Author's Note: Strap yourself in for another slow chapter. I'm easing into the action slowly. Just for the record... Are you guys enjoying these sappy chapters? I can crank 'em out in almost no time, but I'd just skip them overall if you guys weren't enjoying them. Just give me a shout out somehow if you are, so I'll know to include a few more in the future. I don't mind writing them if you don't mind reading them.

lsjgf: Thanks for the offer, and that's not an issue in the least. The issue I'm having is deciding on a main plot line. To be honest, I'm trying to avoid using comic continuities, because, in all honesty, they make no sense to me. But like I said, I don't think that the universes/continuities will really even be a factor. The only thing is that I need a way to contact you; if you had ann account on this site, it would be perfect, but a fake email address that you wouldn't mind posting online could work too. Please get back to me on that; I'd really appreciate it.

Now... For the chapter. I have no idea where I'm going to go from here, but I'm sure that I can come up with something. Cross your fingers.

When Bruce woke up, his arms were still wrapped around Diana. She was still sleeping, so he attempted to remain still to avoid waking her. He'd never imagined himself in this situation before; the Batman had dominated his life in one form or another since he'd been about eight years old. It had started slowly; after the loss of his parents, he'd spiraled into a long, dark depression that had consumed him for years. It hadn't lifted until years later, when he'd realized that he had to take matters into his own hands. By the time he'd become an adult, he knew what needed to be done. The criminal underworld had become to powerful to be challenged by a man... So he spent years traveling the world to learn everything that he could to learn everything that he could about the criminals. The one thing that he learned was that criminals were simple people. Most were simply greedy men who were willing to take what they wanted. Despite using the fear of others, they were easily scared themselves; it seemed that the only way to turn a man away from crime was to make him too scared to return to it. Bruce had decided that the best form that he could take to turn a criminals own tool against him was one of his own irrational fears: Bats.

Bruce began his crusade with noble intentions. He enjoyed great success in the beginning; he hit a nerve with his startling antics. But as he went on, he began to become lost; his hand in the creation of new criminals like the Joker and Two-Face (who had been one of his best friends) made him question himself. As he continued, the battle against crime slowly took over his entire life. He became more reckless, bordering on suicidal at some points. He remembered the time that he'd almost killed himself crashing the Watchtower into Earth to end the Thanagarian invasion. He shuddered at the memory. He was lucky to be alive; he'd planned on dying, and he would have if it hadn't been for Superman. Bruce realized that at that moment, he'd stopped being Bruce Wayne, and become Batman completely. He'd lost his inhibitions, and become willing to lay anything and everything on the line for his cause.

As he looked at Diana, he realized she'd changed everything. He bent his head down to bury his face in her hair; she shifted slightly, but remained asleep. He realized how lucky he was that she'd pursued him; who knew what kind of state of mind he'd be in right now if not for her. But on thought still haunted him...

He was starting a family. The thought sent shivers down his spine. He still couldn't believe it. Everything had happened so suddenly... He thought about his future for a moment; there was no way that he could raise a kid. The only basis he had for what a normal childhood should be like was the foggy memory of his parents, and the rest of his own shattered and fragmented childhood. Somehow, he imagined that Diana would have similar problems. Having been sculpted from clay and raised on an island inhabited exclusively by female warriors, he strongly doubted that she'd had a much more conventional upbringing than he had.

His musings were interrupted when he felt Diana begin to stir. She looked up at him and yawned sleepily. "Morning."

"Good morning." Bruce was glad that she was awake; her eyes were his favorite part of her. They were so big and blue... They clearly reflected her innocence and naivety that had come from growing up completely free of the influence of man's deception. When he looked into her eyes, it was like he could share some small piece of her innocence, and pretend that he had had a happy childhood. It was nice to be able to let his guard down for a change.

Looking into her eyes brought out strange things in him; all of the powerful emotions that he'd forced to the back of his mind for years suddenly hit him at full force. He'd subdued his feelings for years without realizing it, and become something entirely new; something that scared even himself. As he thought about it, the facade that he'd carefully built up over the course of years began to crumble, and a lone tear ran down his cheek.

Diana looked surprised for a moment, but reached up to wipe it away. "Is something wrong Bruce? Are you okay?"

"I've never been better."

Author's Note: Awww. So... As I'm sure you can tell, I wasn't feeling terribly inspired here. Hell, I didn't even have the characters get out of bed. So... I decided to, as usual, pull influence from a song. The references are much less subtle than usual, but I'm really going for an homage here, so that's the point. Kind of. But I think I might have actually made a bit of progress here. Only time will tell.

Those of you who were with me from the very beginning of Connections may remember a bit of an issue with chapters 16 and 17... Well, it's been brought to my attention that it's happening again. The chapters seem to be fading in and out of existence. I'm doing everything that I can to fix it, which, at the moment happens to be nothing. Last time the problem sorted itself out, so I guess I'll give it another day before I send for help from . Not sure why I'm writing about it here... If the problem persists, then you won't be able to read this either, and if it goes away, then there's no reason to be concerned, so... Fuck.

Now... About my updating schedule for next week. I have one more day of work tomorrow; unfortunately, it's another seven hour block, right in the middle of the day. That's killer, when you consider that my job mainly consists of bagging groceries and walking around a parking lot hunting down shopping carts with a fake smile on my face. Does bad things to the mind. So there may or may not be a new chapter up tomorrow. There should be; I can stay up late to write if need be, so no worries there. But... I got some new toys this week. The most important of them are a Zildjian China Boy High, and a piece of shit bass. The china won't take up too much of my spare time; I'll probably just throw that on the kit and mess around with it for an hour or two. The bass on the other hand... Let's just say that I love the sound of bass. I could play for hours on end. But... The thing is in pretty rough shape, and I'm planning to start repairs tomorrow. I'm going to have to get new strings (it only has two at the moment), and gut it to fix some faulty wiring, and tighten up some knobs. All things, considered, it plays pretty well. Except for the fact that I have to tune down to about C flat to keep the action under control. The point is, it could eat up some time, but don't you dare think that I've forgotten about you guys.

Yeah... That was supposed to be short. I kind of feel like I should add to the chapter... I have to get these notes under control. Yikes. I'm just going to post the damn thing before I write any more.