GOTHAM CITY

JUNE 14TH 2011 11:42 EST

Betty waited patiently in the Gotham City Park, sitting diligently on a bench, hands folded nervously and feet kicking beneath the wooden seat. Her phone sat in her lap, and she checked it nearly every two minutes, hoping for some kind of alert from Alex.

Alex had ignored her for the better part of five days. Not answering her text messages or calls, he had simply had just decided to not speak to her. Betty, for her part, had been texting him nearly non-stop, hoping against hope for some kind of message that he was willing and ready to talk. Betty had been a nervous wreck the whole time, worried to death that this was the signal sign that this was to be the end of their relationship. Given Alex's lack of communication, it had seemed more and more likely as the days had passed.

But then last night, Alex had finally responded. He had said to meet here at the park at a quarter to noon, which was something of a neutral ground, Betty supposed. Neither of them held claim to the park. Betty had texted him that she would meet him here, but then he had gone silent again, saying nothing else about what Betty could expect from this meeting. Betty had no clue if her boyfriend was going to attempt to break-up with her, or if he was going to try and make up over their fight.

Betty bit her lip and watched the patrons of the park anxiously. Every whisp of dark blond hair caught her attention, and her head swung like on a swivel as she thought maybe her boyfriend (?) had finally arrived. But it was never him, just a random mom with her child or a loose ponytail beneath a bike helmet. Never Alex.

Betty shut her eyes and leaned her head back against the bench, a seed of dread planted in her stomach. It was cold, hard, made her feel vaguely like she was going to throw up. She couldn't shake the feeling. It was here to stay, here to make it's presence known. She knew exactly what she was dreading, the very thing she had been pleading with Alex for for days, a meeting. A chance to make up what she had done wrong, to give an explanation, no matter how half-baked or wrong that explanation was. She didn't want to lie to Alex, but was it worse than keeping it all close to her chest? Was it worse for Alex to know that he was intentionally being kept on the outside? Or should Betty come up with a lie, something that might sate him despite the deceit?

No, she won't lie to him. She couldn't. It might be easier in the short term, but it would be hurtful in the end. What of when the lies were exposed? Alex was a smart boy; he would know when he was being lied to.

"Betty?"

Betty's eyes snapped open in a flash, and she looked to see Alex standing warily at the edge of the bench. He seemed tired, purple under his eyes and his lips thinned out into a line, and Betty didn't doubt that he had been as restless as her since she ran off for the mission.

"Hey Alex," Betty greeted hesitantly, softly. Alex's lips twitched for a moment, the ghost of a smile covering his lips, before it disappeared to be replaced by that thin line. Betty swallowed thickly and patted the spot next to her on the bench. An open invitation to sit next to her, an invitation that the boy declined with a shake of his head.

"I, uh – I've been thinking," Alex said bluntly, not bothering with pleasantries. Betty grinned weakly and ran a hand through her hair, fingers carding through thin strands.

"Oh, uh, me too," Betty returned. "I just – I want to apologize. I know I said I would be there, and then—I really did have to go, but I'm sorry that I had to run out on you."

Alex took this in quietly, but the words seemed to have no impact on what it was that he was going to say. Betty didn't know if that was a good or bad sign. Alex cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck. He shook his head once, twice, three times and then he finally spoke.

"Thank you for, uh, apologizing," Alex said, then he furrowed his brow angrily. "But- but you're still not going to tell me why, are you?"

Betty bit her lip. No. She couldn't. Betty was not ready to bring Alex into this life, into this horrible, dangerous life that she chose. Maybe one day, yes. But not right now. He just wasn't ready to know yet.

"I can't," Betty whispered. Alex sighed and carded his fingers through his own hair before shaking it out and flipping it out of his face. "I'm so sorry, Alex, but it's just – I'm nor ready to tell you. Not yet."

Alex's face hardened, and Betty knew then what it was this meeting was for. Any anxiety about it vanished into certainty. Alex was here to break up with her, and there was nothing Betty could say to make him change his mind.

Betty in that one moment wished she had never become Honeybee. That she didn't have this tremendous secret that was tearing apart her and Alex, tearing apart her relationship. She should have ignored that call deep within her, the one that convinced her that putting on a suit and fighting crime was the best way to help people. She should have left it to Waspia and Batman and Robin to protect Gotham, she should never had stuck her nose into it. Because then she wouldn't be facing this now, having Honeybee tear apart this one good thing in her life, this one thing without strings or complications.

But now it did, all because of her alter-ago. An alter-ego she suddenly hated with blinding rage.

Tears pooled in Betty's eyes. "Please, Alex, don't do this."

Alex sighed and crossed his arms. "You-you've left me no choice, Betty."

Betty reached for him, but then recoiled back as Alex stepped away from her.

"I can't be with someone who refuses to tell me the truth," Alex stated plainly. And though it was futile to feel that way, Betty felt anger color her cheeks red and a warm flush push through her limbs.

"I want to tell you!" Betty insisted. "It's just – there are things you don't understand, things you can't know yet."

Alex scoffed. "A real girlfriend would know they could trust me. A real girlfriend wouldn't keep me in the dark like this."

Betty furrowed her brow and jumped to her feet, and if she perhaps had been a little younger, she might have even stamped her foot in aggravation.

"I trust you Alex," Betty said. "I care so much about you – but this-this is….this is something I just can't tell you. I can't tell anyone! Not you, not Babs, hell, I couldn't even tell Jason for the longest time."

Telling Jason had been a spur of the moment decision, and that was because in that moment it seemed the only thing that would keep Jason off the street. But Betty….Betty was not going to leverage her identity for Alex. Honeybee was not some toy she could take out of the box and show off, it was a dangerous secret to know. She couldn't just dangle it on a string every time she wanted someone to stay. And Alex couldn't – Alex couldn't know. Not yet. Maybe not ever, now.

"I'm not Babs or Jason, Betty!" Alex retorted. "I'm your boyfriend, for Pete's sake! Why can't you tell me?"

"Because I can't!" Betty growled. "Why can't you trust me when I say that you're just not – it's just not time for you to know?"

Alex and Betty stared at each in silence for a moment that seemed to draw on forever. Just the two of them, eyes locked, brown on brown as they tried to see who would be the first to draw back. The first to look away.

Alex blinked first, and he looked away from her.

"I think we should break-up."

And there it was, the very thing Betty had been dreading. But now that it was said, all Betty could feel was shocking nothingness. Just blankness as her heart and mind concluded what this meant. It was just…over. Just like that. All those months suddenly meant nothing, it was just over and done with just like that.

Betty sobered and crossed her arms. "Fine."

Alex looked up at her, a last ditch effort by him to will her to tell the truth, but then he looked away and it was really over for good. Their relationship was just….over.

Alex turned on his heel and walked away, not bothering with a goodbye. It was as he turned out of the park that Betty's first tear fell.

GOTHAM CITY

JUNE 14TH 2011 14:34 EST

Conner stood awkwardly at the edge of the room, the door to Betty's apartment open behind him as he took in the room before him.

Betty's living room was flooded with tissues, boxes and loose tissues scattered across the carpeted floor. Betty herself sat squarely on the floor, a box hugged to her chest as she cried softly, a crumbled tissue in her hand. M'gann sat next to her, an arm around her shoulder as she whispered something soothing into her ear. Zatanna and Artemis stood nearby, arms crossed as they had looks crossed between sympathy and anger, and the two whispering between themselves, most likely a plan to find and kill one Alex Martinez. Tula and Rocket sat on the couch, a bit more awkward than the other female members of the Team, but there regardless to offer support.

M'gann had called Conner just under an hour ago, claiming that this was a job for Betty's best friend, which was the description Conner fit the bill of. Conner had wanted to go initially when Betty sent out in the group chat that she and Alex had broken up, but Zatanna and Artemis had talked him out of it, saying what Betty needed was girl time. But M'gann had other plans, so here Conner stood nervously in the corner, a cupcake he bought in a flash of confusion and hope in his hand. He had thought maybe it would be helpful, but what did he know, really, about broken hearts? He had been in the same relationship pretty much his whole life.

Conner teetered closer, and M'gann looked up at him, smiling softly. Conner set the cupcake down on the coffee table in front of Betty, and Betty sniffled once, turning to glance at Conner. Conner had seen her when Jason was missing, seen her take down her mother's killer, seen her when she felt her world was falling apart at the seams. But this…. this was different. Betty seemed like she had seen a ghost and being scared to hell and back, stuck in place and unable to move forward. Trapped in her sorrow.

"Hey Betts," Conner greeted. Betty sniffled once as a reply and gently waved once, before dropping her hand back down in her lap.

M'gann stood and reached to place a kiss on his cheek before refraining, giving Betty a gentle look. Perhaps concerned such an open display of affection might just make Betty feel worse.

"I'll leave you two to it," M'gann said matter-of-factly. Artemis turned towards them; brow furrowed.

"But –"

"Conner is the best person to help Betty right now," M'gann cut through telepathically, seemingly keeping Betty out of the loop. "Let's leave them be for a little while."

M'gann shuffled the girls out of the room, giving Conner one last meaningful look, before disappearing out of the apartment door.

Conner shifted awkwardly on his feet, before he sat down, cross legged in front of her, brow raised.

"So…you and Alex really did break up?" Conner started. Betty nodded once, weakly, and then blew her nose into a tissue. She threw it quickly into the waste bin by her feet and reached for another one for the tears that were still flowing down her rose red cheeks.

"I – he's angry at me," Betty whispered. She wiped at her splotchy cheeks and leaned her head on her fist. "Because I said I can't tell him why I left that night."

Conner thought for a moment, and then pushed the cupcake closer to Betty on the table.

"Eat," Conner commanded. "You'll feel better."

Betty did as commanded, opening the clear packaging and then taking a small bite of the treat before putting it back down again. Conner bit his lip.

"Look, I don't – I don't know what you want to hear right now," Conner said. "But I can say that Alex is an idiot for breaking up wit you. You're like…..amazing."

And Conner meant it. Any boy would be lucky to call Betty theirs. Betty was kind and smart, funny and real. She would walk through hell for people she cared about, and quite literally would fight for them. Conner wondered how Alex could have let this one thing get in the way of remembering all the good qualities that Betty had. Betty was his best friend in the world, and he would be damned if he let her hurt over a guy who couldn't see all the good things she had to offer, and only focused on the negative parts of their relationship.

Betty smiled once, softly, before her expression twitched back down to where it was before.

"Thanks, Supe." Conner reached for Betty's hand, and he squeezed it tightly.

"I mean it," Conner assured. "You're smart and brave and kind. Not to mention able to kick my butt nine ways to Sunday. Alex will wake up and realize how wrong he was, I guarantee."

Betty laughed and wiped away a stray tear. "To be fair, you can kick my butt too."

Conner smiled and squeezed her hand again. "That's not the point here, Betty."

Betty's smile dropped again, and Conner felt his insides twist.

"What I mean is, one day Alex'll –"

"I don't want him back," Betty jutted in. Conner blinked and tilted his head to the side in confusion.

"You don't?" Conner asked. Betty nodded, her brow knitting together as she became lost in her own thoughts. She paused for a moment and then shook her head, looking up at Conner seriously.

"No – he doesn't – doesn't want to trust me," Betty said. Betty's lips jutted out into a pout, and she pulled at her fingers nervously, releasing Conner's hand. "I've told him over and over again that I'll tell him one day, when he's ready, but he – he just won't listen!" Betty huffed and pulled her legs against her chest, hugging them tight to her.

Conner sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck. "You could always –"

"Tell him?" Betty finished, before she shook her head. "No. I won't be guilt-tripped into telling him my deepest secret."

Conner hadn't thought of it like that, and that made anger at Alex prickle in his core. A piece of Conner could relate to Alex, after all for awhile a piece of Betty had been locked away from him and he had been unable to know the civilian half of his best friend. But….but to push someone to reveal a secret they weren't ready to tell yet? To guilt-trip them and then break up with them? It made Conner's anger boil for the first time in a while.

Betty sniffled once, bringing Conner back to reality. She rubbed at her face and looked up at the sky, and Conner reclaimed her hand in his. He squeezed it and smiled at her.

"Forgot about Alex, okay?" Conner said. "He doesn't deserve you. Not if he's going to let an awesome, badass girl like you slip through his fingers all over a petty fight."

The corner of Betty's lips twitched, and he could see she was fighting a smile. Conner looked down into her eyes and saw unsure chocolate orbs staring back at him. Something deep within Conner caused a bubble of nervousness to twist up to the surface, and Conner sighed. He reached and pulled her into a hug, one which Betty accepted with little argument.

Betty wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her splotchy and tear-infested face into his shoulder. Conner wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him, as if holding her close would fix her problem. Maybe it would, Conner supposed. Make her see even if Alex wasn't going to be around anymore, then at least Conner would be here. Through thick and thin, Conner would always be here for Betty, that was a promise Conner had made himself long ago.

Betty hiccupped and then began to cry in earnest again, and Conner pulled her even closer to him.

"It's okay, Betty," Conner soothed, moving to card one hand through her short dark hair. "Everything is going to be okay."

Betty buried her head deeper into his t-shirt, and Conner shut his eyes, leaning his head down on top of hers. Conner supposed realized then that maybe Betty didn't want to hear him speak to her, didn't want to her platitudes about how it was going to get better or how Alex was stupid. What she wanted was a friend to just be here, a friend to hold her close and remind her that she still had people she could rely on in the world.

Conner opened his eyes and put a soft, friendly kiss on the top of her head. "It's okay Betty. Just let it out."

GOTHAM CITY

NOVEMBER 14TH 2012 15:43 EST

Slowly but surely, Alex and Betty found their way back to the other. Not romantically – no, as long as Betty kept her secret close to her chest, she knew that bridge had been burned with regards to Alex. Her first relationship had been brief, very brief, and in many ways Betty was grateful for that. Alex was her first love, and it was allowed to remain untouched for those precious few months that she had been his. Her secrets had drove them apart, but the few months they were together would live in perpetuity in her heart.

At first, Alex had avoided Betty like the plague. At the beginning of the school year, he didn't eat lunch with her, Babs, and Dick. He no longer sent her text messages, no longer talked to her in the hallway, no longer looked her in the eye, not really. And Betty didn't blame him. Her secrets had done this to them, and though she knew she had to keep them, she could not blame Alex for being angry with her.

But somehow, miraculously, he found it within himself to return to her as a friend. It was small at first, the things he did. He no longer avoided her looks in the hallway, didn't turn away from her and returned her waves. Every now and then he started venturing to be the first to wave, the first to greet, the first to acknowledge the other.

It made Betty's heart giddy to see. It meant Alex didn't hate her, as she had feared. Betty really did care about Alex, wanted the best for him, and she had been afraid that her keeping her secret might drive Alex away from her forever. Because even if she could not be his girlfriend, she wanted to be his friend, first and foremost. And that was something very hard to do when you were hated by that person. Not impossible, but hard.

Then came the day, November 14th. Mid-semester the first half of Junior year.

Betty had been browsing the shelves of the Gotham Academy library, looking for a book to do her final report on for the semester. It was still a few weeks off before it was due, but with all the Honeybee duties she had, she knew she better get a start on it as quickly as possible. Get a head start so she wasn't rushing at the last minute.

If one thing her relationship with Alex had taught her, is was that the call could come at any time, and she had to prepared for it.

Betty smiled as she saw the perfect book – Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Old, a little simple, but a classic none the less. Perfect for a book report. Maybe if she finished early she could even pass it on to Jason to read, who was always itching for some new book to get his hands on.

Betty reached for the book and made her way over to the check-out desk, when she saw who the volunteer behind the service desk was. Alex.

He sat behind the desk, staring at something just below the counter that she couldn't see, biting a pen between his teeth. A girl just north of the desk kept sneaking glances at Alex, horribly concealing her apparent attraction to the young man.

Betty bit her lip and thought about maybe returning another day to retrieve the book, but she wouldn't have another chance to swinge by the library for at least a week, which was more than enough time for someone else to swipe the book off the shelf. Betty sighed and made her way towards the counter. She supposed a confrontation with Alex was unavoidable. It was bound to happen one of these days.

Betty arrived at the desk and cleared her throat to get his attention, and he looked up at her in surprise, dropping the pen from beneath his teeth.

"Betty." His voice was surprised, scared almost. Betty twirled her short ponytail nervously and smiled at him.

"Hey Alex," Betty said. "Been awhile."

Alex stared at her for a long moment, going through emotions so quickly that Betty couldn't name them before they were gone. Betty pulled at her bottom lip and fought the urge to turn and look away from him.

"I, uh, just need this book checked out," Betty eventually stammered out. Alex blinked and then looked down at the copy of the book in Betty's arm. He shook his head.

"Of course." He reached for the book, and she held it out for him to scan. He took it from her and she pulled her student ID card out of her skirt pocket. He then scanned her ID card in complete silence before handing back the book after the ding that the process was completed.

Betty gave him a soft 'thank you' and turned to leave, when suddenly words came tumbling out of his mouth.

"I'm so sorry," he mumbled. Betty blinked and turned back to face him, mouth in a small 'o' of shock.

"Excuse me?" Betty asked. Alex sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck.

"I wanted to say…sorry," Alex continued. "I – I was a total jerk. I shouldn't have tried to make you tell me your secret."

Betty stared, dumbfounded. Of all things, Betty didn't expect Alex to apologize. It had been months after all, and Alex had seemed so…angry. Even if he was waving at her or smiling at her, that was a whole other thing from apologizing.

"Oh, it's..it's okay," Betty assured. She tapped her foot once, nervously, before she gave him a soft smile. "I'm sorry too. I know it must have been frustrating, knowing I couldn't tell you. I-I just didn't want to lie to you."

Alex grinned. "I appreciate that. I-I wouldn't want to be lied to you."

Betty pulled at her skirt nervously and the two of them allowed silence to overtake them. Betty was unsure, exactly, what to say to her ex-boyfriend. She wanted to be his friend, but did he want to be hers? He had apologized, but then again, that was something different than wanting to be her friend.

"Do – do you think maybe we could be friends again?" Alex asked softly. Betty looked up, and then grinned at him. That was exactly what she wanted.

"I'd love to."

"Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty." - Ecclesiastes 12:13

Sorry for the delay - I've been in a real depressive mood lately, so it was like pulling teeth getting this finished. This is more of a housekeeping chapter - we'll get some more plot and action next chapter.

Review Replies:

MsRosePetal: Betty wishes she could have ignored it too, but alas, she couldn't! The mission always comes first in her life, which means unfortunately these things happen. And we didn't get the family's reaction this chapter, but we will get it soon! This is not the end for the Martinez clan. Thank you for leaving a review and have a blessed day!

Questions, comments, or concerns, let me know! Have a blessed day! Prayer requests always open!

-PrincessChess