Once Bruce had arrived home from the party he went straight into his father's study, this study, ensuring that Alfred wouldn't disturb him by locking the door. It was where he went to think. After his parent's murder, he'd spent every waking, and sleeping, moment in the study as he investigated both their murder and the corruption at Wayne Enterprises. That led to the court of owls and the release of the Tetch virus. After Bruce had broken the conditioning from the Sharman, he told Gordan about the Demon's Head but they found nothing.
It was then that he decided to focus on training for when whoever was leading the Court returned and they did. Ra's Al Ghul revealed himself to Bruce telling him that he was his heir. When Bruce refused Ra's told him that he'd destroy everything Bruce loved so he kept training, preparing for the day that he'd have to fight for Gotham.
Bruce didn't sleep that night, he didn't even leave the study. He was pacing back and forth, sitting and laying down until dawn. He knew that he had let the girl go for some reason but he couldn't figure out why. He hated not knowing.
Bruce finally gave in and opened the door the third time Alfred came knocking. "Master Bruce, Dr Thompkins is here to see you. Shake a leg." He called and Bruce could hear the anger in his voice. "All right, send her in." Bruce told him with a smile. His father had always worked with the door locked so Alfred had assumed that he did too, not once over the years had he ever tried to open the door. As he lay across one of the couches, with his jacket, tie, and shoes randomly placed around the room as he got progressively more uncomfortable throughout the night, he heard the door open and the familiar click of high heels on the wooden floor.
The sound stopped next to him and Bruce looked up to see Dr Thompkins stern face staring back at him, her arms crossed. "Bruce." She said raising an eyebrow. He sighed letting the seventeen-year-old brat mask slip on as he sat up straight. "Doctor, looking delectable, as ever." He said as she sat down next to him and placed her bag on the floor. "So, what happened last night?" She asked getting straight to the point. Alfred had obviously called her. Before answering he couldn't help but glance over at the open door to check for him. He knew he could tell Lee anything and she wouldn't judge, but he didn't have the same luxury with Alfred.
"There was a girl." He said not much louder than a whisper.
"Ahh, I see..." She smiled softly.
"No, you don't." He argued, shrugging in frustration. "She was stealing a necklace."
"Oh..." Lee uttered, dropping the grin. She sat looking at Bruce completely confused. "What?"
"I noticed her and I have got no idea why but I followed her out of the ballroom. She was stealing a necklace from Mrs. Kane's bedroom." Bruce sighed looking down at his feet in shame.
"You tried to stop her." She stated placing what would normally be a comforting hand on his shoulder. He sat in silence. "You did try and stop her didn't you?" She asked, turning her statement into a question and Bruce remained silent. "It's fine, you didn't do anything wrong." She said after giving him a chance to answer putting the 'doctor voice', that he liked to call it, on, just like he'd seen her do to dozens of kids. Including himself.
"But I did!" Bruce jumped up from the couch. He liked that Lee didn't judge but she always sounded so patronizing. "I let her go, I could have stopped her but..." He continued to raise his voice. "I don't know I just let her go." He conceded. He'd spent all night trying to figure it out, how could he explain it to her if he couldn't explain it to himself.
"After all my training, I messed up and I haven't even got a good reason why."
"Bruce I don't know what to say. You were obviously scared." She suggested. Bruce could tell by her tone she was disappointed. "No, I was exhilarated. It was like I had found something, this feeling." He tried to explain but didn't feel like she was making sense.
"What feeling?" She asked.
"It was like... a spark? Excitement, building in my chest. Like when you find something you didn't know that you had lost. But magnified."
"Can you explain?"
"I felt like I recognized her but I don't know where from."
"So you could pick her out of a lineup."
"What?" He exclaimed, eyes widening in shock. "I'm not going to the police."
"Why?" She asked, equally shocked.
"I need to find her again, talk to her. I need to know."
"Bruce, this is not a good idea. It's dangerous and reckless and..."
"It downright bloody stupid is what it is." A voice boomed causing Bruce's head to shoot up. Alfred. Bruce swallowed nervously and looked over to the doorway on his right. "Mr Fox is on the phone for you. He's done that research for you."
"Oh, uh I'm sorry Dr Thompkins. I've got to take this." Bruce told her standing up.
"No, I understand but I want to continue this discussion when you are done." She told him. "As would I master B." Alfred added and Bruce swallowed nervously. "Why don't you take Dr Thompkins to the kitchen and make her something to drink." Bruce turned and smiled at Alfred knowing that he was going to bite his head off once Lee was gone. "I'll be through when I've spoken to Lucius." He loved having somebody around with Alfred because it was the only time their power shifted. It was his idea to keep up appearances after all.
"Certainly, if you'd like to follow me, miss." He said with a scowl directed at Bruce. Lee and Bruce followed Alfred out of the room but he turned left instead of right. Waiting until they were out of earshot he picked up the phone that was resting on the side table.
"Lucius, did you find who out he was working for?" Bruce barely managed to get his words out in a coherent order he was speaking so fast.
"His name is Basil Karlo, one of Hugo Strange's marvellous reanimates, and he works for a man going by the street name Grettle. This man is supposed to work out of the factory on Holly Street in the Narrows." As Lucius spoke Bruce felt tears form in his eyes, Lucius had finally found him. His fist had begun to ball up, anger slowly seeping back in.
The man that had pretended to be his father would pay as would Ra's. Bruce knew that this was his plot, he was trying to destroy the memory of his father but it wasn't going to work.
"Thank you, Lucius." Is all Bruce said before just dropping the phone and heading towards the garage.
"Bruce? Bruce? Are you there? Don't go alone, it's too dangerous!" He called down the phone but it was useless because Bruce was already gone.
Halfway to the city, Bruce realized how reckless he was being. Even with all of the training in the world he couldn't burst in and take down an entire gang, not by himself anyway. Parking the car he'd driven just far enough outside of the narrows so that it wouldn't get stolen and just close enough so he could easily reach it by running and not running out of breath, Bruce changed into the street clothes that were stored in the trunk and started the walk to the factory growing more and more anxious as it came into view. Any and all thoughts of the girl from the night before were gone, only to be replaced by ones of doubt and regret.
Taking the fire escape of the apartment building opposite the factory, Bruce began to survey the area surrounding it using the roofs. He managed to observe two armed guards by the main entrance but nobody else outside the building at least. Guess they didn't expect anybody to be stupid enough to try and break in mid-morning. The open window on the top floor made Bruce wish he hadn't acted so rashly because he could have brought the grappling hook launcher Lucius had developed for him, to try it out finally.
He settled for the ground floor window as a point of entry telling himself as he climbed in. "It's just scouting, no contact." Stealth wasn't something that came easily to him, to begin with, after his parent's deaths he had a lot of anger and Alfred told him that is what held him back. After what happened with Jerome and the Court of Owls when he was fourteen, he let it go with the idea of finding the person that led them with no leads. After that everything seemed easier.
The corridor he had entered was long and had two doors, one at each end. Bruce headed towards the one with the music playing and almost tripped over his own feet only managing to steady himself with the wall. With each step, he felt his body become heavier until he had to use the wall just to keep himself up. He realized that he'd somehow been drugged as the door ahead of him opened an a man stepped out with a sinister grin from ear to ear.
"Didn't your Mommy ever tell you breaking in somewhere is wrong?" The silver-haired man asked and Bruce, trying to escape found his legs paralyzed, collapsing to the floor hard and unable to use his hands to soften his fall. The last thing he could hear was the man laughing before he finally fell unconscious.
Bruce awoke laying on a cold concrete floor, the only light seeping in through the bars on the single window allowing him to see a strip across the entire room as he sat up. His head was pounding, probably from the fall, and everything else just felt slightly numb. He wasn't sure how long he sat there in the silence just thinking about nothing before the door was opened. As shaky as he was he forced himself to his feet and stepped out of the light, the shadows offered protection. Two men forced somebody, a girl, into the room and as she fell to her knee's the door was slammed shut and locked behind her.
"Get out here before I kick your ass." She shouted as she noticed him but she could barely lift her head so it was more entertaining for Bruce than threatening. "I don't believe you could kick a soccer ball, let alone my ass." Bruce said, taking a couple of steps forward into the light that the moon was providing and the girl forced herself to stand up on her knees. She looked up at Bruce opening her eyes completely. Bruce felt his breath catch in his throat while she let out a wheezy laugh. In the darkness he finally recognized her. Those green eyes. The same green eyes that watched on as his parents were murdered. He'd finally found her.
"Who'd you have to piss off to end up in here billionaire?"
