So the reason this took so long was because I kept changing my ideas. This is the one I stuck with, so ta da! It's finally here! And just in case you guys need a refresher, I recommend skimming chapter two. Hope you guys like it! :D

"You look awful." I grinned at Eddie as he made his way over to me.

"Yeah, well, three hours of sleep isn't exactly what you'd call beauty sleep." He plopped onto the curb beside me and exaggeratedly leaned against me, practically flattening me onto the sidewalk. "Ugh. Can you carry me please?"

I smiled and pushed him back up into a sitting position. "I can drag you back to you place, if you want."

"I'm cool with that." He mumbled, resting his forehead on my shoulder.

I ruffled his already messy hair, "Hey! No more sleeping!" When he ignored me, I shoved him a little roughly, "Despierta!" I scowled, "Eddie, c'mon. You still have to tell me why the hell you almost got arrested the other night."

"I tried to take Batman's tires. You were there, too. Good times, no?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "I meant right before that. You know, when I was dreaming about waffles and then you woke me up because we had to chase the cops off our tails and one of them was like 'Hey, that's the Santos kid!' and I was like 'What the hell did he do now?' and then we had to break through wood and my shoulder is still kinda sore from that and then we ran into Crime Alley and you saw the Batmobile and that was when you got the brilliant idea of – "

Eddie clamped a hand over my mouth, "Message received!" He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his free hand, "You ramble on way too much when you're tired."

Yeah, I babbled endlessly about the weirdest things when I was dog-tired. I got really emotional, too. Like, if you tell me the entire world's waffle factories were suddenly abducted by aliens, I'd bawl my eyes out.

I swatted his hand away from my mouth and sighed as I struggled to clear my head, "Look, I know whatever you did can't be as bad as what I'm imagining. When Batman took us to the police station, you got let off both hooks. They didn't keep you there for stealing the tires, and they didn't keep you there for the other thing you did, right? So…" I leaned menacingly over him, "Tell me!"

He smirked at my impatience and sat up, "All right, just don't get too pissed off at me, okay?"

"That's just letting me know that I should get pissed off."

"I was with Carina."

Okay, that was unexpected.

Just to clarify, Carina was Eddie's ex-girlfriend. And the reason for the "ex" part was kinda because of me, but not for the reason you're thinking, people! It wasn't because I was all jealous and nagging and whatever, because – news flash! – I didn't see Eddie that way! I mean, sure I did when I was way younger, but Eddie and Carina had been together barely a year ago, and I'd been pretty much over my little crush by then. Besides – as much as I hated admitting it – Carina was pretty cool, and she's always been nice to me, so I couldn't just hate her like I wanted to. But I'd kept my distance from her and Eddie anyway. Not just because they'd been disgustingly gooey to watch, but also because I'd known they were hanging out with trouble.

See, Carina had an older brother who was a little older than Eddie, and of course the idiot had seen him as some sort of role model. Back then, Eddie would pretty much ditch me to be with Carina and Raphael all the time, and of course that pissed me off, but I'd never complained about it, I would just give Eddie the cold shoulder and stuff.

The reason I bristled at Raphael was because I knew he worked with the drug cartels. I'd warned Eddie about it, but he'd promised me that he wouldn't get tangled up in stuff like that. Carina had doubted her brother, too, and she'd also warned Eddie from the beginning to not get involved with anything Raphael offered him. So, basically, we'd both warned Eddie, and he'd promised both of us that he'd steer clear from risks like that.

Next thing you know, I was at the docks trying to save Eddie's butt from getting shot by a dozen armed guys. Yeah, it hadn't ended well. And I said that because I was the one who'd ended up getting shot in the shoulder, twice. Remember I told you guys that? I sure as hell remembered it.

Anyway, the whole reason Eddie had broken up with Carina was because he'd felt bad about how his stupid actions almost got me killed, and he'd needed a break. Carina had totally understood, and I'd almost thrown up at how cliché and romantic their break-up was. I'd been a witness to it because they'd both been in the hospital room with me when they thought I was "unconscious."

So yeah, now you knew who Carina was.

I wiped invisible dust off my sweater nonchalantly, "Huh. You were with her? Wait." A grin spread across my face as I turned to look at him, "Is she the one you've been trying to charm?"

Eddie rolled his eyes, "No, it had nothing to do with that."

"Well, why else would she call the cops on you?"

His eyes widened and his mouth fell slightly open. We both stared at each other before immediately bursting into laughter.

"Oh, man! That was a good one." Eddie lightly shoved me and laughed again before smirking curiously, "Am I really that bad at it?"

I looked up at the sky and tapped my finger on my chin as I pretended to think hard, "Hmm, I'm the only one 'immune' to it, so my bet is that Carina's sitting in her room forcing herself to not beg you to take her back – "

I was cut off as Eddie leaned in slowly, his cool breath tickling my ear. "So you're saying it works?" He murmured, fingers lightly tracing slow circles on the back of my hand.

What the – ?

I forced myself to swallow and kept my tone nonchalant, "Sure. Need proof? We get free, clean laundry every week."

Eddie laughed softly and leaned back, and I immediately relaxed.

"Hey, lover boy?" I waved my hand in front of his thoughtful face, "I didn't wake up this early to give you romantic advice. That's what Dick's for."

"Yeah," He agreed, suddenly back to his normal self, "you're terrible when it comes to that kind of stuff."

"Eddie, seriously, what did you do?" I was at full attention now, ready to get down to business and yell at him for whatever it was he'd done.

Eddie sighed and rubbed the back of his head, "About a week ago, Carina found me and said she needed help getting Raphael out of some trouble with the drug cartels."

"Are you kidding me?!" I was already frothing at the mouth. "Have you not learned anything from the last time you did that? What the hell were you thinking, Eddie? You knew you were gonna get caught and yet you went out and help the idiot! What– "

Eddie waved his hand in the air dismissively, "Yeah, yeah I know. It was stupid. I make a lot of mistakes, blah, blah. But look, that's not why I wanted to meet you here." He turned serious, "While I was blending in with the guys, they said some things that I found pretty interesting."

"Like what?" I demanded, still irritated.

"They were complaining about how their boss had no idea what the hell he was doing, and that they'd been better off with the Red Hood."

I blinked in surprise, my annoyance vanishing. The Red Hood was someone I'd always been curious about. Probably because I felt I could relate to him, you know, anger-wise. And, call me crazy, but he seemed weirdly…familiar.

"Yeah. They were just talking about how he disappears and reappears around town randomly, and how they think he's searching for something, or someone."

"Well, he works with the Bat Family." I pointed out, "He's probably just helping out on one of their scope-outs or something."

Eddie shrugged, "I don't know, maybe. But the way those guys said it, it sounded like he was looking for someone important."

"Well, it's not like it has anything to do with us." I narrowed my eyes at him, "So I don't care that you got to gossip about Red Hood, or that you managed to help Raphael out without ending up behind bars or in the hospital, or that you looked like a 'hero' in Carina's eyes. You scared the hell out of me when the cops were after you. So don't ever do anything stupid like that without telling me, got it?"

Eddie put a hand over his heart and smiled mockingly, "It makes my insides all warm and fuzzy knowing you freak out over my safety, Alex."

"I'm not kidding." I growled, refusing to let that smile of his get to me. "Because of the little 'misunderstanding' the cops had with your involvement in drugs, we got thrown into troubled youths homes!" I sharply pointed an accusing finger at him, "I was forced to sleep on carpet because of you!"

Eddie arched an eyebrow, "What was wrong with the bed?"

"What else? It was too soft."

He laughed and shook his head, "You're incredible." He suddenly remembered something, and sat up, "Hey, so did you get to talk to Nate? Do you remember him a little more clearly now?"

"Yeah, I remember him." I mumbled, toying with the string of my red hood. I'd decided the moment I climbed out my window that I wouldn't tell Eddie about my conversation with Nate because it felt so…personal. There wasn't much I remembered from before my mom's death, and I didn't know if it had to do with trauma or if it was because I just had a really bad memory. But this was one of the few things I actually remembered clearly, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to share it with anyone, even Eddie. It felt that special.

Eddie gazed at me curiously, and I knew he knew I wasn't telling him everything. I sighed, "And I apologized for being a jerk when he tagged along with us two years ago." His suspicious expression cleared, and I suppressed a sigh of relief.

Eddie smiled, "That's nice. You'll grow to like Nate, he's a cool guy."

"I bet. You two even have your own special handshake going on there."

"Bromance is a common thing."

I snorted and rolled my eyes, "Looks like Carina has some competition to worry about."

Eddie laughed, "You're so cute when you're jealous."

"I'm not jealous!" I exploded.

"That's what any jealous person would say. But okay."

"Ugh." I buried my face in my hands, "Can we just go already? You told me everything that happened, and that's all I needed to know. And I forgive you for being an idiot. With a huge heart." I shook my head, "You really can't stop yourself, can you? You just have to help anyone who needs it."

I looked up, and he was gazing at me with those eyes of his.

"Well yeah." He said softly, "You were the first person that ever helped me when I was on the streets. Remember the sandwich? I knew you were starving as much as I was, but you practically forced me to take it. So now, whenever I see someone who's as desperate as I was, I can't help but help them." He smiled at his weak pun. "Know why? Because every time I aid someone in their time of need, I feel like I'm honoring you."

Whoa…

"Even if it gets you killed?" Instead of coming out sarcastic, my voice sounded ridiculously small. Curses! What was up with me?

"Sure, why not?" Something in my expression caught his attention, and his own teasing expression softened. "But don't ever worry about that, okay? I'll never leave you. I promise." He paused and then gave a small smile, "For real this time."

There was a long pause as I struggled to compose myself. Remember how I said that I get real emotional when I'm dead tired? Yeah, well, I was about ready to embarrass myself and cry Niagara Falls out of my eyeballs.

"That sandwich meant a lot to you, didn't it?" I joked, hoping my grin looked just right.

Eddie smiled and rolled his eyes, "Sure. The sandwich."

"Sandwiches are cool. But waffles are better."

"I bet they'll serve you some if you get back in time."

"That would be awesome." I grinned for real this time.

We sat there for a few more moments, and I relaxed again when the mood returned back to normal.

After a while, when the skyline started to lighten, I got up and held my hand out to Eddie, helping him to his feet.

"Do you think they actually give us the freedom to spend life outside?" I suddenly asked, referring to the troubled youths' homes.

Eddie thought for a moment, "Orphanages didn't. But maybe these guys do."

I perked up, "So we don't have to wake up in the early hours and sneak out just to talk?"

Eddie laughed, "I guess not." He smiled and raised a questioning brow at me, "Does that mean we're sticking to living under a roof for a while? Because, I really don't mind." He shrugged, "Surprisingly, it's not as bad as orphanages are."

"We can give it a shot." I agreed.

"Cool! But we should probably get back before they notice we escaped and, you know, kick us out."

"I almost forgot to tell you!" I grinned widely up at him, "My home is a dude ranch! I should have totally made a bet with Batman. Damn it! Why didn't I do that?" I face-palmed myself.

Eddie laughed and stepped closer, gently placing my hood over my head, "See you later, Alex." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt and turned to jog away.

I watched him disappear safely around the corner, and then turned to go my own opposite way. I realized I was still grinning, and I snorted at myself. "You're a mess, Alejandra. Seriously. Stop acting like such a girl."

After walking down a few blocks, I suddenly found myself thinking about what Eddie said about the Red Hood.

"They think he's searching for something, or someone."

Strangely enough, that sentence was enough to make my chest tighten. But before I could think about it any further, I was knocked back into the alley wall by something that had the full force of a freaking wrecking ball.

I fell forward onto the ground with the wind completely knocked out of me. The back of my head throbbed a little painfully, and colorful splotches briefly smudged my vision. I blinked them back and looked up, feeling my jaw drop lower.

Some fat guy was the one who'd flattened me to the brick wall, and he was already out cold. But he wasn't the one I was looking at. I was gawking at the guy who'd thrown Fattie.

"Batman?!"

Everything came to an abrupt stop, and all two dozen mercenaries turned to stare at me.

Even Batman halted, looking momentarily stunned at seeing me there.

Great. I'd landed right in the middle of something huge, and there was a very, very small chance I'd get out of it alive.

"Smoke her!"

Incredibly teeny, tiny, small chance.

Thoughts? I welcome any! :] and P.S. Nate and the whole bench thing are kinda based on something similar that happened when I was in elementary, so "Nate" is a real person! Sort of!