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Jason had never actually expected to find himself understanding Dad so well. In hindsight, he wasn’t entirely sure how Dad had found any time to spend with him, between running a company and being Batman. Firehawk had a much smaller Haunt to patrol than Batman did, and he shared it with his wife, though she was doing even less heroics lately on account of, well...
“Catherine Joan Todd!” Ellie dove through the wall after their daughter, scooping the naked, sudsy toddler up with an attempt at a stern scowl. “What have we told you about running off during bathtime?”
Cathy giggled, her nascent core sparking with simple glee, and Jason met Ellie’s eyes with a wry smile. “She can feel you don’t mean it, Ellie.”
“You bathe her, then.” she huffed, holding their squirming daughter out to him. “I can finish doing the dishes.”
“Might want to get a shirt on first.” Jason grinned, tucking Cathy under one arm. “Not that I mind, of course.”
Ellie swatted him with a laugh, and zipped back through the wall towards their bedroom. Jason smiled after her for a moment, then entered the bathroom. The area around the tub was, as expected, utterly soaked. A toddler with halfa strength and coordination far outstripping human norms for her age was, unfortunately, an utter terror to wrangle. At least Danny had been able to ghost-proof the perimeter of their condo, so they didn’t have to worry about little Cathy drifting through an exterior wall, or the ceiling, or the floor. Still, the ghost-proofing stung, so Jason popped up a shield around them, as big as he could get without passing through the walls of the room.
“You’re a menace, you know that?” Jason teased, tickling his daughter as he set her back in the tub. His shirt was already damp from cleaning the pots and pans he’d used making dinner, so he didn’t bother stripping it off as he started rinsing suds from his daughter’s hair. Thankfully, her core wasn’t developed enough for anything but the most basic of ghostly powers to manifest, but she’d inherited her mother’s inhuman speed and coordination and that made it a challenge to get her to do anything.
She squirmed free, and a burst of sparkling speed took her out of the tub with a shriek of laughter. Facefirst into Jason’s shield. He’d been worried, the first time it happened, but Ellie had just laughed and bounced Cathy on her hip as she soothed their baby’s tears. Superspeed came with super-durability, at least while they were moving faster than humans could, so none of Cathy’s face-first collisions with walls had ever resulted in more than quickly-faded bruises. This time was no different, though her soft little face scrunched up and tears beaded in her pretty green eyes as frustration shimmered in the air around her like heat haze.
“You’re not getting out of bathtime that easy.” Jason tutted, scooping her up with telekinesis before she could find her feet again. “Almost done, and then we can get your favourite jammies on, how about that?” he soothed, running a hand through her hair.
She pouted, but didn’t fight as Jason finished rinsing her off and phased the water out of a towel so it would be useful in drying her. A bit of carefully applied heat even got her thick, curly hair all the way dry, and he kept her bundled in the towel as he stood. She was most of the way asleep already when he opened the bathroom door, and Ellie met them at the door to the nursery with Cathy’s favourite PJs in hand. Dick had been absolutely insufferable when she got old enough to have opinions and decided she wanted Nightwing themed stuff, but Jason couldn’t deny she was utterly adorable in the black and blue onesie.
“Here you go, baby.” Ellie whispered, tucking the Wonder Woman teddy bear into Cathy’s arms as Jason got the blanket settled over her. “Sweet dreams.” she brushed a kiss over Ellie’s temple, and Jason followed a moment later, wrapping both of them in safe family love as well as he could.
“You’re getting better at that.” Ellie whispered, as they slipped out of their daughter’s room and back towards the kitchen.
“Practice.” Jason shrugged, picking up the drying towel and warming it in his hand before starting on the glasses. “Spoiler’s supposed to be just outside the Alley tonight, if you want to patrol with her?”
“I meant it, when I said I was taking a break from the nightlife.” Ellie rolled her eyes.
“You’re getting twitchy.” Jason pointed out, handing her the glasses to put away and starting on plates. “Get out for a bit, go scare the shit out of some muggers, I’ll be here with Cathy.”
“Jay...”
“I know you weren’t raised in it like I was.” Jason sighed, handing over one plate and starting on the next. “And I agree we should keep Cathy out of the life as long as we can-”
“We should keep her out of it full stop.” Ellie grumbled.
“Would you rather she sneak out when we’re not looking, or tag along with one of us when she inevitably decides she wants to participate?” he asked rhetorically. “She’s coming from two hero families, best we can do is make sure she’s operating on our terms.”
“I hate it.” Ellie groaned, and Jason set both plate and towel down to fold her into a hug. “We were too young, I don’t want that for her.”
“She’s still little.” he murmured into Ellie’s hair, feeling the slow thud of her heart under his hand, the barely-perceptible sound of her core, like static snapping and the shush of waves on a sandy shore. “We’ll figure it out, won’t let her be hurt the way we were.”
“The way you were, you mean.” Ellie snorted, pulling away with a smile she almost meant. “I came out of a tube like this, you’re the one who died in the suit.”
“Well, we don’t have to worry about that with Cathy.” Jason rolled his eyes, rather than challenge Ellie on just how much she’d endured in her years as on-and-off teen hero. That was an argument they’d had more than once, and he didn’t feel like revisiting it tonight, though he should probably poke her to bring it up to her psychologist next time she went in.
“And thank the ancients for that.” Ellie sighed. It had been their single biggest worry, when they agreed that they were ready for a kid if one happened, that neither of them being fully living would have side effects. Cathy coming out a perfectly healthy halfa was the best-case scenario, even thought it meant she’d be seeing League-affiliated doctors her whole life. It did, however, also mean that she’d be much safer than her peers when she eventually found her way into the nightlife. It was damn hard to kill something already dead, after all.
“C’mon, let’s finish these dishes up and get to bed.” Jason stepped back, and Ellie chewed her lip for a moment, uncertainty fizzing against his ghost-sense before settling into the soft hum of confidence.
“Actually... I think I will go out tonight.”
“You know where my comms are.” he grinned, and turned back to the dishes. Ellie paused to give him a peck on the cheek on her way out, already shifted into her hero-costumed ghost form, and Jason couldn’t help but admire the sight yet again. Her starlight hair marshalled back in a braid, eyes a brilliant green, bangs pinned back with little bat clips, since her costume didn’t lend itself to the winged domino the rest of his family wore.
“Don’t wait up.”
“I might.” he admitted, and she rolled her eyes.
“Get your rest, dork.” she flicked him on the nose, and was out the window in a streak of ecto-green light.
A sleepy sound from the hall drew Jason’s attention a moment later, and he turned to see Cathy rubbing her eyes. “Sorry, baby. Did we wake you?” he scooped her up, and she rested her head on his shoulder. “Want a snack?” she nodded, and Jason pulled out a baggie of cheese cubes. Catchy was perfectly happy to eat those right out of the plastic as he finished putting the dishes away, and maybe he cheated a bit by density-shifting them through the last bits of water but he had a kid in one arm, it wasn’t like he could hold and dry them properly. Cathy grumbled a bit, as he tucked her in again, but Jason hadn’t even gotten through two lullabies before she was sound asleep again.
Even not being out and about, it was hard for Jason to wind down this early in the night. He cleaned a bit- how such a small kid could make such a big mess, he had no idea- before settling down on the couch with a book. He wouldn’t stay up too late, just until he got tired. If Ellie got home before then, well. Hardly his fault he was nocturnal.