Chapter Text
It was a Saturday in August and all of Gotham was abuzz with the news of the latest high society wedding. Gotham Cathedral itself had been decorated and prepped for the grand day that the city had been waiting for that had finally arrived. Businessmen, tycoons, the mayor, even the police commissioner were all attending even if more out of social expectation than genuine interest, considering who the bride was.
The bride in question was in her prep room, having asked her maids of honor to give her a moment to mentally prepare herself for what she had long been wanting but found herself terrified of committing now that it was so close.
Cassandra wasn’t sure she could do this.
The dress was perfect, the weather was lovely … as far as weather in Gotham went, and everything that had happened over the last few years felt like a complete dream of luck and impossibility.
Three knocks on the door, brief and light – Alfred. “Might I come in, Miss Cassandra?” Ever polite, ever there. She wasn’t sure where she would be without his help and getting her used to the upper echelons of Gotham society, figuring out what she could reasonably get away with and what not.
“Yes.” The answer is late, too lost in her thoughts, but Alfred was forever patient and didn’t even ask if she hadn’t heard him. He knew that she did, and knowing that she was processing every single thing that was coming to mind, he waited until she spoke. Knowing him and the seriousness that he took his job, she wouldn’t have been surprised if he would’ve waited out there until the ceremony started.
“Nervous?” he asked, closing the door behind himself before walking over to her. “I’ve heard that it’s perfectly normal.” His dark hair was already showing signs of receding, and little bits of grey peeked at his temples, but he just claimed his greying and thinning hair was all from how much he worried for her.
‘But I’m not,’ She signed at him, not trusting her voice to be heard through all the emotions she was drowning in, ‘normal. Not normal.’ She clenched her hands and stared at herself in the mirror, her short hair done up a thousand tiny ways she never knew would matter to anyone or even why someone would have to do so much to their hair. The white dress contrasted her black hair and she hated that she had to have long sleeves for her wedding dress because they were hiding the scars that crisscrossed her arms.
Alfred sighed, standing next to her and looking in the mirror with her. “With all due respect, ma’am, nothing here is normal and that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes something new and unexpected is what we need to keep our lives from getting stale.” He shook his head slightly, “If I would have known how many of your costumed friends would be attending, I might have suggested a more personal venue. But I and the man you love never would have asked you to change yourself to be more ‘normal’ because we love you as you are.”
‘Dinah said church was too big.’ Cass gave a small smile as she signed, remembering the blonde’s reaction to exactly where in Gotham that the wedding would be taking place.
“Yes, well, whenever she gets married she can choose a smaller venue.” Alfred held his hand out for her, “But for today, nothing but the grandest. Heaven knows you of all people have earned a happy ending.”
Cass took his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze at the reminder of where she’d come from. Of who’d she been and eventually … who she’d become. David Cain held no power over her anymore, even if the scars he’d given her still marred both her skin and her mind, she would offer him no more power or control. She’d escaped from him and became her own person; her own hero. She picked a name that reflected her history and life once she started reading, going by the name ‘Orphan’ more out of making her rejection of Cain more concrete to herself than anyone else.
“Wouldn’t have found it without you two.” She whispered, fighting to keep her voice calm even as Alfred grounded her by holding her hand and just being there. Talking with her or just being a presence in the room to focus on.
“You would have.” Alfred reassured her, “But fate made sure that we all met when we did.”
Cass nodded, remembering that first night they’d all met – she’d been stabbed during a fight with some mob enforcers trying to rob a storefront and definitely would have died from bleeding out if she hadn’t been found. That night, she’d found out later, had been memorialized in the study at Wayne Manor so that it would never be forgotten.
“She ready?” Dinah poked her head into the room with a smile, her long blonde hair done up in a neat bun.
Alfred never dared to speak for her, “Are you, my dear?” he asked, looking down at her with those eyes that made her wish that someone would have looked at her so gently in her childhood.
Cass smiled and nodded, “Yes.” She let go of his hand and held her elbow out for him, and he didn’t even hesitate, locking her arm with his and leading her out into the church as the music began to start, alerting everyone to take their seats. As they walked out, she pulled Alfred down to give him a small kiss on the cheek, “Thank you.”
Cass watched her friends pair off with the groomsmen and bridesmaids down the aisle, Kon paired up with Dinah so that she wouldn’t have to “be stuck next to one of those stuffy Gotham elites” as she put it so eloquently. Diana had been marginally surprised that Cass was getting married, but had thrown herself into supporting a fellow warrior woman, even if she didn’t understand the attraction to men.
Then came her part.
“One step at a time, ma’am.” Alfred helpfully whispered as he walked her down the aisle. In lieu of her own father, Cass had asked the older Englishman to do the honors since he’d been far more of a father to her than Cain had been. Than anyone else had been, really. Spying the groom standing there at the altar, she couldn’t help but smile back at him. A lifetime of hell to come out happy on the other side; this was her day.
Alfred handed her to the groom, and even though they’d gone through the rehearsal twice, she still had to try and focus and remember when she was supposed to speak. This was insane! She was Orphan, she leapt off tall buildings and fought supervillains from Gotham’s sewers and aliens from space!
But this was a good nervous.
Finally, her wandering mind tuned back in to the priest as he asked her for her vows, “Do you take Thomas Wayne to be your husband, to love and to cherish, in rich or poor …”
She didn’t even need to hear the rest of the vows. For her, this was everything she’d been waiting for, and the priest was barely done talking when she said “I do.”
The priest, for his part, only smiled good-naturedly, “I now pronounce you husband and wife. Thomas, you may kiss the bride.”
Thomas barely had time to catch Cassandra as she practically jumped up at him to kiss him, his broad build easily towering over her, she’d been surprised to find out he was a doctor instead of a fighter when she first saw his size. But that just meant she had more to hold on to.
“I love you.” Thomas said as their kiss ended, his mustache failing to even hide any single part of his smile.
Cass beamed back up at him as their friends and family cheered the loudest in the church, “I love you more.”
A lifetime of hell to get to heaven on the other side. And this … this was her happy ending as Cassandra Wayne, the wife of Thomas Wayne.