When the light broke through the windows the next morning, much to my surprise, I was still wrapped up in those big arms of his. Curled up like a cat on his chest as he slept on the bed of my new bedroom. In my sleep, he must have managed to change me out of the dust ridden clothes and placed me into one of his old t-shirts, something, that as I grew older, I would come to cherish and hold onto for my entire existence. I sat up, looking around the room, wanting to be up but not wanting to miss another moment with the man I thought literally hung the moon.

"Helena…go back to sleep…it's too early…you have to go to school…." He assured me with that frown on his face that I often pulled when I needed more sleep than I could get.

"I can't sleep anymore…I need to eat…"

"Eat…yes…you're right…food is important…. when you're a child…" he moved and picked me up, taking me through the house and down to the kitchen where there was already a boy sitting at the table, he was at least fifteen, older than I was. But still, he was eating away at the table, as if he belonged there. "Helena, this is Jason…."

"Is he Robin?" I looked at the new boy in my life with an annoyed scowl. As if he was taking up my mantle, my job, my attention in life.

"She knows…the big family secret…. a five year old…." His tone was annoyed that someone else knew the family secret, one that was usually kept in the walls of the manor.

"I'm eight, actually…." I could feel my glare cutting through him with a stark reminder that this was my home and he was simply there by my father's good graces That's when he placed me in the chair and smirked, grabbing a coffee and leaning on the kitchen bench. "Where's Dickie? I thought he lived here."

"Always with Richard Grayson, one day, Miss Wayne, you'll marry that boy and carry on your father's legacy…" Alfred's voice cut through the room as he placed my pancakes in front of me with a small smile. He may have hated my mother, but I reminded him of Bruce, so I was allowed in the house and more importantly, in his good graces. "Now eat your breakfast…"

"I won't marry any boy, I'll grow old and live with cats…lots of them…" My fingers picked up a fork and I began to devour the food in front of me.

"Well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree Miss Wayne." Alfred chuckled as did Bruce, for some reason, I was hilarious that morning. Maybe because they were completely unused to having a young girl in the house who had more confidence than her mother and father combined.

Then the phone rang in the kitchen, Dad picked up the belling handset as it cut through the morning peace. I watched him, watched his body language change from the relaxed domineer to an annoyed stance, standing up straight as he listened and took in every single piece of information. There was Batman, there was the Dark Knight. Not Bruce Wayne. He placed the phone down and looked at Alfred with a glare. "You need to get Helena ready for the day, she needs to come with me to the hospital."

"Is mommy okay?"

"Yes, Helena, she is." His body knelt infront of mine, that strong hand holding one of my small ones, engulfing it completely. "But we need to go and see her, and, I need you to be brave again Helena. You are a strong girl."

I nodded and in that nod was a promise as I got up and followed Alfred to my room, having him pick out the most appropriate outfit for the heir to the Wayne fortune. That black pinafore dress, white tights and blouse, patent shoes and pea coat. That was Helena Wayne, not Helena Kyle.

Gotham General was swarming with the press, waiting to get a glimpse of any commissioner or socialite who would make their way to visit loved ones effected by the tragedy that had hit Metropolis. We were fair game, complete fair game. They would love nothing more than a dishevelled Bruce Wayne and his bastard daughter in the hospital. There was a growl as he parked up the sports car, his face contorted before he took a deep breath, a smirk in my direction. He reached back and grabbed the bunch of lilies from the back seat.

"Helena, are you ready to say hello?" He asked me as he handed me the flowers. "These people are going to be very interested in who you are. Helena, you just smile and wave to them." He got out of the car and came around to my side, plucking me out of the car in his arms, making his way down through the flashing photography and shouts from the press. I was in shock, never had I been exposed to that amount of attention anywhere in pubic. I had been a secret up until that point. No one knew I existed until I was announced on the back of my injured mother.

"Mr Wayne…. I suppose you're here to see Miss Kyle…" A blonde lady doctor made her way towards us, smiling briefly at me and taking her gaze back to my father. "She's awake, she's a little confused, but she's well. Asking about her daughter, who I guess, is this young lady."

"Yes, it is." He agreed as she walked us through the clinical hospital, people were littered all over still, waiting for attendances, all looking rather ill and most of which were injured and bleeding. It was at that point in time that I had decided to fight against this, to be the justice that no one expected her to be.

We reached her room, Bruce placed me on my feet, holding tightly onto my hand as he opened the door, the beeping of machines and the small noise of a television in the corner alerted me to the fact that she was awake, taking in the aftermath of the events that we had been exposed to. As I peered from behind his legs, I saw her, bruised and cut up, but sitting upright a bright smile on her face as she saw her daughter.

"Kitten!" She wanted to stand, I could see that, but she was stuck as she winced at that small movement to swing her legs over the bed. "Come here…."

"Selina, you need to stay in bed. The Doctor…."

"Never mind what the Doctors say, Bruce, just give me my daughter." She glared a little but I moved, jumping up on her bed to sit by her, curled up with my dark hair spread on her shoulder as she held me tightly against her frail frame. "Oh sweetheart, I thought…." She gasped as she held onto the tears, choking a little in her breath. To me, beat and bruised in bed, she was still my mother, still the most beautiful creature in the world. No one would ever change the view I had of her.

"I'm okay mommy, I promise, I was brave."

"I know, you always will be, you are your fathers daughter." She kissed my head and held me tightly again. "I'm sorry, sorry I couldn't protect you."

"I'm sorry mommy, sorry I left you…"

"Helena…" Bruce mumbled and sat on the bed next to us, awkwardly taking my mother's hand and placing the other on my hair. "It's not your job to protect us, it ours to protect you, it's not your fault"

"But it is, just like you…." I looked at him, my brow furrowed, not able to understand the difference between adult and child. "I couldn't do it, I ran…"

"You did what you had too. We are both alive, well, and you are safe with your father."

"When are we going home Mom?" I looked at her. There was a silence as she looked between the two people in front of her, a look of upset on her face.

"Hel, baby, we need to talk, your father and I." her face upset but with a fake sense of calm about her as I looked back at the man in question. "I want you to be strong and brave a little longer. Mommy has to stay here a while."

"Then I'll stay with you…" I begged her no to disappear on me like she had before a few times.

"You have to go to school, you have to sleep in a normal bed and have a safe life." There were tears again from her as she refused to look at the face of her confused daughter. Her face became red and blotchy as I began to panic a little. There was something they weren't telling me at all, and I was becoming angry. That little temper began in my chest.

"No! No I won't!" I shouted at her and wriggled from her grasp, pulling away from her and Bruce's grasp, heading for the door faster than they could both react, running with all my might down the corridors, hearing the growl of a voice behind me as he ran after me, but I was too fast and he was becoming a little too old to keep up with an eight year old temper fuelled girl. I wasn't looking where I was going, my face red and full of the wet tears where I had cried out the anger on my escape. I tumbled a little, falling flat on my face. Completely defeated and embarrassed as I growled into the tiles on the floor.

"Hey, kid, what's wrong?" Richard Grayson, the voice from beyond, placed his hands under my arms and pulled me up, that face the one I would always see as my knight in shining armour, the one constant and unchanging figure in my young life "Nothing can be that bad Hel."