Chapter Text
Mary sighed as she changed Peter. His cries calmed at the new diaper. She cleaned up and put him back to bed.
She was so tired. Sometimes she wanted to put him on the fire escape, lock the window and just sleep. She felt horrible thinking that but Mary hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep since Peter had been born. She pushed the tuft of dark hair out of his face. He was mostly bald but this little hair clump stuck around. It reminded her of his father.
When Mary had found out she was pregnant she had expected something in the way of support. She hadn’t expected romance or marriage or anything grand. Given how family oriented the Waynes were she had expected Richard to be more open to the kid.
Instead Bruce Wayne had been declared dead, his eldest had taken in his youngest son, and he’d been taking over the company. The daughter had been seen in Hong Kong and the second oldest surviving boy had vanished after being CEO.
Richard had ignored her texts. Or maybe she had been blocked. She wasn’t sure. She tried reaching out to the legal department. She’d received a threatening note in return from them.
Mary had been too tired then to keep following up.
It had been a hard pregnancy.
She’d given birth early.
Peter was perfect despite it.
She had seen the news recently. Bruce Wayne had come back from the dead, as had his deceased son. They’d been kidnapped. The Justice League had been involved. Mary wasn’t sure what to make of that but the family had come back to Gotham for it.
The picture of the reunited family taunted her.
Richard’s son was in a rented room in Queens, Mary was fending off her hospital bills. Mary had finished her dissertation but hadn’t landed a job while she was pregnant. May was paying for her room while she worked in one of the big hospitals, getting shift after shift to get them into a bigger place.
Mary sighed. Things would get better once she got past this postpartum slump. She’d get an attorney and work in at least getting child support. Richard didn’t need to be in his life, but Mary would be damned if he got out of being responsible for his son.
That seemed so far away though. She just wanted to cry and sleep. Mary took a shower and tried to sleep.
Peter woke up crying.
Mary joined him.