ONE FOUR
Hey guys, toooold ya I'd write the next chapter soon.;)
K, onto the reviews.:)
Reviews:
Random Guy: Haha, I'm glad you love the story, and HEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRREEEEE you go.:D
P.S: Thanks for the review THE Random Drunk Dude
clarkLover1: I'm sorry for staying away for so long, it's just that my grades aren't that good right now and yeeeaaahh. AWW THANK YOU! You're so nice, thank thank thank yooooouuuuuu
kimminightwing: Haha, sorry but you're going to have to wait a BIT longer for that.:D My grades are HORRIBLE, I admit it, ugh. Thank you, and I really hope I can pick em up.:)
kori and richard grayson: I'm glad you liked it.:) Thank you so much, and here is the next chapter.:)
lalala16: aww thank you! Well, I'm continuing it right now, for all you people's enjoyment :)
Chapter 1
Starfire # 1: Haha, very very true. It cannot be denied, and it will not EVER :P
Chapter 2
Starfire #2: You'll figure that out later, if you haven't already.:D
Chapter 5
Starfire #3: I like your idea, hm… maybe later in the story. I'll have to tweak it a little bit, but I'll most likely use it.:)
Chapter 8
Starfire #4: Oh, there'll be drama later on, trust me.:D
Chapter 11
Starfire #5: Oh no it's fine; all that matters to me is that you took the time to review this, so thank YOU. Lol, I'm supposed to be restricted from anything electronic because of my grades, but I still find a way around it.:D
Chapter 12
Starfire #6: Te gusto? YAY. Haha, I'm a Mexicana too :D
Chapter 13
Starfire#7: Thank you, and here is the next chapter.:)
Ok, those are all the reviews I saw before I posted this up, so I'm sorry if I didn't include anyone. It's just that I wanted to get this out as soon as I possibly could.
FOR YOU, ALL OF YOU.
Haha, anyways, on with the story.:)
Chapter 14
As soon as Kori had said ice cream, Marie was running to the car, bouncing up and down in front of the car door.
"Ice cream ice cream ice cream!" Marie kept chanting, and while Kori put Marie in her car seat, I sat down in front and waited for her to start the car.
"I know Marie, ice cream," Kori was saying, incredibly patient. "Now let me put on your seatbelt so we can go get ice cream, okay?"
I looked back to see Marie nodding and obediently staying still. As soon as the seatbelt was on, Marie started mumbling ice cream all over again.
"What's you favorite flavor Marie?" I asked her, turning in my seat to look back at Marie.
She looked up at me and smiled widely. Then she started talking. "I like mint n' chip and chocolate and rocky road and vanilla and strawberry and sherbet and cotton candy and…"
She kept talking, rattling off many flavors, which distracted her from the long ride to the ice cream shop. I looked to Kori, and saw that she was just looking straight ahead, an unreadable expression on her face. We had stopped at a stoplight and she was still staring ahead, so I just tapped her on the shoulder lightly.
I saw her tense up, and her eyes immediately closed her eyes. She let out a breath and opened them about five seconds later. (I swore I saw her eyes glow slightly later on when I was alone.)
She saw me and relaxed, smiling at me.
"Sorry, just was thinking again," she told me, pointing to her head. I nodded and smiled back, and in the background Marie was still naming flavors.
"… and pecan swirl and dark cherry and cookies n' cream and chocolate chip and…"
Kori pointed at me, getting my attention. Once she saw I was looking at her, she pointed to the radio. 'Watch,' she mouthed, turning on the radio again. Classical music came through the speakers once again.
Marie slowly stopped talking, and when she completely stopped, I looked back to see she was staring out her window, humming along to the music, looking as if she'd been doing that the entire time.
I turned back to Kori, the surprise and shuck clear on my face. She was looking at the road, and just smirked at me, probably knowing what my face was showing already. "Mhm."
I looked back to Marie and saw that she was still humming along to the music. She was entirely calm, no erratic movements, nothing. I settled back in my seat, impressed.
As soon as we arrived at the ice cream shop, Marie started bouncing up and down in her seat.
"Ice cream ice cream ice cream!" she squealed, jumping out of the car as soon as Kori had unbuckled her. I caught her before she could run, and she just climbed onto my back. One she was settled, she wrapped her arms around my neck and I automatically grabbed onto her legs so she wouldn't fall. Before I knew it, I was giving her a piggy back ride.
"Ice cream!" Marie announced, pointing to the shop excitedly.
I just chuckled and jumped a little, making Marie squeal and giggle, her arms holding on tighter.
I turned around back to where Kori was, at the car, Marie still giggling on my back. I saw she had a fond smile on her face, watching us both.
"Mommy!" Marie exclaimed, reaching out towards her.
"C'mon Kori," I told her, "Let's go get this monster her ice cream."
Kori finally responded, nodding with a small smile on her face as she walked up to us.
"Yes, let's."
~*WAYN*~
Kori had gotten a simple vanilla cone while Marie and I got mint n chip, and Marie had the leftovers of the ice cream still on her face when she was finished eating it.
She skipped to the car and waited at the backseat door for us as soon as Kori and I had finished our own ice cream, and called out to us.
"Mr. Robin! Mommy! Hurry!"
I chuckled. "We're coming sweetheart, be patient!" I called back. I saw Marie pout and I chuckled again.
Kori and I walked to her car and while Kori buckled Marie in, I sat down in the passenger's seat and waited patiently.
"Marie, guess where we're going right now," Kori told her while she was adjusting the car seat's bets around her. I turned around to look at them both, wanting to see Marie's reaction.
Marie looked up inquisitively, her eyes questioning. "Where?"
"Well, remember you wanted to go to the park last week…" she trailed off, looking at her daughter. Marie gasped and her eyes widened in realization
"The park!" She looked up at her mother, pure excitement in her eyes. "The park mommy?"
Kori grinned and nodded. Marie squealed and started jumping up and down in her seat. "Park park park park park!"
I chuckled and turned back around to face the front again as Kori sat in the driver's seat. As soon as the car started moving, I turned back around to the backseat.
"How about we sing some songs Marie?" I asked her, smiling.
Her face lit up even more, if that were even remotely possible. She nodded enthusiastically and I chuckled again.
And so that's how we spent to the whole drive singing nursery rhymes. We had all the windows down and we were singing at the top of our lungs, and eventually we had Kori sing along too. We had just been singing the wheels on the bus when we got to the park.
"…all through the town!" Marie started giggling uncontrollably, Kori following close behind. She had already parked, so she rested her head on the steering wheel, her body shaking because of her laughter. I started laughing too, and soon none of us could stop.
I was the first to have the laughter die down, so I calmed down as much as I could and looked over to Kori. She had leaned back on her seat and had both hands on her stomach, trying not to laugh again. She had a humongous grin on her face and she looked happy.
I smiled. What mattered to me was that the people close to me be happy. And right now Kori was happy, which meant that I was happy.
I was about to look away from her and outside, but then something on her head caught my attention.
"Hey Kor, do you have red hair?" I asked her. She had a strand of red hair on her head; the sun was hitting it and making it stand out.
Kori went still for half a second and she opened her eyes to look at me.
"No, I don't. Why?"
I pointed to her head. "You have a strand of red hair."
Her hands went up and covered the top of her head. "What?"
"You have a strand of red hair," I said slowly, raising an eyebrow.
"Where?" She asked me. She seemed calm, but I could sense she was slightly… panicky?
Why would she be panicked?
I shook my head, ridding the thought that always came up in my head every time I was around Kori. Instead I reached out and gently grabbed the strand of hair, in case it was attached to her head, and pulled it away from her scalp so she could see it. Before I had even pulled it to its full length Kori already had it between her fingers.
She examined it carefully before one of her hands reached up to her head again, her eyes never straying from the strand. She stayed like that for around two seconds, looking like she was weighing her options (options for what, I'll never know), before finally sighing and looking at me.
"I don't know where it came from honestly. I don't have red hair, I've always had black hair." She pulled at the strand, taking it away from her head. "See? Not mine. And plus, if I had red hair, Marie would have red hair too."
I looked back at Marie, who was staring at the both of us inquisitively. She had her head tilted slightly and her eyes were slightly narrowed. She looked at me then, her eyes looking straight at mine.
She had black hair, making her green eyes stand out from her light face. Kori black hair also, but had tanned skin, a skin color that she was born with, whereas Marie was light skinned, and she had blue eyes. Their only common physical appearance was the hair, I realized. They didn't have the same nose or the same eye shape. Marie had a slight widow's peak, while Kori didn't.
She looked like her father.
Thing was, who was her father?
I turned to Kori, who was looking at me with an unreadable expression. I looked straight into her eyes and calmly said, "Let's go outside, yeah?"
I got out of the car and went around to where Marie was sitting at. She looked up at me when I opened the door, an almost identical expression on her face as her mother. Her head tilted to the side, her eyes narrowing slightly once again. Wordlessly, she lifted her arms so I could take off her belts and carry her.
Once I had her out of the car and on my hip, I looked over to the driver's seat. Kori had her eyes closed, and she looked… pained. I closed the back door and went over to the driver's side, opening the door. Kori still had her eyes closed, but her face had smoothed out. It was a neutral expression.
She opened her eyes and looked over to Marie and me. Her face was calm, but her eyes couldn't hide what she was feeling. The emotional pain in her eyes shined through as she looked at me.
Marie seemed to notice her mother's mood, and she reached out a small hand towards her face. I leaned in and let her touch Kori's face, and as soon as her hand touched Kori's cheek, her eyes closed and she let out a breath.
I looked at Marie and saw her brow furrowed, clear concern in her eyes as she stared at her mother. "Mommy?"
Kori opened her eyes immediately, focusing on Marie. Her eyes softened as she looked at her, and she smiled weakly.
"Yeah baby?"
Marie just looked at her. She looked at me and then back at Kori, and finally back at me. Her eyes almost shouted, 'do something!' I sighed and put my free hand on Kori's shoulder.
"C'mon Kor, let's go to the park." I gave her a meaningful look and stepped away from the door so she could step out.
Kori sighed and stepped out, looking slightly stressed. She closed the car and nodded to herself. She started walking towards the play set, and so I followed her.
I've never been to the park for anything besides running, and even then I just focused on running. So I just followed Kori, standing next to her as she led us inside.
As soon as the playground appeared, Marie started bouncing up and down, excited. "Down down down!" she demanded, trying to get on the floor herself. I chuckled and put her down and she shot of like a rocket towards the swings.
I turned to Kori and gestured for her to follow me. I found a bench close to where Marie was playing and sat down, and Kori sat down next to me.
I sighed. "Look, I know I have no right to ask about this, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to. But what happened to Marie's father?"
She froze, looking at nothing and everything. She turned her head to look at me and I saw a smile twisted by regret and pain on her face. She laughed humorlessly. She looked down again and I saw a resentful smirk form on her face. "Nothing happened to her father. He's perfectly healthy, sane, and alive."
My brow furrowed. "Then why…"
Kori laughed humorlessly again. This time I detected some bitterness in her tone. "He doesn't know."
Realization dawned on my face. "Oh."
It was like a dam had broken, Kori just began to just let it all go. "He doesn't know. He doesn't even know he has a daughter Richard, and I know that he would be over the moon if he ever knew, but I just can't. I can't tell him. He had such a bright future ahead of him when I found out I was pregnant, and I knew that if I told him he would be happy — I know he would've, he always wanted to have children — but he would've abandoned everything he had going for him. He would've abandoned everything for me. And I loved him just too much to have that happen. So I left. That was four years ago, and even now it hurts to even think about him, to know that I'm the reason why he's broken, I'm the one that broke his heart. But I had to do it; I couldn't just stand by and watch him give up everything he had just for me. He had such a bright future Richard, so bright, you have no idea. And Marie looks so much like him—" She choked back a sob, but continued. "She acts like him, talks like him, and it hurts so much because I love him, I've always loved him, but I couldn't do that to him. I just couldn't."
She took in a deep breath and exhaled, trying to calm down. "And I try to keep myself in check whenever I'm around Marie because she's too young to understand any of this, but sometimes it's just so hard." She took a deep breath again and closed her eyes. She opened them again and looked at me in the eye.
"Please don't say anything to Marie. I don't want her to know about any of this, she's too young for it. I know I'll have to someday, when she starts asking questions, but for now I want her to have a childhood free of worries." She took both my hands in hers. "Please promise me you're not going to tell her anything," she begged me.
I nodded immediately. "There's no way I'm ever going to tell her anything of what you just told me. You're her mother, you have the right to tell her what you want and don't want to, not me."
Kori chuckled again, the bitterness coming back. "What?" I asked her.
She just shook her head, a bitter smirk on her face. "Nothing."
I just nodded and I looked over to the playground. Marie was sitting on one of the swings, staring at us. I nudged Kori and nodded over to where Marie was and she smiled, her face softening.
"You want to go now baby?" she called. In response Marie climbed off the swing and ran over to us, climbing in between us. She looked up at the both of us, gauging our facial expressions. Once she saw everything was fine again, she grinned and nodded, reaching for me.
I looked at Kori, wondering if it was okay with her if I carried her, but she was just looking at Marie with a sort of fondness only mothers can have. I figured it was alright to carry her, so I picked her up and stood up, Kori following close behind.
I put her in her seat, carefully buckling all the belts around her. After that was done, I got in the front and sat down. Kori was already in the driver's seat and as soon as I had closed the door she started the car and started to drive away from the park.
We soon arrived at Wayne Enterprises, and when the car had stopped I opened the car door and stepped out.
"Thanks for letting me go along with you Kor," I told her sincerely. I absolutely loved Marie, and spending time with her was just the best.
Kori nodded and smiled. "Don't mention it Richard. Marie loves you, so either way you'd be coming along." She turned in her seat to look at her daughter. "Marie, Richard has to go now, say bye," she said softly.
Marie looked away from the window, her eyes wide at where she was. She's never been here, I realized. That makes sense why she's looking around like that. "Bye Mr. Richard," she said, waving her little hand.
I smiled and waved back, and then turned to Kori. "I'll see you tomorrow then," I told her, and she nodded.
"Yup." She smiled at me. "Bye Richard."
I smiled back. "Bye Kori."
I stepped away from the car and watched as Kori started the car once more and drove away. I smiled to myself and walked over to my own car. Overall, today was a good day.
Ugh, I know, bad ending. But I had to end it somewhere didn't I?
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I REALLY liked writing this one, it was fun.:3
It's a miracle in itself that I'm updating right now, seeming as I'm currently in finals week and I have a BIG pile of work to do, but robstar591 encouraged me to finish this chapter now. So yeah, go thank her. She deserves it.:)
ANYWAYS
I've started posting updates on my stories and stuff on my profile, so you guys will know roughly when the nest chapter is coming up or how long I'm going to be MIA again.
(sorry bout that…)
Kay, back to diving into work.
ADIOS MY FRIENDS