Ficlet: The Long Road | DCU | Jason/Tim | R | 1/1
Title: The Long Road
Fandom: DCU
Pairing: Jason Todd/Tim Drake
Rating: R
Word Count: 919
Prompt: For dcu_freeforall: Loss of Limbs/Limb Function
Summary: It's taken five months just to come this far.
Disclaimer: DC and WB own everything, the schmucks.
Author's Notes: Fourth part of the Hurt!Tim series; follows Robin Song. Yep, I'm finally continuing this one. Poor injured Timmy! At least one more part to follow this one. Of course. :p
The Long Road
Jason can't stand seeing his Baby Bird like this. It's been entirely too long, too slow a recovery, and he knows it's killing Tim. He just wants to help. Just wants to reach down and tie the damn laces himself, because Tim needs him to.
The urge to take over for those trembling fingers as they slip and fumble rises sharply, and Jay's halfway to kneeling to do so when Tim's eyes meet his, stopping him cold.
A toneless breath of 'no' forces him back up, and Tim tries again with the laces, his expression more determined as he tries to steady his hands.
“I know, I know,” Jason concedes, standing fully and running a hand through his hair. What Tim needs, he reminds himself, is to be allowed to work it out on his own, to relearn how to do all these simple tasks, now that his hands have mostly healed.
Mostly. Right. With tendons severed in both of his palms and his right pinkie damn near taken off, it's a miracle he's regained any function in his hands at all. That he's come so far as to be able to almost tie his own shoes at this point is beyond miraculous. By all rights, Tim should've lost most of his right hand, and never been able to do this by himself again.
Still, it's taken too damn long to come this far. Five months to achieve shoe-tying. Five months of helping his Baby Bird recover, Jay gladly taking on all those simple tasks of daily life himself, even as Tim's pushed to do more, and faster, the long road toward each new milestone wearing on them both. It's been as excruciating as it's been wondrous.
Not for the first time, he wonders if they ought to have just gotten him some nice velcro tennies, as his own frustration rises up again.
But Tim would nerve-strike him for even thinking it if he could. The easy way is no way to recover, not when there's still a life in the Robin suit to return to.
If only Jay could convince himself that Tim will ever be able to fight at the same level again. That road will be even harder than this one, and longer. His hands will have to be better than perfect if he ever wants to fly over rooftops again, and some of the martial arts that he learned from Lady Shiva will likely be impossible to revisit. As it is, he hasn't quite managed a pull-up yet. Still so far to go.
“Done,” Tim whispers, his voice nothing but a hoarse wheezing of air, since the second surgery to repair his vocal cords didn't quite take, and a third is yet to be done.
Jason can't help a double take at the neatly tied bows on Tim's shoes. He's been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn't even realize his boy had been simply perfecting the laces. “Nice work,” he admits as he grabs Tim's red hoodie from the back of the chair and hands it over, Tim taking it with shaky fingers as he stands. In many ways, Tim's been the stronger one during his recovery, taking every task three steps further, even when it wasn't advisable to do so, even when frustration has gotten to them both. A perfectionist to the core, his focus on regaining not just simple abilities, but more complex ones, has been laser-tight. He's hardened, his will a rock so solid that Jay's wondered on occasion when the Green Lantern Corps would come offer him a ring. “We'd better get going, or we're gonna be late,” he says, the awe rising in his chest warring with the anticipation of tonight's work. Too many damn emotions to deal with right now. Better to just go and get on with it.
Tim smirks at him as he slides the jacket on over his t-shirt. “Says the man that took a half-hour in the shower,” he whispers.
A laugh escapes Jay at that, despite his best efforts. “You hush. Don't want you straining those vocal cords, Baby Bird.” Wrapping an arm around Tim's waist, he reaches up to brush a thumb over the thick scar crossing that pale throat-the jagged line puts his own throat scar to shame, it's so prominent-and drops a light kiss on his lips. “Gonna get you all better, Tim. Gonna hear your voice again.” Goddammit, but he wants to hear that voice again, misses it like oxygen.
Drawing back enough to look Jay in the eyes, Tim smiles tightly, and Jay's heart twists in his chest with the look on his boy's face. They both know damn well that it's never gonna be like it was, only a close approximation. Maybe. Another thing that just won't be quite the same.
“Yeah, I know,” Jay concedes quietly, pulling Tim into the circle of his arms and holding him tight. “Still gonna murder the fuckers that did this.”
And that's a promise he intends to keep, their 'code' be damned. If all goes well tonight, with Tim working alongside Oracle to coordinate the team, Jay will be the one that finally gets to the bastards while the rest of them take out the factory and lab, their long, not-so-patient hunt paying off at last.
“Now let's get going. This mission waits for no man,” he says finally, letting Tim go.
The fire in Tim's eyes and his decisive nod is all the reassurance that Jay needs. Vengeance for his Baby Bird is gonna be so fucking sweet.
~*~*~*~
Fandom: DCU
Pairing: Jason Todd/Tim Drake
Rating: R
Word Count: 919
Prompt: For dcu_freeforall: Loss of Limbs/Limb Function
Summary: It's taken five months just to come this far.
Disclaimer: DC and WB own everything, the schmucks.
Author's Notes: Fourth part of the Hurt!Tim series; follows Robin Song. Yep, I'm finally continuing this one. Poor injured Timmy! At least one more part to follow this one. Of course. :p
The Long Road
Jason can't stand seeing his Baby Bird like this. It's been entirely too long, too slow a recovery, and he knows it's killing Tim. He just wants to help. Just wants to reach down and tie the damn laces himself, because Tim needs him to.
The urge to take over for those trembling fingers as they slip and fumble rises sharply, and Jay's halfway to kneeling to do so when Tim's eyes meet his, stopping him cold.
A toneless breath of 'no' forces him back up, and Tim tries again with the laces, his expression more determined as he tries to steady his hands.
“I know, I know,” Jason concedes, standing fully and running a hand through his hair. What Tim needs, he reminds himself, is to be allowed to work it out on his own, to relearn how to do all these simple tasks, now that his hands have mostly healed.
Mostly. Right. With tendons severed in both of his palms and his right pinkie damn near taken off, it's a miracle he's regained any function in his hands at all. That he's come so far as to be able to almost tie his own shoes at this point is beyond miraculous. By all rights, Tim should've lost most of his right hand, and never been able to do this by himself again.
Still, it's taken too damn long to come this far. Five months to achieve shoe-tying. Five months of helping his Baby Bird recover, Jay gladly taking on all those simple tasks of daily life himself, even as Tim's pushed to do more, and faster, the long road toward each new milestone wearing on them both. It's been as excruciating as it's been wondrous.
Not for the first time, he wonders if they ought to have just gotten him some nice velcro tennies, as his own frustration rises up again.
But Tim would nerve-strike him for even thinking it if he could. The easy way is no way to recover, not when there's still a life in the Robin suit to return to.
If only Jay could convince himself that Tim will ever be able to fight at the same level again. That road will be even harder than this one, and longer. His hands will have to be better than perfect if he ever wants to fly over rooftops again, and some of the martial arts that he learned from Lady Shiva will likely be impossible to revisit. As it is, he hasn't quite managed a pull-up yet. Still so far to go.
“Done,” Tim whispers, his voice nothing but a hoarse wheezing of air, since the second surgery to repair his vocal cords didn't quite take, and a third is yet to be done.
Jason can't help a double take at the neatly tied bows on Tim's shoes. He's been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn't even realize his boy had been simply perfecting the laces. “Nice work,” he admits as he grabs Tim's red hoodie from the back of the chair and hands it over, Tim taking it with shaky fingers as he stands. In many ways, Tim's been the stronger one during his recovery, taking every task three steps further, even when it wasn't advisable to do so, even when frustration has gotten to them both. A perfectionist to the core, his focus on regaining not just simple abilities, but more complex ones, has been laser-tight. He's hardened, his will a rock so solid that Jay's wondered on occasion when the Green Lantern Corps would come offer him a ring. “We'd better get going, or we're gonna be late,” he says, the awe rising in his chest warring with the anticipation of tonight's work. Too many damn emotions to deal with right now. Better to just go and get on with it.
Tim smirks at him as he slides the jacket on over his t-shirt. “Says the man that took a half-hour in the shower,” he whispers.
A laugh escapes Jay at that, despite his best efforts. “You hush. Don't want you straining those vocal cords, Baby Bird.” Wrapping an arm around Tim's waist, he reaches up to brush a thumb over the thick scar crossing that pale throat-the jagged line puts his own throat scar to shame, it's so prominent-and drops a light kiss on his lips. “Gonna get you all better, Tim. Gonna hear your voice again.” Goddammit, but he wants to hear that voice again, misses it like oxygen.
Drawing back enough to look Jay in the eyes, Tim smiles tightly, and Jay's heart twists in his chest with the look on his boy's face. They both know damn well that it's never gonna be like it was, only a close approximation. Maybe. Another thing that just won't be quite the same.
“Yeah, I know,” Jay concedes quietly, pulling Tim into the circle of his arms and holding him tight. “Still gonna murder the fuckers that did this.”
And that's a promise he intends to keep, their 'code' be damned. If all goes well tonight, with Tim working alongside Oracle to coordinate the team, Jay will be the one that finally gets to the bastards while the rest of them take out the factory and lab, their long, not-so-patient hunt paying off at last.
“Now let's get going. This mission waits for no man,” he says finally, letting Tim go.
The fire in Tim's eyes and his decisive nod is all the reassurance that Jay needs. Vengeance for his Baby Bird is gonna be so fucking sweet.
~*~*~*~