There are only three words I wish to say to you all.

Sorry not sorry.

~•~

Tim was silent when he returned home pondering about the little girl he had just met. Damian had not forced him to talk about anything either, knowing that he needed time to himself. When he went to the room Dora was staying in, he was alarmed to find it so silent.

"Dora?" 

The curtains were drawn shut, the lights were switched off and Dora was curled up in the blanket, almost as if she was asleep. Eli wasn't in the room too, probably taken for some time by either of his siblings.

"Hey, are you okay?" He switched on and gently reached out towards her, sitting beside her on the bed.

She stirred slightly but gave no reply.

"Dora?" His hand gently cupped her face and it was then he realized that she was burning up in fever. Her eyes were shut from either fatigue or the fever burning her up. Edging closer to her, he had wrapped his arms around her bundled-up frame as well, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Tim..." She softened into the familiar comforting embrace and peeled open her eyes to see him.

"I'm right here," he mumbled reassuringly, "what happened, you were alright when I left..."

"I'm fine" she mumbled, "just minor headache and fever. The weather's changing and I'm already weak so it probably affected me worse."

"I should you take you to the doctor," he spoke up but she refused, "come on."

"Tim, I'll be fine. Alfred has given me medication already and I talked to Miss Isley too. It's just a seasonal sickness, nothing to worry about."

He didn't seem too sure of that because seeing Dora get even the slightest of unwell made him anxious. But she assured him that she would get better with some rest.

"Did you go to meet Mona?" She asked, eyes falling shut again as she relaxed in his arms.

"Yes. I just came back."

"How's she like?" A faint trace of curiosity was evident in her tone, "Damian said she looked a lot like you."

"You've talked to Damian about Mona?" Tim tilted his head to look at her in surprise.

"I did. I figured it would be better if I told him myself that I won't have any issue if Mona comes to stay with us," she replied, "in fact, I will be delighted to have another child around."

"One would think Elios is more than enough to handle but you want a second child already..."

She laughed softly, "you know I love children. And how can I not love someone who looks exactly like you? A mini Tim with blue eyes, that's what she's like, right?"

Tim was surprised to see that she was so enthusiastic about having Mona come to live with them. And that wish of hers made him want to make it come true soon.

He could never say no to anything Dora wanted, even if it was difficult for him to come to terms with it.

"She's... A lot like me," he mumbled, hesitating at first but then chose to tell her exactly what he thought about Mona, "and I feel like that's a good thing. I wouldn't have been able to handle the situation well if she looked like Nyssa or reminded me of her."

"I know you're observant so you must have tried to figure out whether she's like you in nature too."

He could see that Dora was intentionally sticking to that topic because she wanted him to share everything with her and not burden himself alone.

"I guess she is like me in nature too. She was very eager to meet me," he mumbled, his voice low as he resumed, "and even though at first I was double-minded about taking her in, I feel like it won't be that bad. She's not at fault, I shouldn't shun her out for something that she isn't even responsible for."

"I'm glad you understand," Dora remarked in a gentle tone, "she's a child too and it isn't fair to shun her out. I hope to meet her someday soon."

He nodded, "I will have to tell the rest of the family about her first. And you have to get better too. Right now, I am very worried to see you like that."

"I will get better, don't worry."

***

Two days had passed and though the fever had ceased, Dora still had a mild headache. She chose to ignore it and as she spent time with Elios and Tim, she eventually forgot about it as well.

Little did she know that ignoring the early symptoms would come with such a heavy cost.

It was past midnight when Dora woke up, feeling a tightness in her chest. It was getting hard to breathe and she felt suffocated. Her head was aching as well and she felt terribly weakened.

"Tim..." She felt her way round in the dark, hand coming in contact with Tim's hand, "Tim..."

Tim woke up immediately, always alert to even the slightest of movements. He noticed that her breathing was jagged and she was clutching his wrist tightly as if scared. He quickly switched on the lamp at the bedside table and turned to her.

"Dora, what happened? Are you okay?"

She shook her head but couldn't speak up due to the suffocation. Tim thought she was going through a panic attack so he had rushed to her side, trying to judge her condition closely before treating her accordingly.

"Outside... Can't breathe... Hurts..." 

She struggled to get the words out but Tim understood, lifting her up in his arms cautiously as he took her out to the balcony. He was worried about leaving Elios alone too but Dora's condition was worsening and he had to look after her first.

But even in the fresh air, she couldn't get better. Tim called Alfred because he couldn't think of a better person to help. The rest of the Bat vigilantes were out on patrol as usual so he couldn't call any of them.

Alfred came up immediately and seeing Dora's state, he too got worried. "We might have to take her to the hospital, Master Tim."

"I'll take her. But Elios..."

"I will look after him," Alfred suggested, "you should go right now."

Tim was panicking as well because Dora had lost consciousness. He rushed with her to the garage, placing her down in the passenger seat and strapped the belt then got in himself, backing the car out.

He didn't want to crash on the way but the worries were piling up. Seeing Dora like that had shaken him up badly and he was praying that nothing bad would happen to Dora.

He reached the hospital and by then his phone had been constantly ringing, indicating that the rest of the family had probably found out by then. But he couldn't waste even a second so he rushed her to the Emergency ward, requesting the doctors to look after her immediately because the case was critical.

But as it was midnight, the doctor on duty wasn't the one who had handled Dora's case so she was unaware of the entire extent of the complexities that could arise.

Tim was in panic and shortly after, Richard and Damian had arrived along with Alexander. The three of them spotted a rather frantic-looking Tim standing in the corridor, clutching his temples that seemed to burst from pain.

Richard had quickly approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder but he flinched badly, looking at them with a blank expression on his face. He could hear them asking what had happened and how was Dora but he was unable to respond due to extreme worry.

However, the doctor came out so Richard asked about the situation from her instead.

"It seems as if Miss Beaumont is suffering from severe internal bleeding," the doctor informed, "we've called Dr. Collins to deal with the situation. Right now, we can't say anything for certain. It can be as severe as a brain hemorrhage as well. I would advise you to prepare a blood donor just in case..."

Alexander was the one who had enough hold over himself in the situation to think of asking Pamela for help. He called Selina so that she could contact the woman.

He explained the situation hastily and when the call disconnected, he turned to look at Tim who had gone white as a sheet from all the worry.

"Miss Isley will be here any moment," Alex told him, "all we can do right now is to pray for Dora."

Pamela as well as Dr. Collins had arrived and were rushed to the Intensive Care Unit where Dora was being kept. The doctors couldn't ascertain what had gone wrong and even Pamela couldn't find the root of it.

All she could see was that the toxin that had been temporarily dormant ever since Eli's birth seemed to have spiked up alarmingly and had caused such intense deterioration in her already weakened body. The result was uncontrollable internal bleeding at the rate of which Dora was suffering a severe blood loss.

It could be fatal if they failed to stop the toxin.

But none of Pamela's potions or serums were working on Dora as it seemed the toxin had gotten stronger during its brief hibernating period.

Outside, the corridor had started to fill up as almost all the family members had dropped by soon after patrol hours had ended. Stephanie was back at the Manor with Elios so that she could take care of him and Barbara was with her.

But other than that every single one of them was there at the hospital, including Bruce.

Tim was shattering from the inside. He had just started to believe that things were getting better, he had just started to think about the future. And even though Mona's presence in Gotham had shaken him up initially, he had just started to come to terms with her existence too.

But fate had struck a fatal blow at them yet again, one that he was afraid he might never be able to recover from.

And all his fears were confirmed when Dr. Collins stepped out with a very resigned look on his face. They had rushed to him to hear whether Dora was stable or not but the news that met them shook them terribly.

"I'm sorry. We couldn't save her."

***

Five years had passed since Tim had lost Dora forever.

Five years since he had seen her beautiful face, heard her reassuring voice and kissed her cherry pink lips. Five years was a hell of a long time and though he had felt he might never be able to come out of the darkness that had spread in his life after Dora, he had to make through it for the sake of his children.

Mona had come to live with them a month after Dora's death and Tim let her because he knew Dora wanted her to be a part of their family. And even if Dora was no longer with them, Tim respected her wish and wanted to make it come true.

Though Tim had planned to buy an apartment of his own as long as Dora was alive, he couldn't do so because it would be impossible to raise two children on his own. So he and his kids stayed in Wayne Manor though Dora's absence had clouded over their hearts like an ever-persistent sorrow.

In the first year after Dora, it had been very difficult to handle Elios because he missed his mother but couldn't express it. His skin stayed thorny like a cactus because he wanted to be held by Dora yet she wasn't around.

Tim's hands and arms had scratches from trying to hold Elios nevertheless and it was truly a challenge for him to keep himself stable as well as look after his son. At that time, Mona had been a great help in distracting Eli and slowly but steadily, things had started to get better

Still, it could not fill up the hole that had been left in their hearts from Dora's death. 

Alex ran Dora's Coffee Haunt still accompanied by his crew but he too had gone very silent. The grief of losing his sister was too much to bear for him too.

However, they say time is the greatest ointment of all and with time, they had started to accept the state of their lives without Dora and hoped to make the best out of the situation. Tim had been the most dejected but the responsibility of looking after Mona and Eli kept him on his feet.

But never once did they forget Dora and Tim visited her grave frequently, whenever he felt too depressed to move on with his life he would visit her and share his burdens with a silent tombstone. And once every two months or so, he would bring Elios and Mona to the graveyard as well.

Little Elios had turned five recently and his plant manipulating powers had gotten stronger. Pamela kept visiting him to help him in controlling his powers and though it was troublesome at first, by then he was starting to tame the uncontrollable bursts of plants from his hands.

Mona was fascinated by her baby brother's abilities and the two would often spend time together with Elios showing her all the different types of plants he could manipulate. He was still learning and most of the times his attempts to control his powers backfired so Tim and the others had to pay special attention him.

It was a cold day in mid November and Tim had brought his children to the graveyard, the three of them standing by the tombstone that bore the name of Isadora Beaumont. Tim watched as Elios tried to conjure a wreath of flowers that ended up in a pile falling over the grave.

Mona had bent down to arrange those flowers before the boy could fret about not being able to conjure a wreath even after such a lot of practice. Tim watched her reassure Eli that he would get better at controlling his powers fully and just like that, he was reminded of Dora.

Dora was the same way towards everyone, reassuring them and trying to make them see the best in themselves. And as he pondered over the situation, he realized that Dora was still all around him not only in the form of her memories but also in the form of the two children in front of him.

While Elios looked strikingly like Dora, Mona had the same caring nature and the two of them together were what reminded him of Dora most.

He didn't notice there were tears streaming down his face until Elios tugged at his hand.

"Dad, don't cry. It would hurt Mom to see you sad," he spoke up, clasping his hand reassuringly.

Mona had come to stand by him too, "he's right, Baba."

Tim looked down at both of them, feeling overwhelmed at the moment. He had been so depressed after losing Dora that he hadn't realized that he still had a great blessing in the form of those two.

And of course they were right, Dora would never want him to disintegrate after her. She would want him to face everything bravely and look after his children in the best way possible.

And that's what he would make sure to do. He would make sure that he cared for both of them and raised them well and even though he couldn't make up for Dora's absence, he would try his best to do all he could for those two angels who had come to mean such a lot to him.

He bent down, gently ruffling both their heads, "I'm not sad. I just... I miss her."

Elios had stepped forward to hug him and so had Mona and right then Tim felt the same warmth that crept into his heart whenever Dora used to hug him and tell him that things would get better. It was almost as if she was watching over them still and praying for them to stay happy and united.

"We'll make it through this," Tim found himself saying those words that Dora used to reassure him whenever he got stuck in dark spot, "I promise."

He stood up because it was time to leave even though he didn't wan to. The rest of the family would be waiting for them at Thanksgiving dinner so they couldn't stay there for long.

But as they said their farewell to Dora's grave and turned to go back, Mona stopped, eyes lingering on the pile of flowers she had set upon the grave.

Right before leaving, she whispered in a low voice so that Tim and Elios would not hear her, "I wish I could have met you."

***

Well, you guys know me too well. I can't let the chance of a tragedy slip from my fingers. Anyways, we have finally reached the end and I can't wait to see what you guys think.

Aren't you all relieved I didn't keep this version as the original one? Things would have been so tragically different otherwise (not that they're going to be any easier even now).

~•~