Milk And Cardamom | S. Brown ✔

[37]

Tim was pacing in his room, his fingers massaging his throbbing temples. What he had discovered just then had turned everything upside down and he was no longer sure whether his instincts had been right all along or if he was being biased again.

He had somehow dug out old articles on the Wilsons dating back ten years as part of his research but what he had found out was unexpected for him.

It was definitely back in the days when Dick had just taken up the identity of Nightwing, he wasn't part of the family himself and Jason had not yet returned as Red Hood at that time. But the article featured Deathstroke, or rather Slade Wilson, being sent to the Belle Reve prison after several targeted killings in Gotham.

His hideout had been raided and not much evidence had been found except for a nine year old boy who had been stated in the article as Deathstroke's third and only son who had survived.

The child had been injured badly when he was found, labelled an equal contribution as Deathstroke in the target killings due to the man training his son to follow in his footsteps. But given his very young age and deteriorated state in which he was discovered, he had not been jailed. Instead he was given in protective care for a while before the court decided his future.

Tim had zoomed in on the picture and gotten a shock because even though the boy was just nine, he was a striking reflection of Dora's stepbrother Lucas.

The same features, the hazel eyes and the deep brown tufts of hair had him convinced that the boy was indeed Luke.

And then all the puzzle pieces had started to fit in his head. Luke's custody must have been given to George as he was the only remaining relative to Slade. The two might have left the city for Luke's safety and started life afresh in Bludhaven where a few years later, George Wilson had married Camille and then Dora might have met Luke for the first time.

Everything he had suspected about Luke had come to light in a different perspective from that discovery.

By then, he knew for certain Luke wasn't the one targeting the vigilantes. The only reason Tim had suspected him was because he gave the feeling as if he was keeping a secret from them, which was in fact the secret about his real father and his past.

Tim understood why the boy would be reluctant to tell anyone about it given Deathstroke's reputation in the city. And now that Luke was dating Steph, he couldn't take the risk of her leaving him upon finding out that he was the son of a feared mercenary who had caused her and her family so much pain and trouble.

Of course, Luke wouldn't know the part about their enmity with Deathstroke but in all fairness, being related to a criminal of that caliber was quite shameful and no doubt a part of his past that if even Tim was in Luke's place, he would avoid ever bringing it up.

Yet now that he knew the truth, he didn't know what to do next. Steph deserved to know but it might endanger her relationship with Luke completely.

And though Tim and Luke had a slight restraint towards one another, he knew Steph was very happy with him and did not want to disrupt that.

He didn't want to judge Luke just on the basis of who he was descended from, he had made that point very clear to himself even in the earlier stages of his research about him.

Deciding that it was futile trying to decode things that had been buried in the past for so long and it was definitely not his story to dig up, he made up his mind to not tell Steph anything about it until Luke did so himself or the situation took a turn for the worst.

He would keep a close watch on Luke nevertheless because he could not blindly trust him, but he wouldn't blame him for anything until or unless he had solid proofs.