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“This wouldn’t be an issue if you had just killed him, Bruce!” The news that Joker had just broken out of Arkham had just dropped and Jason didn’t take long to bring up killing him.
“I already did that, didn’t stick,” Tim mumbles, annoyed as he tries to track Joker to his newest hideout. The others are too busy arguing to hear his comment.
“We can’t do that, Jason, we can’t decide who deserves to die,” Bruce says, crossing his arms and sighing.
“He killed me! And you just keep letting him walk around killing more kids just like me!” Jason’s voice gets louder and louder.
Tim becomes more and more overwhelmed as the conversation continues. There’s a part of his brain just itching to finally snap at those around him for everything he’s been through. Maybe he should remove himself from the situation, leave the others to track Joker down and go somewhere else before his thoughts win. But that would mean admitting he needs a break, that he needs help, and if he does that he won’t be worth anything to Bruce anymore. Why would he keep an employee around when said employee isn’t doing his job?
“I bet you’d just sit by and watch if Tim was taken by that man! I bet you wouldn’t do anything to save him! You couldn’t save me, why bother trying to save another birdie when it's going to happen anyways!”
That strikes a chord in Bruce and Tim knows it. He was missing for almost two weeks before Bruce had even thought that he was missing.
“I wouldn’t do that.” Bruce snaps out in response, fury brewing under the surface.
Tim scoffs before letting the words slip past his lips, “You already did.”
It's as if time stops as the others freeze in place. Bruce’s expression fills up with shame while Jason spins towards Tim.
“Just what the hell do you mean by that?” Jason grounds out as his body shakes with adrenaline from the situation.
That's it, Tim can’t take this anymore.
“You’re not the only one who’s been hurt by the Joker.” Tim says; throwing a glare towards Bruce he continues, “At least Bruce bothered looking for you. It took him two weeks to even notice I was gone.”
Dick, who was silent until now, lets out a quiet whimper at the idea of Tim being alone with Joker for that long.
Jason’s hands are shaking even more as he lets out his next words “Kid, you better explain right the fuck now,”
“No. I’m leaving, I’m done, you all can deal with this by yourselves. I quit.” Tim freezes as the words come out of his mouth. He doesn’t mean it, he swears. Or maybe he does. He is tired of dealing with this over and over again, maybe now’s his chance to be done with it. His body seems to make the decision for him as he whirls around on his heel and walks away from the Waynes. Maybe now he’ll finally be free. He doesn’t want to be tired and scared anymore. And so as the three he’s left behind start calling out disagreements with him, he doesn’t stop, he just keeps walking, even as Dick and Jason jog after him. Bruce just stands there and watches as another one of his Robins leaves him in the past. Maybe they really don’t need Bruce anymore.