Brave New World: Batwoman

Chapter 23

Jacob Kane was staring at all the files on his desk when he heard the door to his office open and before he could tell whoever it was that was disturbing him to beat it, he saw it was Kate.

"Kate, what brings you here?" Jacob asked her.

"Helena called me and told me she's worried about you. Apparently you haven't left your office in weeks." Kate said.

"Kate, I'm fine." Jacob said.

"Really, because the bags under your eyes and the exhaustion in your voice suggest otherwise. What's going on with you?" Kate asked.

"Kate, I'm fine." Jacob insisted.

"Dad, fine does not look like this for you. I mean, you've always been a bit of a workaholic, but never to this level. So what's wrong?" Kate asked.

"I've failed." Jacob said.

"At what?" Kate asked.

"At everything I've ever attempted. I've failed as a husband, I've failed as a father, hell, I've even failed at being the head of the god damn Crows." Jacob said.

"What are you talking about?" Kate asked.

"You never stopped looking for your mother or Beth. I did. I let myself be misled by Catherine and basically replaced your mother and sister and turned your sister into Alice." Jacob said, taking Kate by surprise.

"How did you know that?" Kate asked.

"I've been running a private investigation into her for months. I wanted to know why she was so intent on making us suffer and it's because of revenge." Jacob said.

"I'm surprised you're not in denial of it." Kate said.

"I was. For weeks, until I was forced to confront the truth. But how did you know?" Jacob asked.

"She told me. She wanted me to know how badly I'd failed as her sister." Kate said.

"I'm surprised she didn't kill you." Jacob said.

"She doesn't want me dead. Not now anyways." Kate said.

"But anyways, that's my point. My inaction led to Beth becoming one of Gotham's worst terrorists since the Joker and your mother has suffered through god knows what else." Jacob said.

"That's not your fault." Kate tried to tell her father.

"Isn't though? It's a man's job to protect his family and I failed on that royally. And then I made the same mistake with you when you disappeared. Instead of learning from my mistakes and putting every resource I had into searching for you, I allowed myself to be persuaded that you were dead. And the only thing I told myself I was good at, protecting Gotham and it's people, I failed at when I let the attacker hurt Ryan. Now she's lost her arm and your sister is devastated and I can't even get a confession from the person responsible about why." Jacob said.

"Dad, the only person who thinks you're a failure is you." Kate said.

"You know that's not true." Jacob said.

"Maybe, maybe not, but Dad, you're not going to be able to do anything or be any help to anyone if you burn yourself out. And blaming yourself for all this isn't going to help anyone." Kate said.

"I know that, but what else can I do Kate?" Jacob asked.

"Okay, I was hoping this wouldn't be necessary, but I think that you need a change of scenery." Kate said.

"What are you saying?" Jacob asked.

"What I'm saying is that I'm going to be telling Sophie that she is in charge of the Crows tomorrow, since you are taking your first day off ever in order to reset." Kate said.

"Kate, no. I can't leave." Jacob said.

"Too bad I'm not giving you a choice. You can't be productive if you work yourself into the ground. Besides, a day off can be helpful, since sometimes taking a step back from the problem can help you put things in perspective." Kate said.

"Fine. But only because I know you well enough to know that you won't take no for an answer." Jacob said.

"I'll even take the day off tomorrow so that we can have a father daughter day. We haven't had one of those since I got back." Kate said and Jacob smiled.

"Don't you have work to handle?" Jacob asked.

"It helps that I hate paperwork anyways and I can hand push it off on my Luke Fox." Kate said.

"And you thought you'd be a good CEO, why?" Jacob asked his daughter.

"Because I wanted to do some good for all of Gotham, not just the rich." Kate said.

"Really?" Jacob asked.

"Sorry, didn't mean to get into that now." Kate said.

"Good, because I've gotten enough complaints like that from your sister already and I really don't feel like getting into an argument right now." Jacob said.

"Okay, I'm taking you home to get some sleep. You look like you could use it." Kate said and the fact that her father didn't even argue with her again just further proved her point. Especially since she noticed that he was already falling asleep.

"Everything okay?" Sophie asked her girlfriend when she saw Kate half carry her father out of his office.

"I managed to talk my dad into taking tomorrow off and considering the fact that he's practically sleeping on his feet right now, I'm taking him home. It goes without saying, but you're in command now." Kate said.

"Commander Moore. I have to admit, I do like the sound of that." Sophie said.

"Don't get used to it Moore. I'll be back the day after tomorrow." Jacob said.

"Then I better enjoy it while I can. Take as much as you need sir. We need you at your best if we're going to be able to protect this city." Sophie said.

"I'll keep that in mind." Jacob said.

"Get him out of here." Sophie said and Kate nodded as she half carried, half dragged her father out of the building.