[For Titans, Exiles and other Friends of the treehouse]

[needsarobin]

Tim tried to explain that he was fine. That he could get up and move and live his life again. Dick was having none of it and Tim considered it a minor victory that he'd been allowed clothes. Had been bundled with clothes in fact until he thought that it was likely he resembled a snowman built from sweaters. Overprotective big brothers had never

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[wizard_errant]

The reason Dairine hadn't come right away, when Bart had come to find her (sniffling and sneezing over a pot of tea in the Compound) was the assurance that Tim was asleep. It's probably a good thing; a guy in the middle of a nervous breakdown needs Dairine showing up about as much as a stranded lifeboat needs to be descended on by a hurricane. This way there's been time for everybody to calm down.

But then show up she does, bundled up against the cold and without Spot, and spends the first moment just standing in the doorway working out what to say, before he notices she's there.

Then she sneezes.

[needsarobin]

Tim jumped, like he hadn't known she was there. He hadn't, of course. He'd been staring at the cowl spread over his lap. He was pale, not with cold this time, just with grief and for a moment his expression was entirely unguarded, the loss coming through. "Dairine..." He closed his eyes fro several seconds and when he opened them again, his face was clear. "I...come in. I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

[wizard_errant]

"Hey. Didn't mean to scare you, sorry." A few steps closer, head tilted, watching the change in his face, perching lightly on the edge of the bed. "How're you doing?"

[needsarobin]

"Do you want the real answer or the Robin answer?" he asked wryly. His hand stroked over the cowl, infinitely tender. "I'm healing. Physically, shouldn't be out more than a couple days. Moderate hypothermia but no frostbite. Not sure how I managed that, honestly. Jill's out of commission for longer. Bart will have to favor his side for a while. Looks like you and Cassie are the team."

He paused, considered, "You're still my second, so she'll follow. She's a very capable leader though, don't discount her experience. Nightwing can assist but don't let him take over and you can stop giving me that look, I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know."

[wizard_errant]

"What look?" Dairine grins, feral, though it's gone again in an instant. "Real answer. Wizard, remember? Truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth or entropy scores a few more points, and I'm not out there in the rest of the universe to tackle it." She notices the stroking, but it doesn't actually strike her as all that strange. If it did, she wouldn't still be wearing the Sunstone. "Don't worry about us. The team is fine."

[needsarobin]

"Real answer is...no. Not really." His face crumpled for a dangerous moment, close to tears that he couldn't let himself shed. If she hadn't been his second as well as his friend, entropy or not, he'd have lied. "Winter's bad enough. First Steph, then my dad...and I do my best to not think about it. This...took away that option. And if I'm being honest, I have to tell you that I don't know if I can get through this. Back home...back home when this happened, I went crazy. Literally insane."

[wizard_errant]

"I believe you," Dairine says simply. "And I wish I knew something that would help, but...well, I don't think there is anything. People have all kinds of things set up to deal with loss--family, faith, denial, whatever--but it doesn't change that Death is out there." Her face goes grim; this is all That One's doing, in the end, and she's getting tired of waiting around on the island for It to come to her for an ass-kicking. "Sorry. Talking too much. You wanna tell me what happened?"

A real question; no repercussions either way.

[needsarobin]

Tim frowned, "I was training with Bob. He brought back a scrap of her uniform," torn out of her shoulder, it had taken him far too long to realize the eggplant was darkened with blood, "and lead me to where he'd found it. The rest of the uniform was caught up in a tree, the heavy stuff had fallen. It was like someone just dropped it."

He shrugged, uncomfortable. The next part was the hardest. "I...didn't handle it well. Not in the least."

[wizard_errant]

"Yeah," Dairine says, matter-of-fact. "That's what I heard."

[needsarobin]

"Wonderful," he muttered and sighed. "Morgan, Bart and Jill attempted to convince me to go in. Morgan left fairly quickly. Bart and Jill...refused to go. Grief is hardly an excuse. I was angry and well, Dark Side, right? Dick's the one who brought me in. Hypothermic."

Get to the point, Drake, "We need to develop a contingency plan for that. I should have built one already but I think that would have been counterproductive. You should do it. In case one or all of you need to take me down."

[wizard_errant]

"Your head and a big rock," Dairine says flatly, dismissing the planning part of this whole thing--it sounds a little like she might be joking, but only a little, and it's not hard to get the idea that she won't share Jill's misplaced compassion if the situation calls for it. "Or the hilt of a lightsaber." She runs a hand through her hair. "You already know it's not an excuse for attacking your friends, so I won't sit here and go on about it."

[needsarobin]

"I'm perfectly serious, Dairine. You're not better fighters than I am, not yet. You need to have a plan about what the team should be doing in case of an emergency." It helped to focus on strategy, to not face yesterday just yet. Pity he wasn't going to be able to keep it up forever. There were just too many cracks in his foundation.

"Run it by Nightwing. Or Arsenal, actually, he's probably got a good view on how to take down a Bat. I'm not certain that 'wing can be objective about it."

[wizard_errant]

"I'm serious too." Dairine's mouth tightens. "But I'll tell you what. I'll come up with an emergency plan, and you work on the self-control. Even when heartbroken and pissed off."

[needsarobin]

"I think that's fair." More than fair. At this point, Dairine was well within her rights to take the team entirely. He wasn't sure that wasn't the right option anyway.

"Physically, I should be back on my feet in a day or so. I may take somewhat longer than that to return to training." He pushed a hand into her hair. "I trust you to make whatever arrangements you think are best."

[wizard_errant]

"Take however long you need," Dairine flashes him a halfhearted smile. "It's Christmas, if there was ever a time for a rest this is it. Plus Jill's going to be out for a bit too. Bart and I can handle it."

[needsarobin]

"And Cassie," Tim reminded her with a wry smile. "Your team is larger than it used to be."