Disclaimer: I don't own batman or its characters.

K, this is gonna go back and forth between present day and flashbacks, so bear with me.

Italics are flashback

Normal text is present day.

"I don't know what's worse, losing her this way or knowing I would've lost her after she was born. I don't think I could go through that again."

Too late, Becca realized what she'd just said.

It took him a few seconds, but he caught up. "Again?"

Becca bit her lip nervously. "Um, yeah . . . I've kinda been through this before. Well, it was different, but kinda the same." When she saw he was still confused, she sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"Well, I guess now's as good a time as any to tell you." She took a deep breath. "This wasn't my first pregnancy.

It took a moment for Jonathan to respond to that. The longer he thought about it, the more he felt . . . well, weird. He didn't know what to say, and he didn't think he could say anything if he wanted to. Finally, his vocal chords seemed to work again.

"When?"

"About four years ago," she said quietly. "I was only sixteen, and I was—I thought I was in love."

". . . ."

"I wouldn't expect you to know anything about it, though," she continued. "How your heart speeds up every time you're around that person, how you feel all clammy and your tongue swells up so you can't talk to them. How they're the center of your world and you'd do anything for them."

Jonathan started to say 'I do understand,' but stopped after 'I' when he realized something. She didn't know he was in love with her. Even after all this time, she had no idea.

Well, he certainly wasn't going to tell her. "Well, are you going to tell me or not?"

"Oh, right. Um, I was sixteen, just starting high school, and that's when I met Him."

Becca was trying to find her locker so she could put her bag up and go get something to eat, but she had no idea where she was. "Maybe if I go this way . . . no, that's towards the theater. Ugh, this is impossible," she grumbled, not paying attention to where she was going. She let out a squeak of surprise as she tripped over something and went sprawling across the floor. "Okay," she groaned. "Owww."

"Oh, whoa, my bad," said an unfamiliar voice. "You okay?"

"No," Becca growled. "I am not "okay," but I would be "okay," if some people learned to keep their damn backpacks out of the middle of the hallwa . . ah. . ." Kneeling in front of Becca was a guy. A really cute guy. He was a little older than Becca with sandy blond hair and green eyes.

"Hey, I'm real sorry about that," he said again.

"Yeah, well you better be sorry," she said while getting up and reaching for her bag. She groaned when she saw everything had spilled out.

"Here, let me help," he offered.

"Thanks, but no thanks," she snapped, then squeaked in protest as he started helping her anyway.

"It's kinda my fault your stuff's all over the floor, so the least I can do is help you," he said firmly "Name's Josh, by the way," he said while handing her a book. She gave a small "thanks," finished picking her stuff up, and then stomped off to the cafeteria.

"I saw him a few days later. Turns out we had math together and the teacher put us at the same table. It was a mixed blessing, since I was still irritated at him, but he was good at math. He helped me and I kinda started to . . . . like him. After that, we started hanging out and after a while. . . . ."

"Becca! Hey!"

Becca turned around and smiled. "Hey."

"What's up?"

"The ground."

"Ha ha, very funny," said Josh as he gave her a playful shove. "Listen, I was wondering if you wanted to go see a movie with me."

"When?"

"This Saturday, is that cool?"

"Um, yeah, that's fine, I guess . . ."

"Okay, great! See ya this Saturday then. I'll pick you up at eight."

"We saw this stupid comedy and I remember thinking 'my god, this is so dumb; it's not even funny."

Jonathan raised a finger to cut off her story. "I'm sorry, but I fail to see how this relates to a pregnancy."

Becca sighed and rolled her eyes. "Do you wanna hear the story or not?"

". . . . ."

"Then shut up and be patient," she snapped. "I'm getting there, so hold your horses. Anyway, where was I? We saw a movie, he took me home, and before he left . . . .

"I would say I had a really great time, but that would be lying since the movie kinda sucked," Becca said while leaning against the front door of her parent's home. "Next time, I pick the movie."

"Okay, cool," said Josh while stepping closer towards her. "So . . . can I get a kiss goodnight?"

Becca pretended to look deep in thought. "Well, I don't know. I'll have to think about it." She moved a step closer and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I suppose one kiss couldn't hurt."

"We went out more and more after that, and then one thing led to another. After we . . . after my first time, I started feeling weird, so my mother took me to see a doctor. I can still remember the look on her face when we heard the news."

"Mrs. Thompson?"

"How is she doctor?" Becca's mother asked worriedly as their family doctor re-entered the examining room. "Is it serious?"

"Oh, it's serious, but it's not really an illness," he hesitated before looking at Becca, who sat quietly on the examination table, then looked back at Becca's mother.

"Your daughter's pregnant."

"How can you be pregnant!" Becca's mother screeched at her when they were back at home. "You're only sixteen, you're far too young!" she paced back and forth. Suddenly she stopped and the worried look disappeared. "You're not getting an abortion, that's for sure. I won't have my daughter cast into the fires of hell."

"I wasn't planning on getting one," said Becca. "Whether or not you approve I'm keeping her."

"Her?"

"Yes, her," said Becca angrily. "Were you even listening? The doctor told us it was a girl."

"Oh. Well. Her. Well obviously you'll have to give the baby up for adoption once she's born."

"What? I can't do that, that's not fair to her!"

"For goodness sake Rebecca, you're too young to raise a baby!"

Becca stood up and glared at her mother. "I'm not giving her up! I'll quit school if I have to and I'll get a job, but I won't just abandon her!"

"You'll do no such thing! No daughter of mine is going to drop out of school! If you do you are not staying in this house!"

"Fine!" She stomped towards the door.

"Just where do you think you're going?"

Becca glared one last time and yelled "I'm going to Josh's!" and then slammed the door shut.

"When Mom cooled down she came to Josh's to get me and we talked it out. She agreed to let me keep my baby and after that things went pretty well. I was nine months, literally minutes away from going into labor, when I had my first big fight with Josh."

Becca blinked in surprise. "What?"

Josh was kneeling down in front of her with a ring box in his hand. "You heard me; I'll say it again. Rebecca Thompson, will you marry me?"

". . . . . No."

Josh's hopeful expression vanished. "Why not?"

"I'm not getting married at sixteen," she sighed.

"You're having a baby at sixteen."

"That's different," she sighed. "Look, I just don't think I want to get married right now. I don't know If I ever want to get married."

Josh looked like he'd been slapped in the face. "All that for nothing," he said more to himself than to Becca. "I do all this," he gestured around his parent's dining room, which had black candles and black and red roses everywhere. The table was set to resemble something out of an old romance movie, candelabra in the middle of the table and rose petals strewn over the table. "I get you a ring," boy, did he ever. The diamond on the ring was huge, beautifully cut and set in a white gold band. "And it's not good enough for you."

"Josh, stop it," Becca snapped. "It's nothing against you, so stop being stupid."

"Oh, so now asking the girl I love to marry me is stupid?" he snapped back. "Gee, thanks a lot, love you too."

"Shut up, you know what I mean!" she said irritably. "It's not you, all right?"

"Oh, let me guess: "It's not you, it's me?""

"Yes, exactly," she said while running her fingers through her hair. "You are the sweetest boy I've ever met. Any girl would be lucky to have you, and I'm sorry, but that girl's not going to be me. I don't want to get married; I'm not ready for that yet."

Josh stood up and pocketed the ring box. "So, what, you're going to be a single teenage mom? If you do that you might as well stamp "whore" on your forehead cuz that's what people will see you as."

It was Becca's turn to look angry. "Whore? Oh hell no! If anything people will see me with my fatherless daughter and think "Poor thing, such a shame to see such a pretty young thing raising that baby all alone; the father probably ran right when he heard the news."

"Hey, don't you even say that!" Josh said while balling his hands into fists. "I ain't like my old man, okay? When you came to me and told me you were knocked up, I stayed by you! Don't you ever compare me to a deadbeat dad!"

"Then don't call me a whore! God, you are something else, you know that?" said Becca as she stood up and grabbed her sweater off the back of her chair. "You know what? Fine. I'm out of here."

"Where the hell are you going?"

"Home!" She snapped. She took two steps towards the door before her water broke.

"Josh's parents came downstairs to see what all the yelling was about and when they saw me going into labor they took me to the hospital and called my parents. After what felt like a lifetime of pain later, I'd given birth to a beautiful baby girl. Josh and I had agreed to name her Reesa after his grandmother. When it was all over I just wanted to hold my baby, but I fell asleep and the nurse took her from me." Becca had to stop and wipe her eyes. "That was the last time I ever saw her. When I woke up and asked for my baby girl the nurses said Josh had taken her to my house, but when Mom and I got home Josh wasn't there. Dad said Josh never came to the house. I went to his house, but he wasn't there and neither was Reesa."

Becca wiped at her eyes again and gave Jonathan the saddest most pitiful look he'd ever seen. "He took her; He took our daughter and disappeared off the face of the god-damned earth. I looked and looked for them, but they were gone." She stopped wiping the tears away and they flowed down her cheeks. "It's been four years and I still don't know where she is."

Becca expected him to roll his eyes and tell her to stop being dramatic. She expected him to tell her off for "wasting his time with some pointless story."

She didn't expect him to wrap his arms around her, rest his chin on the top of her head and say quietly, "Even I'm not that heartless."

"Yeah right," she sniffed. "You get a kick out of watching people get scared."

"Fear and sorrow are two totally different emotions," he countered. "A person's fear intrigues me, to say the least, but I have no interest watching them cry if it's not out of fear."

"Oh, so if they were crying because they were scared then it'd be okay?"

"Naturally."

"And I thought I had problems," Becca muttered while closing her eyes and leaning against him.

A/N: There, I updated! Halle-fricken-luja