Disclaimer: All copyrighted material does not belong to me.

A/N: Honestly I don't really know the whole story of how Roy got Lian in the comics-though I do believe it had to do with Jade getting sent to prison for terrorism-but it doesn't really matter here. This is the YJ-verse. And if Lian doesn't make an appearance, well then I can always say it's AU. So don't say I'm 'getting it wrong' or what have you, please. And this will have limited dialogue- as in it'll only have dialogue in flashbacks or when Roy is talking to Lian. Also, though I'm loathe to do this, flashbacks are in past tense. I hope this isn't boring! Please tell me what you think.

Dedication: For Annica (Clair-Rae) for your birthday. I know you really wanted Roy/Jade... but this has Roy/Jade in it! And I don't know, this just came to me in a dream and I just really, really wanted to write it. If you don't like it then I'll write you something else I swear. :D

A Single Step

Day One

Roy's not sure where he is, other than the fact that it's humid as hell and the floor is dirt, as his taste buds are informing him. His hands are tied behind his back, sore from being in that position for a long time. There's a lump that's growing out of the back of his head and it's throbbing.

But he's alive. Always the silver lining in situation. He might be face first into the dirt in the middle of God Only Knows-ville, but his heart is beating and there's air in his lungs and he can get out of this.

The knots on the ropes are tricky, and he rubs his wrists raw getting out of them, but once his hands are free he can get up and get his face out of the dirt. His clothes are still in tact, and he's otherwise unharmed, which he finds odd.

Roy surveys the room- which is made out of wood with a thatched roof, the floor dirt which he already knew. His bow isn't anywhere in sight. The only other thing in the room is a basket made out of reeds. He approaches it carefully, not knowing what was inside of it.

Grenades, bombs, a gas that could kill him if he got near enough. The list goes on and on, and he counts them all as he makes its way towards the basket.

What is actually inside somehow manages to be even worse than the things that he had imagined.

It's a baby, one so young that its features aren't distinguishable, but instead generic. Cute, even, if he wants to imagine that. A tuft of soft, dark hair sits upon its head. He'd think it was gorgeous, if he wasn't so worried about why the baby was with him.

It- he or she, Roy can't tell and he's definitely not going to look- makes a soft noise in the back of its throat before turning its cheek so that its touching the white sheet that it is currently sleeping on. When it turns its head he can see a piece of paper sticking out behind its head.

So Roy does the only reasonable thing that he can see at this point. He reads picks it up and reads it.

She's yours, the paper informs him in scrawl that could be familiar if he let it. Her name is Lian. There's enough food for her for three days, and it's a eastward three day walk to the nearest village. Make your choice then.

It is, naturally, not signed.

The first thing that Roy thinks is How could this have happened? Which is ludicrous because of course he knows how it happened. He was there first hand making it happen. The second is This is so fucked up.

Jade-and he knows that it was Jade because he hasn't seen her in about ten months and the baby-Lian-looks to be about a month old in his rough estimation. She was the only woman that this could have happened with, the only woman that he would have let this happen with.

And she didn't even have the decency to tell him face to face. Instead she sics men on him, ties him up, and leaves him to fend for himself with a baby in a basket. He should have known that this job had been fishy from the start, but he'd heard Vietnam and League of Shadows and thought Jade and volunteered himself.

He is stupid. So goddamn stupid.

He's also, evidently, a father.

Roy Harper is a father. He doesn't like the way that sounds, not even in his own head. Eighteen years old and a father. He gets a feeling that MTV isn't going to want to give him a spot on their Sixteen and Pregnant show.

He is so, so fucked.

.x.

The first time Roy and Jade had sex he still didn't even know her real name. Her mask had been off, however, which he figured was a step in the right direction. After all she didn't know his name either.

She'd been tied up at first. He'd finally gotten her exactly where he wanted her, and she was going to answer his questions.

"You know," Jade had told him, "there are easier ways to get a girl to go on a date with you. You don't have to tie them up. With your looks you'd think they'd be all over you."

"This is not a date."

There was no room for argument in his tone, but she'd found something to say anyway. Her words were slippery, making their way into his brain and stopping him short before she'd managed to to do what she want.

"I'll bet you say that to all the girls. Honestly I don't think Stockholm is a good look on me. You'll have to try better than tying me to a chair."

"You can't escape." Roy had made sure of it.

"Want to bet money on that? Because I think I can." And with that she was up and off the chair. Before he could react she had him backed up against the wall, knife at his throat.

Cheshire was good, there was no doubt about it. She smiled at him when she knew that she had him, because she did, and for the length of a heartbeat he could see why the sailors had followed the sirens to their watery deaths, smiling as they died. He could see why people had been attracted to the faerie, who laughed with glee, eyes full of mirth, as they watched a human die a horrible death and turn into something grotesque.

But then he saw what he was supposed to see, which was the grin of the Cheshire cat that she was named for, the one knew that its only way out was through it.

Roy couldn't stop his heart from pounding, but it wasn't because he was frightened. Only the opposite, in a way. Cheshire knew this.

She leaned in, her hair grazing the side of his face as she put her lips to his ear. "I like it rough. And I know that you do too."

Things had only gone downhill from there.

.x.

They hadn't used protection, which Roy guesses he should have known would come back to bite them in the ass, but in all honesty he'd thought she'd taken care of it.

Roy is obviously a fucktard.

And a father. Can't forget that little detail. The basket in front of him won't let him.

A urge to leave takes over him then, running through his veins like adrenaline. He didn't have to deal with this. He could just leave the baby here and pretend that it- she- had never happened. He could walk away.

But he can't... For one thing she is a baby, an innocent. Lian had committed no sin other than to be born. For another he shouldn't even be able to think like that. Roy is a vigilante, a part of the tights-and-capes circle. He had sworn to protect innocents, to protect the people that couldn't protect themselves.

And that is extended to children, even to children that aren't needed or wanted.

As if Lian knows what he was thinking she opens her eyes, which startled him so much that his thoughts were broken. They are still the blue of a newborn, though he has a feeling they were going to turn dark like her mother's.

She opened her mouth then and began to scream, her face turning red. Roy understands her reaction. After all, he feels the same way.

The panic sets in then, his whole body screaming at him that he is so fucked.

He picks her up, thinking of what he's seen in movies, which only serves to make her angrier. Her screams grow sharper and she's right next to his ear, which doesn't help the headache that he has from the lump on his head. Wanting to stop the crying Roy desperately dumps the basket over. The note said that there was food for her. And babies only cried when they were hungry.

Right?

It terrifies Roy that he doesn't have an answer.

Three large bottles, the kind that you see in grocery stores, fall out of a white bag, which is filled with ten white squares of cloth that Roy can't even begin to imagine what they are. Gratefully he takes one and attempts to put Lian in a his right arm instead of on his chest.

She's still screaming, but at least she isn't so close to his ear. He tries to place the bottle gently in her mouth, but he doesn't know how well that turns out. After she realizes what is in her mouth Lian instinctively starts to suck, and in the process stops screaming.

It's scary, the relief that floods him, washing over his own body. When Lian is quiet things are quiet. Peaceful even.

Roy notices then, with her in one arm, him supporting her head the way that he'd been trained to do with the babies of Ollie's relatives and the babies back at the reservation, that she's only as big as his arm.

He knows what he has to do, then.

It's going to be a long three days.

.x.

As soon as Lian is done feeding, she only drinks one fourth of the bottle which kind of relieves him because there isn't much to do, he starts walking towards the east, Lian in a bundle on his chest and the bag that Jade had so lovingly provided for him. Lian thankfully goes to sleep after she burps, which Roy hadn't even known babies could do but his could at the very least.

With a piece of bread in his hand, Jade had only provided one loaf for three days, but he could handle it, and his daughter on his chest he starts on his journey. He's not sure what kind of journey, but they'll make it.

They have to.

A/N: This is a three-shot, so I will finish it. Three-shots are the only kind of multi-chaptered story that I seem to be able to handle. And please review!