Chapter Text
Shit.
Jonie can’t quite believe this is happening, which is why he skids to a halt again and roots through his bag once more but no, it’s gone. Dang it, the one thing he told himself he can’t lose and he’s gone and dropped it somewhere, his binder, guide to the universes he’s found and what in the wrong hands could cause far too many problems. In all honesty can in some of the right hands too – Tim, Jonie pales, that man cannot get a hold of it in any way. Where was the last place he knew he had it, and please, please, please let it be nowhere near any type of Tim Drake.
Wayne Manor.
He was at this universe’s Wayne Manor, it was empty so he was logging notes, because you never know when knowing the different bedroom orders across universes could come in handy. Even if he knows his dad would call that overthinking and firmly not helpful but he can have a say when he starts to travel into other dimensions, plus it was nice to see how this Jason Todd lives. Just because it was empty then or at least seemed to be, doesn’t mean it’s not still going to be empty now and it’s going to simply be a race who gets there first, Jonie or Tim for the binder.
Why did he let himself stop for a quick drink, should have just waited, knew he should have just waited until he’d gotten out of the manor even if that then meant paying for something.
Tim yawns, badly stifling it with the back of his hand as he glances around him, right yes, fell asleep in the Batcave, hidden in the back corner so he didn’t get told off for staying late and trying to connect those dots. Swears he keeps seeing the same person in the back of a load of his photos both recent and old which is what confuses him most because they don’t seem to change age all that much but nope, Bruce thinks he’s over thinking it so he’s having to do it while they’re not looking. Now though, now he needs to pee and drink something, that might stop how sore his throat feels.
Manor proves to remain pretty empty as he emerges, strange, though eh not too much they’ve done this before, probably a combination of patrols and taking breathers, Alfred has been overdue a holiday – though if he’s not gotten too lost in days he should be returning in the morning.
Which is why he does a double take at the large binder just sat out on the kitchen island, well hello that doesn’t look like it belongs here. A very cursory glance around reveals he’s still alone in the room and firmly what he can hear, the house but no, no Tim you’ve been lectured about this, doesn’t matter how tempting a very clearly private binder is and the fact it’s out in the open you can’t look. Though if it’s still there once you’ve gotten a drink, well finders’ keepers. Just means plot, secret reading happens until either he’s done or the rightful owner is threatening him – as long as it isn’t Jason or Damian’s he’ll be fine but the scar on the back of his calf should have taught him not to mess with them, which is certainly what he claims to Bruce’s face, it’s not though, just means he’s even more secretive when he’s found something to nose through.
Let’s himself now drift into the fridge and casually steal one of Steph’s fruit juices, doesn’t have her name, therefore not legally hers, or that’s what he’ll play off if she tracks this down to him. Eh, honestly, he’ll try to blame Damian because the boy will get in such a fit trying to claim he was only chosen because Tim apparently hates him, that he’ll just confuse himself and everyone and he’ll be blamed.
Though as he shuts the fridge that binder is still there, well not like it could have spontaneously disappeared but there are more than one bat who can practically move around silently.
As he gets closer to it this time now though, actually reading the front of it, it’s not a handwriting he recognises and maybe that lures him even closer.
“So, who do you belong to then?” He can’t help but query.
Though now shifts his bottle into one pocket and picks up the binder, taken aback by just how heavy it is, clearly well-loved and from just a glance at the almost over flowing side, well used so how come it’s ended up in Tim’s hands, well he’s plenty glad of it anyway.
It doesn’t take all that long for Jonie to scarper his way back to Wayne Manor, cursing just under his breath and really hoping that he gets back in time, that no one else has gotten a hold of his binder yet. Especially as he gets back up to the window, he used to enter the first time around, so thankful he’s yet to find a universe where Jason has locked his window. Though at the very least, one where if it is locked, it’s still got that area perfect for jimmying open, glad for that, because it’s helped him out of more than one issue.
If this wasn’t the case though, he wouldn’t have gotten in and left his binder in the first place, he just has to keep hoping that no one else has ended up turning up. The slight seeping dread that a quiet Wayne Manor is actually more likely to have someone hiding in it than it actually being empty, he just has to hope that for one, Jonie left the binder where he thought he did and then two, it’s still there.
Which is why he carefully resumes his creeping back through the manor to desperately hope that he had left his binder on the side in the kitchen and it’s still there. Even as he now dives into the room he was just about to go past, desperately glad how dark the inside of this room is, as he presses just behind the doorframe. Craning his ears to hear the footsteps as they walk past, an average pace, not really giving anything away to him about who this could be and Jonie dare not crane any further to see if he can glimpse any of their body. Just counting in his head and waiting until he knows they’re far enough away to not spot him, and oh he’s so glad his dad helped master this skill for him as he can sneak back out of the room as soon as they’ve gone past. Pretty thankful they were going away from where he knows the kitchen is but that does also make him speed up a little more because away from the area he wants to go, that’s a good thing, but that also means there’s a horrible chance that his binder is not okay and that is feeling awful, gosh he prays to this Gotham it’s not been taken. Maybe he should have given her a better gift when he arrived, and then he wouldn’t have forgotten the binder – even if he knows it doesn’t work that way but he wants to be able to blame anything but his own self for this mess up.
Hopefully it was just this world’s Alfred, so even if he has found the binder it’s been ‘returned’ to Bruce’s study or down to the Batcave, and while it could be messy for Jonie to try and find a way in there it’s going to be far better than if someone like Tim or even this world’s version of his dad finds it. Bruce, hmm well that depends on if he thinks it’s just a prank from one of his kids – actually as Jonie thinks of that, it’s possibly a best-case scenario. Maybe that’s something he should add as a front page, sure it won’t fool every universe but should at least put a pause in them before they end up reading through it and learning secrets they really shouldn’t have. Mainly on the possibility of their own universe collapsing, not something Jonie has caused yet but also firmly something he’d really rather avoid from ever happening if he can help it.
He firmly creeps through the manor this time around, and Jonie thinks his heart drops out of his body as he looks at the empty counter sitting before him, the horrible realisation that not only was this where he left his binder but it’s firmly not there anymore. That whoever it is that he just had to hide from, holds Jonie’s very secrets of the universes, that this one is at stake but so, no doubt, are all of the other ones he’s visited and made notes on. His hand nervously twitches down to the pouch that his binder is meant to be stored in, and he’s cursing out the fact he hadn’t put it back in, even if he was only meant to have set it down for a moment.
This isn’t replaceable and no chance can it be read.
A soft sigh falls from Jonie’s throat, though his eyes glint slightly as well.
While arguably this is an absolute disaster, probably only beaten out by some of the mad shit his dad has done, it also means he gets to put all of his training to the test. Never really had to pull spy shenanigans against what is essentially his own family, but he has to remember, they’re not quite them.
Quirks are different, heck he’s been to a few universes where everything is very different, though they’re not ones he chooses to spend very long in. Right now, though, right now he just needs to get that binder back before all too much of it has been seen… Maybe he should ask the others, while giving very little away how he could make something with a complicated lock that would slow even a Bat down.
The one thing Jonie does know right now though, is the kitchen is safe, and it’s where the binder was left behind, so he hopes it is still going to be there, if not, he knows it’s the direction the thief has just left so he won’t be walking into anyone.
He can also narrow down who it could be based off of the silence of the house itself.
Not Damian, he’s too young here, that anyone would want to leave him home alone – even if he knows all Damians would argue that they’re more then old enough and he’s seen more than enough old family videos to the fact that makes him laugh not that he’d ever admit that.
Steph probably out of the window, too loud and he’s pretty sure that was something he got from this universe too.
Barbara is also out, he has observed her in this one world before and she’s a wheelchair user so footsteps would make no sense.
The footsteps were reasonably heavy, implying it’s likely to be a male family member, and even if Cass can be, she prefers to be silent, especially when she thinks she’s alone. The only hiccups that Jonie knows can get him, is he’s not sure who else might be in this world, because not all of them are like his own and there are others that are outliers from the general norm he’s developed too.
That world where Bruce has a brother, though honestly there are a few worlds now as Jonie thinks, that count as Bruce Wayne has some variety of brother, blood or not because clearly he finds it in him to adopt in any way possible which includes as surrogate other types of family. That’s not what matters here though, not now Jonie you need to get that binder back before the universe implodes! Well, there’s a good chance it won’t actually implode… he’s definitely interacted with and let it slip to a few other universes that they’re not alone and he’s firmly not from their own. One of them laughed at him for this, acknowledging that yeah, they know this kid and they have for a long time. Needless to state they got a nice sticky note calling them obnoxiously rude and he’s not planned to go there ever again.
His train of thought hasn't really helped him though, even as he now wrangles it back onto topic, important missing binder.
Pretty much he knows it can’t be three people from this universe but could basically be a dozen others, even as he now sneaks closer and opens the fridge, yeah so, he didn’t look in there before so has no clue what, if anything is missing at a quick glance even if it’s nicely set out.
A panicked shudder runs up his spine now as he hears a pair of voices, glancing around to find somewhere to hide but he’s not got the speed to get out of the room, not with them heading towards him. So, he dives under the big kitchen counter and just desperately hopes no one glances down to where he’s pushing himself into what really isn’t good enough shadows.
“I will give you so many good treats if you can somehow help them not spot me.” He mutters only just above his breath to the city itself, always worth a shot he finds.
Now just trying to ignore how painful it feels as he tries to ensure his breathing isn’t too obvious.
“I hope you had a good trip, Alfred.” A young woman’s voice calls out.
“I did, thank you Barbara. It is nice to have some time to myself but I must admit I missed Master Bruce and the rest of you.” Alfred replies.
Jonie just presses into his shadows harder as he spots the two pairs of feet, one stood, the other on a footplate as Barbara wheels in beside Alfred, keeping pace with him, and Jonie assumes the pair have just turned up at the same time.
“Yes, I must admit I have kept away from the manor myself, someone one – I’m not naming names, Bruce – tried to cook one of the nights and the smell of it drove me out and back to my own father for dinner. At least it seems someone managed to clean it up.”
Alfred laughs at that, heading over towards the fridge as Barbara doesn’t go anywhere.
“Yes, that does sound like Master Bruce. I just hope young Timothy hasn’t spent his own time just cramped up in the cave.”
“This is Tim, he definitely has, it’s probably for the best if I go drag him out.” Barbara responds.
With that she's off but Jonie knows he can’t take a breath of relief yet, even with Alfred now gone from his line of view, he’s still in the room and he does not want to get caught like this. It does however also fill him with more dread, it’s Tim who has his binder and he just has to keep hoping that this Alfred hasn’t spotted him, from everything he’s seen he seems to be human but then, well… He doesn’t really like going into how strange all Alfreds seem to be and if one is somehow reading his mind right now, he swears he doesn’t mean that in a negative way, he loves his Alfred a lot and has yet to meet one he doesn’t think is really pleasant and nice to him.
Running water flows through Jonie’s thoughts and he wants to curse out the fact that Alfred’s not going any time soon, nuts he should have risked running out sooner, would rather be seen as a fleeing blur then stuck under here.
“Now, I don’t know who you are but I do hope Master Bruce hasn’t collected another stray, but it’s alright for you to come out and I do believe you should probably scarper back off.”
Alfred’s words make Jonie freeze solid, not going anywhere, his fight or flight firmly activated but it’s decided dear in headlights is the best it has for offer when it comes to him right now.
Feels a little stupid as he now sees the feet step back around and then there’s a face, leaning down slightly to look at him. The face, like every other Alfred he’s seen, is warm and kind seeming, even if like many of the others as well, that it’s not the same. It doesn’t stop him from flushing slightly and he’s glad so much of his face isn’t visible, especially with his costume on.
“Go on then. I honestly don’t even want to know what you’re doing under there but it’s probably best to not stay there.” Alfred states with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes Alfred, sorry.” Jonie practically squeaks out.
Sort of hopes using the other man’s name isn’t too big of a red flag, considering the fact he’s pretty sure Barbara just used it, maybe he should have been paying more attention to what they were saying other then zoning in at the end when he realised just how helpful it could be.
He dives down the hall a little before diving into what he knows is a proper abandoned room this time and tries to get his heart to work properly again, unsure how Alfred found him under there. Be it he’s some sort of meta, like he is back home or simply because he’s raised Bruce and helped have a hand in almost all of the robins and different bat family members since.
Knows he can’t wait for all too much longer now, if Tim has his binder, it’s no longer a matter of if some of his binder is read, but rather how much of it. Just hopes the other has been tugged into wanting to work out what he’s reading before he reads even more of it.
It will be yet to be seen if the fact Barbara has also gone after the young man, if that’s a good or bad thing. Sure, it could lure Tim back away from the binder, but he could also tell or worse show it to her. However, it also means there’s another person there for him to need to get past, and he’s feeling bad enough that Alfred has apparently spotted him, just yeah, he’s not going to be able to come back to this dimension for a while – not that he thinks anything bad to him is going to happen but he really doesn’t want something bad to happen to it because he’s been useless.
Fuck, like the last thing Jonie needs is for this Tim to realise and make this a ‘thing’ that he’s going to end up with his own stalker in this universe and sure it’s fun, most Tim’s are at least similar to Jonie’s own paranoia that it can be fun to some level. That he can have a game in not being spotted or tracked by them, there’s a dimension he’s having some great joy in stealing that Tim’s notes on Jonie’s arrivals, he doesn’t touch anything else, only makes them more paranoid about it. He does wonder if it would be a stupid idea to just sit down and explain it to them one day, well Alice said that was a stupid idea but he doesn’t think his sister really understands the whole point. But his current point is, he doesn’t want to break this Tim just because he was messy and managed to drop the one thing in the universes he shouldn’t have. He’s got a pouch to put it back in, he needs to put it back in there, even if it means getting it in and out more often.
Means he’s going forward with one plan of action right now.
Step One, don’t get spotted by Tim and Barbara.
Step Two, get Binder back in possession.
Step Three, get the fuck out of here and go back home, this has been far too much adventure for now, probably for the next couple of weeks, or maybe days.
Though hmm, maybe Jonie’s first step should actually be how to get down to this Batcave, he’s not actually seen it yet, which means he can’t just…
A groan falls out of Jonie and he lets his head bang into the door he was hiding behind; he didn’t just turn up in this universe by accident – well not anymore, he’s stopped that from being a mistake he makes a good while back. No, he chose to teleport here and he can teleport within the specific world, why did he hide under a table???
Because you’re an idiot, right yes thank you Jonie’s internal Alice. Yeah, if she gets this out of him, he’s claiming some sort of kitchen-based dampener stopping his powers from working in there.
What he can’t do though, is just teleport into that cave, not with no clue over its exact layout or where the people within it are, step one is not getting spotted so it really wouldn’t be helpful if he just up and appeared in front of them. At least it makes step two a little easier, just needs a small gap with enough time for him to grab and scoop before he can be in and out, no eyes on him. So yeah, he still gets to test his true spy abilities against some versions of the colony, even if he gets bonus points of meta-abilities.
Which means he needs to leave this room again, and hope he either stumbles into the entrance by accident or ideally, he can trace Babs, just hope that if she has a lift the other way down is close by because yeah, no real sneaky skills in getting in a lift, tends to attract a lot of attention. She also had a head start, so hopefully with his head now a little straighter and remembering the fact he can teleport, he has to go track her down and hope that leads to tracking Tim down. At least this means he can make notes in the binder about the layout of this manor and how it compares to others, that is a fascinating hobby of his, to see how despite many seem to have the same general layout rooms are swapped and are homes to different things.
“You can’t keep getting distracted Jonie.” He can’t help but mumble to himself, “Get the binder, get out and then brain you can do whatever you want.”
Hopes actually muttering this out loud will cause him to stick to the idea, especially as he glances around and deems the coast clear and steps back out of the room to find his way.
Maybe, the one good thing about Alfred having spotted him, is the fact he doesn’t really have to hide from him, sure he’d rather not be spotted again but one less person to necessarily keep a track of.
Thankfully for Jonie, it seems Babs got distracted doing something, as he ducks back into the shadows, watching as she continues her way down the corridor, phone up to her ear, chatting fondly to someone but he can’t hear her words so is unsure to who it is she’s speaking to. Does catch her bright laughter and very fond tone though, so clearly, it’s someone this Barbara likes, but for Jonie that really doesn’t narrow it down. Not that it overly matters, as long as it’s not another person here physically, he should be good, he really hopes he’s not going to have to try and keep track of another bat because he can already feeling a headache from all of this coming on.
At least the grateful thing about her being on the phone it means he’s got a bit more leeway when it comes down to following her, he can get a little closer and be a little louder than he otherwise might be able to. Still trying to be incredibly sneaky though, because he’d really rather not risk it if he doesn’t have to. So, he’ll just stick to trailing her at a healthy distance, as long as she doesn’t suddenly speed up and cause him to lose her but at least her confirmation she’s after Tim makes things easier for him because that is definitely where his binder has ended up going.
He has to dive backwards a little as she stops, and hangs the call up, pressing what at first pass certainly doesn’t look like anything until he realises that they’re buttons and the wall panels before them slide open and Jonie has to avoid his hissing intake of excitement. Doesn’t matter how many different Wayne Manors he comes to, how many different bases at all, watching secret passageways open to where the actual business is, is always something fun. Also glad to see that the wall has opened down into a long slope, no stairs, no elevator which certainly works best for him, you can sneak down a slope easier than steps, there’s also a smaller chance of there being a creaking spot. Cracked him up when he was first brought down the stairs with his dad and he stopped him and Alice, pointed out the creaking one and the fact it’s really only used to alert them newbies have turned up. Needless to say, his dad half regretted it when it became a game between him and Dory over who could jump on it hard enough to make it creak the loudest, and just the thought of that is bringing a smirk back to his face and he’s trying his hardest to not start giggling to himself. Yeah, his dad firmly regretted it when Jonie did it last and nearly ended up falling through the floor, as it almost gave way, can’t help but wonder if that’s now been repaired or if it’s going to be for some poor idiot to fall through. Maybe their Tim, though he tends to be too light on the steps, as long as it’s not Damian because if anyone is going to be near him when that happens, while it will be incredibly hilarious, he does like to keep his legs intact.
Now though, now he hopes Barbara has gone far enough down the slope and sidles in after her, there does at least seem to be plenty of time of having it open as it only just begins to slide shut behind him and there was no chance he was going to get shut out.
There is excitement thrumming through his heart though, as he now sneaks down the dimly lit sloped corridor, following Babs who has got a decent pace going and he’s just so excited to see what this cave opens out into.
What it does lead straight out into, is a spot that directs his attention as well as Barbara’s to Tim, who’s hunched over a desk and Jonie bites back a verbal curse as he sees his binder open at that.
“Do I even want to know when you last slept, Tim?” Barbara calls out.
Just gets a hum back in response, a waving hand as he continues to lean over the binder and Jonie just wants to scream a little, desperately hoping that he’s not got all that far into it.
“I am talking to you, Tim.” Babs snaps a little now, finally getting the man to turn around in his chair.
“Yeah, well you’re being mean actually, it wasn’t all that long ago and I’m busy with this.” He retorts.
Babs snorts and rolls closer, glad Tim gets up to greet her however as she spots an opening, getting between him and the chair and Jonie sees his opening.
As much as he’d love to watch this Tim be torn apart by Barbara for pulling what has to be known across all of the dimensions as a Tim due to the man’s preference for it all this is the perfect time for him to get his binder. A chance Tim will actually end up spotting him but the binder has been left alone so it’s the only real opportunity without risking any more of it being read, has to hope it can’t have been enough to make this universe come crashing down. From this distance about all he can tell is that it’s open, maybe it’s a good thing it’s only got general notes on everyone’s main personalities and dynamics at the front and not straight into a universe and its key points and differences from Jonie’s own. Still not the best but quite possibly not the worst, well as long as Jonie assumes this family are similar enough to the main ones and similar to his own – otherwise yeah, it could be very messy for this world. If only he’d not dropped his binder after some more observations of his world, well not that he wants to do that in the first place, well ever again at this point.
He’s zoned the pair out as all he needs to know is that Tim seems to be huffing and unimpressed about Babs getting between him and the binder, whereas yeah, most Babs are an immovable object and she firmly is not willing to let that happen.
Jonie creeps a little closer, hoping to get this as exact and perfect as possible, doesn’t seem like Tim’s removed anything from the binder but there’s a chance, so he’s going to have his eyes peeled as he gets there.
One final deep breath and Jonie’s gone, before flicking back into existence right at the desk, just behind Barbara’s wheelchair and Tim’s abandoned chair, remembering he has to be in and out fast, ignore those people hope they’re deep enough into their discussion stroke argument that he’s not spotted. As Jonie’s eyes flash across the desk, he’s so very grateful that while the binder is open, it’s firmly only a couple of pages in and he bites back a snort that it’s on Tim’s own page, yeah, he’s going to add another underline to that paranoid note.
He just has to slam it shut, scoop it up to his chest and he’s gone again.
Hoping desperately, he’s not caused another Tim to be obsessed with his ‘possible’ existence and that none of the loose-leaf papers have fallen out, he really needs to do some more hole punching and wallet sliding when he gets back home.
As Jonie kicks his feet out against the thankfully very dry grass he’s now sat on, not too far from the manor but far enough that it won’t give anyone any red flags as he quickly checks through that everything’s still in there, sorting, noting, yeah, he’s going home first to do that. This was a big fucking mistake and he needs to make sure he has actual plans in place within this binder for if this happens again, including the fact that he could set the front up like this is a prank from an in-universe bat. Just seems fun if he’s being honest.
He, is never going to confess this to mishap to his dad because he’ll be in for a patent pending, Bat lecture, and possibly then being passed on to Bruce for a true bat lecture and no, Jonie is not sitting through that. Honestly, he’d rather have to do spy shenanigans in another universe to get back his possibly world ending documents then do that – is it too soon to joke about it already? He’s also not going to tell Alice, or any of the others at that, because while it wouldn’t be a lecture, it probably would be bullying material and he doesn’t want to be bullied for this. Even if it would be fun to admit that he got to successfully perplex, no doubt increase his paranoia tenfold and steal his stuff back from a Tim Drake, it also means they’ll know he forgot this in the first place, his binder he firmly won’t even let them nosey their way through.
What he does do now, is securely slide his binder back into its pouch and it’s staying there until he gets back home, if his brain pulls a sieve and he forgets anything before the lure of home is too tempting well then that’s on him and it’s clearly not important enough to stick in his head. It also allows his heart, that he didn’t realise was quite rabbiting this bad, to calm back down, pretty convinced if the universe was going to implode because of the binder itself, well it would have happened by now at least that’s what he’d like to think for his own mental health.
He pats down on the grass beside him.
“Really hope I haven’t made your existence explode, girl, biggest apologise if I have.” Jonie states to the city itself.
“Also I guess my bad if I’ve broken your Tim, but he’s weird anyway sure no one will really notice a difference.” he shrugs out.
There’s no real response, of course there isn’t he’s talking to a city, and he can’t even guarantee that this one is sentient, though he can probably count on one hand how many he’s visited, however long or brief, for Gotham’s that aren’t.
Jonie now pulls himself back to his feet, right he was going to go check on a couple of other locations, see if they exist, see what their proprietor might actually be like in this world before going back home. A fun small running game Jonie has for himself is seeing what some people look like in every universe, there’s a handful that seem to barely change and there’s others that seem to be so different every time he meets them but there’s always markers, things that make it clear who they are.
He does enjoy it, and especially for these exploratory trips, when the universe is so very different to his own because it actually makes him far less homesick when it’s hard to mistake a different universe for his own. Less thoughts about how things could be different if this is where he comes from, if he’s not thinking if things happened a little to the left or right here or back home; in what world could they be the happiest and that’s just bad for him to think about even if he really can’t help it sometimes.
His eyes snap over for a last glance at the manor, pretty sure he can already tell what levels of chaos he’s left in his wake, he really didn’t mean it even if he’s sure it’s going to have some fucking funny consequences.
Tim pauses mid-flow, even if he knows that Babs is staring even harder at him now, she looks half way between laughing and asking if he needs to go see someone about this as he spots a figure flick, grab the book and is then gone.
“You saw that right!?” He practically squeaks out.
Still staring wide-eyed at where that strange binder was. Bab’s just tilts, turning the best she can before then giving in and turning the wheelchair a little to avoid straining herself to look at Tim’s desk because while there’s plenty of times it’s worth straining herself, Tim’s paranoia firmly is not one of them. Tim’s surprisingly empty desk, par one of Steph’s drinks, well she’ll make sure Tim takes the fall for that as well.
“There’s nothing there, Tim. How long have you been down here working?” She asks, tone kept soft, almost like one would a flighty animal.
“No, no I had a binder, it wasn’t from someone in the family but it seemed to know too much about us even if some of it seemed really wrong but there was an implication there, an implication of other worlds. It was left up in the kitchen, just out on the side and I also know I was home alone before you and Alfred returned, there was someone here and I think they’re stalking us and I don’t even know why or what they’re going to do with it.” He begins to ramble again.
Barbara just lets out a rather condescending sounding hum. Sure, it seems Tim is genuinely spiralling, but there’s a high chance it’s sleep deprived hallucinations, mostly because she’s trying not to laugh over just how mad the entire concept is. Someone having snuck into their house to stalk them and then left all the proof behind.
“Of course there was, now why don’t you come up and have a nice warm meal and no doubt a nap. Alfred’s returned home and will be more than glad to make something.” She now tries.
Feels no guilt as she half tries to herd and half just wheels at Tim to get him stepping away from his desk, even as he stares at it with a faint look of horror.
“There was, and a binder.” Tim tries again.
“Yeah, and it just up and disappeared, come on, I don’t even want to know when you last slept.” Barbara responds.
She has to admit now that she’s a little worried about him with the way he’s just doubling down further, especially as she now gets him moving away from his desk, still talking about some mysterious binder and its owner, maybe she should have made sure that no one left him alone while Alfred was gone, they all know Bruce can go a little off the rails without check, clearly they need to add Tim into this list.
Maybe it really is a rich person thing, she can’t help but think. Get enough money and your child has the urge to fight crime and have an unhealthy obsession with it and mistreating your own body in certain ways. Wonders if Bruce is still seeing that therapist and if she can convince Tim to go too, though then they might have another rogue on their hands. The idea makes her snort a little, and maybe she’s glad Tim’s still ranting because now he’s not asking her about her thoughts.