Their first night on patrol on the mountain proved to be very productive. They apprehended seven different groups trying to escape the quarantine. There were all sorts of groups attempting to flee: small families, bands of friends, single individuals, gangs of criminals, etc.. If anyone was able to get past their dragnet, they must have been very good indeed.

As the sun began to rise the runners ceased as they no longer had the cover of night to shroud them, they would be easily picked up by regular UN patrols as they came down the opposite side of the mountain during daylight. Nightwing and Batgirl returned to their cave to rest. Babs volunteered to cover the first watch while Dick got some sleep. It had been a grueling first night and after lowering his weary body onto a lumpy cot in their hideout he was soon asleep.

Barbara recalled the first time she ever saw Dick Grayson sleep … ten years earlier.

It was a typical evening in Gotham: sirens echoed throughout the urban canyon that they called home. The Gordon residence was an apartment in one of the many older buildings just west of the downtown district. The building itself had once been a tenement during distant decades of mass immigration from Europe just prior to World War Two. That time had long since passed and the building had since been remodeled and it now had more upscale residents

Jim Gordon was divorced. His wife, Barbara, ditched him when Babs was about nine years old, after she caught him red handed in an affair with the very shapely detective Sarah Essen. There had been a half hearted attempt at reconciliation, but even their marriage counselor knew that the situation was hopeless. Within three months the divorce papers were finalized and Gordon's ex simply vanished without a trace, leaving him to care for their daughter by himself.

The divorce deeply affected Babs, and her father did as most dads did after a messy divorce: he overcompensated. Babs had shown some potential in gymnastics as a child so Jim Gordon spared no expense in paying for the best gyms and instructors for her, especially the quirky Romanian who had trained Olympic medalists in the past.

It was during this time that Gordon was appointed commissioner. The man was dedicated to his job, even more than before. For all practical purposes he was married to his job, which of course meant that he was rarely at home. This situation came in handy for Babs, as she could come and go as she pleased, and that now included wearing the cowl and a black costume with a yellow Batclan logo on it.

Babs and Robin had been out on patrol that evening. Her father was out of town for a conference and had asked detective Renee Montoya to check in on his daughter. Babs had timed their patrol so that she would be back at home when Montoya came by to check on her. Swinging by their grappling hooks they quietly landed on the fire escape outside her room.

"Wait here, I'll let you know when she's gone."

Robin grinned and remained on the fire escape while Babs entered her room through the window and changed into her pajamas. He watched her disrobe, though he only saw her silhouetted form through the drapes. When she was done she turned to face the window and after drawing it aside she playfully stuck her tongue out at him.

"You're a tease, Babs."

"And you're a peeping Tom."

"Hey, I couldn't see anything." He grinned.

It was then that the doorbell rang.

He continued smiling as she headed for the door. It was the same game they always played. He didn't mind the games; it was worth waiting for the make out session that always followed Montoya's departure. He grinned lustfully in anticipation. Patience had its rewards. He listened carefully for Montoya to check in with Babs, and strike up some casual chit chat before she left, which rarely took longer than five minutes. After she left they would spend the next hour sucking face, and once the "all is well with the universe" feeling passed they would suit up and resume their night time patrol. That is until he heard an unexpected voice in the apartment.

"So … kid … you gotta punk hidden in here somewhere? Yer dad told me be on the lookout for any stray boyfriends."

Robin frowned. He'd recognized that voice anywhere.

"Knock it off Harvey; you know Barbara isn't that kind of girl." Montoya retorted.

Robin's grin intensified. Harvey Bullock was a much better detective than most people gave him credit. But he wasn't good enough to know that Babs' "punk" was none other than the boy wonder.

"Yeah, yeah, she's a little angel. I know we can't stop her from foolin' around, but it won't happen on my watch." Bullock grunted as she pushed his way into the apartment and began looking around, peeking into closets and looking under beds. Robin had already anticipated Bullock's move and had already swung away from the fire escape. A few minutes later Bullock completed his search.

"The place is clean." He announced in a gruff and disappointed voice. Babs was holding a text book in her hand.

"Of course it is. She's doing her homework Harv, now let's get out of here. We have some real police work to do."

Montoya led the way out, waving goodbye to Babs and was followed by Bullock, who with his index and middle fingers made the "I'm watching you" gesture by pointing at his eyes, then at her. He closed the door behind him and Babs quickly locked the deadbolt and sighed. In her rush to look "busy" she accidentally picked up one of Dick's Italian language textbooks. And she didn't know a word of Italian. Fortunately neither Harvey nor Renee noticed. She put the book down before heading back to her bedroom.

"What was Harvey Bullock doing here?" Robin asked as he bounded in through the window.

"Who cares? He's gone." Babs replied as she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a fiery kiss.

"I'm guessing your dad sent him … you know, to keep you scared and on your best behavior."

"There's a lot my dad doesn't know about me."

"Like the fact that you sneak boys into the house when he's gone?" Grayson smirked.

"You're the only boy I sneak in here."

"Lucky me." He replied between kisses.

She released him from her hug. "You have no idea of how lucky you are."

"I might be the boy blunder, but I'm not that clueless."

"Sure … so, have you ever seen a naked girl before? And I mean a live one, not a girl in a video or on the internet."

His mouth suddenly went dry. "Uh … no … not really."

She grinned. "Like I said, you have no idea of how lucky you are."

Babs pulled her pajama top off and cast it aside, exposing her magnificent bosom. Grayson ripped his mask off and stared with a stunned look on his face, which only intensified as she dropped her pajama bottoms.

"Now you can say that you've seen an honest to goodness naked girl."

He continued to stare; the only word that formed on his lips was "wow". Barbara, who seemed amused with the situation, replied. "Aren't you feeling a bit overdressed, Grayson?"

Robin hastily pulled his traffic light costume off, but said nothing.

"That's better … in case you haven't figured it out yet … you're getting laid tonight."

"I am … why?" He squeaked in shock.

Babs smirked at him.

"Do you want to screw or not?"

"Of … of course I do … Babs … is it … I mean … I don't have any protection."

"I'm a gymnast; I've been on the pill for years … it helps regulate my menses for competitions. It also means I don't have to worry about getting pregnant."

Barbara smiled as she recalled their first time. He didn't know it, but he was the only lover she ever had. Having been paralyzed all those years, unable to feel any sensation in that part of her body, it made it easy to be celibate, actually it pretty much made it mandatory. Now, it was a year later after her miraculous surgery, and things were different now … very different.

She also vividly remembered the last time she had sex with him. It was the night he dropped the bomb on her, that he was leaving Bruce and Gotham behind and was going to strike out on his own on the west coast, in a second tier city simply know as Jump. He then surprised her a second time when he asked her to come with him.

For reasons she still didn't understand, she declined his offer. Six months later, the Joker knocked on the door of the Gordon's apartment and shot her point blank in the abdomen and any second thoughts of following Dick to Jump City and becoming a Teen Titan evaporated. Fortunately, Bruce didn't give up on her and she became "Oracle".

She followed Grayson's achievements from afar as he formed his team of misfits and turned them into one of the finest crime fighting teams on the planet. She also knew that Starfire had a crush on him before he did … which wasn't surprising as he always was clueless … was he ever. Babs snickered … back in the day she had been dropping hints that she was ready to have sex with him for weeks and she finally had to tell him point blank.

Starfire … Babs knew early on that Dick would end up with her, her only surprise was how early they married and had a daughter. Losing him to circumstance was bad enough, but it always hurt her to see him with the Tamaranian. When she later found out that Starfire was royalty … why couldn't he have fallen for the gray witch instead?

Babs sighed as she down next to his sleeping form. She ran her fingers through his hear and whispered to herself. "You were mine before you were hers."

-( scene break )-

Two weeks later …

Kissing her husband after breakfast in the dining hall, Raven collected Mark and together they headed off to the tiny library, where they would spend the morning together until the lunch break rolled around. After lunch she would turn Mark over to Grace Park in the daycare center, which now took care of 4 toddlers for their parents.

The past two weeks had been a difficult time for the Logans; Garfield's work had been grueling. He was working fourteen hours a day, seven days a week. By the time he returned to their room every night he was utterly tense and exhausted. It didn't take Raven long to figure out that the other labbies were resorting to alcohol and casual sex to cope with their stress, and that included many of the married couples.

Curiously, no one had approached them to suggest that Garfield might need some sexual release for his own stress. It was more than obvious that given her currently advanced pregnant state that the Logans were not engaging in coital relations, but other than Barbara McCall's occasional pointless flirting with Gar, there had not been any serious attempts by any of the ladies to score with her husband. In the past Raven hated being considered the "creepy" Titan, but now she realized that perhaps her old scary reputation was actually a blessing in keeping the hussies at bay.

Nevertheless, she felt bad for her husband. Under normal circumstances a few months of celibacy wouldn't be an issue, it was a given that most married men would endure such a sexual drought while their wives recovered from the "miracle" of childbirth. But these weren't normal circumstances. Garfield never complained, not for a moment. As soon as he returned to their little suite, after a long grueling day in the lab, he always put on his best face and warmly greeted his wife, asking her how she felt. They would spend about an hour together, discussing the progress in his research, which invariably was null. And if the lack of progress wasn't bad enough, there was the never ending dealing with Alexa and McCall. Garfield learned that Alexa and Matt McCall would spend "quality" time together, and that Barbara didn't seem to have any problem with that. Even stranger, while McCall never made a pass at him, she often initiated what he felt were unprofessional topics of discussion, such as her favorite sexual techniques.

The Logans agreed to do their best to cope with the strange situation, and by cope they decided to simply ignore the unnerving behavior of his coworkers. Either they would find a cure for the plague and when that happened everyone would about on their merry ways, or if a cure was not found … it was best to not consider that option.

Raven arrived at the library, which was always open, and sat down at her desk. There was a small cardboard box waiting for her on her desktop, a special order someone had probably made on the computer. All such orders were automatically filled by Amazon and shipped directly to the library. Raven would check the book into the collection and send an email to the requestor, informing them that the book had arrived. It wasn't a challenging job, but she could order all the books she desired and there was always a steady flow of books arriving for her to read. She noticed that the box had her name on it, which struck her as odd since she hadn't ordered anything lately. She was about to open the box when little Mark gently rubbed her belly.

"Why is your tummy so big … are you fat?"

Raven smirked upon hearing his innocent remark. Only a toddler could get away with saying that to her.

"No Mark, I am not fat. What I am is called being pregnant."

He gave her a classic 'deer in the headlights' look.

"Do you know what a baby is?"

He nodded his understanding.

"Good … you see Mark, there is a baby growing inside of me."

His eyes grew wide upon hearing the revelation.

"Did you eat the baby?"

Raven did something she rarely did: she laughed.

"No, I did not eat the baby."

"Why is it in your tummy?"

"Because that is where babies live and grow until they are old and big enough to live outside of their mommies' bodies."

"How did it get inside your tummy?"

Raven suppressed a slight blush. "It's complicated … a mommy and a daddy share parts of their bodies, and when they come together, they make a brand new baby."

Mark's hand was still on Raven's midsection when Coraline suddenly kicked. The boy flinched in surprise.

"Did you feel the baby move?"

Awestruck, he nodded his head. "When will she come out?"

"Coraline is almost ready, she will come out soon."

"When she comes out … will she play with me?"

Raven smiled. "Not at first, she'll be too small to play with anyone. But she will grow and when she is older I am sure she will play with you."

"Are you sure, Aunt Raven?"

Raven had given up on getting Mark to not address her that way.

"Of course I am sure. She is your sister, after all."

"My sister?"

"Do you know what a sister is?"

He shook his head.

"You and Coraline have the same daddy. You are her brother and she is your sister."

He smiled. "Baby Coraline is my sister. And she'll play with me."

"That's right." Raven said as she opened the package from Amazon. Inside was a single hardcover book, with the title: "In Defense of Polyamory: Why Monogamy is not only unnatural, it's unhealthy."

Raven frowned at the title. She certainly had not ordered this book. Alexa had to be behind this. Raven took a second glance at the dust jacket and noticed the author's name: Dr. Barbara McCall.

"That explains a lot." She mumbled to herself, as she took Mark's hand and led him to the day care center, where he would spend the rest of the day, as she now had a date with a book. A very unexpected book.

As she headed back to the library her thoughts were interrupted by the shrill sound of a klaxon. She immediately recognized it, it meant that somewhere in the lab there had been an accidental breach and someone had been exposed to the virus.

This had never happened before.

-( scene break )-

The raven haired child bit into the cheeseburger and sighed contentedly while her aunt scrunched her nose at the disgusting Earth concoction. That anyone would prefer the stench of a burger over delicacies such as Glorg or Glurk scales was beyond Blackfire's comprehension.

"Was your cheeseburger prepared correctly, my dear niece?"

Nightstar nodded eagerly. Blackfire looked upon the child and all she could see were her human features. Her orange skin, glowing eyes and round eyebrows were all but invisible to Kommand'r. Blackfire waited patiently, with one of her signature fake smiles on her face. Within a moment Mar'i finished scarfing her third burger.

"Would you like another one?" She asked sweetly.

"No … thank you Aunt Blackfire … I think all of my stomachs are full."

The elder princess ran her fingers through the child's hair.

"Well, we wouldn't want to give you a stomach ache, now, would we?"

Blackfire walked away and stopped. Without turning around she addressed Mar'i.

"Where is your father?"

"He stayed behind on Earth."

"You mean he didn't come with you?"

The child dropped her head. "No, he didn't."

"Well, that is unfortunate … you do know that you will probably never see him again."

Nightstar became wide eyed. "That's not what mommy said."

Blackfire began to tsk tsk. "She only said that to protect you my dear … you see, the Green Lantern Corps is going to destroy the Earth and everything on it … it's such an unnecessary tragedy when you think about it."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean, my dear child is that your mother and Galfore are afraid of the Green Lanterns. They won't do anything to help the Earthlings."

"They won't? Why?"

"Oh … it's complicated … there are ancient treaties, rules, etc. Of course, when I was the Grand Ruler those things wouldn't have stopped me from saving the Earth … unfortunately I can never be Grand Ruler again." She said wistfully.

"You can't?"

Blackfire shook her head and smiled. "Your mother challenged me for the crown, remember? And I lost."

"I'll ask mommy to save daddy."

Blackfire heaved a burdened sigh. "My poor child … she doesn't want to save him. Have you not noticed all the noblemen who are courting your mother? She's already planning on replacing your father, I'm sorry to say."

"No! That's not true!"

"Then why isn't he here with you?"

The child was on the verge of tears. "I don't know." She stammered.

Blackfire placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "My dear Mar'i, only you can save your father."

-( scene break )-

OK, a short chapter, but I just got back from my vacation.

Thanks for all of your reviews. Since it's been a longer wait than usual for an update I'm going to skip the mailbag today. I promise to bring it back next chapter. Thanks!