"Picture this," Dick had said, putting his arm around her shoulder and swiping his other hand in a wide arc before them. "A house. Our house. I could build you a house here. A big house, two or three stories, with a proper basement and a roof you can get to through the windows. And an apple tree in the back, and a wraparound porch."
"When will you have time to do that?" Barbra asked.
"Here and there," Dick responded. "What do you think?"
"I think it's wonderful," she responded. "But there'll have to be more than one bathroom."
Dick gave her a mock affronted glance. "Of course! And a big kitchen with an island."
"Shall we paint it blue?"
"The kitchen?"
"The outside of the house."
"Naturally. I was thinking a nice yellow for the kitchen, and other colors for different rooms, you know. We'll have a piano, of course, and fluffy carpet floors- but only in the living room and the bedrooms. Everywhere else can be hardwood."
"And what of the bedrooms?"
"Oh, I was thinking maybe four bedrooms, and other rooms of course, but four with beds…"
They kept on talking for hours, imagining what their dream house would look like.
Years later, Babs had forgotten about the house. They had been kids, after all, barely fourteen. She was twenty now, and couldn't walk. That had been taken from her by the Joker. She hadn't thought about that house for years.
Now Dick said he had a surprise for her.
He insisted on pushing her wheelchair all the way there, also making her wear a blindfold. She could tell by the way the wheels rolled that it was a concrete path- a long concrete path, and she could hear leaves rustling in the breeze.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"You'll see," was all Dick said. After a moment or two, they came to a stop.
"Can I take the blindfold off now?" Babs asked.
"Yep."
She did so, and froze immediately.
It was the house- their house, with a wraparound porch and blue walls and a ramp for her wheelchair.
"When did you do this?" she asked. It took a minuet for the words to form.
"Here and there," he responded, grinning. "Wanna see inside?"
"Hell, yeah!"
He wheeled her inside and gave her a house tour. It was all as they had planned it- and island in the kitchen, a piano, carpet and hardwood, the colors of the paint, everything, save for a few things. Instead of stairs, there were ramps. An entire room of computers and gadgets so that she could work as Oracle from there. The bathroom in the Master Bedroom was easy-access. Things like that.
Their tour ended on the balcony outside the Master Bedroom. There was a perfect view of the forest surrounding the house, and the pool a distance away.
"What d'you think?" Dick asked.
"When can I move in?" Barbra asked in response.
"Today," Dick answered. "And I have one more thing for you." With that, he knelt in front of her wheelchair, and pulled out a little box.
Babs was frozen in place as he opened it to reveal an elegant diamond ring. "Barbara Gordon, will you marry me?"
She stared.
And stared.
"Are you okay?" he began to ask, but only got to say 'Are y-' before he was cut off. Babs had launched herself from her wheelchair and caught him in a flying tackle.
"Yes," she said finally as they landed in a tangled heap on the floor. He let out a little laugh and kissed her, right there, on the floor of their balcony.
Never, in all her years of imagining, had she pictured this happening. And it was the best thing that had ever happened to her, without a doubt.