Fic: 12 Years of Christmas 8/12: What Child is This?
Title: 12 Years of Christmas, 8/12
Authors: lady_sarai and zoe_chan
Continuity: Follows Young Justice and Teen Titans and main continuity up to the OYL events of Flash 13, then deviates.
Pairing/Characters: Tim/Cissie.
Rating/Warnings: PGish
Disclaimer: We do not own anything or anyone. We promise.
Summary: Tim and Cissie have a secret, but keeping secrets is next to impossible in Wayne Manor.
Note: Tim and Cissie have been married for over three years now. Lian is thirteen years old.
Each of the twelve parts of this fic take place on a different year--they *are* in order, but they are not twelve consecutive years. We skipped over a few. Huge thanks to xenokattz for beta-reading! ♥
Part 1, Part2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
8. Year 12: What Child is This?
~*~
“And then Papa blocked off the other end of the alley, and he came back toward me, because he thought I would be easier to get by, and you should have seen the look on his face when he saw Daddy standing behind me. It was awesome,” Lian finished, with a look of smug satisfaction on her face.
“Very nice,” Tim said smiling. He waited until Bruce was asking Roy a question about Lian’s training before sneaking a piece of turkey off of Cissie’s plate, and transferring it to his. He did it without looking, hoping that no one would notice.
Cissie pretended not to see, touching her knee to Tim’s under the table in silent thanks. She pushed her potatoes around her plate, pretending to cut them and smear them in the gravy. She took a small bite-with as little gravy as possible-despite the somersaulting her stomach was doing, and chewed as slowly as she could without drawing attention to herself.
“They won’t let me patrol on weeknights,” Lian told them, frowning at her fathers.
Tim raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Hypocrite,” he accused Dick, smirking slightly. He surreptitiously transferred a small amount of his gravy-free potatoes to Cissie’s plate.
Dick raised an eyebrow over his glass before setting it down. “Hey, not at first, I couldn’t.”
“Yeah, but Papa, it’s been months now,” Lian argued, gesturing with her fork.
Cissie set her own fork down and sat back, pretending to be amused by the argument-clearly a familiar one-unfolding between Lian, Dick and Roy.
Tim let his hand drop to Cissie’s knee, giving it a sympathetic squeeze while Lian, Dick and Roy bickered.
“School still comes first,” Roy said firmly. “Maybe we’ll talk about it again after this semester, and let you do a couple of weeknights on a trial basis, but I want to make sure you’re getting enough sleep to stay awake during class, Lian.”
Cissie slid her hand to grip Tim’s under the table, squeezing it.
Lian made a face, slumping back in her seat. “I stay awake just fine,” she mumbled. She sat back up, her mood shifting abruptly. “Daddy, will you pass the gravy?”
Roy shook his head, amused, and did as she asked. Cissie clamped her mouth shut as the movement made the smell momentarily stronger.
Tim grimaced with her and squeezed her hand back. Dick, watching this exchange, narrowed his eyes in concern as he looked at Cissie. “Everything all right?” he asked.
Cissie’s eyes widened. She glanced quickly at Tim as the rest of the conversation died and she suddenly found everyone’s eyes on her. She managed a shaky half smile, gripping Tim’s hand as tightly as she could. “Of course,” she said lightly. “Why?”
He eyed her suspiciously. “You’ve been making faces at food smells all night, and Tim’s been eating your dinner. Are you feeling okay?”
Cissie smiled sheepishly, managing-just-not to look at Tim for help. “I’m-fine. Really.” When Dick continued to look at her in disbelief, she shrugged a shoulder. “I… might not be completely over that flu, I guess.”
Tim closed his eyes and bit down on an inward groan as Dick frowned across the table at them. “But you had the flu a month ago-shouldn’t you be feeling better now? Do you need to see the doctor again?”
“Um.” She couldn’t help looking at Tim in panic. “I… guess. Maybe.”
“We’re seeing the doctor again next week,” Tim said tersely. It wasn’t a lie.
Dick continued frowning. “Have you been sick all along? Why wait until next week?”
Cissie shut her eyes. “Dick… it’s not a big deal,” she said wearily. “I’m fine. I’m just not hungry, that’s all.” He raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed, making a face. “Look, can we just drop it? I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“Cissie,” Roy said gently. “If you’re still sick after a month… That’s not exactly normal flu behavior. Something else could be going on, and you should find out what that is.”
Cissie exhaled heavily and dropped her head to her hands, propping her elbows on the table. “Just-can we please talk about something else?”
Roy looked surprised. “…Okay,” he said slowly. “Just worried about you, Ciss, that’s all.”
She rubbed her temples and sighed again. “I’m fine,” she repeated with less of an edge. “Really.” She glanced at Tim. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“We’re taking care of things,” Tim said, stepping in. “We’ve been seeing a doctor, and we’re going again next week-like I said-so… Let’s talk about something else.” He turned to look pointedly at Roy. “How’s Ollie doing?”
“He’s fine,” Roy said slowly, looking narrowly back at them. “What’s the doctor say?” He held up a hand, shaking his head. “No, listen-we love you, Ciss. If something’s going on, we want to know.”
Cissie sat back, looking at the ceiling for a moment before speaking. “Roy, I told you-I am fine.” She met his gaze. “It’s just… sometimes I don’t feel well. We’ve got everything under control, okay?”
Bruce cleared his throat. “Dick, Roy. If this was something they wanted to discuss, they would. For now, I would suggest leaving them alone until they are ready to share.”
Tim glanced sharply over at him. He couldn’t know. It wasn’t possible. Not even Bruce could have found this out.
Cissie shot Tim an anxious glance out of the corner of her eye. She folded her arms across her middle-this was so not how she had hoped Christmas Eve would go. Glancing up, she caught Roy frowning thoughtfully at her. She tried to smile. His eyes narrowed.
Dick, meanwhile, dropped his napkin on the table, rolling his eyes. “Come on, Bruce,” he said impatiently. “If something’s wrong, we want to know.”
Bruce returned Dick’s gaze calmly. “And I’m sure if something were wrong, they would tell us.”
Tim tried not to do anything so obvious as bang his head against the table. Bruce knew. Of course he knew. Damn it.
“Are you sure about that?” Dick demanded, looking significantly at Tim
Cissie dropped her gaze to the tablecloth. She managed through sheer force of will not to cringe as she said, “Nothing’s wrong, Dick.”
Tim shot Dick an impatient glare. “Honestly, Dick. When have I ever kept anything serious from you?”
Dick’s eyebrows shot up. “Do you want a list?”
Roy put a hand on Dick’s arm. “Drop it,” he muttered.
Cissie looked at Tim, feeling horrible. She wasn’t sure if Roy had taken the hint, guessed or if they’d just managed to make him angry by ducking their questions.
Dick shook Roy’s hand off. “If it’s not serious, then why not just tell us?”
Tim rolled his eyes. “Okay. Shut up, now, Dick.”
There was a tense silence while Tim and Dick glared at one another. Cissie turned and dropped her forehead to Tim’s shoulder. She wanted to crawl under the table or maybe just start the whole evening over. “There’s nothing wrong,” she insisted again.
“If there’s nothing wrong, what’s with the code of secrecy?” Dick snapped.
“It’s none of your damned business,” Tim returned heatedly. “She’s fine. We’re fine. Now shut the Hell up.”
“Geeze,” Dick griped, scowling back at him. “The way you two are talking, it’s almost like you were…” His voice trailed off and he looked sharply at Cissie. “Are you pregnant?”
Cissie lifted her head to stare at Dick. Beside her, Tim slapped a hand over his face. She felt her face heating as she flushed. “Um.”
Roy elbowed Dick sharply in the side. “Real subtle, short pants,” he muttered. “You did notice that they were trying not to announce it, right?”
“Why not?” Dick asked, looking bewildered.
“Are you pregnant, really?” Lian spoke up, looking excited.
Cissie gave an incredulous laugh, looking at Tim helplessly.
He peered at her from between his fingers. “I hate my family,” he muttered.
She laughed again.
“Well?”
Cissie felt herself blush again and she continued to look at Tim, smiling slowly. She glanced around the table and nodded. She didn’t quite trust her voice, but she managed, “Yes.”
There was a brief moment of stunned silence at the admission. Then they were suddenly surrounded by hugs and congratulations on all sides.
“How far along are you?” Dick asked Cissie while tousling Tim’s hair. Tim gave him a disgruntled look and tried to duck away, but was held in place by Dick’s secure arm around his shoulders.
“About two months,” Cissie replied, grinning now. “I’m due at the end of July-the 26th.”
“Cousins!” Lian shouted gleefully.
Tim blanched. “Hopefully just one,” he murmured faintly.
“Can I babysit?” she asked hopefully, letting go of Cissie to hug Tim.
“Um, maybe?” Tim said, hugging her back and trying not to feel overwhelmed. “When the baby’s older and… you know… born.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Dick demanded as everyone began returning to their seats.
Cissie shrugged a shoulder, looking at Tim and catching his hand. “We haven’t known for that long.”
“Long enough,” Dick grumbled. “Why didn’t you just tell us when we started harassing you about eating?” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You should be eating more.”
Tim groaned and covered his face with both hands. “Dick, really shut up. The doctor said she should eat whatever she can keep down, and not to force things. We really do have this under control.”
“I am eating, I promise,” Cissie added. She smiled sheepishly. “Just… a lot of boring food.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Lian asked, confused. “Aren’t you excited?”
“Really excited, sweet pea,” Tim said with a smile. “But-you took health class, right?” Lian nodded. “You know how most miscarriages happen in the first trimester? And how that’s the riskiest trimester?” She nodded again. “We were going to wait until afterwards to start telling people-once we were more sure that things would be okay.”
Cissie smiled apologetically. “We’re… maybe a little paranoid.”
“I wouldn’t say paranoid,” Roy said with a smile. “But you’re allowed.”
“You’re too kind,” Tim said dryly, ducking the roll Dick tossed at his head.
Alfred cleared his throat sharply, and Dick had the grace to look embarrassed. “You still could have told us. We’re family.”
Cissie blushed again. “We’re sorry,” she said with a small smile. She found Tim’s hand under the table and laced their fingers together. “We were going to tell you soon.”
Tim covered his snort with a cough. “Yeah-what she said.”
Bruce cleared his throat and raised his glass. “Instead of harassing Tim and Cissie,” he said with a pointed look at Dick, “we should be congratulating them.” He turned to them with a smile. “Congratulations. This is wonderful news.”
Tim nodded his thanks and fixed Bruce with an intent look. “You knew,” he accused. It wasn’t a question. “How did you know?”
Bruce smiled enigmatically over his glass, raising an eyebrow.
Tim tried to bite back the smile threatening to overtake his face. “You are an insufferable bastard, and I hate you.”
Bruce just continued smiling and sipped his drink.
Cissie sat back in her chair, laughing with the others. “Well,” she said slowly, “I have to admit, I’m glad you all know now.”
Tim nodded his agreement. “Me too-even if some of you already knew.” He shot another glare at Bruce.
“Do you know if it’s a girl or a boy yet? Have you thought of names?” Lian asked, practically bouncing in her seat.
“It’s a little early for that,” Cissie replied.
“You’re going to have a baby,” Lian continued, grinning from ear to ear. “That is so cool.”
Tim smiled, glancing over at Cissie with a slightly foolish look on his face. “Yeah, it kind of is.”
~*~
Tomorrow, part 9: Because Santa Claus Comes Tonight.
Authors: lady_sarai and zoe_chan
Continuity: Follows Young Justice and Teen Titans and main continuity up to the OYL events of Flash 13, then deviates.
Pairing/Characters: Tim/Cissie.
Rating/Warnings: PGish
Disclaimer: We do not own anything or anyone. We promise.
Summary: Tim and Cissie have a secret, but keeping secrets is next to impossible in Wayne Manor.
Note: Tim and Cissie have been married for over three years now. Lian is thirteen years old.
Each of the twelve parts of this fic take place on a different year--they *are* in order, but they are not twelve consecutive years. We skipped over a few. Huge thanks to xenokattz for beta-reading! ♥
Part 1, Part2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
8. Year 12: What Child is This?
~*~
“And then Papa blocked off the other end of the alley, and he came back toward me, because he thought I would be easier to get by, and you should have seen the look on his face when he saw Daddy standing behind me. It was awesome,” Lian finished, with a look of smug satisfaction on her face.
“Very nice,” Tim said smiling. He waited until Bruce was asking Roy a question about Lian’s training before sneaking a piece of turkey off of Cissie’s plate, and transferring it to his. He did it without looking, hoping that no one would notice.
Cissie pretended not to see, touching her knee to Tim’s under the table in silent thanks. She pushed her potatoes around her plate, pretending to cut them and smear them in the gravy. She took a small bite-with as little gravy as possible-despite the somersaulting her stomach was doing, and chewed as slowly as she could without drawing attention to herself.
“They won’t let me patrol on weeknights,” Lian told them, frowning at her fathers.
Tim raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Hypocrite,” he accused Dick, smirking slightly. He surreptitiously transferred a small amount of his gravy-free potatoes to Cissie’s plate.
Dick raised an eyebrow over his glass before setting it down. “Hey, not at first, I couldn’t.”
“Yeah, but Papa, it’s been months now,” Lian argued, gesturing with her fork.
Cissie set her own fork down and sat back, pretending to be amused by the argument-clearly a familiar one-unfolding between Lian, Dick and Roy.
Tim let his hand drop to Cissie’s knee, giving it a sympathetic squeeze while Lian, Dick and Roy bickered.
“School still comes first,” Roy said firmly. “Maybe we’ll talk about it again after this semester, and let you do a couple of weeknights on a trial basis, but I want to make sure you’re getting enough sleep to stay awake during class, Lian.”
Cissie slid her hand to grip Tim’s under the table, squeezing it.
Lian made a face, slumping back in her seat. “I stay awake just fine,” she mumbled. She sat back up, her mood shifting abruptly. “Daddy, will you pass the gravy?”
Roy shook his head, amused, and did as she asked. Cissie clamped her mouth shut as the movement made the smell momentarily stronger.
Tim grimaced with her and squeezed her hand back. Dick, watching this exchange, narrowed his eyes in concern as he looked at Cissie. “Everything all right?” he asked.
Cissie’s eyes widened. She glanced quickly at Tim as the rest of the conversation died and she suddenly found everyone’s eyes on her. She managed a shaky half smile, gripping Tim’s hand as tightly as she could. “Of course,” she said lightly. “Why?”
He eyed her suspiciously. “You’ve been making faces at food smells all night, and Tim’s been eating your dinner. Are you feeling okay?”
Cissie smiled sheepishly, managing-just-not to look at Tim for help. “I’m-fine. Really.” When Dick continued to look at her in disbelief, she shrugged a shoulder. “I… might not be completely over that flu, I guess.”
Tim closed his eyes and bit down on an inward groan as Dick frowned across the table at them. “But you had the flu a month ago-shouldn’t you be feeling better now? Do you need to see the doctor again?”
“Um.” She couldn’t help looking at Tim in panic. “I… guess. Maybe.”
“We’re seeing the doctor again next week,” Tim said tersely. It wasn’t a lie.
Dick continued frowning. “Have you been sick all along? Why wait until next week?”
Cissie shut her eyes. “Dick… it’s not a big deal,” she said wearily. “I’m fine. I’m just not hungry, that’s all.” He raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed, making a face. “Look, can we just drop it? I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“Cissie,” Roy said gently. “If you’re still sick after a month… That’s not exactly normal flu behavior. Something else could be going on, and you should find out what that is.”
Cissie exhaled heavily and dropped her head to her hands, propping her elbows on the table. “Just-can we please talk about something else?”
Roy looked surprised. “…Okay,” he said slowly. “Just worried about you, Ciss, that’s all.”
She rubbed her temples and sighed again. “I’m fine,” she repeated with less of an edge. “Really.” She glanced at Tim. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“We’re taking care of things,” Tim said, stepping in. “We’ve been seeing a doctor, and we’re going again next week-like I said-so… Let’s talk about something else.” He turned to look pointedly at Roy. “How’s Ollie doing?”
“He’s fine,” Roy said slowly, looking narrowly back at them. “What’s the doctor say?” He held up a hand, shaking his head. “No, listen-we love you, Ciss. If something’s going on, we want to know.”
Cissie sat back, looking at the ceiling for a moment before speaking. “Roy, I told you-I am fine.” She met his gaze. “It’s just… sometimes I don’t feel well. We’ve got everything under control, okay?”
Bruce cleared his throat. “Dick, Roy. If this was something they wanted to discuss, they would. For now, I would suggest leaving them alone until they are ready to share.”
Tim glanced sharply over at him. He couldn’t know. It wasn’t possible. Not even Bruce could have found this out.
Cissie shot Tim an anxious glance out of the corner of her eye. She folded her arms across her middle-this was so not how she had hoped Christmas Eve would go. Glancing up, she caught Roy frowning thoughtfully at her. She tried to smile. His eyes narrowed.
Dick, meanwhile, dropped his napkin on the table, rolling his eyes. “Come on, Bruce,” he said impatiently. “If something’s wrong, we want to know.”
Bruce returned Dick’s gaze calmly. “And I’m sure if something were wrong, they would tell us.”
Tim tried not to do anything so obvious as bang his head against the table. Bruce knew. Of course he knew. Damn it.
“Are you sure about that?” Dick demanded, looking significantly at Tim
Cissie dropped her gaze to the tablecloth. She managed through sheer force of will not to cringe as she said, “Nothing’s wrong, Dick.”
Tim shot Dick an impatient glare. “Honestly, Dick. When have I ever kept anything serious from you?”
Dick’s eyebrows shot up. “Do you want a list?”
Roy put a hand on Dick’s arm. “Drop it,” he muttered.
Cissie looked at Tim, feeling horrible. She wasn’t sure if Roy had taken the hint, guessed or if they’d just managed to make him angry by ducking their questions.
Dick shook Roy’s hand off. “If it’s not serious, then why not just tell us?”
Tim rolled his eyes. “Okay. Shut up, now, Dick.”
There was a tense silence while Tim and Dick glared at one another. Cissie turned and dropped her forehead to Tim’s shoulder. She wanted to crawl under the table or maybe just start the whole evening over. “There’s nothing wrong,” she insisted again.
“If there’s nothing wrong, what’s with the code of secrecy?” Dick snapped.
“It’s none of your damned business,” Tim returned heatedly. “She’s fine. We’re fine. Now shut the Hell up.”
“Geeze,” Dick griped, scowling back at him. “The way you two are talking, it’s almost like you were…” His voice trailed off and he looked sharply at Cissie. “Are you pregnant?”
Cissie lifted her head to stare at Dick. Beside her, Tim slapped a hand over his face. She felt her face heating as she flushed. “Um.”
Roy elbowed Dick sharply in the side. “Real subtle, short pants,” he muttered. “You did notice that they were trying not to announce it, right?”
“Why not?” Dick asked, looking bewildered.
“Are you pregnant, really?” Lian spoke up, looking excited.
Cissie gave an incredulous laugh, looking at Tim helplessly.
He peered at her from between his fingers. “I hate my family,” he muttered.
She laughed again.
“Well?”
Cissie felt herself blush again and she continued to look at Tim, smiling slowly. She glanced around the table and nodded. She didn’t quite trust her voice, but she managed, “Yes.”
There was a brief moment of stunned silence at the admission. Then they were suddenly surrounded by hugs and congratulations on all sides.
“How far along are you?” Dick asked Cissie while tousling Tim’s hair. Tim gave him a disgruntled look and tried to duck away, but was held in place by Dick’s secure arm around his shoulders.
“About two months,” Cissie replied, grinning now. “I’m due at the end of July-the 26th.”
“Cousins!” Lian shouted gleefully.
Tim blanched. “Hopefully just one,” he murmured faintly.
“Can I babysit?” she asked hopefully, letting go of Cissie to hug Tim.
“Um, maybe?” Tim said, hugging her back and trying not to feel overwhelmed. “When the baby’s older and… you know… born.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Dick demanded as everyone began returning to their seats.
Cissie shrugged a shoulder, looking at Tim and catching his hand. “We haven’t known for that long.”
“Long enough,” Dick grumbled. “Why didn’t you just tell us when we started harassing you about eating?” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You should be eating more.”
Tim groaned and covered his face with both hands. “Dick, really shut up. The doctor said she should eat whatever she can keep down, and not to force things. We really do have this under control.”
“I am eating, I promise,” Cissie added. She smiled sheepishly. “Just… a lot of boring food.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Lian asked, confused. “Aren’t you excited?”
“Really excited, sweet pea,” Tim said with a smile. “But-you took health class, right?” Lian nodded. “You know how most miscarriages happen in the first trimester? And how that’s the riskiest trimester?” She nodded again. “We were going to wait until afterwards to start telling people-once we were more sure that things would be okay.”
Cissie smiled apologetically. “We’re… maybe a little paranoid.”
“I wouldn’t say paranoid,” Roy said with a smile. “But you’re allowed.”
“You’re too kind,” Tim said dryly, ducking the roll Dick tossed at his head.
Alfred cleared his throat sharply, and Dick had the grace to look embarrassed. “You still could have told us. We’re family.”
Cissie blushed again. “We’re sorry,” she said with a small smile. She found Tim’s hand under the table and laced their fingers together. “We were going to tell you soon.”
Tim covered his snort with a cough. “Yeah-what she said.”
Bruce cleared his throat and raised his glass. “Instead of harassing Tim and Cissie,” he said with a pointed look at Dick, “we should be congratulating them.” He turned to them with a smile. “Congratulations. This is wonderful news.”
Tim nodded his thanks and fixed Bruce with an intent look. “You knew,” he accused. It wasn’t a question. “How did you know?”
Bruce smiled enigmatically over his glass, raising an eyebrow.
Tim tried to bite back the smile threatening to overtake his face. “You are an insufferable bastard, and I hate you.”
Bruce just continued smiling and sipped his drink.
Cissie sat back in her chair, laughing with the others. “Well,” she said slowly, “I have to admit, I’m glad you all know now.”
Tim nodded his agreement. “Me too-even if some of you already knew.” He shot another glare at Bruce.
“Do you know if it’s a girl or a boy yet? Have you thought of names?” Lian asked, practically bouncing in her seat.
“It’s a little early for that,” Cissie replied.
“You’re going to have a baby,” Lian continued, grinning from ear to ear. “That is so cool.”
Tim smiled, glancing over at Cissie with a slightly foolish look on his face. “Yeah, it kind of is.”
~*~
Tomorrow, part 9: Because Santa Claus Comes Tonight.