(to stop your tears)
We delve into the past of Helena Wayne (or my version of her). TRIGGER WARNING. ATTEMPTED RAPE OF A MINOR. It is the section in italics. You may scroll past it and still understand the story. Working on updating tags.
Midnight in Gotham, on the Watchtower and at Wayne Manor were all very different things. For example, Gotham was a whirl of violence and lights and shadows and darkness. The Watchtower, pending location, was like being inside a star orbiting the Earth. Unless, of course, you were in one of the conveniently placed inner rooms in one of the clan suites. And Wayne Manor, despite being caught between isolation and calamity, was where Helena Wayne felt safest.
Yes, on the streets of Gotham, she was the Huntress, one of the most capable Bats on the street. On Watchtower, she was feared by the younger vigilantes for her competency. But in the Manor, she was just Helena. Daughter, sister… destiny.
Helena focused on breathing. She might be a possibility, for Jason, but he wanted to wait until he was sure she was ready. Trembling, the heiress whimpered when an old memory resurfaced
"Little bitch, cock teasing the man of the house? That won't do." A balding, red faced man with a ridiculous mustache was running his hands over thirteen year old Helena's quivering body. The tiny, terrified barely-teenager couldn't even cry for help. The bastard had gagged her with a filthy sock.
Her 'father' had dragged her to the car in her pajamas, and was now playing out his fantasy far from where Helena and her mother lived, and he returned to when he was home from work.
Lips trailed over her neck, teeth grazing, before 'Father' let out a yelp. Before he was ripped away to reveal a pissed off Red Hood holding him by the neck.
The helmeted man turned to her and said seriously
"Run. Now. He dies." Ripping out the sock, Helena bolted. Since she needed gear anyway, she returned to the suburban house she'd lived in for years. Despite the tear tracks down her face, the girl hoped her mother was okay.
(It was three years of a different kind of abuse before a blood test proved she was Bruce Wayne's daughter.)
In trying to shake off the memory, the sixteen year old had forgotten to keep her voice low. Her sobs had awoken everyone in the Manor when she hadn't meant to. The only reason she realized Jason was awake was because she heard him cursing at their father. Bruce was trying to convince the younger man that she needed privacy, while Dick was arguing the same idea in a strained voice.
Helena didn't care anymore. She'd tried to be a grown up about it, but she hadn't been able to hack it alone. Screwing her eyes shut, the girl thought for a second, knowing that in order to get Jason through the door, the others needed proof she needed him. Yanking her courage together, the girl wailed
"Jason!" as if her life depended on his arrival. In the time it took for Jason to break away from Dick and storm through the door, she acknowledged that resorting to trickery to get Jason to hold her was not good, but she desperately needed to be held, as if she was untainted by the touch of that vile man.
Duvet pooling in her lap as she sat up, Helena reached out for Jason, aware that their family was watching from the doorway. The feeling of taint overwhelmed her, to the point that she sobbed into Jason's chest with true tears. Strong arms enclosed her, baritone murmurs calming her.
"Tell me." He spoke in her ear, half instructing, half pleading, before he continued
"Tell me what dragon to slay, what demon to hunt, what building to raze, tell me how to help you, Helena." Turquoise met green, and Helena was dumbstruck for a moment.
This wasn't a brother soothing a sister. This was the man who would probably marry her begging her to give him a target. For his rage. Because she was crying!
Startled though she was, Helena began giggling through her tears. Confused eyes turned to the doorway, receiving shrugs in return.
Shaking her head and clearing her throat, Helena told him softly, voice hoarse from her tears
"Hold me, Jason. You already killed the bastard who made me cry." big hands tucked her long hair behind her ears.
"Helena?" The tentative question came from Bruce. Her father. Haltingly, Helena explained
"When I was thirteen, my adoptive father took me to a field near the Red Hood's territory. He nearly succeeded in raping me before Jason shot him." Leaning back, she murmured, more to him than the others
"You were still half mad because of the Pit, though, weren't you?" Nodding numbly, Jason gathered her against his chest, rising from the bed to carry her through the hallway to his room. Slamming the door behind him, the vigilante didn't speak while he tucked Helena into his bed, delighting her to speechlessness when he climbed in beside her, slinging an arm around her waist before ordering
"Sleep."
Diana Prince, heir to Themyscira and Wonder Woman of the Justice League, did not expect to find Jason Todd sacked out on the couch in the Batclan's Watchtower commons when she went to find the Batman to consult on League business.
More then that, she wasn't expecting Helena Wayne to be sprawled on top of him, arrayed on his broad chest like she belonged there. Diana was tempted to wake them and ask what Bruce thought of the arrangement, when the Bat himself walked out of his own Tower room. Diana watched incredulously as he draped an enormous, fluffy black throw over his sleeping children, Helena cuddling deeper into Jason's chest while his arms tightened at her waist.
Raising a brow at Diana trespassing on his clan's commons, Bruce pointed to the hallway. Once outside, the door securely shut, Diana geared up for a rant. Bruce effectively shut her up by informing her
"It's called co-sleeping, Wonder Woman. Every member of my clan engages in the practice in some form or another. Those two more than most."
Diana has to walk away. She has to fight against exploding about Watchtower rules. The Founders have seniority, yes. But Wayne money, with some Queen and Palmer contributions, built the Watchtower. Bruce had long ago ruled that in Clan quarters, it was the leader who had seniority. It had pleased the Clans, that their leaders had retained their power on Watchtower somewhat.
But Diana doesn't want to let this go. It seems wrong, even if the Batclan as a whole engage in the practice.
Bruce returns to the commons, relieved that conversation with Diana is over. He will have to talk with her, openly, at least once, and soon.
Catwoman is accepted as a Bat, because she has ceased stealing and is mentoring Huntress. But…
Bruce wasn't lying when he said the clan had a habit of co-sleeping. He himself shares a bed with Selina every night they can manage.
Perhaps, as a parent of several children, he should consider Diana as a co-parent. She is connected to none of his children, as Selina is Helena's mother and Talia is Damian's. Talia is out of the question, after what she did to Jason. Diana is a meta, and she would never leave Themyscira. There is also the question of more children.
While everyone had indicated that a child resulting from Jason and Helena's eventual joining would be welcomed (some more reluctantly than others) every single one of his children had urged him to marry and have another child of his own. Another heir to the legacy. He doesn't quite understand why, but he knows that more children would be welcome from all of them. Selina, also, has indicated she is not averse to having another child.
Diana… can not have children. And… his currently existing children dislike her. Evidence of that arises when Helena growls
"Interfering, Amazonian-" Jason cuts her off with a quick, chaste kiss. Barely more than a touch of lips, it stops Helena from uttering anything truly foul. Selina hoots from the doorway, leaning against the frame to the room she shares with Bruce.
Selina knows me, my past, my city-OUR city- knows my children and how to interact with them. I don't wish to hurt Diana, but I think it will when I tell her this.
Can I just say that this is how I see Jay and Bruce? Jason is this scarily efficient but mostly easygoing guy until you get him mad, and Bruce is a decisive man with a heavy .
