Project Shikon

Chapter 14

When Jason got back from patrol it was to find Shi completely passed out on Tim's lap. He suspiciously raised an eyebrow at the scene, "What did you do, drug her?" She hadn't even wanted Tim close to her during supper simply hours ago.

Tim rolled his eyes, "Of course not. She got curious about the computers and eventually she ended up here. It's not exactly a bad thing Jason. Don't bitch at me, I got her to sleep."

"She wasn't sleeping?" he asked quietly as he headed towards the showers. He had blood on him that he needed to get off before going to bed. Jason's lips quirked downwards, he hadn't had a problem getting her to sleep, she usually fell asleep pretty quick.

"She was trying to stay up until you got back," he swiveled his chair slowly to not wake Shi up to face Jason, "I don't know for sure, but I think that she was worried you won't come back for her."

Jason stopped walking and looked down at the small kid sleeping in Tim's lap. His frown deepened, "Of course I was coming back."

"You need to think about this now Jason, what do you plan to do after we've settled the business with Shi's past. Are you going to keep her for the long-run, or are you planning on simply keeping her safe until we find her enemies? If you don't plan on keeping her, you need to break that to her sooner than later. Don't get her hopes up, Jason. That would be just cruel." Tim told him as seriously as he could. It was something that he had been thinking about. Jason's plan for the kid sleeping in his lap. He knew that Jason doesn't usually plan ahead, but with this, he would have to. This involved another human being and she deserved to have the thought put in. It wasn't like she would fit in just anywhere with her ears and tail. Plus, both Dick and surprisingly Damian were already attached to her.

Anger filled Jason and he stalked off towards the showers, "Mind your own goddamned business Replacement."

Tim watched Jason march away and he sent a worried frown to Shi. Hopefully, Jason would use one of his rare moments of sensibility with this issue.

Jason's mind was going a million miles an hour as he scrubbed down. What the hell was Replacement going on about? He wasn't exactly a kid-friendly person, of course, he wasn't the person to keep the kid. He had anger management issues, he was crass, he spent his nights fighting crime, Jesus christ he had fucking died. He STILL had issues with that last one! Sure, he had a sense of responsibility to look after the kid until they wrapped up the organization that did all this sick shit to the kid. Shi's adorable face and innocent blue eyes flashed through his mind and he angrily punched the wall. Damnit, what was wrong with him. Of course, he shouldn't even think about keeping the kid. He wasn't exactly sure what he could end up doing with her, orphanages and foster cares were out of the question. Not only because of her unhuman attributes, he didn't trust those places for a single second. There was always the option that he could leave her here at the manor. He'd still be around sometimes to reassure himself that she would be fine. If that wasn't an option the Titans were always a possibility. It wasn't the most common solution, but it would work.

He shook his head and turned the shower off. This wasn't something he had to think about now. He had time to figure out what to do with the kid. It would be a bit until they found and were able to do anything about the kid's enemies. He had time.

He got dressed quickly and headed back out. He didn't plan on talking to Tim more, but of course, the replacement had other plans. He couldn't even grab Shi off of his lap as he had rolled his chair back close to the computer and had her caged in between himself and the table. Well, he could grab her but it would wake her up and he didn't really want to do that. Not if she had stayed up much later than she should have been.

"I found video from the Northside that shows Shi sneaking into Gotham. We'll have to start putting feelers into the woods, see if we can find the thing that doesn't belong." Tim said without stopping from what he was doing.