YAY ZARA FINALLY UPDATED. I HOPE YOU GUYS AREN'T TOO ANGRY WITH ME. I AM SO SORRY.

Also, I made the soundtrack! It's on 8tracks, if any of you would like to take a listen then PM me and I'll send you the link. :)

And to the readers who are eager to see Jason: do not worry! He will have his moment of glory soon enough, I've had it planned out for while. Patience is a virtue!

Enjoy!

Rose opened her eyes slowly and frowned, everything was too bright, and every bit of her body was aching. She moved her fingers around and felt soft bed sheets underneath her, and a hand holding hers so tightly she thought her fingers would break off.

Now that her eyes were finally wide open, she blinked to get them to focus and realised with a pang of joy that Damian coming to get her wasn't just a dream, she had really been rescued. She was in her room at the manor, Damian sitting on the bed by her side, crossed legged and smiling widely. He was smiling, something he didn't do very often, and she mirrored his smile right back. Alfred was standing on her right, a tray of water and food on it, Lily was standing at the foot of her bed, her hand covering her mouth and eyes glistening wildly.

"Hi," she said, her voice was hoarse, and it hurt her to speak.

Lily only let out a whimper and ran to throw her arms around Rose, weeping softly onto her shoulder. Rose's eyes scrunched up tight, she was in pain, but hugged her sister back anyway, not wanting to ruin this moment for her.

"I can't believe you're actually here," she said, kissing her check and pulling back, it was as if it was Lily's first time seeing her. She just wouldn't let go.

Rose only nodded, she couldn't speak, it hurt too much, and she didn't even know what to say, what do you say to your sister after being rescued from torture in Metropolis?

Lily looked around at the others, as if to say she wanted to talk to Rose alone, and Alfred smiled and left the room, but Damian wouldn't let go of her hand.

"Master Damian, could I have a word? I wanted you to show me how to work the new piece of technology your father has recently bought..."

Damian frowned, looked over at Lily and tutted, leaving the room in quite a sulk.

Once the door was closed, Lily turned to face Rose properly and held her hand, gently this time. Rose kept her eyes on the door though, she knew Damian was standing outside it and listening to every word they would speak, she giggled quietly and Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Everything alright in there?" She said, laughing slightly and knocking the side of her head, something she used to do a lot when they were younger.

Rose smiled, but she realised it was forced; she frowned at herself and looked down. Lily touched her cheek.

"Rose?" Her voice quivered and Rose suddenly felt guilty, for what though she hadn't a clue.

She looked up to her sister and moved slowly so she could hug her, she knew Lily needed to be hugged, by Rose especially and Rose wanted one too.

Lily rubbed her back and Rose felt her tears stain her shirt, but she didn't care, Rose pulled away and her sister smiled, her bright eyes shining with tears.

They talked for a bit, Lily asking her open questions and Rose answering as if it were a closed one. She wanted to be crying with happiness, and over the moon that she was here, back home, but she felt she didn't have the energy to do so.

"So, I was thinking Rose," Lily said, clasping her little sister's hand in her own. "Because you were, well, kidnapped, and you almost" -Lily stopped talking and closed her eyes tight- "you were close to not coming back, ever, I was thinking that...you move in with me," she said, finally opening her eyes again.

Rose frowned in confusion.

"I know you like it here, but I almost lost you forever, I almost had to stand through another funeral and I was almost the only living Jacobs in Gotham," Lily said, squeezing Rose's hand gently- but it still made her wince.

She opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it; she didn't know what to say. Rose looked at the situation through her sister's eyes and understood, but looking around her room, she shrugged at her sister's suggestion, Rose didn't like it here, she adored it. She didn't think she could just get up and leave.

"I don't know, Lily I-

"You don't know!? Rose I'm your sister! If this is about Damian then-

"Lily, there's someone here for you; he goes by the name Mark."

The two girls turned their heads to the door and Lily nodded at Damian standing there, he had a neutral look on his face.

"Okay, one second-

"He's been waiting for quite a while now."

Lily stared at him, her left eye twitched slightly; Rose knew she only did that when she was irritated. After what seemed like forever she finally got her bag and kissed Rose's cheek.

"Think about what I said, okay?"

Rose nodded and watched her leave the room, not even giving Damian a second look. She watched Damian, who was looking down the staircase and only after what sounded like the front door closing did he walk in, close the door behind him and sat opposite her on the bed, cross legged.

It was silent, the atmosphere felt awkward and Rose felt it clinging to her, she let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in. Had Damian heard what Lily said? Of course he did.

He was staring at her and she had to look away, his gaze was so intense and it seemed as if he was looking right through her soul.

Finally, he reached out for her bandaged hand and intertwined their fingers, he tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and she heard him sigh quietly.

"Did you hear what she said?" Rose asked her voice quiet.

He nodded, "do you want to go?"

Rose's eyes filled up with tears and shook her head, "is that bad?"

Damian shrugged, "probably, but she can't force you to move out if you don't want to," he replied.

She nodded and let out a shaky breath. Looking back up at him, she saw him lean forward and place a soft kiss on her lips, she kissed back and it lingered for a moment, then he pulled back and after kissing her cheek too.

He put his arms around her and held her there, just like they did when he first found her in that cell. Rose did the same and closed her eyes against his shoulder.

"God, I missed you," he breathed out, his head in her hair.

She bit her lip to stop herself from tearing up and only nodded.

"Rose, when I saw you there, in Metropolis, I thought...for a second I really thought-

"Stop," she interrupted him, placing a finger on his lips, "you didn't loose anything, I'm alive, right here. Whatever happened happened. That's just how it went."

He frowned, "yes, but you're hurting," he said.

Rose actually smiled, "I'll be okay, and it's just pain."

Damian rolled his eyes, "just pain, of course," he smiled anyway and they lay there for hours, Damian holding onto her so tight in fear that she'd disappear in a puff of smoke any second.

...

Rose didn't go back to school the next week, or the week after, or the week after that. Damian didn't want her to, Lily didn't want her to and Alfred discouraged it. Frankly, Rose wasn't bothered to face the stares she'd get there and agreed to stay home for as long as she needed, secretly, she just wanted to see if anyone from school would come up and see her, specifically Jane.

Of course, she didn't, and Rose went to sleep every night in hope of a text from her or a missed phone call, she may be angry at Jane, but she wouldn't deny that she missed the girl. They had been best friends for as long as she could remember, right back to when they were crawling around the floor.

Colin and a few others from the care home visited her often too, she enjoyed it most though when it was just Damian, herself and Colin there, they would talk for hours and hours about the most trivial things, she once heard Alfred laugh at the trio when bringing Rose food, "you three just never run out of things to laugh about, do you?"

They could only grin at each other in response.

She sighed and sat up in her bed which she hadn't left for weeks now, her legs weren't fit for walking yet, Alfred had said, and she reached out for her hair band by her bedside. It was a Saturday morning, so Alfred was probably down stairs making breakfast, Tim was sleeping in and Damian was up and probably doing some homework, he always did homework early in the morning.

Then the door of her room opened and Bruce, Tim and Damian walked in behind each other. Rose quickly tied her hair up and smiled at the three of them.

"Morning," she said.

None of them replied and Rose's face fell, something was wrong. She remembered the last time this happened and frowned, last time Bruce had told her that her father's office had been wrecked, what now?

"Rose, we have something...awful, to tell you," Tim told her, sitting at the end of her bed.

At least he's straight to the point, she thought.

Damian was frowning so harshly it looked as if his eyebrows would dig right down to the tip of his nose. She would've laughed it they weren't in the current situation.

"Which would be...?"

"Yesterday, I stayed up all night and looked over the possible people that could've betrayed you," Bruce said, not looking at her in the eye. "I had an idea on who it might've been since the start, but yesterday I become positive of it."

Rose's hands were shaking underneath her bed covers; she bit her lip to stop it from trembling.

"Rose, I'm sorry to say this but, the person who betrayed you and your family was Jane Matthews."

They looked to her for her reaction, probably expecting her to lash out or scream and cry, but she couldn't, couldn't believe it.

"You're...this can't be true," she said, her breathing slightly rough now.

Bruce shook his head, "it is, Rose. Batman and Robin interrogated her about it yesterday."

Rose clenched her fists to stop them from shaking and nodded at him.

"You probably want to know why she did it, right?" he asked and Rose shook her head; she didn't care, but knew he was going to tell her anyway.

"You can come in now," Tim yelled to the closed door.

Rose's head snapped up and she frowned, the door opened and a beat up looking Jane walked in, her pixie hair a mess and eyes bloodshot with tears.

The others left, Damian giving her a look which probably meant 'I'm just outside if you need me.'

The door slammed shut. The wind howled outside, the curtains rustled because of it. The clock ticked, on and on. Rose let out a deep breath and kept her eyes off of Jane. She didn't understand why they had to bring her to Rose; she didn't want to look at her father's killer.

"Rose," her voice was dry, broken, but Rose didn't look up. "Will you listen?"

She sighed and nodded, wanting to get this over and done with, Jane was always good at getting away with things, she was good with words, persuading people to do things for her.

"First of all," she stopped and let out a sob, "I'm sorry, for everything."

Sorry.

She's sorry.

Suddenly she remembered something that Damian had said to her a few months back, "everyone says things, but you can never know if they mean it, mean it from the bottom of their heart."

Rose understood what he meant completely now.

"And I know I screwed up, and you'll never talk to me again, but I didn't just do what I did because I wanted to."

She frowned, "then why did you?"

Jane let out another sob and Rose almost reached out and hugged her, hearing Jane cry was worse than drowning a new born kitten.

"They knocked on my front door one day, told my mom they wanted to see me but I was at school. When I got back they were sitting in my living room, feet on my mom's coffee table and drinking my dad's beer out of my dad's cups. They were ordering my mom around as if she was some sort of slave and dad wasn't there to help the situation so-

"What's the point in this?" Rose said, slightly annoyed.

Jane seemed a little taken back and her mouth was still open. She closed it and coughed awkwardly, but it sounded as if she were choking, Rose realised she was trying to stop herself from crying anymore and her gaze softened.

"They...they- the men, they wanted me because they somehow found out I was your best friend, they wanted me to tell them everything about you, your family, your grades, your mom and your dad. They wanted all your dads work, his experiments and antidotes and all the rest."

Rose had a vague idea who these 'men' were.

"I told them I wouldn't say anything, that I wouldn't ever do such a thing to you, but then they...they...they hit mom so hard, so hard she fell onto the ground and broke her wrist, they pulled her hair and made her scream, I told them to stop, tried to make them stop, but they wouldn't let go of her, they said that they'd do that and worse, and make me watch," her voice had gone quieter, softer, but not in the way Rose wanted to ear.

"They said they'd make sure dad never came back, ever, if I didn't cooperate."

"And what would you get out of all of this?"

"Dad will never have to leave again, and we'd get a bigger house and mom would get a job."

"Has any of this actually happened?"

She shook her head sadly, tears streaming down her face.

"I refused to tell them anymore after the promises they made were never fulfilled, but they beat us if I didn't listen to them," Rose believed her on that, she felt as if Jane's injuries were yelling out at her now, "and I had to tell them Rose, I had to otherwise all of us would die."

Rose could only stare at her, she didn't know what to say, she understood, but Rose knew that if she were in her position she wouldn't ever give in if it meant the life of Jane's father.

"You aren't ever going to forgive me, are you?" Jane whispered.

Rose fiddled with the bed covers and kept her eyes down, Jane sniffed loudly.

"I know how much he meant to you Rose, and you won't ever understand how sorry I am, I haven't slept properly since that night and I won't ever."

"It's over Jane; they won't bother you and your family again."

They stared at each other for a while, Rose felt every memory she had with Jane flash before her eyes, starting high school, Jane sticking up for her, Jane's first date and kiss, gossiping till three am about it, crying on each other's shoulders, spilling out secrets to one another, Rose almost let out a loud cry and screamed for Jane to come back, but she was leaving the room now and Damian had quickly walked back in, she opened her arms out, her eyes welling with tears and he held her tight, rubbing his hand up and down her back and kissing her wet eyelids.

"It's okay Rose, everything will be okay, you have me, I'm right here for you," he kept whispering to her, but she wasn't listening as she was already in a deep sleep, safely in his arms.

...

I might update by the next week, or the week after, I have exams all week next week so yeah. Sorry about that! But once they're done I will update much quicker!