Chapter Text
Damian was sitting at his desk drawing when Alfred (the cat) jumped up nudging his hand. Damian gave Alfred a few pets before continuing on with his drawing. Apparently the pets weren't enough as Alfred grabbed the pencil from his hand and ran off, Damian grumbled under his breath before chasing after the cat. Damian watched as Alfred ran through Tim's opened door, by the time he reached Tim's room Alfred no longer had the pencil in his mouth.
"Alfred where did you put my pencil?" Damian asked but Alfred just sat down and stated at him. "Great now I have to look through Drake's mess of a room, I'll be lucky if I find it within the next year."
Damian started searching picking up and shaking everything on the floor. In ten minutes time he made it to the left side of Tim's bed, when he lifted the skirt the pencil rolled out. Damian's relief of finding the pencil was short lived as when he placed his hand down to stand up the floor board popped up.
"Huh, what do you think Drake is hiding?" Alfred meowed back and plopped down besides him. Damian reached into the hole in the floor looking to see if there was anything, it wasn't long until his hand brushed against something. When he pulled it out he saw that it was a small black metal briefcase, Damian took no time placing it flat on the ground and tried to open it. To his complete surprise the case wasn't even locked despite having a locking mechanism.
"Truly disappointing of Drake," Damian opened the case. "Why take the time to hide something then leave it unloc-" Damian couldn't finish his sentence after he looked into the case. That was not what he was expecting to be in the case, that was nowhere near close to what he was expecting to be in there. Once he was able to possess what he was seeing he slowly closed the lid, cradled the case to his chest and turned to lean against the bed.
"What do I do with this?" Alfred rubbed against Damian's side meowing trying to give comfort to his distressed friend. While that did help Damian was still unsure of what to do.
"Stop pushing me off the road dickhead." Jason hit Dick with his elbow.
"Stop throwing red shells at me and I'll think about it." Dick scooted out of Jason's line of fire. Tim laughed at their antics as he crossed the finish line.
"Look at that, because of your childish behavior Tim won again. I'm never playing Mario Kart with you ever again."
"My childish behavior? What about your childish behavior? The only reason I'm pushing you off is because you keeping throwing shells at me."
"If you don't like it then stop blocking my path when I'm trying to pass you."
"That's not how the game works, I'm supposed to try and block you."
Bruce decided to step in before the argument got too far. "Boy's enough, maybe it's time to pick a different game to play."
Before Jason could protest that solution he heard the sound of one of the controllers dropping. When he turned his head towards his brothers he noticed that Tim had gone white as a ghost and was shaking slightly. He then noticed that his brother was staring intently at something that was behind him, when he turned to look he heard Damian's voice.
"Father." Damian called in a voice that Jason could not decipher.
"Did you change your mind and decided to join your brothers?" Bruce turned in the chair he was sitting in then quickly stood up when he noticed that Damian looked extremely worried about something. When Bruce stood the others stood as well. Bruce also took note of the case that Damian was holding against his chest. "What's wrong sweetheart? What do you have there?"
While Damian walked over to Bruce he made quick glances back and fourth between Bruce and Tim. That caused Bruce and Dick to finally notice Tim's frantic state that was getting worse. "I found this in Drake's room."
As Damian went to hand the case to Bruce Tim spoke up causing Damian to pause. "WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?" Tim rushed forward trying to grab the case but Bruce stepped in front of Damian blocking his path.
"Tim please don't yell at your brother." Bruce was trying to calm Tim down but Damian yelled right back.
"ALFRED STOLE MY PENCIL AND HID IT IN YOUR ROOM BECAUSE YOU LEFT YOUR DOOR OPEN."
"THAT DOENS'T GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO GO THROUGH MY ROOM, YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN ME SO I COULD GET IT."
"IF I WOULD HAVE DONE THAT I WOULD HAVE NEVER FOUND YOUR DRUG BOX." Damian's voice broke at the term drug box. It took everyone a second to prosses what Damian had said.
"I'm fucking sorry I must have misheard did you just say drug box? As in there are drugs in that case, like nonprescription dugs?" Jason's voice was low and dark, and he's eyes had started glowing bright green. Bruce took no time to open the case he was shocked to see that Damian was telling the truth, he had really hoped he was lying. Jason and Dick both looked over Bruce's shoulder into the box and saw multiple labeled bags of drugs along with a notebook and pen. Jason was beyond pissed and lunged at Tim, he was only stopped by Dick wrapping his arms around his waste holding him back. "WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK ARE YOU DOING WITH DRUGS? WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU START DOING DRUGS? HAS BEING A VIGILANTE NOT SHOWN YOU HOW BAD DRUGS ARE?"
"Nothing, nothing is wrong with me and It was actually being a vigilante that made me curious about drugs?" Tim had backed up from were he was standing putting room between him and a very angry Jason.
"How did being a vigilante make you curious Tim?" Bruce could not believe he was having this conversation.
"Not long after I started being Robin I started wondering about the drugs that people that we both helped out and put away were doing? I was curious about what the drugs in their systems were doing. How were they were affecting the person? How long would it last in the system? Questions like that."
"IF YOU ARE CURIOUS ABOUT THAT STUFF YOU WATCH A FUCKING DOCUMENTARY, OR READ SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. YOU DON'T START DOING DRUGS YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!" Jason struggling in Dick's hold trying to get free.
Tim continued on, "I did both, but it wasn't enough. I needed more information so I started taking drugs from busts that we made. I always tested the drugs in the lab first to make sure that they were safe."
"SAFE, SAFE, DID THIS KID REALLY SAY THAT HE TESTED DUGS TO MAKE SURE THEY WERE SAFE? TIMOTHY. JACKSON. DRAKE. WAYNE. DRUGS ARE NOT AND NEVER HAVE BEEN SAFE, NO MATTER WHAT."
"Jason please try to calm down. Tim have you been experimenting with drugs this whole time?" Bruce was not liking how this conversation was going.
"No, I couldn't when I first started. The risk of accidently getting addicted was not worth it back then. Batman was too unstable to lose another Robin, so I held off. I was unsure of what to do, well that was until Jason came back." That statement caused Jason to paused his escape attempts from Dick's hold. "After he came back and was integrating back into the family was when I tried one of the drugs for the first time. With Jason back it wouldn't matter if something went wrong as you had him again. Though the first drug I did was LSD (acid), and it didn't go well so I held off. It made me realize that Jason being back was still so new that the risk wasn't quite worth it yet. I didn't start tying the other drugs until after Cass, Damian, and Duke joined the family. With them around the risk was finally worth it, you had enough people around that it would no longer matter if you lost me."
"ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE? DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE BRUCE HAS OTHER KIDS THAT FOR SOME REASON IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU END UP ADDICTED TO DRUGS OR GOD FORBID OVERDOSE AND DIE. DO YOU THINK THAT NOBODY WOULD CARE? DO YOU REALLY THINK I WOULDN'T BE HEARTBROKEN TO LOSE MY BROTHER THE SAME WAY I LOST MY MOTHER? IS ADDICTION SOME KIND OF JOKE TO YOU?"
"No."
"NO, IS THAT ALL YOUR GOING TO SAY ABOUT THAT." When Tim didn't answer Jason scoffed and changed direction. "WHAT DRUGS ARE IN THERE AND WHICH ONE'S HAVE YOU DONE?"
"I have done LSD (acid), MDMA (ecstasy/molly), Mescaline (Peyote), Speed, Psilocybin (magic mushrooms/shrooms), PCP (angel dust), Ayahuasca, Salvia, and cocaine. I've done all of those only once I had also roofied myself once as it is used fairly often in Gotham. I have done marijuana multiple times both by smoking it and consuming through edibles. I do it with Bernard sometimes it is the only drug he is aware of me doing, I also do it alone. The other drugs in the case I haven't done are bath salts, Heroin, and Meth they scare me too much to try."
"OH DID YOU HEAR THAT BATH SALTS, HEROIN AND METH SCARE THE KID, YET THE COCAINE DIDN'T...THAT'S IT I'M KILLING THE KID. LET ME GO DICK I'M SLITTING HIS THROAT ON PURPOSE THIS TIME." Jason restarted his struggle in Dick's arms trying to inch towards Tim, Dick responded to this by leaning back so Jason's feet no longer reached the floor. "KNOCK IT OFF DICKHEAD AND LET ME DOWN."
"ENOUGH." Bruce's shout while slamming the case shut was startling enough for Jason to stop fighting against Dick's hold, everyone looked up at Bruce as he spoke. "Dick take your brother to the cave and let him take out his anger, under no circumstances are you two to spar another living being while angry. Damian you may either join your brothers or go back upstairs. You are also grounded from patrol for 3 days as you broke Tim's privacy by going through his stuff. Timothy you and I are going to have a talk in my office. If I found out that anyone is listening to our conversation you are not going to like the consequences. Do I make myself clear?" Bruce could hear a chorus of yes's.
After that Dick dragged Jason (who was still trying to get at Tim) down to the cave, Damian decided to go back to his room. Tim and Bruce waited a few minutes to make sure that Dick and Jason made it to the cave before heading to the office.
Bruce placed the drug case on his desk. He then leaned against the front of his desk his hands braced against the ledge by his sides. "I am going to ask you some questions and I want nothing but honesty. Do you promise to tell me the truth?"
"Yes, I promise to tell the truth." Tim stood opposite of Bruce, close but not too close.
"Tell me again why did you start wanting to "try" drugs?"
"I just wanted to know what people were experiencing. I thought that if I knew first hand I would be able to help them out better."
"Where did you get the drugs?"
"All drugs except Marijuana and 1 more came from villains that we have faced, I would secretly pocket some before leaving the scene. I get the Marijuana 'legally' with a fake ID and with a bit of makeup, the other I tried at a party."
"Okay, Minus the Marijuana how much of each drug did you take?"
"I carefully measured out by my weight an estimate of about how much would get me just high. I took the bare minimum plus a little extra so that I could experience the whole effects of the high."
Bruce rubbed his forehead with his right hand. "Oh Tim that could have gone so wrong if you messes up a calculation."
"I know that's why I always went over my work at least 3 time."
"Okay, when and where have you been taking the drugs?"
"I take them in my room and usually pick a day/night that Jason isn't going to be home as most of the time he is the one to enter my room without notice. I also always make sure that at least one person is at home incase something goes wrong."
"How long has this been going on?"
"About a year and a half, I typically wait a few weeks to a few months before each drug, the LSD was an outlier as I took it 4 years ago. I hadn't measured with that one, and ended up having too much it scared me quiet a bit."
"Was there any other drug that you tried that wasn't in this case?" Bruce placed his hand on said case.
"Only khat. That's the one I took at a party, the host had recently gone somewhere in East Africa and brought it back."
"Were you on drugs the day that you had too much caffeine?"
"No."
"Were you on drugs when you figured out about how we age differently, or the day you realized that most of us in the family have first names as last names?"
"Yes to both. I had tried the cocaine the night that I realized that I had been 17 for a while. I'm still not sure what got me on that train of thought. I'm actually surprised that it was the cocaine that induced that thought prosses. I would have personally put money on it being a hallucinogen being the cause and not a stimulant, but I do guess that a stimulant could also make since." Tim stopped his rant looking up at Bruce who was looking at him deadpan 100% unamused. "Sorry and I had an edible after you have checked up on me the day of the name thing. I thought that it would help me relax and I'd be able to get better sleep. It didn't really pan out the way I thought it was going to."
"Did Bernard ever know that you were doing other drugs besides the Marijuana?"
"No, I swear to you on that. If he would have know about the other drugs he would have told on me."
"How do you know that?"
"I asked him once if he ever thought about trying other drugs. He said absolutely not, then he asked me. I must have hesitated too long or didn't say no with enough confidence as he looked at me weird and said that if he found out I was doing anything other then drinking alcohol or having some weed that he'd tell you, no hesitation."
"Okay, what is the notebook for?"
"I wrote down everything in it. What I took, how much I took, when I took it, and what I experienced."
"okay, last question," Bruce walked over to Tim lifting his chin so he no choice but to look him in the eye. "Why would you possibly think that you aren't important enough for anyone to care about you if you got addicted or died?"
"Jason had been right you know, I was just a replacement, a placeholder, I was never meant to stay for long. You hated me when I first started and I was only supposed to be around util Batman got better, then go back home like it never happened. But then my parents died and you got stuck with a kid you never wanted. If you didn't like or want me why would anybody else, why would anyone truly care if something bad happened? I hadn't fully realized that that wasn't true until Jason slit my throat and I saw how scared everyone was. That's the main reason why I haven't tried the last three drugs."
"Oh Tim, "Bruce led them to the couch sitting them both down. "I am so sorry that I treated you so poorly when we first meet. I was in such a dark place and I took my anger out on you and I should have never done that. That has been one of the biggest makes in my life, and I am sorry that I haven't done more to make that up to you. I love and care about you as much as all my other other children, they are not worth more then you, their lives hold as much meaning to me as yours does. I do not want to loose any of you no matter what. I can't go through the hurt of loosing another child again Tim, you are much too important to me. I will do everything in my power to make sure that you understand that." Bruce wiped the tears that had gathered under his eyes, he could tell that Tim was holding his tears back. "That being said it is time to go over what your punishment is."
"Okay." Tim knew that this punishment was going to suck. Play stupid games and win stupid prizes as they say, and Tim had played a massively stupid game.
"Effective immediately you are suspended from working as Red Robin for one month, one of girls will go out at Red Robin here and there as to not draw any suspicion. You are also suspended from work at Wayne enterprises for one month, though officially it will be know as a vacation. As Bernard didn't know about the drugs I have nothing against him and you can spend as much time with him as you please. While being grounded from working you are not grounded from anything else, I just want you to be a teenager for the next month. The one exception is that you are to still keep your training up in the cave, however you are not allowed to use the Batcomputer. You are also not allowed in the cave at night while the rest of us are out. You will also be getting randomly drug tested until I feel like I can trust you not to make this mistake again, unfortunately that will be a very long time."
"Is there anything else?"
Obviously you are to no longer do drugs, the only two exceptions will be Marijuana and alcohol." Tim looked very surprised at that. "You have been 17 for so long that technically speaking you are over 21 so both are legal for you, however those two come with a few rules. With alcohol your brain is still 17 so I don't want you getting drunk often, I'd prefer never. But I've raised two teenagers before you and I know that it's best not to expect that. With Marijuana I do not want you using it more then once a week, and you are to never use it around Damian especially if only you two are home. Once your grounding is over you are absolutely not to use it before work or going out as Red Robin. If you are obviously high/drunk or if I drug test you and it comes back with more then just a trace amount of marijuana I will have no choice but to fire you from work, and you will be suspended again from Red Robin. If any other drug comes back from a drug test work will have the same result, and you will no longer have the title of Red Robin. I love you but I can not have an addict working with Batman."
"Okay, I will respect your rules. I also promise you that I won't ever do other drugs again."
Bruce pulled Tim into a tight hug and whispered, "I wish I could believe you, but right now I can't."
"I understand." Tim could feel his tears trying to escape but he wouldn't cry until he was alone, so until then he relaxed into Bruce savoring the moment before pulling away.
Bruce stood up and walked over to his desk. "I know that your grounding isn't a typical one but I do want you in your room for the rest of the night. Take some time to really think about everything okay." Bruce opened up the drug case and took out the Marijuana bag, and notebook before closing it again. "I'm going to dispose of everything else in this case but you may have this back." Bruce held out the bag of lose Marijuana, joint's, and edibles for Tim to take. "I'm going to read and make a copy of the notebook then you may have that back."
Bruce set the notebook on his desk as Tim grabbed the bag. "Thank you." Tim turned and started walking out of the office.
"Wait." Bruce walked up to Tim turning him so they faced each other, and cupped his face so they could look each other in the eyes. "I love you so very very much, and nothing is going to change that. However I have never been more disappointed in you, then I am in this moment." Bruce let go of Tim. "You can go to your room now."
That was enough to make the tears that Tim had been hiding spill. "I'm sorry, and I love you too." Tim doesn't think he has ever left a room so quickly in his life.
Bruce let himself fall back onto to couch. "Where did I go wrong?"
"Would you like a list in alphabetical or chronological order?" Bruce jumped at Alfred's voice. he hadn't noticed that the butler had entered the room.
"Alfred do you think this was my fault?" Bruce watched as Alfred set a tea tray down grabbing cups for both of them.
"While you might have not been the kindest to Master Tim when he first arrived, it was entirely his decision to do the drugs. You did not force him to do such a thing. The boy is just too smart and curious for his own good sometimes, and he has a habit of doing dangerous things to satiate his curiosity. It is our job to help guide him away from such things and give him an appropriate redirection."
"Did you have any inclination that this was happening?"
Alfred took a sip of tea before answering. "Yes, and no?"
"What do you mean by that?" Bruce could not begin to believe that Alfred knew about one of his kids doing drugs and not telling him.
"I was aware that he was consuming Marijuana."
"How long have you known?"
"Only for a few weeks. The day Master Tim came into the kitchen still sleep deprived and talking about the whole first names as last names discovery. As you had pointed out his eyes were very red and how unfocused he was, you however mistook it for solely being sleep deprived. While yes Master Tim was sleep deprived his eyes had not been that red during lunch and his focus had been much better. That's when I theorized that the boy wasn't just sleep deprived but that he was also high." Alfred took another sip before continuing. "That was why I decided to go upstairs with him, with how fast he came into the kitchen I had doubted that he had put away whatever he used to get high. I did not want Master Jason to take him upstairs and find his stuff out and about. I didn't want to risk what happened in the living room to happen when they were alone and especially not while Master Tim was high. I found out I was right when we reached his room, he had a half eaten edible laying out on his desk. After he came down from his high we talked, he told me that he used it for relaxation purposes only."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Master Bruce I do not, and will not share everything that the kids tell me in confidence. As long as nobody is hurting themselves or other's I will keep their secrets. As far as I knew Master Tim was only using Marijuana he gave no inkling that he was experimenting with other drugs. Trust me if he had been I would not have hesitated to tell you."
"I know, I know. I'm sorry for trying to accuse you, I just don't know what to do about this."
"I'm afraid that I can't tell you what to do, I can only help guide you to the best of my ability."
"Thank you Alfred, I don't know what I would do without you."
"Neither would I sir." Alfred took both of their empty cups, putting them on the tray, and left Bruce to his own devices. Bruce granted himself a few minutes of decompressing before heading downstairs to check on Dick and Jason. Bruce turned the hands of the clock opening the passage way to the cave, and started walking down the stares. Hopefully Jason hadn't turned the cave in complete shambles during the time that he was down there.