Disclaimer: I do not own Batman

Sweet dreams are made of this

Who am I to disagree?

I travel the world and the seven seas

Everybody's looking for something

-Sweet Dreams, Eurythmics

Single moments of time can last an eternity. I had been in the waiting room for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only about ten minutes. The hard leather chairs were impossible to be comfortable in, and I was forever squirming around in the chair.

"Stop moving," Loretta hissed from beside me, casting me the evil eye. I immediately stopped and fixed my gaze on my clasped hands, tensing from the rebuff. I didn't want anymore trouble from her. Neither of us wanted to be here, but at the request of Madame Giselle, we were here to have me get some professional help.

Heh. 'Professional' help. Since when did we need to pay fancy doctors to sit there and tell me that I was messed up and put me on medication that would do nothing but harm me even more? If it wasn't for the security guard hanging around the entrance, I would have booked it out of here long ago. I didn't care that we were in the middle of the Narrows and that the orphanage was several minutes drive away. I just wanted to get out of here.

"Dr. Crane will see you now, Miss Norris," a blonde secretary said, clutching a clipboard. She gave me a fake smile as I stood up to follow her through the white-washed halls of Arkham Asylum. Only the truly crazy people went here...which meant that judging by everything that Loretta had been telling me for months...this is where I belong.

I could hear Loretta's high heels clicking against the tiles as we walked through the halls, past doctors and nurses holding clipboards or pushing wheelchairs. There was no one overly-crazy right here...but I knew that somewhere in this building, the villains that Batman had been working to keep in Arkham were lurking several floors above...

The secretary paused by a door and knocked. "Come in," a voice called through the door. The secretary opened the door and ushered us in. I hesitated inside the doorway, before flinching as Loretta laid a hand on my shoulder and guided me through the doorway and into the office.

Dr. Crane was a man in his late twenties, early thirties who was seated behind a cluttered desk. He had curly black hair and icy blue eyes that were hidden behind glasses. He glanced up carelessly as we walked in, and I noticed that he immediately clued in on the hand that Loretta had on my shoulder.

"Ah, Miss Norris," he said, faking a smile while standing up, offering his hand to me. I took the offered hand before letting go quickly. Sitting down in the seat he directed, I froze when I realized that Loretta was sitting down in another seat as well, darting a panicked glance at her. No, no no no no! If she was here, there was no way I could speak!

Feeling eyes on me, I glanced up and realized that Dr. Crane had been watching me, taking in my reactions. As if making a rapid decision, he turned a fake smile to Loretta. "I'm sorry, but you are?"

"Loretta Grisham," she replied tartly. "I'm the caretaker at the orphanage."

"Well, I would like to speak to Miss Norris in private, if that's alright with you," Dr. Crane said. "I would like what she has to say to me to be of her own free will." There was an almost sarcastic undertone to his words.

The tightness around Loretta's mouth made me realize that the Dr. Crane's sarcastic tone did not go unnoticed by her. "She won't tell you anything," she promised with a dark look towards him. "She doesn't speak."

To you, I thought, sending her a slight glare. I talk perfectly fine when I feel like it.

"Let me be the judge of that," Dr. Crane replied, walking around the desk. "I believe the waiting room is down the hall and to your left. Can't miss it."

Loretta stood up, squeezing my shoulder tightly. Pain lanced through me from previous bruises, and I gritted my teeth together. "I'll be waiting," she promised me. I met her eyes, catching the double meaning in her words.

What was Madame Giselle thinking? Loretta is going to find some way to get back at me for this...

Dr. Crane waited until Loretta had left before shutting the door and making his way back behind the desk. "So," he said, seating himself and staring at me. "Tell me about yourself, Miss Norris."

"There's nothing to tell," I said quietly, speaking for the first time in over a week. "Also, it's Codee, not Miss Norris."

Dr. Crane appraised me for a moment. "Well, start by telling me what Miss Grisham meant by 'she won't tell you anything'."

"She banked on me not talking," I said bitterly, clenching my hands together. "I haven't spoken in over a week." It felt weird to talk again...

"Why is that?" he asked, making a note on a pad of paper.

"Because it's better that way." I didn't know how I could tell him about the situation going on at the orphanage... Would he even care? Would he laugh or scoff at me, and tell me to suck it up? I couldn't tell with this guy...

"And why is that?" When I didn't answer, still torn between whether I should tell him or not, he sighed. "Why are you living in an orphanage?"

I sent him an incredulous look. "Because my parents died?"

Exasperation crossed his face for a split second. "I realize that, but I was hoping you would go into a little more detail."

"Fire," I said stiffly. This guy was different than any other one I've talked to before. He was asking direct questions and not mollycoddling me. I decided that I liked this method better than have someone sugarcoat it for me.

He made another note on his clipboard. "And you've been living at the orphanage for how long?"

"Three years." Three years of torture, hell, and living death.

"You are sixteen, correct?"

"Yeah. I'll be seventeen in a little over a month." I watched as he continued to make notes on a clipboard.

Dr. Crane looked up at me again. I could tell that he was analyzing me, analyzing my answers. It made me slightly unnerved. I never really liked people that could read me. It made me feel like I had no privacy and couldn't hide personal things.

"Are you currently in a relationship, or have any close friends?" he asked.

"No and no," I said curtly. Maybe directness wasn't as refreshing as I thought...

"Why not?"

I sighed, and in that moment I decided, what the hell. "Because they don't want to risk Loretta's wrath."

A raised eyebrow told me that Crane was surprised that I decided to give in and 'trust' him. Trust wasn't any part of it. I didn't trust the guy; I just wanted to hurt Loretta by telling the truth that she had been trying to hide. "Tell me more about Loretta."

"Bitch." I remember that my mother had always disapproved of foul language. The word coming out of my mouth seemed foreign and distasteful, and I wished I could take it back. I could just imagine the disapproving look that my mother would have on her face.

Crane paused. "...Anything else?"

I was angry. Angry at the injustice of my situation, and angry at the fact that the man across from me would never be in my shoes. I was angry because just down the hall and to the left, Loretta sat there in a steaming fury, waiting for me to come out and get home so she could take out her anger on me.

"Yeah. When I don't do something I like she locks me in the cellar."

Crane leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. He seemed much more interested in the conversation than when it first started. "And how often does that occur?"

I hesitated. "Let's just say that I'm personally acquainted with the bats."

"Does she do anything else?" Weird. I could see a hint of a smirk on his face. Was he...enjoying this? Dread poked at my stomach. It seems my fears were right. Well, might as well go down swinging.

"Yeah. She took me to see you," I shot at him, before standing up. "Bye, Dr. Crane. Hopefully I won't have to come back here again." I turned my back and walked to the door and disappeared through it.

Had I looked back at that moment, I would have seen a wide smirk steal across Dr. Crane's face as he watched me leave.

As I expected, Loretta was waiting in a fury as I approached the waiting room. Sending a sickly sweet smile my way, she grabbed my arm in a too-tight grip as we headed towards the check-out desk. She momentarily let go of my arm to sign papers, while I moodily stared at some sign encouraging children to eat healthily. Yeah. Sure.

I glanced up as Dr. Crane walked behind the secretary, carrying a file in his hand. He smirked when he saw me and walked up behind the desk. "It was a pleasure to talk to you today, Miss Norris," he said, stressing my name just to make me angry. I had specifically told him to call me Codee...

I gritted my teeth, and nodded slightly. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that both Crane and Loretta were staring at me, but I shifted my gaze back to the eating healthy poster. Dr. Crane continued on his way, and the secretary gave us the all-clear. All too soon, I found myself in the passenger seat of a beat-up cramped car, heading through the streets of the Narrows.

The tension in the air was palpable as Loretta pulled up into the driveway of the orphanage. I looked up at the imposing building, my heart sinking at the sight. One of these days I would book it out of here and never look back. Judging by the way that Loretta was acting now, it will probably be sooner than later.

As I climbed out of the car, Loretta grabbed me by my short brown hair, her fingers digging into my scalp. I gasped out in pain, grabbing her hand, but her grip was too tight. "What did you say to Dr. Crane?" she hissed, pulling down on my head.

I tried to squirm out of her grip, but Loretta held on strong. I let out a cry of pain as she tugged rather fiercely on my hair. "Answer me!" she demanded.

I tried to shake my head despite her grip on my hair, refusing to answer. Loretta let out a disgusted grunt, throwing me to the ground. I roughly hit the dirty pavement, skinning my elbows and knees, but bit back a small noise of pain. "You're disgusting," Loretta said coldly from above me. "No one cares what happens to an orphan like you. No one cares that your parents died. No one cares about the situation you're in."

Dr. Crane's smirking face loomed above me in my thoughts, and I closed my eyes, my heart starting to sink again. Maybe she was right...

My eyes flew open again as Loretta grabbed my arm and tugged me to my feet. "For the trouble you've caused me, it's another night in the cellar for you," she hissed as she tugged me up the steps and into the building. The rotting mildew smell hit me, but by this time I was used to it. Eyes peeked out of doors and over railing banisters, but quickly disappeared as we passed. They could sense that Loretta was on a rampage, and no one wanted to face her wrath.

Unlocking a door at the end of the hall, I was shoved into it. Grabbing onto a railing to stop my fall down the rickety steps, I twisted around and looked up. Loretta stood at the top of the stairs, looking at me with contempt. "Sweet dreams," she said mockingly before closing and locking the door, plunging me into darkness.

A/N

Hello and welcome to my story! This is a CranexOC, set sometime during Batman Begins and after. I haven't decided on the timeline yet.

Thank you for reading, and please review!

~Eva Sirico~