***Having Barbara take over the big sister roll for Natalie, I think she's a little out of character but don't think it's anything to bad.

Once Natalie pulled away from the hug, she then realized something that horrified her.

"Um, Jerome," She asked nervously looking down, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

"Yes, gorgeous?"

"Please tell me you didn't change my clothes," She inquired gesturing to the unfamiliar set of baby pink pajamas she was wearing. It wasn't so much so the fact that he'd seen her naked, though that still wasn't ideal by any means, but she really didn't want him to see the bruises that her father has inflicted on her. She was embarrassed and ashamed of them and she didn't want anyone else to ever have to see them. They showed that she was unlovable in her eyes, that not even her own father could love her. If he didn't, how could anyone else?

"No I did," a new voice answered. "I knew you probably wouldn't be happy with ginger here sneaking a peek at you while you were asleep." Natalie looked over to see a beautiful blonde women had walked into the room. She had curly, blonde hair, wide, blue eyes, and nicely tanned skin. Natalie instantly felt intimidated by her, not only because she deemed her to be a lot prettier than she was, but also because in a way she knew her secret that she's been trying to hide for so long. Granted, she still had no idea where the bruises came from or who inflicted them, she still had to be suspicious about them either way though. "My name's Barbara," she introduced, giving Natalie a kind smile.

"Natalie," she acknowledged nodding her head before once again looking away awkwardly.

"Jerome, Theo wants to see you and the others in his office," Barbara stated giving him a knowing look and nodding her head towards the door.

Jerome groaned and made a show of rolling his eyes and throwing his head back in irritation. "I'll be back soon Natalie, or hopefully at least," he added before leaving the room.

Now being alone with Barbara, Natalie felt even more uncomfortable. "You saw them didn't you?" Natalie whispered looking straight ahead from Barbara. Her arms were wrapped around herself as if trying to hold herself together.

"Ya," Barbara stated simply.

"Please don't tell anyone," Natalie asked in a whisper, tears welling in her eyes and her voice trembling a little.

"Who did it and how long has it been going on?" Barbara questioned crossing arms over her chest and moving a little closer to Natalie with Jerome gone now.

Natalie hesitated. She didn't know if she could tell her, but honestly what choice did she really have. If she didn't she could tell anyone about the bruises covering her body, including Jerome. "My dad, since I was ten or eleven, when my mom cheated on him," Natalie answered reluctantly.

"I won't tell anyone," Barbara affirmed walking over the rest of the way over to Natalie and taking both of her hands and rubbing her thumbs over the backs of them comfortingly. "But it's something you should really tell the ginger. As annoying as he can be at times, he's probably one of the only people who will understand what your going through right now," she proposed.

"No, no, no," Natalie stammered, pulling her hands out of Barbara's and taking a few steps back. "Jerome doesn't need to hear about my daddy problems. And it's not even that bad, most of the time it's my fault for not following the rules on accident or reminding him to much of my mother when he's drunk," She reasoned as a tear fell down the side of her face and she wrapped her arms back around herself.

"None of what he ever does to you is your fault," Barbara scolded her. "There should never be a reason for a father to hit his own daughter," she continued, before guiding Natalie to sit over on the bed and then kneeling in front of her. "I want you to tell Jerome, not only because he understands what you're going through, but because he can help you recover from it and set you free," she clarified, looking into Natalie's eyes and placing her hands on her knees.

Natalie stared back at Barbara. She could tell she was being genuine with her and seemed like she really wanted to help her. "I don't know if I exactly feel comfortable telling him yet," she mumbled.

Barbara sighed, "You don't have to do it right away, it's just something to think about," then she smiled at her. "How about we go do something fun to get your mind off things?" She added before standing up and pulling Natalie up as well.

"Can we bake cookies?" Natalie asked with a smile breaking loose onto her face. When she was younger she and her mom always baked cookies together, which was one of the main reasons she never got to do it anymore. Her main goal at home was to remind her dad of her mom as little as possible so baking cookies is never really an option.

"Sure whatever you want," Barbara stated before leading her to the kitchen.

Natalie noticed how big this place was once they got out of the bedroom they were staying in. It seemed to be a giant, fancy apartment, similar to the ones most of Gotham's famous bachelors own. Although, it seemed to be made for about ten people, which confused her because beside her and Barbara, there didn't seem to be anyone else here.

"Shouldn't there be more people living here Barbara?"

"The boys are out. They get pretty obnoxious this time of day so they go out and do something to burn some steam," Barbara stated with a smirk seeming to be almost laughing at one of her own jokes.

She lead Natalie the rest of the way to the kitchen to bake cookies and that was basically how the next few hours went. They ended up accidentally burning the first batch of cookies when they got to deep into conversation and they talked about any unimportant things that came to mind. That was until Barbara asked the one question Natalie didn't really know how to answer.

"So, you and Ginger?" She said with a suggesting nudge into Natalie's side.

Natalie's face broke out into a bright red blush and she could feel her heart pump unevenly at the mention of Jerome. Scratching the side of her head,trying to cover the redness of her cheeks, she mumbled, "What about us? There isn't really much to say."

Snorting Barbara gave her a look, "As if, you wouldn't be blushing right now if that were true!"

"What do you want me to tell you? I mean maybe something could happen, but highly doubt it. We just met yesterday and things are complicated right now in my life. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to go jumping head first into a relationship with anyone anyways," Natalie deterred feeling awkward talking about this. It was true, she did really like Jerome but she would only be putting him in danger with her father still around.

Barbara rolled her eyes at her, "He likes you, you like him. What's so complicated about that? I'm surprised the ginger was able to keep from kidnapping you all the way up until this point," Barbara stated seriously.

Natalie, not taking her statement for its literal meaning, giggled a little as if it were a joke. "Jerome would never do that, he's to much of a gentleman," she mumbled blushing.

Barbara gave her a quizzical look, "are you sure we're talking about the same ginger here?"

Natalie nodded before looking over at the clock on the oven and sighed. "I really need to get home."

"Aw, but gorgeous, I just got back!" Jerome complained as he walked into the kitchen with an exaggerated pout on his face. He had an odd outfit on, there were black buckles running down the entire front and in a way resembled a straight jacket. Natalie raised her eyebrows and gestured toward his strange outfit. "What? I was playing dress up with the guys. Don't you like it?" He said sarcastically with an exuberant laugh.

Shaking her head at his silliness, Natalie returned to the subject. "I really need to go though. I was suppose to be home yesterday night and it's now four P.M. the next day," she stated wincing a little bit. Tonight's beating was going to be a hell of a lot worse and that fact made a fearful chill run down her spine.

Barbara noticed her fears and her face hardened but luckily she didn't say anything.

"But gorgeous, I could just keep you here so you would never have to leave," Jerome remarked throwing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her towards him. The both of them thought about the irony of the statement. Natalie was thinking about the conversation she had just had with Barbara just moments ago. Although, Jerome was thinking about how she was probably thinking he was joking, when really he was being honest for once.

"Jerome, I'm not just some pet you can keep. Besides I do really need to get home. Barbara do you have any other clothes I can barrow so I'm not walking home in pajamas?" She asked looking back at Barbara, who's face still had a tight-lipped expression.

"In the bathroom on the counter," she simply stated.

As Natalie left the room, Barbara immediately turned towards Jerome. "We're killing her father."