Author's Note: Here's the revamped, longer, and more in depth version of chapter four. Enjoy everyone!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Knight and I do not own any of the characters.
A buzzing noise alerted Aubrey that her phone was ringing and she pushed off her desk so that her rolling chair went backwards and picked her phone up off of the window sill, clicking the answer button, "Yeah, Bru?" She could practically hear Bruce smile on the other line. When she was little she had called him Bru or BruBru because she couldn't pronounce the last part of his name correctly.
"Bree," he greeted his sister calmly.
"You at work?" she teased her brother lightly. Bruce running the company was hardly work. He just sat in his office and looked pretty while Lucius made all the decisions for the two of them.
He chuckled, "Yes, I am, Aubrey. Listen, I'm going to need your giant brain for something. How soon can you get to Wayne Tower?"
"Umm," she looked around for her schedule, "Hold on." She got up and walked to her door and looked over at the receptionist's desk. She pointed at the girl's desk and mouthed the word schedule. The girl bounced up and Aubrey smiled, mouthing a thanks to her as she took it. She then groaned, "I have to go to a mandatory meeting on personal safety when dealing with the extreme patients, but after that I'm free!" She sang out the word but and sounded a lot happier at the end of the sentence.
"So that's like what? Two hours?"
"Hour and a half," she corrected him, "I stole your Lambo."
"What?"
"Okay, bye now, love you!" she smiled cheerfully as she hung up on her brother who was still yelling in the background.
She then turned to the receptionist, Jean, and smiled, "Just my brother, it's okay."
About exactly an hour and a half later, Bruce's phone rang. He answered it to his sister, "Oh, hey, Aubrey? Are you out?"
"You could say that," she answered coyly, "Go see Lucius, he just called me and he's really anxious for you to get down there. Don't wait for me, I'll be there as soon as I can."
Bruce pushed the button in the elevator that would bring him down to Lucius and as the doors slid shut he laughed, "What happened to being here in an hour and a half? Seeing as how you borrowed my Lamborghini…"
He heard her smile, "It was borrowing! We're family. It is our money. What's yours is mine, sweetie."
Bruce rolled his eyes, stepping off of the elevator, "Whatever, Aubrey. I'll see you when you get here."
As he hung up, his eyes raised up to look at Lucius Fox who was standing with his younger sister. She was still dressed from work, Bruce noted as she wore a simple dress suit which consisted of a plain black knee length skirt and a matching black blazer over a pale blue and white striped collared shirt. She had the sleeves of the blazer and the shirt rolled up and her hair was down. She also had on flats which she usually kept in the car in case her heels began to hurt her feet.
"It's about time you got here," she smiled up at her brother, "I was beginning to get tired of waiting for you. No offense, Lucius," she turned to the older man, "I love your company and all, but Bruce is just so slow."
Bruce looked at his sister with a gleam of amusement in his eyes as Lucius chuckled.
"So what's this all about? I could have had a hot date with some Mr. Bubble and Ben and Jerry," Aubrey put her hands on her hips and looked at her brother curiously. He chuckled, "Lucius and I are going to Hong Kong," he beamed.
"For…what?"
"Lau," Lucius responded, "He's in Hong Kong and he ran off with a lot of the mob's money. The cops want him in their custody, but -"
"The Chinese won't extradite one of their own," Aubrey finished. Lucius smiled at the girl's knowledge and nodded, "Exactly, Miss Wayne."
"Now," he spoke as they moved throughout the Applied Sciences division, "For high altitude jumps you need oxygen and stabilizers." He paused and turned to Bruce, "Jumping out of an airplane is pretty straight forward compared to your other requests." He pulled an oxygen tank and a few other things out of a cabinet, but continued moving forward. The siblings followed him.
Bruce smiled, "Well, what about getting back onto the plane?"
Lucius laughed, "I'd recommend getting a good travel agent."
"Without it landing," Bruce finished with an even bigger grin. Lucius smiled, "That's more like it, Mr. Wayne."
Aubrey sucked in her bottom lip, thinking for a moment, "Skyhook?" she suggested. Lucius nodded as Bruce looked lost. "What is that?"
"The CIA had a program back in the sixties, called," he gestured towards Aubrey, "Skyhook. It was for people who needed to get out of hot spots. Now," he stopped at a cabinet and pulled out a new bat suit with armored plating.
"Hardened Kevlar plates on a titanium-dipped fiber tri-weave for flexibility," Lucius explained as Bruce examined them. Both siblings nodded to Lucius' description. "You'll be lighter, faster, more agile," he continued explaining as Bruce examined his new gauntlets. He pushed something and blades fired out, spinning like throwing knives as they just missed his ear. Aubrey squeaked and Lucius gave him a look as he put them back. "Perhaps you should read the instructions first," he raised an eyebrow.
Bruce chuckled, "Sorry."
Lucius picked up the chest piece and began demonstrating how flexible the suit was, "Now, there's a trade off. The separation of the plates gives you more vulnerability to knives and gun shots," Aubrey frowned at this.
"Well, we wouldn't want things getting too easy, now, would we?" Bruce picked up his new suit and examined it, "How will it hold up against dogs?" he questioned, eyebrows raised. Aubrey rolled her eyes, remembering how she had to stitch him up the morning after he'd caught Jonathan.
Lucius looked at him, confused. "You talking Chihuahuas or Rotweilers?" Aubrey chuckled as Bruce smiled. Lucius smiled, "Should do fine against cats!"
The next day, Aubrey didn't go into work to help her brother with his plan. She sighed, examining the blue prints Alfred had set on the table.
"I found one," he exclaimed proudly. He and Aubrey had been looking all night. "In Arizona. Very nice man says it will take him a week to get it running. And he takes cash. What about a flight crew?"
"South Korean smugglers," Aubrey spoke up, "They run flights into Pyongyang, below the radar the whole way."
"Did anybody think of an alibi?" Bruce looked up after packing up his parachute.
Alfred smiled, looking completely proud of himself. Aubrey smiled at how adorable he looked. "Oh yes, sir. I did."
Aubrey yawned, flipping over in bed to answer her phone. Rachel's angry voice met her ears, "What the fuck does your brother think he is doing?"
Aubrey yawned again, "Rachel, what the Hell are you talking about?"
She growled, "He absconded with the entire ballet! He knew Harvey was taking me tonight!"
Aubrey sat up in bed and looked over at her alarm clock, 9:00 pm. I really need to get a social life outside of Bruce and Alfred, she sighed. "I'm sure he didn't know it was exactly tonight, Rachel."
"Aubrey, he probably looked it up. You know how your brother is."
"Rachel, please calm down about this, it's okay, believe me," a beep caused Aubrey to look at her phone, "Hold on, Rach, Jim's calling me. I'll talk to you later." She hit the button to switch lines and her voice instantly brightened up, "Hi, Jim!"
"Good evening, Bree. How're you tonight?"
"I'm fantastic Jim, how about yourself?"
He chuckled, "I guess I'm good. But," he paused, "Barbara's parents are in town and they wanted to take us out to dinner, but it's so last minute that we couldn't get the kids a sitter. We were wondering if you could…I mean, they're already asleep."
Aubrey laughed, "Of course, Jim!"
Despite the vast age difference between them, James Gordon was one of Aubrey's best friends. He had been the cop on duty the night her and Bruce's parents had been murdered and because Aubrey had been so young, he had checked in on her every other week. As she grew up, she began to see more and more of Jim at her demand and when she was a teenager she began buying him little presents for the holidays and for his birthdays. She'd invited him to all of her birthday parties as she'd grown up and she often watched the kids for free while he went out with Barbara.
"I'll be there in about twenty minutes, okay?" she glanced at the clock as she got out of bed and began to dress into casual clothes.
She pulled on a pair of dark denim skinny jeans as she said goodbye to Jim and a pair of knee high black suede wedged boots. She threw a long sleeved black and white striped shirt on and grabbed a black jacket. She combed her fingers through her hair, grabbed her purse, and left the penthouse. She didn't drive to Jim's house because he lived just outside of the Narrows and all of their cars were too nice to bring near the Narrows. She took a cab to his house and got out, beaming.
The Gordon home was one of her favorite places to be when she was younger and it still was. When she was very little, she used to pretend that James and Barbara were her parents, but it never worked out well because she would just end up crying. She pressed the buzzer once lightly so that she wouldn't wake up the kids.
Jim opened the door, dressed in his best suit, "Hi, Aubrey," he smiled at her. She wrapped her arms around him, "Hey, Jim."
She then saw Barbara who was dressed in a stunning dark blue dress. She beamed over at her, "Wow, Babs, looking hot!"
Barbara laughed waving Aubrey's comment off before hugging her. Aubrey then said hello to Barbara's parents and as the two couples left, she settled herself on the couch and began to watch a marathon of The Twilight Zone.
About halfway through her first episode, Aubrey had begun to doze off. Then, she heard a soft whimper from upstairs. She pushed herself off of the couch and moved towards Jimmy's room. She opened it slowly and saw him laying curled up in a little ball. She frowned and sat on the edge of his bed, "What's wrong, Jimmy?"
He looked up, "Aubrey?"
She smiled, pushing his hair back, "Hey, buddy. What's going on, huh?"
"Where are my parents? Where's my dad?"
"Hey, it's okay, they went out with your grams and gramps, okay? I'm here right now, don't worry about it."
"Boss, we've got a problem at Gordon's," a man in a clown mask stepped into the alleyway a few houses away from Gordon's home.
"What do you mean?" a man in a purple coat turned to face him. "Well, Chuckles?"
"You see, Joker," he wrung his hands together before rubbing the back of his neck, "Gordon's not home to leave the note for."
Joker raised both eyebrows up, though it went unnoticed, "What do you mean? Who's in there, then?"
Chuckles shrugged, "I don't know, boss, some girl."
"A girl?" the Joker snorted, "What? A babysitter?" Chuckles was silent and the Joker began to laugh.
"Well, it's not just any babysitter," another clown, known as Dopey spoke up. "That's Aubrey Wayne in there, boss."
Wayne, the Joker clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth, Where have I heard that before? Wayne..Tower? Wayne Corp? "Wayne?" he spoke up finally, "As in relation to Bruce?"
He knew about Bruce. He'd been intent on attending Bruce's party for Harvey since he'd heard about it.
Dopey nodded, "She's his younger sister."
"Why's she…babysitting…if she's so rich?" The Joker inquired.
"I dunno," Chuckles spoke up, "I think she's always been close to Gordon."
The Joker nodded, "Okay, so the note is off. But, we're not going home yet, boys. I want to see this Aubrey Wayne for myself."
"And what did Batman do then?" Jimmy beamed. He was eating this story up.
"He saved me," Aubrey smiled. "He swooped into the train and grabbed me before it plummeted to the ground." Jimmy was beaming now, "Oh, wow! Cool!"
A key in the lock downstairs caused both of them to turn to the door way. Aubrey gasped, "Oh man, it's your parents! Go back to sleep, Jim!" she kissed his forehead before ruffling his hair and shutting off his light, "Night, Jimmy."
"Night, Aubrey!"
Aubrey moved downstairs and met Barbara and Jim at the door as she passed by Barbara's parents who were going up to bed.
"The kids get up at all?" Barbara asked, taking off her coat.
"Jimmy did," Aubrey confessed, "I've been upstairs telling him stories for about a half an hour now, he should fall back asleep soon. I think Jim should go talk to him…he was really worried about his dad."
"Okay," Jim nodded, "Do you need a ride home, Aubrey?" He looked at her, concerned.
"Oh, no, I'll just take a cab, it's fine."
"Oh, you'll never get a cab this time at night," Barbara spoke up, touching the top of Aubrey's arm. "You could stay here, you know."
She smiled, "Oh, thank you, Barbara, but you know I don't like to impose. Especially when your parents are here. It's fine, if I don't get a cab, I'll take a bus and I'll walk the extra block. I'll text you when I get home, okay?"
Jim nodded and kissed her forehead, "Night, Aubrey."
Barbara nodded and also said her goodbye before Aubrey left, pulling on her jacket as she walked down the street. She shivered in the cold of the night, fingering the keychain that held her pepper spray on it. Sighing, she continued to move on down the street.
It was around three in the morning and Gotham was dead aside from people stumbling out of night clubs throwing up, criminals, and homeless men. Aubrey didn't really fear homeless people, most of them were generally sane now except for those still affected by Jonathan's toxin. Those ones, however, were up at Arkham. As for the drunken club guys, they were all downtown about now. There were no good clubs in the Narrows, which she had to walk through part of to get to the bus stop she needed. She found herself holding her breath as she crossed the street.
Feeling as if she'd heard something behind her, she turned to look, but there was nothing. However if she had looked closer into the dark of the alley, she would have seen a menacing clown watching her every move.
Standing at the bus stop, Aubrey read the schedule on the side. The next bus for near her apartment building wasn't due for about an hour. She read on, sighing, before noticing that one was available in fifteen minutes at the next bus stop. She continued walking on.
A shuffle behind her caused her to grip her keychain in her hands as she fumbled, getting the pepper spray out of it's holding case. She held the canister in one hand, still in her pocket, and she held her keys with the other, in the other pocket. She kept her head down and continued walking.
"Miss!" she heard behind her in a gruff voice. She nearly squeaked, but just walked faster. "Miss!"
She continued to move quickly, trying to get the four blocks left in front of her behind her as fast as possible.
A hand grabbed her arm roughly, "Give me your money," he growled out.
The Joker giggled to himself as Dopey attacked the girl without his mask on. He'd put a ski mask on instead to disguise that he even worked for the Joker. He wasn't going to hurt her, that wasn't in the cards right now…he just wanted to see what she'd do. And she didn't disappoint.
Author's Note: I'm so glad I'm getting so many alerts added! But can you guys please let me know what you think? Is the revamped version better? I really hope so!