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“So what you’re saying is, the entire time I was giving the lecture you were solving the case on your laptop?” David Rossi asks, raising an eyebrow at the kid. He’d noticed the kid sitting in the back row, typing on his laptop during the entire lecture. David had assumed the black haired boy, younger than any college student in the room, had simply been a sibling to one of the other students.
And yet, when he’d introduced himself at the end of the lecture, he’d been thoroughly surprised by one nineteen year old Timothy Drake.
“Not exactly?”Tim winced, his shoulder doing a half-hearted shrug. “It’s just another avenue of investigation you could pursue, but given the victimology-”
“Your explanation is iron-clad, kid,”Rossi cuts him off. “Hendrickson case was cold ten years ago and I haven’t heard a theory like yours with so much potential to be correct.”
“It is,”Tim says confidently, then backpedals. Rossi can’t help but be delighted by the kids confidence, and is reminded of Reid. “I mean. It’s a strong possibi-”
“I believe you, kiddo,”David says, “Some brilliant work. Mind sending it to me to look over? Maybe I can finally put some families at ease.”
“Really?” Tim asks, and David doesn’t like the feeling that a kid as smart as Tim has trouble being believed.
“What can I say, Tim, you got me incredibly curious,”David admits. “After all these years It’d be nice to find closure.”
“Oh. Just uh,”Tim starts, rubbing the back of his neck. “Can you keep my name out of it?” He asks, and David is surprised. This kind of credit would give Tim a leg up in any future work in criminology. “I may not have… gotten all the information legally.”
The quiet admission makes Rossi bark out a sudden laugh. “You know, if you’re ever interested, I’d love to introduce you to the BAU.”
Two years later, twenty-one year old Tim Drake became the newest member of the Behavioural Analysis Unit. He was no longer Red Robin, and no longer a Wayne. As much as he liked working with the BAU, it was nothing compared to how much he missed his family.
Tim just wished he could go back.
“Signal! Grab Robin and go!” Red Robin yelled.
“I’m not leaving you!” Damian protests vehemently. But he was injured, could barely stand on his leg as it was. Tim wasn’t going to be able to protect him and fight at the same time.
“Go get back up! I’ll be fine,”Tim insists, gritting his teeth. Duke had the best chance of getting Damian out quickly. It worked in Tim’s favor, as he wouldn’t be distracted if they were outside the blast radius.
Because right across from Tim was the Joker, standing in front of a zeta tube he’d rigged to disperse Joker gas all over the world. It was a surprise, meaning Tim needed Duke and Damian to get out and inform the rest. Otherwise, everyone would be unprepared, and Tim couldn’t let that happen.
“Leaving so soon?” Joker cackles. He fires a gun at the duo, but Tim blocks it with his staff in time, just as Signal’s shadow warps them away. He shakes out his arm, feeling jarred from stopping the bullet as Joker laughs.
Now that Red Robin was facing the Joker alone, the masked goons stepped back, watching. Tim grits his teeth, feeling the sting of a grazed bullet on his arm, but he knows he needs to stay standing until backup arrives.
“What you’re planning is global,”Tim says, knowing it was useless to try and reason with the psycho. “You know this isn’t going to end in Arkham this time.”
“Ah, but that’s the fun part,”Joker tsks, calmly walking forward on a cane that’s been more present over the past year. Tim keeps his attention on the Joker rather than the amalgamation of machines and gas canisters, plus an explosive Tim planted earlier with the help of Duke’s shadows.
“I’ve been doing this song and dance years- years!” Joker laughs, like Tim doesn’t already know he’s been terrorizing Gotham for longer than Tim’s been alive. He thinks maybe they’re both stalling. Both of them want Batman to come, and Tim knows he needs to solve this before B can get here. “Ol’ Batsy and I are a pair, but he doesn't have that same pizzaz anymore, huh?”
“So you’re upset about your old age?” Tim quips, taking a few steps further. Joker glares at Tim, but he doesn’t think he’s wrong.
“Whats better than going out with a big bang?” Joker says, his glare turning into a wide grin. Ice runs through Tim’s veins, and he can hear B in his ear that he’ll be there in seconds. Joker must know, too, and it’s what he wants.
If Tim has to choose between himself or the whole world getting gassed, he’d pick himself every time. It’s an easy decision, but harder to execute. Tim moves like the Flash, once the zeta is activated he charges at the lunatic. Tim manages to disarm the Joker, but adds more wounds to the both of them.
Joker cackles, but Tim can tell he’s impatient, and more than a little angry. Slight panic rushes through the Joker’s eyes when Tim drops him to the ground. “S-send the gas!” Joker manages to choke out before Tim throat punches him.
Red Robin presses the button on his belt, activating the explosives, seeing no other way to stop this. He’s grappling with Joker on the dirty floor when the explosion happens, lighting up the world around them.
Tim, having been in explosions before, can immediately recognize that it feels less like an explosion and more like the zeta. He has a brief moment of panic that the Joker’s plan had succeeded before everything goes black.
Tim wakes up to the sight of smoke, and the feeling of hay underneath him. Squinting, he coughs, reaching for his belt to find his rebreather when he comes up empty. Actually, Tim thinks with complete mortification and panic, he’s not wearing any clothes at all.
A yell startles him out of his thoughts and Tim dodges to the side as an axe swings down where his head would be. Joker is there, spitting mad and naked as a baby. It’s a sight Tim thinks will be seared into his brain forever, and vows to never mention it to his siblings. Joker swings again while Tim tries to stand, and he ends up having to catch the back of the blade to save himself further injury.
Tim cries out, hands burning from the hot metal on his hands, and redirects it to push Joker back. The man laughs, loud and unhinged as fire roars around them, and a loud crack has Tim stepping back. Joker’s laughs turn to screams when a beam falls, trapping the man to the floor. Panicked and inhaling too much smoke, Tim turns tail and runs.
The last thing he sees from the place is Joker’s body lighting ablaze, his waxy face melting as he screams. Tim had no intention of even trying to save that man. Tripping, Tim manages to reach the door, opening it by crashing his shoulder into it, and then he’s free, gulping down fresh air like a madman.
Tim coughs, rubbing the sting out of his eyes. He turns to look around and promptly balks. He’s in the middle of nowhere, an old rickety barn ablaze right in front of him. He scans the area, seeing no sigh of people but an old, dirty jacket hanging on the barn. Studiously ignoring the screams dying down, Tim stumbles his way over to the jacket and pulls it on after trying his best to shake off the dust and bugs. He’d rather wear it than be naked.
Knowing the Joker, he could have survived, Tim thinks, and is filled with the urge to get away. Shoe-less, Tim books it into the woods behind the barn. There’s far more cover there than in the field, even if he ends up stepping on some prickly plants. He trips far more than he means to, lungs heaving by the time his adrenaline wears off. His ankle is swollen and probably twisted, while the rest of him doesn’t look much better.
Tim folds the jacket around himself tight as he can and sits, huddled beneath a tree to catch his breath. “Bruce’ll find me,”Tim whispers aloud. Whatever happened, he knew B would come eventually. He just had to hold out til then.
Tim wakes up to a dog licking his face.
It’s light outside, and Tim’s mouth tastes like ash and he feels like bugs are crawling on his skin. Not to mention his wounds, some that probably should have been stitched up. Tim groans, pushing the golden retriever away from his face gently.
“Charlie!” Someone shouts, sounding like an older man, and Tim scrambles to get up. He winces when his ankle won’t let him stand, and settles for huddling in the jacket.
The dog barks, and Tim steels himself for what’s to come. He’s not expecting an old man, looking like a farmer in his plaid shirt and jeans. Tim can see when the man catches sight of him, and startles.
“Oh dear.”
Tim’s too weak to protest when the man bundles Tim up in another jacket and carries him back to his house. He ends up bundled on the couch in the man’s home. It’s warm and cozy there, and having been introduced to Robert and his wife Erin, he feels very bad about inviting so much chaos into their life.
An ambulance is called, especially when Tim clearly looks like he’s getting sick, and had admitted that he didn’t have a spleen. The police arrived as well, and Tim was able to point them in the direction of the barn before being carted off to the hospital with Erin at his side.
She’s a nice lady that reminds him of Martha Kent. The whole way, she rambled about her daughter Rory who’d gone off to college. It was a nice distraction, and Tim was more than a little grateful that she stuck with him, especially since he had to stay overnight.
Robert had come with food, and Tim ate dinner with them as they sat around his hospital bed. Turns out Robert was a former police officer for the small town Tim had ended up in, and pulled some strings to allow them to stay. It was nice. He found himself chiming in a little while they talked and ate dinner together.
Tim hardly slept that night, plagued with thoughts of his family, and horrific nightmares of the Joker. Robert was there in the morning, and sat in on his debrief with the police. He’d told them… not exactly everything, but didn’t necessarily need to lie. They’d found the joker’s body, anyway. Tim was the only witness.
“I just can’t believe some wacko was doing that shit out here in our neck of the woods,”Tim overhears the police chief talking to Robert. “He goddamn near tortured that boy to death.”
“Coulda been,”Robert agrees. “Doctor says he’s got pneumonia on top of the gunshot wound and burns, and without a spleen he’ll need to stay a bit longer,”Robert adds. “But Tim’s strong.”
“Had to be, to survive all those scars,”The police chief mutters. Tim didn’t get all of them from the Joker, but it sure worked in his favor if they believed he did.
“You gettin any leads on the body?”Robert asks, and the police chief shakes his head.
“Nothin came back for Tim, either. Not even a missing persons,”He says, and Tim feels a little bad for piling so much work onto them.
Earlier, Tim had said he didn’t remember a whole lot about his childhood, but knows his parents are dead and Joker took him when he was 13, which explained all the scars he’d gotten from vigilante work. They’d believed him when doctors mentioned he’d been tortured, stabbed, and shot multiple times, and he figured he was in the clear.
When he gets his hands on a laptop, he can forge himself an identity of sorts, and figure out just where the hell he landed. Based on some pointed questions, Tim was leaning towards different universe.
To Tim’s surprise, Erin and Robert want him to stay. With them. For however long he needs, they say. Maybe forever, they don’t say aloud. With Rory off to college, the couple had been feeling a little lonely, as much as they enjoyed their time together.
With Tim still recovering from pneumonia, but deemed not about to die, he officially moves in with the couple. Police keep the incident on the down low since they don’t think Tim would want to be plastered all over the news. Yet, most of the people in the small town of Brownville, Nebraska know.
With the help of Robert’s old computer, Tim manages to fake an identity. His parents were killed in a car crash in New Jersey, and Tim Drake was presumed dead. He’d let the police find it after his next interview in a week. As of now, he’d told them he was eighteen, which let Robert and Erin take him in.
Problem was, Tim researched everything the world had on heroes, villains, and even mulit-universe travel. Nothing. This world he’d found himself in was overwhelmingly behind in terms of technology. Not to mention, heroes and villains- even aliens- didn’t exist. And unless Tim wanted to go through years of research and tests and failure- he had to wait for help to come to him.
So he did. While he waited, Tim worked on anything he could to stay busy, keeping his mind off thoughts of rescue. He’d worked on projects he’d long finished at Wayne Enterprises, earning enough money through selling his work to pay Erin and Robert back for letting him stay with him. He’d even paid off Rory’s college, despite their protests.
Tim had moved out to DC, moving on to get his GED and take accelerated courses for college, and ended up in the criminology department. He double majored in psychology, just to keep busy. And then forensics. Of course, keeping busy with school didn’t work. So he might have… started hacking.
RedBird was a prolific hacker that often gave the police evidence they needed, or exposed people for some really bad things. Tim knew it was very, very unlikely he’d be caught. RedBird’s skills were far out of anyone but Oracle’s league, and she wasn’t here.
As it was, Tim was lonely. He took vacations to visit Robert and Erin every once in a while. He hacked. Solved cold cases. Graduated. Twice. And then… Tim met David Rossi.
There weren’t villains or heroes in this world, but there were criminals. Nothing as psychotic as the Joker, but Tim figures he could be useful. He was used to far worse, that criminal minds were fairly easy to crack. Not to say the criminals in this world weren’t dangerous, but Tim doesn’t ever need to worry about alien invasions and fear gas contaminating the water supply.
Joining the BAU at least gave Tim an excuse to make friends. Not that he tried hard, but it was easy to like the team. With Tim being the youngest, their expectations for him were low, but he uses it to his advantage.
“So Tim, Ive been meaning to ask about the dog tags,”Morgan says. The team was working individually at their desks, each typing up reports from their previous mission- case, Tim corrects.
“Were they your parents?” Reid asks, “Considering you’ve never been in the military.”
“Oh, they’re not dog tags,”Tim says, raising an eyebrow at them. He hooks a finger around the chain and pulls the tags out to show the team. “They’re medical. I don’t have a spleen.”
“Um. What did the kid just say?” Rossi blurts out.
“While losing the spleen is not immediately fatal because other organs take over many of its responsibilities, it is considered detrimental because the spleen plays a crucial role in the immune system and blood filtration, making its absence a long-term health risk,”Spencer recites from memory. “But not something that disqualifies you from the team.”
“Thanks, Reid,”Tim says wryly, tucking his tags back into his shirt. He’s often reminded of working at WE with the business casual attire, but keeps it on the casual side in case he ever needs to fight seriously.
“How in the world did you lose your spleen?” Morgan asks incredulously.
“Stabbed,”Tim shrugs, and gets up to stretch. “I’m gonna take my lunch, you guys want anything?”
“I wanna know who the hell stabbed you, you’re like, a baby,”Morgan says, scanning Tim for the scars hidden under his clothes. Tim rolls his eyes with a grin.
“Don’t worry about it, happened years ago,”Tim waves off, and heads off to lunch, leaving the team to deal with the mystery of Tim’s missing spleen.
“Did you know the kid lost his spleen?” Morgan asks when Hotch exits his office.
“Yes, though he’s in perfect health, and it doesn’t affect his work,”Hotch responds, giving Morgan a raised brow.
“That’s not what I’m worried about,”Morgan says, crossing his arms.
Hotch hums. “I suspect he’d rather be the one to tell you,”Hotch says,”But I can say Tim has had an exceptionally difficult life.”
The explanation doesn’t sit right with Morgan, nor the rest of the team, yet none of them want to pry into something traumatic too soon. Tim had only joined the team a few months ago.
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” JJ asks, grabbing her stuff from her desk. It’s a Saturday, one of their rare days off, and JJ had come in for a brief meeting, and was surprised to find Tim working in the office alone.
“Nah,”Tim says, fiddling with some sort of computer panel. “Just wanted to upgrade my computer a little. I’ll head home when I’m done.”
JJ stops, frowning. In a lot of ways, Tim reminds her of Reid. Smart and resourceful, but alone. “How about you come by for dinner, Tim?”
“Oh- um, I wouldn’t want to intrude,”Tim says, rubbing the back of his neck. JJ shakes her head with a smile.
“Nonsense,”She says,”I’ll text you the address. Come by at six.”
“You’re sure?” Tim asks, checking once more.
“Yes, Tim,”JJ laughs. “The boys have been dying to meet you.”
“Okay then,”Tim answers, touched but perplexed.
JJ is fondly surprised when Tim shows up early with gifts for everyone and a pineapple, with the excuse that he can’t actually cook. She learns about Tim’s grandfather, who died before he could learn any of his recipes, and JJ ends up making him help her in the kitchen before dinner. She’s glad to see him having fun.
“I just find it a bit boring,”Tim shrugs. Spencer and Morgan gape at him.
“With how smart you are, I figured you and Reid would have more in common,”Morgan adds, not unkindly.
“I’d rather spend my time training in the gym than reading, if I’m being honest,”Tim admits, and Morgan snorts.
“I know you passed your physical and all, but I’d still be worried if you ever had to fight someone in real life,”Morgan says.
“Hey, I’ve been in plenty of fights, mind you,”Tim defends, and Morgan sends him a look so disbelieving it lit a fire in Tim’s heart. “I could beat you easily.”
“Not that I don’t doubt you Tim,”Spencer adds hesitantly, “But Morgan is built like a wall of muscle and you’re the shortest on the team.”
“Wanna place bets?” Tim asks, rolling up his sleeves.
“I gotta warn you, I’m not gonna go easy on you shortie,”Derek says.
“I will,”Tim goads, and Morgan’s face drops.
“Okay, you’re on,”Morgan accepts, despite Spencer’s protests.
The team ends up on the bleachers of the gym, Tim and Morgan ont he mats in front of them. “I did warn him,”Spencer says, nodding to Tim.
“I honestly don’t know if Morgan will win this one,”Hotch says, and the team turns heads to stare bewilderedly.
“Hotch, Tim is smaller than I am, and Morgan is at the gym every day,”JJ points out.
“Tim is very proficient in martial arts,”Hotch confesses. “He scored very high on the physical combat portion of the tests. Initially, he wanted to refuse to carry a gun, even. Said he didn’t need it to end a fight.”
Hotch’s words ring in their heads as Tim steps up to the mat, casual clothes compared to Derek’s athletic shirt and shorts. Like it wasn’t even a real fight. The team could see the casual confidence in both, and the slight hesitation growing in Morgan.
It was hardly a fight. Tim wins without question, and after Morgan protests, beats him again. “Thought you said you were going easy on me?” The older man complains, having been thrown to the ground for a second time.
“I am,”Tim says. “My first martial arts teacher was an assassin.”
The team knows, by now, how good at lying Tim was. Yet they were fairly sure, this was not. Morgan accepts the loss, and volunteers Tim to train with him on the guise of teaching him some moves. Morgan wouldn’t lie and say he didn’t have a blast learning from the kid.
Six months into knowing Tim, the group has learned to ignore when Tim disappears. They’d all been extremely worried, but with the situation reaching critical condition, they were all just relieved when Tim reappears with the victim, unharmed. Not that Tim didn’t tell them before disappearing, they just didn’t believe him or want him in harms way the first few times.
It’s one of those times, standing outside Kat’s hostage situation with Maeve, that Spencer turns to Tim with desperation. “Tim I know we never say anything about your past, or- or all those times you disappear and suddenly everything’s alright,”Spencer starts, looking like he’s about to cry. They’re out of options here, and Spencer can only think of doing something crazy if Tim can’t help. “I need you to do your freaky ninja thing, and save her. Please.”
Tim nods, face hardening. “I can get her out, but I can’t have any distractions,”Tim says seriously. He then turns to the rest of the team and SWAT. “You all can not go in. Do not open the door until I say so. Keep Kat distracted as much as you can but do not, under any circumstances, open the door.”
Spencer nods, agreeing with Tim before Hotch can answer. “Anything. Please, just save her.”
“I can.. Take the fall, if something-” Hotch starts, but Tim holds up a hand.
“It’ll be fine, H,”Tim grins, and then he’s stripping his jacket off, right down to a plain undershirt and pants. He pulls a belt out of his bag and clips it onto his waist, and before anyone can offer help, Tim vaults up to the raptors, spending a few seconds undoing a vent and crawling in.
If the situation wasn’t so serious, they might’ve cracked a joke or two about Tim’s behavior, but when a bang sounds a few minutes later, their hearts are in their throats. “Hotch,”Spencer starts, but before they can answer there’s a knock at the door.
“Maeve and I are coming out,”Tim calls, and the room sags with relief. Tim opens the door, Maeve rushing into Spencer’s arms while SWAT swarms the room after Tim leaves. He quickly puts on his discarded jacket and shirt, putting the belt back into his bag. “Kat’s fine, just unconscious,”Tim says to Hotch, who just pulls Tim into a rare side-hug.
“Don’t ever do that again,”Hotch says, but they both know he’s lying.
The mysteries surrounding Tim only grow. Even more so when they face Scratch. Surprising everyone, Tim shows up at each team members place of residence with extra security to install. “For my own peace of mind,”Tim explains, and begrudgingly, the team allows him to make whatever changes he needed.
It led to the attack at the BAU, where everyone was dosed with the gas. They’d caught Scratch that day, less so because his plan failed, but more to do with the fact that the gas had no effect on Tim, who beat the shit out of him the moment he entered their office.
“I just don’t get it,”Morgan says, shaking his head.
“Maybe we don’t need to,”Rossi says, and shrugs. “Maybe we just accept that we have a tiny, superpowered assassin on our team, and be grateful he’s not on the other side.”
Spencer snorts, but frowns a second later. “The amount of toxins you have to be exposed to in order to become immune like Tim was to Scratch is… a lot more than you’d think.”
“I don’t want to know the details, kid,”Morgan cuts in, rubbing a hand over his face. “Tim never talks about family, but honestly? I think he was put through hell as a kid.”
“Hotch might know,”Penelope offers, and David sighs.
“If he did he wouldn’t tell us,”Rossi adds. “We just need to ask Tim.”
“It’s like- It’s almost like he’s been dropping hints,”Spencer chimes in, “when we have enough puzzle pieces, maybe it’ll make sense.”
It doesn’t, not even when they’re facing an unsub on the roof of a skyscraper. He’s got JJ in his arms, threatening to throw them both off. It’s Tim who slinks back, while Hotch tries to talk the unsub down from the ledge.
“Just let her go,”Hotch tries, and to his dismay, the unsub grins.
“If you say so,”He says, and the both of them are thrown backwards. JJ screams, terrified for her life, and the team rushes to the ledge with similar yells, already grieving their friend.
Suddenly a force slams into JJ midair, and on reflex she holds on with dear life. “You’re okay,”Tim says, breathlessly, and despite her bewilderdness, she only has strength to bury her face in Tim’s neck, limbs shaking as she holds onto him.
The grapple on his belt reels them in slowly, and Tim is pulled up by a handful of panicked arms, soon laying on the rooftop with JJ sobbing in his arms. “It’s okay, JJ, I caught you. You’re okay.”
After sending JJ off with the paramedics, the team promising to keep quiet about what exactly happened, Tim gets pulled into a bone-breaking hug. “Tim, something might seriously be wrong with your noggin,”Morgan says, but Tim only grins.
“I’d do it for any of you,”Tim says honestly. “And besides, I never get a chance to test these gadgets.”
“I’m gonna kill you if you ever try to test it out again,”Morgan replies, and Hotch has similar thoughts.
Tim actually does get reprimanded for throwing himself off a building after his teammate, even if he had a grapple gun. Both he and JJ are forced to use some personal days, despite Tim’s protests, but JJ insists on having Tim over for dinner as a thank you for saving her life.
“Shit- I’m locked out,”Penelope exclaims, frantically trying to mash buttons. Nothing she was doing was working, and since Tim was still benched from the team for excessive use of grappling gun.
“Can I try somehting?” Tim asks, and Penelope throws her hands up.
“Sure, why not, nothing I do is helping,”She grumbles, and Tim steps up into her space so fast she has to swivel her chair back to watch the screen. Her eyes nearly bug out of her head when she realizes Tim is not only getting her back online, but kicking their unsub out. “Tim, what the hell…”
“Er, what I just did might not be legal, so,”Tim starts, typing more code to boost her firewalls.
“I won’t tell a soul,”Penelope says, still shocked their tiny badass teammate is also a master hacker. Actually, now that she thinks about it that code looks really familiar- She gasps. “No way, you’re-”
“No, because that would be illegal and if I was I would be fired and I really like this job,”Tim cuts in, so seriously Penelope’s mouth closes with a clack. Tim’s face softens, and looks back at her. He gestures to the computer screen, now functioning better than normal “But I wouldn’t mind teaching you.. If you wanted to learn.”
“Yes! Yes, thank you forever I love you so much,”Penelope exclaims enthusiastically, wheeling back to the computer to inspect his work. “Tim you sneaky little genius, what did we ever do without you.”
“Solve less cases, probably,”Tim teases, but Penelope thinks he might actually be right.
“Don’t panic, but there’s a bomb under the car,”Spencer says, frozen in the car seat after the trigger clicked.
“Oh,”Tim blinks, and drops down to inspect it. At least, Spencer thought he was just inspecting it, and nearly jumps when Tim comes back up holding a pocket knife in one hand and the bomb in the other. “Should we call the bomb squad, or do you think we can keep it?”
“Bomb squad,”Spencer sighs, resting his head on the steering wheel. He suddenly feels bad for the team when he’d first been introduced. Tim was starting to put things in perspective being so competent at things no one else on the team seemed to be. “How did you learn to disarm a bomb?” Spencer asks, turning his head to see Tim sitting on the pavement next to the open car door. Tim shrugs.
“New Jersey,”Tim says, and Spencer sighs.
“Tim, you’ve been put-”
“Under investigation, yeah,”Tim finishes, plopping down in the chair across from Hotch’s desk. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Tim, I just want you to know that we have your back,”Hotch starts, and while Tim is touched, it’s not needed.
“Well, since this is a secure room where I can say anything considering I brought my trusty signal-jammer with me,”Tim says, nonchalantly,”I can definitely tell you i have all my tracks covered and back up plans in case they try to frame me. They picked the wrong person to mess with, and I have a feeling a certain someone will get what’s coming to them.”
Hotch sighs. “Just, please don’t cause trouble.”
“Me?” Tim asks, incredulous. He stands up, putting a hand to his heart. “Never.”
Hotch can’t help but shake his head with a grin as his door closes. He almost feels bad for Strauss.
“It’s like Spencer, Morgan, and Penelope’s hyperactive lovechild,”Rossi comments, watching Tim impress some kids with skateboard tricks while Morgan attempts to copy him with less success. Spencer stands aside, not even attempting despite Morgan’s encouragements.
“Honestly, I don’t know where he came from, but we are definitely not giving him back,”Emily adds, crossing her arms. She’d just come back from her undercover op, and had a sneaking suspicion about the identity of the hacker who helped her out. Plus, there was no way the team could have pulled off that rescue without Tim. For that, she was grateful, but slightly wary of the kid.
“Definitely not,”David shakes his head.”I’d say this job isn’t meant for everyone, but I’ve never once seen the kid phased. Not even when he jumped off a roof to save JJ.”
“Yea- wait he what?”
Emily comes to work the next day and can sense the tension in the air. She at first, thinks they still have unresolved feelings about her coming back, but the thought is dismissed when their eyes linger on the door, looking hopeful and worried.
“What’s wrong?” She asks, pausing at Spencer’s desk before continuing to her own.
“Tim hasn’t come in yet,”Rossi answers, and Emily frowns.
“Tim usually is the first one to get here, and has only ever used a personal day when Hotch made him,”Spencer fills her in, and Emily raises a brow. It wasn’t even time for them to start the day, yet they all were clearly worried.
Emily purses her lips, and hikes her purse back on her shoulder. “Then what are we waiting for? Lets check in on him.”
They scramble to get to Tim’s place, not surprised to find the same high-end and probably handmade security Tim had placed on all their houses. They did, however, know how to crack it thanks to Tim’s instructions.
“I thought he only did that to my house,”Emily mutters, and Morgan barks a laugh.
“Kid’s paranoid, but it worked in our favor when not even Scratch could get into Hotch’s place,”Morgan explains, and Emily’s respect for Tim only grows.
“Pretty sure he just doesn’t want to lose anyone else in his life,”Spencer adds, killing the mood.
“Tim! We’re coming in,”Morgan shouts, but again there’s no answer.
It becomes apparent why when they enter Tim’s apartment. The place is bare, and only the kitchen table has various cases and papers littered about it with an empty mug on the table. Nothing about the place was personal, no photos or anything. Just a couple of bird and bat decorations and art littered throughout the place.
“Oh my god, Tim,”JJ exclaims, spotting the kid on the floor by the bathroom first. “Call an ambulance.”
They rush to get Tim to a hospital, and learn his lack of spleen had turned a common cold into something worse than the flu, and it had worked fast to take Tim out. They took turns staying with him at the hospital, but were surprised to see him in the office bright after spending only a day there.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Morgan asked the kid, working on cases despite his pale complexion.
“Working?” Tim squints, looking at Morgan like he was the crazy one here. Morgan pinches the bridge of his nose.
“You’re supposed to be recovering at the hospital still,”He says, crossing his arms.
“I checked myself out,”Tim sniffs.
“You checked yourself out,”Morgan repeats flatly.
“Got work to do,”Tim defends, and Morgan sighs. He thinks back to TIm’s empty apartment and sighs again.
“Okay, no, you’re taking the day off,”Morgan insists. “I’m driving you back, we’re going to pick up some soup on the way, and you can- I don’t know, work from home if it makes you happy.”
Tim grumbles the whole way, but he’s asleep as soon as Derek bullies him into bed. He then takes it upon himself to do a little re-decorating, and adds a few group photos of the team to Tim’s apartment.
Forced to take sick days, Tim suffers at home while his friends visit and insult his interior decorating. They bring gifts, too, and they remind Tim so much of home.
A copycat killer is on the loose, following closely to the teams previous cases. It’s when a calling card from Nebraska shows itself that Tim finally freezes up. “This one’s the copycat killer,”Tim says, gathering the team’s attention.
“You’re sure?” Emily asks, and Tim nods.
“Victims burned in a building after being shot and stabbed multiple times,”Spencer reads,”I don’t recall anything happening in that area before with a similar calling card.”
“He’s grasping at straws, definitely,”Tim says wryly. “But I think he’s trying to go after me this time.”
“What do you mean?” Spencer asks, and Hotch makes eye contact with Tim, silently asking if he wants to continue or not. Tim nods, not as traumatized about it as he thinks.
“I was kidnapped by a guy calling himself Joker for about four years,”Tim says, reciting the backstory he’d given to the police all those years ago. “I escaped when the barn we were in caught fire.”
“That’s…”David starts, trailing off.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,”Emily says quietly.
“It’s fine,”Tim says, waving it off. “The Joker died in that fire. It just wasn’t his MO.”
“So whoever the copycat was must not know the full story, and is going off the case report,”Morgan interprets.
“Not only that, but that case is sealed to anyone with lower clearance than mine,”Hotch adds, and their eyes widen. “This means there’s someone high up that’s been leaking information about this team.”
“Or our unsub is higher up in the chain than we thought,”Tim nods.
“Do you need to be taken off the case?” Hotch asks seriously, and Tim shakes his head.
“Joker was way scarier than anything this guy can come up with, trust me,”Tim laughs. Spencer shoots JJ a startled look, and JJ returns it with a wince. “I’m just worried about the people who found me being in danger.”
“Who found you?” David asks, curious to get to know more about their youngest teammate.
“A dog, actually, and the guy walking her,”Tim smiles, fond at the memory. “Scared the crap out of Robert, but he and his wife Erin let me stay with them for a while. I keep in touch, their daughter Rory just graduated.”
“That’s great, Tim,”Rossi says, a smile dawning his face.”I’d love to be introduced to them, maybe swap stories over dinner.”
Tim can’t refuse that, and soon enough they’re back on a plane, this time to Nebraska.
“I’m a retired police chief, you know and I tell ya, in all of my years we never had anything like that sicko,”Robert says vehemently, out of earshot of Tim, who’s helping Erin wash dishes. “Tim’s a great kid, never deserved any of that.”
“From what I can tell, you’re the last family he’s got left,”Rossi says, and Robert softens with a huff.
“Try to be,”He shakes his head. “Since he joined you all, it’s been harder to drag him out here to visit, but he still sends money every year.”
“Why… money?” Morgan asks, confused. Robert laughs.
“Oh, nothing like that. Kid’s wicked smart, made a lot of money off his inventions and before we knew it, our mortgage was paid off and Rory’s student loans were gone,”Robert says, shaking his head.”He plays dumb every time I try to bring it up.”
“Sounds like Tim alright,”David laughs.
“It’s good to know he’s got friends, though,”Robert says. “And if that clown really is back, I hope you bury him this time.”
“What do you mean clown?” Spencer asks.
“Ah, we didn’t put it in the report or nothing, didn’t want to call attention to it and get Tim’s face all over the news,”Robert says, crossing his arms. “But the Joker wore clown makeup.”
“Why?” Spencer asks, taken aback by the news. “Sure, clowns can be symbols of-”
“Spence,”Morgan says, nudging him.
“Because he thought he was funny,”Tim says, now standing in the doorway. His face betrays nothing to the team, face blank in a way that worries them.“He had scars on his mouth that looked like he was smiling, thought everyone else should be too.”
“Sorry,”Spencer starts, but Tim waves him off.
“He’s dead,”Tim reminds. To the team, he looks calm and collected compared to the sick looks around the table. They couldn't imagine a younger Tim going through that for years. “Wore a stupid purple suit, clown makeup, bright green hair, the works.”
“Very creepy,”Emily shivers, never being one fond of clowns.
“This copycat isn’t going to know that though,”Tim points out. “He wouldn’t have the time to spend on his victims like Joker did. Brainwashing via electrocution takes a while.”
“Tim,”Robert says, putting a hand on his shoulder, and Tim stops talking.
“Sorry,”Tim says sheepishly. “They kinda need to know, though?”
“Not the details,”Hotch says. “You don’t need to relive that.”
“The copycat wouldn’t know the real MO, so he’s more likely to use more familiar tactics,”Spencer points out, changing the subject.
“True,”Tim says, bobbing his head in a nod. “We should look out for boys aged 14-18, and get the fire department on standby.”
“There’s already a protection detail on the house, and I’m sure Tim decked out your security,”Hotch informs, and Robert looks ever so like a proud parent at the mention of Tim’s inventions.
The copy cat killer doesn’t get a chance to kill again, and looks scared half to death when Hotch lets Tim have a word with him alone.
Tim might not ever make it back home, but slowly, he finds a new home with the BAU. He spends more time at their houses than his own, now, and eventually lets down his walls around them. From criminals to psychopaths, Tim makes it his job to hunt down the worst of the worst, and his team no longer bats an eye when he deploys his scary ninja moves.