A/N: I'd just like to thank my little sis for drawing the 'cover'. Thank you all for the positive reviews that I've been getting, it's nice to know people are enjoying it. Without further ado, voila! (Cheesy, yeah, but I couldn't resist.)

Chapter Four

"Karen! Get the infirmary ready right now!" Batgirl screamed the moment the zeta-tubes spit them out.

There was scurrying and confusion from the rest of the team.

"NOW!" Batgirl roared. She looked down at her friend.

He was growing paler each minute. He'd closed his eyes a while back, unable to combat the pain. He also began to mumble at about the same time. He was delirious. Each minute he was being carried that was another minute that blood was able to escape from his body.

Batgirl looked across at Robin. Together they carried their fallen friend. He was too heavy for Batgirl to carry alone, despite her above average strength.

Trailing behind them was Ellie clutching her younger brother close to her. He continued to sob helplessly into his older sister's shoulder. Subconsciously she petted his hair. He was so much bigger than the last time she had to do this.

"Jamie it's alright. Everything will be fine now. See, he's going to get better. These people are going to make sure that he's going to get better," Ellie said gently turning her brother's head so he could see that Nightwing was being taken to the infirmary.

Young Jamie nodded in understanding, but the tears continued to roll down. His sister set him down on the ground and he looked up at her. She had taken her mask off and was rubbing her eyes. It reminded him of his mother. Oh, how he missed her. And Daddy.

"What on EARTH were you thinking?" Shouted M'gann as she walked into the main hall.

Ellie looked up at the Martian. She really didn't want to deal with this right now.

"You could've been killed! Do you realize just how dangerous that situation that you put yourself into back there! And what's worse! You brought your little brother along! He's barely old enough to tie his shoes by himself and you take him into a place where he could've gotten hurt! Were you even thinking about him!?" The Martian screamed.

Ellie's eyes flashed. Who was this girl to give her a lecture?

"Of course I was thinking of Jamie! Everything I've done, I've done for him! I wouldn't have dragged him back from the past unless I thought it was absolutely necessary! I never even wanted to bring him with me in the first place!" Ellie screamed back.

There was silence. Even Jamie's sobbing stopped. M'gann was giving Ellie a strange look. It was only then did the girl from the future realize just what she said. Slowly she turned to the young boy.

His face was frozen in horror. His sister didn't even want him here. Now he really missed his parents.

He spun on his feet and ran out of the room. Where he was going Ellie had a vague idea, but she couldn't go after him now.

"What!?" M'gann for once was stunned almost speechless.

All the energy that Ellie had was gone now. She felt deflated. Everything was a lot harder than she thought that it would be. There was nothing that she could really do. For the first time in a long while, she wished for her parents. She sank down to the floor.

"I never wanted to bring him with me. I knew that it was going to be rough. I knew that this whole thing would be rough on him. But the situation wasn't much better back home. Our identities had been compromised and we were on the run. And we - I - did something and now they seek revenge. And their solution is to mess with the past. And our parents sent us back with the help of Dr. Fate."

M'gann felt a pang of pity for the girl. She truly didn't know what she was going through. She had her own insecurities, but those were dealt with. This girl had a person after her entire family.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know. What exactly did you do to cause them to come back?"

Ellie bit her lip. "I stopped their plans for taking over the world. I don't know why they latched on to me, it was a group of us, and my family who'd done it."

Her tears escaped.

M'gann sat down next to the girl. There was the weight of the world on her shoulders and she bared it alone. She wrapped her arms around the girl. M'gann was surprised at just how small the girl was. She couldn't have been any older than fifteen at most.

"Excuse me, if you don't mind my asking, how old are you?" M'gann asked as politely as she could.

"Almost fifteen," she said through her tears.

Poor dear. She is just a child, M'gann thought.

She just held the poor girl in her arms as the tears fell. She didn't know who this girl was, but at the moment she needed a friend.

Batgirl removed her cowl and pressed her head against the wall. This was her fault. She was the one who was stunned into doing nothing and made herself a target for the gun. Stupid. Rookie mistake. She banged her head against the wall. He had pushed her from the path of the bullet and took it for her instead.

"Dammit Dick, why did you have to do that?" She whispered. She hit her head on the wall again.

It was still sore from connecting her head with the ground, but that was the only thing that she could do right now. She was lost in her own daze.

RRIINNGG. RRIINNGG.

Barbara was shook from her stupor at the sound of her phone. She reached around and withdrew her phone from the utility belt.

"Ah, hello?" She said barely even looking at the caller ID.

"Barbara? Is that you? Where are you?"

Her father. This day was just getting better.

"Hey Dad. How are you?"

"Barbara, where are you? You said that you were going over to Dick's today before coming to the police benefit. You didn't show."

"Dad, I forgot, I'm sorry. I'm just caught up with Dick. The genius decided to do something stupid and the big idiot got himself hurt," Barbara forced cheerfulness into her voice.

"He wasn't trying to impress you was he?"

"No Dad. I don't think he was trying to impress me." No, he was just trying to save me.

"Barbara, could you come over to my apartment tonight? I could cook some Italian food that you like and we could talk about some things."

Barbara wondered what he could mean by talking. Something very important if he was actually going to make the Italian food. That usually meant something was on his mind.

"Alright Dad. See you about seven?"

"Seven. Bye. Love you Barb."

"Love you too Dad."

She hung up the phone. Again she banged her head against the wall.

"Uh, why me?" She cried up to the ceiling. There was no answer to her plea.

Slowly she got up from her spot on the floor and peeked through the window in the infirmary. Nightwing was lying on the bed with people hustling around him, carrying various medical implements. Bloody clothes were taken away from his body and clean white rags were brought into to clean the wound.

Karen looked up from the operating table. She connected eyes with her friend. A look of understanding passed between them. Karen whispered something to her boyfriend standing next to her before leaving. Barbara opened the door in order to talk with the heroine.

"How's he doing?" Barbara croaked. She was vaguely aware that there were no sunglasses on her face, but she didn't care.

"It's hard to tell. He's lost quite a bit of blood as it is. We've managed to extract the bullet from his shoulder, but the wound is difficult to close. Don't worry BG. We'll get him patched up in no time. He's a fighter. He'll be up and around and you'll be able to kick his ass again in no time."

Barbara smiled at her attempt for a joke. It faded just as quickly as it had appeared. She was weary, she was tired and now she had to 'talk' with her father. The universe was just against her wasn't it?

"Girl, get some sleep. You'll do no good if you're a half zombie. You've had a long day. Get rest, you deserve it. I'll get you when we're done."

Barbara nodded her head and headed off towards her room. She felt like a punching bag. Everything was sore, but what hurt most was her heart. It still bothered her that Dick had taken that bullet for her. They were partners, but he didn't have to protect her every single time. Although a small bit of her was glad he did. She doubted that she would be here right now if he hadn't.

She walked in her room.

"Damn you catch-22," she grumbled and flopped down on her bed.

There was a yelp of surprise from underneath the covers. Barbara sat up and ripped the covers down. There curled up in her bed was little Jamie. There were tears running down his face and he looked terrified and alone.

A corner of her heart melted. This little boy needed someone right now. She could be that someone. She held out her arms in a warm open gesture. She expected him to just wrap his little arms around her waist. She didn't however expect for him to crawl onto her lap and begin sobbing on her shoulder, gripping her tightly. She squeezed gently.

"What's wrong Jamie?"

He continued to sob.

"Jamie, you know that you can tell me anything. I'll be right here, I'll listen."

Jamie looked up into the red-head's face. He saw that she meant every word that she said. He burst into fresh tears.

"El-Ellie do-doesn't want-t me h-here," he choked out.

"Shh, shh. What makes you think that Jamie?" Barbara cooed.

"She said so! She-she said that she didn'n even want to bring me with her in the first place!" he wailed into her neck. Barbara rubbed the little guys back.

"Jamie, what was it like back home?" If she could get him off the subject, maybe she could find a solution.

"Well, there's me and Ellie, Momma and Daddy, and even though I ask like every day, still no doggie. I don't understand why, Granpa has one."

Barbara chuckled. This little boy had a real way with words. And somehow he wormed his way into her heart already.

"And we were happy. Daddy even promised to take me to see the elephants at the zoo. But we never did. Instead we moved. We move a lot now. I think we live in space now. I don't really know, I'm not allowed in certain rooms."

Barbara's eyebrows went together. Lived in space? The Watchtower? What did his family do?

"Anything else?" She prodded gently.

The boy looked at her before shaking his head and burying it deep into her hair. There was something he wasn't telling her, she could see. If she could just get him to open up.

"Nothing will leave this room, I promise Jamie. You have my word."

She took her hand and lifted his chin away from her. She gazed into his bright blue eyes. As she gazed into their loosely familiar depths, fresh tears spilled over from his eyes and he let out another moan and rested his face against her chest.

"Is this about today?" She asked.

She could feel his nod.

"What bothered you the most honey?" She could feel the warm wet tears soaking through her suit. She would have to change soon, with the blood and now tears. He didn't answer.

"Jamie? Tell me, what's wrong?"

Jamie pulled back for a moment looking into the girl's face. There was an inner struggle for a moment, but there was a victor.

"D-Daddy got shot!" He cried, before bursting once again into tears and buried his face into Barbara's hair.

TA-DA! Once again, please review.