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Stephanie met this older guy, Dean, at the corner store she works at. He was buying cigarettes and his ID said he was 18. They date for 4 months before she finds out he’s 24. She screams at him about lying to her and when she turns to leave, he grabs her hand and pulls her to face him. His hands circle her throat and for a full minute she forgets that that she’s fucking Ophelia, Patron Saint of Crime Alley. She lifts her feet off the ground and rabbit kicks him in the stomach. He falls backward and she walks out in a daze.
She finds out she’s pregnant 2 months later.
Stephanie Quinzel-Isley is 15 years old and she’s sobbing on her bathroom floor, clutching a positive pregnancy test. She hasn’t even told her either of her mom’s about Dean yet. How is she supposed to tell them she’s pregnant?
She doesn’t have to. Her mama walks in and sees her and then her gaze flickers to the test. She cradles Stephanie’s head in her lap like she’s 6 years old again.
That day at dinner they ask her what she wants to do, and Stephanie has no fucking idea.
Jason left Gotham 7 months ago. She didn’t even get to see him. it’s still in the back of her mind that she made the whole thing up; that Jason is still rotting in that grave.
Stephanie cannot bear to lose anything else, but she is 15. She can’t be a mother, and she knows it.
She tells Dick next. She sobs the confession during Mean Girls, and she can feel him wrap his arms around her. Unlike her mother’s, she tells him the truth about Dean. She can see his face darken before he asks if she wants takeout. She says no and he cooks pasta instead.
Her life is not on track at-fucking-all. She is not supposed to be pregnant, and she’s not supposed to be a teenage vigilante, but she has adapted her life plan. She’ll have the baby and the give it away; she comforts herself in the knowledge her baby will be cared for, with parents who are ready, unlike Stephanie herself.
This plan goes off the rails when Bruce dies. Tim Drake goes fucking crazy, and she knows that Dick is worried about him. All her attention is on the tiny mini-Bruce that Talia Al-Ghul dropped off. Stephanie blames the hormones for how she sticks to this kid like a mother duck.
She even convinces Damian not to kill Tim! (It took a lot of bribing and negotiating but she accomplished it nonetheless!)
Dick takes up the Batman mantle; Tim fucks off to God-knows-where and Damian is Robin now. She tried to convince him to be her sidekick but to no success.
Damian is at her house right now while Dick is off with the Titans, and he pauses when he enters her room. she looks to see what he’s staring at and it’s a picture of Jason.
“That’s my brother, Jason.” She answers the unspoken question. His eyes widen and he exclaims, “You’re Stephie?” in a tone she can only describe as pure wonder. He schools his face before adding, “Akhi spoke highly of you.”
He looks at her in search of some answer and all she can muster up is, “Jason was at the League of Assassins?”
“After he was resurrected my mother used to Lazarus pit to heal his catatonic state.” He pauses before adding, “Did you really fight my Father when you were 12?”
Stephanie barks out a laugh at the memory. Jason and Bruce were arguing over his grounding and Bruce said something that Stephanie took as an insult to her brother. She then launched herself over the table and tackled Bruce to the floor. “Yeah, kid.”
Damian nods but she can see questions in his eyes.
“How were you and Akhi siblings?” he asks her one day after patrol. She pauses to think over her words before deciding on, “We chose each other.” Damian frowns and replies, “I couldn’t find any legal paperwork to support your familial relationship.” She laughs and says, “that’s cause there is none. We weren’t legally family, but we chose to be.” Damian looks bewildered at this.
“What will I do now that Father’s dead?” Damian asks her and Dick both. “You’ll stay with us.” She replies as if it’s obvious, and it is to Stephanie. Damian does his signature frown and says, “But you have no responsibility nor relation to me.” Her and Dick exchange looks. “You’re family now. You’ll stay with us.” She states tone firm. Dick nods.
They develop a routine. They’ll patrol and then either get something at Bat-Burger or have dinner at her mother’s house.
Stephanie has to stop patrolling month 6 of her pregnancy. Stephanie’s pregnancy is classified as cryptic. She has shown no morning sickness, and she doesn’t even have a baby bump. It worried Stephanie a lot at first but Dr. Thompkins assured her it’s normal.
Damian insists that he should be able to name the baby. When he was told no, he honestly pouts.
The next 2 months and something days pass by relatively easy. Her mothers both dote on her and Dick buys her far too many baby gifts.
A lot happens in one day. Bruce and Tim come back; Bruce from the fucking time stream?? And Tim from wherever the fuck he was.
Jason comes back to, with 3 more fucking children. He just waltzes into the Batcave they are all debriefing at. The silence is deafening before Damian darts forward and exclaims, “Akhi!” he also turns to the girl with red streaks in her hair and says, in a much less friendly tone, “Mara.”
The girl with red-streaked hair smirks, “Damian.”
The other girl chirps, “Athanasia!”
The two children just stare at her. “Well, no one else knew my name!” she reasons. “Oh! And that’s Reese!” she points to the brooding teenager who hasn’t left Jason’s side. The teenager rolls his eyes and corrects, “Respawn. My name is Respawn.”
It’s all chaos after that. Bruce is crying, the girl with red hair is Damian’s cousin, the taller girl is Damian’s older sister, The brooding teenager is Damian’s clone (???) brother, and Jason is alive and smirking.
Stephanie feels a contraction and announces to the room at large, “I’m in labour.”
Everyone turns to stare at her, even Dick has a look of disbelief on his face, and he’s known the entire goddamn time.
Jason looks so fucking shell-shocked, and she can almost laugh before she faints.
She wakes up to another contraction and her mom hovering over her anxiously. When her mom spots her open eyes, she puts on a calm face and asks, “Hey Stephie, You alright hon?”
In response, Stephanie scrunches up her face and moans in pain. Her mom smooths her hair and helps her sit up.
Labour is a fucking bitch. She has an epidural, but the pain is still spreading through her like wildfire.
Her daughter is born after 31 hours of labour. She declines to hold her.
Damian says that she looked like a mighty warrior after the adoptive parents have taken her. She cries in her mom’s arms.
She is let out of the hospital after 2 days. Dick is there waiting outside the hospital looking apologetic, “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner, there was a lot of figure out about the new kids and Jason’s appearance but I’ve still been a shitty brother—” he rants before she cuts him off by wrapping her arms around her. “Glad you’re okay, Steph.” Her eyes tear up.
She heads to the Manor with Dick despite her mother’s protests. Their compromise is them coming along.
As soon as Bruce is in her mama’s sights, she is on him like a bloodhound. She starts hitting him with vines and chastises his bad parenting skills. Her mom soon joins in on the bullying of the 50-year-old man.
Theres more chaos after that.
She sits down on the living room couch and starts talking to the new kids. They seem oddly eager to meet her. She finds out why when she is asked a million questions about her stunts when she and Jason where younger. She grins and asks, “He’s been talking ‘bout me?” they all nod. Her grin turns more feral.