Ten thirty a.m. at Gotham Square. People who woke up late for work still scramble for the doors to their offices and highschool drop-outs hang around in groups by the benches and water fountain, smoking cigarettes and chatting seriously about the importance of individualism within the conformist society. Small children, too young for school, cling to their mothers' hands as they're led to the store or the baby-sitter's. The red lights turn green, and the cars drive on, accident free. It hasn't rained, and only a few white, poofy clouds invade the peaceful sky. Yes, it was a perfectly normal day in Gotham, as everyone went about their routine.
That is, until the unfamiliar sound of clicking heels reached the doorway of Gotham City Bank.
Clad in business attire, a red blouse and black slacks, a woman with large aviator glasses covering her eyes entered, a grey Gucci purse clasped in her gloved hand. Her red lips made a slight upturn as she passed the security guards and clicked up to the front desk.
"May I help you?" a young man said in boredom. She smiled fully at him, and nodded.
"I'd like to make a withdrawal, please." she said. He sighed.
"I'll need a name and Identification, please..."
"Of course." she handed him a small card, and he looked at it. He became confused.
"Is this some sort of joke?" he asked, waving the red card with the picture of a crow on it. The woman huffed, and opened her Gucci purse. A thick gas hissed from it, and hit the young man in the face. His eyes widened, and he began screaming as the gas spread throughout the room.
"Wrong villain, sweetheart." the woman said, a small gas mask covering her mouth. "Not much joking in my line of work." Her aviators were gone, and her grey eyes gleamed happily as she walked through the frightened crowd of people to the vault. She tapped the code into the key panel and the large door popped open for her to enter. "Oh, so much cash." she said, whistling at the neatly stacked bills of money that covered the shelves. She took from her pocket a felt bag and began stuffing it with the beautiful green. Once it was filled, she walked form the room and sealed the door behind her. She stepped over the various people who had collapsed to the ground as they shouted fearfully, and waved to the young man she'd spoken with before leaving the bank and walking calmly to the old car that awaited her. Once inside, she pulled away from the parking lot and drove into the direction of The Narrows. For the people of Gotham City, it was a scandal.
For Bethany Niles, it was a perfectly normal day.
...
"You're taking forever on purpose, aren't you?"
"No, your handwriting is just difficult to read."
"Bullshit."
"Yes, that's what it looks like."
Bethany thunked her head onto the table as Jonathan smirked at her from behind his glasses. They were in the kitchen, and he was grading her latest english test he'd given her. He was taking an excruciatingly long time, and that made her anxious. She hated getting bad grades, mostly because of the condescending leer Jonathan gave her when she did. It was horribly annoying. When Jonathan was finally finished, he handed the test over to her and she snatched it from him.
"Eighty-nine..." she said, looking at the red number at the top of her paper. She beamed. "Yes! I'm awesome." she said brightly.
"I hardly think so. You couldn't even make an 'A'." Jonathan said, teasing of course.
"Shut it, Straw-Boy. I'm awesome, and you're just jealous of my awesomeness." Beth stuck her tongue out at him. He sighed and took off his glasses.
"Arrogance like that will get you in trouble."
"Says you, of all people. All you are is arrogant and judgmental and mean and-"
"And your boss who pays you fair wage." Jonathan interrupted, and Beth shot him a look.
"Hey, I just robbed a bank s you could pay me. What the hell is up with that?" she asked. Jonathan shrugged.
"You know we don't have many clients during the summer months. It's usually near holidays when our services are really needed." he said. Beth kicked her feet up onto the table and leaned back into her chair, still feeling smug about herself. Her wolf, Chance, ambled into the kitchen and licked her face. She pet his thick black fur and smiled.
"Hello, light of my life. How are you?" she asked. Chance huffed, and dropped his head into her lap. Beth frowned, and scratched behind his ears. "He needs to run around..." she muttered shyly to Jonathan.
"We took him out last week." Jonathan said sternly as he lit a cigarette.
"Two weeks ago, actually. And he needs more running time than that. And not in some warehouse full of cigar smoking goons." she said, referring to their area of operations where she took Chance once in a while so the wolf could stretch his long legs. Jonathan took a drag from the cigarette and exhaled the smoke.
"Well, what are you suggesting we do? Can't that Sarah friend of yours keep him with her?" he asked. Beth shook her head.
"No, she's only for emergencies. Couldn't we move out of this place?" she asked, gesturing to the room. "We've been here since I was twelve, maybe you were here for longer. It smells, and the ceiling in my room leaks when it rains." she said.
"I thought you liked it here." he said with a quirk of a smile.
"I'm being serious, Jonathan. We need to get out of here." she said.
"This place is secure, and perfectly hidden from police-"
"And it's held up by rotten wood. We're gonna wake up one day with the house in nothing but a pile of splintered sticks around us. It's more dangerous living here than it is living where Batman might find us. At least he won't kill us with mildew..."
"I get it, I get it..." Jonathan rubbed his face once and he sighed. "What about that place you stayed at when you returned here from Ra's?" he asked.
"It'll work. No one ever goes way out there anyway." Beth said. "The trees are too thick, and it becomes pitch black in those woods at night if you aren't on the trail-"
"Aye, boss! You here?" a voice called from the living room. Beth and Jonathan watched as John walked into the kitchen.
"What is it?" Jonathan asked.
"Jus' doin' the weekly check in. Makin' sure you ain't dead an' all that." John said.
"We're moving." Beth said. John's eyes widened, and he looked around the dilapidated room.
"What? And leave this five star resort to rot?" he asked sarcastically.
"It'll be farther from the city," Jonathan said, ignoring John's comment. "But it'll be more convenient for the mutt." he pointed to Chance, whose tongue lolled from his mouth as he panted.
"And not to mention cleaner, safer, newer, etcetera." Beth said. "You know, everything this place isn't." As back-up to Beth's claim, one of the kitchen cabinet doors fell from its hinges and clattered onto the floor. Chance growled, and Beth smirked as she stared at Jonathan with a 'you know I'm right' look on her face.
"Don't give me that look." Jonathan said.
"So when you leavin'?" John asked. As an answer, the house made a rather threatening groan. Beth gripped Chance nervously.
"Now..."
...
"Good thing I don't have asthma." Beth wheezed between coughs and sneezes the next day as they brought their things into her old home from four years ago. A thick layer of dust coated everything, and their walking around inside made it swirl into the air and into their lungs. It wasn't a pleasant experience.
"You said this place would be cleaner!" Jonathan coughed, and Beth shrugged.
"Well it will be, once we clean it." she said, and opened the heavy curtains to allow light to pour in through the living room window. She unhitched the latch and opened the window itself to allow the dust to escape and fresh air to invade the small home. Her bags were resting on the couch, dust settling on top of them in large motes. Ick.
"Absolutely ridiculous." Jonathan muttered when he was able to breath at last. "Where is the bedroom?"
"Down the hall. Last door, I think." Beth answered, and he went grumbling down the small hallway to drop off his things. Beth looked over to Chance. "Sorry, buddy. Looks like your bed's taken." she said.
"Why is there dog hair all over this thing?!" Jonathan asked angrily from their room. "Did you sleep with that dog?!"
"No, I slept on the floor!" Beth said. "Chance took the bed."
"Absolutely, incredibly, undoubtedly ridiculous!" he replied, and went on grumbling. Beth tsked at her boss, remembering how oddly difficult it was for him to leave the old, rundown home in The Narrows. She'd miss it too, because of the memories, but not as much as he would, she guessed. Took her ten minutes to coax him out of the damned kitchen. And now he was as cranky as a small child who had his favorite toy taken from him.
"And he calls me childish. Hmph." she said as she opened more windows. Jonathan walked into the room with the old bed sheets.
"I refuse to sleep in this dog hair infested heap of cloth." he said, dropping the sheets onto the couch. Beth took them up.
"I'll just wash them. Quit whining so much. That's my job." she said, and brought the sheets into the tiny washroom with just a washing machine and dryer and two feet of foot space. Once the wash was going, Beth walked back to the living room, thankful that the water was still running in this place. She found Jonathan sitting with his arms crossed on the couch, staring at the wall stubbornly. "What's your problem?" she asked.
"I haven't any idea what you're talking about." he said. "I'm just sitting here."
"Ugh..." Beth walked over to the couch and sat down next to him. She rest her chin on his shoulder and pouted, her nose almost touching his cheek. "It's okay if you miss the old house Jonathan." she said like she was talking to a toddler. "We will all miss the old house. But the new house is nice too, and will keep you all warm and cozy." she said. Jonathan quirked a brow at her.
"If I punched you now, you know it would be justifiable, right?" he asked. She grinned, and poked his cheek.
"Yup, but then I'd go ninja on you and karate chop you into another nationality. Hmm, a korean Scarecrow. That'd be interesting."
"You're thoughts are too random, sometimes." Jonathan mumbled, and pointed to a light purple stain on the carpet. "What is that?"
"Oh, that's from when you figured who I was and I threw the wine because you ran off like a sissy. That might come out with some Mr. Clean or something." Beth said. Jonathan stilled for a moment.
"Nothing good happened here." he said. Beth sighed heavily and squeezed his hand with her own.
"Good stuff will happen, I promise." she said, then gave a sly smile. "But how soon depends on whether or not you want to wait on the bed sheets to dry." She rolled her eyes in amusement when Jonathan's lips came crashing down on hers.
...
Jonathan watched her sleep that night, unable to sleep himself. He stared at the thin, hardly visible scars over her cheek that Croc gave her some years ago when she was a doctor at Arkham. His eyes found the other various scars that littered her naked torso, all barely noticeable, but still there all the same. She'd have as many as he had soon. That's what happened when you were a guard for a masked villain; you got a fair share of scratches fighting vigilantes. Beth shivered, and Jonathan pulled the clean blanket over her shoulder to cover her.
"Ridiculous thing." he whispered. They'd been intimate for a little over a year now. It was a slow process for them, what with Bethany's not-to-pretty first experience with her scum of a stepfather when she was young. Jonathan was patient, and slowly, they were able to achieve the relationship they had now. For Bethany, it was a psychological breakthrough. For Jonathan, it was a major achievement in his psychology career. But, even though he was patient, he would admit that every time Beth drew back in fear and self-consciousness, he'd curse her father's name with the most evil words his vocabulary held, wishing sorely that he could bring him back from the dead just so Jonathan could kill him again in the worst ways humanly possible. Jonathan was not a cheating man, after all, and that shred of morality he had resulted with him remaining celibate for years.
Not months.
Not days.
Years...
Jonathan breathed a sigh of personal accomplishment for the millionth time that he was able to have so much self control as he thought of that fact. Beth shifted position, and he draped his arm over her as she got closer. He looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling and thought of the new living arrangement they had. It was small, but at least the damned dog wouldn't be whining at them day and night to go outside. Now the mutt would be able to stay outside, away from Jonathan and his work. And Beth was right, even though the dust wasn't quite yet gone, at least this place did smell eons better. But still, the other house had so much history inside its withering walls. It was his home away from Arkham for many years, and completely hidden from the Batman. This new place was pretty well hidden, too. No one ever came out here anymore. The woods were completely black at night, and there wasn't any wildlife Jonathan knew about save for the birds and squirrels. So hunters and people of the like wouldn't ever invade on Jonathan and Beth's security. He...supposed this place would do. He'd just need to get used to the silence. They were far away from the noises of the city now, and the quiet was almost unnerving.
Jonathan snorted. Unnerving. Hell, where he grew up only the sounds of hungry crows and the ramblings of his insane grandmother kept him company. The life of a farm boy...he should be used to such silence.
Jonathan closed his eyes in slight annoyance as he tried to keep his mind away from his childhood. It wasn't the funnest place to visit. He got closer to Beth and rest his face in her long black hair.
He was asleep in moments.
...
Bethany was resting by a towering tree in the woods, a strange, two-headed wolf staring at her. One head had wiry brown fur, and rich brown eyes that contemplated her presence. She'd seen him before. The other's acid green eyes stared at her from it's choppy black fur as it growled, yellow spittle falling from its threatening mouth. It was new. Beth calmly flattened out the folds of her red dress as she stood up and took a simple axe from the tree. She looked at the head with brown eyes.
"You have another head." she said, pointing to the growling one.
"Obvious." The brown-eyed wolf said. Beth raised the axe and rest it on her shoulder.
"Want it gone?" she asked. Now the brown-eyed wolf gave a short growl of warning.
"Kill one and we both die." he said. Beth cocked her head to the side. The green-eyed wolf's growls were still becoming louder.
"Both?" she asked the brown-eyed wolf.
"Both."
"It seems dangerous." she said as the growls of the green-eyed wolf grew louder.
"So it seems." the brown-eyed wolf said.
"What does it do?" she asked. The green-eyed wolf barked sharply, acquiring her attention. It moved it's mouth to shape a single word.
"Kill..."
Beth awoke with a start and sat up. The digital clock read 3:16. Somehow her legs became tangled with the sheets while she slept, and she wriggled around until she was free of them.
"Weird ass dreams, man..." she muttered, and looked over to where Jonathan slept.
He wasn't there.
"Must be doing some work." she said, used to frequently waking up to find he'd gone earlier either to the living room to do paperwork or to the warehouse to work on a new experiment he'd thought up. She got up from the bed and wrapped a black robe around herself before walking over to the bathroom. She flicked on the light.
And there was Jonathan.
"Oh, shit, sorr-" Beth began to say, but when she noticed he wasn't using the facilities, she faltered. He was standing in front of the mirror, his eyes fluttering open and closed, not showing any sign that he even noticed Beth. "Uh..." she reached down and took up the roll of toilet paper before tossing it lightly at him so she didn't get hurt if he jerked awake and did something crazy. It bounced off his shoulder, and his eyes snapped open. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes before looking quizzically around the small room. His brow furrowed.
"What the hell?" his gaze snapped onto Beth's confused expression. "S'goin' on?" he asked drowsily.
"Uh-um...I think you may have been sleepwalking." she said. That was the only logical answer.
"I don't sleepwalk..." Jonathan muttered. Beth shrugged her shoulders at him.
"Well, maybe the stress of moving made you act a little funny." she suggested. Jonathan thought it over and finally nodded.
"Sounds logical to me. Whatever. I feel horrible."
"Well, you've been standing here for who knows how long. You should get to bed." Beth said. Jonathan nodded again dully and walked out without another word. Beth watched him go, and she shut the door behind him so she may use the facilities. She looked at the mirror and frowned.
Yup, it was Monday.
...
Author's note: Yay, Mondays. Blech. Anyway, welcome to the sequel to The Abyss! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Stay tuned for the next one! ;D