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Jason was training on one of the lower levels of the Batcave when he heard shouting coming from above him.
“It's been over a year, Tim! I should not be finding these files buried! I don’t care why you did it, you compromised yourself and this family!”
Jason stopped in his training realizing that it was Bruce yelling at Tim. Standing frozen on the mat, out of sight from the confrontation. After a moment he moved towards Bruce and Tim in case he needed to intervene.
Bruce was looming over Tim now as he continued, but Tim’s expression didn’t waver. “Ra’s Al Ghul! The League of Assassins! You actively made the decision to ally yourself with terrorists and murderers and then buried the evidence! I demand transparency from everyone I put in the field, and you lied to me, for a year, about compromising all of us! You are not a child, Tim!”
It was that sentence from Bruce that spurred Jason into movement again, but he barely made it a step before Tim’s ice-cold tone froze him in his tracks.
“You want ‘transparency’, Batman? Fine.” Tim took a half-step towards Bruce, body language almost casual, while his tone was glacial. “You’re right, I’m not a child. And I wasn’t one well before you disappeared and everyone, including your ‘sons’, assumed you were dead. I wasn’t one when I followed the clues of your disappearance for months. I wasn’t a child when I was bleeding out, alone, in an Iraqi desert.”
Tim lifts his shirt for a moment showing Bruce the brutal scar on his side. “I wasn’t one when the League of Assassins stepped in and saved me from crushed ribs and a ruptured spleen. I wasn’t a child when I was forced to make the decision between being trapped with the League, or commanding a faction of them in order to wipe out the faction of assassins that almost killed me, in order to get the resources I needed to save you. I wasn’t a child when I compromised my own morals and took the deal. I wasn’t a child when I made the decision to make a personal enemy out of Ra’s Al Ghul when I destroyed his mainframe and bases once I got what I needed. I wasn’t one when I didn’t tell you what happened while you were gone. Because you are not my father, Batman. You are my commanding officer, and soldiers don’t report injuries or issues unless they affect their performance. And my performance hasn’t lacked.”
The words soldiers don’t report injuries echoed through Jason’s head before he realized he was moving. Anger burned through every inch of his frame as he forced himself between Bruce and Tim. “You’re done,” was all that he could get out without resorting to physically throttling Bruce.
“Stay out of this, Jason. This is between Tim and I.” Bruce’s voice was tight with anger at the interruption.
“He’s not going to walk away.” Tim spoke up. The amount of casual certainty in Tim’s tone was almost a physical blow to Jason, but he didn’t look away from Bruce. He didn’t move an inch. “When you were ‘dead’ and Gotham was on fire, the one person that didn’t ask me for a casualty report or steal a part of my identity, was Jason… He asked me to be his Robin…” Jason went rigid at the reminder, before Tim continued. “He saw my worth. He saw me as a partner, instead of the compromised asset you see me as.”
Bruce visibly froze at those words.
When he continued to stay silent, Tim stopped waiting for his reaction.
Placing a light hand on Jason’s shoulder, Tim’s voice was no longer filled with the glacial anger he had when speaking to Bruce, he just sounded tired when he said, “It’s time to go, Jay.”
Without a backwards glance at Bruce, Jason followed Tim to the elevator and left the Cave.