Chapter Text
The horror and the shame of this is something she never thought she’d have to endure. She had her whole life planned out, her parents expected so much of her, and now? Now not only is she as far as possible from their expectations but she doesn’t even know who’s fault this is.
Damian has a boyfriend, of course, he should be the first suspect, the first person that should be coming to her mind the moment she learned of this. But, and it pains her to admit it, to admit that this… all of this, could never be Jon’s fault. It just means it’s someone else’s… Someone else’s fault, someone else’s baby. It means that she, in her stupidity, in her blissfulness that she could keep doing what she did without Jon knowing, she forgot that the ultimate proof of what she did is exactly the first thing she should’ve been worried about : a pregnancy.
Damian knows her parents will learn about this before she can even think of calling them or before she can even get home and talk to Bruce about it. She knows this is shameful even for the school, Gotham Academy, a school for the elite of the elite : the best of Gotham, and she’s staining that name because she couldn’t spend the holidays like a normal teen. They say this stuff is never only the fault of one, but two, the two that engaged in action without taking measures to be safe, but her brain can’t stop blaming her only. The shame of not only the Waynes, who have never been a normal family after Martha and Thomas were gone but still upheld some values in the city but also, and worst of all, the shame of the Al Ghuls, she doesn’t think her mother will ever look at her the same and her grandfather will never take her into account ever again; with new life blooming inside her she can feel hers ending, before it can even really start.
First week back to school, medical exams are due for the students: weight, height, blood and mental health. She’s always embarrassed when her turn comes, her dad is tall and her mom is too but somehow she got stuck at the same height she’s been ever since 10th grade. The tests are done every start of the year and every end of semester. The staff says it is important, she feels like it’s a way they can ensure control over any and all aspects of their lives. She’s in line with the other girls that are starting their senior year with her, but as she waits for her results she’s pulled aside. A teacher, her homeroom teacher from 11th grade, with a soft but sad smile on her face, softly pulls her from the arm to go somewhere else. It's weird, no one else is being pulled aside… But she goes with her.
“Ms. Wayne, we know it might be a bit weird and uncomfortable to disclose this with your teachers and the staff but… This is stuff you need to tell us before we do the tests, it changes everything : your weight mainly.” Damian has no clue of what she’s talking about, doesn’t everyone eat breakfast before school? It can’t mess that much with her weight, Alfred has a good diet for her… She doesn’t say anything, Damian just looks at the teacher, confused.
“Before coming to you,” the teacher continues, because this topic is heavy for both of them, she never expected this from someone in this school, much less a Wayne, even if her brothers before her weren’t perfect. “We talked to your parents on the phone… Ms. Al Ghul said she’d talk to you and Mr. Wayne… he said he was on his way. I… we, the faculty, want you to know that you’ve got options about this and… You need to know that mistakes are easy to make Ms. Wayne, no one will blame you for your decision. We do need to ask you, did you know you were pregnant before coming to school?”
And her world crashes down with that word… She can’t be, right? She’ll have mother fire everyone in the faculty if this is a cruel prank. But deep down she knows it’s not, she knows she made a mistake, with who? she doesn’t remember right now but even if someone asked her name right now she couldn’t answer. Obviously, she didn’t know of this before coming to school, she didn’t know this when Jon left her to go back to college two weeks ago… she didn’t know when she let Dick and Jason inside her three weeks ago… She only knew this, this right here, had made her into a bigger failure than she already was. Now what? Bruce is coming to get her, even if she has been at school for two hours and Talia is obviously waiting for her in the manor, her brothers have probably been told already and her grandfather probably already blocked her number and removed her mention in any documents regarding his state and family. That… that only leaves Jon, Jonathan would be the only one not to know… and yet, this is the worst possible thing after learning she’s pregnant, having to tell Jon.
They walk on eggshells around her, she knows they do, they all do, even Alfred; and she wants to scream and yell tell them this is not what she wanted, tell them she does not want this life, tell them she was working hard to make them proud, and that… She didn’t mean to ruin her own life.
College application talks have been swapped for conversations about what’s best for the baby, where she wants the nursery to go, what foods she should eat, what does the father want… Does the father want it? Because, even with how the world has advanced, the answer is not expected of her, even if Bruce said it was her decision, the answer is expected of Jon… the “father”. They’ve discussed it in private, Richard is busy handling his own life in a different city, one mistake shouldn’t tie him down to a city they all know he doesn’t want to live in and Jason… He’s as innocent as his brother, he also has a life to go back to, and he at least lives in Gotham, should he be the father, he’ll be close to the child without having to tell everyone it’s his. Damian also had a life… she wanted to yell at them, she wanted to puke out this being that’s growing inside her, she had a life in front of her, top of the world, prepared only for her… But she’s Ms. Wayne and not Mr. Wayne, so as long as she’s who she is, the decision does not lay in her, but in who they’ve all decided is the father : Jonathan Kent.
As the hours pass her need to vomit increases, and it’s not the pregnancy, it’s the arrangements that are being made in the manor. They’ve called Jon, of course they’ve called him, he’s the “father” after all, but she hoped it would take some time. She hoped she could maintain her life as long as possible but it seems mother and father aren’t listening to her… Not now, not anymore.
The arrangements in the manor go as follows : Jon is to take a semester off of college to live with Damian at the manor, he’ll take more time off if he sees if fit; Talia is also staying at the manor, mother and daughter should be together during these times; and finally, Damian, Tim, Jason and Bruce will continue to sleep in their rooms, or as close as they can, while the guests will stay in the guest house or the guest wing of the manor. Bruce does not want to see Jon even near his daughter’s room. And worst of all : Damian and Jon have to get married before she starts showing.
That’s the start of the end of Damian’s life… a sad start to a sad life. She does not want this, but she’ll live through it because she was born a Wayne-Al Ghul but that does nothing to the fact that she was also born a woman.