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Blake: *.* Look at all the pretty reviews
Queenrider: ::grin::
Barbara's breath seemed to catch in her throat and she forgot to breath for a moment.
It was Bruce.
Bruce Wayne.
Barbara blinked several times to make sure she knew that she wasn't dreaming her breath came back to her but the sense of surprise didn't go awayl. "Bruce?" She asked tentatively; hesitantly.
"Hi Barbara." He replied his voice soft.
It was true! It was him! He was here! He was back! Barbara moved the wheelchair back a bit to give him room to enter. "Come in." Her voice shook with emotions she couldn't classify.
"Thank you." He managed a smile even though everything felt so awkward.
"Would you like something to drink? I just made coffee; but I have water, coke, tea..." Her voice trailed off. She was still too much in shock to function properly.
"Coffee would be fine."
"Sure. Sure. I'll go get it. Just sit down okay?" She said the last words in a way that made him sure that he would not be able to leave the apartment until she was finished questioning him.
Barbara disappeared into the kitchen and reappeared a moment later a tray with two mugs of coffee balanced carefully on her lap. It was then she got her first real look at Bruce. His black hair was still thick and wavy but was streaked with gray. His relatively young face was lined heavily. The lines and gray in his hair Barbara suspected had more to do with sorrow and loss than true aging.
He had kept himself fit; his body still lithe and muscular. He wore a slate gray Armani suit with a cream shirt and navy tie. A pair of brown boots that looked as if they had just been polished were on his feet. "Here you go." She offered him one of the mugs. "Two sugars and extra cream right?" She was somewhat gratified to notice he looked fully at her not avoiding the wheelchair she was encased in.
"Right." The smile he had on his face seemed to be more like a grimace. He took the proffered mug and sipped it.
Barbara sipped her own and regarded him for several moments not sure where to start.
"I'm sorry." Bruce initiated the conversation before she could even finish thinking about what to say.
"Sorry for what?" She asked him.
"Sorry, because I didn't kill him that first time. And that if I had done so you would be walking and Selena would be alive now." The pain in his eyes was fresh as he relived the memories. Time hadn't dulled them the slightest bit.
"It wasn't your fault."
"Yes, it was! I could have done something. I _should_ have done something." He sighed heavily and closed his eyes.
How like Helena he was. Barbara thought. Or rather how like she was like him. Both had that protective instinct that took anything someone did wrong to someone they loved personally. Both she knew would hunt down that person and make him pay for wronging.
She had seen both of them do such.
"No, it wasn't your fault Bruce. None of it was."
Bruce shook his head sharply in an almost painful looking jerk. "How could you ever forgive me? First, because of what I didn't do; and you lose the use of your legs and then months later I run away from Gotham... New Gotham. And Selena dies because of me."
"There's nothing to forgive because I've already forgiven you." She said softly.
"Have you?" He looked at her beseechingly. He had changed so much since she had last seen him. He was rawer, pained. Hurt. Where had the flint hard, crime fighter who hid his emotions as easily as he did his face behind the mask he wore? The mask he had worn both literally and figuratively was gone. And what was behind that mask Barbara wasn't even sure that she liked what she saw now. She had been so used to the Bruce she knew seven years ago that seeing him now as he was, was a slap in the face.
**People change.** She thought sadly. She lowered her gaze to the mug of coffee she clasped in her hands and absentmindedly tapped her index finger against the side of the mug.
Barbara took her finger tapping hand away from the mug and grabbed one of his hands with her own and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Yes," She said in a definite tone of voice.
Some of the lines on Bruce's face lifted slightly.
"So where you been since you left?" She asked as gently as she knew how to.
"All over, New York, Tokyo, Berlin,hong Kong, London. Trying to expand Wayne Enterprises; I threw myself into my company after what happened and just quit being Batman."
"I know I heard...you're what the eight richest man in the world now?" Barbara's voice was light trying to lift the heavy mood that permeated the air around them.
"Seventh." Bruce's mouth quirked slightly in what was almost a true smile.
"So what made you decide to come back?" Barbara asked.
She never got her answer. "Barbara I'm home!" Helena's voice rang through the apartment accompanied by the sound of the window being lifted and opened. A split second later she was there standing behind them.
"Who are you?" Both she and Bruce demanded at the same time.
**God, what to say?** Barbara thought. Her mind flashed through the possibilities. She shoved them away and sighed. She might as well tell both of them the truth. She _should_ tell them nothing _but_ the truth. "Helena...this is your father." She never got to finish what she was going to say.
"What!" Helena took a step backward in shock. She turned her ice blue eyes on Bruce and studied him for a moment. His face was pale and he was looking at her puzzedly.
"So you're Batman. So you're my father." She said so lowly it was almost a hiss. The words contained more anger than Barbara had ever heard from her. Abruptly Helena turned around and with one fluid movement was gone from using how she had entered;the window.