These Scars

Chapter One

Anger was coursing through Bruce Wayne's veins like fire. Anyone who knew the billionaire moderately well—or at least thought that they did—knew that he wasn't exactly a patient man and that, when push came to shove, he had a temper that was best to be avoided. Therefore, Alfred had quietly handed him the morning newspaper before swiftly exiting the living room in search of the safety of the kitchen. His butler's actions had confused Bruce until he'd caught sight of a small article on the front page entitled "Beautiful Local Hero's Tragic Death." Two sentences into the article, Bruce had been ready to tear the thing to shreds, the second sentence having been an egregious assumption on the part of the reporter who claimed to be unsure if the death of Rachel Dawes was the work of the Joker or the "criminal who'd fooled all of Gotham"—Batman himself.

Bruce grit his back teeth together as he quickly read the rest of the article. A huge range of emotion was churning his stomach—frustration at the fact that he couldn't defend Batman by saying how he'd tried to save her, guilt over the fact that maybe the reporter was right in saying that he'd had a hand in Rachel's death, and an overwhelming pain caused by the fact that Rachel was truly dead and was being remembered in such a dishonest way. The article made her out to be some pretty, blue eyed girl who'd caught the eye of hot-shot lawyer Harvey Dent and managed to cling to his coattails in his meteoric rise to fame as Gotham's DA.

Bruce threw the newspaper across the room where it slammed into the polished window and landed in a dismembered pile on the floor. Having been watching from the sidelines, Alfred took this as an indication that it was now safe to enter the room.

"Anything that I can get for you, sir?"

Bruce shook his head, studying a scar that ran the length of his palm, a relic from his world traveling days. "Alfred, do you think that all of this was worth it?"

"What do you mean sir?"

"I mean everything that I've done for the past eight years. Leaving and then coming back, becoming Batman, becoming close with Rachel again. I feel as though I've been completely split in two. Everything that's good for Batman is horrible for Bruce Wayne and the people that I care about."

"I believe that this is what you call a crossroads, sir. You have to decide which direction you're going to take. You can put away the suit and the fancy weapons and just become Bruce Wayne again, or you can keep on fighting and sacrificing for Gotham."

"Except that most of Gotham thinks that I'm a murdering psychopath that likes to dress up as a bat to kill people."

"With all due respect, that was your choice, was it not? Mr. Gordon seemed to think that it was a bad idea, and I'm sure that Rachel would have thought so as well."

"Rachel left this penthouse and died because the real Harvey Dent decided to take the blame for Batman's actions. Gotham has seen too much hardship, too many corrupt political leaders take power. I think that seeing their hero Harvey Dent being turned by the Joker would have broken them. Batman isn't a hero. He can take it."

"That may be what you think, sir, but the last time I checked, all of the little boys and girls in this city weren't running around pretending to be Harvey Dent. The news may be saying that Batman did some awful things, but, when it comes down to it, it wasn't Harvey Dent who saved the city two nights ago, and they may not know that now, but someday it will come out, and you will be a hero, whether you like it or not."

"Until, I don't think that Batman will be the most effective way of fighting crime, anymore."

With that, Alfred took a step back to fully look at his young master. He hadn't always agreed with Bruce Wayne's alter-ego—he'd even questioned the Batman's integrity at a few points—but the defeat that was clouding Bruce's voice prompted him to try to convince him otherwise. "Why do we fail, Master Bruce?"

"Not this again, Alfred…"

"Answer the question."

"To pick ourselves back up again."

"Now what do you think your father would want you to do in this situation? Would he want you to put away everything that you've been working for just because you've hit a bump in the road?"

"The woman I loved died because of me, Alfred. That's hardly a bump in the road."

"Rachel Dawes knew the danger that she was in when she left this penthouse. You can hardly put all of the blame for her death on yourself."

"If I had just stepped up…been honest about the fact that I am Batman."

"Then the Joker would still be out there, killing innocent people. Miss Dawes may not have realized it at the time, but I'm sure, if she were still with us, that she would agree with me now. I think that Gotham needs Batman now more than ever, whether or not they view him as a hero or vigilante. You were a sign of hope, and you can become that symbol again."

"How?"

"You need to get back up, Master Bruce. Get back up and start fighting again. But do it differently this time—know your limits, and know when Batman ends and Bruce Wayne begins."

"I don't even know if I know that anymore. I thought that this whole Batman thing would be over by now, that someone in Gotham would have stepped up and would have been strong enough to take my place. I thought that Harvey Dent was that guy, the one who could be the big hero that Batman never will be."

"The good thing about life is that you get a lot of second chances. I know that things seem a bit cloudy now, but right now, I think that you're being given another chance to help to save your city. Bruce Wayne still has a chance at being a hero."

Bruce took a long look at his butler. "I'm not sure about that anymore."

"Well you'll have to decide soon…you and I were the last two people to see Miss Dawes alive before she was taken. Commissioner Gordon is coming here to question Bruce Wayne about what he thinks happened."

Bruce could only stare at Alfred in horror as the old butler walked out of the room.


"It's good to see you, Mr. Wayne. I'm glad to see that you haven't sustained any injuries from that car crash." Gordon and another police officer named Parker had just been brought up to the penthouse.

Bruce shook Parker's and then the Commissioner's hands, pretending to not quite remember what Gordon was talking about. "What…oh, right…that. I was trying to make the light…I'm just glad that I got away without a ticket. And call me Bruce."

Gordon laughed a little nervously. It was obvious that he felt out of place in the simply decorated but obviously expensive penthouse. Bruce was also feeling a little out of place. He felt a little panicked talking to the Commissioner in his normal voice, without a mask hiding his true identity. Gordon was a man that Batman knew very well, but he was also a man with whom Bruce Wayne would never associate

"Could we keep this quick? I have a date with this Parisian debutante," Bruce said, checking the Rolex on his wrist for effect. He was dressed in an impeccably cut suit, partially because it was something that a playboy with too much money would wear, but mostly because it would conceal the bulky bandage covering the stab wound he'd received from the Joker on his shoulder. He couldn't help but think that it was a bit ironic to be pretending that he didn't know Gordon at all when he'd taken a bullet for the guy and his family the night before—the garishly purple and black bruise caused by the bullet hitting his Kevlar suit was spread across his chest as proof.

"Uh, yes, yes…sorry if this is an intrusion, but Rachel was a good friend, and I'd like to find out as much as I can about what happened to her."

"Yes, well, this is Gotham. If you don't get a few visits from the police every year, you're not a true Gothamite." Bruce was fully in his Bruce Wayne, Billionaire persona—charismatic, blandly humorous, perfectly dressed, and completely oblivious unless a woman in a short skirt happened to be nearby.

Gordon laughed, put at ease by Mr. Wayne's easygoing manner.

"Please, take a seat," Bruce added, leading the Commissioner and Parker into the living area. Alfred walked in with a pitcher of water and two glasses on a tray. He put it down on the coffee table and left as though he was an insignificant butler and not an accomplice to the most wanted man in Gotham.

Bruce, Parker and Gordon exchanged a few more pleasantries about the weather and the spectacular view before Gordon pulled out a notebook. "I realize that this is pretty unconventional, and that the mayor is trying to dismiss Miss Dawes as nothing more than a victim of the Joker, but I think that I owe it to her and to Harvey Dent to clear up a few things about the case."

Bruce nodded. He had suspected this much, that Gordon wasn't going to let the case blow over. In the hour or so he'd had to prepare for the interview, he'd tried to formulate some believable answers. His problem was that it was easy to lie to and about himself when it came to his split Bruce Wayne/Batman persona, but it was harder to lie about the people that he cared about, particularly Rachel.

"I understand that Rachel came here after Dent alerted her that she was in danger."

Bruce nodded.

"You were childhood friends?"

He nodded again. "Her mother worked at Wayne Manor until my parents died. We grew up together."

"It's a bit odd for a billionaire to stay such close friends with the daughter of a previous staff member, is it not?" Parker asked, jutting in.

Bruce felt his temper prickle. Gordon shot the younger officer a look. "Rachel was my best friend and one of the few things about Gotham that I missed when I was gone."

"But I suppose that Dent wasn't too happy about your relationship."

"What does this have to do with Rachel's death?" Bruce answered too quickly, his irritation showing.

Parker looked at him innocently, sensing that he'd hit a nerve. "Just trying to establish some background here."

"No, Dent and I weren't going to be great friends, but he made Rachel happy. That's all that mattered."

Gordon jumped in before his partner could do anymore damage. "Do you know why Rachel decided to come here?"

"I guess because she felt safe here. Safer than she would have been if she was out there with Dent, at least."

"But the Joker had broken in here during your party for Harvey Dent a few days before…"

Bruce shrugged. "The comfort of a childhood friend, then? I don't really know. I am the last person to ask if you're trying to understand a smart woman."

"And do you know what made her leave?"

Bruce had anticipated this question. Unfortunately, it was the one that he'd been unable to think of a good answer to. "No," he answered shortly, lying only partially. He'd never found out if Rachel had left because she was angry about him saying that he was going to turn himself in as Batman or if it was because he hadn't turned himself in and had let Dent take the fall.

"Were you romantically involved with Ms. Dawes?" Parker asked.

"What are you, a tabloid writer?" Bruce asked irritably. "She was with Dent." He remembered the very last time he'd seen her, the way she'd looked at him after he'd worked up the nerve to kiss her. In that brief moment, they'd just been Rachel and Bruce, just as they'd been in childhood before the future of Gotham had fallen so heavily on their shoulders.

Parker snorted. "You're Bruce Wayne. Has that ever stopped you?"

Bruce let out a shout of laughter, falling back into his easy-going mask. "No, I guess not. But, no, Rachel and I were not 'romantically involved.'" He raised his fingers in quotes as he spoke the last two words, openly mocking Parker, who immediately looked down with a sour expression on his face. Bruce wondered if parts of this interview were going to mysteriously end up on Page Six tomorrow thanks to this guy.

Gordon nodded, making a note on his pad. "Did she say where she was going?"

Bruce shook his head.

"You should know, Mr. Wayne, that we did everything that we could to try to save her. The Batman himself seemed very fond of her and tried to save her himself." The look in Gordon's eyes was so sincere that, for a moment, Bruce considered breaking down and telling him everything. The expression on the Commissioner's face when he simply spoke the word "Batman" was enough to let Bruce know that he still had at least one supporter in Gotham. He didn't know whether or not that was a good thing.

"If only he hadn't been outwitted…" Bruce answered quietly, looking down at his hands. He wished with all his heart that Batman hadn't taken the Joker's word about the locations of Rachel and Dent. Hadn't he known that the man was twisted and evil? Hadn't he known that he was almost certainly not telling the truth? Bruce hadn't had the time to go through those thoughts quite yet, and they were crashing down on him now. How could he have been so stupid?

Batman, in his idiotic belief that people could be trusted, had as good as killed Rachel Dawes.

Disgust in his alter-ego and in himself was rising in Bruce's throat, and the metallic taste of his anger at himself was filling his mouth.

"Bruce? Mr. Wayne? Mr. Wayne?!" Gordon was watching Bruce's face, an expression of concern across his own. "Are you alright?"

Bruce looked up at the clock. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to cut this short," he said, fighting desperately to keep his voice even. "I hope that you get to the bottom of this, Commissioner. Officer Parker, it was good to meet you. Good luck."

And with that, Bruce stood up and walked straight into his bedroom to begin packing.


AN: Okay. so not much action in this chapter...it's more of a set up for more exciting things to come, so stay tuned :-) Also, thanks for the reviews and everything!!