Diabolical | T. Drake ✔

[12] Secret Keeper

Steph pushed open the door to Tim's lab without even knocking as she stepped in. Tim knew only Steph would dare come to his place without the formality of knocking on the door so he looked up from his laptop screen and offered her a small smile.

"Wow, not working on chemicals for a change," she remarked, seeing him fully focused on the laptop.

"Yeah, just researching a bit," he replied vaguely.

She came to see what he was researching on but he quickly minimized all the tabs and faced her with a rather sheepish smile.

"Uh, it's private."

"Private? From me too?"

He grimaced, seeing her eyes flicker in suspicion, "I think so."

"And what's in the USB?" But before she could grab it, his thin fingers had whisked it away into his pocket.

"Steph, come on. It's nothing," he tried to distract her but he knew she wasn't going to let go that soon.

"Doesn't seem so by the way you're reacting," she remarked with a knowing look, folding her arms as she leaned back against the counter, "what did you copy from the Batcomputer this time?"

He should have seen that coming. Stephanie always knew exactly what he was up to and it was impossible to hide anything from her.

"Just something that I don't think you should know because then you'll tell Bruce and he'll ban me from coming to the cave. Which, by the way, I totally can't afford because I can't leave my home."

"Your home aka your lab?"

"Precisely."

She rolled her eyes then gave him a clear unfazed look, "well, when have I ever snitched on you before? If you don't want Bruce to know and it's not anything that can blow us up then I won't tell. I promise!"

He considered again. She was right in saying that she had never snitched on him before. She was the best secret keeper and had helped him out multiple times when he snuck out to check up on his old basement and the rat clan thriving there.

Besides, it was so hard to say no to Stephanie, especially when she looked down at him with her fierce green eyes and a frown that clearly meant he would be in trouble if he didn't let her have her way.

And by trouble, that meant Steph giving him the silent treatment which he absolutely hated.

"Okay fine..." He gave in, scooting over to make room for her as she pulled out a stool as well to perch on. "But you're not to tell Bruce anything about this, no matter what happens."

She nodded, giving him her word, "I won't tell him anything, I swear."

"Good," he seemed satisfied with the answer as he finally told her, "I copied Jason and Red Hood's DNA information."

He had reopened the tab he was working on which looked like a complex interface of data combined with figures.

"Woah, what is this?" She looked at the screen in wonder, trying to make sense of the data displayed in front of her.

"It's genetic coding, I'm trying to figure out what changed in his DNA," he explained, "because even though the basic composition is the same due to which it matched with Jason's sample, I think there is something different in Red Hood's sample. It seems more enhanced somehow. Not what an average human's sample should be like."

She watched him get immersed in his work again, extracting each thread he could unravel of the complex composition of Red Hood's DNA information.

"Hey, why are you doing this? And when exactly did you learn genetic coding?" She asked and he got startled as if he had forgotten she was there at the moment.

"I have a lot more free time than I can handle so I utilize it in cramming my head with seemingly unnecessary and bizarre things, including genetic coding," he replied, a slight smile creasing his features to see her shake her head at his remark, "as for why I'm doing this, I'm just interested to find out how he came back and what differences it has had on him. It's not every day that we get to hear someone got resurrected. Like clearly he's not a zombie nor any other supernatural entity I could think of. So then what exactly is he... A question interesting enough for me to find the answer to."

She nodded, eyes flickering to the screen, "but he's still Jason, isn't he?"

"Scientifically, yes. Realistically, we can't be sure. And that's exactly what I'm trying to figure out." He paused as if just realizing something as he spoke up, "did you know Jason? I mean when I got adopted, he had already died..."

"Same. I didn't know him personally but I've heard a lot of good things about him from Alfred, Barbara and Dick."

"Right... And not from Bruce I suppose as he doesn't like to talk about him."

She sighed softly, "he thinks it's his fault that he died so..."

Tim resumed working, not minding her presence at all. She was quite impressed with how determined he got once he set his mind upon something. He had always been like that, something that hadn't changed even after coming to live with them.

"You know what's interesting?" He spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence around them, "there are only two other cases I have seen of such enhancement. One is Bane and the other is Deathstroke."

"Don't tell me... You've been looking up in their DNA as well? Tim, this doesn't sound right at all."

"See, that's why I wasn't telling you. Now you will want to know what else I have copied from the Batcomputer."

She shook her head wearily, "someday you're gonna end up giving Bruce a heart attack."

"That day will only come if you snitch on me," he reminded her and she got taken aback to see a smile on his face, "but that's not gonna happen, right Stephie?"

"By the look on your face, it seems you're threatening me."

"Me? Threaten you? I wouldn't dare," he chuckled lightly but then added in a serious tone, "although I will let you know I am very prepared for it if it happens."

She paused, "and what's that supposed to mean, Mister Creepy Scientist?"

"Exactly what you imagine," he laughed, seeing her reaction to his statement. 

Right then she was really not sure whether he was just messing around with her or was actually serious about the threat. He had the history of making even a deranged criminal like Scarecrow get afraid of him so being on the receiving end of a threat from Timothy Drake was quite an alarming situation.

But then he dropped it, smiling genuinely as he bumped her shoulder, "hey, I am not serious. I was just joking. You're my best friend, I can never even think of threatening you. Honest!" 

She felt like punching him for being so cheeky but let it slide, "you're insufferable."

"I prefer limited edition but thanks nevertheless," as usual, he took that as a compliment. 

***