(Batman fic) Sing, chapter 26
Previous chapters & Speak: speak_sing
Jack woke up with a horrible crick in his back, Rory laying across his legs and purring with delight that he’d gotten Jack into such an uncomfortable position (an assumption on the human’s part, but probably true), and Rachel’s hand covering his face. She was still asleep and he took a moment to kiss her palm before easing into a sitting position. He’d let Bruce and Charles stay in their room with the firm admonition to stay out of the bondage gear, much to their mutual disgust, and getting under Bruce’s skin had made him feel better. Helna, afraid to stay home by herself, had been put in Ava’s room along with Mitzi, and Dick was sleeping on the love seat.
He hated them for being in his personal space. He hated all of them, and had to run to the kitchen to throw up in the sink before he could think through the sudden red haze across his vision. Rory followed him and curled around his feet in the hopes of either getting food or tripping him. The cat was still purring as Jack rinsed his mouth out and then grabbed some orange juice to get rid of the taste of bile.
“Shut up,” he muttered before stumbling back to the living room. He had to blink a few times before he jumped a little and stepped back. “Damn it, Susie, why are you hiding there?”
All he’d seen over the edge of the couch were her big blue eyes, the rest of her covered in a blanket. She winced and he heard her sniffle. “Are you still sick, Daddy?”
He shushed her as he peeked at Rachel and then picked her up, taking her into the kitchen and sitting at the table. “I’m . . . yeah. I am. I’m sorry I snapped at you, tootsie roll.”
“I’m sorry I scared you, Daddy.”
He sighed and wiped at his eyes. “Why are you calling me Daddy?”
She was pouting, her lower lip pushed out and quivering a bit. “Rachel said I could, because you’re my Daddy now that Mommy’s gone.”
Oh. Yeah. That. Jack smiled out of reflex when the child felt his forehead and cheeks with the backs of her hands, hm-ing to herself. She didn’t know how to feel for a fever but she was trying, and her small hands felt good, cool against his skin.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. Can I have cereal?”
“If we have any.” Jack honestly couldn’t remember if they had food in the house, or if they had enough. He got up, settling Susie on his hip, and went to the cupboard to check. “Frosted Flakes, yum. Or . . . What is this? Whole grain . . . crap. We want Frosted Flakes, don’t we?”
Susie giggled. “That’s a bad word, Daddy.”
“I know.” He pulled the box out and set it on the counter, then opened the fridge and looked in. “Just soymilk. That woman’s trying to kill me.”
“Rachel says that milk is bad for you, that all the protein sucks up all the good stuff. She says it’s supposed to make a baby cow into a big fat cow, and ---”
“Rachel sure thinks she knows a lot, doesn’t she?” Jack mused.
“She knows a bunch!” Susie was nodding enthusiastically. “She’s smarter than you are, Daddy.”
That made the man laugh. “Yeah, I suppose she is. But she doesn’t know how to blow stuff up like I do. So she doesn’t know everything.”
Susie thought about that as she watched Jack pour the cereal into two bowls, followed by the soymilk. “Well . . . That’s why she’s the boss of you. She has you to know stuff she doesn’t need to know.”
“Really? That makes sense.” He took the bowls, adding spoons, to the table and sat down again. “But who am I the boss of?”
She shrugged. “No one.”
He laughed again. “No one? Not even you? I thought Daddies were the bosses of their kids.”
“Well . . . Maybe you’re the boss of me, but Rachel’s the boss of you, so really Rachel’s the boss of me. I don’t have to do what you say if Rachel says I don’t.” She munched contentedly on her cereal.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Well.” She had a point, but he ignored it in favour of his own cereal. He brought his spoon down on Susie’s when she tried to dip it into his bowl. “Hey, you’ve got your own.”
“But you say food tastes better when you steal it from someone else.” Susie tried again, and again he fended her off. “Remember? When you take my food, that’s what you say.”
“But I’m bigger, so I can fight you off.”
She didn’t like that, glaring up at him. “That’s not fair!”
“Life’s not fair, Susie.” Jack kissed her nose and let her eat his cereal. “Does it taste better?”
“World peace has been achieved!” was her declaration.
Jack laughed as he picked her up, stood, and set her back down. “Great. Keep eating, peaches. I’m going to check on Rachel.” He got a chirpy acknowledgement and went back to the living room, kneeling next to Rachel and brushing some hair out of her face before kissing her cheek. He wanted to wake her up with licks and kisses all over her body, take her into the bath where she’d be most comfortable and make love with her, wash away everything he’d done, all the promises he’d broken, but she needed to rest. All he let himself do was kiss down her neck, pulling down the tank top of his that she was wearing to place gentle kisses over the swell of her breast. She sighed and twisted a little.
“Jack, what are you doing?”
“Kissing you?” he guessed.
Her fingers tugged gently at his hair. “Jack, we have guests over. Dick’s right there.”
They were both whispering. “So, be quiet.” He flicked his tongue over her nipple and then held it there, making a slightly surprised face. “What the . . .” Rachel squeaked when he started sucking gently at her breast; he’d teased her about having beer-flavoured nipples, but this was different. This was . . . sweet. Almost like honey. He liked it.
She tugged at his hair, harder, trying to pull him away. “Jack, stop. Knock it off. Ohhhhh . . .”
“I thought breast milk started after birth,” he murmured briefly.
“It does,” Rachel panted. She pinched his cheek, but he wasn’t about to leave her alone. “Stop it, Jack, I’m serious.”
“What is this, then? Practice milk?”
“Colostrum, and yes, essentially.” Now she was pushing at his shoulders before pulling him against her again, which made Jack chuckle.
“What are you doing, Jack?” Susie wanted to know from the other side of the couch.
He stopped and rolled his eyes up to meet her curious blue ones, then slowly let Rachel’s nipple go and covered her breast again as Rachel groaned in embarrassment. “Uh . . .”
The girl tilted her head at him, resting her chin on her hands. “I thought only babies drank milk from their mommies.”
“Uh . . . I’m just, uhm . . . making sure it’s working.” Jack nodded quickly and patted Rachel’s breast. “Yep, all working, ready for Ava when she’s born.”
“Does it taste good? Can I taste it?”
His wife had pulled her blanket over her head, shaking with laughter and leaving Jack all alone. He chewed his lower lip as he tried to think. “Uh . . . It tastes . . . Uhm . . . No, no, you can’t taste it, Susie, and it tastes like, uhm, kinda like honey.”
“Jack!” was the muffled protest from the blanket and pillow that covered Rachel’s head.
“Well, it does,” he defended himself, rubbing her stomach. “Susie, wanna make Rachel some breakfast? I bet she and Ava would like that. Why don’t you get some potatoes out and start washing them off, okay? I need to, uhm, sit here for a bit. Go. Now.” The kid didn’t look like she trusted his intentions, but turned and tromped back to the kitchen. Jack leaned down and picked up the edge of the pillow to glare at Rachel’s sniggering face. “You could have helped me out, there.”
“Why?” she giggled. She was still blushing. “You deserved that, Jack. You’re lucky she didn’t walk in on anything else.”
“Aren’t we all?” the loveseat muttered. Jack pulled back to glare at Dick as he sat up, almost as red as Rachel was.
“Look, kid, get out of my house if you don’t like it. I’ll get it on wherever I want to, you hear me?”
“Stop it,” Rachel told him firmly. He looked down a her and softened, tugging the pillow and blanket off of her to cover his face with kisses as she laughed and held him tightly. “I love you, Jack. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Get a better life,” he muttered, but helped her sit up and leaned into her embrace. They’d be pissed that their ploy with Tom hadn’t worked, try something more drastic. Jack was torn between needing to act as soon as possible and wanting to stay as long as possible. He hated indecision. It made him weak, vulnerable.
“Jack, how many potatoes should I wash?”
“The whole bag,” he called back. “I have to feed half of Gotham today.”
“Right, and how much money do you put toward food in this house?” Rachel wanted to know.
Jack stopped complaining. “You just sit here while we cook. Can Douche --- I’m sorry, can Bruce cook? I know Charles can. Dick, can you cook? You all might as well earn your keep. Go help Susie. Susie, show Wonder Boy here where the recipes are.”
“Boy Wonder,” Dick muttered as he got up. He was staring past Jack as the man stood, his cheeks flushing again.
Jack turned his head and tilted it at Janet, who stood in the doorway in her knee-length nightgown, her arms crossed over her chest. He looked back at Dick, then rolled his eyes and coughed when Janet didn’t move out of his way. She jumped and stepped to the side, blushing.
“You help cook, too,” he ordered her. “Or help Rachel. Whatever she needs you to do.”
He laughed quietly as Dick fell over himself to help Janet, wanting to know what she and Rachel wanted for breakfast, if they were warm enough, and generally making a fool of himself. Up the stairs Jack tip-toed, to be met at the top by his Mitzi-girl-thing, who was pushing at the child fence or whatever it was that was keeping her from tumbling down the stairs.
“Ja-Ja!” she squealed, holding her arms up. “Goo’ mo’ning!”
“Good morning, baby-doll,” he told her, stepping over the fence and then picking her up. “Is Mama still asleep?”
“Sleep,” the toddler confirmed, kissing his nose. He scrunched it at her and then kicked at his door.
“Get up,” he ordered. “Get useful. Dick’s fawning over Janet, so I need you two to cook breakfast.”
“Cook your own breakfast,” Bruce muttered.
“I’m only nice to you because your parents are dead,” Jack told him. “It’s just pity. Now get out and get busy.”
“Fuck you.”
“Hey, no swearing while my Mitzi-thing’s around.”
“We’re up,” Charles snapped. “Go away.”
Jack grinned at Mitzi as he turned to Ava’s room. “That’s how you tell ‘em,” he said.
“Tell ‘em!”
“That’s right.” He peeked in and Helna was still asleep, tossing a little. “Can you stay with Mama until breakfast is done?”
The girl-child didn’t understand everything he’d said and she got a very thoughtful look on her face before shaking her head slowly. “No . . .”
“No, huh? Okay, then.” Jack stepped over the fence and went back down the stairs to the kitchen. “Janet, put some clothes on.” She and Dick looked up guiltily and then she slid past Jack to her room. “Susie, keep your clothes on. No, Mitzi, you keep yours on, too. Christ, I live with a bunch of nudists . . .”
“Hello, pot?” Rachel called. “This is the kettle!”
“You don’t wander around naked unless I tell you to; be quiet and rest,” he ordered. She guffawed.
“Daddy, are we still going out tomorrow?” Susie asked. She was very carefully mixing batter, the tip of her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth.
“Tomorrow?”
“For Halloween! Please?”
Jack sighed and bounced Mitzi on his hip as he gave her his knuckle to suck on. She started chewing, and he winced a little at her sharp teeth. He’d forgotten about Halloween. Crap. “Uh, yeah, pumpkin, we are.”
Her eyes got wide. “We need pumpkins! We don’t have any pumpkins, Daddy!”
“Charles bought some yesterday,” Janet said as she came out in a grey peasant blouse and a loose jean skirt. Wonder Boy was staring at her again and Jack glared. He looked away as soon as Janet looked his way.
Susie relaxed. “Charles thinks of everything!”
“That’s what she’s good for,” Jack mused as the genius in question tromped down the stairs with Bruce on her heels. “You didn’t make a mess in my room, did you?”
“We have respect for other people’s property and common decency,” the other man growled.
Jack rolled his eyes. “You wouldn’t have known a thing if I hadn’t told you, so shut up.”
“He’s got a point,” Charles said, “and both of you shut up. I’m not in the mood to deal with your issues today.”
“I’m going to be a kitty for Halloween,” Susie told Dick earnestly as he sat to cut up the potatoes she’d washed. “Daddy said he’ll dye my hair so I can look like Rory.”
Said demon slithered into the room and mrowled at the door, his pale blue eyes wide as he looked around. Jack leaned down and picked him up, slinging him over his shoulder as the cat purred.
“You’re nicer than Rory is,” he told Susie. Rory pulled himself onto Jack’s shoulders, curling around them and digging his claws in to keep his balance. The pain didn’t even register.
Mitzi touching his chest did, however. “Owwy?” she asked him. “Ja-Ja, owwy better?”
Crap, his cuts. She’d been worried about them the previous night, too, during their bath. Jack nodded quickly. “I’m fine, baby. I’m fine. Be nice, okay? Pet Rory gently.”
“Nice,” she repeated as she very carefully pet the cat. “Gentle.”
“That’s right, minion. Gentle. Good girl.”
“Aren’t you helping?” Bruce asked as Jack walked to the living room.
“Of course I am; I’m keeping Mitzi occupied and making sure Rachel’s all right.” He sat next to her and Rory walked onto the back of the couch, curling up there and watching him. “You all right, beautiful?”
“I’m fine,” she assured him, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m starving.”
“Breakfast’ll be done soon. When do the cops want to talk with me?”
Rachel blinked up at him, her blue eyes shadowed. “Today or tomorrow. I told them you need some time.”
Jack closed his eyes. “Have them get a hold of Gordon. I gave him everything I know about . . . well, you know.”
Rachel sighed. “Jack, you told Jim, but wouldn’t tell the FBI?”
“I don’t trust the Feds,” he shrugged. “I trust Commissioner Awesome. He’s good people.”
“I’ll let them know that.” Rachel watched Mitzi play with Jack’s hair for a bit before he opened his eyes and ran his fingers down her stomach.
“Good morning, baby,” he murmured. Ava kicked back against his hand and Rachel sighed as she flipped over slowly. “Ew, that’s gross, kid. Don’t do that.”
“So . . .”
Jack looked up at her. “Button?”
Rachel smiled. “I’d like to call the Quinzels today. I’ve never been properly introduced.”
True; the one time Rachel had met Harleen’s parents had been at the woman’s funeral. Jack shrugged. “Okay. Their number’s in my phone.”
Now was as good a time as ever; he wouldn’t get as upset if he was worried about her health. Rachel yawned a little harder than she needed to and nestled against Jack, watching as he diverted almost all of his attention to making sure she was all right. When he was properly fixated on her, she looked up at him with a gentle smile.
“If you could find your mother,” she murmured, “would you want to? Just to know she was alive?”
Jack went still and his face stiffened as he stared down at his wife. His mother. Again. Rachel would obsess over this forever, if he let her. “No,” he forced out. “She abandoned me. That says it all right there.”
Stunning blue eyes implored him and he shuddered a bit. “What if you could find out what really happened? You were so young, Jack.”
“I don’t want to know what ‘really’ happened. She left, Rachel. She left me with him, knowing how abusive he was. What’s there to find out?”
“What if it was to save you? What if he threatened to kill you if she didn’t leave?”
“Then I’d rather have died,” Jack snapped. Rachel winced and he lowered his forehead to hers. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. He did want to know why the woman had left him, not even saying goodbye. Just . . . gone, one morning, taking the last bit of happiness from his life. “I don’t want to know that she found a better life and left me there to rot,” he murmured. “I don’t want to know that I’ve probably got brothers or sisters somewhere, who lived a better life than I did, when she could have come back and got me. I don’t want to know, Rachel. Please.”
Rachel sighed. “Phillip called when you were in the bath last night. He talked with some of his colleagues, and they want me to go Metropolis to give birth.”
Jack drew back and looked at her suspiciously. “Why Metropolis? It’s an hour away. Why won’t the hospital here do?”
“Not if they fly me there,” Rachel said. “One of Phillip’s friends is the main obstetrician at Metropolis General; he’s got a lot more experience with older mothers giving birth than Phillip does. He wants me and Ava to have the best care we can get, Jack.”
She got a sigh. “Is there anything else about this pregnancy that you’re not telling me?”
“I’m not keeping anything from you, Jack.” He rolled his eyes at her. “Look, Met Gen’s a lot more sophisticated than Loleta. Better care.”
“If you try to guilt trip me by asking if I want the best care for you and Ava or not . . .” Jack left the threat hanging, really having nothing to threaten Rachel with, and she kissed his neck.
“I love you, Jack.”
“Yeah, yeah, me too. Fine, so we go visit Supes in Metropolis. You win. Anything else you want?”
“You, for the rest of my life.”
Jack looked down at his wife, but her eyes were closed. “. . . You got it, babe.”
“I better.” Janet came out to give them their breakfast, effectively ending the conversation for the time being.
~
Rachel had just sent off an e-mail to Bob when her phone rang. She picked it up and cradled it against her ear. “Hello?”
“Rachel?”
She frowned. “Lee? What’s wrong?” Her secretary sounded breathless, nervous.
“Nothing. I’m sorry to bother you at home, Rachel, but Mark’s out of the office and he needs the briefs on the Tilley case, and I can’t find them. I poked around your office, but they’re not there. I know you’re supposed to be on maternity leave, but could you come down here, please? I’m at my wits’ end and he really needs them.”
“They’re in the file cabinet, Lee. You can’t miss them.”
“Maybe he moved them; they’re not there. Oh, and I have some papers Mark needs the girls to sign. About the adoption.”
The woman sounded stressed, and Rachel sighed. “All right, we’ll be there soon.”
“Thank you,” Lee murmured before hanging up.
Rachel grumbled to herself as she struggled to stand up. Jack was putting the finishing touches on Susie’s costume and looked up at her. “Jack, I need take the girls to the office real quick. Mark needs some case files and Lee can’t find them, and there‘s some papers he needs them to sign. We won’t be long.”
He stood up. “Let me get my keys.”
“No, you stay here. Janet can drive me. Come on, Susie.”
“Rachel ---”
“I’m just going to pop in, get her the files, and come home. There’s no need to fuss; Charles and Bruce are in town. Let them know I’m coming. Janet!”
The girl poked her head out of her room, where she’d been showing Dick something online. “Yeah?”
“I need you to drive me to town.” Rachel smiled down at Susie, then kissed Jack to shut him up when he took her arm. “Why don’t you work on that surprise for Susie? Get it all set up in the living room.” she whispered. Jack had gone and bought the girl a new kitten the previous day, hiding it in he and Rachel’s room.
He was frowning. “I want to go with you.”
“Jack, come on,” Rachel cajoled. “Get it all set up; Dick can help.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m calling Bruce to let him know you’re coming.”
“You do that.” She smiled and let him pinch her rear before turning to Janet and Susie. “Come on, you two.”
“What are we signing?” Janet wanted to know.
‘Adoption,’ Rachel mouthed at her as Jack walked them to the car. Dick hurried to open the door for Janet. She smiled up at him and he flushed. Rachel laughed as Jack rolled his eyes. “You acted the same way when we first met,” she reminded him.
“And I was a pathetic loser, too,” he muttered. He kissed her firmly, tongue slipping against hers as she sighed. “Be quick,” he begged.
“You just get the kitten set up,” Rachel told him with a smile as she kissed along his scars. “Maybe I’ll be really tired tomorrow night and need everyone but you to go away for a few hours.”
“Are you sure?” Jack whispered. He wanted time to themselves, but was afraid of hurting her. “You need to rest.”
“And amazingly,” Rachel laughed, “you can be very gentle when you want to be. We won’t be gone long. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” He closed the passenger door and stepped back as they drove off, then glanced at the boy next to him. “All right, Wonder Penis, let’s get to work.” Dick’s angry protests followed him to the house.
~
“Lee?” Rachel called as she opened the office door. The woman looked up, pale and shaking. “God, what’s wrong? Are you all right?”
“I’m not feeling well,” the woman whispered. “Just . . . Get the briefs, okay? Mark needs them. Girls, come here and sign these. Be quick, Rachel. Hurry.”
Rachel sighed and unlocked her office door, going to the file cabinet and pulling the files out, wondering how Lee could have missed them. “I’ve got them,” she called as her computer beeped with an incoming e-mail. She didn’t recall leaving it on. It was set to turn on half an hour before she got to work, though, so maybe she’d just forgotten to turn the auto-on off. She leaned over with a wince to check it, but it wasn’t an address she was familiar with. The only thing stopping her from deleting it as spam was the title: Jack’s Affair.
Rachel’s finger hovered over the delete key, her heart suddenly pounding. It was just a stupid spam e-mail. She should delete it. Jack was waiting at home. Rachel opened the e-mail.
It was a video file. She looked up and out the window, thinking hard. This had nothing to do with her Jack. Just some random e-mail. It would probably put a virus on her computer. She downloaded it.
The first clip was dated less than a month ago, the night Jack had first said he‘d been invited to Tom’s. What was showing on the screen, though, was the inside of a bar and Jack dancing with Veronica the way Rachel had thought he only danced with her, all grinding hips and grasping hands. She sat down heavily. “Oh, God . . .”
The date changed, but the bar was the same, Jack dirty dancing with Veronica, then standing far too close to her, his hands on her thighs, talking in her ear as she grabbed his shirt and wrapped her legs around his. Then he kissed her and it was a stab to Rachel’s heart; she couldn’t help the tears that welled up in her eyes as Veronica led her husband to some stairs at the back of the bar. The scene changed, and what Rachel saw made her sob out loud. She wanted to look away, to not see that woman and Jack in bed together, Jack touching Veronica like he’d sworn to only touch Rachel, letting Veronica put her mouth on him and loving it, by the look on his face. She sat at her desk and cried as she watched the affair unfold, wondering who the hell had taped this and sent it to her, who had sat outside Veronica’s house and taped them having sex against the door, in the shower.
The last segment made her almost physically ill and forget about whoever had done this. Sunday night. Sunday. Night. Jack and Veronica, in bed again, Jack with . . . Jack with a knife. He was cutting himself as that woman rode him, his head thrown back in ecstasy. Rachel cried out and shoved herself away from the computer as Janet and Susie walked in, and her blood went cold as she realised why Lee had wanted her to hurry, as she realised that by opening that damned e-mail, she’d been manoeuvred into making the biggest mistake of her life. The door shut.
~
“What do you mean, she’s not at the office?” Jack asked irritably. “Maybe she’s not there yet. You know how Janet drives.”
“I’m saying no one’s here,” Bruce snapped. “It’s all locked up.”
“Well, fuck, did you call her?”
“She’s not answering her phone.”
Jack stared down at the spotted tabby kitten that was sleeping at his feet. His phone beeped with an incoming video call. It was a Gotham area code. He stared at it. “Call you back, B,” he whispered before switching over. “You fucking cunt.”
“Ah-ah-ah,” Anita admonished with a shake of her finger. “That’s no way to talk to the person who’s in charge of your wife’s safety, isn’t it?” She leaned to the side, resting her head on Rachel’s shoulder. Rachel had duct tape over her mouth and tears streaming from her eyes. “Knock it off,” Anita snapped as a child whimpered. She sighed. “Unfortunately for him, Maury doesn’t quite get the first rule of a hostage situation. But you do, don’t you, Jack? You understand it quite well.” She swung her phone around to take in Janet and Susie, both bound like Rachel. It looked like they were in a van. “You don’t harm the hostages until you absolutely have to. If you’re good, Jack, and give us what we want, they go free. We’re taking them with us for the time being, though, just to make sure you don’t go off half-cocked.”
“Let them go,” Jack whispered. “You don’t want this, Anita.”
“Oh, but I do,” she purred, focusing on Rachel’s face. “Oh, you should have seen the way Rachel was sobbing when she saw the nasty things you were doing with Veronica. Poor Rachel, can’t keep her husband happy, so he goes off with the town whore . . . Ew, I hope you wore a condom, at least. Oh, but you didn’t, did you? I’d get him tested if I were you, Rachel.”
“Let them go!” Jack bellowed. His head exploded with pain and he fell to his knees, gasping.
“It’s your own damned fault,” Anita snapped as Maury giggled. “If you’d given in when we first asked, this wouldn’t be happening. Now get to Gotham before the mob decides they can stand a little collateral damage, if you know what I mean.” She hung up and Rachel’s muffled sobs rang in his ears as he screamed into the floor, slamming his fists down until they bled. Jack grabbed on to the counter and puked into the sink as he saw Dick running to the house from the dock.
The boy was too late. Jack straightened, close his eyes . . . and disappeared.
Jack woke up with a horrible crick in his back, Rory laying across his legs and purring with delight that he’d gotten Jack into such an uncomfortable position (an assumption on the human’s part, but probably true), and Rachel’s hand covering his face. She was still asleep and he took a moment to kiss her palm before easing into a sitting position. He’d let Bruce and Charles stay in their room with the firm admonition to stay out of the bondage gear, much to their mutual disgust, and getting under Bruce’s skin had made him feel better. Helna, afraid to stay home by herself, had been put in Ava’s room along with Mitzi, and Dick was sleeping on the love seat.
He hated them for being in his personal space. He hated all of them, and had to run to the kitchen to throw up in the sink before he could think through the sudden red haze across his vision. Rory followed him and curled around his feet in the hopes of either getting food or tripping him. The cat was still purring as Jack rinsed his mouth out and then grabbed some orange juice to get rid of the taste of bile.
“Shut up,” he muttered before stumbling back to the living room. He had to blink a few times before he jumped a little and stepped back. “Damn it, Susie, why are you hiding there?”
All he’d seen over the edge of the couch were her big blue eyes, the rest of her covered in a blanket. She winced and he heard her sniffle. “Are you still sick, Daddy?”
He shushed her as he peeked at Rachel and then picked her up, taking her into the kitchen and sitting at the table. “I’m . . . yeah. I am. I’m sorry I snapped at you, tootsie roll.”
“I’m sorry I scared you, Daddy.”
He sighed and wiped at his eyes. “Why are you calling me Daddy?”
She was pouting, her lower lip pushed out and quivering a bit. “Rachel said I could, because you’re my Daddy now that Mommy’s gone.”
Oh. Yeah. That. Jack smiled out of reflex when the child felt his forehead and cheeks with the backs of her hands, hm-ing to herself. She didn’t know how to feel for a fever but she was trying, and her small hands felt good, cool against his skin.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. Can I have cereal?”
“If we have any.” Jack honestly couldn’t remember if they had food in the house, or if they had enough. He got up, settling Susie on his hip, and went to the cupboard to check. “Frosted Flakes, yum. Or . . . What is this? Whole grain . . . crap. We want Frosted Flakes, don’t we?”
Susie giggled. “That’s a bad word, Daddy.”
“I know.” He pulled the box out and set it on the counter, then opened the fridge and looked in. “Just soymilk. That woman’s trying to kill me.”
“Rachel says that milk is bad for you, that all the protein sucks up all the good stuff. She says it’s supposed to make a baby cow into a big fat cow, and ---”
“Rachel sure thinks she knows a lot, doesn’t she?” Jack mused.
“She knows a bunch!” Susie was nodding enthusiastically. “She’s smarter than you are, Daddy.”
That made the man laugh. “Yeah, I suppose she is. But she doesn’t know how to blow stuff up like I do. So she doesn’t know everything.”
Susie thought about that as she watched Jack pour the cereal into two bowls, followed by the soymilk. “Well . . . That’s why she’s the boss of you. She has you to know stuff she doesn’t need to know.”
“Really? That makes sense.” He took the bowls, adding spoons, to the table and sat down again. “But who am I the boss of?”
She shrugged. “No one.”
He laughed again. “No one? Not even you? I thought Daddies were the bosses of their kids.”
“Well . . . Maybe you’re the boss of me, but Rachel’s the boss of you, so really Rachel’s the boss of me. I don’t have to do what you say if Rachel says I don’t.” She munched contentedly on her cereal.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Well.” She had a point, but he ignored it in favour of his own cereal. He brought his spoon down on Susie’s when she tried to dip it into his bowl. “Hey, you’ve got your own.”
“But you say food tastes better when you steal it from someone else.” Susie tried again, and again he fended her off. “Remember? When you take my food, that’s what you say.”
“But I’m bigger, so I can fight you off.”
She didn’t like that, glaring up at him. “That’s not fair!”
“Life’s not fair, Susie.” Jack kissed her nose and let her eat his cereal. “Does it taste better?”
“World peace has been achieved!” was her declaration.
Jack laughed as he picked her up, stood, and set her back down. “Great. Keep eating, peaches. I’m going to check on Rachel.” He got a chirpy acknowledgement and went back to the living room, kneeling next to Rachel and brushing some hair out of her face before kissing her cheek. He wanted to wake her up with licks and kisses all over her body, take her into the bath where she’d be most comfortable and make love with her, wash away everything he’d done, all the promises he’d broken, but she needed to rest. All he let himself do was kiss down her neck, pulling down the tank top of his that she was wearing to place gentle kisses over the swell of her breast. She sighed and twisted a little.
“Jack, what are you doing?”
“Kissing you?” he guessed.
Her fingers tugged gently at his hair. “Jack, we have guests over. Dick’s right there.”
They were both whispering. “So, be quiet.” He flicked his tongue over her nipple and then held it there, making a slightly surprised face. “What the . . .” Rachel squeaked when he started sucking gently at her breast; he’d teased her about having beer-flavoured nipples, but this was different. This was . . . sweet. Almost like honey. He liked it.
She tugged at his hair, harder, trying to pull him away. “Jack, stop. Knock it off. Ohhhhh . . .”
“I thought breast milk started after birth,” he murmured briefly.
“It does,” Rachel panted. She pinched his cheek, but he wasn’t about to leave her alone. “Stop it, Jack, I’m serious.”
“What is this, then? Practice milk?”
“Colostrum, and yes, essentially.” Now she was pushing at his shoulders before pulling him against her again, which made Jack chuckle.
“What are you doing, Jack?” Susie wanted to know from the other side of the couch.
He stopped and rolled his eyes up to meet her curious blue ones, then slowly let Rachel’s nipple go and covered her breast again as Rachel groaned in embarrassment. “Uh . . .”
The girl tilted her head at him, resting her chin on her hands. “I thought only babies drank milk from their mommies.”
“Uh . . . I’m just, uhm . . . making sure it’s working.” Jack nodded quickly and patted Rachel’s breast. “Yep, all working, ready for Ava when she’s born.”
“Does it taste good? Can I taste it?”
His wife had pulled her blanket over her head, shaking with laughter and leaving Jack all alone. He chewed his lower lip as he tried to think. “Uh . . . It tastes . . . Uhm . . . No, no, you can’t taste it, Susie, and it tastes like, uhm, kinda like honey.”
“Jack!” was the muffled protest from the blanket and pillow that covered Rachel’s head.
“Well, it does,” he defended himself, rubbing her stomach. “Susie, wanna make Rachel some breakfast? I bet she and Ava would like that. Why don’t you get some potatoes out and start washing them off, okay? I need to, uhm, sit here for a bit. Go. Now.” The kid didn’t look like she trusted his intentions, but turned and tromped back to the kitchen. Jack leaned down and picked up the edge of the pillow to glare at Rachel’s sniggering face. “You could have helped me out, there.”
“Why?” she giggled. She was still blushing. “You deserved that, Jack. You’re lucky she didn’t walk in on anything else.”
“Aren’t we all?” the loveseat muttered. Jack pulled back to glare at Dick as he sat up, almost as red as Rachel was.
“Look, kid, get out of my house if you don’t like it. I’ll get it on wherever I want to, you hear me?”
“Stop it,” Rachel told him firmly. He looked down a her and softened, tugging the pillow and blanket off of her to cover his face with kisses as she laughed and held him tightly. “I love you, Jack. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Get a better life,” he muttered, but helped her sit up and leaned into her embrace. They’d be pissed that their ploy with Tom hadn’t worked, try something more drastic. Jack was torn between needing to act as soon as possible and wanting to stay as long as possible. He hated indecision. It made him weak, vulnerable.
“Jack, how many potatoes should I wash?”
“The whole bag,” he called back. “I have to feed half of Gotham today.”
“Right, and how much money do you put toward food in this house?” Rachel wanted to know.
Jack stopped complaining. “You just sit here while we cook. Can Douche --- I’m sorry, can Bruce cook? I know Charles can. Dick, can you cook? You all might as well earn your keep. Go help Susie. Susie, show Wonder Boy here where the recipes are.”
“Boy Wonder,” Dick muttered as he got up. He was staring past Jack as the man stood, his cheeks flushing again.
Jack turned his head and tilted it at Janet, who stood in the doorway in her knee-length nightgown, her arms crossed over her chest. He looked back at Dick, then rolled his eyes and coughed when Janet didn’t move out of his way. She jumped and stepped to the side, blushing.
“You help cook, too,” he ordered her. “Or help Rachel. Whatever she needs you to do.”
He laughed quietly as Dick fell over himself to help Janet, wanting to know what she and Rachel wanted for breakfast, if they were warm enough, and generally making a fool of himself. Up the stairs Jack tip-toed, to be met at the top by his Mitzi-girl-thing, who was pushing at the child fence or whatever it was that was keeping her from tumbling down the stairs.
“Ja-Ja!” she squealed, holding her arms up. “Goo’ mo’ning!”
“Good morning, baby-doll,” he told her, stepping over the fence and then picking her up. “Is Mama still asleep?”
“Sleep,” the toddler confirmed, kissing his nose. He scrunched it at her and then kicked at his door.
“Get up,” he ordered. “Get useful. Dick’s fawning over Janet, so I need you two to cook breakfast.”
“Cook your own breakfast,” Bruce muttered.
“I’m only nice to you because your parents are dead,” Jack told him. “It’s just pity. Now get out and get busy.”
“Fuck you.”
“Hey, no swearing while my Mitzi-thing’s around.”
“We’re up,” Charles snapped. “Go away.”
Jack grinned at Mitzi as he turned to Ava’s room. “That’s how you tell ‘em,” he said.
“Tell ‘em!”
“That’s right.” He peeked in and Helna was still asleep, tossing a little. “Can you stay with Mama until breakfast is done?”
The girl-child didn’t understand everything he’d said and she got a very thoughtful look on her face before shaking her head slowly. “No . . .”
“No, huh? Okay, then.” Jack stepped over the fence and went back down the stairs to the kitchen. “Janet, put some clothes on.” She and Dick looked up guiltily and then she slid past Jack to her room. “Susie, keep your clothes on. No, Mitzi, you keep yours on, too. Christ, I live with a bunch of nudists . . .”
“Hello, pot?” Rachel called. “This is the kettle!”
“You don’t wander around naked unless I tell you to; be quiet and rest,” he ordered. She guffawed.
“Daddy, are we still going out tomorrow?” Susie asked. She was very carefully mixing batter, the tip of her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth.
“Tomorrow?”
“For Halloween! Please?”
Jack sighed and bounced Mitzi on his hip as he gave her his knuckle to suck on. She started chewing, and he winced a little at her sharp teeth. He’d forgotten about Halloween. Crap. “Uh, yeah, pumpkin, we are.”
Her eyes got wide. “We need pumpkins! We don’t have any pumpkins, Daddy!”
“Charles bought some yesterday,” Janet said as she came out in a grey peasant blouse and a loose jean skirt. Wonder Boy was staring at her again and Jack glared. He looked away as soon as Janet looked his way.
Susie relaxed. “Charles thinks of everything!”
“That’s what she’s good for,” Jack mused as the genius in question tromped down the stairs with Bruce on her heels. “You didn’t make a mess in my room, did you?”
“We have respect for other people’s property and common decency,” the other man growled.
Jack rolled his eyes. “You wouldn’t have known a thing if I hadn’t told you, so shut up.”
“He’s got a point,” Charles said, “and both of you shut up. I’m not in the mood to deal with your issues today.”
“I’m going to be a kitty for Halloween,” Susie told Dick earnestly as he sat to cut up the potatoes she’d washed. “Daddy said he’ll dye my hair so I can look like Rory.”
Said demon slithered into the room and mrowled at the door, his pale blue eyes wide as he looked around. Jack leaned down and picked him up, slinging him over his shoulder as the cat purred.
“You’re nicer than Rory is,” he told Susie. Rory pulled himself onto Jack’s shoulders, curling around them and digging his claws in to keep his balance. The pain didn’t even register.
Mitzi touching his chest did, however. “Owwy?” she asked him. “Ja-Ja, owwy better?”
Crap, his cuts. She’d been worried about them the previous night, too, during their bath. Jack nodded quickly. “I’m fine, baby. I’m fine. Be nice, okay? Pet Rory gently.”
“Nice,” she repeated as she very carefully pet the cat. “Gentle.”
“That’s right, minion. Gentle. Good girl.”
“Aren’t you helping?” Bruce asked as Jack walked to the living room.
“Of course I am; I’m keeping Mitzi occupied and making sure Rachel’s all right.” He sat next to her and Rory walked onto the back of the couch, curling up there and watching him. “You all right, beautiful?”
“I’m fine,” she assured him, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m starving.”
“Breakfast’ll be done soon. When do the cops want to talk with me?”
Rachel blinked up at him, her blue eyes shadowed. “Today or tomorrow. I told them you need some time.”
Jack closed his eyes. “Have them get a hold of Gordon. I gave him everything I know about . . . well, you know.”
Rachel sighed. “Jack, you told Jim, but wouldn’t tell the FBI?”
“I don’t trust the Feds,” he shrugged. “I trust Commissioner Awesome. He’s good people.”
“I’ll let them know that.” Rachel watched Mitzi play with Jack’s hair for a bit before he opened his eyes and ran his fingers down her stomach.
“Good morning, baby,” he murmured. Ava kicked back against his hand and Rachel sighed as she flipped over slowly. “Ew, that’s gross, kid. Don’t do that.”
“So . . .”
Jack looked up at her. “Button?”
Rachel smiled. “I’d like to call the Quinzels today. I’ve never been properly introduced.”
True; the one time Rachel had met Harleen’s parents had been at the woman’s funeral. Jack shrugged. “Okay. Their number’s in my phone.”
Now was as good a time as ever; he wouldn’t get as upset if he was worried about her health. Rachel yawned a little harder than she needed to and nestled against Jack, watching as he diverted almost all of his attention to making sure she was all right. When he was properly fixated on her, she looked up at him with a gentle smile.
“If you could find your mother,” she murmured, “would you want to? Just to know she was alive?”
Jack went still and his face stiffened as he stared down at his wife. His mother. Again. Rachel would obsess over this forever, if he let her. “No,” he forced out. “She abandoned me. That says it all right there.”
Stunning blue eyes implored him and he shuddered a bit. “What if you could find out what really happened? You were so young, Jack.”
“I don’t want to know what ‘really’ happened. She left, Rachel. She left me with him, knowing how abusive he was. What’s there to find out?”
“What if it was to save you? What if he threatened to kill you if she didn’t leave?”
“Then I’d rather have died,” Jack snapped. Rachel winced and he lowered his forehead to hers. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. He did want to know why the woman had left him, not even saying goodbye. Just . . . gone, one morning, taking the last bit of happiness from his life. “I don’t want to know that she found a better life and left me there to rot,” he murmured. “I don’t want to know that I’ve probably got brothers or sisters somewhere, who lived a better life than I did, when she could have come back and got me. I don’t want to know, Rachel. Please.”
Rachel sighed. “Phillip called when you were in the bath last night. He talked with some of his colleagues, and they want me to go Metropolis to give birth.”
Jack drew back and looked at her suspiciously. “Why Metropolis? It’s an hour away. Why won’t the hospital here do?”
“Not if they fly me there,” Rachel said. “One of Phillip’s friends is the main obstetrician at Metropolis General; he’s got a lot more experience with older mothers giving birth than Phillip does. He wants me and Ava to have the best care we can get, Jack.”
She got a sigh. “Is there anything else about this pregnancy that you’re not telling me?”
“I’m not keeping anything from you, Jack.” He rolled his eyes at her. “Look, Met Gen’s a lot more sophisticated than Loleta. Better care.”
“If you try to guilt trip me by asking if I want the best care for you and Ava or not . . .” Jack left the threat hanging, really having nothing to threaten Rachel with, and she kissed his neck.
“I love you, Jack.”
“Yeah, yeah, me too. Fine, so we go visit Supes in Metropolis. You win. Anything else you want?”
“You, for the rest of my life.”
Jack looked down at his wife, but her eyes were closed. “. . . You got it, babe.”
“I better.” Janet came out to give them their breakfast, effectively ending the conversation for the time being.
~
Rachel had just sent off an e-mail to Bob when her phone rang. She picked it up and cradled it against her ear. “Hello?”
“Rachel?”
She frowned. “Lee? What’s wrong?” Her secretary sounded breathless, nervous.
“Nothing. I’m sorry to bother you at home, Rachel, but Mark’s out of the office and he needs the briefs on the Tilley case, and I can’t find them. I poked around your office, but they’re not there. I know you’re supposed to be on maternity leave, but could you come down here, please? I’m at my wits’ end and he really needs them.”
“They’re in the file cabinet, Lee. You can’t miss them.”
“Maybe he moved them; they’re not there. Oh, and I have some papers Mark needs the girls to sign. About the adoption.”
The woman sounded stressed, and Rachel sighed. “All right, we’ll be there soon.”
“Thank you,” Lee murmured before hanging up.
Rachel grumbled to herself as she struggled to stand up. Jack was putting the finishing touches on Susie’s costume and looked up at her. “Jack, I need take the girls to the office real quick. Mark needs some case files and Lee can’t find them, and there‘s some papers he needs them to sign. We won’t be long.”
He stood up. “Let me get my keys.”
“No, you stay here. Janet can drive me. Come on, Susie.”
“Rachel ---”
“I’m just going to pop in, get her the files, and come home. There’s no need to fuss; Charles and Bruce are in town. Let them know I’m coming. Janet!”
The girl poked her head out of her room, where she’d been showing Dick something online. “Yeah?”
“I need you to drive me to town.” Rachel smiled down at Susie, then kissed Jack to shut him up when he took her arm. “Why don’t you work on that surprise for Susie? Get it all set up in the living room.” she whispered. Jack had gone and bought the girl a new kitten the previous day, hiding it in he and Rachel’s room.
He was frowning. “I want to go with you.”
“Jack, come on,” Rachel cajoled. “Get it all set up; Dick can help.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m calling Bruce to let him know you’re coming.”
“You do that.” She smiled and let him pinch her rear before turning to Janet and Susie. “Come on, you two.”
“What are we signing?” Janet wanted to know.
‘Adoption,’ Rachel mouthed at her as Jack walked them to the car. Dick hurried to open the door for Janet. She smiled up at him and he flushed. Rachel laughed as Jack rolled his eyes. “You acted the same way when we first met,” she reminded him.
“And I was a pathetic loser, too,” he muttered. He kissed her firmly, tongue slipping against hers as she sighed. “Be quick,” he begged.
“You just get the kitten set up,” Rachel told him with a smile as she kissed along his scars. “Maybe I’ll be really tired tomorrow night and need everyone but you to go away for a few hours.”
“Are you sure?” Jack whispered. He wanted time to themselves, but was afraid of hurting her. “You need to rest.”
“And amazingly,” Rachel laughed, “you can be very gentle when you want to be. We won’t be gone long. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” He closed the passenger door and stepped back as they drove off, then glanced at the boy next to him. “All right, Wonder Penis, let’s get to work.” Dick’s angry protests followed him to the house.
~
“Lee?” Rachel called as she opened the office door. The woman looked up, pale and shaking. “God, what’s wrong? Are you all right?”
“I’m not feeling well,” the woman whispered. “Just . . . Get the briefs, okay? Mark needs them. Girls, come here and sign these. Be quick, Rachel. Hurry.”
Rachel sighed and unlocked her office door, going to the file cabinet and pulling the files out, wondering how Lee could have missed them. “I’ve got them,” she called as her computer beeped with an incoming e-mail. She didn’t recall leaving it on. It was set to turn on half an hour before she got to work, though, so maybe she’d just forgotten to turn the auto-on off. She leaned over with a wince to check it, but it wasn’t an address she was familiar with. The only thing stopping her from deleting it as spam was the title: Jack’s Affair.
Rachel’s finger hovered over the delete key, her heart suddenly pounding. It was just a stupid spam e-mail. She should delete it. Jack was waiting at home. Rachel opened the e-mail.
It was a video file. She looked up and out the window, thinking hard. This had nothing to do with her Jack. Just some random e-mail. It would probably put a virus on her computer. She downloaded it.
The first clip was dated less than a month ago, the night Jack had first said he‘d been invited to Tom’s. What was showing on the screen, though, was the inside of a bar and Jack dancing with Veronica the way Rachel had thought he only danced with her, all grinding hips and grasping hands. She sat down heavily. “Oh, God . . .”
The date changed, but the bar was the same, Jack dirty dancing with Veronica, then standing far too close to her, his hands on her thighs, talking in her ear as she grabbed his shirt and wrapped her legs around his. Then he kissed her and it was a stab to Rachel’s heart; she couldn’t help the tears that welled up in her eyes as Veronica led her husband to some stairs at the back of the bar. The scene changed, and what Rachel saw made her sob out loud. She wanted to look away, to not see that woman and Jack in bed together, Jack touching Veronica like he’d sworn to only touch Rachel, letting Veronica put her mouth on him and loving it, by the look on his face. She sat at her desk and cried as she watched the affair unfold, wondering who the hell had taped this and sent it to her, who had sat outside Veronica’s house and taped them having sex against the door, in the shower.
The last segment made her almost physically ill and forget about whoever had done this. Sunday night. Sunday. Night. Jack and Veronica, in bed again, Jack with . . . Jack with a knife. He was cutting himself as that woman rode him, his head thrown back in ecstasy. Rachel cried out and shoved herself away from the computer as Janet and Susie walked in, and her blood went cold as she realised why Lee had wanted her to hurry, as she realised that by opening that damned e-mail, she’d been manoeuvred into making the biggest mistake of her life. The door shut.
~
“What do you mean, she’s not at the office?” Jack asked irritably. “Maybe she’s not there yet. You know how Janet drives.”
“I’m saying no one’s here,” Bruce snapped. “It’s all locked up.”
“Well, fuck, did you call her?”
“She’s not answering her phone.”
Jack stared down at the spotted tabby kitten that was sleeping at his feet. His phone beeped with an incoming video call. It was a Gotham area code. He stared at it. “Call you back, B,” he whispered before switching over. “You fucking cunt.”
“Ah-ah-ah,” Anita admonished with a shake of her finger. “That’s no way to talk to the person who’s in charge of your wife’s safety, isn’t it?” She leaned to the side, resting her head on Rachel’s shoulder. Rachel had duct tape over her mouth and tears streaming from her eyes. “Knock it off,” Anita snapped as a child whimpered. She sighed. “Unfortunately for him, Maury doesn’t quite get the first rule of a hostage situation. But you do, don’t you, Jack? You understand it quite well.” She swung her phone around to take in Janet and Susie, both bound like Rachel. It looked like they were in a van. “You don’t harm the hostages until you absolutely have to. If you’re good, Jack, and give us what we want, they go free. We’re taking them with us for the time being, though, just to make sure you don’t go off half-cocked.”
“Let them go,” Jack whispered. “You don’t want this, Anita.”
“Oh, but I do,” she purred, focusing on Rachel’s face. “Oh, you should have seen the way Rachel was sobbing when she saw the nasty things you were doing with Veronica. Poor Rachel, can’t keep her husband happy, so he goes off with the town whore . . . Ew, I hope you wore a condom, at least. Oh, but you didn’t, did you? I’d get him tested if I were you, Rachel.”
“Let them go!” Jack bellowed. His head exploded with pain and he fell to his knees, gasping.
“It’s your own damned fault,” Anita snapped as Maury giggled. “If you’d given in when we first asked, this wouldn’t be happening. Now get to Gotham before the mob decides they can stand a little collateral damage, if you know what I mean.” She hung up and Rachel’s muffled sobs rang in his ears as he screamed into the floor, slamming his fists down until they bled. Jack grabbed on to the counter and puked into the sink as he saw Dick running to the house from the dock.
The boy was too late. Jack straightened, close his eyes . . . and disappeared.