Whoo-hoo! 5th chapter! I'm broke up from school today for 2 weeks, so I'm going to update faster now..hopefully. I've got about 8 books I've planned to read. :D And a whole lot of studying too.

Enjoy!

Rose's eyes felt as if they weighed a ton and she had almost fallen asleep many times in her current lesson- but never fully thanks to Damian.

They were in their double maths period and Rose felt like jumping off a cliff. She had a pounding headache, exhausted from coming back from the hospital so late, the teacher's voice was droning on in her ears and Rose swore if Damian poked her one more time-

"Jacobs, sit up straight."

Rose held in a growl and sat up groggily. She had quickly done all the work at the beginning of the lesson and all she wanted to do now was sleep.

"Why are you so tired?"

"I'm not."

"What kept you awake last night?"

"Nothing," she snapped.

"Explain to me why you're so tired."

Rose rubbed her eyes and scratched her eyebrow. "Explain to me why you want to know."

"I've told you already, I just want to know."

Rose scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"And what Mr. Wayne wants, he gets right?"

"Obviously."

She raised her eyebrows and frowned at him. He was facing her with his arms crossed, they were usually crossed and he was eyeing her intently. His eyebrows were scrunched together and after about a minute he tutted.

"You are being stubborn."

"No I am not!"

"Then what do you call this?"

"Privacy."

"Not telling me what made you so tired this morning is not exactly keeping to yourself, it is somewhat attention seeking, if you ask me."

"Well, I am not asking you."

"And it makes you look like a snob too-

"You'd know about that, right."

"And makes others think that you must be doing something naughty all night long."

Rose's jaw dropped and he smirked.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Subtext, Jacobs, we did it last year."

"You are very nosey, Damian."

"I've been told."

"Do you care?"

"Of course not."

She rolled her eyes for the second time that day and leaned back on her chair.

"I'd appreciate it if you just left me alone."

"Can't do that, you're stuck with me for the next hour."

"Joy," she muttered.

"Was that sarcasm?"

"Of course not," she smiled too widely at him and he rolled his eyes.

"You do know I will pester you for the next hour."

"I figured."

"My oldest brother says I could pester a cat to drown itself, just warning you."

She gave him a look of disapproval and scribbled down the questions Miss Clark had written on the board.

"You copied it down wrong, Jacobs."

She ignored him.

"Is that a 5 or a 3?"

Still no reply.

"I don't understand how teachers are bothered to mark your work."

"I was visiting my mother at Arkham Asylum yesterday night, are you satisfied with yourself now? I really hope you are, or I will hurt you," she half yelled/half whispered at him, still cautious that they were in a maths lesson.

She glared at him but then realised what she had said and blushed, turning away and getting on with her work.

"Is that the truth?"

"Would anyone ever make something like that up?"

He fell silent and they worked without disturbing each other. She sneaked a glance at his face and saw him staring into nothing in particular, with a, surprise surprise, frown on his face. Rose wondered what he was thinking about, and dared to ask him.

"What are you thinking about?" She said quietly.

He turned his head to her and shook it. "Nothing you would understand."

Rose raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Alright."

Again, silence fell, for most of the lesson, with the occasional correction from Damian and Miss Clark reminding them about the homework. What seemed like hours was only about 30 minutes and the bell finally rung, signalling the end of school.

Rose hurriedly packed her things and walked out the door towards her form room.

She didn't want to see Damian, or think about him at all. She felt as if she had let down her family by telling someone other than Jane about it, who knows who he might tell? She had to make sure he would keep it a secret.

As she walked past a row of lockers, she saw the boy zipping up his bag and quickly speed walked up to him.

"Damian, about what I told you-

"I'm not telling anyone."

Rose gave a sigh of relief and nodded at him.

"Thank you."

He nodded back and pushed past her, making her raise her eyebrows.

...

"Rose? I'm in my office; can you come up for a moment?"

Rose dropped her back by the door of her house and ran upstairs to the third storey of their house.

"Yeah, Dad?"

"I've got some more things for you to look at."

Rose tried not to show her disappointment and walked up to the desk, looking at all the sheets of chemicals, solutions, antidotes and what not.

"How long will you need?"

"Only about 10 minutes," she replied, still looking at the sheets.

He patted her cheek and left her alone.

Rose and her father's trust when so far that he told her everything about his work, his discovers all the passwords to every log in needed and codes.

He not only told her because he trusted her, but because her photographic memory was nothing like he had seen before, she need only look at something for less than half an hour and she can remember that exact picture for at least 2 months, more if she tried.

They have had many conversations about why he asked her to do this, and every one was the same.

"Rose, you know why I'm asking you to do this, right?" Adam put his 8 year old daughter onto his lap and played with her long hair.

"Yes, Daddy."

"It's for the family, in case there is an accident, and I leave you all, we need someone who will keep my work safe, and that's you, petal," he playfully squeezed her cheek and she giggled.

"But why do we have to keep everything safe?" the little girl asked.

"Because of all those bad people out there who think that they could take my work and claim it as there's, that's cheating, Rose, and you won't ever do anything like that, alright?"

Rose nodded and continued looking at the pictures of animal and plant cells.

Sighing, Rose stood up and stretched, feeling as if she had looked at them long enough, and walked down the stairs to get her a drink of water. Her father was in the kitchen making pasta for them, it was then that she realised Lily wasn't home yet.

"Where's Lily?" She asked him, opening the fridge for something to eat.

"She's over at a friend's house; I think she said she's having a sleepover there. A sleepover? At the age of 22? That's not something I've come across before," he laughed and Rose laughed with him.

There was a comfortable around them for a while, apart from the sound of pasta cooking and the tap running every now and again. Rose bit her lip and turned to her father.

"Dad...How long...How long is she going to stay at the asylum for?"

Adam stopped cooking and froze on the spot. He sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair.

"I don't know, Rose, they said they'll need her for much longer now, but don't worry, you'll see your mother soon."

Rose nodded, not wanting to say she didn't mind how long she stayed away, in fact, she would rather it be that way.

"Why do you make us go up there all the time?" She whispered to him, hearing her voice crack slightly.

He let go of the wooden spoon he was using, placing it on the counter and turned slowly to Rose with tears in his eyes.

"Because every time she wakes up and sees me, I hope and pray with all my might that she'll turn to you and your sister, smile and put her arms out for a hug, kiss her cheeks and ruffle you hair, but that never happens," he said, tears running down his face like a waterfall now.

Rose's bottom lip trembled and she felt her eyes burn and her vision blur with tears.

"I will not give up hope though, I want to see your mother call you Rose and kiss you good-night once before the day I die."

"Dad, that's not likely," she whispered, the lump in her throat felt bigger than ever.

"Doesn't mean it's impossible!"

Rose shook her head and let the tears stream down her face, giving up on resisting them.

Adam slid to the ground and rested his elbows on his knees, holding his head in his hands. His body shook with ever cry that racked though his body and Rose felt useless. She was frozen on the spot. Usually, she was good at comforting and found it easy to cheer people up, but Rose suspected her father was well past cheering up.

Slowly, she went and kneeled down to face him, putting her hands on his hand she pulled them off his face. He hugged her and they stayed like that for a while, he cried, and she did silently, she wanted to be strong for her father. As strong as she could be for a family this broken.

Hope you liked it!

- Zara xo