Chapter Two

Barbara stared down at the sink for a moment. The sight made her nauseous, and she hoped that it was wrong. For the third time. Three small bits of plastic, all with the same damning message.

Pink positives.

She stared down at the answers so forcefully, willing them to change themselves. She was so intent on the stare-down that it took her a moment to realize that the noise disturbing her solitude was her phone. She shook her head out of the daze, and dug into her skinny jeans for the smartphone.

The caller ID said that it was Dick.

Isn't that a kick in the chest? She thought.

"Hey Dick, what's up?" She forced as much cheerfulness into her voice as she could.

"Are you okay? You left in a bit of a rush last night." He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But I was wondering if we could postpone our date tonight? Some things have come up that I need to take care of." Barbara's eyes wandered down to the plastic.

"Is everything okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I gotta go."

Just like that she hung up on him. She felt bad in the back of her mind, but at the moment she wasn't thinking about his feelings. She needed to figure out what she was going to do. Nothing about this was going to be easy.

She swept the plastic into the waste basket and stormed out into the living room.

She knew that something would happen when she accepted that date with Dick. But she didn't think that this would have been the outcome. But then again, no one ever expects this to happen. What was she thinking? They didn't even use protection. Her father would kill her for being caught so unprepared. Oh God. Her father.

She sat down on the very sofa that she had woken up the morning afterwards. She was surprised at just how easily they transitioned from best friends into boy/girlfriend. Now that she thought about it, it was scary how naturally they transitioned between the two.

Her fingers gently rubbed the fading and threadbare fabric of her thrift store sofa. She thought of the feelings and memories as she felt the fabric. Suddenly she stood threw her purse over her shoulder and stormed out of the apartment.

Barbara marched out of the apartment building without greeting the lobby secretary as she normally did. She knew exactly where she was going, despite never having been there in her life. She would walk by it on her way to her library job every day. Never did she actually think that she would be the one to need it. She stopped in front of the door and stared at the shiny glass doors.

It was supposed to look inviting to those less fortunate. To Barbara it looked sterile. Uninviting. Cold with hard lines. Unforgiving. That wasn't what Barbara needed.

She didn't even take a step on the front step before she turned and ran.

Barbara knew that she couldn't go through it. She may not want to be in this position, but she couldn't do that. She needed someone to talk to. And only one name popped into her head.

She kept running until she got into one of the least desirable districts to be in. She ran into a stone building with the same amount of graffiti as all the buildings around it, but it maintained all of its window panes.

The lobby was nearly empty. A small boy sat in one of the chairs. He looked up at the red-head and gave a slight wave. Barbara wiped the tears from her eyes and gave a small wave back. She sat on one of the chairs and her leg began to shake. And it wouldn't stop.

"-And make sure that he gets plenty of rest. We don't want his stitches to come undone now. Barbara?!"

Dr. Leslie Thompkins was surprised at the sight of the red-headed crime fighter in her civilian identity. Quickly she finished helping her patients and then turned to her ally. Her white hair curled around and framed her face. She sat next to the red-head and gripped her hand.

"For what do I owe this pleasure of your visit?" She asked gently.

Visits from the Bat-clan were not unusual. But usually they involved injuries, blood, followed by the inevitable lecture on something better that they could do with their lives. There weren't very many social calls in their line of work.

"Is there anything that I could help you with?"

If there was one thing that Leslie knew, it was that the Bats weren't big on social calls. Every once and a blue moon they would have fifteen minutes of enjoyment. Leslie had the feeling that this wasn't one of those few moments.

"I needed someone's advice. A woman's advice," Barbara murmured.

"Oh."

"Yeah, so could we go somewhere a bit more, er, private?" Barbara asked and bit her lip.

"Of course, right this way," Leslie stood and led her young ally down a hallway and into her semi-private office. "I apologize for the mess. My office mate is just moving in. Her stuff is still a bit scattered."

"It's alright Dr. Thompkins. Messes aren't really of much bother to me."

Barbara sat in the chair opposite from the doctor for a moment where there was not a word said between the two. Leslie leaned forward and rested her chin on her hands waiting for the young red-head to begin to speak.

"I think I'm in trouble."

There was no response from the older doctor. She knew that Barbara needed to come out with it on her own.

"Leslie, I think I'm pregnant."

"Have you told anyone yet?" Leslie asked leaning forward.

"No. You were the first person that I told. I only found out officially this morning," Barbara gripped her hands together.

"You haven't told the father yet? Why are you hesitating? It a joyous moment in your lives."

Barbara looked down. She wanted to tell Dick about the whole thing. But she couldn't do that. He had a future ahead of him, and she didn't want to be the one who brought him down.

"Who is the father, Barb?"

Barbara only looked at the doctor. The doctor realized the look on her face. She had seen it before. It only appeared when a certain crime-fighter was involved.

"Why don't you tell me just what happened?"


She awoke on the sofa underneath a blanket that had been resting on the back of the sofa. She stretched and held back a gasp when she felt another warm body sharing her blanket and equally in a state of undress. She slipped out of the blanket quickly and quietly and walked into her bedroom where she dressed herself.

She came back out and poured herself a cup of coffee. She never was a big coffee person before, but once she started her night job, coffee had become just like her best friend. So she stood there staring out at the rising red sun through the streets, not thinking about anything. Or at least trying to.

She couldn't shake the fact that she had slept with her best friend.

They'd always been flirty with each other. It had always been a part of their relationship. It was comfortable. Natural.

"So, what's the plan for today?"

Barbara jumped a little. She was so engulfed into her own thoughts that she hadn't heard Dick get up.

"I'm not sure."

She felt as he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. His body was warm next to hers and she felt comfort in his arms. Outwards her body relaxed as she internally she shook herself. She couldn't allow herself to be dragged into anything. Neither of them could.

"Relax Babs, why are you so tense?"

What could she tell him? We slept together and now things weren't going to be easy? No, that was only an excuse and a lame one at that. Their lives weren't easy to begin with, a side effect of crime-fighting, but they were both tough enough to deal. She knew that nothing was really going to change. Barbara decided on going with a safe option.

"I'm just unsure as to where we are going to go from here. We can't go back to what we were, but how do we move forward with this? Neither of us is really in a position to be in a committed relationship. What do we do?"

Dick spun her around in his arms and looked closely at her. Her hands rested on his bare chest and for a moment there was no other thought in her head, but that was quickly pushed aside.

"What do we do? Barbara, we're going to take it one day at a time. We don't have to start anything too serious right away, but you have to admit that you would like something more." He only paused for a moment for her to agree with her expression. "We don't have to jump the gun; we can take it slow. One day at a time. Like when you first found out I was Robin and you became Batgirl."

"Except I can't slap you for this," Barbara grumbled to herself.

"What was that?" Dick asked chuckling to himself.

"One day at a time. I'll give you that much Grayson. One. Day. At. A. Time."

Dick's smile could've outshone the rising sun in that moment before he leaned down and kissed Barbara again on the lips.


Barbara was pacing in her living room. She was crazy. This whole idea was crazy and someone should lock her up in Arkham right now. But she was following the advice of Leslie and she promised that she would go through it. And a Gordon always goes through with their promises.

Mostly.

She chewed her lip and wrung her hands together. What the hell was she thinking?

There wasn't much time to ponder what she was thinking. The doorbell rang and her heart stood still for a moment. She walked towards the door in a stupor and opened the door.

"Here's your pizza ma'am. That'll be eighteen-fifty."

Barbara shook her head of everything else and reached inside her purse. She paid the delivery boy and took the pizza inside her home, shutting the door behind her. She set it on the table and leaned over it. She was beginning to feel nauseous.

Her first thought was panic. It was too early for morning sickness! She brushed that aside. It was just nerves. Yeah, nerves. She was nervous about this whole thing. How many times do you have to tell your boyfriend that you're pregnant? She pressed her hands against her forehead. Her pep-talk was not helping her at all.

The door opened behind her.

"Babs? You okay? You sounded a stressed when we talked on the phone earlier. What happened that I had to come over today?" Dick asked as he let himself into her apartment.

Oh that's right. She gave him a key to her apartment.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I ordered pizza, why don't we sit down and eat something?"

Not understanding her rush to begin eating he agreed and they sat together eating. There wasn't much said at the table. The only sound was them eating and swallowing their food.

Dick remained quiet. He could tell that something was bothering his girlfriend. He was curious to see just what it was, but decided that keeping his mouth shut would be the safest choice of action. He would just say one wrong word and she would go off on it but never tell you what she was really thinking.

After eating until they were full and putting the leftovers in the fridge they sat on the sofa together. Barbara continually avoided his eyes. He sat there, awkwardly, waiting for her to begin.

"Dick, there's something that I have to tell you."

"Okay." Short and sweet. He was doing alright. There was no way that he was going to screw this up this time.

"That's it? Just okay? Are you even interested in what I have to say?"

"Of course, Barbara. I just don't know what to say. What would you like me to say?" He looked at her. Tears were forming in her eyes. She stood and faced away from him.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's alright. Whatever it is, I'm sure that we'll get through it together. What's going on?" He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her closely.

"But Dick, I can't."

"Can't what? Babe, tell me."

"I don't know what I was thinking, you should just go home."

"No, Babs, tell me what is going on." Dick wasn't going to leave without some answers. He grabbed her shoulders and spun her around to face him.

"No, I can't."

"Barbara Eileen Gordon."

Barbara looked up into his face. Tears were beginning to fall down her face. She looked into Dick's comforting face and she completely broke down. She buried her face into his chest and murmured something.

"What?"

She lifted her head and looked deep into his eyes.

"I'm pregnant."

All thoughts in his head vanished and his knees began to give way. Somehow he managed to make his way to the sofa and sit down before he collapsed.

Barbara was cursing herself inside. She knew that she shouldn't have told him. And now there was no way that she could take that back. She sat down on a dining room chair and watched him as gears turned in his head.

They sat there in silence. It was nearly ten minutes before Dick found his courage to speak again.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, I visited Dr. Thompkins this morning. It's official." Barbara looked steadily at him. Her tears had been wiped away before.

"Wow. Just… wow. That's just… wow."

Barbara was dumbstruck. She just told him that she was pregnant and he just said wow. That underwhelmed her.

"Is that all you can say? Say something else."

"Barbara, will you marry me?" Dick asked.

Barbara stared at him. A question that was out of the blue. But it wasn't something that she wasn't prepared for. She knew Dick. He was loyal to everyone. It was one of the many things that she loved about him. But that was exactly why she couldn't do it.

"No."

"No?" Dick looked taken aback. That wasn't the answer that he was looking for. That wasn't the answer that he was expecting.

Barbara moved from her chair to sit next to him on the sofa. She grabbed his hand and rested it on her lap. She leaned into him before she started speaking.

"No. Not right now. You aren't ready. We're not ready."

Dick's face fell and he tried to remove his hand from her grip. Barbara refused to allow him to remove his hand. He needed to hear her through.

"Did you hear me? I said that we're not ready right now. But as I quote a very smart man that I know, I want to take this one day at a time. Can you do that?"

Dick finally succeeded in pulling his hand from her grasp.

For a moment Barbara was disappointed. He wasn't going to stay. But there was a moment where he looked down at her stomach. He gingerly reached out and rested his hand on her stomach. Slowly a smile spread on his face before he looked up to her face. He pulled her into a deep embrace.

"Someday, we'll be ready. I'll be ready. One day at a time. I promise."

That was one promise that she was sure to make sure that he was going to keep.


A/N: Here's one chapter to read just before school begins and lives are filled with work that should actually be done. But I will still work on this. That is what weekends are for. I'm sorry if the characters seem a little OOC for this. It was a difficult chapter to write for some reason.

As always, Reviews are appreciated. Until next time.