Months had passed and it was now September. There was a slight chill in the air and the fall leaves were on the ground. Falcone still hadn't gone on trial and he probably wouldn't for quite some time.

In that time, she'd solved two murder cases. One was a cold case and one was recent. Gordon was very proud and well, so was she.

She was still dating Damien. She only saw Bruce from time to time. Every time she reached out, he had an excuse but then the next day she'd see his face in the news with multiple models. It hurt but she ignored it. He could do what he wanted with his time even if he didn't want to spend it with her.

After seeing Beth at that hotel, Bruce swore to himself that he'd stay away. Despite Alfred's little nudges to see her. His mind had swirled at the thought when Alfred brought it up.

He'd been doing push-ups as he mused over what someone like him did with his time.

"Drive sports cars? Date famous women - maybe beloved ballerinas?" Alfred hinted.

Bruce froze at the insinuation before looking at Alfred like he'd grown a second head, "I'm not dating Beth, Alfred."

"I didn't mention Miss Dawes," Alfred had a teasing smile.

Bruce rolled his eyes, "I'm not pursuing her to maintain some fake persona."

"Who says it would be fake?"

Bruce didn't answer.

It was precisely the reason he needed to stay away from Beth. Because nothing ever was fake when he was around Beth. He'd give up everything for her - being Batman and it couldn't happen.

So he only talked to Beth every now and again. He certainly didn't expect her to show up at his front door in September.

_____

Beth had gotten into a fight with her boyfriend. Well, altercation. She broke it off with him immediately but she needed a place to lay low where he wouldn't come looking. And some place where she wouldn't have to explain herself too much.

Her mind went straight to Bruce as it most often did. This time, she let it stray there and she wound up at his house.

"Beth," he smiled in surprise as he came down the stairs. His mind immediately went to that cheek kiss.

"Hey," she smiled before hugging him softly but shortly.

"What are you doing here?"

She bit her lip with a hopeful pout, "I came to ask a favor."

"Anything."

"Could I stay here for a couple days?" she questioned. "I broke up with Damien and I know he'll come looking anywhere else. I just don't want to see his face yet."

Bruce could not ignore how it felt like his heart inflated like a balloon at hearing she was no longer in a committed relationship. He felt hopeful and he tried to push that feeling down.

"You can stay as long as you like. You're always welcome here."

"I'll go set up the guest bedroom then," Alfred had a small smile as he spoke.

"I'll do it, Alfred," Beth offered and immediately climbed the stairs to beat Alfred to it.

Alfred shook his head before going off to the kitchens, "I'll prepare lunch then."

Bruce followed Beth to the bedroom that she and Rachel used to spend all their sleepovers in. Their were sheets covering everything. They got to work by pulling them off.

"I thought you would've had more company," Beth mused.

"Why would you think that?"

"The news."

Bruce paused before he revealed, "I don't bring them home."

She inhaled at the response as she pulled a sheet off and the dust made her start coughing. Bruce came over and rubbed her back gently as he asked, "Are you alright?"

She was acutely aware of his hand on her back. She looked at him - now only a few feet between them as she swallowed and nodded. She felt goosebumps underneath her sweater as she looked into his brown eyes. She always thought they were dreamy.

She moved forward to lift another sheet and his hand fell. He moved away to do others. Then she found him studying a book that she realized was hers. Her diary from when she was five.

She immediately snatched it, "What are you doing? You can't read this."

She held it to her chest as Bruce chuckled, "Because there's such dark secrets from when you were five."

She swallowed. She wouldn't call it dark but there were secrets. Like the time she'd wrote about how she thought his eyes were dreamy. There was a whole page about them and all the specks of brown.

"You'll never find out," she smiled as she teased back.

Bruce shook his head before he went to grab all the sheets, "I'll take these down to the laundry room."

"Do you even know where that is?" Beth teased again.

"My father had me do laundry for a whole summer 'to build character'." Bruce answered.

"Like you ever needed to build character," the words just came blurting out. "You were always a gentleman."

"A gentleman? That's what you think of me?" he had a small, fond smile.

"That's what I know you to be even when you pretend not to be," she said it so surely.

He stared at her then and she was staring back. It made her feel too exhilarated and she quickly looked away at all the stuff that had remained in the room since they were kids, "I can't believe nothing has changed."

"Ooh, look!" she said excitedly as she set her diary down and picked up a game. "Twister."

"I broke my ankle playing that," Bruce recalled.

She giggled, "You want to play it again?"

"And play against a very flexible dancer? I think thats called cheating," he teased.

"Is not!" she whacked his arm and he winced.

"What? Are you hurt?" she furrowed her eyebrows as she stepped closer to place a gentle hand over his clothed upper arm.

"I just banged it against a doorway the other day," Bruce lied.

"Oh," she removed her hand from his arm. His very buff arm. She was reminded that she had a type. She had always dated men with muscles as she liked the way their arms felt wrapped around her and now she was suddenly thinking about Bruce and his arms.

    She stepped back suddenly with reddened cheeks, hoping he wouldn't notice, and started picking up the sheets, "I'll help you carry them down."

Bruce frowned but, nevertheless, nodded.

          _____

        She ended up staying a whole week rather than a couple of days. She spent the time with Bruce reliving lost relics of their childhood past. Reliving these relics reminded them of the only relic that couldn't be lost: the two of them.

       She brought back childhood games and things they used to do. Like hot chocolate in the gardens under the stars where they both fell asleep. She asked him a question she'd been wondering as they sat against the wall next to each other.

        "You've told me where you've gone but why'd you go?" she asked quietly. Her voice betrayed her hurt despite it being years since he left.

"I wasn't who I needed to be," he answered cryptically.

"You were what I needed," she responded back.

Bruce looked at her then before smiling sadly. A friend. That's what she meant and his chest hurt.

"Am I still?"

She smiled then and his breath left his body at the smile before she placed a hand over his heart as she promised, "Of course you are."

She woke up with a blanket wrapped tightly around her like a cocoon but Bruce had none. She was wrapped in his arms, too, and he was still sleeping. The quietness allowed her eyes to drift to his lips without even really thinking about it. It reminded her of an almost kiss (was it, though?). Then she shook her head.

         She had confronted him about the blanket, though.

        "I wanted you to stay warm," Bruce confessed.

        "But you were probably cold."

        "Trust me, with you there, I could never get cold."

        The words had struck her but she didn't ask what he meant. For so long, for so many years, she buried her feelings under the guise that she was just his best friend's little sister. He was just being nice like he always was. But spending this week with him was making those beliefs turn into doubts.

          The last night she spent there, the record player was on in her room and Bruce had asked her to dance. So, here they were, dancing to her favorite childhood song, With or Without You by U2.

        "You know I only learned how to dance because you asked me to your prom," Bruce confessed.

          "Really?" she gained a bright smile at the confession.

          Bruce hummed softly and brought her closer towards him. Their breaths mingled and her chest was nearly pressed against him. One of her hands was clasped in his and the other on his shoulder but it had moved down a bit - over his heart. One of his hands was wrapped around her waist.

          Her heart was beating crazily fast as she stared up at him. She felt all dizzy and weak in the knees. Her eyes traveled to his lips. For the first time, she admitted that she wanted to kiss him. She was going to kiss him as she leaned forward.

           But his eyes landed on her wrist. The sleeve had fallen down slightly and his eyes caught on the bruise as he pulled away slightly, "What is this?"

        His questioned disrupted her and it took her a minute for her muddled mind to even realize he was asking a question. Then her eyes turned to her wrist. He was now studying it - the purple color in the shape of handprints. He was running his fingers over it and her skin felt electric where he touched.
 
        "Who did this?" there was an edge to his voice.

          "Bruce," she panicked as she stepped back, snatching her wrist away even though she didn't want to.

          "Tell me," he demanded and his eyes darkened.

          "I handled it, okay?" she attempted to calm him down. "I pepper sprayed him and he knows he's not wanted back."

           "Damien?"

           "Yes."

           "You didn't press charges?" he attempted to understand.

           "Why would I? I just want to move on."

            "He should be brought to justice, Beth," he argued.

              "Not everything needs justice, Bruce," she argued back.

          "How can you say that?" he stared at her in disbelief.

          "Sometimes...sometimes, the best justice is to let victims forget," she argued tearfully as she wrapped her arms around herself.

          "Forget? You'll have that bruise for a month. How are you supposed to forget that?" he nearly shouted.

           A tear fell from her eye that she wiped from her eye, "One day, you'll understand. You...you have no idea what's gone in my life, Bruce."

            "Then tell me."

         "I have a series of bad taste in guys, okay? I guess it's me being too nice. That's what Rachel says," Beth explained. "But if I pressed charges, everyone would call me stupid."

          "You'd never be something as simple as stupid," Bruce defended as he stared at her so delicately. "I just want you safe."

           "No one is ever safe, Bruce."

        No one was safe? As if she wasn't the one person he'd fight the whole world just to keep safe.

"I knew you wouldn't understand, either," she said. "You're too much like Rachel. It's always reason over emotion for you two."

She smiled a bit softly as she reached out to touch his cheek, "You were always Mr. Serious."

He couldn't help but smile, too before he reached up to slowly entwine his hand with hers which made her heart race, "Beth....I still remember that promise."

           They stared at each other before she responded tearfully, "So do I. But it's just a memory, Bruce."

          Just a memory? Is that what they were now? His chest hurt and he clenched his jaw as he nodded tearfully. If that's what she thought then he'd to have to put them in the past - whatever they were. She placed a palm over the necklace under her shirt. The promise. But in his absence, he had not kept it.

         And she left that night.

        _____

         The next morning, Alfred found Bruce with bruised and bloodied knuckles as he sat on the couch in the living room, deep in thought. He'd beaten her ex nearly to death.

      Alfred sighed, "And I thought perhaps you were retiring."

           It was true. Bruce hadn't once gone out as Batman the entire time that Elizabeth was here.

         "We had a fight," Bruce revealed.

         "And? Couples fight."

         "We're not a couple, Alfred."

          "Really? Sleeping under the stars? I would've thought otherwise, Master Bruce."

           Bruce had small blush creep up his neck before shaking his head, "I've missed too much in her life."

           "Yes, you have. It doesn't mean you have to miss more."

            "By being gone, I let her down," Bruce said. "Alfred, what happened while I was away?"

           "That's for her to say. And you'll probably let her down again and again. You can't be everything she wants and more. It's simply not possible."

      "That's exactly what I need to be," Bruce argued. "It's...what I want."

         His life flashed before his eyes. His possible future. With Elizabeth. He'd be happy. Exactly the thing he couldn't have.

         "But I can't have it, Alfred," his eyes became glossy. "I can't be both. She doesn't want it anyways."

       He never wanted anything so badly. To drive to her house and tell her he'd loved her since that prom night. That he'd probably always loved her. That he'd always and forever will love only her. To leave Batman behind and be everything she needed. That he'd spend however long getting to know her again and learning what he'd missed in his absence. But he couldn't. He couldn't live a double life - not when it came to Beth. So he'd let her go and that promise would become just a memory...eventually.