Okay, I was hoping to fill in the time gap before coming out with this arch, but I've hit a slow point in my one-shot madness. I have to look back to other people's suggestions. This next arch is based loosely off of a huge turning point in the Batman comics. Yes, they're a lot younger than they should be, but who cares! Prepare to see things break.

Jason-12

Breaking Birds

Bruce just sat at the side of the medical bed, watching his son resting after his long series of surgeries. Alfred was watching the others in the lobby, despite the late hour. All of them should probably go home after this long and grueling day, but none quite felt up to it. They nearly lost one of their own. Technically he died twice on the operating table. If it weren't for his strong brainwaves and heartbeat, doctors would have said to just let the boy go.

But Jason was a fighter. He would not go down.

The twelve year old was wrapped in so much gauze it was hard to distinguish it was him. Both legs were broken from the beating he took. Clean breaks. Leslie promised they'd heal quickly. His jaw was cracked as well and he had lost the last of his baby teeth. One shoulder was dislocated and several more deep bruises covered his body. Two broken ribs and a punctured lung required he be on a breathing tube for a while. To keep him from struggling the boy was in a medically induced coma to heal. Sprained wrist, three broken fingers, broken tailbone, fractured skull… The list went on. Still, it was better than the alternative, wasn't it?

Bruce just watched his boy and his vitals from his chair, fingers interlaced across his mouth. Seeing him in this state… knowing what pain he had to have endured… thinking of the future and how his boy could be when he woke up… Daggers kept entering his chest with every thought, with every wound his son suffered. How could he have let this happen!

"Save your apologies," he murmured without looking. "You didn't do anything wrong."

Superman let his feet touch the ground after floating through the window, eyes worried as he watched the pair. "I should have gotten there sooner. Should have saved the woman there too."

"Jason hadn't sent any alert until then," Wayne murmured. "Even I thought everything was going alright. You were flying blind in that warehouse; old ones are covered in lead paint. Saving him before the explosion… I'm certain she would have wanted it that way."

The man of steel was silent for a moment before asking. "Who was she? You never leave anyone with them unless you've done a thorough background check."

"Sheila Haywood, Jason mother."

This took the alien for a spin. "What? His mother? But I thought—"

"So did I, until recently." Bruce closed his eyes for a moment before beginning his tale. "May as well write this down Mr. Kent. It's an exclusive on something I won't be repeating to the press any time soon.

"A couple weeks ago was my parents' anniversary for their deaths. You know I like to visit that alleyway they were killed in every year. Usually I go alone, but Jason wanted to visit his old neighborhood as well. It was one of my yearly visits there that led to his adoption after all. We were separated not long after arriving so he could try to remember the old times there. Half his life was in Crime Alley, and the other half with me. I let him wander, but reminded him to stay close. About half an hour later he returned, a bit nervous and excited at the same time, carrying a cardboard box

"In the car he told me how he ran into one of his old neighbors, one who actually gave a care for him and his mother Catherine. When she died and he ran away to avoid civil services, he left quite a bit behind. Mrs. Walker had saved a few personal items for him in case he ever came back when the landlord sold off his family's belongings. I would have gathered them myself six years ago, but Jason at that point didn't want anything more to do with his old family, or his past. I still don't know which building he once lived in. He finally had moved past the pain I guess.

"We took the box home and took it to his room. Tim was interested in what was inside and the three of us started going through its contents. Jason finally had a picture of his parents, and his mother's wedding ring. Also some old drawings of his and a few records. The birth certificate was the document that caused the most amounts of relief, and trouble."

Bruce finally looked over to the man of steel, trying to be like the said metal and failing. It was hard to be strong as he recounted the events leading to this disaster. "While Jason was reading it, he found the mother's name had been damaged by water. But the first letter was an S. Catherine wasn't his biological mother. After a few minutes reassuring him that her feelings for him were enough to be his mother, he asked if his real mother was still alive. I had no answers. I didn't even know Catherine was his step-mother after all. If I had known or suspected, I would have looked for her years ago and reunited them.

"But the question lingered in his mind enough to start looking through what was left of his family's possessions again to try and find the truth. Jason found his father's old address book and located three women whose first names started with S: Sharmin Rosen, Shiva Woosan, and Dr. Sheila Haywood."

"Shiva!" Superman's eyes grew wide.

"Yes, Lady Shiva, the assassin." He bit back another comment, something about the lady. He really didn't like the woman. "Willis must have known her before she became a mercenary. Before…"

He bit back something yet again, something he did not feel ready to share. Bruce put his eyes back on Jason as he continued to speak. "The only way to know for certain who his mother was, was to ask them or get DNA tests. I used my connections to get in contact with Rosen. She's never given birth. I managed to knock out Shiva as a possibility by comparing Jason's blood with an earlier acquired sample. The only one I couldn't knock off the list was Haywood. There was the possibility that she wasn't his mother, but…"

Bruce looked off listlessly, remembering when he and Jason managed to finally find the woman. She had entrenched herself in a rundown area just outside of Gotham, being the emergency doctor for immigrants who hadn't found stable work yet. The look on her face when the two met…"As soon as I saw her, I knew we hit pay-dirt. Jason has her eyes. I left them alone together to get reacquainted. That was this morning."

Superman's eyes left the heartbroken man and back to the beaten boy who nearly died at one that day. Who would have if he hadn't saved him before the impending explosion. The kid was still conscious then too, barely able to talk. He was looking over the man of steel's shoulder, back to the warehouse and trying to reach towards it.

"You… have to… save her… Joker… he…"

Then the building exploded and Jason jerked towards it horrified. "NOOO!"

"Jason! Hold still!"

"MOM! NO! Mom…" Then the kid passed out, tears streaming down his face. The kryptonian thought the boy was hallucinating back then, took too many blows to the head, but now…

"I should have been able to save her," he murmured once again. "Should have seen her."

"The blame is mine." Bruce ran his hands through his hair, head down in grief at long last. He trembled slightly as he spoke. "Jason never should have been there. I should have talked to the woman alone first, gotten to know who she was, then had the two meet at a safe location. This never should have…"

Thoughts ran through his mind like the tears racing out of his eyes. If he had found those documents first, done the investigation years ago, all of this could be avoided. If he had simply hidden the information on the certificate, there wouldn't have been an investigation to begin with. Had they not separated on Park Row a few weeks back, none of this could have happened. Everything was right in their world until then.

Jason wasn't curious about his family after being taken in six years ago. He wanted to forget his step-mother's death and his father's abandonment. He was happy being Bruce's son, happy having so many siblings, happy with his odd array of surrogate uncles and aunts. He was happy three weeks ago. Now…

The delicate beeping and rhythmic breathing was all that assured the man his willful, trouble making, second child was alive. The boy had been so excited that morning to meet Sheila, his mother. No one else had that kind of opportunity yet. He hoped for the other two whose mothers yet lived, that they never would. Sheila had one possible stain on her record, but for the most part was on the up and up. And the look in her eye when she saw Jason… Both pieces together was what made Bruce leave them alone for a few hours. Alone to think about the boy's future.

Now Jason's mother was dead. He really had no blood relatives anymore. Only the mishmash family he'd grown to love. What had happened to take the two to that warehouse was a secret between Sheila and Jason. How he had ended up like that and his mother tied to a support beam to die in the impending explosion was a mystery until the boy could wake up and talk about it. Doctors said he'd wake up and could breathe on his own in about two days. Whether he could talk about it then was an even bigger mystery. He had lost his mother to death twice. Who could handle that?

Bruce felt a supportive hand on his shoulder after a few minutes of silence. "It's not your fault Bruce. We'll find who did this. And he'll go away for a long time. Jason will pull through, you'll see."

Silence stood there for a long moment, bringing little comfort to the men. They watched the boy sleep still, nearly counting every wound he had suffered once again. Some of the Bat's old stubbornness returned to his face, a light of vengeance sparking in his eye. "I know. I'll make sure of it."

A/N: *squee* like it? In my mind, the dead stay dead. I actually have 'A Death in the Family' and the movie 'Under the Red Hood', so I've taken a lot from those. This one has three follow-ups, so look out for them. Like I told someone, there are other fates than death out there, some much worse and having the same effect on people. X3

Thanks for the well wishes yesterday! Oh, there's some artwork for this arch on my DA page, just an FYI. ;P