One Year Later

Selina Carolyn Gordon watched her mother from her perch on the railing above her. The elder redhead was sitting at her computers working, preparing for the evening sweeps. She was trying to get her mother's attention by sitting on the railing, so she began to kick her legs. The last year hadn't been easy. It took a lot for Selina to adjust to her new self, and to her new family, but she was finally starting to feel as if she were fitting in.

Barbara heard the thudding of something against metal and looked up. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Selina sitting on the upper railing. Taking her glasses off she pointed them at the child as she ordered, "Selina Gordon get down from there this minute!"

The girl grinned. Her eyes shifted. "Ok!" She replied just before pushing herself off the railing she let herself drop, landing in a crouch on the floor below. Her grin turned into a smirk when she heard the small gasp come from her mother. When she snapped her head up to look at Barbara her eyes shifted back to normal.

"I didn't mean like that!" Barbara scolded as she swallowed her heart out of her throat. She was going to smack Helena for teaching Selina how to do that.

Selina laughed and then went over to the Delphi system, her cheeriness turning quickly into a sigh, then a pout. "Barbara, I'm bored."

"You'll be a whole new kind of bored if you pull something like that again." Barbara scolded while swatting her daughter's jean clad bottom. "How many times have I told you the living room and monitor room aren't gyms?"

"In the last three months?" Selina pushed with a playful smirk. "Ninety-seven counting this time."

Over the last year, not only had they discovered Selina's powers were almost exactly like Helena's, but she also appeared to have her mother's perfect memory. "Don't be a smart alec." Barbara warned, though inside she was enjoying the back and forth. Selina was clearly in a good place and had been for well over a month. In fact, it had been nearly two since her last major melt down.

"Granddad says Gordons are all smart alecs." She defended.

Barbara rolled her eyes as she snatched a CD from the air that Selina was using as a mini Frisbee. "Well he would now since you clearly inherited it from him."

"He says I get it from you." The girl replied as she picked up the toy Batgirl her mother kept at her computer.

Green eyes danced with merriment even as they narrowed a little. "You're going to get a sore bottom from me if you don't stop playing with that." She took another disk from the girl, who was trying to get the hole over the points of the Batgirl doll's head. At the pout she'd gotten as reply, Barbara reaching out and tickled Selina before pulling her onto her lap and cuddling her. She was still trying to find that perfect balance, or at least the best workable balance, of time so she could be with Selina and still do her work. "Tell ya what, if you keep yourself busy and out of trouble until dinner we'll go to the park and grab ice cream before the girls go out on sweeps. Deal?"

It had taken months for Selina to let Barbara hold her like this, and even now it was strange to her. The hugs, the kisses, the cuddles, the rules, the boundaries, the consequences, the rewards and privileges, all the normalities of childhood still unsettled her sometimes. Settling into her mother's arms, Selina rested her head against the woman's chest and closed her eyes. Barbara was strong, warm, and she smelled really good. After a few seconds of memorizing the moment she finally nodded. "Deal."

"Good." Barbara kissed her daughter's temple and then set her on her feet.

She'd gotten her mother's attention and even got a cuddle out of it, but Selina was still bored. Heading back up to the small kitchen in the tower she decided to see what Alfred was up too. There was a perfectly good, up-dated, and large kitchen in the penthouse but most of the time Alfred made dinner in the tower cause her mother, Helena, and Dinah were more likely to eat if the food was closer. "What ya doin', Alfred?"

The elderly Englishman smiled as he looked up from laying out ingredients. "I'm starting dinner, Miss. Selina."

The girl came over to the table and looked at all the stuff before asking, "What are we having?"

"Meatloaf." Alfred replied.

Selina liked meatloaf well enough but her nose still scrunched. Meatloaf meant brussel sprouts. She hated brussel sprouts. She insisted that they smelled like feet. She spotted the evil feet vegetables and wondered if she could toss them out a window when Alfred wasn't looking.

"Is there something I can get for you Miss. Selina?" Alfred asked as he moved the round green vegetables out of harms way.

"I'm bored." She explained. "Barbara's in Oracle mode, Dinah's still at work, and Helena's not here yet." Looking up at the warm faced old man she asked, "Can I help make dinner?"

"Why of course young miss." Alfred beamed. "You can help me prepare the meatloaf."

Selina watched as the butler measured out everything and placed them in small bowls, and then put the ground meat into a larger bowl. He then let her dump all the spices and stuff he'd put into the small bowls into the large one with the meat, after she'd washed her hands. He told her what each of things were and how much of it was in each bowl as she dumped. She felt an odd sense of something as she did what he was telling her, but she couldn't explain it.

"Very good Miss. Selina." Alfred praised. "Now mix it all together."

The girl looked around before looking up at him. "I need a spoon."

Alfred smiled and shook his head. "Use your hands."

She looked at him, at the mess in the bowl, and then back at him before blinking. "Say what?"

"You use your hands to mix meatloaf together." Alfred explained.

Selina looked shocked. "But it's raw meat, Alfred!"

Alfred laughed. "Which is why you wash your hands afterwards." He nodded towards the bowl and added, "Now go ahead, stick your hands in and mix it all up."

The red haired child looked at him, blinking. "Are you for real?" When Alfred nodded Selina dashed over to the railing and yelled. "MOM! Alfred's trying to make me stick my hands in raw meat!"

The tower suddenly became quiet. No tapping of keys, no little girls making noise, even the clock gears seemed to go on ticking in stealth mode. Barbara looked up from her screen, green eyes meeting green eyes as she looked into her child's face. Selina had never called her mom before; she'd never called her anything but Barbara. She watched the emotion play out in the girl's eyes as she realized what she'd said. They'd all agreed to let Selina come to this moment on her own, and Barbara waited to see if it had just been a fluke.

Selina stared down at her mother, her head swimming. She hadn't meant to say it, she hadn't planned on it, but there it was and it felt good. After several seconds, which felt like years to both of them, Selina spoke up. "Moooom! Raw meat!"

Barbara let out the breath she'd been holding as she smiled, tears welling in her eyes. "You did ask to help, baby. Don't worry it won't bite, it's already dead."

Selina scrunched her nose.

"Go on and finish helping." Barbara told her.

The girl sighed and went back to where she'd left Alfred. She washed her hands again and then stared into the bowl. Finally she stuck her hands in and mushed. "Eww, eww, gross, gross."

Barbara couldn't help but laugh as she heard Selina's protests. She also couldn't help adding in a, "Moooo!" of her own.

Selina groaned. "NOT FUNNY MOM!"

Mom. Such a simple word and yet it was the most wonderful sound Barbara Gordon had ever heard, it was right up there with the sound of her little girl saying I love you. In that moment every hardship of the past year and everything that came next was and would be worth it.

The End