Merry Christmas to All (Dinah, Harry, & Jake, complete email log)
Jake had finally seemed ready to move out of Wayne Manor and into a new place shortly before Christmas. They'd found a townhouse that had just enough room for them both to have their space, but was small enough to be cozy. It even had a tiny back yard. It was a new start for them, and Dinah only hoped that it went well. She had gone all out with decorating and there were more than a few presents under the tree for Jake. She couldn't help herself-she'd wanted to give him the type of Christmas that every kid deserved to have. Especially after the year he'd had.
Christmas Eve presented an opportunity to give Harry the chance to meet Jake. He'd asked about it months ago, and while she'd agreed to it there had been a part of her that had been hesitant. She didn't want to introduce them and then have things not last. So she'd waited. But she wanted to spend the holiday with both Harry and Jake so now was hopefully a good time. She was just a little nervous that they might not get along.
Dinah was just waiting for the oven to finish cooking the lasagna. She'd gone with lasagna mainly because it was the only thing she could make without screwing it up. Her dad had been a great lover of lasagnas and so had taught Dinah to make them during the weekends that he'd spent puttering around the kitchen, making his favorite dish. Unfortunately, that hadn't translated into cooking anything else and with how busy both her parents had been during the week, there had been a lot of takeout and frozen pizzas growing up.
She turned to Jake once he entered the kitchen and gave him a reassuring smile.
"You'll let me know if you start to feel uncomfortable tonight, right?" she asked Jake. She'd already made it clear that she had no problem asking Harry to leave if Jake was stepping too far out of his comfort zone. She knew Harry would understand, and she wanted Jake to feel safe in his new home.
-----
Jake gave Dinah a slightly exasperated smile. "Yes, Mom," he said. It was something they'd gone over a few times already. He understood that she worried about him, and it hadn't gotten bothersome yet. "I'll let you know if I feel uncomfortable. But if I do, I might just go out to the backyard with Oy for a bit. Really, I'm feeling a lot better."
The shooting range, meeting Raylan... those things had done a lot of good. Jake's hair was growing back in, and the scars on his scalp were faded or covered up. He'd started to eat better again, and was filling out. The grey color was gone from his skin, and his eyes had almost lost that haunted expression - it only came back when he was in the grip of nightmares.
The nightmares were the only lingering worry, and one Jake wasn't sure would leave him for a while yet. But that was fair enough, since he'd gotten his mind back to himself, and had gotten Dinah back as well.
"He's a wizard, right? Like, a real one?"
-----
Dinah grinned.
"Yes, he's a real wizard. A darn good one too. You should see him in action."
She was okay with his exasperation. She knew she was being somewhat overbearing, but she couldn't help it. After everything that had happened since he'd returned to the City, she wanted nothing more than to make sure he was protected and happy. She was glad that he seemed to have bounced back from what had happened with the Joker for the most part-not entirely, she knew. She was still there for the nightmares that intruded on his nights.
She stopped her cooking long enough to brush some of the hair that had grown back in off his forehead.
"I care about him a lot," she told Jake. "He's a good man. I'm hoping you'll like him too." She hesitated, not sure quite how to bring up the subject. "I'd actually like to give him a key to this place-if you're comfortable with that. You don't need to decide after dinner tonight, and if you're never comfortable with it, that's okay too. This is your home, and I want you to feel safe here."
If she did sense any bit of hesitation in Jake in regards to giving Harry a key, that would be the end of it. But she did think it would be nice to have him be a part of their life here.
-----
Jake's grin widened. "So you really like him. Okay. I'll be honest." Then a hint of worry came into Jake's expression, and he gnawed lightly at his lower lip. "But... I think I sorta remember him. He... wouldn't be mad at me for throwing that plate at him, would he?" The concern deepened, segued into mild fear and alarm. "Did it hurt him? I didn't even remember that until now. I didn't hurt him, did I?"
The final, most painful facet of the time he had spent with the Joker. Jake knew he had hurt people. How badly, he wasn't completely certain, but he suspected - given his skills - that there had been fatalities. Sometimes his nightmares showed him images that were blessedly forgotten by the morning. It was difficult to separate truth from Jack's demented horrors - so many had become reality. Some part of him had locked those memories away, shut away the horrors so he could be Jake Chambers again, just Jake, son of Elmer, son of Roland, son of Barbara, son of Dinah.
-----
"Harry knows that you weren't yourself," Dinah reassured Jake. "He's not mad at you. In fact, he was the one who asked to meet you officially. And we were all healed after we rescued you, so anything that happened as a result of your plates didn't cause lasting damage."
If he pressed the issue, she wasn't going to lie to him but the details didn't matter in her mind. All was well that ended well. She knew that eventually they would need to discuss the people that had been killed while Jake was under the Joker's brainwashing, but she wasn't going to bring that topic up until Jake was ready. -----
The boy let out a breath of relief. He looked up at Dinah with brightening eyes. "He asked to meet me?" That was different. His mother's strange and often sick friends never wanted to meet her son. Even his father, Elmer R Chambers, Master of the Kill, had barely acknowledged Jake's existence. Sometimes he suspected they didn't remember his name. That was alright - his mother called him 'John' when she remembered, but to his father, he was always 'the kid'. If he'd known what Jake preferred to call himself, he would likely have had a fit.
Things like that weren't important here. Not since he'd left New York and all its harsh mysteries and lessons. There was love, and concern, and the kinds of relationships he'd never known he craved. People who cared about him for his thoughts and his personality and the things he said and did, not just because they had to. These were not the professionals he'd known in his early years. These were people that held genuine affection, people he could love and who would love him in return.
There was a knock at the door. Jake glanced at it, then quickly looked back at Dinah. "Does he know about me? About... about the Touch?" He didn't want to scare away this new stranger with his ability, but Dinah said he was a wizard - a real one. Maybe it would be alright.
-----
“He knows about the Touch,” Dinah confirmed with a nod. “Trust me, Jake, Harry's got plenty of experience with dealing with an ability that might make some people nervous.” She gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I think you two might have a lot to talk about, if you decide you want to open up to him.”
Her tone was gentle enough that it was clear that she wasn't going to push Jake to open up to Harry, but that she believed Harry would be open to talking to Jake if he felt comfortable with the idea.
She approached the door, but stopped and looked at Jake, waiting for him to indicate that he was ready for her to open it.
-----
Jake took a breath, held in the tight bundle of nerves starting to creep into his belly, and nodded.
Outside, Harry rested against his staff. It might not have been suitable date-wear, but in this City, he was a bit loathe to leave home without it. He was holding a paper bag with some chocolates, and a bottle of wine in one arm. Mouse had made it clear that he would not be left behind today, and so, in compromise, Mouse was holding a plastic bag with potato salad and a small bag of dog food for himself and Oy. If Oy even ate dog food. Harry wasn't sure.
"Make sure you wipe your feet before you go inside," he told the Foo dog. Mouse huffed n response, tail wagging as he waited for the door.
-----
Dinah gave Jake one last reassuring smile and then opened the door. Her smile widened as she saw Harry. She reached up to give him a hug and stood on her tiptoes to give him a light kiss on the lips before turning her attention to greet Mouse. She didn't have to bend over very far to scratch the gigantic dog behind the ears.
Then she stepped aside and gestured inside.
"Jake, this is Harry," she introduced the two. "And Mouse," she added, gesturing toward Harry's dog. (Though a part of her felt strange calling the dog 'Harry's' since it seemed that the dog had adopted Harry as much as Harry had adopted him.)
-----
The kiss Harry returned was fairly chaste, as he hadn't been approved by the home's dominant male yet. While Dinah greeted the happy Mouse, Jake looked up. And up. Harry considered squatting, but the boy was almost a teenager, and that wasn't something you did for kids of that age. He was careful not to let Jake's eyes meet his own, looking instead at the boy's cheek.
After a moment, Jake smiled a bit. "You're really tall."
Harry snickered. "I used to be short for my age. When I was ten. But by the time I was sixteen, it was a lot different." Harry offered his right hand to the young gunslinger. "Nice to meet you, Jake. I'm Harry."
Jake took a step close, and shook Harry's hand. Harry knew about the Touch, so he was expecting some kind of reaction, but he was surprised when the tingling in his skin nearly had his hair standing on end. Jake quickly pulled his hand back as though he'd been shocked. "Whoa," he said. "Is that... normal?"
Harry shrugged a bit. "Yes, though it doesn't happen much. That was my aura mingling with yours when our hands touched. I've got magic in mine. You've got a power of your own - your Touch. Magic tends to be a bit abrasive like that."
Jake absorbed that with calm, a smile slowly blossoming on his face. Then he put his hand back out and shook Harry's again. "Nice to meet you, Sai Harry."
-----
Dinah had straightened up after greeting Mouse in time to catch the exchange between the two. A grin of relief spread across her face. She had perhaps been more nervous than both of them. It had been so important to her that they get along. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why she had put off this meeting for so long.
It was only then that the smell of burnt lasagna assaulted her nostrils. Dinah bit her tongue before she could let out a curse and hurried to the oven. She managed to get the lasagna out before any more damage was done, but the bottom was definitely blackened.
She sighed and turned to the two.
"It should still be okay, as long as we scrape off the bottom layer before eating."
Normally, her lack of kitchen prowess wouldn't bother her. In fact, she took pride in the fact that even if her cooking was crappy, at least it was heartfelt crappy. But normally, her boyfriend wouldn't have just finished living with someone who was apparently a whiz when it came to cooking and baking and probably all things kitchen-related.
"Sorry," she said with a wince.
-----
Harry gave her a grin. "Smells fantastic, D." By his stomach, the four major food groups were grease, sugar, starch, and burnt crunchy bits. He thought about saying so out loud, but some inner voice told him that drawing any more attention to the burn might make Dinah feel worse for some reason. So he decided to pretend it didn't exist.
Which was easy enough. The lasagna did smell incredible. "Mouse brought some potato salad. I have dessert and... well." He passed along the brown bag to Dinah, knowing she'd spot the wine immediately, the two boxes of chocolates a moment after. Then he glanced around for Mouse.
Who was sniffing companionably at Oy. He remembered the creature from the asylum, only now it looked much healthier and happier. If absolutely dwarfed by Mouse. "Ake!" the billy-bumbler barked. "Ake! Inah! Arry! Oy!"
Mouse let out a low wuff. Oy's ears dropped back, his head tilted slightly, and then barked out, "Owse!"
Harry sighed. "Does everyone understand you but me?"
Mouse wagged his tail and butted his head against Harry's leg, nearly knocking the wizard over. When this made Jake start to giggle, the enormous Foo dog sat down beside the boy and licked his cheek.
-----
Dinah grinned her thanks up at Harry. She would take the pretense of ignoring the burnt parts on the lasagna. She accepted the wine and slipped into the fridge for later, and then set the chocolates on the counter. She stood on tiptoe again and kissed his cheek.
"Thank you," she said quietly, and then turned to watch the spectacle that was Oy, Jake, and the Foo dog getting to know each other.
She laughed and then looked up at Harry again.
"You would be surprised how quickly you do start to understand him," she said with a nod toward Oy.
Watching the absolute delight on Jake's face as Mouse licked his face was something else. There were so many times when it was easy to forget that Jake was still a kid, times when it was clear that his childhood had been stolen away. But this was, thankfully, not one of those times.
-----
"I meant Mouse. Oy... I think I can make him out enough. But Jesse can understand Mouse. My godmother can. I know he can speak, as clear as any human. But he speaks Canine, and I can only listen in Human." Harry shrugged. "Heard him once when I was transformed into a dog. He sounds a lot like me, actually."
Mouse looked up at that, looked at Dinah, and dropped his jaw open in a doggy grin. Then he licked Jake again, and rolled onto his back, paws splayed in the air.
Jake laughed again, a pure and joyful sound, and immediately dropped to his knees in order to rub the big dog's belly. Beside the Foo dog, Oy also rolled onto his back, and Jake began to rub both exposed bellies with the same degree of vigor. "West Highland Dogasaurus," Jake said, grinning. "I like that."
The grin on Harry's face flickered, just for an instant, but he didn't draw any attention to it. River also could read his surface thoughts, but he was naturally thick-skulled, so anything beyond that was pretty secure. He didn't think Jake was aware of reading the thought, no more than River normally was, so bringing it up might only trouble him. Harry had no desire to ruin the image of a happy boy playing with a pair of animals that were just as happy to be playing with him.
He slid an arm across Dinah's shoulders and squeezed her to him a bit, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "He looks great," he said, soft enough for her alone. "I never would have thought it was the same boy."
-----
Dinah looked up at Harry as Jake spoke out loud in response to... well, she could only guess it was an unspoken thought. He'd done that sort of thing with her more than once, but she had started to get used to it and she was better than ever at pushing thoughts she didn't want advertised to the back of her mind. She noticed that his smile flickered for just a moment, and then he seemed to push past the momentary discomfort. She felt a surge of affection for him at that.
When his arm came to rest on her shoulders, Dinah rested her head against his chest and smiled.
"Mm hm," she agreed.
As she watched Jake playing with Mouse and Oy and snuggled into Harry, Dinah reflected that this was something she could definitely get used to. She was trying not to think like that-since they'd gotten back together, she was still trying to proceed with caution and not get too used to anything until they'd had more time to put things back together. But it was hard not to at times like this, when everything just seemed to fit. For now, she was just going to let herself enjoy it.
At least until the second timer dinged for the garlic bread. Then Dinah went back into 'cooking' mode and took it out of the oven. To her relief, it was only slightly darker than she might have liked. The table was already set, so she picked up the lasagna to carry it out to the dining room.
-----
By the time they had reached the table, Jake had convinced Harry to show him something magic. Harry had asked if Mouse wasn't enough, and the boy had laughed and asked for something he could really see. Harry considered for a moment. His brand of magic was normally redirecting energies, making things go 'boom'. It had taken a while before his subtle magic had gotten to a useful level, and that was mostly so he could efficiently teach those things to his apprentice.
So when Dinah entered the dining room, there was only Jake, staring at an empty area of the room, his jaw dropped open and his eyes wide. Harry and Mouse were nowhere in sight.
-----
Dinah blinked as she walked into the room and only saw Jake, who was looking quite flabbergasted.
"Where are Harry and Mouse?" she asked him.
She set the lasagna down, and glanced around the room, though there was no sign of her boyfriend or his dog. She knew that it most likely wasn't anything to be concerned about, judging by the fact that Jake didn't seem concerned so much as surprised.
-----
Harry couldn't help himself - he chuckled, and didn't bother to compensate for it. The expression on Jake's face shifted to astonished delight, and Harry dropped the veil completely. "I'd show you more," he said, "but your mom went and cooked a fantastic smelling meal here, and I'd hate to miss out on it."
Jake was all but bouncing on the balls of his feet. "That was so cool!"
Harry laughed aloud at that claim. "You should see my apprentice with those. Blink and she's gone, it's a gift. Veils and illusions aren't my specialty, but she's a natural."
Jake raised his eyebrows. "What is your specialty?"
"Finding things. Moving energy around. Evocation - what would be called 'kaboom' magic. But that's not something I'm gonna do unless I have to. It gets messy."
Jake's eyes widened a bit more, but he caught himself and glanced at the table. Then he looked for the billy-bumbler. "Come on, Oy. Time to wash up for dinner." He started to turn, and then paused again. "Thanks for showing me that, Harry. That was really cool."
Harry smiled a bit. "No problem, Jake. You're welcome." Then he looked back at Dinah, his smile turning a bit sheepish when Jake left the room. "It was either that, or the miniature sun trick," he said. "And I didn't feel like risking fire tonight."
-----
"Well thank you for not setting our new home on fire," Dinah said with a laugh as she leaned in and gave Harry a light kiss.
"I'm pretty sure you've won him over," she told Harry while Jake was out of the room.
She was very glad for that, though there was the smallest part of her that was concerned about Jake getting attached and getting hurt if things didn't work out with herself and Harry. But she trusted that Harry wouldn't be the type to bond with a kid and drop out of his life just because a relationship didn't work out. She also wouldn't have even introduced them if she didn't have the hope that this time around would be different.
-----
Harry blushed ever so slightly. "I'm not usually great with kids, but I've had some experience with Michael's brood. Seven of them. Molly, the oldest, is... was my apprentice. The youngest is named Harry. Harry Carpenter. Poor kid."
Jake returned a moment later, carefully drying off Oy's face with a small washcloth. Mouse looked at the boy and bumbler, then up at Harry. "Forget it," said the wizard. "I'd need a beach towel and a hairdryer just to wipe down your muzzle. Anything more, and I'd need a rescue party after the first hour."
The Foo dog huffed and sat down beside the table. Oy bounded over to him and barked, "Ows!" Mouse shifted slightly, and Oy settled in beside him.
Harry shook his head. "Jake, can I ask what type of animal Oy is?"
Jake smiled, sitting down. "He's a billy-bumbler. We found him in Mid-World, and I fed him a few scraps of meat. He was twig-thin, and had some scratches on him. Roland -my dihn - thought he'd been abandoned by the pack because he tried to talk. Not a lot of bumblers do that anymore, but Oy knows a lot of words, and he learns fast. He can count, too. He's really smart."
Makes sense, Harry thought, looking at the pair of canines. "He looks it. I'm glad you have each other."
-----
Dinah actually would have pegged Harry as being great with kids all of the time. He had a sort of patience about him when it came to people that needed it. Not to mention that he was a kid at heart himself. But she didn't have time to point out that he was most likely being modest as Jake and Oy bounded into the dining room.
Instead, she took a seat as everyone else settled in around the table and her hand found Harry's underneath the table and she gave it a brief squeeze before she started to dish up the lasagna for everyone. Whether he was usually good with kids or not, she was extremely grateful that he was making the effort with Jake and happy that it seemed to be going so well.