Work Text:
Amy Rohrbach knew three things about her now partner of three months. He was horrible at time keeping. The man was always late, holding two cups of coffee and looking as if he hadn’t slept in a month. Two he had the best closing record of any cop this side of the river. Which, is mostly why she let it slide that he was always late. And three Dick Grayson didn’t talk about his past. Which was fine, if not a little awkward at times. They stuck to the topics of Amy’s family, sports, TV programs and the weather.
It wasn’t that Dick Grayson didn’t like to talk. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was he didn’t like to talk about himself, his past, his family or anything he did outside of work. It had taken Amy a whole month and a half to realize it too. Officer Grayson was a master of deflection. He always found a way to change the topic.
So when he waltzed into the precinct half and hour later then his scheduled shift, Amy didn’t bat an eye. She had taken her time gathering their gear and stowing everything in their car for the day. She had finished up two reports and gotten a snack. She did notice he was lacking his usually peace offering however, which was disappointing as the coffee at the precinct was always burnt.
She said nothing when he was slower than usual taking down a petty thief that had tried to rob a shop. But when he had asked slightly panicked to borrow her phone, she had to bite her lip.
“Hey Tim. I am just calling to check in. I forgot to charge my phone sooo. You know what, I’ll try the house line.” Dick hung up and dialed yet a third number and gave a frustrated sigh when whoever this Tim was, didn’t answer. “Hello, yes I just was calling to see if Timothy Drake was there today?” Dick called yet another number.
“Yes, I just wanted to make sure he got there okay.”
“Umm Richard Grayson…. No, I am not on the list. But… Yes I realize that, but… I just want to know if he made it in.”
Amy glanced over. Dick was tapping his knee slightly, eyes scanning the road, alert, even while arguing on the phone. Some days Amy wished she knew more about the man next to her. She trusted him to do the job and to do it right.
He had been straight laced his whole way through the academy, passing with record high scores, and he worked hard on the force. She respected that. He had bounced from partner to partner, because working with a cop not on the take was hard if you were. So, as soon as an officer realized they had been landed with a rookie cleaner than a rubber duck, they passed him on. Which is how he ended up working with her. Amy liked that he wouldn’t take a bribe and actually did the job. But that didn’t mean she didn’t want to know more about what he was like outside of the force too. From the sounds of it he was on the phone with a school, she didn’t think he had kids. No, he definitely didn’t. He had said no when she asked their first week working together. Maybe a brother? But they had different last names so that didn’t quite work either.
“Look I realize you can’t tell random people that call, but I just want to make sure he is ok? His parents are out of town and I’m supposed to check in. Yes I know I am not on the list. No they can’t call you. They are in Egypt or Cambodia or something. Well, if he is their can you send him a note to call me between classes on…” He glanced down at the phone and rattled off Amy’s cell number, before she could protest him giving it out. “What do you mean you can’t give him a note? Does that mean he’s not there?” Dick was suddenly sitting straighter as if he was going to leap from the car. “I…” Dick looked down at the phone again. “They hung up.” He looked as if the phone had personally betrayed him.
“You okay?”
“I... yeah. I’m supposed to check that my old neighbor's kid is okay, but I can’t get a hold of him.”
“Why not call his family?”
“Well, they’re not home soo…”
Amy sighed, “Alright, where does he live we can stop by.”
“We can’t. He lives in Gotham.”
Amy frowned. So Grayson was from Gotham. That sure explained a few things. Like how he seemed to know so much about toxic gas protocols. It had been very handy when that school had been exposed to a form of mustard gas a few week ago.
“Is there anyone else that can check on him? Your parents or friends?” Amy couldn't remember if Dick had ever mentioned parents or friends. She needed to pay better attention.
“Ummm, no.”
Amy pinched her nose. They couldn’t drive an hour to Gotham to check on this old neighbor, and Dick clocked in late almost everyday so he couldn’t afford to leave early-- no matter how good his closing rates were. “Is he likely to get into trouble?”
“It really depends. He’s a good kid, but he can be reckless if it means helping someone.” Dick slumped back into the chair. “He’ll call. I was supposed to talk to him last night, so he’ll be worried and call the station, or see my messages and call.”
Amy pretended not to notice Dick checking his watch every half hour. They still hadn’t received a call.
Today was just not Dick’s day. First he overslept his alarm and was late to work. Amy had been less than impressed at his tardiness. It had taken him two years to work his way up the Bludhaven police force to work with perhaps the only other officer in the city who wasn’t dirty and he was already blowing it. Then he had bungled what should have been an easy take down. Yeah, Amy was going to be filing for a new partner. She had worked with crooked cops for years, but she would at least want someone who wasn’t too sleep deprived to watch her back.
But the straw that broke the camel's back was Tim. Dick had forgotten to call Tim. In Dick’s defense he had meant to call his brother, but his phone had died and he had left his charger at home in his hurry to get to work. So the fact that he was supposed to call Tim and check in that Tim had made it back home was the final nail in his self constructed coffin.
It wasn’t until Amy and him had dealt with three domestics, a small robbery and four traffic infractions that he remembered that both Bruce and Alfred were out of town and it had been his job to make sure Robin was okay. It took him another two minutes to realize his phone was dead and convince Amy to lend him her’s.
He refused to panic over the fact that the school wouldn’t tell him anything. He refused to let the gnawing voice-- that sounded a lot like Jason-- convince him that Robin was laying dead somewhere. He bit down the urge to call Bruce, long distance calls to China were expensive and Amy definitely didn’t have an international plan. He almost considered calling Superman, but asking Clark to fly to Gotham would have been ridiculous. Wouldn’t it?
So instead he sat through his shift biting his lip, waiting for a phone call that never came.
“Grayson, you are giving me grey hairs just watching you. Call the school and tell them you’re a cop.”
“I… Right.” Dick could have kicked himself. Of course they would have to tell a cop if a student was there. He reached over and accepted Amy’s phone for the second time that day and dialed Gotham Academy.
“Hello, Yes. I’m Officer Grayson and I was calling to check that a student made it to school today. Drake, Timothy Drake.”
“I’m sorry officer, but that student hasn’t come in today.”
Dick felt like he had been hit by Killer Croc’s tail. It took him a whole minute to remember to breathe. “Right. I. Okay, thank you.”
His ears were buzzing and his whole body felt light. He looked at his watch again. Two hours left on his shift. So he could be in Gotham in two and a half if he really pushed it.
“Grayson? You okay? Was he at school?”
Dick swallowed and nodded. His hand was steady as he handed Amy back the phone. “Thanks. Yeah, he is fine.”
Dick broke six laws racing back to Gotham. By the time he arrived at the Wayne Manor, punched in the alarm code and made his way through the house, he was sweating. Dick had been fighting with himself all day. He’s fine. He’s Robin. Jason was Robin. Tim’s fine. He’s asleep or has a cold and didn’t hear the phone. Or he’s dead on a rooftop. Nope! He had too much coffee and crashed . The whole way down the dark stone steps he argued with himself.
Dick stopped dead in his tracks. Timothy Drake was sitting typing at the Batcomputer, shoulders hunched and completely oblivious to Dick’s entrance. He was wearing the bottom layer of his Robin costume with gloves and boots tossed about him.
“Tim?” Dick’s heart was beating fast. Each time felt like a punch to the chest. He’s alive. He’s alive. He’s alive.
The typing stopped and Tim jumped. “Dick! I was… What time is it?”
There was an empty mug of coffee sitting next to the keyboard, Papers and folders laid out and six of the eight monitors had different photos and reports pulled up. The cave was a mess. Tim’s hair was sticking up oddly at the front as if he had fallen asleep face down on the desk.
Tim looked around and his eyes widened taking in Dick’s uniform. “How long have I been down here?”
“I don’t know. You tell me, Tim?”
“What day is it?”
“Thursday.”
“Oh.”
“I called your phone. I called the school. I called the manor and your house. Tim, I thought you were dead.” Dick was fighting the urge to yell at Tim and bear hug him at the same time.
“I lost track of time…. I’m sorry.” Tim looked so small all of a sudden. His socked feet, and skinny arms were just so little.
Dick deflated and rushed forward. Tim was smaller than Jason had been and younger. Tim's hair was softer under Dick’s chin. He melted into hugs in away Jason never had. Tim was warm and here. Dick all but crushed Tim, as he held him to his chest. It wasn’t fair to Tim, having to live with the ghost of a boy he had never met. Usually Dick did a better job pretending it wasn’t there. Bruce, wasn’t good at pretending at all, which made Dick try harder. But Tim seemed to understand. He never chuffed at their mollycoddling or called them out on overreacting. He took Dick’s bear hugs, and Bruce’s stony silences without complaint.
“How long have you been up?”
“Umm since yesterday, I guess.”
“Okay. bed now.”
“Dick, I am working this case and--”
“Nope. You scared me, missed school and need to sleep. I will look at whatever you are working on. Now food and bed.”
Tim let himself be marched to the kitchen, ate a bowl of cornflakes and bide Dick goodnight as he slipped into a guest room.
Dick made his way down to the cave once more, Jason’s voice still nagging him. He needed to do better. Bruce had asked him to keep an eye on Robin for one week and Dick hadn’t done a very good job so far. While, he couldn’t really call into work every time Bruce was out of town, he could do a better job checking in. First he would get himself added to the list of emergency contacts for Tim at the school. Hacking into the database and putting himself down took less than two minutes.
Dick sat staring at the schools list of students unseeing for far to long. Jason would be a senior this year. He should still be on this list. Jason should be writing essays for colleges and telling Dick about new books, and different English programs all around the country. Dick liked to imagine Jason would major in English. They had never really talked about it. But, it just felt right. Jason the book worm, the grammar nazi, yeah, he would study English. The glass case holding Jason’s blood stained and torn uniform seemed to emanate heat.
Dick clicked away from the list and pulled up Tim’s case. Dick would do better. He would be a better brother this time. Help more, be more approachable. Tomorrow he would patrol Gotham with Robin and then maybe Tim could go with him to Bludhaven the night after. Yeah, Dick could do that.
Amy wasn’t sure why it was bothering her so much that Dick had lied to her. He hadn’t even lied very convincingly. She didn’t know this Tim. Would likely never hear about him again. But she was… unnerved . Yeah, she was unnerved that Grayson was off. This was affecting his work. So it was affecting her. So she didn’t care when he took off without so much as a backward glance or wave. No, she wasn’t worried when he speed off in that piece of junk car of his. And she definitely wasn’t thinking about him as she picked up her own kids from school.
Dick Grayson was a man filled with secrets and she was not worried about that at all. What he did or didn’t do off the clock was his problem. What she was worrying about was whether or not it would affect his work. Yeah, that’s what was bothering her.
So when he came to work the next morning-- late, but with coffee-- she was not pleased to see him smile. She was not happy to see him back to his usual self because that meant that wherever this Tim had been, hadn’t been bad enough to dent the slightly too chipper personality that was Dick Grayson. No she was glad, because now it wouldn’t be affecting his work.
“I take it you talked to Tim?” Amy asked sipping her hot latte.
“Umm yeah, he stayed up all night playing a video game and forgot to take his phone to school.”
“Wow, must be some game.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry about all that yesterday. It just makes me nervous when I can’t get hold of my family.”
“I thought he was your old neighbor?” Amy frowned.
“He is but, I think of his as a brother.” Dick looked uncomfortable.
“You must be really close then?” Amy couldn’t believe her luck. Grayson was actually admitting to something personal.
“Yeah. We are.”
“So how grounded is he?” Amy laughed trying to imagine Grayson disciplining anyone. Sure he was scary sometimes with perps, but he was a Labrador around kids.
“Grounded? Should I have grounded him? I was so relieved to find him alive, I didn’t even think about that.”
Amy almost spat out her coffee. “Found him alive? You were that worried?” she felt sick, she would have told him to just leave early if she realized he had been that upset. Sure she knew he had been lying about the phone call to the school, but to actually be worried that the kid was dead... Was Gotham that messed up?
Dick seemed to realize what he said a little too late. His smile faded into a neutral expression that Amy couldn’t read in the least.
“Yeah, my younger brother--legal brother-- died a year ago, so I can get a little worked up…” Dick trailed off his expression still blank, as if practiced.
Amy swore. Of all the possible secrets to have a dead little brother was not one she would have suspected. Grayson was too sunny a person to have a tragic life. Or maybe that was why he was so intensely happy.
“That sucks, kid.”
“Yeah. It does.”
Before Amy could think of something, anything better to say, Grayson was in the car and starting the engine. By the time she was in the car with him, he was back to his usual chipper tone and happy recounting an episode of some reality television program to her.
Amy tucked that knowledge way and felt a bit of pride that he had chosen to trust her with the memory of his brother.