Wax Figurine | T. Drake ✔

[26]

It wasn't the best weekend, at least not until the very end.

That morning the Waynes had come down to the living room to a rather unexpected sight. Empty cups of tea and coffee were placed on the table, their home theater system was still running and both Olivia and Tim were asleep, probably after watching marathons of the Netflix shows Ginny and Georgia as well as Grace and Frankie to prove to one another that those shows weren't boring.

Steph, of course, had to capture the moment with her camera. Damian scoffed before leaving for the kitchen to get breakfast. Bruce was still in his study so he hadn't come down yet, while Richard and Barbara were considering whether or not to wake the two of them up.

But Jason being Jason decided to beat them to it and woke the peacefully sleeping pair with an air horn. 

Of course, it resulted in him being punched in the face by Olivia and also with Tim being kicked off the couch because she freaked out seeing him so close to her upon waking up.

To say that breakfast was a chaotic affair would be simply understating it.

However, Olivia had to leave for her home after breakfast but before that Alfred told her that Bruce wanted to see her in his study.

Tim knew instantly that it would be something about her parents so even though his butt was sore from being kicked off the couch, he gave her a thumbs up to assure her.

She understood and followed Alfred to the study. She was both nervous and slightly hopeful that Bruce had something to tell her about her parents.

So she knocked on the door and then stepped in, finding Bruce on his desk, working. Seeing her enter, he closed his laptop and gestured her to take the seat in front of him. 

It was impossible to judge whether the news was good or bad from his expression because he always had a very unreadable look on his face. But the silence was starting to worry her.

"I did what you asked me to and looked into your parents' details," he spoke up, giving her a file that held their criminal record mainly being involvement with Cadmus as well as the details about the prisons they had been held in, "and I went to check where they should have been right now."

"Okay... Did you meet them?" She didn't go through the file in detail, pushing it back towards him as she only wanted to know whether they were doing well or not, "are they alright?"

Bruce knew he had to tell her sooner or later and it would be unfair to lie to her and keep her holding onto false hope. "I couldn't meet them."

"But why?"

"Olivia, you first have to promise me that you will listen to what I have to tell you calmly and accept it. We are all here for you as a family; should you ever find the need to come to us, our doors will always be open for you. And you are certainly not alone."

Her eyes showed the conflict as she listened, somewhat realizing that he was preparing her beforehand for something worse. Her hands were clasped tightly together and she nodded, silently asking him to resume.

"Your parents died in the bombings the prison facility suffered from," he told her, trying to break the news on her gently but of course, there was no possible way to ascertain that, "when I went to check, there were no records of them so I had to crosscheck through their lawyer and every other person I could find connected to their case."

He was slowly explaining to her but she was no longer listening, her mental processes coming to a screeching halt with the first sentence alone.

They had died.

That meant there was truly no one in the world she could call her own and she was left alone, just like she always feared she would.

Knowing that they were in prison and couldn't come back to her was awful but at least she knew that they were alive and that there could be a time when she would finally be able to meet them. But finding out from Bruce that they had died in prison crushed that tiny ray of hope she had of ever seeing them again.

Her lip wobbled though she was trying her best to hold her tears in, her knuckles turning white as she clenched her fingers together.

"Strong girls don't cry," her mother's words rang in her ears, "you are a strong girl, Livvie. You must not cry. Ever."

But no matter if she was strong or not, she was still just a girl.

A girl who had been staying away from her parents for so long yet had just discovered that they had died.

"Olivia, we are always going to be here for you," Bruce repeated, able to sense the fear that had struck her because he too knew what it was like to lose parents at a young age, "you are not alone in this, I promise."

She shakily stood up, draining her tears within her as she spoke, "thank you, Bruce, for checking on them... I must go home now."

She was putting on a blank facade to conceal that she was breaking down underneath. He knew that look in her eyes too well; he had seen Tim react the same way multiple times before.

"Alfred will drop you back," he told her, knowing that it would be better if she had some time to herself to mourn. She wasn't the sort of person who would want to be smothered by them right then.

"And... Can you please do one more thing...?"

"Certainly," he agreed immediately.

"Please don't tell anyone about this," she mumbled, her voice starting to break, "not Tim and not Steph... Nobody..."

His eyes softened in sympathy and he nodded, "I will not tell them anything."

"Thank you," she roughly brushed away the tears that had escaped her eyes, taking in a deep breath to compose herself again, "and tell them I'm sorry I left without... Saying goodbye..."

"It's okay, they won't mind," he replied, "and if you want to take an off from school tomorrow, I will send in a leave of absence."

"Right... Thanks... Y'know, I asked Tim what you like so that I can give it to you as a thank you for doing so much for me," her lips wobbled again as she was still trying her best not to cry, "I will knit you a woolen scarf. In your favorite colors... Black and grey and all the other colors old people like..."

It hurt to see her like that; breaking down yet at the same time holding herself together. Like a broken glass that was being kept in place with tiny scraps of tape. 

"You don't have to do that for me," he gently patted her head, "there's one thing you can do instead."

She looked up at him, "what thing?"

"Promise me you won't hurt yourself."

She nodded but the sadness in her eyes had increased as she spoke in a broken tone, "I promise..."

He had called Alfred and watched her leave with him, his concern increasing for her nevertheless.

She lived all by herself in the forest and perhaps it would not be wise to let her out of their sight. But then keeping her at the manor would not be right either.

She needed time to accept her parents' death and she definitely needed space. That couldn't be achieved if he asked her to stay at the manor and it might only make things worse for her.

He decided to keep checking up on her regularly to make sure that she was doing well. There wasn't anything else that he could do for her at the moment.

***