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English
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Published:
2025-07-31
Updated:
2025-09-05
Words:
9,483
Chapters:
8/?
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238
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Love Child

Chapter 8

Summary:

Bruce does something thinking, Steph is nosy.

Notes:

This chapter didn't want to get written so it didn't turn out like I wanted but alas here we are.

Chapter Text

Bruce sighs in relief when Jason’s eyes slip closed, and his breath stops hitching and wavering, as his body relaxes where he is curled up next to his mom on the hospital bed. For a while Bruce had worried that the boy would start hyperventilating again.  

 

After they had arrived at the hospital, Jason had stayed asleep when Bruce had carried him inside. Didn’t wake up when the nurse did a simple physical exam and DNA swab or when Bruce changed him into some clean pajamas. But when the nurse pricked his arm to get a blood sample, Jason woke up like he had been shot. The five-year-old hyperventilated till he choked on his own saliva, and thew up, all while pitifully wailing for his mama. 

Bruce had then sent away the nurses but couldn’t calm the frightened child. Desperately, he took him up to the ICU unit to see Catherine. At first it made Jason even more upset to see his mom hooked up to multiple machines and unresponsive but eventually the little boy found solace clinging to his mother and fell asleep. 

Bruce had been planning to order a full body x-ray and CT scan just to make sure Jason didn’t have any internal injuries, since he had some worrying bruises, but it looks like it will just have to wait…. For now. 

 

Resting his chin on his interlocked hands, Bruce lets his eyes drift from Catherine to her son. Being a billionaire, with influence, power, and forces to do and have virtually anything under the sun, Bruce is not often acquainted with the feeling of wanting something. But looking at the tiny child, curled into a ball with his little hands clinging to Catherine’s hospital gown, Bruce wants…. Desperately. He wants that child to be his. He wants the paternity test to come back positive. He wants to hold the boy in his arms, HIS son, and rock him to sleep. 

A voice of warning keeps rearing its head, telling Bruce not to get his hopes up. That it will only hurt to find out that Catherine had a child with a different man. But Bruce can’t stop looking and Jason’s face and seeing an uncanny familiarity…. 

“Hi-ya Pops.” 

Bruce jolts upright in his chair when Stephanie sticks her head through the drawn privacy curtains. 

“Can I help you?” Bruce sighs rubbing his forehead. Annoyingly, Stephanie had, for some odd reason, never been afraid of him. 

“Nah, just coming to check on you and give you this.” Steph holds up a tiny backpack. “Found it in the alley. Jason must have dropped it.” 

“Oh.” Bruce takes the offered bag, hoping to get a little bit of a better clue into who Jason is as a person and what kind of life he has been living. 

“Tim already went through it. Didn’t find anything super helpful…. That is Willis Todd.” Stephanie points to the picture that was on top of everything else. 

Bruce holds the picture up, turning it to catch the light, as he studies the photo. 

“What? Ya need glasses now, old man?” Steph grins. 

“No.” Bruce shoots a glare at the blond before, letting his eyes go back to the photo. “It’s just….. I don’t see any similarities between Jason and Willis.” 

“No….  Jason looks like all the baby photos I’ve seen of Tim though.” Stephanie adds craning her neck to get a better look at Jason’s sleeping face. 

“You noticed that too?” Bruce tries to keep the growing hope in his chest in check, but by the widening smile on Stephanie’s face Bruce knows he is failing. 

“Yeah, you would almost think they could be brothers.” She wiggles one eyebrow up and down. 

“I already expedited a paternity test.” Bruce admits, digging deeper into the backpack. 

“Ooooo, Dickie isn’t going to be happy about this~” The young woman sing-songs. “You know how he loves being the spoiled baby of the family~!” 

“Hgh.” Bruce grunts. “He will just have to adjust like everyone else…. But we don’t even know if Jason is mine yet.” 

“He is.” Stephanie waves her hand dismissively. “Look at that little stoic scowl he has going on. He is 100% yours. Tim makes that exact face in his sleep.” 

Bruce can’t help but smile at that thought but quickly smothers it. “We will see when the test results are in.” 

“Whatever but just know I called it. But even if he’s not, you're gonna keep him, right?” Stephanie looks him dead in the eyes. 

Bruce hesitates. “Probably.” He pushes a handful of granola bars out of the way and pulls out a little matchbox car. 

“Coming from you, that translates into “absolutely, I already have set up his trust fund and picked out the paint color for his room”.” 

“Did you ID the body?” Bruce changes the subject before Stephanie weasels any more out of him. 

“Oh, yeah. Tim and Babs clocked him in no time. His name was Mike Sellers. Got hired like six months ago. Ran a forklift at warehouse 12.” 

“So, he got the alert for Jason.” Bruce surmises with a frown, his eyes land on the book he just pulled out of the bag. It is some kind of simple children’s storybook. 

“Yeah…. Must have thought he could hold him for ransom or get some kind of reward…. Babs is looking for any evidence of him being a double-agent.” Steph crosses her arms. 

“That is strong a possibility.” Bruce agrees morbidly, knowing that Jason’s life will be in danger if word gets out about him having ties to the Wayne family. “Make sure to shut down any talk about Jason. I don’t want word hitting the streets until we are ready.” 

“Already taken care of.” Stephanie nods. 

“Good…. Tell the boys I want a family meeting at lunch tomorrow.” Bruce adds, as he finds a small wad of cash at the bottom of the bag. 

“At the manor?” 

“Yes.” Bruce confirms, counting the bills that add up to about 200 dollars. 

“You gonna bring JayJay with you?” 

“I’m not going to leave him here.” Bruce snaps, putting the money back in the bag. 

“Don’t get upset, I was just asking. Sheesh.” Steph snorts, shaking her head. “Nobody is gonna mess with your little cub, papa bear.” She grins before ducking back out of the curtains before Bruce can even think of a response. 

Scowling he turns his attention back to Catherine and Jason, both are perfectly still beside their chests rising and falling with each breath. Something twists in his gut, as Bruce carefully puts the food, toy cars and book back in the bag. 

Jason should have more things in his bag. Don’t most kids his age have loads of little trinkets and toys and things to make them happy? Coloring books and crayons? Stickers or stuffed animals? Candy? Stuff like that? 

With an uncomfortable heaviness in his chest, Bruce slides the photograph into his shirt pocket for safe keeping, vowing to himself to find out more about what has happened to Catherine in the last five years, and what it has meant for Jason. An ominous feeling tells him he isn’t going to like what he finds though…. 

Pushing that thought aside, Bruce reaches forward and carefully smooths back some of Jason's wild curls that had fallen over his eyes. Then he takes Catherine’s hand and gives it a squeeze.

“I’ll watch over Jason. You two just rest. I’ll be here.”