Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters except the OC'S such as Marie and Amanda, the other characters belong to their owner etc.
Chapter One
Keen eyes stared at the people passing by, not even giving a sideways glance. Dreams, hopes, depression, anxiety, happiness and many more feelings trotted by on the sunny sidewalk. People in their own world, with their own plans for their life. She saw it all: what the man in the hideous Tweed suit had had for lunch, that the jogging girl in tight yoga pants was having an affair with her boyfriend's brother, that the lost mother keeping track of her three little boys has an abusive husband who hit her. These things she saw, these things she tried to ignore. These observations tended to ruin everything for her.
The hot sun warmed the bustling streets of Gotham, it was a Monday afternoon. Kids were getting out from school. Those businessmen or women that worked late were out for lunch, carrying overstuffed briefcases, strutting around in expensive business suits and talking in their smartphones, mostly it tended to be work-related or gossip. She didn't know why but usually those who worked in business gossiped more, not that there were a few exceptions.
She continued drinking her soda, trying to ignore the people surrounding her, observing tended to dull the mood and she always found out something she didn't want to know. The observing eyes of the young woman drifted to the busy traffic of the crossroad before the café she was sitting at, if that yellow cab continued driving at its current speed it would crash into the black Volvo that was currently slowing down to change lanes. A few seconds later her prediction came true. It was a smaller crash than she had thought but it caused a dramatic scene. No one was hurt, however the curious Gothamites took a break from their little lives to see what had just occurred before them. The fat, middle aged man who had been driving the cab stepped out shouting at the young man driving the black Volvo. They continued to shout, drawing more attention to them. People were discreet enough to not stop and stare like idiots at the scene but many glances were cast into that general direction. The woman sighed, she guessed that the slight calm she had gotten from her break was over due to the stupid accident. She felt the urge to go up to the two arguing men and tell them what had really happened, that the man in the Volvo had forgotten to put on his turn lights, that the man in the cab was driving 10 mph over speed limit while talking to the young blonde that was sitting in the back, no doubt trying to impress her with some lame concocted story about himself or some exploit he had done. However she didn't intervene. She got her leather brown, slightly torn bag and threw it over her left shoulder, the woman walked away, letting the men solve their problems on their own, they were after all grown men, not five.
The august weather agreed with her as she slowly strolled along the main street, not really wanting to get back to work, dragging out every last second of her late lunch break. She didn't want to return to the three walled cubicle and spend another five hours there. Working as a phone salesman had to be one of the worst jobs ever invented, it consumed your soul till the point where the person stopped caring. As she walked into the vast, brick building she sent a quick smile toward the guard who stood by the revolving doors on the inside. He didn't smile back. He never did. She shrugged and figured that she would keep at it, maybe someday receiving a smile back. She walked by the receptionist and gave her the same inviting smile. To her surprise the redhead smiled back, it was the first time a stranger she had smiled at had returned the gesture. These random little acts made her feel like she took a pause from routine and did something that she normally wouldn't do. While striding toward the elevator the woman took a small skip out of joy. It was true that telecommunicating drained and tore at the soul, still she had managed to persevere, even after working with it for three years.
The ringing of the telephones sounded louder than usual as she got out on the fifth floor. She walked down the hall, her head down, and she quickly made it to her little cubicle unnoticed. She started ringing up the people on her list, encountering annoyed people, sad people, happy people, regretful people and so on, on the other line. Still, she was good at what she did and usually managed to sell the product. Brown shoes walked by her little office, stopped and doubled back.
"Walker, fix the printing machine will you?" Said the thin man while pushing up his glasses on his crooked nose. That did it, as soon as he had said her name, people started noticing that she had returned and requests and demands boomed over the cubicles. People came to her with lists of things that needed to be done, "Marie do this, Mary do that." Most of them usually said her name wrong or just used her last name in a demeaning manner. However she took all the requests and demands and started working on them. Marie had gotten enough done for the day so she wouldn't feel stressed about not finishing her long list of calls. She was not in the IT department but people knew that she was gifted with technology, not as good as the IT guys, but she was only a shout away while the IT guys usually had to be called and then people had to wait an awful long time. If Marie knew something it was that her coworkers hated waiting. Her presence in the office was a big comfort for them, allowing them to get lazy and usually push big or minor work problems on her, because she would solve them, because she let herself be ordered around against her better judgment. As she was on her knees, fixing the wiring of the printer the thought of getting another job and start anew flashed through her tired mind as it had done many times. But like every time the thought had popped into her head she knew she would not do it. She was a creature of habit and the thought of making such a big change scared her.
The rest of the day went by in the same manner and soon, like always, she was the only one left in the building working on the requests of her co-workers. She was tired, sweaty and had a headache by the time she got out of the elevator. The same guard that she had smiled at stood by the door. This time Marie only managed to lift the corners of her mouth, giving a pathetic grin. The guard didn't respond and kept staring forward. She figured that he thought she was into him, which was as far from the truth you could get. She knew the tall man had a loving wife and a small daughter or son judging by the faint baby food stains he had tried to wash off the uniform.
"Try using vinegar on the stains next time, it's cheaper and better for the environment." She causally said as she walked past him. Marie couldn't ignore the beating heart as she spoke the words. The guard widened his eyes but said nothing, no doubt wondering how she knew about the difficult stains. Marie stepped out into the warm evening.
She wasn't a shy woman, but not straightforward either, however during the years she had been working for Marcel's & Co. she had developed a shyness, probably from letting people push her around so much. Marie hurried down the street and continued walking for fifteen minutes until she reached her block. It wasn't far from the center and from work. The restored 20´s buildings gave the neighborhood quite the charm. She took out her bundle of keys and unlocked the big metal door, walking into the cool lobby of the complex. The elevator was on the highest floor and since she only lived on the third she felt it unnecessary to push the button and wait when she could take the red carpeted marble stairs. Marie reached her floor and unlocked the elegant wooden door, stepping into her dark hallway. She turned on the lights and walked through the narrow hallway to the table at the end were she dropped the keys with a rustling sound, on the chair by the table she but her brown bag, she tiredly kicked of her nude heels and released her long hair from the tight bun, letting the untamed waves cascade over her aching back. Marie sighed as she looked about the apartment, it was eight in the evening and she still had to do the rest of the dishes, sweep the floors and finish her laundry. She pushed up the wrinkled sleeves of the white dress shirt to her elbows and started with her chores, all the while humming some tune to a song she didn't really remember the name of. When she was done she unbuttoned the shirt and unzipped her dark green pants, throwing them into the laundry bin, Marie got a glass of soda and some bread and opened her French balcony doors stepping out into the young night, feeling the summer breeze caress her sweaty brow. She was too tired to take a shower and argued that she could do it in the morning. After standing in her underwear for a while she felt cold and returned back into the cozy apartment. Marie put the empty glass in the now clean sink and threw the bra into the laundry bin as well. She walked, semi naked to her room and got her favorite pajamas, a light pink oversized shirt and matching shorts. She got her white laptop and got under the white covers of her bed while turning the computer on. She checked her mail, filled with messages from co-workers, asking her to help them with this and that. She replied to a few and soon felt herself yawning until her eyes watered. She shut down the computer and turned on the television, watching the eleven news as always before falling asleep.
The breaking news banner was up with a picture of Harvey Dent, the District Attorney of Gotham. She had met him once, but he probably didn´t remember her. Marie didn't know what to think of the man. He had a strong personality, probably necessary in his line of work, but the kind of man he was, was usually easy to play with when it came to emotions. He was loud about his opinions, overprotective of those he cared about, also putting everything into those closest to him, she knew that getting that attached could be dangerous. Marie had not voted for Dent for that reason, not because of his ideals, which were in her opinion good, but because of how he was, such an unstable person shouldn't have that kind of power.
Marie rose an eyebrow as the death of Harvey Dent was announced. She wasn't surprised, he had gone up against some influential and strong people. When the anchorman announced that Dent had been killed by the bat vigilante she had to widen her eyes and sit up straight. During the next few minutes she listened closely as he recited the incident, bringing Gordon up as a witness as well as his family, too shaken to give any further comments. The anchorman announced that the police was still charging after the murderer. 'Murderer' she thought. She knew what most of the Gothamites must be thinking at this time. They probably "saw it coming" because the Batman was "such an unstable man". The man was a vigilante after all. However it was so obvious that there was more too it. When Gordon had given his statement to the camera he kept running his hand through his hair. Gordon was lying about something. However she was too tired to figure out what it was. Marie turned off the television and buried herself under the comforting blankets. She didn't feel like digging in any of it either, it wasn't her business and she didn't want to get into trouble. So she fell asleep, fast, without a worry on her mind.
Office was chaos when she arrived the early Tuesday morning. Marie didn't bother to ask. She had seen the seven o'clock news before leaving. It had retold the death of Harvey Dent and the capture of the criminal 'Joker'. Everywhere people were whispering by their cubicles, excited, afraid or worried. She found it vaguely distracting while working but soon came to appreciate the gossip that held everyone occupied because that made them leave her alone. When the clock reached twelve she sighed and stretched out her tired body. Two hours earlier the talking people had returned to their telecommunicating, which meant more work for her. Marie frowned as she saw the huge stack of unfiled papers in front of her. It wasn't her job to do it but since the man that usually did it was "sick" she had gotten the strenuous task. It had gotten warm in her navy blue sweater so she pulled of, revealing a wrinkly dress shirt. She unbuttoned the first button and glanced at the clock, Marie reasoned that if she got through half of the stack before 1 P.M she could have an hour break for lunch. She sighed and reached for a pencil to start sorting the papers. It was hard because she could hardly distinguish the unreadable scribbles as words. She wondered how James did it. James was apparently kind of a big deal in the office, he was the one who should have done this but as usual he was home sick. It took Marie three days to figure out that when James Andersen was home "sick" he was usually spending his day in boxers, with a beer always in his hand and as much junk food anyone could inhale in the course of a day. No doubt that he either watched porn or crap TV. James may be the high school jock at the office, probably able to get in bed with most of his female workers. Marie could see why, he was lazy yes, but he did his best to hide it well. He was tall, probably strong, however not to the point where his muscles were excessively defined. He had a nice smile and otherwise handsome features. But James was a rather lonely man and Marie could see that he liked it that way. Usually he was nice to her, he only said a few short words like "how's your day going" or "great weather we're having". It was more than anyone else said to her. Marie knew that he pitied her and that was mostly the reason he interacted with her. Still, at least they talked.
However on this particular day Marie was not too fond of him, he had left her so much paperwork that she would have to sit until Christmas. She began sorting the files and in record time she was done with a third of it. Her weary eyes looked at the computer clock that read 1:47 P.M. Marie dropped her head in her hands in frustration. Someone stopped by her office and asked for the faxing machine to be looked at because it was acting up again. Marie seriously considered telling the woman to leave her alone or she would tell the office that her Louis Vuitton bag was actually a well done rip off that she had gotten from the Chinese store by the west side of the Narrows. However Marie didn't, she sighed internally, stood up and looked at the floor while saying
"Of course Mrs. Williams." Her voice sounding pathetic. Mrs. Williams strutted out of the sad little cubicle. Marie never got to eat her lunch so by 10:31 P.M, when she finally got out of the building, her stomach sounded like it contained an earthquake large enough to destroy the whole country. She sprinted toward her house, followed her routine of cleaning and doing laundry, eating and watching TV. When Marie slipped into bed at midnight she started to wonder if perhaps this line of work would eventually eat away at her.
As her tired eyes began shutting there was a loud noise streaming in from her opened window. The young woman, irritated, turned her back on it. She guessed it was some drunk. A few of the big, five star restaurants were only a few blocks from her neighborhood and it happened on rare occasions that a few wealthy costumers would stroll by, sometimes drunk. They usually didn't make any big fuss, it wasn't the Narrows after all. The angry shouts continued. It was a female voice and the words seemed to grow louder and louder. Finally, out of sheer curiosity Marie got out of bed and looked down on her street. The streetlamps unveiled a rather amusing scene to her. She saw a black limousine. Two people were standing by it. A black haired woman with amazingly perfect hair, a beautiful light blue satin dress that fawned out at her back. Her neck was adorned with jewels that Marie couldn't see the details of. He woman held herself with a grace and poise that Marie wished she had. By her stood, or rather leaned a rather tall man. His water combed hair had fallen forward into his face and the elegant suit he was wearing was wrinkled. The well-dressed man appeared to be drunk as he rambled some incoherent words at the beautiful woman before him. She shook him and told him to get a grip. The man sighed and stumbled into the limousine. To her amazement the man shut the door after him and the car drove away, leaving the woman all alone. Marie watched as the woman bellow her looked around and hugged herself. No doubt she knew the predicament she was in, it might be the center of Gotham but it was still Gotham. The woman would probably be robbed by the next corner with all the accessories that so invitingly hanged on her neck, just waiting to be taken. Marie bit her lip as the woman sat down on the small steps leading up to the big double iron doors. She could call her a cab and get her to wherever she lived. Marie decided to act when she heard the sobs of the female. She put on her long, white cotton robe and tennis shoes and got her keys and her phone. Marie quickly walked down the steps and hesitated before opening the door. It had been clear to her that it was a scene she should not have witnessed and Marie wasn't sure how the woman would react. Most likely she would accept her offer of a cab and not look her in the eye. That was what Marie preferred, to avoid an awkward situation. She paused on the handle, yes, that would probably be the most probable outcome.
The young woman turned around as Marie opened the door. She got up and smoothed out the beautiful dress and dried the tears as Marie walked down the steps. The woman before her could be no more than 25 or 26, making her no more than one or two years younger than Marie who now stood perplexed, not really knowing what to say.
"I guess you saw that huh?" Marie nodded as the tension was slowly broken, but she didn't know what to say. As she had gotten closer to the woman she had recognized her. She was Amanda Ross, a supermodel whose photo usually was on the front page of the fashion magazines. Marie had seen her photos a few time walking by the small kiosk before getting to her favorite café. Amanda shifted uncomfortably at Marie's silence.
"Is it to rude of me to ask to come up? These heels are killing me and I really have to use the bathroom." It had not been the outcome Marie had expected but the turn of events were nonetheless interesting.
"Of course." She simply said, in what to her sounded like a flat tone. Amanda followed suit after Marie as they walked up the three flight of stairs, getting to her apartment. Marie directed her to the bathroom and placed the high heels in the narrow hallway. When Amanda got out she had wiped away the dark makeup that had smeared all over her cheeks from her crying. Her eyes didn't look so red and puffy anymore. The women both stood, looking at each other. Marie didn't know what to say, what do you say to a supermodel?
"Can I get you anything?" She finally said.
"Tea would be nice." Amanda said, casually strolling toward the couch and sitting down on it looking around. "Quite the place you have here." Marie could feel herself smile and went to make them both some tea. A few minutes later both of them sat in the beige couch and sipped on the hot liquid.
"I guess I shouldn't ask but…"
"Oh why the hell not, I've been waiting for you to since you stepped out of that door. I need to blow off some steam!" Amanda sneered, not at her but at what had happened minutes before. "I guess one never learns with men." She said, putting the cup down and gracefully pushing her long hair over her shoulder.
"It was getting a little too heated in the car if you know what I mean. That man cannot hold his liquor, I bet other things about him are true too." She said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. Marie wondered why the woman before her lied. Amanda had not gotten any "action" with that man, he had probably not even kissed her, her lipstick wasn't even smeared, her hair was in too a perfect condition and her face was not flushed, her lips not even puffy. Marie guessed that whomever she was with was someone of high status or Amanda would not try to keep appearances up.
"Who was with you?" Marie asked finally, after not being able to deduce who the man had been.
"Bruce Wayne." Amanda tried to say casually but there was a hint of pride, pride that she had gotten a date with the most famous person in Gotham society at the moment. Amanda locked eyes with the woman before, studying her reaction. To her surprise the blonde didn't react, in fact she even looked unimpressed, more understanding.
"Oh, that explains a few things." Marie muttered in sudden realization, feeling how Amanda looked at her with surprise plastered all over her face.
"What things?" Amanda asked.
"I have never met this man in person but from what I've read and heard he tends to act this way. But I would never imagine Bruce Wayne as someone to just leave a defenseless woman in the middle of the street at midnight in Gotham." Marie said, thoughtful. There was something amiss, something she had yet to see to fully understand the whole situation. It was like a puzzle to her and she had yet not found all of the pieces.
"Well," Amanda began, almost feeling like she had to defend the man, knowing that the woman before spoke the truth. "To be honest I kind of made him take me out. He didn't want too, in fact he was so drunk this morning that he couldn't even get out of bed. When the alcohol wore off he still looked terrible, like he had taken an awful beating." Amanda continued, not really sure why she was telling this to the woman before her. The blonde did not look like the sort that would tattle away to the press so she guessed that she did it because it felt good to confide in anyone that would look at the whole thing more objectively than say her friends or colleagues who would probably just judge her.
"I heard he lost a friend a few days ago. Maybe it hit harder than I thought it had. I didn't know they were so close." Amanda was lost in thought. Marie saw that the young woman had started blaming herself and didn't know what to say to her to make herself feel better.
"Oh god! I shouldn't have pressed him like that. It was so stupid of me! He probably hates me right now." She said, placing her head in her hands.
"That still doesn't justify what he did and besides, his driver should have had more sense in him than his employer." Yes, something was definitely amiss. Marie looked at the woman in front of her, she felt sorry for her. Both of them were so different but somehow their problems seemed similar.
"The thing is, I was the one who told him to leave me on the street. I didn't want to spend another minute in his presence." Amanda finally sighed.
"Oh," Marie trailed off. Suddenly everything made sense. "That was pretty stupid." She said without thinking and immediately regretted it.
"I know. I do that sometimes." Amanda looked down at the big, blue ceramic cup. "I never got your name Miss…?" she trailed off, hoping that the shorter woman would fill in the empty space. The tired blue eyes stared back at her.
"Walker, Marie Walker." She said, barely suppressing a yawn. That was when Amanda realized that it must have been later than she thought.
"I am so sorry to have kept you up with my useless babble Ms. Walker. If you let me borrow your phone I will call a cab to take me to Bruce's penthouse." Marie looked at the woman as if she were stupid. She gathered the cotton robe around her and rose from her couch walking to her room and picked out her finest looking flannel pajamas that she never used. Marie returned to the room and looked at the floor.
"I don't want to get in the way between you and Mr. Wayne but in the state you seem to be in I think it best if you go there tomorrow. You can stay here if you want." Marie paused and locked eyes with the beautiful woman before her. "Tomorrow I'll accompany you to wherever you need to go if you want." Amanda felt a little tear form in her eye and a strange knot started growing in her stomach. No one had ever showed this much compassion for her and yet this woman that she had known for less than ten minutes offered to share what she had. It could also be a trap, Marie Walker might want something more from Amanda, however after eyeing the woman she did not think that possible. If she did, Amanda would outsmart her. She wouldn't let herself be played around with.
"Thank you." She simply said smiling and accepting the pajamas. Marie smiled as well, she felt a little bad for using the woman in front of her but the curiosity was tugging hard at the back of her mind and if Marie might get just one glance at Mr. Wayne she knew she could figure out the missing piece in the puzzle and then get some peace. Marie prepared the couch for Amanda and when the black-haired woman had changed into the too short pajamas she remembered something.
"Here I am, a stranger in your house and you don't even know my name." Amanda said. She extended a hand toward Marie and smiled. "Amanda Ross." Marie shook her hand and nodded.
"Goodnight Ms. Ross." She said, walking toward her room, longing to get some sleep.