The Archer | T.D. ✔

Chapter Forty-Eight

"What the hell Bruce!?" Rory and Roy both looked at Bruce Wayne with confused expressions. "Why did you keep us in the dark about all of this when he is our best friend?" she asked, throwing her hands into the air and winced. Her tumble down the stairs earlier that night had left her stomach and ribs in bruises, and they hurt.

"Because, if Slade had control on him that means he has to have contact with Jesse somehow. If he overheard what we were thinking, then he would change his plan and catch us all of guard." Bruce explained leaning against the bat computer.

"Oh, so being chased through the Manor with my best friend throwing knives and shit at me isn't catching me off guard? That's great to know, but I want to know what the fuck it is then!" she snapped.

"He's my boyfriend and you didn't bother to let me in on it as well?" Roy asked while he stood next to Rory. 

"I'm sorry to the both of you, and I admit that you were right when I should have told you sooner. But there was no guarantee that the two of you wouldn't raise suspicion. That's why I kept you inside Rory, I couldn't let you out and not Jesse." he explained.

Rory crossed her arms, leaning against Tim as he held her close to his chest. Watching Rory almost get strangled and then walk through the Manor to see what he tried to do to her, it set him on edge. She was almost killed again, but this time he was there to save her before something bad happened. He rested his head on her shoulder as he tightened his grip around her waist.

It was yet to be revealed that he, Jason, Dick, and Barbara knew about it and Tim wasn't looking forward to it at all. He had a bad feeling that Rory would be mad at him for keeping it from her, but he did it to keep her safe.

"So what do we know?" Roy asked.

"We found an empty syringe that once belonged to Jervis Tetch, more commonly known as the Mad Hatter. His specialty is mind control, but it's different than Ivy, Scarecrow, or even the Joker's toxin. When we ran tests on the three of you, he ruled him out because he is still stuck in Arkham." Dick spoke up.

"The reason we ran the tests, to begin with, was that when we found the two of you, Jesse was nowhere to be found. In fact, we found him in the Bowery across town. That's what started out suspicion about him being more involved than we initially thought." Jason added.

"Hence why we went back tonight to look. I told Barbara to get you out of the Manor before he had his chance to hurt you. I guess he must have been listening because she said the power went out almost right after we told her to get you out." Tim said.

Rory turned to look at him. "You knew?" 

Tim bit his lip and nodded. "I wanted to tell you, I did Songbird but the risks were lower with you in the dark. I'm done taking risks with you and your life," he said.

She pulled out of his hold and looked at him. "What the hell happened to no secrets between us huh? Or was all of that just a bunch of mumbo jumbo to you?" she asked.

"Rory, I hated keeping it from you! We all thought it was safer that you didn't know and were going to tell you about it all after we got back from patrol regardless if we found something or not," he said, grabbing her hand. 

"Tim, I deserved to know before he tried to kill me! I wouldn't have let myself be put in that kind of position to be hurt in the first place, I got lucky I only got freeze burn on my arm and strangled. I get you wanted to protect me, but I can protect myself if I know what the hell is going on." she said looking at him. Rory felt his fingers interlock with hers as if he was scared she was going to run.

He let out a sigh and dropped his head. "You're right. If anyone can protect themself, it's you and we all should have trusted you more. But with Slade controlling Jesse, he would have picked up on things way faster than normal and noticed that we were onto him than just killing Jesse instead."