Chapter Text
“I got in contact with Kyle,” Jason says when Bruce returns to the cave. “They’re kind of tied up at the moment, but they’ll be picking me up the day after tomorrow. If you don’t mind me staying that long.”
“That’s fine, Jason.”
“Sorry I upset your kid. I do try not to fight with the Bats in other worlds. And I’ve never gotten this warm a welcome before, so, yeah. Sorry.”
“He’ll be all right.” Bruce sits down across from Jason; he seems a little more comfortable now that he has a clear plan. Which makes now a good time to bring up that thing he really, really doesn’t want to bring up. “My multiverse tech was set up in three days with the help of a Bruce who had a lot more experience with interdimensional travel. It’s…limited, and I don’t have the knowledge to develop it further. So I was wondering if you could do me a favor.”
-
“Come in,” Jason says when there’s a knock on his door, even though Bruce and Alfred don’t knock like that, his siblings don’t knock at all, and he knows it has to be other Jason on the other side.
“Hey,” his older self says. He leans down to pet the cat, curled up on the bed. “So. My Bruce is an asshole, and there are a lot of reasons we don’t get along. He’s a good Batman. And I think he loves me. But he’s not a very good dad. It sounds like both of your Bruces are really great dads, and I’m sorry you lost one.”
Jason shrugs. He doesn’t like to think about Dad. “I’m sorry your dad sucks.”
“Yeah. For one thing, he never let me have a pet.”
“Technically all the pets are from Selina. She’s really bad at saying no.”
“You know,” the older Jason says slowly, “he said I could come visit any time.”
“Yeah,” Jay says. If his dad is really that bad, he deserves to spend some time with a Bruce that doesn’t suck. He doesn’t think he will, though. Jason’s been mad at Bruce before, really mad, but he doesn’t think he’s been as uncomfortable with him as this Jason is since that first night, sitting in the back seat of the Batmobile after trying to steal the tires. “You could visit,” he says anyway. “If you wanted.”
-
Cassandra waits outside the gymnastics building for Selina to pick her up. Dick went over to his friend Jake’s house after class today—it’s his first time out completely unsupervised, and Cass is only a little worried about it. Bruce will pick him up from there in a few hours.
As soon as Selina walks toward her she sees it. “Selina! You have a baby!”
“I’m going to have a baby,” Selina says. “In about eight months. I’m sorry I missed your birthday.”
“You were hiding. You didn’t want me to know?”
Selina starts walking back toward her car, and Cassandra follows.
“I haven’t told Bruce yet.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow night. After your multiverse visitor leaves.”
“Good.” Cass gets into the car. “Boy or girl?”
“It’s too soon to tell.”
“Bruce will be a good dad. We broke him in for you.”
Selina laughs. “I’m sure he will. Where do you want to go for lunch?”
-
Damian looks down at Athanasia. She’s just fallen asleep, and soon he’ll have to give her back to Mother—Selina and Cassandra are picking him up and taking him home.
“One more week in the hospital?” he checks. Mother told him all of this earlier, but he was paying more attention to the baby than to her.
“If everything goes as planned,” Mother says.
“When are you coming home?” If Dick and Selina have both asked her about it, Damian probably can too.
“A few more weeks. Your father and I talked about it, and we want to keep Athanasia closer to the hospital until she’s a little older.”
“But you are coming home?”
“Absolutely.” Mother puts her hands on his shoulders; he thinks maybe she’d like to hug him, but Athanasia is sort of in the way. “I think it might be a little awkward living with your Father, but I cannot wait to sleep under the same roof as you every night.”
“Okay,” Damian says quietly. He’s really looking forward to that, too.
-
Bruce looks around at his family, gathered in the cave. Dick is somewhere in the rafters, probably watching them from a comfortable distance; he’s been a little tense this morning. He had fun with his friend after gymnastics yesterday, and Bruce is optimistic that he might be able to send him to school within a year or so. He and Damian were up late last night painting Athanasia’s nursery—they’d refused to let him and Alfred help.
Bruce is considering school for Damian, too; they need to talk about it with Talia. He’ll be turning sixteen soon, and getting his driver’s license. It’s only a slightly terrifying thought.
“It’s okay, Bruce,” Cassandra says, leaning over his shoulder. She doesn’t really know, though—he hasn’t discussed this with Cassandra or with Alfred. Only with the older Jason.
Bruce kneels down on the training mats next to Tim and his Jason—his counterpart is in conversation with Alfred, studiously ignoring them all.
“Jason,” Bruce says, “do you remember when I told you that I couldn’t go into the same universe twice?”
“Yeah?”
“The other Jason doesn’t have that problem.”
“Um, okay?” Jason looks over at Tim; Bruce can see the moment understanding dawns on them both. “Bruce. You’re not…”
“If you want to go home—if either of you wants to go back to your Dick, to your Alfred—he’s willing to take you.”
“You’re my dad,” Jason says immediately. “I’m not leaving you.”
“Okay,” Bruce says. “Okay.” He leans forward to hug Jason—honestly he’s not nearly as worried about the possibility of losing Tim. Tim’s never called him an imposter.
“You’re not trying to get rid of me,” Tim says when Jason lets go, “Right? You’re just trying to give me options.”
“Right. I’ll never want to get rid of you, Tim. You’re my son.”
“Okay. Hey, grown-up Jason!”
Jason jogs over from across the cave. He looks a little worried. “So?”
“Could you—could you visit my Dick, maybe? I don’t know why he didn’t come for me. I’m not sure I want to know. It’s better here. But could you—if you ever meet him, can you let him know that I’m alive? That I’m okay?”
“I can do that.”
“Thanks.” Tim gets up and wanders away, toward the corner where Cass and Damian are. They’ll need to talk more later, but Bruce thinks he’s going to be okay.
“Jay? Do you want to do something like that, too?”
Jason looks up at Bruce, then over at his older self. “They think I’m dead. They’ve thought I’m dead for, what, three years now?”
“Something like that,” Bruce says.
“Then wouldn’t it just hurt them more, hearing that I’m alive but in another world, unreachable?”
“I didn’t think about that,” Bruce admits.
“Maybe—maybe someday. But not right now.”
“I adjusted Bruce’s tech so he can send me messages,” his older self says. “Let me know if you change your mind.”
“Sure,” Jason says. He stands, walking slowly in the direction of his siblings, looking up. “Hey, Dickie! Get out of the ceiling! I wanna show you something.”
An hour later two more people appear in the cave. Bruce waits to be sure they are who they say they are, watches Jason go up to them and disappear in a flash of light. Then he goes to join his family.