When Worlds Collide

45) A Wild Nico in His (un)Natural Environment

-Tim POV-

Tim had arrived at the dinner table early. He didn't really know why, he was just kind of wandering before dinner time and ended up there, so he thought that he might as well sit down. As he entered the room and approached his seat, he saw Jason already sitting in his seat and kind of just staring off.

"Jay?" Tim asked as he sat down in his seat, across from Jason.

The second eldest's eyes snapped to him in an instant and he seemed confused for a second before putting on a half-hearted smile. "Sorry. I guess I zoned out."

"You doing okay?"

Jason's smile fell as he ran a hand through his hair. "No, I'm not. This is all my fault."

Tim raised an eyebrow at his brother. "How do you manage that?"

"I used to work with Black Mask, right after I left the League of Shadows and was still trying to kill Bruce. I helped him build his empire." Jason shook his head as he stared at the table. "I should have killed him back then. This wouldn't have happened-"

"If you wouldn't have working with Sionis like three years ago when you still had partial amnesia and were blinded by Lazarus rage?" Tim finished for him, hoping he saw how stupid he sounded. "Jay, this isn't your fault. Yeah, you helped Sionis gain power, but he was already well on his way before you got there. Plus, you are one of Black Mask's biggest oppositions. You work exceedingly hard to stop him."

"Apparently not hard enough," Jason said.

Tim sighed. "Sionis has never come after one of us, other than Bruce, outside of uniform. We had no reason to believe he would go after Nico. Plus, as soon as we IDed the guys that took them as Sionis' men, you were the one to get us the locations."

"It took us two and a half hours to find them."

"And it would have taken four had you not gotten us the information," Bruce said as he walked into the dining room, causing both Tim and Jason to jump. "Jason, you did everything right. You are the reason why we were able to get to Nico in time. With out you, I don't want to think about what could have happened that day."

Jason just gave Bruce a small nod, but it was clear he didn't fully believe him.

Dick walked into the room, looking deflated as he sat in his chair. "The team won't stop asking about Nico. They saw the news reports about the whole thing and then the photos from when he left the hospital. They want to come see him."

Bruce shook his head. "No, not until he's ready. Has anyone seen him today?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"I stayed outside his door all night, but he never came to talk to me. He hasn't taken anything in nearly 24 hours," Jason said, staring at the table instead of looking at any of them.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Tim asked, honest not sure. Yes they all hated that Nico was using pain meds as a coping mechanism, but he wasn't doing great without them.

Jason shrugged. "Steph came to see him this morning and I gave her the meds, in case he was just pushing himself purely so he didn't have to talk to me, but she said he turned it down."

Dick looked surprised. "He did? What did Steph talk to him about?"

As soon as the words left Dick's mouth, everyone at the table stiffened and glanced at Tim not so subtly.

Tim's jaw clenched as he cleared his throat and stared at his hands. "I think we all know what they talked about."

No one ever talked about Steph's 'death' around Tim. It was a dark time in his life and even though they all knew she was fine now, it still brought back some bad stuff for him.