The World Beneath

Batman Begins/ Constantine crossover; inspirations from The Crow

Jonathan Crane was not walking along the same plane of existence as everyone around him. Although it was obvious that he was walking across the crowded Quad of Gotham University, his mind was on another planet, exploring theories of quantum physics, chemistry and biology. These were his passions and he often found his thoughts drifting to molecular configurations and the body's reaction to them. While he loved sciences, he was also in a zealous and romantic affair with psychology. He was fascinated by the way the human mind worked; its intricacies and secrets had never been truly uncovered. His dream was to be the first man to understand these things. Egotistical though it may have been, he had never been one to feign modesty. It seemed his career path was headed toward psychiatry; a marriage of the two things he loved.

Just as he was pondering the lecture one of his professors had given earlier that day, he crashed into something and fell flat on his bottom, his bag opening and its contents spilling across the pavement.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" said a frantic, anxious voice. "I wasn't looking where I was going at all."

Clearly, he was tempted to say. "No, no. It's alright," he responded instead, quite disgruntled as he collected his belongings. He felt angry but wasn't naturally a confrontational person. He mostly wanted to collect his things and be on his way. As he looked up to see if he recognized the face of the most certainly inferior person who had bumped into him, he found himself staring into the most beautiful pair of brown eyes. He couldn't move.

"Hello? Are you okay?"

"I…um…em…" While he was first in his class and headed to Johns Hoppkins Medical School, he was completely inept when dealing with beautiful women.

"Here. Let me help you with your stuff." She began picking up some of his papers. "I am such a klutz sometimes."

Both Jonathan and the woman stood up now that all of their possessions were back in their bags.

"Are you sure you're okay? You still look a little out of it. Are you hurt? Do you need to go to the health center? I'm actually on my way there now, so if you want to come with me you can. I just…" She noticed the glazed and questioning look on his face. "Oh. Sorry." She laughed. He noted it was nervous laughter. "I do that sometimes. Just keep talking!"

Jonathan stared at her in disbelief. Why couldn't he manage to say anything?

"Um, I'll just go now," she mumbled, walking briskly in the direction she was headed.

"It was my fault!"

Was that my voice cracking or his dignity? he wondered.

She stopped. "What?"

He cleared his throat and repeated himself. "It was my fault, too. I wasn't looking where I was going either. My head was in the clouds."

She smiled. It was a beautiful smile. It made him think all in the world was right. She walked back to him and stuck her hand out.

"Hi there. What's your name?"

"Jonathan. Yours?" He took her hand and shook it.

"Isobel."

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What was he doing here? Waiting for a girl he didn't even know. It seemed a little crazy. He wasn't normally impulsive; reason had always been his greatest tool. But, there was something about this woman that he couldn't put his finger on. She seemed almost as befuddled as him. As sweet as she appeared on the outside, he could detect a touch of something darker. This all intrigued him.

"You're still here?" she said, somewhat surprised, when she came into the waiting room.

"I am."

"Thanks. I'm sure you have better things to do, though."

"Not really."

"Oh. I get it," she said with a smirk, her tone turning sarcastic. "Your one of those pre-med guys who lives in the library studying for his MCATs."

While this was true, he didn't want her thinking he was a completely antisocial weirdo.

"No, but as a future doctor I had to be sure you would be okay. You know; compassion for the sick and injured, Hippocratic Oath and all that." He said all this in a very dry and sarcastic tone.

"Sounds like you're going to be a good doctor. Do you know what kind you want to be when you grow up?"

"Psychiatrist. Do you want to get something to eat?"

His directness surprised both of them.

"Yeah, I'd like that. I'm kind of hungry."

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They walked to a cheap burger joint that was close to campus, talking all the while about everything. When they got there they found a booth in the back, far from noisy frat boys trying to devour as much food as they could in order to have their names put on the Wall of Fame behind the counter.

"What about you?" he asked. "You haven't told me what your major is yet."

"Double major in Criminology and Theology."

"Those two things don't seem to fit together."

"They don't. Not really, anyway, but they're my two passions."

"Criminology?"

"My dad was a cop, my mom was a lawyer, my grandfather was a detective. It's sort of in my blood."

"Alright, that makes sense. What about Theology."

She slurped on her soda a bit longer before she took a deep breath and answered.

"I'm a devout Catholic. It's my other real passion. I… it just…I feel like there's more I want to know, you know? I mean, there's what you're told and what you read, then there's what you know, and then there's what you believe. Is any of this making sense?"

"I'm sure it is. I'm just not that religious or spiritual."

"Really? You don't even have the slightest feeling that there's something bigger than all of this?"

"I think theirs is…something that drives people, but God? The Devil? Please! I don't believe in the Devil."

"You should," she said, quite seriously. "He believes in you." There was an awkward silence. "Sorry. Not exactly dinner conversation." She laughed nervously again. This made him smile. She cut her own laughter short. "You're cute."

"Oh… Thank you." was all he could say. He severely blushed. She smirked at his redness and continued eating french fries. After a few moments, she broke the silence.

"Okay. Rapid fire: Where are you from?"

"Um, here. Gotham."

"Siblings?"

"None."

"Parents?"

"David and Sonia."

"I bet they're proud. Their son the doctor. I can hear the bragging already."

"Um, not so much. My dad died senior year in high school and my mom has paranoid schizophrenia. She's in an institution."

"Oh." She shrunk a bit. "I'm so sorry." There was another awkward silence. Now he laughed with discomfort.

"I guess we're even now for creeping each other out." This made her genuinely laugh. "Rapid fire: Where are you from?"

"L.A." She straightened up a bit.

"Siblings?"

"A sister."

"Younger or older?"

"Twin."

"Really? It always thought it would be great to have a twin." He then switched into a very analytic mode. "Tell me, did the two of you have habits or interactions that were particular to your pair?"

"Yes. Actually…" Her voice suddenly trailed off and her eyes glazed over as she gazed into a space just beyond his right shoulder. Jonathan turned around but only saw an old lady standing there. Slowly, he saw her face change from being very relaxed and at ease to unsettled and disturbed. Here breathing became slightly erratic, but she showed no signs of fainting or of being in any physical distress. He would have tried to stir her were he not so curious as to what was developing beneath the surface of her outer façade.

"Isobel?"

She gasped when he got her attention. She took a moment to compose herself then sweetly smiled. "Sorry... My head was in the clouds."

He smirked. He knew she would throw that in his face later.

"You wanna' get out of here?" she asked.

"Sure." He didn't know what to expect as she rushed out the door.

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Twenty minutes later he found himself on the roof of the Wayne Library with a Corona in his hand. They were sitting on the ledge, their legs dangling along the side of the building.

"Aren't you afraid of falling off?" he asked her.

"No."

"Are you afraid of anything?"

She smiled sweetly at him but said nothing.

I could keep her fears away, he thought.

There wasn't anything to fear though. About six feet below them was a second ledge that could catch them if they happened to get too tipsy.

Just then, he noticed a sad, grungy looking building. "I can see where I grew up from here."

"Where is it?" she asked.

"Right there." He pointed in the direction of the dilapidated building.

"Where?" She leaned her head to see exactly where he was pointing.

"There. That's where I grew up."

"I'm just going to pretend I can see where you're pointing."

"It's right there! I'm pointing right at it! How can you not see it?"

"It's night!"

They laughed, the alcohol beginning to take effect.

Isobel suddenly stood up on the ledge, her arms wide as if she were going to embrace the sky. "It's such a beautiful night."

He looked up at her with wonder. "Yes. It is."

"It looks so completely different in the day. This city looks alive at night. Gotham is a nocturnal, melancholy creature."

"That's poetic."

"It's just what I see; that's what Gotham is to me. What is it to you?"

"It's…" he thought for a moment, "A spinning hell hole."

"Don't say that." She was sitting beside him again. "You've never been to Hell."

He was worried this was going to lead to another awkward moment. Damn it! he thought, And this night had been going so well.

He didn't have to worry for too long though because the door to the roof swung open with a crashing sound. Their heads snapped in the direction of the door only to see a couple, wrapped around each other and suctioned to each other's faces, stumbling up the steps onto the roof. They closed the door, upon which the man instantly pushed the woman up against the door and continued kissing her furiously. Jonathan and Isobel simply watched, mouths hanging open. When the man began to kiss her neck, the woman's vision was now clear to see the pair that was already on the roof. Here eyes grew wide and she whacked her partner on the shoulder. He briefly turned around, saw Jonathan and Isobel, and turned back to his girlfriend. They burst into hysterical laughter then ran back down stairs. Jonathan and Isobel stared at the door for a moment before facing each other and also bursting into hysterical laughter.

As they're laughter was winding down, Jonathan was struck with his second impulse of the evening. He leaned in and kissed her, taking her completely by surprise; she had still been slightly laughing. With the kiss she was stilled and didn't respond. It was then that Jonathan realized what he had done. He pulled away from her after only about five seconds. He firmly set his gaze on his shoes

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

But he didn't get a chance to finish. She turned his face back toward him and kissed him.