It's a dark night; cloudy. I don't fear what's out there in the alleys; I have no reason to because most fear me. I'm not that scary though, really.
I'm walking down one alley, just strolling along with nothing to do when I hear a noise. It's a little squeak by a dumpster. I look over and don't see anything so I search around in the garbage. Maybe I am hearing things? I finally hear it again, and I see a little chip bag rustling. I look in it and there is a little bat. It looks young, like it shouldn't be away from its mother yet. I decide to take it out of the bag and look closer.
It looks really skinny and its wing is damaged. I need to take it home and feed it. I can't just let it die out here, I'm not that heartless.
I carry it home and catch some bugs for it to eat. He chews them up quickly. I make him a little bed out of an old shirt I have. I've never had a bat before; I don't know how to really care for them.
I know. I'll get a hold of Bats!
I fit my little bat into my front pocket and head out the door. How do I catch the Bat? He does have that signal on top of the GCPD… That wouldn't be a very safe place for me to be, but I need to save my bat and he's the only one who can help, because, he is a bat, right?
I head up to the roof by using the outside ladders. It's late so no one will see me unless they come up here as well. I put on the bat signal and wait.
"Joker. What are you doing?" I hear him say when he arrives.
He hops down and turns off the light. "I need your help," I reply.
"You? Need my help? Have you gone crazier than before?" he asks, chuckling.
"I found something and I need your advice on how to take care of it," I laugh back.
"What is it?" he asks curiously.
I pull the little bat out of my pocket and show it to him.
"It looks like he has a broken wing, where did you even find this?" he assesses.
"I found him in a bag in the alley. He looks young. I want to keep him and help him," I say with glee at my new pet.
"You? Caring for a living being? This won't end well," He responds.
"I'm not that heartless Bats; I can care about some things," I say slightly hurt.
"Alright, so what do you want me to do about it then?" he says getting more serious.
"I need help healing it and advice on what to do with it. I figure, you are a bat, he's a bat, so you can help!"
"You know, I'm not a real bat right?" he says with seriousness.
"I know Batsy, but you're close enough. Will you help?" I ask as I push my little buddy closer to him.
"Fine," He agrees.
"Yay! Thank you Bats! I'm gunna name him Brucie!" I squeal with excitement.
"Uh-huh…. Why Brucie?" he asks suspiciously.
"Well, you know, that Bruce Wayne does a lot for this town and he's quite a looker," I wink then get more serious again, "It might not seem like it but I do care about Gotham, and it seems no one cares more about Gotham than him. Except maybe you, I guess." I say honestly. Bats and I do talk occasionally, but it is a rarity.
"You like Bruce Wayne?" he asks laughing.
"Well, he seems like a good guy and he does look dreamy," I trail off.
"What would you do if you could meet him?" Bats asks, with a little too much curiosity.
"Well, I am a criminal, and he seems against those. But we are all trying to help Gotham, and ourselves, in different ways, and our ways just differ. He'd probably try to get me arrested before I could say anything. But if I could, I'd probably just thank him for being one of the few to care about fixing this rat infested hell hole we live in," I say while I carefully pet Brucie, "It would be nice to see if he's as nice in real life as he is when he's making speeches."
"I didn't realize you care so much about the welfare of Gotham," Bats said quietly.
After another minute he motions his hands for me to hand him my pet. I do, and he pulls a little bandage out of his belt and wraps it around the wing, "Feed him insects, and let him move around a little but don't let him try to fly. Meet me on top of the church in 5 days and I'll check on him again," he hands him back to me.
"Thanks Bats," I say, then I ask, "Are you sure you don't want to arrest me?"
"You aren't hurting anyone today, so you are fine for now," he says as he disappears.
I take Brucie home and care for him. Harley is on vacation for now and so I let my men off for a week. I don't have anything to do but take care of him.
As the days go by he seems to be getting better but I'm not totally sure. I'm excited to see what Bats says about him when we meet again.
The 5 days fly by and I take Brucie to the church.
"How is he?" Bats ask as he appears from the darkness.
"He seems better, gained some weight, but I am not sure about his wing," I say worried.
He examines it and says it should be better in a couple of days, "You should release him when he is better. I have a place for you to release him if you would like me to show you," he offers.
I stare at Brucie for a while and say, "If I have to let him go, I will."
"Alright, in 5 more days, meet me back here and I will take you to the release point," he said and flew away.
The days flew by quickly and Brucie kept healing. Harley came home and so did my men, but they carried out plans without me because I could only focus on my little bat.
The day came and I was entirely consumed in thought about how my little bat would do on his own and if he would be fine without me. I carried him to the church again and waited for Bats.
"Hey," he said coming up behind me.
"Hey," I responded back, still lost in thought about Brucie.
"Come on, let's go," He led me to the batmobile.
"You are taking me in this? How do I know you aren't arresting me or how do you know you can trust me in it?" I ask taken aback.
"It'll be fine, it's too far to walk though and the car drives so fast that we won't even be in it more than a minute," he said assuredly.
We both got in the car and it whirled off. It was so fast I could not keep track of where we were or how far we had gone. When the car finally stopped, we were in a cave. Lights turned on in the cave and I noticed it had computers and weapons with bat symbols on it.
"Really Bats?" I say laughing, "Your bat cave hideout is a literal cave? With real bats?"
"Yes," he said seriously.
After a minute, I stop laughing and take in how serious this is, he brought me to the batcave, he must have some faith that I'm not as bad as I seem, because no one has ever been to the batcave. I get out and glance around. It seems that his hideout was built into a cave, with half of it being his actual space and the other half being dark and filled with bats.
"Come here," Bats says as he leads me over to the edge of a platform. He puts his hands out flat and gives a pushing motion, "This is how you release them. He will fly up and then meet the other bats,"
"Will they get along?" I ask, I don't want my Brucie to be beaten up by stronger bats or ostracized because he is new.
"Yes they will," he assured me.
After a minute of petting him, I held my hands out like Bats showed me, "Goodbye Bruce Wayne, my wonderfully amazing bat," and I pushed him into the air. He flew up and flew around the cave a few times before he found a good place to hang, "I wish he had a middle name too, it would seem proper, but no one knows Bruce Wayne's actual middle name and I could not think of anything original," I confided with Bats.
"It's Anthony," he replied, "Bruce Anthony Wayne."
"How do you know that?" I ask turning toward him.
He grabbed the bottom of his mask and pulled up. Underneath the Batman mask, was Bruce Wayne. He trusted me with this secret, he brought me to the batcave and helped me to take care of a hurt little baby bat. Maybe things were changing between us.
"Oh Bruce Anthony Wayne," I say with a surprised smile, "my wonderfully amazing bat."