Chapter Text
Bruce never thought he would become a father but then again, before his parents' murders, he had never thought he would become an orphan.
Adopting Dick Grayson was a spur of the moment decision Bruce would never come to regret. He saw so much of himself in the kid in himself and he couldn't help but comfort the sobbing eight-year-old child who had witnessed his parents' untimely deaths. He couldn't not take in the kid and he hoped that with proper care and guidance, Dick wouldn't turn out like Bruce. He hoped that Dick would find a better and healthier coping mechanism than dressing up as a vigilante and punching mobsters but as it turns out, Dick just happened to be like Bruce in that regard.
Meeting Sally Jackson was a balm to his darkened soul and she was too kind, too soft for Gotham.
She was working as a waitress in the diner that Poison Ivy and Batman ended up in after crashing through the window.
Not many people would go up against a Rogue with a baseball bat but then again, Bruce Wayne would do the same out of the cowl if any of the Rogues stood between him and Dick the way Poison Ivy stood between Sally and her daughter.
It was commendable.
It was brave.
It was unlike anything Batman or Bruce Wayne has ever seen from a civilian.
Bruce was nothing if not a weak man for a strong woman who could take care of herself.
He found himself frequenting that diner until he worked up the courage to ask Sally out.
She agreed on the condition that the kids come with.
Sally’s entire world was Percy, just as Dick had become Bruce’s entire world.
Bruce found that the easiest thing in the world was falling in love with Sally Jackson; second only to loving Percy.
The moment she told him she knew he was Batman, Bruce was already planning his proposal.
They married in a small ceremony; a friend or two on Sally's side with Percy as her maid of honor and the Gordons and Alfred on Bruce's side with Dick as his best man.
Bruce was proud to call Salacia Bronwyn Jackson-Wayne his wife.
Asking Percy if he could adopt her and be her dad? That was the most terrified Bruce had ever been (Batman activities not included) and he couldn't help but cry when she said yes.
He offered his mother's name to Percy, but she scrunched up her nose and said, "I like Ophelia more than Martha, I'll take her middle name if you don't mind."
Of course Bruce didn't mind. His daughter had his mother's name.
So Persephone Leia Jackson became Persephone Opheleia Jackson Wayne.
Dick cried when Sally asked to adopt him.
But the dark cloud of Percy's biological father hovered over his thoughts. The unknown man who left Sally to raise Percy alone was a wild and unpredictable thing that consumed his waking hours. Would the man come back and demand Percy be his? Would he demand a ransom to stay away?
Sally found him one night searching through missing persons who were lost at sea.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek before promising to tell Bruce the truth of the man who abandoned the most amazing woman in the world after the children had gone to bed.
Bruce, Alfred, and Sally each had a glass of wine which then turned to whiskey upon the truth bomb Sally dropped.
Bruce was always the first to sing his wife's praises, hell even the snotty aristocrats Bruce had to grow up with and rub elbows with at galas and board meetings would sing Sally's praises; but Sally having a love affair with a god? That was... not as hard to believe now that Bruce thought about it.
Diana had mentioned that her father was the king of the gods and she did come from a mythical island full of Amazon warriors.
Sally was incredible and anyone would be a fool to not meet her and fall in love with her.
But to abandon her? To abandon Percy? That was something Bruce could not forgive.
"He won't take her away?" Bruce asked, voice hard as plans to protect his daughter formed in his mind.
"No. He said she'll have to go to a summer camp where she can learn to defend herself from the monsters that will inevitably come for her." Sally said.
Alfred poured another drink.
"Monsters will come after our daughter." Bruce made a mental note to speak with Diana as soon as possible.
"I did my best in Manhattan. I thought the crowds of people would hide her. I thought it was safe to keep her under the nose of the gods. It worked for a while but then I picked her up from daycare and a snake had gotten into her crib. Then a cyclops stalked her on the playground. Gotham is a godless and cursed place. No monster crosses the borders so I moved Percy here to keep her safe." Sally said, nursing her wine.
"So what's the plan?" Bruce asked; he had plans but he wanted Sally's.
"Let her be a child. I want her to know who she is before her father tells her who she should be." Sally said. "I just want her to be a kid but I know that's not going to happen once his world comes for her."
"I'll train her. Not to be Robin, but self-defense is important. I'll talk with a friend of mine who is similar to Percy-you'll like Diana-and get her advice on how best to prepare." Bruce started to plan out loud.
"I suppose I'll have to dust off the cross bows in the attic." Alfred said with a twinkle in his eye; something he had been waiting for a reason to do.
"We'll keep our girl safe. No monster is going to harm her. Not while I'm around." Bruce promised, taking Sally's hand and kissing her knuckles.
"I know."
///
When Dick moved out and subsequently ended being his Robin, Bruce had the brief thought of Percy dressed in red and yellow, hiding in his cape and following after him on quiet and easy nights but then he would remember what monsters awaited her when she got older and Bruce would push the thought away and drive her to ballet practice. Percy had not expressed interest in being Robin so Bruce never asked her.
Babs was a wonderful partner as Batgirl but she wasn't Robin.
Dick was his Robin but Percy was his little girl.
Batman was patrolling Crime Alley and was ready to call it a night when he found him trying to steal his tires.
Jason was scrawny and hadn't had food in a while. His red sweatshirt was frayed and did little to keep out the cold. He was kneeling in the snow with one of the tires and the lug nuts before him.
For a brief moment, Bruce saw a different boy kneeling before his dead mother and her scattered pearls.
"You do realize you are stealing the tires from the Batmobile." Batman said.
"You do realize you parked in Crime Alley, right?" The kid sassed him.
At first, Bruce only was going to get the kid some food and then take him somewhere warm but then the kid had to make him laugh.
He didn't ask Sally, he didn't need to; he already knew what she would do.
So he brought Jason home.
Jason was skittish; he quickly attached himself to Sally's hip and wouldn't let go.
Sally would work on her next book in the library while Jason would softly read Jane Austen to Percy who would more often than not fall asleep on her brother.
Jason was another shining light in Bruce's dark night.
Batman had another Robin.
Batman had one more person he needed to protect.
Gotham Academy was not a good experience when Bruce was a student before his expulsion and lord only knows what Jason and Percy dealt with but at least Sally and Bruce could defend their daughter when teachers kept complaining of her inability to pay attention to her poor grades.
"And what are you doing to accommodate her ADHD? Her dyslexia?" Bruce would ask and do his best impersonation of Alfred's look of disapproval at the dean and the teachers.
"You have all her paperwork and her psychiatrist's recommendations and request for accommodation. Have you been ignoring our daughter and not giving her the help she needs?" Sally, with all the grace and ferocity of a lioness protecting her cub, would say.
The teachers and dean would fold and suddenly all the tutoring and accommodations for Percy's learning disabilities were available to her.
Then everything went wrong.
Jason learned that Catherine was not his biological mom.
That was when the fighting began.
Bruce would gladly admit fault if only it would bring Jason home but Jason yelled at Sally.
Jason had shouted that Sally was not his mother and neither was Catherine, that Sheila was different.
Bruce had shouted at Jason to not yell at his wife.
Bruce couldn't remember what else happened; only that Percy was found crying in a closet by Alfred and Jason was not in his room when Bruce went to apologize for the words he said.
"You'll be safe?" Bruce asked.
"Yeah," Sally placed a hand on his armored chest and leaned up to give Bruce a kiss goodbye. "Bring our son home, love."
"I will. You be safe." Bruce kissed his wife's forehead.
"I will."
That was the last Bruce saw Sally and Percy with hope in their eyes as he flew to Ethiopia.
Their family was nearly torn apart with Jason’s death.
Percy couldn’t accept that her big brother was dead and had to be carried away from her brother’s corpse. She only calmed down enough to take off her pearl necklace, something Bruce had given her as a birthday present after she saw a picture of her grandmother Martha, and place it in Jason’s hands.
Sally slipped some drachma Diana had given her over Jason’s eyes and kissed his forehead but otherwise, she nearly went catatonic as they buried their son.
Bruce never wanted to make his children go through the pain of burying their father, he had to bury his parents and he never wanted his children to know the pain he knew but unfortunately, his children knew death as an old friend; he couldn’t conceive that he would have to bury his child.
He wanted to scream and cry and beg to trade places, that it was him who had died and Jason survived.
He didn’t think they could survive.
But his family was strong.
Admittedly, Bruce could have treated the neighbor kid more kindly but he was grieving-no. That’s no excuse.
Tim showed up at the manor with flowers for Sally and condolences for everyone and then told Bruce that Batman needed a Robin.
Bruce never wanted to have another Robin.
He failed Jason.
It was his fault Jason had been killed.
Tim was adamant that Batman needed a Robin.
Sally agreed.
Bruce didn’t want to bring another child into the life but Tim had proved himself to be quite resourceful. Bruce found himself smiling again.
Sally found herself coming out of her melancholy.
Percy found herself speaking again and glued herself to Tim’s side.
“Jack and Janet Drake left him alone again. They neglect him. They don’t deserve Tim.” Percy told Bruce.
“Bruce,” Sally looked at Bruce with pleading eyes.
“Sally,” Bruce looked at Sally.
“We won’t be replacing Jason. We are not replacing Jason.” Sally said softly.
Bruce didn’t want to lose another child… but he couldn’t stand his neighbor’s neglect of their son, of his Robin, more.
Timothy Jackson Drake Wayne was legally abandoned by Jack and Janet Drake and adopted by Bruce and Sally Wayne.
“You’re name is Jackson; it was meant to be.” Percy leaned against Tim as they watched a movie. “You’re ours now.”
Slowly, they were healing.
There were times when the grief was suffocating; when Sally couldn’t go into the library because it was too quiet or when Percy would be found curled up in Jason’s bed or Alfred setting a plate for Jason or Bruce calling for Jason in the batcave but those were slowly becoming fewer and fewer.
Something happened over the winter when Percy was in sixth grade.
There was the Jason Todd Memorial Gala to raise funds (i.e. Guilt trip and goad the rest of Gotham's elite to donate to charities) for the hospital's renovations and a new shelter in Crime Alley.
Clark was there as a reporter and had snapped a picture of the five Waynes for his paper (and family holiday cards) and Diana was there networking sponsors for the museum she worked for when he felt Sally's hand squeeze his.
"Are you alright, my love?" Bruce asked.
"It's nothing, darling. I just wanted to hold your hand." Sally smiled but Bruce saw it did not reach her eyes.
Diana was tense as well as she shared a look with Sally but otherwise pretended it was fine.
Aside, Diana had told him and Clark that she needed to take care of family business.
"I thought you couldn't see your family over the holidays." Clark said.
"Things have... changed. Father is calling all his children home for an emergency." Diana's eyes flickered over to where Sally was dancing with Tim and Dick had Percy standing on his toes.
"Does he know?" Bruce growled.
Bruce and Diana have talked in depth about Bruce's contingency plans regarding what would happen when the gods found out about Percy and Bruce only needed the word from Diana.
"I don't know." Diana sighed. "I have to go. I'll let you know if he suspects but I have been exiled and forbidden from interacting with them. This is highly unusual, even for Father."
"We'll keep Percy safe." Clark placed a hand on Bruce's shoulder.
Bruce watched as Dick picked Percy up and spun her around.
She hadn't been his Robin, but Bruce had taught her karate and krav maga. Bruce had taken her to ballet classes and had the biggest bouquet for her for her performances. He would proudly sit and listen to Percy practice her flute while she squeaked and clapped when she was done.
She wasn't his Robin, but she was his.
"I will find out what Father wants." Diana promised.
The gods didn't know about Percy, but Diana wouldn’t say why she was worried.
"Sea and Sky are fighting." Sally would say in the dark of their room after yet another natural disaster or plane crash or shipwreck occurred.
"Diana assures us he doesn't know about Percy." Bruce pulled Sally into his arms and enveloped her in his embrace and the blankets as if to shield her from her worries. "The kids are safe."
Clark was pushing himself to catch the planes before there were any deaths.
Arthur was doing his best in the oceans but he was one man and couldn't be everywhere at once.
Diana was absent more and more from League meetings to deal with whatever the gods were fighting about.
Tim came home from school and instead of doing his homework in the kitchen with Percy, went straight to the Batcomputer in the cave and started doing a background check on a teacher.
"What are you doing?" Bruce asked.
"Alexandra Dodds is our new algebra teacher. The other one had a mental breakdown and quit." Tim glared at the screen. "There is something off about her."
The search was too clean.
It set off alarms in Bruce's mind.
The spring semester parent-teacher conferences came and Bruce walked arm in arm with Sally into each and every class.
Latin, which Bruce was worried about but Percy apparently adored, was no surprise her best subject.
"Percy is a lovely girl and is wonderfully engaged in the material." Mr. Brunner, another too clean record, said.
"Percy and Tim speak very highly of you." Sally said, but Bruce could see the tenseness in her shoulders.
"I am flattered." Brunner said with a small smile.
"My husband knows. About Percy. About her father's world. You can speak plainly." Sally said.
Bruce felt his hackles rise and was mentally plotting how he would get away with an altercation with a man in a wheelchair. How could he morally fight a the man but also if the man posed a threat to Percy-
Well...
That was unexpected.
"Forgive me, but I must stretch my legs." Brunner was a horse from the waist down. A centaur. Percy's Latin teacher was a centaur. "Mister and missus Wayne, forgive the late introduction, but I am Chiron."
"Are you here for Percy?" Bruce became Batman.
"Yes, or rather, I'm here to check on her and see if she's ready for camp." Chiron said.
"She doesn't know about her father. She thinks it's all stories." Sally said.
"Be that as it may, Gotham can only hide her for so long. One of the satyrs found her and it was only by accident that he did. It's only a matter of time before others find her too." Chiron explained.
"Is that a threat?" Bruce growled.
"It is a fact. You will find I am not the only one here to keep an eye on Miss Percy." Chiron looked between Bruce and Sally before speaking again. "It is not often that someone like Percy has such a loving family, let alone acceptance from a step parent. She is very fortunate to have a father like you in her life."
Bruce was wired from that conference and it only got worse from there.
Algebra had been saved for last.
Alexandra Dodds had a Southern accent, a neatly trimmed bob of greying hair, and wore a leather jacket over her sweater vest and khakis.
She had nothing but good things to say about their daughter and hoped that Percy would one day go on to be a mathematician. She recommended Tim be tested so he could move to a level that best suited his intelligence.
She seemed... off.
Like she was trying too hard to look human and was coming off wrong.
In the car, Sally had taken Bruce's phone and called Diana.
"Hey Diana, what the fuck is going on and why is a Kindly One teaching my children algebra?" Sally went off.
Batman and Robin kept an eye on Dodds and Brunner but neither posed a threat so far to Percy.
Diana even came to speak with the Fury and only left with the assurance that she was only there to observe but that did nothing to settle Bruce and Sally’s fears.
Something happened on their field trip to the MET in New York.
Something happened and suddenly there were no more Dodds, only a new teacher named Kerr who, everyone but Tim and Percy, believed she was the teacher since December.
Tim had a theory that it was a mind control plot.
Percy felt like she was going insane.
Bruce and Sally could only hold her tight and assure her she was not losing her mind.
The end of the school year came and Alfred was unable to pick up the kids as he was picking up Sally at the airport after touring for her new book, Bruce was trapped in a board meeting, Dick was off in space with the Titans, which was why Percy and Tim were taking the bus to WE where they would be watched by his secretary until Bruce could take them home.
Tim had said someone had followed Percy on the bus and was freaked out about the bus breaking down and some ladies knitting socks.
When Bruce told Sally, she closed her eyes and sighed.
“I’m taking Percy to Montauk. I’m going to tell her about her father.” Sally said finally.
Bruce felt dread creep into his veins.
“Sally-”
“It’s time. She has to know why strange things are happening. She can’t keep thinking it’s one of the Rogues. Gotham cannot protect her forever; for heaven's sake Bruce, Chiron was in her school, a Kindly One was watching her, the Morai even found her. She has to know.” Sally looked as if she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.
“Do you want Alfred to drive you?” Bruce asked.
“No. You need Alfred to patch you up after patrol while I’m gone.” Sally teased.
“I am not that reckless. I have a beautiful wife to come home to.” Bruce flirted.
“Percy and I will only be gone for a weekend.” Sally promised.
“That’s a weekend too long.” Bruce leaned against the door, looming over Sally, and smirking when he saw her blush.
“We’ll be back before you know it.” Sally stood up on her tiptoes to kiss him.
Like a lovesick, devoted fool, Bruce caved to her.
Sally and Percy called when they got there to let him know they were safe and to wish him and Tim love and luck before they went out on patrol.
“Be safe, my loves.” Bruce said.
“Night dad, be safe!” Percy said before the call ended.
The patrol was quiet.
Too quiet.
It felt like the calm before the hurricane.
“Sir, there is a hurricane forming on the New York coast.” Alfred had said upon their return.
Bruce called and called.
Sally did not answer.
The next morning, he called the beach resort that had the cabin and the people said Sally and Percy were not there but it looked like they left in a hurry.
Then there was the report of a car accident, Sally’s car.
There was blood, but no bodies.
Sally and Percy were gone.
Bruce called the police in New York to report them missing.
He was told unless they were gone for twenty-four hours, there was nothing they could do.
“B, what are we going to do next?” Tim asked.
Bruce lost Jason.
He was not going to lose Sally or Percy next.
“We’re going to find them.”