An Assassin's Guide to Family

Chapter 19: Past

--------------- Jason's POV: ----------------

The mission had been long and tedious. Everyone was exhausted and could frankly use a shower and a nap. Having to go to another country and getting stuck in prison while undercover tended to do that to you.

We pulled up to the house, the few lights on consisting of the ones in the main hall and the dining room. I smiled as the car came to a stop, Bruce's and Dick's vehicle not far behind us. I was ready to go to sleep.

I got out of the car hearing Tim groan as he got out of the car beside me, I turned to see him stretching, his eyes shut as he stretched his arms out in front of me. It was nice to finally be home.

I shut the door behind me as we began walking towards the house, the eyes already begging for the sweet relief of my bed. Tim got to the door before I did, using his keys to unlock the door before swinging it open and slowly walking inside. I knew he was going to head for the coffee first, it's all he'd been talking about since we began coming back.

The moment we entered the door though, instead of being greeted by Alfred like usual, he only stood there, narrowed-eyed and watching us as if we were kids walking into the principal's office.

"Hi, Alfred? Is everything okay?" Tim asked, but instead of replying Alfred gave us a disapproving shake of his head before turning into the dining room. Maybe he was upset about how dirty our rooms were. Whatever it was, it could wait till after I got a shower and a good rest.

Tim turned back to me with confusion on his face, and I merely shrugged. Together we skipped the dining room and walked up to our rooms.

Walking in the hall after a long mission was always refreshing, especially at night. The moonlight, while not as bright and flashy tonight, was usually quite beautiful in the way it reflected off the walls.

We reached our rooms quickly but I paused when I saw Tim pause, his direction facing towards the end of the hallway.

"Tim? Everything okay with you?" I asked, Tim slowly turned around his eyes wide, not in a fearful way but in realization. I leaned over to see what he saw only to find something that made my heart drop.

There was a platter of uneaten food next to Percy's room, the small flower jar holding lovely blue flowers.

The sudden memory of running out of the fro-yo shop hit me as I turned back to Tim with my own face of realization.

We'd left her alone that day with no reasoning. Not to mention no way home.

"Dude, the flowers..." I felt my heart completely drop as I realized what that meant.

In our household, we often got hurt, but never to the point where we needed to go to the hospital. But on the rare occasion that we did, Alfred took it upon himself to buy us a small bouquet of flowers to accompany every meal until we were feeling better. He never did this otherwise. Percy had flowers by her door.

It didn't even take a second before we'd raced over to the door, Tim hesitantly knocking on the door.

Silence.

It lasted a moment longer before Percy spoke up. "Alfred?" Her voice was slurred and sounded sleepy. The light turned on as we heard approaching footsteps. The two of us froze as the door opened, Percy standing in front of us with a pristine white bandage wrapped around her head. "I told you I wasn't hun...gry..." The moment her eyes landed on us they went from being tired and kind to awake and furious, the look putting the look she'd given us a week before to shame. "Oh, it's you two." I could almost hear Tim's shame from beside me.