Flashback July 11th
"I want to talk," Cassandra stood still in front of him, show me you changed.
"Deathstr- let's talk," Bruce nodded then clicked his com line, "someone check if it really is Deathstroke in Crime Alley. I have something else to do."
"If it is Deathstroke, we'll need all the help we can get Batman," Barbara said.
"I'm on my way to the location now, don't worry Oracle," Damian said her name with spite, "I'll call if I need back up but I can deal with Wilson."
"I have priorities," Bruce told Barbara, "Robin be careful, Batman out."
Cassandra stared at Bruce, not believing that he chose to delegate the threat of Deathstroke to Robin in favor of talking to her.
"I suggest we use the rooftop of the abandoned factory on 47th," Batman suggested and offered her a grapple.
"No coms," she took the grapple.
"No coms, Penny-one, I'm going offline."
"Very well Sir."
Cassandra nodded and shot her grapple. She felt Batman right behind her. They landed on the rooftop a few minutes later. Cassandra wasn't sure how to approach the situation. She needed to gain time for Talia, Slade and Damian to help Jason, she also had a LOT to say to Bruce. She hadn't planned on actually saying anything to Bruce, ever, but now things were different. He was different, he was afraid and she couldn't feel an ounce of sympathy towards him; that's how mad she still was. She had to talk to him, because Jason needed her to stall him, because Jason was alive and well and he had Harper. Then she remembered Harper's small sighs and smiles and she turned back to mush.
"I'm sorry-" Batman said.
"No, I want to talk," Cassandra faced him, "you listen... to understand not to ... reply."
Bruce nodded, not trusting his voice to say anything. Cassandra's opinion mattered just as much as his other children, but Cassandra was different from the others. She was raised to be an assassin, just like Damian had, but unlike Damian, she wasn't allowed to speak, she only learned to read bodies and not words, which makes her terrifying and impossible to lie to, not that Bruce wanted to lie to her. Bruce wanted her to see the man he was, when he promised her that she didn't have to live in David Cain's world anymore, that she would live with the weight of the life she took, but that it didn't have to define the path she'd take.
Cassandra Cain took back her father's name; it was Orphan in front of him, not Batgirl, not Black Bat, not even Cassandra. Both Bruce and Batman deserved that. He's waiting for her to talk, she's always struggled with words, and he hadn't given her any reason to actually want to talk to him. He was the enemy because he crossed the line that made him even worse that David Cain, because David Cain never denied who he was, because Batman doesn't kill, because Jason is his son and he stopped his heart.
David Cain sacrificed himself for Cassandra, he told his daughter he loved her and asked for her forgiveness before taking down Mother and jumping to their deaths. Bruce is waiting for her to hit him, to yell, to stare until he couldn't handle the silence. He wasn't expecting her to ask him this.
"How are you?"
"What?" Bruce looked surprised, well as surprised as Batman gets.
"How are you?" Cassandra repeated, somewhere between amused by his reaction, annoyed by his lack of understanding and sad that it had come to this.
"I-I'm glad to see you," Bruce managed to say.
"Doesn't answer the question," she tilted her head to the side, "how are you?"
"I don't know."
Jason's safe-house July 20th
"Look, she doesn't sleep without it anymore," Jason moved his cellphone above the crib to show Harper sleeping and hugging her Arsenal plushy.
"Of course she doesn't! If I can't be there in person I will be there in a plushy!"
"You should've seen Damian's reaction, he was so pissed!" Jason laughed.
"He got away with the cat, the plushy is mine," Roy laughed too, "how are you doing?"
"God that cat is the weirdest creature ever, I'll send you the videos of them discovering each other. It happens every time I put them in front of each other," Jason kept staring at Harper, "I'm fine."
"Not what the reports say-"
"She told you?"
"Of course she did Jaybird, I also heard you got Slade good," Roy said smugly.
"I hurt T and Damian too," Jason shook his head, "it was shorter than usual though."
"Do you remember what happened?"
"I snapped out of it when I heard Damian calling me what he used to call me back with the league," Jason sighed, "I remembered mum and Tim kept pushing me about B and all that kind of-"
"Overlapped?"
"Yeah," he smiled when Harper moved her head a bit, "everything would be easier if you were here."
"I know, I'll be there in a couple of months," Roy's tone dropped, "did you contact Diana?"
"I did, before I found out about Harper, sent a pigeon," Jason turned when he heard Damian the cat, "god the freaking kitten!"
"What does he want now?"
"He probably wants to sleep next to Harper, but I don't like him near her when she's sleeping in the crib. Damian's picking him up later, I can't handle it."
"Makes sense," Roy sighed, "god, I still can't believe you use pigeons to send messages!"
"You can't hack a pigeon," Jason laughed then said after a silence, "just ask the question."
"You know I won't."
Silence stretched as Jason tried to find the words. The former outlaws just stared at the sleeping baby.
"What if she hates me?"
"Why would she hate you? Everything the bat did and you still don't-"
"I've killed people Roy, lots of them," Jason snapped, "I tried to kill-"
"Tried, killed, ED, past tense, before, in the past, not now, not later," Roy took a deep breath, "I want to tell you something."
"What's that?"
"After you rescued me, the first few days, hell weeks, I was terrified of you, I did some digging, lots and lots of digging," Roy ran his fingers in his hair, "I wanted to understand how the Robin I met all those years ago is the same guy who decapitated drug lord lieutenants and shoved their heads in a duffle bag-"
"This isn't making me feel any better-"
"Life isn't black and white Jaybird, we both know that, we both lost a lot. I looked up every death pinned on the Redhood I could find. Do you know how many innocent people there were? Not one. I'm not saying you had the right to play judge, jury and executioner, but I also noticed something about your body count."
"What's that?"
"They all happened around the same time, the massive crazy numbers, they were close in time, which is around the time you were fresh out of the pit, and then later on before the building collapsed. It was when you had no control of the pit whatsoever-"
"I've killed afterwards-"
"I know, but like 6 or 7 pure evil sons of bitches in like 5 years," Roy pointed out, "once she taught you to control it, you no longer gave into the impulse. You allowed Jason to overcome Lazarus, this is how I was able to reconcile the Robin that died with the Redhood that lived."
"Damn, that was almost poetic," Jason deflected.
"How many times did you itch to just put a bullet in Scarecrow? Or Tinman? Or whatever new flavored villain Gotham had to offer? Or some serial rapist?" Roy didn't say Joker, "but you didn't?"
"Until I did," Jason remembered Penguin's evil sneer right before Jason pulled the trigger.
"It was a non-lethal blank shot," Roy rolled his eyes, "we both know you had a genius plan laid out for the next 5 or so years to destroy organized crime from the inside. You always believed death was the only solution for some people but you didn't act on it until the pit. Do you have any idea how many Ollie's killed when he was starting out? No Lazarus pit or anything, full conscious decision of killing-"
"Mm," Harper's eyes started fluttering.
"All of it doesn't matter, because you are a good person. You retired, you are no longer Robin, Wingman, Redhood, Batman or whatever alias you took, you are Jason Todd, dada, that's the only title you got, and I'm pretty sure it's the only title you want."
"Ehh, mm," Harper squirmed a bit.
"It is," Jason nodded, "look at her."
"The embodiment of perfection," Roy sighed, "is she waking up?"
"Yeah, she's been asleep for 3 hours, she probably needs a new diaper," Jason put his phone in his back pocket and reached down to pick up the baby.
"I have missed your butt," Roy joked.
"Shut up! I'll change her diaper now that way she wakes up in a good mood and we can have fun and she can get used to your voice faster."
"I do always call when she's asleep but then again, she sleeps a lot."
"Ehh, ehh," Harper's eyes fluttered open, but before she could start crying because of the weight in her diaper Jason kissed her cheeks.
"Hey baby."
"Hehhh"
"Hello mini meeeee" Roy's voice was muffled by the fabrics of Jason's pants.
Jason changed Harper's diaper really fast. Roy was still yelling from the inside of the pocket.
"Ahh, ehh heeh" Harper smiled when Jason picked her up.
"Jaybird? What are you guys doing? I can't see or hear anything!!!"
"Come on," Jason went back to his room and sat down on his bed back propped on the head board with his knees up.
"Ahh," Harper sat on her dad's chest her back propped on his knees.
Jason got his phone from his pocket and tried to hold it up as best he could.
"Hey mini me!!! I missed you pwincess! Look at you sitting on the throne like the true queen that you are," Roy smiled through his screen.
"Hehh," Harper's eyes are open as widely as possible, she looks from the screen to Jason.
"Yeah, you're the queen Harper, the most important person in the world," Jason nodded.
"Haa," Harper yawned and waved her hands.
"Jaybird just take off her mittens."
"Okay," Jason rolled his eyes eternally grateful that Roy couldn't see him.
"Quit rolling your eyes," Roy scolded him, "tell him your majesty."
"Heeh"
"Did you notice how she's holding her head on her own, yesh you are baby, yesh you are," Jason kissed each of her fingers after freeing her hands from the mittens.
"Well, her name IS Harper, so she's strong by default."
"She is, isn't she," Jason stared at the baby, "what do you want to be when you grow up?"
"I think it's a little soon for that, Jaybird."
Harper blinked at them.
"Do you remember what you wanted to be as a kid?"
"Not really, no," Roy's voice dropped a bit, "what about you?"
"I just remember wanting a family," Jason's sadness was evident in his tone, "I finally got one, it's got two Harpers in it."
"Hell yeah it does!"
"Heeh"
"You are going to be whoever you want to be, the best at that of course because ... well obviously you're perfect, but you will do whatever you want! I will say no to things, sure, but whatever you want!"
"Where's this coming from?"
"I just think about sh-stuff," Jason kept Harper's tiny hands in his, "you know the choices we've made and the ones that were made for us."
"Okay..."
"I don't want that for her, I want her to choose," Jason moved his head left and right and watched Harper slowly doing the same.
"Like ... Robin?"
"Yeah," Jason sighed, "Robin, was ... magic some of the best days of my life, there's no denying that, but ... I didn't have much of a choice, or at least I didn't think I had one. And honestly, who would've said no to being Robin?"
"Ahhh" Harper smiled and let her head rest on Jason's knees.
"Like, Grayson, he had to jump and twirl around with his parents, then he got sucked into the Bat-life. Did he really want to be a trapeze artist? Same for me, sort of, I had to fend for myself I know for a fact that I didn't want to have to do it, I just wanted a family, go to school you know? Then Tim, he went looking for the suit," Jason shook his head, "he wanted this life. Cass? She didn't want it. Steph, I honestly don't know how she came to be a mask but I doubt it was her first choice, I mean she's in medschool right now."
"Heehh," Harper squeezed her tiny fists around Jason's thumbs.
"He doesn't need his thumbs, baby, squeeze as hard as you want!"
"Hehh" Harper does squeeze harder.
"Dude! She did it! You're starting to understand us baby, yesh you are!"
"Ahh" Harper smiled without taking back her hands or her eyes off of Jason, mine!
"You're so beautiful," Jason nodded, "yesh you are Harper, yesh you are."
"Mm" she stuck her little tongue out, I am!
"Like, Damian," Jason went back to his original tirade, "that kid never had a choice in his life. Cass was able to break free you know? She chose the mask to make up for the bad she'd done. But Damian? He was ... bred for a purpose, the perfect heir to the demon's head, god! I hate it so much! I hate that his so called family uses that verb when referring to him, 'bred'. What the fuc-udge! He was forged into a weapon and then she dumped him on his dad for his own safety and what does the idiot do? He makes him Robin!"
"Wasn't that Grayson?"
"Even worse! Does he even want to be Robin? They convinced him that it was his rightful place at his father's side as his heir, some mediaeval fuc-fudged up shi-stuff!"
"I love how you're trying not to curse," Roy laughed, "that's for you princess!"
"Heehh!" Harper smiled when Jason kissed her hands again.
"Have you asked him?"
"Have I asked him what?"
"The kid, if he wants to be Robin?"
"No," Jason noticed Harper's lips smacking, "maybe I should."
"Is she hungry?"
"I think so, wait," Jason reached for the golden snitch pacifier and tried to put it in Harper's mouth.
"Mm," Harper spit it out.
"Are you hungry your majesty? Is your dada not feeding you because he's having a philosophical debate about the absurdity of teenage sidekicks?"
"Hey!"
"Heehh," Harper almost laughed.
"OMG JAYBIRD! She almost laughed! Uncle Roy almost made you laugh you beautiful little cutie pie!!!"
"Dada's going to make you laugh first! Okay?" Jason pouted.
"Is he pouting? You can tell me Harper, I'm sure he is!"
Harper started kicking her legs on Jason's chest making cute little growling sounds.
"Is she growling?"
"It's more like purring if you ask me," Jason grinned, "like a little cat."
"Hnn" Harper scowled, she put her fists in her mouth, FOOOOD!
"You're so cute," Jason sighed, "seriously you're like a kitten! And I do have a basis of comparison."
"Where is the kitten?"
"I don't know somewhere," Jason moved his phone from under his chin and picked Harper up from under her arms, "do you want some tummy time before we eat?"
"Ahh," Harper smiled when her dad lay her on his chest, look what I can do.
"Look, she's trying to push on her hands!"
"Jaybird I don't mean to interrupt the cutest thing I've ever seen, but isn't the cat like pocket size?"
"Fine! Let's find Damian the cat, before Damian the human beheads me for losing it," Jason sighed and picked Harper up to his shoulder, "some kisses for dada?"
"Heehh," Harper snuggled up to Jason's neck.
"Maybe next time," Jason kissed her cheeks.
"Jaybird, aren't you forgetting something?"
"Okay, we need to get Uncle Roy," Jason rolled his eyes and reached for his phone.
"Ah mini me, this is all going to change when I come," Roy assured her.
"Whatever," Jason held the phone with one hand and Harper with the other, he started doing that more often, he loves holing her with both hands, but he's getting used to having a free hand.
"Heeh"
Jason walked out of the room with Roy babbling nonsense about nonsense and Harper sighing and grabbing his collar. Jason was switching the call from his phone to his laptop.
"Damian?"
"Yes," Damian, the human, answered from the kitchen.
"Did it answer?"
"-tt-"
"Oh no, it's the actual demon!"
"Don't start," Jason warned them before turning his attention to Damian, "ever heard of knocking?"
"What's the point if I have access to the security system?" Damian reached to take Harper from Jason.
"You avoid getting shot in the face."
"-tt- he didn't even notice I came in!" Damian glared at Jason because he didn't hand him Harper.
"The demon has a point Jaybird, you need to be more careful."
"How long have you been here?" Jason went to heat a bottle, he hoped Damian wasn't eavesdropping ... Jason did mention Damian/Robin's status quo.
"I just came in," Damian said almost too fast, "may I hold her please?"
"Sure kid," Jason smiled and handed Harper to Damian.
"I apologize for not visiting more Harper, but we must spend more time together," Damian sat down with the baby, "I will be your favorite uncle."
"Heeh," Harper smiled and snuggled up to him, warm.
"Too late for that pipsqueak, I'm the favorite Uncle," Roy said proudly, "you'll see, once I get there how she'll never spare you birds another look."
"It's cute that you think yourself capable of measuring up with me," Damian scoffed and smothered Harper with kisses, "you're not even here to compete, and I'm winning."
"Ahhh, mm," Harper pushed against him.
"See," Damian smiled smugly.
"Whatever demon," Roy grumbled under his breath, "anyway Jay, I need to go and you've got your hands full. But do that thing we said you should do."
"Here," Jason took Harper from Damian who protested incoherently and moved to the computer screen, "say bye to Roy."
"Heehhh," Harper smiled widely and waved her arms when Roy, "ahh ohh."
"Bye baby girl, I wuv you wittle pwincess!!!"
"Ahh ahh," Harper blinked a few times.
"Alright, enough," Damian stomped towards Jason and opened his arms again Jason conceded and gave him the baby.
Jason turned off the computer and went to heat Harper's bottle.
"Can I ask you something?" Jason handed Damian the bottle.
"Of course," Damian smiled when Harper's eyes sparkled with joy at the sight of the food.
"Do you want to be Robin?"
"Of course I do," Damian scoffed a little too much, "what kind of nonsensical question is that? It's my birthri-"
"Yeah, it's your birthright blah, blah, heir to the demon blah, heir to the bat blah, but do you want it? Do you want to be jumping around rooftops in spandex and a cape?"
"I'll have you know that my suit is not spandex-"
"Quit deflecting and answer the question," Jason sighed exasperated.
"We do good work," Damian said in a lower voice, slowly adjusting Harper in his arms to feed her better.
"That's not the question either," Jason sighed again, "you can tell me anything, you do know that right? Just because it's been years since we did sit and talk doesn't mean you can't anymore."
Damian focused on the baby in his arms. He had heard Roy and Jason talking about this when he came into the safe-house unnoticed. He had speculated that Jason had either fallen asleep by mistake – which he rarely did if no one was with him to watch Harper – or he was engrossed in some deep conversation with either Harper or Roy. The latter was the reason Jason didn't notice Damian coming in. Damian heard Roy telling Jason to ask him, but he really wished Jason hadn't.
"What is it you want to do or be?" Jason pressed, "not what your mother planned for you, not what your-Ra's wanted you for, not what da-B wants from you. Why are you Robin? Still?"
"I," Damian frowned then took the bottle from Harper to wipe her mouth, "it's the only way I can get to know him."
"Hmm," it was Jason's turn to frown, "he took me camping once, on the estate, but like in the creepy part of the forest behind the well maintained gardens."
"Why?" Damian gently poked Harper's cheeks which made the baby smile around the teat of her bottle.
"For fun, it wasn't training. Apparently it was a thing he did with his dad, Alfred made him continue on for years after they were killed," Jason remembered, "I don't know if he ever did it with Dick... but Dick was easier to be around than a skittish street kid."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because there are other ways to get to know your dad, without spandex and a cape," Jason saw the cat coming closer.
"-tt-" Damian watched as Jason picked up the kitten and allowed it to sniff around Harper before setting it down again.
July 25th
"Look, look, look," Jason grinned excitedly.
"What is it?" Tim ran from the bathroom to the living room.
Jason was on his back on the rug, shirtless, with Harper on his chest. They were having a skin on skin session in the living room.
"What is it?"
"She's discovering my chest hair," Jason watched Harper's tiny hands slowly lowering on his chest hair.
"Mm," Harper's eyes kept widening as they reached the different texture of the hair and skin.
"Take off your shirt," Jason told Tim.
"W-w-what?"
"Take off your shirt and lay down, you don't have chest hair right?"
"N-no," Tim did as he was told trying to concentrate on the task at hand instead of the proximity of Jason's naked chest and his.
Harper propped herself on her elbows and slowly glanced at Tim before palming her dad's chest again. She brought her hand closer to her face to inspect it then back down to Jason's chest hair. She seemed confused. She slapped her hand on his chest again then grabbed the hair and pulled a bit before releasing it and inspecting her hand again.
"What is it? You don't like my hairy chest? It's a bit scruffy but it's not so bad," Jason pouted and saw her following his glance towards Tim, "you want to try baby smooth skin just like yours?"
"It's not baby smooth," Tim protested feeling his cheeks heating up.
"Hmm," Harper turned towards Tim completely.
"Let's go," Jason moved her from his chest to Tim's then rolled to his side to watch them.
"Ehh," Harper frowned, she slapped her hand on Tim's chest.
"No hair," Tim said, "is that better?"
"Hmm," she baby growled; weird.
Harper's tiny fingers tried to grab the skin of Tim's chest, there was no hair. She inspected her hand after every time she tried to grab Tim's chest.
"She's so cute," Tim whispered, "I love you Harper."
"Heehh," this got her attention, she looked up from Tim's chest to his face and smiled widely.
"I do, I love you."
"Ah oh ouuuh" she tried to say.
"OH MY GOD! Jay did you hear that?"
"I did! It's the second time she's done it!" Jason grinned at the blush spreading on Tim's marble white skin, he couldn't help but notice the scars, he recognized the ones he put there, I don't deserve you Tim.
"I love you, I love you, I love you," Tim kept saying to Harper.
"Ah oh ouuuh," she smiled eyes wide open and legs kicking.
"Jason!!! When did she say that first?" Tim turned to Jason, only to notice how far away Jason was, "hey."
"This morning actually," Jason quickly answered, "right after Duke left for patrol. I was actually massaging her head with this."
Jason reached for the head massager spidery thing that Dick got him.
"Check this out," Jason slowly lowered the wired massager onto Harper's head.
"Haaaa," Harper sighed and smiled.
Jason moved the tool up and down slowly and gently watching Harper melt to the soothing effect of the massage.
"Wow!" Tim's eyes widened, "I've seen videos of this but wow!"
"Yeah, it puts her too sleep immediately if she's been up for too long," Jason smiled when Harper turned to face him before resting her face on Tim's chest, "it works on adults too."
"No way," Tim scoffed but couldn't tear his eyes from Harper, loving every second the baby spent on his chest, he then whispered, "she's falling asleep."
"I know," Jason slipped the head massager off of Harper's head and slipped into Tim's.
"What are you- oh wow that is glorious," Tim's eyes drooped.
"I know," Jason grinned and continued massaging Tim's overly active head, "your head needs a break too, baby bird."
"I know," Tim submitted and shut his eyes, "just a minute okay?"
"Sure," Jason wanted to laugh, out loud, but that risked waking both Harper and Tim.
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