It seemed to Sidney that she had been on the train forever. She had gotten off the plane from Los Angeles about an hour ago, but she guessed it was her fault for taking the local service train instead of the express.

No matter, she could see the skyline of Gotham City in her window, and she was now starting to get antsy. Her flight from LA had been a little rushed, and so she had had no way to try and get in contact with Harvey Dent, the only person she knew who lived in the city, but she figured it wouldn't be that hard to find him. Last thing she heard, he was the District Attorney. People in that position don't exactly keep a low profile, especially in a place like Gotham.

Finding Harvey wouldn't be a problem, and she was sure that he would be willing to give her a place to crash until she got on her feet. Sidney wasn't exactly sure how she was going to do that, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. For now she would be just fine avoiding death.

She shuddered when she thought about the reasons for which she had left LA. If there was anything she learned from this was that it definitely wasn't a good idea to borrow money from mobsters if you didn't actually have any intent to pay them back. But it didn't matter, they wouldn't follow her here. The only people who weren't afraid to be in Gotham City were those who had lived there all their lives and those who were desperate.

And she was definitely desperate. She couldn't just lay low in LA. Her dark red hair, big gray eyes, full lips, and light smattering of freckles made her instantly recognizable to anyone she saw in the street. Far too pretty for just laying low, and in no way interested in changing her appearance, she decided to completely relocate. At the moment, Gotham City was the safest place for her to be.

"How ironic …" she trailed off to herself. After all, you knew your life had taken a bad turn when the safest place for you was one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

At least, she hoped it would be. If Harvey didn't let her stay with him, then she would be essentially out on the streets, but she was confident that wouldn't happen. She hadn't seen Harvey in years … about ten to be more specific, but they were old friends, and last time she checked Harvey wasn't the type to throw a friend into the gutter.

Sidney silently hoped that Harvey hadn't changed too drastically since last time she had seen him and started reviewing her story in her head.

--------------

"Ugh …" Camryn Griffin was frustrated, and her feet were starting to hurt. As a recent graduate of Gotham University, the jobs open to her in the field she wished to pursue were limited. In fact, there was only one job for her at the moment, and that was intern. Being an intern meant that she was to do what she was told whenever she was told to do it, and her task at the moment was to get coffee for everyone back at the magazine.

Her job mandated that she look her best at all times, and she always did. With skin like the color of the creamy coffee she as carrying, she could pull off any color, and standing at about 5'10" with a thin frame, she could wear any shape. She could even get away without the four-inch heels she was wearing, but they seemed like such a great idea that morning with her navy leggings and yellow mini dress. The shoes had cost her about eight hundred dollars that she didn't have, damned if she wasn't going to wear them. Though she had gotten many compliments on the Louboutins, they were not exactly great walking attire.

But the compliments made it worth it. When you worked at a fashion magazine, part of the job was making people wish they had dressed like you when they got up in the morning. And besides, she could get her latest sugar daddy to give her the money for the shoes. Of course, there would be a price for that, but they were well worth it.

"There she is!" the receptionist exclaimed when Camryn burst through the door with her two trays. "God, we thought you would never get back." Camryn only smiled. This was how interns were treated, sort of like an initiation. In this world, you had to pay your dues. "You can just bring those up to the conference room and then you're free to go."

"Thanks, Leah," Camryn chirped as she continued to the elevator.

"Love your shoes!" Leah called after her as the doors closed. Camryn smiled to herself and leaned against the back wall of the elevator. Sure, her feet were hurting, but she couldn't be happier.

-----------------------

After what seemed like forever, Sidney stepped off the train at Gotham Station. It was incredibly busy, and as she glanced at the clock hanging over the terminal, she could see why. It was about 5:30, and that meant that it was time for everyone to head home. Those who did not live in the city were getting out as fast as they could; they didn't want to be around when darkness fell.

Sidney, hiking her purse higher on one shoulder and adjusting the grip on the duffle bag in her hand, made her way to the nearest phone booth.

"All right, Harvey … come out, come out, wherever you are …" She took off her oversize sunglasses so that she could see the pages better. After flipping through the Ds for a moment, she immediately came to what she was looking for. It wasn't Harvey's personal number, but it was the number for his office. Hoping that he would still be there, she dialed the number.

It rang twice.

"District Attorney's office," a female voice cooed from the other end of the line.

"Hey," Sidney drawled lazily, "I'm looking for Harvey Dent. Is there any way I could speak to him?"

"Name, please?" The lady asked.

"Sidney Reynolds," Sidney answered quickly as she leaned against the glass wall of the booth.

"Just a moment, please." And then she was put on hold. Sidney idly twirled the phone cord around her index finger, silently daring Harvey to not speak to her. Much to her delight, she didn't have to wait long to hear him greet her.

"I've got to say you were one of the last people I expected to call me," were the first words he said. "How can I help you?"

"Oh, it's wonderful to speak to you, too," said Sidney dryly. Harvey knew better than to respond to that, and she of course continued speaking. "I'm in Gotham City and I need a place to stay." There it was. Sidney wasn't really one to beat around the bush.

"What are you here for?" He asked, sounding more than a little curious.

"It's a little bit of a story," said Sidney, "and I don't think I have enough quarters to tell you the whole thing."

"OK, well, I'm leaving the office now," Harvey began. Now that he mentioned it, she did hear shuffling sounds as if he was packing up. "So, why don't you catch a cab, tell the driver to go to 4972 East 54th street, and I'll be waiting for you. We'll go to my apartment." Sidney stated that she would do just that and then hung up the phone.

Easy as pie.

After leaving the phone booth, Sidney hailed a cab and gave the driver the address. Having completed her task, she settled into the seat and took a deep breath. Harvey was a lawyer, therefore he knew what questions to ask, and she wanted to make sure that her story was flawless. Of course, she could have just told him the truth, but she doubted that he would let her stay in his apartment after telling him that there was a price on her head.

Her boyfriend, who had a lot of connections on the LA drug scene, had beaten her brutally one night. In revenge, Sidney had 'accidentally' started a fire in his apartment, destroying not only his home, but all of the products inside – an amount equaling about half a million dollars. The police had questioned her, but she had been careful and there was no evidence to prove she did it. Her boyfriend, of course, knew otherwise, and promised to kill her. Scared for her life, Sidney fled to the last place that she thought he would follow her.

Simple enough, not many places you could go wrong with that, and she was pretty sure that Harvey wouldn't go looking up fires in LA. He would believe her because they were friends.

The ride from the train station to Harvey's office was quite short. Sidney spent the majority of it staring out the window. Having lived in LA for quite a few years, she was used to big cities, but this one definitely had a different atmosphere. It was dirty – grittier and much darker than LA. The people walked differently, as if they were in constant fear that the sky was about to fall on their heads.

Like he promised, he was waiting just inside the door. Before walking out of it, he turned around to say something to someone and then pushed the door open. Sidney took this moment to observe that he really hadn't changed too much. Of course he looked older, and the lean muscles of his youth had gotten a bit more bulk, but other than that he was still Harvey Dent.

"There he is," said Sidney as he opened the door.

"Hey!" He exclaimed as he put his briefcase on the floor of the cab and leaned over to give Sidney a hug, which she returned. Having gotten this out of the way, though, Harvey got down to business. "So why have you shown up in Gotham City completely out of the blue?"

"God, you get right down to it, don't you?" Sidney asked right before Harvey gave his home address to the driver. "Well, since you're so curious. I'm running."

"From what?"

"My boyfriend," Sidney began her lie, "or rather my ex-boyfriend …" and then she went on to tell the story she had so carefully devised in her head, giving as many details as she possibly could, knowing that if she didn't, Harvey would ask questions pertaining to those missing details.

Sidney was still telling her story as the Harvey paid the cab driver and they started walking into his building with Harvey carrying her duffle bag. "…So, I got on the first flight, took a train from the airport to here, and here I am."

"Wow …" Harvey trailed off as he pressed the up button on the elevator. "Seems like a lot of things have changed in ten years. You used to be such a goody-goody, and now here you are all mixed up with drug dealers."

You don't know the half of it … Sidney thought to herself as they stepped into the elevator and Harvey pressed a button labeled 7. It was the highest floor of the building. "So, yeah … I just need a place to stay until I can get myself on my feet … find a job, all that." Sidney neglected to say that she wasn't really capable of any sort of professional job; or rather she just didn't have a degree to certify that she was. However, she had never really had a problem making money, and had no qualms about working.

"You can stay here as long as you like," Harvey assured her as they stepped out of the elevator and to one of the two doors in the hallway. Harvey walked to the one on the left, slid a key into the lock, turned, and they were in.

The living room was spacious, done in tasteful shades of ivory and brown. There was a fireplace on one wall with a plasma TV hanging over it. There was a couch that was brown with ivory pillows on it, and Sidney assumed that this was where she was going to be sleeping.

"The guest bedroom is down the hall and to the left," said Harvey as he put her duffel bag down on the floor. "And the entrance to the guest bathroom is in the bedroom. You can make yourself at home and freshen up if you want." Sidney gave him a look. "Not that I'm implying that you need to. You look great, by the way, especially for someone who's just been on a plane and a train for a good … what … seven hours?"

"About that," Sidney responded, pleased with this correction. She had done her best to make sure she looked nice. Ever since she was ten and he was sixteen she had the biggest crush on him ever. Unfortunately, then the only thing she could be to him was something of a younger sister. However, the difference between twenty-eight and twenty-two is much less than the one between sixteen and ten.

She picked up her bag and lugged it to the guest bedroom. As soon as she had thrown it on her bed, Harvey was in her doorway. He had taken off the jacket of his suit and his tie, and he had unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt. Looking very relaxed, he leaned against the door jamb.

"It's good to see you again," he said to her, "I have to confess that I never thought I would after you moved out to LA."

"It's nice to see you, too, Harvey," she said to him. Before she had moved, she and Harvey had lived in a suburb of Gotham about twenty-five minutes away from the city. But, when her parents died at the age of twelve, she had no choice but to move out to California to be taken care of by the only family she had left, her aunt and uncle. They had no children of their own so they were happy to have Sidney, and she was happy to be away from all the painful memories, so she didn't really have a reason to come back once she was old enough. "It's been a long time."

"Too long," he agreed, "so, do you plan on staying long, or do you want to head back to LA once this mess has had some time to blow over?"

"Oh, I'm here to stay," she answered as she started pulling her clothes out and putting them into the drawers across from the bed. "My ex isn't one to forget, and neither are his friends. As far as I know, they'll be too scared to come here. All everyone gets on the West Coast is horror stories about this city. He'll stay where he is and I'll stay where I am and everything will be just peachy."

"I'm glad," said Harvey. He entered the room and sat on the bed. "So … do you need any sort of help looking for a job?" He asked. "I'm the DA, after all, I've got connections."

"Unfortunately I'm not really qualified for much," she answered. "I waited tables back in LA."

"I see," Harvey said, nodding. "Well, we're in Gotham City, there are tons of fine dining restaurants where I'm sure the servers make great tips. Would you like me to see what I can do?"

"So eager to get me out of here?" Sidney asked playfully.

"No! It's not that," Harvey assured her, "I'm just trying to help. Like I said, you can stay here until you feel like you have enough money to move out. It's not really a cheap city to live in, and I'm sure you don't want to live in the slums. You'll need to save some money. Take your time, no one uses this room."

Sidney was glad of that. When she entered the apartment, she had immediately started looking for traces of a female presence, and was relieved when she saw none. Of course, she hadn't been into his bedroom or bathroom, yet, but she figured it would hardly be polite to just storm into his private space and start snooping around.

That's when the door opened, though, and a female voice came from the living room.

"Harvey?" An annoyingly scratchy voice came from the direction of the front door. "Are you here?" Harvey immediately stood up and left the room. Sidney followed suit, curious to see who was there.

She walked out of her room just in time to see Harvey plant a kiss on the lips of a rather plain looking woman. Upon seeing her face, Sidney concluded that she looked something like a pig.

Upon seeing Sidney, Rachel Dawes' reaction was slightly different. Her first thought was wondering what this young, impossibly attractive girl could possibly be doing at her boyfriend's apartment. "I stopped by the office but you were already gone. Who's this?"

"This is Sidney," said Harvey as he broke off from Rachel's embrace and dragged Sidney forward. "She's an old friend, she just got here from LA and needs a place to stay until she can get one of her own.

"Nice to meet you," Sidney said sweetly as she held out her hand to Rachel. "And you are …?"

"Rachel," she answered, seeming rather annoyed that she had to conduct this introduction herself, "I'm Harvey's girlfriend."

"Lucky girl," Sidney said, her open smile changing to a wolfish grin. She winked and then turned on her heel. "I'm going to finish unpacking."

"Are you hungry?" Harvey said to Sidney's retreating back.

"Starving!" She answered.

"Well, Rachel and I were going to go out to dinner tonight," he stated, "you're welcome to join us."

"Really?" Sidney asked as she stopped before entering her bedroom. "I wouldn't want to invade-"

"I don't want to hear about it," said Harvey. "You're coming. It's a nice place. Do you have anything to wear? If not, Rachel can take you to-" his thought was cut off by a swift punch in his arm from his girlfriend.

"I've got something to wear," Sidney said with a smile. "How much time do I have to get ready?" Harvey looked at his watch.

"About two hours," he answered.

"Fabulous," Sidney answered, "I'll be ready in about two hours, then." She walked back towards Harvey, stood on her toes to kiss him on the cheek, and then sauntered back into her bedroom.

Once the door to Sidney's new bedroom was safely closed, Rachel turned to Harvey.

"Why is she staying here?" She demanded. "Can't she stay in a hotel?"

"I can't let her stay in a hotel, Rachel," said Harvey, "she's an old friend and I haven't seen her in almost ten years." He walked away from her and started sorting the mail on his dining table. "It's only temporary, Rach. Just until she finds her own place." Rachel sighed. Of course, she trusted Harvey, it was the girl showering a few rooms over who bothered her.

"Well … I just stopped by to make sure everything was all right. You didn't answer your cell phone."

"Oh, I had it on silent," he stated as he glanced towards his briefcase. "Sorry, she called me just as I was leaving and I was rushing to meet her. Everything's fine."

"I can see that," Rachel murmured. She was loathe to leave the two of them together, but she had to go and get ready for dinner. Surprised at herself for being so jealous, she kissed Harvey, told him she would see him soon, and then walked out of the apartment, feeling like she had just been sideswiped by a truck.

------------------------

First, she glanced at the clock to check the time. It was almost ten o'clock, and that meant Sal would be there soon, but she still had some time. As she looked at herself in the mirror, Camryn decided that she was more than presentable, which was expected at all times. Recently, she had taken to hanging around Sal Maroni, and if she wasn't to his liking, he would have no problems just sending her away. That was something Camryn definitely did not want. It wasn't that she enjoyed his company in particular, but she enjoyed the company he kept. Being that he was Sal Maroni, he was in with some of the most influential people in Gotham. Of course, these people were not exactly upstanding citizens, but that didn't really matter.

Taking one final look at herself in the mirror, she couldn't help but admire the shoes. The knee high boots had been almost as expensive as the shoes she had worn to work that day, but she liked them better. After straightening her leather mini and red silk top, she then fluffed her hair out a little more. There was a lot of it, and it was quite wild. But she wouldn't trade her curls for the world.

The phone rang. Camryn knew that it was Sal and went to pick it up.

"Hello?" She purred.

"Get down here, the car's waitin'," Sal grunted before hanging up. Camryn put down the phone, grabbed her clutch, and hustled out the door. She hustled to the elevator and hopped in. When the doors opened again, she moved with the grace of someone not wearing four-inch heels as she click-clacked her way across the marble tile. She could see Sal's car waiting outside the doors of the hotel in which he had put her. Obviously she was not able to afford a place of her own.

When she got into the car, Sal was there, of course, along with another girl she had never seen before. This wasn't strange, and Camryn definitely didn't mind. If there were two of them, there would be less attention to focus on her, and she might actually be able to have fun.

"Hey," she said smoothly as she slid onto the leather backseat of Sal's town car, giving the man in question a kiss on the cheek. As she tried to pull away, Sal kept her head in place and gave her a real kiss, sliding his hand along her patterned stockings up towards her skirt. Playfully, she smacked his hand, gave him a look that said she thought he was a naughty boy, and settled back into the seat. It was most likely going to be an extremely long night, and she wasn't exactly looking forward to it.

However, when she, Sal, and his other date bypassed the line at Blu, she remembered why she put up with it. Feeling like a celebrity is not something many people hate, and it was nice getting jealous looks from all the other people in the crowd.

The inside of the night club was already hopping. Music was playing, and she could feel the thump of the bass coming in through the soles of her shoes. Sal slid an arm around her waist and guided her to what she assumed would be their camp for the evening. There were already a few of Sal's friends sitting in the white chairs or on the matching lounges across from them. Each of the mobsters had one or two women hanging all over him, and Sal joined the ranks with his two.

"Good evening, gentlemen," he greeted as he sat down. Camryn, of course, did not sit. She was not allowed to until she was instructed. However, rather than that, as Sal sat down, all of the other women stood up. This meant that they were to be dismissed. Obviously they had been waiting to discuss some business or other, and now that Sal was there they could get down to it.

This was fine with Camryn. She dropped her clutch onto Sal's lap, which was what she usually did. He didn't mind holding onto it. After all, it ensured that she didn't leave with anyone else.

----------------

Right across the street, Sidney was keeping a smile on her face. She didn't really like this Rachel girl; her voice was reminiscent of a blender and her face looked like it had been shoved into one. Harvey was much more attractive than that, she concluded, and would therefore have to be saved from this embarrassment. Sure, she was the DA assistant, and was brilliant and courageous and righteous, but that didn't change the fact that she was completely obnoxious.

So, Sidney was doing her best to assert her influence by dominating the majority of the conversation, recalling old times with Harvey, having some good laughs at jokes which Rachel could not possibly understand.

"Ha! Your mother was so angry at you …" Harvey trailed off between breaths as the two of them recalled a particular instant in their childhood in which Sidney, and her surroundings, had ended up covered in red paint.

"It took weeks to get all of the paint out of my hair," Sidney finished, "luckily it was red, otherwise my mother would have insisted on cutting it all off."

"Oh, so that's your natural hair color?" Rachel cut in, making Sidney cut her eyes towards her. She had been doing her best to make Harvey forget that she wasn't there, and it wasn't going to work if she kept talking.

"Of course it's my natural hair color," said Sidney as she ran her hands through her hair, which looked stunning tonight. The cocktail dress she was wearing was almost the exact same rich burgundy as her tresses. With all of her gold accessories, Sidney looked quite stunning compared to Rachel's black ensemble. Of course, it was a beautiful dress, but it was still black.

Sidney had worked like a mad woman to make her clothing presentable. After all, cocktail dresses didn't usually hold up well in duffle bags, but she had gotten it to work by hanging it in the bathroom whilst she showered. The steam had managed to get most of the wrinkles out.

The look on Rachel's face when she had seen her was priceless.

Sadly, though, Rachel could play Sidney's game as well. Because of her more recent connections with Harvey, the two of them obviously had more things to talk about, such as the day's criminal activities.

"They got pictures of the guy who did it," Rachel explained, referring to the robbing of one of the major banks of Gotham City, "but he has paint all over his face."

"He calls himself The Joker," Harvey explained to Sidney, "he's extremely tricky and he's basically in the wind. It's like chasing smoke. No prints, no leads … nothing."

"Sounds like you've got a problem," Sidney agreed, nodding. She didn't particularly care for the conversation. As far as she was concerned, criminals could commit all the crimes they wanted as long as they didn't directly affect her.

"A big one," Harvey assured her, "especially since he keeps killing people." Harvey glanced at his watch. It told him that it was about ten-thirty. "Would either of you like another drink?"

"Oh, yes please," Sidney said as she put down the glass she had been holding in her hand. Feeling like she needed to impress, she had been drinking the same red wine that Harvey and Rachel were drinking. She didn't like it one bit, it was bitter and made her want to vomit, but she had sucked it up, especially since Harvey had seemed so pleased that he was actually able to get a bottle of so special a wine. Rachel answered in the affirmative as well. Harvey poured three more glasses and they settled in for some more stimulating conversation.

"Maybe Batman will be able to take care of him," Rachel suggested as she brought her wine glass to her lips.

"Batman?" Sidney asked. "Who's Batman?"

"The masked vigilante who roams the Gotham streets at night," Harvey answered. "I don't know, something tells me that if Batman hasn't dealt with him yet then it might be a little easier said than done."

"Batman?" Sidney repeated. "Are you serious?"

"He dresses all in black and flies around like a bat," Harvey responded, shrugging. "I think he's doing wonderful things for Gotham, but he's pretty highly sought after. Commissioner Loeb is not exactly fond of people taking the law into their own hands." Sidney started to laugh.

"That's too funny," she chuckled as she sipped her wine. "I mean, I knew this city was nuts, but I didn't know it went that far."

Rachel let out a chuckle to match Sidney's and assured her, "Oh, you don't know the half of it."

-------------------

As people talked about him at dinner tables, Batman himself was not too far away. He was actually standing on the roof of the restaurant in which Harvey, Rachel, and Sidney were eating at that very moment. However, it wasn't the conversations in that building that interested him so much as the ones that were going on across the street.

Sal Maroni was in there, along with a few other very influential people of the Gotham underground. Following the bank robbery earlier that day, the mob was on edge. They had lost a lot of money. Actually, a lot of money was an understatement. He knew it was mob money because, upon looking inside the safe, he discovered some of the marked bills he had given to James Gordon. The bank had been a drop off for the mob, all right, and things were probably going to start going down.

Aware of this, Batman was taking no chances. He knew that this would lead to some rash actions from those who had been stolen from, and rash actions were just the kinds of things he needed to get some of these people behind bars, at least for a little while.

It was still early in the night, but he was prepared to wait.

-------------------

If there was one thing Camryn Griffin could say for herself, it was that she was a smart person. Though she was supposed to be leaving Sal alone to conduct his business, she knew better than to keep her eyes off of him for too long. It wasn't completely out of the question for him to just leave without her. And, after about an hour and a half, when she saw him standing up and walking towards the back door, she didn't hesitate for a moment in following him.

After all, she had drinks to pay for, and damned if she was going to let him leave her stranded like that.

However, one thing she didn't consider was the consequence of bursting into a dark alleyway in which a few mobsters happen to be convening. To her defense, she didn't know that they would still be there, but they were, and they didn't seem happy at all about the intrusion, especially since two of them, one of them being Sal, had guns in their hands. Kneeling in front of them were two of the other men that had been waiting when they got there.

"What the fuck is she doing out here, Sal?!" The other man holding a gun demanded. Rather than answer him, Sal looked to one of his goons, who immediately seized Camryn around the middle and dragged her away from the door to keep her from going back inside.

"Let GO of me!" She ordered as she started struggling, kicking at the man holding her, but to no avail. "If you don't let me go, I swear to God … Sal! Do something, here!"

"Take care of her," Sal murmured, and the goon automatically pulled out a gun. Camryn couldn't see the weapon in question, but she could hear the sound of the hammer cocking back, and started to scream.

"Shut the fuck up!" The goon ordered as he momentarily let go and hit her on the back of the head with the gun. The last thing Camryn heard was the sound of gunshots, and then she was swallowed by blackness.

Once Sal and the others had walked out of the night club, Batman had wasted no time in getting closer. He could tell that they had guns in their hands, and therefore were up to no good, to say the very least. It seemed that Maroni was accusing one of the men kneeling before him of alerting the police to the fact that the bank which had been robbed today was one of their drop offs.

He was waiting to hear more, but that was then a woman walked onto the scene, and it seemed that she knew Sal.

Of course, that would not keep her from dying. Unfortunately she didn't seem to know that, because if she did she would have headed right back inside after seeing what was going on.

Wordlessly, Batman jumped from his post and soared across the street to the top of the night club. Acting quickly, from the roof he jumped down. However, he was not exactly in time. The girl had already been knocked out, but luckily it didn't seem that she was dead, so he decided to deal with her later.

One of the men who had been kneeling had taken advantage of the distraction provided by Camryn, and had gotten his hands on his gun and squeezed a round off, hoping to create even more of a distraction. He was successful in that the man holding a gun to his head had been momentarily spooked, but Sal had not, and quickly shot him. Before he could do anything else, though, Batman was upon him.

Maroni was no fighter. With a gun in his hand, sure he could do some damage, but when it actually came to hurting someone with his own two hands, he was no good. It didn't help that he was far outmatched. He didn't even bother trying to get out of Batman's grip. Instead, he looked over his shoulder and saw that his goon was not so stupid after all.

"Let him go or I'll kill her!" He exclaimed as he held a gun to the head of Camryn's prostrate form.

"You let her go or I'll kill you," Batman countered.

"I could kill her a lot faster than you could get to me," he assured him as he pressed the gun harder into her head. He was hoping for some sort of response for Camryn, but had not taken into account the fact that she was unconscious.

The standoff, however, was interrupted by the sounds of sirens in the distance and a small crowd assembling across the street. Obviously they had been attracted by the gun shots.

Not having time to play games, and not willing to gamble with an innocent person's life, Batman threw Maroni to the side, knocking over one of his partners in the process, thinking the man was stupid enough to get caught by him again, and charged towards the man holding Camryn. Seeing Batman flying towards him scared him a little more than he thought it would, and he immediately dropped her.

Silently cursing the girl for ruining his bust, he scooped her up and started running the opposite direction of the crowd that had gathered.

As much as he wanted to, he couldn't just leave the girl where she was, as her head was bleeding quite profusely. He couldn't take her to a hospital, because he would be followed there. Once getting her into the bat mobile, he checked her for any identification, but she didn't even half pockets.

In the back of his head, he commented that there wasn't really much room for pockets on the clothes she had worn, and as he sped off had to force himself from looking at her legs, which seemed to be about a mile long, and looked gorgeous even covered in those hideous stockings.

--------------------------------------

"What's happening?" Sidney demanded as she tried to see through the crowd. The heels she was wearing made her about three inches taller than she actually was, but that only put her at about 5'7", and definitely not tall enough to see over anyone.

"I don't know," Harvey said as he started pushing through the crowd, followed closely by Rachel. Sidney followed without hesitation. The cop cars had just arrived, and the scene was filled with flashing lights and sirens. Ambulances were not far off, but that didn't seem to stop Harvey or Rachel from getting closer.

"What's going on?" Rachel demanded of one of the police officers.

"I don't know," he answered without looking at them. "Looks like Sal Maroni lying in that alley way, though, and his isn't the only body lying on the concrete. Oh, wait … he just got up."

Of course, he wasn't able to get up completely, as there were police officers all over him, now, knocking him back to the ground and cuffing his hands behind his back. When the dragged him up, Sal didn't look scared or worried, he just seemed rather bored, as if this was something that happened regularly.

"One of those bodies has been shot," the officer added.

"Yeah, thanks," said Harvey sarcastically before turning to Rachel. "Take her home," he motioned towards Sidney. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"But-" Rachel began.

"Just do it," Harvey ordered, and then turned his back on her, wading into the fray. Rachel turned slowly to look at Sidney, who was not looking at her but the scene in front of her.

"Well," Rachel began as she grabbed her by the wrist and started walking away from the crowd, looking for a cab to catch, "welcome to Gotham City."

"Let go of me!" Sidney ordered as she wrenched her hands out of Rachel's grip. "I am not a child, I can follow you all by myself." Rachel looked like she was about to say something cutting in return, and then stopped herself, holding her hands in the air in surrender.

"Fine," she responded, and then continued walking, not willing to get in a fight with this girl in the middle of the street. She figured that Harvey would probably blame her for it, and didn't want to give this Sidney girl any extra chances. She was going to be getting plenty just living with Harvey. Rachel silently resolved to spend some more time in his apartment as she hailed a cab.

"Is stuff like this always happening?" Sidney asked as she slid in the back seat next to Rachel, who only shrugged in response to the question. She would be nice in front of Harvey, but if she didn't have to, she wasn't going to be. On top of all the other things she had to worry about, she now had to think of the girl who was apparently trying to steal her boyfriend.

Being the District Attorney assistant had taught her how to play dirty, and she was not above that, not at all.