Chapter 1: Unwritten

I Am Unwritten Can't Read My Mind,

I'm Undefined I'm Just Beginning,

The Pen's In My Hand Ending Unplanned,

Staring At The Blank Page Before You,

Open Up The Dirty Window

Let The Sun Illuminate The Words That

You Could Not Find,

Reaching For Something In The Distance,

So Close You Can Almost Taste It,

Release Your Inhibitions.

(Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten)

It was a particular sunny day in Gotham city; rays of sunlight filled the Wayne Tower offices, instantly brightening the mood of every dreary person in the building. Imogen liked to imagine that outside the birds were chirping happily to match the clichéd image in her head. She did that often, space out and let her mind wonder into child like day dreams, leaving her in a fiddle when she'd realise that she hadn't been listening to a single word somebody had said and today was no exception.

If you asked many of the staff at Wayne Tower to describe Imogen Hartley, they would roll their eyes and go into a rant of her incompetence and ditzy persona, not to mention half the things she would come out with would sound like complete nonsense. It wasn't that she was stupid per say, but slightly strange, not that she seemed to notice, and if she did she showed no sign of ever changing her ways.

Now ask a close friend to describe Imogen Hartley, which was close to zero, they would smile fondly at the thought of her, and begin to explain her caring nature, smilingly knowingly at a recent memory, describing her adorable babbling nonsense a nervous habit and perfectly content with it being apart of her. Just because Imogen had hardly any friends, didn't necessarily mean that she wasn't happy about it, in fact you could say she couldn't be any happier about having only three friends, as she didn't do well with large crowds as it is.

She sat at her small desk, which was situated outside of Lucius Fox's office, her chin in her hand with her elbow propped up on the desk, her bright blue orbs staring into a blank space, a dazed expression on her porcelain skinned face while she waited boredly for something to happen. Anything.

Her chocolate brown hair cascaded around her, with her bangs covering her forehead, stopping just above her eyes, making the colour in them seem even brighter as it contrasted against her hair. If it wasn't for her strange behaviour and awkward conversations, many would deem her attractive, and given enough alcohol many of the male colleagues in the building would enforce that statement.

"Day dreaming again Miss Hartley?" A soft, yet deep voice snapped her mind back to attention, and she whipped her head around to see Lucius Fox standing by his door, an amused expression on his face.

Imogen let out a nervous laugh, her cheeks turning into a rosy pink shade, nodding slightly.

"Just of places other than here, like the beach .. and Disney Land, shaking hands with Mickey Mouse while I get a picture with him …"

She drifted off, afraid to say anymore and embarrass herself more than she already had, biting her bottom lip for good measure, Lucius shook his head at her with a knowing smile on his face, tucking his hands into his suit pocket he looked back up at her.

"I just need the documents on the Stavalos deal on my desk soon."

"Already done." She lifted up a large yellow file, filled with signed papers and information, Lucius nodded and walked briskly to take it out of her hands with a small thank you.

"With that day dreaming you do I don't understand how you get all your work done and more …"

Imogen shrugged her shoulders, smiling brightly at him; Lucius Fox was most likely the only person in the building who truly knew just how smart she really was. Her degree in marketing and accounting was one of the reason he hired her as his assistant in the first place, but every applicant had similar qualifications, what really made Lucius so adamant in choosing her was her persona, how she came across, it was strangely refreshing to see someone so childlike and blindly optimistic, and he would openly admit to never coming across another person like her again.

"Well if you're done with that, then you're free for your lunch break now."

She nodded, sitting up from her chair and grabbing her black elbow length blazer, throwing her hand bag over her shoulder she smiled at Lucius and softly waved at him, walking in the opposite direction.

"Miss Hartley!" Imogen stopped briefly, turning around to look at Lucius, "Wayne Tower has forty stories and you're at the top, why do you insist on taking the stairs?"

She shrugged nonchalantly, her soft smile never leaving her pink lips, "Elevators are weird."

She turned back abruptly and continued her walk to the stairwell, leaving Lucius chuckling to himself at her ironic statement, she was very peculiar indeed.

"How is the new suit coming along?"

"Great, feels a lot lighter actually, easier to move around in when I'm taking on more than one thug."

Bruce Wayne sat in the chair across from Lucius, his dark brown hair combed back neatly, his hands buried deep in his dark blue suit pockets, a habit that had slowly occurred over his years of returning to Wayne Enterprise.

Lucius let out a low chuckle, occasionally looking up from the documents on his desk to make eye contact with Bruce, doing a last look over a deal they had just confirmed and finished in a meeting merely minutes ago. Closing the file, and putting it into a stack of others for Imogen to place in the department of archives later, he leaned back in his chair, stretching slightly.

"Well I have a couple of new devices downstairs, if you have the time to take a look later on."

Bruce nodded, "Of course, I'm free for the rest of the afternoon ..." he paused, his brow creasing slightly, "There's rumours of a new guy taking up the mantle for the Falcony crime family, only I'm not sure who."

"After Maroni's death I didn't think there was anyone else who could take up the name."

"Neither was I, but apparently a meetings being held in the Narrow's tonight, maybe then I'll get to se-"

An abrupt knock on the door cut Bruce from finishing his sentence, and before Lucius could even open his mouth to tell whoever was on the other side to come in the door had already been opened, the eccentric blue eyed girl walking in with an arm stacked with files.

"Mr. Fox you just got a message from Mr. Paxton explaining how he had to- Oh no, sorry I forgot to wait for you to say 'come in'."

Lucius nodded his head in understanding, "That's perfectly fine Miss Hartley." His words seemed to have gone one ear and out the other, as Imogen casted him a worried glance.

"I'll go back outside and knock again." Doing just that she shut the door behind her, softly knocking on the door once more and waiting patiently, letting out a sigh at the situation Lucius looked to Bruce, who had an amused expression on his face.

"Come in."

She walked into the office once more, shutting the door behind her and her professional manor in place, placing the three files on Lucuis's desk she smiled brightly at both men.

"Mr. Paxton called to explain that he must cancel tomorrow mornings meeting due to a family crisis, and I rescheduled the meeting to Thursday afternoon at two thirty."

She motioned to the files, "I went down to Applied Sciences to retrieve that file you wanted on the military cell phones, I found three and I didn't know which one it was so I brought them all up here."

Looking through the title names of the three files he separated the correct one from the others, "Why didn't you just look inside one of them to make sure?"

Imogen's face blanked slightly, as if she were taken back by his statement, she then spoke softly, as if it were an obvious question, "Because it wasn't mine to look at, I'm not a staff member permitted to actually look into the Applied Science files."

Bruce let out a small chuckle, staring at Imogen in curiosity, "At least she listens to instructions properly, unlike Coleman."

"Imogen I'm sure you know this is Bruce Wayne, and Bruce this is my assistant Imogen Hartley."

Bruce stood, a playful smirk on his face as he extended his hand to her, she smiled brightly at Bruce and swept her bangs away with one hand, while politely shaking his hand with the other.

"It's really nice to meet you Mr. Wayne, I see you everywhere! Well not everywhere everywhere but on the TV and in the paper and everyone talks about you like you're Superman … so to finally meet the boss of everything is wonderful!"

Bruce nodded, opening his mouth to return the compliment until she interrupted him again.

"I don't know why I compared you to Superman, I'm sorry about that it's probably because of all the charity events and generous donations you do for the city, helping it become better in your own way."

"It's perfectly fine-"

"Of course if I was going to compare you to a super hero I should have compared you to Batman because he actually lives in this city and helps Gotham too."

She was no longer looking at him, but at the wall behind him, her arms were folded with one hand on her cheek, her usual dazed expression adorned her face.

"You think Batman's a super hero?"

Her eyes snapped back to Bruce, her child like smile returning to her face and nodded enthusiastically, "I don't like what everyone else calls him, vigilante. It doesn't sound appreciative of what he's doing; especially after all he's done for the city."

Bruce nodded, his expression slightly bewildered yet intrigued, she turned around to Lucius who had interrupted her babbling, holding back the urge to chuckle, not wanting to offend the young girl.

"Miss Hartley we're done for the day, so you're free to go home today."

"Okay, thank you Mr. Fox and hope you have a wonderful afternoon!" she turned to Bruce, giving him another friendly smile before leaving, "It was nice to meet you Mr. Wayne."

"Like wise."

She sort walked out of the office, her black heels clicking behind her as she went, as soon as the door shut Bruce looked to Lucius with an inquisitive look, his thumb pointing towards the now closed door.

"Where, may I ask, did you find her?"

"Believe it or not she found me, shockingly strange isn't she?"

"I believe so, just how old is she?"

"I think along the lines of twenty six or seven."

"Yet she has the personality of a child, interesting."

A moment of silence passed over the two men, until Lucius suggested heading down to show Bruce some of his new devices to add onto the suit.

Lounging on her couch that evening Imogen intently watched the film on her television screen, while managing to converse with her best friend over the phone.

"How is it living with Doug now?"

She heard her best friend sigh happily, and for a split second Imogen pictured her friend whipping her vibrant red hair over her shoulder, while pressing a hand to her forehead dramatically in a Shakespearean way, sometimes she wasn't surprised why people worried about her train of thought.

"It feels great, a little weird actually living with a guy, but still great … I miss living with you if that's what you're asking."

"Believe it or not I actually wasn't, but on that note I would like to admit I'm feeling terribly lonely here without you."

Imogen and her best friend Carla had known each other since their first year of college, at Gotham University where they shared a dorm room with one another, upon first meeting Imogen Carla hadn't been particularly pleased with being forced to live with a strange girl who often went off subjects on conversations with herself, yet somehow as the years passed by they grew on each other.

After graduating they had easily found an apartment to share in the Gotham for the another five years, until Carla moved out to live with her long term boyfriend Doug a couple of blocks down.

The apartment wasn't anything special, consisting of two medium sized bedrooms – one being empty due to Carla moving out – with a relatively small living room that had a fire escape window to it's right, and the front door on the left, and a small kitchen just behind. It wasn't the most luxurious home, but it was home none the less to Imogen.

"Seriously Imogen, you need to go on a date … I don't even want to mention how long you haven't been on one because I cringe in embarrassment for you."

Imogen absentmindedly quoted a line from the film in front of her, before thinking up a reply to her red headed friend they had had this conversation so many times that now it felt like a routine, "What's the point? I'm not good with people, and certainly not any better at making friends. All guys think I'm weird."

She heard her friend snort on the other side of line, "Darling, I can't even recall how many times you've picked me up at four AM drunk out of my brains and put me to bed, if that isn't a good friend then you need a reality check. As for guys, you just need to find one that finds you're .."

She waited patiently as Carla attempted to find a word that wouldn't insult Imogen to describe her, not that she would even mind, she probably wouldn't even realise it was an insult anyway, but because they were best friends she would make an effort.

" … peculiar yet endearing qualities interesting."

Imogen hummed in agreement, not entirely listening anymore as she became more engrossed into the film she was watching, her friend sighed in defeat, realising that she had lost her to the dream world.

"What're you watching?"

"Inception, it's so interesting Carla … imagine if people could access you're mind through your dreams and manipulate your decisions? The mind is such a complicated yet interesting thing, I would love to see inside another persons head and see how it works … like one person could constantly dream of things like ponies and unicorns, then you could see the complete opposite of a really complex person who would have really lucid dreams. That would be amazing."

Carla laughed softly, smiling to herself fondly as she thought of her best friend, "You really are special Imogen."

"You're really special too Carla, the bestest friend ever."

"Don't get soppy on me now, anyway I've gotta go … I'm cooking a meal for me and Doug tonight so I'll see you for lunch tomorrow?"

"Yeah sure, same place as always?"

"Yup, good night sweet heart."

"Night."

On hearing the other line click, she softly let the phone fall onto the couch beside her, wrapping her blanket tighter around herself, snuggling into the cough to enjoy the rest of her film.

So I started a new story ... yeah. Lol to be quite frank I actually have no idea where I'm going with this, I sort of wrote it just now on a whim, because it was itching in the back of my head all afternoon, I might decide I don't even like it and take it down in a couple of days. Kinda depends on what kind of feedback I get from this, although I did enjoy writing this type of character. This isn't really going to be a priority anyway, seeing as I'm so close to finishing my other fic, which a new update will be available to TOMORROW NIGHT. Yes, anyway ... REVIEW!