Eliana used to have two best friends. Now she had none. One was dead, and the other? Well…he had changed. A lot.

Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne, and Eliana Forbes were best friends growing up. One was hardly ever seen without another.

But everything changed once they were in college. Eliana and Rachel gradually lost contact because of their busy schedules, and Bruce disappeared for seven years. When he came back, he wasn't the same and Eliana didn't know why. All that mattered was that he didn't seem to care about her anymore.

Gotham had been through a lot in the last couple of years. First, fear toxin ran rampant thanks to Dr. Jonathon Crane and…what did the media call it? The League of Shadows? Whatever that meant.

Eliana hadn't been affected by any of the gas, as she had been working in the restaurant that night which was out of the gas's path. She was thankful for that because from what she saw on the news, the gas made everyone see their biggest fears and that was an experience she could live without. She knew her biggest fears well enough without them coming to life right in front of her.

And then the Joker came into everyone's lives to terrorize the city and caused the death of Rachel. That tore Eliana apart. Sure, they hadn't been as close as they had been growing up in school, but she was still her friend. The last best friend she had.

Now she had several friends where she worked, but she wasn't as close with them as she had been with Rachel and Bruce. She would never be as close with anyone as she was with them.

And then of course, there was the Batman. Eliana had never seen the hero with her own eyes. She'd only seen him on the TV or in the newspaper, and she'd heard stories from people she worked with. Not once had she seen him in person.

The media blamed him for the death of Harvey Dent, Rachel's boyfriend/fiancé. She just couldn't find it in her to believe that. If he stopped Falcone the fear gas and this so-called League of Shadows AND the Joker, it was clear he only had Gotham's best interests in mind. So why would he kill Harvey when all he was doing was helping the city? The whole thing just didn't add up.

Eliana worked as a mechanic during the day from 11:00-4:00 and as a waitress for a fancy restaurant at night from 7:00-1:00, but on Mondays, she worked at the auto shop until 11:00, seeing as the restaurant was closed. People often teased her about working at such contrasting occupations.

The auto shop wasn't exactly in the best place in Gotham. In fact, it was in the Narrows, so it was basically in the worst place. That meant that Eliana had a lot of confrontations with some of the seedier citizens of Gotham. Luckily for her, her parents had insisted back in high school that she take self-defense classes, so she was prepared for all of them who had come into the shop so far. She had picked up many injuries along the way, but with each person who came after her, she became a better fighter. So by this point, she was practically an expert.

Her restaurant job wasn't much better. No one came after her while she was working, aside from the occasional drunk guys, but she had her co-workers to deal with them. It was on her way home when they made their move. But she was always able to defend herself and they never knew what hit them.

"Eliana!" her friend, Jess, called. "Table 5 needs drinks! Can you get those? I've got my hands full!"

"Sure thing, Jess!"

Eliana skillfully grabbed the tray of water and various wines and delivered them over to Table 5. "Here you are!" she said with a bright smile. "Sorry for the wait!"

She went back to the kitchen to grab some more orders. "Thanks, El!" Jess called, grabbing a couple trays of food. "You're a lifesaver!"

Eliana's heart panged for a second at the mention of her old nickname. Rachel and Bruce were the first ones who ever called her El. Some people called her El now, but it only meant something when either Rachel or Bruce called her that.

She quickly got over it when more trays needed to be delivered to more tables. Work was not the time for daydreaming.

When it was time for her to clock out, she said goodbye to her co-workers and began to walk home. It was drizzling so she pulled up her sweatshirt hood. She wanted to listen to some music, but she knew that it wasn't safe to do so. Constantly alert, it didn't take long for her to hear footsteps behind her that stopped when she did. She sighed heavily. Was it too much to ask for a peaceful walk home? In Gotham City, yes.

Before the stalker knew what was happening, she punched him in the face, kicked him in the gut, and used her feet to knock his own out from under him. The back of his head hit the ground, and he lay motionless on the sidewalk.

Panting heavily, Eliana pulled out her cell phone and called up the oh-so-familiar number.

"Hey, Gordon," she said.

"Again, Eliana?" the kind voice said on the other end.

"Yep, got another one."

"Alright, you know the drill. Stay there and we'll be there to take your statement."

"Got it."

She hung up and kept her eye on the attacker. He barely moved a muscle until Gordon arrived on the scene. She had a feeling that even if he did awake, he wouldn't put up much of a fight to get away.

"Are you alright?" Gordon asked as he came up to her.

"Same as usual," she said. "This was actually one of the easiest fights I've ever been in."

Gordon let out a small laugh. Gotham needed more people like Eliana.

Eliana hung around for a little and Gordon took her side of what happened while other cops got her attacker conscious again and then handcuffed him and loaded him up in the police car.

When the familiar routine was over, Gordon gave her a ride back to her apartment like he usually did.

If she had a dollar for every time she gave a statement to Gordon, she'd be as rich as Bruce Wayne himself.

"Thanks, Gordon," Eliana smiled as she got out of the car.

"Stay safe, Eliana!"

"You know it!"

Eliana trudged up to her apartment and set down her bag on the counter. After grabbing some leftovers from the fridge, she sat down in front of the TV and turned on the news. Batman still filled the channels, the manhunt for him ongoing. Eliana rolled her eyes at the newscasters' remarks. Why couldn't people see that Batman was innocent? It wasn't like anyone had any hard evidence that Batman had actually committed the crime. As far as she knew, there hadn't been any witnesses at the time of Harvey's death.

After finishing her food, she changed into pajamas and crashed in bed, uneager to start the day ahead of her.