A/N (FE159): Hey guys, do you think this has been going on long enough to stop with the disclaimer? Eh I'll do it again. We don't own anything except our OC's. And DOUBLE FEATURE this week. Since this was a really long chapter, chapter 10 is purely Nat and then chapter 11 is purely Rachel. Enjoy you guys.

MOUNT JUSTICE

MARCH 27 14:05 EST

I flopped down next to Bart, huffing. This day wasn't going well, especially the last hour. It involved being yelled at by Nightwing and having to watch the search for Kaldur commence. It was too painful to see and not tell them everything.

I sighed heavily, bringing my knees up so they nearly touched my nose. I pulled my ponytail over my shoulder, fingering it carefully. Bart touched my shoulder, causing me to look at him. "You ok?"

Waving him off, I nodded. "Just peachy." Standing up again, I began to pace, just to blow off steam. "I mean why wouldn't be alright? My best friend is going on a big solo mission, and I get yelled at for suggesting I could do the same. The downside of being thriteen. You don't get to do nothin'."

"Hey." I stopped, putting my hands on my wide hips. Then, feeling self-conscious like I always do, crossed them instead.

"What?"

Bart stood up. "Are you sure you're ok?" I wanted to tell him the truth. I sure as hell wasn't ok. I was having nightmares, and that was making me sick. I couldn't not think about Danny nowadays and I don't know why. I just nodded, trying not to let him see how much I was actually in pain.

"I told you, I'm fine. Just… annoyed."

He pointed to the spot next to him. "Nat sit down."

I did and noticed him looking at me funny. "What?"

He held his hands up in surrender. "Nothing."

I squinted up at the fiery sun, blinded from the rapid shift in light. It was the summertime, and I was out of school. It was a warm day in the Pittsburgh suburbs, and I ran home from my friend's house next door. As I opened the door, though, I heard the yelling, the crashing of plates to the ground. My parents fought more and more frequently since he was gone.

I couldn't make out what they were screaming about just the name. "Danny." It was always Danny. Boxes full of our things were scattered across the hallway, but I found myself in front of his room. I pushed the heavy door open, and saw all of his things. Superhero posters, action figures, and comic books. I was never into any of this stuff, but he loved it.

It was fall, the leaves crunching under our feet. I was nine, running around in my Thundercats t-shirt, raising a stick above my head. "You can nevah hope to defeat me, Robin."

Danny was seven, his sandy blonde hair an unruly mess, hazel eyes wide. He was wearing his Robin cape from Halloween, and had forced me to play Superheroes with him again. "I will, Harley Quinn. And then I'm sending you back to Arkham!"

I laughed crazily, swinging the stick around. "Oh really, puddin'? You an' what army?"

I heard a gruff voice say. "Me." I turned and saw my dad wearing a Batman mask. He picked me up and I giggled.

I was reading under the shade of the tree, at least until my adopted brother hovered over me. "Talia come play with me."

"No."

He tugged on my arm. "Aw c'mon please? You've been reading all day! Let's go play Superheroes. I need a Kid Flash."

"Ask Tommy." He was one of our neighbors and was a year or so younger than Danny.

"No, he's not home. Please!"

I put my book down and stood up, taking out my goggles. They were big on my ten-year-old face, but I still looked nifty. "Fine. But first you need to go find Batman so he can give us our mission."

His little face lit up. "OK! I'll be right back!" He ran off, and I followed behind him slowly. I don't know why he had such a fascination with superheroes. But as he got to the front lawn, it didn't really matter. Coming from a bad orphanage, it was just nice to see him smile about something.

"Hey, don't go in the road!" But he still did.

"You ain't the boss of me!" I trudged after him, and that's when I heard the screech. It was something I would never forget. I saw the sleek black car speeding down the usually deserted road, right to Danny.

"DANNY!" He turned to look at me. All I saw was his smiling hazel eyes before the car hit him.

It didn't even stop as Danny landed on the ground with a sickening thump. I screamed so loud my throat hurt, my whole body shaking uncontrollably. He wasn't moving.

Daddy ran outside and saw the scene. Danny bleeding and unmoving on the street, the ghost of a smile still on his face, and me - shaking and screaming.

He picked me up then rushed over to Danny. Taking out his phone he dialed 9-1-1. "Please help. My - my son's been hit by a car. He's bleeding heavily."

"Da-addy. It-it's all… m-m-my fault."

I woke up in a cold sweat, screaming. I flung my blankets off and ran my hands through my sweaty hair. I was shaking, something I hadn't done since coming to Earth-16. I warily grabbed my bag, pulling out two prescription bottles from a zippered part. Taking a pill out of each I swallowed them. Eventually the shaking subsided, and I was alone.

Still dazed, I changed into something not drenched in cold sweat, then tied my hair into a messy bun before going to the kitchen. I took a cookie out of the microwave and sat near the island. It was always about him, every night. But this was the first time I saw him…

"Nat?" I spun around to see Bart, rubbing sleep-filled eyes. I had forgotten he was staying at the Cave tonight. He flicked on a light and his jaw dropped. "Nat, what the heck happened?"

I looked in the glass of the microwave and saw myself for the first time. My lip was bleeding, probably from biting it in my sleep, dark circle making me look underweight. I was still vibrating a bit, and in my tank top and short, he could see the goosebumps on my skin. "I…"

Tears started falling, and I put my head in my hands. Crying, sobbing, whatever the hell I was doing, it was just pain radiating from my core. I felt him wrap his arms around me, gently holding me. I cried more. "Nat, tell me what happened."

I shook my head. I promised I would never tell anyone what happened in Pittsburgh, and never about Danny. But as he comforted me, I was seriously considering changing that promise.

Bart gently ran his fingers through my hair. "Nat, you can tell me."

I shook my head. "No, n-n-no I c-can't."

He hugged me. "Yeah, you can."

"Jus-st-t. Don't t-tell Rachel." I took a deep breath, and my shaking subsided. "She can't know."

"Okay."

"I've been having nightmares. Bad ones. I… c'mon." I hopped up and drag him down to my room.

"What are you doing?"

"Sit." I grabbed my bag and pulled out the photographs. Then I sat down cross-legged in front of him. "When I was six, me and my family moved to Pittsburgh, 'cause my mom got relocated. There we… we adopted a kid named Danny." I handed him the picture. "Danny was really obsessed with superheroes, but when he was seven… it was my fault."

"What was?"

"I wanted him to go play by himself, so I told him to go find Batman and he ended up… he got hit by a car. He d-d-died all because I didn't wanna play with him."

"It wasn't your fault."

I pushed him away, maybe a little too roughly. But at this point, I didn't care. "No! I could've stopped it. I-I could've…"

"Nat! Calm down!" I looked at him, shocked, and everything, including him, seemed to drop a good foot.

"Shit, Bart are you… are you ok?" I helped him up, feeling guilty as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh, yeah, just so crash."

"I guess I deserve the sarcasm." I gently turned his head to the side, examining the bruise forming there. "I'm so sorry. I guess I… I'm sorry."

He smiled a bit. "You were freakin' out."

I wiped away my final tears. Seeing everything fall, it made my emotions fall as well. It was just like how my mom stopped my freak-outs. She shifted something and I was focused on fixing that instead of whatever I was sad about. "Yeah. I- I don't exactly have the best mix of stuff in me."

He looked at me curiously. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm OCD, I over-think stuff, I can't express how I feel around others-"

"But being OCD and over-thinking stuff isn't a bad thing especially when you're a superhero, and you told me how you feel, didn't you?" He cocked his head to the side like a puppy. Dear god, have mercy.

"Well, yeah, but - I - I don't-"

"Look," he said, holding up his hands. "I won't pry anymore, okay?

I blinked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Well, thank you. But- I guess I told you 'cause it… Damn it sucks holding in all your feelings for a long time." I laughed a little. "I mean, it's just-"

"I know."

"And I know you know, Speed Racer."

He smiled and poked my arm. "Hey, you - you like Kit Kats, right?"

"Yes," I said automatically. "Wait - how did you know that?"

"It's really easy to get information out of Rachel," he said teasingly.

"You didn't ask her did you?" He looked away. "Oh my God! You asked her stuff about me? You're either insane-"

"LookI'msorry,youcanbemadorwhatever."

I hugged him. "You didn't let me finish. I was going to day you're either insane, or really sweet."

He blushed. "I kinda wanna go with sweet."

"So do I." He sped off and back, now holding two Kit-Kats in his hand. "Did you find those under my bed?"

He rolled his eyes. "What? No, why would you think that?"

"Because apparently you know everything, and Rachel would obviously tell where my secret stash of candy was." I took one anyways and looked at the clock. "Damn it's only one in the morning, how great is that?"

"I'm gonna guess that's sarcasm."

"And you would guess correctly."

"Good." He swung around and began to walk to the door. Suddenly all the possibilities of the nightmares crashed down on me and I felt the fear seeping in. I grabbed Bart's wrist.

"Um…" What was I going to say? I'm afraid of the painful memories of my life that I just spilled to you? I let go and waved him away. "Nevermind." Making my way down to the room I felt the darkness closing in. As I touched the doorknob I sensed something wrong in my room. I nearly kicked the door down to get in, only to find Bart… sitting on my bed.

"Hey."

"Uh, what're you-you're on my b-bed-d. Yo-ou-u, s-shouldn't be on m-my bed."

He moved instantly. "Sorry."

I shook my head. "No, it's fine. I… what're you doing?"

"I can tell when you look scared."

"So-"

"Maybe it was a bad…"

"No!" The word came out abrupt, loud even. I covered my mouth with my hands. "I mean, you don't have to, if you really don't want to." And that's apparently how we ended up.

He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the far wall, and I lay on the very far side, not wanting to need him, but not ready to be left alone to the nightmares again. As I found myself craving his presence, however, I curled up to him, my cheek pressing against the outside of his thigh, his hand running through my hair. He kept the nightmares away, just like on those nights when he was only a comic book character.

A/N (FE159): Ok, this week is gonna we a contest that'll go on for a while. I'll also post it on my Tumblr and FF profile. So, we're looking for a new cover to our story, since the one was have now is crappy Photoshopped stuff. If any of you can draw, use Photoshop, or anything, we want you to make us a cover. The winner, of course, will be on the cover and can have an OC in one of the chapters if you want. GOOD LUCK.