Chapter Text
Despite his connection to the case, Tim was the first one into the house. He was running on fumes but fuming mad that someone would do this to his soulmate.
Entering the abandoned care home, Tim’s sharp eyes caught on all the details. Massive amounts of blood, smeared as though someone had tried to clean up but didn’t know how. They clearly gave up on the task, only to try again the next time with the same results. The floor was permanently stained and the house smelled like iron.
It was worse in the kitchen, with a bloodied saw on the counter next to an open jar of peanut butter and crude restraints decorating the dining table. Food scraps collecting mold and a pile of dishes in the sink. Tim catalogued it all.
“Red, wait,”He hears through the comms but pays it no mind. There’s a smear on the floor that’s most recent, paired with droplets of blood spatter. He follows it, rushing despite his training. The pattern is odd, drip patterns and smears, like something was dragged through the droplets on the ground. Further he sees a bloodied footprint, and Tim thinks Daniel was dragged, but he was alive enough to fight it.
“She dragged him outside, signs of a struggle,”Tim says, rushing as he steps onto the concrete patio. Saying it aloud makes it real for him, that he’s not too late. His soulmate is a fighter, and Tim hopes he can keep fighting until Tim gets there. He sees more blood spatter, and off in the distance is a human shaped figure. He takes off after it, and his family soon follows.
As he rushes closer, silent despite his heart pounding in his ears, he can see the target standing above a hole in the ground, shoveling dirt in a frenzied panic. He nearly forgets to muffle his steps in his rush to get there quickly. Tim’s mind is rushing through scenarios too fast for him to come up with an actual plan. Instead, Tim’s just running in blind in hopes to get to his soulmate.
Julie Everett, 37 year old who used to live in a care home. Said care home eventually became abandoned and the occupants moved away. Julie came back, though, and without supervision this time. It was clear by the state of the house that she couldn’t live on her own long term. Something about a trigger point or missed medication leading to her escalating her behaviour to concerning levels. She’d started taking soul marks about two months ago, taking anyone off the streets and removing marks. Somehow, she’d been able to stay off radar until her stash was found. Until she took Tim’s soulmate.
Julie was wearing a pink dress stained with dirt and blood with pink hair that hadn’t been redyed in a while. Tim threw a batarang when he saw her raising a shovel. Julie cried out as the shovel fell to the ground and her shocked face turned to Tim. Shocked, as if she couldn’t believe anyone would stop her. Tim gritted his teeth. He didn’t have time to deal with her, he needed to find-
“You find Daniel,”Dick calls, and Tim sees him a few steps away,”Leave her to me.”
Tim doesn’t waste time confirming and slides past the woman on his path to the hole. He doesn’t worry about his brother. One mentally unstable woman won’t be a difficult fight, so Tim ignores her completely as he searches the grounds with almost frantic precision. He catches a glimpse of pale, muddy fingers on the edge of the hole and breathes a relieved breath. Tim jumps down quickly and carefully, avoiding the other man until he can get a good look at his injuries.
Daniel is shaking, balancing on one unsteady leg and leaning against the muddy walls. He’s absolutely covered in mud and dirt, which can’t be good for his now stump of a leg. He looks almost like a zombie if not for the sheer determination and pain shown on his face.
“Daniel, hey,”Tim rushes forward to lift Daniel, quick to reassure him that everything will be fine. The man relaxes into him, exhausted. It worries Tim that the man's hands are stiff and unmoving. Danny doesn't seem to notice, or doesn't care. Tim’s relieved he can recognize when he’s safe, but worries that the adrenaline crash would lead him to pass out. He’s riding the high of finding the man, but knows he needs to act quickly. Danny’s not out of the danger zone yet, and could still succumb to his injuries.
Tim catalogues everything, and grimaces when he sees mud caked onto Danny’s wounds, dirt in his hair and flecks of it in his eyelashes. It can’t be good for his wounds, and they don’t have enough data on Danny’s medical records to know if he has other concerns or allergies that might exacerbate it. He tilts Danny’s head gently, examining his half-lidded eyes, and pale, muddy face. He doesn’t look sick, and while his breathing is pained and faint, he can’t hear the telltale rattling of pneumonia. If anything, Danny just looks exhausted, and Tim tries to not feel bad about keeping him awake.
Dick helps him carry Danny out of the hole and then he’s off, quickly but steadily to the Batmobile. Tim does his best to keep Danny awake by tapping him and asking questions, even if he feels mean about it. He feels rage all over again when he learns about the constant use of electricity. He’s hearing reports over comms about Julie, but he doesn’t pay it much mind beside the fact that she’s convinced Daniel- Danny is a meta.
Tim hopes it’s true, that his meta abilities were keeping him alive. That they'd continue to keep him alive until Tim reached the Medbay. It was nothing short of a miracle that Danny wasn’t dead. It even explained why Danny didn’t want to go to the hospital at least, and Tim wasn’t going to make him. Tim wasn’t going to leave his side at the Batcave either, and clearly Danny had some sort of medical trauma.
Sadly not uncommon within the meta population. It eats at Tim’s heart anyway.
Despite protests, Tim helped Alfred with Danny’s medical care. He left Alfred to do his work, Tim assisting, but he was determined to stick with him til the end. He would stick with him even when the leg wound was cleaned and fully on display, showing muscle and bone, and making Tim’s stomach roll. Tim didn’t have the luxury to zone out, not when Alfren needed him to hold skin together to stitch properly. They worked in silence, beside Alfred’s instructions. Tim's gloves were stained red. He’d had to switch them out four times now.
Tim scanned the monitors for the hundredth time, relaxing when everything seemed fine. He had to be alert, especially when Danny’s powers could cause the medication to behave irregularly. He’d have to ask Danny more about his unique biology, and come up with a protocol in case something like this happened again- but Tim would make sure nothing like this would ever happen again.
Tim can only relate the laser focus on Danny to when he’d first become Robin. The way Tim’s main goal had been Bruce’s recovery was familiar to the panic gripping his heart right now, but different. Different because Danny was his soulmate- and Tim nearly lost him before they’d even met. He became Robin to help Bruce, and he’ll become whatever Danny needs to get him through this.
“It seems his powers keep his body alive, but are operating on a lower scale in order to do so,”Alfred comments, startling Tim out of his thoughts. Tim thinks Alfred’s trying to be reassuring, but he still has many questions. He's never had to deal with missing limbs outside of disaster zones. The most he was familiar with on a day to day basis was Babs.
It reminds Tim to have to ask her later about wheelchairs for Danny. He doesn’t know if prosthetics or crutches would be an option, but he’ll find out. Without knowing the extent of Danny’s powers, he doesn’t know what would be the best fit. His thoughts drift to Cyborg, and wonders if the man would be willing to give some advice.
“But he’ll be okay, right? He said low temperature and heart rate was normal for him,”Tim says, fidgeting with a roll of medical tape. His eyes don’t leave the slight rise and fall of Danny’s chest. “His vitals haven’t changed since he’s been under, no side effects of the medication so far.”
“He’ll be just fine, Tim,”Alfred says in a tone of voice that has Tim instantly relaxing. He’s left with such a loss of adrenaline that he has to sit down. Alfred’s not one to mince words, and if he says Danny will be alright when he will be.
“Thanks, Alf,”Tim croaks. His eyes are wet.
“You may thank me by taking a shower and eating dinner,”Alfred says, disposing of his rubber gloves. He takes care to pull some blankets over Tim’s soulmate and gently tuck him in. With Danny looking mostly clean, relaxed, and a blanket covering the stump, he almost looks peaceful. The dirt mostly cleared from his face, Tim can see his pale skin and dark eyebags. “Danny has an IV going for dehydration, nutrients, and will be taking the rest of the day to sleep off the anesthetics. You’ll have time to rest before he wakes.”
Tim can only stare at his soulmate. “Kay,”Tim says, blinking. He nods, then heaves himself up. “Okay. I’ll be back in half an hour.”
“Do try for a full hour, master Tim,”Alfred says, but Tim’s already gone.
When Tim gets back twenty seven minutes later Danny is still asleep. It still gave him a sense of relief so see that he was alright for himself. He’d seen a few of his siblings on his trip, but only responded with updates on Danny’s condition as he shoveled a slice of casserole in his mouth. Dick had handed it to him, already heated up and sent him off with a pat on the back. He’d even taken Tim’s dishes when he was done, and Tim was grateful for it. Alfred leaves to give them privacy, with the promise of bringing snacks. Tim’s appreciative of the lengths Alfred has been going to help Danny, and he takes the time to study his soulmate.
Danny’s got pale skin and jet black hair, with freckles near the outer corners of his eyes. Unlike Tim’s long straight locks, Danny’s hair is cut short and Tim remembers seeing it fluffy in the pictures on file. He frowns at the dirt matted hair it is now.
With nothing else to do and a sudden surge of sadness, Tim gets a wet rag and does his best to gently clean the dirt out of his hair. He is unbelievably gentle as he cleans, not wanting to wake the man. The sudden comfortableness Tim feels being in Danny’s personal space is new, and he thinks maybe he’s not alright either. He decides to think about it later, when Danny’s awake.
In the Batmobile Tim did the best he could to get most of the mud off, but the small spots he missed before he’d get now. It had been more important in the moment to rid the wounds of dirt, but now that the wounds were tended to Tim could try and keep him comfortable. Comfortable and clean. The man was mostly naked under the blanket due to being caked in blood, dirt, and who knows what else. Alfred and Tim had gotten him into some clean boxers, but that had been all. Danny might not be able to wear pants for a while due to the severity of the wound.
By the time Alfred came back Tim had made some headway, and only a shower would fix the rest. He sat back down, mindlessly chewing a sandwich and staring at Danny. Tim grabs a notebook he brought with him and starts writing ideas down. Plans for tomorrow, plans for Danny’s recovery, which companies specialized in prosthetics, anything to keep his mind busy. He glances over to Danny every few minutes, checking up on him, but nothing changes.
Tim spends hours down in the medbay to the point where he thinks his siblings are avoiding him and he’s grateful for it. He’s glad to be able to process alone, with his alive and nearly well soulmate nearby. He can’t imagine what Danny’s reaction will be like when he wakes up. What kind of trauma he has now, on top of his soulmate being the hero that saved him. Tim didn’t even know what made Danny run away from home two years ago, and didn’t know if Danny would trust him with that information. What he did know was that it was going to be a lot to process for both of them, but Tim is going to be there every step of the way for his soulmate. He was not leaving Danny’s side for a long while.