Fool Me Once | T. Drake ✔

[25] Normal Life

The next day, the orders from Dublin High Court were passed for the Donnelley-Castellan case to be reopened and all the suspects to be brought back to Ireland. As a result, the Garda, an Irish police force, had reached Edinburgh to escort Anya, Adrian, and Roxanne to Dublin.

Roxanne was still to remain under treatment but had to be shifted to a burns rehab center in Dublin. The Garda also had orders for Romero Donnelley to be sent to Dublin for trial so they had to retrieve him from Gotham.

As Tim was already supposed to go back to Gotham that day and Colin Donnelley wanted to see his father before the trial, he offered the boy to come with him.

Jason might have his suspicions about the boy but from all Tim had seen of him, he felt Colin didn't have any ulterior motives for choosing to help his aunt. He had gotten into a lot of trouble by making that decision, he had gone against his mother and uncle and strained his relationship with them, all for Roxanne's sake.

Or perhaps for the sake of not letting his family tear each other apart.

That made Tim wonder whether Roxanne and Colin were on very good terms for him to risk going against his mother just in order to save her.

He hadn't heard much about Romero's family from her as it seemed they were a well-hidden secret that the Donnelley siblings didn't allow others to peek at. She had only briefly mentioned them in front of him even though they had gotten quite close later on.

But then there was a lot to Roxanne that he still couldn't figure out. Such as her decision to leave Gotham, knowing full well that she would be at risk from whoever was sending her death threats.

By then it had been revealed that Adrian was in fact the one sending her death threats and wanted to target Romero as well through her. But her decision not to tell her brother about those threats and hiring a bodyguard in Tim's form instead had ruined his plan.

There was only one logical reason in Tim's head as to why she would leave.

She might have decided not to involve Tim further, knowing that his association with her and her family could endanger him too.

She had no idea they were the Bat vigilantes so it would make sense if she thought he might not be able to fight off greater consequences on his own.

"Mister Drake," Colin's voice shook him out of his thoughts and he looked up to see the tall boy approach him. He was ready to leave and had his bag in hand as he came to stand in front of Tim.

A private jet was waiting to take the two of them and Jason back to Gotham. Jason was already waiting for them in their mode of transport and now that Colin had arrived, Tim gestured to him to follow him.

At first glance, he looked nothing like his father, Tim thought subconsciously. Colin had inherited most of his mother's features but his height and his presence were clearly inherited from Romero.

"Thank you for this favor," Colin remarked, putting his bag in the compartment above his seat.

"You're welcome," Tim replied, "sit down. We will be leaving shortly."

He nodded, taking his seat and fastening the belt. Jason was in the cockpit with the pilot, not wanting to sit at the back with the two of them as he knew he was rather outspoken and might end up making Colin perturbed.

"It's my first time in a plane," Colin spoke up after the jet had taken off. He did look a bit nervous about it but he was trying to keep himself composed.

"Why? Not fond of traveling?"

He shook his head, "I would love to see the world someday. I just didn't get the chance to because it wasn't safe for us to leave for anywhere else. Dad was the one who would come visit us whenever he wanted to. We stayed here in our little town."

"Any specific reason?"

"My Dad is Romero Donnelley, isn't that explanation enough?" He had turned to look out the window at that remark although Tim understood the implied meaning behind it very well.

"I see..."

He had lived a very sheltered life, Tim could assume that from that brief conversation. Romero had kept his family hidden because he wanted to keep them safe. He definitely had a lot of enemies and didn't want his family to pay the price for it.

Yet by then, that was exactly what had happened. Every one of them was paying the price of something that started from Romero's acts.

A while passed in an awkward silence until Colin changed the topic and directed it to Tim and Roxanne instead. "How did you meet Auntie Rox?"

"I..." He paused, certainly not expecting that question. "I met her at a business convention."

"You must have been really good friends with her," he added, "seeing how you came so quickly here just on one phone call." 

Tim felt as if the boy had caught him at a lie but didn't know how to answer. "I was searching for her already. She left under very strange circumstances."

"Right."

Tim steered the conversation and asked Colin about high school and his subjects, not wanting him to ask him anything about Roxanne because he found it hard to explain to him.

Throughout the rest of the duration of the flight, both of them carefully managed to avoid the topic of all they had just been through in the past week. But it was a matter that couldn't be neglected forever and the palpable silence between them by the end of the flight hinted clearly at that fact.

"Mister Drake, do you think everything would go back to normal after all this is over?" Colin asked as they were about to land in Gotham, voicing out a question that had been plaguing him for days.

"Normal?"

"I mean after the trial and this case comes to an end, will things be the way they were before or will they be better?"

He was still just a boy, Tim reminded himself, an innocent soul caught up in the web of his family's dark past.

He needed that reassurance.

"We must always hope for the best, Colin," he replied, patting his shoulder lightly, "sometimes our life takes twists and turns that leave us in very difficult situations. But if we deal with them in the way we know is right, we eventually find a better tomorrow to look up to."

He pondered over his words as he let them sink in but then nodded, a soft smile creasing his features, "thank you. I guess I really needed to hear that."

From the airport, the two of them parted ways. Tim returned to Wayne Manor to what was supposed to be his normal life while Colin went to the Central Jail with Jason to meet his father.

The contract had ended and whatever happened to the Donnelleys during or after the reassessment of the case in Dublin was no longer Timothy Drake's concern.

But could he really return to his life, the norm that had been before meeting Roxanne Donnelley, or not? Only time could tell.

***