Summer 2014
The two men sit in silence. For Bruce it's natural to be quiet. Not so much for Wallace.
"Dad! Billy's gonna be home late!" Mary slams the front door closed, "He's doing a thing with Clark and Conner and-" She cuts off as she pokes her head into the kitchen. "Oh. Hey Mr. Wayne." She throws a curious glance as Wallace before continuing, "Anyway, yeah. Billy's got a thing with the Supes. Just letting you know."
"Great, thanks Mary." Mary looks between the two men a few times before shaking her head and walking away. She clearly wants nothing to do with the insanity that is biological parent verses adopted parent.
"So you said that you wanted to talk to me about something?" Wallace finally asks. Bruce may have put aside all day to talk to him and Wallace may be the fastest person on the planet, but they can't just sit in the kitchen for hours and say nothing to each other.
Bruce puts his elbow on the table and folds his hands together, resting them under his chin. He's pensive and looks completely stoic. Wallace is Bruce's son-in-law - from a different timeline, sure, but still - so he knows that Bruce is worried and doesn't want to bring up whatever he's going to bring up, but feels that he needs to.
"I want Damian to come home," He says is gently, as though it will make the blow softer.
Wallace doesn't even grimace, "He is home." He's not letting Bruce take his son from him. No matter how much the other man pleads.
"No, I mean that I want him to live with me permanently." Bruce purses his lips, "I know that I get weekends with him and that's better than nothing, but he's my son, and he should be at home with me."
"Wow, okay, I thought of ten things that will go wrong with that idea in the time that it's taken you to tell me that." Wallace has thought of over a hundred, but no one has confirmed to Bruce that his suspicions of Wallace being Velocity are correct, so Wallace doesn't give him any more ammunition.
Bruce's lips turn almost white and Wallace waits for it. He'll either drop the topic and try to manipulate Wallace into what he really wants or he'll go Rich Brucie Wayne and it'll be his way or the way of a million lawyers.
Wallace is a betting man. He's going to bet that Bruce wants to do something far less drastic involving Damian, but wants it to seem reasonable to Wallace.
It's a long wait, probably to imitate a long thought process, "Then," And Wallace was right, of course. Bruce wants something to seem reasonable, "How do you feel about dogs?"
Ha! Wallace had been spot on the nose with that.
"I'm glad you didn't get one without asking," Wallace lets Bruce know. "Not that I have anything against dogs, but there will be rules. If you get Damian I dog I expect it to be Bat trained. It'll go with Damian everywhere, meaning it'll be living here most of the time, and I don't want it chasing Tawky Tawny around, or chewing the kids' runners." Wallace doesn't want a dog chasing Tawny around because Tawny would murder the poor thing. Tawny is a freaking tiger conveniently shrunk down to cat size. It would only take one fight between the two before Tawny would change to full size with either Billy or Mary and then eat the dog.
Tawky Tawny is not really a big Damian fan. But he does respect Wallace, so he'd probably wait until Wallace wasn't in the house before taking the dog out.
"I understand," Bruce nods, his jaw tensing a little. He still doesn't like that Wallace West knows he's Batman, but he was the one that agreed to take Jason West on as Robin, so it's his own fault.
(There was in no way any blackmail concerning Damian was involved in that process. None.)
"Great." Wallace holds his hand out over the table and Bruce eyes it before reaching out and shaking hands, sealing the deal, "Now all you have to do is convince Damian he wants a dog."