Chapter Text
It was all too hauntingly familiar.
Smoke,
burning,
rubble,
blood,
pain.
Jason knew what was coming.
Death.
He had felt it all before.
It felt like every nerve ending in his body was on fire. He couldn’t even pull in a breath of the ash filled air around him as he choked on his own blood, his throat sliced open by a razor sharp batarang. Thrown by a man who was once his father, the man he had once trusted even in his final breaths.And now he was taking his final breath yet again at that man’s own hand.
The tale-tell darkness was already swimming into his churning vision.
Jason wishes he could laugh.
There had been no point in his resurrection, his suffering, his training, his plotting, his revenge. It had all culminated to nothing. His life and death were meaningless.
He had failed.
But now was all ending, there was no point fighting it. His body went limp from it’s painful convulsing and twitching.
The thoughts ‘It’s over, no more pain, no more sleepless nights, no more empty loneliness, no more killing, no more fighting, its finally all over’ rolled through Jason’s mind like a sigh, a breath of fresh air.
He let the darkness pull him into its silent, painless embrace. The collapsing ceiling, ash and fire faded away.
Thomas Wayne was in his office packing up his things after a 12-hour shift.
“I’m getting too old to be working till midnight.” Thomas huffed to himself, as he shoved a few more things into his messenger bag. He was looking forward to listening to some classical music on a quite drive home, eating a light meal, taking a hot shower, and then sleeping till he felt like a human again.
Thomas had never been more relived to have a week off, and it starts in 15 minutes. He already had lots of plans.
A nice dinner with Martha at the new restaurant on Main.
Golfing with Lucious.
Skeet shooting with Alfred.
Chess and martial arts with Bruce.
Maybe take the whole family to the beach one day, and another day for shopping.
Oh, I need to get something for the baby shower.
He quickly jotted down a note to himself.
He was thinking about a high-tech baby monitor system. Bruce would like that. Talia would probably like it too. Both expecting parents were already highly paranoid and once the baby came, they would doubtless be more so.
Another thought crossed Thomas’ mind: Bust Dick out of school one day and spoil him with ice cream and a trip to Amusement Mile.
He added that to his mental to-do-list.
Thomas’ adopted teenage grandson was struggling a little with the idea of a baby soon joining the Wayne household.
Thomas was pretty sure Dick was afraid of being replaced or overlooked, since the boy THRIVED on love, and attention. Thomas was going to make sure Dick felt secure in his position as Wayne, and Bruce having a biological child won’t change a thing.
Underneath the insecurity it was obvious that Dick was excited to have a younger sibling. Dick had been begging for a sibling for years, the teen was often lonely and wanted someone to play with and dote on.
A smile spread across Thomas’ tired face as he thought about his sweet teenage grandson.
Dick was a ray of joy and had brought so much light and life to Wayne Maynor over the last 5 years. Thomas couldn’t imagine life without him.
His smile dropped when he caught his own name being called over the hospital speakers.
“Emergency. Emergency. Doctor Wayne to OR. Doctor Wayne to OR.” A nasally, too calm voice announced over the sound system.
Thomas dropped his messenger bag back onto his desk with a sigh, glancing at the clock that read 11:58.
“Two minutes, missed by two minutes.” Thomas muttered to himself letting out a sigh.
He turned on his heels and jogged down the hall to the OR.
He tried to mentally prepare himself for whatever patient had just been brought in and needed an emergency surgery.
No pep talk could have prepared Thomas for what was waiting in the OR. At first glance Thomas was sure the victim was already long gone, just a burned, mangled husk attached to tubes and wires. But he was shocked to see that the heart monitor was slowly beeping.
It was hard to tell due to the blood, and ash staining his face, as well as his hair being singed off, but the patient looked young, late teens or early twenties.
“What happened?” Thomas immediately questioned the EMTs who had come in with the gurney, while he started scrubbing up.
“There was an explosion in an abandoned building around Park Row. He was found in the rubble. He was resuscitated on the scene and coded once in the ambulance. Aside from severe burns, broken bones and trauma the worst injury seems to be a wound at his throat caused by a sharp object.” They rattled off more information as Thomas quickly prepped for surgery.
Every second was going to have to count to save this one.