Chapter 47: Can't Escape Chaos

A/N: NEW CHAPTER. Damn it's been a long time! So we were right about having written this awhile ago but not publishing it because of some issues (actually NOT the laziness but something else that we quickly solved). To make up for it, this chapter is kinda long. But HERE IT IS. This chapter says it's Easter (yeah...awhile ago) so sorry about that...so the next few chapters may be a few months behind (and we skipped Father's Day cuz we couldn't find time to write...sorry...) but please ENJOY THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF A FAMILY (wow cheesy...)

Things have changed.

*Thump*

Nothing is ever going be the same ever again.

*Boom!*

The screaming. The yelling. It needs to end.

*Scratch. Scratch*

Stop scratching your eyes out.

I don't need anyone.

I'm fine on my own.

I'm willing to sacrifice anything, anyone, as many people as necessary...to save the world.

But in the end...I saved nobody...and everyone died.

"Why don't we start from point zero?"

Bruce's POV

It's smaller than I am, reaching my chest though. It's a female.

She is in all black, easy to hide in the shadows. Her entire body is covered, but there is no armour under that black suit she is dressed in. Her mouth is covered and her eyes are hidden by dark tinted goggles above the mouth mask and her hair is tied up, with her bangs falling down to her face. She is holding two swords in her hands that have tips like diamond.

I narrow my eyes.

"Is this what Ra's has been doing? Taking young teenagers and turning them into weapons." The girl stops walking just beside Talia.

Talia smiles and brushes her fingers on the girl's shoulder. "It took some time to perfect the serum. Had to test it on a lot of subjects before giving it to her."

"She's quite small, isn't she? But I assure you, beloved. She won't disappoint." Talia frowns and moves closer to the girl as she whispers in her ear. "Alright little one. Let's see what you can do, and no cheating."

The men surrounding me move back as the girl steps forward, gripping onto her swords.

She gets into a perfect stance and charges.

She slashes with a sword but I dodge and move backwards.

Mind control.

But the last time they used mind control, they used it on the league. But why now on a random girl?

I slide backwards, but she jumps up and kicks me in the chest, sending my back flat on the wall. There's blood dripping down my chest.

I grit my teeth and look at the gash across my chest, then look up at her.

Whoever she is, she is obviously trained. Whether it's the effects of the serum, or if she was like this before.

I'll need to block the blades. I can't just keep dodging, but I need to keep her busy and all eyes on me until Damian wakes up.

I bring out two batarangs from my belt and get into a better stance.

She swiftly launches towards me with her swords in hand. A double wielder.

As my batarang clanks on her swords, I can see Damian starting to stir on the floor. "So tell me Talia." Have to keep their eyes away from Damian. "This was the one who did that to Riddler." I swing my arm forward, and the batarang scratches at her forehead.

Talia nods. "Yes, of course. But, that little test went wrong...she was a little too aggressive and went out of control." She says casually.

The girl launches once more, metal clanking and blood oozing from the both of us.

I clutch my stomach in an attempt to stop the oozing blood. I notice that she also has her own wounds and scratches, and a rather large gash across her side. But it is as if it doesn't bother her.

My eyes dart to the left, where Damian is already getting up.

Quickly, I run towards him and dodge the swords. I pull out my grappling gun, grab Damian, and move towards the window.

"No. Let them go." I hear from behind us as I climb out the window with Damian.

"Uhnnnn."

"Robin. Can you jump?" He nods.

We both jump towards the plane.

****Break****

Chris' POV

"Goooood morning Chris!" My brother's voice echoes in my head as I slowly wake up.

"Today is Easter Sunday, the day that Jesus blah blah blah blah blah..." He continues to talk in that cheesy news reporter voice, and my brain immediately shuts it out.

When I fully wake up, I sit up and look at my brother, who is just standing by my bed, looking down at me.

"Today's Easter?"

"Yeah..."

"Oh...oh yeah." Huh, I guess I forgot. Well it's not that big of a holiday for me. Not like Thanksgiving or Christmas or anything like that.

"Get up!" He pulls me out of bed, and at first I resist but then I let him drag me out of bed. If he hadn't then I probably wouldn't have gotten up till 10. Which is not necessarily a horrible thing, but I tend to be lazier throughout the day if that's the case.

We walk, side by side, down the stairs. When we're close to the bottom, he races to the counter connecting the main room and the kitchen and picks up a glass of something cream in color. He comes back and approaches me just as I get to the bottom step.

"Here's some eggnog. I made it myself using a recipe from Babs, with my own personal touch."

I raise an eyebrow at him. "You do know it's Easter, right? Not Christmas?"

"Oh I know. But Easter. Easter bunny. Eggs. Eggnog. I just made a logical connection. Wouldn't eggnog be a more logical drink to have on Easter than Christmas?"

I chuckle at him as I take a seat at the counter chair. "Dork."

"But you love dorks, therefore you love me." He gives me a silly grin and I chuckle.

"Carter stop laughing it's hurting my ears." I turn to the steps to see the bruise-decorated Damian descend from them.

"Yikes. What happened to you?" I ask.

"None of your business Carter." He glares right at me, and I shiver a bit because the entire air of the room just got a bit gloomier.

"Somebody's in a bad mood." Dick says. Damian's glare moves to Dick, and it doesn't waver until Damian gets to the front door.

"You know you're in pajamas right? You should change."

He doesn't even bother to look at me as he speaks with an extra harshness. "I know I'm in sleepwear, Carter. I'm no idiot. I'm just going outside, but staying on the premises. Alfred will wash my clothes anyway."

I roll my eyes as he exits the house to do God knows what.

"Well Damian's obviously grumpy." I state matter-of-factly.

Dick rolls his eyes. "You think that's Grumpy Dami? Grumpy Dami almost sliced off my hand when I accidentally beat him in a video game while I was trying to cheer him up."

I laugh. "Well done."

"Thanks." He says sarcastically. "Sooo...what are you going to do today?"

"Dunno. Chat with friends. Watch Netflix. Eat food. The usual." Wait...actually I want to try something new. I need to go outside. But what would I even do...? "Actually, I think I'll walk around Gotham."

He raises an eyebrow. "Since when do you enjoy leisurely walks?"

"Never. But I feel like I could use one. Just for some peace. Maybe an adventure will find me. Who knows what Gotham could bring me."

He thinks over what I said for a bit, then he looks me in the eye. "Well it's Gotham. It's not exactly the safest place on earth."

"Okay, that's true, but most of the stuff we deal with usually comes out at night. It's 8:30. If I were a criminal, I would not try to carry out a master plan at this time of the day."

He shrugs. "I know, but I want to make sure you're safe."

"Then come with me!"

"I can't. Jason's downstairs. And I should be there to watch over him, just in case he wakes up."

I pause as I rack my brain. Why is Jason downstairs? What happened? Well he's unconscious, since Dick said he's still gotta wake up. I swear I knew why...or did I?

He sees my knit eyebrows and returns it with raised ones. "He fainted when we were trying to find him after he had acted strangely. We haven't been able to wake him up since. Bruce, Alfred, and I have been trying to figure out the cause of this, and Bruce and Damian went somewhere. Oh maybe that's why Damian's got bruises and scars, so where'd they go..." He says that last part as a question for himself instead of for me.

I take in a deep breath. Jason's unconscious? What? Why? There are so many questions in my brain right now that I know can't be answered yet. But the main one is: Why don't I remember any of this?

"Do you not remember?" Dick asks after a quick silence.

"Oh...uh yeah I remembered. I just got a little confused for a second. I just woke up, so my brain's not yet functioning properly." I lie.

"Okay..."

I quickly change the subject. "I can go walk through Gotham alone! I'll be fine! I promise!"

He recovers from his slight confusion and gives me a stern look. "No. You are not going to just wander through the streets of Gotham on your own."

"I can go with her." A voice says from far behind me. Dick looks up, and I turn around to see Tim at the top of the stairs.

"I don't have anything else to do today, anyways."

I smile at him in thanks, then turn back to Dick. "See! Tim will come with me! I'll be protected against whatever you fear will happen to me. You gotta let me go. Please!" I give him one long, annoying 'please' until he rolls his eyes and says, "Fine! Fine!"

"Yay!" I grin at him. He gets up, grabs a spare glass of eggnog from the counter, and walks up to Tim in the middle of the stairwell. He gives him the eggnog, and when Tim grabs it from him Dick places a hand on his shoulder and gives him a very serious look.

"Keep her safe, you hear me?"

Tim replies. "I always do."

Dick looks back at me as he walks up the steps. "Have fun, then. Don't get into any kind of trouble."

I smile at him until he's out of sight, then I whisper to myself, "No promises."

Tim hears me as he reaches the bottom step and smiles a bit. He slowly approaches me as he takes a sip from his eggnog. His lips leave the edge of the glass, and he immediately makes a face of disgust. I laugh.

"Dick made this?" He asks, his sour face still on.

"Yes." I say while laughing.

"Figures." He sets the mug down on the counter and looks at me. "So I'm guessing you didn't take a single sip?"

"Not one."

"Smart choice."

"Thank you."

I push my mug of eggnog away from me and hop off the raised counter chair.

"So do you have any place in particular you want to go to in Gotham?" He asks me.

"Not yet...just wanted to wander around until I found a nice place to go. But...I think I want to just sit around with nature. I don't need the modern world contaminating my spare time today."

We slowly make our way up the stairs back to the rooms. "Nature...so the park?"

I shake my head. "Nah. Too many people. I need a private place. Somewhere secret. Somewhere-" WAIT! I can go there!

I turn on my heels to face him directly when we reach the top of the steps as excitement suddenly fills my entire body. "What time do you wanna leave?"

He frowns at me in slight confusion, noticing my sudden energy. "Whenever. I'm just the bodyguard, remember?"

I smile. "Sweet! We leave in a few minutes. Hurry up!" I rush to my room.

"I take it you know where we're going?" He yells after me.

"Yup! You're gonna love it!"

I rush into my room and shut the door, prepared to go to a place I haven't been to in years.

****Break****

Tim's POV

I have no idea where we are going. I don't even think I've been in this part of Gotham enough times because it doesn't seem that familiar. But it's not a shady part of Gotham. The feel it gives off is between the city and the slums, but a little closer to the city.

"Chris do you even know where you're going?"

She gives me a side glance. "Of course I do. This is my neighborhood."

I frown. "What are you talking about this isn't-" And then I see it. The name of the building where little boys and girls who have no moms or dads go. The orphanage that a little girl used to live in. The orphanage I've only heard about in stories and visited once...four years ago. How could I not remember?

I got close to Chris soon after she came into the family, and she soon admitted after that she kinda missed the non-fancy lifestyle she used to have. So I decided to be nice and brought her back for a little visit. We snuck out of the house late at night (she didn't know about the big family secret yet, and I was off-duty that day) and drove here on Dick's motorcycle.

That was so long ago. So much has changed. Wow...11 year old me...what happened to me?

"We're here!" She says as she stands in front of an alley.

Turns out I had subconsciously walked past the orphanage, across the street, and down one block to an alley between a half burned-down building and an apartment complex.

"Chris...are you okay?" Is she thinking straight? She knows this is an alley, right? Not exactly nature. I frown down at her.

She looks up at me and laughs. Then she hits me lightly on the arm. "I'm not a lunatic, Tim. At least not that kind of lunatic, but I know what I'm doing. Just trust me."

I roll my eyes. "Okay. As long as we aren't handling drugs or breaking-and-entering or any of that nonsense."

She smiles. "Don't worry. I promise. Now follow me." She walks down the alley as she hums that Willy Wonka song, and in my head I sing along to the tune.

Come with me, And you'll be, In a world of pure imagination

Take a look, And you'll see, Into your imagination

She stops humming all of a sudden, and I stop mentally singing along. In front of me is a fence-like wall that is made out of dark brown wood. The wall is covered in a bunch of vines, and the shape of the wood itself is pretty old.

"Keep guard. Make sure no one sees us."

I turn to the street which is a yard or two in front of me, but I keep my head sideways so I can still sort of see what she's doing. She's searching through the vines for something.

"The more I stand here, the more skeptical I become. Chris what are you up to?"

"Relax. I'm not a perpetrator of any kind. Just looking for a- Found it! C'mon!" The excitement and joy in her voice makes most of my worries go away, but not all of them. I turn around and see her holding a thin piece of string. She lightly tugs on it, and I see the vines above the string move, as if it goes up and over the wall.

She pulls on the string harder, and I hear metal, as if a metal thing had been pulled up and just hit the wall. Then, she pushes on the wall in front of her, and part of it gets pushed inward.

"It's a door." I say in astonishment.

She rolls her eyes while smiling. "No duh it's a door, silly. Now are you feeling the excitement and adventure?"

I can't help but nod because I kind of am.

She lets go of the string, and I hear metal hitting metal again. She walks through the door, and I follow behind her, wary but eager. Immediately, the sight catches me off guard. The last thing I expect to see are plants everywhere. Flowers, bushes, vines, leaves, stems, roots...

I am in a garden. A secret garden that Chris somehow knows about.

"Wait a minute how do you know about this place?" I ask her suspiciously as she closes the door behind her. I realize that the metal I was hearing was a door lock of sorts, the kind that you can lift up the top and the tiny rod connected to the door can move out of the lock, allowing the door to swing open.

She sighs. "Really Tim? I just brought you to a secret garden and the first thing that comes to mind is 'how do you know about this?' It is really hard to surprise you."

"No, no. I'm surprised. Just...wow."

Chris walks on the path, and I follow. Around me are different flowers, different bush shapes, different heights of plants. All I see around me are green and shapes, mainly wavy stick shapes, which are of course all the stems. The plants are pretty tall, so the entire garden can't be seen from just one point on the ground, but there are paths of stones that Chris follows. Well, more like steps on. I have to follow them, while she looks like she has a pretty good idea of where she's going.

I take some time absorbing the sight around me until I return to looking in front of me, just in time to not see Chris.

"Chris? Chris! Where are you?" I yell.

Instantly, I get a reply, which gives me relief. "Not too loud! And I'm not that far away. Just follow the path."

I follow her instructions and soon find her sitting on a tiny bench with enough space for one.

"Welcome to the garden. How may I be of service?" She mocks a service robot voice.

"Explain. Please."

She sighs, but a happy sigh. "Well it's story time. You wanna sit down? Okay. So I was around six. Ever since I was in the orphanage I always liked going outside. The air of the orphanage sometimes just choked me to death and I needed fresh air. We didn't have a backyard so I had to go walk around the streets. One day I got bored and decided to walk a little further than I was supposed to. Me, being the silly six-year-old I was, walked into an alley. Go me! Anyway, I wound up at this wall thing. But for some reason I don't remember being scared or worried. I was just there, looking at the wall, and I noticed out of the green and brown that made up the thing standing in front of me a sliver of white. I grabbed it, pulled it, and let myself find this secret garden in the area behind the backs of 5 buildings that make a rectangle of sorts. Ya see? One there, two there, one behind us, and that far wall belonging to that huge building." She points as she mentions the walls that make up the barrier.

"Anyway this place was like heaven to me. Ever since I found this place, I would always come here. To sit. To read. To sing. To do whatever I used to do. Then one day, after coming here for maybe a good 4 months, I accidentally encountered this guy. Then I was scared, because people, especially strangers, always gave the shy, little six-year-old me anxiety. Turns out his name was Mr. Stein, and he took care of the garden with his wife Mrs. Stein. They were actually really nice and told me I could keep coming, since I was the only other person in their knowledge who knew about it. So I kept coming. The older I got, the more I couldn't stand the orphanage, so the more I came here. I even slept over a few times. There was one time, though, that I couldn't come here for an entire month. That was after...you know..."

"The Joker?" I'm not completely sure, but I'm mostly certain. And I've always pondered what brought Chris outside that day, giving him the chance to get her.

"Yeah. I was actually leaving the garden when he grabbed me and took me away in some van. But anyways this became like my second home, I guess. Mr. and Mrs. Stein became like my favorite aunt and uncle. They were just nice, and I knew they genuinely cared for me. I wonder if they're still alive."

"We can find out when we get back to the Cave." I smile. She smiles back.

"This place brings back a lot of nostalgia. I came here on my best days. I came on my worst. I came whenever I felt like it, which was actually a lot. I loved exploring the place, even though I had covered the entire garden within 7 visits, and I still loved it here. Then I got adopted, and somehow...I forgot. Probably the new life, the new friends, the new everything. And whenever I was feeling down, I didn't need to think about this place because I had family. I had you, Bruce, Dick, Alfred, Jason, Damian...but now I think I need this place back in my life."

I look at her, but she's looking straight ahead at nothing in particular. Suddenly, she jumps up and says, "Sob story over. I'll explore, you explore. Just don't be too loud." Her voice and smile make it seem as if she didn't just have a large dose of nostalgia, but I know inside she's hurting. Not the bad kind of hurting, but not the good kind either. It's just hurt. And we all have to live with it.

"See you in a few minutes!" She runs off before I can even say anything about what just happened.

****Break****

Dick's POV

I look down at my younger brother, sleeping peacefully as if he didn't just collapse in front of me. He's so still and pale; it looks almost as if he is - no...not again. Never again.

I stare at his chest still slightly rising and falling. I breathe easier knowing that he's not in a black suit inside a coffin.

This is all my fault.

If I had just noticed something was wrong- of course something was wrong! His little sister just died! All my fault…

I feel a cool hand on my shoulder and look up to see the old British man smiling gently down at me. I look back down and bury my face in my hands. "This is all my fault, Alfred. If I just-"

I feel the stinging frown from the old man without even looking. "Master Dick. It is not your fault. Trying to blame yourself for these current events is just madness!"

"But he's my brother, Alfred. Whatever happens to him is on me."

"Dick." I look up at the man. "I understand that you are the eldest, but you don't need to carry that burden alone."

I shake my head and look back at my Little Wing.

I feel the pressure on my shoulder brush away and the oh-so light footsteps fading.

"What are you doing?" I caught him, sneaking into the Batmobile, when he stopped.

He whipped around and crossed his arms. 'What's it to you?"

I smirked. "You're not taking the Batmobile on a joy ride are you?"

He looked to the left. "Why do you care Circus Freak."

"'Cause you're still underage, and you can't drive. Plus, Batman would be more than pissed." I started grinning.

Jason rolled his eyes. "What do you want, Golden Boy?"

My grin was so much wider when Jason looked up at me.

"WOOOHOOO! HELL YEAH!" We drove through the night, turning on the radio and putting on ear-bleeding rock music.

We passed buildings and cars. We almost ran over 3 civilians, and the Batmobile had more than just a scratch.

"Dude we should get McDonald's!" Jason grinned.

I laughed. "Hell yeah!"

We walked into a McDonald's restaurant in our Nightwing and Robin uniforms and bought some drinks and burgers.

The workers and the customers looked like their faces were about to fall off. "Man ya shoulda seen the looks on their faces!"

We drove back to the Bat Cave where a more than pissed off Batman was waiting.

"We were grounded for two months!" I chuckle as I look at the resting boy.

My grin slowly fades into a frown, remembering what just happened a few minutes ago. "Just get some rest, okay Jay? But I swear, when you wake up. I'm killing you." I smile sadly.

****Break****

Tim's POV

It's been twenty minutes. I think I've covered the whole garden, but I still don't know my way around. All I do is follow the path, and when I reach a fork in the road I pick a random path to follow. But I know where the exit is, well a feel of where it is, so that's good. There are benches scattered around here and there, and there was a swing hanging from a branch from the tree over by the only brick wall in the alley spaces between the five buildings that make up this space. Every space between each building has an alley that ends with a similar brown wall with vines, but the only one that has a door is the one we entered through-next to the half burned building.

This place is simply amazing. I can see why Chris would come here constantly. The plants are alive and colorful, even though they're mainly green. There are some flowers that are closed because they are seasonal, but most of the flowers here are annuals. I found a little pond somewhere towards the far end of the garden, in perspective to the location of the door. There were no fish in it, though. There was one area, though, that was just a patch of grass with two chairs in it. The patch was surrounded by tall bushes, and the only way in was to crawl through a little gap in the bush wall. I sat there for a really long time because I felt so much at peace.

Everywhere I went, I couldn't help but just marvel. I'm sure Chris came here to contemplate and be at peace in her mind, but I didn't even have time for that. I just looked at everything, and when I somehow found the opportunity to meditate I just sat, or stood, staring at nothing in particular. My mind always ended up being blank, as if the presence of the garden around me itself rid my brain of anything that could've troubled me.

What amazes me the most is how a couple could keep this entire garden alive. For 8-or more-years. Just...wow. They must really treasure this place. Well of course they do. It's amazing. It's hidden away. Who wouldn't love this place?

But...this place is special and almost sacred to Chris. Why would she share it with me? I'm sure she'd want to keep it secret from all of us, so if she ever needed space we wouldn't be able to invade on it. So why do I even know about this garden?

It's been twenty minutes. I should probably find her now.

I check my watch. 9:45. It took us 45 minutes to walk from the manor all the way to...whatever this part of Gotham is called. Oh, so I guess we've been here for 30 minutes. Time really does fly by.

I'm about to yell for Chris, but then I remember what she told me earlier. I'm not sure if it's because I would be disturbing the serenity of the garden or because it puts the garden at risk of discovery by outsiders. Well, she herself was an outsider. But she didn't find this place by noise. She found it in silence.

So I guess she was meant to find this place. She just happened to walk in this direction, into this alley, when she wandered. She just happened to see the string that unlocked the 'hidden' door. She just happened not to get discovered, then not kicked out 4 months later.

This must be a really big and important secret for her. And she's choosing to share this place with me. Does she really trust me that much?

I move along the path, a little shocked at my own comfort with my movements, which are unlike my uncertain ones 30 minutes ago when I first got here. I scan my surroundings for anywhere Chris might be. After a few minutes, I spot a little dome nowhere near the path. I quickly stumble my way through and around the plants until I'm standing in front of the dome. Straight ahead of me is a curtain of leaves and vines. There are a lot, so I can't see past them. Around the sides of the dome-shaped area are bushes, just like the ones lining the patch of grass. I look up and realize that this isn't a dome because there's no roof. It's just a circular area, with 3/4 of the outer part being bush and 1/4 being a leaf wall. I realize that the leaf wall looks like it is being suspended in air. I move a step closer and examine it closely, and I see a wire support that the leaves and vines are wrapped around and draping down from. I assume the entire support digs into the ground somewhere near the bush wall, or maybe even in the bush wall.

I gently push some vines out of the way and see Chris lying on a long bench with a pink blanket that is obviously too small for her body and a small pillow under her head. Her eyes are closed, and her breathing is slow.

"Chris." I whisper. She doesn't move a muscle, and her breathing remains constant. So she's asleep. But where'd she get the pillow and blanket? I look below the bench and see an area of dirt that's obviously been moved. So it was buried? But why isn't it dirty? I guess she shook all the dirt off.

I slowly move closer, extra careful not to wake her up, not because of fear of her frustration at me but because she looks so peaceful. I see her lips at that point where she's forming a smile, but not yet a smile. It's frozen in that state on her face, and I don't want to get rid of it. She's happy. She's at peace.

I look at her white pillow and notice something inside the pillowcase. I kneel down in front of her and look at the odd blue color in what's supposed to be a white pillowcase. I touch it, and a crinkling sound escapes. It's a tiny piece of paper. Why is there paper in there?

I turn my head to Chris' head and am surprised to see blue staring back at me. I'm even more surprised that our faces are super close to each other. I feel heat creeping up my cheeks, and as I fall back a bit I notice some red on her cheeks.

"Uh- sorry. I was just..." I struggle to my feet as she quickly sits up on the bench and pushes the blanket off of her and onto the side of the bench.

"No-no, i-it's fine. Just - um - kinda startled me. Don't - don't do that please."

"Yeah, of course. Won't do it again." I mutter, feeling really awkward. At least the heat is slowly leaving my cheeks.

"Well...um...how was exploring? Do you like it here?" She looks up at me as she folds up her blanket.

"Yeah, it was great. This place is...great." I say, not able to think of a better adjective to describe the garden.

She gives me a tiny smile. "That's good. That you like it here...you know I wasn't actually asleep, right?"

"Yeah, yeah I knew. It was obvious." I lie.

She frowns. "Oh okay. Just making sure."

I shake off the awkwardness and change the subject. "There's something in your pillow."

She picks up her pillow, notices the blue paper, and pulls it out. She reads out what's on it. 'Tree.'

"That's all it says." She states. "It looks like Mr. Stein's handwriting. Wonder why he wants me to go to the tree."

"Well...there's only one way to find out." I give her a nervous smile, and she smiles back, the redness in her cheeks gone and a new excitement in her body.

She gets on the ground and moves some dirt out of one spot on the ground. I move to a spot where I can see what she's doing. Immediately, I see the top of a metal box popping out of the ground. She opens it and places the blanket and pillow in there. She closes it up and covers it with dirt again. Chris gets up, turns around, and seeing my confused face, explains, "I used to sleep here sometimes, so Mrs. Stein got me a blanket and pillow to keep in a box here. They didn't add this part of the garden until the first time I slept here." I nod in understanding and follow her on the path to the tree.

"Did you find any secret paths?" She asks me over her shoulder.

"A few."

"I'm guessing you didn't find the one that led to my little private area." As if she can hear my eyebrow raising, she says, "I could hear you crunching through the bunny ears and other plants."

"Oh..." She begins to laugh lightly, and I join in.

I follow Chris a little longer until we reach the end of the path, where it stops on the left of the tree, which is right next to the brick back of the apartment complex.

"Oh my god..." I hear Chris whisper. I follow her gaze up the tree and instantly see what she's in awe at.

From our spot at the root of the tree, I can see the bottom and side of a good-looking treehouse. It is the same color as the bark of the tree, which is probably why we didn't see it from the garden. But now, looking up at it, it is obviously there. There's a lining on the bottom of the house that creates a square, which I assume is the door. From here, I can barely make out steps etched into the thick bark, and a sort of banister attached to the tree next to the tree steps. But the steps don't reach all the way to where we are. There are only a few, but to get to the bottom of those steps, which are more ladder-like than actual steps, we still have to climb the tree.

"Oh my god." Chris repeats, and this time I say something. "Was that not here before?"

"No..."

We look at each other and nod. Instantly, we begin to climb the tree. A weird smell fills my nose, but I immediately ignore it in my excitement. I quickly go from branch to branch, Chris not too far behind me. The higher up the tree I climb, the more I see the garden as a whole. The wonder and excitement of it all makes me laugh and smile. I look down at Chris who gives me a funny look before joining in my joy.

I reach the tree ladder in no time. I grab onto the provided banister and step up, one by one, onto each step of the ladder, gripping tightly on the banister. Once my head hits the underside of the house, I push on the lined square. It opens up and makes a light 'bang' when it hits the treehouse floor. I pull myself up into the treehouse, which actually isn't huge, but it's a decent size. I look down at Chris and help pull her up.

"Woah..." She says. "I guess Mr. Stein built this."

"I think that will explain everything." I say, pointing to a piece of paper taped above a protruding bench, which could also be a bed.

She walks over to it to read it while I look out the large window in the wall that faces the entire garden. I peer out and can see all the back walls of the buildings that create the walls of the garden, hiding it from the rest of Gotham. I can see the entire garden from here. The gate, the pond, Chris' bench, the grass patch. Everything. It's...amazing.

I put my left elbow on the little window sill while the rest of my body turns back to Chris, who is walking over to me, the paper still taped to the wall. She leans on the sill next to me, and my body moves back to facing out to the garden.

"What did it say?" I ask.

"Mr. Stein built it for me so that when I come back I'll have a better place to sleep, and it will be a different garden for a different me. He hopes I like it, and that I'll actually see the note because that means I haven't forgotten him or the garden."

"Well you read the note, and you didn't forget about the garden. So that's good."

She sighs. "But I forgot for a while."

"Because you were happy. You didn't need a refuge to deal with your problems."

She sighs. "Yeah, I guess so. But I think they missed me."

"Well, at least you're back. And we can find them later." I smile at her. "Okay?"

She smiles back. "Yeah, okay...wait who are we talking about?"

I frown. "Mr. and Mrs. Stein." I grab her shoulders. "Are you okay?"

She closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I knew that." She shrugs me off and leans on the window sill.

"Chris. I think we should get going. It's almost lunch."

I make my way over to the door, expecting Chris to follow me, but she doesn't. She just stays leaning on the sill, frozen.

"Chris? Did you hear me?"

I move closer to her, and her eyes show pure terror. She mutters something under her breath, and immediately rushes to the door.

"Chris?! What's going on?"

No response. She's already going through the door, about to go down the ladder.

I go to the window sill to see if she saw something that scared her, and at first I don't see anything. Then I look straight down to the root of the tree. Lying there, surrounded by tall plants, is a sprawled body surrounded in a pool of dried blood.

That sure ruins the serenity of the garden.

"Oh my god." I mutter.

Imitating Chris, I rush to the door, rush down the ladder, and hurriedly make my way down the tree. I run through the plants, not caring to look for a path, and find the dead body. Judging by the looks of it, it's not a very recent kill, but it hasn't been here for more than a few days. There are multiple stab wounds on the body's torso, but one exceptionally large one right on his heart. It's a male, in his mid to late 40s.

My gaze shifts from the dead body to Chris, kneeling next to his head. She closes his eyes, and I hear a quiet sniffle come from her.

I sigh. "Is that-"

"Mr. Stein." She finishes my sentence. Then she looks up at me, her eyes threatening tears that she won't let fall. "He was murdered."

****Break****

Bruce's POV

"What is going on here? Where's Commissioner Gordon?"

I go under the yellow tape and walk into the crime scene, ignoring the officers trying to tell me to stay back. Once I spot Commissioner Gordon, I make my way to him. When he sees me, he motions away the officers tailing me.

"Mr. Wayne. Your kids happened to stumble upon a dead body in this alley. They aren't in any kind of trouble, but we just have a few questions for them."

I furrow my eyebrows. "I know the how the police system works. No need to tell me why you're questioning Tim and Chris. But if you don't mind, we're going." I look up from Gordon and see Harvey Bullock talking to the two of them, a few feet away from the body on the ground. I push past Gordon and walk over to them, Gordon at my heels with no protests.

"Do either of you recognize the victim?" I hear Bullock ask them as I approach.

Both of them shake their heads, but Tim is looking him straight in the eye while Chris' head is slightly bowed, staring at the body. Judging by her appearance, I would say she's traumatized, but I know her. There's something else...

I come up behind Tim and Chris and place my hands on their shoulders. "I'm sure you have everything you need, Detective Bullock, so we will be going now."

I quickly usher them out with an argument in my midst. ("Hey! Get back here! I'm not done with them!" "Oh shut up Harvey let them go. We can get more information another time.")

I open the back door of my car, and they hop in. I walk around the car and take a seat behind the wheel. I start the engine, and we are on our way back to the manor.

"Are you going to fill me in?" I ask. "Why were you in that part of Gotham, and how did you happen to just stumble upon a dead body?" I can hear the disbelief in my tone. Maybe they actually just happened to be there, but that kind of thing doesn't just happen in this family.

In the rearview mirror, I see Tim and Chris share a glance. I don't bother trying to decipher their mental conversation because they should tell me everything anyway.

Tim looks at me in the rearview mirror. "Chris wanted some fresh air, so I accompanied her. Then we smelled something funny and found the body."

"Why were you in that part of Gotham?"

"I was feeling nostalgic." Chris responds, but she doesn't look at me. She's leaning on the window and looking out at the passing buildings and people.

"What time did you leave the house?"

"9." Tim responds, a little too quickly.

"Who knows you left the house? Because I didn't."

"Dick." Chris responds, a hint of harshness in her voice. I stop asking interrogation questions, since she sounds like she's getting irritated with me.

"Are you both okay?"

"Yes." Tim responds.

"Why wouldn't we be?" I wouldn't have been surprised if she sounded harshly sarcastic. But she didn't. She sounded as if she genuinely didn't know. There's something wrong here.

"Don't play games with me; you know why."

She glances at Tim with a half worried, half confused face. He responds to her look with the same face, but I see more worry in his expression.

"I seriously don't know why I wouldn't be okay."

I frown. "Chris...where were we just a while ago?"

She doesn't respond immediately, but I can tell she's thinking. Thinking harder than she should. "Gotham City."

"Why were you in Gotham City?" Tim chimes in.

She frowns. "Because I was. Why are you guys asking such weird questions?"

"Because they're obvious questions." I say.

"Well they aren't obvious to me. Can someone tell me what's going on?" She crosses her arms, but not really in a frustrated way. It's more like the way you cross your arms when you're cold. You push your arms against your body and bow your head a little.

Neither of us answer her. She drops the question and looks out the window again. When we are almost at the manor, I notice that Chris is rubbing her arms.

"Are you cold?" I ask.

"Yeah. Aren't you?"

I shake my head and look at the car's temperature. It's 76 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius).

I look at Tim through the rearview mirror. His face is stern and serious. He's noticing the same things. We need to talk.

Something is wrong with Chris.

****Break****

Tim's POV

Bruce enters my room, and I put down my very uninteresting book, glad to have a reason to stop reading it for English.

Bruce closes the door gently behind him, walks over to me, and takes a seat on my bed. I sit up and move next to him, swinging my feet over the edge of the bed.

"What have you noticed with Chris?" He asks me, straight to the point.

"She's been losing her memory. At first it seemed like just little things, like forgetting why she went to her room, but then now it's like she's forgetting big chunks of things, especially the most recent things."

"When did this start?"

"I don't know, but I first noticed the memory loss last week. And that's not all."

"What else?" He inquires. I look into his eyes for a second and see seriousness, but I know behind that serious face is a tinge of worry.

"It could be nothing, but a few days after I noticed the memory loss, she had a coughing fit at school. I don't know if she's had more than that one day at school, but it worried me. I thought she was just catching a fever or something, but now I don't think so."

Bruce ponders this for a second. "She said she was feeling cold in the car, when it was moderately warm. Maybe she's getting sick."

"But that doesn't explain the memory loss. And if she was getting sick, she'd be sniffling and sneezing, right?"

"Well that's mainly for a cold. Maybe she's getting a fever."

I'm starting to get really worried about Chris. Bruce sounds worried, too. He wouldn't be this worried if it was just a silly fever or cold.

"I'll do some research and spend more time with Chris to make sure she's okay and track her memory loss and other symptoms. You don't need to worry too much." I know he will, though. I just want to lessen how much he has to think about. I saw Damian when we got back, and he wasn't looking too good after what happened last night, which neither Bruce nor Damian have talked about. No one knows what happened-well maybe Alfred knows, but no one else does. Bruce probably has a lot on his plate already.

Bruce nods and exits the room, leaving me sitting in my room to ponder everything that's happening.

****Break****

Alfred's POV

As I prepare dinner, I hear the kitchen door open and close behind me.

"Hey Alfred, do we have any snacks?" Chris' voice says behind me as I hear the openings and closings of multiple cabinets.

"I'm sure we do. Just keep looking until you find something you like."

"Okay."

I hear her sniffle, but I disregard it. I continue chopping carrots and cooking them when I hear her sniffle multiple times in 15 second intervals and sneeze once.

"Miss Christine, were you crying?"

"What? No." She ends her statement with some coughs.

I stop what I'm doing and turn around. "Are you getting sick?"

She frowns. "Don't think so. What are the symptoms?"

"Of getting sick?" She nods. Odd. "Well, Miss Christine, it depends on the kind of sickness. If we are talking a fever then you should be feeling warmth on your cheeks...if you think you are getting sick I can check your temperature. There should be a thermometer here somewhere..."

I make my way to the cabinet that I believe has a thermometer in it and open it. As I look through the cabinet, I remember that she is wearing one of her warm jackets. It is very warm in the kitchen.

"Miss Christine may I ask why you are wearing such warm clothing when it is not cold in the house?"

"I'm just a little...a little..."

"A little what Miss Christine?"

I hear a loud thud behind me. I swiftly turn around and see Christine lying on the floor, her eyes barely open. A few coughs escape her lips after she sniffles.

"Miss Christine!" I rush to her side and feel her forehead. She's burning.

"I'm a little dizzy." She just fell off the floor. This family and their stubbornness.

"You have a fever Miss Christine. I'll have Master Bruce take you up to your room."

I yell "Master Bruce!" in the direction of the kitchen door, hoping he or one of his children will hear me.

"Who...who are you yelling at?" She asks me in between coughs.

"Your father."

"But...but I don't have a father..." She frowns just before her eyes close and she goes into unconsciousness.