For the next few hours at least, I clung to that man, refused to leave his side for a single moment. For one of those very rare instances in my life, he allowed me too. Carried me around like a teddy bear, my arms hung around his neck and my small head in his shoulder. Bruce Wayne, the saviour of the day. The memory of that man was the man I would always cling to when I became frightened, rebel against him when I was angry, seek his protection when I was in trouble. I was both heartbroken and angry. Angry that even as a young child I had not been able to save my mother from the fate I completely believed had befallen her. There were no tears, not any more, I was becoming an adult that day, too soon in everyone's eyes. But the path for my life had already been set upon now. The injustice I witnessed that day was something I would never forget as long as I lived. If Superman was a good guy, how much destruction could the bad guys cause.

He sat there as the paramedics pulled glass from my hands, face and arms. Bandaging up my cuts, stitching up what needed stitching as I screamed in absolute terror and more pain that I had ever been exposed to at all. I wanted to hit out, lash out, but being pressed against his chest, where the streams of tears would ruin his shirt as he tried to console the screaming child in his arms. He couldn't even muster the words to tell me to be brave, he knew it was far too much to ask of me at that time. He let me scream out right up until the point I had nothing left.

Eventually, I fell asleep like that, only then did he pick up the phone. Even in my sleep I could hear his voice growling down the phone. The anger in his voice was given in to devastation at the thought he was now a single father to a child that carried his DNA. Of course, there were other children he had been responsible for before me. They boys who resided at Wayne Manor were brought to him to be trained in the ways of the Bat. Not me. Not his little girl. He had no idea how to deal with the upbringing of a female. Up until that age, I had been an angel, but now, now I was changing, becoming more like either parent that he couldn't deal with it.

"Alfred…I need you to come to Metropolis… Selina's daughter…." He gruffed down the phone and then I stirred, shaking my head in complete disagreement. "I know…just…. she has no one else…."

"Daddy…no…please…can't I stay here…" I remember begging him, being completely against the idea where Bruce would be anywhere but with me.

"Helena, it's for a little while, I'll be home, I need to find your mother." He placed a kiss on my cheek and even if I wanted to argue, I couldn't. There was one thing you never won with Mr. Wayne, was an argument. "I'm coming home, it'll be a couple of hours."

Still, I fell asleep again, before the old Butler arrived. He held me close for a little while longer. Those arms handed me over into the safety of the car, curled back up on the back seat, still holding onto that bear with all I had. The rocking motion of the car on the road and the hour journey worked wonders on soothing my adolescent mind, calming the terror that ran around in my soul.

When I woke, it must have been hours later, it was now dark, the bedroom I had at the manor was larger than the whole of my mom's home. Although there was a bed, I'd apparently decided to move myself to the window, being contained in the smallest of spaces made myself feel more than safe. That, and Ace the Doberman was always fast to come and take care of his young mistress. I was always his main concern. He sat by me, and eventually, he fell asleep next to me. It made me feel a little like home. That at any moment, my mother was going to come through the door and take me with her, hold me against her and not allow anyone else to ever take me away from her again. Even if that was my father or the Supergod of the sky who had taken her away from me. It was the sound of a car in the driveway that had woken me, stirred me from my sleep with the crunching of the grey gravel under its wheels. The bright orange glow making me stir in that nightmare I was now living. It was followed by footsteps and the sound of movement and talking through the manor. The noise of the footsteps travelled up the stairs and the creak of the door alerted me to the man in the doorway. Ace had moved to sit up, growling at his master in the doorway before he knew who it was.

"Ace, down…." He commanded and the dog did just that, but not before he pressed his nose to my face. He then hit the floor, tottering away from me.

But I didn't dare move, I knew it was Bruce as he sat by me, the smell of aftershave and worry emitted from his every pore as I turned over to see him, looking at the man who was now obviously broken as he hunched over, head in his hands, the greyness in the pitch black of his hair had only started to show. He was aging, not that I knew that, or cared about it. But looking back at it, he was so stressed by every single situation or battle he found himself in. His hand moved, pushing my hair back from my face as I stared at him with a blank expression, those blue eyes cutting through his stare.

"Helena…come here…." He literally grabbed me, placing myself on his knee as a small yawn escaped my small mouth. "You do know, that you have family here, we all….love and care for you….a lot." His lips pressed on the top of my head and for some reason, as if I was a baby again, he began to rock me on his knee. "Your mother….she's…."

"She's dead…isn't she…" I dared not look him in the eye at point, I just continued to stare forward at the light in the doorway.

"No….she's not dead….but she is hurt…in hospital…." He saw the look of my face light up a little no doubt. The fact that my mother was alive was something to fight for. To go home to her. "You're going to stay here…for as long as it takes for Selina to recover…."

"Can I go see her? " it was a stupid question, but one I had to ask of him as it was the one thing I wanted most in the world at that point in time. "Please…she could be scared…."

"Sweetheart, trust me, it takes more than a simple building collapse to scare your mother. But soon, I'll take you to see her." He chuckled a little and sighed, content to hold me in his arms for the rest of the night.