Accidental Attraction: Fall

This night, Rin had finally decided, was at the top of her ten weirdest occurrences list. The reigning champion had been the night that she had woken up to find Jamie and Taz passed out in her dorm room dressed head to toe in pink. She still couldn't remember what had led up to that, but she maintained the photographic evidence of the phenomenon.

Getting kidnapped from a girl's night out, making out with her kidnapper, then standing point at gunpoint between him and Batman… well that just blew Taz's pink pedicure right out of the water. At least she knew, roughly, how this night had been brought into being.

Rin did not care much for clubs anymore and so she had been resistant to the idea of a night on the town. Though she would occasionally acquiesce to attend a party, because the opportunity to dance was a weakness easily exploited, she tried to draw her line at public nightclubs.

It was, however, Katrina's birthday and that had quelled any argument Rin might have attempted. The club had been surprisingly high class, and it had increased Rin's subtle suspicion about Katrina's dubious origins that she had gotten them in without so much as an ID check.

She had dressed to the nines in a tight little black dress and strappy high-heeled shoes that gave her an extra three inches. She had felt sexy and confident. For the first time in two years she had let herself get caught up in the moment and simply forget.

How long had they been there before gunfire had sent panic rippling through the crowd? Rin would never be certain, but it was long enough for Katrina to slip away from her. More anxious than outright afraid, she had pushed her way across the dance floor toward what had been their table.

She had just found Katrina, safe and frightened, when the music died and the crowd went abruptly silent. The hushed dancers started shifting, creating a path that twisted toward the stage as the sea of people swallowed them.

With the grace of a wolf stalking its prey, Harvey Dent strode through the parted dancers, casually flipping his trademark coin. Flanked on either side by burly masked men who trained their firearms into the crowed in obvious warning. He ignored both the crowd and his goons as he mounted the steps to the stage and turned to faced the terrified crowd.

It wasn't fear that had sent a shiver down her spine when she'd heard the rasping, gravel toned voice for the first time. He ordered the crowd to sit, immediately, on the floor where they were. They would shortly be giving up any valuables they possessed and any resistors would be shot without warning.

Any complaints to these demands could be forwarded to their esteemed host, Rupert Thorn. A light went off in Rin's head and she had goggled at Katrina as they obediently sank to the floor. She had suspected Trina of potential mob connections before but she hadn't expected Thorn.

The apparent heist suddenly made sense. It was a well-known fact that the former district attorney positively despised Rupert Thorn as the man responsible for his disfigurement and the subsequent revelation of his mental condition. It also explained why Katrina was shaking like a leaf.

The next bit of time blurred together in a muddle of crying women, threats, gunshots, and the distant wail of police sirens. She wasn't sure exactly if it was the abject terror radiating off of Trina that had caught his eye or just shit luck. Time seemed to freeze when he pulled Trina up to use as a traveling hostage.

Two years of companionship sped through her mind; Trina's graduation, wedding, all night study sessions and shopping trips. She thought of the baby, the life that was so new it hadn't even begun to change it's mother's body. She thought of the man who didn't yet know he was a father, the kind man who had never begrudged Rin time with his new wife.

For a moment, when Trina's terrified eyes met hers, Rin saw James looking back at her. Rin stood and brought her gaze unhesitatingly to his. "Take me instead, I won't give you trouble." He had stared at her as though she had grown a second head.

Gray stayed steady on blue when he had trained the gun on her and stated that he could just as easily shoot her and take 'blondie' anyway. Somewhere deep inside of her amusement had stirred and she wanted to start laughing. Pull the trigger.

"I won't snivel or cry." She said quietly, "I'll do exactly as you say and not try to escape."

"If I promise not to hurt you, right?" He snorted,

Pull the trigger.

"Just take me instead of Trina, I don't need any other reassurance."

Pull the Trigger.

With the gun still aimed at her face, he flipped the coin. His face twitched oddly and there was a strange, subtle shift in his features. The gun lowered and his voice seemed different when he ordered his men to drop Trina.

As his hand had wrapped like a manacle around her arm he had growled, "Don't piss us off and we probably won't hurt you." A pleasant shiver had coursed down her spine.

Despite careful deliberation on the matter she couldn't quite figure out just how she had gone from that to making out with him. Nor could she entirely understand the profound effect he had on her. Never in her life had a simple kiss made her insides quiver, or her breath stop.

It couldn't be a good sign.

Really, though, the thought that something was deeply wrong with her wasn't exactly breaking news. Jamie's death had, in many ways, been her own. Maybe things would be different if it hadn't been her fault, or if she hadn't seen him that way.

Perhaps the way and reason made no difference at all. Either way, she hadn't been quit right since she had woken up in the hospital. No amount of time would heal this wound. Nothing would bring Jamie back.

But that was more than a year past now, and beside the point. Which was, of course, that Harvey Dent had managed to batter his way past all of her carefully constructed barriers and create feelings in her that Matthew with his beautiful face and perfect lips hadn't managed in twice the time.

Of course that was before he had dragged her to the roof.

Two-Face's left arm was snugly around her shoulders, the barrel of his gun jammed behind her ear, and across from them stood The Batman himself. It would have been very exiting if not for the sickly waves of fear that froze her stomach into knots.

Her breath came in panicked little gasps and she gripped the arm around her shoulders with both still-bound hands. Her heart beat like a hammer in her chest and she couldn't find the will to swallow. Each time she tried to look down the world swam strangely, but every time she shut her eyes she saw Jamie staring back at her.

Oh she didn't want to die like that. Two-Face was talking to batman, but she couldn't focus on the words. She tried to focus on Batman. On the one who would, hopefully, be instrumental to getting her the hell off the roof. It didn't help.

"Don't worry, Sweetheart, he'll probably catch you." Two-Face rumbled suddenly into her ear, mouth just brushing against her skin. For a moment she was confused, then one large hand moved to grip her pendant and the other gave her a solid shove.

Oh shit! No, no, no!

She swung out awkwardly on the chain and met his eyes for only a second before the thin metal snapped and she was falling. Gray surrounded her vision and she could see Jamie's eyes staring up at her, wide and empty, and the blood spread around him like red lace against the snow.

I was going to write more… and then I thought… why? Lets leave it riiiiight here for a while. Tee hee. So that's how Rin came to be in this mess.

I wonder if anyone is questioning who Jamie is, as he has come up a few times, and what he was to Rin. I'm especially curious to hear theories, as he is rather the catalyst to everything that's happened since his unfortunate demise.