It's raining, it's pouring the old man is snoring. That's my story right now with the pounds of rain pouring on my windowsill. And my mom just told me she saw lightening, so risking it just posting this. Anyway on with the story.

My Hero is You

For as long as Abby could remember this was the first Monday morning she didn't mind waking up early to. She craved to see her friends again. Especially Aaron. Because of her grounding she could barely speak two words to him. School would give them time to do that. But until Abby could speak to her friends at home, she was forced to consult Alfred in designing her new room in the penthouse. As much as she was impressed with the size she wasn't too impressed with the color. All black just wouldn't do. Shopping for new supplies was also very much involved the day before.

Just as there was excitement to go to school, she was also somewhat dreading to see Renee there. Abby figured pouring all of those ice-cream sundaes all over Renee would push a few buttons. But despite the dread, Abby looked forward to coming up with clever insults to her forever archenemy.

Once she finished getting ready, she grabbed her new backpack along with her new boxing materials and headed down the stairs. She hurried to the kitchen to grab whatever food was available for breakfast.

Alfred gave a warm smile. "Hello Miss Wayne. I trust you slept well."

"Sure did," Abby swiped an apple from the fruit basket sitting on the counter.

"Master Wayne will be down soon, so I suggest getting more nutrients for breakfast than just that apple."

"Will do."

With that Alfred left the room. Taking a bite of her apple, she took a banana as well. Time wouldn't allow her to make a full breakfast in time to get school. Just as Abby finished her last bites of her banana, Bruce walked into the kitchen.

"Morning, Abby," he greeted with a smile.

"Morning, Dad."

He went over to pour himself some coffee from the coffee maker. "So did you catch up on your sleep?"

"Yep. I don't even need a Red Bull to keep me up this morning."

"Are you sure? Because you sound peppier than usual."

"Very sure," she said brightly.

"Yeah, well we need to get going. Are you ready?"

Abby took her bags off of the floor. "Yep."

"Well let's go then. Alfred's gonna have a cow if we don't hurry up."

"I've never seen Alfred totally angry in my whole life, but I'd rather not start now."

She followed Bruce to the elevator where they met the impatient Alfred.

Abby fiddled with her fingers as she sat in the backseat along with Bruce and while Alfred was driving the car.

"Nervous?" Bruce asked.

She shook her head. "Not exactly. Excited and anxious at the same time is more like it."

"I see. Well I'm pretty sure your friends will happy to see you as well. What happened by the way when you went in the manor to save me that night?"

"I told them that I had to see if you were alright and that nothing they could say could stop me. Once they finally agreed to let me go, I told them to call the police if I wasn't back in ten minutes."

Alfred's voice came in. "That would explain this morning's paper. Batman may have made the front page, but Bruce Wayne got pushed to page eight."

He handed the paper to Bruce who grinned at the headline, "Drunken Billionaire Burns Down Home." Abby snorted at the title.

"Dad, why did you let those people call you drunk?"

Bruce opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by his ringing phone. "Hold on to that thought." He pressed the speaker button for the phone. "Bruce Wayne."

"What makes you think you can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?"

Abby hadn't heard that voice in a very long time, but she recognized it nonetheless. It was William Earle and according to his tone, he did not sound happy.

"Well the fact that I'm the owner," Bruce replied.

She smiled slightly at the comment.

Earle responded with a confused tone. "What are you talking about? The company went public a week ago."

"And I bought most of the shares through various charitable foundations and trusts and so forth. Look, it's all a bit technical, but the important thing is that my company's future is secure. Right, Mr. Fox?"

"Right you are, Mr. Wayne," Lucius' voice agreed. "Didn't you get the memo?"

Out of instinct Abby knew that last comment was meant for Earle.

"OH DUDE YOU JUST GOT PONED!" she shouted, smiling.

"Abby, we're still online," said Bruce.

"Oh…well I would say I'm sorry, but I wouldn't mean it. So I'm not gonna say it."

With that, Abby disconnected the line.

"What was that?" Bruce inquired.

"I'm not sure. I had something to say and I just wanted to say it. Plus the guy was a jerk."

Bruce put on a forced frown, his lips trembling.

"C'mon, even you thought it was funny," she teased.

He grinned. "Okay, I did. Inappropriate, yes. But it was very quite entertaining."

"And true nonetheless," Abby smirked. "So Lucius is head of Wayne Enterprises now?"

"Yeah, I thought it could be a way of thanking Lucius for all of the work he has done for Batman. Plus you and he are on better terms than you were with Earle."

"Is that part of the reason why you fired him? Because he called me trash as a kid?"

"It's not morally right to fire your employees because of a personal issue, but when I heard that he had lost the microwave emitter without telling me I just took that as an open window."

"Microwave emitter?"

"That's what Ra's used to spread the toxin all over the Narrows."

Her memory went back to the machine that joined her along for the ride on that night. "Oh right, that. I just didn't know what it was called."

The car soon pulled up to the front of the school. Much to Abby's surprise, there was not one reporter in sight. She looked at Bruce with a questioning face.

He shook his head. "Don't look at me. They must've realized that you were gone and left the school. But don't expect it to last that long though."

"So, I guess I'll see you after school."

"Maybe, depending on if you want to come to Wayne Manor this afternoon or not."

"Sure, I'll go," she answered almost immediately.

"Are you sure? You'll just be hanging around a burnt construction site."

"I'm sure. Wayne Manor was as much as a home to me as it was to you. I at least want to see the damage done to the place."

"Fair enough. Alfred will come pick you up after school then."

"Great," Abby gathered her bags. "I'll see you after school then. See you too, Alfred."

She cautiously opened the door and exited the car. Closing the door behind her, she headed into the core of Gotham High.

Whispers and hushed low voices echoed around Abby as she walked to her locker. She didn't bother to listen to them. They would all be the same anyway. Besides she was on a mission to find her friends. Once Abby set her boxing bag in her locker, she went to search for her friends.

She walked through any hall possible in the entire school, but none of them were there. Just many unknown faces staring at her direction. She was about to give up hope when a hand clasped her eyes.

"Guess who?" said that familiar peppy voice. "She's got wonderful fashion sense and is on the track team."

"Heather!" Abby exclaimed.

Heather released her clasp. Abby turned around smiling and embraced her.

"Woah, calm down, girl! It's only been a week since you've been gone from school," said yet another familiar voice.

Abby let go of Heather and went to hug the owner of the voice. "Sasha!"

"What is this? Hug Everyone To Death Day?"

"No. I just miss being here at school with you guys."

She separated from their hug.

"So your parents decided to let you go?" asked Heather.

"Yep. My dad thought since…"

Abby stopped. So began the train of lies.

"…since I was bored at home that I should come here," she continued.

"That makes sense," Sasha agreed. "You seemed a little too happy to see us when we visited the manor the day that your dad was sick."

Heather cut in. "So what happened to the manor anyway?"

"Didn't you read the paper, Heather? Her dad being as drunk as he was, burnt down the manor. No offense, Abby."

"None taken," mumbled Abby.

"So what happened to you? We were waiting like you asked us to and then we see these guys carrying you into that truck while your house was going ablaze."

"I…found my dad talking to this guy and…to tell you the truth I don't really remember because I got knocked out. I'm not sure who knocked me out, but I'm sure it wasn't my dad. And those people that were carrying me, I'm pretty sure they were just helping me."

Lies. All complete dirty lies. She had only just found out about her father's other identity and she was already creating a web of lies.

"But anyway, my dad and I are totally cool now," she quickly added. "And he promises not to be drunk like that again."

Sasha looked at her suspiciously. "I would ask how you guys are cool after that certain event, but something in my gut is telling me to keep that a secret."

"That is a very wise gut."

They all shared a small laugh before Heather changed the subject.

"So, what about you and Aaron?" She nudged Abby in shoulder, smirking.

Abby's face flushed. "What about it?"

"Oh c'mon, like we didn't know. We saw you guys getting all close at your father's birthday party and we also spotted your little smooch."

She playfully slapped her in the shoulder. "You did not!"

"First of all: OW! Second of all: we just happened to be looking in the same direction you were in. Third: I so knew it was gonna happen."

"Calm down, Heather," Sasha rolled her eyes. "We all knew it was gonna happen."

"Even my parents saw it before I did," Abby whispered to herself.

"So what's gonna happen between you two now?"

Another pair of hands suddenly clasped over her eyes.

"You could only guess," said a familiar voice through the darkness.

"Aaron!" she nearly squealed, turning around to hug him.

He hugged back. "Hey, Abby. Thank God you're okay."

"It was nothing really. Though I still might have a little bit of head trauma."

"Just as long as you're okay, I'm not worried."

She smirked up at him. "So, where did we leave off last time?"

"I have an idea," he grinned, leaning over.

But before they could come any closer, a pair of hands came in between them, separating them from the hug.

"No, no, you two just wait," Sasha's bossy voice came in. "There are a few ground rules we need to go over."

"Rules?" they both said incredulously.

"Yes. Rule number one: that kissing scene that you all was about to do has to wait until Heather and I are yards away. Number two: no making up nicknames for each other while Heather or I are present…it's just weird. Number three: don't you ever let this relationship tear your friendship apart because if this friendship is having trouble, our friendship is gonna have trouble. Got that?"

Abby placed her hands at her hips. "Is that it, Miss Peterson? Or are you gonna restrict hand holding as well?"

"No, hand holding is permitted. Look, Heather and I support your relationship but we just don't want it to get awkward between us."

"Yeah," Heather chimed in. "We at least want one thing to stay the same."

Aaron shrugged. "That's fair enough, I guess. How about you, Abby?"

"It's okay with me," she smiled. "I think I'd feel the same way."

Sasha cleared her voice. "Okay, well Heather and I are going to class."

"We are?" inquired Heather.

She gave Heather a long hard look before Heather's eyes finally became wide.

"Oh, we are! We'll see you guys later."

Abby waved as they traveled down the hall. "See ya."

"I guess some things will never change for as long we live," Aaron pondered.

"Oh well, life goes on. So do you think they're at least a yard away from us?"

He looked over her shoulder. "Hm, I just saw them turn the corner so I would say that was about a couple yards."

"So are we an official couple now?"

He smirked, wrapping his arms around her. "I don't know, let's find out."

They leaned in closer to each other until their lips met once again. Their kiss was shortly outlived when a flash came rushing toward her eyes. They broke apart, finding a short blonde boy in front of them, holding a camera.

"Excuse me?" Abby sneered at the boy. "Could you please delete that picture you just took?"

"S-sorry," he stuttered. "S-she already paid me and I don't it will look good on me if brought back nothing."

"Who exactly is 'she'?"

"I'm not supposed to say."

"Does she have blonde hair, fake nose and an overpowered ego?" inquired Aaron.

The boy slowly nodded.

"Renee," both Abby and Aaron chimed with distaste.

Abby looked at the boy with a serious face. "Look, kid, we can do this either the easy way or the hard way. If you were smart you would choose the easy way."

The boy briefly looked at Abby and then at his camera. His finger traveled along the delete button of his camera. He glanced up at Abby once again, raising his camera. A bright white flash pierced through her eyes before she heard running footsteps.

"Why do they always gotta choose the hard way?" she rubbed her eyes.

"I don't know, but I think that kid has had long enough head start."

"Nah let him go. It'll only give Renee the satisfaction."

"Okay if you say so."

The first bell of the day rang through their ears before Aaron wrapped his hand around Abby's.

"C'mon let's get to class," he said.

She tightened her grip on his hand. "Okay. I'm right with you."

With that they ventured down the hallway.

School wasn't necessarily hard or easy that day. Sure there were the select few that whispered behind Abby's back, but other than that everything went smoothly. Not even Renee seemed to have the energy to bother Abby herself. The only problem she really had was lying to her friends about what happened the night of the fire. As for the events before the fire, Abby only revealed those details to Aaron, Heather and Sasha. And even those were in limited detail.

At the end of the day, Abby walked out of the school with Aaron, Heather, and Sasha by her side. Her eyes quickly met with the familiar shiny black car waiting on the curb nearby.

"I gotta go," she said to them. "Hopefully, I'll see you guys at the manor…if not I'll call you tonight."

"Yeah, I'll see if I can get Jared to drive me there," Aaron gave a brief kiss on her forehead.

"As for me, Abs, you're gonna have to call me tonight," said Sasha. "I have to write an article that's due tomorrow. So I cannot have any interruptions."

"Same here," Heather came in. "I have track practice tonight."

Aaron shrugged. "I guess it's just me…and Jared if he decides to come out of the car."

"Alright, I'll see you later."

With one last hug and a final goodbye, Abby left towards the car.

Once she got inside, Alfred greeted her with a smile. "Hello, Miss Wayne. How was your day?"

"Pretty good," she slipped on her seatbelt.

Alfred pulled out of the curb. "So I presume we'll be seeing Mr. West at the manor as well."

"What makes you say that?"

"I saw you with Mr. West as you got out of school," he let a smirk climb upon his lips.

"Okay, I invited him. So what exactly does that prove?"

"I'm not quite sure, but I am certain that your relationship with Mr. West is more than friendly."

"Did you always pry like this into Dad's personal life?"

"Not always, but after your mother gave birth to you I was sure to be aware of your father's actions. But it's not me you should be worried about. Your father can be quite sneaky, you know."

Abby waved it off. "Don't worry, I'll find a way to deal with it."

"Very well, Miss Wayne."

Within the next few minutes, the car soon pulled up to dark pile of ash. Her heart stopped when she realized that this pile of ash was Wayne Manor. It scared her to know that only one man could cause this much damage. Once she got out of the car, Abby followed Alfred through the burnt site.

He pointed over to the now burnt garden. "Your father is over there if you would like to see him, Miss Wayne."

"Thanks, Alfred."

Abby headed exactly where Alfred had pointed.

She found Bruce boarding up the well when she arrived at the garden.

"Geez, if you really didn't want me to go into that well, why didn't you just say so?" Abby teased.

Bruce turned to her smiling. "It really wouldn't have made that much of a difference. You would still go in there."

"Very true," she went to hug him.

"So how was your day?"

"Pretty good. How about yours?"

"OK, I guess. Though I have to admit cleaning up around here can be a little boring."

They separated from their hug.

"So, do you need any help?" she asked.

He handed her a plank of wood. "Sure, you could hold down the wood while I hammer."

She took the plank and covered it over a strip of the well. Bruce took a nail and began hammering it into the wood.

"Hey Dad, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"In the paper this morning, why did you let those people call you drunk? I mean you and I know that you would never burn down this place drunk or sober."

"I know but it's better that way. It's that headline that separates me from Batman."

Abby let go of the plank and faced him. "But aren't you at least one bit embarrassed about that lie?"

"Sure, but in order to protect myself and the ones I love I have to buy into those lies. Otherwise other people would start suspecting things."

"So when you came to save me those times as Batman did you try to limit yourself?"

Bruce gave a sigh. "Yes. If any of those thugs saw how I reacted around you, they would use you to get to me. That's why I said you shouldn't get emotionally attached."

"I see," her eyes wondered away from him. "So does that mean no Batman for me then?"

"Yes. I don't think you'll be seeing your hero in a while."

Abby shot him with a confused look. "Hero? What are you talking about?"

"The night in the cave, you said that Batman was your hero."

"Oh, that."

She moved out of the way as he continued to hit the nail with the hammer.

"I said that Batman was a hero," she corrected him. "I didn't say that he was my hero."

"Then who is?" asked Bruce, his concentration still on hammering the board.

"You. My hero is you, Dad."

He turned around to face her.

Abby continued. "You've sacrificed so much just so that I and so many other people in Gotham can live in a better place. That's more than what Batman can give. He can give hope and all of that junk, but you have things on the line and he doesn't. You're even pretending to be something you're not to the public to keep Batman alive. I'm not sure if I could ever to do that. You're definitely my hero." She pulled her locket from under her jacket. "And I'll keep wearing this just to prove it to you."

A small smile crept along his lips. Bruce kissed her forehead and pulled her into an embrace.

"Thank you, Abby," he whispered.

"Don't mention it."

"I see you two are getting a lot more bonding in than I thought," a voice echoed behind them.

Separating from their embrace, they turned to see Rachel behind them.

"Mom," Abby went to hug her.

Rachel hugged her back. "Hey there, sweetheart. How are you?"

"Never better. I'm just glad to see you."

"Bruce, are you sure that she didn't get hit by any of Crane's toxin because she seems a little delusional?"

He chuckled. "I'm sure."

"Relax, Mom," Abby reassured. "It's just that the last time I saw you, you were nearly gone."

Rachel ran her fingers through her hair as Abby released her mother from her hug.

"That's understandable, but there's no need to worry now. I'm fine thanks to your father."

"We're all fine because of him, Mom."

"True," Rachel nodded in agreement. "Anyway I've been talking with a few lawyers about your custody arrangements and I was wondering," she faced Bruce, "if every other month would be OK with you, Bruce."

"Sure," said Bruce. "I'll even take care of her when you have to work late or something."

"And I'll do vice versa if you would like. So I guess it's decided then. Does that sound good to you, Abby?"

Abby shrugged. "Sounds pretty good to me."

"Great. Now could you leave your father and me alone for a few minutes? I need to talk to him about something."

"Sure take all of the time you need. I'll just go see if Aaron's here yet or not."

Abby could help but give herself a big smug smile when she left. She knew Rachel was still in love with Bruce and he obviously felt the same way so it was only a matter of time before they got back together.

As she waited for Aaron to arrive, she traveled along the ash trial to find the remains of her room. She didn't even recognize it when she found it. The only thing that brought her attention to it was her destroyed laptop. Abby went to reach for it, but right she touched it broke apart. There goes all of my savings.

"There you are, Abby."

Her head spun around to Aaron. "Hey Aaron, I was beginning to think you weren't gonna show."

"So was I. I had to put up with a pretty good argument with Jared."

"Yeah and that included him doing my laundry for a month," Jared surprisingly jumped in, putting an arm around Aaron.

Abby slightly rolled her eyes. "Hi Jare. How goes it?"

"Pretty good. By the way, you know Devin, right?"

She slowly nodded.

"Do you know if she has a date for homecoming yet?"

"No, you're just gonna have to ask her yourself."

"That's exactly what I told him," groaned Aaron.

"Fine, I'll just ask her myself then," said Jared, defeated. "Anyway, little bro you've got about a few more minutes to be here until Mom starts asking questions. So until then I'll be in the car."

He removed his arm off of Aaron and walked towards the blue truck ahead of them.

"Oh God please help Devin if she says yes," Abby moaned.

"I'm not too worried. Jared may be pain, but he has good morals."

"I'm not so sure, but I'll take your word for it. So you can't stay long?

Aaron shook his head. "No, sorry. My mom's expecting me to help her at an art show."

"Well it's not that big of loss. All there really is here is ash."

"I know, but I came here as many times as you did. I wanted to see for myself."

"Sounds fair."

A honk came from the distance.

Aaron shouted at the truck. "C'mon that wasn't even two minutes!"

"It's all right, you gotta go. I'll just get back to my dad."

"I guess I'll see you at school then."

"See ya."

They bent in towards each other, but before their lips could touch, Aaron winced in pain.

"OW!" he slammed his hand over his ear.

"Are you okay?"

"I think so. Something just hit my ear out of nowhere."

Abby spotted a small flat rock next to his foot. "I think I just found the problem."

She picked it up and showed it to Aaron.

He rubbed his ear. "The question is: who threw it?"

Abby looked around to the possible culprits. It couldn't have been the construction builders. They were too busy to notice or care. But then her eyes landed upon Bruce, who shared a short glance with her, as did Aaron's.

"Did you by chance tell your dad about us?"

"I was getting to it," she gulped. "And he was gonna find out anyway, so what's the point."

"True. So I guess I'll just see you then."

"Yeah, see ya."

Aaron walked away, still rubbing his ear. She stormed over to Bruce as soon as the truck drove away. Bruce was bent down, his fingers scavenging the ashes.

"What the heck is wrong with you?!" Abby snapped at him.

He turned to her with an inquisitive expression. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about hitting Aaron's ear with a rock."

Bruce stood up. "Well he was about to plant one on you so obviously as your father I had to stop it."

"Dad, did it ever occur to you that I actually wanted him to do that?"

"It did, but it still doesn't matter."

Abby groaned. "So you get to have your kiss and I don't?"

"Yes, and who said that I kissed your mom?"

"You did just now," she smirked.

"You are so clever," said Bruce, sarcastically.

"Thank you. Now if you ever do that again, I swear you and I will not be happy."

"Fine, just make sure you're not displaying your affection when I'm in the room."

"Agreed."

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I can't believe my little girl is already grown up."

"Not completely. I have four more years until I'm on my own."

"Yeah, but I've got seven years to catch up on."

They shared a laugh and just like that things fell right in place.

ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT! I'm so excited. I'm even introducing a new character. And as another sneak peak towards the sequel: Aaron's family will be more involved with the story then they were with this one. Anyway, the songs, My Hero is You by Hayden Panittiere and I Learned From You by Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus were big contributers to this chapter. So if you have the time please listen to those songs on YouTube or something. And if you're not a fan of those people that's okay. I really don't have a specific genre of music that I like. As long as it inspires me to write, it's cool in my book.

~Emyrox567