He was as usual standing by the balcony but his face was turned away from her, gloved hands gripping the rails and head dropping low. His bo staff was missing too since it had gotten extremely damaged in the fight he had just escaped from.

Isadora had noticed the slight peculiarity of the situation so she unlocked the grill pushing it aside. He had stiffened hearing the sound but did not turn around to face her.

"Hey, flask drowned in the sewer again?" She remarked lightly though the slight frown on her face depicted that she could sense something was wrong, "and looks like you dropped your staff in a manhole as well."

"I... I don't have the flask right now but if you could give me something to take coffee in, that would be great. I promise I'll return it."

"Or you could stay here and finish it instead of carrying it with you and getting it cold," she suggested.

"Right..."

She edged closer and gently placed her hand on his shoulder which took him by surprise and he quickly retreated further away from her. "Red Robin, is there something wrong with you?"

"No, not at all... It's just... You are not that comfortable around me so I was just surprised that you shifted the grill and you know," the words were pouring from him in a frantic incoherent rush, as if he was desperately attempting to hide something, "my caffeine rate is going in negatives, Isadora. I would appreciate if I can get the coffee first, apologies for sounding rude."

Her brow furrowed in concern, "you can come inside, it's chilly out here."

"I'm used to it."

"Would you at least look at me while talking, it's weirding me out and I am low key worried right now."

"Well, your suddenly informal behavior is weirding me out too. I thought we were still on the stranger note," he replied immediately but kept his face turned away. The fact was that he was injured but didn't want her to see that lest she would get even more worried.

The cowl stopped at his nose and didn't cover the rest of his mouth so his opponent had gone for that tiny venerable point and hit him hard on the jaw such that he was bleeding and he had his doubts that a bone or two might have been dislocated as well.

"You are not getting any coffee until I am sure that it is you and not some other guy faking your voice," she spoke cautiously, "so look at me when I'm talking to you."

"If it was some other guy, you wouldn't be just talking right now."

"Red Robin I swear..."

He had fitted his palm over his mouth, turning around at last, "what?"

Her brown eyes widened taking in his battered condition, "holy shit... Someone threw you like a Frisbee again?"

"More of used me as a punching bag..."

"Come inside," her hand had fastened on to his wrist dragging him in despite his refusals, "and is your jaw dislocated? And you were fricking talking the entire time? Good heavens, you're insane!"

He chose not to reply but followed her down to the kitchen because he did not have any other option due to her fingers that were still closed tightly on to his wrist.

"Let me fetch you some paper towels, that must stop the bleeding..."

She had made him sit down on a chair and was searching the cabinets for the first aid supplies. Fetching some paper towels, she also took out the small medical kit Alex had kept for emergency use. It contained a few bandages, antiseptics and a stash of painkillers.

Red Robin had picked up the paper towels, cautiously stopping his bleeding jaw by stuffing his palms over it and dabbing away the excess blood. In the meanwhile, Dora had placed down the kit and was deciding what to do next.

"Take this thing off," she pointed to his cowl.

He froze for a whole minute before replying, "no."

"I'm sure you've gotten more injuries than you're just showing. Take that head covering or whatever it is off or else I will deck you out."

"That's cruel..."

"You only ever listen when I serenade you with threats so your fault really."

"I can't take the cowl off. Us Bat vigilantes go to great lengths to obscure our identity," he resumed in a softer tone, "I can't let you know who I am. Trust me, it's best for us that way."

Dora sighed wearily, shaking her head, "great lengths?"

"Yup."

"And what if I told you that I know who you are already?"

The words poured inside him like burning hot iron, "what?"

She took the paper towels he was holding against his mouth, her palm gently cupping the side of his face as she carefully wiped away the dried blood, "I have known for a really long time now, Tim."

He was so shocked that he did not even stop her as her fingers gently lifted off the cowl, brown eyes connecting with his blue ones.

"You have done a really bad job at the great lengths you guys take to conceal your identity," she remarked playfully, a small smile playing upon her lips.

"Shit..."

"Stop swearing. In fact stop speaking or else it will hurt worse."

He knew that there was no use contradicting her then because the cowl was no longer on his face and he couldn't find any excuse to validate that.

"I know you have a lot of questions," she resumed as she cleaned his wound, "so I will answer them all myself. The main fact due to which I found out about you was your caffeine addiction. And yes that night when you were talking to Alex and I had called you Tim, that wasn't an accident either. I knew it was you. But since you weren't ready to own it yourself, I thought I may as well go along with this tiny little act, see how long it would take for you to finally tell me."

He was really surprised because he had not been expecting her reaction to finding out about his alter ego to be so calm and composed. He had thought she would get angry on finding out that he had kept such a huge secret from her. Instead Dora had worked it all out herself and even then she hadn't confronted him. It was almost as if she had accepted it just like that.

"I am not angry at you for not telling me before or now even," she added, leaning back but her eyes were still gently focused on him, "I know the stakes, the troubles you guys go through. But I want you to know that even if I have figured it all out by myself, I will not pass on the information to anyone, not even to Alex."

She turned to put the coffee on the stove but he clasped her hand making her face him once again. No words escaped him because it hurt to move his jaw but the grateful expression in his eyes was clearly visible to her.

Isadora smiled, "and here I thought you badly needed coffee. Wasn't your caffeine rate dropping in the negative range? Like what would it be now... -65 percent?"

The corner of his mouth twitched as if he was about to smile as well.

"Control your facial expressions, Timmy, because if your jaw fell off that would be a terrifying sight."

His shocked features had relaxed by then and he let go of her hand at last so she retreated to the other end of the kitchen, taking out the cups from the cabinet.

"And another disadvantage of that would be you never being able to kiss me again," she remarked though a playful smile was dancing in her face.

His blue eyes widened in horror and a laugh burst forth from her.

"God Timmy, you're adorable even when you're injured? Like this much cuteness should be banned..."

She fitted a straw in his cup and placed it in front of him.

"Be very careful, okay?" She warned him, "if you hadn't been in your suit right now I would have taken you to the hospital first."

"It's... Fine," he mumbled, holding his cheek with one hand carefully as he took a sip from the cup.

The liquid burned down his already wounded mouth but he ignored the pain knowing that the only way he would be able to get back would be by storing enough caffeine in his system.

Dora watched him closely as he painstakingly consumed the coffee, her brown eyes glimmering in concern.

"Tim... All jokes aside, I really am thankful to have you in my life. There aren't many people like you out there."

He raised an eyebrow skeptically, "come on..."

"No really, you always disregard yourself," she had gently laced her fingers through his gloved hands, "but you should know exactly how important you are to all of us. Not many people have the strength to do what you do on a daily basis. And not only do I believe in you but I am also very proud of you."

He squeezed her hand gently, his eyes shining in adoration, "thank you."

***