Tim Drake’s Coworkers (ft. The Fenton Family)
It’s not that Tim doesn’t like the Batfamily. He tolerates them just fine. Damian is great for sparring (if you like sparring with a tiny murder machine), and Jason’s brand of dark humor isn’t too bad once you get used to it. Dick’s a bit too much sometimes, but overall? Fine. Totally fine.
But the thing is… they’re just his coworkers.
And it never really clicks for the Bats until Danny Phantom joins the Justice League and everything starts unraveling.
———
The revelation comes during a League meeting. They’re strategizing about some ghost-related chaos, and Danny floats into the Watchtower, bright and glowing.
“Oh, hey, Tim,” Danny greets casually, giving him a little wave.
Tim doesn’t even look up from his tablet. “Sup.”
Superman looks between them, confused. “…you two know each other?”
Danny grins. “yeah, he’s my brother.”
Dead silence.
“WHAT?!” Bruce’s bellow shakes the entire room.
Tim finally looks up, unfazed. “What? Did you think I just spawned into existence?”
“You have a brother?!” Clark sputters.
“Two siblings, actually,” Tim corrects, utterly nonchalant. “Danny’s the younger one. Jazz is the older one. She’s great. Super organized. Kept me alive in middle school.”
Bruce’s eye twitches. “Why—why am I only learning this now?”
Tim shrugs. “It didn’t seem relevant.”
“Relevant?” Diana repeats, incredulous. “You’re the brother of Danny Phantom and it’s not relevant?”
Danny, who’s been munching on some ectoplasm candy, jumps in: “Honestly, Tim’s always been kind of private about his personal life. We just figured it was his way of coping with the whole ‘raised-by-rich-neglectful-aunt’ thing.”
“Yeah, about that,” Tim interjects, glaring at Danny. “Thanks so much for dumping me with Aunt Janet, by the way.”
Danny shrugs sheepishly. “Mom and Dad panicked! They thought you’d get ghost-napped next!”
“Uh, correction: Aunt Janet left me to raise myself, so that plan was awesome.”
Bruce, trying to keep up, interrupts: “Hold on. Your parents left you with Janet Drake?”
“They didn’t know she sucked at raising kids,” Tim deadpans. “And to be fair, they did call. A lot. I just didn’t pick up.”
Jason, who has been cackling this entire time, leans forward. “Wait, wait, wait—so you’re telling me that the Replacement’s entire family is a bunch of ghost hunters?”
“Yup.” Danny pops the “p” with a grin.
“You’re kidding me,” Steph says, borderline hysterical.
Tim sighs, clearly over it. “Look, it’s not a big deal. Jazz keeps the parents in check, Danny handles the ghost stuff, and I… stay out of the way. It’s fine.”
“FINE?” Damian glares. “Drake, you’ve been fraternizing with ghost hunters while working with a vigilante group, and you think that’s fine?”
Tim raises an eyebrow. “Dami, chill. It’s not like it affects work. You’re my coworkers. They’re my family. Separate categories.”
Cue collective Batfamily malfunction.
———
Later, Danny is chilling in the Batcave, feet kicked up on the Batcomputer, chatting with Alfred. The rest of the Bats are still spiraling.
“Tim, we’ve lived together for years!” Dick exclaims, sounding genuinely hurt. “How are we only your coworkers?”
“You’re not my family,” Tim explains, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Danny and Jazz are my family. You guys are my teammates. It’s different.”
Jason throws his head back, laughing. “Oh my god, Replacement, you’re stone cold.”
“I’m not cold,” Tim argues. “I just don’t think we need to make it more complicated than it is. We work together. That’s enough.”
Meanwhile, Danny is wiping tears of laughter off his face. “Oh man. Jazz is gonna love this.”
Bonus of Tim pointing out he’s the one who re-raised Bruce during his Jason-grief, and views himself as Bruce’s nanny/minder and just kept up with vigilantism after as he enjoys it personally, and finds the idea of leaving Gotham to be a major pain as that’s where His Stuff Is.
Danny is cackling and whenever holidays are mentioned, Tim states that’s where he got lucky as ‘no reanimated meat assaulting me’ and dodging his parents’ screaming fest over Santa that Tim resolved when YJ indirectly killed/witnessed Santa’s death. Jack was ecstatic at being correct.
Extra bonus if YJ knows all about the Fentons and go there for tech and combat practice now and then. Danny and Greta got along before Danny became a half-ghost, and not long after Anita became human again. They compare notes, and Danny sends her liminal health info.
Hell, Tim beforehand having Personal Beef with Vlad Masters and it being revealed its on behalf of his baby brother who’s the billionaire’s archenemy (and who tortured his baby brother) is another angle to come at it from as a soft reveal.
Its better/worse when you find out Tim and Danny enjoy building off each other’s inventions, so Danny has a more than decent understanding of BatTech and uses it to avoid his brother’s “co-workers” when he wants to talk to Tim about coping with evil future selves, and asks Tim if he can wire Dani (his clone) money again as she keeps forgetting to ask in advance and his allowance was put on hold for destroying another death ray-esque invention.
Yes Danny's the younger one, by like five minutes. Being twins means they were born a bit early and Tim wasn't doing well. But Janet Drake née Fenton had the resources needed to take care of a NICU baby.
About the time Tim was finally able to go home, Jack and Janet find they can't have kids themselves, so they decide to make Tim their heir and he just never leaves. The weird family situation is never hidden from any of the children; Tim grows up knowing his parents and siblings and they always spend holidays together.
The question is, if Tim had this whole other family all along WHY DID HE FAKE AN UNCLE???
Cuz if he didn’t, he’d probably have to move to Illinois and quit being Robin. At least with his fake uncle, he could stay in Gotham.
Timothy Jackson Drake nee Fenton
Tim knows his family situation is… weird, when he thinks about it.
His baby brother (by five minutes) wasn’t a nicu baby, but he was. Aunt Janet took over his care in Gotham, while Danny clung to their mom and apparently tried to craw to Tim at any opportunity he could.
Tim did the same, according to Uncle Jack.
His dad and uncle having the same first name was weird, but Grandma Fenton blamed that on Aunt Janet’s business mindset and Jack Drake being content to let his wife run the show and be the arm candy in their relationship.
Danny and Tim know they’re alike.
By the time Tim was ‘safe’ to return to Illinois, Janet found out she can’t have kids due to an accident years ago, even though a surrogate like they’d been trying.
Mom and Dad had a long talk with Aunt Janet and Uncle Jack.
Uncle Jack suggested they keep Tim as their heir and raise him in Gotham while Tim and Danny and Jazz check in using video cameras daily to keep up their sibling bonding.
Mom and Dad hesitated, but Uncle Jack wore them down. Apparently paying for each kid’s college fund and helping out Mom and Dad with a government contract was the price for Tim’s custody.
On paper he’s a Fenton. But in Gotham they use the Drake name as he’s their heir.
He does have two legal family names. Makes it easier to stalk Batman.
Danny likes to talk about stars and circuits and whatever invention their parents let him look at the blueprints to. Tim liked to reas them and ask questions before showing Danny’s his best guess on various BatTech devices. They debated which grapple mechanism is being used and if they use wrists holds to minimize long term damage until Tim got one himself and showed it to Danny after becoming Robin.
Tim Drake is Robin and keeps the secret. Tim Fenton has no secrets with his siblings. Jazz would kill him if he tried, and Danny keeps toying with teleportation devices so they can see each other in person more often.
Tim’s civilian friends know about his twin, and he lets them argue with Danny about anything and everything. Bernard thought Danny was an AI program until Tim convinced them to fly up to see him.
Danny was nice until Bernard called their mom hot. Bernard learned the hard way Danny is Maddie’s SonTM and Tim mentions more creeps around their mom and sister for the last few months.
Tim hands him a handshake taser. Danny asks why they can’t stay with Tim more often and begins toying with it immediately.
Jazz sighs and the three continue to bounce off each other while their parents infodump on his friends about the various ecto-sciences.
Jazz and Tim compare notes on parenting tips, attachment styles and how to care for a severely depressed and violent individual.
Tim uses these while parenting Bruce with Alfred (when the man is up to it) and bullies Bruce into a semi-functional person. Enough he doesn’t have to worry about him killing someone—accidentally or on purpose—and dropped the excessive force (asking if Bruce was a cop in a disgusted tone and demanding he give reports explaining why his use of force and excessive force was Strictly Necessary and handing those off to the JL anonymously until Batman was forced into having his fellow heroes shadow him routinely even after he ‘graduated’ his anger management courses had Danny cackling. Jazz was just glad Tim wasn’t burning himself out to manage the Adult Vigilante alone.)
Danny booed Tim complaining about Superboy’s stupid everything and demanded he introduce him to Spoiler later.
Tim told him only if he managed to become a vigilante too.
Danny becomes Phantom a month into Tim forming Young Justice, and two months into dating Stephanie.
Danny only tells him when they’re alone and asks if Secret would have any clue on the ‘new powers every day’ management as he was starting to lose it over spontaneous power acquisition.
Tim called Young Justice and introduced them to his baby brother.
Kon didn’t believe it until Danny transformed back with a sheepish grin as “Fenton luck strikes again as Schrödinger’s boy strikes again!”
Tim smiled at the team as “Batman said i can’t out myself. No rule against my twin outing us both while he failed to see if i had more than one family name.”
His team lost it at that.
Danny and Greta began comparing notes while Bart was intent on seeing how fast Phantom could run. (Not fast) but did a lot better when he dropped tangibility while flying.
Tim had a picture of Kon coming in last while Danny and Bart tied (according to them. Bart won by a few milliseconds, but didnt take the win.)
Tim brought over his friends when he realized he missed Christmas dinner and his parents would still be arguing over Santa Claus’s existence.
“So, who wants to drag my twin into this and visit my mad scientist parents?”
Cassie allowed it.
Dad whooped at being right while Bart explained how Santa is a speedster… and Tim recruited his parents to help them drop off Darkseid’s coal.
Jazz re-organized the presents ruthlessly and made it so the presents were out by mid January.
Tim rightfully fears her. And is still certain if Jazz found Batman how he did, she would have had him on a schedule and less depressed in half the time. But 50/50 if she would have tied him to his bed to psycho-analyze him.
Danny did laugh at him almost becoming a Teen Dad before Tim reminded him Danny could count as one given the Dani situation.
If Tim began actively spreading rumors to avoid Vlad Masters in high society ranging from ‘killed the mother of his child’ (Dani enjoyed that one) to his daughter running away as Vlad was a controlling piece of shit, to he will actively try to steal your wife and your business?
Well, he is the evil twin raised in Gotham. And Dalvco’s stagnation was music to his ears.
Tim stayed at the Tower when Red Hood began and asked Danny if he could check the Zone for Robin’s ghost—not the egrigore—again. As it could be Jason Todd, or he may have skipped sleep for too many days.
Danny gave him his report after Jason wrote on the wall using a mix of paint and his blood. Danny handed him a few artifacts to manage it if Todd was a revenant. Mostly dead man chains that did calm him down when he managed to use them.
His fake uncle plan to avoid Bruce’s ‘formalize into the Legal Family and make my contingencies make sense to the public’ plan failed.
He agreed to stay in the penthouse as a ward to avoid leaving Gotham without a Robin. And to avoid starting over in Illinois as his friends live in decent distance of Gotham.
Danny complained he should have moved back home, and gotten away from Bernard, who has not made up for his disastrous introduction.
When Damian showed up, he and Danny debated if nepotism or Tim being Bruce’s second/third father would stop someone from de-Robin-ing him as everyone kept dying but not appearing in the Dead Areas of the Infinite Realms.
Aunt Janet and Uncle Jack being there helped somewhat. His dead ex girlfriend not being in any of them was concerning as one revenant was enough, but also Lazarus Pitts exist and was she a zombie like Grundy now? Kon and Bart vanishing was…
It was Bad for Tim, okay?
A green stickynote with ‘don’t worry, back within a year’ did not help much.
Danny clarified it was the same guy that helped him defeat and contain his evil future self, and dubbed himself the evil twin.
Tim began arguing his three evil selves made him the evil twin. It was. Nice, honestly. A welcome distraction.
Dealing with the battle for the cowl and telling Jason the Revenant ‘No, i will not be the Robin to your murder Batman. I am against killing as i am not a cop’ was a trip.
Catching the nepobaby in his suit was worse than abdominal bleeding.
Finding out his family was stuck between dimensions at the same time?
Only to get a ‘if you find a clue to where Bruce has been through time, i will help your family defeat Pariah Darhk’ on a separate sticky note…
Tim left Gotham in a rush, and only found out after that Dick told the hero community that Tim had some grief-madness from losing everyone so fast.
Tim made a note to inform his co-workers to butt out of his business.
He managed to find the first clue in an art muesum while being hunted by Ra’s al Ghul’s ninjas.
The glowing green sticky note confirmed it.
Keeping trained assassins from murdering people is a lot of work. He does manage to get attached to Pru, Z, and Owens.
Danny flies to him when they’re in the Cave, and he grabs Z and Owens’ ghost, promising to bring them back when they’re in the stabilize.
Tim lets Pru know once they’re alone. She almost cries when Tim shows her the video Danny sent of Owens running into a wall and screaming he was scammed out of his proper ghost powers. Danny reminding him in the ghost zone, he cannot walk through walls while Z was seen standing perpendicular to the floor and aiming a gun at someone off screen.
“My twin has it handled—not alive but he can stabilize them enough they can haunt you. Think you can follow me while we take down these stupid spiders?”
Pru accepted.
Tim broke his no kill rule. Possibly. He thinks they evacuated in time… probably.
Danny hasnt told him otherwise atleast.
And he would.
Tim did piss of Ra’s again by blocking the WE takeover and keeping all of Bruce’s loved ones alive. He should demand a raise for that while iced out of the hero community.
Kon and Bart were back at least.
He did get Danny’s help at the tail end of getting Bruce out of the Time Stream.
And once Bruce was reuniting with his family, Tim had Phantom being him home where the Fentons and YJ and his assassin trio were waiting.
He had a good rest and a party to celebrate.
His co-workers kept spamming him asking for location. Including his not-so-dead ex.
He left all but Cass’ on read. She knew he was with his family. He texted her he was home and taking a break.
The alarms for his Nest went off. Dani gleefully took to kicking out his coworkers and testing the ‘newbies’ (Owens and Z) on invisibility.
They won.
Once things settled down and Tim was informed he severely maimed but did not kill anyone (yet) he went back to work in his Neat, stalwartly ignoring his boundary-pushing co-workers. Jokes were for people who don’t fake die on him, and don’t isolate him from the hero community and do not try to maim him for fun.
He’d talk to Bruce to stop him from losing his mind, and Alfred to confirm Bruce was not off the deep end again.
Other than that, he stuck to his teams and family unless the JL needed him.
When one of his cases became relevant to a major case under the JL’s jurisdiction, he grudgingly went up to give them a presentation and hand over his file on it.
Danny catching him at the end was a pleasant surprise.
“Sup Bitch, mom and dad demand you at family game night. They need more non-liminals to join their team.”
“Game day or night, you know i work nights twerp.”
“Day—even Aunt Alicia’s coming up for this one. My team claimed your dead assassin buddies, and Pru came with us.”
“Oh you are trying to beat me at the evil twin thing again, huh? I’ll see how much of my team will come and we’ll beat your ass you little shit.”
“Up yours condom cowl! Oh, and here’s the fudge—got it before Dad and the ecto-weenies got to them. You’re welcome.”
“This is why you’re the good twin. How’s Jazz and Dani doing?”
“Jazz may kill her research professor, and i am supporting her.”
“Boo, grow a backbone and argue with her on why she shouldn’t.”
“Need i remind you, you worked with the spleen stealing bastard.”
“Only because his cult is atrocious and someone had to fix it. Plus your Clocky put me up to it.”
“Hey, i do not claim the guy who keeps evil me in soup time. I just avoid pissing him off enough to release him.”
“Rewrite the timeline like the rest of us you stupid slut.”
“Hey, i do not control the school deeming my dead body a legit snack, be glad i dont copy your son and become the town whore.”
“Like you would try—i have seen you and Val together your ghoulishness. You’ve been go e in her for ages. Is she joining team ‘Living a vida loca’ or ‘dead girl walking?’ For trivia?”
“Unfortunately i know she will choose your team just because her dad is coming this time and he likes to pick your brain.”
“What can i say, our aunt picked the tinier terror out of the two of us.”
“Red Robin,” cyborg interrupted, “not that finding out your secret lore isnt great, but how long have you two known each other?”
Tim grinned, slinging an arm around Danny as to pull him to his actual height. “We were wombmates, so conception.”
“Hey, we did get separated by the doctors and in-house adoption as frankly our aunt and uncle are great at pressuring our parents into letting them adopt this guy,” Danny pointed to Tim. “But we talk daily regardless. Like, adoption requirement was daily three hour calls for sibling time minimum.”
“Family that plays together stays together,” Tim confirmed.
“And Batman approves?”
“Ah, the problem nephew,” Danny sighed. “Red says he’s the Bat Nanny, so we don’t talk unless he’s touch and go. Then i get to throw his soul back into the body as i am not dealing with secondhand Battle for the Cowl Part Two.”
Cyborg choked as he tried not to laugh. “And do the other bats know?”
“If they fail at a simple background check, that’s my co-workers’ problem, not mine. Speaking of which, did you have time to look over the blueprints i showed you for a revised flight mechanism for my suit?”
“Got it, and the fashionista ghosts are having a field day. They also believe you need to drop the cowl condom and use helmet.”
“Aesthetics.”
“Death, dismemberment and double vision.”
“I will allow them to design. I will not guarantee use if it is not practical and aesthetic.”
“Excellent! See you later?”
“Yeah, Dani and Jazz have tonight’s joint call. You skipping?”
“Skulker gets to try to skin me and fail or he goes after endangered species again.”
“Bring Beanie with you—he is the master hacker between you two.”
“Not all of us can hack and be the pretty distraction at once when our opponent phases through walls.”
Tim blew a rapsberry before zetaing out.
