no rest for the wicked [jason todd]

thirty two

WHEN TYE CAME HOME AFTER THE DAY WAS DONE,

She wondered how to ask Jason. She set down her things and slipped into the room. She took off her tight-fitting pants, her clingy shirt and changed into a pair of old shorts and a loose tee. It was comfier, and she needed comfy if she was going to have this kind of talk with her boyfriend. Especially the god damn day after he became her boyfriend. Her mind was running too fast for her to focus.

She heard her phone ring and reached for it, answering. "...Hello?" She asked, giving a little sigh. "It's Tye Melrose, who's on the other end of the line?"

"Aw, princess, didn't you look?" Jason teased. She could hear the familiar rattle of a shopping cart in the background too. "It's me. Just wanted to know what you're feeling like for dinner. Pad Thai? I can make some curry for you instead if you'd like. I mean, first day on the job as a detective! What about mac n' cheese? I know you're a big fan of homemade when there's bacon and croutons."

Tye shook her head. "I need you to come home," she said in a careful, cautious sounding voice, "we need to talk. Seriously. I really— Did you kill Davey?"

She heard Jason's inhalation. It was sharp as if he didn't know what to say, the screech of a shopping cart skidding to a halt on tile. "Tye," he began in a hesitant voice, as if he was going to make up some dumb excuse. He didn't say anything for a long moment, and finally he continued with, "We're being honest with each other. We're dating. I want to tell you the truth, Tye, and if I am, then yeah. I did it. I... I'm sorry. I should have told you, but I didn't know how to even begin to apologize to you."

Tye's expression fell slightly. They were being honest with each other, and yet she still didn't want to say anything about her mother. "Okay," she finally said, "let's do mac n' cheese. We'll talk more when you get home."

She hung up the phone, pressing a hand to her face. She couldn't do this right now. He was so good to her, he was trying to be a good person for her, and she didn't know how to even begin to accept his past. She called up someone she'd never spoken to in her entire life, someone who's number had just been a precaution.

"Hello?" Bruce Wayne said onto the speaker of his cellphone. He was still in his office at the desktop computer, the sun barely beginning to set, and the reflection was a burst of warm colours on his monitor. He had no time to check the contact, which was why he was surprised to hear Tye Melrose on the other end of the call.

"Hi," Tye began in a soft voice, "I have no right to be calling you, but... You're trying to get on good terms with Jay, right?"

Bruce hesitated for a long moment before he cleared his throat, wondering why she was calling him. "Yes," he agreed, "I am working on mending a bridge with Jason. Our communications haven't been exactly as planned, but I'm trying. Why do you ask? Is he alright?"

"How do I even start to forgive him for what he's done?" She asked, her fingers gently drumming the pattern of a Disney song on the island. It was a force of habit from watching too many children's movies in her adulthood. She'd tried to catch up on the childhood she'd missed out on. "He's trying so hard to be someone better, and I don't know how to get over his past. How do I look at him without seeing everything he used to be?"

"Who he was is not who he is now," he told her simply. "Rick Warren wrote once that 'We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it.'"

Tye wondered what the world would think if they knew this Bruce Wayne. Calm, collected, answering phone calls from a detective he hardly knew to give her philosophy advice about her boyfriend. Maybe if they saw the man behind the charming smiles and the money, they would understand how hurt he was. Maybe people would finally see how broken orphans became.

Could she even be considered an orphan anymore?

Her mother had a heartbeat in her chest, even though Tye hardly believed she had a heart. Did that mean Tye couldn't say her parents were dead?

Maybe she could. The minute Amelia turned her back on Tye was the minute her mother died, no matter what heartbeat laid where. It didn't matter if the coffin they buried might have been empty. That's where Tye buried the perfect idea of a mother.

She didn't notice she was crying until Bruce prompted her. "Tye?" He asked. "Do you need... Can I get you anything?"

"No, no, thank you," Tye managed out, rubbing the tears from her eyes. "It means a lot that you were even willing to talk to me, Bruce. I know you wanted Jason back, and I didn't mean to tear him away from you, I didn't. I think I might love him though. I really think I might love him."

Bruce smiled, even though she couldn't see. "Jason deserves someone like you in his life," he told her, "I'm glad you're able to be there for him, Tye."

She smiled after she hung up, wiping the tears from her eyes once more. When Jason got home, she'd already sat down with a glass of water. She moved to greet him at the door, pressing their lips together quickly. He nearly dropped the groceries but she grabbed a bag and pulled away before he could. "We don't need to talk about it right now," she told him.

He looked after her in surprise but whistled. "Okay," he said, setting the bags on the counter. "I bought lots of chocolate ice cream and some chocolate milk because I totally know you're going to have a shark week soon. You threw a knife at me last time, so I bought tons of chocolate to coax the knives from you."

"Who said romance is dead?" Tye offered, opening up the fridge.