Girl Wonder

A/N: sequel to something which I haven't written yet, in which comics!Tim goes through RotJ

Tim isn't the same. Nobody else notices it, not really, but Cass does. It's written in every move he makes that he needs help and he knows it. But he can't give up being Robin, not if there isn't someone to replace him, and he can't get help if he's Robin because Batman needs a certain kind of Robin, and if Tim was getting that help he wouldn't be the type of Robin Batman needs. Cass thinks about it for a while and then asks Tim what Robin is, and he replies with his body. Robin is bright, and happy, a foil for Batman. He keeps Batman sane, reminds him that the world isn't all darkness and death. Reminds him of what he's fighting to save.

Cass goes away and thinks. She remembers Steph, the way she moved. The way Nightwing moves. The way Tim moves when he's around Batman. The way they smile. The way their bodies scream for Batman to cheer up and the way Bruce subconsciously responds a little, the way he doesn't when it's just her. The way they love the jumplines, say it so loudly with their bodies that she isn't the only one who can see their joy even when they don't say anything. While she and Batman come out of the shadows to silently knock everybody out, Robin is the diversion, the brightly-colored target who hops in the thick of things, smiling and teasing and laughing. She isn't certain she can talk as much as she should to be Robin, but every Robin is different. She can laugh. And it won't be the first time she's been a target.

She goes to Barbara. "Need Robin clothes."

"Tim has plenty of uniforms," Barbara replies, turning from her constant surveillance. One of the views on her monitors is always of Tim, now.

"Not Tim," Cass says. "Me."

Barbara blinks behind her glasses. "Cass…you're Batgirl. And there's already a Robin."

"Tim needs help," Cass says, and Barbara already knows. She's been monitoring him constantly since his ordeal, and has noticed things that others haven't. She's seen him when he's alone. She nods and helps Cass design her own Robin uniform.

***

Cass shows up at the cave in her new uniform, and smiles at the startled faces. Smiles like Robin smiles and like she smiles, with her whole body.

"Batgirl, what-" Batman says.

"I'm not Batgirl," she says, making sure to say every word. "I'm Robin."

All the tension that's been running through Tim all this time drains away, or at least all of the tension which came from not allowing himself to get help. Batman isn't looking at him, though. He still thinks Tim wants to be Robin. He's marshalling his arguments when Tim speaks.

"Robin," he says. "Thank you." She smiles again as he peels of his mask. Even Batman can see that he's wrong now that he's dropped the mask he's been keeping over himself and his psyche for months.

"Tim?" Batman says quietly.

"Batman needs a Robin," Tim says. "But he needs a sane Robin, or at least one saner than I am right now."