Epilogue

Wayne Manor; March 1st, 21:07 EST

Donna gritted her teeth as her head fell back in pain. She released a gasping cry as she reached for the front of her husband's shirt and yanked him close to her. "Richard Grayson, I swear to all that is holy and good if you ever touch me again, I'll smash your face in," she swore at him.

Dick gave her a weak smile, not quite sure what the right words to say were at a moment like this. "I…I'm sorry?" he feebly said.

"Ah, Dick, it might be a wise choice if you went to get Donna some more ice chips," Leslie suggested from the foot of the bed.

"I don't want any ice chips!" Donna yelled. "I want a pizza…AH!"

"Just a little more, Donna, and then you'll be able to push," Leslie cajoled her. "You're doing marvelously."

"It…doesn't feel…marvelous…from where I'm at," she ground out, trying to shift her position to find a more comfortable one only a more comfortable position was not to be found. "Where are my ice chips?"

"Coming, sweetheart," Dick called as he raced back into the room with a cup full of ice chips.

"There had better…be a pizza and French fries…in there," she told him, "and don't call me sweetheart!"

Dick looked helplessly down at Leslie at the foot of the bed, clearly bewildered and uncertain of what the best thing to do actually was at that moment. Leslie smiled knowingly at him, nodding towards the wash basin. "Get a washcloth and dampen it," she suggested. "Put it on her forehead."

"I don't want him touching me," Donna hissed as she glared daggers at her husband. "He touched me one time too many…and now here I am being split in two!"

"Donna, he's only trying to help," Leslie gently reminded her. "You were just as happy about the twins as he was when you found out."

"Was, Leslie…was is the operative word," Donna snapped. "I 'was' excited. I'm not excited any longer. I just want them out now!"

"You'll be thrilled once they're finally here and you can hold them in your arms," Dick reassured her, gently wiping her forehead with the cool cloth.

"Dick, I'm tired…I'm in pain…and I want to go home," she stated with a glower.

"Soon, Troia," he told her, taking a great risk by kissing her on the temple. "You're so beautiful. I can't wait until our son and daughter are here. I've always pictured them looking just look you."

"If you're…trying to sweet talk me…into having more kids, now is definitely not…the time," she panted heavily.

"No way," he agreed. "Let's see if we can survive twins before we even think about any more."

She arched her back as she cried out in pain, another contraction taking over her entire body. "Please, Leslie…it has got to be time to push."

"You're so close, Donna," she assured her.

"Close is good enough…right?"

"Not quite," Leslie replied.

"Close only counts in horseshoes, Troia," Dick told her.

"Try coming close and I'll rearrange your face, Grayson," Donna growled.

"Okay, Donna," Leslie interrupted the arguing duo. "You can push. Give me a big one."

"Thank, Hera," Donna snapped as she clenched her teeth and pushed.

"You're doing awesome, sweetheart," Dick told her, wrapping a supportive arm around her shoulders. He knew he was taking his life into his hands, but it was worth it to be here for the birth of his children.

"Please…let's not do this again for a long, long time," she pleaded with him.

Dick chuckled with her request. "We'll have to be extra careful."

"Give me another push, Donna," Leslie encouraged her. "The head is beginning to crown."

Donna pushed again, crying out as her first baby's head appeared. The sound of a baby's wail soon filled the air as Leslie quickly began cleaning the baby off. "You have your daughter," she announced, holding up the baby. "Dick, would you like to cut the cord?"

"Richard Grayson, if you pass out, I'll ban you from this room," Donna threatened him.

"Don't worry," Dick reassured her. "I'm good."

Dick couldn't stop grinning as he cut the cord, taking the baby from the nurse who wrapped her up in a pink blanket. "She's beautiful, Troia," he told her, tears filling his eyes as he stared at his daughter.

"And here comes her brother," Leslie announced.

XXX

Diana laid her head on Bruce's shoulder as they waited in the entertainment room with the family—Alfred and Hippolyta sitting together on the couch with Nicholas and Kaia while Tim, Jason, and Damian sat on the floor playing video games, Artemis playing referee between the three boys and doing a remarkable job it.

Waiting for Donna to give birth to her twins brought back so many sweet memories of giving birth to Nicholas. Kaia's delivery, however, had been wracked with a lot of chaos and fear, but it had been no less miraculous and sweet at the same time.

She smiled to herself as her gaze fell on Kaia who was asleep with her head on Hippolyta's lap. She'd fallen asleep a couple of hours ago after wearing herself out, adamantly refusing to go to bed. She hadn't wanted to miss out on seeing the babies. She'd been so excited about finally meeting them.

Hippolyta gave Diana a sweet smile as she glanced down at the little girl who had fallen asleep. She gently stroked her raven curls as she chatted and laughed with Alfred who was sharing stories about the two little Wayne's and their countless adventures.

Diana could help but noticed how Nicholas was fighting to stay awake curled up in Alfred's lap, but was rapidly losing the battle. Alfred and Nicholas had been best buddies since the day Nicholas had been born, their bond only growing deeper with time. She knew that it was would be devastating for not only him but all of them when it was Alfred's time to pass.

The thought caused an instant knot of tears to stick in her throat. Alfred was the very heart of this family—holding them all together and keeping them all running in the right direction, patching them all back up and saving their lives on countless occasions.

Without him, this family would have been lost long ago…Bruce would have died years ago.

Tears blurred her vision with that thought, her gratitude and love for the elderly man causing her heart to expand even more than she dreamed possible. Though not related by blood, he was more of a father to her than Hades himself could ever hope to be.

She couldn't help thinking of Hades, wondering once more about the things that he had said to her as he had walked away from her. He had told her that she was more like him that she could begin to imagine. She had always disregarded any contribution that he had made in her creation, but now she could no longer dismiss it. Some parts of her did belong to him whether she liked it or not…whether she chose to accept it or not.

Had he been unfairly villainized because of the realm that he had been tasked to reign over?

"Penny for your thoughts," Bruce murmured as he kissed the top of her head still resting on his shoulder.

"Just thinking about my father," she thoughtfully confessed.

Bruce closed his book, setting it aside to wrap an arm around her shoulders and holding her close. "Any particular reason why?"

"Just some things that he said before he let us leave the Underworld," she admitted. "They just keep popping up in my mind."

"You are nothing like him, Diana," he assured her. "He may have had a hand in creating you, but your mother raised you."

"I know, but I can't help thinking that maybe I haven't given him a fair chance," she replied. "I've always casted him in a dark light…so has the world. Maybe I should've been a little more willing to meet him in the middle."

"He didn't exactly give you a chance," he reminded her. "He tried to shove his way into our lives."

"Yah…I guess so," she agreed, her eyes falling on Alfred. "I don't need a real father when we have Alfred."

"He's pretty invaluable," he readily decided with a lop-sided smile. "I'd have been lost a very long time ago without him."

"And for that I'm eternally grateful," she replied, lifting her head to kiss him.

"Oh, no…don't you two start," Damian groused with a wrinkled nose.

"I think they're very sweet," Hippolyta commented.

"And to think she wanted me dead when she came to the manor to drag you home after I'd proposed to you," Bruce said with a chuckle, internally grimacing with the memory that rose to the surface of his mind. That had been a very tense, very volatile confrontation.

"She just didn't know you very well yet," Diana defended her mother. "She'd only met you that one time when she banished me from Themyscira. It just takes her a little bit to warm up to people…well, mostly just men in particular."

"She likes me," Jason piped up.

"I'm her favorite," Tim said with a grin.

"She loves me," Damian chimed in.

"She just met you," Bruce told his son.

"It was an instant affection," Damian claimed.

"I love you all equally…even if I just met you," Hippolyta replied, making sure no feelings were hurt.

"Who wants to meet Claire Hippolyta Grayson and Conner Wayne Grayson?" Dick excitedly announced as he entered the room with a pink bundle in one arm and a blue bundle in the other arm.

"It's about time," Damian grumbled. "We've been waiting almost all day."

"With that attitude, you get to go last," Dick told him with a scowl, handing Conner to Bruce before handing Claire to Hippolyta.

"She's absolutely beautiful," Hippolyta murmured, proud tears filling her eyes as she gazed down at the newborn in her arms. Too bad Kaia and Nicholas were asleep, missing out on the introductions.

"Conner Wayne," Bruce softly uttered his grandson's name, deeply touched by the addition of his last name.

"After you, pops," Dick proudly beamed.

Bruce could hardly wrap his mind around the fact that he had grandchildren…grandchildren that weren't that much younger than his own children. He never would've dreamed this was how his life was going to turn out, but he couldn't be happier. "He's perfect," Bruce whispered, memories of holding Nicholas for the first time invading his mind.

"He's so precious, Dick," Diana told him as she leaned against Bruce to see her grandchild. "He looks so much like you, but he definitely has Donna's nose."

"They're both precious, grams," he teased her.

"Grams?" Diana said with a chuckle. "I think we're going to have to work on a better name."

"We've got time," he replied with a shrug, his beaming smile stretching from ear to ear.

"Hey, let their godparent have a chance," Tim groused.

Dick carefully took the baby from Bruce and handed Conner to Tim. "Here you go, Uncle Timmy."

"I think Uncle Tim is just fine," Tim proudly said, protectively holding his godson in his arms.

"I don't know why Tim got picked over me to be their godparent," Jason groused.

"Really?" Artemis questioned him with an incredulous look. "You'd be teaching them how to throw a dagger at the age of two and picking locks by three."

"Yah, but they'd be the best trained kids in the world," Jason told her.

"Diana was learning how to hold a sword by the time she was five," Hippolyta volunteered.

"Yes, but she grew up on an island populated by female warriors," Artemis remined her. "We were supposed to grow up with dangerous weapons."

"As long as you teach them correctly, they'll be just fine," the Queen reassured them.

Dick took his daughter from his mother-in-law, handing her off to Alfred before taking a sleeping Nicholas into his arms. "Here you go, great-grandpa," Dick told him, noticing how Alfred's eyes seemed to shine a little brighter.

"You have made an old man very proud and very happy," Alfred softly replied, completely enraptured with the newest additions to the Wayne family. He never would've dreamed when Bruce and Diana had started dating that this where that path would take all of them.

"Okay, hand him over, Timmy," Jason said. "You can't keep him forever."

"Fine," Tim reluctantly agreed, handing his godson over to his brother.

"Hey, there, Con man," Jason greeted him as he held the baby.

"Con man?" Dick said with a disgruntled expression. "My son is not Con man."

"When he's with me, he's Con man," Jason told him.

"Not really a fan of the nickname," Dick readily decided.

"How about Gray-hound?" Jason teased. "Get it? Gray-son? Gray-hound?"

"Definitely not!" Dick growled.

"Con man it is then," Jason said.

"Donna is so going to kill you," Dick warned him.

"How is Donna doing?" Diana asked, wanting to see her sister.

"She's much happier now than she was a little bit ago," Dick revealed with a visible grimace, his face growing pale with the reminder. "She's sleeping now."

"Amazons are not safe to be around when they're in labor," Bruce told him, commiserating with his son.

Diana smacked her husband with the back of her hand. "I wasn't that bad."

"That's what you think," he replied, getting up and taking Nicholas from Dick. "I was afraid for my life at one point. I'm going to take him up to bed."

"I'll take Kaia," Diana volunteered.

"We want our grandchildren when we return," Bruce notified them. "So, enjoy them while we're gone."

Jason bumped his shoulder against Artemis's, giving her a mischievous smirk. "Kind of makes you want to have a baby, doesn't it?" he lightly teased her.

"No way," she adamantly stated. "At least not in the next ten years."

Jason chuckled as he handed Conner to her. "He'll change your mind."

"Do you want one?"

Jason shrugged a shoulder, a somewhat wistful gleam alight in his eyes. "Someday…not anytime soon…but maybe someday."

"He is cute, isn't he?" Artemis noted with a small smile.

"Only because Donna is his mother," Jason said with a laugh.

"I heard that," Dick stated with a roll of his eyes. "And he wonders why he isn't their godparent."

"Hey! Do I get a turn here?" Damian asked.

"Here you go, Master Damian," Alfred said, carefully handing Claire to him.

Holding Claire, he looked over at Conner in Artemis's arms. "They don't look identical."

"That's because they're fraternal not identical," Dick told him. "How does it feel to be an uncle?"

"So far? Not much different than being a brother to Nicholas and Kaia," Damian decided with a frown.

Bruce and Diana made their way to the doorway of the entertainment room, pausing to take in the scene before them. Bruce slipped his arm around Diana, pulling her against him. "We did it, princess," he softly said to her. "We made the perfect family."

"It is perfect, isn't it?" she murmured, her heart almost bursting with so much warmth and love for this family. "I knew falling in love with you was going to be the most amazing journey of my life and I wasn't wrong."

"Thank you for never giving up on me," he conceded, his nose nuzzling hers as his hand came to rest on her cheek. "I love you, Diana…more than anything in this world."

Diana smiled softly, her resting on the nape of his neck. "I love you more."

He drew her into a sweet kiss, slow and sensual and conveying so much emotion. She'd stayed by his side from the very beginning, first as friends and then as lovers…never giving up on him. He didn't know what he'd ever done to deserve an amazing woman like her, but he was never going to let her go no matter what the future held for them and their family.

This family meant everything to him. Losing them meant losing his life…and that was not something that he could allow to ever happen.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Family Crisis: Alfred's past with the British Secret Service comes back to haunt him, threatening his life as well as the ones that he loves most.

UP NEXT: Take a Chance on Me - will be starting this soon.