The Littlest Wayne

~8~

(A/N: This chapter is set in the Arkham Knight universe, this does not affect the story in any major way.)

{Something bad happens}

Lily jolted out of bed, bright eyed and wide awake and put crayon to paper straight away, Jay-Jay always liked seeing her drawings after a night of patrol, she finally finished her drawings and headed straight to Jason's room, he was usually awake by now.

"Jay-Jay! Look what I made for you!" She came in and paused in confusion, Jason wasn't there, his bed didn't even look slept in.

"Jay-Jay?" She looked in the bathroom, he wasn't there, he wasn't anywhere upstairs in fact.

She went downstairs and found Bruce, Dick and Alfred in the living room, Dick and looked like he'd been crying and Bruce looked like he was close to.

"Daddy?" Lily's voice caught their attention and turned to her.

"Lily, you're awake." Bruce said with a weak smile.

"Where's Jay-Jay?" Dick started to cry again.

"Come here sweetie, we need to tell you something." Lily came closer, not sure whether she liked this or not.
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Jason was... gone.

Even after a couple of days Lily still couldn't fully wrap her head around it, which is why she kept staying up, each night she'd stare at her bedroom door, clutching her favourite book, just hoping he'd walk through and read to her... just one more time.

Bruce and Alfred offered to, but it just wasn't the same. Ace nuzzled Lily's side.

"He's not coming is he?" Ace only whimpered in response.

The damm finally broke, Lily threw herself onto her bed, grabbed the red blanket and cow pig, and started crying, Bruce heard her and when he went to comfort her, she buried herself into his chest.

"I want... Jay-Jay back!" The way she said it, broke Bruce's heart.

"I know baby... I know..." He held her tightly, his eyes beginning to tear up.

Eventually, Lily cried herself out and fell a sleep, Bruce tucked her in and quietly left.

He sucked in a wet breath as he tried to compose himself, he needed to be strong, not just for him, but for his daughter, it wouldn't her seeing him in tears.

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Eventually, the bat family got a new addition, Tim Drake, Lily didn't really like him at first because she thought he was just there to replace Jason, but she realised, that she wasn't fair on him and that it wasn't his fault and now they're actually quite close.

Lily sighed in boredom.

"When are you guys gonna be finished? You've been at this for ages." Lily complained to her two big brothers, who were in the middle of a chess game.

"Lily, chess is a noble game of strategy and patience." Tim explained.
"We could be here for hours, days, even weeks."

"Yeah, I'm out." Dick got up from his chair and left.

"Finally! You know you could've won 5 minutes ago." Lily pointed out.

"And what makes you say that?" Tim asked.