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Alfred Pennyworth knew his job as a butler went far beyond the “serve from the shadows” mantra he often touted. He knew the moment his employers died, it was up to him to watch over their young son. Sometimes he wonders whether he did it right. Perhaps if he had done things differently, Bruce would have found a path that didn’t take him into the heart of danger every night.
He knew the moment Bruce returned with the intent to correct Gotham’s problems with fists and wit that watching over him would become a lot more complicated. He mourned the day that the darkness would take the man he now saw as his son. Mourned a loss that he knew must surely one day come (though he’d fight tooth and nail to prevent it). The first time Bruce came back severely injured, Alfred lit a candle in the cave, praying that he would be enough to save his child. When Bruce was stable (thanks to an emergency phone-in with Leslie Thompkins, bless her soul), Alfred returned to find the candle still lit. It became a ritual of his ever since, to light a candle for Bruce anytime he went out into the dark night.
Alfred knew his job to protect Bruce extended to his children (and what a pleasant yet heartbreaking surprise that was, to have grandkids). Alfred had happily gotten Dick settled in, trying to be a support for yet another child whose parents were taken too soon. Alfred had much less happily watched the first time Dick went out as Robin, though he never for a moment let it show. Another candle joined the first. Even when Dick set out to forge his own destiny as Nightwing, Alfred never stopped lighting his candle alongside Bruce’s.
Then came Jason, who was terrified for reasons no child ever should be. Alfred lit his candle long before he ever donned a mask. Jason grew close to Alfred, becoming a first child for so, so many reasons. He was the first Alfred had allowed free reign in the kitchen to cook with him. The first to ask Alfred to read to him, just because he liked books and didn’t want to be alone. The first to make Alfred consider going on vacation after he asked Alfred why the man never seemed to get one and threatened to go after Bruce about it. The first to learn about Alfred’s candles and why he now lit them every single night.
And Jason became the first to break Alfred entirely. Jason ran away, and Alfred chewed his son out for his lack of communication with his grandson. Alfred didn’t sleep that night, waiting in the cave for the moment Bruce and Jason returned. Sometime the next day, Alfred’s heart stopped when his closest grandson’s candle went out. When a distraught Bruce called an hour later, Alfred already knew. Jason was gone.
Alfred relit Jason’s candle the night Batman returned to the streets. Though his grandson was lost, he would never ever be abandoned. And many years later, when Jason broke into the cave filled with supernatural rage, the sight of his candle still burning was enough. Alfred, who had taken the night off, was in the kitchen making tea when he heard footsteps.
Jason was the first of his children and grandchildren to do many things in Alfred’s life. He was the first to willingly cook with Alfred. The first to ask Alfred to read to him. The first to break his heart. And, as Alfred turned around to lay eyes on the boy who had been stolen away, Jason became the first to see Alfred cry for joy.