Chapter Text
Janet hadn’t really known how to feel when she found out she was pregnant.
She was excited, of course, delighted at the idea of having her own baby, but it all felt… too soon. She and Jack had only been married less than a year. Their relationship was defined by its reckless thrill-seeking, how they didn’t look twice before taking leaps, but for the first time since they met in that café on Sixth Street, Janet hesitated.
She was only twenty-two. Did she really want to have a child before she even finished college? If she kept the baby, she’d be starting next year’s semester with a newborn on her hip. What would Jack think?
Well, Janet knew what Jack would think. He’d be delighted and immediately start looking at nursery setups, figuring out how to build everything himself because “there’s no point paying for something we could do by ourselves”, and get so caught up in his whirlwind of emotion that he’d forget to actually consider what having a kid now would mean. It was one of the reasons Janet loved him, don’t get her wrong, but she couldn’t handle intense right now. She… she needed to sit down.
God, she was a mess right now.
She couldn’t not tell Jack. It was his baby too, and he had a right to know. And, if Janet was being honest with herself, she already knew she’d be keeping this baby. They’d figure out the rest as they went along - just like they always did.
With that, Janet pushed herself up and made her way to the sitting room.
Ever since the MedTech company Jack had invested in last year had taken off, they’d seen an abrupt increase in their monthly income. And while Janet certainly hadn’t been raised in financial instability, she hadn’t had so much disposable income to spare before. Jack wanted to use it to travel to various dig sites after they’d both graduated. Janet wondered how her being pregnant would affect those plans.
“Jack?” she called as she entered the room.
Jack looked over the edge of his newspaper, a joke on his lips, but something must have shown on Janet’s face because his expression quickly morphed into one of concern. “Janny?”
“Can we… talk for a second? Or. I’ll do the talking, please. I have some news.”
Wow, Janet, that doesn’t sound completely ominous and relationship-ending at all.
Janet sunk into the plush chair opposite her husband (because she was not saying this aloud for the first time standing up) and took a deep breath. “Jack… I’m pregnant.”
Honestly, Janet expected a more complicated reaction from Jack. Instead she watched him quickly cycle through worry, surprise, shock, delight and finally settle on excitement.
“Janet! That’s incredible! The way you said it, I thought you were going to elope with my cousin,” Jack said with a grin, newspaper discarded as he rounded the coffee table to kneel beside her.
Janet rolled her eyes. “I had a week-long crush on her when I was sixteen. It wasn’t that deep.”
Jack reached out a tentative hand, hovering above her stomach, before looking up at her. “May I?”
Janet smiled, flushing, and guided his hand down to touch. “There’s nothing to feel yet. I can’t be more than a couple of weeks in. Whoever is in there, they’re probably still smaller than a grape right now.”
“Whoever’s in there,” Jack repeated, almost like a prayer. Abruptly, he sat up straight, eyes alight with determination. “Well, we can’t just sit around and look pretty, Janny. The kid’s going to need a room - maybe the office over the kitchen, there’s lovely light in there-”
Janet smiled as Jack continued his spiel about where to set up the nursery. Yes, the next few months - hell, the next few years would be difficult, but with Jack by her side, Janet knew she could see this through.
——
Jack never did turn that office into a new nursery. No, instead he bought an entirely new house - a new mansion - right beside the Wayne property. Janet should go over someday, when she was less pregnant. She used to be in the same year as Bruce, and they had shared a social circle or two.
Until then, she could coo over her new goddaughter.
“Oh Helena, isn’t she just absolutely precious,” Janet said, allowing the little baby to gnaw at her thumb. “She’s going to be a troublemaker just like you, I’m sure.”
Helena snorted. “I was hardly a troublemaker if we’re to compare me to you.”
“Oh, please,” Janet said. “Don’t you remember that time we almost set the PE hall on fire?”
“What about the time we did set the PE hall on fire?”
“It doesn’t really count. We put it out, like, immediately.”
“Tell that to Mr. Shore.”
Janet laughed, which made the little baby in her lap renew her efforts to reduce Janet’s thumb to a stub. Cassandra, Helena had said. Cassie for short.
“Cassandra,” Janet said aloud, just to hear the name again. “She’s absolutely beautiful, Hel.”
“Why, thank you,” Helena replied as she winked. “Grew her myself. How’s your own baby-growing coming along?”
Janet considered it for a moment. “I thought I’d be bigger by now, to be honest.”
Helena laughed, as Janet continued. “No, really! I mean, this kid’s supposed to be the size of what, a pear? I’m not saying I expected to be a balloon, but I thought I’d at least notice a bump.”
“Sometimes people don’t really show,” Helena mused. “Ever heard of those women who don’t realise they’re pregnant until the baby is literally halfway out?”
“Oh my god, Hel, stop-”
——
Janet did show more in the next few months, though still not as much as either she nor Jack expected.
“All the babies on my side tended towards being pretty big,” Jack said one afternoon. “Wonder what’s taking this little one so long.”
“Some babies are just small, Jack,” Janet said fondly, hand resting on her little bump. “Besides, they’ll have plenty of time to get bigger once they’re not surrounded on all sides by my organs.”
Jack winced, apparently not appreciating the reminder that Janet’s organs were being pushed around to make room for the baby. Janet pounced on the opportunity.
“What? You don’t like to hear about my poor, crushed organs-” Janet draped herself onto Jack’s shoulder, “and all the pressure on my bladder-”
“Okay, okay, you’ve had your fun,” Jack said, laughing despite the green tinge to his skin. “That’s lovely, Janny. But please don’t tell me that again. You know I have a delicate stomach.”
“Can’t forget to look after your wuss of a stomach,” Janet agreed. “Not like there’s a baby crushing mine or anything.”
“Janet.”
——
Janet had been joking, before, about the baby crushing her stomach. A month later and she wasn’t so sure if it was still a joke. Jack held her hair back as she retched into the toilet bowl.
“I’m going to kill you,” she rasped, before going right back to trying to dispel stomach contents that weren’t there.
“At least wait until I’ve met the baby,” Jack said, as if to lighten the mood. “I’d hate to be an absent dad before they even get here.”
“I’m going to throw you into the river,” Janet gasped upon her next resurfacing.
“Guess I should redouble my efforts in swim class.”
Janet gagged once more, then collapsed back into Jack’s embrace. For several minutes there was nothing but the sound of her breathing.
…. And the stench of her vomit.
Janet blindly raised a hand that would have never found its way to the handle, but as it turned out she didn’t need to, because Jack reached across and did it for her.
“Here, let me.”
Janet slumped further down. “I hate this part.”
“It’ll pass,” Jack reassured her, pulling her up into a slightly more natural sitting position. “Now, let’s get you to bed.”
——
The nausea did not pass, but it did subside enough for Janet to play blocks with little Cassie. It had only been weeks since Janet had seen her in person last, but already she had an almost full head of wispy golden hair.
“Oh dear,” Janet said, when Cassie’s carefully constructed block tower collapsed. “Wanna try again?”
As it happened, Cassie did not want to try again, and promptly burst into tears.
“Oh dear,” Janet repeated, feeling slightly overwhelmed. Helena had stepped outside to take a call - she wasn’t going to be back to help anytime soon. “Hey, hey, shh, it’s okay. Here - look, Cassie, we can fix it, see?”
Janet tried to remember the order Cassie had put the blocks in - she had been very particular about it during her construction process - and gradually Cassie’s crying quieted down to sniffles. She babbled and reached for the block in Janet’s hand, which Janet handed over easily.
Cassie took the block, turning it around in her hands as though she was considering it. Then, rather abruptly, smashed it into the side of the block tower, sending colourful blocks in all directions. Cassie squeaked in delight, while Janet - well, Janet didn’t really understand what had just happened, but Cassie seemed happy enough, so it must be alright.
“Aren’t you a funny little thing,” Janet mused, as Cassie continued her reign of terror on the other blocks. “I wonder if my little one will be much like you.”
“Ba!” Cassie said, though whether it was in agreement or not was lost on Janet.
——
Janet would honestly rather be anywhere else in the world right now. She really should have declined Bruce’s invitation, but instead she was in Wayne Manor, sitting across from Bruce’s thirteen-year-old kid.
The food looked and smelled amazing, sure, but Janet was beginning to think that the baby inside her didn’t appreciate fancy dinners as much as she’d hoped.
Jack knew what the baby would look like when they were born - Janet wanted to keep it as a little surprise for herself after the labour. It would have been a surprise for Jack too if Janet hadn’t wanted to do some ultrasounds to make sure everything was okay. All that she knew so far was that the baby was “fucking teensy”, as Jack had jokingly described them.
Well, for someone so fucking teensy, they sure did pack a kick.
Janet tried not to wince as her discomfort levels skyrocketed. She only had to make it through another half-hour of the dinner, after which it would be perfectly acceptable for her to skip dessert and scurry home so she could puke her guts out and wallow in self pity for the rest of the evening.
Unfortunately, the world hated her, and Janet couldn’t quite mask the sharp intake at the next burst of pain.
The burst of pain that definitely did not feel like a kick.
Janet really hoped this was one of those false alarms Helena had mentioned, because not only would her baby be two months early but she wasn’t quite sure how she would go about asking Bruce Wayne to drive her to the hospital so she could deliver her kid.
Dick - Bruce’s kid, though why he preferred to be called that was beyond Janet - made the choice for her.
“Are you okay?” he asked, with a sceptical raise of his eyebrow.
“Perfectly fine,” Janet responded, to little effect, because suddenly everyone’s attention was on her. Janet should just say she was experiencing some cramps - which was technically true, though she was beginning to wonder where the distinction was between a cramp and a contraction.
Dick didn’t seem to be swayed so easily. “Are you going to have your baby?”
Jack put his hand over hers. “Do you think we should call it a night?”
“I think we should call an ambulance,” Dick said matter-of-factly, and Janet knew that violence isn’t the answer, but god she wished it was.
“Dick,” Bruce said warningly, before directing his attention back to Janet. “Is everything alright?”
No. No, everything was not alright, in fact nothing was right at all, and Janet’s dress was ruined.
“I think I might take that ambulance,” she said faintly. “I’m sorry about your chair.”
Dick seemed confused by that, but the butler - Alfred, she remembered, was quick to tell her not to fuss over trivial things as he ushered her towards the foyer. Bruce followed, grabbing his car keys - because it was too far out to wait for the ambulance to get here, and they’d be much faster driving themselves.
Somewhere in the back of her mind Janet thought about their own car parked out front, but it was difficult to think of much when she was suddenly very aware of every slight movement her baby made.
Her baby, an entire two months too early, who had apparently decided that they’d had enough of being confined to a womb and were ready to face the world.
It was a nice thought, as Janet watched the Bristol scenery become Gotham suburbs, but realistically it just meant that her baby would have to be set up in an artificial incubator while they actually finished developing.
The thought made her feel slightly sick, but considering how she had already felt queasy all night, it didn’t really make much of a difference.
“Janet?”
Janet turned to face Jack, taking in his worried brows and his frown that he kept trying to soften, to no avail.
“It’s going to be okay,” she whispered - she promised. No matter how this played out, Janet would make it okay.
“Quite a way to make an impression, huh?” Bruce asked, in a poorly concealed attempt to lighten the mood. He used to make horrible jokes before baseball matches, too, before inevitably missing all of his swings.
“Quite a way indeed,” Janet repeated hollowly.