#Jack drake sucks as a dad

[yj-polycule]

Welcome to my unpopular opinion but I am so, so tired of people and just the fandom as a whole vilifying the Drakes to an obscene amount. Like, were they the best parents in the world? No, but they weren't the abusive and neglectful monsters most of the fandom tries to write them as.

Jack and Janet were fully under the impression Tim was being taken care of when they were gone because he was in boarding schools, a responsible and logical place to put a child if you knew your work would have you traveling a lot. The only reason this wasn't true because Tim was the one to make it so. Tim was the one sneaking out of boarding schools and not telling his parents what he was doing.

Every time in the comics when the Drakes came back, Tim was excited and actually did spend time with them. We are given multiple accounts from Tim of him hanging out with both of his parents when they are back in town while Tim is being robin.

The Drakes also very much cared about Tim. The first thing Jack does when he finds out Tim was in a dangerous situation (being Robin) was get Tim out of it. Yeah, it sucks that Tim's opinions and thoughts were acknowledged, but Jack did what any loving and responsible parent would do the moment they find out their son was risking their life and doing something extremely dangerous and reckless and that's get him out of it! Jack moved Tim away from potential danger to keep his son safe. The moment Tim went missing Jack dropped fucking everything he had in terms of influence and fortune to get his son back. Is that the behavior of someone who couldn't give a shit about their son? Someone who clearly doesn't care about their safety and existence? No. It's not.

Besides, not even Tim himself vilifies his parents. Time and time again in the comics, Tim is shown missing his parents, talking fondly of them. Literally during the whole saga where Tim was traveling through time and the multiverse to find Bruce during failsafe, Tim embraces his mother and just enjoys being with her. Tim's ideal world and life is his parents being alive, it's Tim being with his Dad and Mom.

The Drakes are not evil monsters, and honestly, Tim's story and dynamic with Bruce is so much more interesting when the Drakes are loving and caring and Bruce isn't 'saving' him from his parents.

[brucewaynehater101]

Tim trips through time. Tim meets Thomas and Martha Wayne and little kindergartener Bruce Wayne. Bruce thinks Tim is the coolest person ever! Tim is very worried about space and time but no speedster has come back to yell at him so...

He tells Thomas and Martha to not go to the theater in the future crime alley. He starts trying to synthesize the bullet resistant and knife proof fabric that looks and acts like fabric that he and the other Bats use in the future so he can replace Thomas's shirts with shirts made of the stuff and have lining of the fabric put into Martha's clothes. He teaches Bruce how to meditate and anger management techniques and stretches to take advantage of his baby flexibility and revels in having a little brother figure that looks up to him and doesn't try to kill him. He goes ahead and sets up some plans that won't come to fruition for literal decades but when they do they will seriously annoy and hamper Ra's. Alfred lets him help in the kitchen and Tim spots that he is absolutely in a thruple with Thomas and Martha. Thomas and Martha officially adopt him.

Then he goes back. The method takes the memories of the experience from the Waynes, erases the signs of Tim's presence in the past. Tim returns to his normal present but with one difference.

He had been holding his adoption papers when it happened.

Tim is legally and officially, according to the paperwork in his hands, Timothy Roderick (for Martha's dad because Jack sucks) Drake Wayne and Bruce's older brother.

Bruce's very distant memories of the time sort of come back to him now that Tim's back, not very clearly since he was five at the time. Alfred, having been older at the time, does remember young master Tim's time before much more clearly and feels a great deal more embarrassment in how he's treated master wayne, particularly the birthday incident. Tim mentally notes that Bruce technically still hasn't tried to actively kill him so he's not the worst little brother. Also all his siblings are now his niblings.

Time hijinks are so fun to mess around with.

I have no clue how that adoption paper will hold up in the court of law, but I doubt Tim cares. According to Bruce's parents, he is the older brother. He will not be taking any other answer as acceptable.

I'd also love to just read about the soft moments of Thomas and Martha referring to Tim as their son and fussing over all of his scars. Little Bruce looking up to Tim as the older one leads him through another breathing exercise.

Then, an older Bruce who's embarking on his training arc and the strange sort of familiarity he finds with learning the breathing exercise. The sense of calm, belonging, and home a simple pattern brings him

[i-care-bout-things-too]

Batfam Ages:

Okay, there is no such thing as an exact science when determining the ages of the Batfam, but the easiest thing you can do is work of the concrete ages that you /do/ know, and make them fit with canon events to the best of your ability. Now, canon changes all the time—which definitely makes this a challenge, but I’m going to just explain my process for determining their ages and you can disagree if you’d like, or you can use this to write fic like I do where ages are semi important,

Let’s begin. I’m going to give you the arbitrary number of 15, this will be important later.

Dick Grayson:

Depending on the canon, Dick is 8, 10, 12, or 15 when his parents die. All of these numbers will have problems depending on which you pick, but I go for the safe bet of 10 years old. Why? Well, a little known fact is that Dick ends up in juvie after his parents die, and he’s not immediately taken in by Batman. Thus, it takes a little while longer for him to become Robin, which doesn’t immediately happen after he becomes Bruce’s ward anyway, because Batman doesn’t immediately go and spill the beans. Thus, Dick ends up in Bruce’s car at around ten or eleven, but doesn’t become Robin until he’s 12.

Now Dick is Robin up until he’s about 18, when Bruce takes Robin from Dick because it’s too dangerous and Dick refuses to quit. Dick joins up with the teen titans full time, and he’s still Robin for a little while longer until we get Nightwing, aka Discowing, for the very first time at age 19. Simultaneously, while this is happening, a little kid is stealing the Batmobile’s tires.

Jason Todd:

Our beloved street rat Robin, Jason Todd, swings a tire iron at Batman and then gets taken out for fast food. It’s great, it’s cute, it doesn’t immediately lead to his adoption though, either. No, instead Jason ends up in an orphanage that is trafficking children. Bruce shows up one day to check up on Jason, and is made aware of this by his soon to be first adopted son (yeah, you heard me, Dick isn’t adopted yet). They take down the trafficking ring, and Bruce adopts Jason. Jason then becomes Robin at age 13.

Unfortunately for our boy, he was widely disliked by comic fans across North America, DC did a little telephone poll, and by a few hundred votes, DC changed comic history forever by killing off a high profile character what seems like /permanently/ for the first time ever. No resurrections this time. (Hah, right!). Which is to say, Jason Todd has the second shortest run as Robin at just two years, dying at age 15.

Tim Drake:

So then we get Robin numero 3. Tim Drake sees Batman getting darker and more violent and goes y’know, someone should do something about that. He tries talking to Nightwing, but he’s in a bad place with Bruce after learning Jason died via a Newspaper (yeah, Bruce sucks for that one), and tells Tim he won’t be going back to Robin. Thus, lil Timmy Drake gets an idea in his head. He looks himself in the mirror and goes, I can fix him, and then, Tim Drake becomes Robin at age 12.

Tim Drake has one of the longest runs as Robin, with only a mild interruption from a lil blond Bat.

Stephanie Brown:

Stephanie Brown starts off as the vigilante Spoiler, whose whole purpose in life is to spoil the plans of her C-list villain dad, Cluemaster. She meets Robin (Tim), hits him in the face with a brick, and then ends up dating him. Unlike most characters who appear a few times and never come back, Stephanie manages to stick around. She gets pregnant at age 15 (it’s not Tim’s, and no she did not cheat, this happened priorly), she gives birth, the baby is put up for adoption, and she becomes Robin after Tim’s dad, Jack Drake, finds out Tim is Robin and bans him from it. Tim is forced to quit and Stephanie picks up the mantle. She’s clocks in the shortest run as Robin, working with Batman for about two months before Bruce forces her to stop. Tim picks up the mantle again, and Steph goes back to being Spoiler—only to get killed by Black Mask, making her the second “Robin” to die. DC does retcon her death, and we later learn she was only badly beaten and sent off to live in a foreign country before she makes her return.

Jason Todd, Again:

While all this is going on, stuff is happening behind the scenes. Namely, Jason coming back to life. A common misconception here however is how long Jason was actually dead. While I wouldn’t be able to find the panels to confirm it, the true number is a “short” 6 months. Yep, while years passed in the real world, possibly decades, actually, Jason was dead all of 6 months. According to the books, he undigs himself from his grave six feet under (because Superboy punched through the multiverse or something?) and ends up wondering around Gotham as a mindless little zombie. Conveniently, Talia al Ghul stumbles upon her beloved’s lost little bird, and she decides to take him home and train him. He’s with them for a bit, gets dunked into a Lazarus pit, comes back very very angry, is shipped off to the all caste for a bit, and upon his return to the al Ghuls, is informed he’s been replaced by little Timmy Drake.

Jason makes his whole plan, and decides to make a splash by returning to Gotham wearing an old moniker of the Joker’s and taking over Gotham’s underworld. He beheads a few criminals, tries to kill Tim, tries to get Bruce to kill the Joker, and doesn’t really have success in those latter two objectives. That puts Jason at age 19, roughly. We don’t really know how to count the months he was dead.

Damian Wayne:

Shortly after Jason’s unmasking as the Red Hood, Damian Wayne turns 10 years old and beats his mother, Talia al Ghul, in combat. His prize is to be taken to his father and given to him for training. We know definitively that Damian is 10 thanks to this we can measure out the age gaps between the others and get their ages at this point in time. Dick at age 19 became Nightwing, while Jason is made Robin at age 13, so they have a six year age gap. Jason dying 2 years later at age 15 leads to Tim becoming Robin at age 12, they have a 3 year age gap. Tim is Robin for 3 years before Jason comes back and Damian trails after him a few months behind, putting Tim at around 16/17 while Damian is 10. I tend towards 16 instead of 17 because DC stopped aging Tim for a while, so it just makes more sense to pick the lower number. Thus, when Damian is 10, Tim is 16 as is Steph, Jason is 19, and Dick is 25.

Thanks to Damian being quite young, DC has kept an active track of how and when they age him. We know Damian is only with Bruce a few short months before he disappears into the time stream and Dick makes him Robin, and we also know that Damian’s 11th birthday is celebrated after Bruce is reinstated to the proper time. However, DC follows this up by killing Damian and making him the third Robin to die, the second to do so in the suit itself, and he’s dead for a significant number of months. In this time, Dick also dies—as in his heart is stopped by Lex Luthor for a few seconds, and then restarted, after his identity is revealed on live TV. Bruce decides to let the world believe Nightwing died and stayed dead, and Dick is sent off to Spyral to do secret spy stuff for Bruce. There is an issue around here in the “Grayson” run that claims Dick is twenty-one years old, which is ENTIRELY incompatible with the time line I just painstakingly established, and I go ahead and outright dismiss it because it clearly doesn’t work with a majority of canon. While Dick is with Spyral, Damian is brought back to life, and he goes on a year of redemption (which doesn’t actually last a whole year, but I digress). He and Dick meet again, and we move into Rebirth somewhere around here with the conclusion of Spyral and Batman and Robin Eternal.

General Events:

Damian turns 12 presumably sometime during rebirth, although not specified, I do believe Truth and Justice issue #6 to be his 12th or 13th birthday, but I lean towards 12 because of the costumes everyone wears in the issue. Steph is spoiler, Cass is Orphan, Tim is Red Robin, Red Hood has yet to don his solo Outlaw uniform, and Barbara is Batgirl.

I can’t name a specific issue for Damian’s 13th birthday, but it’s canonical that Damian turned 14 in his solo Robin series, Robin (2021) while he was off finding himself before the Lazarus Tournament, and since then, there’s been the Shadow War, Batman Vs Robin, Dark Crisis event somewhere around there, the Lazarus Planet event, Gotham War, DC Knight Terrors, and Beast World event, which catches us up to the modern day world.

Since Damian hasn’t yet turned 15 despite ALL of that going on, and is still for now at least, 14, that means Tim and Steph are 20, Jason is 23, and Dick is 29.

I know I mentioned Cass and Babs, and I would love to give you a proper age for them but I don’t know where to place them in DC canon like I do the others, however people do commonly place Cass roughly around the same age as Jason making her 22 or 23, and Babs tends towards being 6-8 years older than Dick, although that is an age gap DC has been slowly bridging over the years. Still, I put her at 35 years old. I don’t have a reference for Duke Thomas either, but he’s commonly placed as being two years younger than Tim making him 18 currently.

Lastly, I bring back the arbitrary number of 15, given that that is the number of years that separate Dick and Damian, I also use that age gap between Dick and Bruce—meaning that Bruce took Dick in when he was 25, and placing Bruce at 44 years old in main continuity.

Overall Ages Currently:

Bruce Wayne: 44

Barbara Gordon: 35

Dick Grayson: 29

Jason Todd: 23

Cassandra Cain: 22

Tim Drake: 20

Stephanie Brown: 20

Duke Thomas: 18

Damian Wayne: 14

[junkdrawerfan]

And so we continue! Part Two:

Previous || Next

Robin II (1991)

Tim Drake vs. The Joker! I can only assume they created this set of comics to prove that Tim Drake is better than Jason.

AHHH! Finally I get to see some examples of Normal-90s-High-School-Boy (TM) Tim Drake lol! I am so excited to see Tim as this like "TOTALLY NORMAL NERDY RELATABLE BOY" even though that gets stripped away over time. Having read some modern comics, Tim Drake is NOT a normal boy and considering some of the hijinks I've heard about I refuse to believe he was ever a Normal Boy.

As part of his relatability he plays DC's version of D&D. But also he's got a way cooler fit & hair compared to his equally nerdy friends. God your shonen protag vibes are showing, Timmy!

Maybe I am gushing too much but this is such a fun civillian dynamic to have! Why don't I see this in fanfics!! Tim who is being courted by the popular crowd and refusing them. Fuck peer pressure Timmy! I know this is 9th grade. I am sure his high school experience evolves but still... I have ideas now for fics!

He does like coffee!

Hmmm.... don't love that. I heard about this aspect of Tim's character. Gonna keep my eye on this thread.

So I guess people don't realize there are multiple robins huh? Thats fun!

I know stories are happening in between Robin I and Robin II in the Batman & Detective Comics series where Tim is working with Batman. And both Robin I and Robin II are fairly early in Tim's run, but it is interesting that the boy who volunteered, who insisted that Batman take him on is so filled with self doubt. It gives an interesting characterization of Tim. Tim Drake is a boy who doubts himself but can't stomach not trying anyway. Or maybe...Tim Drake is a boy with a gut of steel and a heart full of fear.

Alfred is really holding it down! I love his relationship with Tim. He is Tim's mentor just like Bruce. <3

Ah Tim! You little GENIUS! Bruce is out of town and Tim is afraid the Joker will realize the Batman isn't there to keep things inline. So he makes a hologram of Bruce to scare small time criminals and keep the Myth of Batman going! What a smart cookie! He's truly the Robin with The Plan!

Aw man, the hologram fell apart and Joker realized Tim isn't Jason. What will happen next!!

Politicians such and these old geezers suck a lot. Learning more about the political system and the cops in gotham, Gordon doesn't really strike me as a model cop -- especially considering modern standards. He's very much that 90s cowboy of a cop. Obviously, a victim of the time period. Thats why i maintain the only decent rewrite of Gordon I want is a Gordon who was a former Internal Affaris investigator who witched to officer just so he could become a Commandor who pours most of the budget into Internal Affairs to get rid of corruption in the GDPC and reform the cops!

He and Buffy should meet! I think they'd have a lot to bond over.

Dick where are you! Your little brother needs you! For real though its interesting to me that Joker is around and Batman is out of town and neither Alfred or Tim are like "We should call Dick to help so Robin is facing the Joker alone." Of course i know its to get the Timmy vs Joker show down we want and prove Tim can outsmart the Joker! Like comics are always ready to manufactor that drama. But taking it at face value, how poor is Dick and Bruce's relationship in the beginning of Tim's time as Robin that Tim doesn't think he can rely on Dick despite admiring Dick and Dick helping Alfred convince Bruce to keep Tim as Robin in Batman #442!

Woo! He beats the Joker in the end. It takes a lot out of him but his plan comes together and he wins! So proud of you Boy Wonder!!!

Robin III (1992):

Okay we've skipped some time ahead (note to self go back and figure out when Tim's Dad woke up!) and Timmy is back with the Drake's, shit is going down in gotham with gang wars galore and he's struggling to balance that Superhero-Civilian lifestyle

I get why people write Jack Drake as jealous of how close Tim and Bruce are in fanfics.

The Drakes being neighbors means we get cool shit like this:

Why isn't this in more fanfics!! Thats cocol as hell!

WOOO! King Snake is back in town!!

Also Tim has lied to Bruce in like every comic I've read about him except his intro and Robin II (where he couldn't lie to Bruce because Bruce was out of town lolololol). Tim you king

OOOO! I didn't realize this plot happened! Thats awesome! Again WHERE ARE THE FANFICS!

Fucking Teenages Man! Even when they know the right answer, they don't do it!!

Okay thats enough for this run. I will continue in part 3!! I am excited to get to Robin 4 :D

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Secrets and Shenanigans

by alexndr_writes Timothy Drake knew who he was ever since his mother gave him “the talk” at the age of eight. The realization of his body growing into such a form made him spiral. Janet and Jack taught him to be ashamed of the gap between his soul and his anatomy. So telling people that he was transgender? Not an option. OR: The mis-adventures of Tim getting accidentally outed to his found family. Featuring: Emotionally constipated Bruce that secretly does care! Jason Todd being an ally! And Damien, for one time only, giving someone a hug! Words: 1469, Chapters: 1/6, Language: English Series: Part 1 of The Mis-Adventures of Timothy Drake Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M, Gen Characters: Tim Drake (DCU), Janet Drake, Jack Drake, Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Duke Thomas, Alfred Pennyworth Relationships: Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne, Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Duke Thomas Additional Tags: Trans Male Tim Drake, Trans Male Character, Gender Dysphoria, Gender Identity, Bad Parents Jack Drake and Janet Drake, Absent Parents Jack Drake and Janet Drake, Tim Drake Needs a Hug (DCU), Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Good Sibling Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Protective Jason Todd, Jason Todd is Bad at Feelings, but he tries, jason todd said ally!, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, in the comics he sucks but here he’s a good dad, I need him to be good to them okay, Coming Out, Bisexual Tim Drake (DCU), Found Family, Character Study via https://ift.tt/AX5KOWC

[soleminisanction]

Now that Robin: Tim Drake has been done for awhile, what are your thoughts on it? Parts you enjoyed most? Least favorite things? 

Overall I enjoyed it. It's not the greatest comic I've ever read or anything but I did like it, and I feel sad looking back on it because I wish it'd gotten more time. I wish more people had given it a shot rather than dismissing it just because they didn't like the artist for the first arc.

There's a lot of things I enjoyed about it. I think the marina made for a unique setting and the people who lived there were all interesting characters. I liked the fact that the development of that setting and those people highlighted the way Tim almost instinctively looks out for and cares about the people around him, making a point to get to know all of his neighbors personally.

I liked how the first arc honed in on Tim not just being a detective but a detective fanboy, bringing back his canon love of Sherlock Holmes and filling it out with other classic detective fiction. Moriarty himself was a little meh but the idea of his character as Tim's dark mirror, an obsessive fan of the detective narrative who treats other people like pieces in his game or dolls to be molded to his whim and is obsessed with finding a detective to match his villainous "brilliance" -- that's a solid concept.

I also liked the supporting cast. Bernard of course was great, I do actually enjoy his relationship with Tim and I think his development was interesting. They got some great romantic moments too, particularly after the artist switch, and I really like the fact that he figured out Tim was Robin on his own -- it makes total sense given his Bat-conspiracy focus and, to me, is almost certainly a big part of why Tim likes him.

But I also really liked Detective Williams and Sparrow, who I hope don't get completely shelved. Gotham can always use a few more good cops kicking around and I kinda like that some of the We Are Robin kids like Darcy and Izzy are still hanging around as a step between the Bats and the civilians. Plus it was good to give TIm someone to bounce off of that didn't have all the baggage that comes with the other Bats.

I would've liked to see a full version of the second Chaos Monsters story, it's a shame that got cut short.

My least favorite part was the marketing. I don't know who it was that decided to lean into stuff like, "Move over Damian, the world's favorite Robin is back!" but it was just... embarrassing and unnecessary and completely against the tone of the story and just, ugh. That sucked.

I also was not a fan of the idea that Tim, quote, "Wanted to be like [his] dad," with that Dad here meaning Jack, but that was a minor thing. Meghan Fitzmartin is well-meaning and seems very sweet but she's also sometimes just, painfully straight.

Still overall I liked the book. It's not what I would give people if I wanted to give them an introduction to Tim or even just catch them up on his modern incarnation -- I'd sooner start with the Urban Legends story and then point them straight to Zdarsky's Batman -- but it was ultimately fine. Had potential, shame it wasn't allowed to reach it.

[asinglemagpie]

The Golden Raven: Here Be Spoilers

In no particular order:

Jeremy Knox is the manwhore we all aspire Kevin to be, and I fucking love it for him. That man deserves to get laid and BOY DOES HE!

ANDREW'S GAYDAR. I don't need to say more.

Jeremy Knox is literally trapped by his mother. Without that important paperwork I should bet it's extremely hard for him to do anything at all - will it get in the way of him signing to a professional team?

Holy shit the Foxes' match. I just... Holy shit. I am so gutted for them that they probably won't be able to defend their title - Jack needs to stop being a little shit and practice.

Jeremy trying to get Kevin to stop night practice. The fact that he caught on to things we've all been saying about there's no way Ravens can have much of a career because of what happened to them. Jeremy is no fool.

AARON MINYARD DRIVING THE MAS. I REPEAT: THERE IS TWINYARDS HEALING HAPPENING AND I AM VERY PLEASED!

Jean referring to it as "Andrew's trial". I refuse to see it as an author slip up - Jean had his own Drake. They both are dead, but Andrew and Jean have to repeatedly suffer in public because of and in spite of that. Of course he identifies with Andrew over this, and sees it as him on trial more than Aaron.

Thea Muldani is a cold bitch and I love and hate it. I don't care if the age of consent meant it was legal, it was still morally fucked. I really want Kevin to get with anyone else.

Mind you, Kevin... also a cold bitch. I love it and I hate it. We knew he was capable of it, but to see it... *chef's kiss* I want him to be better than that but as Jean told us... he's just SO good at it.

The interview. Fucking... fuck. Andrew going after him... *thumbs up*

Speaking of Kevin and Andrew: neither of them knowing about Neil's little visit. Andrew's immediate and unbothered assessment that Neil had Grayson killed. The fact that Neil LIED TO ANDREW. I mean... that's pretty huge. I know I'm smashing two different conversations into one big mush of "oh shit" but y'know?

Jeremy's family SUCKS. Racist, homophobic, completely ableist... Noah didn't have to die. Not in a "Jeremy' fucked up" way (because he did, but he was also fucked up too) but that if the family took it seriously he wouldn't have jumped. Like. Fuck. I know there were a lot of thoughts about drugs and suicide and all of that but somehow seeing it on the page was worse than the speculations?

But also... poor Jeremy? It took Noah's death for them to even notice something was going wrong in the family, but instead of seeing it they decided that JEREMY was the problem in the family, and his siblings completely agree with it. I'm so fucking mad for him.

(Stuart must know someone who can break into a bank and steal Jeremy's shit from the safety deposit box, right?)

Jean finally seeing how the Trojans play and having the moment of clarity... that thing he hadn't seen that made them all make sense.

Jean actually said it. And got attacked for it. Hilarious (and sad) but omg XD

Jean putting on the USC shirt to have a tough conversation because he wants the familiarity of the friendly logo to help. I literally last week wrote a scene where Neil goes to the Fall banquet in red and black in an attempt to disarm the Ravens and think he's a friendly. Genuinely had to pause and laugh

Speaking of... I will never again feel bad for what is about to happen to the Ravens in my fic because DAMN NORA. (This is not a complaint. This is me wishing I was as strong to just go "and you and you and you. Dead. Done." XDD)

THE FIRE. The FBI know who did it so I hope they get fucking done for it because otherwise WHAT USE ARE YOU BROWNING?! Speaking of... He has a new partner..??? (Who had one of the Towning pair down as a Moriyama plant because I'm feeling it!)

The apartment is so sketchy. I can't blame them for not being comfortable.

THE FUCKING DOG OMG. Jean is going to be like every dad that "didn't want that damn dog" and be the best fucking dog dad in existence. He will only talk to it in French, probably, but that's fine.

SPEAKING OF FRENCH! The fact that his accent came up killed me! I've adored every time someone brings up that his accent - and by extension Kevin's - isn't the Parisian accent most people learn. Can you imagine the first time Neil heard Kevin's accent and his brain just went "What the fuck was that?" We know he probably travelled most of France so encountered many accents so it probably barely registered, but the fact it came up in this book tickled me XD

There is so much to yell about but I'll start here. I'm going to have to re-read it. And then scream more. Because it's worth it.

[myforrest2]

Crack house

i see how mass shootings happen

deshaun Watson's tiktok

operation white coat

frumpy body girl. i'm shallow

mental health issues in my family

donte and white titties

molestor uncle

phone sniffin dogs . thanks kamala

china made a sun

goochland va powhite

white women fuck like bots

happy wife happy life

who got better pussy

brett griner

rape fantasies on reddit

racist AI. white people writing code

dont fuck the students at tsu

gaping asshole porn

levels to dv. neigbor got into a dv situation

you gotta be able to fight if ur abusive

country line dancing in 6th grade

growing up christian concervative

i never believed in covid

having nigerian friends

menopause is a funny concept (the last egg)

wish i dates white women cuz the swifties are out!

million white women march

taylor farrakhan

who decided at the meeting that they were selling bean pies

trans women get a taste of getting offended and cant handle

i want to tell trans jokes but everytime, my dick gets cut off

her tax dollars paid for me to do home invasions but she wanna tell me what i can say

id snort midol if i were a woman

3 months of period and 9 months off

the purge for periods 9 months of peace 3 months of chaos

asking about organic vagina new vagina

synthetic vagina vs vagina

dont stop believing can end racism

stacy abrams dresses like hillary clinton

gmo coochie

my red flags

levels to the horny. showin ur face on pornhub

porn on the family computer

first std test

did ur granny fuck wilt chamberlain

used to be a therapist but it got to be too stressful

happy husband happy marriage

how often do u suck his dick ladies?

church revivals coachella for church

part trans cuz circumcised

so easy to scam women wish i had the heart to do it

nothin brings pussy together likes some and scammin niggas

navigating life being objectified

i'm more than my period

women put u in risky situations

they put bombs in the trash

gotta do everything when u Black

being black is annoying

quantum leap

asians are dark skinned white people

disney couldnt find enough swimmin niggss for little mermaid

vasectmy b4 it was fashionable

slave bible

i go to switzerland

drake's bed is made of horse hair and stingray skin

spelman and cosby

relationship with bpd. she can only handle some of my personalities not all of them

cerebral palsey dude's wheelchair stole

cant wait for sex work to be uberred

prayer for the gay demons

y is it always the stud that gets pregnant

first vasectomy nutt

waited for coochies to freshen up before i ate them

prison rapes kept me out of prison

ex wife had two babies

jump started a period

my mom helped plan my dad's funeral

forrest gump had full blown aids in philadelphia

women LOVE subtitles

suicide by negro. saying nigger at the atl airport

gender reveals for intersex babies

karim juwani tossed her baby in woods wrapped in plastic four years ago

mom shaking babies

construction worker on fire took video

wife beater as wash rag neighbor got in dv

my cousins got basic ass white women

taliban dating show

wilt chamberlain

nutted on my own face once

didn't masturbate til i was in college

heroes dose of shrooms

if he buys you beyonce tickets

honey pack fuckin

trans people they treat caitlyn jenner like black people treat clarence thomas

ain't sucked a dick but sucked toes

i aint a gangst but done gangsta shit

the good molestation from my babysitter's daughter

bv pussy/yeasty pussy

my girl fuck wit me cuz i'm that nigga

i hate the white part of me that tells me what to do

price of chicken goin up

snorting midol

moms love reminding u of how many hours of labor they were in

abortion on a 10 year old rape victim doctot had a tatt off a coat hanger with trust women on it

my dad grew up without infoor plumbing

being able to uberize sex work. ordering a blow job on uber one

chinatown knockoff

white boy jumping off cruise ship

asians & blacks

molestation

disney movies

feeling obligated to jack off to porn i paid for

uber sex (sex work)

trans reparations

dating black women is an olympic sport

called the sex line on gmas phone

scammed by uber

MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC

patchy beard but got asshole hair

homeless whites & Asians

c* vid had people keeping count of death

getting old ( aunt marry droolin on herself)

men washing ass (water bottles to wash ass in iraq)

make the money make the rules

comedy humbles u

pandemic paychecks (ppp loan)

black woman will make or break u (cooked in an oven love)

fuckin bbws is awkward 4 me

american black women make me feel like im trans cuz they cut my dick off til i pull out that check

i rode the short bus to the talented and gifted classes

in tag i had to do extra

in tag it was nothing but white people, another brotha came in there and i said he must have had a mom that really cared about his education. i got punched in the stomach for it

get a trans friend cuz they will get reparations first. black people too disorganized

gotta trick your woman into giving u some pussy

i miss drugs

i'll get my dick back from my girl when i make money. i wont get all of it back cuz she's a black woman "niggas ain't shit"

arguin with my girl is worse than arguin with my mom. mom took away nintendo girl takes away pussy

i act like a woman when a woman leaves me. cuz i have ababdonment issues

Jim Crow needs to make a cameo appearance every 10 years to wake niggas up.

i don't cheat cuz i gotta use a condom

fovrite movie is forrest gump. sequal to forrest is philadelphia

i used to be a social worker but my dick stopped working so i had to quit

what's the wildest thing a woman has told you during sex?

love dont exist anymore. im gonna put my women on one year contracts

white name in black body

if i were a serial killer my victims would b homeless black women

carlee fucked it up for yall

i blew up a kid's face in iraq. i hope he becomes president so i can be part of his origin story

watching couples fuck

white people treat slavery like women treat accountability

alien pussy

be funny watchin my married potnas getting punked by their wives

sexxy red went to my highschool

Gilgo beach killer spaced out his white woman victims

I remember when I had to fake like Lizzo's music for some coochie. Oh the lies we men tell.

God is good all the time and all the time God is gooD

Coochie is pink booty hole brown

my skin is light but my comedy is dark

titties lookin right no lefts

If you could own slaves, how many would you have?

Those MAPs folks are jacking off to all the first day of school pics

kamala harris had an orgasm when the tory sentence came down

kelsey shot meg cuz women will shoot each other over the same dick

had a woman tell me she couldn't figure me out

women want to figure us out so they can control our minds

Glad they didn't call me a baby killer when i got back from Iraq

women that have had abortions got that fire

It was lookin like a baby holocaust when abortions were legal. I dated a woman that aborted 2 babies by the same dude. Those could have been 2 Amazon fulfillment workers.

these mew generation of parents have no control over their kids . cryin toddler in hawaii

i love watching kids act out in public . the parents look like they're trying to solve a calculus problem.

mom used basic math, pinching and threats

black women say shit that make u want to punch...... or shoot them. white women say shit that make u want to kill them

these hoes start talkin like chat gbt when you catch them on some bullshit

got evicted with a wife & 2 kids.

named my son after a member of jodeci but my bm swear she named him

serial killer my victims would be homeless black women

i want to date a non verbal autistic woman

ladies can you cover your ears during my set so we men could have a good time?

i wish black women would suck dick the way they suck the fun out the room

being part white is annoying cuz i got a gluten allergy

lake lanier pussy

jim crow day

how to keep a dude from raping u

white people fuck like bots

cub scout leader died so i didn't get molested

getting a black womans love is like trying to get a laugh from black folks

sex farms

pullin pussy with a telegraph machine

"come thru" in morse code

i'm not a conspiracy theorist i'm just a nigga that has never trusted the government

the holocaust was an inside job

how many niggas would black people sacrifice to get the jew treatment

chlamydia the reggie of stds

u know its fire when she burn u and u still wanna fuck

how many cows is your coochie worth

worst fears are heights, deep water & seeing my daughters titties on reddit

met an ethiopian bbw

tranny porn overstimulation

things that annoy me: fat niggas that ain't funny

student loans

dental damn

being black is a game of dodging diseases and gun violence

trump 2 real for black women they voted for a dude that don't take care of his responsibilities

glad i aint the uncle in the back room doin heroin

coochie after the club trick

low low low price of pussy

how i decide to go raw

men would have babies and not abortions cuz it would require us to go to the doctor

abuse is relative

dad was an aspiring preacher like an aspiring rapper

ai is the cotton jin

black womn patten for heater

giving homeless dick

field vs deployment

jail vs. prison

pregnancy test vasectomy

foreskins

drugs are for young boys

people with guns are scared bitches

lgbt DV do studs hit their girlfriends with their straps

post ops arr funnier than pre ops

dick losing a step

2% gay

- [ ]

pop art and anime

working for pussy

[brucewaynehater101]

Okay so both Jason and Jack have strangled Tim right? And he's likely been strangled by other people that to don't know about. Imagine:

Any time anyone reaches both hands towards Tim, whether it's for his shoulders, his arms, just anywhere near his upper body he freezes. His eyes get glassy and two small words fall from his lips "I'm sorry" he immediately apologizes. They could have been having the nicest conversation before this happened but the second those hands reach for him a single desperate apology falls from his lips as he prepares for strangulation. He could easily escape, he could throw a hit and run but he doesn't. He freezes and simply prepares for the loss of air.

Now. Think of what it'd be like if it was actually Jason who had reached towards Tim. Hed been reaching out to put one hand on Tims shoulder, they'd been laughing but the second Jason's hand nears tims shoulder he locks up. That one mumbled apology coming out of seemingly nowhere as Tim takes a deep breath and simply prepares for Jason's hand to wrap around his throat....but it never comes... Jason's hand stays suspended mid air, Jason's eyes wide before something snaps, Jason's hand drops like a puppets strings were cut and he just gets up. Leaves. A sudden scowl on his face.

TW: Trauma responses and child abuse

Yeah... DC is really aiming at Tim's throat all the time. By this point, he shouldn't even be able to talk. Godsdamn. He's been strangled, it's been cut, it's been shot through.... How are his vocal chords still working?

Anyways, I so vibe with realistic trauma responses being explored. I myself, when I'm uncomfortable, usually cover my neck. I don't have any trauma I know of regarding it, but I hate leaving it so open when I'm feeling vulnerable.

I imagine Tim both hates and desires something around his neck to protect it. After being strangled, he can't handle a constant pressure on his neck. Then again, leaving it bare leaves it more open to being attacked. He can't really win :/

The reaction in the ask is more about being strangled, though. I think, due to the two ways/people mentioned that have strangled him, he'll either react by apologizing or with violence.

Perhaps, now that he's closer to Jason, he subconsciously registers him as a family member similar to his father and not an enemy to fight. Therefore, even though both harmed him, the first reaction is the "better" choice. After all, fighting back might've made it worse. The other type of enemy goes away. Family usually sticks around long term.

For the specific scenario, this sucks for both of them. Tim didn't mean to respond like that and couldn't help it.

He'd feel two ways to Jason leaving. He'd either hate himself and think Jason does too, or he'll hate himself and be concerned about Jason (and how Jason is taking the guilt).

I made a fic a while back about how both Jason and Tim might feel regarding their necks post it being slashed. It's called "Stifling Scars and Stares."

EDIT: As someone's pointed out, Jack and Jason haven't, at least on panel or implied, strangled Tim.

Jason cut Tim's throat during the clayface incident, which could lead to some trauma regarding his throat. Other villains have strangled Tim.

Someone else pointed out that the whole zipper thing with the SA scene with Nyssa could lead to trauma as well.

As far as Jack Drake, he was emotionally abusive. There's no, as far as I'm aware, panel where he's physically hurt Tim. Imma re-read that to double-check. He did rip a TV off a wall in a fit of anger (which could point to possible physical abuse, but nothing confirmed).

Despite this, Jack loves his son. Tim loves his dad.

Anyways, my entire bad for not double checking. Once again, thank you for pointing out errors!

[batfsm]

@nomorepumpkin

Even if it didn't apply to Tim, it's a stupid policy. One that, as another user said, they regretted BUT only after they were kidnapped. They didn't care about their employees or anything else until it was to late.

Just because you love someone doesn't mean it isn't abuse. Jack and Janet loved Tim, we all know that, but, to me, they would have relied on Gotham's Police to get Tim back and that would have been bad. Especially if you think about none of the Bats being there to save him or others, which sucks but we know it happens.

They do make good points but considering it's DC, it won't shock me if they did one day have Jack and Janet not care at all.

I do enjoy them as good parents but they are also bad parents and it can, as you said, go either way. Most of the time it goes the bad parents way because DC makes it so easy to do so.

Actually, out of everyone I think only Dick has the best parents. Duke also, if you don't count his actual dad. So Duke and Dick for the best parents.

Bruce at least seems to be there for the kids, he's gotten better but he's both a bad and good parent, unlike their actual parents. Except, as I said Duke and Dick's.

Yeah, Bruce and Alfred are alot better than most of the children's biological parents but even they are messed up as a parent/grandparent.

Thank you for the receipts. I appreciate it.

Here, for anyone else wondering:

I keep forgetting to ask. Is the policy of Drake Industries not paying for hostage situations canon or fanon? Because I can't remember ever reading it when I did read comics but it's in a lot of fanfiction. Granted, mostly when Jack and Janet are shown as really bad parents...

Still though is the policy fanon or canon?

If canon, why? Especially since Tim never had a bodyguard like his parents probably did in some cases and he was living by himself.

[silverwhittlingknife]

How do you feel about Jack Drake?? What are your thoughts on him and Tim’s relationship?

Anon, I hope you were interested in a novel, because look, I am fascinated by Jack Drake.  He’s key to a whole lot of what I find compelling about Tim as a character, and if I were in charge of DC, I’d bring him back to life.  This would make Tim unhappy but would IMO make for good plotlines.

Jack and Tim’s relationship is Complicated (TM)...

Jack and Tim hug in Nightwing 20 / Jack impulsively yanks a TV out of the wall in Robin 45 / Tim grieves in Identity Crisis

“I could tell the truth.  But I don’t.” - Robin 66

...and it involves a whole lot of Tim lying, and feeling guilty about lying, and thinking about telling the truth, and choosing again and again to keep lying.

And I think that’s great.

Below the cut:

Shorter version - key points about Jack

Really long version - my gentler take (vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports) vs. my harsher take (Jack has some major flaws)

Final thoughts

Shorter version - key points about Jack:

He’s a bad parent.  He’s self-centered, he consistently prioritizes his own comfort and interests over his son’s, and when upset, he does things like order Tim off to boarding school.

But he’s never a bad parent in an actionable way.  He’s not like David Cain or Arthur Brown, who are abusive monsters.  Jack’s not a monster!  He just...kinda sucks.

He genuinely loves Tim. If Jack’s aware that Tim’s disappeared or is in trouble, he’s always worried and upset.  He periodically resolves to be a better dad, and IMO he’s always sincere.

And Tim loves him, a lot.  Tim’s protective of him and worries about him when he’s kidnapped or in danger, and when they’re reunited, Tim’s really relieved and usually hugs him (and Jack hugs back!). 

...But they have very little in common, and that’s a problem. Jack doesn’t value the things that Tim values, or respect the people that Tim admires, or care about the things that Tim’s interested in.  Tim lies to him a lot, but that’s partly because he correctly guesses Jack wouldn’t respond well if he knew the truth of what Tim’s up to.

The Batfamily is a surrogate family that Tim’s drawn to because of the ways his real family doesn’t meet his emotional needs…but also he feels guilty about that and disloyal. (And to the extent that his dad recognizes what’s going on, he's jealous and resentful!)

Very long version:

(LISTEN I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS)

Okay!  So first: Jack’s a character who IMO is pretty up for interpretation.  You can interpret him very charitably, and make excuses for the bad behavior, and fill in the blanks sympathetically when situations are ambiguous; or you can interpret him uncharitably, and emphasize the bad behavior. I don’t think either approach is invalid - it depends on what kind of story you’re interested in!  I have enjoyed Bad Dad stories and also stories that redeem Jack.

My personal take on canon is that Jack and Tim’s relationship is in a gray area.  Jack's definitely neglectful, and he does prioritize other things over Tim, but he’s never so bad that Tim can easily reject him, and he's never so bad that Bruce could justify taking Tim away.  He's just...not great.  Tim loves him, and feels loyal to him, but it’s a very mixed-up complicated love.

I have a gentler take and a harsher one which I switch between as the spirit moves me. xD

My Gentler Take (tl;dr: vigilantism is choir and Jack loves sports)

Here’s the core conflict: Jack and Tim are very different people with different values.  Tim idolizes Bruce and Dick and vigilantism, and secretly gets involved, knowing his dad will hate it. He gets increasingly wrapped up in his secret world and lies to his dad...because if his dad finds out, he’ll make Tim quit.

This is a great setup for an ongoing comic.  It’s practical, because it provides endless potential for plotlines, and it’s nicely thematic, because it maps closely onto relatable real-life situations with extracurricular activities:

Tim the drama nerd whose dad thinks he’s playing football and not in the school play; 

Tim the closeted-queer kid secretly getting involved in his school’s politically-active Gay-Straight Alliance; 

Tim the choir kid whose dad only values making money and wants him to go into the family business (and Tim keeps promising himself he'll give up choir soon, definitely soon, but maybe he'll stay in just a liiiittle longer, because they need him, you see, the last tenor left town, so...); 

Tim the computer geek with the sports-obsessed dad (this one’s just canon);

etc. etc.  

The extracurricular metaphor works pretty well for Tim’s relationship to vigilantism.  Tim's involved in his "extracurricular" because he genuinely thinks it's important and fulfilling, and he values it and wants to be good at it. He idolizes Bruce and Dick because they're good at it. He's been collecting information about it since he was a little kid, and hiding it from his parents because he knows they wouldn't approve. And mayyyybe there's also an element of low-key rebellion against his dad, and maybe that's secretly part of the appeal. And yet also as Tim gets more and more invested, he starts to daydream: maybe I could tell my dad and he'd be proud of me and supportive. But he doesn't, because actually he knows his dad would be upset and angry and make him quit.

And - again, just like with lonely kids and extracurricular hobbies - one of the things that happens is that Tim starts getting his unfilled emotional needs met ... by people he knows through this secret hobby. And people like Bruce and Dick start turning into a surrogate family. Which Tim feels guilty about. And also as Tim gets more and more wrapped up in their world, he has to lie to his dad even more, which means the distance between Tim and his dad gets bigger and bigger and more and more unfixable.

I love this dilemma. It's simple, it's recognizable, it provides endless sources for conflict, and there's no obvious solution! Tim can't tell Jack: he'll make Tim quit! And Tim doesn't want to quit, because he loves choir / art / theater / whatever.  Yeah, it’s difficult, and there are challenges, and sometimes he has doubts...but at the end of the day, he cares about it a lot.  And everything he values is there, and all the people he admires and cares about are there, and all he wants in the world is to feel like he's one of them and belongs there. So he has to lie, even though he doesn't want to lie, and he feels guilty about it...

...but also he ends up lying more and more.

(Sidenote: I think it's important that Tim chooses to keep lying - Tim's narration often glosses this as "I have to lie to my dad," and that's certainly how it feels to Tim, but this... isn't quite true. He has to lie to his dad, because if he doesn't, his dad will get mad at him and try to stop him, not because he literally has no choice about it.)

Other Reasons Why I Like The "Secret Extracurricular" Interpretation

(tl;dr it complicates not just Tim's relationship with his dad, but also all his other relationships)

Tim's problems have some obvious parallels to Steph and Cass, who both become vigilantes while rejecting their evil supervillain dads. But Jack isn't evil. And that means the Tim-and-Jack relationship is ambiguous and complicated in ways that I like. Steph and Cass can just leave their Bad Dads in prison, and say good riddance, and feel very righteous and triumphant about it! Tim’s more complicated. Tim gets into vigilantism ostensibly out of duty and altruism, but secretly, he's also involved for straight-up selfish self-fulfillment reasons. He's lonely, and bored, and his life feels pointless, but he thinks that Bruce and Dick are cool and amazing and he wants to be a part of the things that they do.  When his dad gets jealous of Tim’s relationship to Bruce, and feels like Tim’s looking for a surrogate family, he’s... not wrong.

And the ways in which Jack is not Actionably Bad complicate things from Bruce's POV.  If Jack was a straight-up villain, it’d be an easy call to keep in touch when Jack finds out and makes Tim quit...but he’s not a villain, not really.  So what do you do?  Do you try to surreptitiously stay in touch with Tim even though you’re ignoring his dad’s express wishes and thus forcing Tim to sneak around?  Do you respect his dad’s wishes and stay away from Tim even though you have a years-long relationship at this point?  

Again: a bit similar to the extracurricular analogy.  Say you’re the choir director and you’ve built this whole relationship with a kid in the choir, and you’re an important mentor to him and you care about him etc. etc. etc.... and then right before a big performance, his dad finds out he’s been secretly involved, and yanks him out.  How would you react?  Well, maybe kind of in some of the ways Bruce reacts.  You replace him. You’re annoyed with him. You miss him. You want him to come back. You’re also worried about him.  You’re upset with his dad.  But also... what should you do, exactly?

Bruce and Alfred and Dick care about Tim as if he were part of their family, but he’s not part of their family, and there’s a lot of interesting tension there.

My Harsher Take

Jack never hits his son.  But his temper is a big deal.

In his worst moments, he takes out his anger on Tim’s stuff - wrecking his room, or ripping his TV out of the wall and confiscating it.  When he’s worried about Tim, he usually expresses that fear by yelling at him / punishing him / sending him away - threatening to send him to boarding school in Metropolis in Robin III, or threatening to send him to military school abroad in Robin 92, or actually forcing him to go to an all-boys' boarding school post-NML.  

This is bad behavior!  It is Not Good!  

And you can easily connect the dots to a bunch of Tim’s terrible coping mechanisms, like the constant lying and or the fact that Tim’s go-to methods for dealing with interpersonal conflict are 1) repress it and pretend it never happened (most of his fights with Bruce), 2) withdraw from the relationship until he can pretend the conflict doesn’t exist (when his friends get mad at him in YJ, he quits the team for a while), or 3) literally run away from home.

Also, Jack is a Manly Man with firm opinions about how men behave vs. how women behave, and he thinks boys shouldn’t be scared and thinks Tim should date hot girls and pushes Tim to work out and wants him to play football and expresses period-typical sexism, etc. etc. etc. ... and though obviously this wasn’t what the writers had in mind at the time, all of that is certainly interesting to read backwards in the light of Tim as a queer character.

More Disorganized Thoughts on Jack Drake

Tim’s our hero, so we’re naturally more sympathetic to him, but it’s also true that relationships are a two-way street, and Tim doesn’t value any of the things his dad values, either.  Jack at various points is shown to care about grades, business, money, boarding schools, archeology, football, a kind of macho bragging-about-dating-hot-women ethos, and a very public and performative kind of caring. Tim tends to respond with discomfort or disinterest or even disgust.  When Jack gets on TV to try to rally the government to save his son from No Man’s Land, Tim isn’t touched—he’s mortified.  When Jack makes some bad investments and loses money, Jack’s deeply upset and his self-image is majorly impacted, and far from being sympathetic, Tim’s annoyed and kind of contemptuous of the idea that this is a problem.  Jack thinks fishing in the early morning and going to tennis matches is a fun father-son activity; Tim finds it exhausting and tedious.  And so on.

This means that Tim often longs to be closer to his dad in theory, but this longing is more tied to fantasy than to reality. He rarely seems to enjoy spending time with His-Dad-The-Actual-Person.  So for example, when Tim’s deadly ill with the Clench, he has an extremely poignant fever dream about telling his dad the truth and getting hugged…even as he insists in real-life to Alfred and Dick that he does not want them to tell his dad what’s going on.

The same is true of Jack, who IMO genuinely wants to be closer to his son and is continually declaring that he’s going to turn over a new leaf and get closer to his son…and just as continually backs out of activities or loses his temper when faced with spending time with his actual son.

Tim and his dad sadly get along best—by far—in Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder situations.  When Jack gets kidnapped or is in danger, Tim worries for him (and Tim grieves him deeply when he dies).  When Tim disappears or runs away, Jack’s genuinely worried about him.  So e.g. they have a really moving emotional reunion and hug when the earthquake hits Gotham, and Tim panics about his dad’s safety and comes running home (and meanwhile Jack’s been panicked about Tim’s safety!).  It’s the day-to-day, regular life stuff where they don’t connect.

Jack's written quite differently by different writers. Mostly, Tim's parents are at their least likable in his early appearances and early miniseries (this is where you get, for example, Jack and Janet being nasty at each other while a pained employee looks on, and Tim disappointed to once again get news of where his parents are via postcard - "I guess that sums them up! Never know where they’re going to be–or when–or even how long!” - and Tim alone on school break, and Bruce and Alfred thinking there's something weird going on with Tim's parents, etc. etc.). Jack's more sympathetic but still often unlikable in most of Tim's Robin solo, and he's almost invisible (but positively treated if he does show up) in Tim's team books.

For obvious reasons, Jack's remembered way more sympathetically after his death. Tim's completely devastated by Jack's murder, which he arrives moments too late to prevent, and he basically never gets over it. We see him grieving Jack again and again in Robin, and also in Teen Titans, and also in Resurrection, and again in the Halloween Special, and again in Batman: Blackest Night, and all the way up to the end of Red Robin. Tim also grieves for an extended time over Janet - he hallucinates a happy reunion with her when he's feverish in Contagion, and hallucinates her in the final issue of Robin, and the reveal-your-buried-emotions song in Robin 102 brings up his grief for her too (meanwhile, other characters dance or laugh or otherwise get giddy).  Tim’s grief over his parents’ deaths is intense and long-lasting.

I'm not going to clip comic panels because this is long enough, but if you're curious, here's a nice and fairly lengthy compilation of comic panels with Tim and Jack.

If you're interested in a Jack-centric story with a softer-but-still-recognizably-canon take on Jack, I really like the way Jack’s narration is written in the one-shots Heart Humble (set shortly before Jack dies) and Never a Hero (Ra's resurrects him during Brucequest, and Jack's archeology skills turn out to be unexpectedly useful).

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

The dad that stepped up

by Speechless_since_1998 He rubbed his eyes, “What's happening? Why is there a child in the cave?” “Hey, I'm almost fourteen, I'm not a kid anymore...” “Robin, not you,” he nodded at the boy. "Who is he?" Nightwing chimed in, "This is Tim Drake, his parents suck." "Hey!" “Well, it's the truth, little bird.” Words: 1539, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), The Batman (Movie 2022), DCU (Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Ra's al Ghul Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Jack Drake/Janet Drake Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Tim Drake Joins the Batfamily Early, Kid Tim Drake, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Good Sibling Dick Grayson, Protective Bruce Wayne, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, Kid Fic, Cute, Tim Drake Has a Plan, Cute Ending, Family Fluff, Brotherly Love, Father-Son Relationship via https://ift.tt/LrvOmwB

[batpham-discord-highlights]

Maddie is Tim's Bio Mom

Source: #ghosts-and-bats

A

GUYS

GUYS

SK

What what

L

?

A

WHAT IS TIM IS BIOLOGICALLY MADDIE'S SON????

SK

Omg

A

He's older than Jazz and Danny, having been born before she married Jack

Because Jack and Janet totally seem like the kind of parents who would adopt for appearance's sake and then be horrible parents and pay off CPS

This is a Good Parents Jack and Maddie Fenton only story

L

Yeah, wouldn’t that suck to find out as Tim tho

A

Right?

Maddie only knows who adopted him, so she knows he's Tim Drake, but she's not allowed to make contact and has no clue anything is wrong

He finds out when going through some of his parents’ old papers

He's rattled, but curious

So, he reaches out to them, something about touring their lab and a potential business partnership

And so, they meet

SK

And he finds out he has younger siblings who could definitely use his help?

L

I have so many ideas but brain no translation

EP

Danny: This guy looks like me, but has posh manners and is talking about becoming business partners with my parents, despite everyon thinking they're crazy...Oh no, did the Frootloop make a stable clone?

Danny: Look, he may say he cares about you and he's a good man, but he's not. He's a rich basket case who can't let go of the past

Tim: I know, but he's trying his best

Danny: He really isn't

(neither realizing the other is talking about a completely different one percenter)

A

Tim is a little confused as to why his little brother is trying to sabotage his relationship with Bruce

Like

What could he hope to gain by this?

another thought

Maddie totally tracked down a Lazarus pit to study for her thesis

She met Talia

For that single summer they started a fierce rivalry

L

I like where this is going

A

Tim has to call in his Mom due to a ghost problem in Gotham (this is post reveal, she's better with ghosts now)

And the Wayne's sit there and watch her kick butt

Damien is unexpectedly quiet and wary around her

"That's my Mom," Tim brags with a smirk after she finished and starts clean up

And Damien hisses

"you're related to MADDISON???"

He steps back and gives Tim a long, considering look

Then nods

"Acceptable, Fenton"

Then he leaves

He refuses to call Tim a Drake again

SK

Lol yes I love this so much!

A

This is especially good because I'm pretty sure it's canon that Maddie is a black belt in at least one martial art

She is fully combat capable

She's a genius inventor

She is every inch Talia's equal

What she lacks in lethality, she more than makes up for in ingenuity

SK

I love Talia and Maddie being enemies, but please also consider:

What I'd they're exes?

A

how did you read my mind????

What if Talia still misses her???

What if Damian has to call him brother now?

SK

Perfection✨✨

A

Talia joins the "let's kill Jack" club with Vlad

Danny was excited to fight ninjas at first but now they're boring and such a bother

Why does everyone want his dad dead?

Jason is impressed and deeply intimidated by Tim's Mom

He's heard stories about her at the cradle

She put the fear of God into Ra's

SK

This keeps getting better

A

And when she finds out about what happened during Brucequest...

She might need to go visit the old man and see how he's doing 😁

Pru calls Tim after it's over and absolutely gushes about his Mom

She has a new goal in life

Be Maddie Fenton

Ra's is so upset he let Tim get away in the end

What do you think is Maddie's maiden name? Or did Jack take her name?

SK

I kinda like the idea that Jack took her name

A

Right?

Damian is very wary of her and looks like a cat whose fur got rubbed the wrong way when she's around

He finds her very unsettling

Dick is in awe

This woman can get Damian to do things with minimal fuss

“Teach me your WAYS!” He cries.

Cass likes her a lot and is very curious about her homemade equipment

Jazz isn't sure what to think about this whole thing

She sure did get a big brother out of it

It's very disorienting for her tbh

She's not quite sure how to process the whole thing and it keeps taking longer because stuff just won't stop happening

Poor Danny is being worn thin and just wants a nap

Then he realizes that neither Vlad or Talia have blackmail on him

So, he tattles

And Maddie is very upset that there are people trying to kill her husband

SK

She protecc

S

Talia gets a very angry phone call

A

Vlad is flat out cut out of her life

She gets a restraining order on him for her entire family

She pulls obscure League lore knowledge out of her back pocket and declares a personal war on Talia in a way that makes Damian pale and Talia shocked

Ra's has already "stepped down due to health reasons"

So, she's essentially challenging Talia for control of the league over the crime of trying to kill her husband

[ectonurites]

One of the most annoying things about fanon Tim is that people over dramatise the issues with his parents so much that it makes it difficult to actually discuss genuine issues with the drakes parenting styles without sounding annoying

OKAY BUT MOOD YEAH... like yes I think Jack Drake sucks as a dad but in a very grounded way- unlike the heightened comic book drama involved in why a lot of other characters suck as dads. But people conflate those sorts of things so often, or just straight up make shit up about Janet who we literally know almost nothing about to even make judgement calls on in the first place.

Which like, I just want to say I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with exploring whatever concepts/making things worse in certain fanworks if it's the story you're trying to tell, BUT when people are trying to discuss the actual canon of the situations and others bring in/assume fanon dynamics because of how commonplace exploring those 'making it so much worse/different' situations is... it's frustrating to say the least

[space-specs]

I, T and X <333

Thanks for the ask bestie, this was very fun!!

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why

BBC Sherlock. I really wanted to watch this show when it was all over tumblr and all my friends were watching it back in like 2014, but I never got around to it. Eventually, people stepped back and were like "actually, so much about this show sucks so much", and I was just kinda glad I'd never actually watched it yet and now I won't. If I want Sherlock content, tbh, I'll probably just rewatch "Elementary, Dear Data" from Star Trek: TNG. Or finally finish the Enola Holmes stuff.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything)

Duke Thomas cannot make direct eye contact with people. It gives him a splitting headache. Since eyes both absorb and reflect light, looking directly at someone's eyes creates a sort of feedback loop of light beams for him.

Cass is, in all actuality, older than Jason. However, because there is some ambiguity about her precise age, both of them frequently insist they are the older sibling of the two. They could very easily confirm who is older; they both refuse because they don't want to be wrong.

Steph is more of the common sense in the batfam than people give her credit for. Don't get me wrong, she is far from normal (she is vigilante, she grew up in Gotham), but she is the one with the wherewithal to, idk, solve her problems by actually talking to people. She's clever and witty and quick on her feet and actually some really good and really practical people skills.

Duke and Jason are both functionally immortal for different reasons. (Also, they are good brothers and DC needs to bring back the two of them getting to interact).

Tim doesn't call Bruce "dad" and probably never will. Not because he doesn't see Bruce as his parent, but because "dad" has some very complex connotations for him and he doesn't want to apply those to Bruce. More specifically, because good batdad is canon to me, Bruce is better than what "dad" means to him. (It’s also important to me that Jack does try to be a father to Tim and does love him. But loving your kid is not always enough. Sometimes you still hurt them).

There's definitely something I'm forgetting that I'm even more die hard about, but this is already more than I intended on writing for this one 😂 needless to say this is a fun question. (Also maybe putting this out will kickstart me writing the fics I have planned based on 3 of these)

X - top 5-10 characters who are yoUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEM

Tried very hard not to just put every single batkid on this list but know that I would go to war for any of them I love them all so much.

In no particular order

1. Jason Todd -- listen, do I think his philosophy on crime should be applied to the real world? No, absolutely not. Has he done anything wrong ever? Also no.

2. Duke Thomas (bonus: the whole We Are Robin crew) -- if you hate Duke Thomas, meet me in Denny's parking lot. Something is clearly wrong with you and I will right it via blunt force trauma /j.

3. Tim Drake -- Catch me untangling the mess that is his fanon and canon characterizations and weaving a beautiful tapestry out of it. I see so many wrong interpretations about him and I am tired. Very carefully sorting out what should and shouldn't be kept from both fanon and canon every time I write him.

4. Cassandra Cain -- she has done nothing wrong ever and she deserves to be Batman. my favorite weirdgirl ever <3

5. Trevor Belmont -- my wife /p just introduced me to Castlevania and I did not expect to love it this much. Trevor is my babygirl and I would die for him.

6. Sypha -- I love her soooo much and I am dreading any potential romantic arcs to come about since she's the female lead because I really don't think she needs it. Please let her be cool af and single and not ruined in favor of the inevitable contrived romance, oh god.

7. Rise!Mikey -- I started my dive into tmnt content with Rise and then I tried to go back and watch 2012 because people said it was also good but they were so mean to Mikey 😭 I couldn't do it. He is like a squeaky toy to me.

8. Rise!Donnie -- I am captivated by his autism swag. Enough said. (Him and Mikey as a brother duo is so precious to me).

9. Razer -- Watch Green Lantern: The Animated Series if you haven't already. Do it. I promise you will not regret it. I won't say anything because spoilers but I have so much to say.

10. Talia al Ghul -- I am taking a knife to canon and carving out the parts I don't like because she is a good mom, goddammit!

Bonus: Koriand'r. I haven't read enough comics to know much about her, but I respect woman juice everyday for my favorite 6+ ft buff alien woman. (She should get to be huge and strong and I will fight for that).

[thattimdrakeguy]

Prompt: Bruce hugs Tim after Tim fought with Jack

Alright, fellas, gonna be honest. Got way into the whys and hows of the actual fight with Jack over the actual comforting hug with Bruce.

It’s in there, oh boy it’s there, but I’m curious to see if this thing even fits into a Tumblr post cause I don’t know what the limits are actually.

So uh,

Trigger Warnings for: Domestic Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Mentions of Drugs, Threats of the Police (is that a trigger warning? cause I feel like it should be nowadays), traumatization, and potentially more. Oh, and Alfred has a gun but idk if that falls into any triggers.

It’s not a “Jack is evil” fiction. I tried to stay away from that. But I didn’t try to not make him do something I did feel like he’d do at the same time. He never hits Tim, I’ll say that.

Hoping it’s not too bad. I feel it’s half decent. So ayy.

Wasn’t sure what to call it.

Maybe “Assumptions and Consequences” idk.

Also probably has lots of typos and grammar mistakes so sorry for that lol.

--

Tim Drake loved his dad. His biological mother had already died, and Jack was all Tim had. Dana Winters was only Jack’s girlfriend who was wanting to become Tim’s mother, but it hadn't happened quite yet. So Tim only had one parent left, and man, did it suck to have a parent sometimes when you’re Robin. All the lying from having to be Robin drove Tim mad some days. Plus neither of them were quite compatible with one another. Honestly how were they even related?

Jack thought Tim was a bad kid. Well, he didn’t, but look at the evidence. Tim kept sneaking out, leaving school early, getting into fights. That was a kid acting out if Jack ever knew, and Jack would blame himself, until he couldn’t be bothered about it. Was it Jack’s fault? Jack had a habit of forgetting it a day or two after an accident. So he never really did improve yet, despite saying he would.

But the thing was, Tim wasn’t a bad kid. He was a great kid; a really great kid. Tim Drake was Robin the Boy Wonder. Not that he was the most talented, or most efficient at being Robin, but Tim filled the job out well. Being a good kid as Robin, meant having to be a bad kid as Tim though. When Tim saw bad things happening, Tim had to disappear, for Robin to take a beating, and for Tim to keep the bruises.

One day it got too much for Jack to handle. Tim wasn’t even home yet, and Jack’s face was red. The man of the house kept pacing back and forth really considering what he had to do to contain Tim this time. In his sea of tension he started biting down on his fist to get out some of the anger but it wasn’t stopping. What would Tim’s mother think of Tim right now? All those years of Janet protecting Tim and coddling him, and all it took was--what a few years for Tim to turn into this? Janet would’ve been so disappointed in him.

Jack sat down in his recliner past midnight to wait for his son, and only seconds after the creaking sound of his chair did he hear the doorknob twisting on the opening door that must’ve been his son. Must’ve been a lazy day for Tim. Normally Tim would come in through the window of his bedroom. Jack was actually listening for a creak on the walls. After a quick sigh that came deep within the chest, Jack tossed down his remote swiftly onto the table making a loud smacking sound, as he stood up and turned around.

It was darkly lit like a shadowy alley way in the house. All Jack wanted to do was scare the crap out of Tim. He didn’t care how small Tim was, or how young he was, if Tim was so willing to let Jack be scared, Jack thought it only made sense for him to scare Tim right back to make it only fair. Jack grabbed a flashlight on the coffee table and shined it in the eyes of the small figure that stood right in his doorway. And he made sure to make himself seem as big as he possibly could. Standing up straight, broadening his shoulders, and holding his flashlight up higher.

He prepared his voice as something similar to Clint Eastwood. All he did all day was watch movies and take phone calls, and it really showed. “Tim, do you mind telling me, why in God’s green hell are you so damn f--” Jack quickly squinted his eyes. This wasn’t Tim he was looking at. It was Ariana Dzerchenko, and she was shaking in her boots, while Jack seemed disappointed it wasn’t his son. “What the hell are doing in my damn house?! You’re telling me at 3 A-#@!@#-M you don’t have anything better to do, then open my door when I never even gave you a key? My son isn’t even here. You trying to steal from me?” Jack went over to grab her arm after the brash accusation. “Get over here, I’m calling your Uncle.”

Ariana moved her arm away and backed outside, still shaking. She stared at Jack scared, and concerned. Ariana could tell he was disappointed for the wrong reasons

“Look, it’s either in my house and I call your uncle, and you take another foot and it’s the police.” grunted Jack. He stopped bothering doing the gravelly voice, but he was still oh-so-damned pissed. After Ariana didn’t bother making any move of any sorts, Jack relented and tried to talk a little more normal. “Do you know where Tim is?” he asked like it was only the afternoon and he happened to pass her in the park.

“N-no.” was the only word Ariana could manage to get passed her lips.

Jack’s brow lowered, and angled. “Then why are you here, Miss?” He took a step closer to Ariana. “And be honest.”

“T-Tim, uh, he, uh, he asked me to bring back this and put it on the kitchen counter.” the girl held up the house key. “And all he said to me was that he was going to be late. Really late, and that he didn’t want his dad to worry again.”

All Ariana could see of Jack was the way the shadows contoured around his aging face. Making him not even look human. It made him look paler, with black eyes and a still face that would barely move except when it got angrier.

“He tell you where he was?” Jack asked again as he turned his head to the left. His left ear was his good ear.

“No, sir. He just sounded...swollen-y.”

“Swollen?”

“Like he just got hit in the face again.”

“Did you hear anything else?”

“A really loud engine and some gunshots later when I called him. Look, Mister, I’m really worried about him too. I didn’t even want to come over here--but I was just--I was just hoping he’d be here again maybe. Do you know what he could be doing?”

“Hell no. At this point my son doesn’t tell me anything. All I can guess is that the son of mine, I spent all that money on, is dealing drugs, like my money isn’t good enough for him.”

“Drugs? Timmy? Drugs? I’m not his parent or anything, I’m just his friend, but Tim would never do anything like that. I think he’s in trouble in another way.”

“That’s what I thought, but somehow every week I’m getting a call from the school counselor telling me that my small-fry son is dealing with a bruise of some kind. They found him passed out in school one time, and I found dirt marks on the outside of his window. What kind of normal former-board-school-student do you hear about ending up like that?”

“But Tim went on for hours one time about how he hates drugs. He saw a kid with a bag of something and wouldn’t stop ranting for what felt like an hour. He--”

“Ari--”

“--wouldn’t ever--”

“You can go home, Ariana! And thank you for your time. I won’t tell the police, or your uncle. But just go home now.”

“I--” Ariana closed her eyes and realized she better just go. “Okay. Okay, I’ll...go. Just tell me Tim’s okay when he comes back. And--if it actually ends up being drugs...tell him--tell him we’re over.” she fled the scene not being able to handle it anymore.

Jack didn’t answer back, but he knew that she knew he wasn’t going to tell her anything that was going to happen. Once he heard a ruffling in the bush right where Tim’s room would be, he knew that the boy came home. Taking another chest deep breath he slowly walked to that wall where he saw Tim, and he used the flashlight on him for real this time.

That middle parted bowl cut, and baby-face were impossible to misidentify. His already large eyes grew larger and he looked like he saw an entire army of ghosts coming for his head. Sneaking into his own house was something he’s done dozens of times. Tim loved sneaky time, but this time he thought he really messed it up. His Robin career and life flashed right in front of his eyes.

Nothing in Jack’s mind resembled pleasant. Everything was fire and disappointment. Actually seeing his son in the act of sneaking around outside, when he should be in bed made everything he thought felt true as the solution to a math problem. Just like the outlaws in the westerns he watched, Jack narrowed his eyes as he paid attention to his target. He really needed to get outside himself fast.

Tim gasped, as his mind had no thoughts besides a realization that his dad finally caught him sneaking in. “Dad?!” he uttered before being grabbed by the collar of his sweater.

“So you finally decided that my house is better than whatever alley you've been laying in every night?” pushing himself closer to Tim, Jack made it so the only thing he could see of Tim was the panic in his baby blue eyes.

Meanwhile, all Tim could see was the anger in his dad’s face. “W-what are you talking about?!” Tim’s voice cracked. He knew his dad thought something was going on, but he never imagined it’d be this intense. He could break the grip on Jack at any time, but would Jack find that even more suspicious? Tim still had Dana thinking he was too small to play football. Could Jack believe Tim would be able to take down someone over a foot his own size?

“The drugs, Tim. The drugs.” The hoarseness to Jack’s voice was painful. If his hand was around Tim’s neck and not just his collar, he’d be strangling the kid. “I've been staying up each night for the past three days waiting for you to come home. To have a fatherly chat, but all I ever hear is you sneaking up the wall, and I’ve had enough of that. I try to be a father, and you just try to treat me like an obstacle. Is all I am to you, is in your way, Tim? I paid for your freaking ninja camp, and it ends within a week of you being there. If the people running the camp didn’t end up in jail, I’d have the mind to ask them what you exactly did there. A fake piercing, and fake stubble to look tougher? I’d be real curious to know where exactly a 14-year-old kid can buy a fake stubble.”

Tim was really doing his best to try and seem calm. If he didn’t everything would get much worse. Then it donned on him that he was treating his own dad like he would a master criminal in the middle of a breakdown. “Dad, I really know this looks bad. I really do. Trust me. But this isn’t at all like what it seems.”

“Answer me immediately: If I searched your room would I find drugs? Narcotics? Booze?”

Booze. Tim could smell the booze in his dad’s breath. If Tim showed up just a bit earlier it wouldn’t have been this bad. And you know Tim would beat himself up over that when he shouldn’t.

“No, you wouldn’t find anything of the sort. I need you to listen,  I’m going to need you to let go of me, and put down the light. It’s hurting me.” Another half second passed where Tim’s brain suddenly tried to process this. And like someone running away from the scene, it hurt too bad to stay on it. “I don’t deal drugs...I--I stop people from selling drugs!” Even in a moment like this, not having to lie for once felt like a weight off of Tim’s shoulders.

The man standing above Tim was about to blind him with that flashlight, but he eventually dropped Tim down onto the wet and muddy grass below them. Where he left him lay and to get mud all over his clothes without any sense of regret. Jack could only think of his late wife. Which seemed rare ever since he got to know Dana better. Strangely, this Janet that Jack was remembering seemed to be a lot more on his side than anyone that knew them back then would remember.

“Don’t talk down to me.” said Jack in an uncomfortably soft voice. “I let you stay in my house because I loved you enough to let you. Your room is my property, everything in there was bought with my money.” The pace he spoke was slow and methodical. His mind was quiet and released. “I am going to look in your room. You’re going to stay here, and when I come back to you. I’ll decide then what’s going to happen to you.”

Should Tim speak? Should he not? What was better right then? When he heard Jack talk about his room, he wasn’t worried about the punishment he’d have to deal with. All he was worried about was any proof about being Robin. That wasn’t just Tim’s own secret to keep. It was a secret he had to share, and was honored to share.

“I--I can’t let you do that, sir.” another voice crack from the kid.

“I bet I know why.” spoke Jack with full eye contact. To him he wasn’t lying to himself. It was a fact he had to find the evidence for. “Let it be known by the way, that I don’t hate you. I’m scared for you. But you also make it awfully hard to love you lately.”

That was one hit Tim couldn’t dodge.

Being 3 AM not too many people were able to witness any of this happening, except for one particular neighbor in Alfred Pennyworth. He was tidying up around the side windows on the second floor when he could see some sort of commotion at the Drake residence. Using binoculars like a bird watcher that exclusively looks for Robins, he saw Tim on the ground and Tim’s dad above him. That wasn’t going to fly past anyone in Stately Wayne Manor.

Very quickly he let Bruce know that Tim needed help and why. It’d only take a few minutes for him to return to his home, but it felt crucial. Tim needed a father figure that felt like he’d protect him, and not vilify him. In no world is Batman the best for the job of dad, but he gave it his best unlike Jack.

Outside it was wet from the harsh rain earlier in the evening. Most of the lights in the neighbors were out, signifying they had gone to sleep. A foot felt like a yard when everything was so quiet and dark.

So though the owner of the manor wouldn’t exactly appreciate it, Alfred brought a small fire-arm in the inner pocket of his suit jacket just in case things went worse. Very quickly he rushed his way over to Tim, making it just after Jack entered the Drake residence again. Tim still seemed in such a shock that he didn’t even try to get himself up.

In his head, Tim meant to go after his dad, but his mental legs just gave out on him. Leaving him to sit in the mud as he panics about what could happen next. He recounted where all of his Robin stuff was. During his messy messy thoughts he was almost certain that it was all on, wearing it under his clothes. Confidence was never Tim’s highest attribute though. Normally it was his perceptiveness, but it was failing him. He was lucky he could still recognize Alfred.

“Alfred?” said a confused Tim who was dazed more and more as the night went on.

“Young Master Timothy, are you alright?” greeted the Butler as he helped Tim up to see his feet. “I didn’t see everything, but I saw everything I needed to.” He quickly noticed a bruise on Tim’s cheek. “Young sir, did he do this to you, or was it another person?”

“Who’s ‘he’?” Tim’s eyes widened and looked past Alfred. “Dad?”

Alfred may have been an older man, but he wasn’t a man you should bother trying to stand taller than. The quiet, noble man turned around promptly and stood his ground and he saw fit. Only reaching his hand in, just in case, with no intent on striking first. When Alfred turned around to see the returning Jack, there wasn’t any cowardice within him. Former British Secret Service agent Alfred Pennyworth could get the drop on anyone if he tried hard enough, besides those with powers. Tim’s dad wasn’t someone with powers, so Alfred had his number ready just in case.

Jack on the other hand only had a vague sense of right and wrong keeping him from hurting anyone. Just sick of the lies, and obvious sneaking around. Whoever thought Jack was a good dad never really saw enough of him.

“Who--Are you--are you Wayne’s butler? Did he call you?” Jack  asked, pointing at Tim. “The kid’s fine. There’s nothing to worry about. He’s just being sensitive.”

“Jack Drake, I want to let you know that I am not a blind man, nor an easily fooled man. And that all I see when I look into the eye’s a man such as you, that all I see is an inner-pain that I’ve seen nearly everyday since my eyes could first see, and my mind could first retain thought. All you do is feel bitter, distract yourself, and in the moments where you can’t, you take it out on everyone else. If I look at the ground behind me, I can see a very brave boy have a fear so bad that he didn’t even want to get out of the mud. Either meaning he’s about to be killed, or he’s being traumatized, and I don’t see a gun in your hand. So sit down and get some rest, and think about it. While I’ll take young Timothy with me where he’ll be safe for the night, sir.”

“You know I’m not going to let you do that.” growled Jack.

“Then allow me to let you know that in my inner jacket pocket I have a firearm that you know I’ll use. Not to aim at your head, but below the waist where, if you don’t already know,  it won’t count for attempted murder.”

“I’ll call the cops on you then, you bum. You’ve freeloaded on Wayne before that man could walk. To this city you’re nobody but the guy that used to wipe Wayne’s ass.”

“I’m mighty gracious I don’t have any worry of convincing you of anything. The reputation I actually do have serves me enough just fine. As for...your reckless statement on the police, I should let you know we have cameras showing everything that happened. You wouldn’t be the one winning in court.” Alfred didn’t look pleased when he took another glance at Tim who was struggling to process any of this. Alfred was there in the same home Tim was in when he found out his mother died. This wasn’t something Alfred enjoyed doing. “You can come with me now, Timothy. We’ll figure this out, alright?”

Surprisingly, Jack let them walk away. Jack wasn’t an evil man. But not being evil doesn’t equal being good. Life was just complicated, and so was he. Did he regret his actions? Well, he isn’t a monster. Of course he did--Well, maybe he did. Who really freaking knew. But did he know why exactly he did if he had? Not quite. Was he going to get better? There was going to be a while before that’d happen.

Inside Tim’s own heart he felt dead. The remains of his biological family seemed to break down into crumbs of dust. Where was home anymore? Jack didn’t say he wasn’t allowed to come back home, but the message was made plenty clear that he couldn’t go back home easily. Actually, Tim didn't know if he wanted to go home after that. Even for such a great detective, Tim had no clue what his dad was going to be like after that.

Mud. Ew, the mud. It was all over Tim’s clothes and hands from his fall. It certainly wasn’t going to help Tim’s mood.

“Young Master Timothy, I think it’d be in your best interest to get a bath and relax. You can give me your clothes for me to wash, and I’m sure we have some of your clothes around here somewhere for you to lay around in.” he stated as he opened the door to Stately Wayne Manor for Tim.

Tim barely said any words, and said none of all during the walk to the Manor. “Oh, okay, Alfie.” Even his tone of voice seemed down on himself.

Seeing Tim so frozen stiff over it was breaking Alfred’s heart bit by bit. He’s seen Tim shake in fear, he’s seen him panic, but never frozen. This really was different. It was obvious it would be, but seeing it in person is always a different feeling. As they went up stairs you wouldn’t know Tim was an athlete. Alfred saw how natural Tim was at acrobatics in front of his own eyes, and now he saw the young boy struggling going up stairs.

Batman wasn’t able to make it till after Tim was in the bath. So he’d have to wait a bit to speak with him. He took off his cowl and how upset he was, was immediately evident. He had a stubble covered frown, and was breathing heavily, which was odd since he came home in the Batwing. As someone who stops domestic disturbances like this when he has to, he was fuming.

“We have to do something about Jack Drake, Alfred.” said Bruce drinking the tea Alfred gave them, as they waited for Tim in the kitchen.

“Something involving the courts may I assume?” assumed Alfred.

Bruce shook his head. “No. At least not yet, unfortunately.”

“Sir, but we have the evidence. There’s no doubt we’d win.”

“He’s still Tim’s father. That means something, and is a bond that’s hard to break, and shouldn’t be broken.”

“If I was only a second or two late, I would say it’s accurate to assume Mister Jack Drake was going to strike Timothy. He reeked of liquor and tossed him onto the ground.”

“But he didn’t hit him. Sounding harsh isn’t my imperative. But accusing a child of doing something they didn’t do, wouldn’t classify as anything that’d allow Tim to leave. And again, Tim and Jack are family. We shouldn’t break a family. That isn’t a good goal to set.”

“Are you really defending a man that didn’t bother to raise his own son, that he threatened with boarding school over something he should be more sympathetic with, and berates him when Tim actually acts his own age? People can change, Master Wayne, but when people are constantly given chances, those chances should run out eventually.”

“What would you suggest, Alfred? I’m doing what's best for Tim in my eyes. If we took him from his dad he’d hate us forever. Once Tim is able to function properly again, he’ll just look at it like another incident in his life. He’ll want to go back whether he wants to or not, because in his heart he loves his father.”

“Please forgive me for what I’m about to say, Master Wayne. But your over glorification of genetic parents because of the death of your own seems to have left you forgetting that whether biological or not, your family isn’t truly who’s related to you by blood.” Alfred sighed having to speak in such a rough way. “You’ve brought in Master Grayson as your ward, and Master Todd as your son. Family is who you bring in close and who you choose to stay with, and if you all care for one another. Sir, you know this best. And I’m not forgetful that they had no parents left when you brought them in, but don’t forget that just because they live right beside your home that damage isn’t being done to a child.”

The chair Bruce was sitting on squeaked as he moved back to stand up. He made his way up the stairs to where Tim was getting a bath. He took a deep breath, and took a moment to consider his actions, and knocked on the door.

“Tim--Tim are you decent? I’d like to speak to you about what happened. Now, it doesn’t have to be right this moment. Take any moment you need. But we need to know if--”

In a quick unhesitating moment, the door opened, and Tim never looked smaller to Bruce. The vulnerable look in his eye mixed with the oversized sweater he had on. The kid was still damp from a poor job drying himself, but it didn’t stop him from leaping at Bruce and putting his arms around him for a hug. Tim rested his head on Bruce’s chest as it was the highest he could reach, and he squeezed as hard as he could. A slight tear went down Tim’s face. Did he hear Alfred and Bruce? In the moment it didn’t matter, and Bruce hugged him back in a fatherly embrace. Neither of them knew what to do.

As the hug continued on longer Bruce lifted Tim into the air in a similar matter as Jack and Tim as Tim went to make sure they were okay during No Man’s Land. Would Tim remember that and choose to stay with Jack? Did Tim still believe Jack would get better? Or would Bruce’s rare act of physical affection convince Tim to tell everything he knew to make a case to stay with Bruce? Did it even matter yet?

It felt like a part of Tim’s life died, but as an era of your life is killed, another is born. Something new you have to make the best out of. Maybe the era will stay and it’ll get better, or maybe not. The future was a mystery, and could be scary. If it wasn’t then people wouldn’t be pretending to be fortune tellers. Sometimes though, it’s best just to remember and focus on the present.

“I love you, R--um, Tim. I hope you know this. I care about you, and want to protect you for as long as I can, and if needed I’m absolutely willing to--” Bruce was cut off by a still tearful Tim.

“I love you too, Bruce.”