Okay, so since my post on rare ships, I did get a few messages about how I thought this would look like, so here is an outline of what that universe might look like.
Bruce is older now, like actually old, like 65-70ish. Alfred died a few years back and the way Bruce dealt with it drove Jason away for good. Dick is still Nightwing, although he’s also getting up there in years. His 40′s weren’t kind to him and he and Damian got into a huge fight at his 50th birthday party because Damian was almost certain that he was going to get himself killed. Damian doesn’t talk much with Bruce or Dick anymore either, which is a shame, because he’s the only one who Jason will speak to. Then there’s Tim.
He’s in his early thirties, he was the one who took over being Batman after Bruce retired, much to Damian’s chagrin. Diana being basically immortal and Clark not ageing quite the same as a human man, are still the pillars of the League. At first, Batman wasn’t quite the image that he was when Bruce was in the role, but he made a name for himself soon enough.
He’s been Batman for a few years now, and the other day, he noticed a grey hair. He held it in his hand and stared at it for a while in front of the large window that looked out on Earth in the Watchtower. Diana came up behind him and asked if he was okay.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just... getting old I guess.”
“Is that troubling you?” Diana asked.
“Yes, more than it probably should,” Tim answered completely honestly.
This took Diana off guard, although, it shouldn’t by now. She should be used to the idea that Tim wasn’t his father, he didn’t bottle things up, not anymore. He had grown emotionally. And Diana would be lying if she didn’t notice how he had grown physically.
“Is it something that’s bothering you?” Diana asked.
Tim smiled a little at her and she smiled back. “Not really, not right now. But I’ve seen what doing this does to someone’s body. Bruce can barely walk now and it kills him. I figure I should probably stop before it gets that far.” He paused. “I probably won’t. Maybe I’ll go the same route as Jason and Damian and use a Lazarus pit.”
Diana looked concerned at this, “Would you? Consider that?”
“No. I think I’d rather die naturally than hurt the people around me with... everything that comes with the Pit.”
“I know it’s not my place, but I am relieved to hear you say that.”
“Maybe it is your place. I mean... you’re my friend.”
Diana looked at the man in the eye, they were the same height.
A slow smiled crept onto Tim’s face, “I don’t presume to know what you’re feeling, but if you’re asking...”
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t... explore... this relationship. Beside perhaps your feelings for my father,” Tim said.
Diana shook her head a little. “You’re nothing like him.”
Tim grinned, “That’s more of a compliment than you know.”
“May I kiss you?” She asked.
Tim was standing at the end of a long aisle. It wasn’t a big wedding, mostly family and friends from the superhero community. Tim’s best man was Conner Kent, Diana’s man of honour was Clark.
Bruce was sitting in the front and watched, his heart shattering, as Diana married his son.
There was a small reception outside the manor, where the wedding was taking place. Tim was chatting with some of the guests when something on the treeline caught his eye. He smiled and excused himself and walked over.
Jason was leaning against a tree, smoking. He looked the exact same as the snarky 19-year-old Tim had known what felt like a lifetime ago. Except for the hair, it was shock-white, and his eyes glowed in the dark slightly unnaturally.
“You know, you were invited,” Tim said.
“I know, but I didn’t want to make trouble for you,” Jason said. “Damian sends his best.”
Tim laughed, “No. He didn’t.”
Jason grinned, “No. He didn’t.” He took another drag. “Some things never change.”
“Yeah,” Tim agreed, giving Jason a look.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Don’t go all Bruce and give me a lecture.”
Jason rolled his eyes and reached into his jacket, pulling out an envelope. “Here, a wedding present.”
Tim looked inside and saw that it was packed with photographs. And not just any photos.
“Jason... how did you get these, I thought Bruce destroyed them after Alfred died,” Tim looked through them with tears welling in his eyes.
Jason smiled bittersweetly, “Alfred gave me all the old photo albums.”
“Thanks, Jay. I-” Tim looked up from a photo to see that Jason was gone. He chuckled slightly, put the envelope in his suit jacket, and went back to the party.
“Where’d you sneak off to?” Diana asked slightly teasingly, though there was a hint of real concern under it.
“Jason stopped by,” Tim said.
<><> Ten Years Later <><>
Funnily enough, Tim and Diana only had little girls. Tim had thought that the universe was going to mess with Diana by making them have only boys. Not that Tim was complaining. He loved those girls.
He and Diana left them with Conner when they were going out on League business that day. It was a hard fight. Diana was protecting Tim, who was trying to hack into the hidden files in their latest adversary’s computer. Unfortunately, a bomb was set off when the other members of the Justice League were battling the drones on the main level, and the building began to crash around them.
The next thing Diana knew, she was opening her eyes. She seemed to have landed in an air pocket. And then she remembered who else she had been with. “Batman?!” She called. She sat up and looked around until she saw a glint of light bouncing off something. But she couldn’t tell what it was. She reached out to touch it, and her hand came back sticky.
“Timothy?” She asked the darkness, her voice wavering in a way that it hadn’t in a long time.
She crawled over to where he was laying. No pulse to be found. She cradled his body against her chest and sobbed until Superman finally dug them out of the rubble.
Telling her children that their father was gone was one of the hardest things she’d ever done.
All she could think about as she stood at the grave of Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, was how she was so lucky that she still had pieces of him in the world.
She smelt the smoke before she heard him speak.
“I could bring him back, if you’d like.”
She turned to look at Jason, ever the same man, frozen in time.
“He told me he didn’t want that,” Diana replied.
Jason just nodded, “Yeah, I figured.”
There was silence for a moment before Diana spoke her mind. “Why are you here?”
“I... just thought I’d come to tell you that I’m sorry. And that you and the kids were the things that made his life worth something to him, not Batman.”
Diana stared at Jason tearily. “Thank you.”
He nodded and was about to turn away when he remembered something else he had wanted to tell her. “And... Damian’s taken this hard. He, uh, I think he has people following your girls just to make sure nothing happens. I tried to call him off but- well, it’s Damian. I know they can handle themselves, he’s just worried.”
Diana wanted to be angry, and snap at him that she can protect her children on her own, but then she remembered that she wasn’t the only one who lost someone.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
Jason nodded once and then went back to his motorcycle, revving away.
