//word// Denotes flash back
*word* Denotes italic

You promised. You gave me your word.

//"Listen, I'm not going anywhere."

"But---"

"No." You looked me right in the eyes. "I promise you I'll be here. Always.//

You told me we'd get married, start a family, grow old together.

Longingly, I believed you.

//"You won't be able to get rid of me that easily." You grabbed my hand. "We'll get engaged, have plenty of little Batboys and girls running around, and even grow all wrinkly together." I laughed lightly and you smiled.

"This is a dangerous line of work, I know and you know, but I'm careful. Don't worry about me just worry about yourself."//

You lied. You looked me in the eyes and lied to my face. Foolishly, I believed every word you said.

I believed you.

But, you lied.

//We dropped on the small gang of arm dealers as we had done a million times. Our movements were in sync, although we rarely practiced together. We were just in tune with each other. Within minutes, the fight was over and unconscious bodies littered the floor.

We worked so beautifully together.

Both of us dropped our guard. A mistake we had been trained not to do.

A fatal mistake.

The clicking noise of a gun hammer being pulled back drew our attention and we turned to see one of the dealers, one we had stupidly assumed was incapacitated, aiming a gun.

The hammer went down and a bullet came flying out of the gun. For the first time in my entire life, I froze. I watched the bullet head towards my chest and knew this was the end. I wasn't stupid, that bullet would pierce my kevlar and I'd die. But, my conscious told me, I hadn't promised I'd always be around for you.

And so I stood like a statue.

But, you---you weren't frozen.

You flew in front of me, taking the bullet. Your weight thrown against me caused me to fall on the ground with you on top. I barely caught sight of the gunman running away.

His job was done.

Quickly, I moved out from under you and laid you down gently. Already, red blood was pouring from the wound right by your heart. Without thought, I threw my hands over the wound, applying pressure. Your mouth opened, as if to tell me something, but I'll never know what because your dying words only came out a faint whisper that even my hearing couldn't pick up.//

You left me.

You said you never would, but you did.

//Batman came to find me holding your body against my chest. I don't know what he said, but he began to pull you away from me.

"No!"

I reached out and grabbed your shoulder and put you back on the ground. I looked down into your mask and felt the fury rise in me.

"Can't go!" I began to shake you. "No go, Tim. Never leave. Promise!" My pain caused my speech to come out in fragments, like it had when I first learn how to talk. "Tim, Robin, promise me. Promise me, he never leave."

I felt Batman pull me away from you.

"Let him be, Batgirl."

I turned into his shoulder and, for the first in my life, I wept.//

You told me you'd never leave.

You *promised*.

How dare you lie to me!

I loved---

No, that's wrong.

I can't bear to think of you in past tense and so---

---I will always love you.

Even if you lied.

Finis.

Due to reading the Potatoverse** I'm in a Robin/Batgirl (Tim/Cass) state of mind. Just don't harm the writer and everything will be fine. Thanks! Oh, yea, FB would be great. ;)

**For those of you who had no idea what this universe is, I recommend going to http://potatoverse.topcities.com/ and reading the stories by Smitty, Chicago and Kerrie (forgive me if anyone else has written for the Potatoverse and I'm forgetting them). It's a wonderfully constructed combination of stories and the humor and drama is blended together perfectly. Okay, that's my plug for those stories. :D **