Chapter Twenty-Five:

Ollie, can we talk? Bruce texts, the news playing in the background. The Justice League are currently fighting a group of aliens in San Diego who were trying to invade Earth and take over. Superman is front and center in the focus as he normally is, the reporters trying to frantically keep up and stay alive at the same time.

Maybe later, Oliver texts back. Bruce frowns at it and wonders what to respond with. He doesn't want to apologize since he doesn't have anything to apologize for, at least in his opinion, but he also somehow made Oliver angry. His thumbs are hovering over the keys when he receives another text. Tonight? Dinner? Your place?

Bruce sighs, feeling relief flood him. Yeah, that's fine. Seven sound okay?

See you then.

Bruce, swallowing, quickly sends Oliver a heart emoji in return. When he gets one back, he brings his attention back to the news. At the same time they show Wonder Woman knocking out one of the aliens, Alfred walks into the room and clears his throat. Bruce turns and freezes when he sees who is with him. "Mrs. Kent, Master Bruce."

Alfred leaves the room as Lois enters the room more, eyeing the TV that is now showing Superman flying around and taking out three aliens. She motions to it with her chin. "That never fails to amaze, does it?"

"Is that a trick question?"

She smiles slightly. "No. We're all allowed to be amazed by Superman and his powers aren't we?"

"I suppose so but I think you should talk to Dick instead. He's the one with the crush on him."

She huffs a small laugh. "And no one else in this family does?"

Bruce shrugs. "Maybe Jason and Tim."

This time, when she laughs, it's more heart felt. "Not Damian?"

"Definitely not Damian." There's a pause. "Lois, what are you doing here?"

She eyes him, biting her bottom lip. Bruce notices that she keeps her distance from him, most likely trying to stay as unintimidating as she can get when in the same room as a pregnant omega that isn't exactly family. "I was going to be that baby's step-mother, Bruce, so believe it or not, I do care about it." Bruce looks at her warily and she sighs. "I came to check on you and the baby."

Bruce places a hand on his baby bump that is starting to show increasingly. "We're fine." She nods and looks around the room. "Lois, why are you divorcing Clark?" She looks to him, her eyes painfilled. "The day before you had Clark sign the papers, you said you were going to be the baby's step-mother. Why the sudden change?"

She shrugs and looks to the TV. "Can we turn that off?" Bruce takes the remote and shuts the TV off. Lois then continues. "It wasn't that sudden really. I had been contemplating it for a while now."

"Then why say you would be the baby's step-mother?"

"Because at that point in time, it was still just a contemplation." She sighs and walks over to the chair, sitting down. "Look, Bruce, I really wanted it to work out between Clark and I and I thought it could, I really, truly did. But when you called and I realized that Clark was keeping things from me again, I realized that I can't… trust him anymore, Bruce."

"But he loves you, Lois. He was heartbroken when he saw that you wanted a divorce," Bruce says.

"I have no doubt that he loves me but ove doesn't solve problems, Bruce, and it certainly doesn't create trust. Clark and I can love each other all we want but that doesn't mean that our relationship will survive on that alone. We don't communicate anymore. I thought going to counseling would help but it hasn't and I don't trust him now just as much as I didn't trust him when I first found out about the affair and the baby."

"So what your saying is that it's my fault that you decided to get a divorce?"

Lois gives him a reassuring smile. "No, not at all. Your phone call just helped me realize what decision I had to make. That's not your fault. It's mine and Clark's, Bruce. Don't try and take responsibility for something that you have no control over."

Alfred steps into the room with two mugs of tea, handing one to Bruce and then to Lois. When he leaves, Bruce sits down on the couch. "And the divorce papers? How did you get them so fast?"

Again, she shrugs. "I already had them. Like I said, I've been thinking about this for a while now."

Bruce sets his mug down on the coffee table and leans forward, elbows on his knees and his eyes downcast. "And does Clark know why you want a divorce?"

"He does. I talked to him about it after he got back from seeing you."

"If he told you that he had come to see me, then that is proof right there that you can trust him again." Lois is shaking her head before he even finishes. "You two can still work it out."

"Why are you so invested in fixing our relationship?" Lois asks him.

"Because Clark is my… my friend." Lois' head tilts slightly, most likely catching the missing word best. "I care about him and I care about you. He loves you with all his heart Lois and he only wants you. That's why he's been working so hard to fix your relationship. He just wants you and a family with you."

By now, Lois' eyes are narrowed. She stands. "Right." She doesn't meet Bruce's eyes and instead sets her own tea down. She grabs the lapels of her jacket and pulls them tighter. "Tell Alfred thanks for the tea." Finally, she looks at him, shooting him a small, painful smile. "Have a good day Bruce. I'll see you around." She then walks out, leaving Bruce confused by the mood shift.

He doesn't understand why Lois didn't want to talk about Clark loving her. She didn't seem to convinced of the fact, or at least, as soon as Bruce brought up Clark only loving her. But he doesn't get why she would think any differently. It's quite obvious, even if not to Oliver but certainly to Bruce, that Clark loves no one but Lois. She should know this. She is his mate and wife after all. She should know him better than even Bruce knows Clark.

As Bruce is deep in thought, a gush of wind blows into the room, disturbing whatever loose paper there was. Bruce, snapping out of his reverie, almost expects to see Clark but instead Wally stands in front of him, looking disheveled and anxious. Bruce guesses today is another day for unannounced visitors. Bruce stands, already feeling the pull towards Wally that his omega pregnancy creates. He can feel the rumble of a purr already starting deep within his throat. "Wally?"

"Hey Bruce." Wally waves, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, repeatedly. "Can I – Can I talk to you?"

"You should have called first."

"I know," Wally says quickly, his eyes darting all around the room. "But this is important and I saw Lois was here so I decided to wait and trust me that wait was hard because you know, being the fastest man alive isn't exactly something that gives you patience. In fact it does the complete opposite. Patience is not my forte. That's probably why I get into trouble on the job, in and out of costume, a lot. My bosses just don't understand. Did you know that I even tried to convince them one time that I had ADHD? They didn't buy it. They wanted an actual paper with a doctor's signature to prove it. So then I was going to forge a signature but decided against it because it's illegal and I could get into a lot of trouble if found out. Plus, it's not very Justice League like of me. I wonder if I could have you forge it. You're good at that stuff, right, and not having it traced back to you? Hey, Bats, will you do that for me? Seriously, it would save me a lot of trouble."

"Wally," Bruce finally cuts into Wally's rambling. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, right, that." He forces a laugh and his shoulders deflate. Bruce eyes the uncharacteristic nature of the speedster. "I… I didn't know who else to go to about this."

Bruce's eyebrows scrunch in concern. "About what Wally?"

Wally swallows nervously and doesn't meat Bruce's eyes. "I'm pregnant."

The shock that overcomes Bruce feels ice cold and as if the world has stopped turning. "You're… what?"

Wally bites his bottom lip and Bruce can already see the tears pooling in Wally's eyes. "I'm pregnant and I don't know what to do."

Bruce takes a deep breath, closing his eyes. "And the baby is-"

"Dick's, yeah." When Bruce opens his eyes the young omega is wiping at his cheeks, his eyes red as the tears slip past and roll down his face. "But it was an accident, I swear, Bruce. I mean, he's still will Kori."

Bruce is very careful to keep his breathing under control. He cannot believe his eldest son is falling into the same predicament as he is currently in. "How?" When Wally's eyes grow wide and he flinches, Bruce realizes he said that a little too harshly. "I'm not… mad at you. I just want to understand."

Wally doesn't relax and his hands begin to vibrate as he fidgets. "During my last heat, I ran out of birth control and I know, I know, before you say anything, yes, we could have used condoms but-but Dick didn't have any on him and he's a beta so he doesn't know how to leave an omega that is in heat alone." Bruce's anger at Dick grows in his chest. Beta or not, Dick should know better than to go into the room of an omega in heat without any condoms if he was planning to sleep with them. "So, we just… didn't use anything. We thought him being a beta would lower the chances. It was only that one time, Bruce. Every other time we used birth control."

Bruce doesn't say anything at first, something bothering him about what Wally had just said. If Wally was far enough in his heat to have run out of birth control, that means he wouldn't have been coherent enough to have any conversations with Dick. "You both decided not to use anything or did Dick?"

"I…" Wally searches Bruce's face, the implied question finally going through. "No! Dick isn't like that. We talked about it when I woke up, during those few minutes before I enter the haze again. He told me we had run out and wanted to know what to do. We both decided not to use anything."

Bruce nods, not sure if he completely believes Wally. Bruce doesn't want to believe that one of his sons would do such a thing without their partner knowing but then again, Bruce never thought Dick would be the type to cheat. He never thought that of Clark either and if he's learned anything from those two proving him wrong, it's that you can never trust your own perspective of people. "So the birth control is yours?" Wally nods. That is strange. Unless the omega is single, then the alpha or whoever the omega is sleeping with and mated to supplies the birth control. It tends to get a bit tricky when it's two omegas who are sleeping together but either way, when an omega is mated or having sex, it's the other party's responsibility to supply that type of stuff. Dick should know this. "Why wasn't he supplying it?"

Wally shrugs. "I don't know. Like I said, he's still with Kori and he probably uses the ones he has with her."

"He can buy more."

"I don't know, Bruce!" Wally's tears have come back and are again rolling down his cheeks. "I don't know. All I do know is that I am freaking out and I don't know what to do."

"Okay," Bruce says soothingly. "Just breathe Wally. Why come to me?"

"Because you're in a similar situation. Granted your baby is from some random alpha you met and not your best friend's but it's still similar. Why are you looking at me like that?"

Bruce sighs and motions to the couch for Wally to sit. He does and Bruce sits down in the chair diagonal to it. He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Our situations are a bit more similar than you think."

"How?"

With a deep breath, Bruce continues. "My baby is Clark's." Wally's eyes go wide with shock and his jaw drops. Bruce looks to the floor, feeling uncomfortable. "So yeah, similar is kind of an understatement actually." When he looks back up at the omega, he's no longer looking so shocked but still surprised nonetheless. "Wally, I'm going to help you as best I can, okay? Trust me, I wish someone had for me." Wally nods. "Have you thought about your options?"

"I just found out today."

Bruce nods. "Okay, okay. Then that's our first step." Bruce grabs his laptop off of the coffee table and opens it. He opens the web browser and goes to his favorites. "You have three options; abortion, adoption, or keeping it." He hears Wally swallow. Bruce opens up some of the important pages he read when he found out about his own pregnancy and hits print. "Follow me." He gets up and heads to his office, Wally following behind. When he enters his office, he goes to the printer and takes the papers, handing them to Wally in chunks. "This is all you need to know about raising a baby and this one is all about putting your baby up for adoption. This one," he hands over the last chunk, "is everything you need to know about getting an abortion."

Wally looks at the stacks of papers that were given to him. "This… is a lot."

"It is but it's very important that you take your time, no speeding, to read all of it. These are important decisions, Wally."

Wally nods. "I know. I think… I think I'm going to go home and start reading these."

"That's probably a good idea. When you decide something, Wally, you don't have to tell me but if you do, I will help you. I promise."

Wally gives him a small smile. "Thanks Bats." He turns as if to leave but stops. "Bruce, please don't tell Dick."

Bruce shakes his head. "I won't. It's not my place." Wally nods, grateful, and then turns again. This time it's Bruce who stops him. "Wally." Wally faces him. "When you're in the process of deciding… don't let anyone influence your decision. Don't let anyone tell you what to do with your body and your baby." Bruce places his hand on his own baby bump. "It's better that way. You're the only one who should decide."

Wally looks at him curiously, as if he wants to ask Bruce if that is what happened to him but doesn't. Bruce wouldn't have told him even if he had asked. Once again, Wally smiles at him, small and sad. "Thanks again, Bruce." Bruce watches him leave, feeling empathy for the speedster. After all, he knows what it feels like to be in the same exact situation.

A/N: Thanks for reading!