"Oh no, no, no, no, no…" Jade continuously repeated as she paced around the bathroom of the abandoned apartment in D.C. which she and her husband hid out in.

The reason for her sudden anxiety and panic?

A stupid pink stick teetering on the edge of the sink.

"Ok calm down Jade, it could be worse" she said to herself "it could be a lot worse" she whispered.

She knew she was right about that, the idea of children had crossed her mind many times throughout her life but never as anything more than a maybe someday kind of thought. Well now there was no maybe about it and 'someday' was going to be here sooner than she wanted. But things could still be worse; Jade had always assumed that if she ever found herself in this situation she would be about seventeen and on her own. Never in a million years did she truly believe that she would be twenty-three and married.

But another thing she knew is that Roy isn't ready.

His obsession with finding Speedy was beginning to get worse; it had become all consuming. In the past week he had only been home about twice, she would've been with him but she fainted on two searches, one of which involved a run in with some thugs, thankfully ones whom Jade didn't know. Roy's obsession was fine for her; she could deal with him and help him, but a kid? No way, now how. Even as a toddler playing with a baby doll, Jade had promised that she would never be like her parents, and she wouldn't. She wasn't going to let her child grow up with Roy for a father the way he is now; she was going to fix things.

"Ok, how much time do I have?" Jade asked herself and began running some calculations in her head.

She figured that given her natural build she wouldn't start showing until she was about three months along, three and a half if she was lucky. Four she could probably hide it but by four and a half to five Roy and anybody else she saw regularly, which was very few people, would have to be blind not to notice. She also figured that, given the close monitoring she had on her period, there was no possible way she was more than eight weeks along right now, and even that was stretching it. Still that only gave her a month at the least and three months at the absolute most to do what she and Roy had spent the past three and a half years trying to do, find Speedy.

Jade decided that the first thing she needed to do was see a doctor, she believed the test she had bought from the drug store but still, she couldn't be too safe. She ended up just going to a walk in clinic, she didn't have a doctor that she visited every six months or so like you're supposed to and although there was a place within the criminal underworld for this sort of thing there was no way in hell she was going there. So once she had it confirmed, that she was indeed pregnant, she returned to the apartment where she found Roy lying on the couch.

He was asleep, snoring loudly with a half drunken bottle of beer resting on the coffee table.

Another dead end Jade thought and she looked around the apartment. It was dark, damp, cold, and littered with trash such as empty pizza boxes and beer cans. Her chances of finding Speedy before she would be forced to tell Roy about the baby were already slim, never mind the apartment. The apartment doesn't matter, I could fix that in three days if I wanted to she mused to herself. She knew that the apartment wasn't the issue; it was what it was a reflection of that was. It was the hideout of a stray hero and a former assassin, yes former. It had been nearly three years since Jade pulled a serious crime job and she considered herself to be out of the life.

Walking silently into the bedroom she grabbed her backpack from its position next to the bed and began rifling through it, making sure she had everything. Once she had confirmed that all its contents were present she pulled out her mask and looked at it, for the first time she noticed how truly deadly it looked. Shaking her head she put the mask into the bag and slung it over her shoulder, before she left she stood over her sleeping husband and took one last look at him.

"If you find Speedy without me, I'll kill you" she said and with that she was out the window.

Two and a half months later and Cheshire found herself leaping across the rooftops of Gotham City, and wondering how much longer she would be able to keep this up. So far she had pulled about six robbery and assassin jobs since she left Roy, and each time she got a little closer to finding Speedy. At this rate she was going to have to bring Roy along with her if she ever got a solid lead, and if that happened then she was waiting until after the baby arrived.

Upon reaching her destination Cheshire pulled herself out of her thoughts and forced herself to focus. She took a deep breath before entering through the window of the vacant apartment she was meeting her employer in.

"Breathing to hard," she cursed under her breath as she leveled her breathing before she entered the top floor apartment and dumped her backpack on the floor.

"Not bad little girl" a familiar gravely voice commented as its owner emerged from the shadows.

"You!" Jade shouted in alarm as she wiped off her mask and pointed a sai directly at her employer's face, she knew she shouldn't have taken Ra's al Ghul's tip that he had a friend who needed a job done and would give her information in return.

"You made pretty good time, not your best, but pretty decent considering you were working with a partner," Sportsmaster taunted and Cheshire couldn't help it when her eyes widened, he knows.

"Ra's must have given you the wrong information, I work alone, just like always." She said calmly while internally fighting the natural reaction to glance down at herself and make sure she had hidden her small bump as well as she initially thought.

Sportsmaster laughed at her comment "Ra's doesn't know. You can fool most people for now Cheshire, but sooner or later that thing inside of you is going to become noticeable." He warned and for a moment the fear Jade felt subsided, and was replaced by hate.

She could never understand how after all these years his heartlessness still surprises her, but it does. Despite their terrible relationship he is still her father, she is still his daughter, and yet here he is referring to her baby, his grandchild, as "that thing".

"And I'm willing to bet it's going to be sooner" he taunted, by this point he was standing directly behind her and despite his mask she could feel his breath in her ear.

"So what? Did you give me this job just to torture me?" She hissed, glaring over her shoulder at him.

"Easy little girl, you'll still get the information" he said, "I hired you because it was the only way to be sure you'd come"

"What after three years of not seeing me around the prison circuit you wanted to make sure I was still alive?" She questioned and when he put a hand on her shoulder she shook it off violently and spun around to face him "didn't know you cared that much" she taunted.

Sportsmaster responded by taking off his mask, revealing the strange mix of amusement, his usual stone face, and, to Jade's astonishment, slight concern.

"I care enough to warn you" he began "I know you think you can handle this Jade, what you're doing, and maybe you can. But no matter what you tell yourself the fact is that your kid can't" he deadpanned. "Your mother and I were the same way with you, we found out she was pregnant and I let her talk me into keeping her on until she said she had enough, you've heard the story of that day haven't you?" He asked and with a sudden gulp of fear Jade finally dropped her defense and nodded. She had heard the story of her birth, how her mother, just a little over seven months pregnant, was acting as a lookout for her dad and Professor Ojo. The battle wasn't that bad but between a few close gunshots, a lot of unnecessary stress, and some rotten luck, Jade came early and she came fast.

"If you're anything like your mother, and if that kid is anything like you, then keep this up and you'll find yourself in a very compromising position" he warned, pointing an accusing finger her way.

"I don't suppose you're going to help me?" Jade questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Where you end up is your problem little girl, just be careful" he said again as he pulled his mask down over his face. "Oh and as for the information you wanted, The Light was being all hush-hush about some cargo they had moved to what's supposed to be a monastery in Tibet a couple years back. I don't know what it is but with the amount of security they had during the move it might be worth checking out" he tipped.

"Aren't you a member of the light?" Jade asked him skeptically, she wouldn't put it above her father to send his pregnant daughter into a trap just to prove a point.

"So is al Ghul but he sent you to me. We don't know what their hiding and we don't like it," he said as he opened the window, neglecting to pick up the worthless vase he'd had his daughter steal.

"So you want me to do your dirty work" Jade mused

"It's your choice Cheshire" Sportsmaster said as he tossed her her mask. "Choose wisely".