Chapter Text
Jason had gone out that day and never come back.
Bruce usually let the boy have a fair bit of freedom. Dick had left him because he was too controlling and he was determined not to make the same mistake with Jason. They might be fighting a lot more in their partnership, but Bruce hoped the space and freedom he gave him in his personal life might make up for it.
Off the street, Jason was usually fairly well-behaved. Sure there were the cigarets he had to confiscate, but the boy’s mother had died of an overdose. He felt confident he didn’t have to worry about him doing drugs or getting blackout drunk. Dick had been much more prone to the party scene and it had given Bruce near constant anxiety about his first Omega child.
Bruce was a Bata, his parents had both been Alphas, and Alfred was also a Beta. And yet all of his children thus far had been Omegas.
Jason was more likely to stay late for an extra credit project. Which made his disappearance all the more worrisome.
“Have you tried calling him, sir?” Alfred asked.
“Of course I have,” Bruce snapped.
“Ah, of course. How silly of me to assume that you hadn’t when it is clearly your first inclination to speak to the affected parties directly,” Alfred said dryly.
“His tracker has also been removed,” Bruce said, “I got an alert this afternoon at the office.”
“Which is when you deduced something must be wrong,” Alfred nodded, “have you considered that the young sir may have turned it off himself for some extra privacy?”
“He did turn it off himself,” Bruce said testily, he got an alert for that one too. But he had Jason had an agreement that Jason could do that when he needed to, just so long as he understood that Bruce had the override so that he could find him in case of an emergency.
“Then I’m not quite sure-”
“Then it was removed ,” Bruce said pointedly.
That wasn’t just not wanting Bruce to know where he was and what he was up to. That was much more permanent and Jason would have known that too.
“Do you fear that he’s run away from home, or that he’s been taken?” Alfred said in a much more serious voice.
“I hope he’s just run away,” Bruce said as he knelt on the floor and began sorting through his things, “But Jason has nowhere he would go. Not outside the community anyway, and there would be no point in removing the tracker for that. ”
Something he hated to think about. How isolated the boy was in comparison to Dick. He worried he may have had a hand in that as well, that he should have pushed him at the Titans more.
“Not quite, sir,” Alfred said, clearing his throat slightly, “Actually Master Jason frequently stays overnight with a friend when you’re out of town and there is no patrol.”
“What?” Bruce looked at him sharply. It was the first he was hearing of it.
“The young Master has had quite a difficult time making any friends at that school of his given his previous social background, and there are no young heroes in his age group at this time. I felt it was very important to give the young Master his privacy and develop his first friendship at his own pace,” Alfred said pointedly.
Bruce knew it was a dig at his tendency to dig into the background of anyone spending time with his sons.
Still.
“Dynamic?” he growled back.
“Omega. That’s all I know, sir,” Alfred said, then paused, “though Master Jason usually informs me if he will be visiting his friend so I know not to make dinner.”
“Omega’s can still get into plenty of trouble,” Bruce growled, thinking of Dick.
“To be sure.”
“I’ll look into it,” he grunted, “but I don’t think he ran away.”
Bruce held up Jason’s getaway bag from under his bed. Despite Bruce’s frequent assurances that he would never throw him out, Jason had always kept it just in case he had to split and run. It had warm clothes, food, a couple of his favorite books, and most importantly the only surviving pictures of his mother and the playing cards they used to use before she had fallen too ill.
“He wouldn’t willingly leave without this,” Bruce stated.
The worried pinch to Alfred’s face said he agreed.
“Shall I inform the police?” Alfred asked seriously.
“Yes, but they won’t be able to treat it like a kidnapping until 24-hours have passed,” Bruce said. He doubted the police would be any help in this, especially missing information about their night life. Still, “they still need to know in case someone calls in a ransom.”
That is if someone was after Bruce Wayne’s ward. If someone was after Robin, then it got a whole lot more complicated.
Suddenly the papers in the room all fluttered in an unnatural breeze.
“Bruce!” Clark said urgently, “Why aren’t you picking up your communicator?”
Because he forgot to put it in when he realized something might have happened to Jason.
“What have I told you about coming here uninvited?” Bruce glowered at him.
“Not to? But Bruce, please, we need you,” Clark said grimly, moving to pick him up and no doubt fly him to the watchtower transporter.
Just that fast, Bruce cracked open the container in his belt with kryptonite. Not much, but just enough what Clark stopped hovering and dropped to the ground with a slightly pained grunt.
“I won’t be able to make it,” Bruce said flatly.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Clark said rubbing his chest and glaring at him, “this is an emergency!”
“I can’t. Make. It.” Bruce growled.
“Mister Kent, what Master Bruce is trying to say is that we are having something of our own emergency here,” Alfred interceded, giving Bruce a look for his antics.
Bruce wasn’t sorry. His son was missing and the league had more than enough super-powered heroes to be able to handle whatever the situation was.
“Oh,” Clark blinked, seeming to notice for the first time that they were in a child’s bedroom.
He took an obvious breath and tested the different scents in the air.
And proceeded to change Bruce’s life with a single sentence.
“Because Jason is pregnant?”
Bruce dropped the kryptonite.