So I've been working on this for a while, not that it shows much... I thought I'd try my hand at a Batcave story.

So This is the Batcave

I let the cool night air caress my tired body. It had been over forty-eight hours since I had slept and boy was I hearing about it. Every time I moved there was a groan in my bones and muscles. I had spent half of my zombie time exploring the property I had been dumped on; okay, it was more like exploring the house and the ten metre radius around the house that I was allowed to venture into. It was a beautiful place, I just wished I could appreciate it more, rather than dwelling on the facts of my life and the events that had brought me here.

I knew Ranger had brought me here so that I was safe, hence the reason it was called a safe house, but it just seemed too extravagant. It was practically a mansion. There was an indoor swimming pool, a gym, a TV room with a screen the size they use in the cinemas and the kitchen! Well, lets just say I wasn't going to go hungry anytime soon, and with a full staff present looking out for my every need I felt like a princess.

Lying down on the deck chair not far from the back door my eyes began to drift closed. Here it comes, I thought, willing the function of my brain to slow so that I could sleep. The gentle breeze on my bare legs was soothing and I was just about in never-never land when an alarm sounded. Okay, so it wasn't exactly an alarm, it was a single high-pitched beep sounding from the kitchen just beyond the door. Awakened by the noise and unable to will myself into the land of sweet dreams I got up to investigate.

As I entered the house I found Rowena at the bench transferring cookies from a tray onto a cooling rack. She smiled at me as I sat down on a stool near by, propping my head on hands as I leaned my elbows on the bench. "What was that sound?" I asked her on a wide yawn.

"Master Ric is home," she informed me. It was the most she had told me about anything that was going on in the entire three days that I had been here.

I nodded my understanding for a moment before I caught on to exactly what she had said; Master Ric, well obviously that was Ranger, but did she say home? I looked at her as intensely as I could manage in my drained state. "This is the Batcave?" I asked her.

Chuckling pleasantly she replied, "I don't know about the Batcave, but this is where Ricardo lives."

It didn't seem right though, yeah sure, the gym and even the pool made sense, but there was an entire room filled with musical instruments and shelf upon shelf of music by composers that I couldn't even pronounce the name of. And then there was the TV room. Ranger watching TV? It was unheard of!

Apparently I was displaying my thoughts on my face because Rowena was chuckling again. She was maybe twenty years old with long blonde hair pulled into a braid at the back of her skull and a pretty face, complete with sky blue eyes that scared me when I was faced with them in the dark. Luckily though, there was plenty of light in the kitchen. "You'll be able to pose all your nagging questions to Master Ric in a few minutes. I'm sure he'll answer at least one of them."

"So you've noticed his tight-lipped nature as well?" I asked without thinking.

"I wouldn't say tight-lipped-" she began.

"Secretive?" She shook her head. "Enigmatic?" Again, a no. "Cagey?" At this moment I was feeling rather sorry for the poor girl. She hadn't known the awake me at all, she was stuck straight with zombie Stephanie.

"Not any of those either, Miss, I would say he is… cautious… reserved. Do you understand?"

I shrugged, "Potato, potahto," and reached for a cookie.

She slapped my hand away as my mother used to when I was little and said, "I believe it's supposed to be Tomato, tomahto."

Again I shrugged and went for a cookie. She allowed it this time but gave me a stern warning look. Cookie in hand, I made my way through the hall and towards the front door. As I approached I realised that it seemed stupid to meet him at the door of his own home, so I turned at the nearest door I found after that thought and entered a room that happened to be one of the scary, out of place ones. I walked over to the Baby Grand next to the window and sat on the appropriate stool. I ran my fingers over the smooth keys and thought for a moment, trying to remember, in my weak state of consciousness if I had ever sat at a piano before. I settled on an affirmative as my fingers traced out "Twinkle, Twinkle." Once they were through I curled my hand into a fist and placed it on the group of three black keys, a crude little tune I had known as Knuckles followed this action and I was laughing at nothing in particular when I suddenly felt a hand on the back of my neck.

I was afraid to look around, all of a sudden feeling awkward just being in the house.

"Babe," he said, "What's so funny?"

"My piano skills," I replied absently tracing out hot crossed buns as he massaged my neck. "They're atrocious. And to think I thought I could have played cello."

"You're really tense, Babe," he told me, rather than keeping up the current thread of conversation. "What have you been doing?"

I shrugged, it seemed to be the gesture of the day. "Have you ever just sat and watched the blinking light on digital clock for an entire night?" He pulled lightly at my shoulder and I reluctantly turned to face him.

"When did you last sleep?"

Again I shrugged. "What day is it?" I was feeling a little stupid, not the best way to be when a man that was probably still quite annoyed at you was in the room with a gun attached to his hip.

I admit it; I shot Ranger. He had snuck up on me in my apartment, knowing full and well that I was a little high strung, okay, a lot high strung. It was that time of the month and I had a stalker and he had come up behind me while I was checking the window in my bedroom. He startled me so much that I'd managed to get three rounds off before I realised it was him. Luckily for me two of them missed, unluckily for me, one of them hit him in the arm. Through gritted teeth he had told me to get a pair of tweezers and a first aid kit. When I brought him my beauty and first aid kits he told me to go pack a bag. A few hours later I found myself waking up to Ranger pricking himself in the finger with a needle and letting a drop of blood fall into a petri dish at the gate before punching in a seven digit code and driving through the gate up to the very house I was now being held captive in.

"You've been here three days, how long since you slept?"

I started counting on my fingers the hours that had passed since I woke up in the nice comfortable bed upstairs. When that got too hard I started doing an addition sum in the air in front of me, muttering things like, "Carry the three… multiplied by four… take the number of hours spent in front of the window…"

Suddenly I was brought to my senses by a hand impacting with my face. He slapped me! Ranger slapped me!! He was so in for a butt whooping…just as soon as I figured out where he went. Where did he go? "Ranger?" I called, sticking my head out into the hallway. I saw him down the hall just entering the kitchen. I plucked some energy from the air and skipped down behind him.

As I re-entered the gigantic kitchen I heard Rowena utter the words "forty-nine hours," probably in reply to a question Ranger asked. Had it really been that long? Wow, I'm amazed I was functioning as well as I was.

Ranger turned to me and grabbed my hand. In the next instant I was being dragged up the stairs to that same comfy bed I had woken up in… forty-nine hours ago! He roughly pushed me down onto the bed and followed down on top of me. His face was mere inches from mine, his eyes boring into mine as he utter two simple yet commanding words, "Sleep Babe." It was as if I had been hypnotised; no sooner had he uttered the words, than I was asleep.

I awoke what felt like only moments later (but obviously wasn't) to the smell of bacon. I wanted to eat it, but the urge to roll over and go back to sleep was even greater. I was just starting to do just that when someone spoke. "Up and Adam, Steph." I knew the voice, but it didn't sound quite right. I groaned in reply anyway and tried a second time to roll over and fall asleep. This time, however, a hand was placed on my shoulder and a mug of coffee waved under my nose.

Alright already, I thought pulling myself into a sitting position, I'm up, there are you happy?

"Thank you, Babe."

Okay that was plain wrong. Ranger doesn't use thankyou! Curse this infernal house and all its inconsistencies!

As I ate he sat in the corner of my room watching me intently as if waiting for something. He said nothing until I had swallowed the last bite.

"Babe, that was dangerous," he stated as if I had just committed the act to which he was referring.

I gave him my best 'confused' look and asked, "What?"

"Not sleeping."

"Why?"

"You may have done something stupid."

"Like that's new and different. I do something stupid everyday of my stupid life! Remember when I jumped of the garage roof?"

"I didn't know you then."

"Sure, but you've heard about it; everyone has. Then there was the time I blew up the funeral home. And the time I-." Unfortunately he cut me off there, I was beginning to roll, I could have listed every stupid thing I had ever done in my life if he hadn't stopped me.

"Babe." Was all he said, and with that single word he managed to tell me to shut up and get a grip.

I waited for the longest time for him to go on, but he didn't. The absence of conversation was making me antsy so I started talking, not knowing what I would say until it came out of my mouth. "How's your shoulder?" I asked. He shrugged in return. "I'm sorry for shooting you, I didn't know it was you. I thought it was-."

Again he silenced me in my ramble. Instead of saying something, which I thought he might, he stood and left the room. I shrugged and swung my legs over the side of the bed and head toward the en suite. After I had run out of hot water I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my hair as I dried the rest of me.

Looking for some support that might ensure the continuation of this story... If no one likes it i won't continue