To: Jason
From: Vivian
Re: Happy Birthday!
*hugs you* you were the first person to say happy birthday to me! I can't believe I'm fifteen. Soon I'll be old enough to drive (and visit!)
To: Vivian
From: Jason
Re: Re: Happy Birthday!
Okay so remember how we used to joke that Bruce was Batman? Yeah, I think - you know how he's been making me take martial arts now and he only home schools me right? Well I heard him talking to Alfred about sending me out on a 'mission'. So he's either Batman or he's been training me to kill people.
To: Jason
From: Vivian
Re: Re: Re: Happy Birthday!
Holy shit. Don't they still homeschool you? Do you think it's so no one will notice if you go missing?
To: Vivian
From: Jason
Re: Re: Re: Re: Happy Birthday!
I'm so gonna die /fuck/ I'm /fucked/. If I'm gone for more than twenty four hours call Interpol and tell them Bruce is a serial killer. Shit - that's Alfred. I'll talk to you later.
To: Jason
From: Vivian
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Happy Birthday!
Okay, be safe!
To: Vivian
From: Jason
Subject: WHAT THE FUCK
SO BRUCE PULLED THIS SECRET LEVER LIKE WE WERE IN FUCKING SCOOBY DOO AND THEN I WAS SURROUNDED BY ALL THIS HIGH TECH SHIT AND BASICALLY HE WANTS ME TO GO OUT AND HURT BAD GUYS WITH HIM WHILE I'M IN SPANDEX
STILL NOT SURE WHY THE PRIMARY COLORED LEOTARD AND TIGHTS ARE NECESSARY
To: Vivian
From: Jason
Subject: Fuck Bruce
it's the day before my birthday AND HE'S MAKING ME GO ON A MISSION
To: Jason
From: Vivian
Subject: not literally i hope
that's fucked up *hugs you* sending your amazingly awesome present on overnight so it should be there tomorrow ;) so at least there's that
To: Vivian
From: Jason
Subject: you think youre funny but youre not
the thing is he ALWAYS does this. he forgets my birthday and then offers for me to do a party but like, with what friends? HE DOESN'T LET ME GO TO SCHOOL.
i can't remember the last time i left for something other than a mission he's making me train all. the fucking. time.
To: Jason
From: Vivian
Subject: i know it why would i think about it
you know that i'll always have a spot for you here if you decide to leave, right? like i have an apartment they let me stay there over weekends and vacations, you could use it the rest of the time.
it's not right what he's doing to you. just think about it.
To: Vivian
From: Jason
Subject: pffft
i'll talk to him after the mission. if he won't change things then i'm out of here.
shit, alfred's knocking, i've gotta go. thanks vi
To: Jason
From: Vivian
Subject: stop it
jason, come on, this isn't funny anymore, you're scaring me
To: Jason
From: Vivian
Subject: WHERE ARE YOU
it's been 17 hours you better be okay i will fly out there and KILL YOU if you're not okay, you hear me?
To: Jason
From: Vivian
Subject: please be okay
it's been 20 hours I'm going to use the email you gave me to talk to alfred
To: Alfred
From: Vivian
Subject: Hello!
Hi, I'm a friend of Jason's? We used to be penpals when we were little, we've kept in touch. He hasn't replied to my emails and I was just checking to make sure he's okay.
To: Vivian
From: Alfred
Subject: Re: Hello!
Dear Ms. Vivian,
I regret to inform you that Jason has passed on in a housefire. If you wish, I can send a jet to retrieve you for his funeral.
my sincerest condolences,
Alfred
To: Jason
From: Vivian
Subject: fuck you
i wasn't supposed to meet you like that. you were supposed to smile and hug me and tease me.
you weren't supposed to be dead
i yelled at bruce after the funeral. told him i knew what really happened and that he was a fucking coward for not being able to kill the joker, and selfish. he's just going to get out, do this again to hundreds of people to more little orphaned boys being dressed in tights and secluded from the world. he said he didn't know what i was talking about in the most threatening way possible and practically strong armed me into a car
To: Jason
From: Vivian
Subject: fucking hell
Alfred sent me your belongings. he said that they were too painful for bruce to have and that i was... basically i was the only other person they could go to.
fuck.
Vi stared at the screen of her laptop for a few minutes before her jaw clicked shut.
She was staying in Jason's room, like she always did when she visited, so it took her hardly any time at all to run downstairs and scream over the intercom for Bruce to get his ass down here.
"I'm so proud of you." she gushed, wrapping him up in a hug the second he appeared. "I never really thought you would grow the balls to do it but the city is going to start getting so much safer with you really putting your foot down."
"With me - what?" Bruce said, sounding extremely confused.
"Sir." Alfred said, and Vi reluctantly peeled herself off of Bruce to look at the butler. "There appears to be another vigilante in Gotham."
"Are you - wait." Vi asked, face slowly turning red as she got more and more angry. "You're joking. We had to wait for someone else to kill the head of the child prostitution ring? I thought you were just - I fucking."
Bruce ignored her, walking briskly towards the nearest computer as he called up the news.
"Holy mother of God." he whispered.
"Yeah Bruce, that's what someone who cares about the fucking city would do."
"They - they cut off his penis and made him eat it." Bruce sounded horrified.
"Damn straight they did!" Vivian yelled. "Over six hundred children were released over all points of the city, and most of them are dying, Bruce! You could have stopped it when there were only thirty!"
"The police wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole." Bruce said through gritted teeth.
"And neither would you because your fucking hero complex doesn't let you kill or maim people." Vivian replied. "I hope they kill the Joker the way you let him kill Jason."
"Miss." Alfred said quietly, soft voice cutting through the building tension in the room.
"I'm going to visit Jason." she spat out, stalking towards the back door.
The drive to the cemetery was long as always, despite it only taking a few moments. Before her head had cleared of the rage she was sitting with her back against Jason's headstone, curled in on herself and furious.
"I hope that whoever it is that's killing people gets Bruce too. I hope they bomb Arkum Asylum." she sighed, letting her head tilt back so she could look at the sky. "I miss you.
"I miss talking to you before I had to fall asleep, trying to work our schedules so we could have conversations even with the time difference... I... just..."
The first tear slid down her cheek and she wasn't surprised - she couldn't remember the last time she came here and didn't cry. She wasn't even sure it was possible.
As she began to quietly sob, Vivian kept her eyes on the shifting clouds. She didn't see the man in dark clothing, didn't see him rub a hand over his eyes and turn away. She didn't see him start towards her and then stop, didn't see him shake his head and leave with clenched fists and heavy breaths.
She didn't see Jason.
Vivian stared at the dregs of her hot chocolate, wondering how rude it would be to scoop up the remainders with her fingertips and suck it keep herself from doing that probably-rude thing, she glanced up and inspected the other coffee shop patrons.
There was a man in a table across from her that reminded her almsot painfully of Jason - same facial structure, same basic coloring. He glanced up and caught her eye, lips twitching upwards a little despite his obviously sad demeanor. He stood and walked over to join her.
"Hey." he said, dropping into the chair across from her.
"Hello." she gave a tenuous smile. "I'm Vivian."
"Jackson."
Shit, even his /name/ was close to Jason's.
"I uh, I saw you at the cemetery earlier." he ducked his head, looking slightly embarrassed but mostly depressed. "I was visiting my best friend. Or, well. Not anymore I guess, but..."
"I get it, me too. It's um - it's his birthday." Vi gestured to the cup of coffee in the seat next to her (2 sugars and 4 creamers the way Jason made it) and the white chocolate chip macadamia cookie.
"Oh!" Jackson said, sounding a little surprised. "It's my birthday too."
Vivian smiled, glancing down at Jason's coffee and cookie before shifting her things to start on his. She always did this, eating his for him.
"You look a bit like him." she said quietly, and Jackson choked a bit on his bite of cake. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah just went down the wrong pipe." he croaked.
Vivian watched him as she broke off a bit of cookie to dip in the coffee, suddenly wishing that she had gotten another one before she remembered she had bought a few for later. She grabbed a few out of the paper bag, finishing up the one she'd been eating quickly.
"So do you live in town or are you just visiting? I haven't seen you around before." Vi asked.
"Oh, I'm new. Just moved here two weeks ago."
"You moved /here/, really?" Vi snorted.
He flushed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Yeah, I get that reaction a lot. I have family and friends here though."
Vi nodded sympathetically. That had to be tough, to have people here in a warzone like this - she'd moved to take care of Jason's grave, she couldn't imagine her loved ones being under threat of more than bored kids with spray paint.
"So, uh," Jackson said, leaning forward, shirt collar dipping downwards a little.
Which was the only reason she saw it.
"You're, oh my fucking God." she gasped out, hand shooting out and fingers digging into his forearm.
Solid. He was here, he was real.
"Jason." she breathed.
"Oh, that's awkward." Jason said after a long pause, glancing down to where the birthmark on his collarbone was showing. "So, do you wanna get coffee sometime or-"
"We're getting coffee right now." Vi pointed out.
"Ah." he said.
"No, we're going back to the house, I don't care if I have to sneak you in. Bruce doesn't deserve to know you're okay."
"Yeah, no kidding." Jason muttered. "Hey, can I have one of those?"
Vi laughed and handed him a cookie.
Sneaking in was easier than Jason remembered. Mostly because it consisted this time of Vi announcing into the intercom that she 'had a gentleman caller' and 'do not fucking bother me'.
The second they reached Jason's room Vi's face went from overjoyed to scary.
"Sit." she barked and stunned, Jason obeyed. "Now explain where you've been."
"It's a long story." he hedged.
"I have all day."
So that's how Jason ended up telling his story - the real one, not the fake one he'd had prepared. When he started the (frankly ridiculous) lie, Vi punched him in the face. By the time he was finished, Vivian was livid.
"And never once, in five years, did you /ever/ think of contacting me?"
"Of course I thought about it! I thought about it all the time, but Vi, it wasn't /safe/-"
"Stow the bullshit! The Joker was back in Arkum, Bruce would have been over the fucking moon that he didn't have to add you to his guilt complex, Alfred would have grown back a few white hairs."
Jason winced.
"So why didn't you tell me?"
He swallowed. "I was... afraid I guess. I couldn't go back to Bruce, couldn't see him, not after what he let happen to me. I was afraid that if I went to see you he would be there. I just... I was scared."