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thejusticelounge2012-04-28 09:10 pm
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2012-04-28 09:10 pm
Entry tags:
mea maxima culpa
"Well, Bruce, it turns out you were right about Jason, just like you're right about everything. If you've been expecting me to fail, ta-daa, I have. Spectacularly. I should never have got involved in the first place."
Despite being right, he wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to hear Ollie’s admittance of failure. Not because he thinks that Ollie was right but because he was hoping that Jason could change.
However, that wasn’t important right now. He’d failed Jason once, he couldn’t allow for it to happen again, so naturally he asked what happened. “What happened, Ollie? Do not try to skip out on the details, I’ll find out soon enough if you refuse to share them.”
Ollie gave him a flat look. “Y’know,” he said, “considering I *came* to you with this, you could maybe not assume that I’m trying to snow you right from the get-go.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, pulling it into tortured furrows. “Did you watch that nano surveillance footage yet? Of me and Jason? Because if not, then I have a lot more backstory to lay out than I really want to.”
“I’ve been too preoccupied with the Talia situation that I haven’t gone over the rest of the surveillance footage yet.” His eyes were focused on the blonde man before him, wondering just the hell went down in Gotham. “What the hell happened in Gotham?”
He was trying to think of Ollie could have possibly triggered a Joker related scene with Jason and that might have triggered an outburst that could have caused his son to become worst than what he’s been showing. He now needed to watch the tapes but didn’t have the time to do so, so much was happening with Talia and his need to protect Dick, but to supervise Damian and Kyle was more important than spending a few hours to go over the nano footage.
Ollie’s jaw worked for a moment. “Okay,” he said. “We got infected by nanobots. Convinced us we were Batman and Nightwing. All that stuff he told you about how he blew me and the jerking off — that happened then. While we were still doped in the head. And then I snapped out of it and we neutralized the nanos and drove off the manhunter robots.”
Bruce’s jaw clenched when he heard everything Ollie had to say. Saying he was infuriated would be an understatement, the way Jason had made claims seemed a bit far fetched for Bruce and he had dismissed them, but here was Ollie saying what Jason said was true. It took much resolve to not knockout Ollie in one punch, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t going to get physical.
He snatched Ollie by the collar and lifted him off the ground. “Continue,” he growled in between his clenched jaw.
“Continue what?” Ollie’s voice was strained, hands bunched around Bruce’s and toes waving uselessly over solid ground, but he knew it would be pointless to demand that Bruce stop manhandling him. Besides, it might be a relief to get socked in the face. Physical pain was a great distraction from all of the fucked-up other kinds of hurt swamping him day and night.
“Jason filled everybody in on the sex part of it — without explaining that we were both out of our fucking minds at the time — and things spiralled out of control from there. To the point where I can’t work with him any more. For both our sakes.”
Ollie gave a few hoarse, barking coughs. Bruce’s grip was really starting to get alarming now.
Bruce was on the receiving end of an influx of emotions; he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself so he kept the angry mask on. Here was Ollie, a man he somewhat trusts and sometimes considers a friend, speaking poorly of not only his son but also that the sexual acts done was nothing. Ollie was telling Bruce that he shouldn’t remove Jason from SeRVE and that Blackgate wouldn’t be the best place for the young man to rehabilitate, but yet he treated Jason as some common whore.
His grip on Ollie’s collar tightened, keeping him up in the air despite the coughs Ollie was giving. His glare was most intense and his breathing labored due to the amount of restraint it took to not hurt the man in front of him. He was just as much in fault as Oliver and Jason when it came the situation. So he couldn’t put all the blame on him, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t going to be any less angry in the fact that Oliver let it all play out and did nothing to make amends but instead throw it all into Jason’s face instead.
Feeling guilty for being the cause of his son’s pain, for having purposely sent Matches and Mia to Vegas when he should have gone to Gotham instead, is causing him to vent it onto Ollie instead. No one knows that the screw up was actually quite calculated and their separation was intended but he never realized the two would be caught up in such a situation.
Dropping Oliver onto the ground, he didn’t even bat a second look at the man before returning to his work. He was going to ignore and refuse the man, nothing else could possibly do. He was sure the other was waiting a few blows and this was Batman’s punishment for him, to not give him that satisfaction.
Ollie sprawled out on his ass for a few moments, swallowing and swallowing and getting his wind back, before scrambling up and going after Batman. “Bruce,” he called, sprinting enough to snag one gauntleted forearm. “Come on, please — talk to me, at least. None of this worked out the way I wanted it to but it’s not unsalvageable. I mean, Jason still has a shot at doing what you asked of him in Gotham, even if I’m not in the picture.”
For a moment he wondered why the hell he was still trying to campaign for Jason Todd, when he’d resolved (multiple times, if he was being honest) to stop being involved in Jason’s care and feeding altogether. But Ollie knew why. In the first case, he was a sucker for a hard-luck story, and Jason’s story of abandonment and betrayal and child prostitution on the Gotham streets only to end in murder and clawing resurrection was about as hard as they got.
…And in the second case, he suspected that Bruce deep down *wanted* to have Jason around. Have Jason with him, an official and mandated and legit part of the Batfamily like all the others — only, with the Batman being the human manifestation of Justice, he couldn’t bring himself to overlook the less savoury aspects of Jason’s activities.
Which was where Ollie had come in. And shot it all to hell, maybe, thanks to those fucking nanobots.
“Blackgate doesn’t have to be an option, Bruce. It still doesn’t.”
With a sudden jerk, he was able to free himself from Green Arrow’s grip. He didn’t bother turning to look at the man, and remained still listening to the man to at least give him the benefit of the doubt, it was the least Bruce could do with their long history together but it’ll most likely be the last time.
He was becoming more and more fed up with the blond man’s attitude recently. How Oliver thought that Bruce would patiently wait for everything to blow up in their face was really getting to him. Bruce wasn’t Oliver’s damage control, and he didn’t need Oliver stepping into every little ordeal within his life. Everything Bruce sees Oliver doing isn’t for Oliver’s benefit but for Bruce’s. Not only was the man crossing boundaries, he also seemed to have no qualms with doing so. Never once has Bruce done such a thing unless he knew the other man was under potential harm, he has an understanding and penchant for personal space.
He glared when Green Arrow was now throwing his caretaking responsibilities onto Bruce. He disliked the SeRVE program as is, they’ve already had Black Mask runaway from the brig, Jason running around freely and the same with the girls. Now he seemed to want to clean his hands of Jason, as if the whole idea of bringing him here wasn’t his fault and just fucking up the enter ordeal will make Jason still want to stay with SeRVE.
His glare was now finally staring down Oliver, “Blackgate may be the only thing left for him now. After being tossed aside and denied despite whatever you two may have done in my batcave, will most likely cause him to refuse cooperating.” Bruce was quite agitated and it showed through his voice.
Pushing the man aside, he knew that Jason would no longer wish to be here. He could already tell that the two were no longer on speaking terms. “You’ve become a nuisance,” he coldly said before making his way out of the room once more.
Watching Bruce storm out of the room (well, it was storming if you knew Bruce, knew what that particular timbre of his voice meant, knew it was like anybody else shaking and spitting with anger), Ollie rubbed his hand over his chin and mouth in agitation. It wasn’t like they’d never fought before, but this was … uglier. Ollie and Bruce never fought about each others’ kids, not this way. Not about anything so sordid.
Maybe this whole thing with Jason *was* his fault. Maybe it had been a mistake to ever accept Jason into SeRVE, maybe Ollie should never have thought he could help the kid, maybe he should have left it all strictly in Bruce’s hands and not intervened, maybe, maybe. Maybe people were right to blame him for what happened during the nanobots and what happened after. Maybe that was what they thought of him, all of them, when it came down to it, that he was the kind of bastard who would do something like that even without being nano-drugged. Maybe —
Ollie shook his head, hard, refocusing. There was too fucking much he had to get done. There was no point dwelling on feelings. They would only prove a hindrance.
Leaving the room, he stalked down the corridor in the opposite direction of the way Bruce was headed, not looking back.
Despite being right, he wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to hear Ollie’s admittance of failure. Not because he thinks that Ollie was right but because he was hoping that Jason could change.
However, that wasn’t important right now. He’d failed Jason once, he couldn’t allow for it to happen again, so naturally he asked what happened. “What happened, Ollie? Do not try to skip out on the details, I’ll find out soon enough if you refuse to share them.”
Ollie gave him a flat look. “Y’know,” he said, “considering I *came* to you with this, you could maybe not assume that I’m trying to snow you right from the get-go.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, pulling it into tortured furrows. “Did you watch that nano surveillance footage yet? Of me and Jason? Because if not, then I have a lot more backstory to lay out than I really want to.”
“I’ve been too preoccupied with the Talia situation that I haven’t gone over the rest of the surveillance footage yet.” His eyes were focused on the blonde man before him, wondering just the hell went down in Gotham. “What the hell happened in Gotham?”
He was trying to think of Ollie could have possibly triggered a Joker related scene with Jason and that might have triggered an outburst that could have caused his son to become worst than what he’s been showing. He now needed to watch the tapes but didn’t have the time to do so, so much was happening with Talia and his need to protect Dick, but to supervise Damian and Kyle was more important than spending a few hours to go over the nano footage.
Ollie’s jaw worked for a moment. “Okay,” he said. “We got infected by nanobots. Convinced us we were Batman and Nightwing. All that stuff he told you about how he blew me and the jerking off — that happened then. While we were still doped in the head. And then I snapped out of it and we neutralized the nanos and drove off the manhunter robots.”
Bruce’s jaw clenched when he heard everything Ollie had to say. Saying he was infuriated would be an understatement, the way Jason had made claims seemed a bit far fetched for Bruce and he had dismissed them, but here was Ollie saying what Jason said was true. It took much resolve to not knockout Ollie in one punch, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t going to get physical.
He snatched Ollie by the collar and lifted him off the ground. “Continue,” he growled in between his clenched jaw.
“Continue what?” Ollie’s voice was strained, hands bunched around Bruce’s and toes waving uselessly over solid ground, but he knew it would be pointless to demand that Bruce stop manhandling him. Besides, it might be a relief to get socked in the face. Physical pain was a great distraction from all of the fucked-up other kinds of hurt swamping him day and night.
“Jason filled everybody in on the sex part of it — without explaining that we were both out of our fucking minds at the time — and things spiralled out of control from there. To the point where I can’t work with him any more. For both our sakes.”
Ollie gave a few hoarse, barking coughs. Bruce’s grip was really starting to get alarming now.
Bruce was on the receiving end of an influx of emotions; he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself so he kept the angry mask on. Here was Ollie, a man he somewhat trusts and sometimes considers a friend, speaking poorly of not only his son but also that the sexual acts done was nothing. Ollie was telling Bruce that he shouldn’t remove Jason from SeRVE and that Blackgate wouldn’t be the best place for the young man to rehabilitate, but yet he treated Jason as some common whore.
His grip on Ollie’s collar tightened, keeping him up in the air despite the coughs Ollie was giving. His glare was most intense and his breathing labored due to the amount of restraint it took to not hurt the man in front of him. He was just as much in fault as Oliver and Jason when it came the situation. So he couldn’t put all the blame on him, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t going to be any less angry in the fact that Oliver let it all play out and did nothing to make amends but instead throw it all into Jason’s face instead.
Feeling guilty for being the cause of his son’s pain, for having purposely sent Matches and Mia to Vegas when he should have gone to Gotham instead, is causing him to vent it onto Ollie instead. No one knows that the screw up was actually quite calculated and their separation was intended but he never realized the two would be caught up in such a situation.
Dropping Oliver onto the ground, he didn’t even bat a second look at the man before returning to his work. He was going to ignore and refuse the man, nothing else could possibly do. He was sure the other was waiting a few blows and this was Batman’s punishment for him, to not give him that satisfaction.
Ollie sprawled out on his ass for a few moments, swallowing and swallowing and getting his wind back, before scrambling up and going after Batman. “Bruce,” he called, sprinting enough to snag one gauntleted forearm. “Come on, please — talk to me, at least. None of this worked out the way I wanted it to but it’s not unsalvageable. I mean, Jason still has a shot at doing what you asked of him in Gotham, even if I’m not in the picture.”
For a moment he wondered why the hell he was still trying to campaign for Jason Todd, when he’d resolved (multiple times, if he was being honest) to stop being involved in Jason’s care and feeding altogether. But Ollie knew why. In the first case, he was a sucker for a hard-luck story, and Jason’s story of abandonment and betrayal and child prostitution on the Gotham streets only to end in murder and clawing resurrection was about as hard as they got.
…And in the second case, he suspected that Bruce deep down *wanted* to have Jason around. Have Jason with him, an official and mandated and legit part of the Batfamily like all the others — only, with the Batman being the human manifestation of Justice, he couldn’t bring himself to overlook the less savoury aspects of Jason’s activities.
Which was where Ollie had come in. And shot it all to hell, maybe, thanks to those fucking nanobots.
“Blackgate doesn’t have to be an option, Bruce. It still doesn’t.”
With a sudden jerk, he was able to free himself from Green Arrow’s grip. He didn’t bother turning to look at the man, and remained still listening to the man to at least give him the benefit of the doubt, it was the least Bruce could do with their long history together but it’ll most likely be the last time.
He was becoming more and more fed up with the blond man’s attitude recently. How Oliver thought that Bruce would patiently wait for everything to blow up in their face was really getting to him. Bruce wasn’t Oliver’s damage control, and he didn’t need Oliver stepping into every little ordeal within his life. Everything Bruce sees Oliver doing isn’t for Oliver’s benefit but for Bruce’s. Not only was the man crossing boundaries, he also seemed to have no qualms with doing so. Never once has Bruce done such a thing unless he knew the other man was under potential harm, he has an understanding and penchant for personal space.
He glared when Green Arrow was now throwing his caretaking responsibilities onto Bruce. He disliked the SeRVE program as is, they’ve already had Black Mask runaway from the brig, Jason running around freely and the same with the girls. Now he seemed to want to clean his hands of Jason, as if the whole idea of bringing him here wasn’t his fault and just fucking up the enter ordeal will make Jason still want to stay with SeRVE.
His glare was now finally staring down Oliver, “Blackgate may be the only thing left for him now. After being tossed aside and denied despite whatever you two may have done in my batcave, will most likely cause him to refuse cooperating.” Bruce was quite agitated and it showed through his voice.
Pushing the man aside, he knew that Jason would no longer wish to be here. He could already tell that the two were no longer on speaking terms. “You’ve become a nuisance,” he coldly said before making his way out of the room once more.
Watching Bruce storm out of the room (well, it was storming if you knew Bruce, knew what that particular timbre of his voice meant, knew it was like anybody else shaking and spitting with anger), Ollie rubbed his hand over his chin and mouth in agitation. It wasn’t like they’d never fought before, but this was … uglier. Ollie and Bruce never fought about each others’ kids, not this way. Not about anything so sordid.
Maybe this whole thing with Jason *was* his fault. Maybe it had been a mistake to ever accept Jason into SeRVE, maybe Ollie should never have thought he could help the kid, maybe he should have left it all strictly in Bruce’s hands and not intervened, maybe, maybe. Maybe people were right to blame him for what happened during the nanobots and what happened after. Maybe that was what they thought of him, all of them, when it came down to it, that he was the kind of bastard who would do something like that even without being nano-drugged. Maybe —
Ollie shook his head, hard, refocusing. There was too fucking much he had to get done. There was no point dwelling on feelings. They would only prove a hindrance.
Leaving the room, he stalked down the corridor in the opposite direction of the way Bruce was headed, not looking back.