*I suggest you listen to "Memories" by Maroon 5 while reading this.*
What were the best moments of your life?
"Aunt Kori!"
"Hello, Lian!" Laughing, Kori swoops the little girl into her arms and nuzzles their cheeks together. "I've missed you!"
"I missed you too!" Lian chirps, pulling on the Tamaranean's shirt. "Almost as much as I missed Daddy!"
"Oh, really?"
As the two females continue to chat, Roy and Jason watch from the other side of the bridge with smiles on their faces. Jason claps a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Well, Harper, you got her back."
"I did," Roy agrees, voice soft and wondering. "I did. After everything…it almost feels like a dream, you know?"
"It's ironic you say that considering we just saved your daughter from a dude who calls himself Dreamslayer."
Roy laughs. Loud enough to catch Kori and Lian's attention. Lian drops from her honorary aunt's arms and jogs to her father, silently gesturing for him to pick her up. He does so with great gusto, cuddling her into his chest. After he is done, however, Lian turns her head and peers at his companion curiously.
"Who are you?" she asks, tilting her head.
"Jason," Jason awkwardly introduces himself after a moment of silence. "I'm a friend of your father's."
"He's also your Uncle Dick's brother," Roy elaborates, and Jason shoots him a look, because he did not like being reminded of that. Especially since, you know, Kori still stiffens every time she hears Dick's name, like she's doing right now.
"Uncle Dick?" Lian perks up at that name. "Then you're Uncle Jason!"
Jason blinks. "Uncle…Jason?" he speaks hesitantly, like the nomenclature is some kind of death sentence.
Judging by the look Roy is shooting him, promising him death if he dares to disagree, it probably is.
One of the many additions made to the revolving satellite that served as the permanent headquarters of the Justice League was a communal area where members could travel to and relax before and after missions. Well, actually several communal areas — the Justice League wasn't just some random strike team anymore, after all, but a full-fledged organization whose numbers increased every year.
It was in one of these communal areas that Jason Todd, Batman III, drops himself into a seat at its main table, face visibly haggard.
"Blargh," is his intelligent response to the world.
"Rough night?" Connor Hawke asks, idly flipping through a newspaper app on his tablet.
Jason drops his head down to the table with an audible sound. "Why did ever agree to become a father again?"
"Your massive guilt complex," Kaldur'ahm bluntly states as he continues chopping vegetables on a cutting board behind them.
Jason groans. "Of all the things to inherit from Bruce…"
WOOSH!
"Guess who just scored a date with Cassandra Cain-Wayne!" Wallace West whoops to everyone present.
And just like that, Jason's head snaps right back up. "What."
Wallace sees him, and pales. "Ah, shit."
"You little—you know the only person allowed to date my sister without my permission is Connor over there!"
Connor blinked. "Why is that, by the way?" he asks no one in particular.
"Buddhist monk," M'gann M'orzz says as she floats by, rubbing her tired eyes.
"Red Him want Pup-Pup?"
"No, Biz, no. I want…" Jason continues rifling and rummaging through the chest, before letting out a triumphant "Ah hah!" and taking out a DVD.
Artemis, seated on the other end of the couch, raised an eyebrow. "Really, little one? Even I know that DVD is obsolete."
"Hush, you! This is a classic!" Jason eagerly took the disc out and inserted it into the DVD player, watching as the screen fizzed to life and revealed the title: Love Actually.
"What is wrong with you?" Artemis demands flatly.
"Hush!"
"You don't visit as often as you used to."
Talia felt her lips curl into something resembling a smile as she turned away from her son's headstone to see her former student approaching her with several bouquets of flowers. Jason didn't bother to look at her as he began setting the bouquets down on each grave, making sure to touch each headstone as he did so.
"You mean I don't visit anymore," Talia lightly corrects him, crouching down to further trace the letters that spelled Damian's name. "Forgive me, but running the League of Assassins is not an easy job, even if we're not as powerful as we used to be."
"Yeah, well, you technically only have yourselves to blame for that," Jason huffs out. "Civil war and all that."
"And you, Jason. We certainly can't forget your part in the whole mess."
"Hey, I just killed your dad. Everything else was all you."
Talia laughs as she stands back up, and takes in another long look at her former protege. Jason is taller now, taller than even Bruce, his face widened and sharpened with age and a hard gaze that feels all too familiar. He doesn't wear red anymore, she notices; he prefers black now, long-sleeved shirts and sweaters and khaki slacks. He looks like his father, truth be told.
She thinks that thought over, and then laughs again.
"What's so funny?" Jason sounds slightly annoyed, and oh, she's not far off the mark, is she?
"Do you have any idea," she shakes her head, trying to stifle her chuckles, "how much you look like your father right now?"
Jason raises both his eyebrows, confused, before it hits him and he takes a step away from her. "I'm nothing like him," he insists, like believing otherwise is some grievous sin.
Talia shakes her head, and smiles sadly. "No, Jason. You're everything like him."
"Why the hell are you two invading my apartment?" Jason pauses. "Scratch that — why the hell are you two together here in the first place?"
"Bruce," Kate and Selina speak in stereo, bumping fists as they continue lounging around on his couch.
Jason groans, and reminds himself not murder Bruce the next time he sees him. "Did you at least bring a bribe?"
Kate lifts a familiar tin. Jason smiles, grabs Alfred's cookies and plops down next to Selina. "Fine," he says with long-suffering but with no real heat, "you two can stay."
Gotham Memorial Hospital is one of the better hospitals in Gotham City, perhaps the best that isn't monopolized by the city's notorious elitist one percent. Perhaps it was because the long-deceased Thomas Wayne, a doctor of great renown, had worked at this hospital, and after his death his son and his son's sons continued their patronage of the institution in his honor and memory. The fact that a wing had been renamed in his honor not long after his death certainly lent credence to this theory.
It was for that reason that Jason Peter Todd-Wayne was able to shuttle himself up through the hospital and to the maternity ward, dodging orderlies and patients alike with unnatural speed and grace, only stopping at the receptionist's desk to confirm a room number. By the time he arrives at his destination, he is slightly out of breath and doesn't protest when Stephanie Brown's familiar hand offers a water bottle to him. "Has she given birth yet?" he asks after downing a large gulp of water.
Duke Thomas and Bette Kane, both peering into the room from both sides of the door, look at him and nod, smiling. Jason sighs in relief. He isn't late.
As if sensing his thoughts, Tam Fox pops her head out into the hall and silently beckons him inside. Jason heeds her call, handing the water bottle back to Stephanie as he enters the room, smiling at the sight that greets him.
Laying on a bed in the middle of the room is Barbara Gordon-Fox, sweaty but smiling, with a baby in her arms. Next to her is her husband Luke Fox, making faces at his newborn child. Over at the side, speaking with the doctor but occasionally making peeks at the new family are the new grandfathers: Jim Gordon and Lucius Fox.
His friends immediately spot him and gesture him over. Jason approaches them slowly, eying the squishy, pink baby in Barbara's arms with some odd combination of trepidation and longing. The child is simultaneously the ugliest and most beautiful thing he has ever seen. "Boy or girl?" he asks quietly, reaching forward to toy with the child's tiny hand.
"Boy," Luke tells him, with the widest smile Jason has ever seen on his face. "We've named him Felix. Felix Richard Gordon-Fox."
Jason stills. "Huh," is all he says, though he's smiling too.
"Where are the others?" Barbara asks him, though her eyes are all on her son.
"On their way. There was a…hold-up." Involving the newest iteration of the Legion of Doom is what he didn't tell them. No need to spoil the mood.
Luke nods. "You know, Babs and I made an agreement before the birth," he starts conversationally.
"Oh?" Jason says wonderingly, silently accepting Barbara's offer to him to hold the baby. "What kind?"
"That whichever one of you Wayne boys to arrive first would be Felix's godfather."
It took all of Jason's self-control not to drop his new godson in disbelief.
"GODDAMMIT KYLE! WHY THE HELL DOES THIS SHIT ALWAYS HAPPEN WHEN I'M WITH YOU?"
Kyle Rayner whips his head around to glare at his best frenemy with the heat of a thousand suns as he continues piloting the ship to dodge the numerous photon blasts being made at their ship. "SHUT UP! IT'S YOU'RE FAULT THAT THIS SHIT HAPPENS! WHY THE HELL DID YOU HAVE TO PUNCH THAT GUY IN THE FACE!"
"HE WAS SMACKTALKING TAMARANEANS!"
"YOU'RE IMPOSSIBLE!"
Jason throws a bunch of curses at him. Kyle blanches. "Did you learn Irish just to cuss me out in my own language?"
"Yes," Jason admits with no remorse.
Kyle throws a punch at him.
"Entremet," Jason gestures at the circular cake with a white mirror glaze with a grand smile.
Conner Kent stares. "Entremet," he states far more flatly with something of a questioning tone.
"Entremet," Jason repeats, nodding.
"…Jay, forgive me, but what the hell is entremet?"
"A fancy dessert with different layers of cake and pastry creams like custards and puddings."
"Uh huh," Connor eyes the dessert far more speculatively. "So a sugar death trap."
"Yup."
"That you're planning to serve to a bunch of preteens at their annual party."
"Yup."
"…What the hell did Billy and Courtney ever do to you?"
Donna Troy throws her head back and laughs and laughs even as Jason keeps on hosing her down with water. "Jason!"
"Well, we need to get this gunk off of us somehow, don't we?"
"I can't believe you brought a hose along with you! How did you even get it to work?"
Jason shrugs. "Easy. Find the nearest body of water and pull."
Donna punches him in the arm, and Jason sticks his tongue at her, which nearly causes her to punch him again until they hear a familiar roar. Almost immediately, the genial atmosphere dissipates as the two exchange grim looks.
"The Horde is approaching again," Donna speaks with a sigh as she picks up her sword and shield. Jason does the same, hefting the powerful blade and reactivating his armor.
"Why did Bruce and Diana have to make this agreement?" He grumbles with irritation. Technically, it's only been a couple of hours in their world; in here, however, it's been years.
"You know why," Donna says, reaching forward to brush away a stray hair from his forehead. "The Gentle Man deserves some rest every once in a while. He fights for our world too."
"I know, I know, it's just…" Jason lets out a sigh of his own.
Donna smiles at him, and he sees it and smiles back. "Worried about the kids?"
"Always."
"They'll be fine, Jason. It's only going to be for a day."
"In Gotham."
"A Gotham that you've cleaned up," Donna points out, stepping forward to get a better look at the approaching horde of monsters. "Thoroughly."
"Yeah, well, only because I had to. I'm not good as you, Donna."
Donna shakes her head, and places a soft hand to his cheek. "Maybe, but you're still good, Jason. You always have been."
Jason smiles at her again, and Donna smiles back, and…and…
They don't know who moves first. They never do, really. But all that matters is the meeting of their lips and the slip of the tongue. Jason pulls Donna forward, presses their full bodies together and revels in the heat, of how perfectly they fit together. He's about to lift her up, let her hitch her legs around him when the horde roars again, and they're forced to separate. They're both breathing hard now, staring.
"The Horde is never ending," Donna says, as she bends down to pick up her sword again, deliberately avoid his eyes.
"Yeah," Jason agrees, his eyes far away. He hefts his own sword on his shoulder. "Now let's go end it."
Carrie frowns as she slits the envelope open with the nail of her finger, frowning even harder when she takes out the deed inside. "Dad, what is this?"
"Your birthday gift," Jason says nonchalantly as he begins cutting the cake.
"This is the deed to Catherine's."
"Yes, I'm glad to know you have working eyes."
Carrie continues to stare at the deed. "You have got to be kidding me," she finally says.
"Carrie, you're my eldest child, and the only one who enjoys cooking as much as I do. Who else would I give the diner to?"
"But…but…" she doesn't know what to say.
But Jason does. "You'll do fine, Carrie. Nobody loves that diner more than me and you."
Carrie sighs and presses the deed to her chest. That much is true, at least.
"HELENA MAGDALENE KYLE-WAYNE!"
"Yeah, Dad?" Helena asks lazily, as she walks down the stairs, eyes completely still on her phone.
Jason brandishes a letter threateningly. He looks utterly ridiculous. "Is this an acceptance letter from Princeton?"
Helena looks up at him with bored eyes. "Yeah. What about it?"
Jason glares down at her.
Then he swoops her in for a hug, lifting her and twirling her around for good measure.
"DAD!"
"I'm so proud!" Jason wails, and there are tears, and Helena doesn't know what kind of terrible thing she did to deserve this hell, only that she hopes she enjoyed it.
"Why do you have to be so embarrassing!" Helena complains.
Jason ignores her. "Does this mean you're taking a break from vigilantism?"
"…Yes?"
Jason squeals. Yes, squeals.
Helena groans, and regrets everything.
Matty adjusts his domino and checks his utility belt. Once everything is in the clear, he bounds his way towards the Batmobile, where his father is waiting. Tonight is his first night out as Robin.
It will also be Jason's last night out as Batman.
Matty doesn't want to think about that. Think about the cancer killing the only parent he's ever really known, about how this time next year Jason won't be there to see him off to school anymore. How it'll be Terry they'll be calling Batman now, how it'll be Terry that will be calling the shots. He doesn't want to think about any of that.
He just wants to think about tonight. About the first night he'll get to fly out as Robin, with Batman by his side.
He jumps into the Batmobile. Batman pats him on the head, then closes the hatch above them. They pull out of the Cave, and Matty knows that tonight will be the best night of his life.
"Honestly, Master Jason, must you be so reckless like your father?" Alfred sighs as he continues dabbing away the blood from the wound on Jason's leg.
Jason cringes. "I wouldn't call that reckless…"
"You threw yourself out of a moving plane. Without a parachute. At high altitude."
"So! We do that all the time!"
"While the sky was saturated with flying shadow demons."
"…So?" This one was much more weaker.
Alfred sighs again. Why does he even bother?
"What the hell are you doing?" Jason asks flatly as he watches Damian fix something on the wall of his diner.
Damian gives him his customary glare before moving aside to reveal a picturesque painting of a dog in a meadow, chasing its tail. "Giving this poorly-decorated eating establishment of yours some character."
"And why would you do that?"
"Because a place that serves as palatable food as yours deserves to not look like some common hovel located in the back streets of a dirty city."
Jason rubs his temple. "Damian, in case you haven't noticed, this is some common hovel located in the back streets of a dirty city."
"Well, it shouldn't be!" Damian shouts back. "I refuse to be associated with such a place, and since I have no intentions of stopping my visits, you will simply have to accept my expertise on the matter."
Jason blinks. "Wait a minute…are you telling me you actually like coming here?"
Damian sniffs and looks away. Jason, despite himself, smirks.
"Food." Jason shoves the doggie bag onto the hardwood desk. "Now."
Tim groans as he lifts his head from said desk, showing the large bags under his eyes. "Do we really have to do this now? I've got work to do."
"When is the last time you ate? Or slept, for that matter?"
"…what day is it?"
Jason closes his eyes and counts to ten. "Yeah, no. No more Wayne Enterprises work for twenty-four hours. You're gonna eat everything in that doggie bag, and then you're going to your bed to sleep for at least twelve hours."
"You can't make me do any of that."
"Tim, do you want me to bring Steph into this?"
Silence.
"Yeah, I didn't think so."
"Little brother!"
"For the last fucking time, Cass! I am not the little brother! I am the big brother! Big!"
Cass pats him on the cheek. "Sure you are…little brother."
Jason palms his face, sliding his hand down with the sort of long-suffering that he has become all too accustomed to in this life. "Why did I invite you here again?"
"Because I'm you're big sister and it's Thanksgiving! Helena's first Thanksgiving!"
Jason stiffens at the sound of the name of the family's newest Wayne. "Right. Helena's first Thanksgiving."
Cass isn't fooled. "Jason. What's wrong?" she asks carefully.
"…she called me dad the other day."
"Oh."
Jason swallows. "I told her it was okay, but…"
"But what?" his sister prompts him, her face serious and understanding.
"…do you think he would've been okay with it?"
Cass shakes her head and smiles sadly. Silly little brother. "I think he would've be fine with it, Jason. I think, that if he were here right now, he would just be glad that you two had each other. That you were close enough to even consider each other that way."
Jason inhales deeply, and he smiles back, just as sadly, just as weakly. "Really?"
Cass wraps her arms around him and lays her head against his broad chest. "Really."
Jason stares down at the cubic box, where a large, diamond ring lays on the center cushion. "Dickie, I love you and all, but not like this."
Dick closes the box and shoves him. "Dammit Jay!"
"Well, what else am I supposed to think?" Despite his words, the wide grin on Jason's face betrays him.
"Ugh," Dick lets out in exasperation. "Why do I even bother with you?"
"Because I'm the only person willing to put up with you?"
"Well, hopefully you're not."
Jason's face softens. "You're really going to ask her, aren't you?"
Dick shrugs, smiling. "I know it didn't work out the last time. But this time…this time I know it will." He then took the box and offered it to Jason, giving his little brother a pointed look. "Which is why I need to keep it safe."
Jason, quickly realizing what Dick meant, adopts a more hesitant look. "Are you sure?"
Dick places a hand on his arm, and his smile widens. "I'm sure. There's no one in the world I trust more than you."
Upon hearing that, Jason closes. He takes a deep breath, and then takes the case.
I'm should've killed him instead letting that Fake Batman do it instead. Jason snarls as he stares at the burnt out ruin that once been his diner.
Nothing had survived the bombing. Not the food, not the utilities, not even the painting Damian had gifted him when the place first opened. Nothing. Jason sorely wishes Bane were still alive so he could hunt the bastard down again and put a bullet between his eyes like Thomas Wayne had done two days ago.
It could be rebuilt. Jason would have to dip deep into his funds, but it could be rebuilt. He just wishes it didn't have to be.
"Jason."
Jason whirls around, and there's Bruce, and why is he here? He highly doubts things are hunky-dory between them again just because of Bane. No matter how much either wishes it could be again. They're broken. They can't be fixed.
Except Bruce disagrees, judging by the stream of construction workers filing out of the truck behind him.
"Why?" Jason asks, and despite his best efforts, there's not heat or anger. Just wonder. Just pain.
Bruce smiles, and it's genuine and real but so small and filled with so much sorrow. "Is it really so hard to believe I still care?"
Jason looks away.
This will be one of the last times he'll ever stand in the Watchtower. Perhaps the last time he'll stand in the Watchtower. It's an odd, heady feeling that fills with relief and heartache all at once.
He ignores the stares drilling in his back, especially Donna's accusing, tearful gaze. He only has eyes for his son, who is staring down at the suit in his hands with a kind of disbelief that Jason knows all too well. He had reacted the same way when he had been chosen to be Batman, all those fateful years ago.
Terry is strong. Stronger than Jason ever was. Smarter too. He'll be an amazing Batman. Better than Jason, maybe even better than Bruce and Dick too.
That is…if he says yes.
Terry looks up at him, and why is he crying? Well, Jason is dying, so he supposes that is one reason. There is already plenty of tears to be found with everyone else here, after all.
"You really think I can do it?"
Oh, is that it? "Terry, I wouldn't have made the offer if I thought otherwise." Jason pauses. "Do you want it?"
"I do, I do, I just…" Terry closes his eyes for a moment. "I just want to make you proud, you know? And this…this is more than I could have ever imagined."
Jason steps forward, and hugs his son.
"You don't have to make me proud, Terry. I already am."
Jason smiles, real and true, from the deepest parts of his heart.
"And if we're being honest with each other…no one in the world has made me prouder than you."
Screams, screams, and more screams, and then…
Jason wakes up.
Jason lived a happy life. It wasn't without pain, but it was happy.
The next chapter will make you cry, by the way.
Next chapter: Peace.