Roy didn't know what he expected. Part of him expected both Jade and Lian to be gone when he returned home from the hospital but when he jumped through the window just past noon on that day after they found Speedy, Jade was in the kitchen making lunch.

"How'd it go?" She asked as her husband removed his mask and set down his bow.

"Alright, Ollie got there a few hours ago, finally convinced me to come home." He answered and continued to just stand there uncomfortably for another minute or two before finally taking a seat on one of the barstools at the counter.

"Where's Lian?" He asked; it was the only thing he could think to say.

"Taking a nap" Jade answered simply

"Don't we usually wait until two to put her down in the afternoon?" Roy questioned, Lian may have only been in his life for two weeks but he was making sure to put an effort into becoming the father Jade seemed so sure he could be, the father he wanted to be.

Jade smirked and shrugged as she put the sandwich supplies back in the fridge, no doubt reveling in the fact that Roy knew their daughter's sleep schedule. "Normally yes but remember how she started to fall asleep at the hospital last night?" She asked and Roy nodded, remembering how Jade accompanied him to the hospital but left not long after everything was settled so that she could bring Lian home. "Well that hour we were there for was all she slept. As soon as we left she woke up and she never went back to sleep, guess she missed you."

"Does that mean you haven't slept?" Roy questioned as his wife put a sandwich in front of him and then sat down beside him with her own lunch, completely ignoring the fact that she had just said his daughter had missed him.

"I'm used to it. Besides I hate sleeping during the day, it throws me off way too much" She answered and Roy couldn't argue with that. At one point during the past two weeks he had forced Jade to take a nap and when she woke up she was so out of it that she actually fainted. He had seen her asleep during the day only a handful of times in the years he had known her but from what he could remember every time she woke up she was more dazed than she was when she was drunk. Long story short, naps and Jade's biological clock just don't mix.

The two of them sat there in silence for what was almost an unbearable amount of time, and secretly each of them was silently praying that Lian would start crying in the next room just to put a stop to it. But when it became clear that their daughter wasn't going to delay this inevitable conversation Roy decided to speak up.

"You know when you left, I was so mad at myself for losing you." He began

"Roy you never-" Jade started to say but Roy cut her off.

"I know, I never actually lost you, I know that now. What I don't understand is why?" He asked, looking at Jade almost desperately. "Why did you come back? Why, why did you help me? It would've been so easy Jade, you could've run off and made a good life for yourself and our daughter. You could've met someone who would love both you and Lian-" he began asking but when he said that she could've found someone else, someone better, her eyes narrowed and she looked as though she were about to slam her cup onto the counter.

"When I was a kid my parents wedding picture was always hanging in the hallway" she began, the calmness of her voice not matching up with the scowl on her face. "They looked so happy in it and I thought that maybe there was a time when they actually were happy together. But there wasn't and I grew up being told that marriage is the biggest mistake you could ever make." She then turned her head and glared at him, "I don't know about you, but when I agreed to 'til death do us part' I meant it, because believe me I've seen what happens when you don't" she explained.

Jade didn't really know what she was expecting Roy to say to her, but she certainly wasn't expecting him to lean over and envelope her in a tight hug.

"I'm sorry," he murmured into the crook of her neck, tears beginning to spill from his eyes.

"It's ok" Jade whispered as she locked her arms around his neck "I know I haven't given you much of a choice in being around for Lian…" She trailed off. She knew that Roy had the potential to be a great father, and she didn't want Lian growing up the way she did, with a father who didn't care.

That was when Roy pulled away with a small grin "you've never given me much of a choice in anything" he remarked before, for the first time since she came back, he leaned in and kissed her.

Jade was slightly caught off guard by the kiss, but she returned it nothing less. She had missed kissing him, had missed the rush that came with his lips crashing into hers. He pulled away almost to soon and Jade knew that whatever he was about to say, it was either going to make or break them.

"But that's why I love you" he said and this time it was Jade who pulled his head back to her to continue their kiss.

"It's open" fourteen-year-old Lian said when there was a knock at her bedroom door and she wasn't surprised at all when her mother entered.

"You ok kid?" She asked leaning in the doorway.

Lian was sitting on her bed, staring intently at the bow in her lap.

"You know you really should clean up in here" Jade commented, her daughter's bedroom floor was littered with a mix of old toys she was too stubborn to pack away, dirty clothes, and a few bobby pins here and there.

"How's Owen?" The teenager finally asked, her little brother is only seven years old; he shouldn't be fighting for his life right now.

"He's fine, he just needs some rest" Jade answered as she shut the door and made her way over to her daughter's bed, careful not to step on anything in the process.

Lian had grown up to resemble her more than Roy, whom everyone originally thought she would look like. Her skin at some point had turned to a more olive color like her mother's and her hair had darkened, though it was more of a dark brown than black. Her face however greatly resembles Roy, with the exception of her stormy gray eyes. Owen looks much more like his father, with his much more Caucasian looking skin, red hair, and blue eyes. He'd practically be a mini Roy if it weren't for his freckles and long bangs. Arianna, Roy and Jade's two year old and youngest child; was the best mix of them. She had Jade's hair but Roy's eyes, and skin that was somewhere in between the both of them.

"Li, what happened tonight wasn't your fault" Jade assured her daughter

"You weren't there," Lian answered bitterly, finally looking up from her bow. She had returned from her mission three hours ago, but she was still yet to change out of her costume. It was her father's original Speedy costume so she had taken off the hat and the mask but that was it. After bringing her brother's bloody and barely conscious body to the watchtower she had been told to go home and change, but instead she just came home and sat in the blood soaked uniform.

"I caught him early. We were already in the bioship when I found out he had stowed away but I still could've told Cassie to turn back." Lian admitted as she gritted her teeth "but stupid Damian started saying that I shouldn't be on the mission if I can't even keep track of my own brother and… I just… I don't know I wasn't thinking and I thought I could protect Owen, but I couldn't." She explained, anger at both herself and Damian Wayne lacing her words.

Only about a month after Arsenal was rescued Roy returned to the Justice League, three years later Cheshire was initiated in. So Lian grew up in the world of the Justice League and finally joined the team this year. Her parents made it very clear that she didn't have to be a hero if she didn't want to be, but it was all she wanted. Now however, she wasn't so sure.

"Well Damian has some behavior issues," Jade said, mostly in an attempt to make Lian smile but instead she only looked more upset.

"Doesn't mean I should give in to what he says," she said with a frown.

Part of Jade knew that Lian was right, she really should've had the common sense to ignore Damian's teasing and bring Owen back to the Watchtower. But at the same time she felt bad enough about it already, she didn't really need a lecture.

"You know I hate it when you beat yourself up, takes all the fun out of punishing you." Jade joked and when it got her daughter to give even the smallest ghost of a smile she knew that she was making progress, but then Lian's smile faded.

"I've been training my whole life to be one the team, ever since the first time you brought me to the Watchtower it's been my dream. Now I just blew it six months in," she said, hanging her head.

"Owen is the one who stowed away on that ship, and believe me once Black Canary lets him out of that med-bay he is going to wish the damage had been worse. You're still new to the team, not to mention that you're youngest. But you took it upon yourself to look after a seven-year-old who had no business being with you guys. End results aside I wouldn't say you blew it." She said and Lian finally looked up and smiled a real smile before turning to her mother.

"You really think I can be a hero?" She asked and with a smirk Jade kissed her on the forehead, remembering how had it not been for Lian she may never had cut all her criminal ties, and things between her and Roy might have ended quite differently.

"You already are" she assured her daughter.

Hey guys I just want to thank everyone for reading and for all the great reviews! They've meant a lot to me and this story went a little longer than originally intended but i hope you guys liked it! Thanks again for reading!