Second Chance to Fail

by wellthatjusthappend

Summary:

Slade failed Grant, and now his boy is dead.

He knows he isn't making it better- if anything, he's making it worse- but this may be the only chance he ever gets to do things over.

Notes:

SladeRobinWeek2020 Day 7: Captive.

I know I'm two months late, but I figured I'd try and get the last of these fics out during 2020. I've got 3 others that are close... but we'll see.

Chapter 1

Slade still doesn’t know what made him decide to hide when he saw the kid- it was his son’s grave after all- but he couldn’t deny his curiosity as to what one of the Bat brats would be doing there of all places. 

It's the second Robin, he was pretty sure. There was a girl somewhere out there too. Slade had never paid much attention of any of them beyond Grayson, but he wondered- as the boy stared pensively down at Grant’s grave like it meant something- if he should have.

This one seemed to be another Omega. Maybe Bats was more kinked than he pretended to be. 

“Hey asshole,” the boy said to the grave, hands shoved deep into his pockets, “Sorry it’s been a bit since I came by, the old man has been on my back about everything lately and the last thing I need is him pitching a fit about this too.”

The kid gave a derisive laugh.

“I know you know how that is.”

Slade was beyond curious. He hadn’t known Grant had befriended one of the Bats. There had been no indication. Then again, like the kid had implied, he was the last person Grant would have come to about something like that. It did make his decision to take the contract on the Titans a little questionable though.

‘The job comes first, you hear me boy? Whenever you take a job, you’ve got to set aside all your other emotional hangups and get it done’

‘Yes, Pop.’

Then again, maybe not.

“Anyway,” the kid was saying, “I found something out recently, and i thought I should- thought I should maybe come see you before-”

The kid’s expression crumpled slightly, and Slade looked away. Maybe he should go. Watching someone else grieve for Grant made it impossible to ignore his own emotional turmoil. 

“We really screwed up this time,” the boy said in a small voice, “only, you’re dead so I guess it’s just me.”

That got Slade’s attention.

“You fucker, you should be here so I could punch you for getting me into this mess,” the Omega scrubbed at his face, “Why’d you have to take that dumb job, huh? I told you HIVE was going to screw you over. Why couldn’t you have just-”

A quiet shuddering breath. Then a bitter laugh.

“Bet you would have tried to get me to keep it, if you were here,” he said, “We probably would have fought like animals, and then you probably would have never spoken to me again when I went and got it done anyway.”

A deep breath.

"That's what you never got, it's not about wanting, it's- fuck Grant, I can't. I just can't. Even knowing you'd want me to, I still can't."

The gave the grave long look full of misery.

“I still wish you were here, bastard,” the kid said, “Even if it was just to yell at me because I’m not going to keep our baby. Even- I wish you were here.”

What.

The kid was still mumbling insults and apologies to the grave, but Slade’s brain felt like it had gone offline. 

A baby. Not just any baby, Grant’s baby. Slade’s grandchild. 

“Bruce would ground me until I was old and grey if he knew,” the Omega grumbled.

A baby. Slade’s mind was reeling. 

“And your dad- fuck, I bet even he’d flip out too,” he muttered. 

The kid had no idea. 

“Anyway, I just wanted to see you before I went,” the kid said.

Would the kid look like Grant or Robin? Would Slade even be able to deal with him if he looked like Grant? Would he be able to stay away even if he didn’t?

“I’m not sorry for what I’m going to do,” the boy said, tipping his chin back stubbornly, “but… I am sorry you don’t even have the chance to try and talk me out of it.” 

Out of what? Slade didn’t care. He’d had other plans for the day, but they all went out the window in the face of boy at the grave. The soon-to-be father of his grandchild. Grant’s-

Hell, Slade didn’t even know what the boy had been to Grant. Something. Close enough to get knocked up, apparently, and hadn’t Slade given him a better sex education than that? 

The kid was too fucking young. 

Not that it mattered at that point. 

Robin didn’t stick around the graveyard too much longer after that. Slade carefully followed him from a distance. He didn’t even really know what he was planning, he just knew that he couldn’t let the boy out of his sight. 

Things got a little more complicated when they got back into the city. 

The boy wove in and out of busy streets like a shadow. He never hid, but he blended in so well with the people that Slade nearly lost him several times. The Omega seemed to be keeping an eye out for the rooftops and avoided areas that were likely to have security cameras, but he hadn’t seemed to have noticed that Slade was following him on foot. 

He supposed the Bat’s and Birds were more likely to travel by sky. Interesting that this one did not. 

The kid was up to something for sure. Something Daddy Bat’s wouldn’t approve of. Normally, Slade would be cheering the kid on in his head, but he was too wound up for that. Especially as Robin lead him deeper into the less reputable parts of town. 

Slade fingered his weapons. He'd already decided he wasn’t going to tolerate anything harming his future grandchild. Grant’s child. Since Robin was carrying the child that extended to him too, for now. He’d just have to take a break from his nightlife, even if Slade had to force him too. 

The omega made his way towards a shady looking clinic, glancing around, before making for the backdoor. 

All at once, it clicked together. Slade cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner, especially with all the kid’s comments. The apology at the grave, the sneaking around so the Bat wouldn’t catch wind of it, the- the kid was getting rid of it. He was- maybe had already?

Slade didn’t think, he just snatched the boy up and dragged him into a back alley. The Omega fought back hard, everything from nerve strikes, to kicks, to a sharp pair of teeth in Slade’s arm, but there wasn’t much he could do. Robin wasn’t in his armor, didn’t have his pockets filled with all his nasty tricks. Slade was twice his size and had enhancements. 

Slade buried his face in the curls of the struggling boy and breathed in deep. 

There. Just the beginnings of the sweet tang of early pregnancy. Whether or not he was telling the truth about the baby being Grant’s, he certainly was pregnant and he hadn’t had a chance to do anything about it yet. 

Slade didn’t plan to give him one. 

“Get off of me, you fucking creep!” the boy growled, delivering a perfectly aimed kick. Slade grunted, but didn’t loosen his grip one bit. 

They needed to get out of there before someone came round to notice them. Not to mention, the Bat would be onto them soon enough once he noticed his little bird was missing. It wasn’t fair to the kid, but there was no chance Slade was letting him go.

He’d already lost Grant, there was no chance he was losing the last piece of him left.

Notes:

Slade has no idea what he's getting into and Jason isn't going to be a passive captive. Then again, I don't think Slade is going to be prepared for how much Jason is going to remind him of his dead son, nor how much he's going to end up caring about him. And Jason, well... I don't think he's going to be prepared for an attentive pack that's invested in him wants him around. It will be all too easy to forget he's there against his will if he's not careful.

The Bat's are going to freak when Jason goes missing. They're probably going to see that he was kidnapped by Slade and that he's pregnant and assume the worse. It's going to be war.

Chapter 2

Notes:

I realized wasn't going to be able to resist doing a couple chapters from Bruce's perspective, so I'm back to not knowing how many chapters this will be.

Jason had gone out that day and never come back. 

Bruce usually let the boy have a fair bit of freedom. Dick had left him because he was too controlling and he was determined not to make the same mistake with Jason. They might be fighting a lot more in their partnership, but Bruce hoped the space and freedom he gave him in his personal life might make up for it. 

Off the street, Jason was usually fairly well-behaved. Sure there were the cigarets he had to confiscate, but the boy’s mother had died of an overdose. He felt confident he didn’t have to worry about him doing drugs or getting blackout drunk. Dick had been much more prone to the party scene and it had given Bruce near constant anxiety about his first Omega child. 

Bruce was a Bata, his parents had both been Alphas, and Alfred was also a Beta. And yet all of his children thus far had been Omegas. 

Jason was more likely to stay late for an extra credit project. Which made his disappearance all the more worrisome. 

“Have you tried calling him, sir?” Alfred asked.

“Of course I have,” Bruce snapped. 

“Ah, of course. How silly of me to assume that you hadn’t when it is clearly your first inclination to speak to the affected parties directly,” Alfred said dryly. 

“His tracker has also been removed,” Bruce said, “I got an alert this afternoon at the office.”

“Which is when you deduced something must be wrong,” Alfred nodded, “have you considered that the young sir may have turned it off himself for some extra privacy?”

“He did turn it off himself,” Bruce said testily, he got an alert for that one too. But he had Jason had an agreement that Jason could do that when he needed to, just so long as he understood that Bruce had the override so that he could find him in case of an emergency. 

“Then I’m not quite sure-”

“Then it was removed ,” Bruce said pointedly. 

That wasn’t just not wanting Bruce to know where he was and what he was up to. That was much more permanent and Jason would have known that too. 

“Do you fear that he’s run away from home, or that he’s been taken?” Alfred said in a much more serious voice. 

“I hope he’s just run away,” Bruce said as he knelt on the floor and began sorting through his things, “But Jason has nowhere he would go. Not outside the community anyway, and there would be no point in removing the tracker for that. ” 

Something he hated to think about. How isolated the boy was in comparison to Dick. He worried he may have had a hand in that as well, that he should have pushed him at the Titans more.

“Not quite, sir,” Alfred said, clearing his throat slightly, “Actually Master Jason frequently stays overnight with a friend when you’re out of town and there is no patrol.”

“What?” Bruce looked at him sharply. It was the first he was hearing of it. 

“The young Master has had quite a difficult time making any friends at that school of his given his previous social background, and there are no young heroes in his age group at this time. I felt it was very important to give the young Master his privacy and develop his first friendship at his own pace,” Alfred said pointedly. 

Bruce knew it was a dig at his tendency to dig into the background of anyone spending time with his sons. 

Still.

“Dynamic?” he growled back.

“Omega. That’s all I know, sir,” Alfred said, then paused, “though Master Jason usually informs me if he will be visiting his friend so I know not to make dinner.”

“Omega’s can still get into plenty of trouble,” Bruce growled, thinking of Dick. 

“To be sure.”

“I’ll look into it,” he grunted, “but I don’t think he ran away.”

Bruce held up Jason’s getaway bag from under his bed. Despite Bruce’s frequent assurances that he would never throw him out, Jason had always kept it just in case he had to split and run. It had warm clothes, food, a couple of his favorite books, and most importantly the only surviving pictures of his mother and the playing cards they used to use before she had fallen too ill. 

“He wouldn’t willingly leave without this,” Bruce stated.

The worried pinch to Alfred’s face said he agreed. 

“Shall I inform the police?” Alfred asked seriously. 

“Yes, but they won’t be able to treat it like a kidnapping until 24-hours have passed,” Bruce said. He doubted the police would be any help in this, especially missing information about their night life. Still, “they still need to know in case someone calls in a ransom.”

That is if someone was after Bruce Wayne’s ward. If someone was after Robin, then it got a whole lot more complicated. 

Suddenly the papers in the room all fluttered in an unnatural breeze. 

“Bruce!” Clark said urgently, “Why aren’t you picking up your communicator?”

Because he forgot to put it in when he realized something might have happened to Jason. 

“What have I told you about coming here uninvited?” Bruce glowered at him.

“Not to? But Bruce, please, we need you,” Clark said grimly, moving to pick him up and no doubt fly him to the watchtower transporter. 

Just that fast, Bruce cracked open the container in his belt with kryptonite. Not much, but just enough what Clark stopped hovering and dropped to the ground with a slightly pained grunt. 

“I won’t be able to make it,” Bruce said flatly. 

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Clark said rubbing his chest and glaring at him, “this is an emergency!”

“I can’t. Make. It.” Bruce growled.

“Mister Kent, what Master Bruce is trying to say is that we are having something of our own emergency here,” Alfred interceded, giving Bruce a look for his antics. 

Bruce wasn’t sorry. His son was missing and the league had more than enough super-powered heroes to be able to handle whatever the situation was. 

“Oh,” Clark blinked, seeming to notice for the first time that they were in a child’s bedroom. 

He took an obvious breath and tested the different scents in the air.

And proceeded to change Bruce’s life with a single sentence. 

“Because Jason is pregnant?”

Bruce dropped the kryptonite.

Notes:

If Slade could pick it up in his scent, so could Clark. Bruce and Alfred might have trouble though as Betas, which is why they hadn't noticed yet.

(One) of Bruce's worst nightmares about parenting Omega children has just been realized. His son is most likely kidnapped and pregnant. RIP whatever crisis the Justice League is having.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of SladeRobinWeek 2020