Saving Grace: a Batman fanfiction

Chapter 23

    When Grace woke up, the first thing she noticed was that they were starting to land. The second thing she noticed was that Tim was asleep, and the third thing she noticed was that Tim was wearing a dark red sweatshirt that she was positive she’d seen Jason wear before (only it was baggier on Tim) and some black basketball shorts that she was pretty sure were rolled up at the waistband to fit his slimmer build.

    She smiled at the sight.

    Jason caught her line of sight and scowled.

    “That was nice of you to let him change,” said Grace.

    Jason simply scoffed.

    “He accepted defeat and then I let him grab them half an hour later,” he said with a somewhat evil smirk.

    Grace made a face.

    “Unnecessarily mean.”

    “Au contraire, entirely necessary,” responded Jason breezily, looking out her window.

    “I can’t believe I slept for five hours.”

    “Me, neither; especially ‘cause I was going to force you to watch Love and Friendship with me,” said Jason. Grace raised an eyebrow at him. “It’s based on Austen’s Lady Susan,” he said, by way of explanation, and then, after a pause--“You’ve never fucking read Lady Susan? No, you have to get on that,” and he looked so genuinely disturbed that Grace almost laughed.

    Jason was different around her. She’d noticed that. He was speaking in a low voice, too, so that nothing could carry over to Dick and Damian, or, God forbid, Bruce in the cockpit. So that they couldn’t hear this part of him, this part of him that he bared only to Grae and not to the rest of them. Maybe it was just as well, Grace thought privately. It was her and Jason against the rest of them, really. They were the two that stuck out. The two that didn’t fit in so nicely.

    Then she looked at Tim, sleeping alone in a row by himself, and blinked her thoughts away because she suddenly and unexpectedly felt guilty.

    “Shall I wake Drake?” Asked Damian deviously, already standing up from his seat.

    “No, Dami, leave Timmy alone, you know he never sleeps,” pleaded Dick, catching Damian by the sleeve.

    Damian looked disappointed but begrudgingly sat down, casting another glance at Tim over his shoulder, looking almost frustrated, and in that moment, something key clicked in Grace about the nature of Damian’s relationship with his brothers.

    He claimed to hate Tim, he treated Tim with contempt, and often clung to Dick solely so that Tim couldn’t seek Dick out himself. But that wasn’t really the truth, was it? Perhaps Damian clung to Dick because he was insecure that maybe, maybe Tim would steal Dick from him because Tim-- Grace’s stomach dropped a little bit. Because Tim didn’t really have anybody else? Other than Bruce, of course, Tim and Bruce got along. But in moments like these, when Damian casts such looks at a sleeping Tim, Grace couldn’t help but wonder if Damian also sought Tim’s attention, too.

    Grace thought he did. It was cute.

On the other hand, maybe he just wanted to make Tim’s life hell. With Damian, you never could know.

************

    “Well, what do you think of the rooms?” Bruce asked teasingly, a satisfied smile playing around his lips.

    The rooms. Well, Grace thought she’d maybe seen something like it on an episode of some reality TV show she never really watched. They were individual huts stretching along a wooden boardwalk, suspended over the ocean. They had the whole wooden dock to themselves, four huts. It looked like, like, she didn’t know, not real. Like a picture of somewhere she’d dream about. Not-- not--