A/N: Hey all! Back with a new chapter. Hopefully no one is too upset by the lack of Spitfire in this…but I just HAD to focus in on one of my other favorite couples, and there were a couple reviews requesting this ;) Full credit for this chapter goes to the beautiful song "Never Let Me Go" by Florence and the Machine. I mean really…wow, just haunting and gorgeous, it gives me feels for this particular pairing every time. Now without further ado, read on!

Disclaimer: Young Justice is not mine and sadly now it looks like its not going to be anything but ancient history…but I'll always treasure what little we did get of this amazing show!

Roy let himself slump down on the sofa with a sigh, rubbing his temples with frustration.

Like teaching high school wasn't stressful enough on a normal day, Artemis just had to confront him like that at the beginning of third block.

"Awe, have us Crock women completely tired you out?" Jade's voice purred in his ear as she slid around behind him to massage his shoulders deeply.

It was one of the most affectionate gestures she ever gave, and she knew he loved it when she did.

Groaning slightly, he leaned back into his lovers arms, letting her catch him gently.

"You have. You'll be the end of me, I'm sure. You two aren't even on speaking terms, and she's already threatening to blackmail me on your behalf," he bemoaned, waving the USB stick she'd given him vaguely in the air.

"Just imagine what will happen when she really finds out what's going on," Jade mused, running a hand through her wild black mane.

She enjoyed torturing her poor man far too much, Roy decided.

"Don't remind me," he grouched, grabbing her hand absentmindedly, tugging her around so that she could come curl her lithe body up next to him, her simple, warm presence a comfort in itself.

There was a time when she could hardly stand to be in the same room as him, much less would agree to share a bed with him. And this…

"Does she really need to know? I mean, so soon? Couldn't we just, I don't know, wait until things are less crazy?" He pleaded, feeling guilty as Jade shot him a sharp eyed glare with her dark, haunted eyes.

"You know I can't do that. She's family. She deserves to know about this new…addition, to her family," she said, rubbing her abdomen like it would help her feel closer to the invisible person growing beneath her skin.

There was still no sign of the pregnancy, but they both knew. It weighed on their mind like an anchor, but also as a liberator.

The moment Jade had found out, had told him…they both knew. It was going to be impossible, too difficult, too messy…but they were going to do it anyways.

Because to hell with easy or conventional. This was their child. Their own beautiful creation.

No matter how broken the lives they themselves had led, they had still created this new life together, and neither could bear to let go of that and move on with their casual, romantic lives like it had never happened.

They may not have much to offer this child, but they could offer him or her a loving aunt, and it would be wrong to take that from them.

Artemis would have to find out…eventually. Roy just wasn't looking forward to that eventually.

While he could hardly remember a time when his and Jade's relationship was just about casual, convenient (awesome) sex, he could remember a better, more recent time of a carefree, loving relationship (and sex).

Sure, Jade was never really the sort to stay the night, and during the day he had to wonder what exactly she was doing (not that he really wanted to know) but it was still a good relationship for both of them.

They were two broken pieces that somehow fit together perfectly. They understood each other's needs. And now they had this new need that they were sharing. And somehow they would just have to make that fit into their arrangement perfectly as well.

Maybe Jade would have to get used to actually staying put in one place for, say, an entire night. Maybe Roy would have to give a little more thought to what exactly her 'day job' was. But they'd still make it work.

Because they were having a baby. A beautiful, perfect baby, that was one hundred percent there's and nobody was going to take that from them.

"You're thinking about her again," Jade commented in an amused tone, tapping the back of his hand. He startled, glancing down at his hand that seemed to have moved of its own accord to rest on Jade's stomach.

There really was no sign of the baby yet on her fit, fine features, but he still felt that tiniest bit closer when he touched his child's mother.

His Jade. His lover. And did he ever love her.

From the moment she had first seduced him, he knew he was a lost cause when it came to her…affections. There was just something about her fierce passion that forced him to give in every time she came knocking, no matter how much he knew he shouldn't.

Even when people began to notice, began to question…there was no way he could leave her. And as long as she was satisfied to grace him with her presence, no matter when, no matter for how long, he would accept her and love her even if it really did kill him.

"You always refer to it as a she," Roy criticized, and Jade rolled her eyes, used to Roy's anal ways. He was always so nit-picky and determined to do things however he saw fit, even if that meant going it alone. In some ways that was what made her fall for him in the first place.

"Well, I prefer she to it," Jade chastised him, just like she always did, leaning her head upon his shoulder gently, placing a kiss there to mark her presence.

"What are we doing, Jade?" Roy asked with a sigh, leaning forward to cradle his head with a disheartened sigh.

"Our best," was her only answer, and somehow that gave him the strength to sit up again, looking affectionately at his lover's face.

"That's true. We are. And if your family doesn't approve…well, I doubt mine will either, so what's the point of trying to please them all? As long as you're happy and…she's happy, I'll be satisfied," he said with another, happier sigh.

It was these small things, the concessions to the way Jade did things as opposed to the way he thought they should be done, that truly spoke of how much he loved her.

"I think Artemis would approve more if we were married," she said casually, and Roy nearly choked in shock at her brazen words.

Jade never was one for preamble, but even for her, that was starkly sudden. Glancing at her, he realized that it was because she was nervous.

She didn't know a kinder way to say it. She didn't know how to say it at all. The only experience she had with marriage was her parent's marriage, and that hadn't exactly set a shining example.

"She's the old fashioned type, huh? No wonder Wally likes her," Roy mused, thinking about the strange scene he'd witnessed this morning.

Aside from his personal fear over her negative reaction to his relationship with Jade, he couldn't help but notice her exchange with his younger friend, and student.

Wally certainly hadn't seemed to mind her attentions, to say the least.

"She wouldn't admit it, but she is. She wants to believe in fairy-tale endings," Jade agreed, lacing their fingers together comfortably.

"You know, she might get her own if she stays with that kid. He's a good guy. He's pretty into justice himself," Roy commented, appraising his lover's uncomfortable expression.

It was like the very word justice pained her.

"You redheads and your justice…I suppose it was inevitable that Artemis would make a place for herself in this new life. I just didn't expect it to happen so fast. She's just a little baby to me still…I still want to protect her," Jade admitted, wrapping her arms around her stomach as though to accent her protectiveness.

Roy couldn't help a small smile, adding his own arms around her midsection. With both of them together this would be the happiest, healthiest, safest baby in the history of babies.

Especially with a mother as fierce and protective as Jade.

"Well I think Artemis feels she needs to protect you as well. She didn't give me this for no reason, after all," Roy said, once again toying with the mysterious USB Artemis had slid to him not-so-discreetly in class earlier.

"What's on that, anyways?" Jade questioned, seeming curious as she reached out to snatch it, though he held it easily out of her reach.

"I don't know," he responded with a shrug. "I assumed Wally got it to her through Dick. He seems so smitten with her, I doubt he'd think twice about giving her anything she asked for. And he did see us together that one time," Roy added, remembering the embarrassing scene that Dick and Wally had managed to drop in on several months prior.

Sometimes he had to remind himself exactly how long ago his relationship with Jade had started.

Sometimes it felt like it had never started at all, but had simply always been there, smoldering on the back burner in a mix of lust and confusing romantic infatuation that eventually lead to a much stronger brew of love.

"Oh, I remember that. They looked so shocked to see you actually having fun for once," Jade said, poking fun at Roy's serious nature, and he poked her back playfully, enjoying the way her body shook with silent laughter.

If even one of her enemies knew how ticklish she was, surely it would be the end of her.

"Please. More like they were shocked to see such a beautiful girl with a workaholic like me. How did I ever get you, anyways?" Roy questioned, pushing her down on the couch easily with one hand. She always let him, even though they both knew she could resist him with ease.

"You didn't get me, I got you. I was bored. I needed to have some fun, and I knew a stick in the mud like you was never going to give in, no matter how much I teased you. So I took matters into my own hands," she said in her most innocent voice, which, with Jade, really was about as suggestive as could be.

She didn't really have an 'innocent' setting. Or so he'd discovered on the occasions where he attempted to treat her to a normal dinner date. They never seemed to end as quietly and innocently as he had intended in the beginning.

They both enjoyed pretending to be normal sometimes, though. If only so they could remember why they loved being not-so-normal when the night was over.

"And then you were bored at least once a week for the next…oh, I don't know…year or so?" Roy questioned and Jade rolled her eyes before leaning forward to kiss him.

She never really said 'why' she had stuck with him for so long. She always just responded with a gesture like this, a passionate kiss that said how much she enjoyed his presence in particular.

He had decided long ago that he didn't need an explanation for their relationship, nor did he need the sort of woman that would be predictable in her presence or actions.

If she stayed because he was good in bed, or because he understood her need to be free, or because he never was one to complain about her habit of disappearing in the middle of the night –it didn't matter why.

He preferred to live in the moment of having her and endure the moments of not having her.

And at least with their child on the way, he knew he would always have a piece of her no matter where she roamed.

"Mm…maybe we should see what my sister has to say before we take this any farther?" Jade suggested, though the way she slid her hands down his body did little to persuade him.

With a sigh, he sat up, knowing that despite her contradictory actions, she must really be missing Artemis.

He knew that of what family member's Jade had left, she thought most highly of her little sister.

She was fiercely protective, despite their lack of communication, and had done everything in her power to stop Artemis from attending Gotham Academy in the first place –it had been difficult for her when Artemis decided to anyways.

That was the first time Roy saw Jade truly struggle with something morally. She obviously wanted to protect her relationship with Roy but also wanted what was best for Artemis.

To this day, Roy was still quietly unconvinced that Jade had actually tried her hardest to stop Artemis from attending Gotham Academy or incidentally meeting 'Mr. Harper'.

He still believed that some small part of Jade had wanted Artemis to get as good an education as possible, and access to as much happiness as possible, even if it jeopardized her own.

"If you insist," he conceded, kissing her full lips one last time for reassurance before inserting the USB into the computer. A video popped up, and he pressed play, curiosity stirring within him.

A cute little diddle began to play and he immediately felt his heart drop. He knew that song. Dick had written it as a joke when they were first learning to hack. He had labelled it their 'theme song'.

Little cartoon figures began to march across the screen in time with the music. A redheaded boy in a Flash t-shirt, a girl with green skin, a brawny looking boy in a superman t-shirt, a dark skinned guy with blond hair…all of them were wearing hipster glasses that glinted maliciously in the high-definition animation sequence.

The final person to cross the screen was a dark haired boy with a black cape that resembled bat wings. He also wore the glasses, but they were tinted to hide his eyes.

A speech bubble appeared above him reading, "Robin would like to wish a warm welcome to our newest member. She's something of a wildcat, so we just wanted all our old members to be aware –she's very good at seeking justice."

A new animated figure traipsed onto the screen, wearing a tiger costume that accented her intense, grey eyes and long, blond hair.

There was no mistaking the avatar for anyone but Artemis, especially when her speech bubble appeared, reading, "You better watch your back, Red. I've got some new friends. And they know how to look out for their own."

All the little avatars began cheering as a banner descended from the top of screen that said, "Welcome to the team, Tigress!"

With another round of that same, all-too-familiar music, the animation came to a close. Roy stared at the blank screen, feeling two parts amused and two parts weary of all these antics.

"And here I thought you were one of their own," Jade purred, sounding wholly amused by the animated approach to 'warning' both Roy and Jade of stepping out of line.

If they only knew how many lines they'd already crossed…

"I used to be. Feels like so long ago…First to graduate Robin, but also the first to strike out on my own," Roy said with a sigh, remembering with a mix of nostalgia and bitterness his brief time as a member of Robin.

That was five years ago. Before he decided that he disagreed with their policies and became –

"My ex-Robin vigilante. How the heroes do fall," Jade said, kissing his neck gleefully as though to say how she approved of his lack of 'heroism'.

"You know I didn't fall. I just didn't want to be a hero under their terms. They see things too black and white," Roy protested, though her sultry laugh mocked his surety in leaving his former 'teammates'.

"You always do think you know best. And maybe you do," she added quickly when he began to protest again. "But I don't think they've ever fully forgiven you for leaving them."

"No. We may still be on good terms professionally, but…it's like they can't accept that I went my own way instead of the way we were 'supposed' to. It makes me worry for these kids, like Wally. He's so set in his view of justice…I wonder what will happen to him when he sees what the program is like when you become more than just someone's protégé?" Roy wondered, concern for his young friend coloring his voice.

Wally wasn't the sort to be a vigilante, nor to leave the path of 'justice' completely. He would hate to see his enthusiastic friend torn apart or darkened by the reality of the world around him.

"You can't keep them all safe, Roy," Jade breathed, in the most comforting way she could.

She didn't know much about being concerned about more than herself and her family, but she tried for his sake not to dismiss his fear for his 'little friends'.

"I know…I know," he said sadly, shaking his head, trying not to be swept away by the angst of the situation.

If he let himself get bogged down, he'd find himself back in that negative place that Jade had first found him in. It was ironic, given her dark ties to that other life, that she still represented a redeeming light in his life.

"Maybe they'll learn to forgive you, now that Artemis has joined them," Jade mused, curling herself up in his lap, truly like an affectionate cat.

He found it strange how her codename, Cheshire, reflected her nature so well.

"It's not that Artemis herself is terribly forgiving," Jade continued, "but she cares too much about family to hate her niece…or her brother-in-law."

Roy swallowed slightly. There was that hinting again. Jade's not-so-subtle way of saying exactly what it was she wanted.

"Do you really think it would make a difference? I mean to her. I know you're not really the…type…to settle like that," Roy said awkwardly, glancing at her with piercing blue eyes.

She stared back, contemplating and silent for a moment.

"I'm not. But for her," she touched her stomach, "to give her the best chance possible…I think I could be that person. At least for a while. Or maybe for longer. I don't know," her voice wavered, ever so slightly, showing for just one brief second the uncertainty behind her confidence.

Jade would never admit it, but she did worry sometimes about what sort of mother she would be for their child. No matter how she tried, she wasn't the settling type, and she certainly wasn't a hero.

"I know I said I'd never try and change you. But I wouldn't be terribly opposed if you were to be that type of person…just for a while," he admitted quietly, feeling emotion surge within him.

He truly had never wanted, never dared to want such commitment from her, not even in the face of having a child, but…he buried his face in her wild black hair, trying to hide his emotions.

"Why, Red," she said in surprise, pulling back slightly from his embrace, though he refused to show his face, "if I didn't know you better, I'd say you wanted to marry me. And here I was thinking I was being selfish." She said it jokingly, but there was a note of relief in her voice.

He looked up slowly, afraid to show the emotion on his face, afraid to scare her off, yet he couldn't stop himself from saying, "You know there's nothing I want more than to have you for as long as possible, Jade. How could I ever want anything but to marry you?"

She looked away, unable to respond to his sentimental words. Instead, she stood up and darted out of the room, leaving him alone on the ratty sofa with clenched fists and a hollow spot within him.

He didn't want to change her, he truly didn't. But that didn't mean he wouldn't like, just once, to hear her say out loud the way they both knew she felt.

He could hear her voice from the kitchen, talking quickly and quietly on the phone. Maybe with one of her associates. Unlike Robin, her associates weren't so on the level, though.

The thought made him sigh and go back to rubbing his temples.

Not five minutes later, her near silent footsteps came padding back into the living room. He looked up wearily, seeing her standing there, a determined expression on her face, the cordless phone in her hand.

"Is today at three okay with you?" She asked, and he stared at her incomprehensively for a long moment.

"Okay for what?" He finally asked in confusion.

It wasn't like she asked him for permission to take jobs or go out. He knew he would never have that sort of control of her, nor would he ever want to.

"For city hall. You know, I've heard that other women are annoyed when men forget their anniversaries, but this is a little extreme," she said jokingly, and he felt his stomach drop to his toes at what she was implying.

"You…You mean…today? Us? At City Hall? At three? I mean, yes, yes, that's fine, that's…good. That's perfect, Jade," he stumbled to say, standing up and crossing to her side in a heartbeat.

She grinned up at him slyly before turning back to her phone call.

"Yes, three will work fine…I don't see that it matters…how long have we been engaged? Well, about five minutes, I think…Yes, we've thought about this…That's not really any of your concern anyhow…Yes, we'll be able to do the paperwork as soon as we get there." She hung up unceremoniously, an annoyed expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" Roy asked, cupping her face gently in his palms.

"You'd just think they'd understand last minute arrangements," she said peevishly and he laughed, delighted in her un-romantic approach to life.

It was just so Jade to not understand why anyone would find it strange getting married five minutes after proposing.

Grabbing her, he pulled her close, nearly swallowing her tiny body in his strong arms. She was going to be his. Maybe not forever, but still…he could finally call her his. And how could he truly want anything but that?

She was stiff in his embrace for a moment, before melting into his arms in an unusual display of affection.

She was, if possible, the more physical of the two, but it usually manifested in a sexual way, unlike Roy, who would be happy to simply hold her for hours on end.

That's not to say he didn't enjoy the sex. That was the way their 'arrangement' had started, and he certainly had done nothing to dissuade her from seducing him then, nor would he now.

She mumbled something against his chest, and he pulled back slightly so he wasn't muffling her voice completely.

Strangely, it was easier to let her go now. There had always been a sense of unknowing with Jade. He never knew if or when she would return.

Now it was like there was a line drawn between them, a bond that could be stretched thin, but would always bring her back to him. They were going to get married.

"Never let us go, Roy," she whispered, burying her face back against him, afraid to look at him when she said it. "Or at least her. Please, don't ever let her go."

"I would never forgive myself if I lost either of you, Jade. I will never let you go," he responded with a surety to his voice that surprised even himself.

He loved her. He loved their daughter. They were his…family. And no matter how Artemis or Robin or Oliver or anyone else reacted to that, it didn't matter. They were his, and he would never, ever let them go.

A/N: D'awww…gosh that was so fluffy…I hope it wasn't too OOC because I just really love their relationship in all its twisted but beautiful glory! And I just HAD to throw Lian in there…in one form or another ;) I hope you all enjoyed the new chapter, please let me know, and thank you once again for your very entertaining guesses at to what the blackmail was, I hope the results satisfied!