"Should I even ask if he knows you're here?" John placed a cup of coffee in front of her and chose to lean against the kitchen counter of the townhouse.

"Do you really think he would let me come to Gotham?" Helena rolled her eyes, betraying her mother's side and her eighteen years. "He's… busy."

"He thinks you're in Sardinia." He corrected her.

"God you guys are too much alike." Taking a sip from her mug she glanced around the place, spotting a toy laying on the ground. Then looked to his hands, clasping the mug. "You're married and have kids."

"Your father was right when he said we put on the mask for a reason." John sighed. "You don't know who's by your side until the worst possible situations. And you can't loose what is most precious." A pause. "But that's not what I do any more. No more masks for me."

"But the past haunts you, Mr. Blake." A flash of memory went through her mind and she swallowed hard. "Even when you stop… or not."

"Helena," He said her name like he had known her for while and quite frankly, he probably did. There were always quiet conversations that her father had over the phone, keeping away from the video and choosing to stay with the technology of old. However, those rare moments, this man's name was often said quietly, mostly in a frustrated way. In those moments, Helena knew that she wasn't supposed to be listening. "You need to go back to your family."

"I can't." She cleared her throat. "We're not safe any more."

"Your father has everything under control. Besides, there's nothing you can do here." John told her. "We're tracking him down and we should be closing in on him soon."

"So you are still in… the business." The hazel eyes that matched her father's so unbelievably well, lit up.

"That's not for you…"

"Let me help." Standing, she went over to him. Although he had a few inches on her, her posture and poise made her five foot six height seem larger. "I can…"

"You know I can't do that." His eyes narrowed. "Your father would kill me."

"Oh come on," A smirk came to her face. "You know he doesn't kill. Plus he's not that threatening any more, he has a cane."

"Cane or no cane, I don't want to get half beaten to death." John set down the mug and crossed his arms staring her down. "Look, you need to go back to them. You're father left this life for a reason. What we do, did, isn't a life he wants for you."

"The Joker ruined my life!" Unannounced anger suddenly entered the room. Everything stilled, and the two held each other's gaze intently. Both wanting to know who was going to back down first. When neither did, it was now a question of who was going to speak first.

"No parent wants this life for their child." John said quietly. "I suggest you speak to your father before making any plans to go through with this."

Helena stood back for a moment while John went around the open kitchen. He took her mug, refilled it and then his. She took it as a sign that he wasn't mad at her and looked steadily at the beverage.

"Can I meet him?" Interrupting the silence her eyes begged him. He just smirked.

"I don't think that meeting the new guy is going to…"

"No, not him." She swallowed. "Can I meet Alfred?"

Before he could answer her, a door slammed and the sound of running went through the townhouse.

"Shit." John breathed under his breath. Well that was something her father didn't really indulge in; her mother on the other hand used a plethora of colorful words. When Helena had inquired about it, her mother simply told her that her father was still controlled mentally by Alfred. Helena thought that her mother controlled her father. Selina assured that she had a certain control over him, but the real mastermind behind Bruce Wayne was Alfred Pennyworth.

"Jay! Tim!" A woman's voice echoed. "I swear to God, if I…"

"Ha! Got it first!" A boy's voice sounded.

"Not fair!" The other boy's complaint was heard throughout the house.

"Jason," The woman sighed. "Just give your brother the book."

"But mom," Jason presumably whined. "He'll ruin it."

"Will not!" Tim argued back.

"Yeah you will."

"Nuh huh!"

"Yeah huh!"

"Nu… who's that?" The one that Helena assumed to be Tim was the first of the incoming family to spot her.

Instead of resuming their argument. The two boys stared at her. Jason was the older one, with red hair and dark brown eyes. She guessed he was around nine or ten. Tim was a tad younger, around six or seven, with dark hair matching his father and light blue eyes. When the woman walked in, carrying a small girl who matched the woman carrying to a tee, she saw where the blue eyes and red hair came from. The woman had her red hair cut in a long bob to her shoulders and wore thin rimmed glasses. She was tiny, but even entering the room, Helena could tell that she was full of life. And what she read, highly intelligent.

"Hi," The red head smiled politely, sticking out a free hand. "You must be a friend of John's."

"Uh," Helena was a bit stumped, but she felt the nudge that John gave her, so she went forward and took the hand. She saw that Tim grabbed the book out of Jason's hands, while the boy was distracted. "Yeah, I'm Helena."

"Barbara. And this sleeping beauty is Carrie." There was a moment of recognition of the name that flashed through her eyes, but she hid it well. So her husband had mentioned the past, go figure. However, it lead Helena to question who else knew. "We'll let you two talk then." She turned on the boys. "Alright, guys, time to clean the playroom."

"Mom." The boys collectively groan.

"If you clean now, reality later." She bargained, already walking away.

The two boys looked at each other, while Jason grabbed the book from his brother and went hurrying after his mother, Tim glanced back at the two people by the kitchen counter. He hurried over to his father, hugged him and turned to Helena. His eyes scanned her over.

"You're pretty." He said decidedly.

"Thank you." Helena smiled. "I'm Helena."

"Tim." The boy nodded then patted his father's leg. "He's my dad."

"I know." She agreed. "You're mom is very nice."

"She is." Although the boy was young, how he was looking at her was a bit intimidating. Obviously, he was trying to piece things together. While his brother concerned himself over the cleaning, Tim decided to figure out this newcomer. "How come we've never seen you before if you're a friend of dad's?"

"She's been traveling, Tim." John offered.

"Really?" His eyes widened. "I want to travel too!"

"I'm sure one day you will." Helena told him.

"I want to go everywhere!"

"Then you should go help your brother clean up. Timmy." Barbara came back into the kitchen, sans children and walked over. Patting her son affectionately on the behind. "Scram." The boy giggled and ran off towards the playroom.

As Barbara went into the kitchen's nook, she touched John on the arm and Helena was painfully reminded of her parents and the moments when they thought no one was looking. It was sort of like this. Those blissful seconds that nothing mattered and the normality in life is everything. But things change.

"So," Barbara poured herself a cup. "You finally decided to visit Gotham."

"Yeah." Helena couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. She had known about John, but his wife, his family she knew nothing about. It seemed that it was quite the opposite with his wife. She seemed to know exactly who she was, which didn't happen very often.

"I take it, it's not for pleasure." She ventured further.

"Babs…" John growled.

"What?" Feigning innocence, she continued. "It's not every day that the daughter of the original shows up in my house…"

"Barb." He tried again.

"Especially after what happened to her mother."

"Barbara." His eyes rested steadily on her.

"I'm guessing he's telling you to go back?" Barbara turned to Helena instead, who was again reminded of her parents. They rarely agreed on anything. "That there's nothing you can do? And that we have it all covered?"

"Yes." Helena answered truthfully.

"Barbara can I…"

"No." Barbara glared at her husband. "You want to lie to her, fine, but I'm not going to." She went back to looking at Helena. "We haven't gotten any leads on him. Everything that we find becomes a dead end. All we know is that he's working with someone."

"She doesn't need to know this." John quietly said to his wife.

"My ass she doesn't." With a growl to equal the newly retired Batman, she glowered at him. Helena guessed that there was more to this wife than what met the eye and to this relationship in general. "We need all the help we can get to bring him down you know that."

"He doesn't want her to…"

"Be denied her parentage?" She scoffed. "We need to bring him down, Rob and Dick can't do it by himself."

"He has us." As the anger bubbled below the surface, John spoke calmly, but even Helena knew that technique of keeping calm. It worked, for her father and apparently John, and maybe for this Dick person. On the other hand, she had never quite mastered the skill, yet.

"Neither of us can be in the field," Barbara sighed. "I bet she can."

"We're going to talk about this later." John grabbed his keys from the key ring and went towards the door. Looking to Helena he motioned for her to follow him. "Come on."

Helena glanced back to Barbara.

"If you don't go he'll throw an infamous Bat fit." Barbara smirked, then came around the counter and touched Helena's arm. "And no matter what he says…"

"Which one?" Helena half Barbara's smirk.

"Both." She gave a low chuckle, then sobered. "I'm glad you're here. It's where you belong."

"Helena, come on." John's voice carried through the place.

Barbara just rolled her eyes and Helena gave a quick nod then hurried after John. She saw that the door to the garage was open and he was already sitting in the jeep. Easily, she closed the door and quickly moved into the empty passenger seat. He sped out of the driveway, at the rate that she guessed was from years of maneuvering around the city at night. Then eased into the street with the other traffic.

"Barbara seems nice." Helena spoke first and the statement earned her a snort from John. "She works with you guys?"

"It will only take about twenty minutes to get there." At the rate he switched subjects, she knew that discussing night activities were not on his list.

"You're worse than he is." She mumbled then crossed her arms.

"Helena." He sighed. "Your father doesn't talk about it because he wants something better for you. He always told me to not let the monster consume me because he almost let it. Had he not left Gotham, then you wouldn't even be here."

"You seem to be doing fine." Her comment was meant to be light but it came off slightly snarky, which he smiled reminiscing of the girl's mother.

"That' because I listened to him." John explained. "At many points I was fully engulfed by the persona of Batman, especially at the beginning. Luckily I had people there to remind me that I was more than that."

"Like Barbara?" She guessed.

"Like Barbara." He agreed.

"Who else?" Helena asked.

"What?" His eyes narrowed.

"You said people." She explained. "That means multiple people, who else did you have?"

"Gordon." There was no point in fighting it at the point and besides, if he answered her questions, maybe she would go back to her family. "And Dick."

"The new Batman?" Excitement filled her being at the thought of the two Batmen working together. Aiding each, being a team. Apparently, her father had not been thrilled about the prospect of a younger person taking his own strides with the Batman. "He's young though, isn't he?"

"He is." John nodded. "Twenty-two, that's about when I started."

"Dad was older." She stated.

"Yep." He glanced over the road. "He wasn't alone either."

"He had Alfred." Helena said quietly.

"And when he didn't," John sighed. "He almost died."

Helena bit her lip, a nervous habit that she picked up from her mother. Not that she knew the entirety of the story, but when Helena found her father and mother's true identities, Alfred leaving his longtime ward always caused her great pain. The pain was not just for her father, but Alfred as well. She understood the strength it took to walk away from someone you cared about the most.

"But you helped him." Helena insisted. "You believed in him."

"I wasn't the only one." He acknowledged. "That was a darker time though. Things have changed."

"And they're changing again." She watched as they pulled up to their destination. Instead of just letting her out, John decided to park in the guest lot. Getting out, he felt her pause.

"He'll be happy to see you." John encouraged, giving her a side smirk. "He's only seen pictures when you were smaller and from a distance."

"A distance?" They began walking towards the entrance. "I've never…"

"You were never meant to." Making it into the upscale retirement home, Helena couldn't help but admire the surroundings. She had expected it to be another hell, instead, she found herself in front of a calming glass waterfall and cheerful music in the area.

She felt a nudge and she followed John towards the apartments that resided in the large building. Her heart began to race and doubt started to fill her stomach. This was the man that had raised her father, but she knew next to nothing about him, only a few stories here and there. A brief picture that her father kept close of him and Alfred when they were younger, Bruce being around twelve and Alfred watching over him. Obviously the man had gotten older, maybe he didn't remember. Maybe this was just to sate her own curiosity. And curiosity killed the cat.

"Ready?" John knocked on the door, not waiting for her to answer. It swung open, revealing a young blond woman. "Grace, how are you?"

"Good." She smiled and looked to Helena. "You must be John's niece. How nice of you to come and visit."

Helena just returned the smile and stepped through the threshold. Just as Grace was about to speak again, a voice interrupted her.

"Grace, isn't your break at one?" It was voice that took Helena's breath away, she had heard it plenty of times before and she couldn't help but turn and stare at the much older version of the man from the photograph. He leaned heavily on a cane, but was still dressed well. Slightly hunched over, more wrinkles, but he didn't seem to be casting her out any time soon.

"Of course, Mr. Pennyworth." The girl gave a quick nod and left quickly.

"Wonderful girl, dull as branches." Alfred sighed and his eyes lit up at the new guests. He settled looking at Helena. "So it is true. Bruce Wayne's daughter has finally come to Gotham."

"Mr. Pennyworth, I'm…" She stepped forward.

"Oh, I know who you are." Then gave her a knowing look. "What I would like to know is why your father isn't here."

"He's… um… he's…" Apparently, it was true that one couldn't lie to Alfred or give incredibly snide comments. "Busy."

"Why don't we have some tea?" Alfred smiled. "I feel as though it is going to be quite a long afternoon."

"Aside from the fact that your father is currently unaware of your exact whereabouts." Alfred took a seat in a comfortable chair across from Helena, who sat on the couch. John, wasn't the sitting kind, as he stood on the side, behind the couch watching the two closely. "Would you mind telling me why you are here, Ms. Helena?"

"Helena's fine." She told him quietly, but when there wasn't a response, she sighed and felt some paranoia set in. Helena looked to John.

"It's secure." He assured her.

"I want to find him." She said.

"Ah." Alfred gave a slow nod. "I see. And just how do you plan on doing that?"

"I haven't thought that far ahead." That earned her a look and she relented. "I want to help Mr. Blake and the new Batman. I'm willing to do anything to find him and make sure he pays."

"Vengeance?" The old butler didn't seem surprised.

"Not exactly." She assured him. "After, I'm… I want to stay. I want to help."

"My dear girl," A tired smile came to Alfred's face. "There's more than enough people…"

"But there's not." Helena interjected, now sitting on the edge of her seat. "I think this is just the start. Joker is all about sending messages; he wouldn't stop at just one person and he definitely doesn't do things secretly. He's back and he's going to make it known."

"Well you certainly have your father's distrust in the police officers." Alfred sipped his still steaming tea.

"It's not that I don't trust them." She said. "I know that others have the ability to do more than they do."

"So then why Gotham, Ms. Helena?" He questioned. "Why not London or Paris? I'm sure your family would prefer you there."

"Of course they would." A quick eye roll and she was back to business. "I want to stay here because… I always wanted to come here. I have been everywhere else, doing things for other people, constantly. I have helped out in clinics, shelters, everything, but I always feel like I could be doing more. Dad raised us to serve communities to improve them, but what always bothered me was that we were never in one place to actually help."

"But you understand why your father did what he did?" His voice was steady.

"Yeah." She nodded, then caught herself. "I mean… I did when the Joker came after us."

"And I know he's suffering mentally for it." Alfred said quietly.

"I know." Suddenly, Helena felt a wave of guilt pass over her. "He doesn't say anything about it."

"He never did."

"That shouldn't mean we are constantly in hiding though." Her head shook. "Mom always said home is with them and it is, but I want to stay in one place. And in Gotham. I want to know how my family came to be this way. I want to know my parents and what they went through and who my family is."

"Ms. Helena," Alfred said after a long pause and a moment of adjustment on his part. "Let me make it clear that you will never fully understand what your parents went through." She went to argue but he stopped her. "You may have inklings from time to time, but their experiences and your experience will be utterly different, even if you decide to put on a mask and jump from rooftops. They grew up in a very different Gotham, they saved a very different city. They grew up in this city knowing only pain." He paused. "They would not and do not want that for you."

"Saving the city doesn't have to be painful." Helena's eager tone, made the men in the room hold their breath. "Pain doesn't have to be the cause for someone to want to do good."

"Isn't that why you came to Gotham?" He was a wise man that Alfred. "Because of pain?"

Her head turned down to look away, towards the window. It had a beautiful view of the city. In the daylight it was easy to obverse the skyscrapers from this distance. Their windows flashed in the sun and she saw the traffic flowing to and from the downtown area. There was one building that stood out to her in particular. Wayne Enterprise's new building was tall and narrowed, as it went up, not like the pyramids in Egypt but tapered into a rod. It was the tallest building in the area. Keeping the name of the family that built the company. Fox had done a terrific job at securing the company at that end, as well as all others. They had kept up the family name, in a way that she was never aware of. That needed to change.

"Pain is a catalyst." Helena agreed, looking now to her clasped hands resting on her knees. "And in all honesty, my parents did a fairly good job at keeping their pain and even our pain away from us. They did nothing but love us and care. I have always looked to my parents as the greatest heroes on earth." She collected herself. "But until that moment of him coming to destroy what we had, I didn't realize that they weren't just my heroes. I can't forgive him. I can never replicate the pain that either of my parents had because I'm lucky enough not to. However, I want to serve as they did, well, a little more like dad, but with some of mom's qualities."

"You're mother did what she could, Ms. Helena." Alfred gave a withering glance towards John. "Ms. Selina, was never in the position that Master Wayne was. She lived in a very different world than he did. Never underestimate your mother's contributions."

With nod, she continued. "Gotham. I honestly can't think of a better place to start living my life."

"Well," A small smile came to the old man's face, "Then I'm happy you think so. Let's just hope that it doesn't consume you as it did them."

"I'm not worried about that." Helena said in a frank manner.

"I suppose you're not." He agreed. "After all, your father called this morning, he should be arriving within the next day or two."

Out of the eleven different languages she could swear in, Helena chose the one that suited the situation and ultimately her native tongue.

"Shit."

"And then the knight took the jester and strung him up his ankle." Bruce quietly told his infant daughter, who glanced up at him mesmerized as he held her in his arms. The light of the sun beaming down on the two from the opened balcony doors. "Making him an example of the evil that is potentially in all of us." Then he amended. "Except for you."

"Oh, I don't know about that." Bruce turned to see Selina saunter over to the pair. She carried a bit more weight, but only after four months, those daily runs and carrying the small girl around, was definitely helping her to get back into shape. Although, Bruce didn't mind the slightly curvier form of the former sleek cat burglar. "She is my daughter, after all."

"Your mother just doesn't want to admit she's a secretly a good person." He told the child, who just squealed out of a delight at her father paying attention to her.

Shaking her head at her husband, she looked over his arms to look at the small girl and smiled when Helena locked eyes with her mother. "Did you…"

"Fed and changed her, while you were out." Confirming. "If we keep feeding her she's going to grow in a matter of minutes rather than years."

"That's the idea." Selina snorted. Then saw the slight sadness that reached his eyes, where some wrinkles had ebbed their way on to his face. "Oh don't worry, Bruce, she'll still love you. She had daddy's girl written all over her already."

"You think so?" The sadden glance quickly changed. "Nah, the moment she starts crawling she's going to try to get away from me."

"Please," Her eyes rolled. "Like you let her down long enough for her to actually learn to crawl."

"I'm not the only one." He pointed out.

"Hey, I have to get my kicks in when I can." Selina didn't seem thrown off. "Especially since you hog her all the time. The only time I actually get her to myself is feeding time and even then you still hover."

"I do not…"

"You hover." She arched a brow. "Although I have my own questions of why you choose to hover during that point in time."

As any intellectual male should have done, he just shrugged and smiled, choosing to lock eyes with the woman in front of him.

"That's what I thought." Selina purred, finally encircling Bruce from behind, putting her head on his shoulder to glance down at their daughter. "She's asleep."

"We must have been boring her." He could feel Selina's fingertips tracing the waistband of his light pants.

"Well we are boring parents." Her lips were right next to his ear and he suppressed a shudder. Then the shudder was in full force when Selina decidedly slipped below his pants. "What do you say to some afternoon delight?"

"Can I put the baby down first?" His smart comment, earned him a slap on his backside. Then, she placed a kiss on his neck, before fully releasing him and backing away. He looked over at her and saw that she was leaving the room, but not without throwing him a look, while unzipping the back of her skirt as she disappeared behind the doorway.

Spotting the bassinet, Bruce went over and placed his daughter in it. Looking at the time he sighed, Helena was going to be up all night at this point. However, he quickly decided that some afternoon delight would help the two adults in their quest for sleep as well. It wasn't like either wasn't used to a sleepless night here and there.

Giving a final check over to his daughter, he stroked her cheek with his finger, reveling in how small she was and that she was his, theirs. She was perfect. Everything that he had never dreamed of. Helena was beautiful, small, innocent, his eyes, her mother's looks. At this moment, Bruce couldn't ask for anything more. Then deciding that Selina would scratch his eyes out if he didn't show up soon, he turned.

Instead of seeing the doorway empty though, He saw that Selina stood there, her hair, already a bit disheveled. Her lips red, which she rarely did any more, but surprisingly it turned him on further. Then he admired the way the black silk robe was draped about her body. The robe was short enough to only drop down to her upper thigh, but one shoulder was off and the front was open enough to give him a sneak preview of what he had seen countless times, nonetheless, he would never tire of seeing her body exposed to him. However, when only the few parts were covered up, and mostly the ones he wanted to see, he took a special delight in it.

Then he noticed, the pearls sat on the lower part of her long neck. He smirked and walked casually over to her.

"I like the pearls." Bruce told her.

"Yeah, this guy gave them to me."

"He must really care about you."

"I think they were for payment more than him caring about me."

"Payment?" Bruce was unsure of how this conversation was going. "For what?"

"Being his nurse." Selina replied. "He's a cripple."

"I'll show you cripple." Without another word, Bruce swept her up over his shoulder and had they been alone, she would have laughed out and shouted fake protests at him. Had they been alone, he would have taken her right there, on the wall and then the floor. Had they been alone, they wouldn't have been afraid to wake their daughter in the midst of their lovemaking. But they weren't alone any more and both had resided to the fact that they would never be alone again.

First, I really want to thank the reviewers for this story. I'm so glad that people are reading, and for those lurkers out there, I see you, but would love to hear what you think of the story! And especially to B. Szoke for saying Memory is a classic, I humbly thank you and for your continued support.

Second, I thought that putting something in here from Helena's past would help to fill in gaps and such and I know many are on a complete Bat/Cat kick, so I'm happy to oblige and no worries we'll have some family members showing up fairly soon ;)

-EV