#eira wayne

Bc Q keeps randomly knocking down my door and screaming EIRA every few months/aff

Part 1

Within a week the family has worked together to craft an official statement for the press

If it weren't for goddamn ras tim would be advocating the "keep all reporters and paps the fuck away from my baby" approach, but as it is he just has to try to minimize damage

They hold a small press conference in Wayne tower, where they've got absolute top security around, and Bruce is right by Tim's side expressing unwavering support and 0 judgment as Tim states that he's stepping down from his position (not CEO he was in charge if like R&D since Bruce came back)... in order to care for his infant daughter

Dead silence. Wide-eyed stares

Tim takes a deep deep breath and says

"Her name is Eira Bahar Wayne. Her mother is my best friend *he's a bit choked up, because he's never going to get them to understand exactly what steph is, more than friend, other than lover, one of the most amazing women in the world* and if you will all take a moment now to turn off any flash or recording lights... they'll come out and say hello."

It was a calculated move, introducing Eira literally in Stephs arms. Tim's the famous one, no one will forget that he's a teen parent, that he claimed this kid. He's also eiras literal biological father, she has 23 chromosomes from him and sooner or later that's going to become apparent

She also has 23 chromosomes from a woman who is not steph.

There can't ve any doubt in the publics mind that steph carried and bore Eira, tho, or ras has an in. So Eira meets the world this way, so that the very first pictures to exist of her are *with her mother*, with Steph smiling so lovingly and holding her totally correct, eiras blanket and stephs dress even subtly matching and complimenting Tim's suit.

That's why he goes to meet them, arm around stephs back, and brushes eiras little Itty bitty curls that Tim thinks are from his mom, and they step forward as a unit

He thinks it works

Camera shutters are GOING OFF (thankfully no flash, he didn't want to go red robin on them) and several reporters are awwing and sighing

They ask a few questions, to Tim and to steph. They share facts - eiras birth height and weight, how long Tim and steph have known each other - but not stories - how long wad the birth, did you decide to have a child or happy accident?

Tim kind of wants to punch the guy who asked that but he forces a laugh and says it's rude to ask a lady such things

And then it's over and the next day 3 different newspapers have it as the headline story

Eira becomes a celebrity overnight. All of Gotham is SCREECHING about how adorable she is, how adorable their family is, how Tim is now a DILF (he blocks that tag) how lucky steph is to have Tim and eira

(There's other screeching too, about teen parents and recklessness and gold digging and debauchery and-- Babs keeps all that off Tim's and stephs feeds, monitoring it herself to ensure it never gets too loud)

Tumblr has an EIRA WAYNE PROTECTION SQUAD blog with over a hundred followers, #eiratheadorable is trending on Twitter, and they've recievied probably fifty handmade baby things in the past 2 months - blankets, hats, mittens, an empty scrapbook to fill, a nursery-appropriate superheroes painting

It's a little overwhelming but it's kind of nice

Tim and steoh make sure to go out and be seen every few weeks, together or apart, with eira on their hip, in a baby sling, in a stroller. For the most part people keep a respectful distance as they beam and coo and wave, and anyone who doesn't is quickly blocked by Cass or Damian, or dick when he's in town

(Jason isn't supposed to be alive and Bruce was found to be way too over protective. Tim AGREES but daaaad stop, you can't give away your batman voice bc one idiot had his flash on)

And exactly 3 months after eiras announcement, the perfect amount of time to cement her as part of the family, cute and tiny and lovable, an ideal in Gotham imagination...

Bruce and Talia announce their marriage and the date for a public, FANCY, vow-renewal, and take the people by STORM

Part 1

• While Damian and Bruce get Talia to the medbay, Babs calls the others home from patrol for a family meeting

• They all meet in the cave, everyone shocked to see Talia, and sure enough Jason's ready to lop off some heads if only they were closer

• Bruce explains, slightly pink in the face, about the altercation and admits to the secret marriage license

• I FUCKING KNEW IT Dick shrieks

• "I DID know it," Jason says, sticking out his tongue.

• Damian is pissed that he did not know it but he wanted it, so he says he knew it

• Tim is listening with wide eyes, clutching a sleeping Eira so so close against his chest and trembling slightly because, God, the league was HERE, they were going to TAKE HER AWAY and probably KILL HER or or use her against him, and...

• Steph quietly asks if she can hug him, and Tim sags in her arms

• Bruce and Babs and even Talia rush to reassure him that its ok. The records are in place now, that makes it DAMN hard for ra's to do anything, and once they... well they dont HAVE to but if they make it publicly known that Eira is TIMS the way Damian is BRUCES then Ras will well and truly be powerless

• Tim nods grimly. He knows what all the socialites will think, what the board will think, the general popualtion... he knows he's in for all the judgment and scrunity and insults that come with being a teen dad but if it keeps Eira safe then he doesn't fucking care

• He tucks her closer under his chin and she makes a sleepy itty bitty sound, tiny fingers fisting in his shirt. Her peach-fuzz hair is so so soft against his jaw. He imagines for a split second if he doesnt come out and claim her, if Ra's, if...

• He moves his hand to protect her head and dips his own head to kiss her. He wont let it happen. He cant.

• Babs clears her throat

• She explains that she had started a fake birth certificate a while back, but hadn't brought it to Tim yet because she didnt want to overwhelm him, thinking they had time. Shes got Eiras DOB, sex, height, weight, and Leslie's signature and date to say that she delivered the kid and saw her through to discharge

• She was going to have Tim physically sign it, but had to forge it instead

• Tim tells her thats fine. He can scribble right on top if they want, but she does good work.

• Babs still.looks uncomfy.

• A few others seem to realize why

• She explains softly that the reason she'd waited was because she didn't want to make him think about what to put down for Eira's mother.

• The room goes still

• Babs takes a deep breath and works through her split-second logic, eyes pleading for tim either to understand or forgive

• There was no way for her to forge something as Eira's birth mother, even if she had thought Tim would want that

• "I don't" he mutters. She doesn't deserve that. Not after she let Ra's (try to) KILL the baby she raped Tim to get

• Babs rushes, almost stumbles, through her explanation of why she didn't create a fictitious woman - how the hell to account for her and how they met, because there WOULD be questions, the possibility that Ra's could poke holes without a woman who could and would support the claim, the way it felt so degrading to Tim to make up some random rapist that would never be brought to justice or random lover who'd end up as some Unspoken Of Shame because a sympathetic human could never be produced...

• She takes a deep breath and says that if Tim had been older, she would have claimed Eira herself, be the one to take the "fall" for not having done the whole thing sooner. But Tim’s ten years her junior, she's been too publicly involved with Dick, and it would force them into a charade that would be too long and public and awkward for either of them

• Tim slowly nods and agrees, no offense babs, but he doesn't want to pretend he trysted with his big brother's girlfriend

• She nods and takes a deep breath and says that she... she forged Steph's signature for Eira's mother

• Tim's eyes widen

• Steph goes very still

• Barbara rushes to explain that she KNOWS they're not like that, but they ARE so so close, if it came to speaking up to something Ra's tried to pull, steph could and would, based on eira's looks, she COULD pass as their genetic daughter, steph already knows the whole story and wouldn't need to be brought up to speed, she already adores Eira, and Steph, she knows... she knows... she doesnt, she SWEARS she didnt choose her judt because...

• "Its ok" Steph says softly

• It... was a shock, for a minute. It still feels a bit weird, under her pounding heart. Because Steph already has a baby. Except she gave it up. Suddenly, in the eyes of... everyone, she's a mom again, but Eira isn't her kid. She didnt carry her, birth her, nurse her. Steph was not a person you trusted to be a mother

• At fifteen, she reminds herself. She's 18 now. She's 18, and her one act as a mother WAS to ensure her child went to a good, loving, stable home, the one she couldn't have provided.

• But now... she still doesn't have her act together, but this baby's dad is THERE. He's also got a huge family thats *there* and a house. Money for anything Eira needs. Steph... Steph isn't goingnto be tryijg to do it alone.

• And she and Tim aren't together, she doesn't know if they will again or wont but still, they've been best friends for years, they've gotten through their fights, and she KNOWS him. She loves him, and she loves Eira. And maybe that's enough. Just that she loves them and they love her, and *need* her too. Besides, Babs already signed her name

• Steph finds a smile, and hugs Tim and Eira a little tighter. His eyes are wide and worried, looking at her

• "Hey, I'll claim your lil cutie any day," she says

• Tim feels something unwind in his chest. He doesn't think he'd have ever asked but... but Steph feels right. He almost wishes it could be the way they're going to say it was. He can't summon a picture of mom and dad kind of love without wanting to throw up, but. He and Steph aren't and don't have to be that. She's the best friend hes ever had and... and best friends can raise a kid together

• Because he knows Steph will commit. If they're saying Tim is Eira's dad and Steph is Eira's mom... they used to talk about how their parents had done things, how they refused to follow those examples. But he and Steph have been a team for a long time. They can be a team in this. They're a good team.

• "She has your eyes," he jokes, rather weakly, but when their eyes meet, he knows they're both agreeing. They both look at babs and nod

• She looks incredibly relieved, even as she assures them both that she would have asked if she had ANY more time, and shes sorry she didn't

• But its ok. Tim looks around at his family. His dad, looking both sad and proud. His... stepmom? That'll take some getting used to, but Talia isn't Ras or Maat. Shes Damian and Jasons mom. She looks very mom like right now.

• His brothers, soft and only a little pained, Dick blinking very hard, Jason still looking understandably murderous, and Damian dazed as he holds Talia's hand

• His sisters, Babs relaxing and giving him a hesitant smile, Cass bouncing a little with what may either be rage or happiness, her face is too even to tell.

• His daughter, sleeping safe and sound against his heartbeat, untouched by the trauma that surrounds her

• His... His partner. Steady and warm at his side, determined and brave in this as she is in everything she cares about

Part 1 tw for referenced rape

The first few weeks are a challenge

They have to teach Eira how to eat/drink from the bottle, and it's nowhere near as simple as Tim would have thought. She just doesn't seem to know what to do with that tiny red mouth, and so she barely gets the food in, then she cries and cries and CRIES because she's hungry, and Tim starts crying too, because he's failing at this already. Steph's the one who finally cracks the code, and though she grins and tells the astonished batboys it was magic, she quietly murmurs to Tim that her Baby struggled too. Tim finally hugs Steph then, and they just sit together in the nursery for a long time

Diapers are another mess. Tim feels like he must be sick in the head for this but he just. He can't. Dick's the one to sit him down and tell him its ok, he's not sick, trauma gets processed in hella weird ways and he's not fully surprised. He pitches in, and so does everyone else (except damian. He is above soiled diapers thank you) and slowly Tim goes from being in the room, to watching how it's done, to doing it on his own. It makes him feel better about himself, even if he cannot wait until they can get through the "potty training" thing

But when it comes to calming her to sleep.... this, THIS is where Tim finally feels like maybe he can do this Dad Thing after all. Being such a new baby, Eira wakes up A LOT in the nighttime. And despite there being several people off patrol to help be caretakers, Tim is without fail the first to wake up and leap across the hall (if he wasn't on the nusery couch already) and scoop Eira up and hold her gentle and close against his heartbeat and murmur sweetly to her. But Not sweet nothings. Becuase theyre not nothings to Tim. When he says "It's ok, I'm here..." and when he begins to add, "I love you" he says it because he MEANS it. And as if Eira understands, she calms. She clenches her tiny itty bitty fingers in his shirt like Tim really is her only liferaft in a storm, and her squinched little face smooths out, and she'll give the most precious soft sigh he's ever heard before she's asleep again

To spite her being sentenced to death for her gender-based "uselessness" by Ra's, Eira becomes the most prized little princess that has ever joined the batfam, and that is SAYING SOMETHING

It has been close to forty years since Alfred has held a baby and godDAMN he's missed it. He is very good about sharing though, and is watchful for Tim's sake that she's away from his arms for long enough but not too long, remembering how downright feral Martha and Thomas could get when other people held Bruce without giving him back. Actually, plop Eira in his arms and Alfred will tell ALL KINDS of stories about Baby Bruce. Bruce is mortally embarrassed but the kids LOVE it and will literally forfeit their own chance at baby cuddles to hear Alfred detail Bruce's show-stopping discovery of his own toes.

Bruce had a month in a PICU ward during med school, so he knows ABOUT babies but he's never had one in his family before, but OHMIGOD BABIES ARE THE BEST FUCKING THINGS EVER OH GOD SHE'S SO CUTE OH FUCK HE WANTS ONE TOO-- he's very excited to be able to hold and care for one :) there's messy emotions in there too tho, both on the side of realizing that he never GOT to see any of his kids as babies, even Damian, and that kinda makes him sad, and then also.... this is supposed to be a miracle, he thinks. Sometimes its like they all forget, when they hold Eira or see Tim hold Eira with that loving awe on his face.... that she's only here because of something evil. Something cruel. And that's not her fault and it is good and right in many ways to disconnect the tragedy from the miracle.... but he also privately warns his own children every so often to tone down certain jokes or comments

Dick’s right there with him. Every so often, looking at Tim and Eira, he can't help but wonder what if Catalina...? Would that have helped or made it worse? Or would he have ever even known? And then he has to just Stop before he drives himself insane. He'll refocus on playing baby games with Eira, or changing jason's ringtone to Baby Shark, or ordering Tim to take a nap gdi there are 8 other people in this house and any one of them can give Eira her bottle

Cass has appointed herself Eira's personal body guard. She hovers like a mother hen, is constantly on watch (its hard to even get her to come on patrol) and scolds anyone who's holding her wrong or taking too long with a bottle or diaper. She won't confront it, but she knows it comes from her guilt. She didn't protect Tim, but she'll be DAMNED if she can't protect Eira

Babs has never interacted with babies, really. But wow is Eira cute. She's also super cuddly, which adds to the adorableness. Babs does a fuckton of research and privately keeps an eye on Eira's developmental progress, making sure her arduous first few hours post-birth haven't fucked her up too badly. So far so good. She also tries to keep an eye on Tim to make sure he's not running himself into the ground. So far... as good as can be expected.

Jason is still slowly trying to burn the league to ashes and salt the remains, but HOLY FUCK HE HAS A BABY NEICE WITH TINY TOES AND THE CUTEST FUCKING GIGGLE OH GOD WHY IS SHE SO CUTE THIS IS UNFAIR HE CANNOT FUCKING DEAL. He is constantly volunteering to help, and also constantly marvelling over the fact that he's ALLOWED to. Hes killed people. He nearly killed Tim once. But Tim trusts him enough to lay this tiny sweet little baby girl in his arms with a yawn, and say he won't bother to tell Jason to take care of her bc he already knows he will. Its honestly the most wonderful feeling in the world. (But hes still got an immortal bastard to murder. Yknow. After baby snuggles.)

Steph... is ok. Totally. Truly. Shes not at all thinking about her baby, who she never named, because she gave it away. Shes not thinking of the agony of labor, or the wonder of seeing the small, living and breathing human that was made inside her body. Shes not wondering how in the world any mother who birthed her child could ever stand to let it be buried in the snow to die. .... shes lying. Tims 17. Hes still just 17 and hes doing it, raising his kid. Hes not that much older than Steph was. But then she reflects, hes got a house of a dozen people to help him, with ANYTHING he or Eira might need. Steph didn't have that to give her Baby. She has to still believe she did the right thing.

Damian is slowly adjusting. Something shifted between him and Tim that first night in the nursery, when Damian all but named the child born to replace him for a role he no longer wants anything to do with. The two aren't friends by any stretch, but there's something calmer and respectful between them. The words they speak don't cut. The jibes they make are light. Damian's not sure if it's something to do with Tim himself, or with the infant almost always clutched to Tim's chest, but his brother seems wiser now. Not so foolish or flippant. It makes Damian respect him more, but he can't help but feel guilty it took trauma to get them to such a point. But its ok. They'll work on it.

And Tim... Tim. He loves his kid. He knows that. He loves that little girl more than he's loved anything in the world before. So whatever happens, he can get through it. For Eira.