After months of craziness I feel like I'm hopefully back for at least a little while. I can't believe I had my absence from writing after where I left off in the last chapter. This one was a bit of a hard one to jump back into! But here it is : )

Chapter 7: Stern Guardian

I was fidgety and breathing very hard when I got back to the mansion. I waited a few minutes but my heart rate did not seem to go down and I couldn't relax so I gave up. The gate opened before I could even press the monitor, so I slowly and shakily walked up to the house.

As soon as I opened the door to the sitting room Bruce ran over to me from where he had obviously been pacing. He grabbed my shoulders and knelt down so he could look me in the eyes. I was shocked to see the fear and worry inside them. "Jayden, what happened. This is the second time you were not at the school to be picked up." Alfred was standing anxiously in the background, looking just as worried.

I didn't respond and dropped my gaze to my feet. I didn't want to see the worry in his eyes anymore. It only added to my guilt.

"How did you get this?" he said softly, touching his finger to my cut. He looked at the blood on his finger. "What happened," he insisted, more sternly.

I continued to stare at my shoes and shook my head. Bruce sighed and stood up. "So I guess this means I get to deduce what happened. But it is pretty obvious. You've been sneaking away from school to try and do what I've expressly forbade you from doing. You let yourself get hurt too. Do you know how dangerous it could have been?"

"The cut was an accident," I whimpered. I hated myself for becoming so weak, but it was hard to stay defiant in this situation. "I did have everything under control."

Bruce didn't respond. "Open you backpack," he said suddenly. "I want to see the costume you must have somehow snuck past me. I know you wouldn't have been stupid enough to fight and let people see your face."

I looked up into his eyes and saw the determination. He was going to get his way. With a sinking heart I slowly unzippered my backpack and pulled out the costume. Bruce snatched it before I could even hold it out to him.

"Alfred," he said in a cool voice. "See to it that this gets burned."

"Of course, Master Bruce," he said taking it and bowing himself out of the room.

I silently said goodbye to my hard work on the costume, knowing I would now never get another chance to make another. Then I slowly brought my eyes back to Bruce who was now glowering at me. "Bruce, I just wanted to help people," I said in a small voice. "I am confident I did save some lives and property."

"You probably did, but this is the life I want to keep safe, and you're not being very cooperative," he growled gesturing to me.

"I don't need to be protected anymore," I complained. "I'm not-"

"Yes, you are," Bruce firmly cut in with his full Batman voice. "Go upstairs to your room. We will continue this conversation there."

My stomach clenched. "Bruce, please. What I did was help people. I don't want to go through this again."

"Then maybe you should have thought about that before you disobeyed."

"Please don't do this," I pleaded.

Bruce abruptly grabbed my arm, spun me around and swatted me hard. I took a quick intake of air from the surprise of it. "To you room," he said slowly.

I turned on the spot and ran to my bedroom. When I got there I started pacing. I was good at thinking, and I was trained to have elite escaping skills since I was very little. Why wasn't there some way to avoid this? I knew why, it was because my opponent was more skilled and much stronger than me.

I stopped pacing and soundlessly opened my door. It just wasn't in my nature or my entire life of training to give up and take something. In my mind there was nothing worse than what was about to come. I took a deep calm breath, erased my presence, and shut the door behind me.

I searched for the best place to go, and found it behind the thick decorative statue at the top of the stairs. I didn't think I could risk going downstairs yet without getting caught. I just had to be patient, keep my head clear, and think. I kept myself invisible and calm as I heard Bruce come up the stairs. I nearly lost my cloaking skills when I saw what I realized was a large hairbrush in his hand. I couldn't believe I had forgotten he had warned me he would use it if he caught me trying to copy him and fight crime.

Being perfectly quiet I eased myself towards the stairs after Bruce had passed me. I went down step by step. I had eight more steps to go when Bruce knocked and opened my door. I had seven more steps to go when I saw Bruce enter my room.

Six more steps.

Everything was quiet.

Five more step.

"I should have seen this coming," I heard Bruce sigh.

Four more steps.

I could hear Bruce coming back out of my room. I lept for the bottom of the stairs just as Bruce noticed me.

"Jayden, come up here, now," Bruce yelled.

I wordlessly scrambled toward the secrete entrance for the batcave. My goal was just to find a place to hide so I could think of the next thing to do. I was hoping when I got alone to think some solution out of this would come to me.

My heart hammered as I opened the door behind the grandfather clock and closed it without going in. Then I slipped under the table just in time so the tablecloth concealed me. I took another deep calm breath and kept myself hidden.

Just as I had hoped Bruce headed straight into the batcave. It worked perfectly for me, because the batcave had a ton of hiding places. Hopefully Bruce would spend a long time searching down there and give me time to find a better place to hide.

As soon as he had gone in I came out from under the table and fled into the next room. Unfortunately Bruce came out of the batcave right away and saw me. "You're getting too predictable. You can't use these tricks on me," Bruce growled. He looked so fierce, determined, and angry that he looked perfectly like Batman to me even without the costume and cape.

I dashed into the ballroom. It was very large inside, and we almost never entered it. I could see Alfred standing at the fire place, still burning my poor costume. Bruce was right behind me, and instinct took over as I decided to run to Alfred, another human who just might help me.

"Bruce, I'm not one of your criminals that you have to chase down," I yelled.

"You are still going to be punished," Bruce growled. He slowed to a walk as I stood beside Alfred. Bruce was about six feet away from us. I couldn't help but tremble slightly at the sight of him there specifically to catch me. None of his attention was being put anywhere except me.

"Alfred, please can't you do something?" I begged. "Don't let him do this to me," I began to cry slightly as Bruce advanced on us.

"I'm sorry Ms. Jayden, but I daresay you pretty well earned this spanking," he said lightly, not making any motion to stop Bruce. I had known deep down that Alfred wasn't going to be any help to me. He was too loyal to Bruce.

By now Bruce was standing right over me looking angrier than ever. "You really would make this easier on yourself if you just accepted you are going to be punished," he said coolly.

I looked up at him with tear filled eyes and tried the last thing I could possibly think of. I hated to stoop to this low of a level, but I was truly desperate. "Bruce, please. Don't do this, punish me in any other way." I came forward and hugged his hard chest. "I'm sorry. I won't ever try something like this again I promise. You don't need to do this."

"Jayden," he said softly now, putting an arm around me. I couldn't decide if he was hugging me back or preventing me from running away again. Probably both. "Don't you remember what I told you when I found out about your plan with that costume in the first place?"

"I know that's what you told me, but can't you give me one more chance?"

"No, there aren't second chances in this world. It's going to happen and I'm not going to change my mind about it," he said firmly. He tightly grabbed my wrist. I recognized the definite restraint that it was meant to be and tried to pull away. I might as well have been trying to move the Earth. "You are coming up with me to your bedroom, and we can go the easy way or the hard way. What's it going to be?"

I looked to Alfred one more time, "Alfred, isn't there anything you can do to help?" I pleaded as my last and final effort.

"I'm sorry, but Master Bruce is right. You need to go up with him to your bedroom," he said firmly. My heart sank as I finally gave in and resigned myself to the fact that I was about to be spanked by the strongest man in the city and there was nothing I could do about it.

"I guess it's the hard way," Bruce said before I could say anything. He began to lift me up to throw me over his shoulder.

"Ok, ok ok, I choose the easy way," I said desperately, struggling to get down.

By some miracle he actually placed me back on the ground. "Then lets go," he said coldly. "And no more fighting me."

I allowed him to pull my wrist and I followed him sadly. My instinct continuously told me to pull away, but I ultimately knew it would get me nowhere and would be a very bad idea. When we were in my room Bruce closed and locked my door behind us, I knew so if I tried to run away again undoing the lock would slow me down enough for him to catch me.

He finally let go of my wrist and sat on my bed next to the hairbrush he had obviously left there. I slowly stepped away from him so I wasn't in arm's reach. "Come here," he said firmly.

"But do you have to use that?" I moaned pointing to the implement.

"You were warned this would happen. If you stall anymore your punishment will be without the protection of your pants," Bruce's voice and the thought made me shiver.

I sniffed and stepped closer so I was just within arms reach. In the blink of an eye Bruce grabbed me and threw me over his lap. I didn't even fight him anymore. I felt him reach over and grab the brush and I closed my eyes.

The first whack made me jump. The hairbrush was much worse than his hand, and with that force I didn't honestly know how long I was going to last. He hit again and I squirmed a bit against his arm, but it was like being in a steel trap. I couldn't move an inch.

A long time passed with the only thing happening was the slow rhythmical crack of the hairbrush. It was the only sound, and the only thing I could feel. I was crying hard, and the fiery pain was starting to make me panic.

I struggled harder to get away, not even thinking about trying one of my escapes. My mind was going back to the beating my father had been giving me after I had failed to set the bombs he needed to threaten the police force with. It was the only time I had feared my father might kill me. It was the time that Batman had saved me.

The blinding pain smashed across my face when I failed to dodge the chair that was thrown at me.

"You're weak," my father spat. He grabbed me and threw me against the wall. I collapsed without a sound, the only outward sign of pain being the grimace and fear in the way I watched him warily. "You can't let that bat tell you what to do. You only listen to me!" He stomped forward, and I shield my face as he began to kick me. I felt each blow as an explosion of pain all over my body.

"Father, I'm sorry! Please stop!" I screamed, pure terror shredding my carefully made emotionless mask.

Everything suddenly became silent and still, and then I found myself on Bruce's lap clutching to him and crying. I hadn't realized I had yelled that out loud. We both stayed like that for a long time, and I was calmed down and silent long before Bruce broke the silence.

"Jayden," he spoke quietly and softly. "I need you to realize living with me can be dangerous. I have a lot of enemies, and I don't want you to make enemies either. I have wanted to protect you from the first time you called out to me for help. I don't want you to make me regret the decision to try having you safely live here."

I could only think about the people who were already my enemies. Bruce was right. After just two times going out as Nightmare that man and girl had decided to set up a trap specifically to catch me. There was also my parents who were still furious with me for failing them.

I felt like my heart had stopped when I recalled what Nightwing had told me. They were probably free from Arkham and watching me. That was what Bruce had been so occupied with, and that was why he was so worried for me and so angry with me for being reckless. I was sure I was right, and the thought terrified me.

"Bruce, I really am sorry," I said very quietly, saying his name to make sure he knew I didn't think of him as my father. My father was an evil man who wanted to kill me, and I couldn't compare a guy like Bruce to that. "I won't do this again, the costume is now gone for good and I'm actually glad it is. I'm not going to be Nightmare ever ever again, it was a dumb childish name anyway that I created impulsively." I could only think of Nightwing's snickers.

I felt Bruce stiffen slightly to the sound of his name, but he softened again as I finished speaking. "I'm very glad to hear that. I just want you to be safe. Please listen to me when I tell you to do or not to do something, and keep honest with me. It could be very important that you do."

"I will, I promise," I said in almost a whisper. Bruce was right, and I needed to be more careful with my parents out there. They were very clever and sneaky, and I knew I was going to have to watch my back.

"Now how about we go downstairs and see what Alfred is making for dinner?"

"Ok, I'll be down in a few minutes. I just want a little time to myself to clean up," I said, jumping down from his lap.

"Of course," he smiled gently and left the room.

I jumped on my bed, threw my face in my pillow and started crying quietly again. I hated myself for my own stupidity. I was terrified they could get me at any time, and I didn't want to tell Bruce this because I didn't want to worry him. There was one thing I knew for a fact: if I got hurt it would also cause Bruce great pain on top of pain he had already suffered from and it would be my fault. The thought didn't comfort me in the slightest.