A month had passed, rather slowly too. Mercious was still gone, occasionally Lilah would get a phone call, but rather then that, he was gone. Dr. Crane kept to himself, not that she complained, they still were on rather bad times, but Lilah decided it was time to step up. Gotham was nothing but a crime soaked hell hole and people like her father were long dead and gone. Carmine had been trying to get her into the 'family business' for years now, and today, today she was going to step up, move on and finally accept that life wasn't fair and that no matter how hard she tried, she was stuck with Carmine Falcone and his annoying children.

Carmine's house was huge, to her it was more like a hotel and she would be very surprised if Carmine didn't get lost. Thankfully, one of his servants ushered her into the large meeting room with twelve others, all men excluding herself and her stepsister, Sofia. Taking a seat beside Mario and another man she hadn't heard of. She remained completely silent out throughout the entirety of the meeting, taking in only what mattered to her, like things about Crane and the drug business. But as she watched the others, she noticed that most of them did what she did, only paying attention to things that mattered to them and laughing whenever Carmine did. Smiling lightly, her eyes fell onto Carmine, the entire city was his through fear and she wondered whether or not he had a single ally who wasn't by his side out of fear. Fear was power, or at least, that's what she gathered, all her life she had been met by fear and the things it was capable of.

"Lilah." Carmine said, drawing his attention to her, as did the rest of the room, "Go down to the shipment and oversee everything. If problems come up, you know what to do" Usually, she would question his decisions, but Lilah was determined to change, to make life a little easier.

"Understood." She said, giving him a nod. Carmine stared at her for only a second or two before smiling broadly,

"Very good. The shipment will be in about an hour or two. He said, handing her a series of paperwork. "I hope you aware that there can be no mistakes. This is an important shipment." After giving him another small nod, she rose from where she sat, eyes still fixated on her stepfather,

"You don't have to worry about anything, everything will go as planned." Without another word, Lilah collected the paper work and her belonging and was once again ushered out by one of the servants. As she followed the small blonde woman down the stairs, Lilah read over the paperwork, it was all simple enough, all she really had to do was oversee that everything was stored correctly and of course, to make sure no one contacted the police or stole any of the Falcone's product. As the blonde woman stopped at the front door, Lilah gave her a small smile before stepping into the bright sunlight.

"The limousine is waiting for you." The blonde woman said before shutting the door. Looking around, Lilah's eyes fell onto the black limousine that she assumed was the one she was supposed to take. As she walked towards it, the driver started the engine, his eyes locked onto her as she passed the passenger side and climbed into the back, moving towards the front of the limousine and taking a seat.

Gotham was a rather large city, at the centre stood Wayne Enterprises. A useless building in Falcone's opinion. Since the disappearance of Bruce Wayne, the building has been run by a bunch of business men, all bickering over how Thomas Wayne wanted the business run. There were also places like Crime alley, that was where Lilah was headed. Previously known as Park Row, Crime Alley as it was unofficially called was the home of the Park Row tragedy, where Thomas and Martha Wayne had been shot down by Joe Chill, who met the same fate when he was granted parole. Taking an unexpected left turn, Lilah frowned,

"Where are we going? The shipment is that way." Lilah said, pointing in the other direction, the driver ignored her and continued driving in the same direction. Taking a small, nervous breath, Lilah felt her jacket pockets for the small gun in her pocket, and upon feeling it's distinct shape, breathed a sigh of relief. If she was going to die, she would go down fighting. Surely if the shipment had changed location someone would have told her, no matter how unlikely that was. All these questions swam through her head, but there was something she couldn't shake, the area was familiar, as if she had been here before. That's when it hit her, they were heading back to her house.

"Would you tell me why we are going back to my house?" She asked, tapping on the glass between her and the driver.

"We are picking up Dr. Crane." The driver answered in a short husky tone.

"Has my stepfather told you to do that?" She asked, attempting to make her tone of voice sound authoritative as she spoke.

"I don't take my orders from Carmine Falcone." He spat. Lilah remained silent, her fear was growing by the instant,

"Then perhaps I have taken the wrong limousine..." Her voice trailed off. The driver chuckled lightly to himself,

"No, Miss Doute. Dr. Crane has requested your presence." That was when her heart sank, she knew there was something wrong.

As they pulled up alongside her mansion/house, Dr. Crane opened the door and sat across from her, a briefcase resting on his lap. He was well-dressed for the occasion- wearing a black suit with a white dress shirt and tie, his hair was neatly parted in the middle and his glasses had been polished. As the limousine began to drive back down the way it came, Dr. Crane turned his attention to Lilah, who crossed her legs, watching out the window,

"I have a job for you." He said. Lilah continued to look out the window, but she could still feel his eyes watching her, waiting for a reply,

"As does my stepfather." She answered, forcing herself to look at Dr. Crane, "He wants me at the shipment." She said. Dr. Crane smiled,

"Yes, I'm aware of that. But surely you can do two jobs at once." He said, Lilah gritted her teeth, she had no patience for this man, "You see, in one of the crates, there is a box I want." He explained, choosing his words ever so carefully as to be sure only to give out information he wanted her to know.

"Does this box have a significance?" She asked, her eyes locked onto his. Dr. Crane had lovely blue eyes and now that they were sitting down, talking face to face for once, this was the first time she had actually noticed them.

"It is vital for one of my experiments." He said, "My contacts have informed me that information regarding this shipment has been given to detective-sergeant James Gordon. It seems he is planning to ambush Falcone's men." Shaking her head, Lilah frowned at him,

"How do you know that? More importantly, how does Carmine not know that? He knows everything that goes on in the city."

"It seems, Gordon hasn't shared information with everyone on the squad." Crane answered, looking out the window, "So far, I'm unsuspected of any foul play and according to my sources, you're also unsuspected." He said, Lilah watched him, she was still unsure at what it was exactly he was asking about. Obviously, Carmine Falcone's well-being meant little to nothing to him, but why on earth would he trust her with any information? She could quite easily tell Carmine about Crane's actions and then the next thing she would know, Crane's body would be found dumped in a lake. "As of today, you work for me." He smiled, turning his head to face her, his head tilted slightly,

"Usually, you pick employees you can trust." She smiled lightly. Crane stared at her with an expression that was hard to read before he reluctantly smiled,

"Why wouldn't you work for me? You hate your stepfather more then anything and it's quite obvious that my business with him is based solely on what he can do for me. All he wants is for the occasional idiot to be sent to my asylum." He said his smile changing to a slight look of irritation at her wariness. Looking away from him, the limousine came to a steady stop and without a word, Lilah reached for the door handle only to have Crane take a hold of her wrist, pulling her closer to him with a slight glare,

"What are you doing?" Lilah asked, Crane said nothing, his face only a few inches away from hers, the grip around her wrist tightening,

"Do I have your loyalty? Or do I not?" Pulling out of his hold and sitting back, Lilah took a breath, letting her eyes fall to her lap. She didn't trust or like Crane, but anything to get back at her stepfather for ruining her family was more then enough for her,

"I'm with you." She breathed, her eyes flicking back at the dark haired man, "Now tell me what you want me to do."


Authors note: My apologies for the rather slow start. Thank you to anyone reading this, please remember to leave a review!

It's been quite some time since my last Fanfiction for those familiar with my other stories. This is really just for fun, I figured since I am a huge Batman fan, I may as well go about writing one for it.

Thank you so much as always!

xx

Jackie