To tame a Demon (english)

Chapter 28: The robin flat

"Shit, that's Barbara!"

Both Jason's and Damian's eyes snapped wide open when Tim said that name, and stunned, the Outlaw replied:

"What the hell is she doing here?!"

Tim ruffled his hair as he answered his counterpart:

"We wanted to discuss a case where a criminal moved his business from Bludhaven to Gotham and that's why she had announced herself for today."

"Shit! Dick wouldn't like it at all if she saw him like that. Let alone, any more people involved could blow our cover!"

Jason briefly weighed their options. In fact, Barbara was one of the few people he really liked, let alone loved, and actually he knew she could be trusted. However, their current situation was too precarious for him to take any chances. *1

The Outlaw now turned back to Tim:

"Get rid of her!"

"What, how? Barbara can't be fooled so easily! She'll know something's up right away if I turn her down on the door just like that."

Jason knew exactly what Tim meant. Any of them would get suspicious if Tim canceled on someone only at the doorstep. He was the kind of person who did that kind of thing in advance, since his entire life was one well-planned routine.

The doorbell rang again, which only agitated those present.

But as Jason's gaze briefly wandered to the Red Robin's belt, an idea occurred to him. Out of the tricky situation, he now walked briskly to the kitchen and took the glass of water from Damian's hand, who protested about this with a "Hey!".

However, the boy's initial annoyance quickly turned into confusion when he saw the Outlaw not exactly gently grab Tim by the collar and drag him out onto the balcony.

Damian's face visibly brightened at what happened next. On the balcony, with a quick "Sorry Tim." Jason pulled the pepper spray from his belt and sprayed it in his face.

Immediately Tim's lungs spasmed as the irritant gas hit his face and his eyes and nose started running water like crazy:

"Damn..arg...Jason, what..kch...the hell?"

Without wasting much time, the older man pushed his counterpart's head down so that he could now wash of most of the substance out of Tim's face with Damian's glass of water and the smell would also fate away. Unnerved, he spoke to his taken-by-surprise victim:

"Look. Now you just have to pretend to be very very sick and convince Barbara to go away again. Take something like conjunctivitis and fever. I 've set the base for you and for the rest, it's up to your acting skills."

Under Jason's rough handling, Tim croaked back:

"Urg...Seriously Jason? This is your grandiose plan? I can't believe you sprayed pepper spray in my face! Arg...do you actually know that can be dangerous? Eh...why don't we just tell her about Dick?"

"Oh now don't be such a sissy prince! And like I said, how do you think that womanizer would feel if Babs saw him like that? Let alone that too many people might overstimulate him in his condition. Him playing the friendly dog in front of you was the absolute exception. You already have a face full of snot, now you might as well use it to send Babs away!"

Jason dragged Tim back into the apartment and called toward the kitchen:

"Damian, take the turkey and go hide in the main bedroom already."

The usually cynical boy's face was adorned with a wide nasty grin as he eyed Drake's helpless countenance. He would have loved to savor this moment a bit more, but in the end, the current situation demanded the opposite of him.