#tim drake should probably not steal Danny’s coffee

[chronicbatfictioner]

Theater of the Soul - Chapter 11

He woke up to a number of new voices. Calm, soft, educated voices. Usually more prevalent with the presence of mean people.

He couldn't make out what they were saying. But there was a more important concern to be had.

From the smell of it, there were food. Fresh, hot food. A table in the middle of the room bearing a lot of food was present. But he didn't know if he would be chased away, or punched, if he were to reach for one. He knew he couldn't simply pilfer the food, either - there was no movement around the room that should have been enough to cover for his stealing some pieces of those very interesting bread. Some of the breads, however, he would not touch. They were special. They would be missed.

The boy and little girl who were his present companions were there, and they looked fine. A lady took the little girl somewhere else, but she did not look scared, so she has got to be a safe person, somewhat. She - the older lady - had looked at him and looked like she was going to cry, but then collected herself and did not cry. There was a big, big man who looked at him oddly. Neither spoke toward him. Or maybe they did, but he just didn't care enough.

Somebody placed him on the table, in front of the breads. He was given the special bread and wondered if they were joking or simply trying to see if he would take the bait. He waited. Oh, he could wait, alright. He has learned to wait out those nasty people a long, long time ago. Bide his time real good until they looked away.

But he didn't have to wait long. A hand took the special bread away, and replaced it with a plain toast. Buttered, warm... just like the way he liked it. He nearly moaned with longing as he looked up to the owner of the hand. Oh, it's that blue-eyed person. The person said something and somehow, assured him that it was his. That he may have it. He blinked. The person was nice. That person has been nice to him since... a while? Whatever. He decided that he would trust that person.

The first bite of the warm buttered toast felt heavenly.

Tim could tell that Bruce and Dr Leslie Thompkins, Bruce's personal physician from god knows how long (probably since his childhood) was there from Danny's stiff posture at the breakfast table - even if Tim could yet to see the table from his bedroom. He found himself smiling - Bruce tend to evoke such reaction with his enigmatic presence, alright. Especially if/when he decided to bring the 'Brucie' persona full on, i.e. one that had faced a renowned Russian President with enough scowl-factor that made said president fluster in shame.

His yawn stopped halfway when he finally rounded the corner and saw Jason also sitting on the table, albeit still glaring blankly at the toast and plethora of food before him.

"Oh good morning, Tim!" Barbara called cheerfully - and Tim knew Barbara well enough to know that she was being sarcastic. His eyes landed on the clock and he realized why. It was 10 a.m. already.

"Mornin' everybody." he replied rather grumpily as he made his way to the coffeepot because. Well, 10 a.m. or not, Tim was not a morning person. Plus, he'd spent the rest of the night worrying that Jason would ran out on them the minute Bruce got in - some time after 4 a.m. (he'd seen the clock and heard Bruce when he came in with Dr Thompkins, and Barbara opened the door for them). He - as well as Danny, Ellie, and Barbara, had gone to bed - Danny with Jason in the living room, Ellie sharing Barbara's room, and Tim got his own - a little after 1 a.m.

Danny and Ellie, if anything, were excited enough to stay up that late. Mostly due to the presence of food. But also because Helena was somehow able to call the County Jail where their mother was held and did some haughty commanding to get the wardens to actually collect her and allowed her to take the call, "regardless of the time, Warden. These children have not heard from their mother for nearly six months! You are not that cruel, I presume?"

Helena could be very convincing when she wanted to, obviously.

"Tim," Bruce's baritone made the wine glasses above the kitchen counter tinkled. "You did very well."

Tim reeled, partly from the lack of caffeine in his system, partly from shock.

"Thanks..." he mumbled.

"You know that thing can stunt your growth, right?" Danny quipped, eyeing the coffee in Tim's hands.

"Where's Ellie?" Tim wanted to know.

"Dr Thompkins is giving her a checkup there," Danny pointed at the living room. "Worms and stuff. Just in case, y'know. She's little."

"You?"

"I'm done. No worms, lice, or anything that'll make Mr Wayne here have to disinfect the pool." Danny grinned at Tim. "You didn't tell me your dad is Bruce Wayne."

Tim gave him a lopsided smile. "My father was Jack Drake." he said. A flicker of recognition flashed in Danny's eyes. "But yes, my dad is Bruce Wayne."

"Boy, you're like, connected. Like, Sean Astin level of connected! You should've been a star or something!" Danny gushed.

Tim huffed. 'Star'. Right. "Heh. Right. Anyway, has Dr T checked Jason yet?"

"Not yet," a kindly voice replied from the living room. "Dinah Lance gave me quite an appraisal in Jason's condition, and seeing that thus far, only Daniel and Ellie who have managed to move Jason from couch to here, I figured I should wait until I'm done with Ellie." Dr Thompkins replied. "Daniel here has also mentioned that you were able to settle him down a little yesterday. So, would you like to explain to me how?"

Tim flustered a little. "Yeeeah I don't know. I mean, I just..." his eyes landed on Jason, still glaring at the food on the plate in front of him. "Has anybody tried to make him eat, yet?"

"He didn't want toast." Danny said.

"Uh, yeah. He hated them with marmalade. You should know that, Bruce." Tim scowled, pointing at the marmalade-covered toast on Jason's plate.

"Hey, I've only tried it today, and it's pretty awesome!" Danny announced. "Ellie had two."

"Jason never liked them. He'd always switched with my plain buttered one." Tim smiled ruefully. "Bruce loved marmalade. I'm okay with it, but not too much of a fan. Dick - our older brother, could eat the whole jar in one go."

"Ah," Bruce almost smirked. "That's why I never noticed."

"Yeah," Tim agreed, starting to put just butter on a pair of warm toast Barbara handed him. "Thanks, Babs." he added, belatedly.

"I thought you've only lived with Bruce for a short time, Timothy?" Dr Thompkins asked.

"I did, but Jason and I talked, before..." Tim paused and bit his lip before continuing, "before he thought I was... gonna replace him." He ignored Barbara's and Bruce's gasps and took Jason's marmalade-covered toast and placed his own in front of Jason. Jason looked up to him and then back to the toast. Tim smiled at him and nodded encouragingly. "They're yours, eat up."

Jason gave a flicker of... something in his eyes, before picking up the toasts and practically devoured them.

"Wow," Danny said. "He woulda practically just go without if it's something he doesn't like... Like... he didn't like Thai much, did he?" Tim nodded - Jason had only eaten the rice of the Thai menu they had last night.

Bruce nodded solemnly. "That, I know. He'd had a bad experience with Thai food gone bad in the past." he explained. "Leslie?"

Dr Thompkins was watching as Tim handed a glass of milk toward Jason, who chugged it down as if it was water. And then as Jason looked up at Tim expectantly. Tim pouted at being put on the spot, but he put another two slices of bread into the toaster. "Wait," he told Jason, and then took a big bite out of his own toast. Jason kept glaring expectantly until the toaster popped its loots and Tim retrieved the bread, buttered them, and placed them on Jason's plate. "Next time, you do it yourself." Tim glared at Jason, who's started chewing contentedly the instant the breads hit his plate - and ignoring Tim. Also ignoring Danny's snickers.

Tim then shifted his glare to Bruce, Barbara, and Dr Thompkins. "Ideas, adult-peoples?"

Dr Thompkins shrugged, "I think he likes you." she said. Tim did not roll his eyes. Or faceplanted to the table.

"I can't disagree." Danny said in all seriousness.

This time, Tim groaned. "Really." he deadpanned. Not amused. "I hope there is a point in that observation, somewhere."

"There is. Daniel told me of the photo of Robin, and I surmised that it anchored him, somehow. Why don't you present him with that photo, after breakfast, and see if it could jolt something in him." Dr Thompkins replied with a smile. "A traumatic catatonia is not something to be taken lightly, Timothy, a wrong move could make the patient regress even further. He is still responsive, a little, by those he deemed to be safe people - Daniel, Ellie, you. To an extent, Barbara, Bruce and me, likely by our association with you."

"I disagree at Barbara's place in that sentence. But..." Tim shrugged. "...you're the doc."

"Yes, so are you done?" she asked, not hinting, really, as Tim poured a little more milk for Jason. Just half a glass, kind of automatically because he'd noticed in the past that Jason would only drink about half of his second glass of milk back then.

"So am I the only one anxious over this?" Danny asked, watching as Jason cleaned the milk out.

"No, Daniel, I can assure you I am, too." Bruce told him. Tim fully looked at him as they all started to leave the table and head back to the living room. A small tug by Danny made Jason got up, too, and followed. "Could he be jolted back to his memories, Leslie?"

"It happened in some cases. At this point, I can merely hazard a hypotheses that Jason's trauma came from the fall, since we had nothing to back up the diagnoses - if he'd hit his head, or if he'd had a concussion, or other traumas other than the fall. Furthermore, from his gait, I would diagnose that his broken leg had not healed properly." Dr Thompkins explained. "You have arranged for a scan, I hope?"

"I have arranged for a scanner, actually. It should be delivered here by this hour." Bruce replied, a little too innocently for Tim to not wonder how he'd made that happen. Danny, however, was less inhibited in his questions.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he set (pushed) Jason down onto the couch. "I thought that computer thingy has a scanner?"

"Oh, he meant a CAT scanner, Daniel." Barbara said. "It should come in a truck."

Daniel blinked slowly, and then blinked again.

"Uh, yeah... it's not like he bought it, don't worry." Tim tried. Daniel just blinked owlishly. "Uh oh." Tim cringed. Jason had always snarked at him being a 'rich boy' and 'insensitive', and now he was inadvertently proving Jason's words.

"Bruce and I have a lot of work involving hospitals and clinics in Gotham City, so he knows the numbers of a lot of medical suppliers." Dr Thompkins explained. "I asked for one to be delivered here today, so we won't have to transport Jason to a hospital. I'm not sure if it would be good for him to be transported around too much."

Her explanation seemed more... succinct. Or maybe it was because she was a doctor, but Danny seemed satisfied.

"That's really cool! Can you scan me, too? And Ellie?"

Dr Thompkins regarded him contemplatively. "Have you any complaints? Either way, it will be good to have a scan of you on record while you're young." she said.

"Plus, if Jason could see them being scanned and come out the other side unharmed, he might be less..." Barbara paused and looked at Jason, "hesitant?"

"I know you're going to say 'combative', but yes. You can get scanned first if you'd like, Daniel." Dr Thompkins said.

"Awesome!" Danny gushed, and then patted Jason's shoulder confidently. "See, Red? Everything will be cool!"

#Jason Todd #Tim Drake #JayTim #no-capeAU #SoulTheater!AU #Barbara Gordon #Bruce Wayne #Leslie Thompkins #Bruce being a rich dude #back to our regular schedule