The night closed in around Savannah as she made her way home in the dark. It was funny how silence was not really silence at all. It was this dull roar that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She traveled down the empty street careful to stay in the flood of light made by the overhead street lamps. Her attention spanning every possible place a night crawler could be. Her mother was not going to be happy when she found out that Savannah was walking home alone. Her boyfriend Drew had decided that evening to break up with her and even though she should be crying, a tear never formed in her eye. There was no use crying over spilled milk, her mom would say.
In all of her seventeen years, she had never seen her mom break down. Rachel Dawes, Gotham's district attorney, had raised a baby all on her own and still made it through law school. If her mother could do all that, Savannah figured she could get over a high school relationship. It wasn't like she was planning to stick around after graduation anyways. She wanted out of the city more than she wanted her next breath.
Savannah crossed the empty alleyway noticing how the darkness seemed to pull everything in like a black hole. She pulled her tan trench coat in a little tighter to her body like a shield. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the shadows shift but was quickly followed by an orange tabby cat. Smiling down on the emaciated cat she bent down and stroked its back. The cat stretched and dodged to meet her every stroke losing gobs of fur in the process. She was sure that when she got home it would be all over her clothes.
"What are you doing out here little fella?" The cat gazed up at her like she was crazy for even thinking that he understood. "Don't you have a home?"
"I should ask you the same thing."
Savannah gasped as a dark figure pulled out of the shadows. The man looked like a street dweller as he was dressed in rags that were threadbare. He had an evil smile on his face that made Savannah's insides do a flip-flop. His nose filled up most of his face making his soulless eyes seem too close together.
"Stay back," she snapped in her most commanding tone hoping he didn't hear the slight waver. Slowly she stood to her feet reaching in her purse for the can of mace pepper spray she kept on her at all times. Her fingers closed around the metallic can giving her some courage. "Nothing needs to happen here. I'm going to go my way and you are going to go yours."
"I think not and don't think you are going to use whatever you have in your purse," he pulled his hand from his pocket to reveal a gun. His smile was getting bigger by the minute.
Savannah swallowed hoping to get her breathing back under control. It was important during crisis to remain calm. Instinctively she took a step back and glanced down the street towards her apartment building. She had almost made it, two more blocks and she would have been home.
"You don't have to do this, sir."
Without another word he lunged at her and they both went sprawling on the pavement. The tabby cat hissed and took off down the alley. An instant pain shot up her arm and the side of her head; which had made contact with the ground. She groaned but pulled herself up using the moment to try and flee. The man was quick to his feet taking off after her. Savannah put her head down and ran full tilt up the street gasping for breath.
They had made it a few yards when he grabbed her arm and swung her into the side of the building. Savannah yelped and slid down to sit on the ground. In her mind she knew she should be running but the fight was nearly out of her. She stared up at her attacker feeling blackness settle in around her. A dark sticky substance was slowly trickling down her forehead and she reached up to wipe it away.
The man before her reached up behind him with a snarl on his face before he brought his hand down to smack her. Savannah braced herself for the assault but it never came. She opened her right eye and watched as a man in a bat suit grabbed the man by his collar and pulled him into the nearest alley.
Savannah placed her head in her hands and tried hard not to black out. She knew by the blood trailing down her face that she had a gash on her head. There was intense pain shooting through her arm and she wondered to herself if she had dislocated her shoulder in the fall. There was no way she was going to sneak this past her mother and if she thought about it she was going to give Drew a piece of her mind tomorrow.
"Are you okay," a new voice that was dark and raspy asked her.
She gazed up at the Batman overwhelmed by his size and grandeur. His black suit made him seem powerful and gave him an air of mystery. The lights from the street lamps bounced off his suit shadowing most of his body.
With a great deal of effort Savannah made it to her feet feeling the ground move beneath her. Her head was pounding an unsteady beat that made her stomach travel north to her throat.
"Steady," he said supporting her arm with his. "Do you need help getting home?"
Her brain was working slower than usual and it took her a moment to understand what he was asking. "I just live down the street. I need a moment."
Savannah pushed against the wall with her good arm and instantly felt her legs give out. The caped hero swept her up in his arms where she put her head on his shoulder. "Where to?"
"Richmond Heights apartments," she answered before blacking out.
Hours later Savannah woke to a bright light causing excruciating pain to travel through her head. She moved her frozen fingers to the source of the pain and felt a long gash on her head that had been stitched. She groaned knowing that this was going to cause a lot of talk at school the next day.
"Savannah," she turned to see her mom barely awake on the chair beside the hospital bed. Her mom had an old jacket resting on her shoulders that was promptly moved aside so that she could give her a hug. "Oh my baby. I was so afraid."
"I'm okay," she said noticing that her mother was sobbing into her neck. Truthfully she didn't know if she was okay but with quick inspection she noticed that she could still move her arms and legs.
Her mother's tear stained cheeks blossomed into a full-blown smile as she settled back into her chair. She was a very beautiful woman with her dark chestnut colored hair, deep blue eyes, and upturned nose. Savannah had been lucky to take most of her looks from her mother with the only thing linking her to her absentee father was her defiant chin.
"I called your father," Rachel said as if she had been reading Savannah's mind. "He wished he could be here but he had an important business meeting tonight. I told him that you were fine and would be staying the weekend with him."
"Mom," Savannah moaned flopping onto her back. "I hate going over there. Isn't this a good enough excuse to get out of it?" Before her mother even said anything Savannah knew what she was going to say. The last few years they had shuttled her back-and-forth every other weekend to spend time with her dad even though he would disappear for hours and practically ignore her the whole time. If that wasn't bad enough he always seemed to have extremely young women over. Some of them she was pretty sure were just over the legal age.
"You know honey, you only have a few more months and then you can decide on your own whether you want to have a relationship with him or not. But until then legally he has a right to see you every other weekend."
She knew she couldn't regress but times like this made Savannah want to throw a massive temper tantrum. "I don't know what you ever saw in him. He is so self absorbed."
Savannah noticed pain flash through her mother's eyes but it was gone just as quickly. It could have even been a figment of her imagination. What would her mother have to be sad about anyways? As far as she knew their relationship had been brief and many years ago. Her father, Bruce Wayne, had been her mother's childhood sweetheart until they had gone away to different colleges and as her mother said, life happened. They had met up only once during those years and that is the night Savannah had been conceived.
Her mother said that Bruce had been willing to marry her but they had both decided that it wouldn't have been the best for Savannah. Instead they had come up with a simple custody agreement and life had gone on.
She could remember when she was little the times she had spent with her dad but as she grew up things had changed between the two of them. He had become cold towards her. It had hurt at first but now that she was older she knew exactly why that had happened. Bruce liked fast cars and faster women. He had everything new and when he got bored he moved onto something else. This led her to realize that she had been a toy to him. But unlike his other toys he couldn't just toss her out so he did just enough to get by.
"Your dad loves you Savannah. More than you will ever know," her mother interrupted her thoughts. She had grabbed Savannah's hand and was warming it up between hers. She loved her mother's hands. They were always warm and soft and there was something comforting about them.
Savannah suddenly felt tired and drained. She figured she should after the long day she had been through. Between being dumped by her boyfriend and being mugged she deserved some rest. She let out a long yawn and fell back on her pillow. It wasn't very comfortable but she wasn't surprised. Hospitals weren't known for their luxury.
Savannah stood in front of Wayne Manor trying to conceal the small smile that was making its way to her lips. She didn't want her dad to think she was happy to see him. It wasn't about him. She was just happy to be back at her family home. She didn't get to see Wayne Manor often since her dad liked to stay in his pent house suite in town. The place was decorated contemporary with straight lines and felt more like a hotel. At least at Wayne Manor her dad had felt obligated to put pictures of her on his walls.
"Harvey, I will be there in thirty minutes I just need to drop Savannah at her dad's," her mother said into her phone as she traversed the car and picked up the bag at Savannah's feet. She would have picked it up herself but her arm had been dislocated from the fall and was still in pain.
From the front steps she saw her dad walking towards them looking more relaxed than she had seen him in a while. He had on a pair of jeans and a simple navy blue polo. His black hair was slicked back and still wet as if he had just stepped out of the shower. He came over to Savannah and tried to give her a hug but she stepped out of his reach.
"It's good to see you. I've missed you," he said while driving his hand through his hair.
She rolled her eyes trying not to let the sarcastic remarks she was thinking slip from her lips. He may have been an absentee father but he didn't put up with her crap. So if she didn't want to be grounded she would leave the snide remarks to herself.
"It's good to see you too, Mr. Wayne," she answered before sweeping past him and towards the house.
Bruce felt a stabbing pain in his chest that had nothing to do with the punch the mugger had dealt him the night before. Weekends were hard on him since it was just a reminder of what he had lost over the years while wearing the cape. His daughter had grown up strong and independent and hated everything about him. Or what she thought she knew about him. He tried to remind himself that this was how it was supposed to be buying time as Rachel finished her phone call.
She had been speaking to Harvey Dent the last in her line of boyfriends. Each one made Bruce want to forget the promise he had made to her and sweep back into her life.
"Bruce, I got to go but I just wanted to say that the doctor said she will be fine she just needs rest. If there is any lasting pain she can take some aspirin."
Rachel turned to leave but he grabbed her arm and pulled her against his body. As soon as he did she fell apart, the sobs wracking her petite body. He held her letting the tears fall drenching his shirt. She felt good against him. They had always fit life a puzzle, her curves fitting into his rough lines.
"He could have killed her," she cried desperately holding onto him. "What if you hadn't showed up?"
"I did," he soothed into her hair breathing in her vanilla scent. He let his grip tighten around her. "I would never let anything happen to her."
They stood in the driveway until Rachel had stopped crying and he was just rocking her back-and-forth. "I got to go."
Bruce closed his eyes trying to hold his own tears in. He wanted nothing more than to take her in the house and put his little family back together. There were so many things he wanted but knew he would never have.
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