Wouldn't Change A Thing

For: merfilly

With all she had done and been through, Rose had long ago given up on finding true happiness. She had just come to assume that whatever cosmic power governed them had decided the Wilson family wasn't worth the time and effort it would take to fix them. It had made her bitter, angry, violent, for so long. The chip on her shoulder had formed when she was barely a teenager and had only grown. Every new pain was a fresh wound that poisoned her, ate at her, dug deep within her heart and soul and mind and festered until she couldn't see those who loved her for all of the rage she felt.

She had pushed them away, violently, viciously, belittling and insulting until even those who had tried to reach her had finally stopped fighting to get through.

It had taken Dick's careful teaching and patience for her to see that she wasn't alone. Rose had finally seen what she was doing, how far she was slipping, and while it hadn't been an instantaneous change, she had started to reconsider her beliefs, her place in the world.

Then Bart had died, and it had taken losing him for her to realize how much she cared. She understood, then, that no one really knew what they had until it was gone. Thinking back, all of his fumbled attempts to befriend her, to give her tiny gifts and include her in events had been his way to show her he cared. She had just been too deep in mourning her mother and hating her father for turning her away to see it.

After the Crisis, after the deaths, the tragedies, the losses, she had chosen to join the Titans... more accurately, Dick had chosen for her. She still owed him a thank you for that, despite how rough her time there had been.

Because of that, she had come to terms with her abilities, finally. There had been mistakes made, by Tim, by Rose, by so many others, and joining the Terror Titans, even briefly, had not been her shining moment. But being with the Clock King, despite all she had done there, had actually served more of a purpose than to just bring him and The Dark Side Club down. He may have been insane, but he understood. She had learned what truly brought on her visions and how to manipulate them to best compliment her fighting style. The precognition now no longer worked sporadically, and she was getting better every day at being able to use it, instead of allowing it to use her.

She still missed her eye. She was stronger for the loss, though. She truly believed that. It could have been a handicap but she was her father's daughter. A missing eye was not something that was a hindrance, not if it wasn't allowed to be. Her depth perception might have been adjusted, and she might have to rely on her other senses to protect her left side, but it made her a stronger fighter. The eyes could deceive, a trick of the light on a shining surface could blind. She liked to think that being able to survive losing her eye made her better prepared to survive anything else. It certainly hadn't made her timid. She would still smart off to a New God, two eyes, one eye, or blind.

That wasn't as much from her father as from her mother. Never back down, never show fear, and always trust in yourself. Words she would live by, and words she might die by.

She missed her mother every day, but the pain had eased, and no longer being at odds with her father helped. Knowing what she knew now, about the place her father was in when he had done what he had, she had forgiven him. He had not forgiven himself for costing his daughter both her sanity and her eye, but Slade was always hardest on himself. His guilt ran deep for what had happened to his wife, his children, his partner, but they were working on that too.

They met whenever he managed to come to town, never in the same location, but it was something she looked forward to each month. He had begun to open up to her, telling her things she had never known about Lillian, and Wintergreen. She didn't ask about Adeline, or Grant, but she held onto the hope that one day they would speak of them, and there would be few, if any, secrets between them.

Recently, there had been more changes in the world, in her world. Bart, somehow, had returned, and for a reason she didn't understand but would never question, had come to her. In the days following his return, he had been busy with his family and friends, learning everything that had changed and struggling to acclimate himself once more to the world of the living, but he had always returned to her at night, and they would talk.

He would tell her things he was afraid to tell others, confide in her, and she would do the same. She could tell him anything and everything and he never judged. He never had before, and she finally understood that this, knowing someone's deepest innermost thoughts, knowing them so intimately, was more satisfying, more fulfilling, than every connection she'd ever mistakenly sought in the arms and bed of others.

From there, it was easy to fall in love and practically impossible for them to not. They both lived in the Tower, but in one room, together, not two separately. He eased the anger that never truly left her, and she calmed the part of him that wanted to be in constant motion.

There were still arguments and fights, as any couple would have, but they never let the animosity linger. Life was too precious for that, and no one understood that sentiment nearly as well as the former and current Titans.

Every night, before they went to bed, Rose's head pillowed on Bart's shoulder, she couldn't help but whisper a prayer of thanks to anyone who would listen.

She had her father in her life; she had a boyfriend who loved her unconditionally, and friends. Life wasn't perfect by any means, but what was perfection? Give her the imperfections and the flaws. Without them, she wouldn't appreciate what she had, and she wouldn't know to cling to her blessings with all her might.

This was her life, and she wouldn't change a moment of it for anything.

Time might not heal all wounds, but with love, it had a much better chance to succeed.