Disclaimer: I do not own, much as I wish I did, Batman or Inception and/or any/all of their affiliates.

CHAPTER 1

Little Lies and Little Deeds, Indeed

I was only several steps from her, but she never noticed me. Why would she? It had been so many years since she last saw me, since I had promised to always protect her… I had failed.

Jolie was sitting in the table closest to the stage where a woman named Delmar Devereaux was singing. Delmar seemed so at ease taking center stage in a garden with well over a hundred people, but Jolie was sure that in Delmar's mind she was somewhere else entirely. Her blonde hair cascaded down her back with a beautiful white flower over her right ear. She wore a midnight blue gown that sparkled when she would sway to the orchestra behind her.

Those grey eyes fell upon Jolie and she felt as if someone kicked her chest in. After a couple of seconds Jolie realized there was no recognition, no sign of kinship. To Delmar she was just another rich person enjoying the show paid for by another rich person. Jolie felt an urge to run up and hug her sister, to tell her she was finally here, that she was so sorry for leaving. But that wouldn't do… there were too many variables and consequently many more steps before she could talk to Delmar.

Jolie rose from her table only to find the nearest exit, she needed… a more concrete plan. She snuck into a quiet corner in the Wayne estate, which in fact there were many. Who was Harvey Dent anyway? Jolie felt so out of place here in Gotham City even though she had been born and raised within the walls. Perhaps it was because the walls she was familiar with were much more broken down than these. When Jolie left at 14 years old she couldn't look back, there had been too much to run from.

Jolie straightened herself up, she was not a little girl anymore. She was elite, born into this fabricated world, she even had the fake paperwork to prove it. The fact was that she had money and connections, courtesy of her job in the dreamscape. That was not the reason she was here though, and for now her job should have been the furthest thing from her mind. Instinctively, she grasped a silver lipstick from her clutch and saw an exotic shade of red. Using the mirror she applied it flawlessly. She could still hear her sister's voice singing another romantic song and there was a whisper of longing in those words.

"Are you alright Miss?" the accented voice startled her away from her thoughts. She turned to see this old gentlemen looking at her kindly. Jolie knew there was something about this man that wasn't exactly what he appeared. She shook off the feeling, after all she was in Gotham and nobody was exactly what they appeared, ever.

"I'm fine. Thank you. My name is Jolie Farrell, and you are?" She asked extending her hand. He held her hand sternly yet comfortably.

"Alfred Pennyworth, I am the butler to this here mansion. But I can assure you there are much more interesting corners than this one." Alfred said with a smile.

"Oh I do not doubt it, but they probably would not be as quiet as this one here, now would they?" She replied wittingly.

"Perhaps not Miss Farrell, perhaps not." Alfred said chuckling. "I think I would prefer Jolie." Jolie said with a genuine smile.

"I can see why, your name is very fitting if I do say so myself." Alfred said smiling.

"Thank you, Alfred. May I call you Alfred?" Jolie asked and waited for him to nod before she continued. "It must be difficult, to keep such a large estate in order. I know Bruce Wayne gets the credit, but I am willing to bet you are more deserving." Jolie said kindly. Alfred smiled shyly.

"Mr. Wayne is a bit… uh eccentric. Though to his credit-" Alfred began to say but a clashing sound stopped him.

A waitress dropped a tray of Hors d'oeuvre when a particular man who had obviously had too many drinks grasped her by the waist. Alfred and Jolie immediately walked over to the situation as the man was raising his voice toward the flustered waitress.

"I believe you stained your shirt sir, please come with me and we can get that fixed right away." Alfred said very cordially while extending his hand to show him the way. Jolie walked to the waitress and looked at her reassuringly while keeping a distance, after all elites do not come to rescue of the help.

She then looked at Alfred as the man was muttering about the intelligence of lower classes without realizing that Alfred was leading him out of the property grounds. When the bull headed man realized this, he got a particular shade of red and Jolie could tell he was ready to throw a line of insults towards Alfred. She was halfway towards them when she noticed Alfred lean into the robust man and whispered something all the while smiling. When Alfred shook the man's hand and held the door open, Mr. inappropriate was turning a shade of purple but he kept walking and to Jolie's relief kept his mouth shut.

Alfred was walking back into the mansion and when he made contact with Jolie's gaze he simply smiled confidently. Indeed people were never just what they seemed here in Gotham.

"I am just asking for you to keep this one secret Jim, this one secret this one time." Jolie pleaded hoping her sad green eyes would move the man in front of her.

"You know secrets are starting to feel an awful lot like lies lately and I can't take anymore. I am the commissioner Jolie!" Jim Gordon said sternly.

"Can you not be a cop right now? Can you just be the man who cared about a little girl growing up in a bad situation and trying to look out for her sister, because that is the guy I need." Jolie was frustrated, she didn't want Jim to be stubborn… but he was a man of the law. Gordon had known her for most of her childhood, she hoped he would still be on her side.

"There is a cold case in the depths of this police department that has your name, or at least your real name, on it. Dammit Jo, how can you ask me to ignore that and not tell Delmar that you are back?" The commissioner yelled.

"I can ask you that because it is the right thing to do! No one can know who I really am Jim, you know what he would do and you know that would only hurt Delmar, please I'm begging you to let me do this my way!" Jolie pleaded.

Jim Gordon was about to yell back but just then one of the officers walk into the office.

"Commissioner you wanted to see me… Oh sorry I thought you were alone." The officer says unsure if he should just walk out when he sees a head of black curls and two big emerald eyes looking at him as if he were a murderer.

"No… no I… This is Jolie Farrell. Jolie this is Officer John Blake." Commissioner Gordon said composing himself and resigning to keep yet another secret for the sake of this city.

Jolie looked at Jim Gordon with relief, everything depended on this. When she turned to really look at the officer she was being introduced to her heart slightly jumped out of her chest. He looked an awful lot like her ex fiancé, Arthur. Both were tall and rather skinny with beautiful dark eyes and a glowing smile. Jolie took Officer Blake's hand and noticed a striking difference, Arthur had been rather regal, elegant in his mannerisms and this officer was the total opposite. He was strong and didn't mind showing it, probably because it was the only thing he could show in this city. Here, people respect the strong.

"Nice to meet you Officer Blake." Was all Jolie could manage to say.

John Blake shook Jolie's hand reflexively and smiled but something did not feel quite right. She was undeniably beautiful, emerald green eyes, full lips, and flawless skin. Still, something was off, it was like she was trying really hard to be perfect, or at least her idea of perfect.

"Call me John." He said with a smile. Jolie held his gaze, wondering what he was thinking. It amazed her to realize she had to wonder. She unconsciously tilted her head slightly to the side studying his face. He kept her gaze too, unable to tear his eyes from her face. He wanted to move closer to her, but was planted firmly where he stood.

"Uh hum… Jolie if we are all done here. We can talk later, I have a missing person to discuss with Blake." Commissioner Gordon said not too kindly.

"Of course, we will talk later Jim. I will see you both around." Jolie said as she smiled mischievously at the commissioner and Blake.

John let out a long breath, "who is she?" he asked while shaking his head.

"She is trouble John, stay away from that one." Commissioner Gordon said while looking up from his desk to notice that the Officer was in no way taking his advice.

"Well I have found that not all trouble is bad Commissioner." He said hiding a small smile as the Commissioner gave him a narrow look.

Jolie stood on the balcony of a penthouse that overlooked Gotham city, she felt like an alien. All her training never prepared her for reality, only the dreamscape. It wasn't uncommon for her to lose track of what was real and what was not. She instinctively grabbed her lipstick, it was a dark red shade, and this was reality.

Jolie turned back into her room, it was getting chilly for a summer night. She saw him standing by her bed, smiling like a predator. He was still so unbelievably sexy.

"Did you forget how to knock Forger?" Jolie said dryly as she made her way past him. He grabbed her arm forcefully, all the while smiling.

"I rather like it here love, brings back… memories." He said as carefully as a whisper glancing at the bed and winking.

"Really Eames, I don't recall. Maybe you just weren't that memorable." Jolie said with her own smile as she pulled away from him. She slightly shuddered because she did remember and his gorgeous lips were just too close to hers.

"Oh Darling you don't expect me to believe that do you?" He said as he followed her to the living room.

"I could really care less about what you think. Why are you here? I thought the fact that I left you in Libya, in the middle of the night, with assassins knocking on our front door would get the point across." Jolie said as she sat down.

"See love that almost hurt my feelings. Then I found out where you went, and although I wasn't surprised you would run to save the damsel that is Arthur, I did find it odd you aren't with him now. That makes me think two things, one is that you are incredibly naïve to think I would not have gladly helped you and secondly that this may not be over between us." Eames said as he sat next to Jolie.

He touched her face and she shifted into his arms, it was amazing how familiar she was even though it had been a year since they were last together.

"Eames… you think I don't know why you are in Gotham? You and I both know it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with a newly divorcee. Nothing could prove more that this is over." Eames looked into her eyes and for half a second he saw hurt in them.

"You shouldn't have left me for Arthur. I would have gone anywhere with you." Eames said almost angry, seeing Jolie hurt made him angry.

"You wouldn't have understood, you… you don't know what that meant for me." Jolie tried to explain, but her words were failing. How could she explain a part of her he never knew existed?

"I didn't know because you never told me Jolie! I loved you. We could have run in this world together! Do you know what that means for me?" Eames said as he stood up.

"Funny you should say that because I remember going back to you in… Temuco. You seemed a little unconscious but the three other women who were on your bed were not, well at least not yet. I don't blame you they seem like they would tire any man out. I'm glad you were in love with me though, I would hate to think what I would have seen if you didn't." Jolie said, every word dripping with acid.

Eames was taken aback, he remembered being in Chile but that was about it, although three women did ring a bell. He got even angrier.

"So it's my fault, is it? No! I did not mess this one up. We had something and you ran away from it, you ran away from me to a pratt that had done nothing but hurt you, as I recall."

"You don't know anything about what happened between us! As a matter of fact you don't know anything about me! We weren't that special so stop romanticizing our so called relationship. The only reason you are here is because I left you before you left me! At least have the balls to admit that forger!" Jolie yelled back in his face.

"Oh, so that is what this is about. You truly believe that love? Well… alright then." Eames took a pause before walking out of her apartment and slamming her door.

"Where are you? Are you okay?" A concerned voice spoke from the phone.

"I won't tell you unless you promise not to come." Jolie said sternly.

"You trust me Jo?" He asked offended.

"Of course I do Alex, with my life. But I don't trust you with yours, so please just stay home with Laurie. Do I have your word?" Jolie said softly.

"Yes." Alex said after a long pause.

"I am in Gotham City. If everything goes right you will have a new pupil… if it doesn't… well then you get an early retirement my friend." Jolie said honestly.

"Is there a mark? No, you don't have a crew with you. " He said getting angry and mostly talking to himself.

"It's personal." Jolie said shortly.

"Yeah and that's why it's dangerous Jo. You know you can't just go public! Listen, what you can manipulate in the dreamscape is amazing but real world you're a young girl with barley more than basic training. If you're not going under than you don't have the advantage. You need me there." Alex said frustrated.

"No. It's nothing I can't handle, you forget I had a good trainer." Jolie said lightly.

"Look, I did best I could and you are a fast learner. But I don't know what happened after the Cobb job. You left with that prick, Eames and then I heard you were back in Europe with Arthur. You let those two get you distracted and you haven't been the same since. Also… what is going on between you and Fischer? What's going on with you?" Alex tried to sound understanding.

"Fischer? We are friends, Alex… I don't even know where you would get those kind of notions! There is something I have to do here, something important that I've been planning for a really long time. Tell Laurie I say hello. Don't worry about me." Jolie said as she hung up the phone on her trainer and friend.

She knew Alex would be upset, but he was a strong man and no matter how worried he was Jolie knew he was happy to be home. With their job came a lot of money but also a lot of sacrifice… personal sacrifice. The last job had been a debacle, it ended up being a trap for all of her crew. The unlikely hero was Robert Fischer, she would be in his debt forever. Actually, they all would but it was a subject that both Eames and Arthur were touchy to admit. Still, Robert Fischer was her friend and because of his connections she was able to enter Gotham as a business giant from California.

Jolie threw on a light spaghetti strap top and some cotton bottoms to wear to bed. She tied her long curly black hair in a high ponytail and looked out the window before closing the curtains. Her eyes adjust to the lack of light quickly and she made her way into the soft sheets and the firm pillow. In her mind she saw Arthur's face and she no longer felt the small stabbing pain close to her heart, she had truly let him go. Her thoughts turned to Eames and his debonair arrogance, it was one of the things she liked most about him. In fact, she still did but she had to remind herself he was here for Fischer's widow. He was here for Eloise.

Okay this is my very first story that I have ever published! I hope it was enjoyable and Please do me the favor of giving me feedback, it truly is appreciated :)