"Jason…"
He barely got that single, solitary word around the kaleidoscope of emotions swirling around inside him. Pain, shock, regret, joy, love flooded into him so fast he was dizzy from them. It was like one stunning emotion slamming into another, leaving him dazed and trembling. Bruce imagined that at any moment he was going to explode from all the pressure building up inside him.
There are so many things I want to say to you, son, he said while staring at the man standing in the open doorway. I don't know where to begin. Or how to say any of the things that I want to say to you.
Jason had not stepped foot inside this house in seven years. His death was a shroud that hung over the both of them. Jason's death at the hands of the Joker was the single most traumatic event he had been forced to endure as both Bruce Wayne and Batman.
He'd never forget holding his son's lifeless body in his arms.
He'd never manage to erase the image of them laying his son's coffin in a hole dug in the ground.
He'd never forget it was his fault that his son had been murdered by the Clown Prince of Crime. Just as he'd never forget that it was his fault for not recognizing that what his son needed the most in that moment was a father, not a mentor.
Repressed grief added to the fury simmering deep within his soul. He hadn't been the father his son needed. That, combined with his refusal to utilize lethal force on the man who murdered him, was the largest reason for why he and Jason remained estranged. That was why his son did not come home. That Jason had come here now, and on that night of all nights, struck him as unusual. It made him ask him one simple question: "What are you doing here?"
A/N: Hello, all, and welcome! This piece was written based off this prompt:
'"Write a series of drabbles or flash fiction pieces that together tell a larger story. Bonus points if your drabbles are written out of chronological order/follow a nonlinear timeline, or if they aren't plot-compliant with each other but still tell a cohesive story (by sharing the same theme, etc.). The drabbles/flash fictions should each be between 100 and 400 words long."'
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