sitch is going to pan out.
The Joker and Two-Face flank them, making it an utterly terrifying meeting of bad guys.
“Listen up,” Crane makes a terrifying figure even still in his orange jumpsuit. “You are going to let the medical staff treat the Warden. If any of us find out he died, then there is going to be a reckoning.”
The Joker’s laugh punctuates the severity of the message.
“We’re the ones that get to kill him, understand? And once he’s back to his normal, healthy self, we’ll give this another go!”
Tim is helping Dr. Fries lay the Warden on his back, “since when has everyone been moonlighting as MDs?” He asks breathlessly while Ivy heards the full-time medical staff away from the general population and closer to the panting Warden.
“You would be surprised how much time one has for reading in here,” Fries fills in. “On a different note, I am impressed with your latest article on McGregor’s Syndrome.” Fries holds a hand down to help him stand, “Nora’s case is too far advanced, but your preliminary findings are exciting nonetheless.”
Shaky, Tim allows the medical staff he’s familiar with take over with the Warden and accepts Dr. Fries’ hand. “Everything is based off your research, so really, I’m the one that should be grateful for your help.”
The supervillain makes a humming noise and squeezes his hand, “whatever you do,” is low, just between the two of them, “do not antagonize any of them. You will make it out of this alive if you are careful, Dr. Drake.”
The hysterical laughter bubbling up in his chest really has nothing to do with things that are hilarious.
“Staying alive is my top goal tonight,” but the bravado doesn’t cover up how badly his hands are shaking.
“We shall see if you manage to accomplish it,” Fries deadpans as the huddle of supervillains breaks up.
While he’d been assessing the Warden, Jim Newman has been loaded onto the gurney, already prepped for the ambulance ride, and the Mad Hatter’s ice pack finally melted, so he’s really feeling the need to be in a hospital with plenty of nice narcotics.
“We are out of time,” Fugate flips his watch closed, facing the rest of the escaping Rogue Gallery, “we leave now or risk getting caught.”
“Well, when you put it that way–” and the Joker turns on him, reaches out to wrap bony fingers around Tim’s wrist, clenching down tight. “I suppose you’re out of time too, right Doc?”
Two-Face has no problem getting close enough that Tim can see the residual scarring, can trace the deep grooves, wonder if a second try at plastic surgery would be helpful or destructive at this juncture in the supervillain’s life. “You don’t make trouble, you’ll see tomorrow. We have an understanding here?”
“Yes,” he replies breathlessly in the face of two utterly terrifying murderers. “I’m going to do what you say.”
“Stay smart and I’m not gonna have to flip for you again.”
And as Tim manages to snatch his doctor’s bag while he’s pulled behind members of the Rogue Gallery, he closes his eyes and takes a shaky breath, hopes Dick and Jay can follow wherever in the hell the villains are taking him.
**
Which is to the ambulance bay where two rigs and a car with Arkham Asylum on it are housed. He almost facepalms when the keys are hanging up on a wall hook.
Temple Fugate is already dressed in EMT clothing while Crane takes off his mask to put on another set as Jervis Tetch and Jim Newman are loaded in the back.
Shuna Belzer hops in the driver’s seat of the other ambulance while Tim is shoved up into the rear by Joker and Two-Face. Dr. Isley and Dr. Fries join him, sitting on the opposite bench with the empty gurney between them.
“Now, now, good Doctor,” the Joker’s manic grin is even creepier in the lighting, the madman holding the doors almost closed. “If you try to misbehave, our Plant Queen and Freezy Pop are going to have to spank you for being naughty. And trust me, kid. You don’t want that kind of spanking.”
Tim’s eyes are wide as the doors close, his chest getting tight when the Joker locks him in, and for the first time since this whole mess started, his eyes feel heavy and hot without an emergency to focus on (but he still has a plan). All he can do is blink rapidly, try to stop it before it starts, before he gets a little hysterical about everything.
(What if they just leave you here?)
At this juncture, he has no idea what their plans are for him, if he’s riding along just to get shot in the head and left in a ditch somewhere outside Gotham City limits, or if the nice psychopaths really might let him go.
With all of them, it’s a 50/50 really.
(A toss of Two-Face’s coin...)
So he doesn’t feel bad leaning over, bracing his forearms on his knees, one hand over his eyes to keep Dr. Fries and Dr. Isley from seeing it while the ambulance roars to life and jerks forward.
“You did well back there,” Poison Ivy’s voice floats over his head, makes him look up with his nose still pink and eyes still watery. “Most doctors are intimidated around criminals like us. You are...a refreshing change.”
“Everyone is a person when they’re sick or injured,” he replies lightly, scrubbing at his face.
He doesn’t see her mouth curl up in a smile. “Criminal or not doesn’t matter in my line of work.”
“He is quite accomplished,” Fries isn’t looking at either of them, idly staring out the windows in the ambulance doors. “Anyone taking on genetics would have to be.”
“Hm,” Dr. Isley hums, “a simple medical doctor also taking on genetics–”
“Botany isn’t that much different,” he defends lightly, eyes narrowed.
It’s telling when the terrifying criminal leans forward, one fist braced on her knee, and draws him in with the history of Physiology and the mind-blowing chlorokinesis.
She pauses when he calls her Dr. Isley respectfully when he disagrees, and eventually even Dr. Fries joins them on the discussion when they move to microbiology.
It’s close enough to talking with colleagues that he almost forgets about the whole hostage thing for a few minutes while the ambulance rolls down from the mountains and splits ways with the other rig going toward Gotham General while their rig is heading toward Midtown, probably to pick up that puppet the Ventriloquist was yelling about.
He’s in the middle of arguing mitosis with Dr. Fries when the obvious sirens cut through the air. The ambulance jerks forward, accelerating.
Tim doesn’t hit the floor, but only just.
Dr. Fries opens the small window to the front, “what is going on?”
“We’ve been made, Tasty Freeze,” the Joker snarls with the EMT cap pulled over his forehead. “Someone ratted us out!”
“Step on it, Bells. Get us gone,” Tim hears Two-Face saying.
The sock puppet on her hand turns to look back at Fries. “Might wanna buckle up, kids! It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
In a creepy movement, Fries and Isley turn to him.
“Sit down down and hold on,” Isley tells him, wiggling her fingers. Something up her sleeve moves, worms down her hand and fingers while Tim watches with clinical curiosity.
Tim gasps, watching the small plant growing under her mental coaxing, the long stem dividing, wrapping around the bolted legs of the bench he’s sitting on and form a makeshift harness around his shoulders and chest.
When he expects the vines to be thorny and coarse, terrifyingly restrictive, it’s actually kind of okay. The plant is warm and alive almost a heartbeat against his chest and arms, securing him to the bench.
The sirens on their ambulance start to wail and the Ventriloquist shoves her foot on the gas to make the rig lurch and speed faster, dodging around traffic.
“Where are you going?!” He can hear the Joker shriek, “the docks are that way!”
“I told you,” is the nasally voice of the sock puppet. “We’re going to get Ferdie first!”
“Oh no,” Dr. Isley mutters a second too late.
Because the Joker reaches over and jerks the wheel out of the Ventriloquists hands, yelling “getting away from the cops first, idiot!” and the ambulance careens sideways, skittering across the busy highway and smashing into a sedan minding its own business, and a tire on the rig blows while the villains in the front are fighting over control.
So Tim expects the rig to to smash into something, maybe even flip over and skitter across the pavement while the plants keep him from being thrown all over the back. He doesn’t expect Poison Ivy to lunge across the empty gurney just before the ambulance is airborne, throwing her arms around him, and shoving his face in her shoulder to protect him from the next few minutes of grinding metal and breaking glass.
The side of the ambulance splits on impact, twisting metal cuts through the vines holding him, severing the makeshift harness, and not even the remaining tendril could keep him and Dr. Isley from being thrown out of the rig onto the hot Gotham street.
The jolt of the landing drives the breath out of him, is when he slams his head hard enough that moving immediately is a real bad idea. The road rash is going to be shitty, but the blood in his eyes and woozy quality to life once he can raise his head probably means he’s just hit concussion city.
“D-Dr. Isley? Dr. Fries?” Sounds rough from his throat, sounds choked.
He’s dizzy when he pushes himself up, trying to keep from vomiting at the abrupt turn his stomach takes when he sits up, blinks at the the too-bright street lights.
Dr. Isley is laying a few feet from him on her side, breathing but not moving.
“No! No, no, no,” but his limbs feel heavy and sluggish when he tries to stand up and fails. He settles on hands and knees because at least he’s not going to throw up now, so he’s already winning for the night.
“Dr. Isley!” But he’s already assessing before he even touched her shoulder to roll her over, shaky hands assessing her neck, cracking open her eye lids, and by some miracle, he’d been wearing his Arkham-Only medical bag when they were thrown from the ambulance in the first place.
It proves to be moot when Pamela’s eyes flutter over while he’s taking her pulse and blinking rapidly to keep his vision clear, trying to be gentle but firm when he presses on her belly, and looks over every inch of her jumpsuit to make sure he hasn’t missed any indications of injuries.
“Oh thank God,” he whispers when her eyes dart up to him, and Tim leans back just a little to swipe his forearm over his eyes to make sure he doesn’t, you know, cry all over a patient.
“Dr. Isley, are you able to sit up? Do you feel dizzy? Nauseous?” He doesn’t realize he’s gone from taking her pulse to holding her hand.
“No,” she replies faintly, pushing herself up, “I believe I’m all right.”
“Okay...okay, that’s good. That’s so good, but I’ve got to check on Dr. Fries and the others. Just-just call for me if you start to feel worse, or sleepy or anything! I’ll be right back.”
Standing the second time is really a win when adrenaline hits him somewhere in the spine, and that small secret smile of hers convinces him she doesn’t have any serious injuries. But the vines flattened and slightly writhing under her makes him hope they cushioned her fall.
He uses all the strength in his weak arms to pull at the ambulance doors until they damn things open, and he can see Dr. Fries laying in a sprawl of metal suit and limbs, weakly gasping since the glass dome of his helmet has been broken.
“Dr. Fries!”
And the concussion has to take a back seat for the moment because time really isn’t on their side.
His brain starts working while he makes his way back into the ambulance, stumbling before righting himself, and gripping the villain under both arms, straining to drag him out of the ambulance and lay on the Gotham street.
The dome has a broken piece with frigid air escaping, and with the goggles askew, he can see the pupils are almost blown.
“Hold on, hold on,” he’s chanting and pulling everything out of his bag, searching for–
Duct tape and a Bolin Chest Seal.
Without any idea if the seal can stand-up to the frigid temperature of Dr. Fries’ suit, Tim makes his hand stop shaking to peel the backing off and apply it around the broken area, ripping the duct tape with his teeth to help reinforce the cracks.
Dr. Isley falls to her knees beside him abruptly, watching him apply a final strip. Together, they hold their breath while his breathing evens out and the visible eye flutters.
Luckily for them, police cars and a legit ambulance are quickly closing in on the carnage, so he can finally, finally, rest.
–or would have, but Two-Face kicks the door to the front of the wrecked rig open and stands out with the gun still in hand.
“It was you,” the gangster is dragging one foot, snarling wildly, “you got us caught. I shoulda gutted ya back at the nut house while I had a chance!”
The Joker woozily climbs out after him and just face plants into the street, something slurry like “anyone get the number of that bus?” while Shauna Belzer is already running away from the scene with the sock puppet leading her way.
“Harvey,” is a warning in Dr. Isley’s tone.
“Shut up, Pam. You know it was him!” The gun is wavery, but Tim is still one hundred percent sure the shot is going to be accurate enough to be bad news for him. “There ain’t no other way!”
“I was in the back the whole time,” he tries, subtly sliding an arm up in front of Dr. Isley, and the other over Dr. Fries. “There’s no way I could have alerted anyone about anything.”
“I ain’t taking anymore chances on you, no more flips, no more hiding, just curtains,” and the hammer goes back–
The next second, a blast of light takes over the sight of the gun barrel pointed at his chest, and the gangster’s hand and weapon are instantly encased in a block of ice.
“What the hell!?”
Dr. Fries pushes himself up, his freeze gun in hand, the seal around his domed helmet still working to keep him breathing. “It would be in poor taste to allow you to kill the young man that saved my life, Dent.”
Wearily, Dr. Fries drops the freeze gun while Two-Face falls to his knees with the heavy block encasing his fist and the gun.
Tim automatically winds his arm around the shoulders of Dr. Fries’ suit, helping the villain stay upright while the slamming of brakes and opening of doors signal the GCPD to the rescue.
Commissioner Gordon himself questions the young doctor, eyeing him critically when he insists Dr. Fries and Dr. Isley weren’t really trying to escape, but went along with the Joker’s plan to make sure he, the civilian, didn’t wind up dead.
“I’ve worked with Dr. Fries before,” and even though he told the young uniform no about the blanket and ride to Gotham General, he’s regretting it now because he’s starting to get cold his head is aching, “I published a paper about McGregor’s syndrome a few months ago. Early stage treatment. He helped me with the background, so yeah, he didn’t want me to get hurt. And Dr. Isley protected me when the ambulance flipped over. If there were trying to escape, they wouldn’t have saved me, or stopped Two-Face from killing me.”
“All right then, Doctor,” Gordon eyes him while he closes his little notebook, “I’ll have a word with the judge and the Warden. He’s fine by the way, and asked me to thank-you. He’s in Gotham General, about to go into surgery.”
“What about Jim Newman?” He asks quickly, rubbing his arms when a light dusting of rain makes him even colder.
“They were still working on him last time I checked, but everything looks good from what they said.”
And since the Commissioner is taller than him by at least a few inches, he can look over Tim’s head to signal another officer to their little pow-wow on the back of the intact ambulance.
Tim had immediately waved the gaping EMTs off to pick up Two-Face and Joker, had slapped a bandage on his own head and did a quick saline wash of his road rash.
He’d personally helped Dr. Fries and Dr. Isley into another ambulance, his expression troubled when the double-doors closed on them, and the rig took off through Gotham. It had been enough for him to seek out the Commissioner and tell him exactly what had gone down tonight so Poison Ivy and Dr. Freeze wouldn’t face further jail time.
(The flutter in the night, gold and black of Robin’s cape, or well, maybe he’d just imagined it. He’s got a pretty rocking concussion after all.)
Detective Renee Montoya is someone he’d worked with on more than one occasion. When she whistles low at the obvious damage, he knows the bruises are probably going to be beautiful tomorrow.
“Montoya, Dr. Drake doesn’t want to go to the hospital. Can you give him a lift when you head back to the station?”
“Absolutely, Sir–”
“To Arkham,” he interrupts blearily, “my car is still there. I need to pick it up.”
Both cops arch a brow at him, but Tim just stares back without further comment.
“All right. To Arkham it is.” Montoya grins at him and crooks a finger, leads him to her car sitting on the outskirts of the accident.
And really, Detective Montoya is a kind soul, stops long enough to get awful drive-thru coffee for him to sip on while they drive back to the Asylum, and she listens intently as he tells the story with a little more depth the second time.
“I’m glad you aren’t badly hurt, but you still should consider going to the hospital, Tim–”
“That’s not necessary, Detective.” Concussions not withstanding, he thinks as he sips his coffee. “I would probably go to work instead of rest anyway, so moot point even I went to Gotham General instead. But, I mean, how did the GCPD get control of Arkham and come after us so fast? I didn’t expect anyone to come after us.”
Except certain masked vigilantes, but, you know, prison breaks are really time consuming.
Montoya side-eyes him again. In her career, she’d brought more than one perp into Mercy Hospital’s ER, guarding handcuffed suspects, usually sporting a variety of injuries tangling with the Bats of Gotham. More than once, it was her or Bullock or another cop on one of Dr. Drake’s gurneys bleeding out, and the guy was absolutely unshakeable, pulling miracles out of his ass.
So yeah, she knows the Doc and his odd tendencies to get tangled up in too many...situations. Many of which lead right back to the city’s resident vigilantes.
(As a detective, she put together at least seven incidents in the last 24 months connecting their good doctor with the Bats. Crane taking over the hospital, kidnapped by the Joker, the bridge. Reported sightings of JLA members in Gotham hovering over Mercy General, and she would bet her badge it was the superheroes bringing their Batman to see Drake. Then the question as to why else would the Batman come out during the day and save what appeared to be one person? Unless that person was his personal physician. Not to mention that time someone got a few pieces of security footage with a Robin that was...taller, not as smooth jumping from rooftops. Oddly enough, some unknown masked crusader running with the Red Hood chasing this, what, fourth kid wearing the tunic? Given the evidence, Renee has theories.)
She might smirk a little at his very obvious deflection, but it also triggers every instinct she’s cultivated as a cop in Gotham City.
“Well, I’ll be honest with you, Doc, but it looks like the night crew had a hand in settling down things at the Asylum. Not to mention we got a call from the Head Nurse of the ER at Gotham General about a note you apparently left. That was probably after an anonymous tip to the station made us aware the Clock King, Mad Hatter, and Scarecrow were on their way to the hospital in disguise.”
He smiles into his coffee and appreciates the blasting heat all the way back up to the madhouse on the hill. She notices he doesn’t ask who the night crew is, and just adds it to the list of evidence.
It nice when Montoya walks him back inside, apparently not trusting him to get through to the infirmary at the back of the Asylum and get the keys to his car without another incident.
(She probably has a good reason.)
He makes an effort to keep it together in front of the detective when they make their way through the throng of police officers, extra guards, and personnel filling the hallways. The itch on the back of his neck could be the events of the night catching up to him, the anxiety on the edges of his consciousness that looks a lot like smeared cream corn and stab wounds, aching palms and exhaustion in every bone of his body.
It could also be how closely Montoya is watching him while they walk further into the compound.
His keys are on the same hook by the keycard access door, and it’s finally a spark of luck when a uniform on the premises catches her on their way in, pulls her aside to talk about something. (“They were here from what the inmates say,” the uniforms tells her low, “Red Hood and Nightwing were pretty brutal this time. The Bat had a hard time wrangling them in.”)
He gives a small wave with keys in hand to let her know he’s on the way out.
She puts a hand on the uniform’s shoulder to pause their conversation and give him another long look. “You should get some sleep, Doc. Take a few days off. I’ll bet you’ve got some… people looking out for you that will agree with me.”
For absolutely no reason, his face starts to get warm. “Thanks again for the ride, Detective.”
With her card in his pocket (not that he doesn’t have a collection of them from GCPD back on his desk at Mercy), he calmly adjusts his bag over the blood stains on the side of his scrubs and makes sure his badge is visible.
He keeps it the fuck together when he walks out of Arkham through the thinning throng like nothing is out of place, like he hasn’t just gone through half of the Rogue Gallery and lived to tell about it.
He absolutely doesn’t notice the vigilantes going through a particular vent as he starts down the maze of hallways to get the fuck out.
His battered Civic (because the nice car is only for special occasions, why chance getting it blown up?) looks more like safety than he’s ever associated with it before. Maybe that’s why his knees abruptly go out on him when he’s at the driver’s door, but it’s fine, fine to just take some time to sit, get his lungs full of air for the first time since this shit-show started.
(They had to take care of things like good saviors of the city and he survived, he’s good. He’s good. He’s good. He’s going to go home, make coffee, get a shower, and wait up for them to ask how the night went on their end. Just as soon as his knees get strength again–)
The crunch of gravel somewhere behind the car is what shakes him up from the blank time since he sat (fell) down to now. Before he can be up and moving, it’s Jason, his boyfriend, kneeling there beside him instead of the dangerous vigilante, the Red Hood.
He barely registers when Jay reaches for him, wraps him up in a tight embrace, talks gently against his hair
(“S’all right, Baby. Gotcha all caught up now, don’t I? Time ta go home, yeah?”
“J-Jay, what-what are you...?”
“Sorry, Timmy. They already gotcha out by the time we got here, n’ by the time we got those fuckers back in their cells, we gotch word there was an accident and GCPD was on the scene! Dick lost his fucking mind when we heard it over the radio.”
“O-Oh. It’s...it’s okay. I’m okay. I-I’m okay.”
“Mmhm. We’ll be the judge a’ that, won’t we, Baby?”)
It’s so easy to slot himself against the front of Jay’s body, the leather against his cheek is cool and worn and the smell of brimstone, gives him a reason for another deep breath.
It’s so easy for Jay to slide the driver’s seat back to make room for longer legs, to maneuver Tim in the passenger seat and buckle him in without complaints, stupidly lifting him instead of helping him stand.
E - we’ll go with Edmund, he thinks lazily when exhaustion sets in and the movement of the car keeps him aware enough to know Edmund isn’t going to be the worst concussions he’s ever had, so the night ends on a high note after all.
It’s better because Jay drives with one hand while the other has a grip on his wrist that is just this side of a little too tight, just what he needs to be able to drift because that hold is safe. At some point he’s burrowed down in the Red Hood’s famous leather jacket with the belt over his chest, and it smells like Gotham and brimstone enough to keep him grounded, so all he has to do is stare at the comm in Jay’s ear and drift.
“I got ‘em, Dick. He’s movin’ but he needs one hell of an aftercare hour if ya know what I mean.” Pause.
“Get the fuck off this wave, Demon. Ain’t nobody asked yer ass nothing anyhow.”
Another pause and a side-eye.
“There’s blood on ‘im, Alf, don’t look life-threatening, bruises n’ scrapes more n’ likely. Prob’ly a concussion ‘cause he ain’t trackin’ well, are ya Baby?”
He’s down in a soft, sleepy place, doesn’t feel like he really has to answer if it brings him closer to the surface. He manages to wiggle his fingers up to rub at Jay’s wrist, checks in as well as can really be expected.
Seriously, it’s been a rough fucking night.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. S’okay, baby, ya done good t’night, yeah? Me n’ all the Bats are proud as fuck, you feel me? Some a’ the worst of the worst n’ ya kept the body count low. Whazat? Naw, Dickie, we’re almost there. Gonna be waitin’ on us? Not you, Rob, got school inna morning, ain’t cha? Time fer little birdies ta go back ta the nest.”
Tim cracks his eyes open when the soothing roll of movement finally stops, but Dick is already there opening his door, barefoot with sweats and a hastily thrown-on t-shirt, bodily lifting him even though he’s all kinds of awake now.
“Oh my God,” and those arms get so, so tight.
(It feels so nice.)
“C’mon, put me down,” is huffed more by habit than conviction because really, he’s good with the damsel in distress act this time.
“You’re taking years off my life, Tim, and I’m a seasoned vigilante,” is about as deadpan as mother-hen Dick Grayson can get.
“If I ain’t a’ died already, ya’d be getting me close t’ it,” a soft kiss to his forehead, “no more gettin’ caught up with murderin’ psychos.”
“I think we’ve already had this conversation.”
“Apparently, it ain’t been stickin’.”
He hums a little and lets his eyes flutter closed again, lets them talk over his head while they take the fire escape up just to slide in his window.
He rouses enough to get a shower, tries pushing them bodily out the door to stop hovering, but it’s not like that’s going to happen.
It’s still feels really nice when they’re absolutely gentle with him, sliding his clothes off, touching the bruises and road rash with soft, hurt noises. It gets worse because he takes the time to really wash in case there’s residual debris, finally gets pulled under the hot water with a wall of muscle and security bracketing him in.
Jay washes his hair while Dick holds him by the hips, the two of them talking gently about what happened after they left the Cave and headed to the Asylum for pound the baddies into pudding time.
They had just worked their way to the cafeteria when they get word some of the Rogues escaped in ambulances, alerting the GCPD while they wrangled inmates back to their cells and took care of the captive staff.
B himself took the Warden to Gotham General once they had things well in hand, and the bats monitored the police radio when mentions of the accident heading toward Dixon with Gordon on scene. Rob jumped outta the big car fast enough to intercept GCPD to see Tim moving. It’s more hilarious than it should have been when Jay clucks his tongue and tells him to stop making friends with bad guys.
“I ain’t saying Pam n’ Vic are bad ta have on yer side,” a wet kiss to the top of his head, “but why don’t cha stick wid’ Ives and leave ‘em ta us?”
Dick is kneeling down gently washing his battered knees, “not to mention the conversation we’ll be having tomorrow about why we didn’t know you were moonlighting at Arkham and working with Victor Fries.” The warning in his tone makes Tim just sighs and lean back against Jay’s chest to let the two of them hold him up.
“Demon brat’s got something ta say ‘bout it, too,” said in his ear, “little asshole was worried as fuck. Don’t let ‘im tell ya any different.”
“I’ll call him tomorrow, let him know I’m okay,” and he absolutely will, if anything, to avoid Robin showing up at Mercy with another sandwich and soup to shove at him.
“Good idea, Baby. He was fighting like hell until we found out you weren’t even there.”
He doesn’t laugh at the insinuation, but he might just snicker a little.
He manages to step out on him own, but Jay takes the towel from his hands to get his back and Dick lifts him by the hips to set him on the sink so they can put salve and gauze on his injuries themselves.
They keep him distracted through the process with easy kisses and updates on Jim Newman, Hatter’s face, and Fugate’s excuses of coercion because, “I’m clinically insane. Of course I went along for the ride.”
They tell him they’re sending Pam a nice fern and Victor some data sets from B’s own trials with McGregor’s since it’s just good manners to thank supervillains for saving innocent civilians. He mumbles back about pasta salad and guns in his face. How playing Uno with some of the inmates has somehow made him cool enough not to die during a breakout, which they should take as a win considering the circumstances.
He must look about as bad as he feels because they get more gentle when he finally gives them what they desperately want, details about what went down. It’s woozy ramblings more than his usual high-level short and sweet because Shauna Bellzer is probably still out there looking for Ferdie, because the Joker apparently remembers him and is actively checking out shit like YouTube, and because now Two-Face is probably going to want him dead since that whole bridge fiasco is a point of contention.
He might wobble enough or sound shitty enough for Jay to take it as a reason to steer him toward the couch and cuddle the hell out of him, do that thing where he kisses the back of Tim’s neck in the right spots to make him shiver.
Dick runs a hand through his hair while he answers B’s wave with the last tag-up of the night, listens to the Dark Knight ranting about the clean-up at Arkham and going over the damn place yet again to check how the crazies keep escaping. But whatever Dick says in reply is lost on him when the world around him gets fuzzy at the edges again. He doesn’t realize how tight his hands are fisted in Jay’s shirt until fingers are trying to massage them open.
He might mumble something payment in kind because really? He did the job for them this time. One less shit show for them to fight (you’re welcome), so he really does deserve cuddles and warm showers dammit.
He totally earned it this time.
Dick eventually hangs up and unapologetically smushes him further down against Jay and coos softly, so he might have said it out loud, but can’t be bothered to care when he finally sinks down, comfortable and safe with that he’s just suddenly–
–out.
When he blinks again, arms over his hip and warm bodies bracket him in. It’s still early enough for him to sigh and sink back down for a few more hours, the ache in his bruised muscles secondary when his bed is full. It’s enough for him to sleep without nightmares of guns in his face and echoing laughter.
And if they wake him up with kisses to his stomach and chest, with bare hands sliding under his pajamas, with oh so gentle lovemaking, with talking against his throat and hip about how relieved they are, how brave he is, how strong he is, how he really oughtta have a Kevlar suit all his own and a domino on his face just on principle.
If they coddle and cuddle him, demand he tell them everything again from the beginning, take him back to the bedroom when his chest stutters at the most frightening parts, if they make him stay close until nightfall when they have to move into the shadows and be the protectors Gotham City needed. If they argue with him about resting instead of leaving to run the Gauntlet at Mercy with Steph and his team. If they check in on him half-way through the night and maybe just kidnap him for an hour to check his knees and the road rash. If they make him take two aspirin and drink a bottle of water, claim mid-patrol sandwiches for the win.
If they tell him they love him before they go back to it and leave him on the roof of the hospital with a fully belly and stars in his eyes, mouth still swollen from their kisses–
–then he’s going to to back to work with a stupid smile on his face and fight harder to save lives, to beat back the darkness of Gotham in his own way. He’s going to run until his lungs are on fire and his legs are wobbly. He’s going to answer calls from fucking space, and race the clock when the heroes of their world are facing mortality and need a doctor with hobbies. He’s going to keep track of the ninjas spying on them and be a safe place when the night life is killing his most important people. He’s going to do everything he can to keep moving. He’s going to fucking fight the good fight and it’s going to be by his choice every time.
Bats echo overhead, and Robin grinds his teeth when Todd tells him to get off the comm wave, they will be taking care of Dr. Drake after the events of the escape from Arkham. It’s most irritating.
Father is still out in the city, wrapping up loose ends of the night, and taking a final patrol swing to work out his remaining aggression. it is not surprising as Dr. Drake has apparently endeared himself to them all.
Pennyworth is tisking when Grayson and Todd refuse to bring the trauma surgeon to the Manor, opting instead to tend to him in his penthouse Perch themselves. The irritant here is Pennyworth not insisting they return to the Cave where the doctor will have the best chances for successful recovery.
Tt.
“Very good, Sir. Should you need anything, please do not hesitate to call. Agent A out,” a raised eyebrow at him does nothing to soften his mood. “As for you, Master Damian, I’m afraid Master Jason is correct as you do have school in in the morning. Best to get a few hours.”
He throws his hands up in frustration but starts upstairs without a fight. He’s already out of the mask for the night, pauses a moment to let Titus and Alfred the Cat in his room before he closes the door. He absolutely pulls out his laptop and fires it up as he slides under the covers.
Hacking into the camera in Drake’s penthouse is simple enough that he really should say something to Todd and Grayson, but enjoys the convenience of easy access.
Alfred nudges himself in Dami’s lap. With a sigh, he pushes the laptop further up on the bed so the cat will lay down and settle while the camera feed loads.
The black screen queues with Grayson and the Todd moving through the window, and huddled in Grayson’s arms is their Doctor. Dami’s eyes narrow critically, looking at the stains on the side of the scrubs, obvious bruises and raw skin.
Regardless of how bravely some inmates reported Timothy acted, the events had taken their toll. He is slumped in Grayson’s arms while his vigilante brothers talk over his head, Todd already pulling the large first-aid kit out from under the sink.
Of course, their physician regains enough of himself to walk down the hallway on his own steam, waving a careless hand over his shoulder, making Dami fairly seethe when Todd and Grayson remain in the kitchen, talking with one another rather than immediately follow.
Drake was in an accident, was thrown from and ambulance, has withstood the likes of the Joker, Scarecrow, Ventriloquist, Clock King, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Mad Hatter, various thugs, henchmen, thieves, murderers, and raving lunatics. He should be made to rest and his wounds immediately treated. As per his usual behaviors, he should be fed something calorie-laden and put to bed.
He would need to be lectured extensively about the consequences of dealing with Gotham’s underbelly, told he could no longer go to Arkham, that he would need to be safe.
There is no safety in Arkham, and only more danger to be had associating with even more connections to criminals.
(Honestly. Do they not recall who stopped the first group of ninjas to catch on to Drake’s importance to the Bats? Taking those ninjas, beaten beyond recognition, straight back to the Demon’s Head had definitely sent a message. Annoying his mother was simply an added benefit.)
Before Drake stumbles blindly into another catastrophe, Todd and Grayson need to learn to care for him better.
Sliding down in his bed, he leaves the screen on to see the bathroom door open, steam roll out from the recent shower and catching those two finally doing something right.
Grayson is drying his hair while Todd treats the injuries. He yawns and rolls on his side, dislodging Alfred the cat. She gives a series of kitten chirps and hops down while Titus circles around on his bed by the door and flops down with a heavy sigh.
His eyes are bleary and thoughts syrupy, pouting and half-asleep as Todd gets to insist by just manhandling Drake, and the two get to effectively bracket their doctor in on the sofa until he goes limp, also almost asleep.
Damian doesn’t finally drop off until Drake is finally asleep, being carried gently down the hall toward the bedroom while Grayson turned off the television and the lights, follows with a yawn, and pulling his shirt off as he goes.
When the door on the screen closes, he can reach out with a flailing hand and to push the laptop closed.
He can fade into sleep, the strain from containing the madness of Arkham sliding off to leave a teenage vigilante with a violent past and a need for redemption trying to get enough sleep to pretend in the so-called “normal life.” One with a mask that doesn’t suit him as well as Robin’s.
And if his last thought before he finally drops off, one that could possibly be something to the tune of
–Tt. I would care for him better–
then he would be able to justify it in the morning with excuses of sleep-deprivation and effects from the consistent mental strain he gets every day just by dealing with his family.
(Of course he is prone to spontaneous nonsense. Has anyone ever met Grayson?)
And as he’s pressed, dressed, and already riding to school in the back of the Rolls, checking his phone for traces of Shauna Belzer’s movement after breaking in to a locker room at a bus station in Midtown, he absolutely, resolutely convinces himself that Drake is simply an exemplary civilian that has certainly earned his respect if nothing else. If circumstances has been somehow different, then Damian could safely admit Drake would look stunning in Nomac, Kevlar, and leather beside them, making plans, and fighting against the worst elements humanity can offer.
He can admit to himself that Drake is simply one of the family now, so of course he would be more concerned over their doctor’s health, safety, and sanity more than another random civilian.
He can breathe deep and bid Pennyworth good-bye, put on another mask as the son of Bruce Wayne, can wade through the crowd at Gotham Academy and draw every eye in the place.
He can multitask, school work with an acceptable amount of participation, count the hours until he could check the live feed again and make sure his vigilante brothers and their doctor were up and moving.
He can put on the mask later that night, the gold R gleaming on his chest, and fall feather light to crouch on the balcony of the Perch. He can jimmie the door without knocking and scare the hell out of Drake without really trying.
Before his own patrol, he can assure himself of the doctor’s well-being, saying he’s being a good vigilante, a good brother to Todd and Grayson. He can say the coffee he makes and the sandwich he painstakingly puts together are just making certain their resident physician is in peak health to deal with them when he is useful.
He can be satisfied when he leaves because at least one of them lectured the doctor with a wagging finger and utter sincerity.
“Stop making it hard to protect you. Honestly, Drake. You cannot associate with those we are trying to fight!”
“I’ll try, Dami, but we’ve had this conversation.”
He can say these things in no way prove he finds the doctor ... enticing or alluring in any way whatsoever.
He can justify it in all ways, from all angles possible, but after the day’s (and night’s) work is done, and he’s riding the edge of sleep yet again, the thought comes back to haunt him just enough to be satisfied enough–
I hope things have gotten better since you sent this. If not, I love you. If they have, I still love you. This isn’t the usual Dr!Tim thing, but I still kind of liked it. The nuances are there if you squint hard.
Ah, I think I headcanon for this ‘verse that the beginning of their relationship, Dick and Jay kind of retreated to their respective places when the stress and fuckery of being a crime fighter gets overwhelming. When it’s a bad night, Dick goes to his apartment and cleans like mad or stares emptily at the television. For hours. Jay hits up his favorite and most secret safe house. A place with his books so he can lose himself and try to fight the Pit back without putting anyone else in harm’s way, you feel me?
**
With the surge in crime over the past month, Tim starts seeing the signs immediately and on the down-low. Dick’s bad knee gives him more fits than usual, even if he tries to play it off. Jay’s eyes are showing more green than blue some nights, even snuggled up to them in bed.
The nightmares are progressing, Dick moaning softly in his sleep, Jay trying to wait it out until he’s exhausted enough to pass out cold without dreaming.
(He made the mistake of lightly touching Dick on the arm and got backhanded as a result, the hit waking both of them immediately.
It’s hot fire along his jaw, but he grabs Dick to stop the babbled apologies, keeps him from getting out of bed and backing away. For the rest of the night, he clenches both of them against his chest tightly, refuses to let go.
It only helps wipe the guilty look on Dick’s face marginally.)
They need a night off because the vigilante life is killing them.
So, he makes a plan.
Looking in the bathroom mirror, Tim adjusts a stupid piece of hair that keeps getting in his eyes and fiddles with the cuff links again. He picks an imaginary piece of lint off the sharp suit lapels and gives himself one last critical glance before turning off the light.
He’s already double-checked the reservations, sent the two very carefully chosen garment bags to Dick’s apartment, and has the promise of Superman himself no one is going to bother them tonight.
(It was easy, he’s got leverage against the Kryptonian after he removed those shards of terrible green rock and got to study a little alien microbiology. It comes in handy when he needs the world to leave his boyfriends the fuck alone. Also handy if he’s running late and a little super in his step gets him to Mercy General in a blink.)
Whistling, he goes to the lower level of the building where his hardly-ever used car is covered. (He told them he had one, they’d just never seen it.) The engine purrs low when he fires it up and pulls out of the space, taking to Gotham’s streets with shades covering his eyes and a grin on his face while the Red Bird darts in and out of traffic like a champ.
When he sees Jay and Dick waiting for him on the corner by Dick’s apartment, he gets a thrill of arousal at the sharp suits outlining his very sexy vigilante boyfriends.
(Not the only ones that appreciate a fine suit.)
The first few buttons are undone at Jay’s throat, making him want to lick the enticing span of skin, and Dick has the tie perfect enough that he wants to use it to pull his taller significant other in for a deep kiss. Restraint is really not his strong point right now, but he manages to get out of the car and open the doors for his boys with a flourish.
“Your chariot, gentlemen.”
Jay whistles at the Lotus and gives him a long, sultry look, keeps the kiss chaste by the smallest margin. He slides in the back, splays his big body all over the leather seat, that small smirk too much inviting. Dick’s eyes are beautifully warm, and the kiss is sweet with a hand on his jaw, thumbing where the bruise has already faded, the other palming his ass. Almost in Jay’s face.
Both of them watch him shift through the gears smoothly, commenting on how sweet the car is, how much they like the suits, how cute he looks in his own.
(How they needed this.)
He laughs and drives faster when Jay eggs him on, taking the Crusoe Bridge out of town like they’re flying.
He talks and banters with Dick’s hand on his thigh and Jay’s reaching between the seats to run fingers up the sensitive underside of his wrist.
When they Metropolis, he stops at the amazing restaurant, gives the valet his keys, and offers each an arm.
He knows he’s playing it right when Jay slides a hand in the crook of his elbow and squeezes while Dick does the absolute same.
The table is secluded, candles and wine, high-class and secluded without being stiff or stuffy, the perfect place for both his boyfriends to be at least somewhat at ease. (He fervently hopes Superman won’t get word they’re in town. He will seriously break someone’s face if anyone take them away from him tonight.)
The food is amazing and they’re all sitting close enough to feed one another. It turns into the kind of play that leads to smouldering arousal and half-mast bedroom eyes, specifically when he sucks the cream off Dick’s fingers and bites down lightly on Jay’s thumb.
He drinks water all night to make sure they don’t have any reservations about him driving, flying through the night on the open road. Jay’s in the front with him now while Dick leans between the seats, slurry and affectionate.
Both of them are buzzing a little with the wine and good food, both of them laughing and relaxed, it makes him satisfied and warm. He laughs with them, flirts outrageously, and rubs his thumb over Jay’s knuckles, just holding his hand.
Dr. Drake gives himself all the kudos for managing a romantic dinner successfully. It’s even more important he’s gotten them out of the masks for the night, given them a much-needed break.
He walks them up to Dick’s apartment, giving the illusion he’s doing it for the goodnight kisses instead of supporting them both to make sure they don’t end up falling all over their own feet.
He gets sloppy kisses while undressing them, maneuvering soft pajamas over scarred, broken skin and bandages, gently touches dark bruises while he smiles at them with soft, affectionate eyes. Glass of water for each and wrestling them down to the blankets, The Good Doctor playing on television.
When he leans down to get his last kisses of the night, Dick whines at him and makes grabby hands, but Jay just wraps both arms around his thighs and looks up with hopeful blue eyes.
His suit is probably going to get wrinkled, hung haphazardly on the back of the bathroom door, but Jay’s shirt and Dick’s sweats are more comfortable than his own clothes any night.
He distracts them from going below the waist by taking the hand and kissing each knuckle, or moving another around his neck so the body drifts more solidly against him. It’s an easy thing to shift his fingers softly through thick hair and nuzzle against a cheek. It’s easy to whisper sweet nothings while cuddled close, to tell them how proud he is to be theirs, how proud he is of their hard work, how much good they do for the city, how much he admires them, how much better they make him just by being them.
He can shake off the numb, tingly feeling in his arms the next morning more easily when both of them are still huddled against him, no nightmares driving them out of bed or in a corner where the fetal position is the only thing that can make them feel safe. He can ignore the way his heart pounds harder in his chest when he looks at their sleeping faces, and something so wonderfully precious swirls around in him until he aches.
It’s easy to gives them sleepy kisses and lingering caresses to hair and backs and faces before sliding out of bed to start coffee and make the attempt to put on something good for breakfast–
(he fails. Epically. Orders out for breakfast instead.)
–and has a mug ready for when they stumble out of the bedroom, bleary-eyed and yawning.
After this experiment, he’s planning a weekend get-away. Some nice tropical island where Drake Industries has a condo he’s only used like twice and communications are spotty so those calls from Oracle, Batman, the Titans, the Outlaws, and whoever the hell else can wait until they get back.
He’s humming to himself happily while setting out plates and adding syrup, cutting pancakes into bite-sized pieces so maybe he can, you know, feed them again.
(He might have discovered a new kink…)
And he’s standing at the sink, humming to himself while cutting up strawberries to rinse off and put on top with a little whip cream, sinking in to the comfortable silence and motion.
Which is how Jay comes upon him, still rocking a notorious bed-head, all kinds of dressed in their clothes, cutting strawberries by the sink with a soft, sleepy smile on his face. On their table behind him, he’s got a nice looking spread, coffee, milk, and juice ready to pour.
It’s an instinct close to the one that’s all vigilante. An instinct to protect that hits Jason the moment he sees that smile and knows what’s making his boy happy.
(Any fuckin’ one ever lays a hand on ya, and I’ll make ‘im scream ta die.)
“Hey, good morning,” he puts the strawberries on the table and picks up Jay’s ‘Zombies Do It Better’ mug. He tilts his chin up for the kiss, sighing gently against Jay’s mouth when he gets it.
Dick is more clingy than normal when he’s finally drawn by the smell of breakfast, and hangs on him like a blanket to accept bites in between sips of coffee.
It’s too soon when he has to put his suit back on to leave them with the dishes washed and a nap in their immediate future. He’s got to stop at his penthouse, grab a shower and scrubs, be off on his own mission.
None of that means he wouldn’t rather climb back in bed with them and sleep off a good breakfast like a boss.
It’s no surprise when he gets a page deep into the night and leaves Steph to the crickets chirping around their ER, taking off for the roof, heart racing with what he might be coming into. He comes out in doctor mode, ready to drop to his knees and handle anything from burns to toxins to bleeding out.
The sigh of relief is caught up with the gasp of surprise when the rooftop picnic is complete with candles and a small bluetooth speaker playing something soft and perfect for the scene. He drops his vigilante-only bag and laughs loud enough for the whole damn city to hear.
