Castle Of Glass | B. Wayne

[38]

Richard wasn't surprised when he got a call from Jason who told him that Tim would be coming over to Bludhaven to stay with him for a few days. He had seen Gotham Press' latest jab at the family and was worried for his younger brother as he knew how he tended to react very well.

If Jay hadn't called, he would have dropped by the manor for a visit himself to make sure that Tim was doing alright. 

Seeing Tim's state when he received him at the Bludhaven Airport, it was obvious that he wasn't fine at all.

He kept silent the entire way to Richard's apartment but it was clear that he had a lot building up inside him that would erupt once they were alone. Barbara knew about the situation as well so she didn't say much to Tim. Instead, she left him with Richard so that he could handle him.

The elder brother knew he had to approach the situation with caution. Tim was borderline self-destructive when it came to him realizing that he was the root cause of some problem and he often ended up degrading and blaming himself for things that went wrong. So Richard had to make sure that he knew that whatever the press was churning out right then wasn't his fault.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, eyeing him cautiously.

"No," Tim mumbled, "I am exhausted. I just want to go to sleep."

That was quite unlike him, Richard thought. Tim would work himself to the point of passing out but never decide to go to sleep himself. 

"Can I have your phone?"

"Ugh, fine," he handed over his phone to Richard who knew if he didn't take it, Tim might end up suing the press nevertheless. 

"Tim, you know we are all always going to be here for you, right?" He gave it one last try, not wanting to pressure him but at the same time he wanted him to know that they were all standing with him. "If there's anything you need to talk about, you can do so freely."

"I know. Thanks," he mumbled, his lips pursing into a frown as he stood up from his seat, "maybe I will talk about it but not right now."

"As you wish."

He watched Tim leave for his room but he was thinking what to do to make the younger brother feel better. Perhaps a visit to Titans Tower would help in distracting him, he thought, and looking down at his phone that had a picture of Tim and Connor set as the lock screen, he decided to call the Kryptonian clone as well.

 Connor's company might just be what Tim needed at the moment. 

Tim borrowed an antidepressant from Barbara and slept for almost the whole day, not even waking up at dinner time. Early the next morning, he finally got up, feeling somewhat better after his long undisturbed sleep.

By the time he came down for breakfast, he saw Richard and Barbara were already in the kitchen.

"Hi," he mumbled, taking his seat at the breakfast counter.

"Good morning, I made your favorite cheese omelet," Barbara remarked, dishing out the omelet on his plate.

"Thanks, smells heavenly," he managed a small smile but then noticed that Richard looked as if he was about to leave for somewhere. Tim knew it was a Sunday so he couldn't be going to work unless he was called in for an emergency. "Are you going somewhere, Dickiebird?"

"Yes, to Titans Tower. You wanna come along?"

He paused to consider but then nodded, knowing that a trip to Titans Tower might help take his mind off everything else, "Sure."

Little did he know that his best friend had left Metropolis and already reached Titans Tower where he was currently waiting to cheer him up.

***

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Jason asked skeptically, turning to his partner in crime.

"Positive," Steph replied, taking the binoculars from him, "I'm disappointed you dared to question a plan I came up with."

"Well, ever since you almost blew up my safehouse, I find it better to cross-check," he replied, knowing it would annoy her.

Her face scrunched into a look of displeasure, "that was one time, Jay..."

"One time that I'm never going to forget."

"Okay shut up, let's focus on the task at hand and bicker about this later," Steph hissed, handing him his binoculars as she checked her bag to make sure they had everything needed for their mission.

Steph's idea was to give the press a taste of their own medicine. They loved to post rumors about famous people in the print so she thought it would be fitting if they posted rumors about them for a change.

Using Jason's sources, they managed to dig out some gossip related to the reporters, and with their combined flair for drama, they blew up those rumors out of proportion and churned out a fake edition of the Gotham Daily newspaper that they could swap with the real one.

Currently, they were at the rooftop of the printing press that was churning out the copies of the next morning's paper and they were waiting until all the copies were done so that they could replace them with the already printed lot they had in the bag.

They had calculated how many copies they would need and had brought the exact amount to replace the copies that were being printed currently. Waiting for the right time, the two entered the printing press and there was just one person standing guard over the copies who Jason tackled easily.

Making sure that the guard didn't get hurt and it would seem like he had just dozed off, Jason put him down on a chair while Steph quickly replaced the cartons with their fake copies.

Jason too helped her once the guard was taken care of. A short while later, all the copies had been replaced and the original printed copies of Gotham Daily were in Steph's bag.

"Mission accomplished," she high-fived Jason and they escaped quickly before the guard could wake up from his temporary sleeping spell inflicted by a knockout punch from Jay.

When they returned to the Manor, they found Damian in the kitchen, reading one of the fake newspapers that were supposed to be delivered in place of Gotham Daily's paper the next morning.

"Don't you think you have gone too far?" He remarked, putting the paper down as he asked them.

"Too far is my middle name," Jason remarked proudly.

"Hey, it was my idea. You don't get to take credit for it," Stephanie remarked.

"Yeah but who wrote all these stories and who fished out all the info? Me and my sources."

"And who arranged a printing press solely for this task? I did."

Damian knew their argument would go on for a while so he stood up to leave, catching their attention as he handed them the paper. 

"It's funny," he remarked with a very serious look on his face, "Your idea was brilliant, Brown, and it wouldn't have been possible without Todd."

Both of them went silent as if shocked by what they had just heard.

"Did the gremlin just give us a compliment?" Jason mumbled, looking at Steph to make sure that she too had heard Damian's words and he wasn't the one imagining it.

"Yes..." She replied, eyes trailing after Damian's retreating figure in shock. "Seems like hell has frozen over."

***