Chapter 597: His Legacy

Wayne Foundation Medical Center sat on a quiet, well-guarded stretch of Gotham, unremarkable from the street a mid-sized private hospital, one of dozens the Foundation funded across the city. Few outside a very short list of names knew that its top floor was something else entirely: a private wing built and warded specifically for the Justice League, its security quietly handled by systems Bruce himself had designed, its staff vetted, sworn, and paid handsomely enough to never ask questions about the sort of patients they occasionally treated. It had seen alien physiologies, magical complications, and injuries no ordinary emergency room would have known how to begin treating. Tonight, for once, it was hosting something considerably more ordinary, and considerably more precious than any of that.

The private wing had never felt this quiet before, not the tense, held-breath quiet of crisis, but something softer, warmer, a family simply waiting for good news they already knew was coming.

Arthur had been pacing a short stretch of hallway for the better part of an hour, though "pacing" gave the wrong impression; he moved with the same grace he always carried, but there was a tightness in his shoulders that hadn’t been there earlier, a restlessness he couldn’t quite shake no matter how much composure he tried to draw on.

"Stop pacing, you are making me nervous as well." Raven said from where she sat, legs tucked beneath her, watching him.

"I’m not pacing," Arthur said.

"You’ve walked past that same window eleven times in thirty seconds."

"I’m admiring the view.."

"You are not admiring the view, dear," his mother said gently from her spot near the window itself, a soft, patient smile tugging at her mouth. She looked at him the way mothers everywhere seemed to look at their children in moments like this. "I remember your father doing exactly the same thing, the day you were born. Wore an actual path into the hospital tile, if I recall."

"I don’t pace," Arthur said again, entirely unconvincingly, and turned to pace past the window one more time.

Adam, leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed, snorted. "You’re doing it right now... in purposeful circles."

"Adam."

"I’m just saying, if I didn’t know better, I’d think the Shadow Monarch was nervous."

Arthur shot his brother a look that, on anyone else, might have been withering. On Adam, it simply bounced off entirely, met with an easy, unbothered grin.

"I am allowed to be nervous," Arthur said finally, some of the tension bleeding out of his voice. "This is different."

"Different from armies? Gods? Cosmic tyrants?" Adam asked, genuinely curious now, his teasing softening.

"Entirely different," Arthur admitted. "I know exactly what to do in a fight, Adam. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do here.."

"No one does, dear," his mother said, crossing the room to rest a gentle hand against his arm. "That’s rather the point."

Near the door, George cleared his throat delicately. "If I may offer some small reassurance, Master Arthur.. I have observed a great many things about you over the years, and your capacity for care has never once been in question. I daresay Lady Kara will be in remarkably capable hands."

The door opened a few minutes later, and the nurse stepped out with a warm, tired smile, offering a soft nod that needed no further words. The entire hallway seemed to exhale as one.

Arthur was through the door before anyone else could move.

The room beyond was warm, late afternoon sunlight spilling gently through the tall windows, and there, propped against a small mountain of pillows, Kara looked up at him with an exhaustion that couldn’t begin to dim the sheer, radiant joy written across her face. Cradled carefully in her arms was a small, impossibly small bundle, wrapped in soft white cloth.

"There you are," Kara said, laughing softly, her voice thick with exhaustion and happiness in equal measure. "I was starting to think you’d gotten lost in your own hallway."

"I was pacing," Arthur admitted, crossing to her side.

"I could hear you the whole time. Even through the door." Kara’s smile widened, and she carefully, gently held their daughter out toward him. "Say hi to your father. Aurora."

Arthur’s hands almost trembled, just slightly, as he took her.

"Hi," he managed, and found, for possibly the first time in longer than he could remember, that he genuinely had nothing else to say. He stood there, holding her, utterly transfixed, some part of him rendered completely, helplessly speechless by the small, delicate weight settling into his arms. She was so small. So fragile. He had faced down gods and torn tyrants apart with his bare hands, and yet holding her felt like the single most precarious and toughest thing he had ever attempted as though simply looking at her too intently might somehow do her harm.

"Arthur?" Kara said softly, watching him.

"She’s..." Arthur trailed off, shaking his head slightly, still staring down at the tiny, sleeping face in his arms. "I don’t have a word for it.."

"That’s new," Kara said, smiling. "You usually have a word for everything."

"Not for this."

After a long moment, still visibly overwhelmed, he carefully passed her to his mother, who accepted the tiny bundle with tenderness.

"Oh," his mother breathed, gazing down at her granddaughter with open delight. "Hello, little one. Aren’t you just the most beautiful thing."

"She has your nose," Adam said, peering over their mother’s shoulder. "Poor kid."

"She does not have my nose."

"She’s got your nose, Arthur. I’m sorry to break it to you."

"She’s a day old, Adam, she doesn’t have anyone’s nose yet."

"Give her time," Adam said, grinning.

Kara laughed from the bed, watching the whole exchange with tired, fond amusement. "You okay over there?" she asked, looking at Arthur again.

"Yes," Arthur said, though his voice still carried that same faint, wondering unsteadiness. "I think so."

"You held her like she was made of glass."

"She is made of glass. Comparatively.."

"She’s tougher than you think. She’s half Kryptonian, remember."

"I remember," Arthur said, something soft settling into his expression as he watched his mother gently rock Aurora in her arms. "I still intend to be careful."

"A truly beautiful child, if I may say so, Master Arthur," George said, stepping closer now, his tone carrying genuine warmth. "And Lady Kara.. you look radiant, if I might add, despite the ordeal you’ve just been through."

"Thank you, George," Kara said, smiling tiredly. "Though I think ’ordeal’ might be putting it kindly."

"I chose my words carefully, my lady."

Raven drifted closer as well, peering down at the sleeping infant with an expression far softer than her usual composed reserve. "She’s got Kara’s ears, at least," she said. "Thank goodness. Small mercies."

"Hey," Arthur said.

"I’m just saying."

The room filled with soft laughter and warmth after that, his mother cooing gently over the small bundle, Adam leaning in with an expression far gentler than his usual easy grin, offering quiet, genuine congratulations to Kara, Raven watching everything with contented satisfaction.

Arthur drifted a little apart from the gathered warmth eventually, his gaze still lingering on his daughter, now settled peacefully in his mother’s arms, and it was Raven who noticed first the faint, lingering hesitation still written across his features, subtle enough that no one else in the room had caught it.

’What are you afraid of?’ Her voice arrived directly in his mind, gentle, curious, carrying none of her usual teasing edge.

He considered the question for a moment before answering the same way, quiet and private between the two of them alone. ’I was ready for this day. I thought I was ready for all of it, the planning, the preparation, everything. But I wasn’t ready for the actual moment. For holding her.’ His eyes drifted back toward Aurora. ’It felt like holding her for even a second too long might somehow hurt her. Like I might break something in her just by being what I am.’

’That,’ Raven said, warmth threading through the words, ’is called being a father. And a guardian. Every parent feels that, Arthur. Not just the ones who happen to be Death.’

A third voice slipped quietly into the edges of his mind then, warm and faintly amused.

’Death,’ Didi said, ’afraid of a child. A soft, genuine laugh followed. ’I have to say, watching you like this is rather delightful, Monarch of Shadows. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you quite this unsteady.’

’You’re enjoying this far too much,’ Arthur replied.

’Immensely,’ Didi agreed. ’Go be human for a while longer. It suits you, that is what’s so special about you after all.’

Arthur allowed himself, at last, a small, helpless smile, the tension finally easing from his shoulders as he watched his daughter settle quietly against his mother’s chest, one tiny hand curling instinctively around the edge of her blanket.

He slipped out of the room a few minutes later, leaving the warmth behind him his mother still fussing gently, Adam already teasing Kara about whose stubbornness Aurora had inherited minutes after her birth, Raven quietly amused by all of it.

At the door, he found Clark and Bruce just arriving, both of them carrying flowers, though Bruce’s accompanying gift was considerably more elaborate, wrapped in expensive paper that had clearly not come from any ordinary shop.

"Glad we made it in time," Clark said, breaking into a wide, genuine smile as he clasped Arthur’s shoulder warmly. "Congratulations, truly. How’s Kara?"

"Tired," Arthur said. "Happy. Already conspiring with my mother about whose personality Aurora is going to inherit."

Clark laughed. "That’s a dangerous conversation to walk into."

"Extremely."

Clark didn’t linger long after that, already glancing past him toward the door with barely contained eagerness. "Mind if I.."

"Go ahead," Arthur said, amused, and Clark slipped past him into the room, already calling out a soft greeting to Kara before the door had fully swung shut behind him.

That left Bruce standing beside Arthur in the quiet hallway, flowers held a touch awkwardly in one hand, studying him with the same careful, evaluating attention he seemed to bring to everything, no matter how small the occasion.

/-\

If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Shadow Monarch: In One Piece / The Witcher: Heir of Fire!

&

If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my p@t-reon / FrenzyAren"

You can Get Access to 7 More Chapters on all of my stories!