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Tim groaned as he slowly came back to consciousness. He was greeted by total darkness when he opened his eyes. He squinted and for a moment he could make out some dark shapes around him.
“Wha’ happened?” he muttered as his brain tried to reboot.
He could feel the domino on his face when he squinted to look around, so he had to have been on patrol or something. But why was he here? And where was here? He tried to shift to sit up but found he was unable to move. He focused on his body and felt that, while his arms seemed to be free, he had a heavy pressure on his lower body and legs. He couldn’t move his legs and they felt numb.
“Fuck.” he exhaled shakily. He couldn’t panic yet, he still didn’t have all the facts.
He moved one of his hands up to his face to turn on the nightmode on his domino so he could see. A flash of green passed over his eyes for a brief few moments before flickering out. Fuck. He has only briefly seen the room, if he could call it that, and it was full of debris. Concrete, pipes and various other objects haphazardly surrounded him. He assumed something caved in from above him. He could hear water dripping as he tried looking around in the dark again. He let his eyes adjust more to the dark before he looked down at what was holding him in place and immediately his breath hitched. His legs were pinned by a large dark shape, most likely a concrete slab, which would account for them being numb, but what freaked him out more were the very large pieces of something sticking through his lower torso and keeping him pinned to the ground. He couldn’t say for sure it was rebar, but the gray outlines in the dark sure looked like rebar to him.
Doing his best to keep his breathing even, he turned on his comm. As it crackled to life, he was immediately bombarded with frantic chatter. He winced at the sudden sound.
“-the fuck was that?!”
“-ryone ok?”
“-have a visual?”
His breath shuddered as he leaned his head back against the cold ground again. He was starting to feel pain now and everything hurt.
“Everyone check in.” he heard Bruce call out, “I have Robin here with me.” He sounded worried, not in the Batman kind of way, like the dad kind of way.
“I’m fine,” Dick chimed in first, “I’m heading toward where that explosion came from to check it out.”
“I’ve got eyes on it,” Jason responded next, “I’m fine by the way. I was just headed over here to meet up with Red when I saw the buildings collapse.”
“What happened anyway?”
“Dunno, I only heard the sound and saw them fall.”
Tim focused on his breathing as the chatter continued on in his ear. He hadn’t checked in yet but he was too busy trying not to feel panicked at how trapped he was. It was dark, he couldn’t see, his chest throbbed and his head was starting to hurt.
“Good thing no one lives here, or this could have been a lot worse.” Dick commented.
“Yeah. At least clean-up will be easy. Abandoned building and all.” Jason agreed, “Hey has anyone heard from Red yet?”
“I don't have a visual on Red Robin anywhere,” Babs’ voice crackled over the comm line, “does anyone on the ground see him?”
“Negative O,” Dick responded, “I didn’t see him on the way here and I don't see a trace of him having been here either.”
“I was supposed to meet him here but he hasn’t showed up yet,” Jason added, “I think we all beat him here.”
Closing his eyes and controlling his breathing as best he could, Tim mentally cursed and focused on sounding as normal as possible, “Red checking in.”
“Speak of the devil,” Jason muttered, “Where are you?”
“Around,” he opened his eyes again to look down at where the probably-rebar was sticking out his chest and looked back up at the dark room above him blinking tears away, “Hey, I’m curious. Do you guys think it's worse to die by suffocation or blood loss?”
“Well hurry up and get here, “ Jason snorted, “and suffocation for sure.”
“I agree with Todd,” Damian chimed in, “Blood loss is by far faster. Suffocation would be worse.”
“Well either way you pass out before you die,” Dick sighed, “why are we talking about the worst ways to die ?”
“I’m just creating conversation N,” Tim tried not to wheeze through his breaths as panic started to really settle in, “No need to be so fickle about it.”
“No chatter on comms.” Bruce muttered.
“Spoil sport.” Jason muttered.
“Hey, Red Robin?” Bab’s asked.
“Yeah O?” Time responded casually as he touched the wound where the rebar was in him, surveying the damage. His vision flashed white for a moment from the pain and he held a scream. He could feel blood coming out of it, even plugged by the cold metal. Shit that wasn’t good.
“Why are your stats off the charts?” Oracle asked, concern lacing her voice.
“Are they?” Tim mumbled as he rested his hand on the ground next to himself and felt a warm pooling of his own blood. Fuck. He rested his head back on the cold ground and realized he definitely couldn’t feel his legs anymore. Double fuck. He focused on his breathing again, even though each breath felt like lava. Tears were making it down his cheeks past his domino mask and he had to focus so hard to not choke on the sobs that were trying to rise into his chest. He hurt so much.
“Extremely,” Oracle responded, “I see your tracking places you with everyone else at the building, but I don't have a visual. Where are you?”
“Well, funny story really,” Tim tried to joke, his breath hitching, “ I may or may not be bleeding out, but I can’t exactly tell with this building on top of me.”
The line was silent for a long two breaths before Jason cut it first.
“That’s not funny Red.”
“Not trying to be Hood,” Tim responded with a wheezed gasp.
“Red Robin,” Dick chimed in, concern and panic bubbling in his voice, “are you telling me you are underneath the collapsed building we’re all looking at right now?”
“I-” Tim’s breath shuddered, “Yeah I think so.”
“What can you see?”
“It’s dark. My uh,” Tim’s head was fuzzy now, “nightmode broke. Fuck!” He cursed again as he felt the probably-rebar move in his chest with his breathing. It hurt so much just to breathe now.
“Red!” Dick and Jason shouted at the same time.
“Superman and Superboy are on their way Red, just hold on.” Oracle reported to the group, her voice strained.
Tim gritted his teeth and curled his fists against the ground below him. He could feel the warmth of his own blood through his cold gloves. He felt so cold now. He squeezed his eyes shut and let tears fall from them as he tried to focus on anything else. He opened his eyes and zoned back into the comms.
“Red? Red, Keep talking to us buddy we’re getting you out but you have to stay awake.” Dick called frantically into the line.
“It’s cold,” He mumbled, “I hate the cold.”
He heard Jason curse under his breath, “What else Red?”
Silence passed the line as Tim tried to remain present. His brain was fuzzy.
“Red Robin Report.” Batman’s voice cut through Tim's wandering thoughts.
“C-cold,” Tim automatically replied, “and dark. Really dark. M-My legs are…are crushed under something. I can’t feel them,” Tim choked on a small sob, “Something’s sticking out of me…rebar maybe?” he took a moment to breathe, “I can feel my blood pooling under me so I-I don't think it’s plugging up the hole very well,” he tried to joke. “My head really hurts guys.”
“I bet it does Timmers.” Jason commented lightly.
“N-no names on comms…” Tim replied with a smile they couldn’t see.
“Whatever.” Jason huffed a small laugh.
“Red what else? Keep talking ok?” Dick cut in.
Tim could hear a loud sound above him, “What was that?”
“I think your boyfriend broke the sound barrier to get here.” Damian commented.
“He’s…he’s not my boyfriend.”
“Not yet,” Damian replied, “but maybe you just need help courting him properly.”
Tim’s mind bluescreened for a moment before he laughed and then immediately regretted it, “Fuck Dami don’t make me laugh. I’m dying down here.”
“You are not dying Tim, not if we have anything to say about it.” Tim heard Kon say in range of someone’s comms.
Tim rolled his eyes at his friend and focused on controlling his breathing again. He was feeling really cold and needed to slow his heart so he’d maybe bleed slower. He should have thought of that sooner really.
He could hear chatter in the comms and zoned out to it.
“Red?” Jason’s voice cut through.
Tim hummed in response.
“The Supes are going to start moving shit, so let us know if anything shifts so we can stop and not crush you ok?”
Tim hummed again. He was cold, but at least the pain was dwindling now. That was probably a bad thing. Probably. He closed his eyes. He just needed to rest them for a minute.
“Red?” A pause, “Tim? Timbo you gotta respond buddy.”
“Mm,” Tim mumbled, trying to focus, “m’ok.”
“Shit, guys you gotta hurry up we’re losing him.” Jason called out, “Tim stay with us. Talk to me little brother.”
“Love you guys,” Tim mumbled, “You know that right?”
“And we love you too Tim. Stay with us ok.” Dick responded, voice choked up.
“Mm trying.” He felt fresh tears fall down his face.
“Try harder Drake,” Damian cut in, “You cannot let something as trivial as a building kill you.”
Tim snorted, “would be…so lame,” his eyes felt heavy, even closed, “supposed to go out fighting or something…”
“Preciesly,” Damian responded again, voice taught, “And you are supposed to take me to the upcoming art show remember?”
“Yeah,” Tim turned his head to the side and exhaled tiredly, “what was it again? neo-something?”
“Neoclassicism.”
“Right…” Tim’s breath hitched on his next inhale.
“Tim?”
Tim’s breath slowed as the world around him fuzzed. He could sort of hear voices in his ear. He couldn’t understand them though. He really hoped they’d get here soon. He felt his body slack against his will when light suddenly hit his face.
He smiled and the world went black.
.
.
.
Tim came-to to the sound of beeping. He mentally groaned and worked on opening his eyes. They felt crusty and gross. Managing to blink them open he noticed he wasn’t alone in the room. He could see Damian and Dick leaned against each other in the side chairs sleeping, and Jason in a different chair reading a book. He focused on wiggling his fingers and waking his body up. He didn’t notice Bruce walking in or his brothers waking up.
“Tim?”
He paused and looked up. Everyone was now watching him.
“Hey.” he responded, voice coarse.
“Hey yourself Timbit,” Jason responded first, “You gave us a hell of a scare there.”
Bruce approached the side of his bed and brushed some of his hair out of his face, “how are you feeling?”
Tim focused on his body for a second before deciding, nope. His face must have given him away because the next thing he knew he could feel his body numbing.
“Oh, you’re giving me the good shit.” He mumbled.
“Considering you had three pieces of rebar sticking out of you when we got to you, yeah.” said Dick.
“Report?” Tim asked softly. He didn’t really want to know how bad the damage was but he was awake now so he might as well ask.
“When we got you out,” Bruce responded, “you had to be flown back to the cave quickly. While the rebars were plugging your wounds, they were not stopping the bleeding completely. You’re very lucky considering. Only one of them damaged a lung, and the other two missed anything vital,” Bruce took a breath, “while your legs were crushed, there were only some fractures and there is not going to be any lasting damage. You had a small head wound as well.”
Tim sighed, “Oh joy, PT.”
Bruce put his hand on his shoulder and smiled, “A little PT won't kill you. You were very lucky Tim.”
“Thanks B.”
“Alright, I don't know about the rest of you all but I have things to do,” Jason said standing up and heading out the door, “Nice to see you’re alive Timbit.”
“Thanks Jason.” he responded.
Bruce followed Jason out as Dick and Damian stood up.
“Please never scare me like that again Timmy. I don't think my heart can take more scares.” Dick said as he patted Tim’s leg before walking out.
Tim turned to look at Damian. The two nodded to each other and Damian started walking out the door before stopping to turn and look back at Tim with a wicked grin.
“I will inform your boyfriend that you are awake.”
Tim’s face flushed red as he shouted back at his shit of a brother, “He’s not my boyfriend!”