I don't own anything to do with Batman. I do own Eleanor Black, her parents, her background, her dog, her friends Adam and Shauna, the NanoShift technology, Ashlynn Chiang, her henchmen, background and this plot. This fic doesn't go along with the movie, which is why Rachel doesn't know that Bruce is Batman, and this fic has NOTHING to do with my other Batman fics. It's rated T for violence, blood, language and drinking. Maybe some mild sexual content. Oh, and some REAL bitchy-ness on the part of Eleanor. I hope you enjoy this fic.
Reflection of His Enemy
Chapter Three / A Trying Experience
"Hello Eleanor."
Startled at the voice, Eleanor quickly minimized the internet browser to bring up her desktop featuring a photo of Blaze asleep on the couch; she had been reading the morning's news online, and the headline had happened to be about Batman's capture of one of the drug lords of Gotham on the island dubbed the Narrows. She was supposed to be cleaning up the financial reports her friend Shauna had sent her from the engineering department, and the problem with that was Shauna always gave Eleanor the files in a pile of notes and receipts and computer printouts. It was tedious and boring and she always slacked off. This time, Bruce Wayne had caught her.
"Doing a little research, are we?" he asked, sitting on the only empty surface of her sturdy desk, and smiling at her.
Eleanor laughed a little and smiled as she took in his immaculate grey suit and blue silk shirt; he looked positively wonderful and Eleanor blushed slightly. She was never going to live down the fact that she wasn't working. "Uhm… What are you doing here today, Mr. Wayne?" she asked, trying to sound professional. There aren't any meetings I've forgotten about, are there?" She swiveled her chair to better look at the owner of the company and tucked some of her hair behind her ear, smirking.
"No, you haven't forgotten anything," Bruce said. "I'm just here to talk to Lucius, but he's in a private meeting, so here I am, talking to you. You don't mind." It wasn't a question. He flashed his slightly crooked smile at her and gestured to her computer screen. "You never told me you were interested in Batman."
Eleanor blinked, caught a little off guard by the statement. "Well, no. It never really came up in conversation. But yeah…" She turned back to her computer and brought up the news page. "Actually, it's more of an… artistic obsession." She stared at the screen instead of looking at Bruce as she spoke; if she had looked, she would have seen him smiling smugly to himself. "He's so fascinating. I'd love to talk to him and find out why he does what he does. And, I'd love to photograph him. He's just so… different and intriguing. Not to mention, perfectly mysterious." She paused and sighed to herself, in that dreamland way only females are able to, and then shook her head and returned her cobalt gaze to Bruce, her eyes shining above flushed cheeks. "I must sound like I have a little girl crush on The Dark Knight." She leaned back in her chair and smiled warmly, if a little embarrassed.
"Yeah, you do," Bruce said, rising from the desk and placing his hands on the arms of her desk chair so he was leaning down, close to her, "But I'm sure lots of women feel that way about him." His voice dropped. "Although, I can't understand why, because anyone who runs around in a bat suit obviously has some deep seeded issues to work out."
She laughed lightly in reply. "Everyone has deep seeded issues, Bruce," she whispered.
A strange silence settled then. They were both technically orphans and that was what she was talking about. For a few moments, they stared into each other's eyes – not in the cheesy romantic comedy movie way, but in the trying to read each other's minds sort of way.
"Are you coming to the party?" Bruce suddenly asked, pulling them both out of their stupor.
Eleanor started again, and Bruce returned to his seat on her desk. "Of course I am. I always come."
"Well you didn't last year."
Eleanor gave him an indignant look. "My mother was sick, Bruce. I would have come if I could have. My father wasn't there either, you know, but you're not harassing him about it."
"Eleanor, I was just joking around."
She huffed and playfully pouted. "I always come to your parties, Bruce. Provided there isn't anything more important to do. Your parties are the only ones I like going to."
"I know, but it's no secret that you don't like the party scene. I was just joking around and I noticed you weren't at the charity dinner last week," he added almost as an afterthought.
Eleanor rolled her eyes and settled back into her chair. "Well, I'm not going to go to every event that comes up. I went to one party last week. That's enough. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to attend yours. Your parties… well, I can't not go. I like your parties and if I didn't go, then I'd feel bad, because I've known you my whole life, and my parents wouldn't let me live it down." Eleanor fixed her cobalt eyes on Bruce. "And you know that my mother is still trying to hook us up. Do you know what she would do if I didn't go to your parties? She was stuck in bed last year and she still chewed me out."
Bruce nodded in agreement and understanding, and Eleanor saw something strange pass over his eyes. Naomi had this intense desire to see her daughter become Mrs. Bruce Wayne, and she'd been trying to make it happen for a long time, before Bruce had disappeared and now, after he had returned. Bruce and Eleanor had politely put up with her comments and plans, humouring her, but nothing had ever happened. Naomi used every opportunity at parties to make them dance, just as she had last night, and, when the party was at Wayne Manor, Naomi got worse. But Bruce and Eleanor just put up with it. They were friends, and they could deal with it.
"Good morning Bruce, Ms. Black." Lucius Fox, the man who ran Wayne Enterprises, appeared besides Eleanor's desk and smiled warmly at them both, his eyes sparkling merrily as they always did.
"Morning, Lucius."
"Good morning Mr. Fox."
Bruce slid off the desk to stand beside Lucius; he was only very slightly shorter than the fatherly African-American. He smiled at Eleanor, who had also risen to her feet. "I'll see you at the party then, Eleanor?"
"Yes you will, although, depending on what I dress up as, you might have some trouble actually finding me," she joked.
"I'm sure I'll manage."
"I'm sure you will."
They embraced briefly, Bruce kissed her cheek, and then with last smiles all around, Bruce and Lucius departed leaving Eleanor alone to finish reading and staring at the news article. She'd start working eventually, but her mind wasn't really on anything she had to do or was pretending to do. Her mind wasn't even on Batman. Her mind was on Bruce Wayne, and the way they had talked and danced the week before, they way he had confided in her and they way they were growing closer together. Her mind was on how, since that dance, he had come to see her at work more and how she was so much more at ease around him. Her mind was everything and anything to do with Bruce Wayne, even when she knew it should be on something, someone, anything else.
Her cell phone rang suddenly, giving her something else to think about. Eleanor fished it out of her purse and flipped it open, pressing it to her ear and holding it in place with her shoulder as she decided she needed to check her e-mail. "Hello?"
"Hey honey."
"Oh, hey Mom, what's up?"
"I'm sorry honey, but I have to cancel our plans today. There's been an emergency at the hospital with a woman pregnant with triplets and the neonatal surgeon needs all the help she can get. One of them has a brain tumour and another has underdeveloped lung and the last one has its cord wrapped around its neck. Your father and I are going to be here all night."
"Mom, Mom, it's fine. I understand. Go save lives. We'll do this some other time, then?"
"Of course, Eleanor! I hope you get a good costume. Talk you later, love you!"
"Love you too."
Eleanor ended the call with Naomi and stuffed the device back into her overly large purse. It was a common occurrence to have plans with her parents canceled. They were both doctors. They worked at the same hospital Bruce's father had which is how they met and became such close friends. Naomi and Liam continued their work with a passion unrivaled, and Eleanor suspected that its source had something to do with the loss of their best friends. In whatever case, Eleanor was used to having to readjust her plans, so it really was no big deal and she really would cope. She needed to go shopping today though, so she hailed a cab around eleven-thirty and set out for her favourite mall, the largest mall in Gotham City, on her own.
When the cab stopped outside the massive front entrance, Eleanor paid the fare and alighted inside, heading directly for the costume shop where she always got her outfits for Bruce's parties. The heat was on in the building, allowing Eleanor to remove her knee-length, black wool coat and stride around in her crimson sweater which exposed her elegant shoulders. The custom costume shop called simply, Costumes for Every Occasion, was located under a large skylight on the top level of the mall, and there was only one other customer when Eleanor arrived around noon.
"Ah, Eleanor, hello dear," the shop owner, Gloria Smith, a middle-aged woman with silver-grey in her golden blonde hair, said spotting her frequent customer. "I'll be with you a minute."
"All right. I'll just have a look through the books."
Eleanor, who came to the shop at least once a year, sometimes twice, to get a costume made for a party, seated herself in one of the cushy black chairs, setting her purse and coat on the floor, and pulled the massive reddish, leather-bound binder into her lap. She began flipping through, looking at the high-gloss images for some idea. She really didn't know what she wanted to dress up as. She had originally thought of going as a witch or a vampire, but both of those were too common. Afterwards, she'd thought about dressing up as a character from her favourite movie, but that was too obvious. She wanted something different and interesting. An image of a woman dressed as a sort of devil caught her eye. Why not? A she-devil on the Devil's Night. Eleanor cackled evilly in her head and smirked deviously outwardly. The costume the woman in the picture was wearing was… It's too mommy-costume. Maybe if I skankified it a bit… There would definitely be a fair share of scantily clad women at Bruce's Party. There always was. What would it matter if she let her usual, more conservative self go for an evening?
She flipped through the book some more, but wasn't really paying attention. The she-devil appealed greatly, so there was no need to seriously consider another costume.
"Thank you Gloria," a familiar, hated voice chimed from the back room. "I'll be back on Saturday to pick it up, then?" The voice got louder as she moved towards the front room, and, unexpectedly, an image of Bruce Wayne and the woman speaking popped in her mind.
"Yes dear, it should be ready then."
Eleanor looked up as the two women entered the front of the shop from the fitting rooms and workshop in the back. Gloria was walking beside Rachel Dawes, the one person capable of ruining Eleanor's day every time they saw each other. The dark-haired, dark-eyed, beautiful district attorney that Eleanor hated and who was always there. Eleanor rose to her feet, her finger marking the picture in the binder.
Rachel met her gaze as she pulled on her coat and turned to leave. "Hello Eleanor," she snapped.
"Rachel."
"So you are coming to Bruce's party this year," she observed, her eyes sliding over the binder in Eleanor's hand. She pulled her hair out from under her coat and mustered up the most indignant look she possibly could. "What are you going to dress up as? A ghost so no one will see you?" The smile that crept over Rachel's face after she spoke was not friendly. "But you did that last year, and you don't want to repeat yourself."
"I'm going as a devil."
"Oh, so you'll be the perfect compliment to my costume. You'll have to stand beside me so I look good." Rachel gave Eleanor that smug, tight smile that she absolutely hated and then paraded past her, making Eleanor turn to face her. "I'll see you at the party then?"
"I'll be there." A great tension had risen around the shop in the time the two women had been speaking, and as Rachel finally left, the tension fell away, and Eleanor turned to Gloria, smiling apologetically and respectfully. Eleanor was always respectful to her elders, and that did not include Rachel who was two years her senior, like Bruce. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Gloria. Rachel and I don't get along and we tend to forget ourselves. I apologize."
"It's all right dear." Gloria smiled and pulled the binder from Eleanor's hands, opening it to the place Eleanor had marked with her finger. "Let's see what you're looking at here… Ah, the she-devil, very nice choice. I suppose you'll want to make a few… adjustments?" Gloria asked, a knowing grin on her pleasant face. Eleanor always wanted to make adjustments.
"Yes. Yes, I do."
An hour and a half and an alarming amount of red fabric later, they had the basic costume design planned out. It consisted of a red vinyl corset with leather backing intended to make it more comfortable, and a see-through black halter top made of a soft, flowing fabric with ends that fell down to her calves; the fact that it was see-through didn't even matter because the corset covered her chest. On the bottom, she wore a short, red vinyl miniskirt that fell to the middle of her thighs with a daring slits going almost to her hips on both sides. Black lacing decorated the skirt along both sides, over the slits. Gloria sketched a design for a pair of elegant horns that swept back from her forehead and twisted upwards and a small pair of black bat-like wings that attached to the back of the corset. Red and black gloves that went up to her elbows completed the outfit as far as Gloria's work was concerned.
"If you want any other accessories, you'll have to get them somewhere else, dear. As well as shoes, but I know you have that covered."
Eleanor answered her with a smile and bid farewell, saying that she too, would be back on the weekend to pick up her finished costume, although she would have to come on Sunday as she had stuff to do for work. After voicing final goodbyes, Eleanor headed to her favourite shoe store to look for some shoes for her costume, as well as whatever else caught her eye. Eleanor had a thing for shoes. She owned nearly forty pairs as it was, and she knew it was ridiculous, but she loved shoes, and she bought a new pair nearly every time she went shopping. She encountered Rachel at the shoe store, again ruining her day.
"What are you still doing here, Dawes?" she asked, initiating the conflict like she usually did.
"Buying shoes. What's it look like Black?"
Eleanor followed the other woman's gaze to a pair of black boots with heels several inches high and belts around the ankles, which would have been perfect to wear with jeans or a knee-length skirt or… anything. She's not getting those, Eleanor thought, stepping closer to the boots.Unfortunately for the two shoe aficionados, they had the same size feet, and, of course, there was only one pair of the boots in that size. Eleanor reached forward and swiped them out from under Rachel's nose, then promptly sat down to try them on. Please God, let them fit right! Rachel fixed Eleanor with a glare for the duration of the boot try-on.
"Oh look, they fit!" Eleanor exclaimed, obnoxiously showing off her leg in the boot. "I think I'm going to buy them."
"You bitch. You knew I was looking at those."
Eleanor smiled smugly at Rachel. "Of course I did! Now, excuse me so I can buy more shoes."
As she pushed passed her rival, Rachel rolled her eyes and left the store. Eleanor, feeling satisfied even though their conflict was childish, purchased her boots, six pair of assorted high heels and flats, as well as a pair of red stilettos with curving black designs across their surface that were perfect for her costume. She walked out of the shop, holding her purchases draped over her shoulder. There was a smug look on her face that spread into a grin as she passed Rachel and the older woman followed her down the hallway, their boot heels clicking on the tiles.
"What was that about?" she demanded.
Eleanor turned around, her smug grin turning into the perfect friendly smile. She re-adjusted her bags, coat and purse. "Well, those boots were exactly what I was looking for, and I snatched them up first. You're just not quick enough."
"I didn't do anything to you."
She sighed. "Not recently, but I suppose you're right. Unfortunately for you, I'm in a particularly bad mood today and you have the amazing talent to push me over the edge on any day. So today, all you had to do was show up." Eleanor started walking again. "I'm not going to apologize and you're not getting the boots, so just… go away." This area of the mall was starting to fill up. A movie had just let out and people will starting to appear all around them, some of them were even slowing down to look at the two bickering women as they passed.
"Eleanor."
"What?"
"Being a bitch to me doesn't solve anything."
"No. It doesn't." The taller woman stopped and turned around, smiling smugly still. "But, it makes me feel so good!" Eleanor took in Rachel's stunned expression for a moment before she turned and walked into a nearby clothing store. Rachel didn't follow her.
Eleanor knew Rachel was right – that being a bitch wasn't going to resolve anything – but she didn't care. She completed her shopping by buying some new sweaters, a new wool coat, two new pairs of jeans and a bright red, long-sleeved nightgown, and some new jewelry. It was nearly four o'clock by the time she was finished. Lucius had let her leave work at eleven-thirty, so she called a cab and headed home. Blaze was waiting at the door to greet her, and after depositing her purchases and microwaving a frozen pizza wrap to carry with her, she attached Blaze leash and took him for a quick walk to the closer park: Yeavley Park. It wasn't as nice as North City Park, but it served well enough for Blaze's walk. When they returned to the loft, Eleanor wrapped herself in the thick blue blanket her Naomi's mother had knit for her and turned on the television. There wasn't anything of much interest on besides a rerun of a medical drama she watched whenever she caught it.
In a week, Ashlynn and her team had accomplished a lot. She had procured an invitation to Bruce Wayne's Halloween party and she knew for a fact that both Rachel and Eleanor were going; she had seen them in the costume shop at the mall. Much to her delight, Ashlynn had also witnessed the hostility between the two girls, and she had spent a good deal of time thinking of ways she could use that to her advantage. So far, nothing had come to mind. She had also done some reconnaissance on Wayne Manor and she was mighty puzzled by Bruce Wayne's frequent disappearances, especially at night, but that wasn't something she had to be worried about. At least, not yet.
She had just received word from her men in Japan that the container ship carrying the technology she wanted was now under their control and they were heading for the port in San Francisco. Everything was on schedule with Wayne Enterprises shipping logs, so they shouldn't set off any alarm bells.
"Everything is going according to plan," she mused to herself, reclining on the dingy couch in the dingy apartment she had rented in Downtown Gotham and flicking on the television; the tremors of bluish light were the only source of illumination in the small apartment. The news was about Batman, again. "God, I hope that son of a bitch doesn't get in my way. He seems to be everywhere in this God-forsaken town." A knock at the door interrupted her mutterings. "What is it?" she demanded.
"Miss Ashlynn, I've got news from Kim and the boys."
"Well what is it?" Because she was usually moving around all day, she didn't like removing herself from a comfortable position once she obtained it.
"They think someone aboard the ship might have got a message out before they killed everyone. Someone at Wayne Enterprises might know the ship's been stolen."
Ashlynn closed her grey eyes and pressed the heels of her hands into them. This was just perfect. "It'll be fine. Even if they found out the ship's been taken over, it's not like they can get anyone useful out there in time to stop us from getting away with the NanoShift machine." She sighed, knowing none of this was getting through the thick skull of her henchmen. Essentially, henchmen were useless beyond providing the muscle power necessary to pull off diabolical plans. "Just… make sure Kim gets away with the machine. If he runs into trouble, send in another team."
"Yeah ma'am."
She growled at the prospect of her grand scheme failing. Bruce Wayne needed to get what was coming to him, what he deserved. Nothing was going to stop her.
Author's Note… You'll find out what Ashlynn's got a pickle up her butt about soon enough, don't worry. Eleanor also meets Bats soon, so that'll be fun.