"Mom?" Helena was working on some of the legal documents that Dick had given her, sitting on the floor and using the coffee table as a makeshift desk. The archives were of old prototypes of some that went into production and others that were completely off the record. It was strange to be looking into the past so thoroughly and to be so eager to block out any information that would lead her family and friends down into a path of the public's scrutiny. Or worse, her father going to jail as well as everyone else.

"Yes?" Selina was silently enjoying her daughter's company while she was also working on some Wayne Tech spyware, trying to find a new loophole in the system that Barbara created. So far, she had found two, not bad in an hour.

"So," She paused for a moment. "How did you and dad meet?"

"I stole from him." A shrug, and still somewhat focused on the task at hand. It was no surprise that the girl wanted to know about their past, their usual go to was that they had met at a party, which seemed to sate both of their children's curiosity, up until now.

"What did you steal?" Having stopped her work to watch her mother struggle with the software, she was desperate to know more.

"Fingerprints."

"Fingerprints?" Helena stared in disbelief. "Why fingerprints?"

"Do you really want to know this?" Looking up from her work, Selina lifted a brow towards her daughter.

"Yes." She nodded, without a second thought.

"I wanted the Clean Slate," Might as well give the girl her side of the story before Bruce had a chance to. "It was going to erase everything. All my jail time, records, everything..."

"Is that how no one remembers you now?" Helena questioned and a look made her mouth close rather quickly. "Sorry."

"When I turned over his prints, they didn't deliver, but they crashed Wayne Enterprise's and bankrupted your dad, leaving me with nothing." Her brown eyes grew distant remembering that far away time. "I went back, threatened the man who got to me and very narrowly escaped, if it weren't for him I'd be at the bottom of Gotham River now."

"Him?" The pause meant she could ask the question. "You mean dad?"

"Yep." Selina sighed a deep and heavy sigh. "Then I threw him to the sharks."

"I asked for it." Bruce said from his spot, leaning against the study's doorway.

"That you did." She smirked as he came and sat by her. Damian also making his way into the room, hanging on the back of the couch.

"Which sharks are we talking about here?" Damian as he looked over his dad's shoulder. "Crane? Or Joker?"

"Bane." Helena could read the expression on her parent's faces, it was topic that even they didn't like to dwell on. "Right?"

"Yep." Selina tried to smirk, but something was off about it. Bane and that time had always been a sore subject for her. Even when it was just Bruce and her, she really didn't like dwelling on the whole scenario. It was a time that someone had one-upped her and she had to sacrifice someone. Only once before had she done that and it still hung on the conscience that she swore she didn't have.

"What happened next?" Picking up that there was a certain lull in the conversation, but wanting to know more, Damian was the first to be adventurous one to ask. Helena noticed that Bruce's hand gently covered Selina's, it was the quiet gestures and looks that her parents had down pat. She, for some reason, always really admired that in their relationship. It seemed to be more of a cohesive, deeply invested, partnership.

"Bane broke my back." Bruce informed his children, and ignored their shocked faces, taking the lead on this one. "And put me in a prison to watch Gotham be destroyed."

"How did you get back?" Helena asked.

"I recovered."

"Not fully." Selina inputted quietly, and it earned her a look.

"But I did come back." Bruce said a little more forcefully. "And beat him and Talia at their own game."

"Talia?" Damian's face scrunched. "Who the hell is that?"

"An old girlfriend." Selina had to put that in there for good measure.

"Not," Bruce had a mildly annoyed look gracing his face. "My girlfriend."

"The girl he slept with and gave the power of the bomb to." She corrected.

"Selina."

"Oh please," Her eyes rolled. "We gave them that talked years ago. But to give your father some credit, he didn't know who she actually was, until she stabbed him..."

"Selina." Again a warning.

"In the front." The temptation to add that last bit was too great and Bruce just sighed.

"A little slow on the uptake, dad?" Damian could smirk now, knowing that his father wasn't perpetually internally bleeding from the wound from twenty years ago.

"It was a very low point in my life." Bruce managed to get out through gritted teeth.

"So this power that you gave her?" Helena wanted to get back to the story. She had read about her father's supposed playboy persona, which when Helena had informed her mother of, she promptly laughed and stated that Helena should go ask her father about it. Helena had yet to do that. "Was it the bomb that killed Batman?"

"Yes." Bruce intervened before Selina could create any more colorful additions to the story. "But the autopilot on the aircraft carrying both Batman and the bomb was able to make it out over the ocean before it went off and come back, somewhat in one piece."

"Two pieces to be exact." Selina told the children. "In Jersey."

"Wait," Damian shook his head. "So everyone thought you were dead, but you were really in Jersey?"

"It's kind of the same thing." Selina mumbled.

"Ok, so how did you know he wasn't dead?" Damian asked Selina.

"Well," She breathed out. "Before your father decided to fly the bomb over the clear blue sea, he gave me the clean slate to help. After, I thought he was dead and everything was all said and done..."

"It took her a day." Bruce felt good having that on her.

"After a day." An amused brow lifted, then she got back to the story. "I uploaded the program. The files rewrote everything, interestingly enough it already had a name and completely new identity with files and everything in the works. Even an email and phone number."

"A phone?" Damian's brows narrowed. "Not HV-chat?"

"We didn't all have those yet." Bruce told him. "Holographic Video chatting wasn't what it is now."

"But how did you know he was alive?" Helena insisted.

"After... everything," Selina cut in. "I packed everything, and found a string of very familiar pearls on top of my clothes and I flew out on first flight to Europe."

"Did you go to Italy?" Damian's eyes narrowed.

"Paris." Bruce replied.

"I had enough money saved to drift from country to country." Selina ignored the slightly put off look from her beau. "And then he tracked me down in Istanbul."

"How did you do that?" Damian asked.

"There's a tracking device in the pearls." Helena didn't wait for either parental unit to answer.

"Dad," Damian snorted and good naturedly told his father, "You're an ass."

"But how did you get from Jersey to Istanbul?" Helena's eyes narrowed at Bruce.

"I had my own clean slate with me." Bruce informed her. "I was able to follow the signal to Istanbul."

"You were hurt though." She insisted.

"That's why it took him a month." Selina said enough to keep some more questioning at bay, for now, but soon enough it was going to be an issue. "Although, it was fairly interesting that we had the same last name, when we finally did meet."

"You're quite a presumptuous man, father." Although the tone from Damian could have been taken the wrong way, it was interesting that it still held admiration. "How did you manage that?"

"I knew the codes for the clean slate program mainframe once it was established that someone was using it and how to link information and identities together." Bruce shrugged. "I thought it might be nice to not be completely alone."

"What if she didn't want to?" Helena did not share in the enthusiasm that Damian had.

"We could erase it and start all over." Obviously the thought had occurred to Bruce but he didn't seemed too troubled by the notion. Then again, this Bruce was twenty years away from the one that was fairly scarred still and damaged. However, adding that information that wasn't as a nearly romantic as omitting it.

"He was actually a nervous wreck when I saw him in front of the Hagia Sophia." Too bad the woman that he decided to spend the rest of his life with didn't see things his way. "Even stumbled over his words."

"I was on sedatives." Did this woman always have to one up him?

"That's more realistic." Helena nodded in satisfaction. "So you guys really didn't meet at a party."

"Actually." Bruce cocked his head. "We did."

"I was posing as a maid to get to his fingerprints." Selina shrugged.

"She didn't tell you that she stole the pearls too, did she?" He smirked.

"Grandma's pearls?" Helena looked slightly surprised.

"Does it matter?" Damian questioned. "You gave them to her anyway."

"At the time he didn't want to." Selina amended. "Or the car."

"You stole his car?" Damian laughed. "Mother, that's pretty awesome."

"It was." Then she craned her head to look at him and pointed at him. "Don't get any ideas."

"What kind of car?" The excitement from the boy was more than Bruce could bare and he began secretly trying to devise a plan that would raise the driving age to eighteen, at least.

"Lamborghini."

"Classic!" Damian looked to his father. "Father, can I get that car when I'm sixteen?'

"That car was ruined during Bane's occupation." Bruce told his son.

"Aren't there others?" The boy wasn't letting up.

"There were only five made." Bruce mumbled while Selina let out a snort of laughter.

"So," Damian thought for a moment, "can I get a tumbler?"

"No." Bruce said firmly.

"Bat-pod?"

"No."

"How about a license first?" Selina broke up the father-son tiff.

"I could just have Mrs. Blake make one up for me." Damian pointed out.

"Not if you call her Mrs. Blake." Helena smiled.

"Alright." Bruce decided he was done for the night and wanted to stop any fight from breaking out in the moment. "Damian, did you do your readings yet?"

"Are you really going to do this mundane routine every time, father?" His dark brown eyes rolled.

"Come on, Damian." Helena stood up from her spot and gathered her papers. "They need time to conspire against us."

"Speak for yourself." Damian mumbled as he was ushered out of the room by his older sister.

"How long do you think it's going to be before they start asking us about the past?" Selina asked quietly, now that it was just the two of them in the room. "Individually?"

"I thought you didn't regret anything from your past?" Bruce reminded her.

"I don't." She sighed. "All I'm saying is that it's a good thing you're the rule enforcer."

"We all did things we regret, Selina." His voice was sincere and she didn't doubt him. "We did the best we could with what we had."

"They're going to want to go out there at one point." Memories flashed in her mind. "They'll sneak out."

"Who says they're going to get caught?" Acknowledging that their children had both of their genes, it was very likely that they could outsmart their parents in way not they didn't think was possible. "Honestly, though, neither is going out there..."

"Helena's good Bruce." Selina cut him off. He may be in denial about the idea of their children going out there, but she was well aware of what Helena wanted to do. "I saw her training here and in the archives."

"Why was she in the archives?" His quick interruption made her shake her head. "And why were you?"

"She's natural, talented, focused." Selina continued as if he hadn't said a word. "She beat Dick and Kate twice each. And she has perfect aim."

"What do you mean aim?" He instantly became leery.

"She found a crossbow," One side of her lip upturned. "Didn't know what it was because let's face it, we're getting old and even weapons are becoming out of date. Dick and I showed her how to use it. She aimed it at one of the targets, first time it missed completely, she didn't expect the kick-back. The second time she hit on the outer range, third was a perfect bullseye. The first time she ever saw a crossbow."

"You know how to use a crossbow?" This woman would never cease to amaze him.

"Doesn't everyone?" A brow lifted in amusement, but she was serious soon after. "We may not have taught her much, but the girl is genetically predisposed to kick-ass."

"You don't sound concerned about this." His heart, on the other hand, was racing a million miles a minute.

"I am." Selina shrugged. "But she's going to do what she wants and we won't be able to stop her."

"We can talk to her." He swiftly replied.

"Talk to her all you want, Bruce." She gave a low chuckle. "But she's not going to listen to you deter her from what she wants."

"She got that from you." A sigh escaped him.

"You're right." Her sarcastic tone was not lost on him. "Because I'm the one that spent my family's fortune on expensive gadgets and dressed up in a batsuit." She saw that he was not amused. "Face it, honey, we are in no position to tell her no."

"Of course, we are," Answering as though it was so purely obvious, "she's our daughter."

"Exactly," A nod. "She's our daughter, she'll sneak out if we tell her no. We won't be able to say anything that will make her not do this."

"And you and I both know how hard it is to give up everything." His voice was sharp and it momentarily stunned her. If anything Bruce rarely got mad before coming here, or at least truly mad. Of course, they fought it was part of their normal routine. But something of importance such as their children, fighting wasn't an issue. There were literally a handful of times that a genuine argument persevered. "She knows that, and it should be enough."

"It won't." Selina looked at the man beside her, she knew she was being harsh, but that's the only thing that he reacted to. Bruce needed to hear the reality of things because either it jerked him into action or he was going to find out anyway. "Teach her, Bruce. Don't fight it too much. This doesn't have to consume her like it did us, she has other people to take after, other role models who didn't let it take the guise take over. They work in teams, we never did, it's why they can have both. Not to mention I rather her patrol with someone than go out on her own."

"She's been sneaking out." Bruce said quietly. "I saw her on the monitor."

"Then you should tell her to watch the cameras." She retorted.

"I can't believe you're encouraging this." He sighed. "After everything we said..."

"We didn't expect the Joker come and put three bullets in me." This made him wince at the mention of the past year. They were meant to be safe, to be completely protected from harm. He turned away, but she caught him and forced him to look at her. "Bruce, we can only protect them so much. After everything is said and done, they're older, we're older, and we can't prevent them from living a life that they want to live. We sheltered them too much and you gave them altruistic sense of duty."

"I wasn't the only parent making them go to clinics." After all these years, she still had those moments of self-doubt; it was her Achilles heel that he would keep repairing every time it broke down.

"I didn't say you were." She pointed out. "We both gave them drive, but it's either going to be you or me who's going to shape that drive."

"Why can't it be both?"

"I thought you didn't like my... methods?" Surprised by this answer, she waited for the response.

"I never said that." Bruce shrugged. "I said I didn't like guns."

"So crossbows are alright?"

"Selina..." He sighed. "We should be discouraging her."

"She's going to do it either way, Bruce." They may not shout and holler, but they did have their stubbornness to keep their relationship interesting. "And then Damian going to probably join as well."

"I thought I told John I didn't want her out there?" Trying to ignore the drop in his stomach, Bruce sat back, looking at Selina.

"But you told him that it wouldn't hurt to give her some self defense training." Selina told him. "Plus Barbara isn't one to sit back and watch her husband have all the fun. Not to mention Dick and Kate..."

"Why would Damian want to join?" All that he got from her was a look and he relented. "If it comes up I'll talk to him."

"We need to talk." Whether it was her tone or the topic that was at hand, Bruce began to push his emotions away in an attempt to think clearly. However, being away from that type of mentality for the years he had been, it proved impossible. The worst case scenarios trickled in his mind and he wished that he had been at the various doctor's appointments that Selina insisted on him not attending, she even blocked him from a few of the records that the doctors kept on her. "It's not about the kids."

"Are you..."

"I'm physically fine." She assured him, "But I'm remembering some things."

"What?" His brow narrowed.

"I know the women that were killed." Selina breathed out. "Not Harley, she must be new, but all those women..."

"Were in the False Faces gang." Bruce saw the sharpness in her eyes and chose to explain without being prompted. "When you said the name, I did a search on all the women and found aliases of them."

"Yeah." She scoffed. "They all changed their last names in the group and sometimes switch their names around. But we all had code names."

"The Cat." He smirked. "It suits you."

"God, I was hoping this was all buried and done with." An idea came to her. "Bruce? Were all those women attacked by the Joker?"

"Yes." His head nodded.

"And they all died by way that they killed their victims?" She swallowed. "Including me?"

"Except you didn't die." Bruce said quickly.

"But I was supposed to." Why did she have to be so insistent on the morbid thought. "So the Joker killed those women, all part of the False Faces gang, in the ways that in the False Faces gang they killed people."

"I don't..." The realization dawned on him and his jaw hardened. "Selina..."

"The Joker doesn't who you are, Bruce." She replied. "He was after me."


"So you're saying that the Joker was after Selina because he's hitting up all the old members of the False Faces?" Dick nodded. "Well that makes more sense."

"How?" Helena looked at him, as did Damian who was standing quietly by his sister.

"If the Joker knew who he was, he would know who all of us were." Dick informed her. "But I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he finds out."

"Now we have to know who else knows you're alive." John told Selina. "Because if the Joker knows, it's not a secret."

"He's a hired killer." Kate shrugged. "He might not care."

"He's a hired killer that didn't finish the job." Selina pointed out from her seat at one of the only chairs in the bunker. "He cares."

"But now that you're Selina Wayne from Quebec, how much does he have to go on?" Barbara asked. "He won't have enough evidence that you're Selina Kyle from the False Faces that he was supposed to kill. Even in Europe you weren't known as that. You were completely clean."

"You can't erase hardcopy." John said quietly. "I got all her files out from the police station, photos, everything, burned, but to say that Detroit or any other place kept only computer files on you, would be a lie."

"But there was a movement ten years ago to switch to all e-files around the world." Bruce crossed his arms. "Any file that they would have put on their database would have been immediately erased by the clean slate. The program was to even bypass all the government files."

"They can get new technology though." Barbara's shoulders moved. "But I already checked what they had on both of you, nothing would lead anyone to believe that Selina Kyle didn't disappear from the face of the earth."

"So how did he figure it out?" Bruce's voice came out a little more harsher than normal and he noticed the slight apprehension in both children's faces.

"False Faces." Selina admitted. "They never kept anything digital."

"He has to be working for them." Bruce nodded.

"But they disbanded." Kate inputted. "Before occupation, even. Why would they come up now?"

"Who would care enough to take out these women?" Dick glanced towards Selina. "No offence."

"Black Mask." Selina putting Dick's comment to the side for now. She wanted to solve this now. "We worked for him."

"What kind of files did they keep?" Bruce questioned, silently praying that she would be able to remember this fact.

"It was pointless to keep profiles, but that's why they were on the drive." Selina attempted to go back through the recesses of her mind that she had not accessed in a while. "But I think they kept some logs about some Falser's activities..."

"Falsers?" Kate asked.

"The members of the False Faces." Selina answered. "Most of didn't even know the other person, you only knew someone if you worked closely or were somehow friends."

"Why?" Helena spoke up.

"They wore masks." Bruce watched his daughter carefully, noticing a slight change in her stance and her eyes narrowed at her mother. She may be trying to stay passive but her uncertainty gave her away, he knew immediately that he wasn't the only one carefully observing the girl, as he caught eyes with Selina for a second. "Even in their profiles."

"So is there anyone that would leak out that information?" John wanted to know.

"Well," Tipping her head, Selina continued, "I knew them, but they didn't know me. One of the girls that is already dead, knew who I was, Holly. She was a Falser, but she's not a rat."

"You said you knew Gwen." Barbara tried.

"She was the liaison between Black Mask and Holly and I." There was more to it, Selina knew but it was going to take time, for those memories to come back. At least that's what the hopeful doctors told her. She on the other hand was never one to hope for something that was lost. Instead, Selina was the type of woman that stole whatever was taken from her. "But she did have some files."

"I can check her out tonight." Dick nodded. "We got her address the moment the Joker named her."

"She won't talk to you." Selina informed."She's never had a... good rapport with men, especially masked ones."

"I'll go." Kate shrugged. "Maybe she'll like a girl in a mask."

"I would say, she much prefers that." A slow, suggestive smile came onto Selina's lips.

"She cute?"

"Weirdest set up ever." Dick shook his head.

"So let me get this straight..." Damian started.

"Oh honey there's nothing straight about this conversation." Kate winked.

"Right." Damian tried again, "Am I to understand that you, my mother, was in a gang that wore masks and none of you knew what the other looked like? And was headed by a man, who in turn, wore his own mask?"

"You are." Selina nodded, beginning to feel tired, but dared not show it.

"Did any of you know what he looked like?" It was a very valid question. However, neither Bruce nor Selina wanted their son exposed to that side of life as of yet. Selina especially. It wasn't a great thing to admit that you rose in the ranks of a gang that was led by a misogynist, rapist, pig, only because you kept your mouth shut and did as you were told.

"Not many of us." She answered. "And those who did, didn't talk about it."

"Why?"

"He was... disfigured." It was true, the girls that did rub the man the wrong way and had the guts to talk about it, told the stories. "But the moment that one of us would talk about it they were killed."

"Is there anyone that would know what he looked like behind his mask?" Barbara asked.

"Honestly?" She shrugged, "I wouldn't know. I try not to think of who would actually."

"Did he go by another aliases that you know about?" John picked up the conversation again.

"No." She swallowed, and Bruce had noticed the change in the woman as she kept recounting the past. Although this didn't compare to years ago, it was still very obviously taking a toll on her. He wasn't sure if it was due to the fleeting memories part or the fact that their children now knew some of what their mother had to do to stay alive. And now, he was able to put the past behind, but as he watched Helena observe her mother in a newer light, Bruce was unsure of the consequences.

"All of the Falsers were women?" Dick asked.

"To my knowledge." Selina carefully stood up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment in the morning and a barbecue at night that I need to catch up on some beauty sleep for."

"If Gwen gives you any files, don't upload them." Bruce told the group, before catching up with Selina and throwing his son a look to follow them. Damian sighed and followed his parents. Helena stayed back and watched them leave. Chills began to run up and down her spine. Not only was the Joker just after her mother, but Selina Kyle was apparently one of the people that she had always been leery about. Helena stayed put, and was surprised that Bruce did not bother to even attempt to bring her up to the ground floor.

"What is this Gwen going to know?" Kate shook the group out of silence. "It's been years since any of this has happened."

"If Selina says that she was the liaison between Black Mask and them, then she'll know enough to get us on the right track." Barbara nodded.

"And that's just Selina and Holly." Dick agreed. "Selina might not remember if there were more girls that Gwen was looking out for. She may have their files too."

"Why would she keep the files?" Helena wanted to know. "Wouldn't they want all evidence gone?"

"You would think." Kate shrugged. "But that doesn't mean that the evidence needs to disappear. With that amount of evidence, I'm sure you would be able to blackmail a ton of people."

"Then why isn't she?" As her eyes narrowed, John saw that Helena had the same intimidating factor that her father had.

"Pay off." Dick tried. "Maybe she's trying to keep her head down in light of the recent attacks."

"But she seems powerful enough to be one of the first people gone." John pointed out.

"Intimidation." Barbara began to pull up the night's activities. "You guys go suit up and I'll feed you the rest of the info."

"I'm uploading the directions onto the pods." John was on another computer typing out his duty, as Kate and John went below without another word and hurried in their motions.

"Do you think she'll really have information?" Barbara asked quietly.

"I've learned," John began, "that sometimes the people you least except have all the information that you need."

"Like when we found the rolodex in Harley's body?" The moment had disgusted her beyond belief, what was worse was trying to get past the blood to see the names and numbers written there.

"Like that." He agreed. "Helena, can you bring up the status of Gwen's current profession?"

No answer.

"Helena?" John turned to see that the area previously occupied by the girl was now empty and he looked for to Barbara.

"Oh," Damian appeared and glanced around the bunker, also looking for his sister and having heard what had just happened, "father is so going to kill her."


"Selina." Bruce lay besides her, staring up at the ceiling as she curled around herself, on her side. He knew that today had not been at her in her best of light. She was worried about Helena and Damian. And while Damian seemed to be much more understanding of his mother's past, Helena was hesitant. So when Selina did not answer his call, he turned and put his hand on her shoulders, noticing that they were tight and heavy with emotion. "Selina?"

"Don't." She wasn't crying but he guessed she would be very soon.

Instead of listening to her completely, Bruce slid his hand further down and gently shifted himself so that her back was to his chest. That's when her breathing hitched, and where in the past she would have chosen to act out in anger, the years had somewhat changed her in these moments. In the past, she would have lashed out and fled the bed, not only did her physical state prevent her from the quick movements but she had also learned to be comforted by another human being. This was not a one sided affair of course, but Bruce appropriated the movements that he had seen others do during times of utter loss and she had done the same, with more of her frankness with him. They were chipped people, not broken. And contrary to the chips becoming larger, they were covered, taken care of.

"God," Selina scoffed, "she hates me."

"She doesn't hate you." He said quietly.

"Did you see the look on her face?" Choosing to lay still as the man behind her adjusted the blankets. "It's like she's terrified of becoming me."

"She doesn't understand." Then admitted, "yet."

"Well at least we know you raised her well." Selina slightly scornful tone was not lost on him.

"I think we both had a hand in parenting." He gently squeezed her. "Helena, doesn't hate you, Selina, she's trying to understand what we've been teaching them their whole lives."

"You taught them about black and white, Bruce." She reminded him. "And she sucked it right up."

"They never had to live in grey." Helena didn't understand, and quite frankly, it had taken Bruce a while to understand the difference about knowing that there should be times to be selfless and selfish. In being with Selina he began to understand was that there were times that in order to be selfless you had to be selfish. "Now they don't have a choice."

"No one does." Selina sighed and finally turned to face him in the dark. "Do you think we protected them too much?"

"You're asking me that?" His eyes bulged.

"Bruce."

"I..." He thought for a moment. "We exposed them to trauma, and they knew what true empathy is and how to console others both emotionally and physically. Almost losing you was the worst thing to happen to them. I have no regrets about how we raised them. We did everything in our power to not only protect them, but love them. We gave them something that neither of us had growing up."

"You had Alfred." She told him quietly.

"I meant a mother." Bruce's hand shifted to her face. "You are an extraordinary mother and Helena is smart, she'll understand what you went through."

There was a moment of silence before Selina went to speak, "Wayne, you still got it."

"It helps when you're just speaking the truth." He smirked.

"Oh lord," Her eyes rolled. "You are laying on the sympathy pretty hard tonight."

"Well," The smirk grew, "would you like to know..."

"Mother! Father!" A rapping at the door caused the moment to shatter.

"Is there such a thing as sound proof doors?" Selina gave a disgruntled sigh.

"Come in Damian!" Bruce called, as he turned on the light and sat up. Then he saw that the boy looked quite dismayed and rose to meet him halfway, even Selina managed to to sit up in the bed. "What's wrong?"

"I was down in the bunker with Mrs. Blake," Damian gasped out. "And she was teaching me about the feeds..."

"You were down in the bunker?" Bruce shook his head in disbelief. "Damian what did we..."

"You can lecture later!" He waved the look of shock and anger from his father's face away. "Something happened."

"What?" Selina asked, starting to get up from her position.

"I thought about waking Alfred instead of you guys because I know mother needs to sleep." His voice was so hurried it was almost hard to keep track of what he was saying.

"Damian," Bruce put his hands on the boy's shoulders, "what happened?"

"It's Helena."


Yey! I updated two weeks in a row! Again, please excuse the horrible mistakes, I'm sure they were plentiful. However, I do have an excellent excuse for them and for not updating my other story, so I promise the wait and the stumbles are not in vain!

Welcome newcommers to the story! I hope you guys are enjoying! I'm really glad that you guys liked the last chapter, I thought it would be fun to have Alfred just be there to basically say, "it's your turn now" and I hope that these moments in this chapter are bringing to light some of the more difficult aspects between Selina and her children and being raised in such a loving, mostly sheltered environment. As for Bruce's worst fears coming true... I guess you'll have to find out next chapter.

-EV