A/N: so sorry for the delay in this update. Got stuck at a part of this chapter and then got sick with a weird flu thing, so that delayed things even more. On top of that, this isn't a very long chapter compared to others, so I apologize for that as well, but further updates should come sooner and will hopefully be their normal length. Anyway, thank you guys so much for your wonderful reviews, they so make my day, and I love you all! :D

Bruce's hands shook as he cut Helena's cord, having been temporarily reduced to a puddle of exhilaration and happiness that he never could have prepared himself for. After so much anticipation in the last nine months, it was surreal to see the little girl, the baby who he'd only had glimpses of in sonograms until now. But now she was here, wailing in Selina's arms, and as he severed the last tie to Selina's womb, he could hardly believe that he was lucky enough to be living this moment, this life, right now.

Layla, the nurse who had taken care of Selina throughout her whole labor, gently leaned close to Selina and said, "We've got to clean her up and weigh her and check a few more things. I'll bring her back as soon as I can, I promise."

Bruce saw the reluctance in Selina's eyes but they both knew they didn't have a choice. Layla scooped the baby up and took her to the warmer, which doubled as a scale, and she and another nurse went to work cleaning her up fully and checking her heart and lungs again.

Leslie, on Selina's other side, placed a hand upon Selina's and said softly, "You did so good. Congratulations. She's so beautiful."

Selina smiled up at the older woman and then turned back to Bruce just as Layla called out, "Eight pounds, twelve ounces!"

Selina dropped her head back on her pillow and said breathlessly, "Jesus."

Bruce laughed, impressed that she'd pushed out such a chunky little baby. Then the nearly forgotten Dr. Jones said, "I believe it. I'm only halfway through your stitches."

Bruce glanced down and sure enough, the doctor was still at the foot of the bed, deep in concentration as she sewed Selina up. The placenta had been delivered without either Bruce or Selina even noticing.

"Great," Selina groaned, unsure and fearful of what recovery would be like. Leslie got up and started snapping pictures of Helena with a small digital camera, since Bruce still wasn't coherent enough to think about pictures right now, and he took the opportunity to kiss Selina one more time.

"I can't believe she's here," he said softy, kissing her cheek. Her arm, laden with three hospital bracelets and her IV, rose up and her hand found his hair, holding him close to her.

"She's gorgeous," Selina half-whispered.

"She has your eyes."

Selina shook her head. "They're hazel, Bruce. She has my shape and your color."

He honestly hadn't noticed - Helena's eyes had looked brown to him, identical to Selina's in every way. He thought about that, how such a feature could be a perfect mix of her parents, and Bruce looked at Selina and murmured, "She's the best thing we've ever done."

Selina smiled, knowing that's quite a thing for a man to say when he'd once saved a city from a nuclear bomb. She kissed his lips lightly, then looked up as Layla brought Helena back to her.

"All done," the nurse smiled, placing the baby back into Selina's arms. "She's doing great."

Selina smiled as she held her daughter once more, now bundled up in hospital blankets printed with pink and blue footprints and wearing a similarly pink and blue hat. She had some antibiotic ointment in her eyes that made her blink a bit rapidly, but she still managed to make eye contact with Selina once more.

"God," Bruce babbled happily, "she's so beautiful."

Immediately upon hearing his voice, Helena's gaze shifted, and her head turned in Bruce's direction. Selina smiled and looked up at Bruce, who looked suddenly dumbfounded, and she said, "Looks like all that talking to my belly paid off."

Then she gently shifted Helena - carefully, because she still had no idea how to safely hold a baby, going completely on instinct at this point - and said, "Here, Daddy."

And in the one second it took for Bruce to hold out his arms for to take his baby, he felt a rush of so many different emotions that it left him dizzy and feeling oddly young and clueless. For everything he'd been through in his life and all of the over-education he'd fed his brilliant mind since a young age, this moment took him back to square one of it all and re-shaped everything. The perspective that he would now see through for the rest of his life would be like no other he'd held before.

Helena's eyes blinked as he nestled her into his hold, her head supported at the crook of his arm. Her hands were in tiny little fists near her face and her eyes closed as she seemed to get comfortable very fast, and Bruce decided to test her response to his voice to see if the last had been a fluke.

"Helena..."

Her eyes popped open and fixed onto his gaze, and he couldn't stop the broad smile that appeared on his face. He saw now that her eyes were in fact the same color of his own, encased beautifully within Selina's

shape. He looked up just long enough to see Selina smiling at them just as warmly, and then lowered his head to kiss Helena's ridiculously fat cheek.

He was beyond being wrapped around her finger. He was hopelessly, irrevocably, and eternally hooked, and he'd never been so happy to be alive.

It took awhile to get her stitches done and finally get some privacy, but when the room had mostly emptied - Leslie went out to tell everyone the news, and Layla was the only nurse left behind - and Helena was back in Selina's arms, she looked at Bruce and furrowed her brows at the way his left middle finger was sort of dangling from his hand.

"Bruce - what's wrong with your finger?"

He looked down at his hand and then did a double take, eyes widening as he suddenly remembered. "Oh, yeah - you, uh... you broke my finger," he said with a smile.

"I broke your finger?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah... honestly I forgot all about it until now." Adrenaline was a wonderful painkiller.

Layla, who had been cleaning up the room, overheard and smiled at Bruce as she said, "I'll get that taken care of for you in a minute."

"Thanks," he grinned, looking back to Selina as she looked down at Helena in confusion.

Helena was squirming, rubbing her mouth on Selina's skin under her collarbone, turning her face back and forth, seemingly in search of something. "What's she doing?"

Layla walked over and looked down at the child, then said, "Oh, she's rooting. Looks like she's hungry."

"'Rooting'?" Selina repeated in confusion.

"It's what babies do when they're ready to eat for the first time. Were you planning on breastfeeding?"

Selina had never decided, to be honest. "Um..."

"Well, it looks like she was," Layla smiled. "Here, I'll help you."

Layla stepped closer and unbuttoned part of Selina's hospital gown, pulling it down over her chest and then gently helping Selina reposition Helena. She wasn't at Selina's breast longer than a second before she latched on, without any further assistance.

"Ouch," Selina winced. It felt just as odd as she'd imagined, but she hadn't been expecting pain. "Is this supposed to hurt?"

"Oh yeah," Layla nodded. "It'll hurt for a couple of weeks while your nipples toughen up and get used to it."

Helena suckled away like a champ while Selina gritted her teeth and Bruce watched with a look of fascination and concern. "Is she even getting anything?" Selina asked.

"She is. Your regular milk won't come in for a few days, but right now she's getting what she needs. And she'll want to feed a lot, so he prepared. Every one and a half to three hours is normal."

"But how will I know she's hungry?" Selina asked somewhat desperately. She knew nothing of any of this stuff.

"Oh, you'll know," Layla chuckled. "She'll cry. I'll get you a book we have for new moms about breastfeeding. It'll explain everything. I'll be right back with that splint for your husband."

The word "husband" went over both Bruce and Selina's head until the nurse had left the room. Selina looked over at Bruce, sitting faithfully at her bedside, and she knew what his soft but intent gaze meant. He'd practically worshipped her at every stage of pregnancy, and the more pregnant she got, the more transfixed he'd become. Now he was looking at her like she was a goddess.

She shook her head at him. "You're wishing you had your camera right now, aren't you."

"I'll make up for it later," he smiled. "This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen."

She looked down at her baby, her eyes closed contentedly as her tiny mouth suckled and found comfort, and she was relieved by the bond that she already felt with Helena. She'd been so scared of feeling nothing, of there being something wrong with herself that would ruin everything, and now she saw how irrational that fear had been.

"When she's done, and after the nurse looks at your finger," Selina said quietly, "you can bring in Alfred to see her."

Bruce nodded, the thought of Alfred holding his first child warming him incredibly. "Okay."

Once Bruce's finger had been taken care of and Layla brought Selina a much-needed, very late breakfast, Bruce brought Alfred and Leslie inside the room and watched with his hands in his pockets as his former butler laid eyes upon Helena for the first time.

Selina smiled up at the two men as she handed Helena to Bruce, and then Bruce cradled Helena gently for one brief moment before placing her in Alfred's waiting arms. Helena was full and sleepy now, not opening her eyes once as she'd passed from person to person, and she continued not to stir as Alfred held her close and let his eyes soak up the sight of a child who was, for all intents and purposes, his granddaughter.

Selina stuck a French fry in her mouth and shared a smile with Leslie as the older woman served as photographer again, and she wondered if this was what having family felt like. She thought of Molly, still waiting patiently for her turn to meet Helena, and Anita, who had probably given birth herself by now, and for the first time in her life, she didn't feel bitter for the lack of her parents. She wasn't alone in the world anymore, and hadn't been since Bruce had invaded her life in Italy the previous year, but now she even had a couple of friends and two older folks who suddenly seemed completely irreplaceable in her life. And at the center of all of that newfound companionship and love was Helena, and Selina felt so completely full and bursting inside that she couldn't control the tears that started rolling down her cheeks.

Bruce noticed this, looking up from his own emotional moment and furrowing his brows in concern when he saw her crying. "Are you okay, Selina?"

She nodded and wiped at her eyes, quickly replying, "I'm fine, I'm fine. I don't really know why I'm crying, actually."

"You know those pregnancy hormones?" Leslie smiled, lowering her camera for a moment. "Some of them are dropping and some are increasing right now. It'll take awhile for everything to even out."

"Joy," Selina muttered, but she was smiling through her flat tone. She looked at Bruce and he returned her smile, his own eyes starting to glisten again, and Selina thought about making a joke about how blessedly ridiculous it felt for the two of them to be so openly and overly emotional, but she thought better of it when Alfred placed Helena back into Bruce's arms and whispered something to him that Selina couldn't hear.

Then Alfred turned to Selina and, to her surprise, leaned down and hugged her. She returned it as best she could, still having an IV in her arm and not being prepared to be embraced, but she soon learned the reasoning behind his hug when she heard his whisper.

"Thank you. For everything."

He drew back and gave her a significant look, and no further words were necessary. She nodded, knowing that his thanks encompassed many things but mostly the fact that he considered her to have saved Bruce's life several times over.

It wasn't long before the older couple had given them their privacy once more, leaving Selina to stuff her face with the rest of her meal as Bruce held their daughter in the chair next to her bed.

"What did he say to you?" Selina asked. "You don't have to say if you don't want."

Bruce shook his head slightly, tearing his gaze off of Helena long enough to reply, "He said he was proud of me. And that my parents would be proud of me."

In that moment, as she heard the rawness and emotion in his voice, Selina came to understand Bruce in a way she never had before. It suddenly hit her how much his parents had defined his existence, and how the burning desire to live up to their legacy had driven him to make the choices and sacrifices that he had. It always came back to them, always came back to his need to be worthy of their name and the love that he'd been deprived of since they'd been murdered in front of him.

And now here he was, building a hospital that would serve people in need in the same ways that his father had as a doctor, holding his own child, an extension of the Wayne family that he'd never dared to hope for until she'd already come into existence, and Selina suddenly felt as proud of him as Alfred did.

Bruce looked up at Selina, a sudden fierceness in his eyes, and he said, "I'll die before I let anyone hurt her."

Selina nodded. "You know I will too."

When Molly and Christian were on their way to meet Helena for the first time, Bruce set the baby back into Selina's arms and pulled out his phone to take a quick picture of her round, chubby little face.

"Who's that for?" Selina asked after he clicked the camera back off, then started typing on the screen.

"My other legacy," Bruce replied, hitting the send button.

Helena then stirred and stretched out her legs into the mass off blankets swaddling her, and made a cooing noise that made both of her parents stare at her and start grinning stupidly.

"Holy crap, that was cute," Selina chuckled.

Then there was a soft knock at the door, and then Molly poked her head inside. "Leslie said we could come in?"

Bruce sank back into his chair and nodded. "Yeah, come on in."

Wearing a huge smile of anticipation, Molly walked in first, Christian trailing behind her, and held her hands over her mouth to keep from squealing when she got to Selina's bed and saw Helena for the first time.

"Oh... my... God! Oh, look at her! Chris, look at her! She's so fat! She's got the biggest cheeks I've ever seen!" Molly babbled, blue eyes huge as she fawned over the baby. "And look at her hair!"

Selina smiled and gave a slight roll of her eyes as she said, "Here, take her. I know you're dying to hold her."

Molly's fawning reached new heights as she took Helena in her arms, and a fresh wave of babbling began. "My God... seriously, Selina," she smiled, looking up briefly to Selina, "she is going to be... ridiculously gorgeous when she grows up. She's even more beautiful than I'd expected. Gosh - has there ever been a better looking family? I mean look at you guys!"

Behind her, Christian reached a hand down to Bruce and grinned. "Congrats, man."

Bruce smiled and shook his hand. "Thanks. Sorry about the timing, with your honeymoon and all."

Christian shrugged. "Ah, no worries. Aspen will still be there a week from now. Though you two did make quite an impression at the reception."

"Yeah, sorry about your brother," Bruce said, just now remembering that he'd punched someone in the mad rush to the hospital.

"Aaron? Oh, don't be sorry about that. Had to deck him myself because he couldn't keep his bloody hands off one of Molly's bridesmaids," Christian replied nonchalantly. "I've had to deck him a lot over the years. We were born in London but he drinks like he was born in Dublin."

Meanwhile, while Molly was gently rocking Helena in her arms, the blonde's eyes suddenly widened and shot up to Selina's as she gasped, "Oh! I have to tell you about Anita! Leslie told me you wanted me to go check on her so I did, and when I got to her room, her baby was literally crowning. I got to see her being born."

"Really?" Selina smiled, pleased that Anita hadn't been alone after all.

"Yep," Molly grinned widely. "Got to hold her and everything. And they're both doing great. Anita did it without drugs, by the way."

Selina's eyes widened and she let out a breathless laugh. "Well, God bless her. My epidural didn't work so I halfway went natural too. What did she name her?"

Molly smiled even more broadly at this and closed her eyes as she said, "Can't tell you. It's a surprise."

"A surprise?"

"Yep. I've been sworn to secrecy." Then Helena cooed again, and Molly's eyes widened to comical proportions. "Okay, I'm dead. That was the cutest thing I've ever heard. Christian?"

Christian looked up from his conversation with Bruce and said, "Yes, love?"

"We're making a baby, like, tonight."

"Of course, love."

"I'm serious. I officially have a raging case of baby fever."

Christian smiled and then turned back to Bruce, mouthing a sarcastic "thanks".

Meanwhile, a continent away, John Blake awoke face-down on his bed to the sound of his phone ding-donging on his nightstand a few inches away, and reluctantly, he dragged an arm up to grab the phone.

Blinking fast to clear his eyes so that he could see the screen in front of him, he then squinted and deciphered the number that had texted him to be one of the few that he'd never ignore. He unlocked the phone and then found himself looking at a picture of the fattest-cheeked baby he'd ever seen. Underneath the picture read simply, Helena Martha.

Blake looked back up at the picture and grinned just before he felt the body next to him stir, and a moment later, there were soft lips on his shoulder and an equally groggy voice asking, "Why are you looking at a picture of a baby on your phone?"

Still staring at the picture, Blake replied, "Friend of mine just had a baby."

"I didn't know you had friends."

He snorted and set the phone back down on the nightstand, shifting to his side to face her. Raven smiled up at him as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him, brushing her black curls back behind her ear and settling his head back down on his pillow. "Well, I'm full of surprises, I guess."

"It's not even noon," Raven groaned, closing her eyes and snuggling against his chest. On her days off from working as an engineer for Wayne Enterprises, she tended to adopt Blake's nocturnal sleeping schedule, and today, they hadn't fallen asleep until six in the morning. He hadn't come home from his nightly crime-fighting exploits until three, and neither of them had been much interested in sleeping for the next few hours.

"I know," he replied. "Go back to sleep. I'll ignore my phone if it goes off again."

"No you won't," she yawned. "The picture came from that foreign number you won't save under a name in your contacts. You act like it's the president calling every time that number pops up."

Blake furrowed his brows, silently chastising himself for being so apparently obvious.

"I'm assuming it's Batman's number," she said, closing her eyes.

He looked down at her blankly, and she continued, "I get why you won't tell me about it, because he's supposed to be dead and all, so I'm not going to force you to. But I'm right, aren't I?"

There wasn't much point in denying it. Since they'd gotten back together, he'd been completely open with her, even showing her the cave he'd inherited and letting her tweak his suit and add some extra features she thought would be helpful. She knew he'd inherited a lot from Batman, and she was quite good at connecting the dots. She even had a few theories as to who the Batman might have been underneath the cowl, but she kept those to herself.

"Yeah," he replied quietly.

"Tell him I said hi," she said before drifting off to sleep. "And congratulations."

He smirked to himself, waiting until he knew she was asleep to grab his phone and do exactly as she suggested.

Natural labor afforded one very few luxuries, but one of them was the ability to get up and out of bed immediately after birth, which made the still-immobile Selina quite jealous as Anita was wheeled into her room and brought to her bedside.

Bruce was napping in his chair as the two women swapped babies and got to talking, and it almost distracted Selina enough to forget to ask what the big secret was about Anita's child's name.

"So what's her name?" she asked, cradling the little girl, smiling when she sneezed suddenly.

"Kylie," Anita replied, looking up from Helena with a smile.

"Kylie," Selina repeated, thinking nothing of it for a very brief moment. "Kylie... Kyle." She looked up at Anita, looking almost incredulous. "Anita..."

The younger girl held up a hand to shush her. "Don't even. You know you changed my life."

Selina felt a twinge of guilt at this extremely unexpected honor of having a baby named after her. Anita only knew Selina as she was now, not as who she was, and she knew nothing of who she'd been before coming to the islands to start over. Even Molly knew more of Selina's backstory than Anita did. Selina doubted anyone would want to name a goldfish after her if they knew the whole story.

"I know we haven't known each other long," Anita said, "but you've done more to help me than pretty much anyone I've ever known. I mean, I know I was a joke at the shelter. I was the idiot who kept running back to my abuser even after he almost made me lose my baby. I know what they said about me. But you didn't look at me the way the others did. You've always seemed to... understand better than they did."

Selina pursed her lips. She certainly did understand what it was like to feel as if you had no choice but to stay with an abuser, just to stay alive. The vivid memory of that feeling was what kept her going at the shelter.

"And I wouldn't be here if not for our talks and the way you encouraged me," Anita added, smiling weakly. "So there's nobody I'd rather name her after."

She didn't know if it was the damn hormones continuing to wreak havoc, but between those and her exhaustion and heightened emotions, Selina found herself shedding another tear.

Life was just full of pleasant surprises these days, and the cynical, eternally wary side of her was expecting the sky to fall any day and brutally crush the astounding amount of happiness that she'd achieved.

She looked down at Kylie, born on the same day as Helena, and as thoughts danced in her head of the two little girls growing up together and running around on the beach, having the kind of lives and childhoods that their mothers could have only dreamed of at such young ages, Selina drew in a deep breath and let it go with a contented sigh.

Maybe the walls weren't going to close in, after all. Maybe, if she was luckier than she could have ever believed was possible, disaster wasn't lurking around the corner anymore, just waiting to strike and take it all away.

She and Anita traded babies once more, and as Helena opened her eyes and started "rooting" again, letting Selina know that she was hungry once again, she felt her emotions steel themselves into a fierce protectiveness that nearly took her breath away.

No, life would never be perfect, and the sky wouldn't always be clear, and disaster really would always be lurking somewhere. She knew that. But now, she also knew that no matter what, as long as she had this precious little creature in her arms and Bruce at her side, nothing could ever really be that bad. Nothing could take her back to where she began.

And that might have been the single happiest thought she'd ever had in her life.