Chapter Twelve:

Bruce eyes Jason where he is sitting at the table in the kitchen, not having expected him to be here. "Jason."

Jason shoves a part of a pop-tart into his mouth and chews it before answering. "Hey, Dickie told me that you're keeping the baby so I thought I would drop by." His eyes go to the bruise on his chin and he motions to it. "What happened?"

Bruce goes and sits across from him at the table, heaving a heavy sigh. "Some alphas got onto the Watchtower. I tried to stop them."

"You were fighting while pregnant again?" Jason looks disapproving but Bruce tries to ignore it. "Were you alone?" Bruce nods. "Why? Where were the others?" He's now sounding angry and his alpha scent has gotten stronger in his agitation.

"Doing other missions."

"And Clark?"

"Was at home." Both Bruce and Jason turn to look at Clark. His hair is dripping wet and he is wiping it down with a towel. "But I got back to the Watchtower as fast as I could once Bruce called the League."

Jason stands, hackles raising. "You're supposed to protect him."

"And how was I supposed to do that when I didn't even know what was happening until Bruce called?" Clark asks, starting to get defensive as well.

"You shouldn't have left him alone in the first place."

"I had to go do something."

At this point Jason bares his teeth and growls at Clark, not accepting that answer at all. Clark, being the alpha that he is, also bares his teeth and growls. Bruce is way too tired to deal with this shit again. He stands as well and gets between them. "Jason enough." It takes Jason a second longer than usual to listen to his order and stand down. Bruce takes careful note of that. "I'm the one that wanted to stick around and do monitor duty. Clark tried to get me to go home but I refused. What happened wasn't Clark's fault."

"If you stayed then he should have too," Jason says angrily.

"No, he had something important to do. I didn't want him to stay. Besides, I don't need anyone's protection. I know how to handle myself." Jason growls low in his throat in frustration but for good measure, Bruce growls in warning back. That does the trick and Jason looks away, not quite submitting but not aggressing anymore either. Bruce lets him get away with it, after all, Jason has never fully submitted to him before except on a couple occasions that made it possible for Bruce to be dominate over him. "Clark," Bruce begins calmly, turning to his friend. "Why don't you go home now. I'm fine here." He knows Clark doesn't want to leave but with Jason here now, it won't be good to have two angry alphas that have no hierocracy over each other in the same room.

Clark looks at Jason skeptically one last time before saying, "All right. I'll check back in tomorrow. See you later Bruce."

Bruce nods his goodbye and then turns back to Jason. "You didn't have to come here just because I'm keeping the baby."

"Nice to see you too," he says as he sits back down to keep eating.

Bruce sits back down as well. "What you did just now was completely unnecessary."

Jason shrugs. "He's an ass. He deserved it."

"Jason, Clark isn't an ass."

"Do you really think Dick didn't tell me what he did to you? Commanding you like that. He should know better."

"You've tried it."

"And failed every time, so it's different." Bruce raises an eyebrow at that. "With him, you obeyed."

"Jason-"

"Don't defend him," Jason says. "If it was anyone else, you wouldn't be defending them."

Bruce looks to the table. He wants to go to sleep. "Just leave it Jason."

Jason scoffs and shoves the rest of the pop-tart in his mouth. "You were stupid too, though." Bruce growls in warning. "Oh don't give me that. Not eating Bruce? Are you serious?"

"Jason," Bruce warns again.

"You've decided to keep that baby and now you're going to have to take care of it. That means eating when you are supposed to. Look, as a fellow vigilante, I understand not eating sometimes, but now you have to Bruce. There is no excuse." He gets up and walks to the pantry, pulling out another packet of pop-tarts. He puts them in the toaster, waits for them to pop out, and then puts them on a plate, dropping them in front of Bruce. "Eat." Bruce just looks at them, not moving. "Bruce, I'm telling you right now. You might have Clark afraid to order you around but I'm not."

"Isn't that a bit hypocritical considering what we just got done talking about?"

Jason shrugs. "What can I say, I'm a hypocrite."

Bruce shakes his head. "You ordering me won't work."

"Then I'll call in someone who it will work for."

"And who exactly is that?" Bruce challenges.

"Roy."

"Roy?"

"He's not family or part of the Justice League so you're not dominate over him. His order will work and he'd be happy to order you to do something."

"You've told him about the baby?"

"No, but if it comes down to him making you eat then I will."

Bruce looks at the pop-tarts again and picks one up. He starts to eat it, taking little bites. He's never really been a fan of pop-tarts and the pregnancy is only making his revulsion towards them worse. He feels like throwing up. "These are disgusting."

"Fine, I'll make you something else." He takes the pop-tarts and places them on the counter. "If you try to get up and leave, I've got Roy on speed dial and I will call him." Bruce sighs, giving up. "What do you want to eat?"

"Surprise me." Bruce watches as Jason goes looking through the cabinets and then starts pulling out spaghetti boxes and jars of sauce. He grabs a pan and puts some water in it, placing it on the stove to boil. He then starts scrolling on his cellphone as he waits. All the while Bruce just keeps watching. He's still amazed that Jason even knows how to cook and wonders where he picked it up from. "Jason?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you sure you and Roy are just friends?"

Jason looks up from his cellphone, looking shocked. "What?"

"You and Roy, are you sure you're just friends?"

"Of course, I'm sure."

"Do you like him?"

"Like… like, like him?" Bruce nods and Jason starts laughing. "Nah, Old Man. I already told you, I'm not into other alphas."

"Are you sure?"

"What's with you and asking that?"

"Jason, are you sure?"

Jason stares at him, his face slowly turning pink and then red. He turns his face away, mumbling, "It's none of your fucking business."

"I already told you, as well, Jason, that it's okay if you are."

"I'm not gay."

"Jason."

"I'm not."

Bruce decides to drop it there, figuring he won't get anywhere with Jason at the moment. They don't speak to each other again for the duration of Jason making the spaghetti. When it's complete, Jason places it in front of Bruce along with a glass of chocolate milk. He also sets down some chocolate syrup. Bruce eyes the syrup. "You remembered."

Jason shrugs and picks up the plate with the pop-tarts on it from the counter, sitting across from Bruce and starting to eat them. "Of course, I did. Although, I'm kind of just assuming that you're still craving it."

Bruce's stomach growls as he looks at the bottle of syrup. "Yes… yes I am."

"Good." Jason motions to Bruce's plate. "Dig in."

Bruce's eyes go back to the spaghetti. He doesn't want it. He doesn't want anything to eat at all. Despite his stomach growling, he just doesn't feel all that hungry. But he's going to have to eat this or else Jason is going to call Roy and Bruce can't have that happening even if he thinks he would be able to resist Roy's order. So he starts to eat it, taking small bites. Jason sits there, eating the pop-tart, watching him. They both don't say anything and the silence becomes awkward very quickly.

Bruce clears his throat, takes a drink of the chocolate milk, and then says, "Is me keeping the baby the only reason why you're here?"

Jason shrugs, having finished his pop-tart a few minutes ago. "Yeah, but I was also thinking about sticking around for a while. If that's okay with you."

"Of course, it's okay." It's more than okay, actually. Bruce has wanted Jason home ever since he died. Having the alpha back here in the Manor, even if for only a little bit, would be a nice change. It would almost be as if he has his son back and Bruce would never deny that opportunity. "But what about Roy?"

Jason shrugs again. "What about him?"

"You're staying at his place aren't you?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Won't he-" Bruce is cut off when Jason gives him a warning growl. "Are you two okay?"

"We're fine. Can we please stop talking about him?" Jason squirms in his seat, not looking at him, but blushing hard nonetheless. Bruce thins his lips and wonders what happened between them. It must have been something bad enough for Jason to not want to stay at Roy's place but not bad enough that Roy wouldn't come here on Jason's request in order to order Bruce to eat.

Bruce decides to drop it for now though. Jason is hard to get through and talk to, kind of like Damian and Bruce himself. "Damian hates the baby."

Jason huffs, finally looking at him, his blush starting to lessen. "No surprise there. He's not exactly the biggest fan of Clark to begin with. Now you're having a baby with him and unmated too. Of course, the kid isn't going to accept it."

"He found out when I was talking to Lois."

"You talked to Lois? Civilly?" He chuckles. "If I was her, I would have punched you."

Bruce decides to ignore Jason's quip. "He called the baby disgusting, a vile creature, and a half breed."

"Well, you really can't fault the half breed part. It is true after all." When Bruce doesn't say anything, Jason continues. "Uh… not that that makes it okay to say."

"I was going to tell him myself but he didn't listen and stay in his room when I went to talk to Lois." Bruce sighs. "I haven't seen him since he found out because he's avoiding me." Bruce knew Damian wouldn't take the news of the baby well but he didn't expect him to take it this badly.

Jason shrugs, reaching over and pulling a strand of spaghetti off of Bruce's plate. "Coming from someone who knows how it feels, maybe he is just afraid of being replaced. After all, you do have a tendency of making the youngest person of this family into Robin." He puts the end of the spaghetti that he doesn't have a hold of in his mouth and slurps the rest in.

"It'll just be a baby. By the time it is old enough to even be considered as Robin, I might be too old to be Batman."

"Well, let's see." Jason takes another piece of spaghetti and slurping it into his mouth again. "Let's say you wait until the kid is eight like Dick was when he was first Robin."

"That's sounds a bit young now that you say it out loud."

"And you're due in what? Six months? You're thirty-seven now and will be almost thirty-eight when the baby is born so we'll just round up. By the time the kid is eight, you'll be forty-six."

"Jason please stop."

"If you want to wait a bit longer until the baby is ten, then you'll be forty-eight. Forty-eight is kind of old to still be Batman." Bruce frowns. Ten years isn't that long. "The little demon will be twenty so I suppose he'll want to be Batman and Dick doesn't want to be Batman. I doubt Timmy would."

"Jason please." Bruce can already feel the dreaded tears starting to form in his eyes. He doesn't even know why he's getting so emotional.

"I don't want to be Batman… not anymore at least. I'm so over that stage. Besides, I'll be twenty-nine in ten years. Who the hell knows what's going to happen to me by then." The tears roll down Bruce's cheeks despite him trying to blink them away. It finally gets Jason's attention. "Oh shit… I didn't mean to upset you. I… fuck… what do I do? How do I make you stop?"

Bruce shakes his head. "Please, just stop talking." Jason frowns and Bruce pushes his half eaten plate of spaghetti away. "I'm going to go take a nap."

He stands and Jason doesn't try and stop him when he leaves. He walks slowly to his room and gets slowly into his bed, not even bothering to change out of his sweatpants and t-shirt he put on after the shower. He's tired and just wants to rest for once but his mind won't shut off.

Ten years isn't that long of a time. In ten years Bruce will be forty-eight, Clark forty-seven. But Clark won't look like it. Clark won't feel like it. Bruce will. Bruce will feel all the aches and pains of his nighttime job tenfold. He'll feel old. He won't be Batman anymore. He won't really have any purpose anymore. Alfred might be gone, too, in that time span, considering he's already in his seventies. Dick will be thirty-one and possibly with his own family. Like Jason said, he'll be twenty-nine, Tim twenty-seven and with his own family as well, and Damian will be twenty. All his kids except the one currently inside him will be gone. He'll lose them all.

Bruce buries his face into his pillow and squeezes his eyes shut tightly. He doesn't want to think about the future. Not when it looks so bleak. He doesn't want to think about retiring from Batman, of Alfred dying, of Clark having a family with Lois, of Dick moving on, of Jason doing God knows what at that age, of Tim working and with a mate and kids, of Damian taking over the Batman role, and him ending up old and being stuck with a ten-year-old that he won't have the energy for. Bruce is already tired. How is he going to keep up with a ten-year-old at the age of forty-eight?

Bruce groans and turns onto his stomach, feeling more stupid tears forming in his eyes. He feels like he's going to throw up and before he knows it, he is as he scrambles for his trashcan. Afterward, he sits on the floor; back against the bed, stain on the rug left from the food to his left, and the trash can in front of him. He should call Alfred to take it away but he doesn't have the energy. Instead he leans his head back, closes his eyes, and falls asleep just like that.

A/N: Just in case some of you don't know, when two people of the same castes get together (except for beta/beta), the people involved are commonly considered to be gay in an omegaverse.

Thank you for reading. :)