Family Ties : A Batfamily Story

Chapter 11

This book just reached 100 READS!!!!! OMG  Thank y'all so much!!!

POV Tim

It's 2 AM and I'm out of coffee, that sentence just about describes my life. Since the DNA test came back I've been doing nothing but theorize why the Penguin would be teaming up with Catwoman. Last time they teamed up it turned out very badly for Selina, I don't imagine she would turn the other cheek that easily. I have already double checked the crime scene and scanned the mud sample, but nothing has made the picture any clearer. This is normally when I would ask Bruce for help, but I want to do this on my own to prove I can make it as a solo hero. That's why I became Red Robin after all.

My eyelids weight me down as I stumble up to the kitchen. By the time I reach the coffee machine I'm at the point of passing out. Searching throw the cabinets I find my stash of five-hour energies. Taking three in hand, I chug them all. 

"Tim?" I hear a small voice call from behind me.

My eyesight focuses as the caffeine kicks in. It's Robyn.

"What are you doing here?" I ask her, my words slurring a bit.

"Are you ok?" She studies me with a worried look.

I shake my head, "I'm fine,"

She doesn't look convinced. "Why are you taking a lethal amount of caffeine at 2 in the morning?"

"I could ask you the same thing." I really don't feel like dealing with her right now.  My brothers know not to bother me when I'm without caffeine. Why can't she just do the same?

"I don't look blackout drunk." She retorts crossing her arms.

"I'm not drunk," I sigh, my patience running short as I search for the ingredients for my black tar coffee.

"You do realize you're still wearing your Red Robin costume, right."

"It's not a costume," I find myself quoting Bruce. "It's a uniform. Besides, who are you to question me? You're out of bed too."

"I'm waiting for Jason." She mumbles, fumbling with her fingers.

I look away from the coffee machine as she says this. "Do you really think he would come back here, and besides, why would you want to see him?"

"It's none of your business," She snaps defensively.

My temper boils, I've had it with this girl. First, she comes here with no warning and worms her way into the family. Then, she does nothing but cause drama for the rest of us. She not even Bruce's actual kid. If Dick was right, then he was lying about it all. She is nothing but a whore's daughter.

"Jason is nothing but a psychopathic murderer! You wanna know what happened to him? He was reckless and got himself killed by the Joker. Then, he came back and threw a tantrum because his murderer was still alive. He kills for a living and shoots up the streets for fun. He's an asshole and deserves everything that he got!" I yell. "If he's your friend, he is just using you to get to Bruce." 

She flinches as I raise my hand's in my exhausted state. Her arms come up to defend herself from a hit that never comes as tears fill her eyes. That's then that Damian comes into the room.

"Drake," He says hoarsely as he rubs the sleep from his eyes. "Yell again and-" He stops as he sees Robyn crouched down and crying in front of me with my hands raised in the air.

Before I can tell him that it's not what it looks like, he pounces at me. I'm too late to respond as he pins me to the ground. I may have trained for years as Robin and now as Red Robin, but my skills are still inferior to his assassin abilities. He pins me to the ground as I hear Robyn fall backward in surprise. Damian wraps his leg tightly around my throat in a choke hold. I can feel the air trapped in my lungs as my windpipes close.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on my sister." He hisses in my ear.

"S-sister, huh?" I manage to say. "You just-t met her."

Robyn watches us with terror in her eyes. "Please, let him go! He didn't touch me."

Damian glares down at me, "I wouldn't put it past him." He growls letting me go.

As we both get to our feet, I rub my tender neck.

"Gremlin," I spit at him.

"Don't fight a battle you can't win, Drake." He talks down to me. "It's embarrassing."

As he walks over to Robyn, I feel a pang of sympathy for the small teenager. She really thought I would hit her. I knew that her mother, Connie, won't have been a good parent to her. I guess I underestimated how abusive she was.

POV Robyn

I was stunned with shock as Damian walked out of the room. Tim looks confused as well. Picking myself up, I trail after Damian with a loss for words. Should I be thanking him for stopping Tim or running away because he just tackled a man to the ground and held him in a choke hold? My stomach knots as I try a calm my heart rate. I wasn't expecting Tim to do that but, in the few times I have talked to him he was always on edge. He did forcibly push me out a window. I shouldn't have let my guard down.

What about what he said about Jason? I was hoping he would come back tonight. Though Dick seems like a great guy, I felt more connected to Jason. We are both street kids after all. But after what Tim said, I remembered how dangerous he is. I knew that Red Hood killed, it's common knowledge to anyone of the East End, but the way Tim said it. I keep forgetting that these people are the living legends. Batman and Robin, Nightwing and the Red Hood. They are vigilantes, all of them. It's enough to make my head spin. Jason has killed people, it's even weird to think that.

"Are you okay?" Damian inquires quietly as we walk down the long hallways of the manor.

"Yeah," I mumble as my train of thought spirals into random strings of questions. 

"My mother hurt me as well." He shares, something I wouldn't think he would do.

I have always felt the need to justify Connie's actions. Her reputation has always meant so much to me. 

"Connie never-" But what the point of lying anymore? She's dead after all. "She did hurt me. Every time I spoke out of turn or asked too many questions. I would try to hide the bruises with the cheap makeup she bought."

"I grew up in the League of Assasins." He explains as I listen with skeptic ears. "My grandfather was Ra's al Ghul, the leader. I was excepted to be the perfect warrior, the perfect son. My mother would spar with. She's where I got most of my scars. Though she said she loved me, it didn't make the cuts hurt less."

Is he serious? "So you grew up in a cult?"

"It's not a cult," He snapped as I flinched away. He noticed my fear and sigh. "It's not a cult." He repeated gently. 

"I'm sorry," I mumble my apology. "But you got to understand that everything here is insane. I mean, the richest man in Gotham is Batman."

He brushes off my remark and stops in front of my room. "There is a gala tomorrow night. I suspect that no one told you. In the morning, Grayson will probably want to take us all to breakfast." He turns away and heads back down the hall we came from. "Good night,"

"Good night," I call after him. 

What a weird kid.