So, I logged onto my email today and oh my gosh I had reviews! You guys are awesome! Thanks to HeyNowYa, coco181, Belle de Sainte Ange, and Sandra. You guys seriously made my day, and inspired me to sit down and write chapter two! I hope you like it! And please please please leave me some love in the form of a review =) let me know what you like and what you hate, I'm open to any suggestions!

Oh…and I own none of the characters. I am just borrowing them for my own enjoyment.


The doctor does not look surprised when Bane enters the infirmary, Talia clutched protectively to his chest. He sends the hulk of a man he helped back to life a sad smile and motions to the empty cot in the middle of the room. Her protector lowers her onto the bed, letting her down so softly the doctor pauses in gathering his instruments to watch them.

He remembers the first time he saw Bane; he had been close to death then. Half the size he was now, sickly, and so full of infection that the good doctor's first thought was that he would not make it through the night.

Bane had surprised him, though. He had survived the first night and dozens after that. The mask that now covered half his face was of his invention. His first prototype was much less…barbaric than the one Bane wore now. It had been Ra's al Ghul's idea to make it appear more menacing.

It will make others fear him, it will make them think twice before challenging him.

The doctor had done as al Ghul had wished, though he disagreed vehemently with the idea. Yes, it made his enemies fear him, but it also made everyone else fear him for no reason.

Everyone that is, except for Talia.

"How did she break her arm?" the doctor asks Bane quietly. He moves to her side and sends a wary glance to her protector. He stands at her side, towering over him, as if daring him to hurt her.

"Her father broke it while they were sparring." He answers. Even with the mask distorting his true voice, the doctor easily picks up the rage in it.

"Was it an accident?" he questions, taking the arm in his hands as gently as he would pick up a butterfly's wing.

Bane does not answer.

The old doctor does not need any more information. He knows. He has known for a while now. Even though it is not his place, he cannot help but feel pity for the girl and anger for Ra's. He is only a doctor. He is not a fighter; never has been, never will be. He simply waits in his office for the next member of the League who has been injured. It is a common occurrence in the base.

Gently he examines Talia's arm. The skin is not broken, thankfully.

"It is a clean break." He tells Bane, turning in his chair to gather the supplies to fit her with a cast. "The cast will stay on for six to eight weeks. I forbid her from any kind of strenuous activity until this heals. And I mean that." He sends her guardian a pointed look, and he sees the look of relief sweep over the man.

Obviously, he has been observing the same things as he has.

"The older she gets, the more brutal he gets." He muses to himself. He knows he should not be saying such things. The room very possibly is bugged, and the leader of The League has just heard him pass judgment. He smiles to himself at the thought. He does not even care. Ra's al Ghul will not terminate his employment (or his life). Ra's is a man who trusts no one; finding a doctor with as tight of lips and as skilled as hands as he would be next to impossible.


Bane is relieved when the cast is in place and Talia is back in his arms. The doctor has given him some pain reducers to give her for when she awakes. Thankfully, she remained asleep throughout the entire visit.

He makes his way back to his room and lays her down on his bed. He knows Ra's would be angry to find her sleeping somewhere other than her own bed, but he doubts the man will come looking for her anytime soon. When he hurts Talia, he usually makes himself scarce and leaves Bane to clean up his mess.

As he pulls the blanket up to her neck, she begins to stir. He sits on the side of the bed and waits patiently.

Her eyes open slowly and her eyelids flutter. She makes an attempt to sit up and Bane's large hand on her shoulder holds her still.

"Rest now; you've had a hard day."

Talia looks up at him and smiles.

"I can't remember the last time you let me sleep in your bed."

"Well, don't get used to it." He says, trying to sound serious. She only smiles more.

"You couldn't possibly banish me, could you?"

She can tell he is smiling under his mask by the way the skin around his eyes crinkle.

"Don't kid yourself, angel."

She laughs softly and once again makes a move to sit up. This time, she is startled by the large, gauze wrapped encasement on her arm. She stares at it, bewildered, for a moment. Then, as if all the day's events suddenly have rushed at her at once, she slumps back down. Bane sees the sadness overtake her and he is desperate to return her to the laughing girl he just had moments ago.

"I had the doctor make it blue, you're favorite color." He says, hopeful that it will earn a smile. It does not.

"How long will I have it on?" she asks. He answers six to eight weeks and she grimaces.

"Father will not be happy."

Bane can no longer control himself.

"If he did not want you laid up, he should not have put his hands on you."

She is taken back by the harsh tone of his voice, but cannot blame him. I was thinking the exact same thing.

"I don't understand it, Bane." She confesses, placing her free hand in his much larger one. The feeling of it wrapping around hers comforts her, and gives her the strength to go on.

"I'm trying as hard as I can, honestly, I am. Nothing is ever good enough. What if I cannot take his place? What if I'm just not leader material?" Saying her fear out loud brings tears to her eyes, and she looks away. She hates crying in front of Bane; she knows it upsets him.

He removes his hand from hers and wipes the tears that have fallen against her will from her cheeks.

"Angel, you are trying too hard. Look at everything you do. You have excelled as a student; you've almost mastered your third language. You are graceful and swift and courageous. Talia, you are perfect just how you are."

She finds herself blushing as he attempts to boost her ego. She does not deserve his support.

"But that's not what he wants. He wants me to be a fighter." Bane shakes his head.

"If he were to open his eyes, he would see he is taking your training from the wrong vantage point. You are small and quick. Brute force will never be on your side. He must teach you to find the weakness in your opponent and use it to your advantage, not to simply try and overpower them. He is a fool if he thinks training you the way he is will be successful."

She is surprised by Bane's rant. Usually, he does not call her father out on his mistakes. He is angry with him she tells herself. He has hurt me, and Bane does not like that.

For some reason, it takes that thought to make her realize what has really happened today.

She was not too slow. She was not looking at the ground. She was not tiring too quickly.

Her father had hurt her.

She suddenly feels physically ill as she looks at her bandaged arm. He had snapped her like a twig. He had taken one hand and broken her whole arm. It makes her realize that he is capable of far worse.

This is not the first injury, she knows, but it is the worst thus far. There have been bruises, concussions, sprains, exhaustion, but never a break. A break, Talia reminds herself, that was to be used as a lesson. She knows her father loves her, in his own strange way. He just wants her to be the best she can be. But does he know when he has gone too far?

Bane notices the she is staring at her arm. He fears he has said too much. He should have not have said what he did about her father (even though it's true). He sees her small form tremble and he begins to worry.

He scoots closer to her in the bed so that he is at her side and wraps a massive arm around her small shoulders. She turns to face him and buries her face in his shirt. He swears he can already feel the tears.

"Bane, I'm scared." She whispers, and his blood goes cold.

She has not said this since they were in The Pit. She had been nine, maybe ten. A fight had erupted, and Bane had just barely gotten them into their cell and locked the door before a crazed, half starved man had lunged at the door. He had shoved his arms through the bars and reached for her in the corner.

"I'll get you, little girl. I'll get you, then, I will rip you apart".

Bane had reached through the bars and strangled the man who had threatened her until he lay unmoving on the ground. He had gone to her and she had jumped into his arms and whispered the same words she had just said.

"What are you afraid of, angel?" he asks, though he already knows the answer.

"What…what if I fail him, Bane? What will he do to me?"

Far worse than he did today, he growls to himself. He gathers up the courage to say what must be said.

"Talia." With a tender hand he reaches for her chin and lifts her eyes to his. She looks to him as though he can fix all of the wrongs in her life.

"I think it is time we leave this place."

He waits for her answer, preparing his argument as to why she is no longer safe here.

"When can we leave?" The emotion on her beautiful face changes from desperate to determined. It is the same look she gave him when she realized her only way out was up.

And he knows she is ready to spread her wings again.