Chapter Text
Two Weeks Later, Tim’s Twenty First Birthday
It’s a lot of planning. Planning on behalf of Tim in celebration of his twenty-first birthday, planning for the simplest proposal in the world because Jason knew better than to be extravagant when it came to Sarah.
Bruce gave his blessing as soon as Jason asked for it. That was, however, the first time Jason had spoken since coming back into Gotham and thus the first time Dick had heard his voice in quite some time.
Dick passed out. When he woke up, Jason was laughing. It was the greatest sound he had heard in years.
Neither of them could quite describe how it felt to be experiencing this. For the first time since both of them had been children at Wayne Manor, it felt like something was whole for once. They had their father. They had each other. Even with the continually existing tension between Jason and Tim, they were slowly learning how to coexist with one another without wanting to kill each other.
It was nice. It felt… like they were finally building something. A home. And quite frankly, that’s all Jason could ask for.
Tim’s birthday went off without a hitch. Bruce and Alfred simply watched as their children - including Cassandra, who was integrating at a much quicker rate than Damian - all sat around a circular table with a singular bottle of the best whiskey money can buy and a cheap pack of cards.
Jason is a cheater. Tim tries to find every loophole in the game they’re playing to exploit them to his benefit, and Cassandra spends the entire time utterly enthralled at the fascinating use of colorful words coming from Sarah’s mouth. Dick ends up tackling Jason afterward when he purposefully loses to let Tim win.
It’s weird, to recognize the sound of laughter in the Wayne Household when it’s so often been permeated by pain.
“Bruce! Bruce, make him give up!”
Bruce chuckled and shook his head. “Oh no, chum,” He tutted. “You have gotten yourself into quite the predicament with Jay. It’s your turn to get out of it.”
Dick squawked as Jason threw him over his shoulder - which was more than enough to catch Sarah’s attention, because what woman doesn’t love a show of strength? - and jogged up the stairs to the couch where he promptly tossed Dick onto it like a large, black, blue sack of the Kent’s best potatoes.
And yes, the Kent Farm does produce the best potatoes.
***
Two Years Later
“How much has changed in the last two years?”
“Well, we’ve got another kid to add to Bruce’s perpetual adoption problem and several name changes. The Demon Brat is ten now and our favorite married couple rules what’s left of Gotham’s underworld. Am I missing anything?”
A flash of purple and black crossed the rooftop to then throw herself directly onto Dick’s chest. Stephanie Brown, his newest little sister, had come down in a blaze of glory three feet in front of Batman late one night on patrol in the midst of trying to catch some goons harassing older people in the neighborhood she’d grown up in.
He didn’t learn until later who her father was. What Bruce did learn was that the girl was as smart as a whip and packed quite the punch. It wouldn’t be long until she was another baby bird hatching in the nest that belonged to those who would protect her from that point forward.
Said nest was getting a little too crowded.
“What are Jason and Sarah up to these days?” Tim remarked as he tucked his hands behind his head. “At least they aren’t out here stealing my name.”
“That name was given to Dames for a reason, Timmy,” Dick chided gently. “You more than fulfilled your role as Robin during your years beside B. It’s time to hand it off as I handed it off to Jason.”
Damian clucked his tongue distastefully as he emerged from behind the doorway to the roof. “I think that’s a debatable subject,” He remarked snidely, eyes widening from behind his domino as Dick lifted his head to scold him. “But to answer your question, Drake, I believe the answer is ridding the underworld of miscreants like Riddler and Black Mask. Last I heard from Todd, he and his wife were intending to infiltrate his domain and kill him.”
Four pairs of hands were thrown upward.
“FINALLY-“
“It’s about time!!”
“Let the human skeleton get what he deserves!”
Aside from that, The Waynes were thriving as the newly found Gotham Knights. Cassandra had been formally adopted - Bruce’s dying wish, according to the not-dead will - and Damian was established as Bruce’s remaining biological son. Bruce was still living in the dark. No one outside of the family knew of his current job as father and mentor to the Knights outside of Lucius Fox, who was still making tech for them.
He was loyal. They appreciated that far more than he could comprehend.
“Anyway, losers,” Stephanie interjected. “Besides me and Cass entering the humble abode, Damian turning ten, the Hoods getting married, and Tim taking the CEO position… I think that’s it.”
Dick had also been given a promotion at Blüdhaven PD, but that wasn’t important. He was just glad his siblings were amicable for once.
“Well, well….” Every single head shot upward as Phoenix and Red Hood emerged from the fire escape, dressed in armor, and helmets in all. Jason had insisted upon marrying Sarah - which was a whole charade in itself, one that Bruce still laughed about to this day - that if she was going to patrol with him, then she had to wear a helmet. Red Hood had too many enemies. “Look who’s slacking on the job!”
Jason snorted as they walked towards Dick and nudged both of his feet with their boots. “Officer Grayson,” Sarah mused. “Are you napping?”
Dick opened one eye to peer up at his sister. “And if I was?”
“Dad would be appalled.”
“Can’t disappoint the old man any more than we already have, Princess!” Jason shouted. “Now, children. Who’s ready to take out some gangsters with me?”
Damian paused just before stepping over the edge of the roof. It was a message from Father. Father, who now spent most of his time training in the Belfry and mentoring the Bats.
Oracle kicked him out quite a lot. He’d become too much of a mother hen.
“Female Todd.”
Sarah snickered as Jason’s head slowly turned to scrutinize the youngest member of their brood. “Keep that comment to yourself, babe,” She said. “Dames? Something you need to tell me?”
Damian was very, very rarely caught off guard. Being caught off guard in the League of Assassins either lost you a limb or got you killed. He was the Son of the Bat, the grandson of the Demon’s Head. He was Talia’s prodigy.
Being caught off guard gets you killed.
Father: There’s a lead on a group in Gotham that could spell some very bad things for us. Tell your brothers to come back to the Belfry.
File.Attached.PDF.CourtofOwls.
“Who are the Court of Owls?”
***
Hi.
I'm not going to lie to you, I'm surprised you made it to the end of the story. So much of this was difficult. So much of what Jason and I went through to get here was painful, agonizing, and lonely. The worst part of all of it was the time we spent apart from each other when we were well and truly alone.
Well... reader, I'm not alone anymore.
Tim suggested that I write it all out. He's already working on his biography, as are Dick and Stephanie, to eventually gift the whole collection of Bat Kid Bios to Bruce for his birthday.
That's not the only birthday gift we gave him though. Jason and I... Jason and I gave him a daughter. Her name is Elizabeth Charlotte Todd. Jason was so fearful about being a dad when I told him, but now as I write this and see him holding her across the hospital room nearly five years after the ''death'' of Batman and the birth of the Gotham Knights, I know there's no one better suited to be the father of my child.
Our story was painful. It was painful, but it bore the sweetest fruit. Jason is a dad. Bruce is a grandfather, Dick is an uncle, and we finally have the family - though chaotic, as I inevitably fell asleep most days before Eliza's birth with migraines and became well acquainted with ear plugs - we have ached for since we were children flying high above the crowds at the circus.
It's time for me to go to them now. To my family.
So I bid you goodbye.
But remember... it's okay to walk the tightrope and fall.
Sometimes someone may be there to catch you.
But the other times, the times where they can't be there, you can catch yourself.
So catch yourself.
You'll be so much better for it in the long run.
All my love,
Sarah Todd