Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

The Wayne Legacy: Origins

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 03:

After a day of hiking to the highest peak of Concord National Park, Thomas and Bruce relaxed at last, setting up their campsite midway back just off the trail about seven miles from the cabin they had rented. The two only had the essentials they were able to stuff in their backpacks: a tent, two sleeping bags, matches for a fire, energy bars and water bottles.

“You are carrying the tent down tomorrow.” Thomas grumped, causing Bruce to laugh. His Dad had lost a coin flip and was the one to carry the slightly oversized backpack up the long, elevating hike.

“No problem, Dad. Going down can’t be as hard as going up.”

Thomas shook his head and smiled. “You have no idea how right you are, Bruce. That is a sad fact of life too. But as you can see from the view we experienced, going up has its own rewards, despite the hardship.”

Bruce sat on his sleeping bag and looked up at the stars as they appeared in the darkening sky. “Hey, Dad?”

“Yes?”

“I was just making a comment about the pack being easier to take down, not looking for words of wisdom. Just thought you should know.”

Thomas laughed and tossed an empty water bottle at Bruce that bounced off the chuckling boy’s head.

The two sat in a comfortable silence, neither feeling the need to speak just for the sake of making noise.

This weekend was one of the father/son weekends reserved for the two of them while Martha and Diana did their own thing. In the past, they had stayed on Wayne property but this year, Thomas wanted to take them somewhere different, and it had worked out. The hikes and the scenery, the fresh air, it was just what both of them needed.

“I’ve decided I want to be a doctor.” Bruce suddenly said.

Thomas raised an eyebrow laying down on his sleeping bag, Bruce mirroring his actions, both taking in the stars above.

“That’s a pretty big decision. Pretty life altering. What kind of doctor would you want to be?”

Bruce hadn’t given this much thought, only knowing that he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and help people by healing them. He wanted to be like Dr. Eliza, fighting to save people using new drugs, fighting to keep his little sister alive every day.

“I’m not sure. I could be a general doctor like you. What is it called?”

“A general practitioner?”

“Yes! It’s like you get to help everybody and not specialize in one thing, right?” Bruce asked to be sure.

Thomas figured that would be one way of putting it. “It can be. But a general practitioner can’t do everything. I was a trauma surgeon in the Army. Surgery is different than being a family doctor. There is different knowledge, practice, training and a steady set of hands are needed. Even in surgery, there are different kinds of specialties. A general practitioner would not perform a surgery, nor would a heart surgeon perform surgery on the brain.”

Bruce knew some of this but assumed his father could do anything. “You said you did trauma surgery in the Army. What things did you perform surgery on?”

“Bullet holes mostly.” Thomas replied. “We tended to stay behind the lines but sometimes it wasn’t possible. Sometimes we had to go into battle to reach our patients. We made do with whatever we had to keep our patients alive until they could get to a real hospital. You became whatever kind of surgeon you had to be. I still wouldn’t perform open heart surgery or brain surgery out there.”

Thomas was pleased Bruce was thinking about what he wanted to do with his life, but he didn’t want him to exclude other options he might be happier doing. “Give it time, Bruce. You and Diana are only going to be twelve next week. You have six more years of school, four years of college and then if you haven’t changed your mind, you can start medical school. You may decide you want to be something completely different.”

Bruce was quiet, then began tracing constellations with his finger while his father did the same. It was something they did when alone in nature, competing to see who could find the most quickly, then begin to trace their own and make up names and stories for their newly discovered constellations.

Bruce won again, as he often did because he had a greater imagination than his father.

“Do you miss being a doctor?” Bruce asked in a quiet moment.

“Every day, son, but your little sister keeps me on my toes.” Thomas told him honestly. “Still, I don’t regret taking over Wayne Enterprises. Our company, our family’s legacy, allows me to help more people than being a doctor did.

“What I’m saying is there are many ways to make a difference in this world, Bruce. Wayne Enterprises can have just as important an effect on people as a doctor can. You be what you want to be. I’ll hold the fort down. Who knows? You might just make a good sailor with all these made up constellations you come up with.”

Bruce laughed, thinking of his experience sailing thus far in his life and his lack of skills in the area. Diana was the one who could handle a sailboat as if it were second nature to her.

Thomas had almost dozed off, worn out by the hike that day when Bruce spoke again. “Dad?”

“Yes, son?”

“Did you have to kill people when you were in the Army?”

Thomas’s drowsiness was gone now. He rolled over on his side to see Bruce still staring at the sky.

Carefully considering his words but still wanting to be truthful, he replied, “Son, a doctor takes an oath to do no harm. In my experience, most doctors stayed behind the lines. There were times though, that our medics were not enough, or they had been injured themselves. In those times… I suppose you could say there are no such things as noncombatants in a war zone.

“So, yes, I had to kill people to save others. It is something that will haunt me for all my life but something I would do again if put into that situation.”

“Like when you saved Alfred and later saved Major Sam?” Bruce asked, identifying the two men he knew with what his father was telling him.

Thomas huffed. “Make sure you call him General Sam now. The more stars he carries the bigger his head has gotten. By the way, he’s coming to your birthday party next week so feel free to let him know I said that.”

To answer Bruce’s question though, Thomas thought back, remember each of those moments vividly. “Yes, those were separate situations, but both required me to go into the field because our medics were dying. I picked up a gun and a medical bag and did what I had to do, to save those I could.”

Bruce turned on his side to face his father. “I don’t want to join the army. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Do you think that makes me less of a man?”

“No!” Thomas answered quickly. “You are not less of a man for not wanting to join the military. You are not less of a man for never wanting to hurt anyone. If anything it makes you more of a man. It means your heart is pure.

“We each walk our own path, Bruce. Your path won’t be the same as my path, or your sister’s. It won’t be the same as Dr. Eliza’s path. Our lives twist and turn, take us in directions we never thought we would go, but staying true to yourself is the way to ensure you follow your own path. Hell, son, I don’t want you anywhere near a gun, ever. I damn sure don’t want anyone shooting at you. My dad didn’t want me in the military.”

Bruce was surprised by that. His grandfather on his father’s side had died two years before he was born so he had never learned much about the man. “If he didn’t want you to, why did you?”

Thomas lay on his back once again and smiled. “Because I had to follow my own path and it wasn’t the same as his, no matter how much he wanted it to be. Be true to yourself, Bruce. Hold on to that heart that only wants to heal others peacefully. People like you are sorely needed in this world. You are like your mother, so strong and never hurt a soul, intentionally or otherwise. That is a thing to be cherished.”

Bruce lay on his back as well and closed his eyes, thinking on his father’s words while resisting the pull to sleep. Could it really be that easy? He wouldn’t have to join the military to be a hero like his father. Bruce wasn’t afraid to fight, he just didn’t feel the need.

He could feel the restrained aggression in his twin sister at times. He knew between the two of them, he was more like his mother and she was more like his father. He had no doubt she would love nothing better than to save a village by destroying an army with her bare hands. Bruce just didn’t have that fire for physical confrontation.

Life could be good. Diana could worry about the company and work with their father as she had said she wants to do, and Bruce could do the only thing he could imagine doing. Healing people and giving hope to those who had none.

The next morning, the father and son were up and making the trek down to the cabin they had rented. Bruce stumbled a few times, figuring out that walking downhill with an unbalanced, heavy backpack could be just as challenging as walking uphill.

Thomas checked his phone a few times during the walk down and appeared satisfied. That meant Kara was okay. Neither Diana nor Martha wanted to leave Kara behind, but Eliza and Alfred insisted that she would be okay.

“Kara doing okay?” Bruce asked, knowing she was.

Thomas gave him a strained smile. “Yeah, she is doing good… her TV broke.”

Bruce shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t sure of the number of TVs in the manor but there were plenty. “So? Alfred can’t get her another?”

Thomas should have been proud, but his face reflected only worry. “By the time Alfred came back with one, she had already taken hers apart, fixed it and put it back together again. It works perfectly now.”

The boy shook his head. Kara could be more mysterious than Diana sometimes in regard to ability. Bruce could understand his Dad’s worry. “I don’t get it. She insists on wearing that worn out, creepy bunny costume all the time, she can’t put her shoes on the right feet, and she has trouble tying them. So how does she do all the stuff that she does?”

Thomas had no idea. A few months ago, while Diana and Bruce were at school and he and Martha had a day off together at home, the couple thought Kara was lost. They could not find her anywhere. Usually when she hid, Diana was somehow able to feel where she was, but Diana wasn’t there.

They finally checked the garage and heard her mumbling to herself. She was under a car, looking around the engine block from underneath. Once they pulled her out, Kara began to give a rudimentary rundown of how the car worked.

She had taken apart laptops and put them together again, and she had nearly shocked herself taking a toaster apart with a screw driver. It had gotten to the point that they had to lock all tools in high shelves. If there was a screwdriver around, Kara would take something apart or build something new with whatever was around.

She was fascinated by airplanes and helicopters and even used parts of old remote control cars Bruce had long ago discarded to make a Transformer™ type of robot.

“It doesn’t matter.” His dad replied, still concerned. “I’m just glad she is okay, though one day she is going to forget to unplug something when no one is around. I keep telling her not to take things apart and she promises not to but it’s like she can’t help herself.

“Anyway, it’s fine. I’m sure your sister and mother are having fun and we have fly fishing this morning. You may have beat me on made up constellations, but no way will you ever beat your old man at catching trout.”

Bruce shook his head, laughing and followed his dad. Here it was just the two of them. He missed Mom, Diana, Alfred and even Kara’s quirky presence but he cherished these times alone with just Dad. Although he would never admit it, at times Bruce felt overshadowed. His parents did their best to make sure he wasn’t but even they could only do so much.

Bruce wasn’t Diana. He didn’t have incredible strength and speed, a mysterious origin story, or the confidence she always exhibited. Diana was fearless while Bruce, at times, felt afraid of everything. He could never help feeling inferior to her.

Bruce also wasn’t Kara. He wasn’t bright and peppy, the definition of sunshine. He didn’t have her carefree smile nor her uncanny affinity, even at four-years-old, for mechanics of all kinds. Despite this, he didn’t envy Kara. The girl spent most of her life in isolation at the manor, sometimes literally in an isolation room in the basement. She took treatments that made her sick to prevent her from getting deathly ill or even dying. How she managed to stay positive he would never understand.

She also required a lot of attention from his parents and Diana. As much attention as Bruce would like to give her, he had trouble connecting with her.

Kara stayed glued to Diana when their parents weren’t around. He tried to play with her, but he didn’t understand how a four-year-old girl would play, not like Diana did. He wasn’t mechanically inclined and wasn’t sure if he had been, whether he would encourage her in something that seemed so unnatural. When his sister and parents were in the room, all their attention shifted to Kara.

Bruce was just… Bruce. He didn’t want to be Diana, having seen her struggles with fitting in due to her strength, nor did he want to be Kara with a proverbial hammer ready to drop on her since she was born… the abandoned baby who fought against the odds to survive every day.

Bruce was in between the two, the normal one. Diana and Kara were at opposite ends of a straight line and Bruce was in the middle. In his mind though, he and Diana had always been a team… them against the world, but when Kara entered the picture, things had shifted.

Diana was attached to Kara in a way that Bruce didn’t understand and was somewhat jealous of. He loved his little sister, there was no question about that. But she and Diana had an extreme bond that he suspected had to do with whatever it was that made Diana different. The strong looked out for the weak, the weak relied on the strong and Bruce was neither strong nor weak.

Bruce shook himself out of his thoughts. He was here with his dad, his best friend in the world. In a week, they would all celebrate their birthday, but this weekend was his.

They arrived home late Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning was here before Bruce had recovered from his trip. Not only did they have to go to school today, after skipping Monday, but this afternoon was the first girls lacrosse game of the season.

Bruce had played sports since he could walk. Whether it was flag football or Little League baseball or soccer, if there was a sport that Bruce was interested in, Martha and Thomas Wayne were at every game. Thomas even reschedule a meeting in Paris once so he wouldn’t have to miss Bruce’s baseball team’s championship game when he was eight. Bruce was no stranger to lacrosse.

Diana, however, had never played organized sports. Her skills were not the issue. She was talented, athletic and coordinated enough. The issue was she was too fast, too agile and too strong. She couldn’t be beat.

But she wanted to play, so Bruce had worked with her knowing she would have to hold back. The problem was Bruce knew holding back wasn’t in her nature so he asked why she would want to bother playing a sport in which she could obviously destroy everyone.

Her answer was ‘because it was what people would expect her to do’. Her reasoning was, that by hiding, you drew more attention to yourself so Diana would play the part of a normal, super rich, young girl.

That meant Bruce had to work a lot with her. Many lacrosse sticks, along with broken nets, were sacrificed to the cause.

So it was that Bruce found himself watching Diana fake her way through stretching and chatting with her friend, Silver, when someone patted Bruce on the shoulder.

“Rachel! This is your first game, right?” he asked, knowing the answer. Rachel was the daughter of one of the full time staff at the manor. He and Diana had known her their whole lives. She and his twin were close enough so that Diana threw a fit on her first day of school when she realized Rachel would not be attending with her.

From that point on, Thomas Wayne made sure Rachel Dawes attended Gotham Prep. Rachel usually did what Diana did. Because Diana never played sports to this point, Rachel hadn’t.

This year though, Diana decided to play so she easily talked Rachel into it. Bruce suspected Rachel was more excited than she let on.

“Yeah… Diana is excited. I’m not sure how good I will be. I’m not the best in practice. I’ll probably be on the bench a lot but I’m good with that.” Rachel said excitedly. “Diana is really good.”

Bruce managed not to roll her eyes. “Yeah, I’ve been pointing out to her that sometimes she needs to not take over, slow down the pace of the game and include her teammates more. She never seems to take my advice. You just relax and have fun.”

“So, you are going to be here the whole game, right?” Rachel asked shyly. She always had been quieter when it was just the two of them.

“Yep, Kara has had some really good days, so Mom and Dad actually brought her out.” Bruce said proudly, nodding to where his parents sat with Kara on their father’s shoulder, already cheering even though the game wasn’t being played yet. Bruce felt a warm happiness seeing the glee on her face. She didn’t get out much and when she did, it was on the manor’s grounds. Today she was out of the manor around a large group of people and kids playing. It must have seemed surreal to her.

Rachel smiled, seeing the youngster having fun. Looking back toward the field, she said, “I should go stretch I guess. I’ll see you…”

“Hey, you are Bruce Wayne, right?” a young female voice asked him.

Bruce and Rachel saw a girl in a Gotham Academy jersey approaching. She was pretty, blonde and preppy. He had no idea who she was but was not surprised she knew him. Being known was not unusual for the Wayne kids.

“Yeah, I’m Bruce. Have we met?”

Instead of answering, the girl focused on Rachel. “Aren’t you Diana Wayne’s maid?”

Rachel and Bruce’s eyes widened at the audacity of the girl.

Rachel wasn’t sure what to say, but Bruce knew she wouldn’t have to respond. If he didn’t step in, blood would be spilled. He turned quickly, and cringed, seeing Diana walking toward them with a murderous look on her face and Silver on her tail.

“You need to leave, right now.” Bruce told the ill-mannered blonde. “I don’t know what your deal is, but you are about to have a huge problem. Go!”

The girl seemed amused by his reaction. “I just wanted to know where I can get a maid.”

Turning to Rachel, she rudely asked, “Your mom is a maid at Wayne Manor, right? Do they pay you to go to school with Diana or is cleaning up after her part of your mom’s contract?”

Bruce did not lay hands on people he didn’t know, even a gentle shove. He considered it rude. However, he needed to get this churlish girl out of here. He made to grab her elbow but was too late.

Diana was between him and Rachel and the offensive child.

“Well, if it isn’t Diana Wayne. I’m…”

“Dead.” Diana finished for her, stepping closer and looking down at the slightly shorter girl.

“Excuse me? Are you threatening me?” The girl asked pretending to be shocked, but Bruce detected the sarcasm in her voice.

“I don’t threaten.” Diana replied and Bruce could see Diana was coiled. She was taking slow, deep breaths, the kind she took when she was holding back her anger.

“Diana, calm down.” Bruce told her. “She isn’t worth it.”

Bruce was unsurprised to find his attempt to get between the two girls thwarted. Diana was having none of it. Rachel was attempting to calm her down. Other girls from both teams were coming to the little showdown on the sidelines, to watch the entertainment or simply find out what was going on.

“Rachel goes to our school because she is smarter than anyone there. She is smarter than me and she is certainly smarter than you. Did you get the idea that by antagonizing my friend, it would give you some sort of edge in the game?” Diana asked her quietly, her eyes flashing.

The blonde stepped back from Diana only slightly. “This is the first time I’ve seen the high and mighty Diana Wayne on a field. Aren’t you afraid you will get dirty?”

Diana’s smile would frighten a smarter person, unfortunately, this girl was missing a few brain cells.

“I won’t be the one who ends the game with my face in the dirt.” Diana told her, moving right back into the girl’s personal space.

Bruce stepped in forcefully this time, pushing the rude girl back and facing his angry sister. “Diana! Let. It. Go.”

“Not until she apologizes to Rachel.” Diana said, her eyes still on the girl.

“It isn’t worth it! Blending in.” Bruce whispered. “She isn’t worth your time. Let it go.”

Diana blinked and looked at her brother then backed away, taking Rachel with her.

Bruce had thought the crisis adverted until the damn girl had to open her mouth. “Is that your little sister? I thought bubble babies had to stay in bubbles?”

Bruce felt sick, angry at the girl and felt dread at what Diana was going to do. Whoever this offensive blonde girl was, she had just made the worst mistake in her short life.

Bruce should have been happy when Diana continued to walk to the sidelines where the coach was gathering the team.

He wasn’t though.

Picking on Rachel was one thing. Saying what she did about Kara? Knowing Diana heard her? The girl would be lucky to survive the match in one piece… but he knew she wouldn’t. He saw Diana whispering into Silver’s ear and knew this was going to go bad in a gruesome manner.

He wasn’t wrong.

Bruce watched the game with a happy Kara on his shoulders so his Dad could stand and cheer with his mom, but he knew something was coming.

The entire game, Silver guarded the rude brat while Diana scored with abandon. If she wasn’t making impressive shots, she was setting up her teammates for them. All in all, she was doing a great job, just as they had worked on.

And then it happened.

Silver bumped the rude brat slightly into the path of Diana who was running the opposite direction.

The child may as well have hit a brick truck when she stumbled into Diana. She hit the ground hard, her face covered in blood which was pouring from her nose. Rather than helping, Diana stood over her, looking dispassionately at her crying form.

Bruce handed Kara to his mother then ran out onto the field beside his father along with the coaches from both teams.

The girl was curled on the ground, holding her nose and Diana knelt by her.

“I told you that this would end with your face in the dirt.” He heard Diana whisper to the crying girl when he reached them. She stood and looked at Bruce, winked then walked back to her position on the field waiting for the game to continue.

No one spoke of the accident on the way home. Thomas and Martha even assured Diana that it was not her fault. After all, if Silver hadn’t bumped the girl into Diana’s path, she wouldn’t have been injured at all.

Bruce knew better and glared at a smug Diana the entire way home, then followed her up to her room.

Diana closed the door behind him and sat on her bed.

“Let’s do this.” She told him. “Tell me I shouldn’t have done it, I’ll say I don’t care, you can say you are disappointed in me, I’ll say I don’t care, then we can all go to bed and begin a new day.”

“Dad said her nose was crushed.” Bruce exclaimed. “You couldn’t have just tripped her?”

He didn’t miss the look of disappointment on Diana’s face. “Silver forcing her into me as I was running would cause the maximum amount of harm while minimizing my involvement and make it appear as an accident. Silver stood with me. She is loyal and knew what was required.”

“You probably disfigured her, Diana, and for what? Because she was some spoiled brat who talked trash about your friend to get under your skin?” He asked, gutted that she didn’t seem the least bit sorry.

“Rachel is your friend too, Bruce. You should have been in her face before I got there. Then she belittled Kara and you stood there! And you are questioning me? What is wrong with you? Silver St. Cloud showed more loyalty to our friend and sister than you did.” Diana said heatedly.

“You took it too far, Diana!” Bruce told her.

“And once again, you refused to take it anywhere. ‘It’s not worth it.’ you said. That’s a loser’s mentality, Bruce. You aren’t a loser so why are you acting like this? You knew I wouldn’t let this stand! I can’t believe you wanted me to walk away!”

“Because I knew you would take it too far, Dee!” Bruce retorted. “You always do! Rachel can handle a couple mean girls trying to get under her skin and yours.”

“Maybe, but her fatal mistake was bringing Kara into it. She deserved what she got.” Diana argued, her eyes flashing in anger. “You also knew I was going to hurt her, and you did nothing to stop me. You know how I know this? Because you said nothing to Mom and Dad to warn them and you didn’t tell them I did it on purpose. If you told them, they would ground me, probably never let me play a sport again. But you haven’t.”

Bruce closed his eyes. She was right of course. He could have warned his Dad, gotten Diana off the field. He could have told his parents that they needed to have a talk with her.

He did none of those things.

“I know.” Bruce admitted, hanging his head.

Diana smiled at him, the anger leaving her at his admittance.

“Do you know why you didn’t, Bruce? Because you knew she deserved it and you didn’t want to do what had to be done, so you sat back and washed your hands of it. You let me do it, Bruce, and you are glad I did.”

Diana stood from the bed and hugged her brother. “You understand, Bruce. We are the same. If anyone harms us in words or actions, we protect each other. If I had not been there, it would have fallen to you to protect Rachel. To protect our sister. You can’t always let me be the one to take action. Were you not angry?”

Bruce nodded. “Yes, I was, but I was more worried about you losing it, Diana. You have too much of a spotlight on you. Tonight may have looked like an accident but… it just can’t happen again. We have to be smarter. Do you understand?”

Diana pulled away from Bruce and smiled sweetly at him. “You are right. I was rash. I should have asked Dad to buy the school and close it down so she would have to go to public school. Or maybe buy the bank that holds her parent’s mortgage or… no, that won’t work.

“I don’t want to rely on Dad. Until we control Wayne Enterprises, I’m afraid having Silver run girls into me is the only way we have to counterattack.”

Bruce pushed her away. “You mean when you run, Wayne Enterprises. I’m going to be a doctor. One of us has to repair the bodies you send to the hospital.”

“Get out of here. I need to call Rachel. She was upset when we left.” Diana softened as she always did around her brother. “It’s okay, Bruce. Somebody tried to hurt us, and we handled it. If it weren’t for you, I would have put my fist through her face in front of everyone, so thank you. I needed you tonight and you were there for me.”

Bruce left the room, not sure what just happened with that conversation then deciding not to think too much of it.

He walked next door to Kara’s room and walked in without knocking. Instead of lying down, the blonde was jumping on her bed with her arms in the air and hair flying everywhere.

“Bunny!” he whispered, smiling at the surprised look on her face.

“I didn’t do it.” Kara immediately told him.

“Nobody said you did anything, Bunny.”

“Don’t call me that. I’m Kara.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow. “Since when?”

“Since today. I don’t want to be called Bunny anymore.” The little girl replied sincerely.

The older brother chuckled. “I didn’t want to have to call you ‘Bunny’, but I did it anyway. Every day since last Easter, I’ve had to watch you wear that creepy costume almost every day insisting we call you ‘Bunny’. Guess what? Bunny is your name. Mom and Dad can call you what you want. You are always going to be my Bunny.

“Now, did you have fun?”

Kara nodded quickly. “I had a lot of fun! There were so many people and kids were playing and Mommy let me have some nachos, but I didn’t eat the jalapenos. What happened to that girl who got an ouchy? She ran into Didi. Is Didi hurt?”

“No, Didi is fine.” Bruce replied, also using the nickname ‘DeeDee’ that Kara had given her sister when she was barely a year old. “Don’t worry about the girl that ran into her. Nothing happened that years of cosmetic surgery can’t fix.

“Didn’t Mom already tuck you in?”

Kara nodded. “I wasn’t finished jumping yet though.”

“Are you finished now?” he asked.

Kara nodded again.

Bruce pointed to the bed and Kara grumbled but laid down and let Bruce tuck her in once again. He kissed her on the forehead and sat in a chair in the corner of the room to make sure she didn’t start hopping again. After a few minutes, he heard her breathing even out so he left the room.

Before he entered his room, his father caught him in the hallway. “Bunny in bed?”

“She was sleeping when I left. I stayed behind to make sure she didn’t begin jumping on the bed again. She was really excited about today.” Bruce replied.

“Good man.” Thomas told him, patting him on the shoulder and walking him to his bedroom. “Hell of a thing tonight, that accident. Poor girl. I was worried about Diana running into someone. I never thought someone might be pushed into her. Freak accident, huh?”

Bruce could sense the underlying tone in his Dad’s words. He wanted to think it was an accident. He wanted Bruce to tell him there had been nothing to it. He wanted to forget that he saw Diana and the girl in question having a heated discussion before the game.

Bruce thought it ironic that even if he told his Dad the truth, it wouldn’t matter. If he knew what Diana had done and why she had done it, he probably would have felt like Bruce. Properly shocked but secretly glad she did it. Thomas Wayne was a forgiving and gracious man, until someone talked about his family. He would have his revenge and Diana was just like him.

“Yeah. It was just an accident, Dad. I’ll talk to Diana about watching for other players who might stumble into her path. I just talked to her and I think she is still a bit shaken up.”

“It’s not her fault.” Thomas replied, brow furrowing in concern.

Bruce nodded. “That’s exactly what I told her. She’ll be fine in the morning.”

Thomas looked pleased. “Good job, son. I’ll see you in the morning. I love you.”

“Good night, Dad. I love you, too.”