Jack Drake had been sentenced to eight years long imprisonment as the case was taken to court and the victim who had been accidentally shot died too. The case had gotten a lot more complicated and despite Bruce trying his best to sort things out, Jack had refused any sort of assistance from him.

On the other hand, Tim's custody was in question too as Janet had shifted to London with her husband and couldn't return. Moreover, Tim did not want to leave Gotham to go and stay with his mother either.

So after a considerable number of court hearings, it was decided that Bruce Wayne would act as Tim's guardian for the time that Jack was imprisoned. So all of Tim's responsibilities including his educational and other expenses would be borne by Bruce.

Therefore, Tim had to shift to Wayne Manor and got enrolled again in Gotham Academy. But after all the mess he had been in due to the court trial and the bankruptcy, he knew he wouldn't be able to adjust easily in school.

His peers asked him about it all the time and the press had been making a huge controversy over that case too. It took months for all the hype around the case to die down but Tim was quite disturbed by everything.

His last visit to his father hadn't gone well either and so he avoided going to visit him later on even though he wanted to make sure that his Dad was doing okay. The least he could do was ask Richard about him every now and then.

As for his sister, he hadn't had any contact with her ever since Jack had told him that she would be staying with her maternal relatives and completing her higher education in Japan. There was no phone number he could reach out to and as he was avoiding meeting Jack, he couldn't ask his father about her either.

Besides, even if he was able to contact her, he didn't want her to get dragged into the mess they had been going through. By then as almost a year had passed with not a single call from her, Tim was close to believing that perhaps she would never come back.

So he never told any of the Waynes about her and even though he didn't forget her, he stopped believing that she would return to Gotham. Sayuri was slowly becoming a chapter of his life that might remain closed until or unless she tried to contact them again.

Still, all he hoped and wished for was for Sayuri to have a happy life wherever she was at the moment.

On the other hand, he had finally decided not to give up on becoming the next Robin because even though he held a lot of guilt for how things had turned out, he found that the training sessions and patrol were a breather from all the chaos that was raging on in his life. So unlike the others, he used his vigilante identity as a temporary escape and got quite motivated to do his best for the city.

He had completed his training and even Bruce was impressed by his determination to overcome all constraints and finally join Batman on patrol.

With Tim as Robin by his side, Batman was relatively calmer on missions and things were slowly coming back on track. But then Gotham lived up to its reputation because the second it seemed as if everything was going fairly well, some new calamity would pop up.

Right then the next deadly situation striking them was Jason Todd's return to Gotham as Red Hood and it caused them quite a lot of trouble.

Jason had been tortured to death by the Joker but was revived by Ra's Al Ghul using the Lazarus Pit. However, he escaped from the League soon as he got the chance and returned to Gotham to execute his revenge.

That month had been hard on all of them especially Bruce as he had still not fully recovered from the guilt of Jason's death and then had to deal with his resurrected son thwarting all his teachings and choosing the life of a criminal.

Jason's methods were drastic and he almost made the past repeat by blowing up a building having him, Joker, and Bruce within. Neither of them died in that explosion but it was a clear message to Bruce that Jason was no longer the boy he knew and had considered his son.

He had returned from the dead but he had chosen his own path which was not the same as the one the Bat vigilantes trod on. As Red Hood, he was back in Gotham to stop crime in his own way, by controlling it through fear instead of eradicating it completely.

Therefore, it was safe to say he was not going to come back to the family and had parted ways with them once and for all. As Red Hood, he went against everything Batman stood for, disregarding his no-killing rule as well. And after several futile attempts on Richard's part to talk to Jason and make him return, the vigilantes decided to finally let him be.

As long as he didn't interfere with them or cause havoc, they wouldn't go after him either. And after that decision, they seldom crossed paths with the infamous Red Hood who was now rumored to be a crime lord controlling Gotham's underworld.

So when after a very rough patrol, Tim woke up to find himself in Red Hood's safehouse instead of being abducted by the criminals he was up against, he was quite surprised.

His abdomen hurt and he felt for any cut or injury but found a bandage wrapped around his torso, staunching the blood flow. His cape was unhooked and placed aside and he had been lying on a stretcher.

He sat up, suppressing the pain that had coursed through him again. The last thing he remembered was battling off Two Face's gang when multiple gunshots had sounded and he had passed out from losing a lot of blood due to the gash in his side.

And after that, he had woken up in that unfamiliar place but seeing the red helmet placed close by, he was certain that Red Hood had brought him there. Though why would he help him out was a question to which he had no answer.

"Sit the fuck back on the stretcher," a gruff voice took him by alarm and he almost jumped out of his skin, spinning around to see Jason's broad frame in the doorway.

"Um okay. Sorry."

He did as he was told and saw Jason step in, the scent of strong coffee filling the room shortly after. Without the helmet on and in the dim light of the room, Tim was seeing him up close for the first time.

He had sharp angular features, jet-black hair with a white streak up front, and steel-blue eyes with emerald flecks. Tim stiffened as he came close not knowing what he would do next but he simply placed the cup of coffee close to him and then stepped back.

"Is this for me?" Tim asked hesitantly, staring at the cup and then back at Jason who looked quite aloof and distant.

"No, it's for the rat who lives here," Jason huffed, rolling his eyes when he saw that Tim had taken his sarcasm seriously, "of course, it's for you, stupid."

"Wow. Thanks," he managed a smile, reaching out to pick up the cup.

He had become quite addicted to coffee by then so he was definitely glad to have a cup at the moment. All his doubts about why Red Hood had brought him there and what exactly were his motives faded in the background.

"It's poisoned by the way," Jason remarked, curious to see what the boy would do next. He expected him to either spit it out or drop the cup in alarm.

But much to his surprise, Tim downed it in one huge gulp, finishing the hot liquid immediately, "double thanks."

Jason resisted the urge to smile because he was trying to keep up his aloof tough guy facade to intimidate him. But for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to dislike that skinny little boy with curly brown hair and bright blue eyes.

"So Replacement... Why exactly were you battling Two Face's minions alone?" He asked, sitting on the chair across from him.

"I wasn't supposed to," Tim replied, looking at the cup longingly that was now empty, "but why are you asking?"

"You could have gotten extremely hurt tonight," he remarked.

"I know. But thanks to you, it didn't happen," Tim placed the cup back, looking up at him, "though I have one question for you too. Why did you save me?"

"So you would have preferred if I had just left you there to die?" Jason raised an eyebrow at him, "I didn't know Batman chose a suicidal punk to be the new Robin."

"FYI, he didn't even choose me. I blackmailed him," Tim mumbled and that seemed to have grabbed Jason's interest.

"Wait what?"

He was staring at the frail little boy, wondering how on earth could he have blackmailed the Caped Crusader to let him become his partner. 

But then deciding that he wanted to know what had happened exactly, he spoke up, "you're telling me exactly how you became Robin. Right now."

"I mean we're not supposed to... It's part of the protocol..."

But Jason didn't let him finish the sentence, "fuck the protocols. You can't just say something like that and expect me to let you go."

"Okay but it's a long story, can I at least call Bruce and tell him I'm safe?"

Jason paused, considering for a while but then shook his head, "nah, let the old Bat think you got abducted and lose his mind over it for some time. If you call him, he will track my location out and I certainly don't want him here."

Tim didn't know why but he felt like Jason was just a lot misunderstood by the rest of the family. Richard and Bruce thought that Jason would try to hurt his replacement whenever he got the chance and they had given Tim lectures to stay away from him.

Yet there they were after Jason had saved him from the gang, bandaged him, given him coffee, and wanted to know how he became Robin. It sounded quite like a healthy bonding time between brothers, to be honest. 

He didn't feel the least uncomfortable in the very feared Red Hood's presence.

At least not anymore.

To Tim, anyone who offered him coffee got automatically placed in his good books.

"I'll drop you off at the Manor after you're done," Jason added, seeing that the boy hadn't yet spoken up.

"Okay. Thanks once again."

"Save the gratitude and tell me what I want to know," Jay's eyes pierced through him in a warning and he nodded, beginning to tell him about how he became Robin.

***