A/N: This is the last chapter. More of my words at the end of the chapter, in the mean time, enjoy...
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The moment we got to my mom's grave, Bruce immediately started cleaning it up. He began removing the wilted flowers and the small weeds that starting growing around. I placed the bouquet of white roses we bought on our way here. Mom loved the colour white, for her it was a symbol of purity.
"I miss you," I whispered.
Bruce just stood by me, not saying anything. Not even complaining that we've been standing there for hours. I guess he also had something to say to her.
The moment was interrupted when my stomach gave out a loud grumble.
We looked at each other for a moment before chuckling. We ended up laughing so hard my knees gave out and I was kneeling on the grass.
"You need to eat," he said.
I smiled, and extended my hand out to him so he could pull me up. Instead he lifted me to his arms.
I didn't say anything, and neither did he.
"Bye mom," I whispered, waving good bye.
I could almost see her giving me a smile as she waved back. I could feel a something lifting from inside me, as if I could finally breathe properly.
"Remember that question you asked me?" I turned to Bruce, "If I was happy?"
He nodded.
"I am. I really am," I said with a smile.
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"Two pancakes, a coffee for the gentleman and an orange juice for the little lady," said a waitress.
I insisted we go here for breakfast since I knew they made the best pancakes here. I spent many mornings in this small cozy diner.
"You weren't joking when you said the pancake was awesome," Bruce said.
He looked funny with syrup drizzling on his lips.
"I know my pancakes," I joked.
God, how I missed this pancake.
"I knew it was you," said a loud voice from the counter.
"Arthur!" I greeted happily and the aged man who owned this place.
"They said an order of the number 2 special with extra whipped cream and no strawberry syrup and I knew it had to be you," he said greeting me with a tight hug.
"You always did prepare me the best banana split," I told him.
"How you been kiddo?" he asked.
"I've been good," I answered, then motioned to Bruce in front of me, "This is Bruce by the way,"
He regarded Bruce for a moment before offering his hand. "How do you do, Mr. Wayne?"
Bruce shook his hand. "Just enjoying the best pancakes I've ever tasted."
"The little ladies do seem to think so," he said giving us a smile. "Well gotta head back to the kitchen. Pop by anytime Charlie, this place has been too quiet without you."
"Will do, Artie!"
He stopped just before he reached the door. "By the way, you should go visit KC, she's been dying to see you."
I nodded.
"Do you want to go visit her?" Bruce asked.
I nodded. "Yes, please."
"Who is she, anyway?"
I mentally smacked my head, "She's mom's best friend! They worked in the police department together."
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"Oh my god!" said a loud shrill voice. "Oh my god!"
I flinched as I felt the wind get knocked out of me as the floor vanished. KC, a Puerto Rican woman, hugged me so hard I could barely breathe.
"Nice to see you too, KC," I told her.
"I can't believe you're here! I haven't seen you in years. How are you? How's school? How are your grades? Do you have a boyfriend? You better not have a boyfriend!" she said all this without inhaling.
"Wow, um, I'm fine, it's ok, they're good, and no," I told her, "Oh, and by the way, this is Bruce."
She noticed the man, standing awkwardly besides me, for the first time. "So you're the infamous Bruce."
She didn't even let him talk before turning to me again. KC's a bit of a feminist, and when I say a bit I really mean a lot. "I'm sorry I haven't been visiting lately. Work has been getting in the way," she said.
"It's ok," I told her, "If it's anything, I should be the one visiting."
She shook her head. "Now don't you worry about that. You should focus on your school work and not going about visiting little ole me," she said, "Speaking of which why aren't you in school young lady? Just because you're an heiress now doesn't mean you should be skipping school."
"We got a day off at school," I lied, send Bruce a begging glance not to say anything, thankfully he didn't.
She accepted my explanation and dragged me to greet the other officers who I knew. I was happy to be surrounded by so many familiar faces; Bruce seemed content to hover in the background, shaking the hand of some.
"How long are you staying anyway?" KC asked after we finished going around the departments.
I looked at Bruce. He just gave me a shrug.
"I think just today," I told her, "We have to be back home tomorrow."
She pursed her lips. "Are you sure?"
I nodded.
"You visiting your old house?" she asked solemnly.
I shook my head, "Not today."
She smiled. "It was nice seeing you today, Charlie."
I gave her a goodbye hug. "You too. KC," I told her, "You're welcome to visit us anytime."
She kissed my forehead before turning to Bruce. "You take care of her."
He placed his hand on my shoulder. "I will."
-0-
"We can stay longer, if you want," Bruce said as he drove the rented car to the airport.
"Don't you have to go to work tomorrow?" I looked at him distractedly.
"Let me rephrase that," he looked sober. "We can move here, if you want."
I looked at him, barely aware that my mouth was hanging wide open. "Live here?"
He nodded. "If you want to, we can."
I was quiet.
I missed this place. I grew up here, my memories are here, and my mom was here. The offer was tempting, very tempting, but I remembered what Bruce told me: whether you sit in your room, or travel the world a part of you stays with them just like a part of them stays with you.
"I wanna go home," I told him, "I wanna go back to Gotham."
I saw him smile from the corner of my eyes.
"By the way," Bruce said, interrupting the calm silence. "You're grounded."
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[A/N: Weird scene I just had to put...]
Alfred looked at his charge. He was still asleep after another night of gallivanting around the city.
"Close the curtains Alfred," the half asleep man said groggily after the butler opened it.
"It's 2 in the afternoon Master Wayne," he said, "You have businesses to attend to, besides, Miss Wayne will be arriving soon."
That seemed to have woken him.
"It's Friday," he said, "She goes to her friend's house during Fridays."
Alfred smirked. "She's grounded, remember?"
Bruce frowned. "You can't go to friend's houses when you're grounded?"
"No sir," Alfred answered.
Bruce groggily scratched his head confusedly. He was never grounded as a child so he didn't know what being grounded was, but he knew it was some form of punishment. He always figured it had something to do with staying in the room - at least he was close enough.
When he managed to work up enough strength to actually go to work, he was rather tired. Wishing he would get more sleep when he arrived at the office, it was rather disappointing to hear from his secretary that someone wished to see him.
"A Ms. Patrick wishes to see you," said Amy, his secretary, "She said it's very urgent and -,"
"I don't know a Ms. Patrick," Bruce said cutting her off. He was still too tired to do anything. "Tell her to make an appointment next time."
He heard a cough behind him and saw a pretty lady standing behinds him. "If you were the least bit concerned with your daughter's education then you would know me," the lady said curtly, "and I would have made an appointment with you, but I figured it would have been ignored just like all my other requests to meet you." She wore a dress suit that didn't look pricey, her brunette hair was pulled back by a clip and she wore an impatient expression that screamed 'I don't like you much'.
Bruce looked at her stupidly, "Huh?"
She looked at him with annoyance but offered her hand to him. "Jane Patrick. I'm Charlie's homeroom teacher."
"Oh," Bruce said, looking concerned. "Is everything alright with Charlie?"
"You would know if you had attended the previous parent teacher meetings and answered all of the requests I've sent you to discuss Charlie's progress," she answered.
"What meetings?" Bruce asked rather annoyed. "I haven't received letters for a meeting."
"Our school tries to contact our student's parents twice a term," she told him, "and when I saw that you had failed to arrive, nor send a representative to take your place I tried contacting you, and so far all of my efforts have failed until now,"
"Well, now that you have my undivided attention, how may I help you?" Bruce said, opening the door to his office.
She seemed to admire the view for she stared at it for some time as Bruce told his secretary to hold all his calls. Bruce observed her for a moment, trying to judge the person who has been teacher his daughter.
"So, how is Charlie doing in school?" he asked Jane, motioning for her to sit down.
"I'm concerned about her home life," she answered delicately.
He frowned. "Home life? I know we've had a rocky start at our relationship, I mean it wasn't easy for either of us to just start one out from scratch, but I think we've gone past most of our issues. Has she said anything to you? I'm sure I could fix it, I'm not trying to be a bad father here."
Jane smiled with amusement and shook her head. "I wasn't implying that you're a bad father, Mr. Wayne, on the contrary I've noticed that Charlie has improved emotionally. The problem now is her education - her grades have been dropping for the past five months."
Bruce realized that it had been five months since he had come back. "You think it's because of me?"
"There could be many other reasons, but yes, it is possible that you could be one of the reasons amongst other things," Jane answered, not unkindly. She seemed to be warming up to him, Bruce noticed.
"I wasn't all that studious as a kid either, maybe she's just going through a phase," he reasoned.
"As her parent, it's your responsibility to monitor her, or at least hire someone to like all those other rich parents who never have time for their children do," her eyes widened. "I'm very sorry Mr. Wayne, that was uncalled for and out of line, I didn't mean to offend you."
Bruce sighed. "Look, I'm trying really hard to be a better father and I know I've been incredibly busy, but I try my best to spend my time with my daughter. I want her to grow up in a nice safe place. I don't want to be one of those 'rich' parents who never have the time. I try to make time with her as much as I can since I've already lost too much."
She looked at him determinedly and reached out to touch his hand. "Mr. Wayne, Charlie is a sweet wonderful child. She's a real pleasure to teach and has managed to stand up for herself in spite of her run in with bullies."
"Bullies?" Bruce asked, cutting her off.
Jane froze. "I thought she told you," she said softly. "It's not uncommon in a school like Gotham Academy. It wasn't physical or anything, but they often teased her about her familial status."
Bruce nodded; he knew how that school was like. It truly was a prestigious school and offered the best education, but the students weren't exactly the kindest. He had never been subjected to bullying, while in school, nor had he ever participated in it, but it was not uncommon for him to encounter it.
"I didn't think she'd be bullied," he confessed.
"She's overcome them," Jane told him comfortingly. "That's what I've admire about her, she's handled all those people with her head held high, save for the previous time-,"
Bruce blushed. "That was my fault,"
Jane didn't look like she'd say otherwise, Bruce had a suspicion that she thought he was or is a fool because of the burning down the house thing.
"Charlie's been doing fine so far in school, she's fine socially. but as I have mentioned before, I am here because of her academics. Please know that her grades have been dropping. She hasn't failed anything, but I don't wish to wait until it comes to that," she said professionally.
"Thank you for putting that in my attention," Bruce replied.
Six months later…
I guess I could say my life has drastically changed in the last six months. It's the good kind of change though. Bruce and what he does during the night is his business and I don't want to know. I don't think I'll ever want to know. We've been slowly rebuilding the Wayne manor just as it was and it should be ready in about two years. So far, I'm starting to like the condo, plus it's nearer to Jimmy's place.
Just like Wayne Manor, Gotham city is also being slowly rebuilt. With both efforts of Batman, for cleaning the streets of crime, and Bruce, for making the economy much better, Gotham is starting to get brighter each day. There's also been that new DA called Harvey Dent, Rachel's been dating him. I think Bruce is jealous of that fact, but that's one of those things I'd rather not know.
The media has also backed off, though ones in a while Bruce decides to do something attention grabbing, like taking me horseback riding in the middle of the mall. I guess being a Wayne has perks. We even visited Vegas again. This time, we stayed at Caesar's Palace.
School's also been great; the hype of Bruce's return has died down so things are back to normal. Speaking of school though, I am currently riding the bus to Gotham Museum of Science and Arts. I love that place.
Did that school bus just come out of the bank? No, can't be, probably just my imagination. If so, then why does the driver look like a clown?
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A/N: Story's done. What did you guys think? I'm making a sequel that'll be up in a few weeks. I'm leaving the country this Friday for college (wish my luck), so I won't have a lot of time to start a new story so soon. I've honestly enjoyed making this and completing it. This is my first non-one shot that I've actually completed. I'd like to hear your opinions and suggestions for the sequel.
Thank you LilyxJames and wtchcool, and all the others for your reviews. I hope you guys stick around for the sequel. Also, thank you The Lost and found Box for taking the time to read my work and fixing my mistakes. This fanfic would have been very patchy if it wasn't for you...
Til then,
TemperedRose
