I am the worst. I'm so sorry. Thank you for all the follows, favourites, and reviews. They're very much appreciated. Hopefully this will make up for the long absence between chapters? I'm currently working on Chapter 11, so, hooopefully I'll be able to easily continue on. Thanks again everyone!

For the entire drive through Rio de Janeiro, Bane watched as the girl gaped at everything out the windows. Her eyes were wide as saucers and he nearly felt bad that they weren't able to stop and actually let her look at the place while they were there. They had a strict schedule to keep to, though, so it was from the marina, through the city, and to the airport.

Bane had needed to remove his mask for their arrival in Brasil until they were safely on board the private jet that had belonged to Talia. Its numbers and paint had been changed, making it unidentifiable and untraceable. On the plane, the girl had chosen to sit at the opposite end of the plane as him. It was a relatively small private jet, so she wasn't actually that far, but he rolled his eyes all the same. This needed to stop.

Mid-flight, he went and sat next to her. She looked pointedly out the window as he turned to look at her.

"Are you going to avoid me forever?" he inquired.

"I – I wasn't…" He interrupted her.

"You were. You've been avoiding me since you kissed me," he told her.

Her face turned an unflattering shade of red and she stammered. Bane was enjoying this immensely.

"I didn't mean to," she mumbled. "I just… forgot who you were for a bit."

He had too, but he wasn't about to tell her that. Instead he shrugged.

"We're going to Thailand," he volunteered.

"Why Thailand?"

"Surgeons."

"Oh, right, your thing… I keep forgetting," she murmured. "I forget that I'm like… this." She glanced down at herself.

Bane couldn't forget because it was staring him in the face all the time. It had been easier before, though, when he could still look at her and see only a science experiment. Rather than replying, he silently sat next to her for the rest of the flight. It was hours, but he didn't mind; the girl seemed to have gotten over her embarrassment, so that it was no longer awkward between them.

He kept himself busy in Thailand while the only thing to do was wait. They had a nice enough place to stay, but he didn't spend much time in it. There was little danger here, where no one on the outside knew where they were and the League of Shadows had its fingers in every pie in Bangkok. He'd set that up years ago, when he'd looked into the best surgeons in reconstruction using stem cells. He hadn't stated that as his motive, but it generated a substantial amount of money for the League and wasn't questioned.

The sun was coming up by the time Bane arrived back at the apartment. He frowned as he walked through the door. The girl was curled on the couch in the living room having some sort of fit. She didn't notice when he entered and he walked over to her, looking down at where she was twisted and whimpering in pain. He lightly nudged her shoulder and she looked up at him.

"It hurts. You weren't here and the phones don't work," her voice was just above a whisper. Of course the phones didn't work. He'd had them disconnected.

"How long?" he asked her, checking the time.

"Hours… maybe five?"

"Stay here," he told her. "You'll be taken care of."

Bane left her on the couch, then, and went to his room. He made a call and soon, several of his most trusted brothers had come and taken the girl away to the hospital. He tried doing work, going through files and looking blankly at the words on the pages. Eventually, he just shoved the files away across the table and sat back in the chair. All there was to do was wait.

Hours later, the girl was brought back. She looked pale and sickly and retreated to her room as soon as she walked in the door. Bane watched her scurry away, but made no move to stop her, instead, choosing to speak with her escort.

"What news?" he asked.

"Preparations for your surgery are underway. It has been scheduled for two mornings from now."

"And the rest?"

"Two boys."

"Where are they now?"

"Being looked after at headquarters."

"See that they are well taken care of."

"Of course."

"And the girl?"

"I was told it went well. The doctors said she would recover fully with time and rest."

Bane nodded and sent the man on his way. He stood in the kitchen for a while staring at the floor. Eventually, he went to the fridge, made up a tray of food for the girl, got himself something to eat, and went to her room, stopping off at his own to pick up an IV bag and stand.

The girl didn't answer when he knocked on her door, but he opened it anyway. She was sat on her bed hugging her knees with her cat curled up on her feet. She didn't bother looking up at him when he came in and only glanced away from her cat when he set the food tray on the bed and pushed it toward her.

"You should eat," he told her, setting up his IV and lounging in the chair beside her bed. "You must be hungry and tired."

She glanced over at him while he took his mask off. It was strange. He had gotten what he needed out of her, and should feel finished with her, but a feeling, like hooks beneath his ribcage, hit him when he looked at her and he realized that he still felt protective of her. She had nothing for him, her presence served no further purpose, and still he was compelled to keep her rather than to send her away.

He ate with her and then left her alone.

Two days later, he had his surgery.

Everything was hazy as he woke up in a sterile white room to the soft beeping noise of his heart rate monitor. A dull ache burned in his back and face, but he didn't much notice it. Though it hurt, it was nothing compared to his usual pain without the mask, or with it, for that matter. It had been so long that he'd forgotten what it felt like to not be in constant agony. The mask, injections, and IVs had made it hurt less, it was true, but he'd just needed to become used to the pain. This ache, this was from the surgery. Fresh incisions and a newly repaired nose – he'd gotten his teeth replaced years before – were the cause of this pain… and in addition to it, nothing. The surgery had worked. He reminded himself that the cells could reject and the pain could return, but for the moment, he languished in the dull ache.

Bane was forced to stay in bed for days, a thing he resented immensely, and in the end when he was finally allowed to go back to the apartment, it was without the mask or any painkillers.

The girl was still there, of course, sad and lonely and lethargic. He had been instructed to stay in bed and rest, but he disregarded this. Instead, he got food for them both and brought it to her room. She looked at him oddly when he walked in.

"They fixed my nose," he told her as he set her tray on the bed.

"You look nice," she mumbled, picking at her food.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

Her answer was a shrug.

Bane sighed and reached for her food tray. He set it on the bedside table before sliding into the girl's bed.

"What are you doing?"

He shushed her and pulled her back against his chest, settling her against his body. In the Pit, when Talia had been sad or scared, this was what he had done for her and it had always helped.

"Just relax," he commanded softly, his chin ducked against his chest so that his mouth rested just against her temple.

The girl remained tense for a few moments more before going limp against him, letting all the tension melt out of her. He absently rubbed her back and shoulders as he listened to her breathing slow and return to normal. After a while, he looked down and saw that she'd fallen asleep curled against his chest. For a moment, he considered waking her so that he could leave, but instead he let her be and closed his own eyes.

When Bane woke up, his body was molded around the girl's and their legs were entwined. In sleep, they had curled in on each other and he could feel her slow breaths against his neck. It sent chills down his newly repaired spine. She looked young and fragile in sleep and it pulled at his insides in a strange way. He wanted to protect her and keep her safe and he wasn't sure when he had started feeling that way about her. At some point, caring about protecting his experimental offspring had turned into caring for the girl as well.

"Is this okay?" she mumbled against his skin. He hadn't noticed her wake up. She snuggled sleepily into him, hiding her eyes from the light by burrowing into the space between his neck and pillow.

"Mmm," he murmured in the affirmative, curling his arm around her. He didn't know what he meant by touching her like this, but it felt nice so he let himself lounge in bed with her for longer than he'd have stayed in bed if he were alone.

When they finally did get out of bed, the girl was almost back to her old self again. She brought her cat and came to eat breakfast with him in the kitchen. She was quieter than she had been before, but at least she was speaking to him again.

"Did your surgery go well?" she wondered.

"It's too early to tell if anything will reject, but nothing hurts anymore," he told her.

"That's good. I'm… glad to have helped," she mumbled with a shrug.

Bane looked at her and could tell she was saying it to be polite. He'd abducted her, impregnated her with an experiment to help himself, and dragged her half way around the world. He didn't regret it and wasn't sorry, but he also knew she wasn't glad and probably resented him for it. He had no reply for her other than a nod.

"Have you um… seen them?" she asked awkwardly.

"No. But they're being looked after by people I trust."

"Oh… that's good. I didn't get to see them either. They were born and they took them straight away. Do you know what they are?"

Despite not having lived for very long past his birth, even Bane's own mother had at least seen him and been able to hold him and know she'd birthed a son. Whatever had gone on at the hospital was not his fault; he hadn't been consulted, but he thinks he'd have at least let the girl see what she'd brought into the world. She may not call them children, preferring to think of it all as a medical science experiment, but they were partly hers.

"Both boys," he replied and cleared this throat. "When you feel better, I could send you to see them, if you want."

"No!" she answered hurriedly, and then composed herself. "I mean, I don't think I want to. Not yet, anyway."

Bane shrugged easily.

"Whenever you're ready, say the word."

The girl nodded, looking down at her cat, who was still sitting in her lap getting its ears scratched.

It unsettled him, a few days later, when he went to see the boys for the first time. The marriage of his features with the girl's showed plainly in their faces. His own blue-green eyes and the girl's dark hazel ones, his full lips, the strange parallel set of the girl's nose from brows to nostrils, the high brows they both share, and her olive skin and pointed chin. The boys look alike and different, but both have stolen their face from the girl and him.

For a moment, he thought of asking the girl what they should name the boys, but a second later the thought is gone. For the past months, she had been determined not to think of herself as a mother and he wouldn't press a mother's job on her now that she was no longer incubating their offspring. He decided on Abel and Jordan. They came to him quickly and he didn't bother to question from where they came. He had no last name to give them, so they would be known simply by their first names.

Before he left he was careful to inform their caretakers that Jordan had hazel eyes and Abel had blue-green eyes.

When he got back to the apartment, Bane thought of telling the girl about the boys, but he thought better of it and kept mum on the subject.

Thanks for reading! I hope it was worth the wait, I'm sorry!