Chapter Text
“Hello, Harley.”
Batwoman stood outside the cell, staring in at Harley Quinn, who looked up with a wide grin. She appeared much more relaxed than she had the last time they’d met like this.
“Well, deja vu to you too, Batchick.” Harley stayed on her bed, the jiggling of one of her feet the only movement she made. It was an absent motion rather than an agitated one. “What you need?”
“I’m just checking up on you,” Batwoman replied. “How are you doing these days, Harley?”
Harley raised an eyebrow, face going lax in what might have been surprise. Finally, she gave a soft little laugh and shrugged a bit. The smile that curled her lips was a little less manic than it used to be, a little more real. “I’m doing better. What about you? Find that kid you were looking for that time?”
“Yes, we did.” Batwoman stared at Harley a little longer before deciding it was time to leave. The security on Arkham was tighter than it had been the last time she’d visited. “Keep at it, Harley. You’re free of him forever. Concentrate on you now.”
“See ya round, Batchick.”
***
Renee was sitting on the couch, book in hand while her television blared quietly in the background. Two mugs of hot chocolate were on the coffee table. Steam rose from them both, too hot yet to drink. She just flipped to the next page when the window jiggled and a dark shadow slid into the apartment. She glanced up, raising an eyebrow. “Knocking is still beyond you people, isn’t it?”
Kate froze, halfway through pulling the mask off her face. “Can I come in?”
Snorting, Renee gestured to the second mug of hot chocolate. “Well, I didn’t make that for the invisible man, did I? Shower and get changed, Kate. Then we can talk.”
Slowly, Kate nodded and padded softly down the hall towards the bathroom, pausing by the hall cupboard to retrieve a towel.
She still knew where everything was.
Of course she did.
Renee sighed and turned determinedly back to her book.
They really needed to have that talk, first.
***
Whenever he could, Jim arranged to meet Barbara on Sunday mornings for breakfast at their favorite cafe. It was usually more like brunch by the time he got there, if work hadn’t forced him to skip it entirely due to one crisis or another.
That morning marked a month since he’d last been forced to skip one, and he’d arrived early to boot.
Barbara smiled as she arrived, joining him at the table (already set up for them, they were such regular customers), and picking up a menu. They always looked at the menu, even if neither of them needed to anymore. It used to be a way to avoid the things they didn’t want to talk about, to hide the strain and tension they were each under. Now, it was just habit.
“Are you seeing anyone new?” Jim asked, once they had ordered and no longer had menus to hide behind. “You always say you’re busy with work, but I’m not getting any younger, you know.”
Barbara barked a laugh and took a sip of her coffee. “Are you asking me for grandkids?”
“Maybe.” Jim nodded to the paper that was folded and sitting on the end of the table. “Blasted media’s still obsessed with Bruce Wayne’s little grandson. You’d think it was the only thing that had happened in the damn city in months.”
“Yeah,” Barbara smiled, a soft thing, and stared off out the window. “We’ve had a string of good news in the city, lately, after all.”
Jim snorted. “The Joker is better buried and forgotten. Glad that damn thing didn’t go to trial. What a farce it would’ve been.”
Barbara took his hand and squeezed it in hers. “I’m glad too, Dad.”
***
“So, how’s the bouncing baby boy?” Barbara asked.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dick shrug. “Still bouncing.”
The contingencies that Barbara had put in place had been to explain away a small boy suddenly appearing and disappearing from their lives. There had been a number of them, all ready to go at a moment’s notice when it had become apparent that Jason wasn’t going to be fixed quickly and they couldn’t hide him away on the Wayne property forever. Oracle was good enough that constructing an identity for ‘Jason Wayne’ had been easy and impossible to tell from the real thing—that she’d been able to use Artemis, an Amazon, as his mother had only made the job easier.
Now that things had gone a little more permanent than she’d envisioned, she occasionally had to draw up more records as they needed them.
Barbara slid her glasses down her nose and rubbed at her eyes. “You’re sure you don’t want Grayson anywhere?”
Dick grimaced. “It rhymes, Babs. Jason would hate it.”
Because one day Jason would grow up and get all his memories back, of course. Barbara wasn’t sure how much she believed that would really happen, and even if it did there wasn’t really any going back from his new role as spoiled Wayne grandchild.
“Have the three of you resolved the middle name debate yet? Or are you still fighting about it?”
Dick made a face and shook his head.
Honestly.
“I’ll just pick myself.”
***
A pair of wide, watery eyes were peering up at Alfred as Jason held up his favorite item of clothing, the Wonder Woman jumper, much beloved and covered in mud at the moment.
“But Alfie, you have to wash it,” Jason said, in a tone of great betrayal.
“You have others, Master Jason,” Alfred said, taking it from him and examining it critically. God help them all when Jason inevitably wore it out or grew out of it. “I’ll put it with your other laundry and you can have it back with the rest.”
Jason shook his head, holding his hands out for it stubbornly. “I will wash it myself.”
Alfred sighed. “It’s getting a little too hot to wear this constantly, isn’t it?”
“No,” Jason said, stretching up on his toes to reach the bottom of the jumper and tug on it. “I’ll wash it. I’ll use the bath.”
A frankly terrible idea, if Alfred had ever heard one. Jason’s baths were now strictly supervised after he had attempted to create ‘a larger swimming area’ by blocking the bottom of the door off with towels and then adding an entire bottle of bubble bath to the thing ‘for flavor’. Flavor of what, Alfred couldn’t presume to know. Jason had been stopped before he’d managed much more than overflowing the tub, but it had been a reminder that a more careful eye was needed on what supplies he could access.
“I’ll wash it for you this time, Master Jason.”
Jason let go and jumped back, beaming at him. “Thank you, Alfie!”
Then he scampered off, and Alfred was left hoping he wasn’t contributing too terribly to spoiling the boy.
Still, with a sigh he shook his head and walked off to the laundry.
It was not a hardship to indulge him—this time.
A better investment would be to order in some duplicates, to avoid the inevitable day the jumper was ruined beyond mending.
***
“There is nothing appealing about Man’s World at all.”
Donna rolled her eyes, linking her arm through Artemis’ and leading her into the next store. “We both know that’s not true or you wouldn’t be staying.”
Artemis grunted, giving the clothing around them suspicious looks as Donna dragged her through the store. “I have clothing.”
“What Bizarro got for you is a start,” Donna said, stopping at a rack and eying it critically. “But you can’t just run around in your armor or sweats all the time.”
“Why not?”
“I think this is good,” Donna said, releasing Artemis’ arm, taking the dress and holding it up to Artemis and pursing her lips. “But we should see if we can find something in green. It’s your color.”
“You’re doing this to torture me.”
“I’m doing no such thing.” Donna grinned, tugging her off further into the store. “You’ll need a dress if you ever attend one of the Wayne Galas.”
“I would quite literally prefer to go to Hell.” Artemis folded her arms and planted her feet. “There is no requirement that I attend.”
“You never know.” Donna had money riding on when, exactly, they would manage to get Artemis to show up to one. Roy and Wally had accurately estimated exactly how stubborn Artemis was, but they’d underestimated the influence that Jason had over her.
And Dick could put the idea in Jason’s head that he needed Artemis present at a Gala.
They’d been friends for more than ten years, and still the boys hadn’t caught on to Donna and Dick’s alliance for the books. There had been a reason Dick and Kory’s wedding had aligned so exactly for Donna’s bet, after all.
At this point it was the rest of the team’s own damn fault they’d be losing money.
***
Little hands were tangling in Kory’s hair, tugging on it lightly. Dick was asleep on the sofa next to her, feet propped up on the coffee table. A children’s movie was playing on the television screen in front of them, but Jason had lost interest and climbed into her lap, fascinated with her hair.
“It’s red like Arty’s,” Jason said, looking up at her with sleepy eyes. Kory didn’t know when he was meant to be put to bed and was loathe to disturb Dick to ask. The Titans had been caught up in a mission for over a week, the longest period Dick had been separated from Jason since everything had happened. When they had returned to New York it had been to find Artemis waiting in the Tower with Jason. She had spoken quietly with Dick and then taken her leave, and despite his obvious exhaustion Dick had spent the rest of the afternoon spending time with Jason instead of sleeping.
“Yours is like Dick’s.” Kory regarded him for a moment, eyes drifting to the little bit of white. “Except maybe for that.”
Jason’s hand drifted up and he tugged on the white hair absently. Kory thought the roots looked a bit darker than the last time she’d seen him, but perhaps it was her imagination.
“Kory,” he whispered, with a little glance over at Dick. “Take me flying.”
She laughed softly. “Doesn’t Bizarro take you up all the time?”
Jason’s eyes went wide and pleading. “But your hair is so pretty when you’re flying!”
She tugged him closer and buried her smile against his hair. “Okay, I’ll take you up—but we mustn’t wake Dick. He needs to rest.”
Jason pulled away and nodded solemnly.
***
“I know you said you had permission to do this,” Duke said, eying the Lego train tracks that were spilling out of Jason’s bedroom into the hall. “I’m just…full of doubt.”
“You should stop that,” Jason said, looking up at him and pointing towards the plastic toy container still sitting int he center of his bedroom. “I need more supplies, Duke. It has to reach the Cave.”
“Yeah, there is no way you have permission for this.” Duke sighed and carefully stepped over the toys and Lego pieces that covered the floor, bending down to heft the toy box up and carry it out to Jason. “I’ll give you this, but then I’m going to the library and pretending I never saw you, okay? I can’t be part of this.”
“You are weak and lack conviction,” Jason said, shuffling over to the box and digging through for more tracks.
“Ouch,” Duke said. “And you sound more and more like your mother every day.”
“Thank you,” Jason said. He pointed to the end of his train tracks. “Now, you go over there and we will begin making you strong.”
Duke laughed. “Jay, buddy, I love you—but I am not ready to stand before Batman and try to explain why his Cave is overrun with Lego trains. Anyway, I’m pretty sure you only have enough to reach the study, at a stretch.”
Jason frowned, looking around at his supplies. “I need more Lego.”
Jason constantly needed more Lego. His collection was growing at an alarming rate, despite the fact that he seemed to lose pieces all over the manor by throwing them around, forgetting them or, memorably, putting them inside water balloons to make them ‘more effective weapons’. Duke blamed Bruce, who’d taken to being a grandfather like a duck to water and should probably buy stock in Lego considering how much of it he presented Jason with on what seemed like a daily basis.
Not everyone was so fond of Lego. Alfred had been less than amused the time Jason had gotten them covered in Damian’s paints and decided to clean them by throwing them in the washing machine. The washing machine had broken, but the Lego pieces had been clean, so Jason had called it half a win. He’d quickly downgraded it to a complete loss when he’d been grounded for the misdemeanor.
Duke was fairly sure that in a hundred years they’d still be finding Lego pieces hidden away in dark corners of the manor.
Dick had finally put his foot down and banned new Lego acquisitions without his express permission and a reason beyond ‘Jason wants them’. Bless that dude, because otherwise the manor would probably be swimming in the damn things by now.
“How about until you get enough to complete your master plan we put all these away and go take Nessie for a walk?”
Jason pursed his lips thoughtfully before nodding, starting to dismantle the tracks. Nessie was beloved even above Lego.
Duke gave himself a mental pat on the back. Crisis averted.
***
“Say cheese!”
Cass and Jason gave her twin unimpressed looks from behind their identical sunglasses instead. Steph shrugged and took the picture anyway. It still looked good, her increasing number of social media followers would love it, and Jason was supremely cute when he was copying Cass.
The three of them were sitting at a park bench with their lunch, after taking Jason to the museum. They’d managed not to lose him even once, a feat Steph put down to Cass and her eagle eyes coupled with Steph’s paranoia and need to have Jason’s hand in hers the entire time, just to be sure. Jason had spent a solid fifteen minutes pouting about it, but it was getting easier to get him to listen to them, now that he had some solid structure in his life and wasn’t being kidnapped or otherwise traumatized at every turn.
“I think I’m going to focus on child psychology,” Steph said to Cass, as Jason busied himself in his food and occasionally threw bits of his sandwich towards the pigeons that gathered around them. “I think I’m naturally talented.”
Cass hummed. “You were going to be a nurse like your mom.”
“I was younger and knew myself less back then,” Steph replied, shrugging.
“It was last week.”
“I was younger last week.” Steph grabbed a napkin, wiping at a smudge of peanut butter at the corner of Jason’s mouth. He pulled a face but let her.
“The week before that you had decided to marry rich.”
“I might still do that,” Steph said, putting the napkin aside and smoothing down Jason’s hair. “I can do both of those things.”
“The week before—”
“Yes, yes.” Steph waved a hand at Cass and scowled when she smirked. “I’m indecisive about my future, what else is new. But I really think this might be it.”
“I think you should become a Lego architect,” Jason said. “You’d be good at it.”
He was only saying that because Steph had helped him make an elaborate trap for Tim that seen him stuck in his room behind a literal wall of Lego in revenge for Tim’s gremlin drone. Tim had actually used the drone to bust the whole thing down, sending a copious amount of Lego raining all over the hall and delighting Jason so much he’d not even been mad that his trap was so easily destroyed.
“It’s something to consider,” Steph said.
***
“Jason, you’re not allowed to climb that tree.” Tim grimaced, glancing back towards the house. He wasn’t actually Jason’s babysitter—he remained bottom of the list and happy about it—but Bizarro had dropped everything and flown off, in full costume, so Tim assumed there was some emergency that required his presence. The Titans were on a mission, and Artemis had been gone for a few days again.
Tim only had to keep him safe for maybe half an hour before someone more qualified came back and took over, but the minutes were ticking by slowly and Jason had immediately picked the most dangerous thing in the vicinity.
“I can climb just fine,” Jason said, reaching for the next branch and going higher. “That’s a stupid rule so I’m ignoring it.”
“Yeah, well you can take it up with Dick,” Tim said, circling around a bit so he remained directly under the boy in case he fell. “Because it’s his rule you’re breaking, here.”
That gave the kid pause.
He wasn’t exactly wrong about his climbing abilities; Dick was perhaps understandably preoccupied by the idea of Jason falling off something and getting hurt, so his solution had been to take him down to the gym and start training him early. No combat, which had disappointed Jason, but what Tim suspected had been similar stuff that Dick had been taught himself by his own parents.
Less trapeze swinging, but Tim supposed that was only a matter of time.
In any case, Jason knew exactly which trees he was allowed to climb and how high he could go.
The old oak he was currently scaling was not one of them.
“I don’t care,” Jason said, finally, committing to his rule-breaking, and reached for the next branch. He was getting worryingly high, up to where the branches were thinner. He slipped on the next one he reached for, knocking his chin against a thick branch as he slid down. “Ow!”
“Jason!” Tim rubbed his hands against his jeans and prepared to go after him. “Okay, that’s it. If you’re not down in ten seconds, I’m coming up after you and then you can go sit in the corner and be bored for fifteen minutes.”
Jason heaved a gusty sigh and, amazingly, started to scale back down. “Fine.”
Halfway to the ground he jumped and nearly gave Tim a heart attack, but he caught the boy just fine and set him on his feet.
“Trees are boring anyway,” Jason said, wrinkling his nose, and then he grabbed Tim by the hand and started tugging him inside. “Come play with me, Timmy!”
Tim looked to the heavens and prayed for salvation.
He was seriously never having kids.
***
“Hey Cass, have you seen—whoa! Holy smokes.”
Cass glanced up at Tim from her place stretched out on the rug in front of the television in the den. The newspapers she’d put out to protect their surroundings wrinkled when she moved. Her stomach twitched when Jason poked his paintbrush in her bellybutton.
“Stop moving, Cass,” Jason said, with a little huff. “We are at a delicate point of the procedure.”
“You’re painting her blue,” Tim said, blinking rapidly and shaking his head. Cass could see the disbelief dripping off him. “Why are you painting her blue?”
“I ran out of purple paint on Steph,” Jason replied. “And I’m not painting all of her blue. Just the bits without clothes on.”
Tim made a funny noise in the back of his throat.
Cass stared back at him, expressionless, and didn’t so much as shift her gaze to the purple form that was creeping up behind him.
“Boo!”
Tim jumped, whirling around to face Steph, whose face, neck and arms had all been painted bright purple, except for the yellow smiley faces Jason had painted on her cheeks. “Oh, geez, Steph.”
“It’s my new costume,” Steph said, twirling around in place. “I like it.”
“I can’t believe you guys are letting him paint you.”
“It’s actually very relaxing.” Steph’s nose twitched and she rubbed at it idly. “A bit like being at a spa. I almost fell asleep.”
Cass hummed agreement, and closed her eyes again. “It was Steph’s idea.”
“Unbelievable.”
Steph laughed. “You can be next, Tim. We’re saving the green paint for you.”
“A world of no.”
Cass felt Jason move closer, and then his breath against her ear.
“Cass,” he whispered. “Help me catch Tim next.”
Lips twitching, she nodded, enjoying the sound of his giggling as he went back to his task.
Maybe she would nap like Steph had.
Babysitting was easy.
***
“I can walk,” Jason said, wriggling from his place on Damian’s back, being carted back to the manor in a piggyback carry. “Damian, I can walk!”
“You cannot,” Damian replied, hefting the boy higher on his back and keeping his eyes on the uneven ground. They had roamed far across the property that day, perhaps further than they were strictly allowed, but Nessie had seen a rabbit and had terrier instincts, and it wasn’t her fault that she’d darted off after it and they’d had to go retrieve her. Her leg was thankfully healed, but Jason had only taught her to bark on command and roll over, so it was up to Damian to rectify the negligence in her training. He’d overlooked it because normally she was all but glued to Jason’s side no matter where they took her.
Nessie hadn’t caught the rabbit, thankfully, but Jason had slipped coming down a steep incline and twisted his ankle. It was a minor sprain but asking him to walk on it would be neglecting his duties and Jason would only slow them down, anyway.
Father met them halfway back to the manor, relieving Damian of his burden and lifting Jason up his in arms to carry him the rest of the way. Jason made no protests about Father carrying him, Damian noticed, annoyed.
“What happened?” Father asked, mildly.
“I slipped,” Jason said. “Nessie wanted to go hunt rabbits.”
Nessie panted happily, walking along at Damian’s side. Titus walked several feet ahead of them, sniffing at the ground.
“Do you think,” Jason said, thoughtfully, poking at Father’s face, “that if we got a pet rabbit, Nessie would get used to them and not run off?”
“No,” Father answered. “I think she would probably eat the pet rabbit.”
“What if the rabbit was in a proper enclosure?” Jason asked.
“Jason, you’re not getting a rabbit.”
“It was very cute,” Jason said, and poked Father again.
Father sighed. “Ask Dick.”
Jason made a face, because Father was by far the easier target than Richard in regard to these things. Jason tilted back in Father’s arms, meeting Damian’s eyes and grinning.
Damian looked away, but nodded, just a tiny incline of his head.
Tomorrow, they would attempt to acquire a rabbit.
***
A small ball of little boy took a flying leap at his head, squawking indignantly when Batman snatched him out of the air and held him out in front of him, hands securely under his arms.
“Unhand me, you fiend!” Jason wriggled, kicking his feet and glaring.
Jason’s fear and distress of Batman had slowly evaporated and had instead been replaced with—this.
With a sigh, he propped the boy on his hip and made his way to the computer. “What are you doing down here, Jason?”
“I want to talk to Bruce,” the boy said, reaching for one of the ears on the cowl and tugging it, hard enough the edges of the cowl started to dig into his face.
With a wince, Bruce reached up with his free hand and pulled the cowl back, frowning down at Jason. “Jay, it is me.”
Jason poked his tongue out. “So you say!”
He wasn’t sure if Jason truly thought Bruce was possessed by some Bat demon when he put the cowl on, or if he was being subjected to the same kind of games that Tim was participating in with increasing frequency and complexity. Just the other day he’d walked out onto the patio to witness Tim chasing the child with a drone dressed as a flying gremlin—or at least that was what Tim had sheepishly called it when he’d noticed Bruce watching.
“What did you need to speak to me about?” Bruce asked, sitting down in front of the computer with the boy in his lap. Jason turned and reached for the keyboard, so Bruce gently tugged him back, hugging him close.
“I forgot,” Jason said, which was proof enough he’d come down to be a pest and because he enjoyed taking flying leaps at Batman’s head. “Bruce, come upstairs and read with me!”
He had work to do, three active cases and a request from the Justice League, but he found himself standing, putting Jason on his feet and nudging him towards the stairs up to the manor. “Go ahead, Jay. I’ll get changed and come find you.”
“If you’re not there in fifteen minutes I’m gonna paint the batsuit pink!” Jason yelled, footsteps loud on the staircase.
Well, Bruce thought. At least he had fair warning.
He passed by a particular drawer on the way to the showers, unable to resist letting it catch his eye. He didn’t stop, this time, but later he would sit down and take out the journal and papers that were, essentially, Jason’s last words. Maybe, one day, he wouldn’t feel the need so frequently.
Until then, he could use the reminder.
***
Nightwing held his fist out towards Batgirl, grinning when she gave him a fistbump before jumping on her cycle and taking off, back towards her solo patrol area. “East End is all clear. I’m going to head in unless there’s something you need me on, O.”
“It’s a quiet night,” Oracle replied. “Go get some sleep.”
Red Hood’s territory had always been an area that they had covered in their patrol routes; he had been in Gotham sporadically since his first appearance, and easy enough to work around once the family had reconciled. Now it was just…on a more permanent basis.
Jason had always kept his cards close to the chest regarding just how many fingers he still had dipped into the Gotham underworld, but there had been hints of an empire crumbling in the wake of Red Hood’s disappearance. They’d dealt with most of his safe houses, although Nightwing presumed that some would remain hidden, unknown to anyone but Jason himself, when he had access to the memories. Even now, Jason would occasionally scrawl an account number or address down that would turn out to belong to Red Hood.
It was about the most Jason would freely offer, the boy remaining cagey with details regarding what else he remembered or dreamed about. Dick had suggested he might have an easier time talking to a professional to work through the lingering issues, but Jason and Bruce had both balked at the idea. Still, it was a topic he’d have to bring up again once Jason was more settled.
Nightwing’s comm remained clear on the journey back to the manor, bar the occasional chatter of younger ones or Bruce’s rough, clipped words. By the time Dick left the Cave his thoughts were already going hazy with the promise of sleep. The murmuring of quiet voices detoured him to the kitchen, where he raised an eyebrow at the sight of Alfred and Jason, sitting at the small kitchen table and drinking hot chocolate. Well, Alfred was drinking. Jason looked like he was about to fall asleep in his.
“Nightmare?” Dick asked, already moving to sweep the drowsy child into his arms. Jason let himself be picked up, throwing his arms around Dick’s neck and yawning widely before burying his face against Dick’s shoulder.
“The young master seemed more perturbed than terrified,” Alfred replied, getting to his feet and starting to clear the mugs away. “He wasn’t making sense, but forgot the content of the dream quickly enough.”
Dick hummed, starting out of the kitchen and up to Jason’s bedroom. Jason was asleep by the time they hit the staircase and didn’t rouse when Dick tucked him back into bed, under the rumpled covers he’d thrown off when he’d decided to go bother Alfred instead of sleep.
“Night, kiddo,” he said, brushing his lips across Jason’s forehead, and then he could finally make his way to his own bedroom and flop down across it, barely managing the effort to get himself under the covers. If he was lucky, Jason would get distracted by the 3DS on the bedside table and let Dick sleep in the next morning.
The odds of him being that lucky were very, very low.
Dick didn’t find himself minding, though.
***
There were dozens of screaming children on the playground that afternoon. Artemis grimaced, turning her attention towards her own screaming child. He was being pushed on a swing by Bizarro. The Kryptonian now held a secret identity as his nanny (truly a bodyguard, although Bizarro fulfilled both functions equally), and more often than not could be found accompanying the child and the rest of the family around Gotham. The odds of Jason being kidnapped or injured while Bizarro was around were reassuringly low.
Biz Binks was still the most terrible name Artemis had heard in her life, but Bizarro had allowed Jason to pick it and the child’s mind would not be swayed from his decision. Bizarro seemed to like it, for whatever reason, and Artemis suspected he’d had a hand in the choice and was comfortable allowing everyone to give Jason baffled glances about it.
Jason looked up as she approached, launching himself straight out of the swing and running for her. “Arty! You’re back!”
“I’m back.” Artemis let him wrap his little arms around her waist and cling to her. Bizarro waved at her calmly, walking off to go offer his assistance to a child who had fallen and scraped their knee. “Have you behaved yourself while I was gone?”
“Maybe,” Jason replied, tugging at her arm until she finally acquiesced and bent down to let him wrap his arms around her neck in a hug. His hands delved immediately into her hair, but she’d stopped caring about it after he’d caked melted chocolate in it that one time. Children were messy, he was no exception, she had somehow been tricked into claiming him for her own and now she had to live with it.
Akila had not stopped laughing about it in the months since she’d met the boy.
“Are you staying at the manor?” Jason asked, and the eagerness was all too easy to pick up. Artemis had remained largely on the periphery of the family. Bizarro had committed to Gotham full time, with only occasional visits to his other family, likely due to his nephew’s fascination with him, but Artemis herself had chosen to stay mostly in one of Jason’s old safe houses, and not allowed the city to tether her despite her resolve to protect the child from the lingering threat of Circe. A certain amount of wanderlust had beckoned her away on various missions, although they had started to become less frequent.
She’d spent the last week away only wishing to return to him.
“I will,” Artemis said, brushing his hair back from his eyes. “I made a promise that I would not abandon you, little one. You do not have to worry that I will leave you.”
“Because you love me,” Jason said, and he sounded very sure of himself.
“Perhaps,” she replied, trying not to smile when he leaned up and kissed her on the cheek.
He’d always been able to see through her.
That much, at least, had not changed at all.
***