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Stephanie loved her short hair, but she also loved braids. They made hairstyles much fancier, and she liked to play with them when she was bored. They always made her day ever so slightly brighter.
Jonathan felt this was completely necessary. His poor daughter had been ill on and off for a while now, and she’d been so anxious and down about it. But it was hard to be down when Jons slim fingers braided ribbons into her hair.
“I’m not going anywhere, it’s a waste” she insisted, but she had a small smile on her face.
“It’s not a waste, it’s experimenting. I have to be better than Edward at this” he insisted, petting her hair. She rolled her eyes, but let him continue.
“How are you feeling?”
“I told you, it’s not usually that bad”
“Bad enough that you missed tutoring your friends,” Jonathan pointed out.
“They moved last month, after Joker caused the toxic fog.” She curled up a bit more, and Jonathan rested a hand on her cheek.
“It’s fine. Could you.. leave? Brainteaser wants sleep” she requested, and Jonathan nodded, getting up. “Wake me when Tim comes home with the ice cream”
He smiled, nodding again as he closed the door. He did his best to pretend he didn’t know she didn’t want him to see her get nauseous again.
When Tim came home, Stephanie was downstairs almost immediately to ambush him. They spoke in hushed voices, and Jonathan knew fear when he saw it, and he did see it. He didn’t say a word or let them suspect he knew anything. Scared animals cowered and ran, and that wouldn’t help him at all. He waited until they came to him to speak.
“Hey, wanna play scrabble with us?”
—-
“YOU ABSOLUTE CRIMEBAG!” Stephanie pushed Tim, knocking him from the chair. Because he put a word in the spot she was going to use. That… wasn’t like her. She’d do it jokingly, sure, but that wasn’t this. This was an anxiety response.
“Alright, we’re putting scrabble away.” Jon decided, cleaning off the board.
“But-“
“Nope, not right now. I was winning anyways, it’s fine” Jonathan admitted, and suddenly they were both pestering him, jokingly this time.
“You were not!”
“You’re a liar!”
And if he was a liar? Well, the evidence was gone now.
—-
Edward came home from meeting Oswald to Jonathan immediately pulling him to their room before the kids even saw him.
“Now Jon, you know I’d never turn down alone time in our room, but-“ Edward’s joke trailed off when he saw his husband’s face. “Jon, what’s wrong?”
“The kids are worried about something, they haven’t told me anything. Do they think I’d be upset if I knew something? They’re trying to hide fear from me of all people” he admitted, and Edwards expression softened.
“Honey, they’re very close. If they have a secret they share it together. But we’re their parents, they're going to be embarrassed or worried to share some things. They’ll come around, I’m sure, they’ve just gotta be brave together for a while”
Jonathan didn’t look too much better, but nodded.
“…fair, I suppose”
Didn’t mean he had to like it.
“You’re an only child, you don’t get it. I promise it’s normal teenager behavior. I’m sure it’s something they think is world ending, that’s actually incredibly silly”
The redhead's smile was reassuring, and he felt himself relax slightly.
“When did you get so good at this reassuring thing?” Jon teased softly, resting his hand on Edward’s jaw. He just smiled and kissed his wrist.
“When I realized I had a family full of people with trauma and that they only deserve the best. And I like being the best.”
——
Stephanie had been in the bath for three or so hours; a very odd occurrence for how much she hated when her fingers or toes pruned. She’d refuse to stay in a body of water for over a half hour usually, preferring to get out and dry off, maybe just to come back in with dry fingers and toes.
The point was, if she didn’t answer questions through the door, Jonathan and Edward would have been very concerned. Tim didn’t seem as concerned though, more tense . Jonathan was almost certain he and Stephanie were texting back and forth with each other.
Jon acted like he was invested in whatever ghost hunting show Tim had put on- something fake and poorly acted- and forced himself to lean calmly into Edward and not try to see what his son was doing on the phone.
Tim held his phone closer to himself than usual, checking at every buzz. It was uniform, constant.
Jonathan noticed when the pattern halted and Tim started chewing his lip.
“Steph was wondering if you could go check on her?” Tim managed to keep a calm voice, but Jon could see the anxiety behind it. Edward stood up and Jon followed, both of them on edge in a way that the bat could only dream of making them since parenthood.
When they arrived upstairs, Edward knocked on the bathroom door.
“Stephie? Honey?” He called softly.
“Daddy? Dad with you?”
“Mhm”
There was a short silence.
“… doors unlocked”
Edward opened it slowly, Jon behind him. Stephanie was curled in the dry bathtub in her purple nightgown. Her hair was a mess, ribbons and all, and she sniffled pathetically. Edward was immediately on his knees in front of the bathtub next to her, Jon sitting on the edge of the tub. Stephanie chewed the braid closest to her mouth, looking at the tiles on the shower wall to avoid looking her dads in the eye, likely because hers were clearly red and puffy. Jon leaned over, resting a hand on her knee.
“Stephanie? Are you alright? Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, fists balled up in her nightgown.
“…I think I messed up” she whispered, leaning into Edward’s hand as it came to her hair.
“What’s wrong, Stephie? We won’t be mad” he insisted.
“I know you won't. It’d be better than you being disappointed in me though”
“Bullshit,” Jonathan squeezed her knee lightly, trying to keep her grounded. “You could destroy all my notes, all my formulas, everything I’ve worked on my whole life and I’d still be proud of you”
Stephanie hiccuped a small sob she clearly didn’t mean to let out.
“I lied. Kinda. I haven’t tutored my friend in months. I just kept going ‘cause I really liked him. And we… dated. For a little. But he moved and he got a different phone number” she explained in a shaky whisper.
“Honey, we all dated people we thought were the one and it wasn’t meant to be. That’s part of being a kid, that is not a mistake”
Stephanie looked at Edward, shaking her head.
“No, that’s not… I had a theory. And Tim was already going to the store so…” she trailed off, glancing up at them, then back away before nodding to the trash can by the sink. Edward got up, walking to where she’d indicated. There was a moment of confusion before his already pale face lost color; it’d be humorous if Jonathan hadn’t been so worried.
“… You’re pregnant” the redhead choked out, looking at her like he was sure he was missing some context that would lead to any other conclusion. The silence was deafening,
“What do you want to do? Do you know?” Jonathan asked, getting a startled laugh in return.
“I don’t know! I thought I was working myself up for a negative, that- that I sat in the tub for two hours psyching myself up only to actually take the test and feel like an idiot when it was negative- I didn’t expect a positive for real! I thought for sure I was wrong”
Jon leaned over, picking her up with a surprising lack of difficulty for his thin frame.
“There’s time. No one has to know that you don’t want to, no one is going to make choices for you, no one’s pressuring you into anything.” He promised, letting her curl into his chest like she did as a child. He looked at Edward, who forced himself out of shock.
“O-of course. You’re gonna get help every step of any path you choose”
“In… in a perfect world… I think I’d wanna keep it. I don’t know right now though.”
Jon nodded, carding his fingers through her hair.
“We’ll get you prenatal vitamins, and get you into a doctor-under an alias if you want- to make sure everything’s easy as we can make it”
“You’re our little girl, we’re going to take care of you. You’ll always be our little girl, even if you have one of your own.” Edward swore, perching next to Jon.
“I know, I know, I love you guys. I love you so much” she whispered, choking on another sob.
“We love you too.”
“Always.”